祖安之子 Child of Zaun

作者：Ian St. Martin

法律和秩序的差别在哪里？

What’s the difference between law and order?

二者能离开彼此存在吗？二者与正义有关吗？或许每个人的答案都不一样，但如果你问我，那个稚嫩的我，我会告诉你想要正义就要敲碎人的脑袋。

Can you have one without the other? And what does either have to do with justice? Maybe it depends on who you ask. If you asked me, well, the young me, justice comes by cracking skulls.

我今天感觉自己变嫩了。

Guess I’m feeling young today.

我抵达司法厅的时候天还没亮。通常都是这样，只不过一般没这么早，我带了客人回来。两位客人，和他们一起的还有五个人，在时计大道的商店和餐馆门面上搞破坏的时候被我逮个正着。其中一个人被我轻轻拍一下就睡着了，另一个倒还生龙活虎的，而且特别喜欢口吐芬芳。

It’s still dark when I finally reach the Hall of Law. As is often the case, though not usually so early in the morning, I’m bringing guests with me. A pair of them, two from the seven I had caught vandalizing a row of shops and cafes down on Horologica Avenue. One is snoring from the light tap I gave him, but the other is wide awake, and quite the fan of colorful language.

“别叫了——你吵得我没法静下心了。”我的钢铁手指收紧了他的领子，我对他的顺从点了点头，扛过肩膀。“如果我是你，我就从你这位朋友身上吸取点教训。”

“Pipe down—you’re disturbing my peace.” I tighten my metal fingers around his collar and nod to his accomplice, slung over my shoulder. “If I were you, I’d take a hint from your friend here.”

“太残酷了，”他嘶声说，“我们在哪？到诺克萨斯了？”

“This is brutality,” he hisses. “Where are we? In Noxus?”

“诺克萨斯？”我费了好大劲才止住自己的笑，“我倒巴不得呢。如果我们到了诺克萨斯，我就会把你带到清算场上，而不是无聊的牢房。”

“Noxus?” I have to stop myself from laughing. “I wish. If we were in Noxus, I’d be taking you to the Reckoning pits, not a shaming cell.”

悲惨的景象让他惊了一下，我终于清静了一会，然后他又开始了。

The imagery gives him a jolt, and I get a few moments’ quiet before he’s back at it.

“你以为你能让我们闭嘴，但你错了。我们会揭露你们的暴政体制，并将其推翻。”

“You think you can silence us, but you can’t. We are going to expose your system of oppression and tear it down.”

“所以你就去砸茶馆的窗户，什么逻辑？你只不过是个百无聊赖、被惯出毛病的屁孩子，找个理由砸东西。你的行为没有帮助任何人。”

“And breaking all the windows in a tea room accomplishes this, how? You’re just another bored, spoiled brat, looking for a reason to smash things. You aren’t helping anybody.”

“我们在为那些沉默的人发声！”他厉声说，“为了穷苦的底层百姓。”

“We’re speaking up for those without a voice!” he snaps. “For the poor and the downtrodden.”

我看了看他的衣服。崭新、整洁。肯定没吃过一天苦，最会提要求。“是吗，我就是你口中的穷苦的底层祖安人，我发声发的挺好的。”

I look at his clothes. New, clean. There hasn’t been a day he’s wanted for anything. “Well, I am one of those poor, downtrodden Zaunites, and my voice works just fine.”

“而你现在已经是体制的一部分了。”他往街上吐了一口粉红色的唾沫。“给你几枚银轮，你就唯命是从。你夜里是怎么睡得着觉的？”

“And now you’re part of the system.” He spits pink onto the street. “Put a few cogs in your pocket and you turn on anything. How do you sleep at night?”

我突然觉得戴拳套的手有点痒。那种肋骨包裹我指节的感觉令我怀念得无法自已。虽然我尽力克制，但他的几句话还是让我血流加快，我的海克斯双拳也应和着发出轻微吐息，准备好迎接即将发生的斗殴。但我把这种冲动拍了下去。

There’s an itch I get, wearing these gauntlets. The urge to feel a ribcage wrap around my knuckles that on some days is damn near overpowering. Try as I might, his words have my blood getting hotter, and my hextech fists begin purring in response, ready for a scrap that’s usually sure to come. But I tamp it down.

“如果我不需要捉拿一帮砸茶馆的傻子，我能睡得像个婴儿。”

“When I’m not rounding up idiots for smashing up tea rooms? I sleep like a baby.”

我们来到了门前，得救了。

Mercifully we reach the doors.

“来，给我这个可怜的祖安人帮个忙。”我用那个话痨的头敲门。我需要坦白，在敲最后一下的时候带上了一丝苦闷的情绪——声音足以让里面的人开门了。

“Here, help a poor Zaunite in need.” I use the talker’s head to knock. I confess letting a touch of my frustration slip into the last rap—it’s loud enough to get someone to work the lock from the other side.

“开普尔警官。”缓缓打开的门后面一双惺忪的眼，我对他露出微笑。

“Warden Kepple.” I grin at the blinking face behind the slowly opening door.

“这么早就开张了，蔚？”他埋怨道，用力揉开眼睛里的困意。

“Getting an awful early start, eh, Vi?” he grumbles, pawing sleep from his eyes.

“不义之事从不停歇，朋友。”我拖着两个逮捕成果走进门，简单告诉开普尔今天凌晨发生的事。

“Injustice never rests, my friend.” I drag my arrests through the door, giving Kepple the quick version of the morning’s events.

“我抓获了其中两人，”我最后说，“两名嫌疑人……”我依次看了看他们，现在正此起彼伏地打着鼾。“已被制服。”

“I’ve apprehended two of them,” I finish. “Both suspects are…” I look at each of them, now both snoring in tandem. “Subdued.”

卡普尔抬起一撇眉毛。“看样的确是。凯特琳警长已经在找你了，楼上。”

Kepple raises an eyebrow. “Sure seems like it. Sheriff Caitlyn’s already looking for ya, upstairs.”

“那，这两个娱乐型的革命分子的后续手续，我可以托付给你处理吧？”

“I trust you can handle the processing for this pair of recreational revolutionaries, then?”

“我会登记的。”开普尔嘟囔着，我把一个小废物交到他手上，另一个话痨撂在他脚旁。

“I’ll get it logged,” Kepple grunts as I dump one of the punks in his arms, and the mouthy one at his feet.

