Fishing

Kathrine plucked one of her long hairs that ended like a fishing hook. She held open her hand and a spectral fishing pole materialized into it.

"Watch closely, Achlys," she said, "and then I will help you with yours."

She tied her hair to a loop at the end of her pole, her practiced fingers making secure knots in seconds. As the knot was completed, a pale phantasm of a worm appeared on the hook. With a tug to test that her line was secure, Katherine set aside her pole and held out her hands for Achlys's.

"This is a good pole," she said as she plucked another of her hooked hairs, "where did you find it?"

"Father asked Auntie to find one for my finding day," Achlys answered.

As Achlys had been growing, so too was her appetite. The garden alone was insufficient and though she had plenty of preserved foods from Elise, Karthus wanted to make sure that Achlys was eating fresh food as well. Learning to fish seemed like the best solution to that problem.

On her recent visit for Achlys's seventh finding day, Elise had brought a finely crafted fishing rod, made of willow and hazel wood. Elise had stated that she had had to custom order the rod. Fishing technologies had advanced quite a bit in the centuries that Katherine had been dead, and Karthus had insisted in a rod that would be more familiar to the young wraith. Elise argued that there was a reason fishing rods had changed and that a modern rod would be the best for Achlys, but as Katherine was the one teaching her, Karthus insisted on the ancient style. And so Achlys sat with a rod that was little more than a loop of cord attached to a flexible rod.

". . . And that is how you tie that knot," Katherine finished as she handed the pole back to Achlys, "Do you have any questions."

"No," Achlys shook her head, "not now. So what's next?"

"I will show you."

Katherine stepped out onto the phantasmal dock of her cove. With careful steps, Achlys followed her. The young girl learned that, with some of her fledgling levitation magic, she could summon a tiny amount of balefire to the bottoms of her feet and step out onto the phantom structure. Once at the end of the dock, Katherine motioned for Achlys to take a step back so she had space to cast her line. With an elegant swish, Katherine cast her line, sending it into the middle of the cove. Achlys did her best to mimic the motion, but it took well over a dozen attempts before any of her casts came close to Katherine's. At last though, the wraith nodded in approval at one of her attempts.

"Now what?" Achlys asked.

"Now," Katherine said, "we must be patient."

"So now we just wait and do nothing?" Achlys groaned.

She was growing tired of always being told to wait. Want to pick that vegetable? It's not done growing yet. Want to go to Noxus? When you are older you can. Want to be a wraith again? Learn patience. Want to be trusted to explore the Isles on your own? Maybe next finding day. Wait, wait, wait. Everything seemed just out of reach.

"We do not need to do nothing," Katherine corrected, "We can move our lines a little to make the bait look like it is still alive," she moved her line to emphasize the point, "and we can also talk. My sister and I would make up stories. I hope she is safe. I haven't found her yet."

Katherine's gaze grew hazy as looked towards Helia.

"I heard a rumor that foreigners were actually going to be allowed to visit. I wonder what they will look like. Maybe we could go see them when they arrive. But I need to find her first."

Achlys placed her hand on Katherine's arm and once more her mind was snapped out of the past.

"Charis!" Katherine exclaimed in shock.

"Hey, was that her name?" Achlys asked.

"Yes, it was. Achlys! I remembered! I remembered her name! Charis!"

"That's wonderful! It was to be a sign that we will find her, and we will find her," Achlys promised, "Father says we can go looking together next month. Right, Father?"

She looked over her shoulder towards Karthus, who was waiting on the shore.

"I did promise that," he said.

"See, Katherine," Achlys said with a smile, "we will go together and we will find her."

"Thank you, Achlys," her friend responded, "I can't wait to see my sister again, but right now, I am content to be fishing with you."

They fished in silence for only a few minutes before Achlys began to speak again.

"You said that you and your sister would tell stories while you waited. Will you tell me one?"

"Would you like a made up story or a real one?" the wraith asked.

"A real one please," Achlys answered as she held onto Katherine with her hand infused with magic.

"Which one to tell," Katherine wondered as memories bubbled through her mind, "I know. There was once a time when I met a Monk of Dusk."

"What is a Monk of Dusk?"

"They were a group of people who took care of the dead. They healed the sick and buried those who couldn't be saved."

"That sounds like what you did, Father!" Achlys chirped.

"I was a tally-man of the Kindred," Karthus answered, "but the Brethren of the Dusk were a similar order. I have explored their monastery before."

"Can we go someday?"

"We do not need to go there, Achlys. Anything you could learn about death there, I could teach you at our cathedral."

"Oh, okay" Achlys sighed before turning back to Katherine, "So, what was this monk like?"

"He seemed sad. He was fishing all alone. He was sitting right where you are."

Katherine poked Achlys in the chest and as she did, a brief image of the monk flashed in the young girl's mind.

Even sitting down the man appears large. His arms are muscular from years digging graves. Dark hair, long but trimmed neatly, frames a somber face. His cheeks have pronounced "smile lines," though she briefly doubts that such a grim looking man has ever smiled before.

