Chapter Text
"Somehow now I'm drinking, and I'm lifting my glass
To that last good man grace
Who has left me, he's left me at last
And I laugh, and I laugh
'Cause laughing right now, it's all, all that I have"
It was only in dreams when Jayce was able to see him again.
They would always start off the same. The sound of skidding stones across the water, the sight of hazy green trees that surrounded the area like a safe haven. To Jayce, that was sort of what it was, a safe haven, a place where he didn’t have to worry about what lay ahead in his future, where he didn’t have to be Prince Jayce, future head of House Talis and heir to the throne.
No, no titles mattered here.
Here he was simply-
“Jayce!”
And here was the only place Jayce could be with him.
He was a young boy, probably only a year or two older than Jayce had been at the time. Even years after he’d last seen him, Jayce’s dreams still preserved the boy perfectly. Every mole, every twinkle in those golden eyes, every strand of wild brown hair, Jayce remembered it all perfectly.
Jayce had this dream most nights, he had memorized his lines and played the part perfectly, never daring to stray from the path the dream had set up for him.
It went like this
Jayce would look up at his friend with a triumphant smile when his stone would finally plop into the water, ending its journey across the surface. Viktor would scowl playfully, mutter something about Jayce being a cheater and the two would argue over the logistics of Jayce cheating in a game like this.
They would stay out until the blue of the sky gave way to a pretty pink color. It was always around this time that Viktor would sit up, reaching for his cane as he explained that he had much to do, that his mentor was expecting him and he didn’t want to get caught up in the dark. And everytime Jayce would send his friend off with a hug and an offer to walk him back, something that Viktor would always decline.
It had never stopped Jayce from offering.
That’s how the dream always went, Jayce would wake up after to the real world, a world where he was no longer a carefree little boy whose main priority was his best friend and the next time they’d be able to hangout.
Tonight’s dream would be no different, Jayce knew as soon as Viktor began to sit up that Jayce would wake up in just a few moments.
He had resigned himself to that fate every night that he slipped into this memory.
Except, perhaps tonight was different. Jayce considered it as he stared at a butterfly perched on the soft grass right by Viktor’s cane. It flew away at Viktor’s sudden movement, as he grabbed the cane and stood up, ready to excuse himself for the night.
“ I shou-”
“Where did you go?”
“What?”
Jayce’s eyes met Viktor’s golden ones, he was expecting bewilderment or at least some sort of confusion from his friend but the expression he found instead was..cold. It made Jayce uneasy, the blankness he had never seen in those usually expressive eyes. That was one of the things Jayce had always admired about Viktor, how proudly he wore his emotions, how every twitch of his eye, every furrow of his brow, every quirk of his lips was enough to tell you exactly how the other was feeling.
But Jayce found none of that now,
He swallowed before he continued. “This is a dream..I have this dream every night and- and I know when I wake up you won’t be there.”
Jayce didn’t know what he was waiting for. A response maybe, a laugh even, anything but the faraway stare that chilled him more than the snowy storms he remembered from some of his worst nightmares.
There was a beat of silence before Viktor finally spoke.
“A dream..” his friend repeated, his tone almost as faraway as the look in his eyes. But he made no movement to speak again, Jayce wasn’t even sure if he could say anything other than the pre-written lines they’d already established in this false memory.
“Right..so if this is a dream then where are you? Why did you- why did you leave?” Jayce doesn’t try to conceal the emotions in his voice, doesn’t hide the fact that his questions are starting to sound like pleads. Maybe when he had actually been this age he would have been too proud to admit how hurt he had been at his friend’s disappearance. But now, after the years without Viktor, Jayce found that he wasn’t above begging if it meant any clue to where Viktor may have gone.
“Please. Viktor- Vitya-”
At Jayce’s words, Viktor was suddenly blinking life back into his eyes, the corner of his mouth tilting upwards into the hint of a smile as he regarded his friend with a warmth that Jayce had missed in the moment it had been gone.
