The air always seemed to slow the closer one got to the Giant's Hill, forcing out a shiver from her like it always did. Irelia hated making the walk to the top.
Zelos had entrusted her with delivering a new bow to the warden at its apex, watching the world go by in his solitary vigil, however, and she would not let him down. The hickory weapon shuffled in the long wooden case as she carried it in her arms, taking her first steps toward the summit. The climb didn't faze her, perhaps only a twenty or thirty minute journey, and heights didn't scare her. She loved seeing the world from higher ground, from the top of the bell tower in their little village, from vantage points where the eagles and the falcons could see everything down to the smallest squirrel running amidst the grass in the fields.
What did frighten her were the voices.
They didn't call to her every time she went up the hill, and neither her brother nor any of the townsfolk claimed to hear anything when they made trips, but she knew they hid there, in every alcove and behind every rocky outcropping, calling her name and whispering some other words, too faint to hear or too intelligible to make out, but a haunting presence all the same. She might've expected it, given the history of the Giant's Hill. Legend had said that after the Warring Kingdoms had ceased their unrest, after they swapped their swords for plowshares, a mighty warlord had made the seat of his state on the Giant's Hill. Back then it was a majestic mountain, much larger in size and harboring a pristine lake at its apex, high enough that no fallen leaves could ever taint its surface. He had called up Li Shui the Water Dancer to his castle, asking the swordsmaster to share with him the secrets of the liquid, how he had manipulated the liquid to block the blows of three opposing swords when they had pinned his back against the wall.
The water dancer led him to the lake, fearlessly setting his foot atop the surface and walking along the water. Li Shui turned to the warlord, inviting him to stroll along the lake with him. If you are a warrior with a true heart and pure intentions, he said, then you need not fear falling under. The warlord accepted his challenge, eager to prove his strength, and tested his weight against the water. To his surprise, it held, and he found himself walking atop the lake. Eager to continue flexing his power, he sought in his mind to marshal his forces immediately and cross the great Lake Kabeana to take out the warlords on the other side with a surprise attack. The waters immediately sensed his impure motives, and in a flash the warlord found himself sinking below the surface, the calm lake suddenly transforming into a violent whirlpool, the torrential flurry pulling him under as the Water Dancer looked on in disdain. The lake could read the aspirations written on the hearts of those who walked by it, and the wicked it would drag to the bottom of its depths, where they continue to wander in their aquatic prison, calling out to those who ascended the mountain and looking for release.
And even though the Ionians valued their tradition, no one took the stories into account very seriously nowadays. Irelia had heard that a single man stood watch at the top of Giant's Hill, a tradition which dated back hundreds of years, guarding some nameless secret. No one knew what sort of object the men kept caged up there, and rumors ranged from scrolls of dark magic to cursed swords, made to rip the flesh out of both those it cut through and those who wielded them. Still others believed the single stone slab at the top of the hill housed a demon, imprisoned in ethereal chains cast upon it by a mage dating back to the Age of Heroes. Irelia cast out all the suspicions from her head. For a people so immersed in the mythology of the land, the way some of the elders talked made it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction.
Her musing had occupied her during the ascent, and she sighed in relief as she caught sight of the red roof of the temple coming into view above the last rise. Long Ionic columns stood in front of her, white marble which rose up to an entablature upon which lay several artistic friezes depicting scenes of nature, primordial beings, and valiant heroes. Atop the roof she could spy a small stone box, the watchtower added into the building in more recent times to help watch for intruders. She hadn't heard anything but the wind blowing at her back during her walk up, grateful that the voices did not come to plague here this time. Still, Irelia didn't want to linger on the hill any longer than she needed to, so she resolved to bring the weapon to the warden and head back home immediately.
She found the inner court empty, her footsteps echoing throughout the room, and had no better luck as she approached the inner sanctum. A wooden ladder stood up against the western wall, leading up to a hole in the ceiling where Irelia presumed lead to the watchtower. Tying the container for the bow to her side by wrapping a sash around her waist, she placed a foot on the rung and began to climb, the ladder slightly creaking under her weight. The ascent took her a couple of minutes, and when she pulled herself through the hole in the ceiling and into the watchtower room, she found herself quite high up.
