NOVEL NEXT Chapter 64: Broken
Morning in Zaun doesn't come with sunlight. It seeps in slow. grey, cold, and bitter like smoke that forgot it was once fire.
Inside the Last Drop, Silco's office is heavy with the scent of burnt metal and anger. The walls still hum from the fallout of last night.
Silco stands at the window, unmoving. One eye on the streets below. The other, dead and dreaming.
Behind him, Finn flips a lighter open and shut. Metal clicks like clockwork.
Renni leans off the wall, arms crossed, irritation coiled tight in her jaw.
Sevika's parked in the corner, one arm draped across her chest, the other hovering near her belt. Calm. Coiled. Waiting.
Silence hangs like smoke.
Finn finally breaks the silence.
"Twenty-three percent."
Silco doesn't turn.
"That's the projected loss" Fin goes on. "Parts. Infrastructure. Twenty-three percent overnight."
Renni adds. "That's being generous."
"The entire production line has been compromised" Finn adds. "We will have to halt Telegraph production for at least two weeks."
Renni pushes off the wall.
"I warned you," she says. "You let those masked roaches grow fat in the dark, those Sons of Rapture. We all said it. But you—"
Silco raises a finger.
She shuts up.
He turns slowly, eye landing like a blade.
"The territory surrounding Fontaine was yours, Renni. Your turf. Your men"
"Your mistake."
Silence.
"If I can't trust you with keeping my factory safe," Silco murmurs, "Then maybe I was wrong in giving you back that territory."
Renni stares at him. Her jaw flexes once. Then again. But she says nothing.
Finn cuts in.
"Our contacts in Piltover are getting pushy.They're offering a deal. Investment, legal shielding, logistics, clean channels for the wireless tech.."
Silco lights a cigar. Doesn't look at Finn.
"They're talking numbers we've never seen," Finn continues. "Marketing, distribution, profit splits... They're offering us legitimacy."
"Ah," Silco exhales. "Legitimacy."
Finn doesn't blink.
"Exactly. They're already filing suits. Patent claims. Zaun's tech on Piltover's university paper. They're giving us an out, Silco. A good one."
Silco's smile is slow. Cruel.
"Let them come, we will be ready."
Finn presses on. "We wouldn't have to fight. Just shift production to Piltover. Let them sell. We take the cut. No blood, no lawsuits."
Sevika snorts.
Silco walks back to the desk. Flicks ash into a tray shaped like a broken crown.
"No."
Finn blinks. "Silco, listen—"
"No."
Silco leans forward.
"This technology is Zaun's future. Our independence. Our blood. We don't hand it to the topside for table scraps."
"They're offering more than scraps."
Silco slams his hand down on the table. Everyone goes still.
"I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY OFFER!"
His eye is a storm now.
"They'll never get a penny on the mark. Not while I breathe."
A pause. Thick.
Silco exhales smoke.
"Let them send more lawyers. Let them tighten the screws. Let them try to starve us."
He leans back, voice a whisper now.
"We've survived worse than hunger."
No one speaks.
Renni finally mutters, "What do you want us to do?"
Silco smiles.
"Start planning our response. Quietly."
" I want the Sons of Rapture exposed. Cut their eyes. Slice their hands."
His gaze sharpens.
"And if you find who was responsible for the bombing...I want their heads."
---
The door shut with a metal slam. Boots faded into silence.
Silco didn't move. His fingers steepled beneath his chin. His chest rose once, held, didn't fall.
The Factory was burning. His factory, his future, the beating heart of Zaun's rise, smoke curling into the skyline like an open wound.
And then—
Thud.
Boots on his desk. Light. Dirty. Familiar.
He didn't need to look.
"I'm going."
She was already there. Legs pulled up, eyes gleaming with something between fury and memory.
Jinx.
Of course she'd heard everything. She always did. That broken clock inside her still ticked perfectly when it came to the past.
Silco didn't speak. Not yet.
"You heard me," she said. Her voice was calm—but too calm. Flat. Like a gun with the safety off.
Silco exhaled through his nose. Cold. Tired.
"No."
"Not asking."
She dropped down from the desk with a heavy step. Something in the floor creaked beneath her weight, or maybe it just felt like the air cracked.
"They hurt him."
Her voice was low now. Too low.
She started pacing. Jerky movements. Fast. Erratic.
"That wasn't just a building. That was his place. It was ours. It was where I—where I could breathe. Where I could be myself."
She turned sharply.
"And They fucking Bombed it."
Her fingers twitched. One hand moved to her pouch. Restless.
"I used to talk to him. I'd sit in that broken chair, and I'd talk. And sometimes, he'd talk back to me."
She was shaking now.
"I spent months building that statue..."
A breath.
Then—
She screamed.
"HOW DARE THEY DO THIS TO HIM?!"
The words ripped out of her like shrapnel.
She threw something—a broken gear, maybe a piece of a detonator. It shattered against the wall behind Silco.
"He was already gone and they still came back to kill him again."
Her voice cracked. Sharp and wild.
"They took him from me.They took the one thing that still made me feel like I wasn't just a mistake in a box of bad ideas!"
She grabbed a small gear from her pouch and slammed it on the desk. It bounced, rolled, spun.
She watched it spin.
Whispered—
"Why do they always take him from me…"
Silco stood slowly. Quiet.
She didn't flinch when he moved closer.
"Jinx…"
"I won't let them..."
He said nothing.
She looked at him now, eyes burning, mascara smudged like warpaint.
"I won't let them erase him. I won't."
Her hands were clenched so tight her knuckles were white.
"I will burn everything they have."
Silco finally spoke. Quiet.
"You're not ready."
"I was never ready. But it's all I have left, Silco!"
She choked the words out.
"Don't you get it?! You said you'd protect me. You said I could have something."
He stepped closer. Lifted his hand. Hovered it above her shoulder.
Then—laid it down. Gently. Soft as a falling ember.
"Then go."
She froze.
"But not alone."
She rolled her eyes like she was about to argue.
Didn't.
"Fine," she muttered. "But they don't get to stop me."
She turned. Stalked to the door.
Paused in the frame.
Didn't turn around.
"Tell Sevika to keep her mouth shut."
And then—
"Thank you."
She disappeared into the hallway.
Silco stared at the gear still spinning on the desk.
It slowed. Staggered.
And fell.