A/N: Chapter;;; of;;;; semicolons;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
By 'letting you guys stew' I initially meant for like… a couple hours? I really meant to have this chapter up the same night as the last, but I was pretty disappointed with my writing last chapter and wanted to pick over this one a bit more. It's also almost 13k words by itself and it was a nightmare to edit.
ALSO, I'm beta reading a fic by Wintterzz called Blood in the Sand. It's all Shurima goodness, and I'd appreciate it if you checked it out ^-^
He didn't know how long it was until someone came to see him.
Hours, it felt like, Talon had been kept alone in the dark, his prison being especially quiet and bone-chillingly cold. There was a heavy chain wrapped around his ankle that was attached to the wall of his cell, but he wasn't going anywhere; the Demacians had done nothing about the arrow in his leg, and they'd certainly not tended to the bruised rib.
In fact, Talon was boasting more than one broken rib now, and the left side of his face throbbed from where one of the guards had hit him.
All in all, Talon was inclined to think he got off a little easy; once word had gotten around that this was Talon Du Couteau they'd captured, part of the family that used to boast of the Demacians fallen to their blades, the guards treatment of him had become significantly less than… hospitable. Still, he was a champion and a prisoner, and it was law that he was kept alive.
For now.
Talon wasn't delusional- he wasn't sure what kind of protection being a champion offered, but he knew that it didn't apply if it looked like he had blatantly broken Demacian and Institute law. Since everyone was under the assumption that the body in the woods had been his doing and there was no proof to the contrary, there was really only one way this imprisonment would eventually end.
He had to admit, this was not the way he thought he was going to die.
The thought didn't seem to sink in, even though he was left bleeding in a Demacian cell with a murder on his head; he just sat there until his cell door swung open hours into the night, blinking rapidly when someone flicked a light on.
It took his eyes a moment to adjust, and when they did Talon was initially confused to see only two people; one burly guard with a disgusted snarl on his face, of course aimed at him, and one man in an absurdly neat suit with silver hair and a silver beard that eyed him with nothing more than curiosity. His eyes crawled slowly over Talon and the way he was slumped against the wall of his cell, and the tiniest of frowns dragged down his brow.
"I expected… more."
Talon would have smiled at that, if he could. The silver haired man shrugged, and crossed his arms; he didn't seem too upset that Talon hadn't met all of his expectations, and casually carried on his conversation as if he'd received a response.
"You certainly picked an interesting target this time. There are a few people I'm sure are going to be particularly upset with you."
Talon's only answer was to spit the blood that had been pooling in his mouth at the man's feet, which for some reason made a twisted smile curve his lips. He idly tugged one of the sleeves of his suit jacket in place as if he had no better place in the world to be, never looking away from Talon's battered face and never dropping that disturbing smile.
"Interesting, indeed. She was rather important- or don't you already know that? I'm sure that was your intention."
That smile widened, cruel and amused, and Talon couldn't help but feel the first flickers of nervousness; he had no idea who that woman was, but from the way the man was speaking…
"Killing a Crownguard- now that's an excellent way to start a war."
After a week of sleeplessness, Lux was understandably very annoyed when she was woken up at an incredibly unreasonable hour after finally falling asleep.
And it wasn't gently, either; someone was roughly shaking her arm, ripping away her blanket, and Lux's bleary eyes snapped open as she prepared to give whoever it was a very nasty mouthful of reasons why they shouldn't be waking her up.
"Lux, wake up! Wake up now!"
The desperation in Quinn's voice was lost on Lux at first, but her tired thoughts quickly caught up; Quinn turned on her tiny bedside lamp, and after Lux's eyes briefly alighted on her alarm clock (just past midnight) they went immediately to Quinn's face. Her best friend's eyes were wide with panic for reasons Lux couldn't see, and she forgot her momentary annoyance when she realized that the fear on Quinn's face was entirely too real.
"What's going on?" she asked, her annoyance dissipating beneath trepidation.
Quinn opened her mouth, fully prepared to launch into whatever was bothering her, but she looked like she was about to fall over and her face was flushed and she'd hardly taken a breath since arriving. It was disturbing to see Quinn so shaken, and Lux couldn't remember a time she ever had before.
"Quinn, you need to sit down," Lux instructed, and it was an amazing feat that she kept her budding worry out of her tone.
She sat up and gently guided Quinn to sit next to her, running a soothing hand over her back while she spoke softly.
"Just breathe."
Quinn hardly even listened; she took one deep, shuddering breath, but rapidly shook her head.
"We don't have time."
Another ragged breath, and Lux frowned.
"Time for what?"
This time, the look in Quinn's eyes chilled Lux like nothing ever had, and a hundred terrible things, a hundred terrible scenarios, ran through her mind. Did something happen to her, or Valor? To Garen? To…?
"Talon was captured," she said, that one little whisper enough to make Lux freeze, to turn her blood to ice. "They think he killed someone and he's with Maddick now and Lux, they're going to execute him. They're not going to wait to ask the League if they're even allowed."
Of all the things that Lux imagined in the second before Quinn spoke, this was not one of them; she couldn't really feel her lungs inflating anymore, wasn't even sure if they were, but she felt like not being able to breathe made it a lot easier not to panic.
But she still didn't understand.
Slowly her hand fell from Quinn's back, and Lux held both of them up now like she was beckoning to Quinn to slow down or stop speaking, neither of which she was doing anymore.
"Wait, wait," Lux said, words sticking together, falling out in a rush. "Talon is here? In Demacia?"
Put together in that order, the words just didn't make sense to her, even if she was the one who said them. Why on earth would Talon be in Demacia?
As confused as Lux felt, Quinn looked incredulous; from the way she was looking at her, Quinn must have thought Lux was insane.
"What do you- of course he is! You asked him to come here!"
She was angry now, as well as panicked, but that didn't seem to penetrate the fog that enveloped Lux's brain; she just frowned, a slow puckering of her brow, but there was the edge of something cold beneath her skin, something sickening and rotten, and she leaned away from Quinn like it was her proximity to the words that Quinn spoke that made them so terrible.
"What are you talking about?"
And now the confusion was spreading to Quinn; uncertainty swept across her features, wiping away the anger but doing nothing to ease the urgency that gripped her.
"Your letter," she said almost slowly, hesitation lacing every syllable. Her voice was clear and even, it did not shake and she did not mumble and Lux heard every word, but not for one moment did any of it make sense.
"What letter?"
That creeping something twisted beneath Lux's skin when a bewildered Quinn promptly reached into her coat, producing one dirty and sadly wrinkled letter. She offered it to Lux, who considered not touching the foul thing, but she took it in hands that did not feel and opened it and her heart was pounding and it was a hundred times worse than anything she could have imagined.
Such a short letter, written in her hand with her words to Talon. Signed by her.
"I didn't write this," Lux whispered, and it hit her all at once; the numbness was pushed painfully aside by a jagged spike of raw fear, not only for Talon, who was captured, but by what this letter from no one meant. Someone perfectly and expertly forged her handwriting, her signature, and lured Talon to Demacia where he was… what? Framed for a murder?
"Quinn, I didn't write this," Lux repeated, hoping that if she said it one more time that something might just click.
Her voice was hollow and shaking and repeating it only made things worse; Quinn got to her feet, pacing agitated lines across Lux's bedroom while Lux sat there, frozen, feeling as if she was on the verge of shattering.
He was captured.
Quinn mumbled something she didn't catch, but she didn't repeat herself and Lux couldn't gather the wherewithal to ask her to say it again; she stopped in front of Lux, crouching down so that their faces were level, and spoke slowly so that there was no chance she could be misheard.
