Ever since he’d seen it he’d been possessed of dreams that reminded him of it. The strange golden wheel sequestered beneath the leather veil. He was like a pirate gone mad with aspirations of wealth, the hidden treasure on the far away island. He had the map that led to the treasure, he saw it there in front of him, but the impassable jagged cliffs that guarded the isle were strong and unmoving, Sivir was ever vigilant. And the shrouding fog, the opaque cloth that guarded this most coveted relic, remained as an obstacle, too. His unhealthy obsession began as just a niggling thought, but now he was lost in the idea of what it could be, what unearthly potentials it could hold. Something round, something golden, something sharp, he’d think over and over, ruminating on ways to capture but a glimpse of this curious object. There was never a moment where it wasn’t close to Sivir, guarded by her or locked away just out of reach. Would she know that I looked at it? How would she feel? She seems protective of it, I don’t want to alarm her…

Enzo’s thoughts of looking quickly morphed into conniving deliberation. His intentions were no longer to see it, but to steal it. Enzo’s possessive and greedy instincts stole over him like a viral disease. He lost the perspective to see himself in the third person, where before he doubted himself he was utterly confident that this was the right thing to do. Enzo had to have it, if nothing else he had to touch it and understand it. To hold it, press his naked palm against the golden metal. Feel the sharp edges, cut himself upon them, perhaps. Yes, yes, That’s what I’ll do! But he couldn’t let her know of his intent. He had to be intelligent about this. Sivir was a perceptive woman, if he chanced taking it on their journey she would surely find out. He needed a distraction.

Once we arrive at the ruins, he thought, glancing towards the golden disc beyond the leather. He half nodded, looking ahead again. They were only a day's worth of travel from their destination, moving alongside the River Kahleek towards the ever encroaching borders of Icathia. The ever present source of clean water was a precious change of pace he didn’t wish to stray away from. The desert surrounding it was liberally sprinkled with life. Patches of weedy oasis grass and palm trees grew in the river’s periphery, providing emerald color to an otherwise stale tan-brown horizon. Sivir had been rather quiet for the majority of their journey, much to Enzo’s dismay. He thought about prompting conversation, that was his usual go-to when things got awkward. But decided against it, letting the dusty silence lie. Until she did herself…

“Hey, Enzo…”

“Yeah?” He craned towards her with an arched brow.

“How many of your kind are out in the world right now?” Sivir inquired, finally glancing in his direction.

He shrugged. “Uh- I don’t know? We kind of come and go as we please.”

“Oh. I always imagined you all were connected, being spirits and all.” Sivir turned away.

“We’re magical but not that magical.” Enzo laughed. “There are a few big name ones, though, you’ve probably heard of them.”

“The one from Demacia…” Sivir thought aloud.

“Poppy.” He nodded.

“Right… The Kinkou Yordle from Ionia.” Sivir added.

Enzo paused a moment, a Yordle from Ionia? He hadn’t heard of that one. He didn’t even know what “Kinkou” meant. His mind wandered with imaginations of what this yordle could look like, how it would behave and speak. Yordles embodied their environments more often than not. When he first arrived in the Freljord his fur was much darker, but the ever present snow forced him to evolve and adapt at a rapid rate. Something often forgotten in recent years.

“And that one Yordle from Noxus.” Sivir concluded.

“Kled.” Enzo said.

“Do you have any friends like yourself wandering about?” Sivir continued to pry.

“We’ve gone our separate ways.” Enzo sighed. The reminder of his friends was a bitter one and it wasn’t long before he was missing them again.

Sivir noticed his sudden distraughtness. “Was it a falling out?”

“No. We just had different priorities, I guess. Like I said, I’m trying to find myself… What about you?” Enzo looked up towards her as she jostled on her Camel.

“As you could imagine a mercenary doesn’t make a whole lot of friends. But I have acquaintances and business associates.” Sivir didn’t seem at all disturbed by her lack of companions.

“Family?”

