Get Jinxed: A Tale of Mental Instability and Poor Decisions (Arcane/League of Legends)

Welcome to Demacia 4​

Setting up a clandestine meeting with Garen was a lot easier than I'd expected. Easy enough to make me worried. Whether Lux or Sylas was right about where he fell on the whole duty vs family dilemma, if I was Jarvan or Eldred I would be watching Garen carefully. You'd think the guy who was supposed to be his BFF and his uncle would know he had a soft spot for his little sis. Older siblings always did. Vi might've been bossy and annoying sometimes, but I'd always known that when it really counted she'd have my back. Caitlyn too, if she'd learned I was running off to Demacia she would've insisted on coming with me.

Guess now we'd find out if Lux's big bro was the same way. Getting the airship to the capital and sending a letter asking him to meet me at a tavern outside the city had been easy enough. If anyone asked I could just say that I was here representing my family business, and asked to meet Garen because he was Lux's brother. Though that lie would fall apart pretty quickly if anyone found out that Lux was staying in my room at the tavern, or there were a bunch of rebel mages hiding in my ship.

Then again, if everything worked out we'd have this whole thing settled before there was time to worry about getting caught. If Garen and the Dauntless Vanguard took our side or at least stayed out of our way, it would be a pure fight of mages against the Mageseekers. With a little help from Pow-Pow, I liked our odds.

I sighed and stretched out, trying to rub a little life back into my limbs after too long spent hanging out on a rooftop two blocks away from our meeting place. I suppose I could've been waiting inside having a hot meal and something nice to drink the way Lux was, instead of hanging out on a cold rooftop getting rained on. Too bad I had to be out here, but if Garen was gonna report us I wanted to see the ambush coming. If he wasn't, I still wanted to make sure nobody was following him.

After way too much time waiting, I finally spotted the guy. Or at least, I was 99% sure it was him. He was wearing one of those cloaks and hoods people always put on when they're trying way too hard to be inconspicuous, and everything about him reminded me of when Enforcers tried to pretend to be undercover agents. Plus whenever he moved too quickly I could see flashes of his armor and sword underneath the cloak. Clearly subtlety wasn't his strong suit.

Then again, maybe that was the point. I was so focused on the big guy that I almost didn't hear feet hitting the rooftop behind me. I spun around and pulled out Zapper, catching the person sneaking up behind me dead to rights. Judging by all the gold armor she was one of Garen's pals, so I didn't do anything crazy yet. "So we're clear, I've got you dead to rights."

The knight lady chuckled. "Perhaps. On the first shot." She set the crossbow she'd been carrying to the side. "Battles are decided by who gets the last shot, though. And neither of us will be shooting anyway. Unless I miss my guess, you're Jinx Kiramman."

"Guess there's nobody else like me around here," I conceded. "You with big bro, then?"

"He asked me to watch his back," she confirmed. "For much the same reason you're hiding out on the rooftops instead of staying out of the rain. You can go inside, I'll handle the watch from here." After I spent several seconds not budging, she sighed and held up a hand. "My word of honor, as a Knight-Ranger of Demacia, that I will not allow your meeting to be disturbed or observed, and will honor any promise of safe conduct Sir Garen offered you or anyone in your party."

I still didn't like it, but I knew how seriously Demacians took all that word of honor stuff. Besides, I didn't love the idea of Lux being all by herself. "Fine, but if we all get killed by a bunch of Mageseekers you better believe I'm haunting your ass."

"I'll be careful, then," she shot back with a wry grin. "Oh, and by the way, you picked a good hiding spot. For anyone on ground level, at least." She held out her arm, only for a big blue eagle to land on it. "From the air… well, obviously Valor spotted you or we wouldn't be having this conversation."

I sighed and put Zapper away. "Yeah, yeah, you're better at spotting than I am at hiding thanks to your cheating bird tricks, message received." Though I had to wonder exactly how she found my hiding spot using a bird. Must be some kinda weird ranger trick or something, I'd never really trusted someone who spends that much time around trees. All that nature was just unnatural.

---

Two minutes later I was back in my private room at the tavern, crawling through the window just in time to catch Garen's knock at the door. I opened it with Zapper in hand and quickly ushered him in, then shut it behind him and locked the door.

Though a moment after doing that I wondered if maybe I'd picked a bad meeting place. Garen was a whole big hunk of steel and muscle, while Lux and I were decidedly not so beefy. I liked my odds against the big guy in an open field with plenty of time to shoot him, but in a small tavern room there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver. He could probably just stand in the middle of the room, pull out his sword, and hit both of us by spinning in a circle.