"Something is wrong, Lux. He didn't kill that woman."
Lux latched onto this, her thirst to know being a much better alternative to her wild, unsettled thoughts.
"How do you know?"
Quinn pursed her lips, but she never looked away from Lux, and it was her steadiness that kept her world from falling apart.
"I was the one that found him. It didn't feel right, Lux, and if you didn't write that letter then something much bigger is going on here."
Everything felt wrong, everything felt upside down and confused, and the only thing Lux knew for sure was that someone baited Talon into a trap that only she could have set. Because the only people that knew about their relationship, about their fight and the assignment… was them.
Or so Lux thought.
"Why didn't he run?"
Talon wasn't dumb; if Quinn knew something was wrong, then Talon must have too, and it made no sense to Lux that he was captured. He never got caught- it was his job not to. Talon didn't make mistakes.
Quinn looked away, just the slightest bit off to the side, and guilt flashed briefly across her features.
"He was injured."
It was like every new thing that Quinn had to offer made Lux's heart throb, and her breath caught in her throat and more scenarios, each one worse than the last, raced through her mind.
Injured, captured, executed-
Seeing the look on Lux's ashen face had Quinn quickly backtracking; she placed a hand on Lux's shoulder, squeezing until the blonde returned her scattered attention and wide eyes to her.
"Not badly- he just couldn't outrun the patrols. He'll be fine, Lux," Quinn soothed, although the effect was tarnished by the fact that she couldn't just calmly speak away the knotted mess they were in. Even mess seemed like a euphemism to Lux- horrible nightmare seemed a little more appropriate.
She half expected to wake up any moment with a scream on her lips, ready to shake off just another nightmare in a long line of many. She would have welcomed that, actually- chronic nightmares were preferable to this living horror.
But sitting there and wishing it all wasn't real wasn't going to help Talon; she'd have to go see Maddick, convince him that there was no way the King would allow him to execute Talon with no trial, no evidence, with no permission from the League- he just couldn't. It couldn't happen.
So Lux stood, grabbing something warm to wear and not caring what it was, dressing in a flurry of agitated movement, then grabbing her baton and heading for the apartment door. Quinn was there, shadowing her movements, and Lux was aware that she was trying to get her attention; she just couldn't care, not when she had to leave, not when she had to find Talon before things were far, far too late.
But Quinn stopped her before she could leave the apartment, grabbing Lux's arm none too gently and forcefully keeping her still. Lux tried to jerk her arm out of her grasp, but Quinn was insistent.
"Lux, listen to me. There's something you need to know."
Again, there was a snap in Quinn's voice that was never there before, surprising Lux just as much now as it had minutes ago, and that was what finally cut through her urgency; Lux paused, very impatiently waiting for what Quinn thought was so important to impart on her.
Quinn didn't meet her eye, and the grip on her arm grew slack; if Lux was comforted by anything, it was that things really couldn't get much worse than they were already.
"The woman they found…"
A pause where Quinn still did not look at her and shifted uncomfortably on her feet.
"It was Lilia."
Silence.
It should have been a shock to her; Lux should have gasped, raged, maybe denied it, but this particular bit of information slid off her, did not affect her in the way Quinn thought it would. Lilia, her mother- the one who'd offered her up when she was hardly a child, with not one second thought or a moment's hesitation. The mother who allowed Maddick to kidnap her and force her into a decade of servitude, far behind enemy lines. The mother who had inadvertently put her right into the hands of Desrosiers and other monsters just like him, who'd forced her to experience so much pain and loss and terrible, terrible loneliness, who allowed Lux to be beat down again and again until she was a subservient soldier bent to the will of other people and with no say in what she did and what she felt for so long.
She was no mother of hers.
"Good," Lux said, voice scarily flat and unfeeling.
Sadness tugged down Quinn's features now, stealing all the warmth that she usually exuded. Lux felt a distinct flash of guilt for inadvertently bringing Quinn into the messier intricacies of the life she tried to keep hidden from her, and something occurred to her belatedly.
"Why are you doing this?"
She didn't say it unkindly, but with wonder; Quinn harbored a deeply personal reason to dislike and mistrust Noxians, and she had more cause to hate them than most people. Quinn had no obligation to help Talon, or to trust him. She could have easily just let him sit in that prison until he was executed and Lux would not have been surprised, not for one moment.
Quinn pursed her lips, sourness narrowing her eyes, and she spoked with stilted words that hinted she wasn't doing this because she wanted to.
"Do you trust him?"
The answer was on Lux's tongue and falling from her lips without one thought of consideration.
"Yes."
And Quinn nodded, no happier about it than before but certain that Lux understood.
"That's why. I'm doing this for you."
Because they would do anything for each other.
Lux quickly folded Quinn into a rare hug, squeezing her best friend, her sister, with an uncharacteristic ardor, hoping to communicate with that simple expression alone just how much all this meant to her. She hoped that maybe, just maybe, Quinn might be able to tell how much Lux appreciated her and everything she'd done and all the judgement she didn't pass even when words failed her.
"Thank you, Quinn. Thank you."
There was only one place in Demacia that Talon could be.
It was too late to put him in a proper prison, so he would be detained overnight in the holding cells beneath Maddick's office. Lux ran the familiar path to the barracks, keeping a tight hold on her coat to keep it from flying off with one hand and clutching her baton with the other, ignoring the icy air that rasped down her throat and her pounding heart, thinking of nothing other than where she was going.
Or at least, trying to.
Lilia is dead!
Lux didn't think this with loss or sadness, like most people would have, but with a sinking, consuming fear; Lilia was important, whether Lux thought so or not. Killing a Crownguard was damn near attacking the crown itself, and that's what this murder would be viewed as. Not only was Lilia one of the most influential people in Demacia, she was also the mother of two champions, and her death would be seen as many, many things, especially considering it was a Noxian champion who was accused of the murder. It would be, to Demacia, a bloody message, hand delivered by one of Noxus' best. It would be an outrage.
It would be an act of war.
This was the kind of thing that would shatter the fragile peace the Institute had painstakingly created; champions or not, League or not, Demacia would take Lilia's death as nothing less than a slap in the face.
Which meant Lux had to get Talon out of custody and far, far away from Demacia, because his death would be the first step in Demacia's quest for retribution.
She was at the barracks in what had to have been record time, running into the empty lobby and gasping for breath, expecting someone to be there and question why she was out so late. Lux was surprised to see that no one was around, but didn't hesitate; she immediately headed down the hallway to Maddick's office, noticing the glow of an open door and throwing any attempt at politeness away as she walked right in.
Lux was relieved to see that Maddick was at his desk, pouring over a small stack of papers and looking much too fancy for it being one in the morning. He looked up when Lux stormed in, nonplussed by her arrival and disheveled appearance; if anything, he almost looked like he was expecting her, and his genial smile made the already tight grip she had on her baton near painful.
"Lux, it's nice to-"
"Stop," Lux snapped, her threshold for small-talk nonexistent. "You can't detain a champion. He's not under your jurisdiction."
Lux actually had no idea if that was true or not; she was assuming that Maddick didn't either, that he was just as unsure as she was about how much protection the League offered and was preparing to err on the side of caution, but his expression (still so cheery and smug) didn't change one little bit.
"He is if he murders on Demacian territory. That is very much our jurisdiction."
Lux pursed her lips, feeling like she was barely containing a scream behind them. She could point out that he had no evidence, but she knew that didn't matter to anyone in Demacia; the fact that Talon was born in Noxus was evidence and reason enough alone to lop off his head, and arguing that point would only waste Lux's (and Talon's) time. She had to pick something else.
