A Search Through Runeterra (Arcane)

"Keep friends close and enemies guessing."~ Katarina, The Sinister Blade

WARNING! This chapter is very dark. You can skip it. The next chapter will have a small few words of what happened in this. Blood and death is very heavy. 

Don't say I did not warn you.

DO NOT READ IF YOU CANNOT STOMACH DARK THINGS

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Mallat Manor was fully occupied.

The attack the previous night had sent waves through the nobles. Everyone had recalled their family back into their homes.

It would be safer if they were together.

Lord Mallat stood at the balcony overseeing the grounds. He cut an impressive figure. Tall. Straight back. The armor he donned made him look more imposing. And the cloak around him, over the armor, gave him a noble look.

As if he was naturally above everyone else.

This was further accented by the way he angled his head. With a raised chin, it made it seem that he constantly looked down on everyone while maintaining the higher position.

And to top it all of a regal handle bar mustache to counter the lack of hair on his head. The mustache displaying his age as it was almost fully grey and approaching white.

The attack on Swain was a wake up call for all the nobles. It was a coordinated attack as well. Distract the guards by attacking the allied nobles as well. His own position as a strategist in the Black Rose had guaranteed him safety and also the knowledge that their group was not the one who had carried out the attack.

His mind wandered to the possibility of Might moving to gain more power. The people of Noxus revered the and would rally behind him at any possible time. He possessed so much political power but preferred to stay in the frontlines.

It suited him, he said.

Mallat did not believe it.

His brother was of no consequence. An idiot. One who ruled the fighting pits but whose control never extended beyond Basilich.

A land under Medarda control.

The chances of Medarda being behind the attack was quite possible. Her plans for the Immortal Bastion was not something hidden.

The tower under construction outside the walls were proof enough.

But why would she move before her project had finished. A project even his own group were interested in seeing completed.

The consequences of the device would be revolutionary. Travels times shortened. Goods delivered in an instant. It was the herald to a new age.

He felt a tug on his cloak, pulling him out of his thoughts. 

"Look!" A voice squealed.

Warrion Mallat bent down to make eye contact with the child who had spoken. His own grandchild. "Look at what?" He asked gently.

The child showed his empty palms and said with a wide smile, "Nothing! There is nothing there!"

Warrion Mallat looked at the child confused.

"Got you!" The child said. "You thought I would have something!"

He stood back to full height. "A trickster?" Letting out a loud belly laugh, he spoke again, "Indeed Ment, you got me."

"I'm sorry father." A voice cut in. His son. "I let Ment get out of my sight. I wasn't his intention to disturb you."

Lord Mallat turned to face his son. He looked at him appraisingly, his son hadn't showed him what was necessary to be the head of his family. "It is fine." His eyes fell on his grandchild. "I do not mind being interrupted by you Ment." He placed a hand on the child's head and softly rubbed it.

"Father.... I wish to discuss something with you."

Lord Mallat turned to face his son. "Speak."

His son took a breath to steel himself, he looked at his father's hard eyes unflinchingly, "I fear for my family. My wife and son. I wish to move them away from here."

"You are running away?" Lord Mallat thundered.

"It is not running, if you do it to keep your loved ones safe." His son faced him, standing strong. "This place is too dangerous. I cannot take the risk. You yourself have called us all here from the same reason."

"I have brought you here, because my influence will protect you." Lord Mallat looked at his son in fury for having the audacity to talk back to him. "Your sister will make a better head of family."

"She probably would." His son answered. "But she is of the same opinion. She wants to move her son away as well. In the past three years, there have been twenty six different assassinations or mysterious deaths and disappearances of nobles of every faction. I know that you are behind some of them yourself. But how long will it take for an enemy to our home?" His son took a step closer to his father, raising his head and looking at his father. "How long till your decisions cause our family to fall?"

The words had affected Lord Mallat. Not because of the words themselves but the fact that his under achieving son, the runt of the litter, was speaking back to him. And not backing down. Even going as far as to question his position as leader of the family.

"To attack us, it to declare war on a hidden faction." Warrion Mallat spoke calmly, "Our backers are the ones who run Noxus. We are safe."

Then they heard the screams.

Lord Mallat rushed inside the house, his hand on the trust short sword that had served him for decades. "Stay here." He ordered his son and grandson.

