The Elementalist Tales: Before
Hey guys! Sorry for the late post, but I had to make sure this one was as good as I could make it. After all, it's the meeting of my two main characters, from two different timelines.
Here's the link to the main page, if you wanted it, by the way ...
I've deviated a bit from my usual style in some places - and you may or may not pick up on my Easter eggs regarding two other Boards fanfic writers - but hopefully you still enjoy this one.
On to the crossover event! Let the games begin! (Ok, I was kidding, no Hunger Games-like scenarios are involved, but anyway ... on the the tale!)
Lux’s eyelids fluttered open. Ah, it’s been a while since I felt well-rested, she thought, stretching out in her … wait, she wasn’t in a chair.
Lux bolted out of her seat as she realized she’d fallen asleep in her throne room, and possibly in front of citizens.
She looked wildly about the room, searching for watchers, but the only person she saw as Garen, chuckling softly.
“Hey! Cut that out!”
He kept laughing. Lux glared at her brother, trying to get him to stop, but it only made it worse.
Finally, after receiving a particularly nasty death stare from his sister, Garen quieted.
“Sorry, sis, but that was hilarious. You almost never fall asleep in the middle of the day, and I was tempted to watch your reaction once you woke up. That was priceless.”
Lux gave an annoyed noise and said, “You should have woken me up! Please don’t tell me I fell asleep on anyone!”
Garen thought about it for a moment, and then said, “Well, actually the entire Council was here, wanting to hold a meeting…”
“GAREN!!!”
“Ok, ok, I’m kidding,” her brother amended. “Nothing happened, no one was here, you didn’t fall asleep on an unsuspecting civilian. You’re fine.”
Lux sighed, relaxed, and sat back in her throne. The thing actually was pretty comfy – some recent ruler had installed cushioning so that her or she wouldn’t have to sit pressed against the cold, uncomfortable metal, as was expected of a ruler while any civilians or Council members were present. That didn’t mean she didn’t have to sit rigidly on the throne whenever someone was present, though, and Lux did not like that at all. But while it was just Lux and her guardian, or a family member or friend, she could relax.
Suddenly, in the center of the throne room, a blue portal bloomed into being. Garen yanked his sword out of its sheath, and Lux reached for her staff. Her parents had given it to her the day she’d been chosen for the Trials. The staff amplified her power and made it easier for her to use the elements – and her parents had also told her that it would grant her the ability to expel elemental power in one massive blast, to be directed how she wished. So far, she’d had no reason to test that out. However, staring at the mystery portal, Lux had a feeling she might be trying it today.
But before she or Garen could do anything, the portal pulsed, and out jumped a young woman with pale skin and long, dark, blood red hair. She held two identical daggers, the sheaths for which were strapped across her back, and her outfit appeared to be a blue and gold uniform, with a symbol that almost reminded Lux of a wing – a circle with three curved lines jutting off to the left. She also wore a silver ring that looked like a circle of miniature throwing daggers.
But what struck Lux the most were the woman’s facial features – in particular, her eyes. The left eye, a brilliant green color, bore a scar running from just above her cheekbone, over her eyelid, and through her eyebrow to the bottom of her forehead. The right eye, on the other hand, was unlike anything she’d seen before. The iris was composed of three circles – the innermost and outermost circles a pure snow white, and the middle an inky blue-black.
The mystery woman blinked, noticing Lux and Garen. For a moment, she seemed at a loss for words, but then sheathed her daggers in one swift motion and said, “Sorry about that. I wasn’t sure where that portal was going to take me.”
Lux found herself nodding.
“It’s fine,” she finally managed to say. “If I were you, I’d probably do the same thing. But, if you don’t mine my asking … who are you?”
“Oh … Right. I’m Katarina Crownguard,” the woman replied. “But you can call me Kat.”
“Nice to meet you, Kat,” Lux said. “The guard to my left is my brother, Garen, and I am Luxanna, Queen of the Elemental Kingdom. But I prefer Lux.”
Kat blinked again, and then pulled out two crystals from a pouch hanging around her waist Lux hadn’t noticed before. One was a lovely shade of green – not the same as Kat’s eye, but still a nice color – while the other was a ruby red. Kat paused for a moment, and then said, “I think my companions should see this, so I’m going to throw those back through the portal to tell them to come.”
“As long as they don’t come with their weapons swinging, I’m fine with that,” Garen finally said. Lux noticed that her brother was staring at Kat, and she couldn’t quite place the look on his face – partially because she’d never seen a look like that on Garen’s face before.
