| A young acolyte bows as you approach. "Greetings, Summoner. I confess your face is yet unfamiliar to me. May I ask your name?" He opens the register book and wets a quill. Will you sign? New to Factions? Register for the forum here! Contact Summoner Random Nom (Rat King#2972 @ Discord) to confirm your registration. (We get a lot of bot signups. Somebody has decided that Factions is a prime demographic for discount shoe sales. Pinging Nom will allow him to make sure your signup doesn't get bounced.) If you've already signed up, log in below. |
| Past and Personality; A Runeterran episodic story | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Sep 20 2016, 10:39 AM (343 Views) | |
| XalkXolc | Sep 20 2016, 10:39 AM Post #1 |
|
Lightning Ball goes Boom
|
Part 1 We were half a day from our destination when something caught my eye. A flash of light, a shifting shadow, I honestly couldn’t tell what exactly it was that got my attention, but my instincts and my training kicked in. I stopped in my tracks, my legs ceasing their inexorable plod to freeze in the dirt. Hardly an instant later, Charlotte stood transfixed in front of me, similarly still, every muscle relaxed and ready. It still spooked me how quickly she always reacted, how she could maintain this constant awareness of her surroundings.
I dragged my own awareness away from that practiced awe and back towards identifying the whatever-it-is that made me stop, my eyes roving smoothly while my mind spun through possibilities. Bandits, hoping to prey on two young travelers, or perhaps one of the large predators that lurked in the tall grass to our left? The idea of a Void incursion flickered in my head before I dismissed it. If that was the case, we’d be dead already. Charlotte began moving again, beating a marching pace in the packed dirt of the road. Despite our lack of...alternative transportation, her military gait ensured that we made good time, and that I struggled to keep up. Not that I minded. The hiking was just another test, another way of one day catching up to the veteran roamer I followed. I didn’t intend to break my promise to myself. The remaining hours in the day passed without incident and without a word. Not that I was inclined to talk. No, I was perfectly content with the companionable silence that dominated our travels. Comforting, in more ways than one. As the sun’s edge reached towards the lip of the raised horizon, Charlotte turned off the path and laid her pack on a flat patch of earth. Looking towards me, she inclined her head and raised her brows, one hand still gripping a strap of her pack. I nodded, and she released her hold, the bag’s weight settling on the ground. I followed suit, my own pack dropping down next to me, sending up clouds of dust spiraling through the air. While Dienna began retrieving the supplies we’d need for the night, I unsheathed the small hunter’s knife at my waist and began cutting sheaves of tall, dry grass. Once I held an adequate armful of the brittle tinder, I crossed the road and began gathering more substantial plant matter. Couldn’t make a fire out of only dried grass, after all. It wasn’t long before Dienna had finished laying out our tents and I had the beginnings of a fire smoldering in a fire ring, the embers’ color matching the sky as the sun ended its daily journey. She gave me a small smile, sitting down next to me as I turned my knife over and over in my hands, the blade reflecting the low light emanating from the circle of stones. “You’re awful quiet tonight, Leah,” she broke the long silence. I chuckled a little, the joke about as funny as it’d been the last two nights. Reaching over, I took several pieces of kindling and tossed them on the fire. Sitting back down, I glanced over, and something in my companion’s expression caught my eye. A familiar trepidation, a hesitant longing. I followed her gaze to the horizon, where the sun was all but hidden behind the silhouette of your journey’s end, where hopefully one of us could find some answers. The Immortal Bastion. The Black Castle. The Heart of Noxus. Or to Charlotte, home. |
![]() |
|
| XalkXolc | Sep 21 2016, 11:25 PM Post #2 |
|
Lightning Ball goes Boom
|
Part 2 We reached the gates early the next morning, the massive ebon walls rising to meet us as we drew ever closer. Even early in the day, the capital’s passageway saw its fair share of activity. Trading carts, merchants’ wagons, caravans, common travelers, and military personnel alike passed under the high archway into the heart of Noxus. Guards in their dark armor and wielding their trademark long axes and halberds stood vigilant watch over the bustle of traffic. Even someone unaware of Noxus’ reputation would easily be able to understand the purpose of the guards’ presence, as the beggars and the hungry lurked in pitiful clumps on the sides of the road, tugging on sleeves despite the fear in their eyes. Their nervousness was justified. They were the weak, after all.
