A/N: I made up a little Ionian lore in this chapter, which I hope will give you (courtesy of Waffleface) a nice break from the flood of Hinduism I've been hitting you with. I also decided to split up this chapter in interests of getting you your weekly hit faster.
Thank you for the reviews, and I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 4: Petition
Karma's eyes were set and icy as she sprinted through the hallways, her overdress flapping wildly. Her will burned around her like a halo of pale fire as she moved with unearthly swiftness through archways and up stairs, the messenger barely able to keep up with a touch of her spirit putting new strength in his limbs. Internally, she was trying to recall everything she had ever learned about the Pit of Pallas and its tormented former warden.
The shrine around it was small, with only a antechamber before the heavily warded central room that housed the pit. All in all, the main chamber was about thirty five feet across, with the pit a smoking five foot circle in the center. She could shield anything and everything around her in a twenty feet radius against nearly any force for ten seconds, with time after that depleting her rapidly. If the children were all in one location, she should be able to protect them all from anything Varus could do until Irelia subdued him. However, there was the matter of whatever the Pit was producing to keep out the Will of the Blades. If she had to protect herself and Irelia from that, as well as the children, that would—
Karma shook her head firmly and focused on her breathing. One two three. She would do what had to be done. This was her duty.
"Well, good afternoon, beautiful," Twisted Fate hailed her from where he was leaning against the wall, directly outside the nexus of teleportation in the Institute.
Karma skidded to a halt and smoothed down her skirts, her powerful gaze piercing the man. He raised a heavy earthenware flask to her before taking a swig.
"Isn't it a little early in the morning for that?" she asked.
"Life's short, darling," Fate drawled, tapping his breast pocket knowingly. "Best not to waste a minute."
"Then be gone," Karma commanded, "for I am in a hurry."
"Don't be like that, Duchess," he purred, "I'm here to help you. My Gate can get you where you want to go in minutes, rather than you having to ride there the long way from the Placidium."
"May I dare ask you how you know of the reason for my haste?" she hissed.
"I told him, my Duchess," Lee Sin said calmingly, stepping out of the door behind Twisted Fate. "The Cardmaster is a friend, and we do need his help. The situation is dire."
Karma shot him a scathing glance before calming herself. She offered Twisted Fate the barest smile, though it did not soften her face.
"I will treat you fairly if you intend to aid us," she allowed.
"That's more like it, Rings," Twisted Fate chuckled, reaching over to pat her hair. He found his hand mysteriously repelled before it could touch her, however.
Karma's smile changed to something suspiciously like a smirk before her features returned to iron composure. Twisted Fate scowled and tugged his hat further over his eyes.
"Let's get on with this. One Gate to the former village of Ku'noh, coming up!"
Twisted Fate plucked a single golden card from his breast pocket and tossed it into the air. It expanded enormously, stretching in all directions until it floated, a thousand times its size, as a yellow shimmer in the air. Lee Sin nodded briefly and gratefully in his direction then stepped through the shimmer.
His whole body vanished with the faint smell of sulfur, except for one arm, that protruded from the midst of the mist with its fingers outstretched.
Karma, with utmost care and grace, put her hand in his and followed, bracing herself for the nauseating shock of teleportation. Her chakras hummed briefly, ready to stabilize her, but the passage of miles took less than a breath. Ionia opened up around her like a great green fan, like she'd simply walked through a…gate, she supposed. Lee Sin smiled at her and kissed the back of her hand lightly.
"Our land is beautiful, is she not, my Duchess?"
Karma smiled as she brought her hand back to her side, "Baraya-santi lead us, may these little flowers I see not be withered by that which I've come to stop the next year."
The monk and diplomat stood in the midst of a sizable clearing at the base of a gentle hill. The remnants of wooden house frames were covered by clinging ivy and thick grass, with a few shattered tiles occasionally visible amidst the patches of tansy.
Karma took a careful step forwards and squinted at the hill. The shrine itself was made of the purest white marble, but there was a haze around it, a strangely ominous heat shimmer in the air.
She realized that despite her lovely surroundings, she felt a little afraid.
"I think I see the problem," she murmured. "Where is Irelia?"
"Back in the trees," Lee Sin said, leading her into the budding karmals. They passed through dogwoods and figs, Karma separating the long grasses with a gentle push of will so they did not tear her overdress, for a few quiet minutes before they reached a small hollow at the base of an enormous garjan tree. There was a single tent nestled among the roots, embroidered with brilliant green thread with the image of a serpent, curling in on itself on each flap. Karma nodded at the image of Baraya-santi, the cloud-serpent goddess of peace, humility, and tenacity, feeling warmth rush over her at the sight of those endlessly deep, knowing eyes, set into the cloth as chips of emerald.
In the opening, Irelia, her dark hair sticking to her skin in the humidity, was speaking to a young boy.