The mid-afternoon clouds marred the beauty of the view, but Irelia could still see for miles in every direction. To the south, west, and east lay the Crownthorn Forest, named for the gnarled trees whose branches curled into circular shapes resembling crowns, but to the north lay Lake Anjin, the largest freshwater body in all of Ionia, a blue expanse which tinged orange with the reflection of the sun on its waters. And beyond that, she could see the the peaks of the Lhotsar Mountains in the distance, the snow still adorning the tops with white frost.
The solitary man sitting in the watchtower had already turned around at the sound of her entrance, probably already having screened her through when she came into his sight on her way up. "Am I to assume you are the messenger of the package intended for me?" His brown eyes and gruff voice gave off a much rougher impression than she had expected, considering his medium-length blond hair and fair skin.
Irelia nodded, untying the sash from around her waist and handing the wooden case to him. The warden pushed open the lock on the container and drew out the bow, admiring the curvature of the weapon and carefully examining the tautness of the string which spanned its length. "This shall serve its purpose," he said, as if deeming it worthy for his hands to operate it. His eyes swept back to her, a move so sudden that she took a step back instinctively. "They trusted a girl as young as you with so delicate a mission."
"I'm going in place for my brother, sir," Irelia offered, deciding formalities would help more than hurt. "Some other obligations called Zelos away, so he left the task to me."
The vigilant spheres showed recognition. "Zelos? I seem to recall Master Lito having a son with that name. Then you must be his daughter."
She nodded. "My name is Irelia."
"My condolences go out to you and your brother," the man apologized for a matter which he had no involvement with, but Irelia accepted his concern all the same. "I had the pleasure to meet your father a few times when he came to the Placidium. His bladework was remarkable." He cleared his throat. "I take it your brother has not told you who I am. You may call me Varus, the guardian of the Pit of Pallas, but you already know that."
The name of the object which he guarded sent a shiver down her spine, and although Irelia liked Varus well enough, she still wanted to take her leave of the place. She began to think of some excuse that she could bring up without sounding rude when Varus suddenly grabbed her arm, his eyes furtively scanning the horizon and his ears straining to catch a sound which he alone seemed to have heard.
"We have guests. A group of mountain bandits fancy this temple open to their ransacking," he announced, grabbing the quiver of arrows lying in the corner, slinging the newly acquired bow over his shoulder, and making his way down the ladder. "I suggest you stay close to me. It cannot be allowed to escape."
Wondering what Varus meant by 'it,' she followed him out of the watchtower and back into the main temple complex, uneasily trailing a safe distance away. She regretted not bringing a sword, even the wooden training one which she used every day to spar with Zelos because he didn't want to burden her with the weight of a real sword in her hands just yet. "You're too young," he had said, but in a life-or-death crisis like this, live steel wouldn't discriminate with age. Varus seemed to sense the same dilemma, looking around the temple for any sort of portable object she could use as a substitution. "I don't suppose you are familiar with bows, are you?" he asked. She shook her head.
"No matter. I will not let them pass," he swore, but the bandits had already made their way through the entrance hall. She counted six, all armed with steel axes, calmly making their way into the inner room where Varus and Irelia stood. The archer walked up to the narrow doorway, defiantly blocking the passageway with his tall frame, and notched an arrow to the bowstring. "Leave this place," he commanded.
The six men shared a few glances amongst each other, a few chuckling at Varus' threat. At the very first step they tried to take forward, he loosed the arrow, whizzing through the air with unmatched speed and injecting itself into a shoulder of one of the bandits in front. He crumpled to the ground, clutching the wound in agony, and his five remaining compatriots decided they had no time for patience and charged straight at the archer.
One of the men bringing up the rear took a blow in the back of the head and fell face first to the ground, confusing both the bandits and Irelia. While the men, their number now reduced to four, looked around in confusion, Irelia saw the stranger duck behind one of the bronze statues, backing away from the bandits after their surprise attack. Varus took advantage of their temporary disarray to let loose another arrow, nicking the cheek of one of the bandits' faces but not causing any significant injury besides the flow of blood spurting from his face. He ignored the bleeding, charging forth at Varus with renewed fury with another of his brethren at his side for backup. Finding himself outnumbered, Varus had to back out into the sanctum proper while Irelia wondered where the last two had gone. The sounds of steel striking another metal with a metallic clang filling the air answered her question, and the stranger who had come to their aid a few moments before had lead his two pursuers around the statue and behind a couple of the temple pillars before barreling through the passageway into the inner sanctum and coming up from behind the two bandits closing in on Varus. One swing of the greatsword which he carried in his hands cut down the one in the back, who fell to the floor with a grunt and tried to roll away before a second cut, this one aimed at the neck, put an end to his struggling for certain.
