A Search Through Runeterra (Arcane)

"The Black Rose shall bloom once more."~ LeBlanc, The Deceiver 

If you have realized already.... Gregori is nerfed whenever he uses the spear. Its logical. If he could just freely switch between normal and Darkin forms then there is no stakes to the story. There is no anticipation. Its fun at first but becomes empty later on. But having a cost to use the weapon is important and the cost ramps up the longer it is used. And there will be real consequences to using the weapon.

But that is where the other abilities shine. His magic and physical abilities are a source to rely on in situations where he cannot consistently rely on Caalyx.

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The light burned and his body felt heavy.

He raised his hand to cover his eyes as he slowly opened them. Craning his neck, he spotted Annie and Faye sprawled across him. His arms buried under them as they lay across him almost symmetrically. 

Further down, on top of his legs lay Briar.

All three of them sound asleep.

With a grunt, he tilted his head to the side and spotted another, Sydell, a little away but also sound asleep.

Shifting his head higher, he spotted Rell leaning against a large tree with the metal near her forming a protective dome.

Turning the other way, he noticed a pair of eyes peeking out from under his shield. Daani was doing a pretty bad job of hiding, when both his leave life hair and his tail were doing their absolute hardest to stand out.

It was not a simple task to not burst out laughing. It was just the actions of a child. One that did not understand his situation but one that had every right to be afraid. All the children were like that. The years in an environment where they were unloved was quite the hard ordeal. It was unhealthy for them.

Every child here would grow up with some kind of emotional deficiency. That stunted growth was difficult to deal with.

His own life was an example.

It had taken him decades to get over his personal struggles.

That was not something he wanted to see in these children. They would receive all the love and affection he could provide.

Caalyx had been right. 

It was his responsibility to provide for these children. His decisions led him here and he would be damned if he didn't face the consequences. He did not possess the morality that was needed to function normally.

That he had lost in his days as just Hastur. Every target must be eliminated. Children included.

It was hypocritical.

For sure.

A man that had just murdered two children in cold blood a week ago should not be talking about morality.

But leaving them alive was creating a loose end. It meant that he left behind something that could be turned into a weapon against him. His children.

The weight of his children were easily greater than the two whose life he had taken. It would always be.

But an oath must be fulfilled.

He had vowed to eliminate the family and he did just that. Children were always an unfortunate casualty. 

It was hypocritical.

It would always be.

Any time he would think of this moment, he would remember his actions. Actions that could have been performed better. Actions that would have changed the course of so many lives.

Any excuse he could provide to justify his actions were just that.... excuses.

It was unfortunate that children were brought into a battlefield meant for adults. But he could find solace in the fact that Mallat would not be behind anymore actions. No more plans. No more strategies. Nothing.

His acts of hitting the two schools would also turn in his favor.

But it felt increasingly easy to let go of the self blame and guilt he had toward the situation, something he attributed to the elation of finding his daughter while also having completed his revenge.

The burden on him was now gone. The weight that choked him had melted away.

From the moment he stepped foot in Noxus, things had changed. Things that would affect the whole nation.

Four attacks.

Four....

A thought flickered in his mind.

He gave Daani a small smile before softly calling out, "Annie? Faye? Briar? Children wake up."

They barely shifted.

"Come one kids. Wake up please. Its morning now." He coaxed them while giving his arms a little shake.

Faye's eyes shot open and she looked at him like an alarmed deer. "Sorry!" She eeped and jumped back.

With as much kindness he could muster, he reassured her, "Its fine Faye. You did nothing wrong." Before turning his attention to Annie, "Annie? Come on firefly... Time to wake up." A quick shake of the hand later... she was awake... awake and rubbing her eyes.

With full range of motion to his upper body, he pushed himself up and proceeded to wake up the sleeping Briar.

Which proved harder than what one would think. The girl could SLEEP. 

Like a rock.

With a lot more vigorous shaking the girl woke up and looked at him in confusion, "Why did you wake me?" She asked with full clarity. Clarity she did not seem to show when she was fully awake.

She seemed just like a normal child.... a little standoffish but still normal.... somewhat.

"Are we exploring?" She excitedly jumped up as the sleepiness vanished from her eyes.

Ah.

She's awake now.

"We will do it a little later Briar." He answered and then stood up, stretching his limbs. Waking up after something like that was quite irritating. Not to mention the pain his body was feeling. The larva stage as Caalyx liked to call it was hard on him physically. But he could shake off the pain and exhaustion after a good sleep. He had done this in the Freljord. But this time? He directly went to the chrysalis stage. Almost at a the full Darkin transformation. Even if he wanted to.... he couldn't achieve that stage... not with Caalyx in two pieces. But the drawbacks of using that stage was beyond extreme. Pain racked through him. The sleep did little to cut through the exhaustion.

