"Ugh..."
"I've got three suppliers telling me they're putting shipping on hold until things calm down in the fall before they make any more plans."
The bloated, bald councilor rattled off a long complaint in one breath.
Jayce turned one of the blades from a clockwork butterfly over in his hand, his thoughts in complete disarray.
He had gone to the scene that morning. There had been blood everywhere, in great sprawling patches. It was sickening to look at.
Mel had taken him to see the wounded councilors. Including Sheriff Marcus, more than half the Enforcers were still unconscious from blood loss.
"What we should be worrying about right now isn't profits. That sheriff betrayed us."
Cassandra had already heard what Caitlyn had gone through, and she had informed the other councilors at the start of the meeting.
"We still don't know enough about the situation," said the woman councilor wearing three gold gear-rings around her neck.
The rings, along with the five armored sheaths on her fingers, were all made of solid gold, making her look extravagantly wealthy.
"What matters is action. Otherwise people are going to die."
Jayce cut the others off. At the moment, he was the Council's leader, and that meant his voice carried the most weight.
Mel looked at her lover and fell silent in thought as well.
She and Jayce were the only two councilors who had actually been to the scene. The severity of the situation could not have been more obvious.
And yet that fat idiot was still worried about his profits.
Sometimes she truly wanted to throw that pig out of Piltover. Unfortunately, his wealth still served a purpose for the Council.
A mind that sharp when it came to bookkeeping turned to mush the moment anything else came up.
"Maybe Marcus was carrying out some mission on his own," said another councilor with the bearing of a nobleman.
"There's no nobility in the Undercity. What could they possibly offer him that he couldn't get in the topside?"
He said it bluntly, but then his attention snapped toward the entrance when someone spoke.
"Not offer him something."
Caleb, Vi, and Caitlyn stepped into the chamber under Enforcer escort.
All seven councilors turned to look at them, waiting for Vi to continue.
"They threatened him where it hurt."
"To put it simply, his daughter," Caleb added with an easy smile.
The Council, the center of power in Piltover, was exactly the kind of place where the information Caleb held mattered most.
"Councilors, my daughter has some very insightful thoughts on the current situation."
Cassandra rose to her feet and introduced Caitlyn to the others.
"Thank you." Caitlyn dipped her head slightly, then said, "Councilors, this is Vi, born and raised in the Undercity."
"And this is Caleb... um..."
"I'm from outside the twin cities," Caleb said, noticing Caitlyn's hesitation and stepping in to explain.
"Thank you," Caitlyn continued. "Even though we've failed her and harmed her over and over again, she still took all kinds of risks to show me how people in the Undercity are really living."
The councilors became visibly more attentive. The Kiramman daughter was famous for liking fieldwork.
Since she had gone into the Undercity herself, her perspective carried real value.
"They're suffering under poverty, disease, and shimmer. They live in constant fear under the crushing intimidation of the major criminal gangs."
The words landed like a sharp slap across the councilors' faces.
"And the one at the head of those criminal organizations is Silco," Caitlyn concluded.
"I've already investigated his background. They do not have the capacity to build a criminal syndicate on that scale," a councilor with a mechanical-looking body shot back, his voice carrying a slight metallic distortion.
"And who exactly was responsible for that investigation?" Caitlyn asked.
That single question left him speechless.
"What exactly is this man trying to do?" Jayce exchanged a look with Mel and tossed the metal wing in his hand aside.
Maybe it really was just as Mel's mother, Ambessa Medarda, had implied.
Maybe war was coming.
"He wants to break free of Piltover's control and build an entirely new Zaun."
"And bleed the topside a little while he's at it," Caleb added, finally speaking up again after mostly hanging back.
"And this?" Jayce took out a Flame Chompers device with its core removed. "Who invented this?"
"I don't know, I..." Caitlyn faltered. That was Vi's sister. Someone deeply important to her.
"Her name is Jinx," Vi said, stepping forward and taking Caitlyn's hand.
"At least the gemstone was recovered." Jayce let out a long breath. "Otherwise, we'd have no choice but to solve this with force."
Caleb only sneered to himself.
Recovered safely? Hardly.
The truth was, besides the two gemstones Caleb had left with Jinx, there was another one stashed with the Firelights.
Even if Marcus had confiscated it, Caleb could still pull one out from the hidden inner layer of his clothing.
And adding the one he had already handed over, that made five gemstones in total.
No one would ever imagine that a single missing gemstone had somehow split itself into four more in Caleb's hands.
"War cannot be allowed," Mel said, rejecting the idea as well.
"There are still plenty of innocent people in the Undercity!" Caitlyn couldn't help raising her voice.
"There are plenty of bad ones too!" the bald councilor scoffed.
"This Silco has gotten completely out of control. If we don't crush him by force, how are we supposed to tear out his entire operation by the roots?"
"And even if we go to war, the Undercity has shimmer. Their forces aren't weak."
"And we have Hextech," Jayce said firmly. Silco ruled the Undercity, and that was a disaster for both Piltover and Zaun.
"Jayce, you don't understand war." Mel still refused. "I do."
Coming from her, a woman from Noxus, the words carried the right weight. As a child, her mother had already shown her what death looked like.
"We do not go to war unless there is absolutely no other choice. Maybe diplomacy is worth trying first."
Jayce looked to the other councilors. The aristocratic-looking one rolled his eyes and said, "She's right."
Mel might have ceded the leadership position to Jayce, but in reality, she was still the one controlling the flow of the room.
The rest of the councilors said nothing.
Jayce shook his head and sighed.
"What? You want to negotiate with Silco?" Vi stepped forward, disbelief written all over her face.
"If we want to avoid more bloodshed, this may be the only way," Cassandra countered.
"Have you people learned nothing?"
"There's nothing to talk about with Silco!"
"He hates you, and everything you stand for!"
The more Vi spoke, the more worked up she became, until she was standing right in the middle of the cog-shaped table.
"He will never compromise."
Her tone was absolute.
"Enforcers! Escort them out!"
The noble-looking councilor sprang to his feet and slammed both hands on the table.
Caleb had never planned to say much anyway. In the Council, there were only two people who truly mattered when it came to making decisions.
Jayce, who controlled the technology.
And Mel Medarda, of House Medarda.
As long as Caleb had gotten in front of them once, there was still a chance to convince them later.
To everyone else, it looked like Caleb had barely said anything. He had only added a couple of remarks, then stood back and let Vi ruin everything.
But before leaving, Caleb had quietly dropped the Hextech gemstone he had hidden on himself into the council chamber.
It would not take long before they found it.
"Wait!" An Enforcer came running after them from behind. "Mr. Caleb, please come back to the Council with us."
Caleb returned to the chamber.
Sure enough, two Hextech gemstones were now lying quietly on the table.
"I thought something seemed off about you earlier. The weather's warm, and yet you were dressed in such a heavy coat."
Mel narrowed her eyes, and a killing edge slipped into her voice without her even trying to hide it.
"So what's the story with this extra Hextech gemstone?"
Jayce was just as confused. Until now, only he and Viktor had been researching Hextech, with Heimerdinger, their mentor, offering occasional guidance.
Only one gemstone had gone missing from storage.
So how had one turned into two by the time it came back?
And then Caleb spoke his first truly serious line of the meeting, one that sent the entire Council into chaos.
"Silco still has Hextech gemstones."
"More than one."