Lux remembered how graceful the Sinister Blade moved.
ooooooooo
She remembered when she and her unit was ambushed by the Noxians in the forest separating Demacia and Noxus, she had been knocked down by a sudden lunge from a particularly large soldier. Fortunately, the soldier didn't pay much attention to her, and instead opted to join the growing fray between the Noxians and the Demacians, allowing Lux to catch her breath, and pick her baton off the ground.
Then she looked up and saw her.
A redheaded woman wearing a black jacket and brassiere that exposed her toned stomach weaved moved with grace and ease that if it weren't for the fact that she was stabbing, slashing, and throwing knives at the light mage's comrades, she would have looked more of a dancer than a warrior. She moved with an agility that Lux wasn't sure a normal human was capable of doing.
The scar that streaked down the redheaded woman's left eye instantly made her recognisable. It was Noxus' Sinister Blade, feared enemy of Demacia.
In one moment however, Lux's cerulean eyes made contact with the assassin's intense jade-green ones. Lux watched mesmerised as the taller woman blew a stray strand of hair out of her face as she slowly stalked towards the mage with a slight sway of her hips. Lux's brain screamed at her to move, but Lux's body would not obey.
As the assassin got closer, Lux's mind and body flared with a sudden urgency, and she began to fumble to get up and raise her baton, but a boot was planted against her chest and she was pushed down, the back of her head hitting soft dirt. Something pressed against her hand, and she soon realised she was unable to free it. She looked up and saw the woman smirking down at her.
"Don't you know children shouldn't take part in battle?" The Sinister Blade mockingly questioned, her voice sultry and eyes gleaming with amusement as she knelt down beside the mage. Her senses finally kicking in, Lux quickly grabbed a lock of the assassin's vibrant red hair with her free hand and raised her knee, crashing it into the side of the Sinister Blade's head. The redhead let out a brief cry of pain as she tumbled down, her knee coming off the mage's hand and allowing her to quickly get back to her feet. Lux regarded the redheaded woman warily as the other cradled her head.
"You little-" The Sinister Blade growled, jade-green eyes flashing dangerously. Lux kept a straight face, but her heart pounded at such a speed she thought it was going to tear a hole through her chest and leap out at the sight of the ferocious woman. Taking a step back, she guaged the Sinister Blade's movements as she held her baton ready, trying to read the taller woman's next move.
Without warning, the Sinister Blade swung her arm out, sending three knives in Lux's direction, but the Lady of Luminosity's reaction was not as slow as it was earlier. Lux gasped as she spun her baton in a circle, activating her magic and sending a beam of light back at the Noxia. The knives vanished into thin air as soon as they made contact with the bright ray of energy, but they did nothing to alter its direction.
The assassin grunted as she rolled out of the light's way. She raised another knife to launch at the mage, but Lux quickly raised her baton in the air and yelled, "For Demacia!" As the last syllable left her mouth, she swung her baton down, unleashing a ball of light. The Sinsiter Blade letout a hiss of annoyance as she dashed forward, crouching low to avoid the ball of light as she closed in on the blonde. Lux quickly spun her baton in a small circle and her body seemed to disappear.
The redheaded woman just only managed to stop before her body collided with Lux's, but the light mage swung a leg forward as she stepped to one side, catching the redhead's knees and using what was left of the taller woman's momentum to send her falling face-first to the ground. As the Sinister Blade quickly picked herself off the ground, Lux expected insults and death threats to be hurled in her direction, but the redhead just let out a short chuckle. "I underestimated you, Lady of Luminosity." She said as she got back to her feet. "You are much more than what I expected." Lux narrowed her eyes suspiciously. What game was this woman playing?
Before the Sinister Blade could continue what she was saying, a deep voice rang through the air as its owner came crashing down on the slender woman. "Garen!" Lux cried out as she shed her invisibility. The huge man grunted as he lifted his sword and took a swipe at the assassin, only for her to dodge the blow and use the man as a launching pad to vault herself back, displaying the agility and grace that had Lux mesmerised earlier.
