Chapter 11

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Jayce's Progress Day speech did not go as planned. Viktor and Jayce had decided they were going to ignore Heimerdinger's warning to take more time on their projects; they were excited to present their ideas, even if they were not widely available for public use. However, Jayce had decided at the last minute to hold off on their presentation, much to Viktor's dismay.

You shot him an empathic look, his shoulders slumped with disappointment, as you helped Sky start carrying things back to the lab.

"We'll figure it out." You promised as you walked past him. He gave you a sad smile that didn't reach his eyes, your heart breaking for him.

You spent most of the rest of the day moving and organizing the lab. There were a lot of little pieces to dismantle, move, and then set back up. You took direction from Sky, she knew how those machines worked inside and out, you were still a little hazy on the details. It wasn't your area of expertise.

It was evening by the time you saw Viktor again, you and Sky sharing a look as he sat down in front of the Hexcore without saying a word. You weren't sure, but you thought you'd caught a glimpse of hastily wiped away dried blood under his nose. That couldn't be good.

You didn't disturb him, he was focused on something important and you thought it was best to let him work, you would ask about the blood later.

It wasn't until Jayce walked into the room, fixing his tie in the mirror, that Viktor finally turned around and spoke, "I had a vision." Before promptly turning back around, his goggles were securely in place as he kept working on the Hexcore.

"I thought that was my thing." You mumbled to yourself.

"You had a vision?" Jayce asked, looking at you, thinking the same thing you were.

"Not a magical one like Mila's," Viktor clarified, "But what if we've been looking at it backward? We've been trying to discover runes that invoke a specific effect, and then molding them to a useful function. Tools as you like to put it." You couldn't count the number of healing runes you'd looked at in the past few weeks.

Viktor got up, handing Jayce blueprints and scrap paper filled with his notes, returning back to his seat as he spoke, "But, as we have seen through Mila, mages aren't bound to a single function, instead, the arcane speaks through her."

That was a nice way of putting it, more like it controlled you and showed itself at the most inconvenient of times, but you guess that could be seen as speaking through you. Kind of like how a puppet master speaks through their puppets.

"I'm still not following," Jayce took a few steps towards his partner.

"The magic thinks, it adapts," Viktor said, concentrating on the Hexcore in front of him. It almost seemed to rumble in agreement.

"You think Hextech can... learn?" Jayce flinched back as Viktor inputted a sequence of ruins that shot a large bolt of blue light into the air above. You jumped in your seat, it hadn't done that before.

Viktor didn't move a muscle, his hair wiping around with the force of the blast. You had to quell the butterflies in your stomach, now was not the time for that, and as much as you felt the need to fan yourself, that would be a little more obvious than you wanted to be.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Jayce asked tentatively.

"Of course not," Viktor answered as though that wasn't a problem.

"As much as I'd love to stay and help, now that I'm a Councilor I'm required to attend the Progress Day function tonight, but we will work on this tomorrow, okay?" Jayce placed a hand on Viktor's shoulder who mumbled a vague acknowledgment, waving his hand distractedly in dismissal.

Muj Milacek | Viktor Arcane x ReaderWhere stories live. Discover now