Chapter 14: Ashes Speak
983 AN
Sep 19
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[POV: Margot]
Margot stepped into the warehouse and wrinkled her nose. The place reeked of mildew and failure. Smeech leaned over a crate, chewing a cigar that was more ash than tobacco.
"You look awful," she said, flicking dust from her coat.
"Been busy watching everything I built rot," Smeech growled. "You know she's feeding people now? Running work lines. Paying folks for fixing pipes and scrubbing vents."
Margot raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like a crime, truly."
"She's gutting us. With smiles and food queues." He slammed his fist into the wall. "No taxes, no chains, just handouts and hope. And it's working."
Margot walked to the window. The street outside was busy—too busy for this late hour. "Piltover doesn't care. As long as she keeps it quiet and off the harbor, they're happy to ignore the smoke."
"We could use that. Tip them off. Make her someone else's problem."
Margot gave him a look. "Piltover doesn't act for free, Smeech. You think they'll lift a finger to save your little empire of backroom debts and broken runners?"
He didn't respond.
The door creaked.
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[POV: Smeech → Ashryn]
Ashryn strolled in with a grin on her face and dust on her boots.
"Look at this! A private party and no one invited me? Tsk."
She moved like the whole room was hers already. Behind her, Cael and Callum stepped in, silent but calm. Ashryn spun her bracer ring on her finger.
"You're bold," Smeech said, reaching for his belt.
"Bold? Nah," she chuckled. "Just curious."
He pulled his pistol. Ashryn's smile faded—not out of fear, just disappointment.
"You really wanna try that?"
He fired. She didn't flinch. Cael's shot hit the wall beside Smeech's head. Callum shoved him back, disarming him with one practiced movement.
Ashryn stepped forward. "You handed names to Piltover. Gave them scared kids and shopkeepers just to keep your precious little ladder intact."
"It was business," Smeech spat. "You think you're any better?"
Ashryn grinned. "Yeah. But thanks for asking."
She struck once. Her bracer hit his chest like a hammer. He folded with a grunt and didn't get back up.
Ashryn looked at Margot, head tilted. "He was dragging us all down."
Margot didn't argue.
Ashryn met her eyes amused," you're smarter than that."
Margot nodded hurriedly,"I surrender !"
Ashryn smile,"Good, then let's clean the house."
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[POV: Lynne]
Lynne walked the trade row slowly, hands in her pockets. She passed a group of women setting up temporary stalls—fabrics, spices, crafted goods. Former hostesses turned merchants.
One of them waved. "Still breathing, boss lady!"
Lynne smiled. "Barely. Keep your heads down."
They weren't licensed, not really. But the local enforcers weren't looking. Or pretending not to. Piltover didn't care unless it crossed their lanes.
She took the alley path, exchanged coded nods with a boy at the corner. He passed her a satchel of letters—client ledgers, shipment records, and personal notes from Margot's former contacts.
Some of it was leverage. Some of it was blackmail. All of it was power.
Lynne walked on, humming.
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[POV: Cael]
Cael sat cross-legged on the floor of the old freight depot, a half-burned map spread before him. Callum lounged nearby, tossing a chunk of old piping into the air.
"Depot's almost clean," Callum said. "We're restocking with trade goods. Nothing flashy, just what people need."
"Things that don't need to come through the harbor," Cael muttered. "Smart."
Callum rolled his eyes. "You mean illegal but not the kind Piltover notices."
Cael smirked. "Exactly."
Lynne arrived, dropping onto an overturned crate. "Still smells like piss in here."
"Feels like progress," Callum said.
They watched the glow of the clocktower's upper windows.
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[POV: Ashryn]
The converter lab was bathed in a low blue glow, the mana channels pulsing faintly inside the unfinished core. The air smelled like heated metal and promise.
Ashryn leaned casually against a support beam, spinning a wrench around her finger as Cael, Lynne, and Callum stepped inside.
"So this is the secret project," Cael muttered, eyes sweeping over the towering machine.
Viktor nodded from the central console. "This is the converter. Once activated, it will draw ambient mana and process Zaun's toxic gases and water into a stable crystalline energy source."
Callum raised a brow. "Wait—it runs on poison?"
"More or less," Viktor replied. "Once the initial ignition is complete, it maintains itself indefinitely. No fuel, no pollution, no burnout."
Ashryn gave a low whistle. "An eternal flame powered by poison. Zaun poetry."
Lynne circled the base slowly. "And the ignition?"
Viktor glanced up. "It will require nearly all of Zaun's industrial toxicity—decades of accumulation. No other city has the necessary saturation levels. That makes it impossible to replicate elsewhere."
"Perfectly useless to the rest of the world," Ashryn added with a grin. "But priceless here."
"She came up with the concept," Viktor said quietly. "All of this exists because of her."
Ashryn shrugged, casually. "I just asked a weird question. Viktor made it real."
Cael stepped forward, tapping the casing. "So what do we call the stuff it makes?"
Ashryn laughed. "Don't say gas rocks."
Lynne tilted her head. The faint glow from the core lit her face as she stared at it thoughtfully.
"It'll only ever exist here," she said. "Born from this place, from what we've survived. If the city's going to have a name someday... this stuff should share it."
She looked at the others. "Virellite."
Callum repeated it. "Virellite."
Cael nodded. "That fits."
Viktor gave a soft smile. "A name born from the ashes of a city remade."
Ashryn tapped the core gently. "Alright then. Virellite it is."
---
[POV: Margot]
Margot sat alone in her office. The silence felt like a verdict.
She opened the top drawer. Pulled out a folded cloth. Inside, Ashryn's crest—blue lines, silver gearwork.
She ran a finger across it. Didn't smile. Didn't cry.
Just placed it beside her empty wineglass.
Outside, she heard the clink of hammers.
Zaun was still buried in laws no one respected, under a ceiling no one could see.
But it was moving.
And that meant everything.