"Where did you find this?" The magistrate asked.

The cousin cleared his throat. "At Elder Soma's cervical vertebrae."

There was a gasp in the council hall.

"Why didn't you submit it before?" The Magistrate's gaze was locked on her target.

"I've been here," the priest said, his eyes trying to avoid the samurai priest standing next to the broken sword. "But Master said it didn't matter."

The magistrate's gaze did not have to hide from the samurai priest.

"Here you come," she ordered. She handed the piece of metal to the samurai priest. "Put it together with the rest."

The samurai priest glared at the priest, but accepted the order anyway. He walked over to Riven's broken sword, turned to the Pusher at the last moment, and said, "Pusher, this weapon has dark magic attached to it. We don't know what this piece of debris will bring. ”

"Comply." The tone of the magistrate is unmistakable.

The samurai priest turned back. All eyes in the council hall were holding their breath as he placed the twisted piece of metal against the tip of the broken sword.

The weapon lay quietly.

The pusher sighed softly. However, Rui Wen was always looking at the old man and his wife. She knew their hopes were about to be disappointed. She had always been too fragile to accept that the world had mercy on such a broken person. The acquittal they hoped for was fleeting, and it was the moment that hurt her the most. She was sad because she knew that all the good faith in their hearts about her would be shattered in the next moment. The truth about her past was sharper and more painful than any blade.

Riven heard her sword start roaring. "Alright," she shouted. She struggled to drown out the noise of the hall. She struggled to break free. "You must listen carefully."

The sound is getting louder. Now all can hear and feel it. The villagers panicked, and you pushed me to retreat. The Magistrate stood up immediately, her hands reaching for the wooden table beneath the broken sword. The edges of the table began to grow and bend, and new branches sprouted from the wood to wrap the weapon around, but Riven knew that its magic could not be restrained.

"Get down, everybody!" Riven shouted, but the roar of the greatsword drowned out all of her voice, and the weapon began to emit a piercing tone.

Suddenly, the energy of the runes erupted, mixed with shattered wood chips. A gust of wind pushed everyone standing to the ground.

People lay on the ground, looking up at Riven.

Ruiwen's lips were cold and her cheeks were hot. The ghosts in her mind, the memories she had buried deeply, were all pouring out of her mind now, vivid. They were Ionian peasants, men, women and children, villagers who did not want to bow down to Noxus. They all looked at her. harassing her. They knew about her crimes. They are also her warriors, her brothers and sisters. They were willing to sacrifice themselves for the glory of the Empire, but she harmed everyone. She led her soldiers with the Noxian flag, which promised them a home and meaning. But in the end, they were all betrayed and abandoned. All of them have been devastated by the war.

Now the ghosts stood with the living, and the bystanders, tossed to the ground by the magic of the greatsword, began to slowly stand up, but Riven remained in the valley of long ago. She couldn't breathe. Death gagged her mouth and nose.

No, none of these dead people are real, she told herself. She saw Asa and Shavah, who were watching her too. Two remnants stood beside them. One has the eyes of an old man, and the other has the mouth of Shava. The old couple stood up with each other in their arms, oblivious to the souls of the past around them.

"Daida," said the old woman.

Riven couldn't suppress her guilt and shame.

"I did it." Riven's lips spoke empty words. She will accept her fate and be at the mercy of this group. She would let them complete the trial and then be punished for their crimes.

"I was the one who killed your elders," she said to everyone. She could barely breathe, and a piercing confession filled the hall. "I killed everyone."

The dead silence of the tomb of the council hall began to revive. Sensing the commotion, heavily armed samurai priests rushed from all directions to enter the hall against the crowd of people hiding from dangerous magic.

The hook-nosed pusher stood firm and smashed the spherical startling wood into the desk.

"The balance of the court is restored immediately," she ordered.

The room was quiet again. People straighten the overturned benches and sit down again. The cloak stranger scratched his nose and walked to the corner to check the new chest-high cut on the wall. A samurai priest cautiously approached the enchanted greatsword.

Among the broken wood of the table, the greatsword and scabbard lay there. The shattered blade emitted a green arc of energy. The samurai priest bent down to grasp the hilt of the sword, and he raised the greatsword with both hands, feeling its weight. The rift remains, but the weapon is intact.

"Take this evil weapon away!" Someone shouted. The priest put the weapon back into its sheath, and several more priests came up to remove it.

"I killed him," Riven repeated. Her voice is her own, not her own. This is what her past is talking about. She looked at the faces in the hall. Now she remembered it all, waking up in the corner of her own memory.

"Rivien," the magistrate said.

Riven's attention suddenly shifted from the greatsword to the pusher.

"Do you know what you're confessing?" She asked.

Riven nodded.

"Why did you do that?"

"I don't remember." That's all she could answer. Ruiwen, whose hands were bound, couldn't wipe away the silent tears at the moment, so she could only let it slide down her chin.

The doer looked at her intently, waiting for more truth to emerge, but after a futile wait, she gestured to the court officer.

"Rui Wen, you will be imprisoned here until the official sentence is pronounced at dawn tomorrow, during which time anyone can reconcile with you for a personal vendetta."

Riven stared at the shackles on her hands.

"I and two other magistrates will search the legal code and consult with the elders to give you an appropriate punishment for your crimes."

The villagers left quietly. The last to leave were the old couple. Riven deduced from the accent she heard Sava whisper to her wife, but the intense emotions made the words illegible. When she heard two old steps gradually walking out of the door, Rui Wen finally raised her head. There were no living people left in the halls—only the ghosts of the past.

The midnight air is cold and crisp. A full moon in the night sky is surrounded by a cold halo. Moonlight poured into the hall through the open door, but it didn't illuminate the shadows at the end of Riven's room. No one came in during the day to make peace with her. Although the samurai priest carried the greatsword, the sharp sword marks on the walls around the hall kept the villagers from entering. Some people opened the door, and a few others brought more rotten fruits, but in the end, no one came to disturb Riven's meditation. She was finally able to fall asleep, but it was a light, intermittent sleep, fitting for someone who knew they were approaching the last dawn. She woke up immediately when she heard Sisso's footsteps approaching in the darkness.