我走过他身边的同时对他笑了一下，“执法队伍可不能没了你。”

I flash a smile as I pass him. “You’re an asset to the force.”

凯特琳的办公室里乱成一团。那张吱嘎作响的木桌已经被压没了声，藏在一座黄铜传声管荚囊和里面装的无数表格、信件、法令组成的森林中。警长也迷失在森林里，正在翻找来自上级和商会家族的搜查令、强制令和要求文件。看起来她已经好几天都没离开过房间了，我只能猜测这会她的脾气能坏到什么程度，同时关上背后的门。

“坐。”她头也不抬地说，依然在埋头翻找。

Caitlyn’s office is a mess. The creaking wooden desk is smothered, hidden beneath a forest of brass pneuma-tube capsules and the endless forms, messages, and edicts that they contain. The sheriff is lost somewhere in that forest, rummaging through warrants and mandates and the demands of her bosses and the merchant clans. It doesn’t look like she’s left the room in days, leaving me to guess at how short her temper might be as I close the door behind me.

看来，是要直奔主题了。

“Sit down,” she says without looking up, still digging around for something.

“怎么，那帮小废物犯了这么大的事？”我清出来一张椅子坐下，活动了一下右手的机械手指，把双脚搭在她的桌角。“他们几天以后就能走路了。如果要问我的话，我已经对他们轻着点了。”

Straight to it, then.

“不是他们，”她回答说，每个字都透出更多的疲惫。“有件事反复引起我们的注意，事态的发展……很复杂，我们必须查一查。是关于祖安的。”

“What, this about those punks?” I clear off a chair and sit, flexing the mechanical fingers of my right hand and propping my boots up on the corner of her desk. “They’ll be walking around again in a few days. If you ask me, I went easy on them.”

这时我明白了，让小凯如此负担的并不是缺乏睡眠。这件事让她提高了警惕，让她感到一种焦虑，对于一个能在三条街外让子弹穿过一枚银轮中间孔的女子，这可是非常罕见的。

“This isn’t about that,” she answers, each word somehow more tired than the last. “There is something that has been brought to our attention, developments that are… complicated, that we need to look into. It’s about Zaun.”

“是她吗？”我问道，无法掩盖声音中的尖锐。

I see then that it’s not all lack of sleep weighing Cait down. Something’s got her guard up, an apprehension that’s rare in a woman who can put a bullet through a silver cog from three streets away.

小凯终于不再趴在桌子上。一双蓝宝石一样的眼睛抬起来看我。“不。这件事不一样。这件事很新鲜。”

“Is it her?” I ask. Can’t keep the acid from my voice.

“新鲜。”我重复了一遍，但依然无法理解。

Cait finally stops hunting around her desk. Those sapphire eyes flick up to me. “No. This is something different. Something new.”

小凯缓缓吸一口气。“地沟区出事了。”

“New,” I repeat, though no more sense comes out of it.

我歪过头。“那鬼地方可离我们的管辖范围有点远。”

Cait takes a slow breath. “Something is happening in the Sump.”

小凯说，“自从大分裂以后，我们两座城市就一直以共生关系存在着。虽然表面上千差万别，但实际上不能离开彼此独自活下去，所以必须维护平衡。”

I cock my head. “That’s pretty damn far from our jurisdiction.”

大分裂，他们给取的名字。一般来讲，分裂都是一刀两断。但我们的情况是，一些富有的商人兴高采烈地挖运河，高兴得过了头，忘了保证土地的稳定性。他们把半个祖安沉进了水里。为了商业而把人淹死，于是商业从那时起就分裂了，既不是一刀切，也没有分成对等的两半。

“Ever since the split,” says Cait, “our cities have existed in symbiosis. Despite appearances, one can’t survive without the other, so a balance must be maintained.”

“打破这种平衡可以很简单，只需要到祖安下层，动摇那里的一切，”我指出了关键点，“但我们讨论的可不是舞步走廊——地沟不存在重叠区，无法让我们在事实发生以后传达信息，也无法让问题滑坡。”

Split, they call it. Usually a split is clean and even. In this case, some rich merchants got excited about digging a canal, too excited to make sure the land was stable. They put half of Zaun under water. Drowning people in service of commerce, and the way that commerce has been divvied since, is pretty far from clean or even.

小凯叹了口气，“这些议题都已经讨论过、考虑过了。”

“A real easy way to break that balance would be to reach down into lower Zaun and start shaking things,” I point out. “But we aren’t talking about the Promenade here—there’s no overlap in the Sump where we can massage events after the fact and make matters slide.”

“谁讨论的？”我问，“可以让我也参与一下吗？”

Cait sighs. “These are all topics that have been discussed and considered.”

“我能告诉你的仅限于你需要知道的，现在你还不需要知道那些。”

“By who?” I ask. “Care to clue me in?”

“那这件事和我们有什么关系？”我手里摆弄着空传声管荚囊，心不在焉地问，“地底城想怎么样是他们自己的事。”

“I am able to tell you as much as you need to know, and right now you don’t need to know that.”

“这次不行。”小凯把荚囊从我手里抽走，放在桌上。我皱起眉。她这次嘴严得不正常。

“So what does this have to do with us?” I ask, fiddling with an empty pneuma-tube capsule. “What the undercity does is its own business.”

“那，哪里不一样了？”

“Not this time.” Cait plucks the capsule from my hand, setting it down as she sits back against the desk. I frown. She isn’t normally this tight-lipped.

“我们不知道，”小凯答道，“所以，我们需要往下面派眼线，需要一个了解祖安的人过去。所以你来了。”

“What’s changed, then?”

“这太笼统了，警长，”我摇了摇头，“男爵们呢？你觉得他们会乖乖看着皮城派警卫下去，在他们的场子里掀桌子？”

“We don’t know,” Cait answers. “To find out, we need eyes down there, someone who knows Zaun. That’s where you come in.”

小凯露出疲惫的笑容。“说出这话的是那个大狠蔚吗？居然害怕几个炼金男爵？”

“This is all pretty vague, sheriff.” I shake my head. “What about the barons? You think they’re just gonna sit back and let Piltover send wardens down to their turf and start flipping tables?”

我双手交叉在胸前。“我想知道应该提防谁，仅此而已。”

Cait gives me a tired grin. “Is that the big, bad Vi I hear, scared of a few little chem-barons?”

