Quinn slept until the next morning when rays of sunlight shone through her giant window and onto her face. She yawned and rolled over to find Valor still sound asleep beside her. The sight made her smile and she gently rubbed his beak. She pondered the options she had for the day: it had been quite awhile since she did not have plans already laid out in front of her. She knew that she had to look for Ezreal or information pertaining to his whereabouts, that she wanted to catch up on the previous day's match with Jarvan, and a small part of her sought to confront Shauna Vayne to see if she knew anything about the League's mysterious actions. The easiest of those things was to go see Jarvan, so she figured that she would start there.
Quinn crawled out of bed and stretched out her body. She turned to her wardrobe and thought about whether or not she wanted to wear her armor. It was fairly comfortable, but she did not foresee any combat in her near future. However, she did plan to go visit with the prince of Demacia, so perhaps the armor was more semi-formal and fitting for the day. After she changed into her usual leather armor and blue feathered cloak, she sat down on her bed beside the large Demacian eagle.
"Val, wake up bud," she said while lightly shaking him. He opened one eye droopily and stared at her through it for a few moments before shutting it back up. Quinn laughed and shook him more aggressively to try to wake the bird. He rolled over and put a wing on top of his head.
"You are JUST like my brother was," Quinn remarked. She got up and started to make her way towards the door of her room. "Guess I'll just have to leave you in here all day!" she said teasingly. This comment rose the bird from his sleep and he casually trotted over towards Quinn. She smiled at him and pet his head before leaving the room, with Valor just behind her.
Once in the hallway, Valor ruffled his wings and began to fly at a slow pace, just a few feet off of the ground. Quinn made her way towards Jarvan's room but was surprised to see the door open. That generally did not happen unless he was away; yet he usually spent the night at the Institute immediately after a match: even if he was awake analyzing the previous match more of the night than he was asleep.
Quinn peered inside the room to confirm that Jarvan was, in fact, not there, before she set out to go find him. She passed through the courtyard and did not spot him there either. She whispered to Valor to go find him, and he flew up high into the air before almost immediately returning to his master. He squawked at her and she wrinkled her brow.
"At the entrance to Institute? On his way out?" Quinn took off at top speed through the hallways of the Institute and made her way to the front gates. She busted through them and managed to get outside prior to him and his company taking off, but not without drawing plenty of attention to herself.
"Quinn? What are you doing here?" Queen Ashe asked. Quinn wondered why Ashe was the one to question her presence, but then blushed brightly as she realized that everyone was now staring at her in confusion; Ashe had just happened to be the first one to voice the thought.
"I... uh..." she stammered. Jarvan noticed her embarrassment and came to the rescue. He walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder before turning to the group of soldiers with him.
"My apologies Quinn!" he said aloud almost as if he was talking to the people around him and not Quinn herself. "I had promised her that we would meet up after the League match we all fought yesterday. She was not one of the Demacians chosen to partake, so I only found it fair to rendezvous with her afterwards and discuss it. However, in the flurry of things that had happened overnight, I seemed to have forgotten. Please, give us a moment soldiers," Jarvan concluded while walking away from his company with Quinn.
She stared at Jarvan with wide eyes: while she had intended to talk to Jarvan post match, she had never made plans to do so. The man had just sprung that lie out of nowhere to keep her from feeling embarrassed.
"Thanks Jarvan..." Quinn said empathetically.
"Not a trouble. Was there something you needed, or did you just want to see me off?"
"Oh I uh... Well I'm not entirely sure. I had intended to talk about the League match, and then I saw you leaving so I hurried to catch you and find out where you were going I guess." Quinn seemed to be talking to her feet as she spoke to the man.
"I think I would get more pleasure out of seeing you face than the ground would, Quinn," he said while lifting her face towards him with a gentle finger. She smiled and blushed but refrained from turning away. "Anyways," he continued, "I plan to head off to the Freljord with King Tryndamere and Queen Ashe. I am taking my personal guards, Shyvana and Xin Zhao, with me. I know that you are much more familiar with the Freljordian lands than either of them are, but with Garen gone, the Dauntless Vanguard is not a very formidable defense. I need a few soldiers here to keep Demacia safe if something were to happen. I can trust you, can't I?"
Quinn was a bit baffled by the request but she nodded her head to show that she understood. He smiled and gave her a pat on the shoulder before turning to regroup with his small army. A minute group of summoners had joined the pack and handed them some more suitable winter gear. Ashe and Tryndamere were already prepared - more or less, seeing as Tryndamere was wearing nothing more than a war kilt and boots, but most likely planned to travel to the frozen wastes in such gear - but the Demacians took the garb and suited up, omit Shyvana who, being half dragon, merely looked at the gear and tossed it aside: it was very unlikely that temperature affected her very much at all.
