Chapter 32: Reunion.
They had managed to get Syndra out of Jonokyuden, although they had some resistance from Syndra's followers about her being escorted by three strangers and a Zaunite.
Especially because of the Zaunite.
In the end, Syndra had put her right-hand man as overseer for Jonokyuden, and proceeded to calm the situation down by using complicated terminology.
It was surprising how effective such a tool was against simpler people.
I mean their faces were completely blank when Syndra had spoken of diplomatic negotiations. It was almost funny how simple those people were.
But then coming from a two and a half thousand year old scientist and expert in banter, it is often funny watching idiots try to wrap their minds around things sometimes, especially when I actually understand the concept in the first place.
But then they could probably say the same thing to me when I question farming practices.
The four were making way towards this 'Hahouya' with Ahri taking the lead, a smile on her face that grew with every step as they got closer to their destination.
"Should be only a couple miles more until we reach her house!" Ahri said panting after the long walk.
She had not stopped since they had started back at Jonokyuden and it was obvious that it was taking its tole on her. But still her smile shown through, a hard journey that would lead to a truly great reward.
Something for which she was more than willing to pay.
The dense beech forest was thinning now, leading to a small compound with a surprising road heading back down the valley slope.
The road had seen moderate levels of wear, so it had to be used on occasion but the compound never had been any sort of attraction.
Even still, the compound itself seemed well maintained, the wooden walls having no significant malpractice done to them and it even had a strange sheen to it despite not having signs of renewal of the wood.
Guessing what the reason for this was, Xerath scanned the compound on his approach.
Magic.
But it was faint and unobtrusive. The inhabitants did have magical talent, but since there was no other arcane activity, Xerath assumed that the inhabitants had no real proper grasp of high-grade magic. From this, Xerath proceeded to assume that there was going to be no conflict, at least from arcane means.
Mundane weapons could pose a threat, but he doubted that their effect would be substantial versus three incredibly powerful magicians.
Two figures appeared from a sliding door on the side of the Ionian compound, one a white haired middle aged man, the other looking like a typical Ionian housewife.
The man was wearing a grey overcoat and heavy-duty trousers, a frequent traveler from the looks. Swinging his large box-like backpack around his shoulders, he looked like he was preparing to set off back down the road. In the meantime, he was also chatting with the housewife, a small cigarette balanced between his lips with only faint wisps of smoke coming from his mouth on occasion.
"HAHOUYA!" Ahri called out joyfully, her pace quickening to a run towards the complex.
The two turned their heads towards the approaching fox, the housewife forming a massive smile on her face while the man's face drooped in sheer surprise.
"Ahri! Long time no see! How have you been doing?" The housewife asked.
"I've been doing great! I joined the League a while ago so I started to have more time on my hands."
"Like drinking yourself under the table?" the housewife questioned, but Xerath could tell it was banter from the mannerism she had used.
"She has done that yes," Xerath replied as he and the rest of the group made their way up to the little gathering. "In addition to barely dodging an incredibly powerful laser blast no thanks to me." Xerath wanted in on this banter, and the way the housewife had presented herself before Ahri showed that she was a strong contender.
"Ahahaha he he, Yeeeaaah, I did have that that one time." Ahri blushed as her arm scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.
"So Ahri, who did you bring as your playmate this time? He sounds like a very interesting masked man. Is he one of those cosplaying people that come up in Piltover?"
Ahri almost keeled over from the thought of Xerath being a cosplayer, her eyes wide and her mouth covered as she tried to hold back her laughter.
'Why me.' Xerath thought, his mind trying to come up with a response.
"If I may," Xerath started. "My name is Xerath, a champion of the League of Legends."
"Oh yeah, I've heard of something about a Xerath, not very good from what I hear."
THAT'S BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE A GAPCLOSER IN MY KIT YOU DAMN B*TCH!
THAT'S THE ONLY REASON, ISN'T IT! EVERY OTHER MOTHER F*CKER HAS ONE SO THOSE WITHOUT ARE AUTOMATICALLY BAD!
You obviously haven't seen me when I get fed.
Not like you ever see would with my pick rate.
"If I may," The man by her side began. "The name's Ginku, pleasure to meet you. I'm a wisp researcher." He said completely reserved, uncaring for the previously almost hostile conversation. "I assume 'Ahri' is a friend of yours, Hahouya? You're fairly recluse after all."
