A crack that seemed split the earth itself resonated throughout the King's chamber where Demacians and Noxians fought for control of the throne. Like a gunshot into a crowd, the world fell silent in awe. Darius blinked a few times to be certain that his eyes were not deceiving him, and that his target had actually just vanished into thin air before him. The confusion held within every individual standing about, not just the man whose axe sat rooted to the tile. No one seemed to know what to do as they stood and stared. Darius was the first to make an action as he rocked his weapon free from the ground.
He turned and walked out of the throne room, shortly followed by a slow stream of Noxian soldiers, until the only ones left inside were Jarvan, Shyvana, Quinn, Xin Zhao, and Sejuani. They all looked at one another before staring at the doorway, unsure as to what had happened, and how they should proceed. No answers seemed to come, and they all shifted their attention to Jarvan, clearly being the one most fit for the leader position.
"My Pri... No, my King, what do we do now?" Quinn asked, her voice queasy from anxiety and exhaustion.
"We wait for reinforcements. I doubt Noxus has given up just yet; it's not in their nature. Come, we must see the state Demacia is in, and help where needed, as well as rally troops to defend our city."
The group nodded before they followed their king out of the castle, and saw the remains of the Noxian army marching eastward. They decided to ignore them for the time being; there were much more pressing matters to attend to. Jarvan scanned the surroundings as he tried to work out how he planned to press onwards, in his head. He thought for a few minutes that seemed to drag on forever as the other members of the group allowed for their individual thoughts to wander and drift aimlessly.
"I am going to follow the Noxians at a good distance to see if they plan to leave the city all together. Quinn, you take Sejuani and Valor to collect whatever troops you can, then have them head eastward, to fall in behind me. Something gives me the impression that Noxus intends not to just leave Demacia, but to meet up with reinforcements of their own. I trust you can keep watch of Sejuani as you pool together troops." Quinn nodded and walked towards the capitol's barracks, seeing if any able bodied soldiers or scouts could join forces or run to surrounding areas to gain support. Sejuani followed just behind her, not totally sure if she was comfortable with being dragged around and puppy guarded, but she did not have enough energy to argue in her injured state.
"Xin, Shyvana, head southeast, towards the Institute of War. If any champions are en route to support, you should run into them shortly. Give them a run down, and bring them to the soldiers. They will need the moral boost of familiar leaders."
"Are you traveling alone?" Shyvana asked, very skeptical of the decision.
"Yes," Jarvan replied. "My task is simple, and I need to be the first one there. Troops will grow nervous if they do not see their own leader in battle." The dragon woman merely nodded, not fully accepting the explanation, but willing to use it for the time being. She and Xin Zhao took off, keeping their eyes open for any Demacian champions who may have gotten the news from Valor's message.
"Where are we going? We have been to five empty buildings. We are wasting time and energy." Sejuani's tone alone was enough to ensure that she was not pleased at the assigned task. Quinn rolled her eyes in annoyance but did not let Sejuani see the motion. Part of her just wanted to completely ignore the woman and keep moving, but she knew that such an action would just frustrate her more.
"We are moving through the capitol in search of soldiers. Did you not listen to what Jarvan said?" Quinn shot back.
"Don't you think that any soldiers within the capitol were already trying to defend the castle? Why don't we travel one direction, while your bird scouts in the other three? He can tell us where any camps may be and we will still be making progress while he does." Quinn wanted to shoot a nasty remark back, but the woman had a good idea. She listened and tied a note around Valor's leg, ordering all available troops to meet on the eastern outskirts of Demacia. Whoever Valor found would either redirect the bird with the note, or send their own messengers out.
After Valor had taken off, the two walked in silence for quite some time. They had left the capitol and were in a fairly rural area, seeing many farms and plains lying in front of them. Quinn let out a small sigh as she took in how much there was look through, and began walking forward.
They moved through the countryside in search of any sort of military assistance available, but did not find a whole lot.
"Do you not know where the military camps are?" Sejuani questioned. Quinn growled quietly before turning to fire a glare at the woman.
"No, I do not know where every Demacian post is throughout the entire country. Should I?"
"I know where everyone of my camps are throughout the entirety of Freljord. Yes. Yes you should."
"I'm not the ruler of my country! I'm just a scout!"
"All the more reason to know that kind of information. You rely on your bird too much. You make a good partnership, but one is only as strong as the other. This is a weak system. Does all of Demacia operate this way?" Sejuani's comment made Quinn want to punch her, but she knew that starting a fight with an injured ignorant woman would get her nowhere while the country was in distress. Instead, she just leered at Sejuani, pondering what words she wanted to use in response.
"And your system? You are on the opposite side of the continent and have no idea what your people are doing. That's the proper way to operate?"
"I know that they can handle themselves alone. They are capable of performing their tasks to the fullest without me there."
"So what's the point in being a leader at all?!" Quinn shouted, clearly losing her temper very quickly.
"Bingo. The vision I hold for Freljord's future," Sejuani replied. The scout had nothing to say, seeing that there was simply no way the two could see eye to eye. After a long pause, she finally spoke the last question that sat on her mind.
