"Don't turn your back, or expose your neck."~ Darius, The Hand of Noxus
Was the previous chapter good?
I was trying out three perspectives at the same time. It was difficult.
But here you go, the final Annie chapter and then back to Gregori.
Finally, the current year is 994 AN. (Annie and Daisy are six or approaching six. Gregori is in his late thirties.) This is to make sure I can space out character ages and make sure I can have certain events happen in their respective time frames. Because in Arcane years are not specified, but with how things are, the plot for Act 3 of Arcane had Jinx at 18 years old (She was born in 972 AN). That would mean the events of Arcane have already happened and Noxus has Hex Gates (Act 3 would be around 990 AN). So, I will wait for Act 1 of season 2 to make a decision on whether I want to change it or not. I could squeeze it in the timeline but it will be a tight fit.
I want the Noxus arc, to be good. Like really good, so I want it to be consistent with the absolute bullshit going on everywhere else. It will be constant chaos, shit hitting the fan and crazy moments. Maybe even surprise appearances and cameos from different characters?
Also lets hope there will be no Noxian characters in a certain age range before I finish this story.
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Flynn brought the girl straight to the Ravenbloom Conservatory. It had been a four day travel to the school. One he made in luxury. As a celebration for the completion of his quest and to make it appear to the girl that her life would be this easy and cozy once she gets to the school.
And she seemed to be responding well to his actions and words. Interested in this grand school of magic, where she could make a ton of friends and have fun while learning. The way he talked about the school made him feel like he himself wanted to join. He spoke of the facilities and the teachers with their great skills in magic.
All lies.
It wasn't a school in name alone. An institution to collect and observe children who were magical anomalies. But it did house a school within it. A front. Children did enroll into the school but these assets would be kept separated.
But the child kept lapping it up. She asked for stories about her mother and he told them. All completely made up ones. The child was intrigued and was genuinely wanting to join the school. It would be easily to just capture her and bring her to the conservatory, but she would not be willing to partake in experiments. And brainwashing her enough to blindly listen to orders would take time, time he wasn't willing to spend. The headmistress would also appreciate this action from him.
Even if Ravenbloom Conservatory was not large in its student body, it was large in size. Large open spaces and spaces that emulated different conditions to see how the children reacted.
Of course, all of this was only for a few years. Once they got older they would be moved to different locations around Noxus. Locations in which they would go through physical experimentation base on data collected in their years in the conservatory. Constantly, brainwashed children were sent to these locations. Creatures of war they would become. Metals were bonded to them. Runes inscribed onto their very bones. Forced to wield weapons that shortened their life. Their bodies and mind were bent, beaten and broken into being completely subservient to Noxus.
In essence, it was a factory. That pushed out products that could be molded into various shapes. There were a couple more of these schools. They existed across Noxus and were all connected, some acted as schools that was only for aspiring mages and picked out those that had rare and unique abilities to send for experimentation. A rising one was Roseguard Academy. But that was a special case. Being run by the ones marked by the rose. They were the ones at the top of the ladder. People with the power to control the nation itself.
Ravenbloom Conservatory was small compared to them but they were still prestigious.
Headmistress Telsi was a taskmaster. Even to Flynn she seemed heartless. No one knew what she could do. All the teachers in the conservatory were knowledgeable in magic and did practice different types of it. Runic being the most common but the headmistress was different. She never showed her magic and showed no inclination to using runes. Not to mention how she treated the kids. Flynn often took his anger on them, most of them did, after all these creatures were barely human. But Telsi was different. She pushed them to the emotional brink and took great pleasure from it. Watching the kids struggle was her favorite pastime.
She was a sadist.
Watching the kids attempt her ridiculous punishments was her greatest pleasure.
To have the front seem legitimate, they all taught something in the school to the normal children who enrolled. Flynn taught elementary mathematics. Just enough to have the children who left school to be knowledgeable enough to perform well enough in their daily lives. So how did they have more scientists and researchers?
Quite simple, the gifted children were spotted and offered opportunities to apprentice under them. Each researcher taking up to three. As the generations progressed, the numbers multiplied. More and more researchers and scientists. Morality and ethics forgotten. There was only one thing left for them, results.
Flynn was one of these men.
He smiled softly at his asset.
"What magic can you do my girl?"
