Chapter Text
“What do you think, Z? Hanged Man? Needle and Thread? Orphan’s Lament could work, too.”
Zeri tugged twice on her sternum, which made her snort.
“Of course you’d choose the hunting one. Tricking people works just as well, you know?” Zeri conjured a memory of Caitlyn wearing a bored expression in her mind, and Vi rolled her eyes. “Fine, Needle and Thread it is. You remember what you do for this?”
Vi walked into the busy market, keeping an eye out for anything shiny or for the stalls selling more expensive wares on display. Another memory of Caitlyn holding up her hand and raising one finger after another, but that quickly dissolved into a man in resplendent silver, gold, and blue steel plate armor carrying a sword.
“That’s right. You count any guards you notice,” Vi stated, sending pride through her and Zeri’s bond. “I don’t know what Caitlyn was worried about. You’re a natural.”
Vi chuckled as she could almost feel Zeri puff up at her praise. “Yes, well done remembering, but don’t count your craig-duck eggs before they hatch, buddy.”
Experienced eyes darted around the crowded market and waited for her gut to react. As she wove through the people, she passed by a stall selling freshly baked goods, and Vi’s stomach growled. She instinctively clutched her belly and stared longingly at a chocolate croissant that an older man and woman were splitting in half to share.
Focus, Vi, she ordered herself and forced her feet to move on. She’s finally reached the square that held a beautiful, white stone fountain in the middle of it, with a large stone statue of a tall, muscular man with long hair and a pointed beard dressed in armor that had an emblem of a gold sword with two wings on either side of it.
“Alright, Z. Time to get to work.”
Vi threaded through the market, keeping an eye and ear out for anything of note. It took her a while, and Zeri had to remind her to be patient when her hand itched towards one of the food stalls.
“Easy for you to say. You don’t know what it’s like to be hungry,” Vi chastised it. Zeri huffed in exasperation, but their conversation was interrupted when she overheard someone speaking magic words to her.
“These markets have much more diverse wares than the ones at home, don’t you think, dear?” came the excited tone of a woman a few feet away.
Vi glanced over and saw a light-skinned woman in her twenties with blonde hair and blue eyes looking around the markets with wide eyes. She had her arm around a young man, who looked utterly exhausted.
“Yes, they’re wonderful, but did we have to get up at the crack of dawn to check them out?” he sighed.
The woman playfully rolled her eyes. “Of course we did. If we waited until mid-morning, then all of the good stuff would be gone. Don’t you remember when we vacationed at the Frostguard Citadel and half of the market was empty by the time we dragged ourselves out of bed? Come on, let’s see what we can find.”
“Tourists! That’s what I’m talking about,” Vi told Zeri. She trailed after them, making sure to stay far enough away, even lingering at a few stalls, to avoid suspicion. “Lesson number eight in pickpocketing, Z: tourists are the perfect target. They are often so taken by the sights, they don’t pay attention to their purse. They also typically carry more money than the average person.”
She could feel Zeri’s excitement through their bond, and she also couldn’t help but be excited. If she could pull this off…
Finally, after several minutes, they stopped at a clothing stall and the woman pulled a few items off the stand, then disappeared into a makeshift changing room while her partner waited outside, yawning.
“How many guards?” she asked Zeri. It pulled once at her chest, and Vi glanced around, seeing an armored woman talking to a few people who were arguing. “Perfect. We’ll be out of here before she can get them to calm down.”
Using the crowd to her advantage, Vi subtly pulled out a very small knife she had nicked off a food vendor a week ago and approached the man. She walked behind him and used her free hand to touch the right side of his hip.
“Excuse me,” she muttered, as if trying to pass behind him. He seemed to unthinkingly turn a bit to let her walk by him, but now that she knew his money purse wasn’t on his right side, she quickly took the blade and deftly cut the strap of the small bag on his left side, using his movement and the jostling crowd around him to mask any pulling he may have felt.
Well, that’s what Vi wanted to happen.
