"Two mages." Ambessa said, her hands squeezing the edge of the window as she looked out into Piltover. "At least two mages…"
"I do not think they were with the Rose," Rictus said, adjusting his wounded leg on the bed, the new cast making it hard.
"It can't be a coincidence," she shook her head. "They started by sabotaging our efforts with hextech, now they're blocking us directly."
"It may not be," Rictus agreed, but then shook his head and continued. "But not all mages are allies."
Wiping her head around, Ambessa stared at her friend for a moment, then got a pensive look on her face.
He was right, the Black Rose may be against her but, if she was being brutally honest, her house was no more than an inconvenience for them and, unless she could acquire Hextex, it was likely to remain that way.
No, since before Noxus united, a mage's worst enemy had always been another mage. "They did act far too much in the open…" Ambessa took a deep breath, her keen mind already started looking for ways to turn her enemies against each other. "How long until you heal?"
"The blow didn't break the bone, not completely, the crack will only take two weeks to heal."
"Rest, Rictus," she ordered, laying one hand on his bed. "I'll need you by my side before this is over."
"I'll be ready."
Nodding, she left the hospital room, her mind trying to come up with a way to use this new information.
Ambessa couldn't entirely discard the chance that those new players were with the Rose, but he was right, it was far more likely they were an opposite force, maybe a new cabal trying to acquire hextech for themselves or simply a team sent to inconvenience the Pale Lady.
Although the later was unlikely, they'd not have attacked her people if their goal was only to hurt the Rose.
Regardless, there was no reason to tell Caitlin that, no, now that there was clear proof, it was better to point the girl towards the Rose and gain an ally against their machinations.
Getting into her office, Ambessa put those thoughts aside and greeted her protege. "Caitlin."
"How are your men?" Caitlin asked, settling down a glass of alcohol.
"They'll recover, the enemy was precise enough not to cause undue damage."
"What happened?"
Pouring herself a drink, Ambessa sighed and sat down, one of her guards releasing a few herbs on a brazier to help clear her mind. "Come, sit with me."
Caitlin considered her words but, despite being furious, obeyed, taking off her jacket to sit rigidly on the chair opposite her. "I thought we had them cornered, how did they escape and then beat 40 enforcers before we were forced to retreat?"
"During the first operation, Rictus acted as backup to your enforcers, when he noticed Jinx escape, he prepared to ambush her, but two mages interfered."
"Magic? But..." Caitlin started to say, flabbergasted.
Ambessa understood her, as a general, she made sure to read about magic, it's power was respected in Noxus and she had even made use of a few weaker adepts in her battles but, without the Black Rose and 'his' involvement, even she wouldn't know too much about it.
Even 900 years after the rune wars, magic was still frowned upon on most of the world and Piltover was almost as bad as Demacia.
"Your former councilor may have been too soft, but he wasn't entirely wrong about how dangerous magic is, or how evil a mage can be," she said, then looked deep into Caitlin's eyes. "A few days ago I caught an infiltrated mage in my retinue, I thought they were only investigating without much investment… but now this?
"No, I suspect a mage cabal has become interested in Piltover's advancements with Hextech, their kind is always after more power," Swirling the liquid in her cup, Ambessa closed her eyes. "Have you found any signs of Jaice or my daughter?"
"Not yet."
"Then it's as I feared, they're probably in a mage's hand."
Caitlin opened her mouth to speak but stopped, taking a moment to consider her words, clever girl. "Do you think they're dead?"
"No, Jaice's knowledge is important and, despite our disagreements, my daughter can be used against me. However, as powerful as the woman who repelled the enforcers may be, a mage's most dangerous spells have always been more subtle… Always using illusions and mind tricks, even if we find them, they may not be the same."
For a moment, Ambessa let her protegee see her worry, a sign of fragility that would only strengthen their relationship.
"… I'm sorry," Caitlin said with sympathy after a second, then her voice hardened. "What can we do?"
