[Story] Noxus: A Revelation - Part I
Noxus: A Revelation - Part I
The hooded man silently crept along the narrow alleyways he knew all too well. In his hand was a sharpened blade, one of many he carried. His hood was blue, with dried blood running along the edges. As he slowly continued forward, he treaded lightly on the stone ground, as to not make any noise. Along the way, the only noise around was the scurrying of the rats and other vermin that lived around this area.
Suddenly, he saw his target: an elderly man wearing expensive white silk, holding a official-looking paper, sticking out in the darkness like a beacon. It was clear that he didn’t belong in the slums of Noxus, and he clearly showed this on his face, full of contempt. Judging by his continually tapping foot and constant looks left and right, he was waiting for something. Before he could be spotted, the hooded man crouched behind a rotting box. After a moment, he peered out again from behind it. Unfortunately, the elderly man didn’t come alone. Slouched against the wall a few feet away from him were two guards, barely visible. They were both wearing black armor, so in the dark he hadn’t seen them. They seemed less annoyed and more bored than the elderly man, but they still were looking around.
“Shit.”, the hooded man whispered. This was going to be much tougher than he had anticipated. Pulling his cloak up, he began to think of possibilities. He could go back and try to find a way behind them… but what if they left while he was going around?He wouldn’t be able to see them, and he’d be left looking around in confusion. So that wasn’t any good. He could also try to make a distraction… but if he made a lot of noise, that could cause other issues. If anyone heard him and woke up, then he’d have a witness to deal with, which was never a good thing. So nothing there either. He continued to think, searching for any possibilities, when suddenly, a rat crawled out of the box and bared its teeth. Apparently, this box was the rat’s home and it was looking at him as a trespasser. The hooded man tried to quietly back away, but suddenly the rat jumped onto its legs and sank its jaws into his shin, sending pain spiraling up his leg and causing him to yell in pain. He thrust the blade in his hand towards the rat and stabbed it in the head. It fell to the ground and a blood began pouring out of its now cracked skull. Unfortunately, the damage was done. The guards had heard the commotion and were walking over to where he was. He swore viciously. This was bad, really bad… but he still had a job to do for General Du Couteau, and he’d be damned if he let him down. “No turning back now,” he whispered gravely.
He readied his blade, now splattered with rat blood, as the guards both came closer. He clenched the blade tightly; the feeling of the leather handle against his hand was one of the only things that gave him comfort.
When the guards were just a step away, the hooded man jumped up and cleaved his blade at the nearest guard’s neck. Unfortunately, the guard was prepared, and deflected this attack with his own blade. Now that he was closer, the hooded man saw they had curved swords, ones used by palace guards. The other guard raised his sword and swung it in an arc, yelling “Kill him!” angrily. The hooded man swiftly turned and managed to dodge the attack, and struck again, this time at the guard who just attempted to hit him. Again, his attack was deflected. He quickly realized that this was no use: they had armor and swords, so taking them both down in a fair fight was pretty much impossible. He looked past them to see the elderly man, still looking around impatiently. Ducking from another attack, he shoved one of the guards out of the way and ran forward. If he could kill his target and get away, that’s all he needed. The elderly man dropped the paper and attempted to flee, but the hooded man was much too fast and jumped on him. The guards were running to him now, but it was too late. The hooded man cut straight through the elderly man’s neck once, sending a surge of blood onto the ground, then cut once more, to be sure. As he brought his blade back up, he had no time to think. The guards were right next to him, and one grabbed the hooded man’s arms before he had the chance to move while the other went to check the elderly man, as if by some miracle he could still be alive. Thinking instinctively, the hooded man kicked the guard in the crotch. The guard cried out and fell to the ground in pain, while the other one ran over yet again. He smirked; clearly these guards were not well-coordinated. Before the guards could recover, he began to run down the street. He jumped out of the way of the guard and ran past the corpse. As he did, he grabbed the paper from the hand of the elderly man with his free hand. “Who knows,”, the hooded man thought to himself, “might be worth something.” His experience as a child on the streets had taught him that anything could have value. He kept running forward, with only one thought in mind: escape.