“I have a… Grandfather… He’s the only one I keep in contact with regularly...” A smile played across Sivir’s features for a handful of seconds. “We don’t always agree on everything but he’s an interesting character, admittedly.”

Enzo’s eyes narrowed with casual suspicion. “Sounds interesting…”

“Oh, you don’t believe me?” Sivir scoffed.

“Nope.” Enzo replied blatantly.

Sivir turned to look ahead nonchalantly, dismissing his cynicism with a simple, “That’s fair.”

The duo couldn’t help but chuckle at that exchange, falling back into amused quiet after. Sivir was an intriguing woman, and for a moment Enzo questioned his plan to steal the golden wheel. But as quickly as the procrastination came it disappeared, dispelled by a fleeting look in it’s direction. He grumbled to himself, knowing he had to have it, and have it soon. Another night of rest found them both as they bedded down next to the trickling river on the soft grass at it’s banks. They forged a fire together with the kindling they’d bought from the capital, using strips of palm tree bark nearby to replenish their reserves.

His waking hours before bed were spent contemplating how exactly he would obtain the disk and his dreams were consumed with what exactly it was. A part of Enzo, a very small part, attempted to fight against this overriding urge, but like an instinctual need it had almost become subconscious. An uncontrollable and unexplained thing he was failing to fight against. Something round, something golden, something sharp. Something round, something golden, something sharp… He tossed in his sleep, waking restless and annoyed to the morning sun beating down on him. Night had come and gone in the blink of an eye, all the dreams felt as if they’d filtered through his head in a matter of minutes. He coughed away the idle sand around the edges of his mouth, feverishly meandering his way to the river so he could rehydrate himself.

Crunching sand prompted him to look over his shoulder, seeing Sivir standing over him. “You alright?” She asked.

“Fine, just… Thirsty…” Enzo splashed his face, wetting his cracked eyes. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t rid himself of this mental fog that plagued him. The cooling relief of the river waters had a hardly lasting impression. He struggled to his feet, turning to feed and water his Camel before they resumed their journey across Shurima.

“Good, take what you need and leave your Camel.” Sivir said before turning to her own. She slapped it on the behind, sending it galloping in an eastern direction.

“What? Why?”

Sivir turned and pointed south to the half silhouetted mountains framed in the sun’s illumination from the east. The western slopes were all drowned in dark shadow while the opposite halves had their ridges and inconsistencies exposed to the naked eye. What made him blink were the dark shapes that rolled across the bright sides of the mountain. He found it difficult to discern their true nature from this distance. They caught the light like obsidian but contorted unlike any sort of rock he’d ever seen... Then again he’d never been to Shurima, who’s to say they weren't naturally forming magical pieces of the topography? He had definitely seen stranger things elsewhere.

“Unless your Camel can climb cliffs and mountains…” Sivir jested.

Obsidian rocks aside he complied, gathering his essentials and valuables before following after her. Sivir’s wheel came with her, nestled onto her back. It was broader than her shoulders, resting there like a large Targe shield. Even still the truth of its appearance was hidden by the leather, he tried his best to look beneath the draping cloth but it was too long to see beyond, even for his diminutive height. He hid his interest well enough, dragging his totem behind himself. But Sivir was quick to stop him.

“Pick that up.” She snapped, quietly.

Enzo huffed, pulling it onto his shoulder. “Why so rude all of a sudden?” He mumbled, shaking his head.

“Sai Kahleek is a hunting ground.” Sivir replied.

“What? What do you mean?” His confusion mixed with growing nervousness as he looked about himself.

Sivir didn’t share his unease. “Void creatures that burrow beneath the sand hunt here; Xer’Sai.”

“That’s- Kind of something you should’ve told me before you brought me out here.” Enzo grunted, his frustration apparent.

“The Xer’Sai sense movement on the surface, the softer you step the harder it is for them to see. We should be fine.”

“Should be?” Enzo echoed, his ears wilting.

“Yes, should be, now shut up and keep an eye out.”

