This chapter had a strange way of writing to it. I had to get this idea down somewhere before I wrote the next part. It was supposed to be a short and uneventful chapter. Also, there's more foreshadowing in this chaper, so good luck finding it. :)
Have a great morning/day/evening/night/you know you shouldn't be up but you are
Irelia let out a long, deep sigh as she peacefully woke up for the first time in days. Her single bed was small, but it served its purpose well. She sat up, grabbing her garments off the wall, but noticing that several wrinkles in the arm were missing, and her right sleeve didn't have a pulled piece of string on it. Back in Ionia, you learned how to pay attention to the small details very quickly through meditation, and it came in handy more often than one would suspect. Even the smallest of things were more than enough to set her off. Things such as slight colour disfigurations in drink, misplacement of objects that had been delicately placed in a certain position earlier, missing objects or details in certain objects, and she loved this trait immensely. She wandered over to her bathroom and turned on the hot water. She washed it over her face and hair, making sure that she looked presentable for whatever this day might bring to her. She walked back over to her fridge and opened up the door. Immediately something set her off. Inside were small portions of whatever meat she had eaten last night, almost a full plate of vegetables, and a small glass of thick red juice. But she didn't bring any of this back with her. She remembered eating this last night.
"Who was around me last night?" She thought aloud. There was Lux, who was obvious, Tryndamere, who if he was found in Irelia's room, not even undying rage could stop him from dying from Ashe's intense barrage of questions. There was Heimerdinger at the other end of the room, but he was too busy doing whatever science he was doing over there to have even noticed that the world continued spinning. No one else was visible to her, and if they wanted her dead, why would they have brought her food and a clean change of clothes? Something was off. Irelia got changed into a vestment provided to her by the institute of war, took the new imposter change of clothes from the wall and the food from her closet, and left her room in a hurry.
Down at the summoner's office, the room was suddenly filled with the reverberating noise of the doors at the other end. They raised their eyes from their legal papers to see an Ionian walking towards them with a change of clothes and several containers of food.
"Irelia, what a nice but strange sight to see you here on this fine morning. What brings you down to our study at this hour?" Irelia stopped and gave herself a few seconds to catch her breath.
"I would like it if you guys could do a check on these, if possible. I believe someone may have been in and tampered with my room."
"Now what leads you to assume that?" He said with a beckoning gesture for her to hand over the belongings.
"My room was locked last night, but these things were out of place. Not just out of place, but replaced. I quite remember what I did last night. These were not something of my doing. I'd like to know if the food has been poisoned or the clothes bugged."
The summoner who had taken her belongs looked them over for a few seconds, before placing them back on the table, before them back on the table.
"Your food is certainly fine. It has not been poisoned or tampered with in any way. It is perfectly edible. But your clothes have been tampered with. Within several lines of thread, a small recording device was found. Although it bears to markings, I can confirm that it is indeed a voice recording device."
"Is there any way of finding out what it says?"
"It's simply you saying who was around me last night. That is all that it has on it. It's very new. You are right to assume it was from last night."
"Is there any way that I can find out who would have bugged this? Do we have a way of finding out?"
"Sadly, that is the one thing that I cannot help you out on behalf of this. That is a question that you must answer for yourself. But based on the look on your face, I suspect that you already have a suspect in mind. If you would like, the sheriffs of Piltover would be more than willing to help you out. I am sorry about these circumstances. You have been living a very busy few days. Stress may be your downfall."
"Thank you for caring about me. Now I am going to go get changed and ask a certain person some very important questions." She bowed to the summoner. "Thank you for your time."
The summoner simply replied with a nod and a "same to you, Irelia."
Irelia returned to her room and quickly changed. She was contemplating going to her bathroom, but if someone had bugged her clothes, that would be the second place they would bug. So she simply changed in the middle of her room. She was still wearing her undergarments, but she felt much more exposed knowing that someone may be watching her. She placed her provided clothes neatly on her bed, gave herself a deep breath and began her search.
Several hours later, she heard a voice in her mind.
"You are being summoned. We are providing you with three minutes to arrive before consequences are implemented."
