Chapter Text
Gumayusi doesn’t know how long he can keep going. Though, he might’ve been thinking this for the past two hours. He’s known that climbing up to the highest peak of Targon wouldn’t be easy; Aspects know how many unprepared fools have attempted the feat only to become corpses on the rocky hills.
He has half a mind to turn around before he joins those fools, even though he knows it's too late to do so. He doesn’t know what possessed him to attempt this when he’s not even shield-aged yet, and when those with twice his experience have failed before him. Maybe he thought he’d be different. Maybe they’d all thought they’d be different.
But he’s anything if not stubborn, and he wants to do this. He needs to do this if he wants to be considered to join the Ra’Horak.
He is rubbish with the shield, and the prestigious ranks of the Solari soldiers accepted too few archers for him to make it in the upcoming year. He hopes reaching the peak of the mountain would be enough to prove himself.
Every part, every muscle, every cell of his body wailed under the strain of his ascension. The air’s been thinning gradually as his altitude steadily ascends, and his breath has been forming thinning clouds of fog as it becomes harder and harder to take any oxygen in.
Thankfully, it’s about to get warmer. The sky has been progressively brightening and the Sun shouldn’t take much longer to rise over the mountain peaks. He tries to convince himself it’ll get better, once he can feel her radiance against his back and once the Darkness fades in her light. He doesn’t know how he’s even gotten this far, with his eyes ill-fitted to see in obscurity.
But despite the imminent clear skies of dawn, his limbs shake with exhaustion and the wind howling in his ears spells something almost sinister. Gumayusi hopes it’s simply the exertion of the climb that has his heartbeat racing with agitation.
At least, he thinks he can see a platform where he could rest for a little bit before trying to ascend the last stretches of the mountain. He reaches up—
A vortex of light crashes down onto the peak of the Mountain.
Gumayusi barely keeps his grip on his handhold, flinching from the brightness against his retinas.
Seconds later, a deep boom resounds against his eardrums, almost like thunder, but closer and much, much louder. The shockwave hits him and he barely manages to keep himself from falling due to the force of it knocking into him.
He pauses in his climb, with only the sound of his own panting against his ears to keep him grounded. He’s never witnessed this kind of celestial phenomenon happening before, and it could only mean one thing: a worthy individual had reached the peak of Mount Targon.
But he hasn’t heard of anyone who’d announced they were going to attempt it in recent months. People usually did, either for bragging rights, or so that they would be remembered, lest they fail (which most of them did).
Granted, Gumayusi hadn’t told anyone he would attempt it either, yet here he is. But he’s pretty sure that as dark as it was, he would’ve seen it if anyone else was climbing ahead of him: the peak is narrow and steep, and as much as his eyesight was ill-suited to darkness, it was still sharp and reactive to movement, characteristic of an archers’ sight.
As the seconds pass with no further disturbance, he starts to wonder whether he’s starting to hallucinate from exertion. Yet as soon as he makes up his mind to keep climbing…
“You should stop.”
He jolts, his fingertips barely missing the nook he was about to grab, and his heart skips a beat as he realizes what happens next.
He’s only free-falling for a fraction of a second before he feels a hand take hold of his and yank him up.
Before he knows it, there’s solid ground under his feet, but his trembling knees can’t hold him up for long. He barely catches himself from falling face-first into the cold stone, leaning with his hands and his entire body shaking from the adrenaline.
“That was dangerously close.” The voice from earlier continues, calm as ever.
He raises his head in a sharp movement to his savior.
A lean figure stands in front of him on the platform, and even though Gumayusi is pretty certain he’s taller than the man in front of him, the way his blood-red irises were peering down at him made him seem bigger, his stance taller.
He can’t make out the expression behind his mask apart from his inquisitive gaze. His hooded coat is pitch-black, so dark Gumayusi can barely see any reflection apart from a crimson sheen, with golden accents of thin armor on top of it, suited for his lean build, more agility than strength-focused.
“You won’t be able to reach the peak, at this rate. The wind is picking up.”
“I’ll just have to hold on tighter then,” Gumayusi pauses to catch his breath, “There’s only a third of the way up left.”