“不用担心男爵。”

I cross my arms over my chest. “I just like to know who’s going to be looking for my scalp, is all.”

“哦，真的吗？”我提起一撇眉毛。“为什么呢？”

“The barons won’t be an issue.”

“因为请求帮忙的就是男爵。”

“Oh, really?” I raise an eyebrow. “And why is that?”

我惊讶的站了起来。

“Because they’re the ones asking for help.”

“你说的没错，这次真够新鲜的。”我摇了摇头。这件事感觉很奇怪，我根本没法看清整件事的全貌。“男爵和警卫之间还有许多积怨。太容易出岔子了。”

I sit up straighter at that.

“这件事也不需要担心，”她说，“因为你将不会以警卫的身份下去。你抓来的那两个孩子是米达尔达家族的娃儿，他们的父母要取你的人头。”

“You’re right. This is new.” I shake my head. Something is very off with this, and I’m not getting anywhere close to the full picture. “Still a lot of bad blood between the barons and the Wardens. There’s a dozen ways this can go wrong.”

她举起一卷羊皮纸公函。我映着窗外射进来的阳光能看清上面的字迹。从窗外传进来的还有越来越大的人声——愤怒的人群。

“I wouldn’t worry too much on that account,” she says, “because you won’t be going as a warden. Those kids you tuned up happened to have spawned from Clan Medarda, and their parents want your head.”

“你很幸运，”小凯微笑着说，“我把他们说服了。你可以不用掉脑袋，但你必须离开警队。你会出城，回家反省，找回自己的根。”

She holds up a sheaf of vellum missives. I can make out the calligraphy through the light coming in from the window. From that same window I hear the beginnings of a crowd gathering—an angry one.

“很动人的故事。”她口中的家字特别刺耳，无论她是不是故意的。这么多年，看来我还只是个访客——是一个卖命换地位的人，因为总有人觉得自己手上的银轮够多，可以凌驾法律之上。“也很方便。”

“Lucky for you,” Cait says with a smile, “I talked them down. You can keep your head, so long as you’re out of the Wardens. You’re leaving town, going home to reflect and reconnect with your roots.”

“这意味着你在下面只能靠自己。”她声音中的轻盈消失了。“没有支援。而且做戏做全套。我需要收了你的警徽，还有你那双手。”

“Cute story.” The word home sticks out, whether she meant it to or not. All these years here, guess I’m still a visitor—one who’s getting the boot for doing her job, because someone has enough cogs to think they’re above the law. “Convenient, too.”

“下到祖安……”我解开锁扣，把拳套摘了下来。“没有目标，只知道是连炼金男爵都没法摆平的事。”我把巨大的海克斯双拳放在小凯的桌子上，发出咣的一声，压扁了荚囊，打飞了纸张。“甚至还不能带着手下去。惊喜一个接一个啊。”

“This means you’ll be on your own down there.” The levity drops from her voice. “No backup. And appearances must be kept up. I’ll need your badge, and your hands.”

“这件事交给别人我不放心。”小凯说。

“Go down to Zaun…” I work the clasps on my gauntlets and take them off. “Don’t know what I’m looking for, only that it’s bad enough that the chem-barons can’t handle it.” I drop the bulky hextech fists on Cait’s desk with a thunk that crushes capsules and scatters papers onto the floor. “And I can’t even bring my hands. This is getting better by the minute.”

“所以你真是没法告诉我是谁在幕后牵线？”我忍着脾气问，“我可不是每天都能被派去挑起国际争端。”

“There’s no one else I could trust to do this,” Cait says.

“能说的我都说了，蔚。相信我。”

“So you’re really not gonna tell me who’s pulling the strings on this one?” I ask, biting back on my temper. “Not every day I’m asked to provoke an international incident.”

“没人阻止你和我一起来，”我笑着说，“去瓦洛兰风景最优美的度假胜地进行一次公务出差。”

“I’ve told you all I can, Vi. Believe me.”

小凯没有回答，但她不需要回答。我知道她离不开，但逗她是为了好玩。而且可以阻止我在墙上打出个洞。

“You could always come with me,” I say with a grin. “Take a little working vacation to Valoran’s most scenic tourist destination.”

我搭上尖啸升降机的时候，清晨已经变成了上午。司法厅外面的那群人在我离开的时候又起哄又扔石块，但他们都知道不能离我太近。他们始终没有离开大厅的周围，因为这里一直有人在看，所以他们也都没有弄丢自己的牙。

Cait doesn’t answer, but she doesn’t have to. I know she can’t go, but it’s always fun to tease. And it keeps me from punching a hole in the wall.

不带拳套走在街上感觉有点奇怪。我的双手依然缠着昨天的绑带。我把所有与警队有关的东西丢留在司法厅了，其实那也是我所有与皮城有关的东西。我需要低调——祖安可没有忘记我，我也不愿唤起某些人的记忆。我会下去，看看是什么惊吓到了男爵们，然后立刻回来，最多也就几天时间。

轿厢快被挤爆了，管理员吹哨吹到嗓子哑，门终于锁上了。海克斯压力绞盘开始松开轿厢上的铁链，开始下降了。我在轿厢下层找了个座位，隔着墨绿色的窗户向外看着不断下沉的景色。

Dawn settles into morning by the time I reach the Rising Howl. The crowds outside the Hall of Law gave me jeers and a few tossed stones as I left, but they knew better than to get too close. They clung to the Hall where they could stay seen, and keep their teeth in their heads.

晨曦已经洒遍皮尔特沃夫，玻璃和钢铁的塔尖粼粼闪烁，但只有峡谷的嘴唇能晒到阳光。祖安最高的地区——舞步走廊能见到光，但再低一点就越来越黑了。

It feels strange to walk the city without my gauntlets, my hands still wrapped up from the day before. I left anything that could tie me to the Wardens back at the Hall, anything to tie me to Piltover, really. I’ll need to lay low—I’m far from forgotten in Zaun, and there are plenty of folks whose memories I’d rather not refresh. I’ll go down, see what’s got the barons so spooked, and be back in a few days, tops.

我挪开靴子，看到地上刻着一个粗糙的印记。看上去有点像蜘蛛。

The conveyor fills near to bursting as the conductor whistles herself hoarse and the doors finally lock. Hexdraulic winches loosen their grip on the great chains holding us, and the descent begins. I find a seat on the bottom level of the pod, staring out through the bottle-green window panels as we sink.

