Chapter Text
The third time is not even a time at all. Jayce and Viktor built a larger model after they stabilized the angles. When they test the prototype they find that they can now focus the hextech powersphere. The floating space above their experiment has become controlled. There's only a certain amount of space that has lost its gravity, and not the entire room. Objects tumble over themselves in a two-foot cylinder of magic.
(The theory here is that unmitigated--unfocused--magic will expand to fit whatever container it exists in, at an exponential rate of decay from the initial power core... but that's a theory for another time.)
And then, Viktor reaches out and adjusts the frequency. The tumbling stops, and the test objects -- a paper airplane, a book full of notes, and a deck of worn playing cards that Viktor found on him, stop moving in the air. Instead, they stay perfectly still, hovering directly over the stone, its pulsing light is no longer erratic, but keeping steady time. Viktor smiles, allowing himself this victory.
Then, Viktor, who has been watching the objects spinning on invisible gyres, looks across the table.
Jayce is staring at him.
Viktor forgets how to breathe.
“Incredible,” Jayce mutters. He does not move at all, and instead, he looks up at the objects again.
Viktor has heard that tone before. He saw Jayce clench the table as his shoulders (all saints, those shoulders) hunched. Watched Jayce with sharp eyes as the other man didn’t move towards him and didn’t say anything else.
Viktor finds his breath again and looks up. He leans against his cane and nods, focusing on the cards that have escaped the pack, all the faces and stars floating around, still in a perfect, meticulous, calculated order. The Jack of Hearts winks in the glow.
He knows (he hopes) what would have happened, had he and Jayce been on the same side of the table, shoulders brushing, as Viktor perfected their experiment. Instead, the prototype separates them, and Viktor doesn't know whether the burning in his throat like hard liquor is anger at Jayce for not moving or at himself for wanting it so badly.