“HELP! THIEF!” the guard chasing him yelled out. The hooded man veered towards another alleyway. He needed to get away quickly, or else the entire city would be looking for him. As he ran down the alleyway, he saw a glint in the dark. The blade of a mugger, no doubt. As the hooded man ran past the glint, he deflected the mugger’s feeble attack and punched him in the face. He continued running, the guard’s voice still echoing behind him. His eyes darted toward the ground as he looked for an escape. If he could find an entrance to the sewers, he’d be fine. He knew them well; if any guard tried to follow him down there, he’d end up lying in the filth and waste. But first he needed to find his escape.
He turned out of the alleyway and darted towards another. As he did so, another guard saw him and began to chase him too, shouting for him to stop. “Damn it all, where the hell is it?” he spoke aloud. Most times an assassin wouldn’t want to speak out, but at this point it really wasn’t of much use to the hooded man.
Finally, he saw an entrance. A half-rotten wooden ladder descended downwards. The familiar smell of feces permeated the hooded man as he climbed down. Rather than use the ladder and risk falling, he used his blade as a pick and crawled down. As he neared the bottom, one of the guards looked down from above at him. The hooded man didn’t give the guard a chance to see him. He reached the bottom and began to sprint, looking back every few seconds to check he wasn’t still being pursued. After about five minutes, he stopped to catch his breath. Leaning against a brick wall, he reflected on what happened. He’d managed to get the job done, but at what cost? The whole city would be looking for him by sunrise. He could only hope they didn’t manage to get his name. General Du Couteau had told him this mission was incredibly important, so he did what he had to, but now he had a whole new problem to face. He didn’t know much about the man he just killed, other than that he was clearly rich. Suddenly it occurred to him: he grabbed the paper! He grabbed it out of his pocket and, very hastily, opened it. The writing was fancy, which for him meant hard to read. He’d never gotten a real education, after all. He managed to make out something about a plan. He also noticed the general’s signature at the bottom. As he was reading this, he heard a tapping sound, the sound of footsteps. Whoever it was, they were close enough to see him, so no point running. So he continued to stand there as they got closer and closer, making no sudden moves. Eventually, the person got close enough for him to strike, and he turned and sliced at them, only to be blocked by a familiar arm. It was General Du Couteau.
“G-General,” he stammered, while dropping to one knee and berating himself in his head. Damn it, how stupid was he? He’d just attacked the man who saved his life. He kept his head down and prayed that General Du Couteau wouldn’t be displeased.
“Talon. Good to see you.” If General Du Couteau was annoyed by Talon’s attack, he didn’t show it. “Did you complete the mission as I requested?”, he asked.
“Yes, sir. He’s dead.” Talon bit his lip nervously. What if General Du Couteau had heard what happened? Would he exile him, to be sure that he wasn’t associated? Would he kill him? Talon didn’t know, and felt sick to his stomach by the possibility. He couldn’t escape Du Couteau, nor could he fight him.
“And so I’ve heard. But I’ve also heard that you were spotted by several guards.”
Talon stuttered, trying to make a response. What the hell could he say?
“Stop fretting. I’m not here to punish you. This task was difficult already, and I expected that you wouldn’t be able to get by unseen.”
That comment hit Talon hard. For years, he’d done all he could to get the general’s respect. After all he’d done, did General Du Couteau really think so little of him?
“Sorry… sir. There were two guards and I… I couldn’t handle them. I killed him and fled.” It wasn’t exactly any fun to tell the truth, but it’d be worse to lie to the general. He did that once and afterwards he swore to never do it again. Du Couteau didn’t take kindly to liars.
“No matter. The mission is complete. Well done, Talon.” At this comment, Talon felt more confident. The general did show he had some respect for him. He got back to his feet to look at the general. Then the general glanced at the paper in Talon’s hand, and says, “And not only did you kill him, but you managed to get what I wanted off of him as well!” General Du Couteau grinned and stuck out his hand. Talon placed the paper in the general’s hand and stepped back.
“Excellent. Well, I’ll be on my way now. I have more work to attend to.”, said General Du Couteau, and he walked forward.
Talon stood there for a few minutes, just... thinking. He was sure the general would be furious that he’d been spotted, but he didn’t seem to care. Maybe he was hiding his anger… but why? And what was that paper? All he knew is that “Du Couteau” was signed at the bottom in the general’s handwriting.
