I'm foolish, it's my fault

"You will not travel to the border, not after -"

Lux barely resisted the urge to slam her fist on the table—or her father's face, for the matter.

"You think I have a choice after that?" she said, voice sharp from the adrenaline still coursing through her body. "The prince guard's leader has been murdered. They're a person short. You really think they'll let me quit now?"

"You are using this as an excuse to -", Pieter started, but she wasn't having it.

"Somebody died. Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"Language, Luxanna!" he barked, and something snapped in her, likely the last thread that her patience had hung at. The next words escaped her as an angry scream.

"I just found my boss hanging from the ceiling with a silencing rune in her face and every single one of her fingernails pulled out! The doctor we called told us she had been dead for two hours and that every bone in her body was broken. And that wasn't even enough, whoever did it bled her out like a swine afterwards! I will curse as much as I fucking please, father."

Everybody in the room was staring at her. Garen's mouth had fallen open, and he had frozen mid-way into raising his cup to his mouth. Her mother stared at her with eyes wide-open. Katarina was standing at the entrance to the room, her lips thin like a line, watching her with a worried look.

Her father looked like he might as well explode on the spot. His face was red with anger, a vein pulsating on his forehead, but he had frozen in his tracks, as if she had knocked the wind out of him.

Garen mouthed a quiet 'Shit' and it was at that moment that Lux realized nobody had told her family what state Harriet had been found in. The official press release had said that she was dead, nothing more. They must have assumed that she'd been shot or something.

"Two hours?", her father finally forced out, and sunk back down on his chair. "Weren't you with her all the time?"

"I was with an imposter. We realized it too late."

Lux was too tired for his charade. She was too tired to watch him pretend to care for her, no matter how defeated his voice sounded when he spoke again.

"I don't care about your reputation; you're not traveling to the border -"

"I told you it's not my choice anymore."

"We will find somebody to replace you, then."

Lux let out a bitter laugh.

"There's a black mage on the run who can freely transform into other people, and they are either with another person who tortured Harriet or can be in two places at once. And the other two people in the guard fight with a sword and knifes. We're already one person short. Replace me with some random thug, and you might as well kill the prince yourself."

It wasn't that she wanted to talk down on Benji and Evan, but against mages, they were out of their league. As far as she knew, neither of them possessed an ounce of magic, and a black mage wouldn't challenge them to a fair duel.

They couldn't see thought illusions, they wouldn't sense magic traps or explosives, and they would be helpless against spells. What they needed was another mage, but Lux barely knew anybody who would qualify. Garen would—but her father wouldn't allow him, and he would never talk back to him.

"I said, I don't care -"

"Maybe, I could help."

Both Lux' and her father's head snapped around to Katarina, who had watched the scene in silence until then.

"How?" Lux said, the word coming out more forceful than she had intended. Katarina flinched back for a second, then caught herself.

"I–My sister was a black mage in training until a few years ago. I'm pretty used to spotting illusions, because I kind of grew up around them. I could watch Lux' back on the border—it would be safer than letting two men without magic do so."

Lux hadn't even thought about the possibility of taking Katarina with her until this very second, but it could actually work. A part of her heart made a happy little jump when the other woman suggested it—suggested that Lux' safety meant something to her—before reality set in. Her father would hate this. Garen would hate this. Katarina was about to draw another wedge between Garen and herself, and maybe this was her intention behind her idea to begin with–

"That's… a good idea, actually.", Garen said, and this time, Lux' mouth fell open. She rarely agreed with her father, but in that second, he said exactly what had shot through her own mind.

"What?"

Garen seemed unsure for a second. He looked at Katarina, and Lux realized Katarina nodded, then her brother stared down at his fingers for a second. When he spoke, his words were careful, as if he was thinking about each of them for a while.

"Katarina and I had a talk earlier today. About how our expectations for this relationship differed from the beginning and about how that likely caused our… poor start with each other."

Lux eyebrows shot up. Differing expectations? Had Katarina told him she got more or less blackmailed into the engagement? It seemed unlikely.