“What do you think, sweetie?” came an excited voice to Vi’s right. She glanced up and saw the fair-skinned woman smiling at her husband, but then frowned when she looked at Vi, then down at her hand holding the man’s coin purse.
Zeri whirled in a panic inside her chest, and Vi didn’t hesitate before she took off, prize in hand.
“Hey, that’s our money! Get back here!”
Vi pocketed the purse and ducked behind a stall, then slipped through between a few wagons as the man called for the guards.
“Shit, Zeri. How many do you hear?”
Three pulls at her sternum.
“Fuck,” she hissed. She felt an anxiety pulse in her chest that wasn’t hers. “I know, I know. Just give me a second.”
“Stop, thief!” came a shout from an uncomfortably close distance behind her.
There! Vi thought, spotting a wooden-supported awning to her left. She urged her hungry, tired body to move faster as she launched herself off a crate of cabbages, ignoring the angry protests of the vendor, and barely managed to catch herself on the awning, her hands scrambling to find purchase on the canvas. She managed to catch hold of one of the support beams and tried to pull herself up, but felt something wrap around her ankle.
“Let go!” she cried out, kicking at whoever grabbed her. A grunt of pain told her she was successful as she clambered up the awning, praying to Janna that the canvas would hold her weight.
She managed to grasp onto the window ledge that sat over the awning and used a lifetime of parkouring through the fissures of her home to easily traverse the face of the building. Thankfully, she had chosen a market deeper into the Aviary District, so she had plenty of buildings to escape on foot from the Vanguard.
“Hell yeah, Zeri! We did it! Wait until Caitlyn hears about—”
An ear-splitting caw cut through the air, making Vi clamp her hands over her ears and curl into herself. She didn’t need to look to know what made that sound.
Fuck me, she thought to herself before she took off running. She sprinted across rooftops and over alleys, nearly breaking her ankle on a bad takeoff when she stumbled upon seeing a large shadow swallow hers in the morning sun. She just needed to get to Memorial Road, and she could disappear into the crowd. Another deafening caw resounded throughout the neighborhood, and Vi almost began to panic until Zeri tugged her right.
Without even thinking, Vi listened and slid down a sloped stone roof, wincing as her fingertips burned from holding herself steady.
Realizing she was coming in too quickly, she winced and closed her eyes.
“Brace!” she warned Zeri. A second later, she was tumbling ass over tea kettle until her back landed in something soft. Something soft and foul.
Vi almost gagged as her senses registered the horrific smell.
What in the fucking hell? she demanded. She rolled over and looked behind her, then actually gagged. A large pile of white and black semi-dried goo with an imprint of her back in it.
“Gods damn it! Those raptors are so fucking disgusting.” Amusement pulled at her tether, and Vi frowned. “Laugh it up, Zeri. You’re not the—”
Another cawing sound cut her off from her comment to Zeri and she quickly forgot the fact that she was covered in bird shit and scrambled towards the small coffee table of someone’s rooftop outdoor seating area just as the legs of the table rattled against the ground when something heavy landed on the rooftop next to her.
Vi didn’t dare to even breathe when a quick, high-pitched chattering filled the space around her. She also heard the horrifying sounds of something sharp digging into the stone parapet of the roof and imagined the large, winged silver-gray body balancing on its massive claws while its black eyes searched for her.
Don’t see me, don’t see me, don’t see me, she begged anyone who was listening.
“Anything, Venrith?” asked a deep, muffled voice from just a few dozen feet away. A short series of animalistic clicks rang out. “Damn it. Come on, let’s search Memorial and see if we can spot them in the crowd.”
A heart-seizing caw pierced the air before the breeze kicking up from massive wings beating was the only hint Vi got that she was finally alone on the rooftop. She lay there for twenty minutes before she risked glancing out from under her table. Easily a mile away was the massive silverwing raptor and its Demacian rider, seeming to have given up, and Vi collapsed onto her back, feeling lightheaded in relief.
