7 Consequence

Mordyn walked with heavy feet through the interior of The Last Drop and walked past a few tables on the side.

Even with the door at the side of the building, he could not completely stop from going through the place.

When he walked past the bar there was already Vander that glanced over to him. Mordyn did notice that and looked at him for a second.

Currently, it didn't look like he was in any trouble. Vander still poured out drinks normally. But just from the way he looked at Mordyn, he was very likely already aware of what happened or at the very least has some bit of the gist.

Since he was not stopped he went on straight into his workshop. This room was once a simple storage room until it was used for his brewing and mixing. He could not always keep using their sleeping room as some sort of workshop after all.

The moment he entered the room, a thick smell of medicine assaulted his nostrils. All of the air in this room was giving of a heavy scent of herbs and other substances.

Mordyn just walked over to a cabinet and placed a chair near it.

Sitting down there he took a bottle from the top and unscrewed it. Taking some clean-looking cloth he started wiping away the blood on his left cheek as much as possible. Not an easy task since the wound still bled profusely.

But as soon as he used the cream that was inside the bottle on his wound the blood stopped. The cream itself immediately seemed to harden and build some transparent crust on the wound that seemed to protect it.

Then taking another small vial that was filled with white powder he opened it and sniffed the content inside his nose.

"Urgh...Gotta work on the recipe...." When the powder traveled through his nose it made contact with the sensitive parts of it and made a crisp bite as if you sprayed salt on a wound.

It burned like hell for a short moment before it subsided and even the pain on his cheek slowly started getting less.

Looking into a mirror at the side Mordyn could see his wound slowly closing up underneath the transparent lotion. It was slow and steady healing visible by the eye. Well, actually he could only see how its red color slowly diminished in brightness and became one of an old wound.

The cream itself was a product he had made so that wounds would not get infected and later fester into scars but how far it worked, Mordyn had not tested it yet. But as soon as an hour or so passed, he would have his answer.

Unfortunately, he already had sold his lesser health potion in Piltover today. The one he had put specifically on a pedestal of being a new product.

That one potion would have closed up this wound pretty much instantly.

Now after today's events he would make sure to keep himself equipped with one or two of those potions just in case. Not just the powder that was rather only a helping hand in healing and recovering from wounds.

He had to wonder now why those Noxians still paid an immense amount of money for that tad bit of healing.

From the impression most of them gave him, they were pretty hardy people that should not care about little wounds and scars. And the dust only was effective to a certain degree, mind you. It could not save you from life-threatening wounds.

It was more like a bandaid than anything.

Well, guess they got enough soldiers wounded and in recovery that even could use that tidbit of help.

Sighing Mordyn placed the harvest he got from those corpses on the table and then started changing clothes.

Just when he put on a new shirt there was a knocking on the door to his workshop and it opened up.

Looking over to the person that opened it he could see Vander standing as high as the doorframe and motioning him to stay sitting

Vander closed the door and sat down as well. He looked at him in silence while Mordyn also didn't say anything.

"Stopped the bleeding?" Asked the man while scratching his beard a little with his right hand and glancing to the side where Mordyn had put the bottles down.

Mordyn looked at him trying to find a starting point to talk without going straight to the point.

"You're not here talking to me because of my wound, are you? But yes, I'm done treating it."

Vander sighed. "What I heard from the kids was not exactly a good thing..."

"Then what is it that you heard from Powder?" Mordyn was no fool. Ekko was probably back at Benzo's and the only one that had the tendency to not keep her mouth shut was Powder.

Well, actually Ekko was also bad at keeping things for himself but he at least had to be pressured to spill the beans, and one needed to know when he behaved weirdly to see he was hiding something.

Vander looked at Mordyn. His eyes seemed somewhat conflicted about how to put his next words.

"Did you know? The undercity used to be a hive of crime a few years back before you kids were even born. It was much worse than it is right now. The whole of the undercity was a place where murder was a common thing and the city would not even blink an eye in seeing you bleed to death on its streets. But that is not what we are anymore. The lanes have changed."

"They started it. And I couldn't just do nothing..." Mordyn frowned a little. So it was already a foregone matter to hide the event.

"But stabbing someone multiple times is the way to resolve it? Right in front of the others? Do you know what the lanes will demand of me now?"

