Part 11: An opportunity that most would Pentakill for…

It had been less than three days since the ball in Demacia when I received a letter in Caitlyn's mailbox.

"Huh. First piece of mail as a resident of Piltover," I told her, "I think this would qualify as some kind of momentous occasion."

She chuckled at me, fully awake after a nice cup of tea, "I agree. This momentous occasion shall be celebrated by you doing the dishes."

"God dammit, not again," I said through a chuckle as I examined the seal on the letter. The blue wax seemed to shimmer slightly in the morning sunlight and was imprinted with a musical note.

"I think it's fan mail, Caitlyn," I said, breaking the seal as I walked inside.

"Then it's best advised to throw it away. I don't even read most of my fan mail," She said from the bedroom, most likely getting ready to take a shower.

"But I've never had fan mail before… This is a nice thing for me," I told her, removing the note from the envelope. I unfolded it and read flowing script that seemed almost like sheet music in a way, and I knew exactly who had sent it.

Summoner Spicy Jack,

I was thrilled to have you perform with me at the Demacian Ball, and was genuinely impressed by your skill with the lute. I have discussed your abilities with a few colleagues of mine, and I was hoping you would be willing to perform with the group of us in Noxus on May 27th. There is a room already reserved for you at a boarding house near the stadium, where the rest of the group will be staying as well. I look forward to your response, and I hope that you will be able to demonstrate that you have equal skill on the stage as well as the Fields of Justice.

I didn't even need to see that the signature read "Sona".

As I finished, I called out to Caitlyn, "Um… honey, this is something a little bit more than fan mail," I held the letter inside the room, taking care not to see if she was indecent or not. Besides, even if I had, there wasn't anything that I hadn't seen before.

She simply took the letter and began reading, leaving me to do the dishes. I had finished with two pots when she called out to me, "Jack, this is amazing!"

I remained silent, not knowing what to say. I scrubbed at a plate before setting it aside to dry, trying to be absorbed in my work.

"Jack?" She said, coming out of the bedroom wearing her usual outfit of a corset and skirt, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" I told her, "I'm fine. Just tired."

She folded her arms and gave me that look that only women can give. "What are you not telling me?" She said, giving me those eyes that only a trained law enforcement official could, "I read people easily, and I know you like an open book. You're hiding something."

"Hiding? I'm not hiding anything," I said, cleaning off a couple of forks.

"Bullshit," she said, causing me to jolt. She rarely used language like that, though it had been happening more and more often since we had been together. "You don't want to perform with them, do you?"

I sighed, "No, Cait, it's not that. It's just…" I gave a shrug, not knowing what to say.

"Just what?"

"I've been offered an opportunity that a lot of people would kill for. Imagine how it would be if Heimerdinger or Corki asked a low-level summoner like me to work with them building some newfangled device," I told her, finishing the cleaning, "I just feel that, ever since I met you, my life has been making more and more turns for the better, and I don't know how to deal with it."

She walked across the wooden kitchen floor, her knee-high boots clicking against the material, placing a hand on each side of my head, "You're being a fool, Jack," she told me, "Your life has turned for the better not because you met me, but because you made it so." She kissed me lightly on the cheek, "Do you really think that we would be here right now if I hadn't deemed you worth my time when we first met?"

I reached a hand up to touch hers, shaking my head slowly, "I just don't know how to deal with all the fame," I told her, squeezing that hand, "I'm just not used to it."

She kissed me again, her lips gracing mine this time, "Play it off as best as you can," she said, a little chuckle coming through, "It's how I do it."

I grinned and embraced her, my arms sliding around her shoulders, "Thank you," I told her before starting, "Wait… what day is it?"

"May 25th, why?"

"The concert is in two days," I told her, "I have to send Sona a response as quickly as I can." With that, I dashed off to get my pen and ink.

Once the letter was finished, I used a minor thaumaturgy spell in order to locate Sona, and a teleportation to send it right into her lap. I just hoped I didn't inconvenience her.

That being done, I began to practice for hours on end while Caitlyn was at work, practice so extensive and tiring that she found me passed out when she returned after a long shift.

The next morning, I was awakened by the smell of bacon and eggs, and walked in the kitchen to see Caitlyn standing, fully dressed, cooking breakfast. I sneaked up behind her to give her a hug and kiss her on the cheek, eliciting a giggle, "You were sleeping like the dead last night," She told me, "I shook you twice, and yet you only mumbled something about potatoes and kept on sleeping."

