Ink to Ashes / Arcane Fanfiction Viktor x Reader

8

You tumbled through the doorway, disorientated and panicked. From behind you came the sound of a door slamming shut. In the sudden lack of light you were practically blind, and so had no sense of the size or contents of the room you had just been dragged into.

You instinctively pulled against the grip on your arm. To your surprise, your mystery captor let go without protest. You flailed around blindly before a match hissed in the darkness, bathing the room in a wavering glow.

It was large and impossibly tall, with ceilings that disappeared into the gloom. Unlike the other rooms you had seen in the Academy, this one was impeccably clean. Each book had its place on an orderly shelf, every box was neatly labelled and stacked away. The only anomaly was a pile of clutter in the middle of the main workspace. You thought you recognised some pieces from the very ones you had drawn... But they couldn't be, could they?

It took you a moment to recognise the person that held the match beneath the large protective goggles he wore. Dark hair. Hazel eyes.

This man got weirder and weirder every time you encountered him.

"Did I grab the right one?" asked a voice.

You turned. At this point, you weren't surprised to see Jayce-bloody-Talis of all people locking the door.

He squinted at you. "Doesn't look like an Enforcer." 

"I'm not an-" you started, struggling to order your thoughts. It appeared your brain had been left in the corridor. "Pardon my language, but what the fuck is going on?"

"I just saved your ass," Jayce said, wandering over to the workbench to tinker with something unseen. "Your welcome."

"I- Yeah, thanks, but how-"

And then you saw what he was working on. It was a tall, spindly structure, made up of a multitude of thin rods strung with scraps of card. Drawn on them were intricate, geometric symbols. In the middle was a small indentation, wires and cables leading from it.

And it all clicked into place.

"You're making magic," you breathed in disbelief. "You're actually making magic."

"We will," Viktor said, casting a wary glance at the door, "if we don't get caught first."

"So that's why I had two angry Enforcers after me."

"Sorry about that. We didn't realise they'd be so... persistent."

Jayce rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, visably more stressed than Viktor who looked as if this was just another day at work.

"You nearly done?" Jayce asked impatiently.

"Nearly, nearly," Viktor murmured in response, minutely tweaking the angle of one of the rods with a tiny screwdriver.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" you offered, feeling awkward just standing around.

"There is a small box in the cabinets over there-" He gestured vaguely with the screwdriver without looking up. "Second to the left. Third draw down. Bring it over here - please."

You carefully did as told and removed the lid at Viktor's request. Stark blue light from inside seeped out bright as daylight in the dark room. Once your eyes had adjusted, you saw its source was the tiny shard-like gem you had seen in Jayce's apartment.

For a moment all three of you stared in awe, or fear, or whatever indescribable emotions you were feeling at the moment. The weight of what you had been caught up in suddenly bore down on you; You were trespassing in the head of the Council's lab with two mad scientists - one of whom had nearly been exiled from the city only days before - who were trying to make magic.