First reborn
She thought she was on fire, that was the best description she could come across, she has been inside this prison for ages now. Chained up to the wall with petrice, like some kind of animal. The properties of the stone made her body feel numb and broken. The only thing she could do at times was pace around the cage, and eat the gruesome meals that they gave her. She has spent most of her adolescence behind this institution, ever since they caught her, they have subdued her. When they wanted her to train for them was the only time when her shackles were off, they gave her some kind of liquid those times, one that tasted like acid and made her blood boil with her magic, oh her magic, so full she was of it that it didnt matter how many times they feed her that fucking poison or kept her bound or tear at her skin with white blades. It will always bounce back. She was powerful, but that in her situation was worse than being weak.
They needed her, that's why they kept drugging her up, when she was tired of working, a little of that orange potion and her magic would be all overcharged again and she needed it to be released. She had been in missions, she didn’t recall a lot, just the insatiable fighting.
She was sure she had grown, the years had passed, her body had changed and the world had too. She was sure her brother had changed too…she wanted to see him again so badly but she had known they had told him a lie. That Luxanna Crownguard was dead. She wished she was really, she wanted that lie to be true with every passing month in the mageseekers. She had killed, spied, arrested her own people, for the kingdom. A true Demacian.
Chained up in a bloody cell.
How funny these things were.
This one was not different, mission, pretrice submission and chained up to the wall. But this time a different voice approached her cell. It was old, raspy, and had a tone of maddening curiosity.
“Aren't you a strong specimen, even the most devilish Crowguard falls into the strength category. Such an amazing family”
Lux got her head up, as much as the collar allowed her head to. The man that was talking to her was sporting a gold gawn and the familiar mask she herself had to wear at times with disgust. A really long and pointed goatee decorating his chin, that had a really awful grin.
Lux didn’t speak, she hadn’t had water today, and the poison left her vocal cords swollen, she knew her voice would crack and she didn't want to let this individual hear that.
“Stubborn too, such a quality of a Crowguard, is a shame the rest of your family can't get to see their little girl flourish”
The man laughs and without listening to his scoult comes closer to the bars, gripping them with calouseus fists.
“But you haven't bloomed, not yet. These useless keepers don't know how to polish a power like yours. That power that is being caged up inside a human body, but don’t you worry I can set you free Luxanna”
Free? Her shackles never had felt heavier now hearing that word. This person couldn't give her freedom, no one could to a dead girl. But she couldn't go against anything, even if she could, what would be the point? She had nothing left outside of the walls. The best she could do right now is be useful, at least like that she wouldn’t have to think about the wrongness of her actions. She was just another tool with nice grease making Demacia work.
So they took her away from the cell she had grown in and made her enter into the laboratorys.
She had been chained up to a table. She wasn't sure why. She really wasn't gonna move, she didn't have the will to, maybe It was because the procedure was gonna be hard. And they didn't want her to thrust around.
Hesbeth personal laboratory was full of animals in cages and tubes fulled with maná holding bodys she couldn't make out anymore. Some spirits even, sprites she remembers reading books about them . Pin and mutalized in the table along with bricks of petrice and some liquids that she wasn't sure of their making.
But there were some models of a figure she was familiar with. A diary full of drawings of the symbol of rightfulness of Demacia, the stone goliath Galio. Her big and only friend. Would have he been missing her light all these years? Or her hand scratching his foot? Or being alive…oh they both were caged now weren't they? And that brought her an even glommer mood.
“I see you taking your gaze into our precious national monument. Oh Durand really was a great innovator, creating such a powerful being. But that old rock against magic, needs magic to work. And when that runs out, he goes dormant”
Hesbeth then picks up a needle filled with dark purple component that was glowing in an obscure way, like It was absorbing the light of the environment.
“Yes dear, Galio is not a mere statue. He's alive, but you sure know about that, taking into account what those thugs told the Magesekers”
Lux at Galios mention shot her gaze to the scientist, she could feel her eyes changing into full gold fighting against the petrice in her system, pushing It and ripping herself apart in the insides. But if Galio had been hurt. She was not taking It.
“Wow wow lower your Luxanna. He is fine in his pedestal as always, sleeping soundly”
Lux doesn't change her pose, even if It hurts.
“Going back to the point I wanted to make, is that yes. Galio is an amazing power House. But wouldn't It be better a goliath that was always in charge, that produced magic on its own and had arcane abilities to subdue the rest of the filth? Use their precious Magic against them, not just canceling It, just like us having mages on our lines ”
Lux was gonna be sick, she could vomit her guts out. But Hesbeth would love to take a sample of them, so she dismissed the idea. The scientist took hold of her arm, traced one of her veins and put the needle in. First she didn't feel anything more than the pinch, then a crashing pain that rattle inside her head.
She was pretty sure she was screaming. That she had pushed the man out of her space with a kick. She was aware that she was being held down, and the petrice was cracking under her overflowing glow that had started to go all around her nerves system leaving golden scars ar its wake. Her veins were burning her skin over the inside. She thought she was gonna explode, one of the shackles did. The group of bodies that were her and the guards fell from the table and Lux was suffering, her bones were breaking, she could almost feel them disappear completely, leaving her motionless on the floor, panting. And then she was being carried to another chamber.
She didn't understand anything, she couldn't move, she couldn't speak outside of painful screams that by the moment seemed more animalistic. And then she was drowning hearing that man's voice muffled by the gold liquid around her, going into her lungs.
“Someone said that being drowned and coming back from It was like a resurrection. Don't you fret Luxanna, you are strong. You would be reborn as a masterpiece”
And then silence.
[...........]
Everything was ringing when she woke up she started spitting gold, but she could feel her body moving at least. But…It was different her skin didn't felt the floor against her as hard as It should have been, several noises were coming from everywhere, her ears went flat against her skull trying to collapse the chaos. Wait since when her ears could do that. She tried to stand supporting herself on fours. When she finally opened her eyes she saw her hands as claws, her feet as razor talons, a tail in between them. And limp appendages that Lux supposed were wings.
Her heart began to thump like a rock inside her chest. She gave a roar clutching at her face trying to rip off those new teeth, her golden claws actually making a cut across her face, a silver line with red coming down her face.
What has happened, what have they done? She was a Monster already, why they wanted to make her more of one.
She growled and clawed at herself, now her brother wouldn't recognise her ever….even if she was out…she couldn't pretend anymore she was a monster.
And then a voice came out off the darkness alongside her, the cell was actually divided in two, moving her marble gold eyes glowing, casting a light for all the room she saw a horned creature, with hooves, claws, teeth and chains just like her in a way, with a carving made on the stone of his arm. His eyes are glowing white looking at her. Long black matted hair along with a beard made of rocks.
“Glad you are awake little light, talking to myself was driving me insane”