Vi still didn't know what kind of path Levi was going to point out for her, but she stepped into the howling gale without hesitation.
Then, with the whistling of the wind and the surging of air currents, her body lifted weightlessly off the ground. She soared into the air alongside Levi, floating out through the prison's narrow skylight and into the sunlit blue sky.
Once freed from the cage, the world felt infinitely vast.
Overcome with excitement, Vi immediately declared, "Levi, I'm going back to Zaun!"
'Huh?' Levi thought. 'I broke you out to help with our cause, and your first thought is to run off?'
"I need to go back and find Powder," Vi said, looking a bit sheepish but maintaining a resolute tone. "She's my sister. I can't just let her disappear without a trace."
"Well..." Levi understood.
Although Vi had become a staunch believer in Janna and possessed the passion to learn about his cause, her sister would always be the most important thing to her.
"I'm sorry," Vi promised. "Once I find out what happened to Powder, I will definitely come back."
Levi unhurriedly manipulated the air currents, carrying Vi swiftly toward Piltover with the elegant, cloud-riding grace of an Eastern immortal.
Then he spoke up. "Actually, I know where Powder is."
"W-What did you say?!" Vi took a moment to process this, her hands immediately clenching into fists.
"Don't grab my collar, or we'll both fall," Levi said, anticipating her reaction.
Vi froze, though her eyes remained wide as saucers. "Levi, you better explain yourself. You know where Powder is? How could you possibly know?"
"I am Janna's Chosen. When it comes to the Twin Cities, Janna knows everything."
It was a convincing explanation. But Vi's questions didn't end there. "Then why did you keep saying you didn't know before?! When I asked you, you lied and said you'd never even seen anyone named Powder!"
"Because you might not be happy to hear about her current situation," Levi replied, his tone subtle.
"Where is she? What happened to my sister!" Vi demanded, her worry instantly flaring.
"Relax, she's doing very well right now." Levi sighed. "She doesn't go by Powder anymore. She's called Jinx."
"And many Zaunites know who Jinx is."
"Because she is Silco's adopted daughter."
Vi fell completely silent.
The news hit her like a bombshell, leaving her utterly stunned.
"Y-You've got to be kidding me... Silco is the murderer who killed Vander, who killed our adoptive father... How could Powder... how could she work for our enemy! And..."
"Adopted daughter? You're saying she looks at Silco as a father now? That's impossible!"
"Not in name, but in reality, they are father and daughter," Levi replied earnestly, pretending he hadn't heard the rhetorical nature of her question.
His tone was dead serious, bolstered by the aura of being Janna's Chosen. No matter how much Vi wanted to deny it, she was starting to believe him.
"Impossible, this is impossible..."
"Why is it impossible?" Levi pierced right through to her deepest insecurities. "When you abandoned Powder six years ago, she was just a child, not even ten years old."
"A child needs family. And at that time, only Silco could give her a home."
"I..." Levi's words forced Vi to recall the tragedy from all those years ago.
Simply put, Vi, her two childhood friends, and their adoptive father Vander had been fighting a losing battle against Silco's forces.
After a bitter struggle, they had actually found a glimmer of hope to escape with their lives.
But Powder, who had originally been left behind in a safe place, suddenly arrived on the scene and threw a massive bomb, blowing up all of her allies except for Vi...
The kid had meant well and wanted to help, but ended up causing a catastrophic disaster.
With her friends sacrificed and her adoptive father dead right in front of her, Vi was overcome with grief. She viciously scolded Powder, then left her sister all alone at the blast site, walking away in a daze.
"No... it wasn't like that!" Vi didn't care how Levi knew so many details; she just vehemently argued back. "I didn't abandon Powder! I-I... I only left because I was emotional in the moment. I went right back to find her afterward!"
"It's just that Marcus, that dirty cop, arrested me, so I couldn't go back to see her!"
"So you still didn't see her in the end, did you?" Levi sighed. "In Powder's eyes, she was abandoned."
"Vi, don't forget what I told you:"
"She doesn't go by 'Powder' anymore. She's called 'Jinx'."
Vi froze in her tracks.
Jinx. It meant a person of ill omen, a curse.
Those were the exact words she had hurled at Powder when she lost control in her grief and anger all those years ago. She had called her sister a curse, a jinx.