"We must be vigilant," Ambessa squeezed her hand into a fist, then stared into the flames of the fireplace. "They have already infiltrated us once, we must make sure it doesn't happen again.
"As for the identified mages… I read the reports from your enforcers and heard Rictus' recounting. The first mage has a domination spell giving her perfect control over humans and insects. Her limits are unknown but I suspect her range depends on the creature's intellect, she was able to manipulate insects from five blocks away but her hold on my soldiers broke after only a few meters, she may also be able to control other animals at varying ranges. Although she was fragile, one of Rictus blows was able to give her an indirect injury."
"And the one who repelled the enforcers? The reports seemed incredibly confusing when I read them, the encounter happening too fast for them to gather any intelligence."
"According to Rictus, she seems to be able to control metal, most bullets and weapons will be useless against her and she's probably enhanced, stronger, faster, more agile… even if you hit her, only your hextech weapons may be able to hurt her."
"I see," Caitlin leaned forward, both hands in front of her face in thought. "Still, she's only one woman, if we calculate the time it took her to get to each enforcer, we may be able to launch multiple operations."
"Concentrating your forces in a trap may also work. No matter how powerful, every mage is limited, enough enemies will overwhelm her."
"It would still take us at least a week to produce an alternative to metal weapons...'
Ambessa smiled, the girl may still be a little naive, but she was intelligent. "There's one more thing you may be able to do."
"What?"
"There are certain artifacts that can resist magic," she leaned back in her seat and finally took a sip of her drink. "I don't currently posses any but, given the nature of our problem and Piltover's current position as a trade nexus, you may be able to acquire them."
"What kind of artifacts?"
"The best would be from Demacia, petricite if you can get them to trade you some, but they also produce null magic mantles and other devices for their mageseekers…"
Some time later, Caitlin left her office ready to contact the latest demacian trader to pass through the Hexgate and Ambessa relaxed on her chair, resting her face in one hand in a rare, if momentary, show of true weakness.
When her guards walked back into the room, Ambessa lifted her head. "Prepare my backup runes, I'll need them on my armor soon."
One of them saluted, his fist hitting the armor above his chest, then walked right back out the door.
Ambessa grimaced, contrary to the Kaenic Rookern, all of her runic items were weaker and would run out of power after a few uses, the Rose having assassinated anyone capable of maintaining them before she even left Noxus, so she had been hoping to save some for when she actually fought them, but that was no longer an option.
Tapping a finger against the chair, her thoughts turned to Caitlin. Pointing the girl towards infiltrators and spies was a risk given her own efforts, but a calculated one, she doubted it would completely stop the Rose, but it could delay and distract them enough for her to find a competent inventor to take over hextech.
She also needed Caitlin to succeed on acquiring demacian equipment, without the Rookern Rictus wielded, it was only a matter of time before they came for her again and she had limited ways of resisting.
Loosing the artifact was a heavy blow, but she hadn't lost yet, Ambessa wouldn't give up, not while she still drew breath and, if she could point Caitlin against the Rose, blame them for what was happening in the city, maybe the girl could have more use than she initially thought.
Despite her soft nurturing, she did have some promise.
________________________--
Ethan
Sliding his hand back on the metal shaft, Ethan took a hard step forward, water splashing around his ankles and making movement more difficult while he delivered a horizontal cut towards his enemy's chest, blade just under her shoulders.
Instead of retreating, Maelle stepped into the strike, sword slightly tilted to parry the blow, guiding it's trajectory just slightly upward, enough that she could avoid it by tilting her head, sparks flying off the metal as they sliced against each other. With a quick movement of her wrist, she used the motion of her parry to build momentum and deliver a riposte straight at his head.
Widening his hold on the glaive, he took a step back while pulling the head of the weapon towards him and pushing the butt-cap forward, using the middle of the shaft to block the lightning fast strike.
Taking another step, he pushed her sword back, then rotated the weapon above his head to deliver a powerful downward strike.