“You act like I will disappear from you. You know we will see eachother tomorrow, Jayce.”
There was so much Jayce wanted to say. This wasn’t the real Viktor, Jayce knew that, but it was the closest thing he had.
“You promise?”
“Of course. I have to prove that you cheat at skipping rocks before I’m done with you.”
A watery laugh bubbled from between Jayce’s lips and he wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. When he opened them again, Viktor was gone and Jayce was in his chambers, 24 years old and with the weight of his House on his shoulders.
“And it’s not as if they follow you around everywhere. Well they do but you do get some privacy. And really it’s for our safety, that’s what Mother says at least.”
Jayce really was trying to listen but he had woken up from his dream the night before, he hadn’t been able to fall back asleep. Instead he’d put his thought filled mind to good use and spent the night in his lab, his only escape now. He’d often go there when he wanted to be alone, nobody in the palace knew about it and he intended to keep it that way, he knew that if Queen Kiraman knew of the lab her ward kept she would be furious. Not because of the lab itself, the kingdom of Piltover always encouraged science and progress, that’s why their country had thrived for as long as it has. But Jayce’s studies were a little more..taboo.
Jayce’s thoughts were halted by a mighty flick to his forehead and an annoyed Caitlyn Kiraman in his line of sight. “Are you even listening to me? You’re the one that asked why we need our own royal guards in the first place.”
“Ow! Cait!” Jayce grumbled as he reached up to rub the undoubtedly red spot on his forehead.
“Serves you right.” The future heir to the Kiraman throne responded, her eyes twinkling with the same self satisfaction you’d see in a house cat after it knocked something important off of a table. “As I was saying, royal guard’s are important. All the heads of houses have one, we might as well get used to it.”
“I know I know, it’s just-”
This just wasn’t how he had expected it to go.
Perhaps it was childish of Jayce, holding onto this idea, this fantasy he had constructed when he was far too young to know how the real world worked. But it had been a shared dream, a shared idea, one of the last parts of his ambitious friend that Jayce still held onto.
A gasp filled the quiet forest air as Jayce watched his friend lose his footing and plop down hard against the plush grass.
“V!”
The pale boy groaned as he sat upright, brushing the dirt off of his clothes as his hands searched for his cane. He grasped the long, polished, stick of wood in his hands and leaned his weight against it as he used the force to push himself off of the ground.
“Maybe we should stop playing for today..” Jayce suggested, already tucking the stick he’d been using as a fake sword under his arm so he could reach out for Viktor. But his stubborn friend only shook his head as he searched the forest floor for his own discarded sword.
“Nonsense, I'm fine, Jayce. We can continue.”
“But-”
“Jayce, please.” Hazel eyes met gold, apprehension meeting a plea that Jayce couldn’t deny. He could never say no to Viktor. With a sigh, Jayce picked up Viktor’s own sword and offered it to the other boy.
“I guess we could play for a little longer.”
The smile on Viktor’s face was reward enough.
A little longer had turned into the rest of the afternoon and the boys thrust their pretend swords towards each other long after pink hues turned into dark blue constellations. The twinkling lights were their only light source as they laid against the grass, side by side with their panting being the only sound other than the gentle whistling of the breeze against the trees.
“Jayce?” Viktor’s voice was quiet, a sort of hesitance in his tone that Jayce had never known from his usually excitable friend.
Jayce hummed in response, turning his head to face where Viktor lay. Through the dark haze he could barely make out the slight furrow in Viktor’s brows or the way he opened his mouth once before closing it and turning his head towards the sky. The silence stretched on for a beat longer before Viktor seemed to figure out what he wanted to say.
“You think they will allow me to be part of your royal guard?” Jayce couldn’t meet Viktor’s eyes, not with the way the other boy’s head was turned, but his soft tone spoke of vulnerability, a sort of fragility that Jayce had never come to associate with Viktor even despite his ailments.
“Of course they will, V. You’re my best friend.”