Fear crept into Enzo at the thought of predators lurking beneath his very feet. There were few things that worried such a carefree soul and the unknown was one of them. In the Freljord there were terrifying beasts, ancient Rimefangs that had mastered the element of cold through living in it for generations. Those stories he knew about, these Xer’Sai, he had no inkling of what they even looked like, how they came to be or the numbers they hunted in. Doubt found him soon after the fear as he shivered with each step forward, now understanding that his next step could be his last. He figured the “Sai” in ‘Sai Kahleek” was perhaps a warning to people who understood the language.

The desert was plain in this region, as they trekked on towards the mountains it became eerily flat. Enzo clung to the bits of brown rock that surfaced above the sand as much as he could, hoping they’d provided him with temporary immunity to the Xer’Sai’s tremor senses. He felt every dollop of sweat on his brow even past the fur, the heat paled in comparison to the butterflies that threatened to rupture out from his stomach. His heart steadily sunk into his gut the closer they came, which surely should’ve been the opposite. He was breathing heavy, trying his best to subdue his dread.

The walk across to the mountains was logically a few hours long, but in Enzo’s mind it had been nightless days since they left the river banks. Sivir led on, taking long but delicate strides, a luxury his shorter legs didn’t afford him. She had probably done this a thousand times over, he imagined. Conversation would likely ease the tension he was feeling but he couldn’t be sure the simple act of speaking wouldn’t draw these predators to him. So he didn’t. He juggled his map out of his travel pack as carefully as his trembling fingers would allow, peeling it open. They were days from the capital, he was sure of that. And maybe a few hours from the river? That meant they were at the heart of Sai Kahleek. A halfway point. There was still time to turn back.

He stowed his map just in time to see the parched bones of some beast half-buried in the sand. A saddle still clung to its crumbling ribcage. That was someone’s Camel. Enzo glanced about half-hoping he wouldn’t find the corpse of the rider somewhere nearby. And for a time he didn’t… It wasn’t until a few minutes after they encountered it that more skeletal remains reared their ugly heads. Literally. A pair of skulls, or what was left of them, were scattered to the sands alongside numerous bones. Hopeful adventurers perhaps? Tomb raiders, maybe? Or just a pair of lovers looking for refuge? No matter the case it disturbed him. He saw himself in those remains, Enzo and Sivir lost to Shurima’s expanse after having been devoured by bloodthirsty beasts, torn limb from limb, screaming in agonizing horror.

Every thump of his heartbeat deafened him. He could hear the hot blood surging through the veins that circulated through the sides of his head and to the very tips of his long ears. His eyes looked straight ahead past Sivir’s behind to the mountains beyond, then back. When he turned again his guide had stopped, lifting a hand to stop him, too.

“Don’t… Move…” Sivir cautioned, holding a finger to her lips.

Enzo froze, more from the fear than her command. If they’d stopped that meant those Xer’Sai were near. His heart impeded his hearing so severely he would’ve been none the wiser without Sivir. He almost would’ve been thankful had it not been her who put him in this situation to begin with. Enzo took measured breaths once again, so terrified he didn’t dare turn his head for fear it would send minute tremors that could be picked up by their hunters. Sivir slowly knelt, quietly digging her hands into the sand. Then she scanned in an eastward direction.

Enzo was quick to recognize a small cloud of dust on the horizon, a cloud of dust that seemed to streak through the desert just beyond the furthest dunes. That’s them isn’t it? Sivir reached into her belt, undoing the string on her coin purse. She got a handful of Securi, clasping it close for the moment. Enzo saw the dust cloud rolling ever closer, unmistakably in their direction.

“Sh-... Shouldn’t we be run-” He began, his voice raw and cracked only to be interrupted by her signage.

