The Arcane Trilogy: Sins of the Past - Book 2

Chapter 4: Deep Cuts

The shattering of glass.

The thunderous boom.

The piercing ringing.

The distorted ground.

The flash of gold.

The roar of the flames.

His unmoving body.

Jayce could see them all.

It had been a few hours since the attack, but Jayce felt as if he had been cast into a state of torturous limbo. The mess he found himself in felt so unreal, with the images of the explosion flashing before his mind constantly. It felt as if the explosion happened mere moments ago and was simultaneously a deep-rooted scar that he felt like he had been burdened with for years. The internal turmoil and self-destructive limbo Jayce found himself in was only heightened by the sight that lay before him.

Viktor.

His eyes remained closed and his body still. His faced was scorched along the left-hand side, with the burn marks stretching down his neck. Viktor's arm was also in a dire way, with a few thin layers of bandaging wrapped around his weak and slim limb. The signs of damage trailed down his body, with the peeling red skin and burn marks coating his body, with some marks wrapping around his back and torso. Jayce knew it must have been his eyes playing tricks on him, but he thought Viktor's legs looked even thinner than before, like the fires had eaten away at his flesh. His mind often went to Viktor's illness, which caused his mind to race ever more. If Viktor's body was already breaking down due to his disease, Jayce knew an explosion of such a scale would not do his frail body any favours with regards to any potential recovery.

Jayce did not even know to what extent the rubble damaged Viktor. He could remember flashes of concrete, glass and stone littering the chamber like a minefield of death and destruction. Viktor's frail form crumpled up in a broken mess was the only thing Jayce focused on after the initial shock had begun to subside. He could remember throwing himself over various lumps of rubble as Mel screamed for him from behind, but all he could focus on in that moment was Viktor. He distinctly remembered how light and weak Viktor felt as he lifted his broken body, and the panic that flooded him as they fled the hellscape they had been thrown into.

The thick burning smoke that clogged their throats, the stabbing heat that chipped away at their skin and the low rumbling that haunted them as they fled. The sensations flooded Jayce's mind as his eyes-maintained firm on Viktor's unconscious form. As the early hours of the morning passed, with Jayce not leaving Viktor's side, the events slowly filtered out into a smoother recollection. The destruction became clearer in his mind, the corpses of the other councillors and the thought that hung over all those passing notions.

He was still alive.

Jayce and Mel were practically unscathed by comparison to all the others present in that room. The way he survived became clearer as the hours passed. The faint golden aura that bloomed around Mel and Jayce as the Noxian councillor threw herself into Jayce, bringing them both tumbling to the floor. The momentary air of tranquillity that engulfed him as the angelic bloom protected the pair from the outside world for a few brief moments. However, as much as it shielded Jayce and Mel from harm, it did not blind Jayce from what occurred, and the hours after Viktor was treated and put in bed gave Jayce a long time to battle the demons that were birthed from the trauma of replaying the hellish events of their peace debate.

They were so close.

Jayce was then pulled out of his thoughts when he heard the elegant footsteps of the woman he loved spending time with, but at that moment, he felt as though he needed more time with his partner. He could hear her stop for a few breaths before addressing someone that Jayce had taken no real note of.