“Is that enough? Is being your friend enough?” Viktor sat up, his words holding a sort of red hot passion behind them as he stared down at Jayce. “With my ailments, I can hardly wield a stick sword, let alone a real one. And when it comes down to it, would I even be able to? All this fighting, this war, I don’t want to hurt people, Jayce. I want to help.”
“Isn’t that what royal guards do? They help. It’s not all about the fighting. They protect too. You’d be protecting me, V. And besides, if you decide not to join, I could just appoint you as my royal scientist.”
A laugh cut through the previously tense air, a beautiful sound that Jayce wanted to trap in a jar and preserve, something to keep with him forever.
“That’s not a real position, Jayce.”
“Why not? I could make it up. When I’m king, I can do whatever I want. I could even put a stop to all the fighting, and you could come live with me and we could have sleepovers all the time.” The idealized reality had both boys bursting out laughing, falling back against the safety of the green grass as they laid so close together that the tips of their pinkies touched.
And when Jayce looped his pinkie around Viktor’s and Viktor secured his own around Jayce’s in return, that was something for them alone.
“Jayce? Jayce! Are you spacing out again?” Caitlyn’s voice brought Jayce back to reality and he immediately reached his hands up to cover his forehead, preventing any oncoming flicks from his friend.
“I wasn’t spacing out! I was just..thinking.”
“Well you can save the thinking for some other time. We’re here so it’d be best if you focused up.” The sternness in Caitlyn’s voice reminded Jayce why the Kiramans were the most highly regarded out of all the ruling Houses in Piltover. It seemed like the easy ability to lead was almost hereditary.
Jayce took Caitlyn’s voice and did indeed focus up, his attention on the tall wooden doors in front of them. He took a deep breath before he pushed them open, Caitlyn right by his side as they entered the meeting room where Queen Kiraman was already waiting for them. Beside her was her own royal guard, a tall man with dark blue hair, similar to the Queen’s own. Marcus had been with the Queen since she was Caitlyn’s age and he was a well decorated general, the general of the House of Kiraman’s army. Behind Marcus stood two other members of the royal guard, they were recognizable so Jayce knew that they wouldn’t be the guards that he and Caitlyn would get assigned in just a few moments.
“Caitlyn. Jayce. Thank you for joining us.” The Queen greeted the two and in turn they bowed their heads.
The Queen stood from her chair and Jayce tracked her movement to the other side of the room. It was then that he finally noticed two figures standing off to the side. They were vastly different visually, neither of them wearing the traditional uniform of Piltover officers. In fact, Jayce couldn’t seem to place their uniforms at all. The smaller of the two wore dark coal across her face, the blackness of the makeup contrasting with her bright pink hair that was shaved on one side. Her armor was simple, a blue chest plate that ended at the shoulders. Her arms were wrapped in what looked like bandages if Jayce had to guess. It appeared as though they reached all the way to her hands but it was hard to tell with the giant gauntlets that went up to her mid arm. It reminded Jayce of the gloves that fighters wear in the rings sometimes, that type of fighting was mostly found in the undercity though.
The Queen stepped to the side of the woman, a polite smile on her face as she introduced the knight. “Caitlyn, this is Vi. She has been assigned as your royal guard and will accompany you wherever it is appropriate.”
Jayce looked over at Caitlyn, half expecting her reaction to be one of dread now that their private lives being gone was a reality. But what he wasn’t expecting to see in her eyes was sparkling wonder and- was that a hint of pink on her cheeks? Jayce was definitely going to ask her about that later but before he could think about it too much, The Queen was addressing him.
“Jayce, this is The Herald.” Anything the Queen might have said after that was lost on deaf ears as Jayce took in the second of the two mystery figures. This..person, if it even was, was much taller than Vi. There was no sign of skin, only metal encapsulating the person beneath it completely. The only part of the uniform that wasn't metal was the blue cape that hung over one of their shoulders. Jayce squinted as if that would get him a better look at the figure, he was just barely able to make out tufts of brown hair sticking out from behind the mask, so perhaps there was a human in there after all.
