'Ooh, Jarvan, what do you think of this?' the expectant bride gushed excitedly, tapping one pearly nail against the glossy pages she was worshipping. 'I know I said that I wanted calla lilies for the table pieces, but at second glance I think they will clash with the cream tablecloths. Might look a bit too funeral-y, though… oh! Maybe we could go for hydrangeas in the Demacian standard? The Vanguard will be in their dress uniforms, but I feel that if we insert some greenery into the displays, then we can avoid them from matching too much with their clothes…hmm…but green might look too earthy, I don't know…?'

'Whatever you want, my love,' the Exemplar murmured absent-mindedly, his steel-grey eyes squinting in the sun dazzling through the sprawling bay window up ahead. His vision trailed along the Lightshields' splendid drawing room, from its prismatic chandelier to its handsomely stitched tapestries, and the Princess' inane chatter continued to jab at his ears as he crumpled the ranger's stinging reply in his hands. 'The former Wings of Demacia wishes it to be known that no appeal against her unfair dismissal from the Dauntless Vanguard will be submitted. The Ionian exile has been chosen to witness this signature.' A muscle twitched in his rugged cheek, and his hand opened and closed relentlessly around the hastily scrawled roll of parchment. His heart was split down the middle between chucking the sniping letter into the bin adjacent to his fiancée, or clinging on childishly to the last word he would ever receive from Quinn. The nauseous thought of her being alone with that caddish and murderous swordsman sent fear searing painfully through his veins, and he thumped the elegantly curved arm of his ornate chair in silent frustration.

'What's wrong, my Prince?' Lux diverted, staring curiously at the agitated royal. 'Why are you angry? Do you not want hydrangeas?'

'No, no,' he insisted wearily, reining in his cynical temper as he forced his face into a reluctant smile. 'They will be fine. Pick whatever you want and then send the bill to Xin by the end of today.'

'He's not here right now, Jarvan, don't you remember? Are you sure you're okay?' the mage enquired suspiciously of his sudden vexation. 'Is it to do with…that?' she added, nodding over to the brooding Demacian eagle glaring at the royal couple.

'Why hasn't it gone yet, anyway? The damn thing gives me the creeps.'

'Because the lawyers need to provide the Wings of Demacia with a formal exclusion order,' Jarvan explained patiently, though the muscle in his cheek quivered once more. 'Valor is to stay here until they've finished proof-reading the legal loopholes before it is sent out to her.'

'So it is to do with her?' Lux prodded angrily, slapping the wedding brochure down upon the exquisitely studded sky blue sofa she had been sprawling on. She flounced back into its recline and her baby blue eyes blazed at her future husband. 'Well?'

'Oh for God's sake, Luxanna, not this again,' he sighed heavily, massaging his swollen temples with one chunky thumb. 'Look, can't you just let it drop about Quinn? We keep having this same fight, over and over again, and I'm getting sick of it. I'm with you, not her. Can we move on now?'

The Lady of Luminosity pouted sulkily at her partner, but after a slight pause she sucked in her cheek and nodded as she sunk back into the settee. 'You're right. I have better things to worry about. I've still not heard back from the dressmakers yet, even though the final fitting is scheduled for three days from now. I wish Maria had not needed to retire so quickly after the farewell ball last month. Did you not try to raise her salary and encourage her to stay?'

'It wasn't happening,' he replied bluntly, wandering over to fix himself a stiff drink from the guest cocktail cabinet. 'She was mortified after the wardrobe malfunction at that dinner, and I – I mean, she – recognised that she was losing her touch.'

'On the contrary,' the Princess protested, her porcelain forehead crinkling in disapproval, 'I found Maria to be highly skilled in producing custom-made garments.'

'I could see that for myself,' Jarvan muttered sardonically under his breath, stooping to open the cabinet's fabulously polished doors.

'Sherry?' he called out louder over his shoulder, waving a single glass in his hands at her.

'Wonderful!' she replied enthusiastically, seemingly oblivious to the Exemplar's cutting swipe. She eagerly took the fluted crystal tumbler from him and supped from the cranberry-coloured liquid, swilling it happily around her mouth before swallowing to speak.