Sivir shook her head, placing two fingers towards her eyes and then out at the disturbance. “They’re just… Searching…”

Just searching… He nodded to himself, clutching his totem tighter. It wasn’t long before he could see shapes on the horizon. Jagged, purple fins that broke the surface of the sand something like Sharks surfing just beneath the Bilgewaters. The desert and the ocean were alike in many more ways than he realized or would’ve liked. Every so often sharp heads clad with dark teal chitin dipped up and back into the sand. Void creatures these certainly were, they shared no similarities with Shurima’s fauna. But more disturbing than that they shared no similarities with any animals he’d encountered in both Runeterra and Bandle City. They were entirely alien and Enzo only glimpsed one-third of their true form. He prayed to the Forgelord he would never encounter the other two-thirds.

They were close now, so close he could hear the parting sand as they blazed in their direction, heading towards what they likely saw as the last known location of their prey. He recognized two fins in total. Back in the Freljord wolves sent younger and quicker precursors to scout for potential prey. The thought that there were more of these nightmares waiting just beyond scared him worse than the pair of Xer’Sai currently charging in their direction. He contemplated running, but he was confident that would just get him killed. His only hope lie with this mysterious mercenary.

Sivir was supremely calm, collected and prepared. Enzo felt like less of himself having to trust utterly in this woman. Any mistake she made spelled death for them both. But her perceptive patience gave him at least some air of trust in her ability. She passed two coins from her palmful to her empty left hand with a deliberate lethargy, raising them up and behind her head slowly. She loaded back, her eyes glancing towards the approaching Xer’Sai. Enzo could hear the deep throaty clacking of these beasts muffled by the sand they swam through. Perhaps communicating with each other. His breaths fell short as they got closer.

Sivir waited, waited… When they were less than about sixty feet from the duo Sivir snapped her left hand forward, flinging the golden Securi westward. Then she fell still again. The motion seemed to excite the Xer’Sai and they quickened to investigate.

Forty feet…

Thirty feet…

Twenty feet…

Enzo exhaled, gripping onto his totem with both hands. He was ready to defend himself when they suddenly diverted in a southward direction. His shoulders slumped and he deflated, whole minutes worth of tension was expelled from his anxious body. Still Sivir didn’t move, waiting for them to go along. Another few minutes of standing still and Sivir threw another pair of coins north in the direction they’d come from, baiting them that way. Enzo watched as they gathered in that direction approaching the disturbance before sinking underground and back up again, exploding out of the ground to ambush nothing at all. An ear splitting screech cut into Enzo’s drums as the smaller of the two lifted its head and parted its jagged maw. Another far off shriek from the east replied. It sounded that much more terrifying than the last.

At that they turned and left back from whence they came. Sivir had them wait ten or twenty minutes before waving him along as she sprinted for the mountains. “That should buy us some time, let’s move!”

Enzo shouldered his totem and followed behind as fast as his tired body could carry him. His paranoid state had him checking over his shoulder every other second and it wasn’t long before he actually spied something. Three trails of sand kicked high into the afternoon sky. Sivir, nimble as ever, was three strides ahead of Enzo. But the mountain was that much closer, dominating his periphery with its breadth. They were almost there, almost there. Their violent screeching summoned more sand plumes further beyond them, alerting the rest of their pack that they’d found dinner.

Enzo’s frenzied escape left him fumbling over himself to keep up with Sivir. It was becoming more and more apparent he wasn’t going to make it to the safety of those rocks… Unless… He eyed the totem resting on his shoulder. The source of all his powers, the thing he’d crafted by hand, his only protection in the Shuriman wastes. But only an insane person would wager their weapon against their life. Enzo’s grip on it loosened a bit… And loosened some more… The moment it fell from his grasp it felt like a connection with the Forgelord had been severed. He grit his teeth, fighting back the urge to turn and retrieve it. He hoped it would be there on the return trip if anything.

The screeching grew an octave louder as Enzo reached the incline of the mountain, clambering up the rocks after Sivir. She made short work of each handhold, gaining ahead of him. She intelligently pushed them to the steepest fraction of the mountain. These Xer’Sai with their massive forward arms, claws and smaller hind legs weren’t conducive to climbing. In any other circumstance there would’ve been absolutely nowhere to run. The majority of them attempted to scramble up the sheer rock, failing. They raged at the bottom and finally Enzo could admire them from a relatively safe distance.