"You can't execute him- that the League won't allow," she said, more confidence in her tone than before. This, at least, Lux was certain of; Talon was still a champion, and the League would want him alive. Maddick only shrugged, serenely folding his hands on his desk, and it was his calmness that had all of Lux's flimsy hope crashing down.
"We can, and we will. Do you think this is something the King is going to tolerate?"
Lux was desperate now; she had no authority to remove Talon herself and she couldn't stop Maddick or the King from deciding what to do with him. It was getting harder and harder to breathe the longer she stood there, and helplessness was seeping like ice water into her veins. Legally, there was nothing she could do.
"I want to see him," she breathed, the only thing she had left.
Maddick raised a curious brow, eyeing Lux with a great deal of suspicion this time. She was aware of how bad that request looked coming from her, but she was far past the point of caring.
"Every prisoner has a right to one visitor. That's the law," she reminded him.
This, Maddick couldn't dispute; he stood, keeping his face uncharacteristically smooth and vacant, and waved for Lux to follow him out of the office. She did so stiffly, lips still pursed, fear still coursing sickeningly through her. Lux's mind raced, trying desperately to think of what in the world she was going to do when she had no options left.
All this she thought in silence while Maddick took her through the complex, further away from his office and down one, two, three flights of stairs; down a hallway where a guard was stationed at the far end, that ended in a door Maddick unlocked with a key from his pocket and relocked after them; down another hallway that was lined on either side by empty cells with closed doors. Down, down this hallway to the very end, where he lingered outside of one bar-less door, but did not move to unlock it.
"Open it," Lux hissed.
But Maddick just smiled, a sickening curve of his lips that was nothing but venomous.
"No, I don't think I will."
Lux stood there, dumfounded, on the verge of screaming at him to open it again when he interrupted her.
"I want you to know that this is the place where murderers end up- behind bars and awaiting execution."
He pointed the ring of keys in his hand at the door, and slowly so that Lux could see, he deliberately pocketed them. Lux seethed, gripping her baton so tightly it hurt, but Maddick's next words chilled all of the fiery anger that coursed through her, and every letter was razor-edged and cutting.
"And this is where we put traitors, too," he continued, fury of his own flickering behind his usually benign eyes. There was disgust in that voice- disgust for her.
"I want you to keep that in mind, and I want you to go home. In the morning, you will go to Ionia like I told you to, and this murderer will be executed just like I said he would be. Do you understand?"
Lux understood it much too clearly, so much more than she wanted to, and she didn't have the strength to nod. She stood there, defiant anger still frozen on her face, but she knew there would be no getting inside the cell; with what he was insinuating, Lux was almost surprised she wasn't in a cell of her own. But, no, he couldn't do that; he still needed a slave, didn't he?
Maddick was not pleased with her silence- not pleased at all.
"Do you understand, Lux?"
He took a step in her direction, a threat if there ever was one, but Lux didn't back down and she did not cower. She knew what he was implying and she knew what he was threatening her with, and she still grinned that poisonous smile right back at him.
"I understand."
And for the first time that night, Lux actually did understand at least one part of the snarled mess that was her life.
She let Maddick lead her away from Talon's cell, aching to know that she was so close and still so far from seeing him, but she did it with complete complacency; it was easy for Lux to keep up an angry façade as he escorted her out of the building with another thinly veiled threat that she better do what she's told or else, but beneath her fuming exterior Lux was cool and calculating, and calm almost to a fault.
Lux couldn't convince Maddick or the King that Talon couldn't be executed, and she wasn't allowed to see him, but there was something she could do.
She returned to her apartment first, surprised to find that it was empty; she assumed that Quinn was being forced back on patrol, which was the most likely explanation since everyone would be on alert now that Talon was captured. They wouldn't want anyone else to get hurt, which meant that every available ranger was going to be on patrol tonight until the King addressed what happened in the morning.
Lux was glad that Quinn wasn't there, for once; her presence would only complicate things, and the last thing Lux wanted was for Quinn to get more involved than she was. She'd already done so much for her and Talon both, and Lux would never be able to thank her enough.
And for now, all Lux could do was wait.
There was something Lux knew about the barracks, something that only one other person did- Maddick.
She knew that in the event of a prisoner being brought in, there would only be one guard on duty until that prisoner needed to be moved. The guard she'd walked past with Maddick was stationed at the outside of the cell hallway, and would be changed every two hours. Lux knew that, because she was the one who made the schedule, years ago when she was pinned a bit more securely beneath Maddick's thumb. She knew exactly how long it took for the new guard to be put in place, and she knew exactly how long that doorway would be left unmanned, down to the second.
And so Lux waited, patiently biding her time, and returned to the barracks exactly when she needed to.
As soon as she was back outside the barracks, Lux tossed her baton over her head and hid herself from view; with the utmost care and silence she snuck back into the building, grateful that she had the cover of darkness to work with and that the barracks were near abandoned this time of night. She once again ascertained that the lobby was empty before continuing deeper inside, her slow steps careful and sure. She slowed to a crawl when she was passing by Maddick's office, because he was still there; he was signing in the new guard like she knew he would be, a man just as burly as the one that was on duty earlier. Heart jumping in her throat, Lux still crept forward, through thankfully darker hallways that kept the invisible spy hidden.
Lux wanted to go immediately to Talon, but there was somewhere she had to stop first; there was a room at the top of the stairs she would need to go down, a room with the door slightly ajar and one naked bulb still on inside. Lux carefully eased to door open enough for her to slip through, cringing when it let out shrill squeaks every inch; she paused, ears straining for the sound of someone coming to investigate, but the hallway stayed blissfully quiet, and she turned her attention back to the task at hand.
The room was more of a closet than anything, only a few paces deep and with walls lined with shelves. Most were empty, but there were a few dusty boxes and forgotten weapons placed on the highest shelves, rusted and covered in dirt, and there was also what she'd come for; it wasn't wrapped up or locked away like it should have been, but Talon's blade was perched on one of those shelves, managing to glint even in the near-nonexistent light. Lux gingerly and painstakingly carefully reached out to it, slightly dismayed to realize that it would not be simple to carry; it didn't have a hilt and it was all sharp edges, leaving Lux nothing to hold on to. Her only option was to slide her left hand through the leather straps beneath it, fixing it to her arm just like Talon would have. She hated the heaviness of it and the constant glare of the metal made her stomach flip, but she made sure it was properly affixed and quickly backed out of the room.
With the blade secured, she had only one thing left to do; she ran down the three flights of stairs until she was back in the hallway that Maddick had led her down earlier. Confident she was alone, she sprinted down this hallway, boots thudding across the tile and making quiet noises that echoed in the emptiness. It seemed thunderous to her sensitive ears, but Lux had gone too far to stop and she was beyond confident that no one would be around to hear it. There was no guard at the end of the hallway, like she knew there wouldn't be, and Lux paused in front of one of the last doors separating her from Talon.
Working with seconds to spare, Lux tucked her baton under her bladed arm and placed her now-free hand over the keyhole of the door, concentrating as much as her frantic mind could be forced to; there was a brief flash of light that would have been blinding to anyone else, the smell of melted metal, and that telltale thrum of warmth and energy under her skin when she used her magic. When Lux retracted her hand and shoved the door, it opened.
Quickly she closed it behind herself, quietly, and she turned around in the hallway that was pitch black. The darkness was the smothering, suffocating kind, and Lux could almost hear her breathing get impossibly ragged in the near-stillness.
