Tags: Comedy, Tragedy, Parody, Drama.
The air was cold with the thrilling chill of Snowdown, snowflakes fell from the sky and most of the passersby were wrapped in thick cloaks as they walked about minding their own business.
The residents of the Institute of War were a busy sort, what with them hurrying to reach a lobby room before the beginning of a match and filling in reports to have their Summoners banned for misconducting. And so, the illustrious champions of the League, dashed away and flew to their destinations, they slithered past their colleagues and teleported to the Summoner's Rift without sparing a single glance at the pathetic figure that was sitting on the pavement next to the entrance of an empty lobby room.
"Please, good Sir, give me a chance. I only want to support you at the bottom lane." Lux begged miserably, reaching with her dirty, shivering hands for the hem of Jhin's cloak, that just so happened to be walking by, only for the masked marksman to slap away her hands with an audible sneer.
"You wouldn't know supporting if I presented to you a play about it, child," Jhin said with a loud scoff, before his gaze settled on the torn rags that Lux was wearing, rags that provided no warmth in the harsh climate of this story. "Stay away from me, please, it would be an insult to my fans if I were to be seen associating with the common rabble."
Pressing her shaking palms against her chests in heartbreak, the blonde mage watched the finely-dressed gentleman walk away with quick graceful strides.
Lux remained quivering on the floor for what felt like hours as snowflakes landed on her clothes and hair, raising a battered tin can every time that someone approached her, and begging strangers to look at the two faded Mastery 6 tokens that laid inside it.
"Please, let me support you, I have spells that can hold enemies in place!" Lux said hoarsely when a blond explorer guy and his armored mace-wielding bodyguard stepped close to her.
"Hmm," Said the blond explorer guy, eyeing the Demacian beggar in consideration while the other man shifted awkwardly a few paces behind him, "Are the enemies defenseless when you bind them with your magic?" He scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"Well, kind of," Lux hastily explained, not wishing to waste the time of her betters, "My spells root them in place, but they can still attack us if they have a ranged weapon on their person. I can also use a spell that shields people from harm and-"
"Taric has one of those too," Ezreal cut her off, pointing with a thumb towards the big knight-guy over his shoulder, "And a mumbo jumbo that makes me invulnerable, and an aura-thingy that makes ouchies go away. Can you do that?" He challenged.
Lux shook her head, and the two male champions left after giving her a look full of pity.
"Don't give up, me," Lux whispered to herself, her breath fogging small white clouds in the cold air, "Garen and Prince Jarvan depend on you to make Demacia relevant once again. You can't give up here." She croaked, her throat dry from shouting to grab the attention of marksmen for so long.
Wiping some snow off from her hair, Lux noticed that a group of people were glaring at her in disgust. The group consisted of an edgy swordsman that was in a desperate need of a haircut, a pantless, purple archer that was suffering from the worst fungal infection that Lux had ever seen, and a mute musician.
"Look at her, shamelessly begging for attention. I've met humbler top laners in my promotions!" Varus commented arrogantly, using a handkerchief to hide his mocking smirk as he made fun of Lux, his level 5 Mastery emote flashing and disappearing above him, repeatedly.
"Pretending to be something that she isn't, how immature! I bet that she can only steal other people's kills in teamfights." Said Yasuo while he too laughed at the mage's expense, a marksman's badge secured on his tunic via a golden pin.
Struggling to carry an enormous sack of wards on her oversized hunchback, Sona simply shook her head at the Demacian woman's nerve. The mute musician, already groaning from the strain of carrying the sack with the laning supplies almost collapsed under the weight of her burden when her teammates also put their weapons on top of the sack.
"Stop wasting our time, woman," Varus spat venomously, glaring at the mute support, "We can't arrive late for the match or else you won't be able to pick my runes before we are transported to the Summoners Rift." He barked angrily.
Sona nodded fearfully and tried to walk faster, her enormous sack bouncing comically on top of her even bigger hunchback, trinkets and pink wards clanging against each other inside it.
In their hurry to meet their Summoners on time, the three champions didn't notice that one of the yellow trinkets fell from the sack. Lux waited until her colleagues were far away from her, and when she was absolutely sure that nobody was paying attention to her, she crawled closer to the misplaced item and hugged it close to her chest.
As if in a dream, Lux retreated back to her dirty corner and pressed her back against a garbage bin that was overflowing with unsold Chroma Packs. Somewhat shielded from the wrath of the elements for the time being, the blonde mage dragged the yellow trinket against her teeth as if she was lighting a matchstick.
