She had not expected the rain. While she had no fancy hextech or magical apparatus to do so, Riven had always considered herself a fairly good judge of impending weather, and she'd taken the morning's overcast sky to be just that. She'd assumed the heavens would withhold their tears. Clearly it was too much to ask that the sky at least show mercy.

It wasn't that she couldn't handle the rain - shivering the heat out of her bones was not fun, but it was a struggle she could deal with - but her mental map of the Ionian countryside was already shit, and the pouring sheets of obscuring rain fucked it over completely. Still she trudged forward with confidence, weathered boots slogging through mud and mossy undergrowth, but doubts lingered. That she'd never once seen the cliff face she marched beside on any previous return to the abandoned farmstead she was calling home did nothing to reassure matters. Turning back however, would accomplish nothing but retrace a route she already knew to be wrong. So she moved forward.

She moved forward until the clouds dispersed and the rain died out and the sun illuminated the landscape like a sparkling woodland tapestry. And while Riven wouldn't deny it painted a pretty picture, she was still soaked and the temperature still freezing, and she'd never seen these flowering Ionian deciduous before. The ridgeline was still fixated on her left and behind her stood nothing familiar. Riven cursed. She moved forward.

Night fell fast, but Riven was undeterred. Wet and freezing, the nighttime chill could keep her eyes from opening if she ever dared to close them. The shadows obscured less than the rain had, and under the watchful gaze of a half-moon, Riven moved forward.

Light mingled with shadow in the mire of dawn when she found the scent and smoke. Fresh and acrid, it reeked of familiarity: the smoke of recent tragedy. The fog of death. She knew she should move forward - nothing good could come from interfering with Ionian affairs. Her heart turned her rightward and she followed the scent of sorrow into the woods.

Hidden amongst the trees, the human construct looked out of place even as it fell back to nature. Painted black by flames since stifled, the upperest reaches smouldered and smoked as they crumbled inwards. Smoke drifted freely despite the windless sky, ignorant of its nature - that a blaze that burned months ago could not do so still. An unnatural wound struck upon a nation. Stuck in time forever, unable - and unwilling - to heal. She should not move forward.

The interior of the scorched abode was blacker than blackened. Black ash fell from the ceiling, raining like ichor and choking out her vision. She sunk into the floor, flesh below her heart entombed by shifting sands of bone. Ghosts weighed her down, pushing her deeper into the skeletal quicksand. She could not turn - could not turn back. The way forward was clear.

At some point, bone became water. She hope it was water. It was too thick to be water.

The tide was up to her shoulders now, the water lapping at her neck. It reeked of copper and iron. The world was dark. Her eyes made out figures spawned from memory, false images to fabricate something shapeable in the depths of an unfathomable blackness. She could smell flesh burning and melting, the accompanying screams muted and distant, yet omnipresent. The only way was forward. Forward through the worst humanity had to offer, and the worst she had to offer humanity.

She coughed, spitting blood as she looked up from the transcendent blades impaling her again the cliffside, eyes flicking up to meet her ender's. The assassin's face was twisted into a pained grimace as her hands clawed streaks of blood into her forehead. Her vision narrowed as a different kind of blackness smothered her reality inwards until her eyes rolled upward, finally coming to rest on a single, twinkling star.

Serenity.

But no peace.

Trying something new. Expect many more short stories (as chapters) to follow, all chronological and moving forward from this point in time. Will only update on weekends until I'm done with my BMOQ course. Possibly more frequently after that ends (in 3-4 weeks). Will update at least once every weekend though, until it reaches its conclusion.