'Stock up on the fizz and plonk for the wedding, won't you, my darling?' she giggled suddenly, taking another drink and placing it upon the gilded side table beside her. 'I intend to make it through my wedding without feeling the acidic lash of my mother's tongue, but at least the alcohol would soften the blow.' Lux wandered over to Jarvan and slid her legs across his lap as she wrapped his raven locks around her slim fingers. She ran a soft hand down the Prince's angular cheek as she pulled for him to look at her, who emitted an involuntary grunt of annoyance at being separated from his drink

'Listen, Jar...I know you said to let it drop…'

'Luxanna…' he whined again, but she brought her finger to his lips to smother his complaint.

'No, no, no,' she murmured softly, stroking his cheekbone with her index finger. 'You'll hopefully like what I'm going to say. Look, I know you've had…well, some kind of past with that horrible girl-' she muttered darkly, throwing her head over towards the stoic eagle, 'but I want to let you know that I will let it drop, because… well, I love you. I believe we were always meant to be together, even if you didn't think so at first. Isn't it funny how often our paths crossed for all these years? You were, along with my brother, the first boy I ever loved, and now you're the only man I'm in love with. But for this to work…' she paused thoughtfully. 'For us to work… I need you to assure me that you love me too, Jarvan. For me. For our family. For Demacia. I beg you, please let go of whatever this stupid obsession is that you have with her and live here, in the moment, with me? Please? Can't you do that for your wife? The future mother of your children?'

The Exemplar looked her dead in her sapphire eyes, now gleaming with tears as she stared pleadingly at him, and he sighed as he finally brought her into his arms, patting her shimmering golden locks. Guilt siphoned his self-esteem as he held the quivering mage in his grip, his head hurting with the impossibility of his situation. He knew how perfect Lux was on paper as his future queen: beautiful, aristocratic, charming, and much loved by the public. She had her acidic side and she was spoilt – he particularly loathed how she talked about the Wings of Demacia - but he was acutely aware that, for all her flaws, she adored him and would never run away from him with another man. Yet, as he held his lover in his arms, it all felt so off. Lux's scent was of strawberries, not of wild flowers; her trailing hair was washed out like sand against his shoulder, not rich like liquid chocolate. Her eyes glittered with ambition, not compassion; and his hands clasped around untoned bones, not the suppleness of a soldier. Jarvan's heart burned with sadness as he pulled Lux in against it, not Quinn, and it twisted in his chest with rejection against this imposter. Mental pictures of his ranger intimately entwined with the Ionian exile tormented his mind, which growled at the thought of another man wriggling into her trusting heart. But he kept seeing her agonised eyes as his ranger realised he could not give her what she needed; he repeatedly heard his own primal roar as his tyrannical father wished to see her dead; he saw Valor take her away to a land unknown; and he knew the damage had been done.

'Yes, I can,' he finally admitted solemnly, peering down cautiously at his fiancée as his stomach lurched with the finality of his response. 'You're right. Our marriage will only work if we trust and communicate with one another. I don't want to fuel any allegations against this dynasty, and I know I've treated you badly since the second we got engaged. I'm so sorry…you are my life now, Luxanna. Our children will be our legacy.'

'Good,' she whispered softly, sliding her hands behind his neck and kissing him, pulling away with gratitude and triumph shining in her gaze. 'I knew you'd see sense.'

'Hydrangeas it is,' he smiled, tilting up her moon face with his thumb. 'See, I was listening. Why do wives always assume their husband isn't listening?'

'Not all husbands, just mine. You always were a boy with your head in the clouds,' the Princess tinkled with laughter, cuddling up and gazing up adoringly at him, before she frowned for a moment. 'Ah, another point. Sona-?'

'Council diplomats should negotiate her release in time for the wedding, Luxi, don't worry,' Jarvan confirmed, and his childhood nickname made the Lady radiate with love. 'We will need to let her recuperate from her ordeal, though, although I am assured that she's safe.'

'Fantastic. It wouldn't be a royal Valorian wedding without her beautiful music,' she gushed, gripping hold of the Prince's bear paws in her dainty palms. 'Oh, Jarvan, this is going to be lovely. The Crownguards and the Lightshields have always been like family, and now we finally can be one. What a blessing.'

'Woahhh.'