The Sinister Blade landed on the ground and took a quick look around her. Reinforcements for the Demacian side had arrived, and despite her countrymen's valiant efforts, they would undoubtedly be defeated in this battle. Lowering her blades, she turned to a man wearing a yellowish-green coat and peaked cap. "Moreno! We can't win this one!" The man nodded and shouted a single word, and the Noxian soldiers turned and ran, except the ones who were wounded or dead. Before the Sinister Blade turned though, she looked at Lux in the eye, ignoring the man towering over the mage, and winked at the mage before disappearing in a flash of blue. Garen turned towards Lux and asked if she was okay, but his inquires were blocked out by the one question that ran through the mage's mind; What had happened between that woman and me?
oooooooooo
Lux remembered the time when the assassin helped her.
oooooooooo
The mage had been running from a bunch of grizzly bears that one of her comrades had accidentally woken. The bears were not happy, hence why they began chasing the Demacians with murderous fervor.
What's worse was that the younger Demacian soldiers flew into a panic and began fleeing, causing Lux's current predicament. She had split from the unit, and there were currently two bears on her tail.
How many bears were there in that cave? She wondered. Her invisibility probably wouldn't work, for the bears could easily smell her out, and she probably wouldn't be able to cast a spell on them quick enough before they lunged and killed her.
But she couldn't keep running forever.
Suddenly, however, she heard one of the bears give out a roar, and she risked a glance behind.
One of the bears stood on its hind legs, flailing about slowly but frantically. Lux saw a glint a steel coming from the bear and realised that a knife of some sort was stuck in its side. Before she could make sense of it, a flash of red and black came at the wounded bear from above and knocked it to the ground. The bear gave an angry roar, but before it could take a blow at its assailant, the attacker sunk another dagger into its head, killing it instantly.
Lux began to realise that the red hair was beginning to look familiar.
The Sinister Blade leapt away as the other bear swiped at her, barely dodging the grizzly bear's claws. She gave a short laugh and raked a dagger across the bears arm, eliciting another angry roar. Lux watched in awe as the redhead danced around the bear as it tried to attack her to no avail. Eventually, the Sinister Blade put an end to the altercation by taking an opening to repeatedly stab the bear in the stomach. The bear roared one last time before the assassin stabbed a dagger into its head again.
The Sinister Blade chuckled once as she turned around to see the blonde mage standing there gawking at her. "See something you like?" She asked sultrily, and laughed once when she saw some pink colour the mage's face.
"What are you doing here anyway?" The Sinister Blade asked, twirling a dagger in her palm. The mage opened her mouth to respond, but she saw a brown figure rapidly coming at the assassin from the back. Instinctively, she yelled, "Duck!"
The Sinister Blade arched a brow incredulously, but heeded the mage's words and dropped down. The mage activated her magic and sent a light beam at the grizzly, vapourising it on the spot. After the light died down, the assassin got up, whistling at the inadvertent destruction the mage had done. "A bit of an overkill, don't you think?" Lux rolled her eyes. "Don't get the wrong ideas, I only did that since you saved me from those two bears earlier." Her voice dropped down to a mutter as she uttered her next words. "Even though I was hoping to not have to kill animals."
The Sinister Blade threw her head back with a short laugh. "Save you? I was just getting food for my boys back at camp. They'll be having a feast for dinner!" Lux wasn't sure why they were conversing so casually. "Aren't we supposed to be fighting now?" She asked. "I'm not in the fighting mood today, I'm just out hunting." The Sinister Blade answered, inspecting one of the deceased bears.
Before Lux could answer, she heard more growls. Taking a quick look around her, she saw four more bears surrounding her and the Noxian, and all were getting closer. Just how many bears were there in that cave?
However, the Noxian didn't seem fazed by the threat that the two were currently facing. She simply said the word 'duck', and the word didn't register in Lux's brain until she saw the assassin begin to throw her daggers as she started to spin around.