This is the real way that supports activate their wards on the Rift.
The trinket's magic sparked into life, and Lux tenderly brought the precious yellow trinket closer to her face, peering into its light that was soothing and welcoming.
The warm glow of the first ward warmed the little heart of the freezing mage, reminding her of better Seasons when Ahri and Katarina weren't the most successful, de facto supports according to a popular League site. Gradually, as the light of the magic device grew stronger, a happy memory resurfaced in the poor mage's head, so clear and vivid that Lux could swear that she was watching the events of her past take place inside the glimmering core of the yellow trinket.
It was Luxanna's tenth birthday and her family was throwing a huge party to commemorate the occasion. There was live music in the form of chained slaves from Zaun and peasants were being ridiculed by blue-blooded brats while their parents watched proudly from a distance, holding glasses of champagne and adjusting their wigs every few seconds or so.
Nobody was accusing Lux of being an evil witch at the time, or yelling abuse at her for being different from the other kids. Quite the contrary actually, every child present was pretending to like her because of her family's fame and the comically tall birthday cake that the guests were eyeing impatiently. The children were licking their lips in quiet anticipation, barely containing their excitement at the prospect of tasting such a divine treat.
Lux wanted to stay there. She wanted to experience the happy memories of her birthday for a second time. Her heart yearned for the acceptance that these people were showing her. She wanted to open her presents, to brag about the Honors that she had received, to eat the cake and dance with Garen and to ride an elderly servant like a horse. Sadly, however, the magic of the ward was soon spent and the light faded along with the mage's pleasant reverie.
Lux held the yellow trinket for dear life, the miniscule heat of the magic object hardly enough to shield her from the immense cold and the disapproving glares of the Summoners and champions around her.
"Hey, kid! Are you really a support, or is this some sort of scam?" Inquired Sarah Fortune, the infamous Bounty Hunter, raising a red eyebrow while jutting her chin at Lux's cardboard sign, that proclaimed that she would 'Ward and shield for assists'.
A humongous titan of a man dressed in a rusty diving suit was standing beside the pirate queen of Bilgewater. He was eerily silent and still, observing the petite mage through the darkness of his visor. Heavy corroded chains secured an equally gargantuan anchor against his ramrod-straight back.
"It… it is not a scam, I-I can support you." Lux stuttered, combing her matted hair with her hand, trying to look more presentable. The mage alternated between smiling weakly at the female gunslinger and glancing uneasily at the intimidating tank in the diving suit.
"Oh really? Can you slap people around with a big-ass anchor?" Fortune jeered at the young mage, looking at her suspiciously, clearly unconvinced, "Can you hook enemies that are fleeing away, and bonk people on the head so hard that they think that they are dead and stop moving, so that I can waste them from a safe distance?"
"I-I can't..." Lux replied truthfully, because hiding that she had magical powers from the entire world for most of her life hadn't taught Lux how to deceive people or lie convincingly to anyone other than her family members that were dense, stupid nobles.
"Too bad, I wouldn't mind finding a new laning daddy," Miss Fortune sighed, grabbing one of her companion's giant fingers to lead him away from the useless support. Few of the nearby pedestrians snickered at the sight of the fiery captain dragging the humongous diver behind her, Fortune's delicate hands being decidedly too small to truly contain the tremendous girth of the abyssal titan's digit.
"Come on honey, let's see if Morgana's lingerie store has brought any new designs that you might like. Watching you spend your hard-earned gold for poor little me always gets me hot and bothered." The pirate queen purred at the intimidating titan, strutting away seductively while Nautilus trailed behind her like an obedient dog.
Lux stared at the two champions longingly until they disappeared behind a pawn shop where people could exchange family heirlooms and precious jewelry for RP. The blonde Demacian then directed her gaze back to the inactive yellow trinket that she held in her hands.
There were two charges left in the enchanted item, four precious minutes of love and warmth. And although Lux knew that she should ration her wards properly and save some of them for the night to avoid freezing to death, I wanted to keep this story short, so Lux forgot about being conservative with her limited resources and used another ward right away.
Once again, a faint glow emanated from the item and Lux huddled closer to it, curious to see what the new ward would reveal to her. The familiar sight of her parents' living room greeted Lux, a room bustling with activity filled with expensive furniture and humming servants.