The monk had removed his boots so that his toes could dip into the water, though he has kept the rest of his dark vestments on. He appears lost in thought, as one hand holds his fishing rod while the other feels the etching on the glass vial worn around his neck. The vial's contents are glowing, its light the same beautiful shade as the sky above.

"He looks scary," Achlys commented.

"He did, but he was kind," Katherine said, "He didn't mind me fishing alongside him. We talked, but I can't remember much of what we talked about. I do remember some of it though. He said he was from a different island. He was from a small fishing village. He would come and fish when he was homesick. He said his name was – Oh!"

Before she could finish speaking, there was a tug on her line. Even if Achlys had not been there, Katherine's memories served her well, and she pulled in the hooked fish with ease. As she lifted it from the water, Karthus glided over before Katherine could drop it onto the dock, which it would have fallen through, behind her.

"I will take that," Karthus ordered.

Katherine handed the struggling creature over to Karthus. He thanked her as he channeled magic into it, killing it. He pulled the hook from its mouth and as he did so, the soul of the fish was dragged from its body. Then he removed the hook from that as well and let the fish's soul flop back into the water. Achlys watched curiously. Now that something had happened, her interest in fishing was renewed.

"Will I catch one next?" she asked.

"Maybe," Katherine answered as she prepared her rod again, "we won't know until the lines are pulled though."

"Okay. While we wait, can you finish your story? You didn't say what the monk's name was."

Katherine nodded and cast her line.

"He said his name was," she began, "oh, what was it? He said it was, umm, it was, oh no."

"What was it?"

"I don't remember."

"It's okay. You will remember someday," she pat her friend on the back before continuing, "Now that the fish is dead, will I get to eat it tonight?"

"Only after you debone it," Katherine answered, "do you know how to do that?"

"I do," Karthus answered.

"Really?" Achlys gasped excitedly, "You know everything, Father!"

"Not everything," he said with a dry chuckle, "but, yes, I do know much."

"I thought you were something like a monk," Katherine said, "How do you know how to debone a fish?"

"Yeah," Achlys chimed in, "Your turn to tell a story. How do you know how to de- do the thing to the fish?"

"Very well," Karthus said with a nod, "I will tell you. Achlys, do you remember that I had a sister."

"You had three," she answered.

"That is correct. The oldest, Horatia, would go fishing. If she caught something, my other sisters and I would cook it."

"Were you a good cook?"

"Not as good as my sisters but I was the best at hunting."

"I thought your sister did the fishing," Katherine asked.

"She caught fish," Karthus answered, "and I caught rats. There were plenty in the slums, so we did not starve."

"Did the rats taste good?"

"I don't remember."

He saw Achlys offer him her hand to try and strengthen the memory, but he shook his head and gave a dry chuckle.

"I have no memory of ever enjoying eating them," he said, "so perhaps it is better that I forget their taste."

Achlys was going to ask how he could remember not liking the taste if he couldn't remember the taste at all, but a tugging on her line caught her attention.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "A fish! I've got one! A fish is pulling!"

"That's great," Katherine cheered, "but stay calm and follow my instruction."

She guided Achlys through the process of catching the fish until this second one was also in Karthus's hands.

"I'm going to get to eat two fish," the child stated proudly.

She helped her father pull the soul from the dead animal as Katherine restrung the pole. With a grunt, she tossed the soul back into the cove.

"Good-bye," she waved as she watched it swim away, "thank you for dying so I can live."

"Alright, Achlys," Katherine said as she handed the pole back to her, "now it's your turn to tell a story."

"My turn," she nodded, "my turn, my turn. What story to tell?"

She thought for a moment. She could tell Katherine almost anything and it would be a new story, but for her Father, well he knew almost everything about her. After all, he had been present for almost her entire life. But not all of it, Achlys realized. At once, she knew just the exciting story she could tell.

"Here's my story," she began, "I got to see my soul the other day."

For a moment, Karthus doubted his own senses.

"I'm sorry, Achlys," he said slowly and calmly, "but could you please repeat that? I may have misheard you."

"Okay. I got to see my soul the other day."

"Ah."

Now that the doubt was removed, he could feel a rage building within him, but he refused to let it show.

"Please continue," he said, "and tell me exactly what happened."

Achlys nodded and proceeded to recount the events of how Thresh had temporarily removed her soul and how the world felt to her while she was a wraith. Karthus listened intently, his animosity towards Thresh growing with each passing minute. By the end of her tale, Karthus vowed to himself to track down the other wraith.

Not long after Achlys was done cheerfully recounting her near death experience, Katherine caught the third and final fish of the day. Karthus had had enough. His mind was restless and he still had to prepare and preserve the fish before he could hunt for Thresh. He wanted no more fish to delay his departure, so he informed Achlys that it was time to go.

The two girls said their good-byes to each other and Karthus promised that they could go fishing again soon. On their way back to the cathedral, Achlys chatted about how excited she was to eat the fish that she had caught and how next time she wanted to see if she could send Acheron into the water to chase the fish into the hooks, but Karthus could not focus on anything his daughter was saying. His thoughts were set on one goal and one goal alone; demand answers.