"We concluded that maybe what we need for this to work is a new beginning. If I travel with Lux for a while, I have time to get used to the idea of Demacia, and after the break, Garen and me can try to make this work again.", Katarina added, and Garen nodded.

Lux just stared at them as if both had grown an extra head. Days ago, Katarina had refused to say over two words to her brother. Had they actually acted like adults and talked about the issues in a constructive way? A small part of her was proud of her brother, but the emotion got drowned in something bitter when she thought about the fact that Garen and Katarina working on their relationship might lead to them, well, actually having a relationship with each other.

She should be happy. The reason she wasn't, the reason her mind was overwhelmed with bitter disappointment, was probably just the timing. Hell, she had found the lifeless body of somebody she had known and liked mere hours ago. The last thing she wanted to hear now was her brother's success in somewhat mending the rift between him and his fiancée. The world was supposed to be grey in shock. It was supposed to be mourning. To desperately reassess the state of affairs that had led to the leader of the prince's guard getting murdered meters away from the stage, while the prince was giving a speech.

Even if Lux had a small crush on Katarina, it wasn't anything serious—nothing that justified wishing her brother's marriage to fail, wishing to be the person Katarina would ultimately come to if she was done with Garen –

Lux stopped her train of thought at this point. When she caught Katarina's eyes, there was something in them she couldn't quite identify. Maybe it was hope, or happiness, Lux couldn't tell.

"Would that be okay for you, Lux?" Garen asked, and for a second she wanted to respond with a confused 'What?' until she remembered what their conversation had actually been about before her thoughts had spiraled out of control. Katarina wanted to join the prince's guard at the border.

"I doubt the crown prince will refuse if I vouch for her." She said, watching her father's face out of the corner of her eye, but while he seemed unhappy with the course of the conversation, he didn't voice his opinion. Maybe it was because he wouldn't order Katarina around as long as Garen agreed with her. Lux felt ill at the thought.

"And you will." Her father stated, and Lux just nodded. Of course she would. The idea of Katarina being a danger to the prince—Katarina hated Noxus. Also, illusions weren't really the style of somebody who could teleport. She might be a danger if she wanted—but the idea that Katarina had anything to do with Harriet's death was absurd.

"Well, it is settled then?", Katarina asked, and Lux nodded again. Her energy for this conversation was fleeting rapidly, getting drowned by the horrors of the day slowly sinking into her bones. It was as if she had been busy the last hours, talking to the police, running around, now fighting with her father—the second she was stopping to think, she felt exhausted enough to drop to the ground.

"Excuse me." Lux said, letting her gaze sweep over everybody in the room once. "I'll be in my bed. Let's talk about details tomorrow."

She left before anybody got the chance to answer.

Lux dropped on the bed like dead weight. When she tried to open her shoelaces, her hands shook too badly to get a proper grip at them. She was alone in the room, and every shadow seemed darker, every voice from outside seemed dangerous.

Lux took a deep breath and slowly let out the air, repeated the pattern until she had calmed down enough to get rid of her shoes. How long had it been since she had last used breathing patterns to stop herself from spiraling into a full-blow panic attack? She hadn't felt this out of control since the first months of the war.

Harriet was dead. She had died a few dozen meters away from her, and Lux hadn't noticed a thing. It had been so obvious, in hindsight. The imposter had possessed an entirely different speech pattern, had sounded less like a soldier and more like - somebody noble? Harriet had often shortened 'You' to 'Ya' and sometimes dropped words entirely—all of it had been gone the second that the imposter had come back, and Lux hadn't noticed a damn thing.

Lux' left hand was still clenched around her staff—she didn't know when it had happened, but at some point, after leaving the room she hadn't been able to let go of her weapon.

The thought hit her with devasting clarity - it was her fault.

If she hadn't attributed Harriet's weirdness when she'd come back to the heat—if she had just checked back with Benji… How long had Harriet still been alive, desperately waiting for somebody to see thought the deception, to come and save her? Lux was feeling sick just thinking about it.

When it knocked at the door, Lux' heart must have stopped for a second. She forced her composed expression back on her face and sat up, took a deep break.

"Who's there?"

