The Elementalist Tales: Dark Child
Hey guys! So, if you haven't read the introduction to this story yet, here's the link.
On to the tale!
The guard was thoroughly surprised when the woman appeared on the other side of the gate with the carefully held bundle in her arms.
“Please state your business,” he said after composing himself.
“I wish to see the queen,” the woman replied, with an almost hesitant note in her voice. “My sister wished to know if her daughter would have any chance of power, seeing as she herself was a finalist in the current queen’s Elemental Trials, and seeing as she is still recovering from the birth, she asked me to bring the child right away.”
The guard pondered this request for a moment. Should he call in his superior? It seemed like a harmless enough favor to grant a citizen, and the bundle in the woman’s arms was most definitely a baby – he’d seen it squirm. However, seeing as the woman had identified herself as the sister of one who’d lost the Trials to Queen Lux, it was possible that someone in the family still harbored hard feelings against the one who defeated the sister, since the queen was only a few months into her reign. And considering that the woman’s sister had enough elemental power to make it to the final round … the seemingly harmless woman in front of him could be a threat to the queen, which in that case he could not let her in.
As if she read his mind, the woman added, “I was born without power, and I guarantee that I hold no regret against our young queen. Even my sister has accepted her loss. She merely wishes to know whether her child bears power. The ability to discern elemental power is always a gift of the acting royal, so I came here to request an answer to my sister’s plea.”
“Very well, then,” the guard replied, and he turned to call for the gate to be raised.
The queen paced back and forth in front of her throne, debating what to do. There had been no requests so far today, so should she convene the Council and sacrifice her day to politics, or use the time to learn more about her new royal powers? She still didn’t know much about them, except for the one that enabled her to determine a person’s strength and type of elemental power. While only about half of the population to begin with actually had magic, some were extraordinarily powerful, and it was her job to find the ones with too much power – the ones whose power could corrupt them beyond saving. She had yet to see one such case, but often those doomed to such a fate were locked away so that when their powers overcame them, they wouldn’t harm the ones they loved. It had been the king’s job to find these doomed elementalists before her Trials, and now it was her turn. Fortunately, she had yet to run into such a case in her time as queen. Most of the time she had to gently tell hopeful parents that their child had no power, but there had been a few joyful cases where she’d been able to announce a power with a smile on her face, much to the excitement of the present family members. A light grin appeared as she remembered those few yet wonderful events, and she stopped pacing long enough for her brother to notice.
“Calm down, sis,” he told her, smirking due to the nickname. She hated being called that, which was why she almost regretted allowing him to pledge himself as her guardian. But after all, the bond between siblings was strongest, and her brother had been destined to become one of the land’s great warriors. At least, before the king determined that she was eligible for the Trials.
She still remembered that fateful day clearly – entering the old king’s tent, his face lighting up joyfully, and then his words to her – “You, my dear, are destined for the Trials.” As soon as she’d exited the tent, her family had known. Her parents had thrown their arms around her and told her they’d never been prouder of her. Then they’d sent a messenger to find her brother and prevent him from leaving with the other warrior trainees. He’d stuck around throughout the Trials, just in case she won. And the moment she did, he’d shoved past the other young men lining up for the chance to become her guardian and sworn the oath right there in the arena.
“Garen, I told you to stop calling me that!”
He chuckled and ran a hand through his dark hair, which Lux still had no idea how he’d gotten, considering that both she and their parents were fair-haired. It must have been a trait from an ancestor, she told herself each time she wondered to prevent herself from spiraling into what she called her mind’s “research mode,” when it would spend hours trying to find the answer to whatever simple question she thought of.
She was luckily spared from “the daily sibling argument,” as the two of them called it, when a guard announced a visitor. Garen went into full guardian mode, and Lux quickly checked that she was presentable before calling, “Let whoever it is in.”
A lone woman was escorted in with a child in her arms. The queen immediately knew what sort of call this was, and relaxed. She’d been expecting another protesting citizen with an issue with his neighbor.
“My queen.” The woman spoke softly, as if she were afraid to raise her voice with Garen standing nearby. He did make for a frightening figure in full guardian armor, after all.
“I assume you have come to request that I determine the child’s power?” Lux asked.
“Yes, my queen,” the woman responded.
Lux was sorely tempted to tell the poor woman to just call her by her first name, but it wouldn’t be proper. So instead, she slowly crossed the massive throne room – seriously, the room was too big for her – and approached the woman and child. Once she drew close, the woman held out her bundle for her, and Lux gently took the baby into her arms. A small, chubby face stared up at her, and she couldn’t help but smile.
“She’s beautiful,” the queen remarked, before asking the woman, “Is she yours?”
The woman shook her head. “No, she’s my sister’s … she’s Fiora’s child.”