As we approached the gates, the guard nearest to us stepped forward, singling us out among the thin crowds passing through. An understandable action, since our worn out clothes and fraying packs stood at odds with the quality of Charlotte’s blade and armor, the elemental steel and polished leather standing out amongst her gear. As for me, well, I looked the part. My clothes were torn and stained, my boots scuffed, even my hair was already coming free of its braid. Carrying both of our packs stacked upon my shoulders, I looked like some sort of humpback hunchback. “Halt!” the guard called, and Charlotte promptly stopped short. I took a couple shuffling steps forward to stand just behind her and to the side. “Identification?” Charlotte pulled a small black leather booklet out of her jacket pocket, the once-gold lettering on the cover long faded to a dull bronze. As she handed it to the guard, she replied, “Charlotte Lamarck, Nomad Detachment off of the Infantry Reserves. Returning from long-term solo patrol assignment by the Demacian border. Going in to give my report to my CO.” The guard nodded and closed the booklet, satisfied. Handing it back, he nodded his head in my direction. “And her?” “My new mule,” Charlotte replied. “Not too bright, but she’s got a strong back and doesn’t complain, ain’t picky.” “Sounds like you hit the jackpot, then,” the guard said, nodding again. “Go with courage.” “Return with glory,” Charlotte answered, then beckoned for me to follow as she continued into the streets. “Told you it’d work,” she said, once we were away from the gates. “Nomad’s reputation coming in to save our asses. Kid barely batted an eye at that damn picture.” I was pretty damn sure the guard had at least half a decade on Charlotte, and I wanted to mention that his eyes might not have been good enough to notice the lack of similarity between her and the sketch, but it wouldn’t make a difference to the older girl. Instead, I gave her an exaggerated scowl and pointed to my head. “Oh, c’mon, you know I didn’t mean it...mostly.” She snickered and leaned back as I swung a punch at her face, my fist passing cleanly through the air. I grinned and kept walking, giving her a shrug and a thumbs up. Whatever, it worked. Which meant that we were free to move about Noxus. The tale Charlotte fed the guard wasn’t entirely fiction. We were going to pay a visit to her old CO...among other things. Money didn’t come from nowhere and answers didn’t usually walk up and hand themselves over. We had jobs to do, leads to chase down. Right now, though, I needed a warm bath, a bed, and a change of clothes. I may only have been carrying Charlotte’s things for a short while, but it was still heavy, and we’d been on the road from Demacia for weeks. We checked into an inn on the outskirts, near the wall, the front desk manned by a bored-looking boy about my age, maybe a little younger. He led us upstairs to our room, and we heaved our gear down on the floor with audible thunks. I went into the bathroom to wash my face and hands, and when I emerged, I saw Dienna standing by the open window casting a worried look at the street below. Rushing to see what she was so concerned about, I followed her gaze down to a wall covered completely with posters, notices, and announcements. It took a moment for me to notice, but one of the largest posters caught my eye, a huge piece of paper meant for official news proclamations. Specifically, one of the headlines along the first half of the sheet: “Reward posted for Demacian mercenary Dienna Lemeris”. |
![]() |
|
| XalkXolc | Sep 26 2016, 11:24 AM Post #3 |
|
Lightning Ball goes Boom
|
Part 3 “Shit,” Dienna cursed, sitting down on the edge of her bed. “I thought I got everyone.” We had. I’d personally guaranteed that no one had made it out from the Noxian supply column we’d hit just before this trip. A report getting back was out of the question then. I leaned with my back against the wall, my arms crossed, head tilted back as I stared at the ceiling. They hadn’t had a spellcaster capable of contacting the nearest camp, so how had Dienna’s identity gotten back to the capital? Duh. I slammed a fist against the wall and dashed over to Dienna’s bag, undoing the outermost straps and reaching into the outside pocket. My hand closed around a flat, rectangular object, retrieving it from the pack and holding it up. A Noxian ID booklet, in better repair than the one we’d used to gain access to the city, open to the page with the owner’s face sketched in charcoal, a low-level Psychic mage. I tapped my free hand against the portrait, then the cover of the booklet, then pointed in the direction of the black tower located in the center of the city. Dienna’s brow had been knitted in thought, but a look of anger and frustration overtook her face as the realization found her. “Fuck!” she yelled, taking her head in her hands. “How could I have been so careless? Stupid mistakes, every