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"One day, the flames will fade… and only dark will remain."

Third POV:

On a clear sky like this, the moonlight gave the forest of Ionia a majestic look. With all kinds of wildlife and plants, along with the occasional spirits passing through, one would never think that this peaceful land was at war in one point.

That is what Grey has been thinking as he and Ahri walked through the forest. A river of clear water was running beside them, coming from the distant mountains and heading towards the ocean. The sound of water and the quiet forest was enough to calm anyone.

Ahri herself seemed calm, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere that covered the forest. They had left the last village recently, and she believed she deserved some quiet time after what happened in the Fighting Pits, despite the fact that it was Grey who did the fighting.

"We should make camp soon," Grey suddenly suggested, breaking the silence. "It wouldn't be wise to spend the entire night traveling," he pointed out.

Ahri didn't see a problem with that. "Alright, I guess we can use the break," she agreed. She also remembered that her traveling companion hasn't had any sleep since they started traveling, and she believed he deserved some rest.

After a few more minutes of walking, they settled down at a place beside the river, where they rested at the trunks of trees. Odd, glowing flowers surrounded the area they were sitting in, giving a little light in the dark of the forest.

Seeing as the flowers were giving them light, add the fact that the weather wasn't particularly cold, Grey saw no need to start a fire and opted to simply sit down and lean back on a tree.

If he had to describe Ionia in a short sentence, it would be 'unnaturally natural', despite how ironic that sounded. The Abyss Watcher couldn't help but notice that nature dominated most of the land.

Even in the village where they went to the Fighting Pits, some houses were made of a combination of trees standing close to each other. In fact, even inside the Fighting Pits, half the structure was obviously part of the underground or large roots of trees.

"You should go to sleep," Ahri suddenly said catching his attention. "You haven't had a rest since we started traveling, and you deserve some rest, especially after fighting in the Pits," she explained.

"I don't need to rest right now, so you sleep first and I'll watch," the Abyss Watcher replied.

"Oh no, I'm not falling for that again," Ahri immediately shot his proposal down, remembering the first time he took watch. "You seriously need rest. I haven't seen you have any sleep since we started traveling, and that's really dangerous, especially if you fight as much as you do. So, why don't you take some rest, and I'll wake you up later so I can sleep too, deal?" she offered, although she had no intention of letting him refuse.

The Undead Swordsman simply kept looking at her for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders. He leaned back on the tree and Ahri can (barely) see his eyes close behind the small mask that is connected to his helm.

With her traveling companion now getting some sleep, the Nine-Tailed Vastaya was left alone. She brought her knees to her chest and looked around, trying to find something to entertain herself with while she waited until she deemed that the Abyss Watcher rested enough.

She wasn't going to wake him up anytime soon, that was for sure. They had been traveling together for nearly four whole days, and Ahri didn't see him get any sleep at all. She believed that he earned his rest, especially since he's the one who fought in the Pits.

Looking at the flowers she couldn't help but stiff a little. Flowers brought… mixed feelings to her. They brought both good memories and bad ones, both of them she would like to forget. Suddenly, making her traveling companion go to sleep and leave her alone didn't feel like such a good-

Ahri's eyes widen as she realized something. Grey was sleeping, which meant that he could be dreaming. She could use her magic and look into his dreams to finally get some knowledge of who he is.

Of course, Ahri took no joy in toying with dreams anymore. However, she was tired of not knowing anything about her traveling companion, especially since he managed to find out about her magic so easily. She needed to know something other than his name, anything would work.

So, looking at where his eyes were closed, Ahri used her magic, causing her eyes to start glowing blue. Trying to enter his dreams, she found… nothing.

Ahri refused to accept that as an answer. All those who sleep had dreams. Even if they were having a dreamless night, she can easily give them dreams herself from her magic, especially if she was within this close proximity of them, yet she couldn't find-

… It finally clicked in her head. The Nine-Tailed Vastaya then glared at Grey. "Are you trying to insult me?" she received no response to her question, which isn't surprising. "I know you're awake."

The Abyss Watcher's eyes opened behind the small mask, confirming her claims. "Did your magic have something to do with that?" he asked, suspecting that it might be the case.

"Don't change the subject," Ahri immediately retorted, trying to avoid speaking of her magic and his attempt at not answering her. "Why didn't you go to sleep?" she asked.

Grey looked away. "I simply couldn't," he replied.

"If you're going to lie, then at least look at me while doing it," Ahri deadpanned at him, calling out his obvious lie, causing Grey to sigh. He had been told by many people that he was a terrible lier, and he supposed that was true. "Now, tell me, why didn't you go to sleep."

"As I told you before, I don't need to," his answer just seemed to annoy her, rather than satisfy her.

