Luxurious Anarchy (Lux/Jinx)

Chapter 11: Lie, Cheat, Steal

Jayce hadn't felt so tired in ages. Forty hours ago, the council had agreed to table any motions to ready the Home Guard, and had approved his expedition. In an effort to deescalate the threat of a war between the two halves of their own city, Jayce, along with Sheriff Kiramman and Special Enforcer Vi, would enter Piltover's undercity and try to coax the Hexgem off of Jinx in exchange for limited amnesty. Removing such a horrific weapon from a terrorist's hands would do wonders to reduce tensions on both sides.

On reflection, the council demanding her blueprints and the weapon itself was overkill, but as they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty. Jayce privately doubted that even a pared-down list of demands would have gone over well, given that Jinx had effortlessly noticed the unspoken issue with only securing limited amnesty.

Sixteen hours ago, the three of them had limped out of their encounter with the fearsome Loose Cannon and worse, her mage soulmate. Jinx, of all the people of Runeterra, should not be the soulmate of a mage. Especially since it cost him ten gold hexes to a rather smug Caitlyn.

When Jayce had finally managed to close his eyes that night, after a long shower and three drinks, Jayce dreamed of neon pink eyes, shifting patterns of light that danced over vital organs, and the glittering point of a metal rasp stalking him.

And now, here he was, sitting down to a fancy luncheon with Sheriff Kiramman, Councilwoman Kiramman, Special Enforcer Vi, and Councilwoman Medarda. Viktor had begged off, citing stomach troubles and 'a good feeling' about some equations he'd been grappling with regarding the Hexcore. Similarly, Tobias Kiramman had been extended an invitation and declined on the grounds of illness and injury. Not his own, of course, but with continued flare-ups of the tension bordering Piltover and its undercity, all the hospitals were on war footing, so to speak.

Dimly, he heard his voice being called, and realized he'd been frowning into his coffee for a long moment now, saucer in hand, cup half raised. Jayce set them down, blinking as if seeing sunlight for the first time in ages.

"I'm sorry, did someone say something?"

He regretted asking almost as soon as he had. Looks were shared, and Mel lay one hand over his. "I did Jayce, I asked if you're okay."

His eyes flickered around the table, before looking back to Mel, "To be honest, I'm afraid I'm not." He moved to pick up his coffee again, and saw his hand trembling. "I... Gods, I wish I could have brought her into the council for her to give that offer of hers. There was a certain something about how she stated her terms down there in that warehouse."

"Was it how she threatened to gouge out a chunk of your brain with a nail file?" said Mel, no hostility in her tone. "Regardless, Jinx's demands were certainly... ambitious."

With a scoff, Cassandra Kiramman set her tea down, the fine porcelain clinking ever so softly. To anyone who knew her, that soft clink was the equivalent of throwing the cup across the restaurant. "Ambitious? More like audacious, insane, beyond criminally stupid demands. No, we gave her an out, and she refused to take it. She doesn't have a seat at the bargaining table, she has a noose waiting for her."

There was a much more noticeable clink as Vi's fingers crushed the elegant handle to her own teacup. She grunted, and set the mangled cup down before picking at the shards in her thumb with her salad fork. "Sorry, don't mind me, just, ah, forgot my own strength."

Caitlyn shot her mother a look, and Jayce felt guilty that Vi's pain bought him time to think, even just a few seconds. The hours in the day hadn't changed, but for the life of him, the time to sit back and think was gone like the mists of a summer morning. And lately, in the last day or so, all he could think of was the glitter of a metal rasp and shining eyes of burning magenta.