Chapter 13. Grand General
The guards didn't quite rush us, they took a breath after Talon had left. "Are you ok... Blade?" The girl next to me asked. I sighed deeply, She knew my name now and for some reason that made me both disappointed that I couldn't protect my name more as well as depressed since I couldn't, I wonder why... My adrenaline was starting to run down and I could feel my movements getting sluggish. After roughly 8 minutes after Talon left one of the soldiers aproched me "Were getting out of here, The bandits are either running or dead". I stood up and the girl did the same. I started to move forwards when the gril spoke behind me "Since I know your name, it's only fair if you know mine" She said with a hint of shyness behind her voice "My name is Que". I nodded and turned back to the soldiers.
The outdoors was covered in blood, tents laid burnt to the ground of showed a new stain of red across most of there fabric. I moved a few steps behind the soldier and Que was not to far behind either. It seems she was getting her strength back slowly however she was still weak. I could see her eye a fish near the bonfire but decided not to take it. Out of pity I grabbed it as well as one for myself. The soldiers weren't going to stop for her and it must be a while until we get to noxus. "Here, your going to need all the strength you can get" I said while holding one of the cooked fish out. She eyed it for a moment then glanced at me and took with without a word. She ate it slower then she ate the apples which was a good sign. I quietly ate mine as well as we made out way back to the nearby road. I could barely see the road in the now moonlit night. I saw the tree that the man was hiding in. I checked to see if any soldiers were paying attention before I moved back farther and farther from the group. I moved next to the tree and called out quietly "I'm done with the job, Your bandit group got massacred though. Soldiers are in there right now" I said. "That's... fine, I suppose I do have to pay you" I could hear the sound of coins moving when he dropped a bag into my hand. I took a moment to check the bag to made sure it was coins inside, After making sure of it I ran to catch up with the soldiers. I made it back without anyone taking notice to my brief disappearance.
It was roughly an hour before we got to noxus. The city had a dark look to it, mostly because it was night. The area around it was swamped or marsh-like with the waters being a deep green or dark brown. The ground felt moist with water and the air felt thick and wet. It was a little foggy and I could see the moon rising just over the treeline did little to light this city. The front gates were closed and the guards in front of it looked alert. I reached to check that I had all my items secured. My dagger was still in place along with the two sacks of gold I had with me. The large black sack holding my rations and waterskin was attached to me with two straps firmly in place and shut tight. My sword was currently in its sheath and my dagger? I wouldn't need to worry about that. We slowly made it up to the gate's which opened for us as we entered, but not before I got a look in the moat. I'll be honest, I was a little surprised. The moat may as well been a graveyard. Bodies in all sorts of states were floating on the top of the water, I could only imagine how many were sunk below. The water was a mix with blood, dirt and sludge. I turned my attention back to the gate as we crossed inside. I finally noticed that Que was shivering at first I thought she was cold but she reacted very strangely to me tapping her on the should. She jumped back and stared at me in fear. I could see it in her eye that she was scared, Very scared. "Are you alright" I asked. She couldn't build up the courage to speak so she nodded instead. I didn't want to push her on it if she didn't say no so I dropped the topic then and there. We moved into the city of noxus and the first thing I noticed the the atmosphere. It was thick and heavy, it would make most people want to leave and if they didn't it would make there paranoid. The soldiers didn't seem to be phased as we walked down a long street. The amount of people out was extremely low, and even then the people out looked suspicious both of us and themselves. I was started to get a little paranoid myself, I started looking down alleys in time to see a dark figure pass multiple time's. This was a place where crime is common, a place where it's expected. A place where if you were caught you would die and if you got away you would do it again. A place where if you were seen, the most that would happen would be a name made just for you. This was noxus, a place of do or die and strangely I felt right at home.
We arrived at the noxus military building, You couldn't miss it a large building made up of black walls and dirty stone streets. We all climbed the stair's to reach the door to the building. It opened slowly as we all entered. We walked down a large hall with statues lining the walls as well as torches next to passages of who the statues were of. I moved along with them as we stopped due to the soldiers stopping. "What's the meaning of this?" A old man said. I turned to see a man with a limp walking towards us but that's not what got my attention. My attention was drawn to the bird he had on his shoulder it was staring directly at me. Since this was a city of strength I didn't dare break eye contact with the bird. Soon the man noticed this and saw I was in a deadlock stare with the bird as he approached me. "And who might you be?" He asked. The bird broke eye contact and as he did so did I. "Do you need to know" I asked.
"It'd be best if I did young man" He replied.
"That's not what I mean. Is there such a urgent need that you 'need' to know my name" I corrected. The man stared at me with a glare for a moment. I had my hood up so the only real light was on the lower half of my face.
"You remind me of Talon" He chuckled. He turned back to the soldier "Who is this boy" he said looking for a answer.
"He said his name was Blade, He was on a job to kill the Thornal Bandit leader and his right hand. He killed them before we could and Talon wanted us to bring him here" He responded.
"And the girl" The man asked".
"A prisoner, she was in a cage under the leaders home" he responded.
The old man shook his head for a moment "When should Talon be back" the old man asked.
"We don't know, he just said for us to wait for him" The soldier replied.
"Good, tell him Blade will be with me" The man said before turning to me "Since you are waiting for Talon I want to ask you a few things". I didn't respond just standing there looking at him.
"I would be lying if I said I could let you leave, but if you were to try" All the soldiers drew the're weapons at once "You would without your life" he finished. Seeing how I was in no position to avoid this I slowly moved towards the old man. "What do you want" I asked.