Fortunately, instead of doing anything like that he went over to Lux and scooped her up into a hug. "You're alive." After several seconds he let her go and cleared his throat. "It's good to see you."

"You too," Lux agreed with a warm smile.

The good mood lasted for another two seconds before Garen had to go and open his mouth. "Have you decided to accept the king's amnesty after all? It might be hard after how sharply you rejected the offer, but I'm sure we can—"

"No," Lux cut him off, glowering at him for a moment before sighing and shaking her head. "Are you prepared to denounce him for a tyrant and join us in—"

"Absolutely not," he cut her off in turn. "I will not entertain any suggestion of treason. If that is all you had to say to me, then I bid you good day, sister."

From the scowl on Lux's face I could tell she wasn't going to back down, so apparently bull-headed stubbornness ran in the family. "Seriously? Ugh…" I grabbed one of Garen's shoulders and tried to push him down into the chair, though it felt like trying to shift a brick wall until he went along with it and sat himself. "Yes, you two disagree. Can we try to do the diplomacy thing for five minutes before you start butting heads?"

Garen's gaze shifted over to me. "Lady Kiramman, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, even if the circumstances are less than ideal. My sister has always spoken well of you."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm awesome." I rolled my eyes and fixed Lux with a pointed look. "You spent the whole ride over here going over what you were gonna say to this guy. Wanna actually use some of those words?"

Lux shot a halfhearted glare at me, but sat down in the chair across from her brother and took a deep breath before launching into the speech she'd prepared. "Garen, I know you're a good and honorable man. Surely you can see that the way Demacia treats its citizens who are born with the gift of magic is neither righteous nor honorable. Mages are imprisoned and treated worse than animals, while their families are forced into shameful exile in the outskirts because the taint of magic supposedly runs in their blood. How can you justify this?"

Garen grimaced and shook his head. "Yes, the way we treat mages has always sat ill with me. You are not wrong to call it cruelty, but it is a necessary cruelty. You saw the devastation wrought by Sylas in the square of this very city. How many lives did he strike down in an instant, using his unnatural powers?"

Lux scowled and crossed her arms over her chest. "Nobody would've died that day if we weren't trying to execute him. An execution you and Aunt Tianna arranged to try to cover up the fact that I'd been talking to him."

Garen sighed and pinched his nose. "We were doing that to protect you, sister. Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused us? Between your magic and your rebellious ideas, you would have been in prison years ago if you weren't a Crownguard. I even managed to persuade the crown prince to consider courting you, calling on all our years of friendship and every kindness I'd ever done for him, only for you to throw that back in our faces. And for what?" Garen scoffed and shook his head. "For Sylas of Dregbourne? The man was a condemned criminal long before you met him. We simply arranged to give him a final execution date."

"Not for him," Lux shot back. "For Demacia. We should be better than this. If Demacia is truly a kingdom of honor and decency we have to live up to those ideals. There is nothing honorable about how we treat mages. Sylas was a condemned criminal because he lost control of his magic, and only after years of being used by the Mageseekers to hunt down other mages. If he is a monster like you claim, then he's a monster they made themselves." Lux sighed and shook her head. "If mages are so dangerous, why did the Mageseekers use him for years and never train him to control his powers?"

Garen grimaced. "The Mageseekers are the only ones who truly understand the threat and nature of magic. It's only natural they would be the ones to take control of those few Demacians born with the affliction that were still in control of themselves enough to serve the realm."

Lux crossed her arms over her chest. "If it's such a noble calling, then why did you and Aunt Tianna spend years covering for me? Shouldn't you have turned me in so I could be a noble member of their order, serving and protecting the Demacian state? If there was nothing wrong about what the Mageseekers are doing, why did you think it was necessary to protect me? Why did you go so far as having Sylas executed and trying to marry me off to the king just to keep me out of their hands?"

Garen sat there, his mouth hanging half-open as he struggled to find words. I decided this was my opening to chime in with some of my experiences. "We don't have Mageseekers in Piltover and Zaun. Instead we use tech to help them control their gifts until they can learn to safely use it. I won't say our system's perfect, but we don't have nearly as many mage-related problems as you do. The way I see it, the only reason mages are rebelling and trying to overthrow the government right now is that it's the only way to stop you assholes from repressing them."

Lux picked on my point, pressing her case. "And that's just what you know about. Some of the stories I've heard from the mages we've rescued are more horrifying than anything I could imagine. Torture. Experiments…"

"But…" Garen shook his head. "But Sylas killed the king."

Lux shook her head. "Sylas says he found the king dead. I believe him." She let out a humorless laugh. "Considering how much he hates the royals, he'd gladly take credit for killing them. He tried to publicly stage Jarvan's execution, after all."