“Fuck me sideways, Z! We did it. We actually got away,” she said to Zeri. It bounded within the confines of her chest, making her laugh. “No kidding. I was worried we’d be screwed and get thrown in prison. Caitlyn and Irelia would have been pissed they’d have to try to break us out.”
Zeri whined, and Vi felt worry pulse through their bond. “Hey, it’s okay. Caitlyn and Irelia probably would have forged someone’s signature to get us out or something. They’re smart like that.”
That seemed to calm her magical companion down, and Vi finally caught her breath enough to remember the whole reason they had been chased in the first place. She pulled off her raptor shit-stained jacket, wrinkling her nose at the horrendous smell.
“Let’s not tell them we landed in shit from a bird the size of the Last Drop,” she thought to her tether. It huffed in amusement again, but nodded against her chest. She threw her jacket aside, knowing that without a place to wash it, it was useless. “Now, for our prize.”
Both her and Zeri’s anticipated anxiety ate at her insides as she opened the coin purse she had stolen. Pure elation exploded in her chest at the amount of gold that glinted in the sun.
“Holy shit, Zeri. These people were loaded!” she exclaimed to her tether, unable to stop her hands from shaking when she saw how many gold pieces were in the purse. At a glance, it had to be at least twenty with a few dozen silver and copper pieces mixed in. “Good job, buddy! That was the most successful one we’ve done yet!”
Zeri bounced around inside her chest, and Vi couldn’t stop the grin at the infectious happiness from her tether. She had been missing Caitlyn all morning, but now her impatience to return to her had increased tenfold as a sense of relieved accomplishment settled over her.
“Come on. Let’s go see our other halves.” Zeri trilled with joy inside of her, and Vi didn’t bother holding back the grin that spilled out of her as she jumped down into an alley that led out onto Memorial Road and disappeared into the crowded street that was the main thoroughfare of the Great City of Demacia.
A loud horn blew overhead, and Vi looked up to see a massive airship descending towards the western edge of the city, where the air and sea ships docked at Demacia City’s harbor across a half-mile bridge from the main road. She dismissed it and kept walking east, deeper into the city, as the throngs of the crowd grew larger and more dense.
While Zaun was crowded due to a lack of space from the looming fissure walls, Demacia was thick with people moving through the very open city, which had a population double that of Zaun and Piltover’s put together.
Vi hated it, especially in such an open boulevard like the Memorial Road. A newly familiar voice rang out over the masses, and Vi pushed through to get to it.
“The Noble House of Buvelle announced the grand opening of the Deomoisier Theater in North Demacia City near the Galio Monument! Come join in celebrating the restoration of this historic theater with thirty percent off opening night tickets for the Ophellum Mechanicals performance!” yelled a newspaper seller. “See the talented Magga reprise her role of—oh, hi Vi.”
Vi waved at the young boy, no more than ten years old, wearing a stained brown flat cap over sandy hair and green eyes, holding a stack of newspapers while standing on a box.
“Hey, Pell. How’s business today?” she asked with a smile.
“Shite, as usual. People only care about the news when something bad happens, and it’s been a pretty quiet cycle the last few months. You want one?” he asked, holding out a paper.
“Only if there’s anything about Piltover in there.”
“Sorry, Vi. You know the rules. I can’t tell you what’s in here outside of the front page. How else am I going to make my money?” Pell asked with a sardonic look that was impressive on someone so young. Vi rolled her eyes, but part of her felt for the kid. She wasn’t much younger than he when she and her parents lived in the sumps, where Vi would sell scraps when she was eight.
“Here,” she said, fishing out a silver coin and placing it in his hand. “Don’t spend it all in one place.”
His eyes went wide at the coin before he greedily tucked it away and handed a newspaper over with a flourish and a grin. “Pleasure doing business with you. Now move along. I got more papers to sell.”
Vi did as she was asked, muttering with a smirk, “precocious little worm.”
