Interlude

"You know what's hard about fighting? Nothing! Come on, I'm made of stone.~ Galio, The Colossus

Also, I don't remember if I used Grey with an e or Gray with a in my previous chapters. Why is it spelled differently anyway?

Not happy with this chapter but it is needed.

Also I'll try to get a large stock of chapters for a new year mass release. 5-10 chapters based on how many more I can complete.

Also after this second volume begins.

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A few months passed, and it was almost a year since the day everything fell apart. Gregori had started to spend hours looking at the star longingly. He had pushed himself to at least resemble some resemblance to his younger self but there was still more to go.

Getting back to his initial, more muscular state was not something he could achieve in the span of a few months. It was faster but not easier. He had put in the effort and the results were starting to show. But he still hadn't lost all of his flabby portions. That didn't put him down however. He felt good. Better. Better than he had been feeling for the past few years. He hadn't been a slouch but with a sedentary lifestyle he had been bound to put on some weight. It was to be expected after all. If his life had not taken a turn for the worse, then his deal with Caalyx would only have come into play at the end of his life. Things were different now. And he had to be prepared for what was to come.

If he was going into Noxus, then he had to play by its rules. Brute force would not work. Subterfuge and skullduggery were the way of life for Noxians. The only way simple people could succeed was if they were extremely gifted in a battlefield. 

The factions and their rivalries often killed anyone who had the misfortune to end up in between them.

Gregori had his work cut out for him. The game was not easy and the rules were harsh. He had to just follow the star and he would be in a good enough location but he knew that it could only give him a rough estimate of her position. If the star pointed to Daisy instead, he could be standing anywhere in the generic direction of the Freljord and the lands between and still not have an accurate position of her. The same applied to Annie. He had to go gather information manually. He had a few hotspots he would visit.

There were some contacts he could get with the Hastur name. There were some he could reach out to with his past in the Gray Legion. Though they might need a little convincing, harder to prove that you managed to get out of the legion of undead and notorious warriors. 

His old title would solve that. Gregori the Gray. 

He received that title when someone called him a wolf on the battlefield. His allies spotted a Gray Wolf the next day and the name just stuck. It eventually changed from Gregori the Gray wolf to Gregori the Gray. 

It had been something quite famous. Whispers of his name and his performance led him to be noticed by some of the higher ups. But that was put to rest after they read his last name.

Hastur.

It was a name with weight. Not his birth name, . Gregori also was not his real name. He had received this name when he got accepted to be a Hastur. Currently, he was the last one alive. His daughter notwithstanding. That could be an issue, if Annie had given her last name then they would expect a Hastur to come to them. Or they might not.

Its not like they had a record of every Hastur alive or dead. Those things, he had destroyed a long time ago. The entire place burnt down. Everyone knew how it happened, safety runes went boom after a mis-trigger. Word of mouth travelled through taverns till it reached him. 

They might just assume a child had arrived with that surname. It was not that unbelievable. Random names did pop up here and there. Some Shuriman names had Noxian influence and vice versa. They might just not bother. 

He needed to find that out.

His training with magic had also progressed. To the extent that he felt unstoppable. Even without Caalyx in his hands, Gregori felt like he could do real damage.

And that showed. Sparring with the Iceborn had given significant results. Braum's brute force was great for training with overall strength using magic. Stopping that hulking beast was harder than it looked and it looked really hard. Ashe's volleys of arrows helped train his control. At first he was trying to stop the arrows altogether but that changed. It was easier to change their direction. Faster the object the easier it was to influence its path of flight. Eventually, he had gotten to the point where he could just send the arrows back at her by curving them all while keeping the momentum.

Tryndamere on the other hand. Training was mutually beneficial with him. He learned to harness his rage inducing blood magic while Gregori further perfected his ghost like movement with making the weapon narrowly miss him each time. Every narrow miss made Tryndamere angrier and angrier until eventually he let out a roar and started hacking at him like a madman. Fully stopping him with his magic only led to a second of stillness before he broke out of it.

He was too angry to be stopped. Ashe tried to talk him out of it.

A raging berserk demon. That's what he had become. It had taken the combined efforts of both him and Braum to stop him or at least calm him. Gregori had almost used Caalyx to stop him.

Ashe's words did absolutely nothing. Gregori, Braum and Daisy had been trying to help the two Bloodsworn develop feelings for each other but neither seemed willing to take the final steps. He hoped the next time, Tryndamere would be unstoppable, Ashe could talk him down.

Their relationship was still a work in progress.

Not like his and Leanna's. Their love for their children forced the two together and they had liked that.

These two? They needed to come to terms. Especially with Ashe swearing to take only one Bloodsworn. These twenty something year old's needed love. It was a part of their life, one they would come to appreciate.

This was an eventuality. Both of them had a lot of things in common and covered each other's fallacies. A perfect match. But they were actively stalling the inevitable.

"Next time, promise some good sex and the man will listen." Those were his parting words that day.

He had never heard Braum laugh that hard. He didn't just have tears in his eyes, they were flowing down his face.

Their stunned faces were completely worth it until Daisy started asking questions. Questions he expertly dodged.

But as much as he loved having these interactions with these people, he couldn't immerse himself fully in them. He mind was constantly on Annie. He did not ask Soraka for more help. Just the pointing star was enough. He believed that everything would be alright, she had Tibbers with her and one of the Ten Demons wouldn't be weak in any manner. They were among the ten for a reason. And he supposed that Tibbers would be forced to protect Annie regardless of where she she was. And protection meant from every kind of danger. Tybaluk could be relied on.

Gregori was as physically ready as he could be. This was the most he could do. He was prepared for his journey to Noxus. Or rather his journey to find his daughter. His approximate location should be Noxus. The star seemed to be pointing in that direction.

It would be a long way there. So he decided to take one of the Avalance beasts with him. Oompa would accompany him till the edge of the Freljord and then go back to Rakelstake. That would be ideal, saving time to get past the frozen tundra and straight onto the grassy plains. From there it will be on foot till the point where if he looked up all he would see the star right above his head.

Then tavern hopping and reaching out to his contacts. 

And he had just the young assassin in mind. Owed him a favor too. On the topic of favors, a lot of people owed him many.

Well, it seemed that the time to call in all favors had arrived.

Gregori spent the day with his daughter in his arms the whole time. She had failed to acclimate to the True Ice. It had helped her grow but the connection was still weak. The pain she felt from it had lessened considerably now. But prolonged exposure stated to really hurt. She would like master the ice by the year end.

But he couldn't wait that long.

Annie had been waiting for him for almost a year. He could not and would not stay away from her any longer. He would bring his daughter back with him at any cost.

Explaining that to Daisy was difficult. Somehow, she had gotten it in her mind that he was going to abandon her and leave her with Ashe because they looked similar. She hadn't grown into any of her features yet, so she did look like a small Ashe but once she did grow older, her features would differentiate them.

Gregori consoled her.

He promised her.

He cajoled her.

And eventually, through endless tears and sobbing, he nodded in understanding. But she was not happy. She refused to leave his side, refused to train and refused to listen to anyone other than him. 

He did not mind one bit. And he did not let her go either. Letting her go then would make her think he was abandoning her again.

Gregori whispered in her ear. How he would bring Annie back. How they would go on a journey. How they would meet different people and see different creatures. How they would see the greatest sights these lands had to offer.

It got a shy smile out of her.

But despite her every wish, the day of departure had arrived and her father would have to leave.