“The two of you are dismissed, you may show your royal guard to their quarters. I hope that you make them feel welcome as they’re..not from Piltover.”
That confirmed Jayce’s earlier suspicions, however the lack of a crest on either of their uniforms just raised thousands of more questions.
The metal knight, upon being dismissed, made their way over to Jayce. The sound of the armor clanging against the floor made Jayce feel slightly uneasy but he swallowed the pit in his stomach down as he tilted his head up to look at bright orange eyes of the mask.
“Prince Jayce” A distorted voice greeted. The sound almost as steely as the rest of the knight. But through the distortion Jayce could hear the lilt of an accent, one that brought a more fluttery feeling to his stomach as he pictured a face behind the mask.
“I’m sorry. I don’t think I caught your name.”
“No need for apologies, my prince.” The title came out almost like a taunt due to the distortion of the mask but it was by far one of the most human things about this knight. “You may call me The Herald.”
Jayce blinked up at the figure, a witty comment about the knight’s real name on the tip of his tongue. But the needless fire ignited in Jayce was extinguished almost as fast as it had been set. He had no reason to fight with this knight.
But it’s not him.
The voice inside Jayce’s head tried to give reason towards his disdain. But Jayce knew it was childish.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Herald.”
“Ta-da! Try walking with it now.” Jayce sat back on his haunches as he watched his friend push his weight away from the tree he had been leaning on and instead transferred that weight to his cane. The movement was cautious and both boys waited with baited breath for the binding around Viktor’s cane to give. Jayce would be there to catch him when he fell. Except, the fall never came.
Viktor leaned comfortably against the cane, even going as far as to push more of his weight than necessary against it just to test out the stability. He turned towards Jayce with a bright smile, one that Jayce committed to memory. “How did you do that?” The pale boy asked with amazement in his voice.
“Magic.” Jayce replied simply.
Viktor seemed mostly amused with this answer. “Magic?”
“Mhm! Magic. Magic can heal anything!”
“Anything you say?”
“Yeah, and one day I'm gonna become a mage and I'm gonna heal you all up so you don’t have to worry about breaking your cane anymore.”
Viktor’s easy smile dimmed for a fraction of a second but just long enough for Jayce to notice. An apology was on the tip of the boy’s tongue but Viktor was speaking before Jayce could say anything.
“You want to become a mage?”
The teasing smile on the corner of Viktor’s lips was enough to bring a rosy tint to Jayce’s cheeks. “Not exactly! I just..I know magic is dangerous but it..”
Jayce hesitated, Viktor was his best friend in the whole world which is why he knew that if Viktor didn’t believe him then it would hurt a lot more than all the adults that had brushed off his story.
“It what?” his friend asked softly, his head tilted slightly to the side.
“It saved my Mom.” Jayce blurted it out, ripping off the metaphorical bandaid as he stared down at the ground, unable to meet Viktor’s eyes. He was too afraid of what he might see.
A beat of silence passed
And then another one
“What happened to your Mom?”
Which- well that wasn’t what Jayce had been expecting. Everyone in Piltover knew about Ximena Talis. It was why Jayce hated walking around town, hated the pity he would see on everyone’s face as they asked about his Mom, how she was doing, if she was going to wake up soon.
How Viktor didn’t know was..surprising to say the least but he supposed that might just be him having a big head.
“We got caught up in a snowstorm. She- she wasn’t feeling well and we had no way of getting out of there. I thought I was gonna lose her..but then this man showed up. He had this swirling magic around him. It was so beautiful, V. And he brought me and my Mom somewhere safe. He saved both of us with his magic.” Jayce could recall the memory perfectly, he replayed it in his head as his hand drifted to the cuff bracelet around his wrist, the proof of his story embedded in the middle of it.
“I believe you.”
For what was probably the second time that day, Viktor managed to surprise Jayce.
“You- you do? You don’t think I made it up?”
