We return to new shores.
Ruination: Return Chapter XXIII
Distant Hopes Part I
Gwen breathes in and feels an ache she can't remember feeling before.
Homesickness.
She stares through the pines down at the vast ruin arrayed before them.
Alovedra was the former capital of Camavor, and somehow, despite thousands of years of decay and the storming clouds of the Ruination, it almost looked… welcoming.
But that had been a trick long before she had truly lived as well.
"What a beautiful widow's web," Vladimir murmurs, appearing at her side, seeming to almost have read her thoughts.
"What will we find?" she asks, glancing at him.
"I… am not sure; I have not walked the streets of my homeland for some time." he returns, grinning at her, which only sets her even more ill at ease.
"I never walked them," Gwen states, glancing back towards the others. Senna moves towards them with a similar lost gaze, Ryze grumbles to himself, Riven and Yasuo shoulder to shoulder, hands wrapped tightly around the hilts of their weapons, and Vayne, head on a gentle swivel. However, her eyes keep coming to rest on the back of Vladimir's head with a deep glare.
"True," Vladimir agrees, glancing at her from the corner of his eye, "And yet…"
"I feel nostalgic." Gwen murmurs, "How can I feel that for somewhere I can't remember being."
"You may not." he returns, beginning to head down the slope, "But she does. Come along, everyone; Alovedra has waited long enough for new guests."
Gwen waits, staring down at the city, tracing streets she had never walked, yet remembering faces and places that once marked them.
That question of what awaits continues to bounce around her mind. The knowledge that there is a way to solve the Ruination roars above all.
And then a hand slips into her own, and the storm calms.
She turns and sees Senna.
She smiles, squeezing Gwen's hand, "Together?"
Gwen nods, "Together."
'I don't trust it." Lucian remarks, pacing back and forth in their room, examining his new pistol.
"Do we have any other options?" Senna returns tiredly.
"There might be," he answers. "Ezreal went over the notes we recovered. There is an artifact called the Absolver. It may be the answer we're looking for."
"To end the Ruination?" Senna asks, "Or something else?"
He freezes, looking at her; so rarely did they challenge each other, but at this moment, she needs to know what pushed him as far as he went.
"To keep you safe. To keep Gwen safe." Lucian states, "Viego wants to take Isolde from you, and I've seen what that does to you. I can't… I can't lose you."
"And I can't lose you," Senna states, walking towards him and cupping his cheek. "But we need to be willing to…"
She pauses to think about Nagakabouros's words.
"We need to be willing to let go if it means Viego is stopped." she finishes, leaning into Lucian's shoulder.
"I fought so long to avenge you and then to set you free." Lucian mutters, "My only hope was letting you go because I never thought I would get to have…. This."
He hugs her tighter.
"I need to do this," Senna mutters, "We're so close to losing this, and this could give us the solution we need."
"Then let me go with you." he returns.
"What about this artifact you are so keen on?" she asks.
"Ezreal can handle it," he returns.
"I think he's going to be more than a little distracted," she states, "And I think… I have to face Isolde's memories apart from you."
"But why?" Lucian demands.
"Because you're not the only one that I need to be willing to let go," she states, tears welling in her eyes. You're not the only one I hold in my heart. I'm sorry."
Lucian stares down at her for a while, "Don't be. I understand."
The road is steep and wild, yet despite the chill wind, Senna feels buoyed in a way she can't fully understand.
"You're smiling," Riven states, coming to stand beside her.
"Am I?" Senna responds, surprised.
"You didn't know?" Riven notes.
"No…" Senna returns, brow furrowing.
"I was going to ask why, but now I wonder if you know," Riven states, glancing back at Yasuo, who raises an eyebrow, his hand still gripping reflexively around his hilt.
"It seems you and Gwen have switched perspectives," he offers, nodding ahead to where a relatively sullen-looking Gwen is speaking with Vladimir.
Senna blinks in surprise, attempting to seek what had shifted with her and within Gwen. The latter remains elusive, yet the former comes to her in time as they continue down the pass.
"I think she is happy to be home," Senna offers after a moment of silence.
"Even to see it in such… ruin?" Riven asks.
"Nostalgia is powerful," Yasuo offers, "A homecoming after long away even more so… speaking from personal experience."
"Yes, yes, it is." Senna agrees.
"I think the question becomes then, what does Gwen remember that Isolde does not, to quash her joy so readily?" Riven remarks, glancing back towards her.
"I don't know, I honestly…. I honestly didn't think she had many memories of this place." Senna answers.
"Why wonder to ourselves when we could simply ask her ourselves?" Yasuo states.
"Gwen-" Senna begins and then forgets whatever is to come next as an immense shadow suddenly races by above them.
Senna turns her eyes skyward and feels her breath hitch, but for a moment.
As a dragon, resplendent and mountainous, flies down towards the distant city, a bellowing roar peeling like thunder. It dwarfs Syvanna by a double, if not triple, and she trains her eyes to seek any signs of the Black Mist bleeding off its form.
Nothing.
"That is an immense dragon," Riven murmurs.
Ryze appears at the shoulder, his head tilted, "I have seen bigger."
