“What are you?” Viktor asks breathlessly, asking himself aloud with pure shock in his voice. He blinks a few times to make sure he is seeing straight, that his all-nighters in the lab hadn’t taken a heavier toll than what he estimated.


    Perhaps Viktor is just dreaming, because the eye seems to roll at his frightened expression and wary demeanor. He clutches his now unneeded cane out of habit and walks back over to his desk, unused to the corrected motion of his right leg. Viktor imagines any onlooker would assume him to be faking a limp right now.


    As the scientist stands beholding his changed creation, a sinking feeling pools in his stomach. Resounding sounds of static emerge from the flesh inside the Hexcore. He readies his cane, but before he can even blink, a hollow, metal cylinder emerges from the fleshy mass inside the Hexcore, sprouting up like a plant with a steel stem and cable vines. Simple bearing joints move the optical device upward to meet him. Surrounding the eye, a circle of jutting teeth and familiar, faded yellow stripes threaten to eat him whole.


    Viktor holds his breath when metal eyelids slowly close in a manner reminiscent of a Piltoven camera lens, the eye seeming to squint


    “Can you understand me?” Viktor asks, taking a wobbly step back, noticing the bits of dried blood and rust that cling to the outstretched mechanism.


    The ‘eyelids’ open and the yellow dot rolls around the dark inside of the camera like a marble loop.


    Viktor shuffles even further back, holding the back of the chair in front of him in preparation for conflict until a monotone, female voice sounds out from the Hexcore. “Of. Course. Silly.”


    Viktor looks on cautiously, taking note of the odd manner of speech: the small but significant pauses between each word, the way it drew out the last word, and how the Hexcore flickered and pulsated as it spoke.


    “How… are you capable of speech? What are you?” Viktor questioned, curiosity overtaking his fear. He shuffles just a tad closer, but stumbles back when the eye suddenly lurches at him, stopping just before hitting him.


    “Easier. To. Assimilate. Than. Explain.” The eye opens wide, a bright, threatening glimmer muting even the laboratory lights in comparison.


    “I seldom travel the easy path: I’d rather an explanation, please,” Viktor retreats farther back, making a mental note of where he estimates the extended arm’s maximum reach is, and then backing a good few meters past that.


    The thing pulls back, responding with a quick “No.” An air of disappointment radiates out of the Hexcore at his refusal. Its pulsing slows to a barely noticeable, heartbeat-like speed. Viktor could swear it was almost pouting. He didn''t have much time to consider its strange behavior before the arm and eye retracted back into the fleshy ball at the center of the Hexcore. Immediately following, the outer shell slams closed with a harsh screech of metal, dropping onto the desk with an accompanying dull thud.


    Viktor’s reservations about telling Jayce disappear immediately, but not before he puts on a pair of sufficiently baggy pants.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    <hr>


    “Viktor, I’m really not in the mindspace to do this right… now…? What the hell is that?” Jayce glared, squinting his eyes at where the Hexcore normally levitates. Instead of his partner’s project, the counselor sees a rusty, yellow streaked contraption bound in chains. It vibrates and shakes violently, with drops of blood leaking from the small cracks between the rune matrix. Jayce notices that where the runes used to be, a much larger symbol branded overtop at four locations, each similar at the center but growing more distinct as the patterns branch out. “What did you do to it?” Jayce questions quietly, realizing his long day just got much longer.


    “I’m not entirely sure myself. I noticed changes occurring over the past few days, but when I returned to my lab to run an experiment, it was unrecognizable. It spoke, Jayce,” Viktor clutches his cane, his knuckles turning white. “I hoped you could assist me in another conversation, just in case.”


    Jayce nodded, watching the Hexcore roll around awkwardly on the desk until the chains went taut, only for it to roll another, seemingly random direction. Taking a deep breath, Jayce quickly unlocks the chains and retreats back to Viktor, readying a small workshop hammer.


    “Exasperated. Groan. Finally. Wow. So. Lame.” The camera launches out and takes in its surroundings in jittery, rapid turns until stopping upon meeting Jayce’s gaze, “New. One. Intrigue.”


    Jayce narrows his eyes, taking only a moment to glance at Viktor before turning back, remembering Heimerdinger’s words before his forced retirement, “Are you the Solver?”


    “Surprised. Shocked.” The creature’s eye widens, the lens completely pulling away to mimic a wide-eyed expression.


    “Is that a yes?” Viktor questions, moving behind Jayce.


    “I. Am. THE. SOLVER. OF. THE. ABSOLUTE. FABRIC,” It says with a significantly louder voice, leaning dramatically far to the side to stare at the pair judgmentally. “It. Would. Be. Rude. To. Just. Call. You. Vik. Wouldn’t. It?”


    “Enough, what’s your game? How did you take over the Hexcore?” Jayce readies his work hammer, the Solver tilting back to its original position just above the former Hexcore. Its base is still wrapped in chains, but the top is unlocked enough to allow it to look around.


    The eye poorly mimics a twitch with its shutters, “Take. Over? There. Was. No. ‘Take. Over.’ The. Flesh. Gave. And. I. Took.”


    Viktor gently pushes his partner towards the lab door, sighing and coughing, “Forget it, Jayce. It''s clearly speaking nonsense, I’ll just chain it back up. Sorry for wasting your time,”


    Before Jayce could even think about objecting, the laboratory door slams and locks. The counselor stands there motionless for a long moment. He has a key, obviously, but he trusts Viktor. If his partner is hiding something… he believes he of all people can figure it out. However, Heimerdinger’s advice still echoes in his busy mind. Viktor is a genius: the smartest person Jayce knows. But even geniuses can be tricked, and geniuses can be hurt. Jayce sees Viktor’s condition worsening with each passing day, but if Viktor didn’t want him there, and Viktor was already able to chain the Solver before, then he’d leave him to his devices. If anyone could cure Viktor–it would be Viktor.


    In regards to the Solver itself, Jayce knows he should seek out his missing mentor–the yordle disappeared immediately after his dismissal–but would Heimerdinger even talk to him after what happened? Jayce betrayed him, and the scientist couldn’t think of anything more pathetic than crawling back to the professor so soon after everything that transpired at the council.


    As he walks down the academy halls, Jayce carefully considers his next actions. First and foremost, he needs to talk to Mel: nothing else clears his cloudy mind quite as well as her.