"No one will know, so why bother about it? As long as you don't go around telling people or the others keep their mouths shut, nothing should happen."

Now Vander had an angry scowl on his face. "What do you mean by that? Don't tell me you killed all four of them!?"

Now Mordyn remained silent again before looking away.

"All I am saying is they won't be a bother anymore. There is also no longer any evidence that would ever lead to us or me in that matter, I made sure of it. I also know what I did was wrong, but I will not bring that trouble back to you."

"There is still the current you that I have to take care of. You know you are a murderer now....You just admitted it. And what do you think I should do? Just simply forget about it?"

"I know better than anyone else, that you, Vander, are no saint either. Just tell me already what you want from me. You probably already figured something out, no?"

"I want you to leave."

Mordyn widened his eyes for a short moment and then squinted them. "You would have sold me out..." He felt sour bitterness in knowing that Vander would have given him away. All the talk about family and yet he did value order over it.

That moment just fed Mordyn a seed of doubt to this man's determination to his words and goals.

"Not anymore, if what you said is true. But you can't stay here. It is better for all of us that you leave. You can just start a new life in Piltover." Vander didn't put a leaf in front of his mouth and basically admitted that he would have sold him out to the lanes for justice.

That is the kind of person he truly was.

In a sense, Mordyn was also fortunate that Vander did trust his words enough that he had didn't get him out of here in handcuffs.

So Mordyn looked at him and nodded lightly a few times. "Alright." His voice sounded bitter now. "I will leave. I will pack my things and be done here in a few days at most."

"Good." Vander stood up and walked over to the door where he stopped. "Mordyn, you may think badly of me now. But I have to protect the other kids. I just hoped...you would have denied everything...There is a line one should never cross. It will only spiral out of your control someday. So be careful."

Those last words before the door shut behind him let Mordyn sigh out heavily.

Mordyn started rubbing and kneading his hands until it resulted in him scratching them until they bled. These were the hands that brought this on him. These bloodied hands.

The solemn look on his face soon traveled back to the pills.

He then prepared a ritual circle on the floor with some of his paint and placed both a blood essence and bone marrow inside a goblet filled with an alchemical mixture right at the center.

Then after scratching his palms again so that a drop of his own blood spilled into said goblet he started chanting.

The room soon illuminated in an eerie dark purple energy that collected itself above the goblet.

It started producing lightning arcs that even struck Mordyn who still had been chanting.

The pain and numbness brought him to his knees. But after a short break and with a deep frown Mordyn continued on to perform the ritual.

The energy vortex that had collected started going into the goblet with the offering and mixed itself into some black mass.

Neither the goblet nor the energy was present any longer and everything became silent.

Mordyn shifted his head sideways thinking the ritual failed because he already was finished with the chanting and now only the result was to be waited for.

But nothing happened so he went closer to the dark mass.

Looking at it there was still nothing that happened.

So Mordyn only shook shoulders and wanted to make another try. But he then heard his door open again.

This time it was Powder that had entered and Mordyn looked over to her. At the same time, the black mass started to produce arcs of electricity again.

Mordyn saw how the energy was traveling towards Powder and he just managed to jump right in front of Powder to protect her from it.

The lightning struck his back and the black mass suddenly imploded sending a small shockwave through the room.

Mordyn slowly tried to get up and looked at the girl underneath him. While saving her from the lightning he seemed to have been pushed into her.

He became agitated and immediately checked her breathing.

After hearing her soft breathing he relaxed and breathed out in relief. But the moment he thought he was lucky nothing happened to her a thought traveled through his mind.

It was hard to deny it but Vander was right.

Looking at his own hands and seeing how this went he could not deny it any longer. He was slowly becoming a danger. Not only to himself but to his family.

Slowly he took the unconscious girl and brought her over to the couch that was close by where he lay her down.

Then looking over to the ritual circle with anger all written on his face he soon saw a small creature sitting in the middle.

The thought about destroying the book suddenly vanished and only the wonder of what creature appeared remained in his mind.

*Are you the one that summoned me?*

Mordyn squinted his eyes. The dark raspy voice that assaulted his mind and the image he saw of the creature was as contrasting as night and day.