Kat nodded, and said, “That’s why I’m throwing both.” She then proceeded to toss the crystals through the blue portal, which pulsed again as the two objects passed through.
Once the crystals vanished, Kat turned back to face Lux, and said, “I came here because I wanted to w-”
But before she could finish her sentence, the portal pulsed violently, and two more figures burst through, with very similar uniforms to the one Kat wore. But the two figures had different weapons – in fact, one of them had his weapon drawn and looked like he was about to plunge into battle.
Kat turned to the offender and said, exasperated, “Garen-”
Both Lux and Garen froze in place. Did Kat mean him, or the man who had just come through the portal?
“- I TOLD you not to come running through like I was in mortal danger,” Kat finished. “That’s why I threw both crystals.”
“Katarina Du Couteau Crownguard,” the man – whose name was possibly Garen – replied, “I told you to throw the red crystal if you were in danger, and since you did throw it, I assumed you needed help!”
“Wow, he’s mad,” the other new arrival, a young woman with light blond hair and blue eyes, and who reminded Lux eerily of herself, commented. “He’d never use ‘Du Couteau’ otherwise.”
“Not helping, Lux,” Kat sighed.
Lux froze again. Did Kat mean her or the new young woman?
“I threw both,” Kat finished, sounding a bit frustrated. “That was because you two needed to see this! Look!”
The man and his companion finally took a minute to look around them. And the expressions on their faces went from worried to jaw-dropping astonishment in record time.
As the two stepped closer, still examining their surroundings, Lux finally got a good look at them. The man looked almost exactly like her brother – tall and bulky, dark brown hair, fair skin – and he had a very similar- looking broadsword as well. The only difference was a silver ring on his finger that looked almost exactly like the broadsword.
The young woman didn’t look as much like Lux herself as the man looked like Garen. Her hair was more of a yellow blond, and the staff she carried was different from Lux’s, but otherwise they looked similar – especially the blue eyes.
The queen’s attention drifted back to Kat, who was muttering something under her breath.
“Let’s see, how should I go about doing the introductions here?” Kat asked, more to herself than to Lux or the others in the room.
After a moment, she nodded to herself and said, “Okay, so … Mr. and Miss Crownguard, these two people are Queen Luxanna and her guardian, Garen…”
The two newcomers looked extremely confused. “Wait, what?” the man who Lux guessed was “Mr. Crownguard” asked.
Before she answered him, Kat finished with, “… and, Queen, these two crazy people are Lux and Garen Crownguard, my sister-in-law … and my husband.”
Lux barely heard other-Lux complain about being called crazy. Her own mind was spinning.
These two newcomers were somehow herself and her brother, but from another timeline … but who had opened the portal? And why would Kat bring Garen’s and her own other selves with her?
And if Kat was married to other-Garen, did that mean her brother was destined to find a Kat from their own timeline?
Lux could finally place the look on her brother’s face. He was smitten with this girl he’d never seen before, and now …
She took another look at her brother, and was shocked to see a hint of … jealously on his face. Garen never got jealous, even when she had been the spoiled child all these years.
But, as she watched her brother watch the red-haired girl and her other-Garen, Lux couldn’t help but wonder …
“Excuse me for the odd question,” Lux started, “but … if there’s two versions of my brother and me, then what about you? Is there a version of you here?”
Kat smiled, and shook her head. “For some reason, I’m unique to my own timeline. I honestly have no idea why, but I’m not going to take the time to figure out why right now. Maybe it has something to do with how the stone artifact I used to create this portal” – she gestured at the blue portal behind her – “just appeared in the king’s dungeon.”
The queen was going to ask another question, but then noticed that her brother’s staring had become obvious. Other-Garen had wrapped an arm possessively around Kat and was staring back.
“Boys,” Lux said with a sigh, exactly at the same time other-Lux did. The two of them paused, and then both burst out laughing. Our laughs are almost identical somehow, Lux thought. But – and she didn’t mean to be rude – hers is more annoying than mine. And mine is pretty bad.
The two Garens and Kat were wincing at the laughing, so Lux calmed herself, as did her alternate-timeline self. As she did, a new question appeared in her mind, and she asked after a moment, “Why’d you try to create a portal here, anyway?”
Kat gulped, and then said, “You might find this hard to believe, but … I was sent here by an angel.”
Lux blinked, confused. “What?”
