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Chapter 1 - A Cold Trip Home

It was the rain. I had gotten past the bitter cold - at this point the predictable impact of the droplets on my shoulders felt good, massaging my worn muscles after crawling through that cave. There wasn't a doubt that I'd develop a cold from this, but it had been worth it - no one had been where I had for centuries, and I held the proof of that in my pack.

The star rods' blue light was faint on the edge of Piltover's suburbs, and the cloud cover and rain made the night that much darker. I kept a determined pace toward Heimerdinger's research archive. I smirked at the title. The place should have been called 'Ezreal's home away from home'. Not that I was exactly welcome in my own home…

It had been a while since I had talked to my parents. They had called me a 'child with great potential' when I had been admitted to the Techmaturgical Institute of Piltover with the highest marks at a young age. Their admiration had grown to embarrassment and then disapproval when I decided that my time was better spent exploring the place that the Institute originally found the musty tomes they based their research on in, rather than reading textbooks based on said tomes.

I suppose they'd be more open to talking to me now, though. A sick coincidence it might be, near the day I would have graduated from the Institute, the government of Piltover offered me a job, admiring my cartography and exploratory knowledge.

"Heh..." I said to myself, wondering what the look on their faces was like when they heard that. It must have been six months ago.

Brushing my dripping hair from my eyes, I knocked on the door of the archive, not expecting an answer. I backed off, looking for the hidden key.

The door opened suddenly, Heimerdinger's voice condescending; "Ezreal! I'm not sure what to do with you, boy! You were supposed to be back two days ago. I hope for your sake you at least found something worthwhile."

"...Nice to see you too, Heimer." I said, stepping inside, putting my pack down lightly on a table. Since the archive wasn't used that often, the only source of lighting were a few star-rods that Heimer had erected in the corners of the room. The concrete floor was covered by a few mismatched rugs.

I turned to the Yordle, saying, "I did find something, though. What are you doing up so late, anyway?"

Heimerdinger looked down, caught off guard by my question. "I was uh... working on something for Orianna."

I laughed at him, and then said, "Her birthday is coming up, isn't it? Hmm... Anyway, I really need to clean myself up." I said, removing my gloves, taking special care of the one I had affixed my amulet to.

"I'm not sure exactly what the origins are, but It's some sort of box from a tomb. There's a book inside - all of it's in good condition." I added, removing the items carefully from my pack, handing them to Heimerdinger.

The yordle looked them over admirably, saying, "I'll start on the restoration process tomorrow - but it looks like this one will be easy. Alright, Ezreal, I'll put this away and be off. Don't forget to lock the place if you're out and about tomorrow."

I nodded to him, saying, "Don't worry, I'll be careful."

Heimerdinger whistled to himself, walking into the next room and putting my findings in a container before leaving through the secondary exit, locking that one. I yawned, stretching, nearly collapsing right there. I fought the urge and instead walked into the washroom, stripping myself and stepping into the shower, letting the warm water wash over my body. My ribcage and shoulders were especially tender, from climbing and a rather bad tumble, respectively.

I looked at the water running down the drain as I cleaned myself, hoping one of those 'Summoners' from the League of Legends wouldn't see fit to call on me anytime soon. It wasn't likely - there had been some conflicts between Noxus and Ionia, but he wasn't well known to either of those cultures.

I actually enjoyed being summoned on occasion. It was a good escape, and decent exercise, but sometimes it happened at the most inconvenient of times, since I was not summoned like other champions.

After I finished cleaning myself, I dried off and put on some nightclothes, stumbling over to the couch I used as a bed every night, and fell asleep.