All of the people present were singing the national anthem, searching for embroidered flags inside cardboard boxes and unfolding patriotic items that were wrapped in old newspaper for safekeeping. The servants were dressed in their best uniforms and judging from the celebratory banners that she and Garen were hanging on top of the regular ones, Lux guessed that the memory took place sometime around Demacia Day.
"Justice, justice, justice, justice, for DEMACIA is JUST!" Garen sang jovially, recklessly balancing on top of a plush chair as he hung another hanging Noxian effigy from the chandelier.
"Justice, justice, justice, justice, for Demacia is just." The servants begrudgingly repeated the verse after him, albeit less enthusiastically than the male Crownguard. Their voices were scratchy and devoid of energy, their expressions were resigned and haggard, some of them seeming borderline catatonic.
Knowing her brother, Garen must have been singing the national anthem for hours, oblivious to the tiredness of the servants that were obliged by Demacian law to sing along with the older Crownguard or face charges of treason for their unpatriotic behavior. Garen, the big oaf, of course would never have guessed that some people didn't enjoy screaming the name of their country all day long. Her brother loved Demacia Day nearly as much as he loved their nation itself. Demacia Day, was in fact his favorite celebration of the year.
"Slaying villains, mages and ruffians, killing Noxians to the last," Garen happily took another hanging Noxian effigy from young Lux and proceeded to attach it to the glided grapevines of the chandelier, bouncing on his feet to the tune of the song, "For DEMACIA is JUSTICE and JUSTICE NEEDS TO BE PRESERVED! With Jarvan LIGHTSHIELD, we will maim and KILL, until all of Valoran is SAVED!"
Lux watched her younger self nod her head and smile at her brother while handing him another toy crafted in the likeness of an executed Noxian soldier. This one was even uglier than the last one, sporting a big red nose, a squashed forehead and a pair of goat horns sprouting out from its temples. The appearance of the horns or the ugliness of the Noxian didn't surprise young Lux. She had heard her father and uncle talking late at night about how Noxians were all good-for-nothings that made babies with animals, and more specifically sheep, pigs and goats, so a few of them having animal parts was to be expected in her opinion.
"Thanks, Lux," Garen ruffled the young girl's blonde locks. The older Crownguard leaned forward, bending his knees in preparation for a mighty leap, before jumping down from the chair and taking three steps back to admire his work. Lux instantly shuffled beside him, standing proudly next to her big brother and giggling at all the ugly witch dolls, Noxian dolls and door-to-door salesmen dolls that were hanging from the chandelier like swaying scorpions on a Vastayan stroller.
"It's so pretty!" Lux gushed, taking in all of the decorations that she and Garen had set up in preparation for the eve of Demacia Day. The family sword by the fireplace looked beautiful with all of the pink and red ribbons wrapped around it, the walls of the room were covered in intricate banners which in turn were obscured behind even bigger Demacian flags. Not even the living room's windows had been spared from the invasive encroach of the gold and blue fabrics. The two children had been meticulous in completing the task given to them by their parents. Mother, had instructed them to use as many flags as possible to showcase their patriotic spirit to potential visitors and Father had threatened to spank them if the prince didn't compliment the authentic Demacian décor when he came over to play knights with Garen.
"It's so pretty," Lux repeated dreamily, just in case that anyone forgot what was happening in the scene after reading a plethora of bizarre descriptions meant to cash in on the nostalgia of commonplace Christmas imagery, and possibly draw a forced chuckle from those that caught how I replaced a Christmas tree with a sword in the story because of Garen's obsession with them.
Smiling at his sister's innocent enthusiasm, young Garen reached out with a skinny arm and hugged Lux against his side. "It truly is, Lux. It truly is..." He mouthed reverently, taking a long drag from the lit cigar that a nameless servant placed between his lips at his beckoning gesture.
The memory ended there, with the siblings smiling together, hugging in the living room as tired servants tiptoed out of the room to clean up the slaves for tomorrow's inspection. The scene started losing its colors, unceremoniously becoming blurry as melting snowflakes were blown across the pulsing crystal of the magical artifact.
Present Lux laughed brokenly as she watched the light of the yellow trinket fade, and then completely disappear. The cold air whipped at her exposed face like a whip made of frigidness and sadness, her numb fingers actually stinging from the freezing wind that kept assaulting Lux's trembling form like a camping enemy jungler on her promos.