"Is that meant to be a comfort?" Yasuo demands.
Vladimir chuckles and shows a sign of slight but genuine awe for but a moment, sharing a look with Gwen, "A Camavoran Drakon, it seems some of the old guardians remain, and uncorrupted at that."
"I can't… believe it," Gwen states, shaking her head.
"Camavor had dragons?" Senna asks.
"Oh, yes, we were allies for some time, some time indeed. I had thought them all fled or were deceased, though." Vladimir offers, scratching his chin, "What brought her back?"
"Whatever it is, let us hope we do not run into her," Ryze remarks, "Or that she hasn't claimed the information we seek."
"I thought dragons coveted gold and violence," Riven remarks. Yasuo raises an eyebrow.
"Really? I have only ever known them as stewards of information." Yasuo states.
"Those of Camavor are both, and more, the largest facet being the core facet of all Camavor: Avarice."
"Add it to the pile of likely threats," Vayne states, appearing at Gwen's shoulder and looking over at Senna, "Now let's get off this mountain."
"Let's." Senna agrees, and they descend; Riven and Yasuo step behind, hands on their weapons and eyes on the sky.
Vladimir goes to follow, and Ryze catches his arm. There is a moment of immediate and sudden tension as two agents, forces of magic, come into undesired contact. There is a momentary, almost imperceptible flair of purple and red light at the touch.
"Yes?" Vladimir asks coolly.
"What is down there?" Ryze demands, "Why the Dragon, you are not a fool, so don't pretend to act it with me."
"My dear coconspirator, are you saying you don't trust my intentions?" Vladimir mocks, clutching his chest in faux offense.
Ryze stares at him coldly.
"There is a great deal within Alovedra, boy," Vladimir states, pulling his arm from Ryze's grasp. "What we seek and countless mysteries more, I can not tell you all that rests in that place, but it will be guarded. If the dragon is part of that or simply a squatter, how could I say? As I was telling the dear doll, I have not been home in quite some time."
Ryze's eyes narrow, and he gestures for Vladimir to go before him, "Very well."
"How kind of you to guard the rear." Vladimir taunts as he shifts past.
"I know not to put my back to a snake as old as you." Ryze snaps.
"Snake, no, no one holds that trite title," Vladimir responds. I am but a moth, uncared for and unbothered. I will leave my mark wherever the wind takes me. Yet, I understand your hesitance. You always were keen to sniff out the next betrayal."
He looks ahead to the Sentinel's moving down the hill before them.
"Who do you think it will be this time?" Vladimir murmurs with a devilish smile before leaving Ryze standing alone on the path.
He's not sure who these new people are, but while everything else smells bad and old and bad, these new people smell fresh and interesting.
The girl with blue hair smells like summer and wildflowers. Warmth and happiness were an immediate draw.
The two sword holders smell like a storm, but the lady is dusty, and the man is rainy. They complement each other well.
The lady with the big thing strapped to her back smelled like his mother's breath, comforting, but there was something else there: the metallic rot of the Mist that had swallowed so much of his home. Mom had ferried him back because she thought it would be safer than across the big blue, but… that hadn't been true.
Then there is the purple guy, musty and old like the… what did Mom call them… books that he occasionally found within the city.
The last two worry him, which is why he hesitates to approach and simply watches for now.
The one is gaunt and bedecked in red, and all he can smell from him is blood. Fresh and old, rotten and healthy, it seeps off him so powerfully it almost buries the other's scents.
But the lady with the crossbow worries him most; blood isn't that scary; he's smelled it before from the meals mom brings him, even if this blood is… wrong.
No, the crossbow lady is scary because he can't smell her at all. He sees her, he hears her, but there is not a single thing to smell about her, and that is not something he has encountered before.
He inches closer, sniffing deeper, trying to get a better look at where they are going and what they are doing. If they are talking, she stops.
He freezes, huddling as low to the ground as he can, and she turns, glancing directly towards him.
His heart begins to flutter. He feels the urge to bolt as she says something to the others and takes a step towards him.
Then, he is saved as his mother lets out another booming call, and the newcomer's attention turns back toward her.
She's looking for him, and he is gonna get such a talking to, but he better go before this becomes a bigger problem.
Vayne glances back at the undergrowth where she caught the shine of two eyes and sees nothing.
"We're being watched," she states, collapsing her arm crossbow.
"I would be surprised if we weren't," Vladimir responds glibly. "Alovedra was always a viper's nest. Who's to say they aren't still here?"
"I already hate this city," she states.
"Oh, Shauna, every city has its vipers, even Demacia," Vladimir states, and she has to push down the immediate thought to plug a bolt into his forehead for the usage of her first name, "You're just blind to it because you're one of them."
"I am not a viper," she growls.
"But you were ever so good at hunting rats." he returns with a taunting smile, "But you're right, you always have been more of a… lone wolf."
Those last words drip out of his mouth with such an implied understanding of her past that they slam into her like a punch.
She wants nothing more in this moment to silence this man, and then a hand finds her shoulder.
"I thought you were here to guide us, not play with us," Gwen states, staring at him with an uncharacteristically sour expression.
