It was close to noon now. The sun had warmed up, washing away much of the earlier chill from the air.
Luke lifted the curtain inside the carriage and watched the familiar streets roll by. His mood naturally brightened.
When he let the curtain fall again, he found himself thinking about Lux and the others—what they might be doing right now.
He'd been gone for more than twenty days. If he said he didn't miss them at all, that would be a lie.
About ten minutes later, the carriage slowed to a stop. Yurna didn't even need to say anything—Luke knew they were home.
He stepped down and looked at the familiar courtyard gate, a steadying sense of peace settling into him.
The gate stood open. The moment he got off the carriage, he could see several figures inside.
Fiora and Sona sat facing each other, slender fingers dropping onto a game board now and then as they played five-in-a-row.
On a rocking chair nearby, Lux lounged comfortably, basking in the sun with a content expression.
Seeing the women in the courtyard, Luke filled his lungs and called out with full confidence.
"I'm back!"
Even if he hadn't spoken, the movement at the gate was obvious. All three looked up and turned their eyes toward him.
Then—after only a casual glance—each of them calmly looked away again.
Fiora kept playing.
Sona stayed relaxed.
Lux even yawned, then rolled over as if she hadn't heard a thing.
"?"
Luke practically projected a question mark into the air.
He stared at the three of them, feeling like he'd just tossed a pebble into a massive lake and it didn't even make a ripple.
Unable to help himself, he complained, "Could you at least react a little?"
Fiora lifted her head, cool eyes settling on him with mild confusion. "What reaction do you want?"
Lux cracked one eye open, let out a little scoff, and gave him a sideways look. "So you're back. And? You want us to get teary-eyed and start sobbing or something?"
That cold little laugh spelled out her mood perfectly.
It was as if she was still sulking about Luke going off on his trip without her… and then writing a letter just to annoy her.
Only Sona paused the five-in-a-row game.
She turned toward Luke and smiled—bright and warm. Her sea-blue eyes curved happily, sparkling with a quiet excitement.
It was practically a "welcome home" without words.
"Sona…"
Luke felt so moved he nearly teared up.
She really was so gentle he could cry.
He decided right then and there: whatever Sona wanted for lunch, he would make.
As for a certain duelist and a certain blond menace—if Sona wasn't seated at the table, nobody was touching their utensils.
Sona's smile was completely genuine.
She really had missed him. After all, it had been more than twenty days since she'd exchanged even a single word with him.
And there was one small thing that had left her faintly unhappy.
During that whole time, he hadn't written her a single letter.
At first, she assumed nobody had received a letter from him.
But later she found out Luke had written one to Miss Crownguard.
Sure, that letter had been meant to deliberately irritate Lux…
…but it was still a letter, wasn't it?
And yet she—and Kahina and Fiora—had gotten nothing. Not a single scrap of news.
Under those circumstances, what reaction was Luke expecting?
Not kicking him straight back out of the courtyard was already generous.
At least, that was what Fiora was thinking right now.
Only Sona… softened in the end.
Luke had no idea that his earlier letter—written to Tianna, with a few lines thrown in to needle Lux—had sparked this entire chain reaction.
Just then, Yurna came in behind him.
Then Quinn, Vayne, and Frey followed, dismounting and stepping into the courtyard together.
Naturally, that drew the women's full attention.
Lux spotted Quinn behind Luke and immediately sat up, standing from the chair. She blinked at Quinn and smiled. "Quinn! What are you doing here?"
"Hello, Miss Crownguard," Quinn greeted with a smile, then added, "I'm His Highness's close escort now."
"Oh!" Lux nodded.
Luke looked between them. "You two know each other?"
Lux gave him an innocent little huff. "Of course. I knew Quinn before I even knew you."
Quinn explained, "Back when I came to the capital to seek the High Marshal's patronage, I stayed at House Crownguard for a time."
Luke nodded, understanding.
Sona walked up as well, smiling at Quinn. She made a few quick gestures in greeting.
Quinn replied immediately, "It's been a long time, Lady Sona."
They'd known each other for years.
After all, Quinn's connection to Tianna had been built through Lady Lestara's relationship.
So Quinn, Lux, Kahina, and Sona all knew each other already.
That saved them the trouble of formal introductions.
Lux looked even more puzzled now. "How did you end up as his personal guard?"
Quinn answered calmly, "Because His Highness did me a great kindness. And in my eyes, he's someone worth following."
"Tch. Him?" Lux immediately curled her lip, then looked Luke up and down, shaking her head with an exaggerated sigh.
It was the exact expression of someone watching a perfect flower get trampled.
Luke's mouth twitched. He raised a hand and flicked toward her forehead—
But Lux saw it coming and dodged with practiced ease.
After slipping away, she looked at Luke and huffed again, smug as ever.
At that moment, Fiora stepped closer.