空气开始浑浊，轿厢已经穿过舞步走廊了，我尝到了炼金烟雾的味道，鼻孔里开始暗暗刺痛。新的尖塔映入眼帘，巨大的白石塔楼和闪烁的玻璃一直通向中层广场。机械师、劳工和其他卑微的人在基础阶层辛勤劳动，合成并精炼海克斯水晶，然后运到上面的城市中。这个过程留给祖安的只有高浓度的废液，要比灰霾还危险十倍，至少闻上去如此。

The morning light has spilled across all of Piltover, glittering off towers of iron and glass, but only teases the lips of the chasms. The light will reach the Promenade—Zaun’s highest level—but won’t be much more than a glimmer any lower than that.

我不知道这座尖塔属于谁——菲罗斯家族已经不再是合成海克斯水晶博弈中的唯一玩家了，不过他们依然能造出最强力、最纯的品类。据说即使是炼金男爵，比如铂英戴萃斯，也都在尝试制造自己品牌的廉价仿制品，彻底摆脱商会家族。但最有可能的情况，这座尖塔只不过是男爵与家族之间的合资产业。

I shift my boot, seeing a symbol scratched crudely into the floor. Some kind of spider.

我们下降到了中层广场，窗外有东西引起了我的注意。升降梯的竖井里并不缺涂鸦，但其有一个显眼的标记是新喷上去的，盖在其他褪色的涂鸦上格外醒目。

The air already starts to slicken as the conveyor slides through the Promenade, and I taste chem fumes and feel a low sting in my nostrils. The new spire comes into view, a giant tower of pale stone and shimmering glass starting all the way down at the Entresol. Mechanicians, laborers, and menials toil in its base levels, synthesizing and refining their hex-crystals before shipping them up to the city above. Of the process, all that remains in Zaun is the concentrated runoff, more dangerous than the Gray by tenfold, at least by the smell of it.

蜘蛛。

I’m not sure who owns this spire—Ferros isn’t the only player in the synthetic hex-crystal game anymore, though they still make the strongest, purest kind. Word is even chem-barons, like the Poingdestres, are trying to make their own brands of cheap knock-offs, without the merchant clans. But most likely, this spire is yet another joint venture between the barons and the clans.

我看了看脚下。两个标志是一样的。我的双眼回到窗外，发现它出现了一次又一次。

As we descend to the Entresol, something catches my eye through the window. The conveyor shafts are no stranger to graffiti, but one mark stands out bright and new against the faded tags it’s covering.

我站起来，后背紧靠墙，尖啸颤抖着停在中层广场。轿厢下空了人，不止一双眼睛警惕地看着我，因为我没有出去。

A spider.

一声铃响，这是尖啸升降梯即将离站的信号。操作员走下楼梯，扫视一圈以后看到了我。

I look down at the floor. The mark is the same. My eyes go back to the window and I find it again, and again.

“升降梯就要往下开了，”她的声音中的不安很明显。“你，是要去地沟区喽？”

I stand up, pressing my back to the wall as the Howl shudders to a stop at the Entresol. The conveyor empties, and more than one pair of eyes look at me with alarm when I don’t exit.

我环顾四周，看到门外的站台空无一人。“看来就我一个。”

A bell chimes, a signal the Rising Howl is due to depart. The conductor descends the stairs, peering this way and that before spotting me.

“在这件事上可不要追求与众不同，亲爱的。”她走进一步，把护目镜推到额头上。我可以看到她眼中的恐惧。“这段日子地沟不对劲。最好还是留在上头。”

“Lift’s going down soon,” she says, the unease clear in her voice. “You’re heading Sumpward, then?”

“你知道什么消息吗？”我问。

I take a look around, seeing an empty platform beyond the doors. “Looks like I’m the only one.”

操作员放低目光，局促不安地摆弄着自己的娑呐叭。“我知道要少管这方面的闲事。”

“May not pay to be unique in this regard, dear.” She takes a step closer, pushing her goggles up to her brow. I can see the fear in her eyes. “Sump’s not right these days. Best to stay further up.”

我思考了片刻。“我还是碰碰运气吧。”

“You know anything about it?” I ask.

她徘徊了一阵，希望我改变心意，最后缓缓点头，爬上了梯子。很快尖啸就开始轰隆隆地向下降，向着地沟区，在那里我将看到大家如此害怕的是什么。

The conductor looks down, fidgeting with her sonophone. “Enough not to trifle with it.”

离开中层广场以后光线就变得很差。炼金路灯越来越稀疏，看上去就像不断高飞的萤火虫。尖啸自己发出的光能照亮轿厢周围，但很难说能发挥什么作用。

I consider her for a moment. “I think I’ll take my chances.”

地沟区从来都不美。可能很久以前，在大洪水把这里变成一半坟墓、一半垃圾场之前，这里还不是这样的。但那个时代早已消逝，我眼前的景象，甚至和我记忆中的相比，也已经恶化了许多。

She lingers, hoping I’ll have a change of heart, before giving a slow nod and clambering back up the stairs. Soon the Howl begins its slow rumble downward, down to the Sump, where I will see what everyone is so afraid of.

挑错了敌人、打破了太多承诺、把最后一枚银轮押在了败者身上，都会让你流落到这里。走投无路的人在这里讨生活，那些怕脏的人不会找到这里来。对这些人来说，这里几乎是避难所，只不过他们躲不掉与自己同样境遇的其他人。

灯光忽明忽暗。我站起来，走到窗边，贴着滑道向绿色的玻璃外张望。过了片刻，灯光又正常了，照亮了外面的竖井，让我看清铺满每一寸墙壁的涂鸦。

The light gets poorer once you clear the Entresol. Chem-lamps appear fewer and fewer, like fireflies rising up the farther down we go. The light from the Howl itself is enough to see the immediate surroundings of the conveyor, though the worth of that might be dubious.

蜘蛛。全是蜘蛛。

The Sump has never been pretty. Maybe a long way back, before the Flood turned half of it into a graveyard and the other half became a landfill, it might have been different. But that’s long gone, and from what I see, even compared to what I remember, it’s only getting worse.