"True, true, my apologies, I… have forgotten my manors in all my years in the shadows," Vladimir states, seeming to appear for at least a moment sincere. She doesn't buy it.
"Amongst my… associates, barbs such as that are akin to friendly banter." he finishes, flouting on, ignoring Senna's eye roll and Riven's hard glare.
"Are you okay?" Gwen asks.
"Fine." Vayne returns curtly and then catches herself, "Thank you."
"Of course," Gwen returns, though her sour expression remains.
"And you?" Vayne asks, mentally wincing at how floundering that sounded—a year spent with the Sentinel and her grasp of social niceties remained as… atrophied as they had always been.
"I-I don't know." Gwen returns, and Vayne doesn't press further as she returns to the head of the pack beside Vladimir, who begins chattering on about something else entirely.
"It is best to learn how to ignore him," Ryze offers as he shifts past.
"Do you?" she returns bluntly.
"I try," he replies, shaking his head, "But he knows me too well."
Vayne glances back towards the patch and, not seeing anything, continues after them.
Vladimir's words bounce around her mind.
"Lone Wolf."
What did he know?
Viego traces his finger along the shelves where his beloved now rests.
Safe, yet not whole.
The holes burn him, cut him, wound him. Those that slipped through his fingers or were stolen from his grasp by incompetence and betrayal.
The music box hurt the most. It was his sole comfort during decades of mourning, his guide into rest, and the sound that greeted his final awakening.
Stolen away from him by the traitor who he had named his Champion!
He feels the urge to shatter something, to rage, yet he contains himself.
The others, gifts, memories, promises, each a piece of her that spoke to a piece of him, binding them together even now.
"I love you," he intones, leaning his head against the shelf where the music box had previously rested.
"My lord?" a soft and… hopeful voice murmurs, breaking through his solitude. He looks up and sees Vex watching him, a wistful look on her face.
'Hello, Vex," he intones, greeting her with a smile he guesses she desires, "I was just… lost in memory. In longing."
"I… understand," she states, the word coming after a flurry of complicated emotions crosses her face, but in the end, he can sense her sincerity.
"They keep her from me, these petulant fools while clinging so tightly to each other." he growls, stalking towards his throne, "They mock me."
"They are not fair." Vex agrees.
"I am thankful for all your help, Vex," he states, leaning towards her and giving her a genuine smile, "Truly."
"And I am grateful to have been such a help, V-my lord," she returns, bowing her head.
"You… are one of the few left I can actually trust," he states, leaning back and staring at her intently. "I think you have earned the right to call me by my name."
"Th-thank you, Viego," she breathes.
"Because of you, this all will soon be over." Viego states, "The final push has begun."
He glances down at her, and for a moment, he thinks he sees disappointment, but it is gone before he can even open his mouth to ask.
"It has. Everything is in place, and the Sentinels have surged to find the final unclaimed Fetter." Vex states.
"Leaving themselves open." Viego rasps hungrily.
"She won't fail you." Vex agrees.
"And what of Thresh?" he demands, "Where has that coward absconded to?"
"We don't know. He's gone to ground. He fears you." she offers.
"As he should. He overstepped one too many times." Viego growls, "Once the fetters have been returned to me, I will crush the rebellion on our shores and then seek those that keep the rest of her trapped and free her from their grasp."
For a moment, three forms appeared in the Mist.
Senna.
Gwen.
And a third, monstrous thing.
Vex frowns, and this time, Viego catches her before he can hide it.
"What is it?" he asks.
"I was not sure how to tell you this," she explains, looking down at the ground. "But not all of the Sentinels have gone to Shurima."
"Then they remain at their Haven?" he asks.
"Only Ledros." Vex offers.
"Who is missing?" he demands, slowly standing back to his feet.
"The sword wielders, the Blue-Skinned Mage that evaded us in Piltover and…" she begins, faltering slightly at the intensity of his gaze.
"And who?" he growls.
"Senna and Gwen," Vex states.
"Where are they?" he rasps. He can feel his control slipping. Vex takes a step back but looks up at him with only adoration.
"We don't know," she responds.
The Black Mist begins to roil and spin around him as worry, rage, and confusion fill his mind.
He wants to lash out, to scream and roar and sob.
And then a sound echoes in his head.
A foot clacking on cobblestone.
A familiar presence in a familiar place.
The storm rising around him immediately quiets, and he whirls, staring to the East.
Homesickness, long forgotten, burbles up inside his hollow chest.
"Alovedra." he gasps, Sanctity appearing in his hand, fire igniting in his eyes, "My home."
And scene! Yes, this is the OC story arc that will delve deeper into the shared past of Senna and Gwen's twin protagonists through Isolde and Viego.
Don't worry—we'll get back to what the others are doing in Shurima and what the hell is about to befall Ledros and the Sanctum, but that will be after this, maybe a three or four-chapter arc. Let me know, though, if you want me to release the Shurima and Camavor arcs in alternating chapters or if you want me to stick with finishing one arc and then moving into the other.
Hope folks enjoy.
Bet y'all have a clue about the little spy that Vayne nearly caught.
As always, comments, questions, and critiques are appreciated; this has been VerBeeker signing off!