The nine-tailed Vastaya pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "Look, all this time you talked about how you only do things if they were necessary, and how we shouldn't take unnecessary risks," she started as she looked back at him. "It would be really bad if you suddenly passed out from exhaustion, so why don't you take some rest while you can?" she asked him.

"I haven't needed rest in centuries," Grey commented, almost in self-pity. He didn't particularly feel bad about it, or special. After all, that was something all Undead shared.

Ahri's eyes widen. "Centuries?..." for a moment, she believed he was lying since she knew that humans don't live that long. However, after the earlier attempt of lying, along with the fact she sensed no description from him, she could tell that he wasn't. "You're… not human, are you?" she asked to make sure of her suspension.

The Abyss Watcher nodded, seeing no reason to lie, but he didn't reveal what he is to her. Honestly, Ahri wanted to be happy that she finally discovered something from her traveling companion, but what she discovered just filled her head with more questions.

If he was truly centuries old, then that probably meant he was older than her. She had spent the recent years of her life thinking about how everyone was basically a kid compared to her age, since she was nearly over a century old, despite looking youthful, but she apparently found someone who was older than her.

Then there was the fact he wasn't human. True, she didn't believe that he was normal, but she didn't know that he wasn't human. Ahri suspected that he was a Vastaya since they have a long lifespan, but she dismissed that thought.

She couldn't sense any magic from him. All Vastaya are born with a natural talent in magic, no matter how little. Even in the Fighting Pits, when they encounter the boss, Ahri felt sparks of magic from him. However, she felt nothing from the Abyss Watcher. So, what was he?

"Do you hate flowers?" the sudden question caused all of Ahri's thoughts to vanish as she redirected her attention to her traveling companion.

"What makes you say that?" Ahri did her best to hide any emotion from her voice, although some hesitation still made it there.

"You have been either staring at them or avoiding looking at them all together," he explained the reason for his question.

Ahri couldn't help but be impressed by his observation skills. Perhaps she was too busy thinking that she didn't even notice the way she was acting. "No, I don't hate them. They just… bring back memories," she believed that she should reveal as much as he did, which isn't much but still enough.

Grey nodded, seemingly accepting the answer, and simply went back to leaning on the tree. It was obvious that, whether flowers brought good or bad memories, they were memories that Ahri would like to forget, so he avoided asking further questions.

"What about you?" Ahri asked, deciding to just stick to talking from now on if she wanted to know something, since her normal methods were useless. "What do you think about flowers?"

Grey looked around them, getting a good look at them before answering. "They are… a welcoming change. Sights like these are near non-existence."

Ahri wouldn't deny that she was feeling curious. "What was your home like?" she asked, believing that she at least might recognize the description if not the name.

"Farron Keep was… unkind, to say the least," Grey started, trying to come up with the best way to describe his 'home'. "It was a place where you either get strong or get killed. If the monsters don't get you, then the poisonous swamps will," he explained.

"Poisonous swamps?" Ahri couldn't hide the surprise from her voice. There was barely any swamps on Ionia, let alone poisonous ones, and they were definitely not filled with monsters. "If it's such a terrible place, why did you stay there?" she asked.

"Plenty of reasons," the Abyss Watcher replied, shrugging his shoulders. "For one thing, I have nowhere else to go. I also have a duty to finish there. Not to mention that… I have to make sure that the others rest," he counted his reasons, although the last one confused his traveling companion.

The way he spoke about his 'home' made Ahri feel like he still would stay there if he could. Then, remembering that he kept asking about his home, while also remembering that he travels for 'personal reasons', Ahri came to a realization. "Is that why you're going to the Institute? so you could go back there?" she asked.

The Abyss Watcher replied with a nod, before looking at her. "Why are you going there?" he asked.

believing that she should at least tell him something, she hugged her knees and replied, "I… I guess you can say I'm looking for help, like you," it wasn't a complete lie. After all, she was going there to see if there is a way to finally stop killing and taking memories.

Once again, Grey nodded, accepting the answer. "You should get some sleep. I don't need it, but you do, so get some rest," he suggested.

Ahri simply hugged her knees tighter and looked around at the flowers. "I think I'll stay up a little longer. I don't really feel like going to sleep right now," she replied, hidden fear in her tone.

"Is this about your nightmares?" Grey asked, seeing the obvious signs of being scared and recalling her screaming in her sleep.

The nine-tailed Vastaya didn't even try to lie, and simply nodded. The flowers brought back memories, and she would undoubtedly see them in her dreams again. More specifically, she would see HIM again, and she didn't want to at the moment.

Suddenly, Grey stood up from his place and walked closer. Ahri gave him a questionable look as he sat down beside her, on the side of the tree she was sitting on. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'll stay here in case you start screaming again. Go to sleep, and if I saw anything happen, I'll wake you up immediately," the Undead Swordsman replied, explaining why he suddenly sat beside her.