A few moments later, the summoners had teleported the group away. Quinn had never actually seen a summoner teleport someone; only the actual act of teleportation during a League match. The summoners were not seen during the fights since they needed to be sure to remain concentrated and undistracted to ensure the safety of the champions.
Quinn turned and went back into the Institute where she proceeded to return to the courtyard. Valor sat in the dirt and stared at her as she approached. The sight of the bird sitting made her smile: he was almost human in the way he acted. Quinn walked up to him and pet his head before sitting down beside him.
"I just made a fool of myself Val. I seem to do so every time I talk to that man." The bird cawed in response and Quinn went red in the face, yet again. "I do NOT have a crush on the Prince of Demacia Val! That's just... Oh! Why do I talk to you! You're just a bird." Valor crowed at her and Quinn gave him a light push. "I have lots of other friends I could talk to! Like... Well Jarvan for one! And... Um... Okay fine..."
Valor wrapped his wings around Quinn affectionately to show that he was teasing while she sat with a scoff on her face. She pretended to ignore him, and he responded by curring louder over time. He got to the point where Quinn could not even hear herself think before she caved and rubbed his back to get him to be quite.
"Stupid animal..." she mumbled quietly. She sat still, petting Valor while thinking for a few minutes until she wondered how the League planned on keeping Jarvan's squad from running into Garen's in the Freljord. The two had been friends since childhood – even though Quinn found the two to be incredibly different – and would be certain to recognize one another if they met up. As far as she knew, no one but herself and the High Councilors knew where he was. Perhaps the Councilors already had a plan. She figured it best not to worry herself with their troubles and got up to head towards Shauna Vayne's room: she had plenty of questions brewing for the woman and was dying to talk to her. From the information that Quinn had gathered a few days ago, it did not make any sense for her to join the League. Shauna had to know something that Quinn did not.
The scout and her bird got up from their seat in the courtyard and made their way towards Demacia's portion of the Institute. She found Shauna's room to be just as Jarvan's was: empty. She had not left to the Freljord with him, so perhaps there was somewhere else she spent her time. Quinn left Demacia's wing and went to check the scheduling for League matches, but did not see Shauna anywhere on it. Her best two guesses were down, so she decided to head off to the study and go look for her later. Assuming the woman slept, Quinn was sure to catch her by stopping by later that evening.
The study was mostly empty, but well kept, as usual. There were towering shelves that made up most of the central area, but there was still a small clearing of desks and chairs for use. Quinn fumbled through the books on the shelves in the history isle in hopes of finding some records on the League's past. Her searches proved unsuccessful until she stumbled on a book lying on the floor; she had been so focused on reading the spines and flicking through the pages of different books to keep a close eye on her feet.
After recuperating and looking around to be sure that no one had noticed her fall, Quinn dusted off the book and flicked through its old pages. A lot of it was empty, but the sooner part was filled with notes and newspaper clippings from the Journal of Justice and various other sources. Quinn quickly began to read its contents to see what information it held. It described some earlier actions of the League: when it opened, how its champions were recruited, and the first champions that came with a small description of them; but surprisingly, there were some champions excluded. Quinn was not one hundred percent familiar with all of the League's members, but she knew enough to be certain that the official list was not complete.
She turned the page and found a few photos paper clipped to it. She carefully pulled the pictures out and found that there was writing on the back of them. Each photo was of a different champion in the League: the ones excluded from the list. The notes contained information pertaining to them, and not a single one put the League in a positive light. One was of a burning man who seemed to be being held captive, one was a demonic scarecrow that appeared to be used for executions, another explained how a crocodile looking figure was tied to a stone and kept prisoner, an additional photo portrayed a monster from the Void who was locked up inside of the Institute, and the last one was most curious to Quinn, seeing as he did have a small blurb in the official records already.
His name was Zilean, and he was a chronokeeper; an old magician strong in the magics of time control. While it seemed pretty obvious why he was in the League, due to his magical strength, what was less known was the fact that he could not entirely control his magic alone, and that the League's strength also allows Zilean to remain healthy. Quinn had never heard of the information contained in the note written on the champion; apparently his conscious drifted from one dimension to the next, as a side effect of his time controlling magic. But, he was not allowed to use his magic outside of the Fields of Justice, and may even be forced to tone down his powers while fighting. Whoever wrote the note seemed to believe that the League would temporarily remove their assistance whenever he acted up, and used this to manipulate the man's actions. Quinn was quite shocked to read the information, but it would explain a few mysteries about the champions omitted from the list. It was as if there was not even enough general knowledge of the people to leave a small informative blurb for anyone reading the records.
