Chapter Text
This is the story of how Vi died.
Well, to avoid so much ambiguity, she’ll start at the beginning.
The beginning is the arcane, as is the end. It surrounds all that is living and reaches the very edges of the universe. But to zoom in farther, it is the hub of progress in the kingdom of Piltover; the kingdom, or the torn pieces of a kingdom, where this story takes place.
The kingdom of Piltover is ruled by Tobias and Cassandra Kirammin, in the grand palace where all esteemed people and pressing matters reside. These residents would include Jayce Talis, the head of research regarding hextech and the arcane, Grayson, who leads the palace guard, and Ambessa, who is in charge of the defense of Piltover and foreign relations. These people are all pretty important to the story, so note who they are and what they do.
Of course any ruckus worth reporting and shaking up the kingdom should have to do with a commotion in the palace; one in this case to do with the wellbeing of the beloved Queen Kirammin. The king and queen were expecting a child, a girl, who was the talk of the town to say the least. A princess was a new chance to expand the power of hextech, to advocate the kingdom’s strength to the world, and to finally control the growing unrest with criminals and thugs creeping out of dark corners and disturbing Piltover’s carefully contained peace. Before she was even born, she was a symbol of hope to every loyal citizen, dreaming of a new age.
Ambessa was perhaps the most hopeful of them all, and certainly the most ambitious. She worked closely with both Grayson and Jayce, but at this point especially focused on helping Jayce develop hextech and study its potential. How it could be harnessed and what weapons it could create were the sole curiosities she was following, restlessly, without end. One night, the night it all began, they proudly presented their research to the queen.
“The power we have learned to control is unmatched.” Ambessa stared forward at the crackling blue ball of electricity in front of her, then glanced at the queen and smirked at her gawking face.
“It’s absolutely incredible. What have you been doing with it?”
“Designing new creations with hextech. Hextech draws power from the arcane, and Ambessa’s right; with this new technology, our future as a kingdom is limitless.” Jayce grinned proudly, admiring the array of his own work as he sprawled it out on the ground in front of the queen.
“Any one of these objects holds immense power all on its own. This one small gemstone could generate energy strong enough to power whatever we want it to. That gauntlet right there, it has the strength to crush anything it holds. To its left, the hexclaw; it can burn a directed ray of light into any given object. And with this power, we can finish building our latest project: the hexgates. If I even began to talk about that, I could go on all day… There is nothing we can’t do. It’s amazing!”
“We can guide your princess to success, to bring peace about in Piltover once again.”
“And progress.”
“Always, progress. And progress requires protection. We can build her a fortress. We can build her an army.”
“... Not an army, Ambessa. Tools, that is what these are.” He gestures to the glowing orbs and crystals and sketches in front of him, the products of years of passionate labor.
“With hextech at the princess’s side, there’s no telling what she could do. We’re going to create a better kingdom. We’re going to change the world.”
The queen listened to them both intently, while her eyes remained fixed on the hexcore, glazing over each rune, each crackle, each flash. Entranced, she drew closer to it, as if drawn in by its power.
“It’s everything we need. It’s beautiful.”
A step closer.
“I know, I’ve been studying it every day. It's like nothing you’ve ever seen before, isn’t it?” Jayce chimed, staring with the same fixation, eyes coated in his obsession.
She eyed Jayce and his bright expression, then was practically pulled a step closer.
“Just think of what this could build us,” murmured Ambessa.
Indeed, the queen thought. The blue almost blinded her eyes. She was so close. Something kept her rooted there, something calling to her. Piltover’s savior. She wanted to feel the electricity, smell the magic.
“Not too close, your majesty, be careful.”
Her hand slowly rose and reached forward, closer, closer…
“Watch out!”
She felt the explosion burn through her body, rattling the room and setting her senses on fire. She could feel her fingertips sting, and then shaking spread from her hands up her arms. She heard a deafening wooshhh surround her as she flew backwards. Everything quieted beneath the ringing in her ears. Her mouth tasted like blood. She blinked and saw Jayce jump towards her, blinked again and saw his feet send his precious gemstones rolling, blinked again and was looking at the ceiling. Her breathing came in short gasps. She closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she was in her own bed. Jayce paced in front of the window. She squinted at the light. She could feel her husband shift next to her, the sheets rustling under the golden comforter as he did.
“You’re awake.”
“What happened?” Her voice came out rough, and it scratched her throat as she croaked out the question.