I snickered as she told me that, "Well, would you expect any less from me?"

She looked up thoughtfully for a moment, "Nope," before returning back to cooking. "By the way," she told me, "I took today, tomorrow, and Friday off so we could go to Noxus for the concert."

"Why Friday?" I asked.

"I heard that the band members like to hang around for a little while after each show. Maybe they would like you to join them."

I nodded, knowingly conceding that she thought ahead a great deal more than I.

"So. Go and get your bags packed. Mine are already done."

"How long was I asleep?!" I said, leaving to go and select my clothes for the next couple of days.

"It's almost noon," She said, and I hurried up.

We shared breakfast, then gathered up our luggage, and I enacted my teleportation spell.

We came out in Noxus, the lack of magical energy on both ends making me feel dizzy, though I did not throw up. Oddly enough, the past couple of months my constitution was getting better and better, meaning I could perform reasonable feats of magic without feeling ill.

The other end of folded space came out in front of the designated boarding house, though it was not so much a boarding house as a very high-class inn. The two of us walked through the heavy wooden doors, and approached the front desk, a suitcase in each hand. A well-dressed young lady stood behind the desk and looked up as we approached, "Checking in?" she said as if she had rehearsed it a thousand times before.

"Yes, thank you. Summoner Spicy Jack, the Bard of Piltover. I was told that a room would be here for us."

She didn't even have to look at the record book before nodding, "If you'll follow me, please," she said, walking towards a lift-like contraption that I had seen in similarly tall buildings before. The three of us stepped on the lift, and it began moving, taking us up to one of the highest floors of the building.

The young lady walked out of the lift, leading the way down a long hallway before stopping at a room reading "824". "Sir, madam, this is your room. Your fellow performers are just down the hall in 825, 826, 827, and 828. However, I would not recommend stopping by 828, since Karthus likes his privacy.

With that, she walked off, pausing only to leave a key in my hand. The door opened smoothly, revealing a large room, thrice as large as my apartment in the Ministry of War. Even Caitlyn was impressed at the bed big enough for three, the built-in kitchen, and the bathroom with a tub so large that two could easily share it. Needless to say, I would have to run that idea by my partner.

We walked in and set our bags down, opening them so we could hang what we deemed necessary in the his-and-hers closets. However, as we were getting ourselves situated, a knock came at the door, too heavy to be human.

"Come in," I said not too hesitantly, and the wooden portal swung open to reveal Mordekaiser, who had to stoop in order to enter the room.

"It's good to have you with us," He said, his voice rumbling and echoing through the armor, "It's going to be interesting performing with someone that can keep up with Sona instrumentally."

"She flatters me," I said, "So what time is the performance tomorrow?"

"Just before midnight," the Master of Metal replied, "Have you ever played with our type of instruments before?"

I shook my head. I had never played techmaturgical instruments before, mainly because I was afraid of making too much noise.

"Then I will loan you one of my axes for the show," he said, leaving briefly before returning with… an axe. However, this axe was strung like a lute, and made little to no sound when I played it.

"No, no," He said, "you have to attach it to one of these," he proffered a cable about as thick as my thumb, hooked up to a small box with a speaker in it, and a plug on the other end.

Shrugging, I hefted the axe –gods the thing was heavy-, and put the plug into the most obvious hole on the axe. I played one note, and the sound could be either described as beautiful or terrifying. The note was clear, but sounded more… powerful, I suppose the word would be. I smiled as I played a few more notes, getting a feel for the instrument.

Mordekaiser nodded his approval, "You seem to be taking to it very well, though I think you'll need a smaller instrument."

"Not a problem," I told him, casting a small spell that reduced the axe's size by a third, making it far more easy for me to play. That being done, I began playing it as I would my lute, modifying the sound with the knobs and levers on the instrument to create a sound that even made the master of metal and disease seem impressed.

"Since you seem to be adapting so well, I'll leave you two be," He said, leaving the room to go do… Mordekaiser stuff, I suppose.

Once the door closed behind him, I locked it and went up behind Caitlyn, who was still hanging he clothes in the closet, snaking my arms around her waist and whispering in her ear, "I think that tub is big enough for two."

I saw her smile out of the corner of my eye, "As long as you make the water hot," she told me, and hung up her last outfit.