time, always with the stupid little mistakes…” Silence reigned for a long minute as the both of us stewed in our failures. I wasn’t nearly as experienced as my companion, but I still felt the pangs of shame, the pain of another setback on my road to my goals. We’d gotten complacent. A string of minor successes from the moment we’d started working together had lulled us into a state of misplaced confidence. It was, I thought, perhaps for the best that we’d been reminded of our own mortality. Dienna eventually spoke up, interrupting my train of thought. “A ping-transmit spell of that type doesn’t return any information about the carrier, though. They shouldn’t know more than the fact that whoever hit the column is in town. So how the hell do they know it was me?” I didn’t have an answer to that. Giving her a shrug, I closed the booklet and stashed it back in the pocket I’d retrieved it from. “Okay, look,” Dienna said, her tone businesslike. “Let’s worry about that when we can. For now, I’ll lay low here and do a log entry while you do a supply run. When you get back, I’ll let you and her take the lead, keep things as natural as possible. Sound good?” I nodded and started unpacking my bag, emptying the contents onto the floor next to my bed. Dienna, meanwhile, got out a large leather notebook and began writing in it with a charcoal pencil. Once I’d finished emptying my pack, I pulled it on and headed outside onto the street. My first stop took me across the road, directly in front of the announcement poster visible from our window. Most of the headlines and notices were standard fare, everyday stuff, but I only cared about the bounty posting that sported Dienna’s name. “Reward Posted for Demacian mercenary Dienna Lemeris The sellsword in question is wanted alive for questioning due to suspected involvement in crimes against the Noxian Empire, including disruption of military activities, assassination of official military personnel, assassination of public officials, assassination of nobility, raiding, theft, destruction of official and public Noxian property, and obstruction of justice. Any information in regards the the sellsword in question should be reported to Noxian military officials at the earliest possible time. Note that the sellsword in question has demonstrated significant magical and martial ability. Respect her skill.” I suspected the list of charges was exaggerated a bit, but multiple assassinations? It seems Dienna had quite a bit more experience than I’d thought. It was a little disquieting, really, just how well earned her professional reputation was. Well, it certainly wouldn’t change much now. I walked on, into the city. Where was the nearest market? Part 4 It was nearly dark when I returned to the inn, my pack once again full with supplies. Food, mostly. Opening the door to our room, I was greeted by the sight of my colleague leaning back in her chair, the front legs off the ground, her feet propped on the edge of the desk. In her lap was a black book, open to nearly the last page, the brown leather notebook she’d had when I left nowhere in sight. Her hand gripped a piece of charcoal, moving lightly over the page. Putting down the fresh supplies, I took out a packet of rations and a book exactly like the one she held, brand new.
Placing both on the desk, I looked over her shoulder at the page she was working on. The background depicted a rather impressive sketch of the Noxian skyline, while the foreground featured a young girl, maybe about seven or eight. Charlotte looked up from her drawing, and I gave her a thumbs up, nodding towards her drawing. “Thanks,” she replied, smiling, “and thanks for dinner.” We ate in silence, the familiar taste of trail rations an odd accompaniment to the relative comfort of our surroundings. It was our policy not to eat anything better than rations until we’d finished a job, but for me the taste had become almost comforting. It reminded me of how far I’d come. “Well,” Charlotte began, snapping her book closed, “now that we’re settled in and it’s getting dark, I think I’m off to bed. We’ll probably have a busy day tomorrow, yeah?” I nodded my agreement, pulling the sheets on my bed out from underneath me, sliding underneath them. Charlotte jumped under her own covers to my right. It wasn’t long until I heard her snoring softly. Charlotte could fall asleep quite quickly, especially in a nice bed. I wasn’t quite so lucky. I stared out the window at the rising moon, illuminating the night with a silvery glow. An ugly feeling started clawing at my insides, a muted terror that threatened to bring tears to my eyes if I dwelt on it. I wished I knew why. It was an unexplainable terror, one without a source that I knew of. Sure, it always seemed to come just before I tried to sleep, staring at moonlight, but other than that, I couldn’t figure it out. It definitely didn’t feel like I was afraid of the moon, or the dark. No, there was something else there, something I was missing. A flare of anger and frustration rose up for the second time today. I hated not knowing. I turned over, staring at the wall instead. Anything but out the window. If I was unlucky tonight, I’d dream, and that would be worse. I never remembered my dreams, but I much preferred the times when I didn’t. Sleep came soon after. I didn’t dream. Small blessings, I suppose. Edited by XalkXolc, Sep 26 2016, 12:02 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| XalkXolc | Oct 26 2016, 08:16 PM Post #4 |
