The Misadventures of the Du Couteau House Chapter 6
Author: Tinnuwen
Co-Author: FallenAssassin9
Disclaimer: Tinnuwen and I, FallenAssassin9, do not own League of Legends or any of its merchandise, the owners of said game and merchandise is Riot Games, this is nonprofit story written by our love of the game, its lore, and its characters.
Tinn: This is mostly Darryl's work I swear! :P
After the incident at the parade was over and the clean up process was initiated, the DuCouteau clan swiftly arrived home. 'Darryl could have introduced himself a little better to the Noxian government.' Allison thought. She was glad it worked out okay, Grand General Keiran Darkwill was able to see him evade Riven, who is the poster girl of Noxus after all. Sighing, she smiled. While Allison herself was a passive strategist, Darryl is always the one taking actions.
Due to being lost in thought Allison didn't notice Marcus come up behind her until he placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to have to go to a meeting with all of the Generals about what happened in the arena do you want anything before I go or while I'm out?" Marcus asks in a kind voice.
Katarina took this opportunity to cut in, "Ask Father if he can start training me, he keeps putting it off saying not until you're older."
Allison deciding to indulge Katarina answered Marcus's question by asking, "Father, would you actually train me soon? What would happen if I got separated from the guards and needed to defend myself? We don't want something like today to happen once more and me getting hurt.
Sighing Marcus looks down at Allison and responds, "I've told you before Kat I won't start training you until you master your proficiency with your blades, I would have probably taught you how to teleport by now if you would stop" Marcus stops while air quoting, " "accidentally" maiming your sparring partner's long enough to actually practice your techniques."
"Accidental maiming is exactly the reason why you should teach me. Such partners for sparring are merely too weak for me and they get themselves hurt." Allison retorted, crossing her arms."
Looking down at his pocket watch Marcus says, "I got to go or I will be late, we will talk more about this later, for now why don't you take Cass out for a walk around the city, just be sure to take some of the guards with you." Marcus gives Allison a quick hug before heading outside to the carriage.
As Marcus's carriage speeds off Katarina put her two cents in on her Allison's last response, "Ha as if there is any sparring partner in Noxus that isn't too pathetic for me to seriously spar against, you should have insisted that Father spar with me himself."
'Patience, I was going to get to it. Strategic advantages and negotiations are best done slowly over time rather than immediately. This will increase the success of getting training from the General himself.' Allison droned on, as if it were a simple textbook answer.
"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" Katarina asks annoyed with Allison's cryptic response.
Before Allison can answer with a sarcastic comment Cassiopeia runs downs the stairs and exclaims, "Ahhh, I missed Father" looking over at her sister Cass smiles and says "Katarina can you take me shopping?" Allison smiled in response.
In the Grand General Keiran Darkwill's mansion all of the Generals of Noxus along with Keiran himself can be seen sitting at a table with Keiran sitting in his throne at the front. Starting off the meeting Keiran begins speaking, "Now as we all know there was a major" choosing his words carefully Keiran decides to go with "security breach in the arena last night during the parade."
"Some gutter trash somehow managed to run past all of the guards around the stage and unlock Sion's cage with a key that he somehow acquired from one of our best soldiers Riven, if not for the efforts of our own General's Marcus, Swain, along with assistance from Commander Darius, and Riven things could have ended a lot worse than they did." Keiran continued on.
"So to put it bluntly I want to know how the hell this even happened!" Keiran exclaims allowing some of his anger over what happened last night show.
Marcus deciding that now was a good time to cut in asked, "I recall seeing Riven along with a squad of guards chasing after the criminal before he opened the cage, and you yourself just said that he somehow stole the key to the cage from Riven earlier so why don't we call Riven in to explain what happened before they got to the arena?"
"I agree with Marcus, we need to learn just what happened to figure out what to do next." Swain speaks up agreeing with Marcus.
Nodding, the Grand General looks to a guard and orders, "You there, I want you to go find Riven and bring her here immediately" glaring at the guard Keiran ends with "don't keep us waiting."
"Y-yes Grand General Sir." the guard slightly stutters out in fear before running out of the meeting room to search for Riven.
A few miles away from the Grand General's mansion a voice can be heard saying, "Now clearly there are some… trust issues between the two of us that we need to work out if we are going to make this work and survive long enough for things to follow along on the correct path." The voice, now revealed as Darryl says while sitting in an old building in the Noxus slums he ran off to after the chaos he caused last night in the arena.
"Ha, you should know what I think about trust with how much you know about me. Trust is for the weak, it will make you let your guard down around those that will only end up failing you in the end." Talon retorts.
"Yeah I know, I also know that you got that idea after murdering your old, and first, partner after he messed up one to many of your thefts for food." Darryl replies slightly annoyed that he is going to have to work through Talon's ideology about trust in order to get him to cooperate more.
