It has been a long time! A year of exams and things... But now I can finally continue this story in peace, hurraaay!

Silent. Heavy. Wet. All around him, hugging his body. Water…and nothing else.

"Pyke." A silken voice rang in his head.

The hand he felt on his shoulder brought him out of his slumber quickly. Guileless eyes shot open in an instant, searching for the owner of the deft touch. Though he knew who was it even before seeing the masked form sitting in front of him in his table. His voice was…easily recognizeable.

"Khada Jhin."

Virtuoso was a bit less formal than he was always that night. Instead of his usual mask, he was sporting a black turban that night with only one of his eyes were visible. And from judging the look of it, he was smiling under the fabric. "Goodnight Pyke. How's the life?"

"Why you'ere here?"

"Can't a man want to have a drink?" Jhin asked back.

"No' with me." Pyke replied.

Smirk on his face got wider. "Don't be like that Pyke. Or you'll end up all alone."

However, the joke was lost in his cold gaze. "Don't be sorry if I don't smile."

Jhin shrugged. "Well, you were never one for the jokes. I have a job for you."

Now it was Pyke's turn to smile. A job, for him? What he thinks he is? "I don't work like that, Jhin."

"Oh, but you will." Reaching to his pockets, he took out a blue-green purse. Actually, the colors were everchanging, one second a bright blue other second a dull green and reverse and so on... It was beautiful. Only a piece of incomprehensible beauty though. Slight hum, a faint song could be heard when one listens quietly.

Pyke knew what was inside that fabric. "How'd you get them?" He asked, his eyes never leaving from purse.

"It wasn't easy. Had to ask Thresh. Vlad helped too, but that's none of your business."

Just who was this man? Smart enough to figure out what would tempt Pyke and vile enough to find it.

"You're lying." Pyke replied with a frown. "These can't belong to Thresh. I can't see any form of torture."

"I thought you like them happy and pure." Jhin answered. "So we killed a bunch of temple priestess in their sleep. Then Thresh extracted them for me and vôila."

Pyke eyed Jhin for a moment. Nervously. The lights…these were souls. Essence of the life. Shard of the creation. The most sacred thing in the endless existence. Even Pyke could only dare to harvest souls of the cursed and such.

And this man was using them like cheap pennies.

"How?" Pyke asked, question struck him like a lightning bolt. "How can you force them to stay?"

Normally, after death souls passed naturally. In very rare cases, powerful curses may turn a soul to a wraith, binding them to this world. Thresh's lamp could also contain souls, but he had to use curses and power of his lamp.

But no normal magic or curse could give a soul materialized form.

"Answer to that question belongs to the part that none of your business as I said."

Fair enough. Pyke was but a wraith and nothing more. Laws and such, though binds him, it's not his mission to punish those who don't obey.

"Now, to said job, assuming you want them." Jhin drove shining souls to Pyke's side of table. "I want you to track someone."

"Who?" By the way he violated the laws of creation so freely, Pyke expected that whatever Jhin's going to want, won't be so easy. He knew he won't be suprised if the virtuoso asks him to kill a League hero or worse, a summoner.

"An insignificant man. Billy Bones."

"Who's this man?" Pyke repeated his question.

He felt Jhin's smile fade a little, or rather the feelings that made him smile replaced by something else. "A thorn at my side. Left alone, he's nothing. Though it's not him that's important, it's his company what concerns me."

Pyke shifted a little in his seat. "Do I have to ask or will you tell me?"

"The Piltover lot."

He heard of them. Not that he had anything with them, but it was kinda hard to miss Caitlyn and others while they're walking down the League halls. Pyke only knew the name of her. She was first to greet him to League, assumed he was after justice like she is. Warmth quickly replaced by disdain once she heard Pyke wants indiscriminated revenge. Others were…well indifferent to him as Pyke to them. A pink haired woman with gloves that looked like they were belonged to a golem and a man with a hammer that shifts at his will.

"All of them?"

"No." Jhin shook his head. "I assume the Sherrif is still in the League, keeping an eye on me."

"So…pink woman and the man with hammer then?"

Jhin nodded. It must be difficult for a man who loves to use gestures to hide his face all the time. "Vi and Jayce. Everyone assumes that she is the muscles and Jayce is the brain."

"Everyone?" Pyke asked. He was starting to adjust Jhin's peculiar manner of speaking. "But not you?"

"Vi has more muscles than brains, that's for sure. Though she has street smarts while Jayce's pyhsical force with his hammer o' his is something to be reckoned. But he tends to panic quickly under panic."

Pyke waited for a moment to digest information. "Where they are heading?"

"Well… That's the tricky part. I don't know. Probably somewhere on the continent."

