A Search Through Runeterra (Arcane)

"Here is where we make our stand. Do as I say. It's the only way, if we want to live."~ Kai'Sa, Daughter of The Void.

I changed the time of attack to the night. The idea that an assassin would go after Swain in the day seemed stupid. 

Two big chapters holy. 

WARNING! The end of this chapter might affect some people. 

P.S. Quick update... Just found out I have carpal tunnel.... Its not going to affect writing but it is going to warrant longer breaks. So I do not think I can push out 5 chapters within a short period. I could do it if I go at my current pace but it won't be till February.

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He leaned across the wall in the darkness.

Watching.

Waiting.

Marcus was drunk on his newfound power. A deal with the Black Rose granted him the ability to evade detection from Swain's crows.

That is what made Swain dangerous. His crows. No one questioned why there was a sudden influx of crows in the lands over the years. But he knew why. It was Swain. They formed his own personal information and security detail.

They watched everything under the sun.

Everything but the shadows. Which was why the Black Rose had moved to the catacombs underneath Noxus. Crows never ventured there.

Marcus was so giddy on his power that he had forgotten to check for a tail. A disgrace. A disgrace to the family and a disgrace to his profession.

But his words when he communicated with the Black Rose almost made Talon decide to not kill him. He said everything was for him wife and family. Talon was taken aback at the claim. He had even almost forgiven the man.

But then he realized, the man had tried to have his daughter killed. Jaredan was bad at following instructions and worse at completing contracts. He had been shocked when he had found out that Jaredan had been elevated to the King's Guard in Demacia. Marcus had taken that as fact that the man could be relied on.

Quite unsurprisingly, Jaredan had failed.

But the fact still remained. His father had tried to have his sister killed.

Faking one's death? That was acceptable. It was self imposed.

Killing one's own kin? That was not. Talon had been trying to rationalize his behavior but the past few days had flipped that on its head.

His father had to die. For the sake of his family.

Talon watched as the man used the rooftops as his own belonging. Jumping from building to building. His hands grabbing edges and hoisting himself up. His legs smoothly leading him forward.

It was good form.

The man hadn't moved like that in ages.

A smile formed on Talon's face. He raised his hand back and pulled on his hood. His cloak was quite unnatural. No normal man would wear it. They would just harm themselves.

Not Talon. He was no normal man. And he possessed incredible control of his cloak. Well, it was an interesting shape for a cloak. It didn't really cover most of his body. Rather, it split into four straps, each fitted with a sharp blade.

It was a cloth made for killing.

One only the best assassin in the world could use.

He reached under his neck and pulled up his half face mask. His half armor blended in with the darkness, while the large cuffs in his arm sleeves, hid sharp blades.

He took a step into the light and disappeared.

Marcus reached the great castle pretty quickly. He trusted the magic bequeathed to him and just ignored the crows around him. The only type of detection he needed to avoid was that of the guards.

The wards posed him no threat.

A secret only kept by the greatest of assassins was how they countered the wards. Magic, especially runic magic, was based on intent. If one went in with their bloodthirst on full display, the wards would be alerted immediately on entry.

But assassins were usually so detached from themselves during a kill that they never alerted the wards. If they believed that they were going in to complete their job and nothing more, the wards wouldn't really recognize them as a threat. Its why there were still physical guards.

When the nobles realized that the wards could somehow be surpassed, they took a step back and relied on guards again.

Swain however, that man took safety and security to another level. His accursed birds had foiled an incredible amount of assassinations. They had caused quite the litany of failed missions for a lot of them.

A failed assassination meant that they would have to face another assassin to survive.

No loose ends.

His daughter had failed an assassination. His son had failed to kill her.

Two failures in his family.

Talon had so much potential but he never lived up to his expectations. He was just a mindless pawn. One who had followed his instructions to a T, and made faking his death extremely easy.

But he was still left wanting.

His wife on the other hand. She was more politically powerful. The last three years away from her was beyond painful. His other daughter also was now estranged form him.

The family he had been so proud of had crumbled under his own rule.

He was full of regrets. Letting Soreana go was his first mistake. Letting Cassiopiea follow her was his second, even bigger mistake. The two who had never let him down had slipped from his fingers, leaving him with those who would never match up to the expectations placed on them.

Once Swain was dead, he would do everything in his power to unite the family again. 

Marcus's finger gripped onto the roof of the castle. The route to a direct entrance to Swain's bed chambers.

Pulling himself up, his eyes fell on the person waiting for him there.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor was his daughter Katarina Du Coteau. "Hello father." She said with a smile.

"Katarina." He drawled. "How.... Unsurprising."

Talon sat above all of them. His eyes calmly watching the interaction between father and daughter. Next to Talon was a body. Dead.

He couldn't hear the conversation the two were having but he could see that his father was not impressed and his sister grew angrier as they spoke.

They got closer and closer as the conversation changed to an argument and grew heated. Talon knew Marcus was not one to let such an opportunity go.

And just as expected he made the first move.

Marcus used a bomb. One that created a lot of smoke.

Talon viewed the new invention with a lot of interest. The gray powder had proved to be quite ingenious. And quite explosive.

A smoke bomb was quite the useful escape tool but his father did not view it that way. To him it was a way to get an easy kill. Talon was disappointed at the lack of creativity from his father.

A tool to disrupt vision was the perfect tool to escape after a successful assassination. Using the loud bomb to complete the kill itself was pointless, since it would alert everyone.

And he was sure that Swain was moving up to the two now.