Luke spoke up to introduce the other two. "This is Vayne. And this is Frey—Vayne's mentor."
They exchanged brief greetings.
After everyone had been introduced, a faint awkwardness settled in.
But first meetings were like that.
And with Lux around, awkwardness never lasted long.
She wasn't the type to be shy with strangers—if anything, she was relentlessly chatty.
Once she knew their names, she quickly pulled Vayne and Quinn into conversation. The topics bounced everywhere—whatever came to mind, she talked about.
Vayne wasn't very talkative. At first she seemed stiff, almost hesitant. She hadn't had this kind of casual "girls talking" moment in a long time.
But after a short while, she started to feel a bit of warmth toward this bright, sunny blonde.
Lux's enthusiasm was bold without being irritating, and her smile—white teeth and shining eyes—was dazzling, like sunlight itself.
After only a little time with Lux, Vayne stopped feeling so tense.
Fiora occasionally added a sentence or two.
Luke, meanwhile, was completely ignored.
He found it strange.
For some reason, ever since he walked into the courtyard, it felt like Fiora was being unusually cold toward him.
It had only been a little over twenty days. Why did it feel like she was treating him more distant than a stranger?
He couldn't make sense of it.
Sona couldn't speak aloud, so she simply listened.
Her gaze fell on Vayne. As if she'd noticed something, her brows drew together slightly. Then she looked at Luke.
Luke gave her a small nod, signaling with his eyes, and walked into the house.
Frey followed after him.
Not long after they entered the sitting room, Sona came in as well, Etwahl held in her arms.
She offered the instrument to Luke.
As he took it, a soft, gentle voice seemed to bloom right beside his ear.
"Your Highness? Can you hear me?"
Sona's voice was as beautiful as ever.
Luke smiled. "I can hear you."
"It feels like a really, really long time since I've spoken with you."
There was a hint of excitement in her voice. Her shimmering eyes smiled at Luke, so bright with emotion it was hard to look away.
Sona was the kind of girl whose happiness showed plainly on her face—sweet and unmistakably sincere.
Luke's smile softened. "Same. It feels like it's been forever since I've heard your voice."
Frey watched Luke speak "to himself" and paused, startled.
On the road, Luke had mentioned that someone in the capital might be able to solve the problem of what still lingered in Vayne's heart.
So this had to be Lady Sona.
From what Frey had observed, Lady Sona seemed unable to speak.
Yet right now, she and Luke were clearly communicating.
Frey's suspicions sharpened, and she listened quietly.
Luke got to the point. "Can you sense Vayne's condition?"
Sona had once told him, in earlier conversations, that she could sense what lay inside a person's heart.
It was her secret. Once she realized Luke could hear her inner voice through Etwahl, she had chosen to share it with him.
With Luke, she was willing to show her true self.
Luke had known for a long time that Sona was a mage, but he hadn't understood the nature of this unusual ability until she explained it herself.
So after the Heart-Eater Demon Seed hadn't been fully purged, the first person he thought of was Sona.
"Yes."
Sona nodded gently. Her water-clear eyes carried worry. "Deep inside Miss Vayne's heart, I can feel a strange, dark presence. It's… unusually active."
She didn't need something like the Carveheart Hex.
From the first moment she saw Vayne, Sona could sense her inner world.
It was scarred, aching, full of tightly suppressed negative emotions—dim and ash-colored, as if the light had been drained away.
The few small points of brightness seemed new—like they'd only appeared recently.
Sona could feel Vayne's pain as if it were her own. Even for her, it was rare to encounter someone whose heart was so fractured.
So she reached deeper.
And quickly, she sensed an evil presence rooted far beneath—an evil that didn't originate from Vayne herself.
It felt like an intruder—something that had forced its way in, taken root, and refused to leave.
And something had happened to it. It had been wounded. Because of that, it had turned restless—active, aggressive, desperate.
That made Sona deeply worried for Vayne.
"Do you have a way to get rid of it?" Luke asked.
"I don't know," Sona admitted, "but I want to try."
She didn't know if her music would work against darkness.
But no matter what, when she felt how relentlessly Vayne was being tormented from within, she wanted to try.
So Luke had Frey bring Vayne inside.
Vayne sat on the sofa, looking a little uneasy as she faced Sona's gentle smile.
She wasn't good at dealing with people who seemed so soft and kind. Being watched by Sona's warm gaze made her feel strangely restless, like she didn't know where to put her hands.
Of course, Vayne knew who Sona was—she'd simply never met her.
Sona had already become famous in Demacia years ago.
People called her the most extraordinary musical genius. Tickets to her performances were worth a fortune and still nearly impossible to obtain.
While Vayne's thoughts drifted there, Luke said, "In a moment, you're going to lie back on the sofa and clear your mind."
Vayne nodded, did as instructed, and lay down.
A stabbing, fluttering pain gripped her chest. It had been there since morning and hadn't faded once.