Throwing herself onto the ground, Lux watched as the assassin gained speed, spinning so fast that she became a blur of red and black as she hurled knives and daggers at the bears. Some of the knives got planted onto the bears' bodies, leaving them to roar and turn head to flee. Other knives hit the mark, and the bears dropped to the ground.
This was the famed move of the Sinister Blade; the Death Lotus.
The Sinister Blade finally stopped spinning and got to her knees, panting. Lux got up as well, unsure of what to say or do about the current situation. The Sinister Blade merely winked at the mage and walked over to one of the bears. She pulled out the dagger embedded in its head and began cutting its gut. The mage suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion hit her. She had spent some time running away from the bears, and had fired off her Lucent Singularity to get rid of just one .
The adrenaline had done a tremendous job in keeping her standing on her feet, but now her body was tired, more tired than she ever felt, especially her legs, which felt like sticks that were supporting her weight. And the twigs were ready to give under her weight.
However, instead of falling on dirt, she fell into a pair of arms. She looked at the assassin's face as her vision got blurry. Was that concern in the redhead's expression?
Before her vision went black, she heard the redhead say some words, but all were lost to her senses as she blacked out.
She woke up in the Demacia's camp's sick bay later on with Garen sitting at her bedside. "What happened?" She asked weakly. "We found you passed outside right outside this camp." Garen explained. "I heard there was a bear attack, did that have anything to do with your unconsciousness?" Lux shook her head as she tried to sit up to no avail. "No, I just exerted myself fighting them off."
Then something clicked in her head.
"Garen, did you see who brought me here?" Garen shook his head.
"We heard a call. The person who did that sounded feminine, but when we ran outside to check, we just found you lying there." Lux's cerulean eyes widened at that. "Is something the matter?" Garen asked. She blinked and quickly said, "No, nothing at all." The big man looked skeptical, but got up and made to leave.
"Rest up sister." He called over his shoulder. Lux nodded as her mind processed one question she had.
The Sinister Blade…saved me?
oooooooooo
Lux remembered how playful the assassin would be.
oooooooooo
In their next encounter, the Sinister Blade had suddenly attacked a Demacian camp, single-handely killing off three of Demacia's men. Lux rushed out to confront the assassin, and was faced with the same smirk that the assassin had given her the last time they met, causing her to falter in her movement. The Sinister Blade twirled her dagger between her gloved fingers as she sauntered closer. "Hello, Lady of Luminosity," She greeted as one would greet anotheron a normal day. "Maybe we can have a proper fight now." Upon hearing those words, Lux readied herself, but a sudden suspicion entered her mind as she took the situation in.
Before she could think about her concerns, the Sinister Blade rushed at her, closing the distance between the two at a speed quicker than Lux's eyes could register. She swung her dagger at Lux's neck, and the mage was barely able to back away in time to properly avoid it, and the cold, sharp edge of unforgiving steel lightly grazed her neck.
Using the redhead's open stance as an opportunity to attack, she swung her baton into the redhead's stomach, prompting a pained grunt from the slender woman. Quickly following up on her attack, sge again swung the baton at the assassin's head. Her baton was not created as a melee weapon, but it was still capable of a person out if swung hard enough, and Lux was able to knock the Sinister Blade to the ground.
As soon as the Sinister Blade fell, other soldiers, who had been spectating the fight instead of assisting their comrade, rushed forward to restrain her. Seeing how much bigger the soldiers were than her, the assassin seemed to give in and allowed herself to be restrained. Despite the soldiers' cheers to Lux for besting one of Demacia's most ruthless enemies, the suspicious feeling remained in the mage's mind and refused to go away.
That night, she visited the Sinister Blade, who was shackled to apple and kept in a tent. "What game are you playing?" She demanded, her voice high and authoritative. The Sinister Blade merely smirked at the mage. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Lux sat down across the assassin. "I'm not joking around, Sinister Blade. I know you have something up your sleeve." The assassin chuckled, further grating on the mage's nerves at how lightly the redhead was taking her. She wondered if this really was the woman who saved her some time ago.