"Why are you even here, Sejuani?" The woman stared back and eventually let her gaze rise to the sky in a manner that made her look to be ignoring Quinn completely.
"I wanted to learn more about Garen. He leads in a way that I did not think possible. He leads with strength and courage, yet he still cares for everyone. It's as if he truly believes that everyone can succeed, everyone can live, and conflict can be traded for cooperation. It's a noble goal, sure. But I have reason to doubt its plausibility. So far, he seems to have a knack for proving me wrong," Sejuani finished, being the first reasonable answer she had given Quinn so far, and silence ensued. The Demacian had no idea how to respond. She had always seen Garen as an oaf with a stubborn sense of justice and order, but Sejuani had just displayed the same characteristics as dedication to creating a just world. It was bizarre to have a different viewpoint that seemed to exhibit a completely opposite conclusion.
"The man is an idiot. I have watched him lead an army past the assassin of a Demacian official, simply because he was following orders. He was so convinced that Talon was the assassin because high command told him so, that he ignored common sense. How can you say that such a man is truly seeing the world in a different perspective?!" Quinn had let that question burn inside of her for so long that she could not refrain from allowing the frustration to quake her voice. The Freljordian queen simple smiled and shook her head.
"Ignorance. You honestly believe that Garen would waste his time in such a manner? Don't you think that Talon would have gutted the man for such an accusation, had it been genuine? What if Garen KNEW where, and who the assassin truly was. How would that change the story?" Quinn thought on the question for a few moments before she shot out an answer.
"Then he is an idiot! Why lead his army straight past the assassin?! He didn't even need the army! One or two well trained scouts could have tracked him through the forest and taken him down just the same!"
"And how did the assassin get brought to rest, Quinn?"
"Well I had to kill him!"
"So a... Single scout, and her bird? Is that how he was taken down?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying?! Are you even listening to me?!" Quinn had grown furious and simply stood in place, clenching her fists. Sejuani chose not to respond as the woman cooled down, letting her breathing return to normal. The last few remarks replayed in her head a few times over before she fully understood the purpose to Sejuani's words. The moment she realized, her entire face blushed with embarrassment and her gaze shifted towards the dirt. The Freljordian woman grinned, seeing that she had just won argument. Not wanting to acknowledge that she had lost, Quinn sputtered out a counterpoint.
"If he knew all of that, then why would he have wasted time marching an army straight past him, and telling me that I was wrong?"
"If you were an assassin," Sejuani began after a brief pause to think, "what would make you feel more secure than watching the army set to pursue you, run straight past your location without blinking an eye?" Understanding that the question was rhetorical, Quinn chose not to answer. Instead, she posed one more question.
"So why did he lie to me, Sejuani? Why wouldn't he have just let me a part of the operation, instead of dissuading me with a cold shoulder?" She listened to Quinn's words and stepped towards her, closing the distance between them and lowering her voice. All attention was focused on her next sentence.
"Why would Demacia allow a peasant to carry out an assassination, with an entire militia at their disposal?" Although the statement was true, it stung. The simple fact that she had been boosted up into such a high position in the Demacian military without being born into it, or trained ruthlessly, remained prominent in her mind. She wanted to doubt the entirety of her story, but it had too much support to be false. Sejuani had come to the conclusion by merely thinking through it all logically, just with a mind set to realistic plausibility and not on the idea that Garen is rude and stubborn. A small part of her wilted inside in acceptance, noted externally by her hanging head.
Sejuani had no more words on the topic and pointed towards the sky, where Valor circled the scene, most likely anxious to give his master the news. She crossed her arms and waited for the scout to gather her emotions and continue with her task, but it did not seem to come until the eagle swooped down and wrapped his wings around her, nuzzling his face against hers. She smiled and saw that there was no note attached to his leg, and determined that the message had been dispersed. She nodded and turned to walk back towards the capitol, realizing that she was not going to find anything in the countryside that she had not already found.
The walk back was relatively silent, despite the constant caws from Valor. He seemed to notice Quinn's discomfort and wanted to assist her, and chose to do so by being overly clingy and borderline obnoxious.
They met up with Xin Zhao and Shyvana just inside the capitol, who had found the Demacian champions heading in to support: Luxanna Crownguard and Galio, the sentinel. It seemed to Quinn that there should have been more champions, but she realized that a lot of them had already arrived to fight.
"Quinn!" Luxanna called out with a smile, recognizing her as Ezreal's friend. She was not in any sort of talkative mood, but she nodded her head in recognition of the new arrival. "Where are we needed?"
"I am not sure. I think we should head eastwards. That's where Jarvan said he would be. We can go from there," Quinn told her.
"Wonderful! Let's move out!" she called, already taking off to the east.
"Wait up!" Quinn moan, falling behind the luminous lady. "How can you be so excited? People have been disappearing rapidly and now we have a massive conflict building up and the League has sent a whole two people to help. Aren't you worried? One of those disappearances was Ezreal, and he hasn't showed up yet either."
"Oh don't you worry about that Quinn! I know that he will be here soon, Zilean told me so." While confused, she took the answer for what it was and pressed on with her strange myriad of allies, until she saw Jarvan standing alone on the horizon, and Demacian reinforcements gathering from all around the country, just behind her.