Chapter Text
Receiving a second letter from Demacia so soon after her reunion with her sister was not on Vi’s to-do list for the year, but here she was. The buds were just beginning to appear on the trees in the Kiramann garden when another gilded envelope arrived in the morning post.
Hey Sis,
So, remember when I told you I had a wife? Well…that wasn’t technically true. I mean, I do have a fiance. And she’s great. You get it. But I just got really excited and said the wife part too early. Because we’re still only engaged. And that’s the cool part, see! We’re not married yet, so we’re planning a wedding. A big old Demacian shindig. She’s a fancy governor here, basically a fairytale princess. And that means, that, well, if you’d like, you can…I don’t know…come, if you’re not busy or anything. Bring the kid! I guess you can bring Top Hat too, if you must. Wifey knows her, apparently, and says that we should invite her. IDK. If she even wants to come. Anyway, hope to see you here!
XOXO,
Jinx
Vi found her heart pounding as soon as she put the letter down. Sure, her sister had mentioned visiting Demacia, but this soon? Would Cait be ready? Was she ready? With sweaty palms, she went to go search for her wife. She found Caitlyn and Ren sitting at the dining room table having their breakfast. Vi wrapped her arms around Caitlyn and kissed her cheek, and went over to their daughter and gave her shoulder a little squeeze.
“What’s bothering you, dear?” Caitlyn asked, without looking up from her oatmeal.
Vi definitely should have known better than to try and hide anything from her wife. Caitlyn knew her better than anymore, and could immediately tell her moods by the subtlest shifts in her body.
“Got another letter.”
Something in her voice must have told Caitlyn exactly where this letter originated.
“What does she want with us now?”
Vi met Caitlyn’s gaze and smiled sheepishly. Even Ren was looking up from her meal at them in curiosity. In general, they did not make a habit of talking about important business around her, but she’d also seen enough of the world and Vi had always insisted she should not be lied to either.
“She…um…wants to invite me…well…us…all of us, to her wedding.”
Before Caitlyn could respond, Ren was immediately jumping in to ask questions.
“Mum, who’s ‘she’? Are we going to a wedding? Will you get me a pretty dress? Or a pretty suit?”
Vi wrapped an arm around her daughter. Maybe this interruption was for the best, as it gave Cait more time to think.
“We’re talking about your aunt. My sister. And whether we go or not depends a lot on what your momma says. She and your aunt don’t get along that well. But if we do go, we can definitely get you any sort of fancy clothing you want.”
Caitlyn abruptly stood up and began pacing the room, her eye scrunched up in thought.
“Do we know for sure that she will be marrying Luxanna Crownguard?”
Vi shrugged and poured herself a cup of coffee.
“Who else would it be? She is the only female governor in all of Demacia. I checked.”
Caitlyn ceased her pacing and leaned up against Vi. Ren watched them with apprehension. Vi could feel the tension in every muscle of Cait’s body. She reached up and rubbed soothing circles over Cait’s arms.
“She’s your sister..” Caitlyn began, “...after everything. I know you still want to go to her.”
“I do,” replied Vi, “but what do you want?”
Caitlyn sighed and leaned more of her weight into Vi.
“I guess…I want it to stop hurting. Trying to hurt her back never made the pain go away, and I think, after all, it’s time to try something new.”
“I guess you could just…talk to her?”
Caitlyn buried her head in Vi’s shoulder.
“You’re right, of course. We’ve both caused so much pain because of each other, and I’ve barely exchanged a dozen words with her. Maybe it’s time to change that. Also,” she added, a wry grin crossing her face, “it’s high time I paid a visit to my old friend Luxanna. It would be rude to deny her on her wedding day.”
“Does that mean we’re going to Demacia for a wedding?” Ren squeaked, running over and hugging her moms, “I can’t wait!”
“How much longer?” complained Ren, resting her head over the gunwale of the Syren, the ship that had, thankfully, been heading to Demacia and passing through Piltover’s port. With the destruction of the Hexgate, the city had returned their old ports into use, but it now meant that they had a week of sailing to reach Demacia.
“Honey, we’ve just left Piltover,” said Caitlyn, leaning beside her daughter and ruffling her hair. “We will be another week at sea.”
“Uuuuugggh! My tummy hurts!”
“That’ll pass, kid, just stay up on deck and watch the ocean. You’ll get your sea legs soon enough!”
The voice that hailed them came from a woman with a long red braid and an ornate officer's jack. The bright summer sun glinted off two gilded pistols in her belt. With a bicorne cocked jauntily to one side, she looked every inch the sea captain that Caitlyn assumed she was.
“Captain Sarah Fortune,” she said, reaching out a hand to Caitlyn.
“Councilor Caitlyn Kiramann,” Cait replied, shaking the offered hand. Sarah Fortune’s grip was firm and confident, her rough hand denoting a life of hard work and toil. Caitlyn reflected that in another life, she would not have minded coming across Sarah at a tavern.
“And who’s this,” asked Sarah, bending down to address Ren, who, as a result of sea sickness, took refuge behind her mother’s leg.
“This is my daughter Ren. You’ll have to excuse her. It’s her first time at sea.”
“Don’t sweat it! Happens to everyone their first time. Why, I bet I was about her age the first time I went out on a boat like this.”