和刚才那个粗糙的标志一样，但上面很少见，这里却蚀刻、凿刻、喷涂得到处都是。无边无际的蜘蛛群，似乎正在从黑暗中向上爬，拓展属于它们的边界。

Make the wrong enemies, break one too many promises, back a loser with your last cog, you’ll end up down here. Desperate people scratching out a living, safe from those above who won’t stoop to look for them. That makes it almost a haven for them, if not from each other.

我感觉肚子里一阵凉，是肾上腺素的轻微高涨。无论小凯派我来找的是什么，肯定和这个有关。

The lights flicker out. I stand, walk over to the window, and lean against the railing to glimpse through the green glass. After a few moments, the lights return, bathing the conveyor shaft in enough illumination to show me what’s covering every inch of it.

“这里就是终点了。娑呐叭里传来操作员沙沙的声音，尖啸升降梯随着一阵钢铁的呻吟声停了下来。门打开，我向外看到一座废弃的站台，唯一一盏炼金路灯的光在远处尽头闪着光。我踏上站台，身后的门迅速关闭，我回头看的时候，轿厢已经开始上升了。很快它也成了一只萤火虫，向裂口上方飞去。”

Spiders. Nothing but spiders.

祖安不存在安静，包括地沟区。我听到腐蚀的管道呛出蒸汽，远处的工厂和拆卸厂传来低吼……还有黑暗中三个嘀嘀咕咕的说话声。

That same crude mark as before, but where above it was rare, here it has been etched, carved, or sprayed over everything. An unending swarm, as though marching and climbing up from the dark they had already claimed as theirs.

在升降梯竖井里爬满的蜘蛛标记也出现在了这群匪帮的身上，不仅喷涂于褴褛的衣物，也刺在面部和脖颈处，泛红的皮肤意味着刺青是新的。他们有武器，而且就明晃晃地拿在手里。一个人有铁链，另一个人有一根长铁管。我还看到一把污损的刀反射的哑光，正被攥在最后一个人手里。

I feel something cold in my stomach, a tiny flare of adrenaline. Whatever it is that Cait sent me down here to find, it has to be connected to this.

他们还年轻，所以不认识我。无论这是哪个帮派，他们都是新入帮的崽子，很有可能会为了证明自己而犯傻。

“This is as far as I’ll go,” I hear the conductor’s voice scratch from the sonophone as the Rising Howl comes to a halt in a groan of protesting iron. The doors unlock and I peer out at an abandoned platform, the only light a single chem-lamp pulsing faintly at the far end. I step onto the platform and the doors lock fast behind me, the conveyor already rising as I look back at it over my shoulder. Soon it’s just one more firefly, rising from the chasm.

“走丢了？”其中一人说，是拿着刀的那个人。

There’s no such thing as silence in Zaun, even down in the Sump. I hear steam coughing out of corroded pipework, factories and scrapyards growling in the distance… and a trio of voices muttering in the dark.

“我觉得并没有。”我答道，演出无聊的冷静，同时观察每个细节。体态架势、健康状况、脾气性格。我几秒钟内就能看出他们之中谁领头、谁跟班。哪个最有可能逃跑、哪个最想见血。

我准备直接走过去。刀子跳到我面前，站在炼金路灯泛黄的光下。

The spider symbol crawling all over the conveyor shaft is on the gangers, too, splashed on threadbare clothes, still raw and red on their faces and necks from new tattoos. They’re armed, and making no effort to hide it. One has a chain, another a length of pipe. I see the dull sheen of a tarnished blade in the hand of the last.

“我觉得你是丢了。”他上下打量我一番。“说说，老姐妹儿，你是来听‘声音’的吗？”

They’re young, young enough not to recognize me. Whatever gang this is, these are new pups, the most likely to do something stupid in order to prove themselves.

我迈出半步，确保他们三个都在视线范围内。“你指的是谁的声音？”

“You lost?” one of them says, the one holding the knife.

刀子抽了一下鼻子。“信徒和朝圣者都是不用告诉的，这里只欢迎他们那种人。”

“Can’t say that I am,” I answer, playing off a bored calm as I take in every detail. Posture, health, temperament. I know in a few seconds which of them take the orders and which one gives them. Which are most likely to run, and who is willing to spill blood.

“转身回家去吧，染过太阳的垃圾。”另一个人恶狠狠地说。其他人纷纷发出低吼应和他的话。

I make to pass them. The blade flicks out ahead of me, catching the yellowed light from the chem-lamp.

我可能会从他们嘴里问出点什么。帮派的名字，“声音”的来历，他们怎么让整个地沟区都处于恐惧中。但最后还是对他们动手的冲动赢了。

“I think you are.” He looks me over. “Tell me, sister, have you come to hear the Voice?”

“小伙子们啊。”我笑着摇摇头。握紧一只拳，指节的响声足以被他们听见。“这是我的家。”

I take a slow quarter step to keep all three of them in view. “Whose voice might that be?”

他们迅速交换眼神，一起冲过来。我紧盯武器，目光从刀子到链子到管子之间跳跃，看看需要把哪个先放倒。紧绷的弦一触即发，空气闻起来就像氨水和油脂。

Knife wrinkles his nose. “Believers and pilgrims would know, and that’s all who’s welcome here.”

往里加点血也无所谓。

“Time to turn around and go back home, sun-stained filth.” Another of them spits. He gets a hissing chorus of agreement from his mates.

我挥出第一拳，彻底忘了我已经把拳头留在上面了。戴久了，你就会习惯海克斯科技阿特拉斯铁拳给你的力量。当我的指节贴上刀子的头骨，我感到有什么东西向侧面松动了，就在我手指缝中间。这股疼痛尖锐且突然，让在迟疑的时候挨了管子一下，从低处抡过来，打中了我的肋骨。

I could probably get more out of them. The name of their gang, who this Voice belongs to, how exactly they have the whole of the Sump running scared. But the urge to lay hands on them wins out.

第三个人绕过来，链子抽在我腿上，但我只管刀子。我一拳让他趴倒在地。在他下巴上补了一膝盖，他彻底爬不起来了。

“Boys, boys.” I shake my head, smiling. I make a fist, and my knuckles crack loud enough for them to hear. “I am home.”

我拽住链子，把人拉过来撞上我的头槌。他的鼻子被我的额头撞扁。他捂住自己的鼻子翻到在地。管子的呼啸声让我及时躲开，抡管子的人失去了平衡，我顺势推他撞到了墙上。

A quick side glance to each other and they rush me. My eyes go to weapons, flicking from blade to chain to pipe to see who I need to drop first. The air tastes like ammonia and grease as the tension cracks open.