|
Lightning Ball goes Boom
|
Interlude 1 Tired, hungry, and cold, the patrol decided to settle down for the night as the sun began its slow descent down behind the mountains. Bright blues had long since given way to the bright orange and yellow streaks crossing a pink and purple sky. Breaking formation, the men fell into a loose cluster, talking quietly amongst themselves as they made the short walk back to their base camp. “Hang on,” the captain spoke over the dull speech, his voice cutting through the group. “There’s someone in camp. Stay on guard.” Moving back into formation, they each drew weapons, some swords, some daggers, some bows. On guard en masse, they moved towards the figure standing over their fire pit. Clad in the grand patterns and gold accents of the Demacian military, she stood straight, her dark hair pouring over her shoulders. The newcomer’s eyes remained fixed on the long-dead ashes filling the former fire, arms limp by her side. “You! Demacian!” the captain called. “Step away from our camp!” The woman’s eyes blinked in response, her heading straightening to stare into the distance in front of her, for a peaceful moment. Then, her expression twisted, swiveling towards the captain head-on, a mask of fury etched upon her face. “THE FUCK DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!?” The captain’s carefully constructed facade of bravado, intended to intimidate, quickly fled for the hills as he stared into the eyes of the warrior in front of him. There was no doubt in his mind that she was a warrior, her bearing, her weaponry, her armor all screamed battle. But her eyes were different. They were the eyes of a cornered animal. “I-” He never finished his sentence. The sound of sliding steel preceded the sound of a blade of ice tearing through the captain’s throat, decapitating him where he stood. “I’LL FUCKING KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!” the woman screamed as her blade began to burn, bathing the camp in the light of its blaze. As the twilight glowed, the glint of arrowheads flew the air as they left the bow in the hands of a woman near the back of the group, anxiously nocking arrows in near-panic. None found their mark, flying wide, but their promise of spilled blood shook the rest of the company from shock. The lieutenants were the first to charge their opponent, moving to her sides in a pincer, coordination born from simple experience. The remainder of the combatants began to spread out into a loose circle, surrounding the woman in the middle. The two lieutenants charged, swords aloft as they sought to overwhelm their enemy’s defenses. The first lunged forward into a low jab aimed at the gap in her armor below the chestplate. The second followed with an overhead strike, a chopping blow meant to end the battle decisively. With a single, easy step, the woman pivoted to the side, letting the lunge fly past her midsection and greeting its originator with a slice to the temple. The other, found his blade swinging wide, its momentum carrying it too far, too fast, with no chance to guard against the blast of flame that engulfed him. As soon as the lieutenant’s body began to burn, an arrow flew from the ring to put him out of his misery to put him out of his misery, followed by a volley of nearly a dozen arrows from every direction. The spellsword responded swiftly with a backhand spin of her blade, sending out a blast of wind, scattering the arrows into the dirt. And so began the massacre. Most of the archers simply broke and ran, hoping to use their feet where their arrows could not save them, only to find a wall of flame rising up in front of them. Several of the warriors fell to their knees, begging for mercy and finding none. Within minutes, a single man was left on the ground, watching as pained eyes glinted at him in the firelight. “Who in Kindred’s name are you?” he demanded. “I don’t fucking know anymore.” Part 5 We took care of the easy jobs the next morning. Simple tasks that we got more by virtue of our destination than our skills. They tended not to pay too much, but it wasn’t like we intended to get rich, and they were reliable sources of income. After those, we spent the rest of the morning dealing with jobs that weren’t so easy, at least not for someone without our abilities. Finding people, mostly. Once we’d found everyone we needed to find, we settled in for a late lunch.
