A planet in the Celestial Realm full of strange little blue hippies, and even the name Snerfs sounded like a shameless rip-off...
...
"So Bluebell got small with us inside his belly, which made us small too. And while you were recovering, we've been waiting for other meeps who are supposed to take us back. Apparently."
Ekko paused, looked down at the food in his hand, then shrugged.
"Honestly, I don't really know how they work."
Logan chewed in silence.
He sat on a low wooden bench outside one of the Snerf houses, shirtless but at least wearing pants now, which he considered progress. The pants were loose, white, and tied with a rope around his waist.
Ekko sat across from him. Vander sat beside him, big and quiet, eating the strange roasted meat the Snerfs had given them. Around them, a few Snerfs ate too, pretending not to stare at Logan while absolutely staring at Logan.
The meat tasted better than it looked. The blue fruits were small, round, sweet, and bright.
Logan finished a piece of meat and tried to keep his face calm.
Inside his head, the list grew another branch.
Bard, he had to add Bard.
So Bard knew what his spiritual version saw or did.
...
Logan put it aside.
One step at a time.
Ekko had told him some of what had happened in Runeterra while he was gone.
Logan finished the last bite of meat, wiped his fingers on a cloth, and looked at the forest beyond the village.
What next?
His first instinct was Ahri.
He wanted to follow her spiritual presence and take her to the Spirit Realm if she could still go. If anyone or anything knew how to repair something like that, it would be somewhere in the Spirit Realm. Or maybe with the Spirit Blossom gods.
Then another thought cut in.
Thresh.
He owed Thresh an explanation too.
Logan closed his eyes for a second.
The list was already trying to become a swarm again.
He stood.
Ekko looked up. "Where are you going?"
"To find Ahri."
Vander's eyes sharpened, but he did not try to stop him.
Ekko's mouth tightened. "You sure you can walk?"
"...I can walk"
Ekko seemed ready to argue, then thought better of it. "At least don't fall into another hot spring."
Logan gave him a tired look. "I'll do my best."
He followed Ahri's presence. It pulled him past the village, through a narrow path between mossy stones and thick roots.
The forest was quiet at first.
Then Logan heard movement.
A sharp rush of displaced air, a foot sliding over dirt, the hiss of energy.
He slowed and stepped through a curtain of broad leaves.
Kassadin and Kai'Sa were fighting in a clearing.
Not fighting to kill. Practicing.
Kai'Sa moved fast, her Void carapace shifting over her body like a living shadow. Kassadin answered with clean, precise movements, his blade cutting through the space between them.
Near the edge of the clearing, Aatrox was stuck point-down in the earth.
Logan stayed still and watched.
Did Kassadin know she was his daughter?
Did Kai'Sa know he was her father?
If they both knew, had either of them said it out loud?
Logan rubbed his forehead.
If it had happened, then this was another family reunion he had somehow caused. Vander with Jinx and Vi. Singed and Orianna. Now Kassadin and Kai'Sa.
Was that really because of him?
Or did he just keep standing near broken families when the world decided to throw them back together?
Kai'Sa darted forward.
Logan's eyes narrowed.
She was different.
Faster than before. Cleaner in her movements. The carapace responded with less delay, the energy around her shoulders gathering and releasing more naturally.
Evolution.
The word came from two places at once.
From what Logan knew of Kai'Sa as a champion, and from what he was seeing now.
In League, Kai'Sa's abilities evolved when her stats reached certain thresholds. But that was just game logic.
Kai'Sa was not overwhelming yet.
But her potential was frightening.
Kassadin, though, was on another level.
He slipped through her attack, struck the flat of his blade near her shoulder, and stopped before contact became injury. Kai'Sa exhaled sharply and lowered her stance.
"Again?" she asked.
"Later," Kassadin said.
His masked face turned toward Logan.
Kai'Sa followed his gaze.
Logan stepped into the clearing. "Hey."
Kai'Sa nodded once. "You're awake."
"That seems to be the general conclusion."
The conversation stopped there.
Logan waited.
Kai'Sa looked uncomfortable. Kassadin looked like discomfort had been carved into a weapon and given armor.
Logan sighed. "I'm guessing you have questions."
"Yes," Kassadin said.
"So do I."
"I know."
Logan looked toward Aatrox. "Did the sword tell you that?"
Aatrox's voice came from the ground, dry and irritated. "I told him many things. Most of them were wasted on mortal stubbornness."
Kassadin ignored him. "Your companions and the Darkin clarified certain matters. Not all. I still have questions for you. But the girl wished to speak first."
