Chapter 13

Lydia and Ezreal both racked their brains, but could not come up with a solution. Lydia found that the brunt of Ezreal's plans had banked on Lymere helping them out. Without him, he had essentially stalled Ezreal's journeys. No funding expeditions, and the other professors respected him well enough to not listen to Ezreal if requested.

"Besides, the professors kind of hate me," Ezreal explained.

"Really? Why?"

"I… might have been a rowdy student of theirs. I also may or may not have called them senile sheltered buffoons that have never set a foot outside of Piltover."

Lydia rubbed her temples. "So is there nowhere else we can go instead?"

Ezreal thought about it for a moment. "I suppose we can head back to Shurima and talk to different tribes," he suggested. "I mean, I bet there's some tribe out there that has an idea of that tomb we explored and what it did."

"Didn't you say most of the tribes were nomadic? I'd rather not wander the desert searching for these tribes, considering what we experienced," Lydia said dryly.

"Hey, it was just a suggestion!" Ezreal said defensively. He sighed. "I mean, I guess we could go to other nations. They probably at least have some information, but the bigger problem is how to access it. We'd be foreigners there, and usually that kind of knowledge is restricted to nobles and higher-ups."

With no clear idea on how to tackle this, they both decided to sleep on it and figure it out. So Lydia headed back to her bedroom, collapsing onto the bed and almost immediately fell asleep.

It barely felt as if a moment passed when Lydia woke to a rapping on her door. She groaned, but trudged out of bed and opened the door. It was Kalki, standing prim and proper as always.

"Good morning, Miss Lydia," he greeted her. "Master Lymere has already left for the Academy, but he has entrusted me in guiding you today throughout Piltover."

"Oh, that's very nice of you, Kalki, you don't have to do that," Lydia said.

Kalki frowned slightly, seemingly puzzled, but quickly resumed his stoic expression. "Not at all, Miss Lydia. It is my pleasure to guide you."

"Well, thanks anyways. Just let me… let me get ready first."

"But of course. I believe we should already have some clothes in the wardrobe you may be able to use. And, as soon as you are ready, our first order of business is breakfast." He paused. "Actually, the first order of business is to wake Master Ezreal," he corrected. "If it is possible."

So Lydia hurriedly splashed water on her face and looked inside the wardrobe. She grimaced. There were quite a few dresses, all of them far too ostentatious for her tastes, far too gaudy, far too puffy. No matter how much she looked, none of them seemed to match her tastes. She was thinking about giving up and just wearing the Shuriman garbs she had when she spied a box at the corner of the wardrobe, a sleeve peeking out. Intrigued, she pulled it out and opened it. Looking inside, she smiled and nodded.

A few minutes later, she was out, sporting a brown leather vest and a white tunic, several buckles around the arm to adjust the length. Her boots, which had even more buckles and pockets attached to it, almost reached her knees, her corduroy pants tucked inside. To top it off, she had a bowler hat on top of her head, her frizzy hair peeking out at the edges.

Kalki made no comment on her clothes choice, only nodding once and saying, "Now let us see if Master Ezreal is up."

Ezreal was not up, and not in any mood to be. He grumbled something incomprehensible before slamming the door shut. Kalki did not seem at all surprised, however, saying, "It is a good thing I have only prepared breakfast for one."

This claimed "breakfast for one", however, proved to be far more than Lydia could handle. There were heaping plates of bacon, sausages, and eggs, as well as waffles and pancakes. A bowl of raspberries, strawberries and blueberries was also put to the side, and Lydia almost felt as if she would burst if she breathed in too deeply. She was grateful that the first stop required a carriage ride.

Kalki certainly made sure to guide her through Piltover. The first place he took her was the center square of Piltover, where in the middle stood Zindelo's Incognium Runeterra, a geometric orb standing in the middle, a rich blue inlaid with gleaming bronze as people walked past. Around this architecture stood commercia halls, where merchants speaking all sorts of languages greeted the passerbys, waving their wares about.

They also made their way through Bluewind Court, which, as Kalki informed her, was where many of the clans came together to discuss political matters. Lydia couldn't help but notice that the buildings around this area consisted more of marble and bricks than the previous building they encountered.