In front of him, there sat a small black wolf pup with its blue tongue out. But the crimson eyes it had that watched him told him definitely this thing had intelligence.

"Are you the familiar that answered my summon?" Mordyn asked now.

*Yes, that I am. Hmm, aren't you rather young for a Conjurer?*

"..." Mordyn was now stunned by this outcome. So his ritual did work and only took some time to activate. But that still didn't explain his burning back.

*Oh, that? The spell you used probably engraved some mark on your body that is used as proof of the contract.*

'Wait, did you just now read my thoughts? Okay, I forbid you to do that.'

*Welp, be mindful of your demands. But sure, no more mind reading it is.*

"What is that?" Suddenly a voice asked and Mordyn looked back at Powder having woken up.

"Well, this is...." Mordyn looked at the pup and made a certain face to the familiar.

*I am Garm.*

"...Garm." He finished his sentence. "He is a familiar that I summoned. Come to think, are you alright, Powder? You came into the room at a rather dangerous time."

"Sorry..." Powder instantly apologized to him and looked down. "I just wanted to come here and see how you were doing. I think I said something to Vander and he seems to be angry with you now..."

Mordyn looked at her and smiled a little. Did this girl worry about him? But at the same time, it was a little bit worrying in regard to her

"It's okay. I'm doing fine." He rubbed her cheek where a small scratch was. "But next time just knock before you enter, okay?"

Powder looked rather intently at Mordyn now. "Mord, are you going to leave us?"

Mordyn hearing that question was a little bit out for words. So Vander did talk about it with the others already.

"I...may go away for a while. But I promise I will come back someday to visit you all, alright?" He smiled at her.

Mentioning that now it was a little bit weird only to see Powder coming to him to say goodbye.

"Is it my fault that you are going to leave?", she asked meekly now.

So that is what this was all about. She probably felt somewhat guilty and wanted to be certain. Even if it meant not listening to what Vander had probably said to her.

"No, of course not. Why would you think that?" Even though it may have been her that brought the news to Vander, it was not like she was in any way wrong to do so.

"The others always say I am a bother and always jinx stuff." Powder explained it and there really were some things where she had been a little bit of a factor in the failure of jobs.

But a team consists of a group of people and Mordyn knew much better how a person alone could not screw everything up.

Mordyn now flicked her little nose and smirked more. "Don't let the others bother you. Especially Milo. He has a big mouth while still having many flaws himself. You are a smart girl. Just wait a little bit to grow up and you will be better than them in no time."

"Even stronger than Violet?" Powder grinned now thinking about becoming stronger than her sister.

"Hmm, maybe? You know your sister is a little bit of a hardy tomboy. She would still try her best to outperform you so that she could protect you."

"What's a tomboy?"

Now Mordyn widened his eyes and even started to laugh lightly. Then he whispered into her ears. "She is behaving more like a boy than a girl. I also think she likes girls. You know, with the way she looks at some of them. Do you think she has something for that old yordle lady from the pleasure palace?"

"Oh!" Powder now grinned brighter. "Yeah, I know about that! I don't think she likes old people, though?"

"Oh? Are you trying to say you are the only one she likes right now? Rather bold words there."

Powder got a little bit confused at first but then nodded firmly. "I and my sister love each other greatly."

Mordyn looked at her eyes and saw them being full of adoration for her big sister.

"Hehe, well, let's keep this little gossip just between us, alright?"

*Are you two ignoring me?*

Just when he started to get Powder's mood up he heard his familiar voicing out a complaint.

"Right, can you take care of this fella for me for a while? I still need to get things done like packing my stuff." Mordyn looked back and picked up Garm and placed the small pup into Powder's embrace.

Powder held him up and looked at the familiar with big eyes. Then with a big smile, she nodded again.

"Okay~" She then got up from the couch and ran off to play with this puppy.

'Oh, and do behave, Garm.'

*I am not a damn babysitter!!*

'And here you are reading my thoughts again. Take it as punishment for not obeying.' Mordyn smirked at hearing his familiar's reaction to his command.

*...*

Sighing a little Mordyn looked at his workshop and suddenly a slight headache surfaced that annoyed him. He had to sortie all this crap out and transport it over to his location in the upper city.