Kat sighed, and said, “Let’s see … how do I put this so that I don’t sound a hundred percent crazy? So, a few days ago, I ran into a girl in silver and gold armor and who had what seemed like an endless supply of weapons. She had swords, a dagger, an enchanted bow and elemental arrows, a shield, a scythe, and more – name any weapon, and she probably has at least one of that too. But the first thing that struck me was the marks on her hands. Her hands … they each had a glowing spiral mark on the palm. So I’m not sure why the wings surprised me, considering the marks on her palms.”
Kat paused, and Lux could tell that she was checking that Lux didn’t think she was crazy, before continuing with, “She told me to come here and warn you that danger was coming to your lands. That a race of strange creatures that somehow controlled the elements would invade your kingdom and leave your lands in ruins, your loved ones dead, and you struggling to regain control of your powers as they controlled your body, mind and soul.”
Lux was speechless. But before she could say anything, Kat added on, “To be honest, the disaster might not be as bad as what she showed me.”
“Showed you?”
Kat said carefully, “She somehow controls time, and can see events in timelines long before or after they happen. Sometimes, she can even alter them. But, because I didn’t believe her at first, she used her time-controlling powers to show me a vision of what was going to happen here. And to be honest … it looked terrifying."
She paused again before finishing, “So, of course, being the only person who could both maybe open a portal here and care enough to warn you, since Ryze hasn’t been very helpful outside of collecting World Runes lately, I had to warn you, for what it’s worth.”
Kat paused for a moment, and Lux could tell she was visibly debating adding in another piece of information. In the end, the red-haired woman did.
“Maybe someone will make a choice that somehow prevents the invasion. After all, as she explained it, the future portions of timelines aren’t set in stone, and can be changed by choices. So maybe it won’t happen. But … I couldn’t just keep living my life as usual, knowing I could have warned another timeline. So … we’re here.”
Lux was speechless. She didn’t know what to do with all the information Kat had just dumped on her. To her right, Garen had started pacing, which was an indicator that he was majorly worried about this. Garen almost never paced, unless there was a life-or-death situation he had to deal with.
Finally, Lux settled on choking out, “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I’m sure we’ll be able to take the proper precautions, now that we’ve been warned.”
The Crownguards – all three of them – looked relieved that their message had gone through without much difficulty.
Lux added, “I’m sure you’ve got more than enough to worry about already, considering the amount of power you have. What sort of magic user are you, anyway, if you can create portals to other timelines?”
Kat quickly corrected, “I myself can’t open a portal here. I needed that stone artifact I mentioned earlier in order for this to work. But … I’m kind of the center of issues back in our timeline, because of the type of magic I have.”
Lux asked, her curiosity piqued, “What do you mean?”
Kat grimaced, and then said, “I’m called a mirror mage. I have the ability to copy other mages’ magic perfectly, down to the smallest detail, to the point where not even a trained eye could tell the difference.”
Lux, feeling a bit confused, asked, “I don’t understand – what about your power makes it such an issue?”
Kat grinned for a second before saying, “So … first, people thought my power didn’t exist, that it was just a myth. At first, I did my best to keep my power hidden, because not only is my ability powerful, but I’m also trained as an assassin, which makes me even more valuable. But then a power-hungry emperor and his nemesis found out I was a mirror mage, and tried to tear me away from my faction and the people I loved. And believe me, I didn’t respond to that well.”
Other-Garen said with a smile, “She kicked their butts all the way back to Shurima, and it was extremely amusing to watch … at least, after I made her apologize for attacking them alone, without an actual plan.”
Lux wasn’t sure what Shurima was, but didn’t ask. Instead, she let Kat continue.
“That was the big issue – a worldwide war nearly ignited because of me alone, and I’m still doing my best to prevent it from becoming a possibility later on down the road. But there are other issues that I’m trying to help with – a crazy criminal from Zaun has teamed up with a government-pardoned psycho murderer from Ionia, and they’re causing hell for the Ionian ninja order that’s trying to stop them. Rumors are flying that the faction I razed to the ground with my rebellion is trying to pull itself back together somehow. Bilgewater is still having issues due to a pointless conflict between a pirate king and a bounty hunter with a personal vendetta against him. And there’s probably more issues that I forgot about … but I won’t bore you any longer with my own troubles.”
Lux considered sharing her own story, but then was distracted by the portal. It pulsed lightly, and then a boy’s head popped out.
The boy was dark-skinned, but with white hair in a strange style Lux had never seen before – all of his hair was combed upwards into a ridge that ran along the center of his skull. A white hourglass-like design was painted over his forehead, nose and cheekbones, and his brown eyes stared in wonder at the scene present.