Well, a third was generous. It was probably closer to a little less than a half, but that just sounds depressing, so he’ll just stick to a third. Besides, the Sun’s impending rise would help him, at least somewhat. He’ll be warmer, and the light will let him see better.
“You aren’t ready,” The man continues with certainty, “the celestials won’t take you as you are right now.”
Gumayusi frowns, hackles instantly raised at the jab. “What would you know about it?”
The man tilts his head, “Where do you think I just came from?”
Gumayusi considers the outfit, unlike any he’s ever seen. He considers the previous unusual cosmic event and the mystical aura of the stranger before him.
The thoughts click in his head.
“You’re an Ascended.” He breathes, eyes wide, “How did you—”
Gumayusi clamps his mouth shut. Individuals who reached Ascension only happened once every few generations, and from what he’s heard, he was pretty sure those people could squash him in the blink of an eye.
… Is he supposed to bow?
“I didn’t just ascend if that’s what you were thinking” the man interrupts his thoughts, holding a hand out. Gumayusi doesn’t hesitate, taking it and letting himself get hoisted back to his feet.
“I came back down.”
Gumayusi blinks. He’d never heard of that possibility, but it made sense.
Tales described the ascension from the peak of Mount Targon as a gradual phenomenon, the luminance surging up the mountain’s base all the way to the top before converging into the sky. The previous vortex was sudden, unannounced, and crashed down onto Targon.
He can’t help but ask, “Why?”
It was an incredible feat and an immense honor to reach Mount Targon’s peak, let alone step beyond the realm of Runeterra. He couldn’t envision any good reason why anyone would descend back from the fabled city of Gold and Silver.
“Do you perhaps know any Lees? One of the founding families of the Solari.” The man asks, entirely ignoring his question.
“... I’m a Lee.”
Normally, he would say this with pride, but he doesn’t know this person, and they’re obviously powerful and potentially dangerous.
“Are you now? You do seem like you could be one.” He hums, an edge of amusement in his voice, “Catch.”
Without further warning, he tosses a small, scarlet dagger in Gumayusi’s direction. It’s only thanks to years of training that he doesn’t cut himself, catching the blade in the nick of time between his fingers. In addition to its strange color, its weight is confounding; not quite heavy enough to be metal, but not quite light enough to be anything else. He gives it an experimental toss, and scrambles to catch it once again as it turns out not quite unbalanced, but certainly more aerodynamic than expected.
Puzzled, he glances at the mysterious individual, whose expression is indiscernible under his mask.
“So you are.” He hums.
Gumayusi doesn’t know why, but he feels like he’s just passed a test, somehow.
“How is your family? Are you still friends with the Bae, of the Lunari?”
Gumayusi frowns, now apprehensive, “Why do you want to know about my family? And why would we be friends with heretics?”
The man tenses up, “Heretics? The Lunari?”
“Yes?”
He regrets the word as soon as it comes out of his mouth. There’s a sudden pressure in the air, no doubt resulting from the flare of magic coming from the Ascended. If he’d thought the man’s gaze was intimidating before, it’s much intensified now; his eyes alone convey a coldness he has ever only seen from elite warriors.
Gumayusi didn’t see any reason to bring weapons to the climb; they’d only have weighed him down, as his only real opponents were the temperature and altitude of the mountains. He wishes he did, now. He certainly could’ve used his crossbow, his sword, or even his shield, at this point. Anything.
Instead, all he has is a singular dagger that he can barely wield.
“And why, exactly, would the worship of the Moon be heresy?”
The Moon?
When the man takes a step towards him threateningly, Gumayusi stands his ground, tightening his grip on the dagger.
“Are you not grateful for the moonlight that illuminated your climb throughout the night?”
“The Moon?” He repeats, frowning, and points a finger towards the illuminated circle in the sky that’s paling by the minute. “Is that what it is? That light up there?”
His opponent seems taken aback by the question and by his genuine confusion.
“You didn’t know what the Moon is called.” The man breathes out after a pause, expression agitated when he realizes Gumayusi isn’t jesting, “What happened after I left..?”
Gumayusi blinks.
“After you left? How long ago was this?”
The Ascended narrows his eyes at him, and in an instant, Gumayusi finds himself holding thin air, the dagger reappearing in his opponent’s hands.