They were large, many times larger than a Freljordian wolf. Teal-blue chitin sharp and angular almost like ostentatious armor covered their heads, forearms and torsos, scaling across their humped backs. Their softer, hearty purple skin beneath nearly glowed with strange void energies and their mouths split at the bottom in a pair of pincer-esque mandibles. They had no eyes, or no eyes Enzo could see and their tall fins sloped down into wide and flat tails. Insectoid legs, two on each side, supported the weight of their rear. Enzo’s heart still raced as he pulled himself further to safety, focusing on finding the top of this mountain so he could be rid of that nightmare.

Enzo finally crested the cliff onto a small landing beside Sivir. For as headstrong and stoic as she’d been all afternoon he could see the relief easily in her tired expression. They rested, but only for a moment. Enzo looked down towards his totem at the bottom of the cliff with a heavy sigh only to turn his back on it. Sivir produced a curved blade from her hip, one of two, handing it down to the Yordle. He wasn’t much of a swordsman but this would have to do for the moment.

“We’ll come back for it.” Sivir assured him, then started to edge her way along the mountain side.

“So… Where are these ruins again?” Enzo asked, wanting to be done with this day.

“In these mountains. There was a city, Bai-Zek if I recall correctly. Story is this very mountain range collapsed with it.”

“Doesn’t look collapsed.” Enzo pondered aloud.

“... Hundreds of years ago?” She added.

“I mean, you’d think something like that would show in the present,” He shrugged, “But what do I know?”

“Nothing.” Sivir groaned.

“You’ve kept me in blissful ignorance this entire trip and now you're telling me I don’t know anything?” Enzo shot back with an accusatory finger.

“Some things you don’t need to know and some things you can assume.” She mumbled, leaving it at that.

Enzo rolled his eyes, not in the mood to debate after nearly losing his life. Another hour of ragged climbing and something within him stirred. Something about these lands felt strange, a gnawing numbness arose in his stomach, inexplicably eating away at him. At first he attributed it to his lack of breakfast or the lingering adrenaline from his encounter with the Xer’Sai, but even after gulping down some jerky the feeling persisted. It was then that he recognized one of those dark obsidian shapes. It wasn’t obsidian at all, but some sort of solid inky infestation. It clung to the mountain side, twisting along its face like dead veins. Beyond the black were faint traces of purple hidden in its mostly opaque exterior. It was curious how it warped and striated like a helix. But it was denser than that. He couldn’t rationalize it.

Beyond the rise of the mountain they found the ruins, scattered across the slope like precious stones half sequestered in dirt. These precious gems were Icathian houses, long lost to the elements. They were but remnants of their former glory. The portions of this ancient city that hadn’t been buried in rock and sediment were on the verge of collapse. Bai-Zek, or what remained of it, wasn’t all too dissimilar to Shuriman architecture. Though of course modern Shurima and ancient Shurima differed greatly. Beyond the mountain and across the ravaged wasteland plains of Icathia was more inky infestation. It ran across the sands, blanketing it and great stocks of dark nothingness arose from the earth, spilling out onto the ancient grounds of the once great empire now ruined. Enzo watched as massive creatures many times bigger than the Xer’Sai mingled miles and miles away. His eyes averted back to the ruins, not wishing to even attempt to comprehend or discern what he just saw.

Sivir cursed beneath her breath as he turned back towards her. “Shit…”

“What?”

“There are others here…” She gestured towards the awnings, tents and idle mining equipment.

He looked beyond that to the largest ruins. Some sort of temple with a small golden disk crowning its architecture. Tapestries on its exterior half whisked away by cutting winds depicted images of the sun and humble worshippers knelt in its godly rays. He paused a moment. “Probably in there.” He whispered.

“Then what we’re looking for is inside.” Sivir nodded. “We do this quietly.” She unsheathed her second blade at that.