"Katarina. Can I come in?"

Lux picked up her shoes and carefully placed them beside the bed, before she answered, "Sure."

Katarina stood in the frame, and her face looked as exhausted as Lux felt. For a second, neither of them seemed to know what to say. Then Katarina stepped into the room. She looked around, and for a second Lux searched her room for anything that would give away how horribly out of control she felt right now. She didn't have to, though—nothing was out of place.

Katarina sat down on the bed beside her—not too close, but not awkwardly far away either.

"Are you okay?" she asked, looking at Lux with a careful expression, and Lux had to consciously stop herself from clenching her fists.

"I guess I'm still in shock, at least a little.", she answered instead, looking at Katarina. It was the understatement of the week, but there were little things that Lux wanted less than to spill her heart out in front of Katarina right now. What was she supposed to say? That she could feel the horror in every single bone, still? That the guilt was flowing through her body like iced water, slowly drowning her? That she was scared of every shadow? "It wasn't a pretty sight, anyway."

"I can imagine."

Could she? Katarina had been brought up by assassins, Lux knew as much. Likely, she knew what she was talking about. Chances were, Katarina had seen more horror than she had, and she would think of her as weak if she knew how shaken up Lux really was. One more reason to not mention it, then.

"I never knew your sister is a black mage.", Lux changed the topic. Katarina raised her eyebrows for a second, then a sad expression ran across her face and she allowed Lux to change the topic.

"She isn't, not anymore. Her health hasn't allowed it for a few years now."

"Is she sick?", Lux asked, and something in Katarina's face clouded.

"Something like this, yeah.", she answered, and then smiled weakly. "It's a shame. My mom used to say that she is very talented—but she'll never reach her true potential, now."

This sounded less like ill and more like Cassiopeia was about to die. Lux bit on her lip. She had tried to change the topic away from death, and yet they had arrived at death again. But Katarina continued talking.

"My mom's a black-mage herself. I'm shit at magic—I can teleport just fine, and I got that duplication spell down okay, but learning more spells wasn't really something I ever had the talent for, and I never bothered with rituals or curses at all. Cass made up for it, though. She was levitating things before she could walk. Mom sent her off to a… friend… of hers to teach her when she was eight."

Lux had been eight when her father had sent her off to a military camp for training, and she winced at the thought of Katarina's little sister making a similar experience, but when Katarina caught her expression, she shook her head.

"She started taking assignments when she was thirteen, and honestly, she was the scarier one out of us two. Her specialty was illusions and poisons. That's what I meant when I said I grew up around them. There was a time where she looked different every time I met her in the house just because she was practicing. Unfortunately, a few years ago, one of her targets got a good shot at her with a curse, and she never really recovered from it. Honestly, things don't look good for her."

Katarina looked lost at the end of the story she had told, more or less unprompted, and for a second, Lux didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry for her."

"We all are. But that's the risk of the job, right? Sometimes people fight back, sometimes you miscalculate a situation."

'The risk of the job', Lux' mind echoed cruelly. Would Harriet's death be called that, too? A necessary sacrifice for protecting the prince, a calculated risk when one chose a job as a bodyguard? But Harriet hadn't been protecting the prince, she hadn't been caught in crossfire.

"You know it wasn't your fault, right?" Katarina asked, and Lux stared at her like she had grown a second head. "What happened today."

Lux let out a bitter laugh.

"I could have saved her, though. When the imposter came back, something was wrong. If I had just used my brain -"

"Stop right there, Lux.", Katarina said forcefully. "I want you to listen to me for a second, okay?"

Lux opened her mouth to protest, but Katarina just shook her head. "Just a second, Lux."

Lux nodded, and Katarina took a deep breath. There was something fierce in her voice when she spoke again.

"You are a bodyguard, Lux. You were protecting the crown prince; this was your one and only responsibility this evening. And you fulfilled it. Yes, Harriet was killed. Yes, her last hours were likely very bad. Yes, if you had abandoned your post, the second you thought something was weird, there is a good chance she would still be alive. I don't question that for a second. But I want you to answer me a single question truthfully: If you had known for sure that the woman besides you was an imposter and Harriet had been lured away from her post—would you have really left the prince without protection to search for her, knowing full well that the other guard was an enemy who overpowered Harriet?"