The blonde mage futilely wrapped her arms around her body to protect herself from the brain-halting cold. Night would be upon her soon, the sky already being a dark blue with patches of black clouds. The shadows were lengthening as sunlight retreated behind the mountaintops, the spreading silhouettes of the nearby buildings stretching and widening like inky snot spreading on a folded napkin.
Desperate for some semblance of warmth, a small reprieve from the chill of the winter night that was seeping into her very bones, the blonde mage tentatively stood up. With unsteady footsteps and red windswept cheeks, Lux peered into the garbage bin behind her and reached for one of the unsold Chroma skins that had been dumped there.
The Chroma was a cheap, mass-produced thing, a worthless byproduct of Zaunite engineering advancing beyond the wildest speculations of even the most imaginative Piltovian scholars. The texture of the blouse in Lux's hand was rough and her fingers felt itchy just from holding it, the color was an unappealing shade of azure that had started losing its vibrance despite being a brand new piece of clothing.
Turning the itchy blouse in her hands, Lux caressed its rectangular white label with her thumb, blinking owlishly as her eyes settled on the letters that had been printed on it. 'Sinful Blueberry Winter Wonder Lulu' She read with some difficulty due to the diming daylight.
Lux grimaced at her discovery, suddenly understanding why the blouse looked like it had been shrank in the washing machine a few times too many. Still, a tiny blouse was better than nothing, and Lux put it on after a short moment of inner debate.
Pulling her head and her limbs out and through the appropriate holes in the blouse was a difficult task, but Lux managed to do so after quite a few minutes of struggling, twisting, and silent cursing.
"I look like Garen before mother put him on a diet," The blonde mage mumbled miserably, glancing at the point where Lulu's blouse ended approximately above her bellybutton and her own ragged outfit continued below the restrictive piece of clothing. The sleeves of the blouse were barely able to reach her elbows, and Lux had to refrain from making sudden movements as to avoid tearing up her new blouse.
The Demacian champion frowned at the pile of disposed Chromas inside the garbage bin. Most of them appeared to be damaged, old, and several sizes too small for her to fit inside them. The clothes were also reeking of plastic.
'Supports can't be choosers,' Lux thought morosely, scanning the discarded items in the garbage bin for something that could be of use to her, a ratty scarf to keep the cold at bay or a burnt mitten from the cooking Skin-line to warm her trembling hands.
Lux spotted a pair of revealing blue leggings that were supposedly part of the same yordle outfit that she was wearing, a polka dot ninja mask that Zed would never condone wearing on or outside the Rift, and a replica of Soraka's staff that had been spray-painted a vivid green color with crimson and silver flames drawn across the flat part of its crescent end to make it look cooler and more appealing to young Summoners. There was also a ginger cat inside the smelly container, a mangy-looking stray with one milky eye that was currently licking a plastic fish -probably an accessory from one of Fizz's flamboyant outfits.
The blonde mage ignored the cat, seriously contemplating whether or not she should try to put on the leggings meant for Lulu and if the Ninja Union would sue her in case she decided to wear the hideous ninja mask to protect her face from the wind. Lux had heard all kind of scary stories about cosplayers being put on trial for dressing up as their favorite Kinkou members and court summons appearing in the mailboxes of people that left unflattering comments on video recordings of K\DA concerts.
"Lux? Is that you?" A feminine voice spoke in the relative darkness. The blonde woman froze in her tracks, holding the tiny leggings in front of her, one leg raised to traverse the smothering depths of the disproportionately smaller pants, the other bent as her upper half leaned forward. Turning her head to face whoever was speaking to her, Lux coughed awkwardly upon coming face to shades with Shauna Vayne, a fellow Demacian champion and popular markswoman of the League. Great...
"H-hey, Vayne, what are you doing here?" Lux asked timidly while hastily hiding the stolen leggings behind her back. The blonde mage knew that she looked terrible, what with her disheveled appearance and her dirty face and a filthy yordle blouse restricting her breathing and offending Vayne's nose with its stench of decomposing synthetic material.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." The other Demacian replied hurriedly taking a step back, her shade-covered eyes darting around for a way out of this predicament.
The inspiring support gave the black-haired woman a quizzical look, tilting her head in confusion as she examined the flustered and defensive champion in front of her. Lux's gaze then landed on the ticking timer above Shauna's head and her eyes widened in recognition.
"Are you in queue right now?!" Lux gasped excitedly, her expression brightening like a toaster that had been polished by a department store clerk in anticipation of an inspection from their regional manager.