She moved on to the latter part of the book and found a brief background on the High Summoners who ran the League of Legends. It started out as three summoners; Reginald Ashram and the two that Quinn reported to frequently. For some reason, their identities were hidden in the book as well. She frowned at that and allowed her own suspicion to build up. She continued to read and saw that Reginald had eventually disappeared and was replaced by man called Heywan Relivash. However, not too long ago, he was found to be involved in a scandal that caused a war between Demacia and Noxus, at a place called Kalamanda. He was accused of planting false leads and fake orders of attack among the two city-states. Talon was fast to track down Heywan and the other men involved, while Jarvan IV and Katarina were the ones who followed the information leading to them: it was the same thing Quinn had heard Ezreal and Katarina discussing before he had disappeared.
There was a copy of the Journal of Justice article attached to that page of the book. Quinn took it out and noticed a number of notes taken on the page. Whoever had written the notes, was clearly not in favor of the idea of Heywan being guilty. They pointed out that Talon seems to have an overly strong dedication to anything related to Marcus, that Jarvan was hardly heard of prior to these events, and that the instatement of Vessaria Kolminye to replace Heywan seemed to be a very convenient way to place themselves into power. The owner of the notes seemed to think that Vessaria Kolminye could have been behind the entire set up. It appeared pointlessly elaborate, but possible. Quinn could not imagine why Vessaria would have wanted to do such a thing, but that did not negate the possibility of such an act.
The notes ended there so Quinn folded up the book and turned to place it on a nearby shelf, but was met by a figure in black standing before her. Quinn was startled but managed to recover and analyze who was in front of her. The woman wore a long black ponytail and sunglasses, despite being indoors. She held out her hand and took the book back from Quinn before turning to leave. No words were spoken, but Quinn was fairly certain that the woman was Shauna. Perhaps she was not much for pleasantries; however, Quinn got all of the information that she wanted. While she had intended to sit down and talk to Shauna, it was obvious that this want was not mutual, so Quinn let it go.
She turned to leave the study and found Valor fast asleep on one of the tables. Quinn should have guessed so much due to his incredible silence, but laughed at it nonetheless.
"Guess you aren't much of a reader, huh Val?" she said. Valor slowly got to his feet and stared forward with a transfixed look as he followed her out of the study; he clearly was not ready to have gotten up from his nap.
They made their back to Quinn's room where Valor moved over to her bed and plopped down on it. She smiled at him and changed into a more casual wear now that Jarvan had left, and tightly latched the door shut as she exited her room. She had finished everything that she wanted to do, and decided to go to the bar. She needed a bit of a break and perhaps a little gossip could give her a lead as to where Ezreal had wound up.
Quinn walked down the hallways and cut through the courtyard on her way to the bar. The sun was just starting to set overhead as Quinn realized that she must have spent a much longer time in the study than she had intended to. The cool breeze felt good, as it usually did, so she took her time walking through. The courtyard was so peaceful in the evening; just looking around at all of the people chatting and enjoying themselves was a pleasant sight. It made her second guess what she had said to Valor previously, in that maybe she should make more friends. But at the same time, she did not want to trust anyone or create liabilities while she was still working undercover for the League. Her strides made the purse of coins jingle against her thigh to remind her that she was being adequately compensated for her work.
She got to the bar and saw that it was surprisingly full for being so early in the evening. Gragas was hard at work insuring that the waitresses did not have a chance to sit, and their best, Ashe, was currently gone and on the way to the Freljord. Quinn found a fairly isolated seat at the counter and waited for one of the waitresses to look her way. Eventually she caught the attention of one and got them to slide her a beer. She sat fairly silently and enjoyed her drink among the ruckus around her.
After some time of sitting among the commotion, someone came to join her. At first she ignored the man but he stuck around persistently. She continued to drink, ordering a new beer as she ran out, and noticed that the man beside her was almost intentionally ordering and drinking twice as much as she was. She rolled her eyes and turned to face the man to ask him to leave; she was not in the mood to have a drink off with some random man. She instantly recognized him as Jax, a champion from the League of Legends. He wore a purple cloak and a mask that covered his eyes. It seemed almost impossible for him to be capable of seeing out of it, and when on the battlefield, he usually wore a mask that covered his whole face. The man was also known for being quite capable of handling his drink, and often sat and competed with Gragas.