Jayce stopped in his tracks and locked eyes with her.
“You touched the hexcore. It.. reacted to you, somehow. I don’t know what happened, I don’t know what it did to you, but, we ran some tests, and.. You were affected by it. Changed. Your blood itself was altered in its make up. A-As far as we can tell it didn’t harm your health with any long lasting effects, but.. We don’t know..”
His eyes flicked down to her stomach and back up, then he turned away.
“How it affected her.” This time her words came out merely as a weak whisper. She placed her hand on the comforter above her stomach, gripping the silk fabric tightly. What had she done?
Jayce began to pace again, no longer making eye contact with the queen.
“As far as we could tell from our observations, she will be healthy, but she may be… altered. Amplified.”
“Powerful.” Ambessa’s deep voice made the queen’s head snap up towards the wall she was leaning against, staring into nothingness. “She could be very powerful.”
“We don’t know -”
“We could make a well educated guess. A scientific hypothesis, if that title would appease you.”
Jayce bristled at Ambessa’s chuckle as she pushed herself off the wall and started towards the queen’s bedside.
“Now, give her some space, Ambessa…” Her husband warily commented from her other side. Ambessa ignored him, and knelt in front of the queen, armor clanking as she did and her red cloak sprawling onto the carpet around her. Her deep brown eyes trapped her under an intimidating stare.
“What Jayce fails to understand is that this… ‘unfortunate incident’, as he calls it, could be a potential for greatness. This may not be all bad. Your princess was meant to lead the kingdom alongside hextech. Think what she could do now, with hextech’s power flowing through her veins. She could be unstoppable. And she could advance hextech in return. This is an opportunity.”
“This is a tragedy. The kingdom is in uproar.” Jayce cuts in to correct her.
“Only because they found out.”
“Well how were they not supposed to know, Ambessa? An explosion in the lab, the queen carted away unconscious? Our people are not idiots. There is nothing I could’ve said that would have disguised the truth well enough that they wouldn’t see through it.” Jayce’s tone rose a notch and he had stopped pacing again to stare coldly at Ambessa.
She looked down at the floor in fury, still kneeling in front of the queen.
“You’re right. Our people are not stupid. You are the idiot. To think what you would give up; years of research, of work, or dedication, of passion, and a snap of your fingers is all it took.”
“What are you talking about Ambessa?” The queen propped herself up so she was sitting fully upright, looking back and forth between Ambessa, head turned to the ground, and Jayce, whose back was to her and face toward the window. She saw his shoulders sag with a heavy sigh. He turned around and looked at her with dark eyes, hollowed by disappointment.
“With the kingdom’s outrage over this mistake, and the devastating effects of this dangerous interaction with the hexcore, all of us fear what will happen and who it could hurt next… We’ve had to make a very difficult decision. Until further notice, all hextech creation, study and operations will be henceforth shut down.”
“What?!” Queen Kirammin exclaimed in shock, placing a hand on her racing heart as her husband took her other hand, patting it comfortingly.
“It was the safest option, dear.”
“Your majesty, while Ambessa and I strongly disagree on this subject, I hope you can understand that under these circumstances this was the only reasonable action I could take. My creations were never meant to hurt people. And this way, they never will again. I’m shutting it all down for good. No one will be able to access it, not even any of us.”
Ambessa slammed her hand on the queen’s nightstand and rose to her feet, towering over the royal couple with barely restrained rage painted across her face.
“This is the wrong choice, Jayce. All of you. Without this power, we are nothing. This technology could’ve been the new Piltover. Now all that’s left of it is the princess. Queen Kirammin, you are our last hope. Make the right decision, right now, or I quit. I’m leaving and I won’t return. There has to be a place better worth my time. I could find it, if I really tried, but I don’t want to have to. This is where I thought was worth my time. This is where I thought could be incomparable to anywhere else in its power. Tell me, your majesty, that you won’t let him take this away from-m..us. Tell me you’ll make the right decision.”
“I…” She met Ambessa’s fiery stare, and considered it. But she glanced at Jayce’s shaking head, and her husband’s brows creased with concern, and down at her stomach. Her baby. Piltover’s future, and how it was fractured… an uproar in the kingdom…. The sting of her fingers against the hexcore. It felt like magic for a moment, and it was, but then it sent her flying backwards. Her baby. Piltover’s future. This would not do.
