A mage... [Viktor echoes and he thinks back on the story Jayce told him, way back when they first met. Over and over again, throughout the years. It was a good story, moving and significant. Being lost in the snowy mountains with his mother, needing rescue, calling out into the wind and cold where nobody would be likely to hear their cries. By complete chance, a stranger strode up to them, out from the blizzard. A mage. Teleported them with arcane magic to safety. Saved their lives.]

You told me that story so many times. Of why you were so obsessed with magic.

[He rubs his own face with his transformed hand. The arcane rattles beneath his sinews of mechani-magical skin. Viktor cannot make sense of the feeling it gives him, the intuition he has that is so far beyond his current comprehension.

A thought that Viktor had long kept to himself boils back up. In this situation, vulnerable himself while also seeking to comfort Jayce, Viktor admits,]

Always made me think... I need to be the type of man who would save that boy and his mother.

[Viktor has no idea the paradox he finds himself in.]

We'll get through this, Jayce. I promise. I'll do everything I can to protect you.