Arcane: Painted Tapestries

They left the rooftop far behind them, jumping down to the earthy ground below and speeding away into the pitch-blackness of the sector.

Zeri's constantly arcing electricity provided the girl with just enough of that eerie green light to traverse the dark Eastside terrain without requiring his help, although she was still far slower than he was.

Callian was extremely satisfied with the girl's progress over the past month.

She was now more than ready for their journey to Shimura.

The pair darted towards the Northside buildings in the distance, sprinting past the outskirt slums and heading in the colony's direction.

Callian raised a hand and motioned Zeri towards the piping, indicating that she should move on without him.

The teen did so, speeding up the pipe's metal surface, her aspect's power dwindling as she got closer and closer to the colony.

Good, he had stressed to her enough times how important it was she kept her electricity hidden from the masses of the Undercity.

Callian sprinted past Northside's border, his metal boots clinking quietly on the stony cobble underfoot.

He jumped up the join teen, narrowly avoiding detection as a short woman turned onto the street from one of the many winding alleys that lay ahead of him.

A few minutes of rooftop surfing later and they were back in the heart of Entresol, eavesdropping down onto the chaotic streets below.

It seemed Vander's absent presence had done Northside no favours.

Violence ran rampant within the riverside colony now that the barkeep was no longer around to keep it in check.

Callian heard Zeri's heartbeat squeeze unhappily, likely drawing a connection between the gang members down there and the ones who had killed her parents.

He had purposefully kept her in the dark about what had happened that night, sharing only the bare minimum of information necessary to keep her satisfied.

As it stood, she could probably ram straight through any amount of street-level enemies thrown at her, provided she didn't do anything stupid.

This is meant that if she found out Silco was responsible for her parent's deaths - he was a dead man.

Unfortunately for her, this was not something that he could just sit by and allow to happen. Silco needed to die to Powder. Only then would she be complete.

The duo slunk down from the piping and onto street level, now heading towards the elevator that led up to Promenade.

Callian place slowed to a walk, with his companion following his lead and doing so as well.

"The mask I gave you, put it on." Said Callian, listening as the girl behind him fumbled with her belt, pulling the handmade mask off of it and sliding the thing onto her face.

It was nearly identical to his own, however, hers had a series of yellow streaks running along its carefully carved feathers - a small personalisation she had all but begged him to add.

A group of men sat in front of the elevator, looking up as they approached the mechanical apparatus.

"Woah there friend." A man said mockingly, holding out a hand and stopping Callian from walking any further. "Slider's off limits to you public folk - unless you want to pay the fare that is."

He grinned down at the two cloaked figures standing in front of him before he suddenly wasn't standing anymore.

The man's stupid grin didn't leave his face as his whole body went careering violently to the left, his large feet leaving the elevator's platform entirely.

He slammed into a nearby wall and slid down its uneven surface to the dirty pavement below.

The rest of his group were instantly on their feet, wary of the unidentified threat who was now walking towards them.

"Get out of my way." Said the approaching man, his violet eyes flashing dangerously.

The cohort stumbled back, their weak minds unable to handle the salgi Callian was projecting directly onto them.

He stepped into the elevator with Zeri following closely behind him.

Callian cranked the lever upwards, listening to the sound of the aged gears as they started to turn.

The unsealed elevator capsule began to move, slowly rising until eventually all of Northside was within their view.

Zeri walked forward to the edge of the platform, gazing down at the Undercity in awe.

She had never been up this high before.

"Puts it in perspective doesn't it." Said Callian, moving to join her at the edge. He held out his hands widely. "Our city of iron and glass."

"I- I didn't know it could look like this." She replied in awe, staring down at the slowly disappearing Undercity. "It seemed so small down there, so… Ugly too."

"And from up here?" He asked her, his pink lips curling in amusement.

"It's… Breathtaking."

The city vanished from sight, concealed behind the solid ground and earth that made up Promenade's foundations.

They would arrive soon.

Right on cue, the elevator started to creak loudly as it started to slow down, a shaft of bright moonlight beginning to pierce through the ever-widening gap; making Zeri turn away, her yellow eyes unused to the natural brightness of the surface.

Callian didn't wait for her to recover, stepping off the platform and walking briskly away from the Undercity's entrance.

He hastened into a run, making the young teenager stumble to catch up with his ever-increasing pace.

The pair ran through Promenade's abandoned surface level, heading towards the bridges that connected Zaun to Piltover.