Lux stared at her with an open mouth. The answer was bright and cruel in her head—of course not. What kind of bodyguard would leave their subject alone with somebody who was a danger to their life?

Her thoughts must have been showing on her face, because Katarina relaxed visibly.

"The point is, afterwards you think you had the choice to go save her, but you never had. Based on everything you knew, the second you'd have left your post to search for her, the imposter would have murdered the prince. You probably saved his life by staying on your post."

"I could have alerted somebody, though -"

"Harriet was the leader of the guard, and they overpowered her with nobody even noticing, right? Was there even somebody besides you who could have saved her? Somebody who wouldn't have simply walked into their death?"

There hadn't been anybody. Lux shook her head after a second, grabbing her staff closer. There was nothing to even say that Lux herself would have been able to save Harriet. She suppressed a shiver when the fact rolled over her head that it could have been her as well. Maybe it would be her next time.

Fear rolled over her anew. No matter how much she told herself that Harriet had likely been the target herself, that whatever had caused her death had been personal. It was a speculation, nothing more. For all that Lux knew, somebody wanted to send a sign to the crown and would just murder through the guard. Maybe Harriet, being the first target and the person with ties to a Noxian black mage clan, was a mere coincidence.

Lux felt how her face hardened, how she mentally prepared herself to say something brave. How she would put up a hell of a fight. How she would take down the imposter with her, and if it was the last thing she would do. How she would avenge Harriet, and everybody who dared to say otherwise, was welcome to bet against her, because she would collect her winnings afterwards and buy a round of beer for everybody from it.

It was a reaction she had learned in her first weeks during the war. Leading soldiers had a lot to do with confidence. The moment an officer seemed unsure of themselves, or afraid, the entire team followed. For her own and everybody else's safety, Lux wasn't allowed to show weakness.

It was the same again; she realized. If she showed to Benji and Evan how scared she was, they would get unsure themselves. They would put up less of a fight, would give up easier, would question orders and endanger everything. Maybe they would even quit.

"You're right. But the next time that imposter shows their face, ill knock it into the dirt so hard they won't get up ever again.", Lux growled. Her hand was shaking, though, and she hoped it would pass as anger.

"You think you can defeat them?"

"Likely.", she lied. "They were afraid to show their face the first time around, right? We didn't expect an attack, and that's on us, but they won't have that advantage again."

Lux hoped it was enough to convince Katarina, because it was nearly good enough to convince herself. There was truth in it, wasn't there? Without the element of surprise, illusions lost half their advantage.

Katarina gave her a long look, her eyes flickering between Lux' face and her shaking hand grabbing her staff.

"You know that it's okay if you're not okay, or scared… right?" she asked with a weird voice, almost as if she had practiced the sentence, and Lux forced out a laugh, even though she really wasn't amused.

"I'm just angry.", she said. Anger was an emotion that always worked, as long as it was contained. Anger meant motivation, it meant to focus on a goal. If one didn't lose themselves in anger, it was a productive thing. "Harriet was a good person and she didn't deserve this. And when I get my hands on whoever did it, they will regret making me angry bitterly -"

Katarina leaned forward and hugged her. Lux stopped speaking, the words dying in her throat as the other woman pulled her closer.

A part of Lux' brain—probably the one responsible for logic—screamed at her to push Katarina away. Her brave mask was seconds away from shattering into dust, and letting Katarina feel how much she needed physical contact right now—how much she wanted somebody to tell her exactly what Katarina was telling her right now—would tell more than even admitting to be weak could.

But her arms wouldn't move. Instead, she stayed where she was, frozen and completely overwhelmed. The other woman was incredibly warm and something in her smell made Lux feel safe. It made no sense. She barely knew her. She had been so close to her once before, when they had danced.

"What are you doing?", she finally forced out with a shaking voice.

"Do you want me to let go?", Katarina answered, and Lux wanted to say 'Yes', but again her body didn't cooperate and the word wouldn't leave her throat.