"Oh yes, Ahri is a very good friend of mine from almost half a decade ago. When she first arrived, she was in a fairly bad spot, but by the time she moved on to travelling, she was almost like a daughter to me."
The face Hahouya made afterwards only confirmed the fact that she did indeed have a daughter, taken away from her before Ahri arrived. Xerath could establish that much about Hahouya. But then, what about if her daughter were still to be alive? I haven't introduced the others, so considering that she does not know her daughter's appearance, what I need to figure out is whether or not she would accept her daughter again, especially since the news of an entire Ionian force was completely wiped out by Syndra.
What if I were to introduce Syndra as just a traveller? At least to start off with to try to find a better opportunity without this Ginku guy around to spread any rumors. Yeah, that sounds like the best plan of action I can think of.
He was thankful that Syndra had removed her dark attire and was dressed in a hardwearing traveler outfit to not arouse suspicion.
"So who are the young folk behind you two?"
"Hitchhikers on our little journey." Xerath replied, trying to make light of the matter to avoid suspicion. Turning to Ahri quickly while Hahouya and Ginku had their eyes on the other three, Xerath signaled to Ahri the plan in all the detail a simple nod of the head could transfer.
Ahri nodded, but with a tiny grin appearing on her face.
"Trust me on this one." She mouthed.
"Hahouya, want me to introduce these three?" Ahri asked.
"Well, I would need to be introduced to them anyway. So who are these three?"
Ahri moved over to Natalie's side and placed both of her hands on Natalie's shoulders.
"This is Natalie. She was a Zaunite tourist when a group of thieves attacked her group and she was the only survivor. We managed to intervene just in time to ward off the thieves before she would have been killed and decided to tag along with us for a while."
It wasn't necessarily a lie, a half-truth at least. We had indeed faced off against a group of bandits, and Natalie was the only survivor of her team, so it should be passable.
Ahri moved over to Yamoto and likewise placed her hands over his shoulders.
"This is Yamoto. He is part of a Champion training program that his superiors kinda forced on us, so he's been stuck with us for the ride. Not a bad person, but he's kind of slow on uptake and kind of simple."
It was clear in Yamoto's face that he did not like Ahri's description of him, but Hahouya could do nothing but smirk at the matter. It was the truth after all that Yamoto hadn't really done much for the journey, but it was not like we could ditch him by the side of the road. Once we return to the Institute, I should probably get him to work on something while I focus more on Syndra. I could probably have Azel take him under her wing while I'm teaching Syndra the more complicated stuff, but I could actually talk to them both about internal magical resistance and arcane current flow since Ionian magical practices rarely go in depth about that.
Finally, Ahri moved over to Syndra and, like she did with the other two, placed her hands over her shoulders. The pace at which she did so had changed noticeably, a slower and gentler pace than with both Natalie and Yamoto.
"And this, is Syndra, your daughter."
The very air ran silent with the revelation of a mother and child's reunion.
Everyone was completely still, not daring to speak out of tone for the fear of completely disturbing the thoughts that ran through the minds of both of them.
Each single second seemed like entire hours as the moment had become more precious than a thousand gemstones.
"M-Mom, I-" Syndra started, her words slow and quivering, her mind racing with thoughts about whether her mother thought she was worth being born.
Had she been cast out by her mother's request?
Had her mother been paid off by the monks to simply give over her child?
Had she-
In the blink of an eye, her head was cradled in Hahouya's breast. Hahouya's arms wrapped around her daughter gently, fully embracing her child that had been long lost to that fortress monastery.
Syndra felt her mother's arms warm her, a feeling that she had never known, no, forgotten. The heat penetrated through the heavy travelers cloak she wore like a blazing, yet gentle fire. She felt her heavy thoughts dissolve into nothingness, the only thought now was to respond to her mother's embrace.
Her hands quivered to desperately hold on to her mother with all of her might, to never again let anything sever the bond between them. Her eyes burned with the tears that streamed out from them.
It was indeed a beautiful sight to see, the twelve years of separation of mother and daughter finally being undone.
Xerath could only view it as such, as every other joy he felt long ago between him and his family had been lost to the ages.
The actual events he had long forgotten since his Ascension, but the feelings they had conveyed travelled beyond the lifetimes of empires.
These times were rare, perhaps only occurring once or twice in one's lifetime.
