Night had fallen.
At the Vayne estate, the three of them busied themselves after dinner. Vayne cleared the table and washed the dishes, while Lux stood before Duke, who was tinkering with a small gadget meant for self-defense. At the same time, he was also teaching her a few necessary lessons.
One of them: always stay wary of strangers.
"Did today's events teach you anything?"
Without lifting his head, Duke adjusted the wiring with a soldering iron as he asked the question.
Lux lowered her eyes, thinking for a moment before replying timidly, "I shouldn't have trusted Sister Vanessa so easily?"
"No."
Duke finished testing the circuit, sighed, and looked at her. "Lux, you're too kindhearted. This world isn't simply black or white, most of it is painted in shades of gray. Your kindness will be your greatest weakness. Today was proof of that. You thought Vanessa, who had always shown you kindness, bore no ill will. And yet, in the blink of an eye, she controlled you and took you away."
He handed Lux a small device, his gaze firm. "Sometimes what we see is only what others want us to see, not the truth. You must learn to doubt. Once you learn to question, you'll know how to protect yourself."
Lux accepted the device and nodded faintly, though she wasn't sure she fully understood.
Duke's eyes shifted to Vayne. Her skills and instincts were among the very best, otherwise she could never have survived so many battles against demons, shapeshifters, and black wizards.
"Starting tomorrow, Vayne will train you. You need to learn well. Clearly, I can't just teach you theory anymore. It's time you saw the darker side of things."
"Yes, teacher."
"When we return to Demacia, I'll find someone to instruct you further, everything about espionage. It'll be up to you how much you can master."
He gave a wry smile. "Thinking about today, I can't help but feel that the little troublemaker in Piltover is far sharper than you in this regard. She always outsmarts others, never the other way around."
"You mean that girl named Jinx?"
"That's her." Duke nodded. "When we go back to Piltover, you'll meet her. Then you'll understand."
"Alright, it's late. Go and rest."
"Mm."
After seeing Lux off upstairs, Duke gathered his tools. Vayne, having finished cleaning, walked over and picked up a cigar from his desk, carefully trimming it for him.
"She's too kind," she remarked.
Duke rubbed at his temples and sighed. "Which is why I have to teach her slowly. That's a teacher's duty, passing on everything we know, so our students take fewer missteps."
"You say it so easily. In the end, the trouble will land on me."
Vayne shot him a glare, but he only pulled her into his lap, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"Trouble or not, better she learns now than pays the price later."
"You seem preoccupied."
She had noticed the shadow in his eyes. Duke buried his face against her chest, his voice muffled. "The one who took Lux today was a Noxian spy."
"Are you afraid?"
"No. I just know I need to prepare." He exhaled heavily. That dream from long ago kept replaying in his mind. He knew he must not set foot in Noxus. Not now. Absolutely not.
"Then prepare," Vayne said simply. She tapped his head after cutting the cigar and slipped it between his lips.
"I believe in you."
Her smile made him raise a brow and chuckle bitterly. "Seems I'll be working overtime again tonight."
"You brought the trouble on yourself. Think you can avoid overtime?" She pressed a finger to his forehead, twisting playfully.
Duke sighed in defeat. "I'll be crippled at this rate."
…
Deep in the night, inside a prison.
"Mmh…"
A pained groan echoed from the farthest cell, followed by a harsh bark of interrogation.
"You've been hiding in Demacia all these years, why? Do you have other accomplices? Speak!"
Vanessa, who had just been forced to swallow a special potion laced with ground petricite, convulsed violently. Foam flecked her lips, her eyes rolled back, and she seemed nearly lifeless.
Petricite could absorb magic, that much was certain. Long ago, Demacians had developed a potion that, with petricite powder, could strip mages of their power. In truth, the potion was merely a carrier. The powder settled inside the body, clinging to the mage and greedily devouring their magic.
The victim would feel their flesh tearing apart, as though an octopus inside their gut had wrapped its suctioned arms around each organ, wrenching them mercilessly.
To keep weaker prisoners from dying on the spot, the potion was mixed with a tonic, but the agony of having one's magic devoured was beyond imagination.
Vanessa's draught was specially made. Though it let her survive the initial shock, it left her in unending torment.
Even so, faced with brutal interrogation, she clenched her teeth and refused to speak. The training of the Black Rose had taught her well: give in now, and you might win a moment's reprieve, but what followed would be terror beyond measure.
The Pale Lady was watching.
Her mind blurred with pain, yet faintly, she heard a voice, soft, beguiling, almost tender.
"My child, you did well. You endured to the very end. The Black Rose will remember your devotion, until the world itself withers."
As the whisper caressed her ears, Vanessa's magic surged uncontrollably toward the sigil on her brow. The black rose there unfurled, blooming in full.
No one else could see.
Her eyes turned stark white, her spark of life snuffed out in an instant. All that she was seemed to be consumed, sacrificed as nourishment for that single rose.
Her head slumped to the side, lifeless.
Yet from her corpse, a shadowy figure emerged, flickering between reality and illusion.
The interrogator at her side noticed nothing, as though the woman did not exist at all.
She had short violet hair, a strange coronet upon her head, with a blood-red gem at its center glimmering ominously. Pale-skinned, with dark tear-marks beneath her eyes, she carried a haunting beauty. A tight black bodysuit clung to her form, half-hidden beneath a sweeping cloak.
Gripping a staff, she looked once at Vanessa's lifeless body and smiled faintly.
"Trust me…"
Without sparing the interrogator a glance, she turned and vanished into the shadows.
"The Black Rose shall bloom again."
End of chapter....
IRONBOUND PATRON
🔹 Hexcore Initiate – 15 chapters ahead
🔸 Arc Reactor Elite – 35 chapters + 3 BONUS CHAPTERS + HIDDEN SURPRISES
👉 patreon.com/MrBehringer