Kai'Sa looked at Kassadin for a moment, then back at Logan.
She crossed her arms, though the gesture looked more like holding herself together than shutting him out.
"The Xer'Sai in Shurima have been agitated," she said. "More than before. Less controlled. Some attacked without hunger, without purpose."
Logan listened without interrupting.
"My carapace has felt strange too," she continued. "Restless. Like it hears something I cannot. Since the Void changed, everything connected to it feels... angry."
Logan nodded slowly.
He already knew the Voidborn were connected, not as a simple hive mind, but through something deeper. If the Void had been wounded, or if one of its greater beings had been killed, the reaction would not stay local.
Kai'Sa reached up and wiped sweat from the side of her neck. She frowned at her own hand.
Logan noticed. "What's wrong?"
"My symbiote," she said, sounding annoyed. "It has a strange liking for the hot springs here."
Logan blinked.
Kassadin looked at her. "Go."
Kai'Sa turned to him.
"You may continue training after," he said.
Kai'Sa hesitated, then nodded. She passed Logan without another word, though her gaze lingered on his left arm for half a second before she entered the trees.
Logan waited until she was gone.
"You wanted to speak alone," he said.
"Yes."
Kassadin gestured toward two fallen trunks near the clearing's edge. "Ask first, if you wish."
Logan accepted because the number of questions in his head was already becoming a problem.
His first impulse was Kai'Sa.
Do you know she is your daughter?
Does she know?
Are the two of you planning to talk, or just circle the truth until someone explodes?
But that felt too personal to lead with, even for Logan.
So he chose the Void.
"What was the giant Eye?"
Kassadin did not answer immediately.
Logan added, "The one behind it all."
In his head, an old image from another world flickered. A burning eye over a black tower. Wrong story. Same terrible idea.
Kassadin looked toward the trees.
"This may take time," he said.
They sat on the fallen trunks.
"If the Void can be called an organism," Kassadin said, "then the Eye is its core. It awakened with the beginning of creation. That is the oldest truth I have been able to gather. Before light, before shape, before meaning, there was nothing. Then creation burned into existence, and the Eye became aware."
"Because of the light."
"Yes. The radiance of creation blinded it. Enraged it. But the light did something worse."
Logan frowned. "It made it realize it existed."
Kassadin turned slightly toward him. "Yes."
He continued, "I do not know whether the Watchers were with it from the beginning. I know the Eye can birth them. I know it can restore what is lost, given time and enough of the Void's depth. Killing a Watcher matters, but it is not always final."
That was really bad.
Kassadin studied him. "You already understand what it wants."
"To destroy existence."
"Yes."
"Not just destroy," Logan said. "Study first. Learn how creation works, then learn how to break it."
"That is what most Voidborn do. That is what many Watchers do."
Logan looked down at his restored hand. "There was one. Blue. Selyra. She didn't try to destroy me or Ahri. Curiosity was the strongest thing about her. Not hunger nor hatred. Just... curiosity."
Kassadin stared at him.
Aatrox spoke from the dirt. "I told him the same. I have never seen such a Watcher."
Logan glanced at the sword. "You two talked a lot while I was unconscious?"
"Kassadin is less irritating than most mortals," Aatrox said.
Kassadin shook his head. "I have never seen what you describe. I have heard of no such Watcher."
"Could the Eye be curious too?" Logan asked. "Not just collecting information to destroy things. Actually curious."
Kassadin took longer to answer.
"It has absorbed much from Runeterra and other worlds through the Watchers and Voidborn. Memories. Matter. Magic. Fear. Language. Pain. But I do not think it feels wonder. What it learns does not soften it. It seems to hate more with each truth it touches."
Logan thought of the fuchsia Watcher.
How it had learned cruelty.
How it had tried to kill a helpless Ahri not because it needed to, but because it understood that doing so would hurt him.
Kassadin's voice lowered. "It hates the light creation emits. But I believe it also hates the essence of things. Change. Desire. Love. Grief. Meaning. It wants silence not only because creation is bright, but because creation is offensive to it."
Then Kassadin turned fully toward him.
"My turn."
Logan braced himself.
He expected questions about how he knew Kassadin's name. Or how much he knew of his abilities. Or Kai'Sa. There were excuses he could give. Some true, some incomplete.
"What are you willing to sacrifice to end the Void?"
Logan blinked.
The question landed wrong, too direct and too cold.
"What?"
Kassadin did not move. "You heard me."
Logan's eyes narrowed. "What exactly are you asking?"
Kassadin's voice stayed even.
"If ending the Void required it, would you sacrifice everyone you love?"