Releasing her stealth, Lux twirled her baton and cast a tiny, twisting orb of light that hung close to the ceiling, emitting just enough light for her to see by. She moved quickly to the end of the hall, until she was standing at that last door with hands that shook and lungs that still could not catch a breath. She lifted her hand to the keyhole, fingers flexing, and for the first time since coming back to the barracks, Lux hesitated.
There was no going back once she did this. It was all or nothing- give everything up to save Talon or leave him to die.
And just like when Quinn asked her if she trusted Talon, that brief and almost nonexistent stutter was all there was before Lux repeated what she'd done before; a little surge of magic, a little flash of light, and the door gave way just like the last.
Lux eased this door open a little bit slower, counting down the minutes she had left in her mind while she waited for her eyes to adjust. The cell was as unbelievably dark as the hallway was before she showed up, but when she opened the door as wide as it could go her little orb cast slanted rays of light inside, which proved to be just enough for Lux to see by.
Although she almost wished it wasn't.
Lux wouldn't have guessed that the slumped form against the far wall of the cell was Talon if she didn't already know it was; he always had horrible posture when he was sitting, but this seemed broken somehow, crumpled, and there was something terrible about seeing someone who was always so strong and proud brought so low. Lux realized she was holding her breath when her lungs insistently screamed at her to breathe, and she obliged, letting stale air flow through her and crossing those last few paces to where Talon was sitting. She crouched beside him, lifting hands she was almost too nervous to put on him.
He didn't move; she waited for some reaction to the noise or the light or her presence, but Talon was scarily still, and Lux could feel every painful thump of her heart as she set down her baton and reached out a shaking hand to grab his shoulder.
"Talon!" she hissed, her whispered plea cutting through the silence. Her grip on his shoulder could have been painful, but that didn't occur to her; she couldn't be too late, she just couldn't, she was there-
Gratefully, amazingly, he shifted; her relief was staggering when he lifted his head, the dark gaze beneath his cowl uneasily meeting hers. His eyes were too dull to be surprised, too bleary to be happy, and now that Lux was looking she noticed the blooming darkness of a bruise spreading from beneath his left eye to the corner of his mouth, and his lip was split and there was dried blood on his skin and she knew he was hurt, Quinn told her, but it was so much more horrible to see it than to imagine it.
And Lux was murderously furious, a dangerous combination when mixed with the sickening fear that still gripped her.
"You shouldn't be here."
It took Lux a second to register the words; Talon's voice was raspy and dry, but surprisingly even, and Lux narrowed her eyes. She didn't have time for this- neither of them did. He was still mad, still didn't want to see her even though she was his only hope of getting free, but Lux wasn't going to let him die because he was stubborn.
"Get up," she ordered, voice flat and demanding. Lux wasn't surprised when he didn't move; his eyes slid away from hers, and he drew a breath that rattled in a sickening way. Lux's stomach flipped and she was finding it difficult to breathe again, but she couldn't afford to lose it; they would both die if she couldn't hold herself together.
"I'm not asking, Talon! Get up!"
And it wasn't angry, the way she snapped it, but desperate; her voice was on the edge of begging, and all the fear she'd been harboring was leaking, slipping beneath what little control she had.
Another uneven sigh from Talon, another painful throb of her heart.
"I can't."
There was the scrape of metal on concrete as Talon shifted his leg beside her, and Lux saw what she hadn't initially; one of his legs was enclosed in a thick and rusted chain, and now that Lux was looking, she noticed that there was a ragged strip of cloth tied around his upper leg, and the clothing beneath it was suspiciously dark. When she leaned closer to examine it, her hunch proved correct; drying blood soaked the dark blue of his pants and turned it black, and a fresh, creeping dread joined every other feeling that was close to tearing Lux apart.
"Okay," she said slowly, more to herself than anything. Her voice wasn't steady and it did nothing to ease her fear or worry, but she repeated it anyway.
"Okay."
She forced herself to breathe, just little inhales and exhales, and she set her baton aside so that she could better arrange the chain. She gently repositioned his leg and flinched in tandem with him when the movement caused him pain, but she found the little keyhole she was looking for; again she placed her palm over it, pausing this time to offer a warning.
"Close your eyes," she instructed, and after making sure that he complied, Lux released that little burst of magic that would free him. When she pulled on the chain this time it came free, and she tossed it into a corner of the cell where it collided loudly with the floor. All during this she'd kept a running counter of the time she had left, and considering it was running dangerously low, Lux became much more urgent than before.
"Can you stand if I help you?"
Talon offered a grunt which Lux took as an affirmation, and she crawled over to his left side and allowed him to drape his arm over her shoulder. She could tell he had more injuries than she could see by the halted, excruciatingly slow way he moved, but he didn't complain and she didn't have the time to coddle him. She grabbed her baton off the floor with the hand still strapped to Talon's blade, made sure she had a good grip on Talon himself, and braced herself to stand.
"Ready?"
Another grunt, and Lux struggled to stand, struggled to lift Talon's mostly dead weight. He sucked in a breath as they were standing but still he said nothing, and when he eventually got to his feet he seemed more capable of carrying his own weight, which thankfully relieved a lot of the burden on Lux. Still, though, she remained a constant support under his arm, trying to ignore that he was having a hard time catching his breath and that he was struggling to stand on his right leg.
It would be a miracle if he made it out of the cell, let alone the barracks, something Lux was trying very desperately not to think about.
Ignoring the doubt and dread that threatened to break her, Lux positioned herself more comfortably beneath Talon's arm and renewed her grip on her baton, and nodded her chin to the door.
"Let's go."
The first step was agonizingly slow, but the second was better, and by the time the pair reached the door of the cell Lux had set a steady pace for them both. Talon was trying to conceal an obvious limp and his uneven breaths were constantly brushing the side of Lux's face, but he showed no signs of needing to stop or go slower, and Lux couldn't afford to do either; she'd planned this entire heist down to the last second, and they were nearing the last of those precious moments.
It was an incredible relief to her when they struggled their way out of the cell, and Lux didn't bother closing the door behind them; the hallway stretched out before them, long and daunting, and worry made Lux's throat dry because they still had so much farther to go.
Surprisingly, Talon seemed less worried about it than Lux was; neither of them said anything (or had the energy to), but his pace grew a lot more steady and much swifter than before, like he'd found a rhythm even through the pain. Lux shot him dozens of quick little glances as they walked, but he kept his eyes forward and his lips pressed closed and the shifting light of Lux's little orb made the damage to his face seem garish, and she stopped looking because she couldn't deal with the guilt right then, not when she needed to focus.
She led them right up to the door at the end of the hallway, and this is where Lux paused; she ducked out from underneath Talon's arm and let him lean against the wall, allowed to him to catch his breath while she quickly explained what they had to do.
"The guard outside of this door just started his shift," Lux whispered, and even though time was of the essence and she didn't have the luxury of noticing such things, the flick of Talon's eyes to her face made her skin flush, and she averted her gaze.
"I need you to knock him out."
Silence stretched out after that request, long enough that Lux felt the need to glance up again. She didn't look away this time, even though Talon was still laser focused on her face, and she was mildly surprised that he didn't question what she said or offer some alternative; he just looked like she asked him a huge favor that majorly inconvenienced him, and that he was going to say yes even though he didn't want to. He jerked his chin at Lux's left arm, which she remembered was still strapped to his blade.
"That's mine."