管子迅速站起来，然后呆住了。他看看我，看看刀子，再看看我，再看看链子。管子被扔到了地上发出当啷一声，盖住了他逃跑的脚步声。我冲了过去，但刚迈步就停下了，肋间的一阵刺痛压得我的肺无法呼吸。我放走了他。

Adding a splash of blood won’t hurt.

刀子和链子不值得我费这么大力气。我从脚底捡起刀，把所有武器都扔下了站台，不去理会我的肋骨，开始向地沟区更深处走去。

I throw the first punch, forgetting I had left my hands behind. Wear them long enough, and you get used to the power a pair of hextech Atlas fists can give you. When my knuckles find the side of Knife’s skull, I feel something flex sideways, between my fingers. The pain is sharp and immediate, making me hesitate enough for the pipe to swing in low and take me in the ribs.

他们说受伤的东西逃窜的时候，一定会回到最熟悉的地方。自己的巢穴或者大杂院，某种安全的避难所，让你可以确保自己周围至少有几堵墙。

The third circles, chain lashing my legs, but my focus is on the blade. My punch had sent him to all fours. A knee to the jaw and he sprawls.

地沟区里只有非常稀少的几个避难所，至少我能去的只有几个。我可以选的地方屈指可数，但现在我目光所及都是那个标志，吞噬一切的蜘蛛。我需要喘口气，而在这下面，我现在只能想到一个地方。

I snatch hold of the chain, wrenching the ganger holding it into a headbutt. His nose mashes flat against my forehead. He topples, clutching at his face. The whistle of the pipe makes me duck, throwing its owner off balance, and I add to his momentum to send him crashing into a wall.

我迷迷糊糊地不知什么时候怎么走到了“希望之屋”。我已经很长时间没有想起这间孤儿院了，但我心里依然记着路。你永远都记得回家的路，即使是在逃家以后。

Pipe springs up to his feet, and freezes. His eyes dart from me to Knife, back to me, then to Chain. The pipe pings as it hits the ground, almost drowning out the pounding of his boots as he runs for it. I lunge after him, but I’m stopped cold by a spike of pain in my ribs squeezing my lungs shut. I let him go.

Knife and Chain aren’t worth the trouble. I snap the blade beneath my boot and fling the weapons off the platform, ignoring my ribs as I start making my way deeper into the Sump.

They say that when something’s hurt and on the run, it heads back to what’s familiar. A nest or warren, some kind of sanctuary where you know you’ll have some walls to put around you.

Precious few sanctuaries in the Sump, for me at least. There might have been a handful of places I could go, but now everywhere I look there’s that mark, the spider that’s swallowed everything. I need somewhere to catch my breath, and down here there’s only one place I can think of.

I’m hazy on when and how I first ended up at Hope House for Foundling Children. I haven’t thought about the orphanage in awhile, but I still know the way by heart. You always remember how to get home, even if you ran away from it.

我避开空地，沿着黑影和边边角角走，避免遇到更多人。我看到帮派的人成群结队地走来走去，每个人都有武器，但却一点都不乱。他们并没有在下面打砸破坏。

I stay out of the open, keeping to shadows and side streets to avoid any more encounters. I watch clots of gangers moving around, every one of them armed, but no chaos. They aren’t breaking or wrecking a thing down here.

为什么要砸属于自己的东西呢？

Why smash up what you already own?

我的手越来越痛，和我的肋骨一样，每一次心跳都传来尖锐的触痛。我能隔着缠布感觉到肿胀，虽然没有骨折但只差一点。我绷得更紧了。

My hand is getting distracting, joining my ribs with a sharp poke each time my heart beats. I can feel it swelling up under the wraps, not broken but damn near close. I just pull them tighter.

拐一个弯以后就到了，希望之屋，依然还保留着它黯淡、残破的堂皇。我离开的时候它就很破旧了，看来我离开后它依然在受罪。光是看到它还屹立未倒我就已经很吃惊了。有那么一秒钟，我又变回了孩子，带着满身的伤和捡来或抢来的东西回家。一看到家我就无法抑制住脸上的微笑。

Round a corner and there it is, Hope House, in all its dull, crumbling glory. It was far from in good shape when I left it, and the years since haven’t been any kinder. I’m amazed it’s still standing. For a second I’m a kid again, coming home banged up from a scrap or a heist. I can’t keep the smile off my face seeing it.

孩童在楼门口互相追逐，跑的快的、身体健康的孩子远远超过那些失去一肢或者因为三流喉滤装置而患上气喘病的孩子。他们看我走来四散跑开。在这么低的地方，信任可是很难获得的，这是弃儿们被迫学会的第一课。

Kids chase each other around the front of the building, the faster, healthier children outpacing those with a missing limb or wheezing through third-rate esophilters. They see me coming and scatter. Trust is a hard thing to come by this far down, one of the first lessons the abandoned are forced to learn.

其中一个孩子跑向前门。他快步爬上正门外老旧的楼梯，差点被绊倒啃在地上。他用拳头用力在门上砸，一直砸到门打开，然后一个年轻女子俯视他，这个年纪不可能是他的母亲，但已经足以负责照看他。

One of them makes for the front door. He hurries up the worn steps leading to the entrance, nearly stumbling face first before reaching it. His fist pounds on the door until it opens, and a young woman looks down, too young to be his mother, but old enough to be responsible for him.

“我告诉你在台阶上玩要注意什么来着？”她责骂着，用拇指擦净男孩脸蛋上的一块灰泥。“我是不是说过台阶不平，如果你不小心，说不定哪天——”

“Now what did I tell you about playing on those stairs?” she scolds, thumbing away a smudge of grime from the boy’s cheek. “I’ve told you they’re tricky, and if you’re not careful, one of these days—”

“说不定哪天，”我停在台阶下面说道，“你脑袋上就磕出一道缝。”

“One of these days,” I say, stopping at the foot of the steps, “you’ll collect a crack in your skull.”

她瞪圆了双眼。我听到她声音的那一秒立刻就认出来了，我的双眼也像被蛰了一样。我在脑海中拼命把面前这个女子和我记忆中的那个腼腆小姑娘联系起来。

Her eyes go wide. I knew her voice the second I heard it, and it’s enough to sting my own eyes a touch. My mind fights to reconcile the young woman standing there with the shy little girl I once knew.