"Indeed. That would be because these buildings predate the hextech era," Kalki explained. "The clans have existed for a considerably long time. If you look closely, you can see the silver and gold adorning the buildings are more recent additions than the marble and brick, in light of the new era standards."

"Oh, interesting," Lydia said, eyeing the buildings. "So does Professor Lymere have to attend these, uh, meetings?"

"No, he is not a high enough rank and has little interest in politics, so he is rarely, if ever, called up," Kalki replied matter-of-factly.

"Oh," Lydia said, letting the matter drop.

They continued on with the tour.

"We are about to enter the Piltover Treasury area," Kalki said. "Where many of our financial institutions lie."

"So kinda like Wall Street?"

"Like what?"

"Never mind," Lydia said hastily.

"Very well. The point is, it would not be an exaggeration to say this is the financial lifeblood of Piltover. It has been a while since I last checked, but at least forty percent of Piltover's financial net worth lies within this avenue."

"Really?"

"Indeed. As such, it is also one of the most heavily guarded areas. For instance, if you look to your left side, you can see the Ecliptic Vaults, Piltover's most secure bank, boasting impenetrable walls and safes… well, almost impenetrable."

As Lydia looked over, she saw the Ecliptic Vault had a huge chunk of the wall blasted open, debris and dust gathered around, with caution tapes around it as several robots picked up the rocks and kept the pedestrians away. There were traces of neon pink paint, though with the robots cleaning it, Lydia could not make out the words or picture.

"What happened here?"

"The Ecliptic Vaults had been victim of a recent heist. It was the talk of the town for quite some time, and a major embarrassment for the Ecliptic Vault."

"Wow," Lydia breathed in amazement. "What did they steal?"

"Nothing, it seems."

"What?"

"Yes. Though it is not as surprising if you knew what kind of person the culprit was. She's does things because she can, not out of need or greed."

"You mean this person is famous?"

"Yes, but I'd rather not discuss too much of her."

So they continued their journey, Kalki pointing out various sites, to the statues listing the great inventors of the past, such as Medarda, the inventor of the Sun Gates, or of the Ferros, who jumpstarted hextech technology. He showed her of the workshops where this famed hextech was built, showing the masters and their apprentices.

"Perhaps you should consider acquiring hextech items for your future endeavors," Kalki suggested. "I hear they can be immensely useful on such expeditions."

After going through so many places Lydia lost count, Kalki had them stop in front of an austere building.

"And our final stop is the Piltover Academy. The largest university hailing some of the greatest professors in all of Valoran… and is also Master Lymere's workplace.

It did feel very much like a normal university. Well, a normal Earth university, with students poring over textbooks as they walked on over to their next class, some lounging on the quad as they muttered to themselves. There were slight differences, however. For one thing, the professors seemed to make a point to wear long flowing robes and caps with the tassels. It reminded Lydia of graduation robes, and she could dimly recall that people in the past did use to wear them as teachers.

"Master Lymere should be finishing with his class soon," Kalki informed her. "In the meantime, feel free to explore the premises. I have a few matters to attend to, but I should be back in about a half hour. The students and professors should be more than willing to help you should you get lost."

Left to herself, Lydia roamed aimlessly around the university grounds. Most of them were classrooms, but on occasion, she found something different. She saw a few workshops, a few students working intently on a project while they had their goggles on, sparks flying. She found a library with bookshelves that reached up to the ceiling. She also found a greenhouse that housed all manners of unusual plants, as she quickly found out when one of the plants smacked at the glass, its teeth glistening as it growled at her.

Lydia felt a pang of homesickness. She had just recently started college herself, and looking at the students poring over their notes and books gave a painful reminder of what she was missing out on. She wondered if they still had to pay tuition if she went missing…

As she mulled over that thought, an odd glow caught her attention. Backtracking, she noticed a strong glow emitting from one of the rooms. As she peered inside, she saw there was an odd contraption atop a workbench, an orb inserted snugly inside, lighting up the whole room. As she stared, she realized the contraption looked oddly familiar…

Lydia's curiosity got the better of her, and she pushed the door. It opened. "Hello?" she called out, but no one answered. She slowly approached the workbench and examined the contraption.