"I understand that Freljord's in the middle of some trouble now," she snapped, "but if you think we can spare Duchess Karma for a diplomatic envoy right now then you are severely mistaken!"
"Yeah, yeah," the boy snorted. "You got some magic thingy at that big house thataway, right?"
"You could say that," Lee Sin murmured.
"Oh, heya Lee!" the boy called, turning around and waving energetically. He was wearing painfully blue shorts with tropical flowers strewn all over them, no shirt, and the hood of a thick white parka pulled over his head.
"What are you doing here, Nunu?" Karma asked, relaxing.
"Karma!" he squealed joyfully. "You're here! That's great! See, we want you to come on a trip to visit now that Bow and Boar and Bear've stopped fighting for harvest time!"
"A trip?"
"Yeah! You can come establish diplomatic relations with Bow's tribe for Ionia! And I guess you could go talk to Boar too, but I don't know why you would. She's always so aaaaangry."
Karma blinked, mentally matching names.
"Ah, yes. As Ionia's time of neutrality was so decisively brought to an end, now that we have recovered we should begin to send envoys to the major city states. But, surely it is not necessary for me to come myself?" she said firmly.
Nunu scuffed his foot on the ground. "Well, it's…there's a lot of trouble up there right now. Everybody knows you're good at fixing broken stuff, Karma. They've never been so close to open war before, and worse, it's started to get colder…"
"Colder?" Karma asked, frowning. She had been bracing herself for news of devastation wrought by Syndra.
"Yeah, usually it's started warming up by now, but it's actually started to get so Willump starting shivering if he goes up north too far. Boar's tribe has had to move to the border of Bow's lands because all their villages have frozen over. Plus, Bear says something's happening to the Gelid Vortex."
"Unusual," she murmured. "What is this Gelid Vortex, Nunu?"
"Well, it's like this big storm that stays in about the same place all the time, near this big sacred mountain. The Ursine think its special, they say it talks to their magic people," Nunu said confidently, scratching the parka's fur over his chin. "It's gotten too dangerous to approach in the past month or so. Bear says it keeps screaming about some woman. They think that it might be making everything so cold."
Oh, no, Karma thought. That was what she was afraid of.
"I am certain that after I've dealt with the trouble at Ku'noh I will be able to make a proper trip west to visit your people," she said graciously, "and right any wrongs mistakenly caused by Ionia."
Nunu scratched his head at this but seemed satisfied. "Sounds good to me, Karma! See you at the Institute when you're done with all this trouble here!"
A tremendous crash tore through the brushes as a huge, hairy white hand reached down from the foliage and plucked Nunu out of their midst. A happy grunt rang through the hollow, and a series of loud thuds began, until they slowly faded out towards the north.
"Thank the gods," Irelia moaned, rubbing her temples. "He never stops talking."
"Don't let Bayara-santi hear you calling me a god, my friend," Karma teased her, unable to stop her grin. She was finally back in Ionia, helping her people.
"Bayari-santi can stuff her tail under some rock as far as I'm concerned," Irelia scoffed. Karma raised an eyebrow, and the other woman relented slightly, tapping her forehead and pointing up at the first cloud she could find.
"Sorry, Bayari-santi," the Will of the Blades muttered. "Anyways, I suppose the messenger told you what was happening here?"
"I'd prefer you give me the details," Karma pressed gently.
"Well," Irelia began, stepping out of the shadow of the tent. "We got reports from villages nearby that war-sired children had started going missing. The Kinkou tracked what they could find to the Pit of Pallas, but they couldn't go near the hill without starting to panic. Shen managed to make it up the steps to the antechamber before he passed out, but Kennen and Akali were incapacitated as soon as they stepped inside that haze. Varus carried them out and warned them to stay away. He said he was enacting 'vengeance'."
"Varus," Karma sighed. "I thought he'd gotten better."
"You know spring's a bad time for him," Irelia said sadly. "We should have posted guards. If any of those children are hurt—"
"Don't think of that, my Lady," Lee Sin said firmly. "Focus on the now. The now you can affect."
Karma nodded. "We'll be ready next year. What matters is getting them out now. Have you visited the hill?"
Irelia's face went pale, the change shocking on her dark skin. "I have. I—it is hard, even now, to think of going back. I stayed outside the shimmer and tried to send in my blades but they...fell to the ground. It took all my will to drag them out."
"Do not worry," Karma said, the teardrops under her eyes glowing softly. "I will inspire you."
"This evening, then?" Lee Sin asked, raising his arms before sinking into a crouching stretch to one side, murmuring his own mantras as he moved fluidly through exercises he learned at the Shojin Monastery.
"I would wait until the heat of midday, tomorrow," Irelia said, though grief burned in her green eyes. "The Pit will be weakest then."
"Then let us prepare and sleep," Karma said, "and I will pray at dawn for our success.