Outside Sejuani's tent—
Donna had no idea Logan had followed her Warmother away. But even if she had known, she wouldn't have followed them anyway, because right now her eyes were shining as she squeezed into the crowd. In her right hand, she clutched a vacuum-sealed rack of lamb, while her left hand death-gripped a package containing about eight skewers' worth of sausage. The silly girl was practically drooling, and there was no way she was letting go.
"Stop this! Stop this right now!"
The tribe's shaman shouted at the top of his lungs. The elderly old shaman's face was flushed red, and he looked nothing like the hunched, frail figure he used to be. At this moment, the old man looked downright vigorous. He looked about ready to grab onto the Winter's Claw warriors' shoulders, climb right over them, and step on their backs just to squeeze into the center.
"Don't snatch things! Stop fighting over it! There's enough food for everyone in the tribe, so move aside! Let us count the supplies first!"
A whole group of old shamans was yelling themselves hoarse from behind.
Donna heard the old shaman's voice, but pretended she hadn't. She stuffed the packaged sausages into her clothes, puffed up her cheeks, then reached in with all her strength and kept digging for more.
The area around the dozens of shipping containers was already packed full of Winter's Claw warriors. More than a thousand people were scrambling over food. The scene was, naturally, complete chaos.
"Quit grabbing at random, damn it! Who was that?! Are you trying to feel up the packaging or my tits?!"
"Hell, who just grabbed my ass?!"
The Winter's Claw warriors simply couldn't calm down.
Within the tribe, the shamans held higher status than the warriors, second only to the Warmother herself. They were the ones who found the path forward for the tribe. Sometimes, these old men could even overrule the Warmother's decisions—though if Sejuani insisted on having her way, they would still follow her in the end.
But in the Winter's Claw, a tribe where Sejuani's word normally carried absolute authority, these old men still had the right to reject even the Warmother's commands. That alone showed how high their status really was.
But... what was the point?
At this moment, absolutely no one was listening to them.
"Mmhmm~"
Humming a little tune under her breath, Vi stood outside the crowd, grinning as she watched the scene in front of her. She watched for a while, then patted Ekko on the shoulder beside her.
Ekko was bundled up thickly. Over his enforcer's coat, he was also wearing a wool sweater. Standing beside him was a girl in goggles and a heavy padded coat—Zeri. Her bright green hair, like crackling sparks, spilled out from under her goggles as she stared wide-eyed at the scene.
"Shouldn't we do something?" Zeri said after thinking it over. She had a bad feeling this could turn into a trampling accident if it kept going.
"Do what?" Vi said with an easy grin. She stretched lazily, then looked toward a tent in the distance. Logan had just gone over there.
Thinking of that, Vi said to Ekko, "Come on. Let's go see what Logan and Jinx are up to."
Ekko hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
A short while later, Vi, Ekko, and Zeri arrived outside the tent.
Then they heard Jinx's voice from inside.
"You've gotta be kidding me!"
"I swear I'll blow you up!"
Hearing Jinx's furious voice, Vi raised an eyebrow. She had no idea what her little sister was losing it over this time.
She lifted the animal-hide curtain and walked in, only to see this:
A woman even taller than Caitlyn was standing there with a frown, looking at Jinx. Logan had Jinx wrapped around the waist to hold her back, while Jinx bared her teeth and claws at the tall woman, spewing filthy language from her mouth—yeah, the universal dialect every Zaunite knew by heart.
Aside from those three, there was also a man with very long hair. He was a little shorter than Vander, but his broad, heavy build was about the same. He had his head lowered, pretending he couldn't see any of what was happening.
"What's going on here?" Vi said with a whistle.
Then she looked a few extra times at the tall woman.
Honestly, the woman was really pretty. Especially that cold temperament of hers. For a brief instant, she even reminded Vi a little of Caitlyn, but there was a difference. Caitlyn was cold on the outside and warm on the inside. This woman wasn't like that. She looked like a giant ice sculpture in human form, the chill in her eyes making it impossible to meet her gaze for long.
"Nothing much. Just a misunderstanding." Logan looked at Vi with a helpless smile, clearly asking for help with his eyes.
Vi caught it, then gave him an amused look. Standing there with one hand on her hip, she said loudly, "So the day finally came when you'd have to ask me for help?"
That said, she still walked over. Reaching Jinx, she rolled her eyes at her in annoyance and said, "All right, Jinx. Stop making a scene."
