Chapter Text
It was a simple scouting mission.
Jayce was charged with obtaining information about a place on the outskirts of Piltover, a tiny farming village that he didn't know existed until that day. Queen Mel, his liege, had requested that he visit it personally due to the mysterious nature of the deaths that occurred in the dense forest close by. Normally, a mission like this would require an entire group of mercenaries to investigate.
Jayce didn't need a group.
He was a world-renowned knight, one of the most powerful and deadly creatures on this side of Runeterra with his hammer. Jayce was well-respected, the golden gleaming knight that was always receiving thanks and praise from the kingdom. Jayce was a bastion of glory and pride to everyone attached to him. He did not worry, considering that this mission did not set off any alarms for anyone.
Not until it was too late.
A sorcerer had hidden himself amongst the white stones of the house where the murders had occurred, cloaked in pure white and a glamour that made Jayce’s eyes slide right over him during scouting. Jayce’s grip on his weapon was tight, his guard raised high at the silence of the brush around him. The trees loomed high above him, reaching hundreds of yards into the sky. Sunlight barely reached the forest floor. There was only one house here, this deep into the forest. It was small, a one-story cottage that still had coals on the hearth that were still warm to the touch.
He touched the alabaster stone bordering the door and felt the dark, ominous pulse of magic from behind. Jayce swung around, his hammer striking the wall behind him as he leaped off the porch. He breathed heavily, hot air rushing from his chapped lips. His wide, golden gaze moved over the dark, thick foliage. Cold fingers suddenly grabbed him by the short hair on his head, and the air was ripped from his shaking lungs. His muscles locked down like they were made of the alabaster behind him. He became immobile, trapped by the magic that pulled him down like a rope.
Shit
"Jayce Talis… I imagined you'd be a little… wiser. I must thank you for falling into my trap. I only had to kill a few Pilties to do it,” a voice behind him whispered, hissing like a venomous snake put to a flame. Jayce tried to grasp the hammer that slipped through his slack fingers. It landed with a metallic thud before falling onto its side. A deep dread settled in Jayce’s stomach as the world faded to darkness. He found himself floating in nothingness, with a faceless sorcerer hovering above him.
“You will pay for what you did to my family, scum," the voice hissed as the nothingness around them grew teeth.
Jayce screamed in horror.
+
The door to the laboratory slammed open. Viktor bit back a sigh.
“Prince Viktor! We need ya real bad!”
Viktor twisted a tiny metal gear on his monocle as he leaned closer to the specimen before him. He had mixed honey fruit essence with a bit of murk blood and was observing the way the essence seemed to dissolve the murk blood out of existence. He scribbled the results into his notepad, eyes unblinking as the healing fruit essence devoured the wolf's blood.
“Vik, it's urgent. Someone was…brought in in a really bad condition. Silco wants you there.” The voice behind him said with a sigh. Viktor took a step back from his laboratory. He turned to the person in his doorway; normally unmoved silver eyes were disturbed. Pink hair that was always artfully tousled was pushed back. Vi rarely looked this troubled over anything, and that made Viktor...curious. Viktor reached for his staff and his heavy tome that lay not too far away from him at any given moment.
“Lead the way.”
Vi was quick, her long legs taking her halfway down the hall before he fully left his laboratory. He rolled his eyes at her apologetic glance and caught up to her in his own time. They walked to the throne room of the castle, an odd place to hold an injured guest, but Viktor was not making any presumptions about what could be happening. He was typically left alone, only bothered whenever Silco needed him. Unfortunately, whenever Silco needed him, it was to clean up a very big mess.
The throne room door opened, and immediately, Viktor could sense the magical disruption in the air around them. It was almost dead silent in the large ornate room filled to the max with faces that he knew and new faces that watched him with disturbed trepidation. It was quiet, except for the anguished screams that came from beyond the crowd. Viktor silently approached the group of people, Vi pushing them aside for him as the tapping of his cane became the only other sound beyond the agonized babbling that bounced off the paintings on the wall. As he came closer to the center of the circle, hostility radiated off the golden and decorated faces. Guests from Piltover. A rare occurrence.