Ahri was shocked. she couldn't tell if he was doing this for her sake, or because he simply didn't want her to be a bother in their travel from lack of sleep. Honestly, she wouldn't doubt that it was somehow both.

Ahri saw this as a sign of him trying to comfort her, even though it was possible that he wasn't. She simply decided to accept the act of kindness and lean back on the tree, letting her tails cover her as she closed her eyes and started to slowly drift into sleep.

…

Meanwhile, in another part of Ionia, deep within the northern mountains, lies the Kinkou temple. Inside the temple, Shen was sitting cross-legged in the middle of a large garden, covered in many kinds of Ionian flowers. The garden had a large, cherry blossom tree in the middle, and a small bond of water close by.

The leader of the Kinkou order had his eyes closed and was taking deep breaths, meditating, while also testing his connection to the spiritual realm, which made his sword on his back glow slightly. Suddenly, he spoke, breaking the silence of the garden. "I assume you return with some information?"

An annoyed sigh was heard before Akali and Kennen suddenly jumped down from the tree and landed behind their master. "I told you it wouldn't work," the Yordle said.

the female assassin rolled her eyes in annoyance. She can never sneak on Shen, no matter how hard she tried. When she asked him how he keeps knowing about her, he said that she was too noisy, despite the fact she always made sure to never make a sound.

Disregarding her annoyance, Akali went back to answering Shen's question. "We found… somethings, but not much," Shen simply opened his eyes and looked at her over his shoulder, which was her sign to continue.

Akali and Kennen then began explaining everything they found out about the Abyss Watcher, from those dead slavers to the farm where he first appeared. They also explained to him that, at some point, the trail completely vanishes, which is why they returned so quickly.

Shen took a moment to think about what he just heard. Truthfully, he didn't know what to think about the mysterious man. While so far, his actions have been rather well, the Eye of Twilight believed that it was mere coincidence and that those events simply happened to be at the path that the Undead Swordsman was traveling.

Still, Shen decided to give him the benefit of doubt, seeing that he had no actual benefit of helping others, but he still did. So, perhaps the Abyss Watcher's presence would not be so bad, but they will still check on him. Though, Shen would be lying if he said that he wasn't curious as to why the stranger was with the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

If what the farmer told Kennen and Akali is true about the Undead Swordsman going towards the Institute of War, then she was most likely going with him there. They'll most likely be found there sooner or later, and so they can meet and ask them personally there.

"There's also something else," Akali added, halting Shen's thoughts. "We… saw Bard."

For what could be the first time, Shen's students saw his eyes widen in shock. "Bard?" neither can blame his surprise.

"He was looking over the place that the tracks stopped," Kennen explained, remembering the rather breathtaking sight of actually seeing Bard.

The Eye of Twilight narrowed his eyes, entering deep thought. He couldn't imagine what reason could the Cosmic Vagabond himself would come to investigate the stranger. Perhaps there was more to it.

However, despite all his knowledge and wisdom, Shen knew that he wouldn't be able to make decisions better than Bard, so he decided to leave whatever judgment that falls the Abyss Watcher from him was well deserved.

"I suppose we should keep an eye out for any kind of danger, just to be safe," Shen instructed believing that this was currently the best course of action. "Now, why don't you go finish your training? You are still too noisy when attempting sneaking around," he suggested while turning back to meditation.

Akali groaned loudly and raised her hands, holding them in line with Shen's neck, imagining throttling her teacher for a moment before she simply huffed and turned around, throwing her hands down and walking away. Kennen simply chuckled and followed her.

Shen would not deny or confirm that he might be smiling under his mask.

…

It has been nearly two hours, and Ahri was still sleeping peacefully, covered in her tails. Grey was sitting beside her, like he was before, and was keeping an eye on everything around.

The flowers around them kept glowing faintly, giving him a clear vision through the dark night. He still didn't know how those flowers were glowing, but he had seen far weirder plants, so he simply decided not to even question it as long as they were useful.

Suddenly, Ahri seemed to tense, Grey immediately turned his sights toward her as he saw her start steering. She was obviously starting to see a nightmare, but it wasn't that bad yet.

The Abyss Watcher was about to wake her up when he noticed something. From Ahri's head, a thin trail of darkness seemed to come out and head deeper into the forest. The darker the trail was, the more Ahri started steering.

Grey didn't know much about this land, but he knew that what was happening wasn't natural and that the trail obviously had something to do with Ahri's nightmare. So, he stood up and started to quickly move towards where the trail led.