Being there to actually see it with one's own eyes is a completely different feeling that one can only dream of.
"Told'ya it would work out." Ahri quietly murmured beside him, a sizeable smirk on her face in the knowledge that she had done the right thing for the circumstance.
"I do not know as much on Hahouya as you do, so my information was only focused on helping Syndra as much as possible."
"Sometimes you need to force an issue over just skirting on the outside. I get less of Syndra than you might do, but I know Hahouya well, well enough to make the judgment to force it."
"I agree with you, but what did you mean by me 'getting more of Syndra' than you?"
"Intuition I guess. You just get her more than I do. You know about all the magical doodads and sciency stuff that makes Syndra special. I also get the feeling that you've faced similar circumstances when you were still human."
"Circumstances?"
"You have more experience dealing with those special people like those Insulators and Inductors, and more specialized social skills than my general people skills."
Special people…
Xerath swung his head back in annoyance at the thought.
The moment had died down now and Hahouya had invited everyone for some tea in the compound.
A well kept and maintained archetypal Ionian home, complete with a large stove and more than enough room for at least a half dozen guests at a time.
The tea room had a serene grace to it, just like Hahouya. Hahouya was just readying the tea with help from Ahri by the large kettle stove in the corner, all the while the rest of the company were conversing with each other.
"So, Xerath," Syndra began. "You were saying earlier about wisps and my power?"
"Yeah. Wisps are an essential part of magical research because of their natural arcane conductive properties. When one knows the notable reactions of wisps, magical properties can be noted and quantified for research. In your case though, I believe I may have found an abnormality."
"Abnormality? Is that a bad thing?"
"My words may not have been the best, but no. Do you know of the Discipline model?"
"I think I found a little on it in some of the books in my library, but nothing more than just the rejection of it by most contemporary magicians."
"Not surprising. The Discipline model is a very academic and complicated model that is more questionable than the Elemental model that uses the elemental medium of the user. Nonetheless, the model holds in my eyes because it is a very deliberate and interesting model compared with the straightforward 'fire and water' model. That aside, the hypothesis that I have is that you have access to not one or two control method and mediums, but instead you might have a potential six."
"What's so special about that?"
"Two control mediums are very hard to attain. Perhaps one in a thousand magicians would be born with such an ability. If you have a massive six, then you can imagine that you are one in untold billions of people who haven't manifested such a talent."
"What makes you think that I have these six 'control medium' thingies?"
"It's a combination of how you show strong traits of being able to mix arcane and physical together, such as using the same strain of magical tether to bind to both arcane and physical entities with ease, as well as being able to show all three traits of conduction, induction and insulation with both physical and arcane media. That is a trait which is beyond the imaginations of most contemporary magicians."
Xerath then turned to Ginku, who was clearly waiting for his time to speak.
"Ginku, do you know if there are any wisp species that are specifically sensitive to each of the Disciplines?"
"There are, but their rarity means that they are not commercially available."
"But," Ginku continued, "I can make some connections and acquire enough samples to test this hypothesis of yours."
Although common wisps could give an idea into my hypothesis, having a wisp expert be able to prescribe specimens of several high quality species of wisps would be give much greater detail into Syndra's condition. Since I'm on the Institute payroll, then why not go for the more expensive option?
After the tea had come and gone, Ginku and Xerath had arranged for the paperwork to be delivered to Xerath's quarters to be filled in once he got back. After a quick goodbye, Ginku had left the compound with his box-like backpack in tow.
A good man, Xerath thought.
Hahouya had offered them to stay for the night, which Xerath humbly tried to decline.
But then Ahri interjected and immediately moved to stay the night.
Xerath had very little interest in the matter, but the idea of a brief respite after the events from the past week made him change his mind.
Being shown to their rooms, Xerath thanked Hahouya for her hospitality.
"It's nothing really, I've had the joy of giving shelter to all sorts of people. Hell, there was even another champion apart from Ahri that stayed here way back before Ahri came along."
"What was his name?"
"A girl, perhaps in her mid twenties back then."
Well that's very specific, considering that I could say that several of the women in the Institute would be at least in there thirties.
"Avon, Raven…" Hahouya was cycling through names when suddenly it occurred to Xerath.