It really must be that bad.
Finally, the last person in his way was a radiant, beautiful dark-skinned woman with the markings of royalty tattooed on her skin in gold. Viktor stared at her for a long while before he realized the reason she was so familiar.
“Queen Mel of Piltover, it is a pleasure.” He said blankly before bowing deeply before her.
“Rise. The pleasure is mine, in this moment.” She said, forcing her voice to sound untroubled, but she could not hold back the tremble in her words. Viktor stood as tall as he could when Silco’s scarred face made its way into his periphery. Viktor glanced down. His eyes fell on a body on the dining table.
A man was tied down with leather belts and rope. He screamed wildly, his golden eyes filled with madness.
The sounds around Viktor diminished as his eyes landed on the writhing man on the table, a man possessed. Viktor’s eyes went from the top of his head down to his hairy chest and even further down to his bare feet. He was not wounded, not physically, at least.
“But his mind is being torn asunder, creatures from another realm consuming his consciousness.” He murmured to himself as he walked towards the man on the table. Viktor lifted a hand over the man’s forehead, resting four fingers on the man’s brow. The man froze in place, silence penetrating the air. Gasps sounded in the hall around him as Viktor frowned deeply at his sudden revelation.
“You did it; you healed him,” the queen said, relief thick in her melodic voice. He must have been important to her.
“I have not. I have given him temporary relief from the attack.” The chatter in the room fell into silence as the queen's frown deepened, signaling her displeasure.
“You are capable of healing him, though, am I correct? You are regarded as one of the best sorcerers on the continent," she stated, her eyes gleaming at him in a suddenly unsure light.
“Yes,” he said, his voice light.
Her tired, bloodshot eyes dropped to the man on the table. He must mean a great deal to her, he thought.
“Whatever you must do, please do it; please save him.” She begged in a way that was almost unbecoming of a queen. Silco’s gaze seared into the side of his face. Viktor avoided his probing gaze completely as he carefully weighed his words.
“I will, under a single condition.” The silence of the building was almost unnerving, but he kept his eyes locked on the queen of Piltover.
“Anything .” She breathed, her love for the man under his fingers strong and unrelenting. Viktor sighed.
“I will heal him, but he will remain here as my sworn knight.”
The sudden cacophony in the room was deafening, but Viktor did not move a muscle. Queen Mel’s eyes fell into slits, rage coming off her in waves. Viktor did not budge as she came closer.
“Absolutely not. He is my knight, sworn to me .” She hissed, moving into his face, her secondary gender suddenly making itself known. Alpha.
“Then take him. He will not be of much use to you, I am afraid," Viktor said, his voice deadpan as he removed his fingers. The man began crying out almost immediately, begging for anything, begging for death.
“P-PLEASE!” the man shouted, agony in every fiber of his being. Queen Mel flinched hard.
“I-I can give you anything you want, anything you could ever ask for, just not my Knight.” She pleaded as Viktor took a step away from the table. She wrapped her hands in the folds of her robes anxiously as the man began sobbing in pain. Viktor turned away and held tight to his staff. He saw all of the judgmental and curious faces around him. They did not move him.
“Viktor, let us try to be a little more diplomatic.” Silco’s voice was easy, light. Silco always enjoyed seeing Pilties suffering; to see their queen in agony must have been a real treat for him. Viktor ignored him.
“Okay, okay, I am willing to negotiate. Please help him.”
“I will not bend, nor will I break. Give him to me entirely, and I will heal him. Refuse, and his death will be on your hands alone.” Viktor turned to give her a studious gaze, his eyes suddenly a blazing white as magic rushed through his blood, lifting his hair as the air became charged. “Your relationship with him was doomed from the start.” A pause. “Your mother is on her way .”