Maelle danced back, legs barely displacing the water and letting the slash pass only a centimeter from her chest.
Ethan's instinct's screamed at him and he tried to reverse his strike while also twisting aside, but the water made his movements slower.
Maelle lunged before he could stop the momentum of the weapon, the tip of her rapier piercing his chest, his efforts causing her to miss his heart by a little bit but it still punctured all the way through his left lung.
Unfortunately, she was too experienced to linger, pulling her sword out of his body without delay and jumping back to avoid his retaliatory strike, the wild blow smashing into the ground and sending water flying all over.
Resting the spike of his glaive on the ground for support, Ethan pulled one hand off the shaft to press against his wound, a tickle of blood ran down his mouth, but he used his power to contain it, halting the blood and forcing it to coagulate. Fuck, it still hurt like hell.
A full three steps away from him, Maelle held her rapier at the ready, his newfound powers had let him ignore such wounds during their spars before, but he didn't feel like going that hard right now, controlling the fluid required more concentration than he could spare while trading blows with her and drowning in blood was not a very pleasant sensation. "I gi-give."
Maelle quickly holstered her rapier and ran towards him, one hand pressing against his chest while gathering chroma to fix him, a teasing smile on her face. "You're getting better, I almost had to fight serious this time."
"Than…" Feeling his lung fixing itself, Ethan straightened. "Thanks grandma."
"Say that again and I'm piercing both your lungs," she growled, slapped his shoulder and stepped back. "We're the same age you little…"
"Not if you count the time you were in the canvas, with that you're practically ancient."
Dodging another slap, Ethan stretched his neck and started jogging towards solid ground, now that he wasn't fighting, he hated the feeling of water inside his boots.
"Coward!" Maelle yelled after him. "Come back here and let's spare one more time, I want to stab you again!"
They were training inside of Maelle's drawings, the time inside passing much faster than out in the real world, minutes stretching into days and wounds healing with a wave of Maelle's croma letting them spar as hard as they wanted.
After a week inside, they had found that he could defeat her 6 out of 10 times if he used all his powers… and she didn't cheat by playing god with her chroma, but today wasn't about testing his limits, it was about skill and adapting to his newfound instincts and in that he was still bellow her.
"Nope," he said, finally sitting at the river bank and starting to take off his wet footwear. "You have any idea how much a pierced lung hurts?"
"Sounds like a skill issue."
He snorted, that was about right.
Honestly? He was surprised at how much progress he had made in only a week. Before coming to Runeterra, Ethan had taken classes in various martial arts, he had tried Karate for two years when he was younger, then a year of Kung Fu —not the best choice if he wanted to go into MMA, but it was fun— and finally two years of HEMA, training two times a week, but he had never been particularly talented.
Oh, he hadn't been a disaster either, but he knew he wasn't about to win any competitions even against same level opponents, perhaps a bronze medal if he was lucky. Now he was progressing much, much faster.
He suspected his new body had something to do with it, and he now had an instinctual understanding of how to move in a fight, how to strike and dodge, but maybe it was also motivation, it was a wonder how much one could improve when his life might depend on it.
Kicking off her own boots, Maelle stretched her arms above her head, then she completely took off her wet pants, her coat barely concealing the swimsuit she wore underneath. With an amused smile, she dug her toes in the sand and watched as his eyes were drawn to her exposed legs, she really enjoyed teasing him. "I think it's about time we left."
"Already?"
Sitting by his side, she shifted her eyes away from him and sighed. "I'm not feeling any strain, but it's best not to take chances, it's been two hours outside and that's enough."
He nodded, like the rest of them, Maelle was probably back to full health and, according to her, could spend a week or two inside a painting —decades for those who were on the inside— but there was no point in forcing things, an entire week in here had been enough for him to get a handle on his new powers.
Plus, the current painting was a hasty, makeshift thing, some physical laws weren't quite right, the time dilatation wasn't at it's best and, according to his companion, fixing mistakes from the inside was several times harder.