She crossed the street, keeping a tight hand on her newly acquired treasure, and folded the newspaper in the pocket of her cargo pants as she headed towards the north eastern district. Vi smelled her destination before she saw it and nearly started to drool at the enticing scent. Before long, she came to a small storefront with a sign hanging over the door that said “Avery Brothers’ Deli Shop.” She walked inside and saw a graying Vastaya behind the counter in a white butcher’s apron. Vi glanced inside the glass case of the counter, her stomach rumbling as she looked at all of the meat inside it.
“What can I get you, young miss?”
“Two cuts of your cheapest smoked meats, a loaf of bread, and four bags of dried trail mix,” she said. As the Vastaya busied himself with getting her order together, Vi noticed something enticing on display. She bit her lip, knowing that she really shouldn’t, but couldn’t help but picture Caitlyn’s face at the indulgence. When the Vastaya turned around with Vi’s order, Vi pointed at what she had been eying. “How much is that?”
“A silver.”
Vi’s stomach twisted in anxiety, and her practical side told her to leave it. But excited blue eyes flashed in her mind, and she made her decision.
“I’ll take it.”
Ten minutes later, and eight silver lighter, Vi exited the shop with a heavy bag of food.
“Caitlyn and Irelia are going to freak out,” she told Zeri as she moved further into the Illuminator’s District, and Zeri pulsed happily in her chest in agreement.
As Vi went further into the now familiar neighborhood, she passed by several buildings that were more rubble than anything. When she asked Pell what happened to that area of the city the day after they found it, he said the eastern district suffered a lot of damage from the Turmoil and had yet to be rebuilt. Vi wasn’t going to complain, though. Nobody but other squatters lived there, far from the prying eyes of the Demacian guards.
Several minutes later, Vi glanced up and down the street before she pulled the wooden pallet that blocked a doorless frame and ducked inside a small, modest building whose front was partially collapsed. With a few grunts, she squeezed through the rubble, careful not to let the bag of food get caught on anything or spill its contents on the ground.
She maneuvered around a few fallen beams and piles of rock, ignoring the rat that squeaked in protest at her shuffling by it, before she reached a small clearing in the back of the half-destroyed house. Inside was the remains of a bedroom with a cracked mirror on the wall next to a wardrobe with only one door, and a small twin mattress that had been propped up on some stones to keep it off the ground. Sitting on the mattress, next to a small pile of books, with one in her lap and wearing a furrowed brow, was Caitlyn. Around her shoulders, looking down at the book, was a small, semi-transparent fox cuddled into her.
Vi’s heart sang until she felt like she could float away at the sight of her. Caitlyn, feeling Vi’s elation, looked up and gave her a wide grin.
“You’re back!” she declared, then threw the book on the bed. The fox jumped off of her as a wolf appeared in front of Vi, who bounded towards its mate as Caitlyn rushed to Vi.
She dropped the bag of food and embraced Caitlyn, their arms wrapping tightly around each other. Vi closed her eyes and breathed the other girl in. Mixed in with the floral scent was a bit of dirt and two days of grime, but Vi didn’t care. She just relaxed and reveled in the love and warmth that flowed easily from Caitlyn through the tether.
“You’ve been gone for a while, and your emotions were terrifying. We were so worried,” Caitlyn murmured in her ear. Vi, hearing the agreeing chattering from Irelia to its mate, squeezed a bit harder, sending a wave of comfort to her.
“I had to do a little shopping,” she said, unable to hold back the smile in her voice, and she could feel Caitlyn’s excitement.
“Successful day?”
Vi pulled away and smirked. “More than, princess. Come on, let’s eat.”
A few moments later, after Vi thoroughly washed her hands clean from her disgusting escape from the raptor-knight in the boiled water that hung over their doused hearth that Caitlyn built them, they were sitting on the floor next to the bed, tearing into their food. While Zeri and Irelia wrestled playfully off to the side, renewing their bond after a few hours apart from one another, Vi watched as Caitlyn greedily stuffed the meat and bread in her mouth, her appetite suddenly gone. Excitement for her biggest payday yet seeped out of her as she noticed the way Caitlyn’s cheekbones were a little more pronounced than they were when they first arrived three weeks ago, and a pang of failure twisted in her gut that she immediately quashed. The last thing she wanted was for Caitlyn to feel Vi’s disappointment in herself.
