Jayce's eyes felt like lead, he was awake—but he couldn't open his eyes. Yet he felt an overwhelming warmth. Through his left arm, back, and chest. The gladiator sighed his right hand dragged over his face. The warm feeling immediately stopped—replaced with dull pounding soreness.
"Fuck…" Jayce said scratching his beard and opening his eyes a crack. The dark room was illuminated by candlelight. A figure stood over him, skinny and pale like a phantom. Their fingers worked meticulously to wrap his bloodied knuckles. It was one of the colosseum doctors—but Jayce didn't recognize this one.
As his blurred vision came into focus the man's face solidified. His features were fatigued with dark circles under chestnut eyes and fair skin. His hair was shoulder length with barely visible streaks of blonde.
"Does my dick still work?"
Jayce felt the doctor physically pause, his hands stilled. The man looked down on him— a smirk tugged at his lips.
"Excuse me?" The doctor giggled in a strange accent. "I'm surprised that is your first concern. But uhh…yes. I think." The doctor said as he shook his head.
Jayce looked up at him, the doctor was elegant and regal. He had the beauty of a woman and a figure like a swan. The doctor seemed to be crushing some herbs together. He was nimble and delicate—every movement was precise and thought out. This beautiful doctor engraved the gladiator he hadn't even realized what he was talking about.
"Talis? Are you listening?"
"Huh?"
"Ugh, Diana help me." He cursed. "I was saying that you shouldn't do any physical activity for a while—obviously. Yet it seems your schedule has different plans."
"I'll be fine, I always am." Jayce then tried to sit up but then instantly winced.
"I'm not saying you won't, but I've seen men die from less." The Doctor shrugged.
"I haven't seen you before, who are you?" Jayce inquired—curious about the man's queer accent.
"Viktor, you need not more than that."
Jayce didn't bother to protest. Jayce shrugged and stiffened at a soft cooing noise. He felt something cold and slimy shift beside him.
"Rio! Get off him right now!" Viktor scolded. Jayce looked over his shoulder and saw a large pink salamander-like creature on top of him. The creature's tongue was purple and mopier as it slid across his beard to his neck.
"Rio!" Viktor yelled, "I'm sorry I don't know what's gotten into her. She's usually not this friendly near people." The Doctor snapped his fingers and the giant pink salamander wobbled into Viktor's lap nearly knocking over several medicine bottles.
"Apologies, Rio seems to like you she means no harm but she's usually shy around people."
"It's fine, she's cute." Jayce glanced over at Viktor's lap as the creature's massive yellow eyes closed.
"What is that thing?" Jayce asked sitting up.
"Just a Wavrider, they are not from here."
Their small talk was however interrupted by the sound of light echoing footsteps approaching. It was a young olive-skinned woman with a freckled complexion.
"Doctor?" She asked holding a candle up to her face.
"Just a moment, sky." Viktor dismissed "She is my assistant, don't mind her."
Viktor then packed up his things, the man hid his cane under his cloak. When he stood Jayce saw just how frail he was. It was ironic for a healer to be this sickly.
"I heard you're friend will be in the ring shortly. I'd recommend for you to stay in bed but I won't forbid you to see it." Viktor said as he pulled his royal blue cloak away from Rio's slimy jaw.
"Happy progress day. Mr. Talis."
Then he was gone.
~~~
Vi was having her armor put on her—because of course, she was deemed too dangerous to for it herself. It became exhausting—one moment being treated like a respected gladiator and the next like a villain. The ginger blue-eyed girl hesitated as she unlocked her muzzle.
"What's the point of this I don't bite," Vi teased, but the girl didn't seem so amused. For the second fight of progress day Vi was going up against another criminal—one that she had put up against before. However, besides an earthquake, the match was cut short.
Vi was pumped for a rematch, technically being a criminal fighter every match she fought was to the death. Each battle could be her last, but that feeling. That sensation of being so close to death but coming out on top…. was addicting. Once the gates open Vi practically sprinted out. Her opponent was a giant tattooed man with a bronze jaw. The crowd cheered—not for her of course, not her opponent. But for the blood sport.
Over the years Vi became incomplete for being the indestructible Zaunite. The felon that refused to die, she was Villian everyone secretly liked. The type of fighter who despite her status as noble still threw her gifts from the stands.
Vi cracked her neck and looked up at the lower stands. And lo and behold Jayce was there—a tired and bandaged Jayce but it was him. He waved her weakly, knowing full well that this wouldn't be her last fight.
~~~
Jayce spectated, his bandages were still fresh and his wounds delicate concealed by his hastily put-together clothing. His boast ached, and Jayce started to regret not listening to Viktor. The Gladiator started to escape back into his mind until his stream of consciousness was interrupted.
"Good evening Talis." Jayce whipped his head around but his little expression dropped.
It was Mel Medarda, one of the emperor's council members. She was dressed in whites and shimmering golds. She hadn't aged a day from the last eight years, while Jayce felt like he had aged decades. He was almost resentful of her—that he was left to rot. She is one of the people who sentenced him to be expelled from the academy. One of the members who responded to innovation with punishment. And now here he is, stripped of his status as an inventor and reduced to the catalyst for blood sport.
"Long time no see," Jayce sneered,
"I knew you became a gladiator after your expulsion." Mel paused. "But I didn't know you made such a name for yourself. I congratulate you." Mel praised.
"You think I wanted this?"
"Of course not, but you still found purpose."
Jayce held his tongue, talking back to a council member couldn't end well. Purpose. The way she said that filled him with venom. She spoke as if she'd done him a favor.
Jayce—despite his stature felt almost as small as the day of his trial. A young twenty-something up in chains. He was treated as a troublesome child for daring to fulfill the city's namesake—progress. Mel might portray herself as a benevolent and kind devotee of Venus, but there is no denying her role in his expulsion.