Enzo nodded and they worked their way down towards the temple, hearing the clinking of pick axes against stone beyond its walls. Sivir and Enzo prepared for a confrontation, wrapping around to one of the many holes in the temple’s exterior only to find it was empty, almost completely so. An old staircase swept of sand and rubble led down, giving life to the clinking they’d heard a moment ago. Sivir led again, descending into the darkness. Their nose was immediately greeted with all too familiar stench of rotting corpses. It was some sort of mausoleum, or that was Enzo’s best assumption.

The staircase led them further down where they could hear voices. Small talk between seemingly ordinary people gossiping about someone they referred to as the “Prophet.” Sivir gave pause at that but continued nonetheless. Enzo hardly noticed, descending until they reached the base of the stairs. Purple flame burning in metal braziers lit their way forward. The eerie sensation in his stomach clawed into his intestines, seeding him with a numb desire to devour. This feeling was unlike the other need to steal away the golden wheel. It stemmed from somewhere else… Or something else…

They encountered the first miner. He was none the wiser to Sivir’s swift advance and with half a hand motion she stole his head from his shoulders, catching the pick he dropped just before it hit the ground. Enzo followed immediately after her to the next figure in line. A man wearing a maroon cloak with a strange glowing purple gem pressed into his forehead. Enzo used the lowest corpse shelf along the wall, ticking off of it and up to push the tip of his sword through his head and out the other side. The moment he died the gem became dull and his lifeless corpse hit the ground.

Further in and more of these miners were felled one after the other. Enzo was no stranger to taking a life but he hadn’t even stopped to ask himself who these people were? Or why they were here? This job was supposed to be a simple delve into ancient ruins, but it had turned out to be anything but simple. His procrastination was stowed as they arrived in a sunlit room. Brilliant rays of the setting sun fell on a massive golden disk nestled into a circular stone platform set above and surrounded by an empty mote. Golden caskets lined the rounded walls, adorned with all kinds of Shuriman iconography. The majority of them were open, their mummified corpses left at the bottom of the mote while their valuables lie on a wooden table at the center of the room, being inspected by a strange hooded figure.

He turned at their arrival. His maroon hood and cloak were grander than his deceased counterparts. Clustered into the stitching of the hood were three glowing purple gems, and beneath them a pair of glowing purple eyes. Wrappings covered this curious man’s features, leaving him mostly a mystery. Baggy blue-purple robes adorned him and metal gauntlets sleeved his forearms and hands. Without warning he began to levitate a foot off the ground, folding his arms with an ostentatious confidence.

“The Void warned me of your arrival.” His voice was multilayered and malevolently ethereal, spoken with a voracious and violent undertone.

Enzo took a step forward, feeling the hunger grow at hearing this man’s voice. It carried into his ears strangely, making him feel unclean in an mystifying way. But he was intrigued, this man’s tone of voice subtly implied his intellect, he knew something Enzo didn’t know.

“You sense it don’t you, little one? The Void’s beck and call. You seek enlightenment…” He laughed snidely. “Purpose…”

“You-” Enzo began, but was cut short.

“Oh, yes! I do know.” He nodded with eager excitement. “The Void sees all. For to devour all, to destroy all, to conquer all requires one to see all, know all - hate all. This is why they have deemed me the Prophet!”

“If you know so much then you know what I seek.” Sivir interjected. Enzo heard the billowing of cloth. “Give it to me.”

“The harbingers of blood have seen value in what I seek here? But which item in particular is the question…” He splayed his hands out to his sides at all the curious items sat on the table behind him.

Enzo finally turned to see it. That wheel, that disk. It was magnificent. It wasn’t a wheel but a weapon, a disk with four crescent blades that spun around its edges and a center that swirled with purple-red light. Something beyond beckoned to him in that light, that portal beckoned to him still. And suddenly he knew where he’d seen it from, or something similar. The etching along the rounded face, the filigree and the symbols. That looked just like Lois’ dagger. Sivir blinked and one eye burst with a maelstrom of ghostly blue light. A trickling red haze trailed from it, fleeting across the corner of that single eye.