"What do you want?" she asked, genuinely confused by his presence in the seat next to her. He seemed a little taken aback when she had spun around to face him.
"Huh? Oh I'm sorry, I thought you were a man. I was trying to see how much you would drink…"
"WHAT!?" Quinn yelled at him. She was aware that she was not the most attractive woman, and wore her hair fairly short compared to most, but never had someone mistaken her for a man, or at least bothered to mention it to her face. She glared at him and he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Maybe you ought to go join Gragas," she spat.
"Naw, I'm sorry 'bout that. Lemme get you a drink. A REAL drink." Jax rose a finger at one of the waitresses and she came back a few minutes later with one of the bars strongest grogs; a concoction most likely brewed by Gragas himself. She smiled and took the alcohol in hand.
"Quite the gentleman now aren't we?" she said sarcastically. Jax ignored the comment and pushed for conversation.
"Haven't seen you round here before. Name's Jax. You?"
"I know you. I'm Quinn. I joined the League just a little while ago. I stop by here from time to time but you are usually plastered with Gangplank or Gragas by the time I arrive." The corner of his mouth rose to define his cheek clearly. The smirk indicated that he was quite familiar with what she was talking about. "Do you fight drunk like they do?" she jested.
"Generally not. Hard to keep a rep while drunk." She chuckled at his response and he chugged down another drink. "What have you been up to today? What leads you here?"
"Just digging through archives. Trying to get some information. Just… not getting very far."
"Oh?" he questioned. "What were you looking for?" Quinn hesitated; which was a good sign seeing as she was clearly becoming quite intoxicated and she was afraid of just spouting out secrets and not remembering it the next morning.
"Information on the League," she said keeping things as vague as possible, hoping that he would press on past it. Unfortunately, he had no intention of doing so. He leaned in closer to her.
"What kind of information?" he asked. She stared at him blankly. She was unsure as to why he was curious. Perhaps he knew something that she did not. After a pause, she decided to go ahead and talk.
"The High Summoners. There is a lot of mystery surrounding them. I was hoping to get some background information on them."
"What High Summoners?" Quinn looked intently – as intently as she was capable of – at the man in front her: he was being very suspicious. The world around her seemed to stand still as she focused on Jax and pursued the conversation further.
"The High Summoners running the League of Legends…" she replied, unsure as to what the man was getting at.
"You misread my question. What High SummonERS?" he repeated, adding emphasis on the plural of the word. Her eyes narrowed.
"The three High Summoners running this place. Vessaria Kolmineye and the other two."
"What are their names?" he asked.
"Umm…" she stammered. It struck her that she had never once heard anyone speak their names, nor had they ever bothered to introduce themselves as anything aside from the High Summoners.
"What do they look like?" Jax pressed.
"Well… they keep their faces shrouded," she replied, thinking about her previous meetings with them.
"So you have met them? Where did you meet them?" Quinn seemed to be peering straight into Jax in an attempt to figure out where he was going with everything he was asking, and how he knew what questions Quinn held herself, like the mysterious meeting room that seemed to have no entrance.
"What do they sound like? Surely you've heard them if they spoke to you." Jax pursued.
"They are both male. One is a bit lighter than the other."
"Which one is lighter than which?" The question was a solid one; if she could never see their faces, she could never officially determine which one was talking. "Why do they never show up anywhere? Why does no one know who they are, but know that they exist? Why should I believe that they are real at all?" Quinn sat in her place at the bar and let her gaze rest on the drink in her hands. Jax got up from his seat, left some cash on the bar counter, and made his way over towards Gragas and Gangplank. Quinn felt like the world just started to slowly turn its gears again as he got up and left, but she was stuck frozen in place. She got up and left the bar without saying another word to anyone, or even finishing her drink. The concept perplexed her. She had continually seen the High Summoners, but every question Jax asked seemed to remain answerless. She got back into her room and took a seat at the window. Valor was still fast asleep, so she did not bother getting into bed quite yet. She sat and stared out into the evening sky for quite some time as she let her mind run.
"If there really is only one High Councilor, then who instated the new ones when Reginald and Heywan left? Who are the figures that I repeatedly meet up with, and why does everyone seem to be under the influence that there is three High Summoners? None of this… makes sense…" Quinn let her quiet mumblings subside and the only sound that remained in her room was the wind whistling through her short, course hair.