It led him to a part of the forest where there were no glowing flowers, so the place was darker, but there was still a little light from the moon. Grey wasn't far, and he can still faintly make out the sound of Ahri moving around, so he can quickly go back if something went wrong.

The trail seemed to just vanish in the darkness of the forest, so whatever was the cause was around him. So, pulling out a throwing knife, Grey waited in silence for a couple of seconds before swiftly throwing the knife toward his the darkness of the forest.

The knife definitely struck something, which is implied by the sound of a phantom voice crying out and the trail of darkness suddenly vanishing. Whatever Grey hit, it was obviously not human judging by the sound he just heard.

There was a moment of silence before, with great speed, Grey suddenly pulled out his sword and blocked something that attacked him from the side. He heard another blade strike his sword, before whatever attacked him continued through and back to the darkness of the forest.

Another strike like that one came again from the other side, and Grey blocked it just like the first. Whatever was attacking him kept making quick attacks like this and while always returning to the shadows to stay hidden.

Getting tired of these cowardly strikes, the Undead Swordsman blocked the next one while also making sure to move right in the path of his attacker. With the moonlight shining down, he finally got a good look at them… and they were definitely not human.

its body seemed to be entirely of shadows. It had a human shape from the waist up but no legs and was simply floating in the air. Two glowing white slits worked as their eyes. its shoulders and arms were covered in dark armor with red blades at the wrists, which were now locked with Grey's sword.

The Abyss Watcher pushed back the creature, causing sparks to ignite from the friction of the blades. The attacker brought its hands together and threw an attack made of darkness at Grey, who rolled away, causing the attack to strike a tree and leave some sort of black sludge on it.

For a second, Grey wondered if it was Abyss, but dismissed that thought when he saw the sludge slowly leave without corrupting the tree. So, he turned his attention towards the creature again and dashed towards it.

It was obviously caught off guard by his speed, but still managed to cross its arms in front of its body to block the attack. However, Grey wasn't aiming to attack it. Swinging his sword upwards, he purposely struck the ground, causing a cloud of dirt and dust to cover the creature's vision.

The creature couldn't see Grey swinging his sword from the side this time, which caused it to be struck from the side, sending it to the floor of the forest. While it was down, Grey jumped in the air and attempted to impale the creature with his sword.

However, it managed to quickly regain its senses and its body swiftly floated out of the way, which made Grey stab through the ground instead. The creature floated in the air again and glared at the Abyss Watcher, who glared right back.

The shadows of the forest seemed to get darker, a sign that the creature was mad. The Undead Swordsman pulled his sword out of the ground and got ready to face the creature again.

But they didn't continue their battle, because all of a sudden, small creatures that seemed to be made of golden light started floating down on them and covering the forest in light. Whatever they were, their light seemed to burn the dark creature as it started screeching in pain. It helplessly tried to cover itself, but the small creatures kept surrounding them, which left the dark creature to have no choice but to flee into the forest and float away into the darkness.

Grey can tell that it won't show itself again for a while, so he turned his attention towards the small creatures that seemingly stopped going in circles and simply floated in the air around him. They looked humanoids, but small and made of golden light.

Their gaze seemed to be on the Abyss Watcher, who simply waited for them to do something. However, they simply turned their gaze upwards, causing him to do the same… and he saw another creature that was not human.

A being made of cloth, hair, a circle mask, and was holding an odd horn seemed to be floating high in the air, slowly descending down until he was floating in front of the Undead Swordsman. It was sitting cross-legged on the air, hands on its knees as the horn was on its lap.

The golden creatures seemed to enjoy its presence, which is implied by how some of the either started going in circles around it or stand on its shoulders. "And who might you be?" Grey asked, still holding his sword to see if the new arrival was hostile, but the answer he received was an odd sound similar to chiming and jingling bells.

(A/N: Thank you for reading this.

First: in the first two versions, I made the mistake that Ahri and Grey were easy to reveal knowledge about each other. I decided to settle for subtle messages and small information this time. Neither of them revealed much, only a small amount of equal information.

Second: about Shen's thoughts. True, he should have been more suspicious about Grey, and a little wary of Ahri. However, Shen's mindset is that you do good, you receive good, you do bad, and you receive bad. Because Ahri and Grey helped people, he's giving them a chance to see if they're dangerous or not but is still keeping his guard up.

Third: as you can see, Nocturne made an appearance. Well, it would only make sense. He feeds off nightmares, and he was originally in Ionia(to be specific, the Shadow realm). Plus, Ahri can control dreams, so it only makes sense that she wouldn't have nightmares unless the Demon of Nightmares himself is involved.

And lastly: Bard managed to find Ahri and Grey quite quickly. Honestly, that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I only hope I manage to get his character and his responses right.

Again, thank you for reading this. Please comment, review, and give me your thoughts on my story.)