"I'm making a scene?" Jinx, hearing Vi say that to her, got so mad she spat a bubble of saliva right in Vi's face.
"!"
As Vi wiped the spit off her face, she turned a dangerous grin on Jinx.
Realizing she might have gone a little too far, Jinx felt a bit guilty—but only for a second. She immediately stiffened again and stubbornly glared at Vi.
"She said she wants to marry Logan! Fine, maybe you don't want to back me up, but how can you say I'm the one making a scene?"
Vi froze.
She looked at Logan, who was still holding Jinx, and Logan nodded.
This really wasn't Jinx's fault.
She was petty, sure. She couldn't stand even the tiniest bit of grievance. Call her hypocritical, call her unreasonable, whatever—but Jinx had always been like this. The environment in Zaun, her past, and the indulgence of Silco and Vander had all shaped that part of her. Expecting her to suddenly be reasonable was about as realistic as expecting Mordekaiser to blow up and die in the Realm of Death tomorrow.
"Have I done something wrong?" Sejuani's voice sounded out. She looked at everyone in confusion, then continued, "A beautiful man belongs with the strong. I can tell that you and Logan are lovers, Jinx, but that's fine. Logan can become my bloodsworn and still stay with you."
"?" Logan twitched at the corner of his mouth as he looked at Sejuani.
No, seriously, was she really proposing something this wild?
Bloodsworn meant husband and wife, so what exactly did Sejuani mean by that?
It meant Logan would become her husband while continuing to date Jinx at the same time.
Putting aside whether Logan himself would accept that, Jinx definitely never would.
After hearing that, Vi finally pieced together what had happened. But unlike Jinx, she actually thought it through for a moment before looking at Sejuani and saying suspiciously, "Are you people in the Freljord always this savage?"
"What do you mean?" Sejuani froze.
"I mean they're already together, so why are you trying to steal her man?"
"Aren't men meant to be fought over?" Sejuani frowned again.
"That's your Freljord custom, not ours in Zaun," Vi said, sounding speechless. She looked at Sejuani and added, "Don't impose your customs on outsiders, just like we wouldn't go around trampling on yours."
Sejuani seemed to understand.
What Vi meant was that the outside world was different from the Freljord. It wasn't necessarily a matter of men outranking women or women outranking men, but marital relationships were definitely not the same as they were in the Freljord.
Sejuani fell silent.
If it had been anyone else, she would have acted like a raider and taken what she wanted. But that wouldn't work with Logan. This winter, the Winter's Claw wouldn't lose people, because the warriors no longer had to risk their lives hunting in the dead of winter. In the future, the tribe would also need Logan to trade for supplies and survive the cold season. And on top of that, Logan seemed to be even stronger than she was.
Respecting the strong was in every Freljordian's nature.
"Let's talk about the important things instead. All right, Jinx."
Big sister was still big sister. Vi had spent years being the one in charge, and after serving as a Sump Enforcer in Zaun for so long, she had already become very skilled at handling every kind of trouble. Zaun might not have huge problems these days, but it still had mountains of everyday disputes between people.
Don't go thinking that just because Zaun had begun to reform, the average citizen had suddenly become civilized overnight. Compared to Piltover, the Zaunite temper and roughness were carved into people's bones. The word civilized still hadn't really entered that city's vocabulary.
Once Logan finally let go of Jinx, she huffed angrily and stomped off to sit alone in a corner. With her back to everyone else, she lowered her head, no one knowing what she was thinking.
Then Logan turned to Vi and said, "Did you bring the papers?"
"Yep. Ekko's got them." Vi jerked her chin.
After watching the show for quite a while, Ekko finally stepped up and handed Logan a sealed stack of documents. Logan took them, opened them, and looked through them.
Mm. Nothing wrong with them.
This was the document Logan had asked Silco to prepare. It was, broadly speaking, a treaty of friendship between the Twin Cities and the Winter's Claw, with all kinds of rules and conditions laid out inside.
Basically, it said that the Twin Cities would support the Winter's Claw—but that support wouldn't be free.
The Twin Cities hadn't come all the way out here just to run a charity drive for the Winter's Claw. The document clearly spelled out what the Twin Cities needed from them in return: special ores, magical materials like fragments of True Ice, various beast pelts, handicrafts, local plants and wood, and so on. In addition, the Twin Cities would invite some members of the Winter's Claw to study there and would provide them with jobs and wages.
The problem was that Sejuani couldn't read Valoran script.