'Yep, that's pretty much my reaction when I first came here, too,' the wild warrior chuckled, steering the awestruck Quinn through the bustling Bilgewater crowds. She was gazing intently at the marvellous warships drifting in the misty Slaughter Docks, the eclectic cacophony of shipmates calling through the starry night towards busty maidens and thrumming of chains and machinery thudding in their ears. Gunpowder residue made her shiver as it took her back to the night of the Noxian ambush, but the sharp smell also heightened her senses and sent adrenaline crackling through her heart and limbs. Given the small naval resources of Demacia, seeing such powerful military and civilian shipping as a way of life staggered her. She turned back to the Ionian exile and could not suppress a childish grin.

'Don't be drawn in by it too much, though, Quinn. If you thought Piltover was rough, you're in for a nasty shock,' Yasuo reminded her, assessing the crowds for any hazards.

'I can handle it,' the ranger murmured bashfully, though she still allowed Yasuo's warm hand to curl protectively around her hand and pull her behind him in a land she did not know.

'When you get comfortable here is when you're at your most vulnerable,' he warned her gently, acknowledging stranger's faces in the crowd with a respectful nod. 'Have fun, but also keep your distance. I come to Bilge because no one gives two shits about your past here, but the fact is that no one gives two shits about anyone. Don't spill too much about yourself.'

'Got it,' she confirmed, her breath catching at the sight of a badly scarred pirate with a golden hoop only just still hanging in his mauled ear. 'Burnt tar. Stop looking,' the warrior muttered under his breath. She quickly averted her ears and went to looking up at the safe zone of the thunderous black sky. Quinn was not sure if it was the burning fires of mechanisation which shrouded the heavens or if Bilgewater had its own stormy climate, but it was unlike any sky she had ever seen. Thick smoky clouds were blotted against the streaky dark blue peeking out above, as if the dusk was succumbing to the rough edges of the city, and the waters framing the hardened docks frothed ominously when they lapped against the timber. Jarvan and Lux's earlier conversation, along with the ripped-up formal exclusion letter, were now scattered to the howling winds of Bilgewater as Quinn was enraptured by her surroundings. She recognised, with a dark thrill, that the Exemplar would have sooner let the ranger set foot in Noxus than in the scum of villainy so prevalent in Bilgewater, and pure fear and excitement threatened to burst in her chest as she kept a tight grip on Yasuo's robe. Never in all her years of the Vanguard had she ever needed to travel far out of Demacia's marbled boundaries, and now she had seen so much of the continent: for the first time, she began to embrace the chaotic uncertainty of her life and to dance with her doubt. Quinn instinctively stroked her thumb against the warrior's loyal grip and he turned to look inquisitively at her, before smiling at the sparkle in her eyes.

'Oh, no, don't tell me you've fallen in love with the place,' he groaned with a wink. 'I was meant to be preserving your honour, not corrupting it!'

'You're not a great influence, are you Yasuo?' the ranger laughed, picking up her pace to walk evenly with him as the bulk of the crowd dispersed. 'But a fun one.'

'Oho, is that flirting I detect from the virtuous Demacian?' Yasuo teased, waggling his eyebrows. 'Now, Quinn, you may or may not love this, but for the duration of this trip, we are going to have to appear as if we are an item,' he grinned wolfishly, interlocking his fingers with hers. 'It's the only way to keep you safe, after all.'

'Oh, sure,' she grumbled, batting at him as he planted a kiss on her hand. 'Get off. We already look convincing enough as a couple without going overboard.'

'Aww, you agree that we look great together? Excellent,' he noted delightedly, tipping his head onto her shoulder. 'I love you too, my little itty-bitty poro.'

'Ugh!' she hissed as she shoved him off of her, though she could not hold down the corner of her mouth flicking upwards in fondness. 'Tone it down, lovebird.'

'Ah, unrequited love,' the warrior replied sombrely, only half-feigning his heartbreak as he stared out to the dark town ahead. 'It has brought many a broken man to Bilgewater.'

The ranger frowned as the warrior brought her towards a market stall, unable to refrain from beaming appreciatively at the curvy dark woman supervising it, her corseted breasts almost tickling her chin. 'Lovely day, isn't it?'

'It is now you're here, gorgeous,' the lady purred, tilting back against her stall with a hungry glitter in her eyes. Her dark, long witchy hair and thick dark eyelashes gave her an exotic air, and Quinn briefly wondered what her heritage was. 'How can I be of service, sir?'