Viktor shook his head, his expression open like he was waiting for Jayce to read him, for Jayce to see that he was telling the truth.
“This magic, it helped your Mom so it means a lot to you, yes?”
Jayce nodded, his eagerness showing through, he was just happy that someone was finally listening to him. “It helped her. Maybe it can help you too!”
“Perhaps it might have. Then I would still be here.”
“What?”
“Your magic, it might’ve been enough to save me.” Viktor’s voice dripped with distortion in every word until it sounded almost like metal scraping against a chalkboard.
“V, wha-”
“But it’s too late for that now, isn’t it?” Viktor’s gaze met Jayce’s but it wasn’t the same golden hue that Jayce had grown attached to. Instead it was an inky purple, the same color as the veins creeping their way up Viktor’s face.
Jayce staggered back, his foot catching on a tree root and causing him to fall back against the ground. He tried to turn and crawl away but something caught on his hands. He looked down only to find that purple vines had wrapped around his wrists, keeping him tethered to the ground and unable to escape. He cried out for anyone, for his friend, for someone to come help them as he thrashed against the vines that worked their way around his body completely, like they were trying to wrap him in some sort of cocoon. He closed his eyes, his screams cut short as the vines wrapped around his head and darkness consumed him.
“Jayce!”
Jayce felt pressure on his shoulders and he fought against the force.
“Jayce!”
With his hands free he reached out to swing at whatever was attempting to hold him down.
“Prince Jayce!”
Jayce’s eyes flew open only to be met with the glowing orange eyes of a metal mask.
The Herald.
“Wha-”
“You had a nightmare.” The distorted voice explained. “You were calling for help. I came to ensure you were safe.”
Jayce sat up in his bed with his head cradled in his hands.
So it wasn’t real.
Of course it wasn’t, that wasn’t how Jayce remembered it. So what was the-
“Something troubles you.” His knight said matter of factly.
“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed.”
The knight said nothing at Jayce’s outburst which only made him feel worse. He sighed as he rubbed at his temples.
“I’m sorry. I just..i’ve got a lot on my plate right now.”
“I understand. Is there anything I can do to help?”
Jayce considered dismissing the knight, telling him that everything was fine and maybe attempting to go back to sleep since his lab wasn’t an option anymore, not with The Herald constantly watching him.
“Tell me about yourself.” Jayce said instead.
“You want to hear about me?” Even through the distortion, Jayce could still hear the lilt of confusion, another sign that his knight was in fact of flesh and blood. At least for the most part.
“Yeah, I think that would help take my mind off of..everything.”
A beat of silence passed, probably while the Herald tried to think of something to say. Jayce had to admit, he was a little curious. The Herald had only been by Jayce’s side for a few days but the knight was still as mysterious as the moment Jayce had met them.
“My favorite color is Hazel.”
The response startled a laugh out of Jayce but he quickly covered his mouth because he didn’t want the knight to think Jayce was laughing at them. He was just..surprised at such a human answer from someone wearing an abundant amount of metal despite it being well into the night.
“Hazel? That’s a nice color.”
“It..brings me back to good memories.”
Jayce thought this would help him get to know his knight more, would answer whatever questions he had about his mysterious protector, but it only made Jayce all the more curious, it only raised so many other questions and Jayce was a curious person at heart, he had to know more.
That’s how they stayed for most of the night. With Jayce wiggling little pieces of information out of The Herald. Their favorite color was Hazel, they preferred sweet milk to tea, and no they did not sleep in their armor.
“So the armor comes off?”
The question got a surprising reaction from The Herald, it earned Jayce a laugh. A loud and scratchy laugh that clawed at Jayce’s brain, a hint of it just on the edge of familiarity but Jayce couldn’t quite place it.
“Of course the armor comes off. Did you suppose I was completely made of metal?”
The lack of an immediate answer was enough for The Herald. “Some of me is metal, augmentations that were..necessary. But I am still a man, mostly.”