"What?"

"It's a funny story actually. You see, I did not expect anyone to help Billy." Jhin chuckled. "So there was no watcher and…well they kinda escaped."

"But you have a lead, right? Unless you won't be here."

Jhin nodded once more. "They're on the Ionian soil. Heading to Bilgewater."

Pyke was starting to suspect that Jhin was holding something back again. So he asked; "Bilgewater? Why? Why not Piltover?"

"Billy was with the crew of Gankplank. His second mate, if I need to be exact." He explained quickly, not seeing any reason to hide anything from Pyke. "And a Demancian naval officer on undercover mission."

"That's convenient. No one knows Gankplank's crew, not anymore. From Bilgewater, to where?"

"Who knows. After we foiled his plans, I reckon Demancia won't take him back. He has no one but Caitlyn to look after him." Jhin answered. "And they both know that she's not enough."

Pyke took the shining purse. "I assume you want him before he reaches to Bilgewater."

"And alive. I need to talk to him."

"Other two?"

"Vi and Jayce? I don't want them at all. But I need them alive too. Killing them only result unnecessary heat."

Then Jhin get up and turned his back, heading to the door he came. " Wait until dawn. And Pyke, you'll have company in this quest of yours."

"Open the door, Karma!" Vladimir shouted from outside. "We need to talk."

"Go away!" She shouted back from her room. Every hero had one.

He was sent by Jhin to talk with Ionian leader. They needed her permission to move Pyke and the other one freely in Ionian lands. They didn't have time to forge fake identities and bribe every guard on their way, not this time. But if Karma let them…

"I just wanna talk!"

Though whatever he said, Karma stood adamant. "I have nothing to talk with you!"

"It's strictly business!"

"Of course it's business! It's always business!"

Vladimir sighed. "I really can't grasp the problem in this situation!"

Then it struck to him, suddenly. "Shit…"

Karma heard that through the door. "Oh so you remember!"

"It's not like I forget! It's just we were kinda busy last days!"

"Yeah, you were busy…with JHIN! Where were you on yesterday?"

"In the League." Hemomancer answered. "But I didn't have time to drop by. You know I would if I had any!"

He may be intented to extinguish the flames of her anger but with those words, but they only helped to fan them. "It's your home dammit! It's ME! You HAVE to find time! Create, if you don't have any!"

"I'm sorry Karma! If you just let me I can…"

Karma cut him. "Three months! Three months since you last came!"

"It's business, Karma! You know how it is!"

"I'M YOUR WIFE DAMMIT!" she shrieked.

"And the leader of Ionia!" Vladimir growled through his teeth. She was so angry that the secret they've been sharing for over a year is not important for her anymore. "Not for long though, if you don't keep it down!"

They were not the most expected couple in the League. Partly because Vladimir was a murderer and the sole practitioner of hemomancy while Karma is the leader of the peaceful Ionia. They were just unlikely as Garen and Katarina, but at least they were not forming a love triangle with Talon.

"Damn right I'm the leader of Ionia! I govern cities, wage wars, run policies, fight in a damn League! Yet I'm there when you need me! Where were you when I was waiting you!"

Thankfuly, not all the Ionians so closed minded in regard to their relation. "So you forget your anniversary?" A passing Yasuo commented on the fight. Acting as Karma's guard in the League, the swordsman was one of the few people that knew relation between her and the infamous hemomancer. "Wrong move…"

"There was a fight." Vladimir mouthed to him, not wanting anger his wifey more.

"You should win quicker." He mouthed back with a smile. Then he took something out of his belt and threw it to Vladimir. "Present."

Vlad catched it in the air with his long fingers. A necklace… Seemed like it was made out from coral, shining with a fiery red between his fingers. Karma's favorite colour.

Yasuo, the magnificent bastard! Guessing that Vladimir will forget about it, and Karma will fly into rage, he actually brought a present as a failsafe.

Vlad thanked heavens. "At least let me give you your present!"

"Ha!" Karma replied. "Like I fall for that!"

Vladimir eyed Yasuo for help.

"Karma." Yasuo joined the heated…conversation once more to aid Vladimir. "He's not lying."

She stopped on her tracks. Then she shout;"If he is, you're fired!"

"I have no doubt about it." Yasuo replied dryly.

The door opened slowly, with Karma's face visible through the small space between the door and the frame. She was holding it in case Vlad was actually lying.

Hemomancer showed the coral necklace, hoping it would be enough to calm her down. He loved his wife, he really did, but sometimes she could be too hot-headed and stubborn.

"Happy anniversary." said Vladimir, when Karma kept quiet. "And I'm sorry."

And she stood quiet still.

Yasuo coughed lightly. "Karma, I think you should let him in now."