Annie looked at him and let go of his hand. She raised her hand and showed her palm.
Flynn looked at her and waited.
She did nothing.
"Do you want me to give you something?"
She shook her head and turned her eyes to her palm. Annie closed her open palm into a fist and quickly flicked it open. As she did, a bright burning ball of fire sprouted into existence in her palms. She moved her palm slowly and the fire moved along with it. A few seconds of just having it float on her palms had Flynn's mouth hanging.
"Did anyone teach you?" He sputtered out.
The girl waited a moment and shook her head. The girl often did that, she took her time to reply, as if actively thinking what to say. Normal kids never acted like that. She also exhibited an unnatural amount of affection to the bear in her hand, never letting go of it the entire day.
He reevaluated his opinion of this child. Amoline's gift for his troubles. His ticket to high nobility. This girl, no, Annie was a prodigy. Conscious control of abilities was a difficult to achieve, even his own skill in the control of winds was paltry and only showed true strength when he amplified them with runes and runic schemes. Her sanity did not matter, mages in Noxus were rarely sane anyway.
But Annie had created a sizable flame with just the opening of her palms. A child being able to do this much was a great feat. Amazing even. She could be trained to become one of the most feared pyromancers in all of the lands.
Annie closed her fist and fire was snuffed out, leaving embers than faded away in the wind.
Noxians were behind every other land in the magic department and somehow, despite all their prejudice, Demacia was the leading force in magic.
Surrounding themselves with Petricite had forced the magic that was naturally discharged by the body to stay inside, unless they came in contact with the stone itself it stockpiled. And with that much magic in a body, the sheer firepower these mages could provide could change the flow of battle.
Fortunately for Noxus, Demacians were too foolish to use it to their advantage due to their fear of an age old war.
Pansies.
They could have taken over most of the continent over with just their mages. A single Demacian mage could do what a squadron of Noxian mages empowered by runes could achieve. The way their body adapted gave them large reserves of magic. Noxus has been smuggling small amounts of Petricite to produce mages of the same caliber but the Demacians take note of large shipments of Petricite. Heavily under embargo.
Taking whatever they could from the bodies littered on the battlefield was the only option. But it was a slow painstaking process. This was one of the reasons they had started fighting with them in the first place.
Eventually they would have enough to make multiple large rooms out of this item. They could keep children with obscure or destructive magics inside until they showed the same kind of power.
Magic and those who possessed the natural talent perform it were a resource to the nation. Which was why they had put out large bounties for information on those who could use magic, why they tried to recruit as many mages as possible, from both inside Noxus and outside it. Poaching mages from other lands was difficult but worth in the end. They brought with them new knowledge and skills that they would be forced to impart to apprentices they took in from the nation. Apprentices whose loyalties lied with the nation.
The easiest way to steal magics and the way of the arcane.
Those mages could not even refute this method. They could place seals on knowledge but the apprentices would break them willingly, even if death was the result.
Noxian brainwashing was quite effective.
"Mister Flynn can I get some milk to drink?" Annie asked politely.
"Just a little more Annie. We are almost at the school and you can get a lot of milk from the cafeteria there." He had spent quite a bit on this girl, milk and good taverns were a given. He did not want to spend anymore, not this close to their destination.
Flynn led her by the hand to the large school. Built in classic Noxian architecture, it was a sight to behold. Large buildings made of stone and metal with pathways lit by fire. Every Noxian building had large horn like extensions on the roof, emulating the Noxian flag and its symbol, they had a certain reason for it being that way long ago but now it was more of a statement of allegiance. Large red banners with the symbol ran down the length of the building. High and narrow windows were littered across the building.
They ascended the stairs leading to the conservatory. Squinting, he could make out the large doors open, and a figure walk out of it. A woman, her face was shrouded in darkness due to the light spilling from behind her but he knew who she was.
The headmistress Telsi. A tall woman, even among Noxians. Wearing her classic red robes, a cloak billowing out from behind her. Metal ornaments adorned her cuffs and hips, a singular pauldron on her shoulder. Noxian clothing was like that, even if they did not participate in war, they showed their willingness by having armor like clothing. Her hair having gone white from age. Her spectacles held by string.
He led Annie up the stairs, not noticing the demonic smile on her face.
Tybaluk was a great teacher and his student was quite talented.