Being able to speak a language and being able to read its writing system were two very different things.
So Logan had Zeri read the agreement out loud for Sejuani, and Sejuani listened with full attention.
Behind her, Udyr also stopped pretending to be invisible and listened to the terms along with her.
After a while, Zeri finished reading and stood neatly off to one side.
Logan looked at Sejuani and asked, "Well?"
"It's excellent... but I don't really understand, Logan. Why are you doing this? What do you gain from it?" Sejuani looked at Logan with puzzlement.
This contract was too good for the Winter's Claw. So good that it practically felt like the Twin Cities were just giving them everything and asking for nothing. And that was exactly why Sejuani couldn't understand it.
There was no such thing as a free meal.
Sejuani had understood that truth since she was little.
There was no such thing as goodwill without a reason, either. That was another thing her mother had taught her.
Logan and Zaun were being kind—too kind. So kind that none of these terms were something Sejuani could bring herself to refuse. And yet that very kindness made her afraid to accept.
She was worried there was some scheme hidden inside it.
"Well, of course there are benefits for us," Logan said, nodding.
He didn't hide anything from Sejuani.
"Before the Winter's Claw, I had already established relations with three city-states: Ionia, Noxus, and Bilgewater. Once you send the Noxian prisoners back, Noxus's Grand General, Swain, will sign a cooperation treaty with the Twin Cities. Ionia has already signed one, and Bilgewater is a little more complicated, but in the future it will establish ties with the Twin Cities too."
"To the west, Demacia is also one of our targets. And all the small countries along the way—we'll establish ties with them too."
"You asked why the Twin Cities are doing this?"
Logan took a breath and said seriously, "For the sake of the future, Sejuani. What I'm doing, what my city-state is doing right now, is all for the future."
"The future?" Sejuani still didn't understand.
But Udyr stepped in from behind her.
Looking at Logan, he said in a low voice, "You've spoken with Lissandra?"
"She came to see me last night," Logan answered with a smile.
In the corner, Jinx's body jerked. Beneath her blue hair, her pale ear twitched.
Udyr continued, "So... what did you and Lissandra discuss?"
"Something you already know about, Udyr. Something under the Howling Abyss."
After hearing that, Udyr said nothing more. He simply reached out and patted Sejuani lightly on the back, then closed his eyes and lowered his head so no one could see his expression.
But inside, Udyr's heart was in turmoil.
This outsider, Logan—was he trying to unite Runeterra and resist the Void?
But that was a problem even Ornn couldn't solve. Could humanity really accomplish something like that on its own?
Udyr didn't know.
But... he was willing to try.
He had always known the secret beneath the Howling Abyss. But knowing and being able to do something about it were two different things. Right now, even helping Sejuani lead the Winter's Claw through the winter was already difficult for him. He couldn't even deal with Volibear. All he could do was watch helplessly as Sejuani fell, step by step, into the great web the Bear-God had woven.
But Logan's appearance had shown Udyr a sliver of hope.
If the witch had really come to terms with Logan, then when Volibear turned hostile in the future, Udyr, plus the figures behind Logan, plus Lissandra...
Heh.
They might not necessarily lose to the bear god.
At that thought, Udyr signaled Sejuani to accept.
And once Sejuani caught Udyr's meaning, she stopped hesitating and nodded.
"All right. I agree."
"How do I sign this agreement?" Sejuani looked at Logan and asked.
Logan smiled and beckoned.
Zeri immediately pulled out an ink pad from inside her coat and hurried over to Sejuani.
"Just use this," Zeri said. "Press your thumb into it, then stamp it onto the paper."
Sejuani gave a quiet acknowledgment, stretched out her hand, pressed her thumb into the red ink pad, and then stamped it onto the page.
Watching from the side, Logan smiled and said,
"Welcome to the Twin Cities Federation, Sejuani. A little later, I'll introduce you to the other people currently in charge of it."
Logan was smiling brightly. He was in an excellent mood, because the first real step in what he wanted to do had officially been taken.
Later, he would contact Janna and have her find the other leaders of the Twin Cities Federation so they could hold a private meeting.
Mm. He did wonder what it would look like when Sejuani and Lissandra met face-to-face.
He was no longer focused solely on building up Zaun and Piltover.
Now, what Logan wanted was to connect the whole world together.
So which places still weren't linked in yet?
Hmm...
Shurima, Demacia, and Targon.
Logan narrowed his eyes, and his thoughts drifted farther away.
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