The object spun, flickered, spun… but still nothing. Hovering teasingly over the desk, the Hexcore twirled joyfully, reveling in its locked away secrets. Viktor sighed, his eyes squinting at his research papers. When did it get so dark? No matter… he’d just sleep in the lab tonight.


    It had to work tonight; Viktor had no reason to doubt his calculations. He’d double checked, triple checked, and then quadruple checked it. If it wasn’t working… there’s some variable he’s been neglecting to factor.


    One more time now… spin, flicker, spin… no that’s not right…


    One more… spin, spin, flicker… that’s worse!


    One… spin… flicker… NO!


    His mind seemed to spin faster than the Hexcore when he launched out of his chair, throwing his papers up into the air. Viktor must’ve stood up too fast–he’s just lightheaded. Yes that’s all but… the Hexcore seems different. A symbol, distinct from the runes he’s used to, flickers with gold from inside the azure mechanism. A hexagon with three outstretched arrows.


    The sigil called to him… and he listened. His head clouded with his approach closer, his mind-state matching the Hexcore’s erratic and nonsensical movements. Viktor collapsed onto the desk, reaching desperately toward the golden beacon. Before he could grasp the core, his body failed him, and he fell limp, coughing blood onto the desk before he finally struck the cold floor.


    Unbeknownst to the unconscious scientist, his blood began to smear across the desk, crawling like a dying centipede toward the Hexcore. The golden hexagon spun, levitating the human’s blood into the air before pulling it inside, absorbing the blood.


    [AbsoluteSolverString = True]


    Viktor stood before the Hexcore again, now accompanied by Jayce, who was speechless. Together, they watched a normal pot of plants grow rapidly and… change. Instead of the leafy green, healthy growth Jayce expected, the plants began to redden, turning to steaming flesh and meat before liquifying as viscous gray sludge, flowing across the desk.


    “Viktor… this is… how did you even…?” Jayce tried and failed to wrap his head around how Hextech could even begin to do this. Enhanced movement, reduced weight, and incredible durability were all effects borne of deliberate manipulations of tried and tested equations… but Viktor’s notes, Jayce noticed, had almost none of that. In fact, the same manipulations made systematically to the Hexcore yielded different outputs seemingly at random.


    “It reacts to organic matter! After the catalyst was introduced, it became clear to me, Jayce: the Arcane is not just a tool, it’s a thing, a being, a collective!” Viktor explained, breathing heavily as he shuffled through his hastily written, but incredibly detailed notes, looking for a specific experiment, “I wanted to see its reaction to something it couldn’t do, like manipulate an object that wasn’t nearby, and what did it do?”This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Jayce attempts to follow, hazarding his best guess at what Viktor could be getting at, “It… pulled the object from the other room?” Jayce sighed, wishing Viktor would just tell him. The council was especially exhausting today, and although talking to Viktor was a great way to wind down, he couldn’t manage to match his lab partner’s energy levels. Especially not over such a gruesome display.


    Jayce’s drooping eyes launched right up though when Viktor rolled up his sleeve and explained: “It threw me.”


    “I-It what?” Jayce gawked at the large bruise across Viktor’s arm.


    “It threw me across the room before fabricating a near identical spoon to the one I had been asking it to retrieve.”


    “How…?”


    “I don’t know, Jayce. I theorize it’s alive. When I signalled it again to retrieve the spoon, it just… ignored me. When I signalled a third time, it did this:” Viktor pulls a box out from under the desk. A box, Jayce saw was completely filled with identical metal spoons. If Jayce was silent before, he might as well not have a voice anymore.


    “I noticed after I was feeling light-headed in the lab that something might be wrong with the ventilation. I was informed that the lab had abnormally meager air pressure, but the ductworkers could not pinpoint a cause. I haven’t yet deduced the means by which it developed such an ability,” Viktor explains, hoping Jayce catches on to the horrifying, though intriguing implications.


    “It got the mass to make spoons by transmuting the air? Viktor… we need to show Heimerdinger! He might be able to help control this!” Jayce exclaims happily, his earlier fatigue vanishing at the prospect of such an exciting discovery. Though, upon fetching his mentor, his hopes were quickly dashed by the head counsellor''s immediate, desperate comment.


    “That symbol… you must destroy it. Now.”


    “W-what? Professor, you haven’t even–” Viktor tries to reason, but is quickly cut off.


    “You don’t understand, my boys. This thing, that’s taken over your work: I’ve seen it before. It destroys nations, consumes everything and anything! If ever you’ve respected my words, heed them now: eliminate it before it does us.” Heimerdinger pleads.


    “Professor, listen! The Hexcore can transmute air to metal, plants into flesh! If we control it, the possibilities are virtually endless! It could even cure me!”


    “Viktor, my boy! That is not the Hexcore! The very presence of that symbol shows your work has gone too far! This is a violation of the ethos, and I will have it destroyed! One way or another.” Heimerdinger stomps, literally putting his foot down. Jayce knows, though, despite being head of the council and dean of the academy, his mentor cannot stop their research unilaterally.


    “You’ll have to go through the council first, professor. They’ll see the wonders we can do with this, even if you won’t.” Jayce steps between his mentor and his partner, blocking the former’s path.


    Heimerdinger glares, then turns to make his way out of the lab. Viktor leans on his crutch and sighs after the door slams shut, knowing his research just got a lot more difficult, “I think I might know someone else who might be able to assist us with our quandary.” His reluctance is not lost on Jayce, but now, faced with the opportunity to cure Viktor, his and his partners'' reservations must be set aside.