"No. I am coming with you. My wife is still there." His son replied. He then bent to eye-level with his son, "Stay here, we will check everything and come back." He said, giving the child a quick hug.

His son then got up, pushed past Warrion Mallat and walked outside the main office and into the corridor. Warrion followed him, closing the door as he exited.

The two made their way to the main hall. And saw the bodies as they lay littered around. Servants lay dead. The door to the dining hall remained closed but screams could be heard from there.

"No... no no no..... Jane..." His son's wails cut through him. His daughter-in-law, lay dead in front of them. Her body with multiple stab wounds. Stomach, chest, thigh and finally head all of them had been stabbed.

His eyes fell on a small body in front of the door. A child. His daughter's son. Dead. A simple stab to the head. He swallowed the tears that were about to erupt. Cold anger taking over. He pulled out his sword and rushed to the door.

The screams still hadn't stopped. 

"WHO DARES!" He bellowed as he rushed inside the dining hall. He found a man crouched over someone, someone who was screaming.

Warrion Mallat's eyes fell on the only body in the room. His son-in-law. Dead. Tortured to death by the looks of it.

"Huuuu...hhuuuhuuu" Labored breathing caught his attention, he turned to the sound. His daughter lay on the side, clutching at her throat. Struggling to breathe. Her eyes looked past him and landed on her son's body. Her eyes widened.

Warrion moved toward her but stopped as she removed the hand on her throat, reaching for her son and just let herself choke to death on her own blood, a single tear dropping as she passed.

"Me." Came a calm voice in reply. "I dare."

The screams stopped.

Warrion Mallat raised his sword at the man. The man stood to full height, in his hands was the head of his wife. His innocent wife, who had stayed away from everything. The light of his life. His eyes remained focused on her head. On her expression, of fear and pain.

"YOU!!" Mallat heard his son scream as he rushed the man.

The man dropped his wife's head and punched his attacking son in the face. His son's hands came to his face.

Using the opportunity, the man reached for the cutlery on the table and threw a knife at his son. His son did not even see it coming.

The knife went through his throat. The gurgling sounds that came from his son broke Warrion Mallat out of his shock. Trembling, he took a step toward his son. The same son who was clawing at the knife in his throat. He watched as his son pulled out the knife lodged in his throat and drowned in his own blood.

Warrion fell to him knees. Tears falling from his eyes as he reached for his son. He shook from the pain and sorrow.

"Why?" He asked the man.

No.

The monster.

"A year ago, you sent a warband to my home." It answered. "They killed my wife and unborn child. They watched as they had their hounds ripped her to shreds."

Warrion remembered the warband. They had never returned. "They weren't ours. I never sent them." He said. If the monster left without killing him, then he could escape with his still living grandson and plan for revenge.

"Ah." It replied. "But I know it was you Mallat. They even had the tattoo of you little flower group."

It knew. It knew about the group. It knew about his connection to the group.

His face must have betrayed him, with an expression of shock on it had the monster laughing. "You thought I would have just walked in and murdered a random family without making sure of their involvement?" It asked him.

"Tonight the Mallat all fall. Though I must say, how nice of you to round everyone up for the momentous occasion."

"Who are you? Warrion asked, at least wanting to know who he had provoked before death.

"Ah he finally asks." It spoke. It looked around for a moment, at all the paintings on the wall. "Hastur." It answered.

"Oh." Was all Warrion could get out. He could try to fight but it was pointless. The creature was a Hastur. The last living one. There was no winning against it. He had accepted his death.

The monster walked close to him, picking up the same knife that had taken his son's life, he placed it on Warrion's forehead.

Warrion looked up at the man, emotionless.

"Blood must be repaid...." It started. It pulled back its free hand and hit the end of the knife, pushing it through Warrion's skull, instantly killing him. "With blood." It finished.

"Mummy?" A voice sounded in the main hall.

It raised his head in the direction of the voice. It picked up another knife among the cutlery and walked outside. It's eyes landing on a small boy crouched over the woman it had killed earlier.

Slowly, he walked to the child. The child did not look up.

A protective instinct it guessed. To not make eye contact with something that would mean certain doom. But it did not matter.

SWING

THUD

The child fell forward, the knife embedded in its head.

A Hastur must complete their mission.

Remorse was a weakness. Guilt was a weakness. Enemies deserved none of that.

Blood must be repaid with blood.

It then set fire to the manor and left in the confines of the darkness.