“All of them.” Sivir’s chin fell as a creeping smile split her lips, her voice possessed with a sudden depth and violence not of her own.

“Do you see now, little one? This woman carries an aura of betrayal. She brought you here to use you and dispose of you.” The man declared, looking towards Enzo. “She is a bloodletter, possessed of a demonic spirit and given a task by her masters.”

Enzo blinked hard, is that true? He hardly knew this man but his words were persuasive. She had dragged him out here past the Xer’Sai without telling him much of anything. He took a few cautious steps from the woman, backing his way across the bridge that led to the round platform this Prophet defended.

“See how her eyes glow? See how the disk glows? Look at her smile, a serpent’s grin. She lied to you and she doesn’t even care to conceal that fact.”

“That matters little...” Sivir laughed. “You won’t be alive very long, anyways.”

His realization was short lived. Sivir spun and delivered her disk with all the accuracy of a throwing star but with six times the size. It streaked with violent red energies, arcing around to Enzo’s flank like a curveball before doubling back in his direction. He had nothing to protect from such an attack, hoping only to duck it when it did arrive. But it turned out he wouldn’t have to. The stranger stepped forward, shielded by a purple arcane forcefield. When the disk made contact it glanced off, sending magical sparks glittering into the air.

The man retorted with a beam of light projected directly from his glowing eyes. It came to a point, focused its energies and shot in the woman’s direction before her weapon could spiral back to herself. She leapt aside as the beam swept the entryway, burning stone in its path to leave a molten streak across the far wall. Without his totem he was useless so Enzo relegated himself to the far side of the platform. Eventually the disk returned to Sivir and she caught it, hovering it above her palm by its glowing center.

The blinding red light trail lingered in the air a moment after she captured it, spinning its crescent blades about before unleashing it again. This time she followed immediately after it. The prophet stood his ground, firing a beam of purple light directly at the projectile to disrupt its flight path. The beam sent it spinning end over end but Sivir was agile enough to leap up and grasp it, coming down with a whirling cut towards the mage. He shunted himself backwards and sent a blast of void energies licking out of his palm. Sivir used her disk to parry it aside, following her last attack with two more gnashing cuts from left to right, above the head and back around.

The prophet summoned his arcane shield to absorb the first blow, countering the second with another well timed blast that caught Sivir in the stomach, launching her backwards and towards the edge of the platform. Enzo was a lost spectator in all this, unsure of who to side with still. In the meantime Sivir collected herself, teeth grit and breathing violently. She ran her arm along one of the blades, spilling her own blood to empower her weapon. The crescent on it came alight with a baleful red glow. She spun in place and slung her disk before another apperated in her hand and another after that. Three disks ricocheted around the room, buckling the already weak supports and vaulted ceiling.

In the chaos the Prophet channeled his otherworldly powers into a gleaming circlet on the floor beneath Sivir. But she was fast enough to take a running start, leaping away from its area of effect and directly into a kick that sent the man spiraling off the platform and into the empty mote below. She moved to the table, collecting the artifacts while her disks still swarmed in the room like angry insectoids. Ironically enough an insect-like chittering found Enzo’s ears. Up from the mote she had just cast the prophet down came a tide of strange voidling creatures, not unlike the Xer’Sai he’d escaped from earlier. At first he was petrified, preparing to run when they swept past him intent on stopping Sivir.

The ceiling of the subterranean room began to crumble, bits of rubble falling to crush several voidlings at a time. The prophet ascended as Sivir summoned a single disk back to her, dispelling the other two. She was halfway to the exit when the prophet sent a beam in her direction, a beam that was deflected by her disk, thrown over her shoulder to protect her exposed back. The man neared Enzo, producing his palm for the Yordle to grasp. He wouldn’t make it out of here alive by the time it all came down, so he gambled and took it, shutting his eyes tightly.

