&&; It’s ice that permeates the streets this time of year, punctuated
by a treacherous snowfall which adds only to precarious footing. The
less wary of Noxians might fall prey to such nuance, but Talon’s light
footfall was above that of the average man, and he finds the frigid air
refreshing, invigorating, numbing to the senses. Right now, it was the
one thing that was keeping him calm.
Years he’s spent wondering where his adoptive father and beloved
teacher had disappeared to. Years he’d spent listening to Katarina
murmur of the ‘Black Rose,’ just as obsessed as he, if not more so, but
without the time to devote to the cause. So many wedges had been
driven into the Du Couteau legacy by Marcus’s disappearance, so much
discord brought to Noxian politics. Talon had spent so much time not
wanting to deal with the matters, simply because he was not a politico, he
was not savvy in these things - in human interaction. Give him a target to
kill and a shadow to step in and he was ace. But this? He wasn’t fit to
deal.
And yet he was the one to figure it out anyway.
Perhaps it was his gutter rat instinct that had led him down this particular
path, and perhaps it was that in which he had chosen to keep his discovery
of both the Black Rose and it’s members to himself rather than allow Kat to
be privy to the information. Or, perhaps, it was because of who the list
included. Talon was well aware his sister would be twice as murderous as
he, less level-headed. A rampage would be in order, where was the younger
assassin was fully intent on committing a very slow, very painful murder
tonight.
He finds himself before the grand (and somewhat gaudy) doors of Vladimir’s
in-town home, and does not bother knocking. He never does. Instead, he
slips inside with the faintest of clicks, and stamps the snow from his boots
as he begins to strip away warm outer layers one by one. As always, the
hemomancer’s locale is chilly, but comparably warm to the below freezing
temperatures outside, and yet Talon finds that he cannot feel a thing. Not
heat. Not cold. No anger. No hurt. Only numbness. It’s a quiet rage that
brews in his gut, betrayal lurking beneath ichor orbs. But Vladimir can’t
know his discovery. Not yet. Talon wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of
an outburst. He needed to suffer like he had.
An eye for an eye.
Shoes stripped from feet and coat hung up, hands flap a bit of the melting
snowflakes from brunette tresses before he steps further into the ever
haunting home, paying no mind to the ever present chill.
❝ Vladimir? ❞
Two by two he takes the steps, drifting lazily down the hall, ears open for
any sound of his companion. He was probably up to something nefarious,
and Talon wasn’t sure if he had the patience to walk in on that tonight.
❝ Where are you? This place is freezing- ❞