“Long before you were born, most likely.” He admits, twirling the dagger between deft fingers.
… How old is this guy?
“Let me lend you a piece of advice,” the man takes off his hood, revealing jet-black hair, then his mask, “from one Lee to another.”
Gumayusi… can’t say he sees much of a resemblance, unless he squints, and even then.
“There needs to be a balance between both the Sun and the Moon for Targon to thrive. The Solari would not possess the strength it does if not for the Lunari’s support.”
“If that’s the case, how come I’ve never heard of this?” Gumayusi protests, wary after the man’s casual display of power, “We’re plenty strong, even without their interference.”
“Then imagine how strong you would be if you were to work together. Beware of the things you were told,” The stranger, presumably a Lee, warns, “if you didn’t even know the name of Evening’s Star, what else has been hidden from you?”
Gumayusi can feel his first instincts protest at those words, so obviously heresy.
He has always had a strong faith. He’s been steadfast in his beliefs since he began his Rakkoric education at the Sunward temple. He had excelled in his studies and led his peers during Wargames in the hopes of becoming a Ra’Horak and getting closer to her Light.
But this man is an Ascended, an individual so powerful the skies have gifted him their blessings and invited him to roam among the stars. If anyone knew better, it was him.
And he thinks he knows, somewhere deep down, that there was something wrong with the things they’ve been taught. He’d never acknowledged it, before now, but he can’t dismiss the sense of wrongness.
The feeling of something missing between the too-thick spines of tomes with whole chapters’ worth of ripped pages. The circular arguments that were repeatedly brought up in Oratory class. The abrupt ending of the melody of the Hymn of the Dawn.
He turns his eyes to the light in the sky, still present even as the edges of the horizon become yellow.
The Sun should rise soon, yet the Moon remained.
“Faith isn’t inherently bad, but blind faith can be.” The Ascended continues in his silence, “Do not stare directly into the Sun and let her light blind you.”
Gumayusi thinks about everything he knows, and wonders whether the words of a single man can be trusted over the knowledge he has built over his years with the Solari.
“I won’t.”
He doesn’t know the truth yet, but he swears to himself that he will find out.
The Ascended seems to deem his answer acceptable, nodding at his troubled conviction.
“You should start climbing down, now. You’ll be able to try again once you’ve obtained your shield, once you’re older and stronger.”
The Lee raises his hand in front of Gumayusi’s chest, and he almost takes a step back before remembering exactly how high they were standing. An emerald glow emanates from his palm, which envelops him with a sensation almost like a mist, just tangible enough, and neither warm nor cool. As it fades, he feels his aches fade with him, his body surging with renewed vigor.
“This should be enough for you to get back.” The man says, lowering his hand, “And you’ll be able to see better, in daylight.”
“Thank you.” He nods with gratitude, “What about you?”
“I’ll manage, better than you.” He answers, and there’s no mask, this time, to hide his amused smirk. He holds out a hand, “I’m Faker.”
“Gumayusi.” He shakes it firmly, “I hope to see you again.”
“You will,” Faker replies without missing a beat, tugging his mask and his hood back on. “I’ll be going first, so take care. May the Sun bless you with her ardent warmth as the Moon had done with her gentle caress.”
Gumayusi doesn’t have time to add anything before Faker leaps from their platform. He’s almost concerned before he sees him conjure a large golden spear out of thin air and then disappear in a flash of golden sparks, remembering that right.
Faker is an Ascended.
And he’s an acolyte of the Solari, not even of shield age, attempting to climb to the peak of Mount Targon during the night.
Perhaps he should worry about himself first.
He shakes his head, opting to take a moment to collect his thoughts before starting to descend.
Gumayusi sits down, legs dangling over the cliff as the first sunbeams of the morning hit his face, basking his skin with a familiar sensation of wonder and warmth. With the Sun only peeking over the edges of rocky peaks of the horizon, the light is still slightly dim, bathing the rocks with a stunning orange glow.
He will never tire of watching the sunrise; dawn feels like home.
And turning his head, spotting the other light still lingering in the sky, he thinks that maybe, the two lights might be meant to share the sky, after all.
The Moon, Faker had called it.
The Night’s light.
The Evening’s star.