"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Do I have flowers blooming on my face?"
Seeing both Garen and Lux staring at him with unsettled expressions, Duke scratched his chin. So, the signs of magic within Lux's body were already beginning to show, even now.
In the eyes of traditional Demacians, to be tainted by magic was a sin of the highest order.
All the more so because Garen and Lux belonged to the esteemed Crownguard family.
Garen had received the most orthodox Demacian upbringing from childhood. Facing the fact that his beloved sister bore the taint of magic, his feelings were tangled and bitterly complex.
Within Garen's heart, his love for Lux was entangled with fear, resistance, anger, betrayal, and suspicion.
Because in Demacia, mages were the most unforgivable of all!
To live as a mage was itself a crime.
The irony, however, was cruel: though Demacia's lands were smaller than Noxus, the natural abundance of magical energy here was dozens of times greater. It was the most fertile ground for mages to be born, precisely the reason Demacia's endless persecution of them never ceased.
"Are you… serious?"
Lux glanced at her brother, the words slipping out in a startled whisper. Garen cast her a reproving look, then turned solemnly to Duke.
"You're saying you can create a device that suppresses, or even conceals, a mage's power? A mana suppressor?"
"You must understand, this is no trivial matter."
"Oh, right." Duke suddenly looked as though he had just remembered something. "I forgot how Demacians view mages."
"But the matter of a mana suppressor is no bluff. I already have some ideas."
"Could you…" Garen's eyes flicked briefly to Lux before settling on Duke, his voice low and steady. "Explain in detail?"
"Mm…"
Duke reached into his inventory and produced a block of white, polished stone. Smooth to the point of disbelief, yet to a mage, it was poison itself.
"Let's start with this, petricite. I believe you know it far better than I do."
At the sight of the stone, Lux shrank back in alarm, while Garen instinctively moved to shield her from it.
Duke himself had awakened a soul-type magic, and though his body contained mana, petricite's effects on him were relatively mild, merely a faint sting when he touched it, as it hungrily absorbed his power.
"That sensation," he said evenly, "is the petricite drawing mana from me."
"You Demacians like to claim that petricite isolates you from mages, keeping you safe. But allow me to correct that misunderstanding."
"That notion is wrong."
Setting the stone on the table, Duke tapped it with a finger. "Petricite doesn't merely suppress magic. It absorbs it."
"Do you understand?"
"Petricite consumes magic."
"That makes no difference to its function," Garen argued, expression grim. "We know well enough that it nullifies mages, and that is all Demacia requires. Petricite keeps our people safe, sparing us from mage-born disasters."
"True," Duke allowed. "But what I'm about to tell you may show just how dangerous this stone really is."
He rapped the table beside the petricite.
"Think for a moment: if petricite absorbs magic, then where does that power go?"
"Disappear…?" Lux murmured faintly, only for Garen to glare at her into silence. She shrank back, folding her hands in her lap.
"No. It is stored."
Duke tapped the stone again. "To speak precisely, 'petricite' should be called a 'mana-drinker.' It soaks up magic the way a sponge soaks water."
"Then why has no one realized this before?" Garen demanded.
"Because of thought," Duke replied, pointing to his temple. "Demacians only care that petricite suppresses mages. You treat it as a tool, nothing more."
"A scientist, however, when faced with a phenomenon, asks not only how it works, but why. What is its essence?"
"That is the difference."
"Then," Garen pressed, "if you mean to use petricite as the raw material for a mana suppressor, how do you intend to prevent it from harming the mage who carries it?"
Duke snapped his fingers, smiling faintly. "That is precisely the problem I aim to solve."
"First, we must ask: if petricite absorbs and stores magic, then what is its limit? How much can it hold? And what happens when it reaches capacity?"
"That's something only a mage can test," Duke went on. "If a petricite stone is filled to the brim with mana… do you know what it becomes?"
Garen's eyes widened as the answer struck him. "It… it would become a weapon for the mage?"
"In a way, yes. But only after years upon years of patiently pouring one's own power into it."
Duke shrugged. "I've long pondered how to repurpose petricite into either a suppressor, or an amplifier."
Why was Sylas such a terrifying anomaly in Demacia?
Because of the twin shackles of petricite bound to his arms. Combined with his innate talent for sensing and touching others' magic, he could seize and unleash what he stole, his chains serving both as storage and conduit.
That was why Sylas was a living nightmare in Demacia.
But against Duke? Sylas would likely collapse before he ever laid a hand on him.
"So your research is still only theoretical?" Garen asked at last, disappointment slipping into his tone. If Duke succeeded, he need never fear for Lux's secret again.
"No," Duke said, spreading his hands with a weary sigh. "I already know the answer. The problem is always the same, too little time, too many demands."
"The method is simple enough, but the process is long and painstaking."
His research on petricite had shown him the path: to fashion a mana suppressor, one had to saturate the stone completely, turning it into a second vessel for mana.
A mage could then store their power within it, suppressing their aura at will. In crisis, they could release or even magnify it.
Once activated, the suppressor would render the mage indistinguishable from an ordinary person. And once deactivated, it could serve as an amplifier, heightening their spells.
But for this to work, a mage had to pour their mana into the stone for years until perfect resonance was achieved.
This was the challenge.
Fortunately, Duke already had the solution: Hextech crystals. With their aid, the process might be shortened to a single year, though those with greater innate talent would need longer.
Duke himself lacked the time. So when Garen had raised the matter tonight, he had simply decided to use it as bait.
Lux's gift for magic was extraordinary, and the Crownguard family suffered deeply for it. If he could win them over entirely, his Hexgates and exosuits could find open markets in Demacia.
After Bilgewater and Ixtal, here was yet another treasury within reach.
And the key to swaying the Crownguards was the mana suppressor.
"If you could truly build such a device," Garen asked gravely, "what would its effect be?"
Duke stroked his chin in thought before replying bluntly: "It would allow a mage to slip past petricite undetected, even through the petricite forest itself."
"But building one would take no less than a year," he cautioned. "And each must be crafted individually, there's no mass production."
"Still, if successful, it could drain a mage's mana into storage. Petricite would no longer react to them. To the outside world, they would be ordinary."
"In your words, they would no longer be tainted."
At that, both Garen and Lux looked upon him with shock, joy, and a relief too deep for words.
Lux's power only grew faster with each passing day. Sooner or later, she would lose control.
But this, this was hope. A new dawn.
"Can it really be done?" Lux asked, voice trembling.
"It can," Duke assured her, "but it will take time."
Lux opened her mouth to speak again, but Garen rose firmly to his feet. "That's enough. It's late, we should return before Father and Mother grow anxious."
"Very well."
"Shall I see you off?" Duke offered.
"No need," Garen declined with a curt wave. "Thank you for your hospitality. Rest well."
"Alright, then."
As the holographic meadow faded from the room, Duke watched the siblings depart. Sitting back at the table, he mused to himself:
"Will this bait be enough to hook the Crownguards? And if so, how do I draw them into my net completely?"
"A single suppressor won't suffice. I'll need more chips to bargain with."
Just then,
"Ahhh!"
A scream of terror tore through the night from the next room. Duke's face hardened instantly. That voice, it had come from Ciceria's chamber.
"What's happened now?"
End of chapter....
🔹 Hexcore Initiate – 15 chapters ahead
🔸 Arc Reactor Elite – 35 chapters + 3 BONUS CHAPTERS
👉 patreon.com/MrBehringer