“我以前差不多一直都在提醒一个小姑娘这句话。”我微笑着说。“她总想试着玩杂耍，但更多时候她总是把头埋在书本里。”

“I used to have to warn a little girl here about that all the time.” I smile. “She was trying her hand as a tumbler, when her head wasn’t buried in a book.”

“放弃杂耍了，”她回应，一边温柔地让小男孩进屋，然后走了出来关上了门。“但我依然喜欢读书，只要有时间就读。”

“Gave up on the tumbling,” she replies, gently guiding the boy through the door before stepping outside and closing it behind her. “But I still like to read, when I can find the time.”

“萝伊？”第一级台阶在我一只脚的重量下发出响声。“是你吗？我都不认识了。”

“Roe?” The first stair creaks under my weight as I place a foot on it. “Is that you? Can’t be.”

“是我。”

“It’s me.”

我又走上一级台阶。“你肯定不是萝伊。萝伊是个小不点，个头刚到我腰。看你高的。”

I climb another stair. “You can’t be Roe. Roe’s just a kid, barely reaches my hip. Look at how you sprouted.”

“在这下面给小不点留的时间并不多，”她说，“你应该比谁都更清楚。”

“Nobody stays a kid down here for long,” she says. “You should know that better than anyone.”

再上一级台阶。“很高兴看到你。好久不见。”

Another stair. “It’s good to see you. Been a long time.”

“可不是嘛。”她看向下方。“那个走遍所有地方的人不是我。”

“Yeah, well.” She looks down. “I’m not the one who went anywhere.”

我停下了，向后退一步。她声音中的伤痛很明显。我离开的时候，她还是个小不点，从她第一天来希望之屋我就开始照看她。我从来不带她一起跑，我让她远离拾荒和偷窃。我保护了她。

I stop my climb, and take a step back. The hurt is clear in her voice. When I left, she was just a kid, one I had looked after from the day she first showed up at Hope House. I had never let her run with me, kept her clear of the scraps and the stealing and the gangs. I protected her.

然后我离开了。

And then I left.

“听说你现在是跟法律一伙的了。”萝伊后背靠在门上说。

“Heard you’re with the law now,” Roe says, leaning back against the door.

“你看哪有警徽？”我敞开怀抱。“我当过几天警卫，是，但我们现在已经分道扬镳了。”

“You see a badge anywhere?” I spread my arms out wide. “I was a warden for a little while, yeah, but we’ve gone our separate ways of late.”

“看来是常事。”

“Seems to happen a lot.”

我低下头。“嘿，如果你想打架，我们可以打架。你现在够岁数了。”

I dip my head. “Hey, if you wanna brawl, we can brawl. You’re old enough now.”

虽然并非本意，但她露出了浅笑。

Despite herself, a thin smile slips through.

“或许吧。能等我回来再打吗？”。萝伊问道，“我去去就回。”

“Maybe. Can it wait until I get back?” Roe asks. “I’m gonna go in just a moment.”

“去哪？”

“Go where?”

萝伊回头望向门口，然后望向我。她沉默了片刻，在考虑我。我扫过她一眼，看到领子上的一枚别针，很简易，只不过是一块废铁上蚀刻的花纹。蜘蛛的花纹。

Roe looks back toward the door, then to me. She is silent for a moment, considering me. I glance at her and notice a pin on her collar, little more than an etching on a chip of scrap metal. It’s of a spider.

“你听过‘声音’吗？”

“Have you ever heard the Voice?”

我和萝伊一起离开，穿过七倒八歪的街坊邻居，前去集会的地方。我听她讲自己的生活，我重新了解这个长大成人的新萝伊。腼腆依然还在，那么多个夜晚的阅读也依然让她头脑聪慧，但现在的她不一样了。她心中多了份笃定，双眼中闪烁着坚决。

我只提问，对自己来此的目的避重就轻。说话说得太多，让我咳得险些翻倒在地。

I leave with Roe, walking through the crumbling neighborhoods toward the gathering. I listen to her talk about her life, learning about this new person she’s blossomed into. The shyness is still there, and she’s still smart from all those nights I saw her with her head hidden in books, but there’s more to her now. There’s conviction in her, an intensity that shines in her eyes.

“怎么？”萝伊大笑道，“在灰霾外面呆得太久了？”

I stick to asking questions, skirting around mentioning what I’m doing down here. All the talking starts a coughing fit that nearly doubles me over.

“我肋骨上挨了一管子。”我咧着嘴，一只手捂住侧身。“你的朋友们送的见面礼，我刚一走出尖啸就碰上了。”

“What?” Roe laughs. “Spent too long up out of the Gray, huh?”

她的微笑黯淡了。“我们都想要同样的东西。停止压迫。从男爵和家族手里解放出来。干净的空气。但大家对如何实现有自己的看法。多数人是在帮派生活中长大的，所以他们比较冲动。这里有好人，他们只想让我们的未来变得更好。”

“I took a pipe to the ribs.” I wince, pressing a hand to my side. “A message of welcome from your friends when I stepped off the Howl.”

我在皮城过了许多年，我身边那些人都把祖安看成是监狱、废土、黑暗世界。皮尔特沃夫向下俯视，看到祖安的双眼正在向上回望，于是人们可怜他们、憎恨他们、或是想要替他们发声，就像我逮捕的那个小废物。

Her smile dulls. “We all want the same thing. An end to the oppression. Liberation from the barons and the clans. Clean air. Just not everybody agrees on how we should get there. Most are coming from life in the gangs, so they’re on edge. There’s great people here, kind people who just want a better future for us.”

“他们显然更喜欢接纳我刚刚见过的那一种。”我说。

I’d spent years in Piltover, walking among those who saw Zaun as nothing but a prison, a wasteland, an underworld. Piltover looked down and saw Zaun’s eyes looking back at them, and they either pitied them or hated them—or tried to speak for them, like that punk I arrested.

萝伊点点头。“我领你去眼见为实。”

“They certainly seem preferable to the lot I’ve met already,” I say.