However, she kept her composure and opted to give the assassin an icy stare. "I find it hard to believe that Noxus would send a warrior such as you on a half-assed mission just like that." The Sinister Blade gave Lux a lazy smile. The mage decided to continue rather than focus on that smile. "Furthermore, you seemed to go easy on me, and you put up little resistance when the soldiers seized you, even when you had the capability to fight back." The assassin chuckled, pushing Lux to the very limit of her self-control to not hit her. "Furthermore, you proved in our last encounter that you are capable of teleporting away. Yet you have not done so. The only question I have is this, why would you willingly do this? And what are you trying to achieve?" And why did you save me last time? The mage wanted to ask, but kept quiet as she awaited the Noxian's response. The Sinister Blade looked thoughtful for a moment, before answering.
"You really live up to your reputation as a smart girl, Lady of Luminosity." She said, the compliment slightly throwing Lux off for a second. "Moreno had this plan to use some people as cannons to send head-on into your camp. It confused everyone, but I volunteered, he's always got a reason for his plans." The Sinister Blade paused for a moment before leaning forward and giving Lux a smirk. "And I wanted to see you again." This shocked the light mage, and the assassin continued, "And it wasn't until I heard your people hooting and hollering till I realised what Moreno has in store for you."
Lux's eyes widened, and as if on cue, a scream sounded in the air. And Lux had no time to react before the assassin suddenly lunged and crashed her head into the mage's face. As the mage fell backwards from the force, she felt a warm liquid run down from her nose as tears welled in her eyes from the pain. Through her blurry vision, she saw an armoured man enter the tent, and the last thing she felt was a big force hit the back of her head before her vision turned to blackness.
When she next awoke, she found herself lying on a bed in the sick bay and a piece of paper on her being. The paper said, in neat writing, Til next time . Around her, wounded were being escorted and tended to. Seeing them filled the mage with rage, and she crumpled the paper.
oooooooooo
She remembered the last time she would see the assassin.
oooooooooo
It was about two months since the Noxian ambush on the Demacian camp. The demacians had since decided to make the wise decision to relocate to another part of the forest. Lux had been out on patrol with a unit when she saw a faint orange glow coming from what looked like a cave. Since it was getting dark and the soldiers were physicallly and mentally tired, she decided to investigate by herself. After dealing with the soldiers' faux-concerns, she set off to the cave, conjuring a small ball of light to navigate her way through the forest.
As she neared the cave, the orange glow grew brighter, reassuring her that he was going in the right direction. Once she was at the cave entrance, she saw what was going on.
She saw the Sinister Blade, jacket off and faced scrunched up in agony as she held a piece of thread out, using a dagger to cut it. However, she froze as soon as she saw an unwanted visitor. Lux kept her weapon trained on the taller woman as she approached. "Sinister Blade." She warily greeted. The assassin eyed her for a moment before returning the greeting with the mage's title.
An awkward silence filled the air as the two stared at each other, refusing to take their gaze off of each other. Finally, the redheaded woman broke the silence by uttering, "Well?"
"Well what?" Lux asked, not taking her baton away from the redhead's direction. "You're taking too long to begin killing me." Her words shocked the blonde mage. While it was true that the rage from two months ago had bubbled in her whenever she thought of this slippery woman, this same woman seemed completely resigned to her fate and unwilling to fight back. In fact, looking at the woman now, she didn't look anything like the revered Sinister Blade of Noxus who had slaughtered so many of Lux's countrymen in cold blood, nor did she resemble the graceful warrior that had hypnotised Lux in their first encounter.
She just looked like another human. Another person who walked the earth of Runeterra. A person who could and was hurt.
Besides, she did owe the Noxian for rescuing her once.
