Viktor wasn't entirely sure if he believed in Janna. Enough debilitating and unfortunate circumstances with zero relief would do that to you, and he was already feeling especially helpless in that moment. But, he considered that the closest thing he'd ever experience to a cosmic deity was probably right in front of him.
"Are you lost?" He titled his head at her, squinting when she startled and the gold that had pulsated between her hands, like a star, dissolved much like water would as it touched fire. She looked like the last type of person to be hiding behind an overgrown patch of cattail. Her hair fell in loose coils along the ground where she sat. Her skin was dark, with peeks of gold under the red shawl and white gown she adorned. More directly, she was the most angelic person Viktor had ever seen.
"I believe I am exactly where I'm meant to be," she responded. She looked him up and down, her dark eyes calculating and confident. She smiled, and although it was comforting, it still made him stand a little straighter. As though he were back in the the city he had once called home, under scrutiny of the council because he had empathy. The devil on his shoulder. The reminder made his shoulders sink.
"Right," he tried to hold back his sarcasm, but he could tell it did not work when she quirked a neatly kempt eyebrow at him. He toed the ground with his holey boot. "You shouldn't be down here, Piltover does not approve of nonconformists."
Her smile relaxed, turning more curved at the edges, "I am more than capable of managing myself, Viktor."
"Well-" The sound died in his throat; hand frozen in the air where he had begun to make a mild sweep of a gesture. She turned back to the stream at his stuttering, splashing her feet in the shallow waters. She giggled into her blood red shawl, the sound slightly muffled. His arm fell back to his side as he squinted at her profile. Her bubbling amusement broke with a sigh, and she did not look at him again as she began to speak.
"I have heard your urge to free your people of the affliction caused by Piltover. I would like to help you. I could assist you and yours, to make this desolate land into one of fresh milk and rich honey." She smiled, as though she could imagine such a paradise with the smell of faint smoke and oil in the air.
"Who are you calling desolate?" He knew he should have been slightly more offended, on behalf of where his loyalties were. But he still took a few steps forward as he attempted to catch a closer glimpse of her face.
"What is that in your hand?" she deflected his rhetorical question.
He glanced down at his cane, unimpressed, "A walking stick."
"Throw it on the ground." She peered at him, smiling slightly devilish. Her magnificence did not dwindle though. Unfortunately for Viktor. Her teeth were perfectly straight, he realized.
"I will not be able to walk without it," he refused, clawing his stare away from her. She hummed, still taking in the expanse of his unsure expression. He sighed, long and suffering, before letting go of the silver knob his body had been leaning on. It didn’t clamor as it usually would have.
He gasped, loud enough for her eyes to flash up at him with invigorated excitement. There was a snake in place of where the wood should have landed in the uneven stone. Black and luminous with yellow eyes like the sun on burning hot days. It hissed at him; it's tongue like a tiny black ribbon as it flicked out. The cold of sinister fear felt like he'd mistakenly fallen into the river a few feet away. He looked away just to ensure that he hadn't.
"Come," she held a pliant hand out to it, not bothered in the slightest when the serpent sped towards the limb and immediately constricted itself firmly around her thin arm. When Viktor had not moved, she looked away from the reflective pattern of its scales to share an expectent tilt to her head. "Come."
"Absolutely not," he nearly tripped over his inverted leg in his haste to put distance between himself and the glimmering eyes of burning coal.
She hummed, petting the smooth head of the creature, "In order to save the Zaunites, I will have requests for you, Viktor. In order for me to believe in your abilities to do what it takes, I must ask you to follow my directions without a doubt holding you back. You must gain my trust."
Viktor was suddenly hesitant to look at her. She stood out against the falling night, glimmering and pure as she all but dangled a notoriously dangerous offer in front of his face. Even so, he was spurred on as he sensed their time coming to a close. Even if she presented herself as a divine entity, her wet feet would eventually grow cold from the vacant sun and freezing waters of the rushing water. Viktor himself ached from the long day he had had, suddenly desperate to sit down.
He limped over to her, unintentionally kicking up gravel as he went. The snake's head piqued at his nearing proximity, curling itself down the woman's arm to her flat hand. It reached for him as he did the same. Its jaw was wide open, opalescent fangs on display. But one daring stare from darkly shadowed eyes made him commit anyway. He stared, attempting to conceal his terror as it snapped its jaw shut and opted to lazily slink up his forearm and bicep.
She smirked, looking him up and down once more, her gaze dragging along his legs, waist, chest, then face. He shivered. He blamed the cold.
"Who are you?" He shivered once more as wet scales slid across the back of his neck.
"I am who I am. And I am your provider."
He gaped at her, "You are a woman I have never met before, and you are handling poisonous vermin with no sign of concern. I have it in my right mind to drag you up to Piltover myself. Before you catch a cold sitting there." He turned away from her, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from raising his voice to the yellow eyes in front of his own as well. He had a feeling that the animal wouldn't hold back as much as their other companion. Its tongue hit his nose before encircling around his pale neck.
"You may call me Mel, if you insist on belittling my endeavor so soon." He spun around, slightly dumbfounded by her pouted lips. He couldn't stop his snort, quieting almost immediately when her disappointed eyes hit the light just right and he realized they were green. They shun under the moon's florescence like jewels.
"Endeavor?" he asked, incredulous.
"Yes," she nodded plainly, crossing her arms over her shawl, "I deserve to act esoteric after how long it has taken me to catch you alone." Viktor's hand dragged themselves over the sharp slopes of his own face in an exaggerated huff.
"Just- Could you get to the point?" The snake got unnecessarily close to his eye. He glared at it. “Please?”
She stood, her gown of starlight draping elegantly down to her heels, and the motion was so fluid that he wondered if she were also a serpent. Her drenched feet left a dark path as she took three steps closer to where he stood. He let the suspicion go.
"Take a firm grasp of her, then she will return to your trusted walking stick." Her sarcasm made him grin, giving a short and sweet chuckle to her offence at his sudden nonchalance. For a moment, he thought he shouldn't believe her; that touching the serpent was a sure way to get him bit and killed. But, when he wrapped a hand around the onyx tail, the painted body of his cane was suddenly slung over his right shoulder.
"Oh," he gaped at it, mouth hung open as Mel drew nearer. Her hand landing under his left elbow caused him to startle, dropping the object once again.
They both watched as the wood transformed to flesh. The snake looked slightly dazed, as if it hadn't intended to turn back so soon. Or, she, Mel had said. He repressed the urge to apologize.
Mel's untarnished giggles drew him back to reality once more. He felt his jaw shut tight and his shoulders melt like sugar under a high flame. She squeezed his arm, grinning wild enough that he could see the soul of her. Mischievous and cunning, caring and ravishing. Her laughter deflated to priceless wrinkles in the outer corners of her eyes. Her soft gaze lingered on him, but she eventually knelt down to pick up the serpent, neither of them acknowledging whether it changed back again.
She offered her hand.
"Come. I have someone to introduce."
part 2 - part 3