The former Wings of Demacia detected the longing undertone of her voice and wrinkled her nose, but Yasuo played along and slanted towards the store-holder. 'Can you kit out my girl here in Bilgie fashion? We're only staying for a little while, but she insists that she wants to blend it with the locals.'

'Hmm,' she muttered to herself, wrenching Quinn's hair from its shaggy up-do and surveying her figure. 'She's a bit skinny, isn't she? I guess she's well formed in comparison to the rest of her,' she added, lightly slapping her behind and briefly feeling at the side of her chest, 'but we'll have to work a bit harder to make her a Bilgie woman.' The ranger trembled with silent indignation at the invasion of her personal space, but Yasuo threw her a look to just go with it and she smiled passively at the stall-holder.

'Are you sure you don't just want to trade her in for the real thing?' the lady asked Yasuo, her amber eyes sultrily trailing across his face as she attended to Quinn. 'I can acquaint you with our customs very well.'

'I don't think that will be necessary,' the ranger found herself coolly responding with, evoking silent mirth from Yasuo and daggers from the shopkeeper. 'Just do as the nice gentleman says, please.'

The lady huffed, but she complied in dressing her in soft purple velvet, golden trimmings and a rusty red sash across her neck. She tossed on a long blonde wig over her brunette locks – pinning it painfully to Quinn's scalp as if loading a gun – and snapped on an elastic eyepatch too harshly. She frowned as the ranger took it all with a charming smile, and turned back to Yasuo. 'All done. Now, how about your fine self?'

'Go on, then,' he smiled, throwing out his arms. 'Do your worst.'

She snickered as she peeled away his robe, wrapping a long red cloak around his shoulders and pressing a long, broad cowboy hat to his head. Quinn fumed as her hands lingered for a little too long across his biceps or his neck, and Yasuo gave her an innocent look over the woman's shoulders, though the tell-tale dimple in his cheek was twitching as he enjoyed her anguish. 'Get it together,' he mouthed at her, and she turned away to ignore him.

'Right, finished!' the lady announced triumphantly, her face flushed as she looked directly at Yasuo. 'That will be 80 gold, sir. We accept cash or debt.'

Casting another teasing look at Quinn, the warrior bent forward to place his lips by the woman's ear. 'You're so beautiful that it'd be a shame for us to part ways by cash alone, don't you think?' he murmured into her ear, smirking at the familiar shiver his words sent through her as she hung onto his arm, trailing her fingers up and down his arm.

'She doesn't have to come too, does she?' the stallholder inquired, throwing a dirty look across to Quinn. 'I'm not saying I don't swing that way, just I won't swing for her, baby.'

'Oh, for God's sake,' the ranger snapped, thrusting a bag of gold at the woman until it caught her smack in the middle of her chest and plonked at her feet. 'Here's your money. Good day.'

She growled, but bent to scoop up the money and winked saucily at Yasuo. She pressed the gold back to him, her hands clamped onto his a little too long as he took it back. 'You know where to find me. If I'm not here, just ask for Elsa at the Shark Shack. I'll be seeing you.'

'Sure, sexy. Have a good day,' he grinned, tucking the gold in his pocket. 'Thanks for the help.'

He watched the colours of Quinn's face circle from wan to flaming red, and began laughing as the little spitfire exploded. 'What the fuck was her problem?!'

'It seems you are unaccustomed to how things work around here, my sweet little Demacian,' Yasuo replied, taking hold of her arm and pulling her closer to him. 'You don't think I was actually going to bone that chick, do you?'

'Oh, I don't know,' she added sarcastically, ripping her arm away from him to tuck her flyaway hair underneath the scratchy wig. 'I guess I just misunderstood the part when you said you were going to whore yourself out for an outfit or two. She was like a bitch in heat around you.'

'Quinn, look. We just got all that crap for free. You underestimate the power of charm in getting you where you want to be. Oh come on, kitten, don't sulk,' he laughed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. 'I was just playing with the woman. Don't get so wound up. It's not like you don't use your own charm.'

'What charm?' she snapped, though she did not shrug him off this time. 'I don't go around flopping out my tits to any man I see like half the women around here.'

