Forward

All the fear and doubt that had haunted Karthus for weeks had vanished. Achlys was safe. No, it was more than that. Achlys was safe, Viego appeared to approve of her and was willing to allow Karthus to continue raising her, and Achlys's magic was thriving more than it ever had before.

He watched his daughter as she ran around the cathedral's courtyard, playing some form of tag that only she, and Acheron, according to her, knew all the rules to. Wraiths from his choir spun around her, making varied chittering and whooping sounds as she tried to teach them the rules of her game, with varying degrees of success. But regardless of how successful or unsuccessful she was at making them understand, one thing was obvious. They all listened.

His choir had never been hostile towards her, always sensing their master's connection to her, but only a few had been bound to her and those that were only held for a temporary time. Now, anything she asked of them that did not directly go against Karthus's orders, they obeyed. Even a few wild wraiths obeyed without additional magic, these were usually the frailest of wisps. It was fascinating to watch. It was almost as though she were a greater wraith herself.

One of the wraiths she was playing with floated above her head, just out of reach of her hands, but Achlys, not missing a step, levitated up to catch it. The soles of her feet sparked with the pallid green light of balefire and she strode up through the air as though she were ascending a steep hill. It was not the sustained levitation Karthus was capable of, though the lich had to admit, it was an improvement, even if it meant he could no longer hide things (mostly the hard sugary sweets Elise would buy) out of her reach.

"Agnar," she cheered as she wrapped her arms around the wraith's limb, "I've got you. Come down from there."

Both of them descended to the blackened earth together.

"You need to stay closer to the ground so we can play together. When we're done, you can go back the top of the cathedral. You were from that cold place with lots of mountains, right? Does the being up high remind you of them?"

For a moment, the wraith's form shifted. An unkempt beard tumbled from below its jagged maw, ruffles of fur erupted around his neck and wrists, horns like a goat sprouted from his forehead, and a broad nose appeared on the wraith's face. And then it was gone. The wraith had returned to a simple mass of shadows.

"When I am better at levitating," Achlys spoke to the spirit, "we can go to the top together. Maybe up there, you will remember your face."

Agnar made a harsh, whining noise, and Achlys let him go.

"But until then, let's keep playing. I think it's Acheron's turn to be it."

Karthus gave an approving nod as Achlys continued with her merriment. The pendant around her neck bounced as she skipped, revealing a mark upon her, a memento of her new powers and responsibilities. Where Viego had placed his finger upon her, a magic insignia gently glowed green. It matched the shape of the mark her sovereign bore but was much smaller in size, able to be covered by her pendant. The sea glass now always seemed to be tinted green, illuminated from below by the mark's light.

With the mark of the Isles so openly upon her, Karthus wondered if perhaps Elise would stop trying to convince him that his daughter's place was in Noxus and not here, her true home.

A loud popping sound pulled Karthus from his thoughts.

"Sorry!" Achlys cried, "I didn't mean for it to be that loud!"

Wraiths were scattering in each direction as a fresh shower of balefire embers flickered down slowly around Achlys.

"Please don't run away."

At her command, the wraiths halted their retreat, though they did not all immediately return to the young girl's side. Achlys waved away the embers and as she did, her attention fell upon Karthus. A blush appeared on her pale cheeks.

"I'm not hurt," she assured him, "I only lost control of the spell a little bit. It just grew bigger faster than I thought it would. I'm not hurt."

"If you were, Acheron would not behaving as he is now," Karthus commented, motioning to the skull as he did.

Acheron was bumping insistently up against Achlys's arm, fulfilling his role of being "it." Achlys turned to her companion and held up a hand to stop him.

"You will develop better control with practice," Karthus assured her.

"I know I will" Achlys responded, "and I want to practice by looking for Katherine's sister again. I'm stronger now, so maybe we can find her this time. I know I promised the king I would help him, but I promised her as well and I promised her first."

"You promised Katherine, but to King Viego, you made a vow. There is a difference."

"What difference?"

"You should never break a vow."

"You shouldn't break promises either."

"A vow is more serious, Achlys. Breaking a vow ruins your honor and many times, there are severe consequences."

"Oh."

"Also, he is your king. If he asks you to do something, you should make it your highest priority. Put it before anything you promised anyone else."

"Anyone? Even you?"