Lux took another step forward, her baton lowering slightly. "You're hurt." She said. "How bad?" The Sinister Blade shot her an incredulous look. "Turns out that even soldiers can be well-guarded. They managed to give me this before I got away." Lux looked around her and saw all the blood splattered on the ground. "How did you manage to make it here and put together a fire without dying blood loss?" The Sinister Blade grinned slyly, sending Lux's heart fluttering. Why was her heart fluttering? "Let's just say I'm a tougher nut you think I am."
"Are there people looking for you?" Lux asked, looking out of the cave for a second. The Siniter Blade gace a dry laugh. "Why? Are you finally going to kill me?" Lux looked back at the assassin. "Why don't you do your teleportation trick?" The assassin winced a little before responding, "I can only pull that off safely when I see where I'm going. And the forest isn't exactly the clearest forest there is on Runeterra." The assassin threw her hair out of her face. "Why are you trying to stall my death? If you're going to kill me, just do it already."
The mage lowered her baton slightly. "You still have a lot to learn about me if you think I would stoop so low as to kill a wounded opponent." She took another step forward. "Can I trust you to not slit my throat if and after I heal your wound?" The assassin looked shocked, but nodded her head with gritted teeth. Lux smiled as she knelt beside the assassin. "For the first order of business, however…"
Crack!
"Ow!" The Sinister Blade cried out as she put a hand over her face as Lux rubbed her own fist. Despite having her fair share of combat training, she had come to rely more on her magic in battle, so hitting another person as she did just now would result in some pain for herself. "That's for my nose. And for knocking me out." She said calmly, her smile gone and her voice filled with a coldness she never knew she had. The Sinister Blade merely groaned in response. Lux felt the corners of her mouth curve upwards slightly as her cerulean eyes twinkled with mischief.
She gently grasped the assassin's leg and examined her wound. The wound was a cut that ran across the redheaded woman's calf. The sewing that the assassin had done was sufficient enough to stop the blood, but the wound was probably still exposed to the bacteria in the environment around them, which could lead to infection. Besides, the redhead's sewing would result in an ugly scar developing on her leg.
Lux did not have any bandages or first aid equipment on her at the moment, and her magic wasn't healing magic, but she did remember some medicinal plants having the capability to heal wounds such as the Sinister Blade's current one.
She stood up. "I'll be back soon, try not to do anything that will worsen your wound." With that, she left the cave, leaving the Sinister Blade to continue rubbing her bruised cheek.
The mage returned to the cave after what seemed to be a half-hour. In her hands were a bunch of leaves. The Sinister Blade snorted when she saw what she was carrying. "What is that?" Lux set her newly-collected items down with a triumphant grin. "Aloe vera leaves." She said. "These will help you with your leg and save you from getting a scar." She briefly looked at the assassin's face. "Or another scar, for that matter." The assassin chuckled at that as the mage looked at her items again.
After examining them for a bit to ensure she hadn't accidentally picked up the wrong leaves, she turned to the assassin. "Would you mind lending me a knife?" The assassin quietly reached into one of her belts and drew a small one out. "Be careful to not cut yourself." She warned. The mage accepted the knife and inspected it briefly. It was sharp, and it looked like it could easily break through the skin, flesh and muscle of whoever was unfortunate enough to fall victim to the Sinister Blade.
She shuddered at the thought and decided to concentrate on her next task at hand. Picking up one of the leaves, she began to carefully peel its skin off. Once she was done, she set it down and moved onto the next, repeating the process. Occasionally, she would would turn to look at the assassin to check if the woman was still alive or trying to sneak up on her. Once she was done, she looked around for something that could serve as a plate. Eventually, she found a small wooden plank and placed all of the peeled leaves on it.
Looking for a rock, she picked up a relatively flat one. Hoping that it was clean enough for what she was about to do with it, she knelt beside the plank and began crushing the leaves. "How do you know what kind of plants can heal wounds like these?" The Sinister Blade asked. "My family, and everyone else in my country, all seem to think that women in the military are generally better suited to serve as combat medics rather than actual soldiers. Many of us defied that belief, but it still lingers around today."