"That's fine then, I need to see if my powers work the same on the outside too, and build some muscle memory now that I think about it."
The canvas was great for gaining skill, a lifetime spent inside one killing nevrons several times faster and stronger than her almost letting Maelle battle Pyrrha as an equal despite being a mostly normal woman, but it did nothing for their real body.
"… Are you sure you want to go with your plan?"
"Yes," he nodded. "You having second thoughts?"
"I'm gonna make sure you're right but, if it's true, I'm in. What about the others?"
Ethan thought about what he knew about their personality and smirked. "I don't think it's gonna be a problem." Pyrrha and Taylor may be very different people, but they both wouldn't be able to leave things alone.
After dealing with the immediate problems, Ethan had been thinking about what to do with his new life, he could leave Piltover, use the Hexgates to travel to somewhere else in Runeterra and restart his life, but he realized he didn't want to.
First, he had no idea what was happening on the rest of the world, but League's lore always portrayed Runeterra as a brutal place, Piltover being a fairly mild and safe location despite the current conflict with Zaun.
Then there was his own feelings, something inside him wouldn't accept leaving, it felt too much like running away from trouble and his very being rebelled at the thought. No, there was an opportunity here, a chance to be more and he wasn't about to waste it.
And, yeah, maybe a certain blue haired girl had influenced his decision, but he would have made the same choice without her, it would just be more difficult.
"Want me to take you out?" Maelle offered, extending one hand palm first towards him. "Hey! Wha-"
Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her closer, then rolled to the side until he was on top of her, one of her hands resting in the middle of his chest. They stared at each other for a second, then he leaned down and kissed her.
Five minutes later, they finally broke the kiss, both of them breathing hard and Maelle's hardened nipples almost poking holes through her shirt, one of her legs having risen up between his, her thigh pressing against his member.
Taking in the sight, Ethan smiled. "You sure you don't want me to continue?"
"… Not here," she finally said, face hot, then pushed a hand into his chest, his body starting to dissolve around her fingers before exploding into black petals.
Gasping, Ethan stepped away from the painting of a riverbank, his legs feeling a little numb from standing in the exact same position for nearly two hours, his eyes feeling dry from the effort. Less than a second later Maelle too left the canvas, her own body reacting much better to the experience.
"Wow, that was creepy," Jinx said from a place slightly above them. "Seeing you too just standing there…"
Taking a second to orient himself, he asked. "Are Pyrrha and Taylor back yet?"
"Yep, they're up there, didn't take them very long either," Jinx said, pulling a pair of googles off her head and throwing them towards her work table before pointing to the top of her hideout.
He supposed it wouldn't, it's not like Piltover did anything to hide how bad the lower city had become or why it happened.
"Any progress with your father?" Maelle asked.
"… Sevika is gonna be meeting us tomorrow morning."
"We'll find him," Ethan said, then looked up at the makeshift, precarious stairs and sighed… despite being in another world, he was still a little afraid of heights.
Standing on top of a building and a few steps away from the edge was one thing, but climbing those shaky stairs made the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
Climbing to the top, he saw both remaining girls deep in thought, Pyrrha pacing from side to side while Taylor stood unnaturally still, eyes cast out into the city as she considered her options.
"So, what did you think of the lower city?" he asked, drawing their attention.
"Did you know about the mines?" Pyrrha asked.
"Know is too strong a word," he grabbed a pillow and used it to take a seat on the ground around a discarded enforcer rifle. "I briefly read about it on the internet, and the show mentioned it, but it was more an implied thing. I've no idea how bad it actually is, just that it's crap."
"I thought you and Jinx were exaggerating but… Why?" Pyrrha sighed, finally stopping and crossing her arms.
"What do you mean?" Jinx asked, then tapped the top of Isha's decorated helmet a few times. "It's not like there's anything else to do, down here it's either the gangs, the factory's or the mines and topsiders don't care how they're run so long as they continue working."