“Hey, who’s your fourth wheel there?” Lux asked curiously.
Kat spun, saw the mystery boy, and cursed. The boy pulled his head back to whatever timeline the Crownguards had come from, and other-timeline Garen raced back through the portal, yelling, “Get out of here, Zaunite!”
But before anyone else could move, time seemed to freeze. The whole world took on a greenish-blue sheen, and Lux suddenly felt the sensation of time being rewound, of memories being reversed, erased …
Lux’s eyelids fluttered open. Ah, it’s been a while since I felt well-rested, she thought, stretching out in her … wait, she wasn’t in a chair.
Lux bolted out of her seat as she realized she’d fallen asleep in her throne room, and possibly in front of citizens.
She looked wildly about the room, searching for watchers, but the only person she saw as Garen, chuckling softly.
“Hey! Cut that out!”
He kept laughing. Lux glared at her brother, trying to get him to stop, but it only made it worse.
Finally, after receiving a particularly nasty death stare from his sister, Garen quieted.
“Sorry, sis, but that was hilarious. You almost never fall asleep in the middle of the day, and I was tempted to watch your reaction once you woke up. That was priceless.”
Lux gave an annoyed noise and said, “You should have woken me up! Please don’t tell me I fell asleep on anyone!”
Garen thought about it for a moment, and then said, “Well, actually the entire Council was here, wanting to hold a meeting…”
“GAREN!!!”
“Ok, ok, I’m kidding,” her brother amended. “Nothing happened, no one was here, you didn’t fall asleep on an unsuspecting civilian. You’re fine.”
Lux sighed, relaxed, and sat back in her throne. The thing actually was pretty comfy – some recent ruler had installed cushioning so that her or she wouldn’t have to sit pressed against the cold, uncomfortable metal…
Wait… Something felt out of place. Almost as if something was about to happen…
“Garen?”
“Yes?”
Lux swallowed, and then asked, “Is there like a meeting or something that’s about to start?”
Garen shook his head. “Not that I know of. Why?”
Lux sighed and said, “I can’t explain it, but I feel like … like something’s supposed to happen right now, and in here. Actually, right there.”
Lux pointed at the center of the floor, but nothing happened.
“Your brain must be going haywire today,” Garen suggested. “First, you fall asleep in the middle of the day, which you’ve never done before in your entire life, and then you think there’s a meeting that doesn’t exist.”
“Maybe you’re right, and I just need this day to be over.”
Lux closed her eyes and thought, Maybe I need to sleep a bit longer…
Ekko sprinted through the Demacian streets, hoping he’d lost his tail. The Vanguard leader had looked pretty angry when he’d seen Ekko grab the stone artifact and run for the exit. Ekko half expected his fellow champion to follow him all the way back to Zaun just so he could reclaim the stolen item.
Ekko wasn’t entirely sure what he’d stolen, but he believed it was the key to perfecting his Z-Drive and finally going back in time to stop the one event he’d always wanted to change –Ajuna’s murder.
No matter how hard he’d tried – he’d used the Z-Drive at least a hundred times that night – he’d never gotten there in time to save the boy’s life. When Ajuna’s murderer had destroyed the Z-Drive with his shiny Piltover toy, Ekko had snapped, knowing there were no more chances, and killed the man in cold blood. He’d also made it to Ajuna in time to hear his friend’s last words, and stay with the boy as he died.
But ever since then, Ekko had vowed to never be too late. And despite the fact that he’d successfully done that since then, he still considered losing Ajuna a personal failure. He should have noticed sooner that the boy had been gone too long, that something was wrong. But he’d turned the Z-Drive on too late. And the Z-Drive, even though it was currently incredibly strong, still could only rewind to whenever he last turned it on.
But this artifact … it could be the key. It had amplified the Mirror Mage’s abilities and allowed her to travel to another timeline to warn of a coming doom. So, if it was compatible with the Z-Drive…
He might finally be able to save Ajuna. And all these years he’d spent searching for a way to do that would not be in vain.
I bet that didn't end the way you expected ... and, if you're wondering, yes, because of Ekko's rather ... unhelpful intervention, this didn't actually happen. (I really hope no one scrolled to the bottom before reading and saw this spoiler...)
Once again, the link to the main page ...
Anyway ... I'll be posting the next couple tales at random times, so keep your eyes out for the next installment of The Elementalist Tales!
Thanks again, and see you on Summoner's Rift! (Or Twisted Treeline, or Howling Abyss, or Crystal Scar - ha, I can actually say that this weekend because of Ascension! - or wherever.)