And exhausted he was.

All he wanted to do now was just go back to sleep.

But he couldn't the children needed food. They needed water. Even he needed it.

His body needed nutrition to regenerate the lost blood. He needed to bring himself to an acceptable level of satiety. Not to mention Caalyx's little quest that he had gotten on the fly.

But first, he had something fun to do.

He grabbed his bag and hefted it up. Shoving his hand through the gaps he fiddled around and pulled out a stone.

A stone with a rune.

He smiled to himself as he thumbed the rune.

Four attacks?

Make that five.

And he activated the rune. Only for nothing to happen. Of course... nothing should have happened here.

The rune was for the fortress in Metol.

Briar's prison.

It might also make them believe that he was still inside the walls. Multiple objectives with one action. He smirked to himself before standing up slowly, the stone in his hand crumbling to dust.

He shook the dust off his hand and then reached into the bag again. This time pulling out the axe and the hunter's knife.

He then pulled out the water skins and placed it in front of him. Five odd water skins. One completely empty. Courtesy of Daani.

He picked one up and looked at it. Contemplating taking a sip.

The children needed it more than him. He could get some from a nearby water source. Most likely a river.

"Here. Drink." He handed the water skin to Annie and passed another to Faye.

Both proceeded to chug it down and handed it back to him. Giving the waterskins a little shake, he estimated both to have less than half left over.

"You can drink more you know" He stated as he passed it back to them.

Annie shook her head. Faye, having seen Annie shake her head did the same.

Gregori let out a chuckle before reaching out and pulling the two into a hug. "Its fine. You can drink more. We can always find more." 

That got the two to open the waterskins and continue drinking. A few seconds later he received two nearly empty waterskins which he kept to the side.

"Daani do you want some?" He asked and received a shake of the head in reply. He figured that the boy was shaking his head despite feeling thirsty because of his words from the previous day.

"You can drink Daani. There is enough for everyone." 

There wasn't but he would make do.

Daani still shook his head, "I'm not thirsty."

"Fine."

Gregori then took the remaining two waterskins and took them to the still sleeping kids.

"Sydell?" He shook the boy's shoulders. "Wake up. We have get going soon."

The boy opened his eyes and was immediately overcome with fear at Gregori's smiling face. His eyes darted around as he slowly remembered the events of the previous day.

"Water?" Gregori handed him a waterskin. Sydell took it and took a swig. A second later, he took a few more swigs and handed it back.

"You don't want more?"

"This is enough. Thank you." Sydell answered.

Gregori shook his head, "Don't thank me. I'm taking care of you now. It is my responsibility to provide for you." He looked over everyone, "All of you."

Sydell nodded with a shy smile.

Gregori patted his head and stood up before asking, "What about your spider friend?"

"She will find food her herself."

That was impressive. The boy could communicate with spiders. That was extremely useful. He could become the greatest information broker to exist with a skill like that. Nothing would remain a secret in front of him.

Very impressive.

He looked toward Rell and her metal dome before walking back to Daani, "Can you give me the shield please?"

Daani nodded and passed it to him.

"Thank you for keeping it safe." Gregori appreciated. "Well done."

With the shield in his hands, he walked up to the sleeping Rell, "Rell? Hey? Wake up. We will be leaving soon."

CLINK

Gregori took a step back as the metal around her moved, his shield raising to his side.

But it turned out to be a false alarm as the girl woke up completely and stared at him. The metal around her falling to the side.

"Water?" He asked, pushing a water skin to her.

She looked at it suspiciously before reaching out and grabbing it. After a couple curious sniffs, she drank a few large mouthfuls and handed it back.

"Do you want more?"

She shook her head.

"Briar you?"

"I can drink!" Briar replied.

"I know you can... Do you want to?" He asked. The girl seemed to never show her hunger, which was odd. She only ate and drank when he told her to.... or asked her to....

The experiments had probably affected her ability to feel hunger or thirst.

Both extremely important.

If you never felt hunger or thirst.... it was just a straight line to death.

She looked at him in confusion before nodding.

"Here." He handed the waterskin that Sydell drank from.

"Daani here." He handed him the one Rell drank from. "There is still some left and everyone has already drunk their fill."

Daani looked at him in surprise before looking at everyone else. Then he emptied the waterskin. Briar did the same.

"Now...." Gregori spoke, while rubbing his hands, "What do you want to know?"