He held out his arm expectantly, and if Lux wasn't still half convinced that she was trapped in a nightmare and if she wasn't so close to snapping from the pressure, she might have seriously considered slapping him for making what she was sure was a horribly tasteless joke in the most inappropriate situation she could possibly imagine.
But as it was, she said nothing as she unstrapped the heavy blade and carefully handed it back to Talon with a great deal of relief; she waited none too patiently while he expertly fit it back onto his arm, and when he was finished Lux was already starting to get antsy.
"Can you?" she prompted, very much in need of an answer before she opened the door.
He pursed his lips and Lux saw him open and close his fingers a few times, as if he wasn't sure he could rely on them, but he nodded and didn't say anything else. Lux would take that as an entirely compliant affirmation, and she didn't have the time to question it.
Talon pushed away from the wall and moved to stand next to Lux, somewhat in front of her so that when she opened the door, he would be ready; Lux moved her baton to her free left hand and put her right on the handle of the door, getting a good grip and looking up at Talon one last time. His previously dull gaze was fully alert now, and when he nodded, Lux jerked the door open in a quick flash of movement.
As fast as Lux had been, Talon (even injured) put her to shame; he took a step out of the door before the guard even noticed it was open, striking out with his arm so that the flat of his blade connected with the side of the man's head. There was a sickening crack and he immediately dropped to the floor in a crumpled heap of navy and gold, and although the movement had seemed effortless at first, when Talon was sure the man wasn't getting back up he slumped in on himself again, letting his arm dangle and wincing when the next breath he drew was painfully deep. Lux was frozen, still surprised at how quickly Talon had moved, but the concern and question on her face was evident. His right hand hovered over the left side of his chest, although he was excruciatingly careful not to actually touch it, and his face screwed up in a grimace.
"Broken ribs," he almost gasped, and it suddenly made a lot more sense to Lux why Talon was having such a difficult time moving- or breathing, for that matter. Again her anger flared, but it was quickly chased down by guilt and finally pushed away by her need to be in motion, her desperation to be somewhere safer.
Lux had initially planned on getting Talon to help her move the guard, but he still hadn't caught his breath and the last thing she wanted to do was push him too hard and injure him further; unfortunately for Lux, the man was small by no means, and she wasted so many precious seconds struggling to push him back the way they'd come. She muttered a few choice curses under her breath as she dropped to her knees and shoved, but it still took way too long for her to finally push the guard past the door, and by the time she'd accomplished that Lux was just as out of breath as Talon was.
Lux closed the door with the scrape of rusted hinges, ignoring the eyes she could feel tracking every movement, no matter how miniscule; when she lifted her hand to the door this time, she laid her palm over the spot it connected to the wall. After that small flash of light and the acrid smell of melting metal, Lux was satisfied that the door would be stuck shut, and would keep the guard on the other side until the next shift change.
At least, that was what Lux was counting on.
She gave the door a tug and it didn't open, so she was satisfied enough to move on; it was a slight consolation to her that at this point, they'd be able to continue under the cloak of Lux's magic and in relative safety. She didn't have to say anything to Talon to explain her motives when she walked over to him, because he immediately allowed her to shift underneath his arm again and resume her role of support; the jab to the guard seemed to take up a lot of his meager energy, but after Lux tossed her baton in the air and shrouded them both in magic, he fell into their earlier pace without complaint. Lux was still anxious, still desperate to be anywhere other than where she was, but she did feel marginally better with the cover her baton offered, and it helped that Talon seemed more eager to move now than before.
They half-limped, half-walked their way down the hallway, and struggled up the three flights of stairs; once or twice Talon staggered or made a pained noise through gritted teeth, and every time Lux paused and looked to him with her heart pounding away and concern on her face and guilt eating away at every inch of her.
Whether the letter was hers or not, Lux knew that this, what happened to Talon, was her fault.
And even though she had so many other things to worry about and so much to concentrate on, that thought picked at her the entire journey out of the barracks, and she felt every sound of pain, every stutter in Talon's step, as if it were her own; she still had the presence of mind to be grateful that Maddick's office was empty and that the barracks were empty, like she assumed they would be, and when they made it outside Lux's relief was staggering.
But they weren't finished quite yet; they still had to walk back to Lux's apartment, which was the only place they had to go. That was why she was grateful Quinn wasn't there anymore- she wasn't sure what Quinn expected her to do about Talon being captured, but she ventured to guess that her best friend didn't think Lux would sneak into the barracks and break him out. Hell, Lux didn't even know she was doing that until Maddick had threatened to lock her up right beside him.
And now she had Talon and there was no going back.
Demacia was blissfully quiet as Lux and the Noxian staggered through the darkened streets, and for maybe the hundredth time that night Lux was grateful she lived so close to the barracks; the walk seemed to drag on for forever because Talon moved so slowly and he was definitely not light, but Lux couldn't complain, not really. Talon was alive. The world was a confusing mess and on the brink of something terrible, but the night was quiet and still and deceptively calm, and Talon was alive.
Not even an hour ago Lux thought he was lost; to have indisputable proof that he was there, to feel him beneath her hands and hear his voice and see his face again was a relief and a gift and everything she could have hoped for.
Talon didn't say a single thing during the walk, and the only noise he made was an unhappy groan when Lux led him up the flight of stairs to her apartment; he allowed her to lead him inside, following as she flicked on the lamp next to the couch. It was a difficult and slow-going process to get Talon situated on the couch, but when he was stretched out across the cushions he let out a short sigh that was half relieved and half painful, and he sank into the pillows and let his left arm sag to the floor, then draped his bladed arm over the top of the couch. He didn't say anything as he let his eyes slide shut, just sat very still and breathed in small, shallow breaths that didn't sound right to Lux.
Lux hesitated at first, unsure of what to do, but berated herself for not moving; she went to her kitchen first, filling a glass with water and rooting around in her tiny freezer for a handful of ice. She wrapped a towel around the ice and then returned to Talon, who was now carefully watching what she was doing. She held out the water first, which he immediately accepted; she felt the need to caution him against downing the whole thing as fast as he could, but he was finished with the glass before she could work up to speaking. Taking the now-empty glass, Lux replaced it with the ice, and he gingerly placed the towel against the swollen skin of his face as he leaned back against the couch.
He seemed comfortable to lapse back into silence, but Lux wasn't; there was a lot less hesitation this time, and her voice sounded surprisingly steady.
"I need to do something about your leg," she said, earning another heavy-lidded glance. "And your ribs."
She was less concerned about his ribs and more afraid that his leg was going to get infected if she didn't clean it, but broken ribs were a constant and sharp pain, and setting them would make it easier for him to breathe. He looked like he was going to comply at first, but he resumed his restful position and closed his eyes again.
"I'm fine."
Except Lux wasn't having it; she didn't say anything at first, just walked into her room and into her little bathroom, retrieving the first-aid kit she kept under the sink. It had seen hardly any use and probably wouldn't have the things she needed to properly treat Talon, but they didn't have the luxury of proper medical care. She walked back to the couch, biting back annoyance when Talon purposely didn't move, and she couldn't keep the frustration out of her voice.
"Sit up."
His eyes flicked open to stare, but he still didn't move.
"I'm trying to help," Lux explained, and even though she tried to keep the demanding edge in her voice, she thought her desperation leaked a little too much into her tone. She had to help him; she had to do something to help fix the mess she'd made.
"And you're getting blood on my couch."
He was, actually, but Lux couldn't care less. The pathetic attempt at a joke was ineffective at covering the guilt eating its way through her composure, but it had the desired effect; his face pinched in discomfort, Talon eased his way into a sitting position, leaning against the back of the couch while Lux looked on. She wasn't sure what to do first; the wound on his leg wasn't bleeding anymore but needed to be cleaned, but it would be easier for her to wrap his ribs first. It would also lessen his discomfort, if by a small margin.