'Precisely,' he said emphatically, placing his hand at the small of her back as he directed her further into the town. 'Why do you think so many men fall for you, Quinn? It's because you don't know how sexy you are. You have this innocence about you that pulls guys in because you're different. How many men have shown interest in you?'

She frowned, chewing her lip. 'Not that many…I mean, I thought Jarvan was interested in me, but look how much my gut instinct let me down there. And then there's Xin-'

'Xin? Who's that?' Yasuo asked casually, and it irritated the ranger that he genuinely did not seem troubled by this revelation.

'He's Jarvan's bodyguard. He was in line to be executed by the Noxians, but King Jarvan II saved him and he was brought over to Demacia. He's my best friend, but I've been told by a reliable source that he's madly in love with me.'

Still no tangible reaction from the warrior. 'And you don't feel the same way?'

'No,' she sighed sadly, her lip twitching uncomfortably. 'And he doesn't know that I don't feel the same way. God knows how he's taken my dismissal. The stupid this is, he'd be a perfect choice, we are so compatible and there would be no objections to us getting together. But just…the spark…that just isn't there, much as I would try to force it.'

'Who have you felt that spark with?' the warrior asked curiously, and he smiled at the blush creeping across her face as he led her towards a tavern. 'Quinn? You've gone quiet back there.'

'Shut up,' she scowled, swatting at his head. 'Well, Jarvan obviously. I can't say anyone else has made much of an impression, really.'

'Honestly?' Yasuo turned and pulled a sad little puppy-dog expression. 'I'm destined to be forever alone, aren't I?'

'You are ridiculous,' she replied haughtily, though she was only able to maintain the chilly façade for a few seconds before laughing. 'Old man Yasuo. I'll come swanning along here with my hot silver fox of a husband one day, and you'll be one of those dirty old men still chasing girls around Bilgewater.'

'There's worse ways to spend your life, I mean, just look at them,' he added dreamily, enraptured by the voluptuous maidens bouncing across the fore. 'They don't make them like that in Ionia.'

'Nor in Demacia, and for good reason,' she added icily, before nodding towards the shabby tavern. 'Now come on, Yasuo, before that girl over there takes your eye out, you need to focus. Why are we here, exactly?'

'To see an old acquaintance,' the warrior confirmed, though he suddenly grinned. 'Fate!'

'What?' Quinn murmured, but she realised that he was actually calling to someone. As they hurried across the street, her eyes widened as they locked onto a slight man dressed in the most bizarre garb - dramatic golden shoulder-pads; a crisp royal blue one-piece suit with smart white colours; a blood-red cape twirling in the harsh Bilgewater breeze; and a pointed fedora rammed across his long wolverine locks.

'Yasuo!' the man yelled back in a long drawl. He gave him a smirk of genuine warmth, which instantly put Quinn at ease, but his luminous blue eyes simultaneously put her on edge. The man named Fate turned to look curiously at the ranger, who tried her best to maintain eye contact. 'You're not alone, for once?'

'No,' he smiled, pulling her to his side in a show of their fabricated romance. 'This lovely lady is my girl, Quinn. Sweetie, this is Twisted Fate. He's an old friend of mine.'

'Twisted by name, twisted by nature,' he joked, extending his hand out for her to take. 'Nice to meet you, darlin'.' He turned back to Yasuo, his lined forehead bending in on itself in confusion. 'Why on Valoran would you ever bring a nice girl like this to the Brazen Hydra?'

'Business. GP is said to be in town, and I need to have a word with the old scallywag.'

'Just be careful,' Twisted Fate told him seriously, his eyes darting over to the alert ranger and back again. 'If you value her life, don't give him her real name. I know he's fond of you, boy, but that man never forgets a face. It's the only way he's not been killed yet. If you were ever to wrong him, he'd run his cutlass through her to get to you. Just bear that in mind.'

'Thanks for your cheery words of advice, Fate,' he laughed, though he curbed it quickly to show that he had heeded his caution. 'Don't worry, we won't be in for long.'

As they entered the tavern, the hairs on the back of Quinn's neck sprang up when raucous laughter and clinking glasses drifted through the open door. The men were rosy-cheeked and loud, thumping their fists on the tables and singing filthy pirate songs, burying their alcohol-soaked faces into the bosom of squealing maidens. They waved their tankards mightily into the air, ignoring the long-suffering dirty looks being thrown by the landlord, and cackled as they heckled one man that had slumped to the ground from a beer too many. 'Pussy!'