Irelia had a chance to see the face of the new arrival more closely while Varus concentrated on putting an arrow through his assailant's neck, finding his mark this time with the help of the stranger locking him in place by tackling his legs and throwing him to the ground. The archer's shot might have went awry and hit the other man with the slightest of aiming errors, but Varus did not flinch from the shot he faced, threading the needle with the quiet certainty of a veteran. When the man had died, she found her voice again. "Jax?"
"You know this man?" Varus questioned. He had his bow raised towards the mercenary, as if regarding him as another threat, but fortunately there was no arrow in the slot.
"We've met a couple of times," Jax said, turning around to see the the last two bandits wander in, surprised to see the corpses of their comrades strewn across the temple floor.
"The defense of this temple does not concern you, mercenary," Varus hissed as he rummaged in the quiver for another arrow. "Only one warden is assigned to guarding the pit."
"Are you really going to argue with a man who just saved our lives?" Irelia never thought a man could act so stubborn.
"He did not save me from them. He merely shortened the process." The archer let the arrow fly, and despite their stiff introduction, Jax came at the last two from the side, making sure he attacked at an angle which would place him out of the way of Varus' shots. The greatsword did not bring as much strength as their battleaxes, but the mercenary's skill proved more than sufficient as he disarmed the two marauders with the help of Varus' arrows piercing into their skin. Without their weapons, they resorted to throwing themselves at the smaller man, but his agility allowed him to dodge their clumsy charges and after a few more sidesteps and a few swift strikes, the edge of the sword hastening to bring them their fate like lambs to the slaughter. Jax stood above their bodies, his brow mopped with sweat and his chest undulating as he panted from the physical exertion.
Varus was not impressed. "If you have no business here, you should leave." Irelia wanted to say something, put in a word about how rude he was acting, but Jax hadn't come there to make friends, either. "Then I won't offer to help you clean up this mess, warden." He started to walk off, and Irelia wanted to follow him, to ask him where he had been all this time, but her legs rooted themselves to the floor.
"You should be off as well," the archer told her in a gentler tone. "It is getting dark and the wicked love to count their sins under the cover of night." He began systematically searching the bodies for any other weapons on their persons, pocketing the small knives he found.
"Uh… right." In the faint light which shone through the temple's pillars, Varus looked more like a fallen angel than an esteemed guardian, and his appearance frightened her. She briskly walked out of the inner sanctum, catching up to the cloaked figure heading down the Giant's Hill.
"Why did you leave?" He knew she did not refer to a few minutes ago.
"I couldn't accomplish my goals in your care. I had an obligation to fulfill," Jax replied as he slowed down, his feet crunching the pebbles underfoot on the rocky path.
"Your vengeance?" Irelia asked, walking astride him. "Is that why you followed the bandits here to the temple?"
"I could've taken their lives at any location in Ionia. I came to the temple because of the voices."
She gasped. So she hadn't been hearing things the entire time, and others could hear the whispers which floated in the air on the hill. "You can hear them, too?"
"I wanted to know what was up there, to figure out what was drawing me to the peak," Jax answered. "Varus there told me everything I needed to know."
"Him?" Irelia hadn't heard much from the archer, especially not anything concerning the voices. "You two didn't talk much."
"It's the voice of temptation itself. There's only one person watching over whatever's locked up in there." He drew his cloak tighter around him, pulling his hood down as well to shield his face from the cold. "I'm surprised they've held out for as long as they have been. Eventually, one of the wardens is going to crack."
Irelia could hear, even feel, the little persistent sensation coming back to annoy her. And though the wind picked up at her back, she knew it wasn't it.
Now? they asked.
A/N: This story deserves more of my attention. When you can get by with shorter length chapters, you can have more intriguing experiences like this. I hope the exchange between Varus and Jax wasn't too blunt, because the Arrow of Retribution was never really a friendly guy and neither was Jax back in the day. Then you have young Irelia wandering around thinking 'what does this all mean?' Also spooky Pallas is spooky.
My next work is going to be something completely new. I'm actually really excited about starting the project and I'm determined on making that the next full-length story, in a similar vein with Trinity. No it's not a sequel, I need to rest my head from all the Jax/Irelia writing I've been doing, but you guys can get this much for now.