"Take that off," she said, pointing to the blade on his arm, and then shifted her attention to his cowl. "And the hood."
Wordlessly he complied, undoing the leather straps to his blade and laying it on the floor at his feet. It was slower going when he set to removing his cloak, but Lux couldn't force herself to reach out to help, and she doubted Talon would want her to, anyway. He removed that and the coat underneath, until only a long-sleeved shirt was left; Lux carefully took a seat on the couch by his left side, reaching out with tentative fingers to grasp the hem of his shirt. She carefully rolled it upwards without a word from either of them, and as more skin came into view, the harder and harder Lux bit her lip.
There was a wide swath of skin covered in a maroon bruise, stretching across an alarming amount of the side of Talon's chest; she leaned around him to his other side, but the skin there was bruise-free, and the injury seemed contained his left ribs. Still keeping his shirt lifted with one hand, Lux ever so gently placed two of her fingers against the swollen skin, ignoring his answering flinch as she expertly felt for a break.
"They're cracked, not broken," she murmured, dropping that hand to open the first aid kit in her lap. It would be difficult for her to know for sure without an x-ray, but Lux was almost certain the injury wasn't as serious as the bruise made it look. Lux didn't have anything for the pain and the only useful thing in the first-aid kit for the ribs was a small roll of material intended for wrapping smaller injuries. Because her options were limited, Lux picked up the roll, pressing one end of it to the right side of Talon's chest with a feather light touch.
"Lean forward."
Talon did, and he patiently waited while Lux set to wrapping his ribs. Once or twice she would ask him to move his arm or turn so that it was easier for her to work, but it was mostly quiet, save for the occasional rustle of gauze and the rough whisper of Talon's breathing.
Wrapping the ribs was a slow and repetitive task, which gave Lux plenty of time to think; it was almost easy to forget whose skin was beneath her fingers when she was working, but every couple of seconds she would look up to catch Talon staring, and she'd go back to looking only at what she was doing with flushed skin and a stutter to her heartbeat.
Not that the circumstances were favorable, but she was glad he was there.
She knew it wasn't the same for him, that he was only there because of the fake letter and because Lux was his only way out of imprisonment, but Lux had been convinced that she would never speak to Talon again; she itched to ask him about the letter and about why he'd come to Demacia at all, but the fear that he still didn't want anything to do with her kept her mouth shut.
She was finished quickly with the wrapping, and she tugged Talon's shirt back into place when she was done. Now, she turned her attention to his leg; she switched places on the couch, eyeing the dried patch of blood on his clothes with pursed lips. Carefully she untied the bloody strip of cloth, and without her having to ask this time Talon wordlessly tugged the leg of his pants down far enough for Lux to see the wound for herself. It wasn't as bad as her fears assured her it would be; it needed to be cleaned and the dried blood around it made it seem dire, but the puncture wound was neat for the most part and off to the side of his leg, so it hadn't nicked anything important. Lux retrieved the things she would need to clean it from the first-aid kit, and as she began to gently dab away at the blood on his skin, her curiosity got the better of her.
"What happened?"
Most of the soldiers that would have been dispatched to retrieve Talon carried swords; in fact, the only person who would have been capable of producing such a wound was-
"Quinn shot me," came the answer, confirming that suspicion. Lux darted a glance upwards as she got a clean ball of cotton, but Talon wasn't looking at her. Quinn had said he was injured, but not that he was injured because she shot him. Although Lux was annoyed that particular bit of information had been conveniently left out, she was almost relieved it was Quinn who found him; the shot to his leg was clearly not meant to be life-threatening, which Lux knew Quinn was more than capable of inflicting.
Now Lux wanted to ask about everything else; about how he'd gotten the letter and why he came to Demacia, and if anyone knew he was there and why. Words sat on the tip of her tongue, questions begged to be given a voice, but Lux said precious little.
"I didn't write that letter," she said quietly, so low that she wasn't sure Talon could hear her. She kept her eyes down so she couldn't see his expression, but he shifted slightly, just the tiniest movement that did nothing to disturb her work.
"I gathered that."
Lux still had no idea where the letter had come from and Talon didn't offer her any ideas, and as she once again picked up another fresh cotton ball, Lux spoke before her nerve failed her.
"But I am sorry," she whispered, fingers pausing against his skin.
She didn't know what she expected; maybe he would tell her it still didn't matter if she was sorry, maybe he'd say that nothing had changed and he still didn't want anything to do with her and that he was only there because the letter had said there was something new with the case, but Talon was uneasily silent, and Lux resumed cleaning his leg.
But now that she'd started, she couldn't stop talking, and she'd had a week of misery to think of everything she wanted and wished she could say to him.
"I shouldn't have lied to you," she began, depositing the last dirty cotton ball into a pile on the floor. Keeping her eyes down made the apology easier, if only marginally, but Lux still felt like the words were sticking in her throat and coming out all wrong.
"I didn't think it mattered at first, when you first asked me if I'd spied on your family. I didn't know what we were doing, but… I don't know. I didn't think it would last."
And she didn't; her covert meetings with Talon in the library and the training room, at first, had been a distraction to her; a chance to talk to someone who understood the things she had to say, who could objectively listen to her and did not belittle or judge her. All she knew back then was that she needed those hours with Talon, and that if she lost them then the Institute would be no better to her than Demacia was.
"And then…"
And then things got complicated, because Talon wasn't just a distraction, he was… more. He was her every thought, he was the person she curled up to at night and the first thing she saw in the morning, and he became so quickly tangled and essential to her life that Lux was terrified that he would cut himself out of it if she told him about the assignment.
"And with Riven, I was scared. I was scared you would tell me to leave and that I would find nothing, and that I'd give you hope I had no right to give. I didn't know what to do, but I know I shouldn't have lied."
Her fingers carefully pressed down the edges of a bandage to his leg, and when she was done she pulled her hands away and balled up the wrapping of the bandage in her palm while he set the half-melted ice on the floor and fixed his clothes. She felt like she was sitting too close to him, that she should move away and keep her mouth shut and leave him alone, but Lux steeled herself and looked up anyway. Blue eyes met gold just like they had hundreds of times before, but to Lux it felt like everything in Talon's steady gaze was prompting her to speak, and this time her voice was even and laden with meaning, heavy with every scrap of earnestness and remorse that Lux was capable of producing.
"I'm sorry," she professed, and those two small words rang with sincerity.
Both of them sat there, focused on nothing but the person in front of them; neither of them dropped their gazes and neither of them spoke, and Lux desperately searched Talon's face for something, for any hint that what she said affected him in any way. His mouth pressed into a line, his eyes narrowed, but Talon still didn't speak- not a word as to whether or not what she said meant anything to him at all.
And the longer that tense silence stretched on, the more Lux felt like she was shrinking beneath his gaze, and the more she felt like nothing she said was going to change anything. She didn't move, however; she sat as straight as she could, refusing to look away no matter how long it took him to answer. She might have had more to say, but nervousness stilled her tongue and it was taking most of her concentration to just sit there calmly.
It felt like hours before there was any reaction from Talon; he must not have breathed since Lux started speaking, because he exhaled a blustery sigh that had to have hurt, and Lux watched, almost in a daze, as he lifted his right hand and slowly, carefully, laid it against her cheek. Even though his glove was rough and cold and she hated the pain he must have been in and everything was so wrong and so messed up, she felt lighter than she had in days. Lux couldn't help but lean into his hand, and she lifted her own to cover it, in disbelief that it was there at all.