Growling lightly Talon, with aggression in his voice, responds, "Figures you would know about that to, still why should I trust you? Especially after that stunt you pulled last night."
"Oh come on, are you still upset about how I stole the key off of Riven? It worked out alright didn't it?" Darryl asks with an exasperated tone. "Besides we both know that you would have done the same thing, the only reason you're so upset about it is because you don't like having to rely on someone else to do something for you, especially if it's something you would have done yourself." Darryl finishes hoping that his reasoning is right.
Darryl's gamble pays off when Talon answers in a neutral voice, "Seems you know more about me then I thought… fine, as much as I despise this I don't have a choice, I will work with you, but only so that I can keep myself alive."
Figuring that this is the best that he can hope for from Talon for now Darryl says, "Glad we reached an understanding, now where can we get something to eat?"
Mentally sighing all Talon can think is, 'I really hope working with this idiot won't backfire on me.' before saying, "Head over to the market and I will tell you what you can steal without being caught."
A few blocks away from the Grand General's mansion and miles away from the market place Cassiopeia along with Allison are currently in one of the clothing stores that only the rich in Noxus usually shop at. Cassiopeia has just come out of a changing room with a green dress that is held up in shoulder straps and goes just down just below her knees.
Looking at herself in the mirror Cassiopeia turns to Allison and asks, "How do I look?" with a bright eyes and a happy voice. "You have a way with looking beautiful Cass, in everything." Allison smiled, knowing she was being too sweet for Katarina's tastes. Cassiopeia was glowing at the complement. The little blonde ran up to Allison to give her a hug. "Sister, can I get you some pretty hairclips?" Cassio asked her with big puppy eyes. Allison couldn't resist the puppy eyes. Smiling, they continued their shopping.
The shopping trip was going easier than expected. Cass was happy, Allison was happy, and Katarina was grumpy because they were happy.
Along with Katarina one of the three guards following them was not happy as he was assigned to be the clothes carrier. The aforementioned guard currently has five bags of different sets of clothes hanging on each arm, while also carrying 10 boxes of shoes. His fellow guards were currently snickering at his predicament.
Speaking of Katarina, she was currently complaining to Allison about how nice she was being, "Ugg you are ruining my reputation, I couldn't care less what dress looks best on Cass, I would rather be doing something productive, like training." Katarina glowered. Allison snickered internally. 'You haven't any idea of what might come next do you?' Allison asked her.
"You already said that." Katarina pointed out. 'Having a Cassio with a high self-esteem means she will have self-confidence, which means she will carry out her missions better. I'm thinking of the future Katarina. This is important. Unlike you, I understand manipulation and strategy.' Allison replied. 'She needs to finish an important mission in the future.'
"Yes yes, the oh so important future that you keep talking about but never explaining. All you have done so far is kept things hidden from me while answering all of my questions in your stupidly cryptic answers." Katarina shoots back angry at not being told why Allison is ruining her image.
"Would you really like to know?" Allison asked calmly.
"Oh no, I would not like to know the answer to the question I have been asking repeatedly since day one, what do you think you idiot?" Katarina sarcastically answers.
"Your father is going to be out of the picture, presumed dead, in a few years." Allison calmly said. "That and your sister will be turned into a Naga in the years prior. Do you see what I'm getting at now?" Katarina was shocked. Allison doubted that she ever thought about her family being torn apart like that. Not even considering if her father would die in action.
"... THEN WHY HAVEN'T YOU BEEN DOING ANYTHING TO STOP THAT!?" Katarina shouts in distress, not at all happy with the idea of her father being presumed dead and her sister being turned into a giant snake. "All you have been doing then is preparing to, "make things easier" for when it does happen, YOU SHOULD BE TRYING TO STOP IT FROM HAPPENING!"
"It's far more complicated than that; for one, I have no idea what event causes your father to disappear, which is what I am trying to figure out to be sure he wouldn't die, two, if I change things too much, my foresight of the matter will be irrelevant due to new events happening instead of what would have happened otherwise. You see, this is exactly why I didn't want to tell you in the first place." Allison retorted.
Cassiopeia looked up at her sister with a confused expression, "Sister? Are you alright?" Allison realized that her hand was tightening into a fist at her side, which startled the little Noxian. "Sorry Cass, I was thinking. It wasn't anything important." Allison said, her smile not reaching her eyes. Cassio appeared to be happy with her answer as she skipped on ahead, humming an unknown tune.
All Allison wanted was Cassio to be safe. So the mourning will be easier for both her and Katarina. This will be a difficult few years. Allison only hopes she can survive this. If not, then this will be a long personal hell.
It had been ten minutes since Keiran had sent the guard off to retrieve Riven before the door to the meeting room was opened and Riven walked in with the guard trailing her.
The guard spoke first, getting down on one knee and bowing his head, "Forgive me sir, but Miss Riven was in the Barracks when I found her."