Finally, she opened the door fully and Vladimir remembered why he fell for the woman he should be despised. She was beautiful, even her rage was beautiful. Her graceful form was wrapped in a tight little black dress, her bracelets and necklasses traded for more elaborate ones. "You're sleeping on couch tonight."

He could hear Yasuo laughing.

"So you want free pass. Why?" Karma asked. After Vladimir managed to calm her down fully, it proved quite a task, three of them; Karma Vladimir and Yasuo were sitting in the table.

"I told you already, we need to catch a guy."

"Who?"

Vladimir shrugged. "I don't know. Jhin knows the details."

"Is he a threat to Ionia?" Yasuo asked.

"No, I don't think so." Vladimir was quick to answer. One may think that lying could be more profitable in a situation like this, but he had all the leverage he needed already. They always have.

"Then I see no reason to let you wander in my land." said Karma. Vladimir may be his husband, but before her heart Karma had responsibilities to her people. Just like Vladimir had his, to his comrades.

"Honey, we're not asking for charity. We'll aid you in return."

"Oh." Karma raised an eyebrow. Another deal… "How so, darl' ?"

Vladimir smiled. "Jhin promises to help you against Kinkou."

Karma's black eyes narrowed, but it was Yasuo that speaked. "Ionia and Kinkou has no qualms."

"Ionia may not. But you do."

"Kinkou is an important if not vital part of Ionia, as they…"

Vladimir cut Karma, knowing what she'll say word by word. It's not the first time he was hearing this. "They are also your defenders, a part of it. I know that. And I know that their political ambitions have far surpassed their ambition to protect Ionia."

"There is no such thing, Vladimir. Your feud with Kinkou is yours."

"I'm not saying it isn't. We all have wars that we must fight alone. I'm only saying that you don't need to be alone in the one against, Kennen."

"What?"

"I'm listening." said Karma, however.

"Ever since his father killed by Zed and his greatest work undone by the people who set Jhin free, Shen is lost. Balance? There's no balance in Kinkou, not anymore." Vladimir started talking. "Eye of the Twilight does not care about this world. His war is unseen. While Akali is just a little girl with a blade."

"That leaves Kennen." Yasuo replied, slightly concerned what he might say next. He was familiar with battles that swords used but what is happening on this table? It was entirely different kind of warfare. "So what? We know he's in the control of the order's more worldly side."

"But do you also know that he's not satisfied by how Karma governs? 'Peace through love' you say, 'Peace through power' he replies with."

"And?" Karma asked. She was aware of her ideologies and of Kinkou.

"Kennen is planning a coup. Not now, not until you show weakness. But when you do it, that little furry bastard will try take your place."

Karma's eye narrowed. Amongst Jhin's…accomplishes, her husband was not only the strongest but also the smartest. And when his volatile temper tempered by that masked creature, his smarts ascends to another level. "Honey, you aware that I am guarded by an army, right?" She asked, fearing what she'll be hearing next.

"An army controlled by Irelia." replied Vladimir, his eyes shining momentarily. That was the moment he was waiting for.

Karma frowned. Now she was in more dangerous waters. "She never betrays me, if that's what you're implying."

"Is she now?"

"You know who she is Vladimir, right?" Karma asked back, clearly annoyed by the poison in his words.

"Of course I do. Irelia is just a soldier. A magnificent one. Her loyalty is iron."

"Then what is the problem?" This time it was Yasuo.

"Problem is honey, iron never bends but only breaks. Irelia will never betray Ionia and you as long as she sees you and the land as one." said Vladimir. "But at the moment she starts to see you as an hindrance rather than the smartest leader they ever had, she too, will try to remove you."

"And Jhin offers protection?"

"Only protection she needs, is me. Jhin offers help with Kinkou."

"How?" Karma asked.

Vladimir's eyes shone. Though no matter what she'll say, he'll weed out the betrayers to protect her. Karma was her wife and Vladimir loved her in his own fierce and twisted way. But it'll be nice to get something out of his charity.

"Only thing Kinkou wants more than control is Jhin. Indirectly, he killed Shen's father. His actions created the rift in the heart of Zed."

"So?"

"So we gonna make a little fuss with vastayas. You know how they hate him. And once they start to make moves, Kinkou will mobilize their forces too." Hemomancer answered. "That'll stall them for months. Maybe for even more. Meanwhile I'll help you to catch those who loyal to Kennen in your court."

"I can't promise that Ionia will stay idle once vastayas start to ask for help."

Vlad smirked. "No problem."

"And you can't kill Kennen, Shen or Akali."

"We can't even if you want to. They're League heroes."

Karma smiled. "Then we have a deal."