"I thought it was you," he breathed. "When I got here, when I found your mother…"
Lux couldn't look away from the pain in his eyes even if she tried, and she felt it as if it were her own; she felt the same way when Quinn first found her, that Talon was lost and he was going to die and there would be nothing she could do and that everything was her fault. It was a terrible thing to think she wasn't going to see him again and to know that he was alive, but to think that she would lose him forever…
Inconceivable, that pain.
But he was here, Talon was alive and she was alive and no matter how horrible everything was and was going to be, they were together and he didn't have to say anything else, because behind the fear in his eyes was the forgiveness Lux was asking for; the smallest gesture of the hand on her cheek spoke volumes and conveyed something that words never could.
"I'm sorry," Lux whispered again, voice choked, and she wasn't just apologizing for lying, but for everything; she was sorry for every little thing that led them to where they were now, every miniscule detail that caused either of them pain, whether it was her fault or not.
Carefully (and with clear hesitation), Lux wrapped her arms around Talon and buried her face in his neck, making sure she didn't accidentally brush anything that was bandaged. Talon, though, was a lot less mindful; he folded his arms around Lux without much thought to the pain it would cause him, and the embrace was smothering but not enough; it was everything Lux thought she'd never have again, and it was the warmth she knew and the comfort she loved and it was so familiar, and her heart ached when she realized it was real. She wasn't imagining that Talon had forgiven her, he really had, and if the rest of the world had gone to hell and no longer made sense, at least this did; Talon was all she needed for things to be okay.
Everything else they would figure out together.
And even if Lux hated the terrible position they were caught in and she hated the pain Talon had to endure and she hated that life, for some reason, could not give her Talon without balancing the scales somehow, she'd never felt more grateful to have him in her arms. She dug her fingers into his shirt like she was clinging on for dear life and she breathed in the night air that clung to his skin and her chest was heavy with that feeling that usually came to her in moments like these, that happened so frequently at the Institute: the morning after her birthday, the afternoon when she told him about Desrosiers, that same night when she fell asleep with him like she always did but realized that it was different somehow; that she could easily spend every day waking up with him and every night falling asleep with him on her mind and in her bed, and that it would never matter to her what he'd done or where he was from or what obstacles they would face because she would always pick him, always choose him, no matter what happened. She wanted him, no matter what.
And she knew this, felt this, even the night that he said he never wanted to speak to her again; she picked him then, and she would pick him always.
It'd been on the tip of her tongue so many times, threatening to fall unbidden from her lips; it would have left her open and exposed and vulnerable, so she would smother and deny it again and again, but she could no longer pretend that that urge to speak, that urge to give life to that tightness in her chest and that hope in her veins, didn't exist; no longer did she want to pretend that she had nothing to say.
So Lux backed out of the embrace, just far enough so that she could meet Talon's eye and place her hands on the sides of his face. She took comfort, this time, in the encompassing gold of his gaze, and although fear and worry and insecurity had silenced her many times before, Lux was now filled with a confident boldness she'd never experienced.
"I love you," she declared, and there was not a single waver in her voice, not a single beat that she missed.
It was so freeing to say; it felt like a weight had been lifted off of Lux's chest, and even though her heart was beating too fast and her breath felt too short it all felt so right. Lux wasn't taught to love and she didn't think she could ever trust someone enough to get to this point where she would willingly lay herself so bare, but there was nothing else for her to say right then; there was nothing else that would have been as perfect or true.
She was so happy to finally say it that it didn't even matter, at first, that Talon did nothing but sit there and stare at her like he couldn't believe she'd actually said those words, and the normally stern lines of his face softened into wonder; he quickly overcame that shock, however, placing a hand at the small of Lux's back so that he could easily pull her to him and back through the small space she'd created, so that he could press his lips to hers with a fervency that almost verged on painful. Their already short breaths came in gasps and Lux must have been on fire because her blood boiled and her skin was impossibly hot where it touched his, but she couldn't pull him any closer or hold him any tighter than she was already; it wasn't their cleanest kiss or their most passionate or even their best, but to Lux it was easily the most meaningful, and it was full of everything that she could have dared to hope for. Talon didn't have to say anything, because this kiss said it all; it was his answer and his agreement, and it was a promise to Lux that he picked her, too.
It was almost a physical pain when he pulled away, even though it was hardly an inch and he hadn't moved besides that; there was a moment for them to catch their breath, for Lux's grip on him to just grow that much tighter, for Talon to whisper back what Lux so badly wanted to hear.
"I love you, too."
It was a rough, breathless murmur, but also the sweetest thing Lux had ever heard; it made her forget everything that wasn't Talon and his lips brushing hers and his skin beneath her fingers and the hand on her back and the fact that he loved her, too. He knew everything about Lux; he knew all the terrible things she'd seen and done and every dark little shadow she casted, and still he gave this acceptance to her. Lux's lips curved into a wide smile and she could swear that his did the same, and she was so happy, despite everything, because there in their little bubble there was no letter, there was no treason or Demacia and Noxus, or anything else.
There was Lux, and there was Talon, and for a wonderful second that was all that existed.
But after that second the complacency ebbed away and the joy did too, and when Lux leaned back into Talon's embrace she clung to him like that one blissful moment was all they had left; she breathed in the scent of his skin and tried to memorize the indescribable feeling of being folded in his arms as if it was the last time she would experience it. She didn't think she was alone in this mindset, because Talon buried a hand in her hair and his fingers curled against her waist, and suddenly the touch felt desperate.
Love would only get them so far.
Lux could feel the fear she'd momentarily pushed away bubbling in her chest, shoving its way past her transient happiness and constricting her heart; her next breath was fluttery, verging on a sob, and to bite it back was almost painful. She'd gotten Talon out of the prison, but was it even a lasting solution? Neither of them had any idea who the letter was from or who'd murdered Lilia, and they were in no position to find out; Lux knew that it would only be a matter of hours before everyone found out Talon was missing, and it wouldn't take much long after to pin the blame on her. Talon couldn't run from Demacia without someone's help, and Lux couldn't because Maddick still expected her to be on a ship to Ionia that morning.
Lux's thoughts, always so quick, spun in dizzying circles that had no end, and she felt no closer to a solution than the first time she'd gone to the barracks.
The cycle of impending hopelessness was broken by the sound of the apartment door opening; Lux jerked out of Talon's arms, immediately reaching for her baton, but just as quickly realized that she was overreacting; for some reason she'd been expecting Maddick and soldiers, but it was only Quinn returning from patrol, red-faced and flustered.
Quinn did an amazing job of concealing her surprise, if she was in fact shocked at all; she stood alarmingly still in the doorway, face puckering when she saw who was sitting on the couch. Lux had the presence of mind to feel guilty, because as much as she didn't want Quinn involved in what was evident and high treason, it was hard to actually keep her out of it, especially when Quinn had been so instrumental in Talon's escape.
"You look better," she greeted sourly, pointedly looking at Talon and the arm he still had wrapped around Lux's waist.
She crossed the room to the little desk she had in the corner, and while her back was turned Talon shifted that arm, letting it fall away from Lux's hip and threading his fingers through hers instead. Quinn dragged her desk chair over to the couch, setting it down a comfortable distance away and slumping into it with a sigh; she was exhausted, that much Lux could tell, and fresh guilt ate away at her. An awkward blanket of silence fell over the trio, and none of them could find the words to break it; Quinn kept her narrowed eyes focused on Talon, Lux kept her worried gaze on Quinn, and Talon studiously avoided looking at anyone.