"Hm," she muttered. Sure enough, it looked very much like a one-wheeled electric skateboard. A small tire was wedged in the center of the board, the orb in the center, wires attached to it, leading out to under the board, a mess of boards and wires. It certainly wasn't pretty, but then, initial designs never were.

She picked up the electric (or was it magical?) skateboard, flipping it over. "The orb over there looks like it's basically the battery…" she muttered to herself. "Which means they should be some sort of transistor over… no, that's not right…" she scanned the workbench, found a toolbox, and began rummaging through.

While Lydia was still vague on the intricacies of magic and the concept of hextech, she was familiar with electronics. As long as she substituted the more magical concepts for Earth counterparts, it actually was not as difficult to work with the machinery.

"Still, though, it's no wonder they were having trouble…" The orb powering the board was more powerful than Lydia had expected, and the circuit kept shorting out. She could hardly imagine just how fast this skateboard would go if she allowed it go full power.

"Well, there's no way we'd want it that fast, so let's limit it like this, and…"

Lydia fiddled with the skateboard, and was almost done when a voice shouted, "What are you doing!", causing her jump and nearly drop the skateboard. The voice, however, grabbed her, stopping her, and the one-wheeler, from falling. They both sighed in relief.

"Hey, you could of broke this!" Lydia snapped at the voice. Looking closer, she could see it was a lanky boy with dark hair, his goggles bluish tint hiding his eyes.

"That's my line!" the boy retorted. "Do you realize just how badly this could have been if the orb broke? Oh, Professor Heimerdinger would kill me…"

"Uh, well, sorry for worrying you. I was just trying to fix it. I couldn't help but notice a few problems, so I thought I could fix it up a bit before I went on," Lydia said.

The boy cocked his head. "You noticed a few problems?" he repeated. "But this is…" he peered at the one-wheeler, lifting it out of Lydia's hands. "What?" he said incredulously. He took off his goggles and examined the one-wheeler closer. "But how…". He looked back at Lydia. "Wait, were you the one that made the first spinning wheel board?"

"The first what?" Lydia replied.

"The spinning wheel board!" The boy was visibly excited. "That must be it! That's why you could tell what was wrong with it so fast even though I've been trying to figure out for days!"

Lydia, quite obviously, did not make the first 'spinning wheel board', especially since she had literally arrived here yesterday.

"I think you have me confused with someone else, sorry," Lydia said.

"But then… how were you able to figure it out?" the boy said.

"Well, uh…" Lydia struggled to come up with an appropriate explanation. "It's just that where I came from, we have similar vehicles like this. Not as uh… advanced as this, but the concept is still a little similar."

"Really? Where did you come from?"

"An island…called Earth."

"Earth? I've never heard of it…"

"That's because my place like to keep to themselves," Lydia said. "It's actually why I left. I wanted to get to know more about Runeterra, and well, long story short, I ended up here."

The boy nodded. "Well, we do have a lot of people like that. Maybe the other person might have come from your island then…"

"So, anyways… you're trying to recreate this one-wh… I mean the spinning wheel board?"

"Yeah," the boy replied. "I won't go into the whole details, but there was quite a debacle with this thing, and we eventually got it back looking like this. We changed a few things and ended up making it fly."

"Wait, this was flying before? That would be so much cooler!"

"That's what we said as well, but the Wardens weren't too keen on the air travel. They complained that people flying around in hoverboards would definitely cause accidents with the airships and cause more problems than solutions. So we're dialing it back a bit… Professor Heimerdinger wasn't willing to revert it back, so I'm here trying to figure out how to get it back the way it was before…"

"Oh. Well, I'm sure they'll eventually accept the hoverboard idea."

"Yeah," the boy sighed. "Still, though, this is pretty impressive as well. With this, travel times will definitely reduce!" He set the one-wheeler gently back onto the workbench.

"So, what department are you in?" he asked conversationally. "Who are you apprenticed to?"

"What?"

"Aren't you a student here?"

"Oh, no, not at all."

"But that's ridiculous!" The boy sputtered, looking agitated. "Why not? You clearly have the skills!"

"I mean, I just arrived in Piltover yesterday, for one thing, so…"

"Ah," the boy interrupted, nodding. "So you're trying to transfer in here, right? And you were exploring around before applying to see if you'd like it?"