Instead, her hands started to shake again, and she waited for Katarina to call her a scared little kid, a coward, but it didn't happen. Slowly, she calmed down. Maybe it was a minute, maybe it was an eternity, Lux had lost all feeling of time when Katarina let go of her.

"I understand that you're angry.", Katarina said. "I would be, too. Actually, I am angry. And I know you don't need my protection, but if we get whoever did this, I'll gladly help you make them regret what they did."

The expression in Katarina's eyes was lethal, and this time, Lux recognized it. She had seen the bloodlust in Katarina's eyes before, the day she had climbed out of the carriage and had stared at Lux' brother like she wanted to cut his throat. And then again at the banquet, when Alexei Everguard had refused to use Lux' proper military title.

Lux didn't even know if she herself would straight up kill whoever killed Harriet. She liked to think of herself as somebody who shed no unnecessary blood, and if it was possible, she would like to see Harriet's murderer stand a proper trial and end up in prison for the rest of their sorry lives.

But Katarina's expression told her that the assassin had no intention of taking prisoners. She looked dangerous, volatile, ready to set off like a bomb any time. It was the hottest thing Lux had ever seen, and the thought scared her for the whole second she allowed herself thinking it.

"Then I'm glad you're coming with me.", Lux forced out, and the grin on Katarina's face was downright feral.

Six hours had passed since Talon had broken into the chamber in which Cassiopeia had attempted her ritual.

He had waited in silence for the entire night. Sometime between midnight and the early morning, the noises had died down and had been replaced by dead silence. Cassiopeia had warned him not to barge in before she was done, so the sun had already been up for hours when worry had finally beaten caution.

Talon doubted he would get the image out of his head for the rest of his life.

Cassiopeia had lied, seemingly lifeless, in the middle of a circle drawn with her own blood. Her skin was red with burn marks, her hair consumed by the fire. He had thought her dead until he had seen her breath slowly, her pulse irregular.

The doctor that one servant had called had stabilized her, but she hadn't woken up. And now Talon was pacing up and down in her room, feeling helpless and angry. Marcus was sitting on a chair beside the bed and was throwing him irritated looks from time to time, but Talon couldn't care less.

It was his fault. She had lied in this chamber, likely since it had gone silent. He had sat in front of the damn chamber for hours, while she had been lying on the ground, bleeding and unconscious. Again, he had failed to protect her. Why Marcus hadn't thrown him out years ago was a mystery to him.

"The healer was useless.", Marcus growled, repeating what he was saying in different variations for hours now. "I could have lifted her on that bed myself, and you told me that her pulse was irregular twenty minutes before he even arrived."

"Healers have been useless ever since she got cursed.", Talon responded numbly, repeating himself in kind. Marcus shot him an angry look, but Talon knew it wasn't really meant for him. He was just angry at the world, mad because it took his daughter from him in a way that didn't allow him to fight back.

It was something that Talon understood too well. Marcus and he were used to tackling enemies head one. If somebody threatened their family, they killed them. But how did one kill an illness or a curse?

For a second, Talon didn't hear a breath, and his eyes flickered back to Cassiopeia, who laid too still—and then she drew in breath again, and Talon looked back to her father.

"Maybe we ought to call back Katarina.", Marcus said, and Talon wanted to ask for what, but he feared the answer. Katarina was no mage; she was as useless as him or Marcus when it came to black magic. The only thing that was left for Katarina was saying goodbye. Did Marcus believe that this was the end?

For a second, they fell into silence, and Talon started pacing again.

"You know, I keep thinking Soreana would know what to do.", Marcus finally bit out angrily. "She was researching creature curses, you know?"

"Even if she does, that wouldn't help."

At Talon's voice, his head snapped up, and instead of anger, his forehead wrinkled. He was thinking about something—He couldn't possibly consider actually trying, right? Talon could see determination enter his eyes, and he wanted to throw up.

"You can't.", he whispered, and Marcus just shook his head.

"I have to try."

"LeBlanc will laugh in your face and you know it."