Garen grimaced. "Yes, that…" He slowly shook his head. "It never quite sat right with me. They said Sylas killed Jarvan III in his chambers, then dragged Jarvan IV in front of the mob to be tried for his supposed crimes. Why not try both? And the old king's body… if he was killed by an angry mob I would've expected—not to put too fine a point on it, but Jarvan III had an open-casket funeral."

He fell silent, tapping his fingers on his knee as he thought it over. I could practically feel Lux bursting with the urge to say something more, but I put one of my hands on hers to keep her from doing so. Let him work through it all in his head, right now it felt like he was connecting the dots that would hopefully lead to…

Garen looked up at Lux. "You said mages were being subjected to inhumane treatment and experiments? I would see that for myself. There is already much that sits ill with me, but I would know the full scope of what you claim and what the Mageseekers are doing."

"And if we do that?" Lux asked.

Garen sighed. "There is much that sits poorly with me already. I will not make common cause with the likes of Sylas, but I could never raise my sword against you. If you and yours make a move against the Mageseekers, the Dauntless Vanguard will take no part in the battle. I can claim we must stand back and protect the king. If there are further horrors to be found as you claim, then…" he sighed and shook his head. "Then we will take action against the Mageseekers for the good of Demacia, and pray that King Jarvan was unaware of their crimes."

Well, mission accomplished. Or at least halfway accomplished. It sounded like Garen might still take a crack at Sylas if we attacked the Mageseekers right now, even if he wouldn't go after me or Lux. It was a lot of progress, but he wasn't fully on our side yet. "So you want proof of what the Mageseekers are doing? What, do we just waltz into their base and demand to see the incriminating evidence?"

Garen turned to me with a tight smile. "We're Crownguards. Nobody but our uncle and his closest associates would dare try to stop me. How do you think Lux managed to get into their secure prisons and speak to the likes of Sylas in the first place?"

"Got a feeling they'll draw the line at showing you all their evil experiments," I pointed out. "And they might've tightened up all the Crownguard privilege rules after what Lux did."

"I wasn't planning to ask." Garen shot back. "We should move swiftly, though. If he doesn't know already, Uncle Eldred will surely suspect that my meeting with Jinx was used to convey a message from my sister. It would be best if we arrived before he has time to prepare. I'll have Quinn secure an extra pair of uniforms for you two to avoid too many questions."

"So an infiltration mission? Sounds like fun." Good thing I'd already come up with a way to hide Pow-Pow despite how big it was. It took a little work to swap it between stealth mode and actually being a usable gun, but the firepower was worth the trouble.

"It would just be us, though," Lux whispered back. "If Garen's not willing to work with Sylas yet, we can't involve him in this."

So it was a three person infiltration mission into Mageseeker HQ (or four if he wanted to drag that Knight-Ranger chick in), or we go back to attacking it, now with the promise that Garen would mostly sit back and watch? Simple enough.

I was just about to speak up when I noticed Garen sending a very intense look my way. "Now that our other business is settled, I would have words with you, Lady Kiramman. I cannot help but notice that you and my sister are sharing a private room. One with only one bed."

Lux's cheeks immediately lit up. "Garen! Nothing like that is—we only rented this room to talk to you!"

"Nonetheless, I would have an answer." Garen fixed his attention on me. "What are your intentions toward my sister, Lady Kiramman?"

And now he'd gone and made it weird. Tempting as it was to snark at him, I wasn't sure if he was the kinda guy who'd see the humor in me joking about how I'd like to honor his sister all night long in the most honorable manner, for the honor of Demacia, until she felt utterly and thoroughly honored. In bed. Probably best to give him an honest answer, then.

---

Current Stability: 0
Willpower: 0

What Approach Does Jinx Use Against the Mageseekers?

[ ][Mageseekers] Sneak In And Find Evidence With Garen
Issues: All Enforcers are Bastards (-1), Trauma (-3)
Failure Result: Jinx sees something bad enough to make her blow her cover while they're still sneaking.

[ ][Mageseekers] Launch The Attack With Sylas
Issues: All Enforcers are Bastards (-1), Trauma (-3), Big Fat Hero (+1)
Failure Result: Jinx goes a little too far in inflicting glorious violence upon a bunch of jerks who totally have it coming.

How Does Jinx Answer About Her Intentions With Lux?

[ ][Intentions] Say That She Would Like To Properly Court Lux

[ ][Intentions] Deny Having Any "Intentions" Towards Lux, We're Just Friends

[ ][Intentions] Write-in