The Sinister Blade chuckled. "We don't have that problem in Noxus. To us, anyone can fight as long as they have limbs." Lux smiled at that. "That brings about a dilemma about which belief is better, doesn't it?" She asked. "One thinks lowly of women, the other sends them off to battle." The Sinister Blade remained quiet for a moment, then asked, "What's your name?"
"Why do you need to know? Are you going to track me down later to kill me?" Lux asked, not taking her eyes off her work. "Well, since we're gonna be here for a while, I'd rather call you by your name rather than your title." Lux arched a brow skeptically. While it was true that they were going to be stuck together until she could finish the mixture, she didn't see any reason to reveal her name to an enemy of Demacia while she did this little 'favour' for her.
What possessed her to begin helping the Noxian in the first place anyway?
"Here, I'll even give you my name first." The light mage turned to the redhead with a curious look as the assassin extended a gloved hand towards her. "Katarina Du Couteau, head of House Du Couteau from Noxus. Pleased to meet you." Now it was Lux's turn to look at the Sinister Blade dumbfoundedly. "Are you going numb from the effects of blood loss?" The Sinister Blade shook her head. "No, I'm completely conscious."
Lux eyed the assassin suspiciously. A lot of information could be revealed by just revealing one's name. And the Sinister Blade, or Katarina, was not someone she was willing to trust with such things.
But if the assassin was telling the truth, then she had just done what Lux had feared of doing easily. Lux inwardly cursed her moral code before taking the extended hand and giving it a shake. "Luxanna Crownguard of the Crownguard family from Demacia." With that serving as a brief end to their weird bonding session, the mage went back to mulching the aloe vera leaves. They were forming a white substance, showing that she was almost done.
"I wasn't lying when I said I wanted to see you again during the last time we met." Katarina suddenly said. She's definitely going delirious from blood loss , Lux thought. "You were just…too interesting for me to not pass up the opportunity." Katarina said. Despite Lux's belief that the assassin was going delirious, the redhead was not slurring her words. If that was the case, why was she telling her all of this then? And why was her voice getting lower?
"I expected you to cower in the face of danger, but you stood your ground. You even managed to beat me here and there." Katarina drily chuckled. "You just intrigued me so much. I wanted to see how much more you could do." Her voice was becoming a whisper and Lux finally turned to look at the assassin. "That is why I saved you when you lost consciousness."
To Lux's horror, she saw that Katarina was slumping to her side. Abandoning what she was doing, she rushed over to the assassin and grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her into an upright position. "Hey! I said not to die on me!" The Sinister Blade merely grinned. "I never thought this would be the way I would go out. Dying in a cave just like this…"
"You won't." Lux said firmly. The back of her exposed hand brushed against the back of Katarina's neck, and she felt something warm. She drew her hand back and saw a red liquid staining her fingers. She took a quick look at the back of the assassin's neck. There was a cut there. It wasn't as big as the cut on Katarina's leg, but due to lack of care for it, more blood was lost.
Katarina coughed. "Before I go, I just wanted to know the name of the person who intrigued me the most." She looked into the mage's eyes, and Lux saw how the life in those jade-green eyes that had hypnotised her so long ago was beginning to fade away. "I know I'm putting you in a tough spot, but could you deliver me back to my countrymen? I want to be buried back in my own country."
Lux opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She barely knew this woman, but this woman had affected her in so many ways. Even when she wasn't there, Lux dreamed of the vibrant smirk she gave her.
And now here she was, dying. Before Lux could properly vocalise her response, she felt a hand lightly grasp her cheek, the assassin leaning closer that their foreheads nearly touched each other. "Please?" Katarina pleaded. Placing her hand over the assassin's, Lux nodded. "Good." Katarina said as she leaned back against the wall. "I like you Lux. I like you a lot." Her head began to droop.
