Dawn at the Wild Rift (Book IV)

Chapter 15

Talon clips some of Hanabi's hair locks behind her ear before walking past her. But then halts after taking three steps away and faces Hanabi once more.

"Come," he says with his usual sweet smile as he offers his hand.

With her resolve still unmoved by the fear she is feeling, Hanabi retaliates, "No, I won't listen to you anymore."

This time, Talon looks down on her, his smile no longer there, and even though his expression shows no hint of anger, Hanabi could feel it.

"You will not disobey me, Hana. Not now, not ever," he tells her. For the second time, he offers his hand and states, "Hold my hand."

"I said no!" Hanabi yells and is about to leave, but her hand suddenly moves on its own and holds Talon's. No matter how hard she tries to pull away, her body just couldn't follow what her mind tells it.

As she focuses on regaining control over her body, Talon leads her deeper into the temple. A long line of torches guides them to the central tabernacle located at the bottom of the temple. Just like the underground hallway she walked into with Jinx, the hallway they are walking as of the moment has its musty smell and dry air.

"What did you do to me, you bastard?!" Hanabi yells and even though she plans to punch Talon right on the face, her hand won't move the way she wants it to. No matter how she looks at it, she feels like her mind and body became separate entities.

Talon didn't respond to her, he simply leads the way and when they finally arrive at the bottom, a gasp escapes from Hanabi's mouth. The cavern is huge. The accumulated dust shows that the temple is long abandoned, however, when she looks up at the wall across her, she sees a familiar weapon—Sivir's cross blade. Beside the cross blade is a carved space of the shape of her Higanbana.

Not long after, Hanabi feels her stomach turn upside-down when the scent of rotting flesh reaches her nostrils.

"Come forward," Talon instructs her.

Both the necklace and bracelet that Ezreal once gave to Hanabi, glow in faint blue. With its power strong enough to control Hanabi, it makes her do anything that Talon tells her to like an obedient pet. He takes her hand and walks her to the tabernacle.

"Sivir isn't a direct descendant of the Scarlets, which we originally thought she is. But thanks to her, we were given more time to prepare you," Talon states. Hanabi is confused though because she never thought of Sivir as a relative or something of that sort.

As they stop in front of the tabernacle, he brings out his dagger with a golden dragon hilt and runs his thumb over the palm of Hanabi's hand.

"Did you kill her?" Hanabi asks, hoping that her thoughts are wrong. If Sivir is killed, then there is no doubt that she'll be having the same end as her.

"It is an inevitable situation so we had no choice," was simply the reply of the assassin before flashing a small smile. Hearing his reply makes her mad that she wants to kill him in return.

"Kenshin, what the hell are you up to?" she snarls but Talon simply looks away from her. Though it'll be torture for her from now on, he still proceeds to take action. He unconsciously tightens his grip on her hand when he once again heard her call him Kenshin. He hates it.

Hanabi groans in pain as he cuts her palm and let her blood drips onto the tabernacle. Hanabi is ignorant of what the real purpose of Talon but all she does know is that her blood that stained the tabernacle is evaporating. One drop after another, she feels her body slowly heats up.

Her breathing becomes ragged and her strength starts to deplete. She tries to move away but it doesn't help at all. Talon is still holding her hand tight to keep her blood dropping on the tabernacle. She wants to scream in pain but her voice suddenly vanishes. Her sight starts to blur as well.