An endless barrage of questions was hurled at the unfortunate Night Hunter courtesy of the hopeful light mage, the inquiries popping out of Luxanna's mouth like slices of bread flying out of a toaster, "Is it a Ranked game? Have you already found a support? Because I can support you if you haven't! Let me just get my light baton from the pawn shop over there and I will be back in a second. Oh! I also have to punch in my Autofill Card for the free pink ward, but we can do that in the lobby-"
"No, you can't!" Vayne shouted, frustration and fear radiating from her voice like heat radiates from the cunning, baleful slits of a short-circuited toaster. "I... I already have a support," Stated the cagey markswoman, her body language tense, eyes sweeping the place for a potential candidate to bring in the bottom lane with her and decline Lux's offer without sounding rude and snobbish. Shauna didn't dislike Lux, she just didn't want to lane together with a clueless amateur.
"My support is..." Vayne croaked, hyperventilating, her mind drawing a complete blank. The Night Hunter knew that she was usually laning along with other League champions, but she could only picture cannon minions with blurry faces when she thought about her teammates.
"My support is..." She mouthed weakly, the names of her everyday colleagues, the people that she never failed to report after each match, slipping past her mental grasp at the moment in her mounting panic. Vayne was standing at the edge of an all-consuming abyss, muffled memories of past experiences and helpful information concerning the Fields of Justice drowning below the hopelessness that welled from her rapidly- beating heart. There was no way in the Void that she was going to fight alongside an autofilled support! There was just no way!
Abruptly, the Night Hunter's frantic gaze settled on the mangy ginger cat that had climbed on top of the garbage bin and was currently licking at its genitals. "My support is Yuumi!" Vayne cried out victoriously, grabbing the stray feline and cuddling it in her arms.
"But that's not Yuumi." Lux observed slightly confused as the stray started thrashing about, scratching Vayne with its claws and meowing in agitation.
"Of course the cat is Yuumi, who else could it be?" The black-haired Demacian smiled unconvincingly, wincing when the stray raked its claws across her cheek, cutting thin lines on Vayne's pale face.
"But if this is really Yuumi where is her friend Book?" The blonde mage wondered curiously, sparing a quick glance inside the garbage bin to make sure that the missing self-sentient magical tome wasn't there amongst the discarded Chromas.
"Who cares!" Vayne retorted urgently, struggling to keep the cat's menacing claws away from her face while the damn creature span and jerked about in her arms, "Look, I have to go now. It was nice seeing you, Lux, we should totally lane together sometime or something. Arggh! Bye!" Vayne said before she jogged away from the naive champion to the sounds of pained hissing and annoyed meowing.
Lux sighed as she sat down on the floor and drew her legs closer to her chest. "Not even my countrymen want me to be in their team." She whispered somberly, pulling her I-Hex phone out of her pocket to check her messages. Two automated messages informed her that her application for the jungler position in a Shuriman team had been denied, and another unread message notified her that Emperor Azir would rather utilize Renekton as a support in the foreseeable future instead of hiring a foreign mage with poor credentials to do the job.
Lux couldn't even laugh at this turn of events. Her fellow League champions and former comrades were shunning her, ditching her for talking cats and mad ghosts and bipedal crocodiles with anger issues. The Summoners literally preferred inviting actual animals over to their important games instead of giving Lux the chance to prove her worth as a viable support.
"It's so unfair," Lux whispered softly in the dark, tears streaking down her face. She was the first one to encourage her teammates when they lost a neutral objective to the enemy jungler and all hope seemed lost, and she was the last one to give up when there was even a slim chance of victory too. Slowly, Lux's trembling hands brought the almost spent yellow trinket in front of her face.
"Show me another memory, please," The crying girl begged the enchanted item, her entire body quivering due to the frigid temperature and her heart-wrenching sobs, "Another birthday party, a family diner, a stroll in the park alongside Garen, a smile, a praise, a hug, anything will do," She begged between her sobs that only got louder and louder, "Just take me away from this lonely place, please."
And with that heartfelt plea, the scorned blonde mage activated the yellow trinket for the third time that day. A plume of warmth caressed her pale numb palms, speckles of light graced the air like buzzing fireflies dancing around her.
And then, as abruptly as it had burst out from the item's core the light faded. The warmth was replaced by soul-crushing cold and the magic residing within the yellow trinket died out forever.
