Chapter Two - 20 questions

Vayne hadn't been expecting breakfast to be the surprise that Elise had waiting for her, but no one ever truly expects a meal with the devil. Yet here she was sitting at Elise's long dining room table, instructed to wait for the spider queen to return to her with the promised meal.

Knowing that any attempts to escape were ultimately futile Vayne found herself in a bit of an awkward position. She was forced to give up on any brewing plans of escape that she had because she knew that even out of sight Elise would still find ways of stopping her if she tried putting them into action. Instead Vayne looked around the rather sparse dining room, committing it's layout to memory. Really there wasn't much to be observed as the dining room resembled more of a boxed off hallway than anything else. Long and narrow, and mostly void of detail outside of a few art pieces on the walls. The rooms table was comically long in Vayne's opinion but giving the scarcity of other items in the room she realized that it had to be this long or else the room would seem even emptier than it already did.

The doors to the kitchen opened and in stepped Elise balancing on one hand a plate of food and in the other a tall glass of what looked to be orange juice. Vayne watched as the woman approached taking note of the coy smirk the spider queen had on her face, she looked more than ready to share with Vayne whatever it was that she had on the plate, and once she set the dish down Vayne could see that the excitement was somewhat justified. The Night Hunter would never admit that the dish that Elise set before her was impressive, at least visually. She wasn't sure what she was looking at but at best she could describe them as two very thin pancakes rolled in upon themselves multiple times until they formed cones. Each cone was packed with fruit, sliced bananas, halved strawberries, and blackberries. It didn't end there though, chocolate syrup had been glazed across the top and to top it all of Elise had added powdered sugar to the mix. In the end it looked more like a display than a meal, and Vayne had no clue how in the hell she was actually supposed to eat it.

"What is this?"

Vayne looked from the dish to Elise, who for the first time seemed to be caught off guard by something Vayne had said. Though for Vayne it was nothing to feel good about.

"Don't tell me you've never had a Crêpe?"

Elise searched Vayne's face for any sign that she was lying, Vayne for her part remained quiet.

"Oh you poor thing.."

Vayne didn't like how deprived Elise made her sound.

"My father wasn't big on..."

Vayne cut herself off looking down at the plate before her. She had wanted to say her father wasn't big on sweets, even if she wasn't so sure if this crêpe could be considered so. But her confusion over the pastry wasn't what stopped her short. No what had stopped her short was the realization that she had so casually brought up her father in conversation to Elise. Vayne didn't speak about her family very often, she was a private person by nature. It was a show of trust for her to reveal bits of her past to anyone, and Elise had not earned any sort of trust from Vayne. For her to speak in this way was a serious lapse in judgement. Vayne turned slightly to look at Else scanning the spider queen's face trying to see how the woman would react to Vayne's slip up. For her part Elise remained impassive, her red eyes staring back into Vayne's waiting for the Night Hunter to say more.

Vayne kept quiet instead she picked up the utensils that Elise had laid out for her and began cutting into the crêpe, distracting herself with the task at hand so she could ignore her mistake. She took a cut and placed it into her mouth chewing on it furiously, but after a few chews she stopped suddenly her face twisting.

Not because this crêpe was disgusting, quite the contrary actually, but she'd die before she allowed herself to compliment Elise on her cooking.

As omnipotent as ever Elise picked up on it anyway. "What? No compliments for the chef?"

Vayne looked to Elise for a moment and thought of a few nasty things to say to her, but decided to swallow her words. She had nothing to gain from setting Elise off, her shoulder was still hurting from her last mistake. Vayne raised her fork to her mouth and continued eating.

"You don't have to be so cold towards me Vayne, all things considered I feel I've been very kind to you, you could at the very least return some of that kindness."

Vayne didn't look up this time, she just kept eating. She wanted to remark on how all of this sounded rich coming from the woman who had kidnapped her and was still holding her against her will but it seemed to her that the silence was affecting Elise more than anything she could say.

Sensing this, the spider queen switched up her tactics.

"This is a two way street you know. I mean, I'm sure you have a few things you'd like to say to me. Maybe a few questions you want answered?"

She wasn't wrong. Vayne had a plethora of questions she wanted to ask and she knew that Elise would have no problems answering them for her if she asked. But she feared that engaging in a conversation with the spider queen on a somewhat casual level would send her into the territory of Stockholm syndrome. That in mind however, Vayne was already eating Elise's food, sipping the proverbial punch, having her questions answered couldn't do much harm at this point.

So she spoke.

"Where are we?"

Out of the windows Vayne had seen large houses, mansions that matched her own family manor. These homes were more statement than living space, a pillar for the rich and influential.

"We are in House Zaavan," Elise spoke, she seemed happy to have gotten some words out of Vayne, she was reminded of what Elise had said to her in the shadowisles about being lonely. Vayne still had a hard time believing it.

"House Zaavan is one of the more powerful families in the history of Noxus, but as you can see I am the only one left."