But he knew his father would do something like that. Which was why he had inscribed a rune onto the bomb. One that activated a few other runes put in various homes of Swain's factionists. His guards would not be having a fun night tonight.

Talon hoped that Gregori found him daughter. He had given the man everything he would need.

The smoke disrupted his vision of the fight but he did not intervene. His sister was competent enough to survive a full onslaught from their father.

The smoke cleared after a minute and he saw what was in his father's hands.

The Wolf's Maw.

His father had boasted the capabilities of the item the last time they had met. It would cause an explosion. Not a simple one.

One that could take out the entire tower.

And the idiot had armed it.

His sister raised her hand and one of her daggers shot through the air and into her hand. Slicing through their father's arm in the process.

Marcus dropped the bomb in pain but Katarina caught it swiftly.

She saw him throw her knife into the sky and look forlornly.

Realizing her act of self sacrifice, Talon grabbed the body and slipped into the shadows. Moving as fast as possible to get to his sister.

"For Noxus." She stated calmly.

"No." Came a third voice. "Your empire needs you."

Swain had arrived to the battle in full armor. Plucking the Wolf's Maw from his sister's hand. He pushed it toward Marcus who was now on the floor.

His demonic left arm glowed red with power. Arcs of red lightning shot from them, containing the explosion. On his back, unfurled were two large crow wings. Surrounding him were numerous crows. 

"SWAIN!" Marcus yelled as the man pointed his left hand containing the explosion toward him.

BOOOOM

All that was left of Marcus Du Coteau were ashes.

The man was finally dead.

As Katarina and Swain looked onwards. They had a conversation..... one Talon hadn't stayed to listen.

Talon made his way back to his house and contemplated the events of the night. Changing into more comfortable clothes, he made his way to pout himself some tea.

Seating himself in the large seat of the family head, Talon placed the cup of tea on the table nearby. He gripped the hand rests of the chair and let out a deep breath.

"What I do for this family..." Talon said as he looked in front of him.

Shackled to the wall was Marcus Du Coteau. Alive. And unconscious.

As the explosion went off... Talon slid through the shadows and arrived right behind his father. The brightness from the explosion made it impossible for anyone to see the switch between his father and the body. And the darkness that followed the light had made for an easy get away.

"Wake up father." He said to the man.

And the man did just that. 

"Do not bother trying to escape.... Every single one of your fingers are shackled separately, then your arm and then your legs. You are here to stay father."

"MMMmmMMMm mMMM!" Were the sounds that came from his father.

"Ah." Talon spoke as he stood up and made his way to the man. "I have also taken the liberty to gag you."

He picked up a knife. "You see father. None of you follow the rules of a true assassin. You play politics. You use people like weapons. That is the wrong mentality. You should use weapons to kill people. That is all."

"Its a disappointment really. If you were really as smart as you believed you would have realized a few things. Mother and Cass being a part of the flower group for one. It was quite obvious. They weren't being subtle about it either. The amount of poisoned food they had sent to try and kill all three of us? Amateur really. I replaced them all immediately. I suppose you not realizing was partially my fault as well."

He ran his finger on the side of the blade. "But can I be blamed? I wanted my family alive. Alive and together. And I have done everything in my power to ensure all of you survived. So many plots against the four of you I foiled. You lot didn't even know."

Tapping a finger to his chin, he continued as if in thought, "Though I suppose, it is also my fault that the four of you believe yourself to be invincible. Every decision the four of you have made has made my job of keeping you all safe extremely difficult." Talon looked the man in his eyes and spotted the confusion, "Ah! You are confused." He leaned against the large table, placed the knife back on the table and took a sip of his tea.

"I have hidden most of my capabilities father." He waved his hand a little, causing a ripple in the shadows, "You see, I believe that one of my parents were Ionian. Magic came quite easily to me. And the shadows came to my aid many a time. But leave that." He looked Marcus in his widened eyes.

"I've had a recent conversation with someone. You might have heard of him. The Gray? Well, I owed him a favor and have repaid him for it as well. But that is not what I wanted to say. The conversation I had with him was quite enlightening. You see father..... I am done cleaning up after your messes. For the last ten years, I have covered after every single one of your mistakes...." Talon spoke wistfully. "But your final one was trying have Kat killed. You tried to have your own family killed. I have made up decision father."

He picked up the knife and walked up to his father, "You might wonder why I have spoken so much. I am the soft spoken mindless dullard after all. But I just wanted to vent. Vent out to someone who would not be speaking about this to anyone else. I have a facade to maintain you see." He shrugged.

"All your planning... only to fail to Swain. That is the price of underestimating an enemy father. I could have killed him any time I wanted. I have watched the man sleep in his own bedchambers many times. But you waltzed in like you were invincible."

Talon placed the knife at his throat. "I could have let you die to him. But it is my responsibility as your son to deliver you the gift of death. Goodbye father, I swear to be the greatest assassin while also keeping my family alive. Though getting my sisters on my side could take a little bit more time."

As he finished, Talon moved his blade slowly cleanly cutting through Marcus's throat.

Marcus's eyes fell on the darkness near him. His ear filled with growling sounds. The eyes glowed in the darkness.

The Wolf had come for him.

He closed his eyes and accepted death.

But he didn't go sad at the thought of having failed his mission, no he was proud. Proud of his daughter. Proud of his son.

They weren't the failures he had believed them to be. Maybe he was the one who failed. Yes. He failed. Failing the assassination. Failing his children. Failing his family. It was all him. 

Maybe his family would be reunited after his passing after all.