As she emptied her mind, the pain seemed to seize the opening and grow bolder—pushing deeper, sharper, more shameless.
Frey watched Vayne's pale face with a tender ache in her eyes.
Silently, she prayed this would work.
Sona focused on Vayne's heart, her gaze steady. She laid Etwahl across her long legs, closed her eyes, and gathered her breath.
Then she began to compose.
No two pieces Sona played were ever the same.
Because her music was always shaped by the emotions in the hearts around her—woven from what people carried inside.
That was why her melodies reached straight through to the soul.
And now, she was composing something meant only for Vayne.
The sitting room stayed quiet for about twenty seconds.
As Sona's breathing deepened, she opened her eyes again—light and wonder shimmering in them.
Then her slender fingers touched the strings.
A beautiful melody rose.
Luke and Frey couldn't see anything.
But in Sona's eyes, the notes became lines of soft green light, drifting toward Vayne's chest—then slipping into her.
If the music could enter Vayne's heart, it meant it was working.
Sona didn't pause. Her fingers continued, light and fluid, her pale hands moving with delicate precision—her fingertips like fireflies dancing in the dark.
The music flowed, gathered, thinned, and gathered again.
Vayne lay on the sofa, feeling as if she was hearing the most beautiful music in the world, slowly sinking into it.
Her mind grew emptier, calmer—more peaceful than it had ever been.
And that pain… began to fade.
It felt as if a beam of light had found its way inside, warming her from within.
Then memories flickered across Vayne's mind.
Her happiest moments—spent with the family she loved most.
Before, whenever she remembered those scenes, all she felt was tearing agony.
But now it was as if she'd stepped into those memories.
She saw herself smiling.
Saw herself laughing freely.
Saw the warmth in her parents' eyes.
In that moment, Vayne didn't feel heartbreak.
She felt something precious.
Without even realizing it, her lips curved into a smile as she lay there.
A smile neither Luke nor Frey had ever seen from her.
Sona sensed Vayne's heart beginning to change.
The darkness started to loosen—then scatter.
Only Sona could "hear" it: the darkness seemed to let out a shrill, miserable wail as it collapsed into gray smoke and dissolved.
Sona's own face brightened with a smile.
Whenever someone's heart began to heal, that was when Sona felt happiest.
So the rhythm of the piece shifted suddenly—
Lighter. Brighter. Joyful.
She was going to deliver the finishing blow.
The entire piece lasted only six minutes.
But to Vayne, it felt like a long, long time—long enough to relive every beautiful memory she had.
When the music ended, Vayne opened her eyes at the same time.
She felt dampness where her head had rested. Sitting up, she wiped at her face and found her fingertips wet with tears.
Frey didn't know what had happened, but seeing Vayne crying made her panic. "Vayne—are you okay?"
Vayne realized she was smiling.
And she didn't hate that smile at all.
As she wiped away tears, she said softly, "I feel so much better. My heart feels lighter than it ever has."
Then she looked at Sona and thanked her with complete sincerity. "Thank you, Lady Sona."
Vayne had never understood music could hold such power.
Now… she was starting to.
Those memories weren't something she had to flee from.
They weren't thorns lodged in her heart.
They were the most beautiful moments of her life.
What she needed wasn't avoidance—she needed to cherish them.
Sona smiled gently and made a small encouraging gesture.
Through Vayne's heart, Sona could feel the shadow of something cruel that Vayne had lived through.
She understood why Vayne's heart had hurt.
Now, when she reached inward again, the scars were still there—but the darkness was gone, completely.
As for the scars, Sona believed time would do what time always did.
Given enough of it, they would heal.
Luke could tell from Sona's expression alone—the demon seed was handled.
He looked at Frey.
Frey understood immediately. She stood and bowed deeply to Sona. "Lady Sona—thank you."
Vayne was the last family she had left in the world.
Watching that child suffer under the demon seed had hurt Frey just as much.
Now that the demon seed was gone…
She was truly grateful.
Vayne bowed as well.
Faced with such solemn thanks, Sona waved her hands quickly, flustered—unable to respond out loud.
At the same time…
Somewhere else in Runeterra.
A stunningly beautiful woman had just caught herself a "bargain-bin snack."
In a decent mood, she was about to take the edge off her hunger.
But in that instant, a strange tremor pulsed through her heart.
Her brows drew together. The sultry warmth in her expression cooled into something sharp.
The shift in her aura made the "bargain-bin snack" stare at her in dazed worship, arms opening as if to pull her close.
Then, in the next second—
With a wet, quiet sound, the world spun.
The "snack" felt the sensation of falling, falling—still seeing, in the middle of the drop, a headless body spraying blood.
And then there was nothing.
The woman stared coldly at the fountain of blood, then flicked the stains from her tail-whip.
Her mood didn't improve.
At last, she lifted her eyes and looked toward Demacia.
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