Sivir’s chest heaved with frustration as she was thrown through space and time to end up in a massive hall complete with a glowing ceiling mural of the lunar cycle. She stood on a golden platform over a massive pool of blood, hooded figures mingling in the grand hall around her. She stowed her disk and threw her head back to let go a wrathful wail. Her voice, possessed of the violent spirit within her, shook the still surface of the blood - sending it geysering up into the air in response to her rage. Every hooded figure turned, looked and fled - knowing well what could come next if they remained.

Sivir blinked, bottling the entity back into herself for the time. Then she retrieved her mask from her travel pack. Her domino was special, framed with gold and only covering the right half of her beautiful visage, two fraying black-red horns curled up and back over her long black locks. The symbol of the Blood Moon was painted beautifully on the forehead of her vizard. She started through the Hidden Monastery back to the barracks, making herself presentable before she approached his office. She inhaled, exhaled… Then knocked. A voice called out to her not but a second later.

“Enter.”

So she entered, sliding back the door to step inside and slide it closed again before turning and bowing deeply. “Master.” She whispered.

“Sister Aijin, welcome home. I trust your mission was successful?” The country drawl of her Master proceeded his appearance as he stepped out from a side room, dressed in his finest robes, mask adorned.

“Uh- Not entirely, Master. I’ve acquired the artifacts but the target you’ve asked me to kill... I don’t believe he’s dead.” She remained bowed, too ashamed to lift her head.

“Show them to me.” He demanded.

She nodded and stepped forward, avoiding eye contact. From her pack she placed six golden disks onto his office table, as many as there were coffins, each of them with unique symbols. Then she retreated. He picked each one up, pressing his palm to them, inspecting them. He blinked slowly, looking up at the woman, utterly unamused.

“There are six, where’s the seventh?” He asked.

“Master… I- I only saw six coffins and six artifacts. I brought what was available.” She assured him, gulping hard in response.

“Are you lying to me, Sister Aijin?”

“No, no I would never, Master! The Cult of the Void was there, Malzahar was there, perhaps he-” She stammered, only to be cut off.

“Perhaps he fooled you? Perhaps he did exactly what you know he is capable of; Divining the future and preparing for it?” He leaned back in his chair, his voice full of measured frustration.

“It was foolish of me, Master! I will make amends, I--...” She felt the blood in her system surge her upright and into attention, locking her in place, eyes wide open.

“And have you discerned the location of Sister Nehel’s company?” He grumbled.

“Nghhnn- Nooo… Master…” She struggled, feeling her throat squeeze with growing blood pressure. “Sister Haken and I-”

“Excuses!” He shot up from his chair, forcing her down onto her knees. “You have failed me on every front, you are supposed to be my most gifted disciple yet here you are having learned nothing from my training! You know how important that seventh disk is, you know how important Nehel is to my plans! When we conquer Runeterra there will be nothing left but the Void and the Shadow Isles to stand in our way! Tell me why I shouldn’t have your soul unbound?!”

His grip on Sivir loosened and she could breathe again, sputtering violently until she gathered herself. “Master, I will do whatever it is you want me to do, I will kill whoever it is you want me to kill! Simply point me in a direction! You have my undying loyalty and devotion to the Blood Moon, I swear it! I swear!!”

His grasp fleeted and she was left bowing on the floor before his office desk. “This task will be handed down to another, you are unfit to handle missions of this caliber. Return to your duties, Priestess Aijin.”

“But, Master…” She whimpered, looking back up at him with teary eyes. “Please…”

“You’ve disappointed your kin, Sister Aijin. Leave my office.” He said in finality.

Sivir sobbed, stumbling her way towards the door. She escaped into the hallway and back into her quarters only to collapse onto the fur rug, overcome with embarrassment and sadness.

“This is your fault!” Sivir shouted. “If it weren’t for you we’d have noticed the missing disk!”

“So quick to lay blame… And what of the other objectives I had no hand in?”

Sivir couldn’t rightly answer that question without lying. So she cried, she crawled into her bed and cried alone. Searching for a way to right her wrongs and fall back into Master’s favor again. None of it was my fault, none of it could have gone any different! How could I have known Malzahar was going to be there?!

“There, there, sweet girl. We’ll figure something out...”