"Answers" He replied. He started walking and I followed. It took a little bit of time before we had reached the room this man wanted to enter with me. I followed him into the room, It was a office with a desk in the back of the room. In the middle was a large table with a map across it. The walls had been lined with bookshelves and they were all filled. There was also maps of smaller areas on the walls where book shelves weren't. The old man moved behind his desk and looked out the window before turning to me still next to the door. "No need to be so hostile, I mean no harm to come to you... if you cooperate" he said as he turned to me. I took a step closer and moved to sit on a chair from the table in the middle. I sat down placed my elbow onto the table holding my head up with it resting on my face. "What do you want" I asked. "As I said before, I want answers... Well I suppose that wasn't a very good answer but it was the best to all my current needs" He said as he sat down at his desk.
"Your not from here are you" He asked.
"No, I'm not sure where I'm from but I was living in Piltover for most of my... Known life" I replied.
"I can assume you don't know your identity then" He followed up. I nodded "Well then since you don't know your place of origin would you mind listening to a request of mine" the man asked.
"Maybe if I knew your name" I said glaring at him.
"Where are my manners, My name is Jericho Swain I'm the grand general of noxus" he said with a small bow of respect.
"Well then Swain, What is it you want" I asked.
Swain grinned for a moment then stood up from his chair "I want you to join us"
"Join us? You mean noxus" I ask.
"Yes, You were able to kill a most troubling bandit group's leader and deputy. No normal mercenary can do that" Swain followed up.
"Praise will get nothing from me" I said.
"I only got lucky, the two idiots were drunk and it sounds like they changed leaders recently. My employer said so and from what I could overhear the last leader would have been harder to kill" I said.
All Swain did was nod to my story "Yet you still it it undetected, However they're past leader was a smart man. He was a major problem for the longest time. Even if they changed leader's you still killed their leader.". I took a moment to decide if I wanted to tell him about the gunshot but decided for him to find out himself.
"I'm only telling you this because it's required in a report" I said.
"Blade, I already told you if your planning on leaving without joining us I will have to kill you" Swain said. I stared at him in question, Could he really stop me? "Why" I asked.
"We cannot have someone like you go to someone else, We either force you to join us or no one at all" He stated.
"I see, so you think I'll be pulled in by other armies to fight for them?" I asked.
"I don't think you will, I know you will and I can't let that happen" He responded.
I had no intentions of being a dog for any military at all. "I'm not interested in joining 'any' army. I hate the idea of taking orders" I said.
"You will be working with only the best of noxus as an assassin, If it needs to be you can take orders from me alone" He said. I glared at him, Currently my options were very slim and few in number. I could join them and fight for noxus or I could walk out with my head rolling down the stairs... I'll have to buy myself some time so "Fine, I'm only taking orders from you" I said.
"Excellent, We will start your training right away" Swain replied.
"I'm going to need all the weapons and gold you currently hold, any supplies as well" He said.
I got up from my chair "What's the meaning of this" I asked.
"I want you to be as cold as the steel of blades. In order to do that I shall have you go though a thorough training then any assassin would" he said.
"You will survive in noxus with no weapons but what you find for 3 months, then you will be ready" He said.
"If you get caught it's up to you on how you react, you can go out there on a killing spree to survive or you can steal from the shadows but you must report to me once every week, I will also give you a target every week for you to kill with little to no notoriety." He said "Your other option is to die here". I stared the man and pulled my sword out of it's sheath throwing it onto the table, I did the same with everything else I owned.
"Your not leaving you sheaths?" Swain asked suspicious.
"Mark my words, I'll get myself a weapon. When I do I don't want to be holding onto it everywhere I go" I said.
I was about to walk out "Wait" but swain stopped me.
I turned to see him holding my dagger "Where did you get this" he looked over it carefully.
"I stole it, well more of took it as payment. From a supply cart with it's horses pulling the cart alone" I said. Swain kept looking over the dagger "Leave it's sheath here" he said. "Why" I asked. "You know exactly why, This dagger is supposed to return to it's master's sheath after it's gone far enough from it" he responded. I sighed since he figured out it's secret, I unstrapped the sheath from my waist and threw it onto the table. "I want to make sure my items are properly secured, so I want to see them put into a safe." I said standing by the door. "With a dagger like that I'm sure you would" He mumbled. Swain moved to the door and caught a soldier in the hall and ordered him to bring my stuff to the storeage. I went with him to be sure.
"Did swain give you a hard time" The soldier asked.
"Not really, a life or death option. Nothing special" I said sarcastically.
"You'll get used to it. Just be happy your one of his favourites" The soldier responded.
"His favourites?" I asked.
"Yes, He'll likely give you leverage on anything you want to do" The soldier answered.
I kept that in mind as he sealed my items in a small vault. I suppose this is another restart to my life... I'll have to do my best to find a way out, but for now I moved towards the entrance of the noxian building. The soldiers that were watching Que were gone along with her as Talon stood there at the entrance waiting. He saw me and waited for me to pass him before saying "It's not going to be easy". I stopped walking but didn't look at him "I went through the same thing all my childhood. Your only dealing with it for a little while" I kept standing in front of him refusing to look at him. "Your best bet is the lower district, plenty of idiots" He said before walking into the building. I turned to see he had left before I started to walk down the staircase. Time to get to work.
-Authors note-
I want to start off by saying thanks for reading. I'm having a hard time writing lately and that bad since I haven't even finished chapter 15 yet. I'll try to do my best to get back on my game but I'm having a hard time. In the mean time I just wanted to ask wtf happend yesterday. In that one day before I even posted the next chapter I had 100+ Views and after the day had been done and over with I had double the prior best day in both views and viewers. I was just wondering what happened and also wanted to ask. What exactly do you like about the story? I'm curious since I haven't gotten a lot of feedback. Hopefully I can write more soon but thanks for understanding -Blade6309