One of the bridges came into view, along with the entirety of Piltover's industrial district.

Callian hummed appreciatively, he was right where he needed to be.

He felt Zeri's presence jerk away from him. She had stopped running.

The man turned, looking back at the girl who was staring up at the city of progress that lay across the great river.

"Zeri?"

She flinched, a tiny spark of electricity flickering across her wooden mask, leaving a tiny charred mark on its otherwise pristine surface. "Coming."

Callian tutted. He knew he should have added an absorption rune onto it. Too late now.

He ran towards the bridge, coming to a stop before the thin metal supports running up it.

There was no way Zeri would be able to follow him up alone; not while having to conceal her aspect from the clueless enforcers standing on the opposite side at least.

She arrived a second later and Callian swept the smaller girl off of her feet and into his embrace before starting to run up the thin metal wiring.

She floundered around a little before realising his intention.

He reached the top of the bridge and blasted off of it, his armament leaving yet another set of blackened footprints onto its now desecrated surface.

More than a few of the sooty imprints coated the platform's surface, a testament to many many times Callian had crossed over the great river using this exact route.

He landed on a Piltovian rooftop, setting Zeri down carefully before darting away in the direction of the Ferros family home.

Conveniently for him, the Ferros estate wasn't far from the river, as the previous family head had wanted to live in a property that overlooked the Piltovian docks.

The two arrived at its location within a minute, not that Zeri knew that.

He hadn't told her anything about what they were doing topside, except that her presence would be required at a certain point during their excursion.

Callian stopped abruptly, while Zeri skidded to halt beside him clumsily.

"Wait five minutes outside of the house before following me in. Keep watch in the meantime." He ordered, looking back at the distracted girl.

"Ok." She nodded obediently, dropping to the roof's blue tiles and sitting down to wait.

Callian took a step forward to leave before stopping himself hesitantly.

"Exactly five minutes. No earlier. No matter what happens." He called back, taking one final glance towards the masked girl before leaping from the roof and soaring toward the Ferros estate.

He landed gracefully onto the marble alcove that overlooked the front lawn, his sense of hearing maximising to scan the interior for occupants.

The rhythmic whirring sound of precisely calibrated clockwork echoed down from the large property's second floor.

It was definitely her inside of the house.

Who else had a mechanical heart?

Callian darted around the house's edge until he reached the room where the routine ticking noise was originating from.

He jumped upwards and leaped onto the room's balcony. Ironically, the glass-paned door was already open, despite the curtains within still being shut.

Almost like he was being invited inside.

Callian stepped into the room, the sound of his footsteps shrouded from auditory perception.

He walked over to the dresser, picking up the chair sitting in front of it, and pulling it up next to the sleeping woman's bed.

Why did she ask him to do it like this…

Callian just sighed, sitting down on the cushioned furniture to wait.

The woman was awake now, he could feel it.

Despite being unable to read her heart rate, he could hear the slightest shuffling of her covers as she reached underneath a pillow.

He stared ahead at the large woman, watching as her long white hair trembled slightly with a set of well-concealed movements.

It was probably a knife, he wouldn't put having such a thing past her - especially this early on in the timeline.

"Why the charade?" Callian spoke dully, breaking the deathly silence that hung between them. "I know you are awake."

The woman froze, before slowly pushing back her quilted duvet and slipping off the bed's opposite side.

She was tall, extraordinarily so.

Even at this point in time she still towered over him, despite not possessing her weaponized, hextech-powered lower limbs yet.

Camille walked around the edge of the bed slowly, her walk slow and sultry, the woman's tight nightgown accentuating her generous curves.

This thin nightdress could not mask the lean, powerful muscle contained underneath it however.

It was a sound attempt to distract him from the fact both of her hands were concealed behind her back.

It might have actually worked, had he not known how ruthlessly pragmatic this woman was.

Someone breaks into your room in the middle of the night - what do you do?

Most people would either stay silent and pretend to be asleep until the invader left, or freak the fuck out and start attacking the intruder blindly.

Camille did neither, immediately reaching for a hidden weapon and looking for a way to close the distance between them without alerting him to her lethal intentions.

She reached his side, her ice-blue eyes staring down at his seated figure imperiously, analysing him as best she could while inside the dark room.

Camille's hand left hand slowly pulled out from behind her back, before suddenly stabbing towards his exposed throat with a merciless accuracy.

Callian's violet eyes darted in the weapon's direction, allowing himself a small window of time to identify what she was trying to kill him with.