Finally, Talon stopped himself. He was being paranoid, and he knew it. Living on the streets had taught him to be very cautious, but it had its own drawbacks. Pulling back his hood, he sighed and spun the blade in his hand around. Ever since that day where he met Du Couteau, he became forever in debt to him. Since then, he had a decent life, getting food, water, and everything he needed to live in return for serving Du Couteau. But every Noxian knew that strength was what mattered; Du Couteau was no exception to this. The general had spared him that day, but Talon couldn’t help but wonder if it was simply because he saw potential or if there was another, hidden purpose. The general wasn’t just using him… was he?
Talon felt a great mix of feelings: fear mixed with anger and confusion, surrounded by a veil of guilt. He’d never had any qualms that Du Couteau had been using him before. Did this mean he was just reading too deep into the situation? Or had he been a puppet for years? If this wasn’t true, than that meant he was accusing the man who saved his life with no reason, which sent a shiver down his spine. Yet if it was true, then he was nothing more than a tool, which sent rage through his entire body. Talon kicked the ground in frustration. What was it?
He remained there for a few minutes longer, before a wave of sleepiness hit him. It had been a long night, and he needed rest. He walked forward for a minute before coming across another ladder. This one was more intact than the others, meaning it likely was from a better part of town, where guards might be patrolling. But Talon was too tired to care as he ascended upwards. Reaching the top, he saw he was in the street of one of the high-class Noxian neighborhoods. However, even the nicest of places in Noxus still had areas in darkness. He found a few wooden crates, stacked in front of a window to a restaurant. Talon picked them up one by one and created a small hut from them that shielded him from view, with a hole to enter and exit. He crawled under them and fell asleep quickly.
Several hours later, he awoke to a thin ray of sunlight shining between the cracks of the crates. Climbing out carefully, he saw it was still early, and only a few people were out. He darted out and headed back down the ladder. He needed to get back to the slums so he didn’t draw any more attention. However, as he reached the bottom, someone was waiting. A young woman with dark red hair, holding twin daggers - Katarina Du Couteau. Talon was confused to see her, but he didn’t say anything.
“Talon. I need your help. Something’s… wrong.” Her voice was urgent. She was clenching her daggers tightly. He knew the marks of an assassin well enough to know she was nervous.
“What do you mean?”, Talon replied.
“My father, he’s… gone. His guards told me he went out training, but I’m no fool.”
Talon’s hands shook. The general… gone? It couldn’t be real.
“Listen, I’m sure General Du Couteau is fine. He’s probably just training, like the guards said.” Talon was not only trying to convince her, but himself as well.
“You think that after what happened last night, my father would just go outside like that. When he returned, I heard him talking to someone about some kind of pact.” Katarina lowered her voice to a whisper and continued, “Then, he said something I couldn’t quite understand and everything went silent. Now he’s gone.”
Talon didn’t know how to respond. A pact? Did it have anything to do with last night? Who was the other person? A million questions raced through his mind.
“Did you see who he was speaking to?”, Talon asked her. He needed all the information he could get.
“No, but it was a deep voice. One I’ve never heard.”
“Do you remember any specific things either of them said?”
“Well, my father said that ‘the task is done’ and ‘the pact will soon be sealed’. The other man didn’t say much, just praising my father for his work.”
“What was the last thing that was said before… it went silent?” More and more questions popped into his head, many of which she likely couldn’t answer.
“I told you, I don’t know. The other man said something in another language.” She was getting impatient, and he didn’t want to push her. She was Du Couteau’s daughter, after all, and a very deadly assassin. He’d never fought her, nor did he want to.
“Alright, well, I might have an idea where to look.”, Talon replied. His only hope was to find one of the guards from last night that were protecting the elderly man and get whatever they could out of one of them.
“Great. Thanks, Talon.” She seemed a little relieved to hear this. Talon nodded in reply and walked forward. She walked next to him, twirling her daggers around.
Along the way they said nothing, but they both appeared worried. Talon was still reeling with questions. Did that elderly man have anything to do with it? Why was he in the slums, of all places? What was that paper? And why was Du Couteau caught up in this?
Talon looked ahead as the two of them approached the ladder, and possibly the scariest though occurred to him.
Ready or not, he was about to find out the answer.
Hey, so this is Part I of Noxus: A Revelation. This takes place right before General Du Couteau went missing. I’m hoping to work on (and maybe finish) Part II this weekend. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know in the comments section below! Thanks for reading!
X 
FTW
also there is this fan made song i love about talon