"Probably." Marcus got up and grabbed his jacket. "But if Cassiopeia dies and I haven't even asked for her help, I won't ever forgive myself."

"You know" Jericho looked up at Emilia with a mocking expression, "you went rather overboard with your lead, didn't you? What upset you like this?"

She sneered at him and threw her bag on the couch with way too much force.

"I'm not upset."

He studied her face, then leaned back with a joyless smile. "She didn't talk, then. And you were so sure. It's a shame, really."

In Jericho's hand was the morning edition of a demacian newspaper. 'Crown's guard killed at public event' read the headline in mocking red lines. Placed right below the headline was a huge photo of Harriet Lee, showing her in full uniform.

"No, she didn't talk. What gave it away, my awesome mood?" Emilia's voice was poison, and she nearly felt guilty for snapping at him, but he was asking for it, mocking her like this. She hadn't slept the night; the carriage had been badly padded, and she had felt every bump on the streets in her back. The way back from Demacia was tiresome enough in a proper carriage, and as she was, she was barely keeping herself awake right now.

"This article here says she was missing all fingernails.", he said, letting out a low whistle, and Emilia swore to herself, one day, she would hurt him for his mockery. "Usually -"

"- they talk after the first one, and if they don't, they don't talk at all. I fucking know, Jericho, I know! I just watched the brat do exactly that, and I'm annoyed to no end."

He had the audacity to laugh at her. "Oh, come on. It's not like you didn't know. You should have just killed her and left after one. What were you playing at? Revenge?"

Honestly, she had just wanted somebody to hurt badly. And who else would be an ample candidate for that but Harriet, who was doomed to death, anyway? It wasn't as if the guard could get trauma from it anymore. Making her suffer had felt good for a while—a little piece of justice, a drop of right into the ocean of wrongs that her family had been. She shrugged and sat down on the couch opposite to Jericho.

"I don't get why you're so desperate for revenge, though. I mean, I know what happened -", at her glare he shut up about that, "- but how old was the little Whitefall back then? A few months?"

"I just need to get rid of her, that's all."

"But why?"

Had Jericho been meaning to ask that question all along? Had he been mocking her the entire time to rile her up enough to ask her why—why she traveled to Demacia and attacked a guard, just to search for information about some stupid teenager?

"The chamber of truth isn't opening for me, Jericho. I wield the crown of the Deceiver for twenty years now, and yet the chamber doesn't recognize me as its formal master. It has a key, likely bound to blood, and the only part of the Whitefall family left is her."

"You really think they gave the key to an infant." He stated with raised eyebrows, and she rolled her eyes.

"I think they gave the key to an infant and gave the infant to a trusted person. The Lee clan protected them for generations. Harriet would have been a likely choice; she was nearly of age back then."

Understanding hushed over his face, even though she could see the next question forming on his face—what did she want with the chamber? He didn't ask it, likely filed away for later. "They might have done that, true. One teenager with a nameless child, fleeing the country in the middle of a massacre—nobody would have noticed. Looks like Harriet had nothing to do with it, though?"

Emilia shrugged. "Doesn't matter. She wouldn't tell me; she resisted my attempts to break into her mind. Whatever she knew, she took to the grave." Or to the ceiling, her mind added with angry amusement.

The chamber of amplification, commonly called the chamber a truth. A mysterious room that could amplify any spell, that allowed a caster to succeed in rituals that they otherwise lacked the power to even attempt. It had been what had founded the power of the Whitefalls over Noxus in the first place. It had opened to every leader of the black rose before her—but she had never been able to even touch the seal.

The door to the chamber was mocking her with power just meters out of her reach, the power to change everything. Right the old wrongs. Form the world in a way she never had been able to. She could even rid her student of the unfortunate curse that was taking her life –

Emilia stopped her thoughts in her tracks. Full moon—when was the full moon again? Last night, she realized. The full moon had been last night, the ritual had been -

"Cassiopeia.", she said, with more distress in her voice than she was comfortable thinking about. She hadn't meant to leave during the full moon, she had just not thought about it—though that she had at least one more week, the opportunity to get to Harriet had been too good to pass up on -

"I had wondered when you'd realize.", Jericho responded, and there was too much understanding in his tone.