“Here,” Vi said, holding up a third of her cut of meat. Caitlyn scrunched her brow at her.
“Vi, you need to eat, too,” she chastised.
With great effort, Vi projected nonchalance through the tether. “I ate some on the way over. Take it. Please.”
Caitlyn hesitated, and Vi focused on how earnest she truly felt. Lying when the person you were deceiving could feel your emotions was very difficult, but Vi knew she could do it if she focused as hard as she could on projecting the emotion she wanted Caitlyn to feel. When she slowly took the food, Vi pushed down the feeling of relief that she hadn’t fought her any harder to maintain her fib.
Vi had sacrificed her meals for Powder more times than she could count in her life, and the pang of hunger wasn’t a new sensation. Caitlyn, however, had never once gone without food before, and the idea of the girl she loved suffering in any way worried Vi more than not eating until she was satiated herself.
When they were finished, they leaned back against the bed, and the other girl sighed happily, putting her hand on her stomach.
“I’ve never felt so happy to be full in my life,” Caitlyn said with a disbelieving chuckle. She then looked at Vi like she had hung the stars, which filled Vi with a sense of pride that chased away any lingering hunger she felt.
She gave Caitlyn a wide smile. “So, you’re too full for my surprise?”
Bright, blue eyes that were scarred with the Arcane twinkled excitedly. “What did you get?”
“Close your eyes,” Vi instructed, and Caitlyn immediately did so. Vi carefully unwrapped their dessert and broke a piece off. “Open up.”
Vi took the treat and gently placed it in Caitlyn’s mouth, a quick spike of desire pulsing through her as Caitlyn’s tongue teased her fingers. The sudden arousal only grew worse when Caitlyn moaned salaciously at the sweet taste.
She opened her eyes in delighted surprise. “Chocolate? How?”
Vi smirked and pulled the coin purse out of her pocket. “Found some tourists shopping the market west of here. They’re either too rich to care that they were carrying this amount of money on them, or they were too stupid to leave some of it where they are staying.”
Caitlyn opened the bag, and her eyes bulged when she glanced inside. “Gods, above. Vi. This is—we could—”
“Get a room at a tavern? Have a proper shower that isn’t in a public bathhouse?” Vi suggested, the tether pulsing in their shared excitement.
“With enough to spare for as much time in the library as we could want.”
Vi glanced over at the small stack of books on the bed. “Did you find anything useful while I was gone?”
Disappointment rang through the tether, and Caitlyn suddenly couldn’t meet her eyes. Vi didn’t even think before she sent soothing waves of comfort through their bond.
“It’s okay, Cait. We’ll figure it out. And if not, Jayce’s trial is next week, and Mel wrote that she’s confident she’ll be able to convince the others to let him off without any jail time,” Vi stated. “And he’s a member of a House, right? He’s got loads of money he could bring with him.”
Near the end of the business day, almost every day since they first arrived, Caitlyn and Vi had been stopping at the international post office near the harbor to check for any mail from the Councilor for news of help arriving.
She sent her first letter with a large pouch of gold, which the post master took three-quarters of for their “customs processing fee,” that she assured them anyone importing items into Demacia must pay. When Vi accused her of scamming them, the woman threatened to call in the Dauntless Vanguard. Paranoid of a mageseeker being called in with the guards, Caitlyn assured the woman that it was fine, and they took their pittance of money. They had written back not to send anymore gold, for fear they wouldn’t actually receive it.
That lasted them a week, given how high the cost of living in the capital of Demacia was, and they decided to save what little money they had left for food, choosing to squat in the rubble of the Turmoil. That was a week ago when it ran out, and Vi was forced to resort to going back to her pocket-picking days to keep them fed and to access the library.
Caitlyn was appalled to learn that only Demacian citizens were given free rein in the Alabaster Library, charging a silver per day for foreigners to use it. But even then, they were limited in what they were allowed to research.