The gasp that fell from the queen’s lips made every single guard around her point their spears at Viktor. Viktor did not break eye contact with the woman.
“If you do not quell her bloodlust, she will destroy your kingdom, and she will not survive it.”
“What sort of madness is this!” a voice from behind the queen shouted. Viktor turned away but suddenly felt a hand on his elbow. He looked at the offending appendage before turning his head.
“I can help you with your kingdom, but my condition remains unchanged.”
“I relinquish my control over Knight Talis, but you will work for me.” The queen’s eyes were hard, glimmering with the truth and her new loss. Viktor stared at her for a moment as his mind churned over his success.
“I accept.” He breathed, his heart pounding with excitement for the first time in a very long time.
+
Knight Jayce Talis was taken to his room and placed in his nest. Viktor lifted the sleeves of his dark blue robe, tying them at the shoulder as he tied his hair into a high ponytail. He pulled a table to the side of the bed, the sounds of Jayce’s whimpering echoing in the room. “I know, I know, don't worry, I've got you, Jayce.” He muttered to the alpha who was clutching at his bed sheets desperately. Viktor took a rag and dampened it, whispering runes into the fabric before thoroughly cleaning Jayce’s face, the man calming as he wiped away the physical traces of the curse. Jayce fell silent, his face sharper than normal. Much thinner than what he’d seen in the visions.
The curse took a lot out of the alpha, and Viktor knew the sorcerer would come here to finish the job.
He was counting on it.
As soon as the alpha's body was clean, Viktor climbed on top of the man, stradiling his narrowed waist, his eyes falling into concentrated slits as he pressed both of his forefingers into Jayce's temples and sank deep into his mind.
Viktor traversed a wide expanse of darkness that hung around him like the night sky. He walked, his fingers touching the fabric of Jayce’s subconscious, seeking what was being hidden from him. His burning gaze searched within the darkness when suddenly–
“I see you, abomination," he murmured as his fist dug into the entity that possessed Jayce, a creature that wriggled in his fist like an insect. It blinked at Viktor with countless eyes and laughed as Viktor burned it to a crisp, his magic subdued under the cursed aura. The walls surrounding him suddenly sprouted eyes of varying sizes, all hiding the sorcerer who controlled them. The eyes sprouted teeth in their pupils and began to laugh at him, their voices grating and otherworldly. Viktor’s physical form heaved a sigh. This would take longer than he initially thought.
Viktor spent the night destroying the abominations that lingered in the knight's mind. He tore them apart and seared their influence from the alpha’s mind as fast as he could. He feared that he would be too slow and his consciousness would be consumed before it was too late. He worked until the sun beamed into his chamber and only stopped when Sky materialized by his side to bring him food and wine. Viktor pulled back from the knight's mind, trembling. His limbs ached, and his leg felt like it was on fire. Still, he pushed through the pain and devoured the fresh bread drenched in honey. Sky watched him with concern but remained silent as she handed him his magical tome.
"Finally," he muttered, opening the large book. He squinted at the glowing runes as the pages turned to the chapter he needed.
“Purgatio ignis," she read slowly, the gleam of blue from the book shining brightly on her lenses. She blinked in thought for a moment before gasping softly.
"Isn't that a little too…risky?” she asked softly while the runes drifted up from the pages. They swirled toward Viktor, who downed an entire goblet of wine in one go. He hiccuped slightly before raising an open palm to the runes. The runes rushed to him, spinning around his wrist as he took one last bite of honey-soaked bread. His eyes were sunken in with exhaustion but burned with determination. He returned to his position atop the alpha and breathed in.
“It is. His mind is strong enough to withstand it. And remember, Sky, do as I say, not as I do.”
Without another word, he placed his hand on Jayce’s forehead and let the runes sear into his flesh and deep into his mind.
The screams that echoed in the halls of the castle would haunt Viktor forever.