"I didn't think you were going to break him out."
Quinn, unsurprisingly, was the one who felt most comfortable moving beyond the smothering quiet; she looked to Lux now, her gaze half accusing and half weary. This was something that Lux didn't feel remorse for, and she didn't shrink beneath Quinn's stare like before.
"What else was I supposed to do?"
Her fingers curled a little more tightly around Talon's, and his did the same in response; she couldn't have left him, that much she knew, and no other alternative was making itself apparent to her.
"God, Lux, I don't know."
And Quinn, always so steady and calm and put together, dropped her head in her hands and rubbed her eyes, taking a slow, deep breath. She didn't keep her face buried for long; she looked up after she'd regained some of her composure, and there was a lot less animosity in her eyes than before.
"You didn't write the letter," she said, pointing at Lux, who promptly shook her head.
"No."
"And you didn't kill Lilia."
She was focused on Talon now, who answered flatly.
"No."
Although this was information she already knew, Quinn leaned back in her chair like she was trying to make sense of brand new clues, chewing her lip like Lux did when she was stressed.
"It would have to be someone who knew about… this," Quinn said, vaguely waving her hand at Lux and Talon. That particular thought did almost nothing to help, because the only three people that knew about Lux and Talon being anything but enemies were sitting in the room.
"I'm assuming you didn't tell anyone," Quinn added, and her look almost dared Lux to contradict her.
"Of course not," Lux immediately said in her defense, although that wasn't entirely true.
"Well, Ezreal does," she acquiesced. "But I didn't tell him. He figured it out."
She hardly felt like it was worth mentioning; Ezreal, like Quinn, hated Noxians and had no problem showing his distaste for Talon, but he wouldn't knowingly out Lux, especially when it would lead to consequences this drastic. He also couldn't have so perfectly forged Lux's handwriting, and the last thing Ezreal would have ever wanted was a war on his hands. No, Lux didn't think that Ezreal had anything to do with it.
Quinn shook her head, thoughts in line with Lux's; she knew Ezreal well enough to know that he'd never endanger his friends because of something so personal.
"He wouldn't- you know that. Anyone else?" She asked, eyes flicking between them again. Lux promptly shook her head, but Talon was a lot slower to answer; in fact, after several seconds of silence, Lux glanced up at him, pressing her lips into a dangerously thin line.
There was a good reason he didn't meet that gaze.
"Kat knows."
There was a sigh from Quinn, and Lux couldn't bite back a flash of anger; she wasn't surprised, exactly, but she felt that it wasn't entirely Talon's secret to share, and to think that Kat knew about them for however long made her feel… violated, in a way. Talon was quick to jump to her defense, and his tone dared Quinn or Lux to argue.
"She didn't say anything."
And she had enough of her own reasons not to, Lux realized; she was assuming Kat wouldn't betray Talon so blatantly because they were siblings and he trusted her, but she also had her own relationship she was hiding, and to expose Talon would be to risk exposing herself. No, Lux didn't believe that Kat had anything to do with the predicament they were caught in.
Quinn clearly didn't trust Talon and obviously trusted Kat far less, but Lux was resolutely on Talon's side for this one; it didn't make any sense, either, why Kat would go through all the trouble to set such an elaborate trap to… what? Get Talon executed? Risk a war?
No, it definitely didn't make sense, which left them all right back where they started.
There was several minutes of brooding silence while they all wracked their brains, trying to piece together the messy, broken night into a picture that made sense, but they yielded nothing; the only thing Lux or Talon knew with certainty was that they couldn't stay in Demacia, and that it would be almost impossible to sneak Talon out.
Eventually Quinn leaned forward in her chair, resting her elbows on her knees and frowning at the floor.
"You can't stay here, and it's not safe for you to return to the Institute, either. They'll execute Talon if they catch him again, and you'll be charged with treason."
Quinn sounded lost, her words hollow, and they made Lux feel empty and sick again; she leaned a little bit closer to Talon, gripped his hand a little bit tighter, trying to make use of his warmth and will life back into her skin.
If Quinn sounded this hopeless, then what could they do?
And Lux sat there, clinging to the man she loved and thinking of a million different things; she needed to keep Talon safe, but couldn't return to the Institute; she needed to keep up appearances to Maddick, but she couldn't leave Talon; she needed to figure out who sent that letter and why, but she could do nothing while treason hung over her head.
Minutes lapsed by, and still nothing was said; Quinn sunk lower into her chair, Talon shifted uncomfortably too many times for Lux to count, and all this time Lux's mind sifted through thoughts that seemed so much like puzzle pieces that could fit, but refused; it was like they were all the same shade of a blue sky, and if Lux could just find the first two to fit, then the whole picture would come together. One piece was Maddick, one was Talon, one was her one was the Institute one was a letter she didn't write…
And just like that, those first two pieces came together.
Lux sat up, the movement fast enough and disruptive enough in the quiet that it caught both Talon and Quinn's attention; she could feel their eyes on her, and although Lux's expression held no happiness, there was the faintest glimmer of hope on her face that only just dared to show. She looked from Talon to Quinn, and almost, almost, allowed herself to smile.
"I have an idea."
A/N: They said the love thing, we can all go home now.
Reviews-
Lux Du Couteau- There's gotta be something on Deviantart for that.
Adonna2424- Oh god your reviews make me so sad, I just want you to be happy ;-; I'm SORRY
Mirae- Okay I played with someone the other day with your name and I said hi, and if it was you and you didn't say hi back I just want you to know I'm super offended.
(kidding)
YES he did! We'll just have to see, ey? Definitely more Quinn in the future! I think she makes an excellent sounding board for Talon and Lux. Oh gosh no offense taken lol. Kat, Talon, and Lux are like the epitome of fucked up, and Quinn and Garen are kind of just along for the ride. Thank you! I heart you guys c:
WhiteWinterDragon- Thank you ;-; I think I can safely say at this point without ruining anything that yes, it's Swain lol. I can't believe you guessed it was Lilia, no one else did. Thank you again ;-;
Kujjin- Awww. See, that's something I wish could happen. (Minus the injured part? Just cute. Lots of cute.)
Talon x Lux FTW- rip u
Imstillive- Hey you! Thank you c: Yeah he did and it's super uncool, but it happens to the best of us. (And the worst of us. Because Ezreal is the worst.) You have a good point there! Thank you again ;-; Ooooh I'm glad you liked it ;D Kaylightly is so talented.
Talon- You dun goofed pretty boy.
Ulcaasi- Yeah it was like… Idk if this is tmi, but after dealing with depression and suicide myself, it's really awful when someone else experiences it. It's just… rough. But getting better! I think. Hopefully. So thank you again c:
That is my master plan, haha! I hope this plot thing works out, gosh. That's exactly how I imagined Talon being arrested also. And we can go mountain climbing together! Because I love cliffhangers and there are so many more to come oh my gosh.
Guest- I can't tell if you mean "good" impossible, or more like "please stop you're embarrassing yourself" impossible. I hope the former.
J4YDE- I'm always trying/thinking about writing, so don't worry. You're welcome, and thank you!
iFireLightning- Cliffhangers are my THING man I can't stop. I will, thank you so much c:
Antonio- a Fanfiction Reader- I've read that review a lot more than 3 times, and you're right, the fic isn't my priority at all. The way you worded things appeared rude to me, and reading it again doesn't change that. Like I said, I was giving you the benefit of a doubt that you didn't mean to be rude, I was just asking you to be more mindful in the future.