"I really don't have time for this." The thought passed through her mind as she ceased her search and began her movement towards the summoning rooms. They were about a minute away at a walk, so she took her time, looking for the person she suspected of bugging her room. If it was true, and they had done it, there would be no forgiveness. The tall doors to the summoning chambers appeared in front of her, and she opened them easily. Inside, sat the small bed. The same bright lights and metal design were in the room, and nothing had appeared to have changed. The right light shone over her. The mandatory scanning process was the thought that came to mind. She placed her hand over her back and felt the relaxing feeling of the cool metal of her blade. After the light had disappeared, she walked over and relaxed on the bed, thinking of her life back in Ionia, and the life she led right now.
Once she returned to consciousness, she was not in the beautiful map of summoner's rift, but rather in what seemed light a never ending dark room that she couldn't see any ending too. It was simply a very poorly lit plain of darkness. Looking around, trying to see something that gave her a hint to what she was doing. Instead, all she saw was the light blonde hair and small, curvaceous body of the lady of luminosity.
"What are you doing here Lux? I thought I was being summoned to the fields of justice."
"Not quite. You were being summoned. But you weren't being summoned to the fields of justice. I'm sorry for not letting you know in advance."
"What are we doing here? What is this place?"
"How do you ask so many questions Irey?" The petite girl said with a giggle. "Just listen for a couple seconds."
True to her words a voice appeared seemingly from nowhere moments later.
"Welcome, to testing protocol 00-01. Calibration." The voice spoke in a monotone, robotic voice. "You have been summoned here, Irelia, by the request of the lady of luminosity, with a request. First off, we must ask you to step at least 15 feet away from your partner and close your eyes."
"What is he talking about Lux? Who is he?"
"It will be explained soon. Just do as he says."
Irelia took the 15 feet away slowly and carefully. Once she arrived and closed her eyes, she heard sounds of metal clinking, boots scraping, orders being shouted. She began to feel her heart beat against her chest. Fear was sinking in. She didn't want to open her eyes. The footsteps grew louder, orders being yelled now. Sounds of weapons being drawn. Just as they were seemingly overtop of her, they stopped. All of the sound just vanished. Out of mind, out of sight.
"Congratulations, Irelia. You have passed calibration. Feel free to open your eyes."
As she opened her eyes, the blackness that she had been dropped into was gone, being replaced by what seemed like a meadow. Lux stood at the same distance that she was at before she had closed her eyes, her face bearing her ever-present smile.
"Now Lux, I feel as though you have some explaining to do."
"This is the land of champions. These are the lands that summoners cannot set eyes onto. The tests you were just put through were tests designed to calibrate your nerves and senses. See, in this area. You are you. But you aren't. This is merely a copy of you. Strange huh?"
Irelia looked at her hands and feet and moved around. Her body reacted perfectly to what she gave for orders. "So what is the whole point of all of this? Why did you drag me here?"
"Remember when I said that we were going to have tests that were more than just summoner's rift games? Well, this is it. This is what I was talking about. In this world, you will take the damage that you receive. You're no longer held down by the skill level of your summoner or your cool downs or mana costs. If you don't believe me, watch this." The mage threw out a prism of lightning that connected with Irelia, and immediately her body became constricted. Sounds of burning appeared all over her body and her mind shook with pain. Soon, the binding released her, and she slumped to the ground.
"What was that Lux? Why did you do that?"
"I'm sorry Irey. I just had to show you that it was real. Any damage you take in here will actually appear on you. Your health bar is whatever your determination to keep standing up is." The mage extended a hand, which Irelia took. Getting back on her feet, she looked over her body. The burn marks were small, but they didn't heal up like they did back in summoner's rift.
"Lux, this is scaring me. Can we get out of here?"
"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were scared. Map, close."
Small lights shot out of the walls and ceiling, and soon, the world vanished.
Irelia awoke on the same bed she had laid down on, which was a welcome sight. She sat up, looking over her limbs. The burns that had been on her body earlier were gone. That was one truly disturbing dream. But the thought flowed through her mind. What was the point of that? Why had Lux summoned her there? There was a reason, Irelia was sure of it. But she had no idea what the point of it was. Only time will tell. Moments later, the door opened, and the little light mage sat in the doorway.
"Are you ready to go Irey? We've got places to go today, and the sooner we can get going, the better."
"Yeah…" Irelia's mind returned to the thought that she might be under surveillance right now. "Yeah, I guess I'm ready to go. I've got nothing better to do today anyways. So why not right?"
A smile appeared on the Demacians face as she said with a smile. "Alrightly then. Let's go." The two girls left the room and began heading down to the lobby.