"You didn't end up in any of those," Maelle noted.
"Yeah..." Jinx's voice grew softer, her eyes looking momentarily distant. "Hah, guess I was lucky."
Turning to Ethan, Pyrrha put one foot against the wall and leaned back. "You said you had a plan?"
"I've an idea, I'm hoping you guys can help with the actual planning."
"You want us to take over," Taylor said glaring at him. "That's why you asked us to look around."
"Guilty," Ethan shrugged. "The lower city is currently a mess and, besides Jinx, there's really no one else capable of uniting it, maybe Ekko when he comes back but that's a stretch."
"Well…" Jinx said as she sat on top of a table. "Technically, there's two Chem-Barons still alive, but the asshole from Piltover is only interested in power and the sadistic bitch would turn us all into prostitutes," putting a finger over her lips, she paused to think. "They'd also rather kill each other than make any kind of alliance against the enforcers."
Arcane had implied those barons had died or been captured when Caitlin was coming after Jinx, but maybe not, it wasn't really in her character to just kill them anyway.
"Normally, Zaun would have no chance against Piltover but, with us here…"
"Things won't be so easy next time," Pyrrha warned. "Yesterday, I fought about 3 dozen enforcers before they retreated, but that was only the people in the area, likely a response team made for that operation, if we actually try to separate into Zaun they're gonna be calling everyone, maybe even start recruiting."
"How many do you think they can field?" Taylor asked.
"No idea," Jinx said when they looked at her.
"Piltover is large," Pyrrha said, taking a second to think things through. "They probably have anywhere from 700 to 1200 officers in the entire city, and that's just their active personnel, they may have a large reserve and, if things get bad enough, may even accept volunteers. We can't fight that many."
"We can't beat their army in a long battle, but they don't have anyone that can stop us individually," Ethan said. "More than inventors, right now Piltover is a city of merchants and money-men, if we can make it too expensive to go after us, we can buy enough time to change things."
The group grew quiet as they considered their options. Ethan didn't really have any experience with such things, but he thought that, if they could disrupt plans, go after the Councilors and, as a whole, make interfering with Zaun too unpopular with the population, they could keep the enforcers back long enough to take over and start making a difference.
"Yeah…" Jinx broke the silence, her eyes looking anywhere but at them. "That's not gonna work, I reeeealy pissed them off when I exploded their little castle... then there was Renni's assault."
"That was what, six months ago?" Ethan asked. "Some won't ever forgive you, but I don't think most Piltovers even think about it anymore."
"Most people don't care," Taylor nodded, remembering the state of her own city. "They'll get angry in the moment but, if they weren't directly affected and it's too much trouble to fix things, they'll forget about it in a week."
"So, what?" Jinx asked. "We eliminate Caitlin? Cuz I'll tell you, killing their little darling is the one thing that would push the topsiders into fully squashing us."
"No," Ethan shook his head. "We may need to get rid of Ambessa somehow, not kill, I don't want to risk drawing more of Noxus attention here, maybe kidnap or just force her out of the city, she's the one manipulating things and her forces would leave with her, but I bet people are already unhappy with Caitlin, the last thing we want to do is give them another martyr."
"I'd also prefer not to murder anyone," Pyrrha glared at him. "Killing during battle is one thing, while I don't like it, I can accept it, but I will not be an assassin."
"That too," Ethan wasn't entirely against assassinations if his target deserved it, but he didn't want to force the girls either.
Plus, in his previous life, he had never even considered killing anyone, not seriously at least, so he had no idea how he'd really feel when it happens.
"We'll do it," Taylor said, getting a nod from Pyrrha. "But we're not gonna be touching drugs."
"Great," Jinx said. "Sevika is gonna love it, she always enjoys playing the lapdog."
_________________________________________________________
If you like this story, you can read ahead on my P.A.T.R.E.O.N.
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