A young man, slightly over the age of twenty and bearing a small frame with slender figure, stood in a hallway in the Institute of War looking a tad uneasy, after having contemplated for most of the day as to how he should pursue his curiosity. He wore his fluffy blonde hair at a little above shoulder height and his clothes were tight against his body from the small leather belts on his lower arms and legs; they were worn with the intention of keeping loose ends from getting snared on obstacles. He was an explorer in his time outside of being a champion in the League, and his appearance reflected it. He wore goggles, boots, and gloves, but his gloves did not match: one glowed a soft yellow due to the gem implanted in center. He had found it on an expedition some time ago and joined the League shortly after discovering how to wield the power inside of it.
His curiosity had pushed him to where he currently stood; he gazed deeply into the stone's luminescence as he held his hand up to the door in front of him, preparing to knock. Without moving his eyes, he shifted his focus from his glove to the plaque hanging on the door. The light glow fit excruciatingly well with the name on the plaque. It was only three letters long; while her full name was much longer, she preferred to be called by "Lux". She was a very talented young lady, being only seventeen – just few years younger than he was – and already had years of military experience under her belt, leading to her being recruited into the League of Legends. Her incredible talent at controlling light through her magical strength was unparalleled by any other individual throughout Valoran. Her parents had taken note of this talent and sent her off to serve her country while she was still very young. Her whole family partook in the Demacian military, and her older brother, Garen, even fought on the Fields of Justice as well; up until just recently. Garen was actually what brought the man to Lux's room today. He had vanished from the League awhile ago, along with another champion by the name of Talon. The only relationship between them is that they are from rivaling countries: Talon is Noxian while Garen is Demacian. Their disappearance was all that anyone was talking about but no one had any facts. His natural curiosity that drove his explorative personality led him to try to figure out exactly what was going on.
He looked to his left and right, inspecting the completely barren hallway.
"No one in sight," he said to himself in a whisper. His voice suited his appearance: it was light but very clear and defined. Not so high pitched that it could be mistaken for belonging to a female but not deep enough to be taken seriously if it were to give a command. He proceeded to knock on the door a few times and waited for an answer. A moment later, the door opened and a young woman appeared in its entrance. She was about his height, presumably five and half feet tall or so, with blonde hair just a few shades lighter than his. She was built quite similarly; however, a slender figure on a small frame was expected of a teenage girl. She smiled at him as soon as she had opened the door; her face absolutely beaming. It was almost as if light itself shone from her cheeks. He returned the smile and motioned as if asking to enter.
"Do you mind if I come in Lux?" he asked politely. "I apologize for the stopping by so late, but I had a couple questions and wanted to come see you." The two hung out from time to time, often getting him laughed at for their similarities in appearance. And due to Lux's military background, people often joked that he was the more feminine of the two. He would shake such harassment aside, being happy to spend time with the girl.
"No not all Ezreal!" she replied with a smile. It seemed almost as if she had wanted him to come by sometime soon. He walked into the room and she closed the door behind him. He had never actually stepped into the room before, just said his goodbyes as he dropped her off at the room after hanging out with her later into the evenings on some nights.
The room was well decorate with the Demacian colors of white, yellow, and blue; banners draping from the walls; and high quality olden style architecture implemented in the furniture and structure of the room that was reminiscent of what you would see in Demacia's streets. The room was built for a princess; just as many rooms in the Institute were. Champions were allowed to decorate their rooms however they would like to insure that they felt comfortable and capable of maintaining a high morale. Some rumors even said that Dr. Mundo's room, a psychotic madman from Zaun who repeated his own name aloud so often that it was hard to forget, kept his room littered with corpses and cadavers from his "medical experiments". This was one rumor Ezreal had not bothered to pursue.
Ezreal found that the room was amazingly tidy compared to his own: he had his cluttered with desks and shelves packed full with books, artifacts, notes and journals entries while the floor itself was rarely visible through the massive quantity of items that had fallen to the floor and never been bothered to be picked up. He did not even have a bed in his room since most of the time he fell asleep at his desk or somewhere on the floor when he collapsed from exhaustion. His mind was constantly running and turning, creating ideas and theories to be tested, and trying to discover lost secrets and treasures. He was almost taken aback by how much of Lux's room was encompassed by her bed. Clearly she viewed sleep in a much different manner than he did.
She crossed the room and sat down on the bed, motioning for Ezreal to come over too. He sat down next to her, facing the door to the room. She giggled and shifted sideways to bring her legs up onto the bed, sitting cross-legged.
"How do you plan to have a conversation with someone while facing a door?" she asked, intentionally trying to embarrass him for his half minded actions. It worked, making him blush lightly as he shifted his body to face the girl and mimicked her position. "What was it that you wanted to talk about Ezreal?" she questioned.
"Well uh, I was wondering if you knew anything about the disappearance of your brother," he said. Her face's glow seemed to evaporate as she lowered her head, allowing her long hair to fall forward to cover her face.
"Oh," she said, her voice much darker than it had been previously while greeting Ezreal.
"Not that I don't enjoy talking with you or anything! I just wanted to know if you knew something or anything." He spoke with a slight stutter of nervousness. He was very comfortable with talking to Lux, but when it came to talking about personal things, he was always on edge; afraid that he would slip up and embarrass himself or hurt her feelings. She seemed to lighten up, amused by his obvious discomfort. She placed a soothing hand on his leg and gave him a smile.
