Kassadin's question sat between them like a drawn blade.
"If ending the Void required it, would you sacrifice everyone you love?"
For a second, Logan wondered if this was some kind of test.
Then he corrected himself.
Of course it was a test.
He was measuring him, the shape of his limit. The point where Logan would stop being useful to him.
Logan looked down at his restored left hand.
He wanted Kassadin's help.
An ally who could stand against Watchers was invaluable. If Kassadin could also train Kai'Sa, even better. Between Kassadin, Lissandra, Aatrox, the Spirit Blossom demigods, and whatever Logan himself had become, they could build something that might not collapse the first time a True Watcher looked at them.
He had seen that power now, he had felt what a True Watcher could do.
Logan understood why Kassadin asked the question.
"No," Logan said.
He raised his eyes. "I want Runeterra to survive. I want the Void stopped. I know what happens if it wins." He paused, then said it plainly. "But the people close to me matter more to me than an idea of the world. If saving everything means I have to give them up, then no. I won't give everything."
Kassadin stared at him through the mask. Logan could not read his face, he could only feel the weight of the man's attention, cold and sharp.
Then Kassadin spoke.
"You, I, and especially the…" He stopped, as if catching the word before it left his mouth. "The Ascended barely defeated one True Watcher."
Aatrox gave a low sound from the ground. It might have been amusement, it might have been insult.
Kassadin ignored it. "And Zarr was stronger than the fuchsia Watcher. I could tell even without fighting him."
Logan had felt that too, he still remembered the pressure of his presence.
Not simply stronger in body or power, but heavier. Older. Like something closer to command.
Kassadin continued, "If the Eye is surrounded by its Watchers and its strongest Voidborn, destroying it would be impossible. But if those forces could be drawn away, even partially, the chance would increase."
Logan already did not like where this was going.
Kassadin said it anyway.
"One way to draw them away would be to allow the Void to enter Runeterra."
Logan's expression went still.
"The armies of Runeterra would hold as long as they could," Kassadin said. "While they fought, another force would strike the Eye."
"Runeterra as bait," Logan said.
Kassadin did not deny it.
Logan thought of Isha.
Of children carrying wooden swords. Of people who would never know why the sky split open, only that something hungry came through it.
His answer was already forming.
"No."
Kassadin lifted one hand slightly. "It is only hypothetical. We do not yet have a way to destroy the Eye."
Logan leaned back against the fallen trunk and exhaled through his nose.
He did not fully trust Kassadin.
But he understood him more than he wanted to.
A man who had lost everything to the Void would not think in soft shapes. He would count lives against oblivion, looking at sacrifice the way other men looked at tools.
Kassadin let the silence stand for a moment.
Then he said, "The meeps."
Logan blinked at the change. "What about them?"
"I have seen them before."
That surprised him.
Kassadin looked toward the upper branches, where blue leaves shifted in a light wind. "They travel with a strange being with power beyond measure."
Logan murmured, "Bard."
Kassadin turned back to him.
"That's his name," Logan said. "Or the name people use. He has his own logic. He usually doesn't interfere directly in conflicts."
"Could he be convinced?"
Logan thought of Spirit Blossom Bard.
"Maybe," Logan said.
Then a question pushed through Logan's mind.
"How do you know so much?"
Kassadin remained silent.
Logan looked at him. "You knew Aatrox was Ascended. That happened centuries before you existed. Most people only know the Darkin as monsters. They don't know what they were before."
Aatrox's voice rose from the dirt. "I mentioned it while you were unconscious, but the man already knew."
For the first time, Logan thought he heard something like a small laugh from Kassadin. It was brief, almost swallowed by the mask.
"I should be asking you that question," Kassadin said. "How do you know so much?"
Logan gave a faint smile. "You know I'm not going to answer that."
"Yes."
"And I'm guessing you won't answer either."
"No."
Logan almost laughed.
For some reason, that made him trust Kassadin a little more. Not because he was open, but because he did not pretend to be.
"Fine," Logan said. "Then the next step is Bard. When the other meeps arrive, I'll ask if they can take me to him."
Inwardly, he amended that.
First, spiritual Bard, that was where Logan needed to start.
"As for using Runeterra as a lure," Logan continued, "I'm not doing it unless there is a way to protect the people. Soldiers choosing to fight is one thing. Turning civilians into bait is another."
Kassadin watched him.
A few seconds passed.
Then he said, "Good answer."
Logan frowned. "Was this really a test?"
"Yes."
"At least you're honest."
Kassadin stood.
"You may go."
Logan stared at him. "That's it?"
"Yes."
"You don't have more questions?"
"I have many."
Logan waited.
Kassadin did not continue.
Logan should have left it there, he knew he should have. He had enough problems.
But Kai'Sa's name sat in his throat.
He hesitated.
Kassadin noticed immediately.
"Spit it out."
Logan shifted his weight. "Do you know Kai'Sa is…"
"My daughter," Kassadin said.
Logan closed his mouth.
Kassadin's voice did not change. "Yes. I know."
"Oh."
Kassadin looked toward the path Kai'Sa had taken. "I want to know her from her."
Logan looked at him for a moment.
Then he smiled despite himself.
Of course.
"That's a good answer too," Logan said.
He turned toward the edge of the clearing, then stopped beside Aatrox.
Logan gripped the hilt and pulled.
Aatrox came free with a rough scrape of metal and soil.
Logan rested the sword against his shoulder and started walking.
Aatrox's voice followed him. "Our fused form was crude. If we intend to stand against Watchers again, we will train it properly."
Logan sighed. "Of course we will."
...
The forest swallowed the clearing behind him. He followed Ahri's spiritual presence again. His left leg still complained.
How did someone recruit Bard?
Did you make music?
Offer cosmic snacks?
He pushed through a final line of trees and entered another clearing.
The sight waiting there made his thoughts pause.
Jinx sat on a flat stone in the grass, wearing a simple short white dress that looked borrowed and badly suited to her personality. Her blue hair fell loose and damp down her back. She had a cloth in both hands and was drying Ahri's pink hair with more care than Logan expected from her and less patience than the task probably required.
Ahri sat in front of her, also dressed in a simple white dress. Her six tails lay around her in soft curves. She made small, pleased sounds whenever Jinx rubbed the towel over her head too roughly.
A spiritual meep floated in front of Ahri.
Bluebell, if he had remembered the name right from Ekko.
Ahri reached toward it with both hands. The little creature bobbed away, then floated back, chiming softly. Ahri smiled and tried to catch it again.
Nearby, a normal meep hovered in front of Jinx, gold-toned and round, with a patient expression that somehow made it look older than everyone there.
Goldie.
Jinx was talking to it while drying Ahri's hair. "Listen, shiny bean, I'm not saying your belly trick was bad. I'm saying next time maybe warn people before turning rescue missions into pocket-sized nonsense."
Goldie chimed.
Jinx narrowed her eyes. "Don't take that tone with me."
Ahri laughed without words and clapped once when Bluebell spun in the air.
Logan stood at the edge of the clearing.
His chest hurt again.
"All right," he whispered to himself.
First, Ahri and her tails.
Then the meeps and Bard.