And so, Powder became the adopted daughter of their enemy, Silco. She became Jinx.
"I have to go back and find her!" Vi clenched her fists, consumed by agonizing guilt.
"Calm down, Vi," Levi advised. "What can you possibly do by going back alone?"
"Even if you could persuade Jinx with a few words to turn back into your Powder, do you really think Silco would just stand by and watch you take his daughter away, only to make an enemy out of him?"
"With just the two of you, can you guarantee you'd make it out of Zaun safely?"
"Then I still have to try!" Vi gritted her teeth stubbornly.
"If you insist on going right now, I'm willing to take you there. But I hope you can be patient and wait a little longer."
"Wait for what?" Vi asked.
"Wait for our organization to grow stronger—then, we can go back together."
"You guys are going to Zaun to cause trouble for Silco too?" Vi caught onto his implication.
"Exactly." Levi nodded. "But we aren't just going to cause trouble for Silco. We're going to cause trouble for all the Chem-Barons, all the Zaunite compradors, and all the scumbags who ride on the backs of the Zaunite people!"
"You..." Vi finally understood. "All that 'nonviolent noncooperation' stuff you talked about before, that was just to trick those Pilties?"
"You just want to keep a low profile, build up your strength, go back to Zaun to steal Silco's territory, and then turn around and smash Piltover's operations?!"
Although her phrasing was a bit crude, she wasn't wrong about the general direction.
"Yes, which means our interests align."
"You want to get revenge on Silco, and we want to take Silco's territory."
"You want to save Jinx, and we want to ensure that Zaun never produces another story like Jinx's again."
Levi paused slightly, speaking to Vi in a profound tone. "Vi, I know you blame yourself right now. You blame yourself for cursing and abandoning your sister back then."
"But can you really be blamed?"
"Can your sister be blamed?"
Powder had made a mistake by accidentally blowing up her adoptive father and childhood friends; Vi had failed in her duties as an older sister by abandoning her in a moment of emotional turmoil.
But the root of these mistakes didn't lie with them. It lay entirely with this fucked-up world.
When a ten-year-old girl needed to carry a bomb onto a battlefield, discussing her personal mistakes lost all meaning.
In the face of such darkness, people were simply too small. They were merely pushed along by fate, helplessly marching toward despair.
"The old society always turns humans into ghosts."
"The goal of our Windguides is to create a new world, to turn those ghosts back into humans!"
"We aren't just going to save Powder; we're going to save all the children in Zaun who are trapped by their circumstances, just like her!"
With that, Levi formally extended an invitation to Vi.
"Vi, are you willing to join the Windguides and work with us to save the countless 'Powders' of Zaun?"
"I..." Vi fell into deep thought.
She pondered for a long time before asking, "Roughly how long until we can go back to Zaun?"
"Don't worry, it will be soon," Levi assured her. "Don't forget, we have Janna's blessing."
"Exactly how long? I want a specific timeframe." Vi wasn't the type to patiently listen to a boss paint empty promises.
So Levi thought for a moment and replied, "About a month."
If the Windguides could continue developing at their current momentum, a month would be enough for them to return to Zaun and establish a branch base.
"Alright," Vi demanded. "I want to be in the first group to go back to Zaun."
"Of course," Levi smiled.
Vi was exactly who he had scouted for the Windguides to be among the first batch of cadres returning to Zaun in the future.
Because Vi wasn't just a Zaunite; she was also the adopted daughter of the former leader, Vander.
Although Vander was gone and his influence had faded, his bold, righteous, and chivalrous nature during his many years as Zaun's big brother had left behind a certain degree of prestige.
The people of Zaun generally remembered the goodness of this righteous leader.
Once Vi, this "princess of the former regime," made her appearance and played the "Vander's adopted daughter" card, she would help the Windguides earn a great deal of popularity among the Zaunite masses.
Even many prominent figures in Zaun would be drawn in by her. For example, Ekko.
Zaun's super scientific genius, the future Time Assassin Ekko, was a loyal follower of Vander, as well as Vi's close friend and childhood companion.
"I promise you, Vi," Levi solemnly pledged.
"Good!" Vi formally replied, her expression equally serious. "Levi, I'll go with you to see—"
"Just what this new world you're talking about looks like!"