'I must be mad bringing a Demacian girl here,' Yasuo muttered under his breath, holding her protectively behind him as they threaded through the menacing pirate gangs. 'But I daren't leave you outside, either.'

'Yas, stop babysitting me,' she protested quietly, though her eyes widened in concern as a reveller puked into his own jug and another spanked the behind of a passing barmaid. 'I won't lie, it's a bit…rougher than what I am used to, but a soldier always has to adapt.'

'That's what I like to hear,' he whispered back, before his masculine bravado reappeared and he raised his voice affectionately. 'Gangplank, you scurvy bastard!'

Every fibre of Quinn's being tried not to flinch as she saw the Saltwater Scourge for the first time. Of course, she knew who he was – word of his infamy had spread to every corner of Runeterra- but she was still not prepared to see the criminal madman for himself.

He looked every part the pirate legend, clad in fully regalia and leaning back with two girls in his arms as his wispy white eyes fixed onto the new arrival. A toothy grin, tinged with golden studs, let Quinn know that he was thrilled to see Yasuo, but she could not stop the tingle of horror at his past deeds trickle down her spine. Taking off his hat and pressing it to his chest, he howled with laughter along with the warrior as the men clapped their hands together.

'Yasuo, you little shit! Where have you been hiding? Not from me, I hope!' he thundered, his jovial tone tinted with aggression. 'You know that won't do you no good.'

'I wouldn't dream of it, Cap'n,' the warrior assured him, hurrying to take a seat and guiding Quinn with him. Gangplank clapped his hands at the two girls massaging his beard and they flitted away sulkily, before he leaned in closer to the ranger and the exile. 'What brings you to these parts, son? And why have you brought this freshwater pearl to me?'

He cast a lecherous look at Quinn, and she recoiled as she could sense him undressing her in his mind. Folding her arms as if it would do her any good, she turned for Yasuo to speak.

'She's my girl,' he answered simply, lifting Quinn onto his lap and cinching her to him with one hand. He trailed a finger along her jaw line, and she resisted to urge to bite down on it for his overt sexism around the captain. 'Pretty, isn't she?'

'I'll say,' Gangplank agreed enthusiastically, looking her up and down with approval. 'A little underdeveloped for my liking, maybe, but a lovely creature nevertheless. She must be a good lay if my boy has settled down for only one woman. You're lucky that the twins aren't here to scratch her eyes out over you!'

'Come now, Gangplank, I'm sure Nerida and Naida will find some other lovesick boy to turn into a man,' Yasuo noted with a dark chuckle, and Quinn scoffed under her breath. It did not escape Gangplank's notice, whose gross beard frayed into a smirk.

'So you never answered me, Yas, you slimy dog,' the captain rumbled, snatching two beer tankards off from a passing maid's tray and slinging one over to the Ionian. 'What are you doing here?'

'Seeking information,' the warrior muttered out of the side of his mouth, peering around the rowdy tavern before looking Gangplank dead in his ethereal pupils. 'The usual.'

'Ahhh,' his informant sighed, firing up two cigars and offering one to Yasuo before letting his flop in his wet mouth. 'Let us get down to it, then, lad. Smoke?'

As he tucked the flintlock lighter back into his putrid raincoat, Quinn could feel the sickly-sweet scent of Scryer's Bloom clinging to the delicate hairs in her nostrils and she panicked. Drug-taking in Demacia was considered an abhorrent sin, and she was dead silent as she watched the exile and pirate guzzle hungrily on their hit. She slid off Yasuo's lap and excused herself as she tried to find the bathroom, her lungs twitching with the effort of averting a coughing fit, and allowed herself to take huge gasping breaths to expel the fumes. Splashing ice cold water against her face, she braced her hands on the sides of the chipped basin and stared into the swirling depths below. She whimpered to herself and shook her head as she assessed the scary situation she had gotten into: leered at by the scum of the earth, watching the one man she trusted slowly lose control, and the pain of missing home. She opened her eyes once more with a slow, deep breath, but her hoarse throat choked up in panic as she caught sight in the water of an emerald green eye glittering behind her shoulder.