"It's fine soldier, it's only been 10 minutes." Marcus spoke up not minding the wait.
"Yes as Marcus said, now Riven we would like to know just what happened last night before the arena incident." This time it was Swain who spoke while raising his eye in curiosity.
"Well you see General's it all started when the thief came up to me and asked me what all of the festivities were for." Riven said.
"You mean to tell us that the gutter trash didn't even know what was going on?" One of the other General's asked in an arrogant tone.
"Be quiet General; only ask questions if they are actually important, otherwise we will be here all day." Darkwill snapped out glaring at the recently promoted General.
"Yes Grand General," the man responded with a barely hidden anger at being called out. Nodding Keiran looks at Riven and says, "Good, now Riven continue your story."
"Yes sir, now after asking me about what was going on he recognized me and asked me if I would spar with him, saying that it's hard to practice his skills on the streets as most fights are normally life or death." Riven explains as the General's nod knowing that living on the streets of Noxus can be very challenging to survive, a perfect way to weed out the weak and find the strongest in their opinions.
"What happened next?" Marcus asked curious about this thief that would challenge Riven of all people to a spar while knowing who she is.
"Well after I told him no saying that I was way out of his league he seemed insulted and revealed the blade strapped to his arm that he had behind his the whole time before asking if I would like to test that out." Riven continued complying with Marcus's request.
At this Marcus raised an eyebrow slightly impressed with the actions of this thief, although whether or not he was stupid or courageous was yet to be decided.
Taking the General's silence as an invitation to continue Riven then said, "Before I could answer another guard ran up to me and began saying that I was needed back at the arena since I had the key to Sion's cage before he looked at the thief and recognized him from wanted posters as someone named, The Blade's Shadow."
At this the General's sat up straighter before Keiran asked, "The Blade's Shadow, isn't he the one who keeps killing the recruiters the local thieves and assassin's guilds send after him before leaving their bodies in the gutter?"
"Yes Keiran, it seems that we can add disruption of a public event to his list of crimes." Swain spoke up.
Deciding to continue with what happened Riven continues, "Yes, after realizing that the guard recognized him, The Blade's Shadow knocked the guard out by hitting him with the back of the blade on his arm before shoulder charging past me. It wasn't long before I pursued him, attracting the attention of more guards who followed after me in my chase."
"Okay, so that explains why you were chasing after him with a squad of guards following you, but how did he manage to get the key to Sion's cage?" Marcus asked curious as to how the thief managed to get the key while also being entertained by his exploits so far.
Blushing and looking down Riven mutters, "He… well he let me get within arms reach of him before he abruptly stopped running and spun around my side and grabbed the key, I was going to fast to stop my momentum." The room is silent as the General's all stare at Riven in disbelief before chuckling is heard throughout the room.
That chuckling soon turns into laughter as the other Grand General Keiran and the other General's all look at Marcus who is currently slightly hunched over the table with an arm wrapped around his stomach as his shoulders shake in laughter. "So- Sorry" Marcus manages to get out between breaths before sitting straight up, "I'm just amazed that anyway uses that old trick anymore, I'm even more amazed that it worked on Riven, the whole thing is rather comedic when you look at it."
Giving Marcus an annoyed look Keiran says, "Yes well try to control yourself Marcus, this is a serious meeting not some Demacian social gathering."
"Right, sorry, please continue Riven." Marcus says knowing he isn't going to live this one down for a while.
"Yes sir, after he got the key he ran through a nearby alleyway to avoid the other guards and managed to get to the arena, the rest… you already know." Riven says, finishing up her story.
"Thank you Riven, you may go now," Darkwill says dismissing Riven from the room. Nodding, Riven bows quickly before walking out of the room and heading back to the Barracks to get in more training.
"So, now that we know what happened, what should we do about the thief? He caused Sion to be released, which in turn caused property damage as well as the injuries and deaths of some of our soldiers," one of the other Generals at the table ask.
"I propose that we take care of the nuisance, and that we have put Marcus in charge seeing as how he found the situation so amusing," Swain answers throwing out an idea.
"Hmm, I agree with Swain, Marcus you are to take care of this Blade's Shadow anyway that you see fit." Grand General Darkwill orders to Marcus in agreement with Swain.
"Yes sir, Grand General Darkwill, I will take care of it," Marcus replies accepting his orders
"Now unless anyone has anything else to bring up this meeting is dismissed," Darkwill announces before looking at the other General's to see if they have anything further to say.
None of the General's had any further ideas and they all exit the room heading off to do their own business. While walking back to his mansion, Marcus recalls the conversation he had with his daughter earlier "Accidental maimings are exactly the reason why you should teach me. Such partners for sparring are merely too weak for me and they get themselves hurt." 'Hmm, I wonder, let's see just how strong you are Blade's Shadow' Marcus thinks a plan already forming together in his head.