"You mean Riven!" Xerath cried out in surprise. He had never thought much about the loner Riven apart from how often she shut herself away from others. Her company had been betrayed sometime during the Ionian Invasion and went into hiding for years until entering the Institute several months ago. For her to turn up here out of all places so long ago, the world must indeed be a small place.
"Yeah! That's her name! It's been such a long time since I've last heard of her. Maybe she'll come back one day."
I highly doubt that.
Riven rarely made her way out of her dormitories except for sparring practice or for Rift matches.
For her to even come out here would be an impossibility in her current situation.
"So is she still a loner back at the Institute? Does she talk much?"
"She's still a loner, but she's been slowly opening up from what I can tell. Very soft speaker most of the time though."
"I'm thankful that's she's getting out of her shell. When I first met her, she was just grunting at objects to convey simple requests. It was perhaps a whole week before she managed to get enough courage to even say her name."
"From what I can tell, you must have met her very shortly after the backstab from Noxian High Command."
"What! What happened back then?"
"Her company was destroyed by Zaunic artillery from her own side. Reports suggested that there were no survivors, until Riven showed up in the Institute of War."
"I had no idea her past was so tragic!" Hahouya covered her mouth in shock. "Perhaps I should have gone easier on her to improve her condition."
"Don't worry, she has started to make friends. I heard that Ahri was helping Riven get accustomed to Sona a month before our journey here."
"Hmm," Hahouya chuckled. "Ahri is like that, always wanting people to get on in some way or another. I'll be seeing the others off to sleep now, so if you would excuse me."
"Goodnight then."
It was several hours before Xerath was stirred from his pseudo-slumber.
Looking down, he saw the figure of Syndra in the lantern-light at the edge of the Ionian futon. She was in her sleeping clothes, a buttoned shirt and cotton trousers.
On closer inspection, her shirt was only buttoned up to her chest, letting her rounded breasts show out.
On all fours, she made her way up to Xerath's chest and lay on it.
'What…' Xerath could only think.
The hell is this?
Am I suddenly some girl magnet?
I doubt that.
Either way, I need to figure out what the hell she wants.
"Syndra, what are you doing?"
"Wh-Wha-What! I-I-I I thought you were asleep!" She frantically cried, embarrassed at the notion.
Not this again…
"I'm a light sleeper." Xerath replied blandly.
…
"So what were you doing?"
"I-I I don't know. I just wanted to thank you somehow for reuniting me with my mother. I-I I know our first meeting wasn't exactly the best, so… I mean…"
"You want to say sorry for everything?"
"Mhmm… I guess so, yeah."
"So why the hell did you crawl up to me in my sleep with your breasts exposed?"
"Uhh… Ahri did this to you right? I kind of saw that and got the same idea… hehehm." Syndra tried awkwardly to make the situation less awkward, which was only making it more awkward.
Great.
"Look, there was something between Ahri and I in that moment. She found out about my history and I found out about hers. I also helped her in a time of need, so she had even more reason to do so, in her own rather seductive way. But it was comforting, unlike this."
"Wha… What do you mean by that?"
"Have you considered at all how weird your entrance was just now, sneaking into a man's bed with teasing clothing and proceed to lie on his chest?"
Syndra's face went completely blank.
Then a complete red, her eyes opening wide.
Burrowing her face in the blanket, she frantically tried to calm herself down from the realization of what she had done.
"I don't know what came over me! I just don't know. I don't know. I don't know…" Syndra's words were accelerating faster and faster.
"Syndra." Xerath commanded in his autonomous voice.
Syndra snapped back up from her position, eyes red and wide.
"Don't worry about it too much. I did not expect such a reaction from you." Xerath said in a softer voice.
"But it was my fault! I didn't know what I was doing, but I was the one who did it! It's my fault!"
"Syndra. I need you to focus on me. Not anything else. Focus on my voice. Nothing else."
Syndra lay silent, her breath frantic, but it was starting to slow.
"You feel better now?"
"Yeah, kinda."
"Like I was saying, don't worry about it. I wanted to know what you were doing. Since I know now, it's all fine."
"But I-"
"No. I found what I wanted to know. We're fine now. The sort of thing you wanted to do just needed some… finesse… which you do not have."
"O-Okay." Syndra said, her voice lowering.
"It may not look like it, but I am smiling right now."
"Why's that?"
"Just thinking about how stupid you are." Xerath said chuckling.
"Hmm!" Syndra pouted.
She can actually be pretty cute as well.