"Is she still alive?", Emilia asked, and she had caught her voice again, sounded like a mildly interested scientist watching their laboratory mice again, but Jericho still looked at her knowing. She cared about her student, as much as she hated to admit it. The idea that Cassiopeia had perished while Emilia had been out of the country achieving nothing was nearly painful.

"Oh, her father is waiting for you in the lobby, actually."

"Jericho, is she still alive?" she pressed, and he smiled at her again.

"I doubt Marcus DuCouteau would beg you for anything if she'd already stopped breathing."

It had indeed been a while since she had seen Marcus begging for anything, Emilia thought while stepping into the lobby. The last time had been a few years ago when he had hoped he could buy Soreana back.

The fool.

He looked up as she entered the room, and she felt the mask slipping in place perfectly. There was no way he could see the thoughts storming round in her head. The painful question of just how badly the ritual had backfired.

"How did I earn the honor?", she asked, and she saw hatred in his eyes, clear as the day.

"Cassiopeia hasn't woken up.", he growled, and she forced her eyebrows to rise in mild disinterest, even though a wave of nausea washed over her at the words. This was bad. "She attempted a piece of dark magic in the night. Talon found her on the ground after the sun rose and she hasn't been responsive since."

"This sounds unfortunate. Cassiopeia knows very well that I can't help her, though. I told her to write her will a few days ago."

"I'm not here for your help, witch."

With surprise, she looked at him. She had expected him to beg for a help she couldn't give him. She had steeled herself mentally for telling him what she was telling herself for weeks now – Cassiopeia's curse was one that slowly progressed in the body until it was impossible to separate from the nervous system. If they had caught it earlier, maybe there had been a chance, but now?

His daughter was already in a stage where sans traveling back in time, magic wouldn't save her anymore.

"Release Soreana. I don't care what you want for it, you can have it all. Just release her. Please."

For a second, she was speechless about the sheer nerve the man had. Then she questioned his sanity, to ever believe that would work.

"Why?" Emilia finally said, when the entire impossibility of what he was asking had fully settled into her brain.

"Because she is the only black mage in Noxus that I haven't paid for trying to heal Cassiopeia yet.", Marcus said, and Emilia swallowed – how desperate was he? Every Black mage in Noxus? But it was impossible. She couldn't release Soreana, she was simply not able to, and even if she would be—setting Soreana free would equal dooming them all anyway. Even if she saved Cassiopeia through some miracle of magic.

"Useless efforts. Nobody can help your daughter, and Soreana isn't any different.", she spat, and saw something in Marcus' eyes grow colder.

"She hasn't tried yet."

"And she won't."

Marcus's lips were thin as lines, and he stared at her as if she was the most hideous thing in existence. The hatred of a man who thought she was costing him both his wife and his daughter, she realized clearly. He blamed her for Cassiopeia's fate just as much as he blamed her for taking Soreana that day.

"Then let her see Cassiopeia one last time. It's the least you can do. Let them say goodbye."

"Ask again and maybe I'll send you one of her limbs.", she threatened.

Marcus grabbed the handle of his sword, and for a second, she thought he would attack her, fly at her in a rage, an useless suicide mission to never accomplish anything. They stared at each other. If looks could kill, she would drop dead on the cold marble right in front of him. Then, after what seemed like an infinity, Marcus seemed to decide that Cassiopeia should at least have a single parent available when she died, and he let go of the weapon again.

Wordless, he turned and walked all the way to the door before he stopped again.

"You don't have a single idea how it feels to lose a child you love.", he said, and ice filled Emilia. Before she could respond to anything, he had thrown the door close behind him, a loud sound in the painful silence.

Emilia stared at the ground, and the polished marble showed her her own reflection—tired from being awake way too long, in desperate need of a shower and fresh clothes.
'You don't have a single idea how it feels to lose a child you love.
The marble cracked under her feet as furious rage filled her like water a cup, and her reflection shattered.

It was Marcus who had no idea what he was talking about.