“Hardly an incentive for visiting scholars to come and partake in research that they could share with the city,” Caitlyn had grumbled angrily after they had paid the hefty fee.
“Jayce is part of a lower House,” Caitlyn stated, bringing Vi back to the present. “They’re famous in name, but not necessarily wealth, typically from contributing to something considered valuable to the city, but not so groundbreaking that they are one of the high Houses.”
Vi furrowed a brow. “So, he’s not rich?”
“No, but I wouldn’t call him poor by any means. Mel Medarda, on the other hand, is the richest person in Piltover. Hopefully, she’ll send over money with him or a letter of credit,” Caitlyn replied. She then bit her lip, and worry wound through the tether. Before Vi had a chance to wrap a reassuring arm around her, Irelia suddenly appeared and jumped into Caitlyn’s lap, leaning up to lick her cheeks. A soft smile pulled at Caitlyn’s lips as she scratched behind the fox’s ear.
“Thanks, Irelia,” she whispered.
Vi absently petted Zeri’s head after it rested its chin on her shoulder to nuzzle into her. “Jayce will be okay, princess. You once told me that Mel is the most intelligent of the Councilors. She’ll take care of him, and he’ll come help us soon.”
Caitlyn took a slow, calming breath. “I’m sure you’re right. I just worry my mother will take any anger she may feel about our escape out on him.”
A cacophony of emotions poured out of Caitlyn at the mention of Cassandra, primarily betrayal and anger. Caitlyn blinked rapidly and looked back down at Irelia, who was nuzzling into her palm. Vi took one look at Zeri’s yellow eyes before she pulled Caitlyn tight against her chest while Zeri curled up in her lap like it thought it was the same size as its other half.
“Zeri,” Caitlyn giggled as the wolf half lay on top of her, letting out a playful bark while Irelia hopped on Vi’s shoulders and chattered soothingly.
“We have to trust Mel,” Vi whispered, squeezing Caitlyn tight. “Before we know it, Jayce will be here and he’ll help us get this sorted. But even if he doesn’t, we have time. Maybe we can use this money to get cleaned up, and I’ll go look for a job while you research. Maybe Pell could use an assistant.” Caitlyn let out a short chuckle, and Vi kissed her cheek. “In the meantime, we’ll keep using my street smarts and your book smarts to find out where they’re from.”
A familiar and overwhelming homesickness wound through the tether from Zeri and Irelia, as it always did whenever their home was brought up.
Caitlyn let out a sigh and comforted Zeri by scratching it under its chin after it let out a mournful whine.
“She’s right,” she whispered to it, pushing her head against the wolf. “We’ll get you two home where you can be free and truly together again.”
Irelia licked Vi’s cheek, and they sent their humans a powerful wave of gratitude.
“We’ll be okay,” Vi insisted, projecting as much confidence through the tether so that all of them could feel it. “Now, come on. Let’s pack up and find a place to hole up. One that’s cheaper than the last one.”
Caitlyn stood up and held her hand out to help Vi.
“Maybe we could negotiate a room and perhaps even some free food in exchange for helping out at a tavern,” Caitlyn suggested. “And I can’t be researching 24/7—I won’t be able to take out that many books, anyway. I could work in my spare time, too.”
Vi barked out a laugh. “Princess Kiramman behind a bar? That I’d love to see.”
Caitlyn rolled her eyes, but otherwise ignored her. “We’ll need to find a place willing to pay us under the table, though, since we don’t have any permits to work in Demacia.”
“I’m sure someone here doesn't mind shortchanging a few foreigners looking for work.”
As they discussed it, they packed what little possessions they had, and Vi felt more hopeful for the future than she had in weeks.
“Vi, where’s your jacket?” Caitlyn asked, and Zeri snorted in a way that Vi swore sounded like laughter.
While Caitlyn chuckled at Vi chastising Zeri for not backing her up, neither one of them noticed, high above them peaking through a hole in the roof, was a young boy in a stained brown flat cap looking at the semi-transparent animals with wide, frightened eyes.