"Actually, no, I was just roaming around because…"

"Well, in that case, no worries! I bet if I talked to Professor Heimerdinger, he can…"

"Talk to me about what, Xavier?"

Lydia turned around and nearly gasped. A short… man was trotting towards them, with the biggest puff of yellow hair she had ever seen, while his mustache practically covering the lower half of his face. Two bright eyes peeked out from the bush of a face. What drew her attention, was his unusually long, pointed ears, tufts of white hair (or was it fur?) near the edges. His head appeared disproportionately large for his body.

The boy named Xavier did not seem at all surprised however, instead lifting up the one-wheeler and saying "Professor Heimerdinger, look at this! That girl managed to fix the problem I was struggling with the past couple of days just now!"

"Did she?" The man named Heimerdinger examined it. "It appears she did," he muttered. "How curious…"

"Isn't that great! And she said she was thinking of applying here!"

"Wait, like I said, I'm not…"

"Well, that certainly would prove most beneficial for us. We need bright young people like you to move things forward," Heimerdinger said. He turned to Lydia. "What is your name, young one?"

"Uh, it's Lydia."

"Well, Lydia, I'll be sure to put in a good word to the Board about you. I'm afraid I can't take in anymore apprentices at the moment, but I did hear Professor Von Yipp is in need of one. Perhaps you should try him."

"Thanks, but like I said-"

At that moment, a bell tolled.

"Oh, look at the time!" Heimerdinger said. "I must hurry down to the quad to catch Lymere. I need to return that artifact of his, otherwise he'll be gone."

"Oh, crap! I need to get down there as well before he leaves me!"

Heimerdinger stared at her inquisitively. "You know of Professor Lymere?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah, he was kinda of the one that brought me here."

"Ah, I see," Heimerdinger nodded. "He has always been a big proponent of the academics. How nice of him. Very well, follow me, we can both meet him together."

"Bye, Lydia," Xavier waved, giving a toothy grin. "Can't wait to see you here. I bet we can come up with all sorts of cool stuff!"

"Yeah, nice seeing you too, Xavier," Lydia said, not in the mood to correct him.

Heimerdinger led Lydia to the quad, though it almost felt like he might have forgotten about her. He kept muttering to himself, with phrases such as "Did I place the defrobimullator over there?" or the occasional "Aha! I should have done it clockwise!" before pulling out a notebook and scribbling stuff down.

Lymere and Kalki were both waiting in the quad. "You are a little later than expected," Kalki observed.

"Sorry, I got a little caught up in things," Lydia apologized.

"Well, I am certainly glad she held you up," Heimerdinger said. "Otherwise I might not have had the chance to return this to you." He rummaged around his pouch and pulled out a small package, wrapped in brown paper. "Thank you very much for lending it to me."

"Oh, I had almost forgotten about it!" Lymere remarked. "Well, thank you very much Heimerdinger."

"Oh no, thank you. It had helped with me research tremendously. That, and I got to meet a promising young inventor."

"Inventor?" Lymere said, puzzled.

"But of course. This smart young lady you brought here!" Heimerdinger. "Rest assured, I am sure she will do fine at the Academy. She certainly has my approval."

Lymere frowned slighty, but then his expression relaxed. "I see," he said. "That is good to hear."

"Well, I must be off," Heimerdinger said. "Progess waits for no one!" Heimerdinger walked away, but not without another "Aha!", pulling out his notebook and scribbling furiously into it before dashing off, straight through a group of kids and several bushes.

"He's always been like that," Lymere chuckled. "But well, they do say there's a fine line between a genius and a madman. So, did you enjoy your tour of Piltover?"

"Oh, yes, it was great," Lydia said. "It's pretty amazing the kind of stuff you guys have."

"Probably not as impressive as your world, perhaps," Lymere said. "Considering that whatever you did impressed Heimerdinger."

"Sir, we should go. You have dinner with the Clan Ferros in an hour."

"That's right, I nearly forgot about that." Lymere sighed, clearly not looking forward to it. "Well, shall we head off, Lydia?"

The three of them set off towards the carriage, but not without Lydia glancing back once more, looking at the bushes that Heimerdinger had ran through.

"So they have some furry beastman kind of people too, huh," she muttered before continuing on.