Karthus paused. He wasn't sure of what to say. Even if she did not fully realize it, with her vow, Achlys had placed her life in Viego's hands. At any moment, he could command her and she would obey. His words carried magic that could bend the Mist within a wraith and pull at their souls. A direct order was difficult to resist for even a wraith of strong will like Karthus.

Furthermore, Karthus knew that it was not a matter of "if" Viego would command Achlys, but "when." Even as she had been recovering from her ordeal in his arms, Viego had been speaking of how eager he was to see her skills put to use. He knew that, if he could have, he would have ordered Achlys in that instant to go into the world and seek the queen, but Achlys was still alive and could not let her form go into the Mist to be carried away. Even Viego had to admit that having Achlys drown right after he had saved her life was a misuse of resources. So here on the Isles Achlys would remain until she could either fly on her own or had a ship to carry her.

"She will have to join us on a Harrowing someday," Karthus thought to himself, "It will be crucial to her role that she becomes accustom to them. But when would be a good time for her first one?"

The chaos of a Harrowing would be absolutely overwhelming, not to mention the danger that other mortals would pose. No, Karthus had not just finished convincing Viego to not kill her only for some drunken sailor's stray bullet or battle frenzied warrior's blade end her life.

"Kindred please," he thought, "a reprieve from your shadows over her. Please, allow me one month of not having to fear for her safety."

One month surrounded by nobody but the wraiths who cared and looked out for her, enough time for her to adjust to her new strengths, and for him plan a course for her future training.

"Father?" Achlys asked again, interrupting his thoughts, "I am supposed to listen to him first or you?"

There it was again, that question he didn't want to answer. He answered it in a way that was neither completely satisfying to him, nor would it have been completely satisfying to Viego.

"He is the king," Karthus said, "you should follow his orders above all else. Most times though, if he requires something of you, he will tell me as well and I will help to guide you along this task. The king and I agree on many things, Achlys. I do not believe you will ever have to choose what he believes is the right course of action and what I believe is the right course of action. Does that answer your question?"

"I think so," she answered with a nod.

"Do not worry too much. Go, play with the wraiths a while longer and then we will go inside and you can practice your reading and writing. I finished repairing another book. This one was about sea serpents. I think you will enjoy it."

"Okay," she said with another nod before waving her hands towards the wraiths, "come on, one more game."

Achlys bounded away with wraiths in tow and a smile on her face. Yes, it seemed everything was improving. He just needed to keep her on the right path.

And that brought his thoughts to the final improvement that had taken place since her meeting with Viego. It was, with no small amount of joy, that Karthus realized that his dealings with the Chain Warden were about to shift drastically. For years, Thresh had wielded the threat of Achlys being revealed to Viego like a weapon, using it to manipulate Karthus into giving him more control over how Achlys developed her powers. It was a weapon kept only in check by the threat Karthus himself held; revealing the Warden's intended treachery.

Now however, Thresh's threat was gone. Viego knew about Achlys and Karthus still held that piece of blackmail over the other wraith. He had meant what he had told Thresh though, that he had no intention of revealing the traitorous thoughts, but that did not mean that he could not become inclined to if the Warden was not more courteous in his dealings with him.

Perhaps it was time to renegotiate the contents of Achlys's curriculum.

Greetings Summoners,

I hope everyone is enjoy the last few days of summer before we move into fall and spooky season. Thank you for your patience as I took a break to recharge my brain. Moving forward, Deathsinger will probably only post once a month (with an exception of getting a second chapter out on Halloween because, spooky) but that does not mean that the amount of writing I am doing is slowing down. I will still be working to add a new scene to Prelude to Ruin, my other Shadow Isles series, each month, and my new series, A Blob Abroad, which features Zac traveling to Ionia, will also try to post one chapter a month. I love writing for you all and I hope to keep doing so. Lastly, a quick note on the Ruination book and what that means for my writing. First of all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it. However, it works on a slightly different telling of events than the lore and champ bios, which I base my writing off of, do. To keep with the continuity of my writing, I will follow the bio lore most closely as well as how I have pervious described event, such as Isolde's shroud covered in blue flowers. I will try to include new details about the characters and Helia from the novel into my work as well, so I am not going to ignore the novel either. That's all for now. Thank you for reading and remember, feedback is appreciated.

Best of luck on the Rift,

-Gwoo