“Hey, Cupcake, I got our bunks sorted…”
Vi stepped up beside Caitlyn and cast a suspicious eye to Captain Fortune.
“Captain, I assume?”
When Sarah Fortune turned to Vi, her eyes lit up.
“Of course! And I remember you! The Hound of the Undercity. I loved watching your fights!”
Vi noticeably paled and gave Sarah’s hand a limp shake.
“Um, thanks, but that’s not a time in my life I like to talk about all that much. I was kinda blacked out for most of the time.”
Sarah gave her a knowing smile.
“I get that. I’ve had times like that too. Regardless, let me welcome you aboard the Syren! What takes you to Demacia this time of year?”
Ren suddenly brightened up and proclaimed, “We’re going to a wedding!”
Caitlyn sighed. No secrets around ten year olds.
“What a coincidence!” Sarah cried, bending down to meet Ren’s gaze, “I’m going to a wedding too!”
Ren seemed to have temporarily forgotten her stomach in the excitement of this conversation.
“My aunty is marrying a fairytale princess.” Then, thoughtfully, she added, “I've never met my aunty.”
“Looks like we might be heading the same direction. I'm very excited for the Crownguard wedding.”
“If you don't mind me asking,” interrupted Caitlyn, “how do you get invited to this wedding?”
Sarah Fortune smiled and tipped her hat.
“I am more than just the captain of this ship. I am also the Queen of Bilgewater. So when the daughter of the second most powerful family in Demacia gets married, I get an invite!”
“Well, I suppose that does make a lot of sense,” Caitlyn replied, nonplussed.
“And, just between you, me, and the seagulls, I don’t expect that many other ‘foreign dignitaries’ to show up. So it looks like we’ll be the life of the party.”
Cait and Vi both nodded and tried their best to inch away from Captain Fortune to maybe encourage her to see to her other duties.
The next week passed in a monotony of sea and sky. After two days, they had fully acquired their sea legs, and another day after that, Sarah Fortune finally decided her casual flirting was getting nowhere with either Caitlyn or Vi, and actually revealed herself an enjoyable companion for the journey. Once docked in Terbesia, they found a carriage waiting for them. Even Caitlyn gasped with awe at the quartet of snow white horses harnessed to the front.
“Careful, dear,” said Vi, putting a protective arm on Ren’s shoulder as she gazed longingly at the majestic animals.
“But mum! I want to touch them!”
“Maybe they don't want to be touched,” Vi replied. “I'm sure there will be more horses where we are going that you can meet properly.”
“Alright,” said Ren, her shoulders slumping a little as they all clambered into the carriage.
In contrast to the ornate carriage, the city that they rolled through could best be described as rustic. Seemingly in the middle of major repairs, workers hauled massive timbers and tons of stone with, Caitlyn was shocked to see, magic.
“They do a lot of arcane around here,” commented Vi.
“This is highly unusual. Everything I've heard about Demacia suggests they detest the use of magic,” Caitlyn replied. “I shall have to ask our hosts about it.”
“Heard they had a new deal going,” Sarah added. “Trying out a settlement for mages here.”
Caitlyn’s expression darkened.
“Hopefully it goes better for them than it did for us.”
The carriage arrived at what must be the governor’s mansion, though compared to the glittering palaces in Demacia’s grand capital, it was a distinctly humble structure. Two stories, made of more wood than stone, but it seemed like a place Vi would much rather live than one of those monstrous palaces. The doors of the carriage opened practically on their own, and Vi assumed that the driver must be a mage too. Being around magic still felt creepy, even years later, but she was doing this for a reason. And these mages didn’t seem to be turning into strange glowing sticks, which was certainly a plus.
Their luggage floated along beside them as they made their way up a walkway trimmed with neat hedgerows and rose bushes. At the top of the path stood two figures. A tall, broad man with close-cropped brown hair in a white and blue doublet, and a young woman, also quite tall, with shoulder-length blonde hair and a silvery tunic. Caitlyn and Sarah, the ones most accustomed to society of any kind, led the introductions.
“Luxanna! It is a pleasure to see you again! Congratulations on your good news” Cailtlyn exclaimed, leaning to give Lux a quick hug and air kisses on both cheeks.
“Caitlyn, I am so glad you could make it! You remember Garen, right?”
“Of course,” replied Caitlyn, extending her hand to Garen, who bent and kissed it.
“I trust your voyage has been most pleasant, Councilor.”
Caitlyn continued, “And this is my wife Violet, and our daughter Ren.”
Ren, invigorated by seeing the horses, but still unsteady on land legs, wobbled forward and stuck out a confident hand. In a voice that seem rehearsed, she began,
“Ren Kiramann! It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Governor Crownguard.” As Lux bent down to shake her hand, she went slightly off script and added, “Congratulations on marrying my auntie. I have never met her, but I would like to.”
“Speaking of that,” asked Sarah Fortune, “where is your lovely fiance?”
Lux straightened up and sighed.
“She is teaching at the school right now, and, uh, has a complicated relationship with Councilor Kiramann, and thinks it would be best if you all were settled in before you went to see her. I hope that is alright.”
The corners of Caitlyn's lips tightened almost imperceptibly, but she nodded.
“I suppose we'd better find our rooms then. We have been traveling for quite some time, and I would like a rest.”