“I do hope you don’t mean that Ambessa. I would like for you to stay, you are a great asset to our team in the palace. But, if you have to go.. We shall miss you. We cannot afford to take the risk. I side with Jayce.”
“Aagh!” She spun around and her cloak whipped behind her before she stomped away and slammed the door. Gone.
The others glanced between each other, in silence.
They didn’t expect her to return, and they lived on without her.
About 5 months later, a healthy baby girl was born, with hair a shining bright blue. She was different, they knew. But she was beautiful. She glowed with power.
Meanwhile, Ambessa lurked in the village, sulking. Ruminating. Plotting. She grappled with her bleak reality, a reality where hextech does not exist, a reality where all her best laid plans have been laid to waste. Jayce thought he was going to build a new world with hextech, but she was going to build an empire. One that was unbeatable, invincible, ruthless. One with her at the helm, with hextech in her hands. She studied it with Jayce every night, soaking in its pure energy, dreaming of what could be done with it. She’d become attached to it, in those months upon months of study. She felt she could no longer live without it. It was the only way. She had known all this time, it was the only way. She would have to take matters into her own hands.
She had to find the only available hextech creation still residing in the palace, and she had to take it for herself.
Grayson was assigned the task of safeguarding the princess, as she was the head of the royal guard and the person Queen Kirammin trusted more than anyone with her daughter. Every night Grayson watched over the sweet child in her cradle, rocking her back to sleep each time she awoke, keeping an eye on the door to the balcony outside the nursery. This night was like any other, and she stood diligently next to the princess, arms crossed, facing the doors. She didn’t anticipate anyone entering from the locked doors behind her. She didn’t anticipate anyone knowing how to quietly enter the castle. She didn’t anticipate anyone having a key.
The knife was in her back before she could even spin around towards the footsteps. Ambessa entered so quietly, there wasn’t a creak of the door. She guided Grayson to the ground gently, leaving her bleeding on the floor. It was not ideal, she thought, to have to kill her. She did work with her quite closely, though she couldn’t recall ever enjoying their time together too thoroughly. Still, it was a shame.
She finally stood over the cradle, after all this time. She inspected the sleeping baby’s hair, the last artifact fueled by hextech. It was unnaturally long and bright, bright blue. She wiped the edge of her knife on her cloak, the red stain blending in with the red fabric. She drew the knife carefully towards the baby, and her hair glowed bright the nearer her hand came to it. It reminded her of the glow of the hexcore, the crackling energy of the crystals. And it was in her hands. She could take it for herself. She sliced off a lock smoothly, careful not to stir the child. She gasped as the hair changed beneath her very eyes. It deepened in its hue until it was a dull black. She could no longer feel its electricity. It no longer had energy. The piece of the lock that remained in her hair was the same dark shade. Ambessa squinted in disbelief. The hair couldn’t be cut.
After months, years of working for this, she would not lose it.
She would not be deterred.
She would leave with what she came for.
And so with the cry of a princess as she was pulled from her cradle, and a swish of blood stained cloak, she was gone.
It seemed as if the whole palace shook from the scream of Cassandra Kirammin at the loss of her child, the loss of a friend, the loss of a piece of her heart.
The king and queen endlessly searched. They sent the palace guard far and wide, they sent villagers hunting about. But the beloved princess, Piltover’s hope for a new world, was nowhere to be found.
Every year, on her birthday, the whole kingdom sent up lanterns in honor of the lost princess of Piltover. A reminder that the search continued, and she never left the hearts and minds of any proud citizen. The lights floated over the trees and the water, past the clouds and into the black sky. They lit up the kingdom as they mourned, and as they hoped, and as they dreamed of her return.
Little did they know, deep in the forest, hidden away, there was a tower. A tower where a little girl lived. Her mother brushed her hair every night, and ran her fingers through it lovingly.
“Mother Medarda, what happens outside?”
“Outside is a kingdom, darling. A dangerous one. It is dark out there, see?”
The little girl turned towards the window at the front of the small, lamp lit room.
“It looks scary.”
“Don’t you worry, darling. I’ll protect you.”
But every night the little girl crept out of her bed and tiptoed down the wooden stairs of the tower, her bright blue hair trailing on the steps behind her. She walked to the window, and she watched the stars as they appeared, glistening and still and silent. Only once a year did the stars move, floating across the sky in a dazzling display of light.
She sighed, and leaned against the windowsill, and dreamed.