Vayne felt her blood run cold at Elise's words, but it was not due to the implications that the Spider queen being the last of her house made, but because of where they were.

"Noxus..." The word escaped Vayne's throat almost completely muted, and had Elise not been sitting so close to her it might not had been audible at all.

"Yes, Noxus. You didn't think I really spent my days in the isles did you?"

Perhaps she had. Elise was a monster after all it would only make sense that she'd roost with other monster. But given her connections to The Black Rose, Vayne should of considered Noxus a possibility. None of that mattered now however, because she had to look at the bigger picture now. She was in Noxus, not just in Noxus, but in Noxus Prime that was as far up the mountain as she could go. Noxus Prime was flooded with military presence, had she'd truly managed to slip away from Elise earlier she'd be walking into a death sentence, the spider queen had undoubtedly saved her life by stopping her escape.

"You don't have to worry."

Elise words broke the silence and Vayne looked to her, seeing that the spider queen was still smiling.

"No one comes to visit House Zaavan, it has been that way for centuries."

Of course Elise had picked up on Vayne's concern, but the information she was feeding her was making it difficult to stay focused on certain points.

"Centuries?" Vayne asked not sure if she had heard Elise correctly.

Elise seemed to be enjoying this, her smile seemed to widen and her fangs were flashing as she pressed them into her bottom lip to try and contain her overflowing mirth

"That's what I said."

Vayne's first instinct was to dismiss any and everything Elise said as a lie, but she couldn't think of any reason for Elise to lie. Sure it would make Vayne feel safer, or as safe as she could feel within enemy lines to know that no one would be snooping about. But the same could be accomplished without Elise telling her that she's been around for centuries.

"How is that even possible?"

Elise shrugged and for a moment Vayne thought the Spider Queen wouldn't give her an answer, but eventually she spoke.

"You know about the pilgrimage already,"

Elise kept it at that and Vayne's mind worked out the rest, she knew off the bat why Elise didn't explain it thoroughly, she wasn't trying to scare Vayne, but there wasn't exactly a good way to tell someone that you sacrificed people so that you may live. Even without her saying it Vayne's reaction was the same.

"Don't look at me like that Shauna."

Vayne's lip curled in disgust. "You kill people so that you can go on living, and you have been doing so for centuries."

"You kill those who dabble in black magic." Elise countered, resting her chin against her palm seeming to settle in for this discussion.

"You and I are nothing alike." Vayne snapped.

"Aren't we?" Elise questioned raising a brow. "The men and woman I sacrifice are acolytes offered from The Black Rose in exchange for artifacts from the isles. These people are far from innocent, and in fact I'm willing to bet that given enough time they'd have found themselves in your sights."

Vayne looked down at her plate, she was trying to tell herself that it was still wrong even if Elise were telling the truth, but she couldn't help but feel that it would be very hypocritical to do so. She'd faced her own demons in regards to the things she did. She knew she wasn't exactly a good person, but she hated to think of her actions similar to Elise's. She had to remind herself that she didn't gain immortality for her work, it was the only bastion she could hold onto.

"If you see it my way," Elise spoke again. "I'm doing you a favor, culling the herd before it becomes a problem you have to deal with."

"I don't see it your way." Vayne said this just to be contrary, there wasn't any real force behind it.

"Maybe you don't, but the venom has left your eyes and that's good enough for me."

Silence prevailed and Vayne continued to eat, she found herself wondering if this had somehow satisfied Elise, she had been the one aching for conversation and Vayne wouldn't consider their discussion a very good one. Vayne found her answer as she was nearing the end of her meal.

"Is that all you wanted to ask me."

Vayne looked to the spider queen and she seemed impassive, her smile gone. It was an innocent question pushed to her nonchalantly, but Vayne could read Elise a little better now. She truly wasn't lying back then, she wanted some company. Vayne looked at the ceiling, an hour ago she would have stayed quiet out of spite but now she didn't feel the urge to do so. Elise had been rather forthcoming with her, and Vayne only stood to gain more and more by having her questions answered. She pulled her eyes down and turned to Elise, noting that the woman had just been watching her eat and that she hadn't eaten anything for herself.

"Do you eat?" Perhaps that wasn't the best way to pose that question. Of course Elise ate, she had to consume something. "You know like regular food?" Vayne specified.

Elise's eyes stayed on Vayne for a moment before flickering to her plate. She stuck her arm out and reached for Vayne's fork, and Vayne held it out for her trying not to let their skin touch, Elise took the utensil for herself and cut a bit of Vayne's crepe before raisng the fork to her lips and taking it into her mouth. Vayne watched as Elise slid the fork from her lips cleaned of food, she saw the woman's tongue wisk across her lips as she chewed and then swallowed. Elise held the fork out to her and Vayne took it.

"Did that answer your question?" Elise asked smiling sweetly.

Vayne nodded, and continued eating.