“Okay, so last item on the agenda,” Charlotte started, leaning back in her chair. “Logistics are gonna be tricky for this one, not to mention the obvious risks. How much use you have left, kid?” I held up my thumb and index finger, spaced not far apart, then put my other hand out flat and rocked it back and forth. “We’ll have to be careful, then. Can’t rely too much on it.” She took a moment to take another bite of her sandwich, then continued, “Which means safety protocols. Given the situation we’ll be walking into, I think keywords are the safest bet, yeah?” I nodded. Most likely of our system to avoid detection with maximum ability to communicate. Seemed like the logical choice. Not that it affected me all that much, most weren’t too good at understanding me. Charlotte took another bite of her sandwich. “Next up, we don’t know the floor plan or the positions of the people, and we don’t know what we don’t know about their security.” She frowned. “Sure would be nice if we could just ask them for the info.” An hour and a half later, we’d finished our overview and our lunch, and stood in the lobby of one of the governmental offices set up near the walls of the city. We’d changed, me in a heavy cloth shirt and pants, Charlotte in spiked, olive colored leather and lightweight dark gray steel, her eyes covered by a simple gold and silver visor sitting between the faceguards extending down from the circlet helm she wore. A clerk approached us, a young man who looked like he’d never fought a day in his life. “Captain Lamarck, if you’ll follow me?” Sounded like it, too. We followed the clerk through the halls to the back offices, arriving at a large oak double door reinforced with iron. The clerk reached out and pulled open not the massive oak door, but a smaller entrance set into the larger structure. Poking his head in, he announced, “Commander Haden, Captain Lamarck of the Nomads here to see you.” “Enter,” came the reply. “And you’re dismissed, Martin.” The clerk turned on his heel and began the trek back to the lobby, while I followed Charlotte into the office. Behind the desk stood a broad-shouldered woman with fiery red hair and deep brown eyes clad in full military dress, extending a hand towards Charlotte, a warm smile upon her face. “Haven’t heard from you in a while, Annette, since when did you make join the Nomads? And you made Captain, congratulations! Please, sit,” she gestured towards one the chairs in front of her desk. Charlotte didn’t sit. “I know you probably have business, but really, we must catch up!” Charlotte held her hand up, interrupting the Commander. She reached up to pull her helm from her head, the mask coming away with it. “Really, Sierra, I thought you’d still be able to recognize me.” The Commander stood, a puzzled look creasing her brow as she studied my companion’s face. “I-I’m afraid you have me at a bit of a loss. The only other one of Stephen’s daughters you remind me of is Charlotte, and of course, she’s dead.” Edited by XalkXolc, Oct 26 2016, 09:12 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| Rextreff | Oct 31 2016, 03:15 PM Post #5 |
|
Hoy, small fry
|
afa |
![]() |
|
| XalkXolc | Mar 16 2017, 02:50 PM Post #6 |
|
Lightning Ball goes Boom
|
Part 6 “Yeah, that’s what the reports said, isn’t it?” Charlotte replied. “But I’m back, Sierra. I’m not sure how, but I survived the ambush. It was a difficult time for me, but don’t worry about it. I’m here now, and I could use a little help.” Sierra, stared, thoughtful, the crease in her brow evening out just as her eyes dropped to the desk below. “I wish I could believe that,” she spoke, sorrowful eyes returning to the conversation. “But I didn’t get to be where I am today because I’m sentimental, girls.” She stood, matching Charlotte’s panicked rise in speed if not urgency. “Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t get the feeling this is some attack on Noxus or on me, in particular,” she continued as she drew a short, one-handed cavalry blade from a sheath leaning against the wall, “but it’s quite underhanded to prey on an old woman’s past to get what you want, and because of that, I’m not going to feel guilty about acting on my instincts.” Me? I was more shocked, than anything. We’d expected failure, that was no doubt, but no scenario in our heads could have played out quite like this was. This was a Noxian military installation, and there’d been no hint of intent to harm, so this? This came as a complete surprise. I backed away behind Charlotte, her mouth racing as she made her best effort to salvage the situation. “Please, Sierra, you don’t understand, I’m back, you don’t have to hurt us-” She sounded more...emotional than I’d ever heard her, but I really shouldn’t have been surprised. She was an excellent