Wordlessly, Lux turned the defective trinket in her hands, her thumb rubbing against the small inscription at its base. In the distant light of a harsh and impersonal street lamp, Lux managed to make out the words 'MADE IN IONIA' protruding from the base of the item like an inverted ink stamp of sorts.
Absolved of her last source of happiness, the poor girl curled up into a ball and cried.
QQQQ
The following morning the residents of the Institute gathered around the aspiring support that had frozen to death overnight. Most of them looked at her serene expression and expressed their pity and regret for such an unwarranted death, her former teammates shed tears reminiscing of all their times together in the Fields of Justice.
"This is truly a tragedy," Jhin drawled behind his mask, bowing to set a single red rose on the young mage's unmoving chest, "It always pains me when the actors fall before they have the chance to be under the spotlight. Everybody deserves a role in my plays."
"I-if only she was a better support," Ezreal whimpered loudly, crouched as he was beside Lux the explorer was shaking like a toaster put in a blender, "If only she had more heals and shields and she was worse at hitting skillshots than I am so that her performance wouldn't overshadow mine," The adventurous archeologist shook his head sadly, "Then she would have been my laning partner and this wouldn't have happened to her. Why couldn't she have been more useful, Hex-dammit!?" Ezreal roared at the sky, arms raised above his head to wrestle with the cruel gods for this injustice.
"She and I were like brothers and sister," Varus wept behind his lilac handkerchief, "I can't believe that she is gone just like that. Not when we had finally convinced our Summoners to let us lane together for a couple of matches." He choked on a drawn-out sob that almost sounded like a snicker.
Too overwhelmed by the sight of the deceased support, Yasuo merely slapped the Ionian marksman's back in camaraderie. Then he spotted the two Level 6 Mastery Tokens inside Lux's abandoned tin can at her feet and he grinned smugly at being better than her by a small margin.
Sona wasn't present to witness what had happened to poor Lux, since she was doing Varu's laundry, and let me tell you, for a guy that never wears any trousers Varus had enough clothes to fill three wardrobes.
The sound of high-heels clanking against the pavement drew the crowd's attention as Sarah Fortune strutted forward, Nautilus drunkenly trailing behind her as if the mighty subterranean titan was hypnotized by the Bounty Hunter's swaying hips.
"This is so sad," Miss Fortune sniffled in an exaggerated heartbroken tone, roughly grabbing Nautilus' arm and leaning against the quiet titan to press her breasts against said arm, "I'm devastated. I think that I'm going to faint. All this death and grief, this gloominess... It is too much for me. If only there was a strong and dependable male here to take me shopping and heal my broken heart, a man among men that I could show my appreciation to after I recover from this ordeal." She purred alluringly, sensually rubbing her breasts against the lovestruck support's gargantuan arm whilst fluttering her long eyelashes at Nautilus.
"Is that my blouse?" Lulu asked, pointing an uncertain finger at the deceased blonde mage, "And my leggings?" She added upon noticing Lux wearing another smaller article of clothing than what adult humans were supposed to be wearing.
Standing a few paces away from the dead girl, Vayne just shook her head remorsefully. The Night Hunter was currently unable to voice her thoughts. She was unable to speak. Her mouth couldn't produce placating words like the hypocrites that surrounded her. Her brain couldn't pretend that everything was going to be alright and that this was just a bad dream that she would wake from to apologize to Lux in the morning.
And even if there was a chance for them to reconcile… if the Harrowing came at this very moment and Lux was amongst the mindless wraths that hungered for life and Vayne expressed her genuine remorse about dismissing her yesterday, the Night Hunter knew that she didn't deserve the mage's forgiveness.
How could she allow Lux to forgive her when she had refused to help the young girl when she had needed her the most? How could she talk fondly about the optimistic chatterbox that was no more when she had inadvertently been one of the villains that had silenced her forever.
So Vayne said nothing, stepping aside as Garen approached his cold, pale sister. The giant fell to his knees to embrace Lux and muffle his sobs against her blonde hair, and Vayne still held her tongue and only watched silently as people wept and hugged and lied behind grieving masks.
Something shifted in her murderous, leaden arms. The one-eyed cat that Vayne had been holding made an impatient noise, and Vayne scratched her new pet behind the ears as the crowd around Lux parted so that Yorick could reach the corpse.
The Night Hunter couldn't keep watching this anymore. Vayne turned around and walked away.