Jayce drank up the information he had just been granted and stored it into a little file in his head that he had reserved just for his knight. “Why were they necessary?”
A beat of silence passed between them, Jayce couldn’t tell if the knight just hadn’t heard him or if he was deliberately ignoring the question. Jayce could understand, it was probably personal and given their current relationship dynamic, Jayce didn’t want the knight to feel forced to answer. He was ready to take it back when the metal man gave a thoughtful hum.
“Why does one pluck a weed from a garden?” The Herald’s voice was steady as he asked the question, the orange eyes of his mask fixed on the steel covering his hands.
“..So that the other plants may grow?..”
“Precisely. You weed out a garden so the other plants may flourish. That is what I did, I simply..rid myself of the weeds to make room for more beneficial plants.” The inhuman buzz in the Herald’s voice added a sense of detachment that settled eerily in Jayce’s stomach, the atmosphere suddenly feeling much too cold for Jayce who tugged at the covers of the bed and draped them around his shoulders. The orange eyes of the Herald’s mask followed the movement but the knight said nothing about the Prince’s sudden need to over up.
Jayce kept his gaze fixed on the trimming of his bedsheets, worrying his thumb over the seam lines as if it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. His eyes only left the royal blue fabric when the bed shifted beside him. At first he assumed the knight was going to leave but he instead moved every so slightly, letting out a barely audible hiss as he adjusted one of his legs, propping it out so it was no longer bent at the knee.
A squeaking sound followed the adjustment, it could’ve been from the rest of the metal suit itself but as Jayce squinted, he noticed something around the now propped out leg that he hadn’t noticed before. A strip of metal circled around the thigh of the armor, a rod sticking out of the side with a gear in the middle, likely to allow mobility. Jayce was no stranger to inventions like this, he remembers jotting down the mechanics behind a similar design after a particular night when he had been plagued by dreams of amber eyes and star kissed moles.
Almost as quickly as the brace had been brought into view, the knight had shifted to hide it away and when Jayce looked up at the mask it was to find those piercing orange eyes staring back at him like they were seeing into his very being.
“..Is that how you got your name? The Machine Herald. They call you that because of your augmentations?”
“It would seem so. The moniker was not of my own making.” Even with the distortion from the mask, Jayce could still pick up the way the knight’s accent tripped up on the words, the small sign of humanity bringing the wisp of a smile to his face. But it was also something else, like a tune you’d heard once before but the memory was faded and covered in too much dust to see beneath the surface.
Maybe it was the lack of sleep finally catching up with Jayce, that was the only explanation for the conclusions he would come to draw. He could almost convince himself that he was looking for something that wasn’t there. That the remnants of the nightmare, the ghost he had been chasing, still lingered in his head and pushed him towards a puzzle with far too many missing pieces.
“What was your name before that?” The Prince asked, purposely turning his gaze ahead of him, playing the question off as just curiosity rather than the hopeful grasping of straws it actually was. The Knight had answered most of his questions thus far, Jayce could only hope that he would be given more.
Every beat, every passing millisecond where the question went unanswered made Jayce’s insides burn, a boiling kettle ready to hiss and bubble. His mind overflowed like a rampant volcano, the brace, the accent, the strange familiarity. He imagined the face behind the mask, pictured a slim face, pale with curious eyes the color of crystallized auburn. It was slightly older than he had remembered but of course he would be, because Viktor had gotten older, Viktor was here, Viktor was alive, Viktor was his knight-
“Dolus.”
Jayce felt like he’d been slammed back into his body, into this present reality with that answer.
“What?”
“My name, it’s Dolus.”
Whatever light that had reignited inside Jayce was stomped out in a matter of seconds. He drew the bedsheet tighter over himself and stared off to the side, his brows furrowed as he shook off the fractured pieces of the fantasy he’d created in his head. He took a breath before he turned back towards the knight with that charming Talis smile that had earned him the nickname of Golden Boy among the people of Piltover.
“Right- well it's nice to meet you...Dolus”