Sorry for disappearing again. For some reason, I'm working harder in the summer than in the other parts of the year, and my time has been remarkably lax as of late.

But! I have been able to write some stuff, so here is the next one.

PS: Don't read this if you have arachnophobia. Seriously- just skip it.

"Syndra." One word, spoken by a charismatic voice- one that soothed and told you everything was going to be fine. Its owner sat down at the table in her castle, a lazy grin on her face.

"What?" the one addressed responded, with an annoyed expression on her face. "The powerful do not have time for games." Syndra attempted to mold her face into a forbidding expression. She failed, due to lack of social interaction, and merely showed a scowl.

"Ah, power," Elise leaned backwards, languidly rolling the words around in her mouth. "It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? I assume you love having it." She finished with the smirk of an angler who has already hooked the fish, and begun to reel it in.

"Y-yes," Syndra stammered. She did not understand where Elise was going with this tangent.

"And perhaps, you'd like more of it?"

Syndra perked up. More power, magical or otherwise, was never a bad thing. "Well, yes, but-", she attempted not to seem overly enthusiastic, but eager glint of lust in her eyes was unmistakable.

"Well," Elise paused for a moment, stringing Syndra along just that much more. "I do know of a powerful being in the Shadow Isles- immortal-" She snickered inwardly at that- "but also willing to grant power to those strong enough to deserve it."

"I- wait. Why are you helping me?" Syndra was backtracking rapidly trying to get a hold of her inner greed. It wasn't working very well, as she almost shook with the anticipation of more power.

Elise let her features harden for a moment- long enough for Syndra to notice, but short enough that that Syndra would think she'd caught some inner thought or working of Elise's mind. Changing instantly back to the almost dreamy grin, Elise continued. "Well, those Ionian Elders of yours have been a thorn in my side for quite some time. Why not help their greatest enemy?" This flattering statement held a hint of sarcasm that made Elise smile just that much wider inside.

However, Syndra didn't detect a single iota of that sarcasm, and swelled on the inside as she received verbal acknowledgement of her power and standing in the world. Yes- she, Syndra, was the Ionians' greatest enemy- not the Demacians, or Noxians, or even the far-off Void. No- she was more powerful than them, and Elise was offering her an opportunity to gain even more power. It seemed to her to be an absurdly easy decision anyone could make in an instant. "When do we leave?"

"In a fortnight," came the reply. Elise had now taken to unhurriedly twirling a fork around her fingers. "I require time to prepare. And you require time to make arrangements as well."

"Arrangements? What type of arrangements?"

"Why," Elise smirked. "A journey into the heart of the Shadow Isles requires preparation and at least several months' travel. You cannot simply… disappear. People would ask questions, the Ionians would follow, and you would either lose that power to one such as Karma-" this name was almost spat out, and Elise reveled on the inside as she watched Syndra eat it up- "Or the League would put even more restrictions on your power." Now, almost a purr. "and you wouldn't wan that, would you?"

"Yes. I will tell everyone- the summoners, my servants, everyone- that I am going on an unspecified journey for several months…" Syndra hurried off, the eager light in her eyes intensifying with each step. Elise simply leaned back into her chair, satisfaction emanating from every pore of her body. Soon, she thought, he will have the greatest feast of power and magic that he has ever received. My eternal immortality will finally be granted.

*Twenty Eight Days Later*

Syndra and Elise both approached the gigantic cave on foot, Syndra having been warned to keep her magical use at a minimum to avoid attracting any of the assorted beasts and deities that made their home here.

"So, this is it," breathed out Syndra. The cave was massive, easily 20 feet high and 40 feet wide. "And this being is inside?"

"Yes," purred Elise.

Syndra bit her lip. "It looks dangerous. And… well… scary."

A smile adorned her companion's face. "There is nothing to fear. And do you wish for power, or not?"

A deep breath. "I understand." Syndra began to walk in slowly.

"Here," Elise handed Syndra a lit torch. "I will be right behind you."

"N-no. You first. You've been here before," came the hurried response. "I mean, it's not as though I'm scared. You just have more experience."

Elise shrugged, and moved ahead with her own lit torch. Syndra now followed in Elise's footsteps. The cave was so large, the torch didn't even manage to illuminate the edges. Everything outside of her little sphere of light was pitch-black. She kept her gaze resolutely forwards.

Suddenly, a tingling feeling on the back of her leg.

Syndra twisted her torso and witnessed, with horror, a large spider, half the size of her hand, hair over its chitinous exoskeleton, crawl up her leg. Letting out a single shriek of absolute unbridled terror, holding her torch up with her right hand, she blasted the damnable creature away with her magic emanating from her left hand.

Elise's torch went out.

"Wha-" Syndra began, as she also began to turn around again.

Then her torch, hit by a wet glob of webbing, also went out.

Syndra froze.

"E-Elise?"

No response came back from the dark void.

"H-h-hello?"

Nothing but faint echoes.

And then suddenly, the sound of skittering echoed out throughout the cave. Hundreds, if not thousands, of spiders, from the sound of it. And a deep, ominous voice- almost like Elise's, but echoed a hundred times. "Now, I thrive!", accompanied by the sight of millions of little red glowing eyes, as well as one particular large set of them.

Now, a tickling sensation ran up Syndra's legs. The spiders had arrived. Panicking and letting out multiple screams of utter horror, she blasted force magic in all directions. But the tickling resumed only instants later, the spiders being completely unrelenting. And so she tried again. And instantly, the spiders returned.

After five more attempts of that, Syndra found herself completely drained of magic. The spiders, now skittering up and down her torso, began to lay silken threads. She could still resist physically, and was brushing tens of spiders down at a time and stamping on them, but she couldn't make a dent in a number of thousands. And, so, she found her legs bound together by silken threads, and then her legs bound to the ground.

Then the large spider, whose eight glowing eyes had been taunting her the entire time, stepped over. Syndra immediately ignored the smaller ones and waved her hands around the big spider, trying to get it away from her. But Elise held her arms together with her pointy spidery legs and, spinning thick silken strands, bound her arms together. Turning her head in one last futile attempt, she opened her mouth for one last question as Elise's silk bound the last exposed part of her body.

"Why?"

A satisfied growl came from above her. "No one escapes my web…"

Syndra's final thought was wondering whether that was the web of silk that Elise had spun-

Or her equally confining web of lies.

Poor Syndra. Too much greed and not enough control/fact checking means that you'll always get burned sometime.