"Go ahead Ez, it's ok. What do you want to know?" she said. He seemed to loosen up a bit himself, seeing how she wasn't as stressed about the topic as Ezreal had originally thought. He straightened himself up and looked into her eyes after she lifted her head from her slump.
"I wanted know if you had any idea where Garen has gone. I've heard over a thousand rumors but I doubt any of them are in any way accurate. I guess it's partly my curiosity getting the best of me, partly me being concerned for Garen and the League, and partly me being concerned for you and your well being. Did he say anything to you? Leave you and clues or display any sort of suspicious behavior before he left?" Lux looked everywhere but at Ezreal. She knew her answer, but did not know whether or not she wanted to confide her information in him. She finally looked back into Ezreal's eyes and nodded.
"Hold up," she announced to him. She stood up from the bed and locked her door before walking over to a large dresser and shifted around for a few moments before pulling out a small folded piece of paper, and then re-approached Ezreal. She held the paper in her hands for a few moments before deciding to turn it over to the man sitting on her bed. He took it in hand lightly and slowly unfolded the note. To his surprise, there was only one word on the note. It read "West". He was awfully puzzled and it was quite apparent because Lux spoke up.
"I'm not sure exactly what it means, but it is all that he left for me. I gave it to the Demacian officials who were looking for information on him as well. They didn't bother confiscating the evidence because they could hardly prove that it came from Garen. I know it did though, in case you were wondering. It is his handwriting. I know I don't get to see it much, but I know it well enough to recognize it as his. But as you probably know, Demacia itself is to the west of here. He did not return to Demacia. He has no reason to; he can contact anyone he wants to, whenever he needs to. The note…" She paused, debating whether or not she should tell Ezreal what she thought. He gave her great smile in attempt to persuade her and as a simple gesture to suggest that he was not sent here but was acting on his own accord. Her information was safe with him.
Lux leaned in closer and continued. "The note is a lie," she said to him. Ezreal was confused but did not bother to intervene. "Garen set this up. He doesn't want to be found. He knew that I would be sought after as soon as he went missing, so he placed this note in my possession for a reason. He wanted someone to look at this and think it was a very vague way to suggest that he was heading towards Demacia. This concept has both put the League at ease –assuming he has some sort of emergency at home to deal with – and put Demacia on the lookout for his arrival. But he is smarter than that. He doesn't want to be found. He headed elsewhere. And if he assumed so much as to know that I would have figured this all out, the note would also contain information pertaining to his actual whereabouts. So what's the most logical direction?" she asked Ezreal half rhetorically. He assumed that she wanted him to answer, just as a small test of his intelligence. He thought briefly before he spoke up.
"Well, seeing as the note itself is supposed to lead searchers astray, it could be safely assumed that he is going the exact opposite way: east." She nodded in approval.
"Precisely Ez. You know what that means though, right?" she asked in a similar manner as before.
"Noxus…" he replied dully. He didn't want to have to answer the way he did but it was the truth. She nodded, looking a little shaken up yet again. "This… this isn't good…" he continued.
"No, it's not good," she agreed. "But, I don't know what to do. I think the true answer is nothing at all. I want to go look for him, but I have no reason to. He can take care of himself and whatever deranged sense of justice or vengeance has persuaded him to venture into the heart of his country's biggest rival is clearly much stronger than the whims of safety coming from his little sister. So I just have to accept it for what it is, and pray that he is OK."
Ezreal looked at her but her head was down again; looking at her folded hands in her lap. He knew that he wasn't going to provide any decent amount of comfort for the girl at the moment so he decided to wait it out. He did not have any siblings, nor did he spend any time around one person long enough to become so attached as to care for them if they were to disappear; except for maybe Lux. He looked around the room again as if there was something lying inside of it that he would be able to use to provide her with comfort. He looked over at the window and its arching frame; screaming with beautiful Demacian architecture. He saw a bird fly away from its perch on the other side of the glass and into the dark night sky. He watched it fly for quite some time until the soft blue glow of the moon reflecting off of its feathers did not provide enough light to make it visible any longer. He turned back towards Lux and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, her face bearing a forced smile.
"I'll find out what has happened Lux. He may be more sane than you have presumed. You may be wrong and he isn't in Noxus at all. The world is a mystery, and it just takes enough searching and dedication to figure it out. I'll figure this out. Thank you for the lead Lux, I'm sure it will be plenty more than enough to get this started" he stated. Her forced smile gradually turned into a real one and she reached out to hug him.
"Thank you Ez," she said. Ezreal was so flustered by the motion than he awkwardly took the hug and stood up in preparation to leave the room.
"Erm, you're welcome Lux," he said before walking towards the door. Before he made it out, Lux called to him one last time.
"Another thing to keep in mind," she started. "Talon is missing as well. And he is most likely heading towards Noxus. I do not know why or how the two may link up, but Talon is Noxian." Ezreal nodded to motion that he acknowledged the information and turned to leave the room. He walked out and latched the door quietly behind him. He began down the hallway, thoughts ablaze with ideas and concepts while trying to figure out where to go next with his information.
"I will figure this out Lux, don't you worry," he muttered to himself.
Lux sat on her bed staring at the door where the prodigal explorer had just left her room. "All the brains in the world but he doesn't even think to say good night," she said to herself. She laughed lightly at the thought and lay back on her bed. Her mind was more so at rest than it had been in an awful long time. Somehow, she knew Ezreal was going to help her out. The man had the dedication of a bull, even if his appearance reflected the opposite.