Tales of Runeterra: The Screams of the Crowd

Tales of Runeterra

Chapter 7:

The Screams of the Crowd 

                “And I love all of you!” Seraphine shouted, her voice coming through the speakers as this loud, echo-y thing. At one point she loved the way her voice sounded— the way that the hextech speakers modified her voice to be heard by the masses. Now, as she watched the mana crystals spin furiously through the glass of the machines, she could only feel shame.

                Screaming, and not the good kind either. Yelling, crying, screaming, wailing came from the depths of the machine. The magic amplified her voice, but it also projected the anguished cries of the countless souls trapped within the crystals that they used for power. The people of the crowd around her shouted her name. They sang her lyrics with all the vigor of enraptured fans. They heard her music, but they did not hear the screams.

                Why did they not hear the screams?

                That’s right. It was because she was the only one who could hear it. The voice of the people, and of the world— only she could hear the tortured screams of truth hidden away in either minds or crystals. Only she could hear the cries of the Brackern.

                Seraphine almost frowned. She couldn’t actually do it. She was an idol, and idols didn’t frown, but she so desperately wanted to. It was hard not to feel down when voices constantly pleaded in your head for release; for freedom, for relief and, if not that, then numbness. At first Seraphine wanted to flee from the voices, but…

                … there was nowhere without hextech technology. There was nowhere without the pain.

                So she sang. She sang as loud and as often as she could to drown out the noise. Eventually, people started to sing with her, and before she knew it she was an idol. For a while, that noise was enough.

                But, of course, the cries always returned. They haunted her at night, when the crowds finally died away and the crystals embedded in the lights sung even when off. She removed the lightbulbs, only for the fridge to yell at her as well. She moved away the fridge, and the crystals in the passing cars murmured dejected words into her ears. She closed all her windows, and the voices sent muffled screams through the walls.

                Eventually, she had resigned herself to her torture. Eventually it was too much.

                “Remember, everyone!” Seraphine yelled. She threw her hand into the air, only to smile a beatific smile when her adoring fans copied her. “We sing our songs to unite all of the people of the world!”

                “Unite!” her fans roared, and she was pleased when she saw that it was a crowd of equal parts Zaunite and Piltie. “Unite! Unite! Unite!”

                Once upon a time, unity between the two cities was all she ever wanted. She knew now that it was not enough.

                Seraphine let the crowd roar for a few minutes more before bringing her hand down, the movement shushing them all instantly. She waved rapidly at the crowd as she walked away, bidding them all to come to her next show. The roars of the crowd were overwhelming, but they grew steadily quieter the farther backstage she retreated. They didn’t cut off completely, however, until Seraphine was locked safely in her trailer once more. She locked the door, before turning around and sliding slowly down the wall and onto her lush carpet.

                Bright blue eyes narrowed, before closing. Seraphine huffed when she saw who was currently sitting in her chair. “I don’t have time for this right now, mom,” she said. “I just finished a show.”

                “No better time than to catch you, then,” the older woman said. Her voice had nowhere near as much emotion as Seraphine’s, with each word said as factually as possible. The woman rose from her seat in one prim motion, her blue, suede suit moving seamlessly with her. “If I allow you any rest at all you won’t get up again for the rest of the day.”

                “I won’t get up for the rest of tomorrow if you make me work now.” Seraphine folded her arms. She knew that she was too old to pout, but she did it anyway. “I just sang for two hours straight, mom. Can’t I get an hour?”

                Her mother’s eyebrow raised, and Seraphine could already tell that her pleas were falling on deaf ears.

                “Imagine how much better you would feel once you got my little request out of the way,” her mother said. “Then you can have that whole hour of rest, and more.” The woman adjusted her thick glasses. “I think that would be much more preferable.”

                Seraphine looked ready to argue some more, but something interrupted her. To the idol, it sounded like thousands of tiny Raptors crying out at once, though to her mother it likely sounded like her beeper. The older woman took one look at it before sighing.

                “I have something to attend to,” she said. She reached into the folder in her arms and placed the paper she had fished out on Seraphine’s desk. “Please, honey, read this for me before I get back. I need it signed, okay?”

                The woman was out the door before Seraphine had time to respond. She was a busy woman, perhaps even busier than Seraphine herself, and had to manage her appearances in both cities. She didn’t even want to imagine what it was that her father had gotten himself into with her rise to stardom.

                Those thoughts were quickly wiped away, however, when another voice cried out. Seraphine rose from her place on the floor and quickly shuffled over to her desk. With a casual sweep of her arm, she pushed all the paperwork on her desk to the floor. Her mother would be on her case about it later, but Seraphine could care less.

                The tiny key that she kept on her necklace was into the keyhole in her drawer. With a turn and a soft click, it was unlocked, and Seraphine was able to pull out the only object kept inside.

                The tiny blue mana stone sparkled in the light of its kin. Unlike the others, however, this one had yet to be repurposed into technology. The mana stone in her hand was pure, unrefined. Unearthed fresh from the sands of Shurima, its voice was still as clear as any thought in any person’s head.

                It wasn’t being tortured like its brethren, so it didn’t have need to scream as often. This made its voice all the more important when it did decide to speak.

                “Skarner,” it cried. Unlike the screams of anguish the other crystalsmade, this little crystal was a soft, sad timber. “Skarner, I am here.”

                That was the only thing that the crystal said. A single word— a single name. Skarner, Skarner… that was all it ever talked about.

                This time, however, it was giving directions. Was it calling this Skarner towards itself?

                Seraphine didn’t know— couldn’t know. The crystal never answered any of her questions, no matter how many times she asked. Still, that didn’t stop her from trying. She couldn’t help the other crystals that cried throughout the city of Piltover and the undercity of Zaun, but damn it she could help this one.

                With a casual step over the paperwork, she walked to the window of her trailer. Her mother would notice if she left through the door, but the window was free game. She forced the glass open, before slipping out with practiced ease.

                Her mother would be furious when she returned and found out that she had left, but that hardly concerned Seraphine right now.

                “Unity for all,” she whispered. Even for the voices in the crystals.