Chapter 2- Letters From X

The journal was strange, not because it had anything out of the ordinary in it, but because it didn't. Caitlyn had been reading it for nearly two hours, but nothing pertaining to her case came up. That's not to say there was nothing interesting in it. One thing she immediately noticed is that it was all written backward. So, Cait had to read it, holding it up to a mirror. Cait was starting to wonder if it was even a journal at all. It seemed like someone had been writing poetry or even a novel. The journal made the undercity come to life for Cait in a way she had never seen before. For a terrorist, this 'X' girl was a very talented writer. As she read, Caitlyn became invested in X and her and her adoptive father's efforts to create an independent nation free of oppression, a nation that had not been free to direct their own destiny since foreign invasion. The author called it Zaun.

Cait had heard that word before. It was supposed to be the name of an independent undercity, and many people spoke in hushed whispers about some Chembaron who was going to make it happen. However, the enforcers from Piltover could never bring back evidence of the rumors.

One entry in the journal that Caitlyn was particularly curious about was one that was dated the year she became an enforcer.

I saw one of those pitlie pigs in the market the other day. Dad took me to get a new clip for my braids. He told me to stick close to him, but I saw a hair piece that I liked. Golden bands. I stopped to look at them when one of the enforcers nearby started yelling at me, accusing me of stealing. I tried to tell him I wasn't stealing and that my dad was with me, but when I turned, I couldn't find him. The officer then hit me across the face, and I fell to the ground, scraping my knees. The voices came back, and I started yelling at them to stop because I couldn't concentrate with how loud they were. The officer thought I was talking to him, I think. He hit me again, and the voices got worse. The more I protested and tried to stop the voices, the more the officer hit me.

I don't know what happened because I think I blacked out. The next thing I remember happening is waking up in dad's office. I was sitting in his chair while he cleaned my scrapes.

Cait remembered this incident. One of the new recruits was sent to the undercity on his first day. He claimed to be teaching a shoplifting kid a lesson, but the eyewitness statements were disturbing. They had to send the man to Stillwater for life because the child's father was a chembaron and swore to kill him if he ever saw him again. A few months later, he was beaten to death in prison by another inmate. Cait always wondered if this chembaron didn't find a way to murder the officer anyway. Cait continued reading the entry.

Dad wasn't happy. He was going on about how he was going to talk to the council in Piltover and ask to be in charge of our own policing. A police force with trained Zaunites to police Zaunites. How only we understood our own people and how to punish them.

He then put in the gold bands and rebraided my hair.

He never did ask if I really tried to steal them or not.

X

Did Silco really request this police force? And if he did, why didn't anyone grant it to him? She was told by her mother the opposite. That the chembarons refused to police anyone and that led to more terrorist attacks in Piltover. Its why the enforcers were always hitting the undercity hard. If it was true that Silco wanted to police but was denied it would mean Piltover and the enforcers, the council, everything Cait believed was a lie. Her mother was lying. Cait needed to find this girl for more reasons than just a missing hex gem.

Cait was sure that even with the journal, she found that it would not be enough for her supervisor Marcus. After all, there wasn't even a name in the journal. And who would believe that a teenage girl was responsible for such intricate planned attacks. That some teenager from the undercity, with no formal or higher education, could be capable of making such complicated explosive devices. She had taken some of the grenades this girl had made to Victor hoping he may recognize a manufacturer or run tests on the powder residue in the hopes that maybe they could pinpoint a supplier at the very least. So, who could she bring this journal to that she could trust? Jayce was still good friends with her, and she still needed to check with Victor about the results from the grenade residue. She decided to head over to the university when she heard the doorbell ring. When she answered it, she was shocked to find a thin, sickly man on the other side. It was Viktor.

"Please accept my apology for the intrusion, Miss Cait, but this is an urgent matter. May I come in?" He asks expectantly. Still a bit thrown by Viktor's presence, she nods and quickly steps aside to let the man in.

They take a seat in the parlor.

"Would you like tea?" Cait asks, try to be a proper host and not jumping straight to business.

"No, thank you, I can't stay long. I only came because of this." Viktor pulls a wide envelope out of his vest and hands it to Caitlyn. She accepts it and opens it up. At first, her brain can't make any sense of the data on the sheet in front of her. Her eyebrows knit together in confusion, but Viktor doesn't rush. He allows her to take it all in. She realizes she is looking at lab results of the bomb residue, and for the most part, the report is what one would expect, basic ingredients for explosives, but at the bottom is an ingredient Caitlyn had never seen on a forensics lab report before.

"Hex dust?" Caitlyn says with a raised eyebrow. She looks at Viktor from over the top of the page, waiting his reply.

"That's right. It shouldn't be possible, but whoever made these grenades found a way to make powder from the unrefined hex stones."

"How!? If they even slightly crack, they-"

"Blow anything up with in a 30-foot radius? Yeah, that's why it shouldn't be possible." He explains, standing up using his cane to support him. "Whoever this terrorist is, is a genius, highly dangerous. We must find out who it is before they advance any further."

"Have you told Jayce about this?"

"Hmm, no I have not. Since he's joined the council, he has become... stiffer and more distrustful of undercity citizens. I'm afraid this could unsettle him far beyond reason." He sighs; Jayce's new role is really taking its toll on Viktor. Cait makes a note to speak with Jayce about it later.

"Before you go, could you take this and see if you can track the ink?" Cait hands the note she found in her room over to Victor. He glances down at it.

"Save her?" He reads out loud. He looks at Cait questioningly.

"I think someone broke into my house. I found it by my bed after taking a shower." She explains.

Viktor's lips pierce together.

"Mm I see. Miss Kirammin has acquired a stalker. I will put this as a top priority." Victor heads towards the door and Cait follows and lets him out.