"You know, I was simply trying to protect Piltover," Mel said looking through her opera glasses down at the arena. Jayce's downcast head perk up at that. His hardened expression softened then soured again.
"I bet you tell yourself that every night-"
"I know I wronged you Talis," Mel stated firmly as she looked the gladiator in his eye, even her hazel eyes seemed to command attention. Viciously beautiful….
Before Jayce could counter Vi seemed to shout something from the arena.
"He's using shimmer!" She screeched, the woman was on the ground–she spat out a tooth. The bronze-jawed man's many black tattoos were absorbed by thick pulsing violet veins across his back and shoulders. Even his eyes shined a subtle sickly hue of lilac.
Fuck.
Shimmer. In the past eight years, it was a drug that rapidly gained popularity within informal fighting arenas. Eventually, it was dealt out to prisoners who were sentenced to death. The steric substance rapidly increased muscle mass, enhanced sight and agility, and even mental capabilities. It was sold at scathing–there were even stories of men selling their wives and sons just for a chance to make it out of a gladiator battle alive. Who wouldn't, in the face of death a man could do anything just for a slim chance to negate it.
The Coliseum was in an uproar, guards storming the man as an intermission was called. Some even evacuated themselves. Despite the hysteria, Jyace's mind stayed focused on Vi as she was chained again and escorted away–blood dripping from her lip and nose.
Drip.
Drop.
Drip.
Never has Jayce seen Vi so…defeated. Unlike him, she never faced a shimmer user before. She stayed proud of course, it had been a long time since Jayce had seen Vi express an emotion that wasn't rage or reckless abandonment. Maybe just maybe he could glimpse a fraction of the scared child he saw before.
She was a teenager when she first arrived from Zaun, Jayce had only been a gladiator for a few months. It was nearing progress day at the time, and all the other fighters were feasting together. Yet, by then Jayce had lost his extroverted edge and was simply wandering around until he neared the prisons–fresh meat that would no doubt be slaughtered in the coming days, either by gladiators or by other criminals. Yet Talis had heard…sobbing. Of course, crying was probably the most common noise coming from the jails. But the weeping itself was not from the noise itself, but who was making it. The voice sounded feminine–and scarily young.
Jayce investigated–entering the dank dark dungeon. Luckily most of the guards were either piss drunk or piss drunk. So sneaking past them was reversibly effortless. The young man had only walked down three cells until he heard the origin of the sobbing. It was a girl. She looked no older than Caitlyn–Jayce's friend whom he was separated from after his sentencing. She was tense, hunched over on the stone floor, with a thin stream of moonlight sneaking through her tiny window near the top of the cell.
"Hey," Jayce greeted, clearing his voice a tad. The girl's head whipped around, her eyes a blueish gray, her cheeks red and puffy from tears. She squirmed, a look of fear and aggression flashed across her face.
"I'm not gonna hurt you…" Jayce soothed but the girl didn't relax. "What's your name?" The young gladiator inquired. The girl still stayed silent. Jayce sighed and tossed a small jug filled with water and down wine, which he often carried with him.
"Here. Take it, you don't have to talk"
"..."
After a few moments, the girl kneeled to open the jug and immediately began to drink. She must be thirsty Jayce thought. Jayce then gave up and sighed, tapping his thick fingers on the bars of the cell.
"Vi" The girl murmured, her eyes adverted from Jaye.
"Hmm?"
"My name is Vi"
~~~
The next few matches of the day were canceled, and so were his other matches. Jayce wasn't concerned with that. Not at all. He waited outside the room where Vi was being treated. He overheard muffled words and not-so-secret whispers. A loud band rang out and the doctor stumbled out of the room.
"Hey! Is Vi…?" Jayce asked. The gladiator paused at the subtle surprise he felt when he saw Viktor. It wasn't a big deal at all, he was just a new–uninteresting doctor. Nothing more.
"Viktor…" Jayce sighed, noticing just how shaken up the healer was. He crumbled to his knees on the floor. "Woah…" The gladiator soothed in his rough–sandpaper-like voice Jayce caught the man his arms wrapped lazily around his underweight form.
"I….I was never told…I…shimmer." he hissed his gold hands pushing away the olive-skinned fighter. Suddenly, Viktor's fearful yet dazed expression dissipated into aggression. "Unhand me you cur!" The doctor shrilled. Vikor was nothing but a ball of nerves, the man even tried to hit him with his cane. Jayce blocked it with his forearm, he scowled at the doctor. A man once so calm and refind reduced too…this. It was disturbing, like when Jayce saw Vi be dragged away.
Jayce knew it was a scummy thing to do but the gladiator yanked the cane away from the doctor.
"What's happening to V?" Jayce stated sternly. Viktor's heaving chest slowed. His wild gold eyes tamed at Vi's name, or perhaps it was being suddenly disarmed.
"She's fine, you're friend will be fine, nothing more than a black eye." Viktor sputtered, his normally formal and precise wording seemingly absent. Jayce loosened his hold on the healer, took a deep breath, and gave the cripple his cane. Despite Jayce's relief, a new wave of confusion replaced it.
"Then, why? Why were you so-"
"It doesn't matter now, go…go visit your friend after Sky is done. Isn't take what you wanted?" Viktor accused, limping away from the bearded gladiator. "I bet you felt so powerful…stealing cane from a cripple" Viktor rasped as he disappeared down the hall.
Jayce stood there stunned, a tight white-hot ball of anxiety formed in his stomach. He bit the inside of his cheek and carved crescents into his palms. Powerless, he was powerless. That thought alone already made him uneasy. Yet, that was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Progress day, Mel, Vi, and Viktor.
"Looks like you've been busy." A familiar voice called out to him.