A knuckle duster, its traditionally blunt edge replaced with a long, thin blade that poked out between her middle and ring fingers.

A ring knife.

Close enough.

He should have expected something so ornamental from a traditionalist like her.

Callian caught the attack between his armoured fingers; ducking and pushing off the unstable chair as the woman used her other arm to send a devastating elbow strike speeding towards his head before kicking the underside of his seat after he dodged, sending it flying into the air away from her.

He flipped mid-air, but the athletic woman was already underneath him, stabbing upwards with her pointed weapon.

Callian twisted to avoid getting skewered by her swift attacks.

He grabbed her weapon-carrying arm with both of his own, his plated legs snaking around her extended limb and putting the gigantic woman into an armbar.

She just stood there, not even the slightest bit unbalanced as he hung onto her outstretched arm, his leg's mechanised armour grating across her pale neck.

The woman stared at Callian, raising an eyebrow at him arrogantly.

She dropped the ring-knife to the ground, where it clattered loudly against the spotless floorboards.

He allowed Camille to flex her bicep and overpower his grip, watching as she pulled his aloft figure towards her.

"Not bad for a backwater assassin." She hissed derisively, her accent a distinctly refined and one.

"I am not an assassin." Replied Callian, his dark hood slipping from his head, allowing the tall woman to see his white half-mask underneath.

"That's what they all say," Camille said disdainfully. "Before I slaughter them."

Sensing danger, Callian undid the armbar just as the tall woman sent her arm careering down toward the wooden flooring.

Her other arm grabbed his booted ankle and pulled him in front of her, sending down another devastating elbow strike toward his unprotected midriff.

It connected, slamming the cloaked man into the now splintered flooring where the tall woman quickly straddled his small figure, trapping his arms and torso underneath her own heavy body.

"Can we talk civilly now?" Asked Callian, unfazed by what should have been a catastrophic hit to his liver.

One of her large hands slammed into his pale throat, shutting him up.

"I suppose we can." She replied, sneering down at his seemingly incapacitated individual. "Who hired you?"

"No one."

Her grip tightened, squeezing his neck fiercely.

The masked man continued his answer unperturbed. "I came here to offer you my condolences about your late father, and to inform you about the real reason behind the events that led to his death."

Camille's ice-blue eyes narrowed guardedly. "My father died over eight years ago, assassin. What light could you possibly shed onto his death?"

So she was interested? Good.

"I know the two of you were attacked by a group of Zaunites while taking a trip through the streets of Promenade, and that your father died in the attack while you escaped unscathed."

The woman's eyes narrowed even further, looking down at him critically. "And what of it?" She asked him uneasily, her grip around his neck loosening slightly.

Just as Callian was about to answer her, a green flash blurred into the room, appearing right beside the two of them.

Zeri's lower leg blasted towards Camille's face, viridian coloured lighting arcing along her armored shin.

A look of utter fury ruled the visible half of her face, teeth gritted together in a barely stifled rage.

Callian saw the tall woman's pupils dilate in alarm, irises slowly edging towards the incoming attack.

But the aspect-enhanced teen was far too fast for Camille's still human-level reflexes to react in time. *

Callian's blood ignited and he slapped Camille's hand away from his neck, pushing away from her muscled thighs to escape the firm hold she had him in.

He spun into a crouching position, Zeri's yellow eyes following his every move, her body unable to keep up with her observations.

He caught the girl's attack with his hand, his vambraces absorbing all of her latent electricity.

His blood burnt out, his perception of time returning to its original state.

Camille whipped around to face them both, a look of shock shifting across her normally pretentious expression.

That was too fast.

"Zeri." Said Callian, his calm face twisting in displeasure.

The man's grip on the teenager's armoured leg tightened. "I thought I told you to wait outside."

—

* For those of you wondering why Camille is so weak, remember that she doesn't have access to any hextech yet; and at this point in time, is still mostly flesh and blood instead of steel and machine.

—

I recently introduced a friend to my story, asking them to read it over and give me some feedback.

The friend being someone taking a Master's degree in creative writing; pointed out my utterly abysmal use of punctuation and recommended I use Grammarly to edit my work.

I thought a suggestion like that was pretty funny coming from someone who is supposed to be good at writing without external help, but I digress.

They practically forced me to download it in front of them and I have made use of it during this chapter's creation.

(So, let me know if it reads better or worse than usual).

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(Total word count: 2725)