"I just wished there was more time for us to…" Lux watched painfully as Katarina trailed off, her head dropping and hitting her chest. She embraced the cold and now lifeless body of the assassin, hoping to somehow give the assassin's lifeless body some warmth.
"I never got to repay you for saving me." She quietly said.
oooooooooo
The sun had set long ago, letting the moon take its place in the sky. The moonshine was enough to light up the forest, allowing Lux to navigate her way through without aving to spend more energy on making another light ball, something that she appreciated.
Behind her were spheres of light, all of which circled around the Sinister Blade's body, keeping her afloat. Lux continued to walk, looking in the sky for smoke. After squinting for a while, she managed to see some grey that was nearly undetectable in the starry sky. Taking a breath, she looked at the assassin before continuing on her way.
She managed to make it to the Noxians' camp entrance after what seemed to be hours. Her ankles were sore, and her mind was strained.
Nevertheless, she pushed forward, moving her baton in a small circle to make herself invisible. Praying for the best, she entered the camp.
As soon as the soldiers saw the Sinister Blade's body floating in with white spheres encircling her, they began clamouring, but none dared to come forward to confront whatever was doing this magic. Lux saw the man in the yellowish-green coat stare at her in bewilderment. Though she had little memory of him, she remembered Katarina had addressed this man as 'Moreno'.
Stopping in front of him, she gently lowered Katarina's body on the dirt. The light spheres continued to encircle the assassin's body, and the others hung back. Using this as an opportunity to have some final moments with the assassin, regardless of whether she was invisible or not, regardless of the people watching them.
"May Morgana look past your sins and grant you a safe path to a land of joy, where you have to sin no longer." Lux whispered, stroking three fingers on Katarina's face before she bent down and planted a kiss on the redhead's forehead.
Once she was done, she sprinted off to a safe distance where she could observe what the Noxians would do with Katarina's corpse. She watched as the man in the yellowish-green coat bend down and check for a pulse in the assassin's neck. She then watched as he looked up at his comrades and addressed them, and the soldiers take off their helmets and bow their heads in the direction of the Sinister Blade.
Not wanting to watch any longer than she had to, Lux turned and left.
She found her way back to camp, where her brother vehemently questioned her split from the unit and her late-coming.
"I went to investigate something." She said, putting up a formal and composed appearance. "I just got lost when trying to find my way back."
Garen scanned his sister's condition. A part of her skirt was stained with something dark, one of her gloves was haphazardly pulled on, and she looked sweaty, as if she had spent some time running through the forest.
Regardless, he made up his mind to let his siter off for tonight, but would continue his questions the next day. "Rest up for now." He coldly commanded. Lux nodded and set off to her tent.
As she went through the process of showering and changing, however, her mind was going through the process of remembering. Memories of her time with the Sinister Blade flashed through her mind. She remembered the assassin's grace and agility. She remembered the assassin's boldness and refusal to back down from a threat. She remembered the assassin's cunning and devious.
But above all, she remembered when Katarina had saved her.
She could have simply left her in that forest to die or get lost in its labyrinth of trees, but she didn't. She caught her as she fell and brought her back to the Demacia's camp, where she would be safe.
But as thanks, she got a pathetic end. And Lux didn't even thank her for saving her earlier.
If they had more time, Lux could have helped Katarina, and since Katarina had confessed her interest in her, maybe Lux could confess how she couldn't erase her smirk, the way she moved in battle, how her voice sounded, from her mind.
Garen wouldn't learn of the Noxians' location yet. Not until Katarina had a proper funeral, which Lux predicted would take a day or two. And she would wait until the Noxians recovered before she revealed their location, although there was the slight chance they would move after seeing their comrade's body float into their camp like that.
As she finished washing up and looked into the portable mirror that was placed on the shower's counter. As she stared into it, she briefly saw an image of the Sinister Blade smirking back at her. Blinking twice, she gathered her things and left the showers with one thought in her mind.
I'll remember you, Katarina Du Couteau.