actor, despite her lack of training. Charlotte didn’t get much further into her pleadings before Sierra interrupted her, “the spatha’s a formality, ladies, and I get the feeling you’ll let it stay that way, or you would’ve drawn your blade by now. Get the excuses out of the way, I’ll wait.” “I- but, I-” this was...new. Charlotte, lost for words? She’d been confident that this would work, but even so, I’d expected her to be at least twice as prepared as I was for the worst case scenario, and this wasn’t even it. Sierra seemed nearly as confused as I was, at least. Why, I didn’t know, but it was somehow reassuring that I wasn’t the only one caught off guard. Sierra’s brow furrowed once more as she studied Charlotte’s paling face. The look in her eyes wasn’t annoyed or disappointed, to me, more...studious. “If you’re done,” Sierra spoke softly, “may we continue with the jailing process?” She placed her free hand on Charlotte’s shoulder, whose eyes, I noted, seemed quite a bit more empty than I’d ever seen them. If my confusion wasn’t bad enough already, Charlotte accepted the leading arm without complaint. I followed suit, of course, what was I going to do? As I followed Charlotte’s lead, we walked in silence in front of Sierra as she took us to the back of the station. Not very much more happened. Sierra promised us she’d be back tomorrow as Charlotte sat curled in the back corner of our shared cell, all but unresponsive. I simply nodded, still reeling a little from the sheer number of unexpected developments. What could I do now? All I really wanted to do was ask Charlotte what was going on, but that would probably prove pretty difficult in the state she was in right now. Besides, I got the feeling she wouldn’t take kindly to an intrusion. So what could I do? To answer my own question, I lay down on the hardwood bed and waited for tomorrow. Part 7 I barely got through half the night.
The crying didn’t help, what with it waking me up from my less-than-pleasant slumber, and the fact that it reminded me that reality was nearly as bad as my dreams had been. I was seriously out of my depth, here. I had no idea what I could possibly do, how I could possibly help. It felt like I sat there for hours, praying for rest while I stewed in self-pity. After an eternity of minutes lying awake worrying, I accepted I wasn’t getting anymore sleep. Instead, I sat up and made my way to the corner where Charlotte sat and sat down next to her curled up form, her face buried in her crossed arms as she sobbed quietly. Hardly a moment after I’d settled down, her head twisted up towards me, her breath still coming in stuttered steps. “Who’re you?” She managed between sobs. Well, wasn’t this a bind. I simply shrugged, giving the best answer I could. It wasn’t that far from the truth, after all, but it didn’t seem like it helped much. She simply started sobbing again, twice as hard. I slumped down on the wall, trying to think of anything that could help me make sense of what she was going through. If I could understand the problem, maybe I could approach it. And as little as it’d done, her question had given us both one thing, at least. A hint, a clue for me to use. It wasn’t much, but the fact that she hadn’t recognized me reminded me of the first time Charlotte and I met, how she’d thought that maybe she’d picked me up in a drunken stupor. If this was a similar situation, then...maybe I was seeing someone I hadn’t met yet. Her face, too, had been one I didn't really recognize, now that I thought about it. Even though I hadn’t been traveling with her for that long, I liked to think that I knew Dienna and Charlotte’s faces. Presumptuous, yes, and probably oversimplifying both of them, but that didn’t make it feel any less true. This face, it didn’t really fit with either of them. Even when I imagined what either of them would look like scared and depressed, it simply wasn’t the same person who sat to my right, tears soaking her sleeve. So, someone new, then. Someone I, infuriatingly enough, probably wouldn’t be getting to know much about, if my experience so far proved anything. Figuring all this out didn’t actually help me much in terms of a solution, but it was at least something concrete. It let me move on from the impotence I felt, gave me the comfort of making some kind of progress. I had a hard time, at first, trying not to dwell on it, but once I stopped, I got to thinking instead. The good kind, the kind that makes you feel like you’ve discovered something afterwards. The two of us sat there for a long time, my mind wandering to ever-changing places even as my crying companion slowly slid towards silence. Edited by XalkXolc, Mar 16 2017, 04:42 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Fanfiction · Next Topic » |





7:15 AM Jul 11