Lux’s head snapped up. “Fiora Laurent?”
Fiora had been the other last finalist standing, and her final opposition for the throne. Their battle had been long and vicious – Fiora was extremely competitive, and had taken the loss hard.
The woman nodded. “I’m Regina, her younger sister. I was born powerless, and I’ve always joked that it was because she stole all of the inheritable power. Fiora wanted to know if her daughter would follow in her own footsteps, but she’s still recovering. So she asked that I bring the baby to you.”
The queen nodded, and then bent her head to examine the child. Internally, she reached for the strand of power she’d gained when she’d ascended to the throne, the power that enabled her to reveal an elementalist’ power.
The moment Lux tapped into the ancient royal ability, the child’s magic flared into view. Lux barely managed to contain her gasp as she instantly recognized the child’s affinity.
Opposite her own original affinity, and incredibly strong … Stronger than her own, if she were to wager.
She couldn’t tell Regina. She couldn’t tell them what power the child bore, because the Laurents would abandon the newborn immediately, not wanting an elementalist with this affinity tied to their name.
Lux managed to calmly smile at Regina and say, “She’s Fiora’s daughter, all right. Not a doubt about it.”
Regina blinked, almost startled. “The child has power?”
“A lot of it. I can’t quite tell the child’s affinity” – that wasn’t exactly a lie, since an elementalist’s affinity could change during childhood – “but I’m sure it will reveal itself soon.”
Regina’s eyes shone with joyful tears. As the queen passed the child back to her, she allowed her emotions to show on her face and said with as much truth as she could pour into it, “Thank you.”
“No problem,” the queen said with a wink.
And with that, Regina turned and practically ran from the room, obviously desperate to share the incredible news.
Lux watched her go, and then turned to Garen, letting her worry shine through the calm mask she’d been carefully wearing for the past few moments.
He was by her side in an instant. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Lux looked him in the eye and whispered, “Her affinity … it’s strong. Too strong. And it’s for darkness.”
His sharp intake of breath was his only response, but she knew he was just as worried as she was.
Most elementalists – no, scratch that, almost all of the magic users – had an affinity for a particular element. There were technically six different elemental affinities – air, fire, water, earth, light, and darkness – but a rare few had affinities for what some called “compound” elements, or elements created by combining two of the other elements. Lux had originally had an affinity for light, but that had all changed on the final day of her Elemental Trials.
This child, on the other hand, had a powerful affinity for darkness, the most dangerous element. Darkness was far more likely to corrupt a magic user than any other element by its nature alone, and the fact that this baby had such a strong connection to it terrified her.
Lux thanked the skies above that the land had natural magic barriers that prevented children from experiencing the full force of their powers until they were strong enough to handle it. The girl wouldn’t suddenly have the massive weight of her affinity thrust upon her until she reached a mature age – she’d access bits and pieces of it over time, and it was highly likely that her affinity would change as she grew. After all, more than half of the elementalists were born with one affinity, but grew into another. Lux herself had been born with such a blindingly obvious affinity to light – even to a magic-barren eye – that anyone who saw her would claim she’d never change affinities.
Techinically, she hadn’t quite changed affinities – light was still her strongest element, but the others were slowly growing in strength, and soon she’d have just as much power over the other five elements as light.
Lux brought her mind back to the present, and the issue at hand. She’d have to let it run its course and pray the child’s affinity changed. Garen finally managed to force out, “What … what do we do about this?”
The queen's tone left no room for argument as she stated, “We wait, and see what happens when the child begins to step into her power.”
Garen nodded, and returned to his previous spot. Lux crossed back to her throne, and this time she sat down. She’d had enough already today.
If the Council had any problems, they’d have to wait until tomorrow.
If the girl’s life had progressed normally, she would have eventually lost her affinity for darkness, and would have been strong enough to help hold the line against the elemental beasts when they came. However, just a few weeks after Regina brought the baby to the queen, the child fell through a stray portal to Runeterra that hadn’t been closed when the previous king, decades earlier, had ordered all the unofficial portals to other lands closed. The Laurents mourned the loss of the child, but eventually another baby was born, and they were able to move on.
The girl, on the other hand, ended up in Ionia, where she was found and taken in by a small village – at least, until her terrifying magic manifested for the first time. Since there were no magic restrictions like the ones in the elementalists’ lands, the girl was forced to deal with a mass of power she’d never had access to before, and the results … well, you most likely know what happened.
For this is the tale of the girl named Syndra.
Thanks for reading! I'll post new tales on the main page once they're done. Here's the link again.
Thanks again, and see you on Summoner's Rift! (Or Twisted Treeline, or Howling Abyss, or wherever.)
's mother????
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