我们距离越近，看到的人就越多。形形色色、男女老少，几周前还分外眼红的敌对帮派，现在都并肩一起走。他们每个人身上都有蜘蛛，在补丁上或者纹身上或者像萝伊的别针上。他们纷纷涌进一座旧工厂，这里只剩下三面墙，没有天棚，所有人都耐心地排队等候入场。

Roe nods. “I’ll show you.”

我们来到门口，两个壮汉在把守。他们有武器，一个人安装了锃亮的金属爪增强体，不过他们能叫出每个人的名字，亲切地欢迎每个来访的人入场。

The closer we get, the more people we see. There are all kinds, young and old, members of rival gangs who were out to slit each other’s throats only weeks ago, all walking together. Every one of them has the spider on them, on a patch or tattoo or on a pin like Roe’s. They’re filing into an old factory with only three walls upright, and no ceiling, waiting in patient lines to gain entry.

“萝伊，我的姐妹，欢迎。”其中一个人说，虽然他的块头很大，但声音却低调柔和。然后他看了看我，“这个人，不行。”

We reach the door, barred by a pair of brutes. They are armed, one augmented with a claw of burnished iron, but they know each person by name, greeting them warmly as they come in.

“让她进去，”萝伊对他们说，“我带她来的。”

“Roe, my sister, you are welcome,” one of them says, his voice low and soft despite his aggressive bulk. He then looks to me. “But this one, no.”

“她是个染过太阳的，”另一个人说着，轻蔑地抬起下巴，“不值得信任。”

“Let her in,” Roe tells them. “She’s with me.”

他们拒绝我的理由居然是我在皮尔特沃夫晒黑的皮肤，而不是我加入过警队。这些人肯定是新来的。

“She is sun-stained,” says the other, lifting his chin with a sneer. “Not to be trusted.”

“她是来听‘声音’的。我为她担保，陶格。”萝伊瞪着看门人的双眼，寸步不让。“别挡路。”

They want to turn me away for the joke of a tan I’ve gotten upstairs in Piltover, not because I joined the Wardens. These guys must be new.

两个人私下嘀咕了些什么，然后转过身来对我们说，“‘声音’是说给所有人听的，所以也欢迎你。但我们会看着你的。”

“She has come to hear the Voice. I vouch for her, Togg.” Roe stares the guard in the eye, not backing down. “Get out of the way.”

我们走进去的同时我能感到他们的目光，这种紧张气氛让我不得不观察房间寻找退路，以防万一情况失控。这个地方简直烂透了，到处都是破洞，四处散落着石雕的残骸。如果情况紧急，我能出去。问题是萝伊是会和我一起逃，还是会和他们一起追。

The pair convene, muttering, before turning back to us. “The Voice is for all to hear, so you are welcome, too. But we will be watching.”

没有开场也没有仪式。没有音乐也没有烛光，没有在人群中传递的募捐盘。只有一大群人，围在一个碎石堆成的土堆旁，上面坐着一个人，正在冷静地等待。

I feel their eyes on me as we step inside, and the static’s enough to have me taking in the room for ways out if this goes wrong. The place is a wreck, full of holes and collapsed masonry. If things turn red, I can get out. The only question is whether Roe will run with me, or after me.

“是他吗？”我悄悄问萝伊。“他就是‘声音’？”

There’s no pomp or ceremony. No music or votive candles, no dish passed hand to hand for contributions to the cause. There’s just a mass of people, surrounding a mound of rubble in the center where a man sits, calmly waiting.

她点了点头。我望向他，这个征服了地沟的人，我想不通。

“Is that him?” I whisper to Roe. “The Voice?”

他很年轻，可能只比萝伊大一点，可以说还是个孩子。虽然瘦弱又憔悴，但他却有一双帮派成员的眼睛，那是见过恐怖景象的眼睛。不过里面也有一股奇特的温暖，就像是有秘密要分享，专门和你分享。最后几个人进来了，于是“声音”开始讲话了。

She nods. I look over at him, this man who conquered the Sump, and I don’t understand.

“我看到了许多新面孔。”他的声音很轻柔，甚至让人听不见，但每个人都听得一清二楚。“欢迎所有人。我们每个人都随着自己的路走到这个地方，无数条路在这里汇聚成一条。请放心，从今往后你不再孤单。”

He’s young, barely older than Roe, little more than a kid himself. Scrawny and gaunt, he has the look of a ganger in his eyes, eyes that have seen his share of horror. But there’s a strange warmth there, too, like he has a secret to tell, just to you. The last of the assembly enters, and the Voice begins to speak.

我扫视人群。所有人都在全神贯注地听他说的每一个字。我好奇多少人从没听过类似的话。那些被拒绝、被虐待、被遗忘的人，第一次被当人看待。

“I see many new faces.” His voice is gentle, almost quiet, though it carries to every ear. “You are all welcome here. Each one of us found our own way to this place, countless paths leading to where they become one. Know now that you are no longer alone.”

“我们全都带着伤疤，”声音继续讲，“生活、试炼和苦难留下的痕迹，我们只能接受。这个世界用尽了招数把我们击垮，让我们甘心留在这里，还要感激我们微薄的所有。这样的现实已经存在了太久，是时候该变一变了。”

I scan the crowd. All are hanging on his every word. I wonder how many have never had those words spoken to them before. The rejected and abused, the forgotten, seen as people for the first time.

呢喃的赞同声传遍人群。即使没当过警卫你也能感觉到紧张气氛正在积累。这个声音正在揭伤疤，让人想起伤痛。他并没有说谎——这些人承担了太多的痛苦，但我能看出他的伎俩，真相只是个幌子。

“We all bear scars,” the Voice continues. “The marks of the lives we’ve had to live, our trials and our suffering. The world has done all it can to beat us down, to convince us to stay there and be grateful for what little we have. That has been the reality here for far too long, and it is time that changed.”

“他们的铁靴还要在我们喉咙上踩多久？”他的声音开始提高，锋芒初露。“炼金男爵们。他们拿我们的家园敛财谋利，而我们又得到了什么？我们得到的是有毒的空气、有毒的水。疾病、痛苦、死亡——这就是我们的下场吗？”

Murmurs of affirmation wash over the gathering. You don’t need to have worked as a warden to feel the tension ratcheting up. The Voice is dredging up wounds, making them raw again. He isn’t lying—these people have borne more than their share of hurt, but I can see the game he’s playing, hidden beneath that truth.

“不！”人群已经愤怒了，被他玩弄于股掌之中。我瞥了一眼身边的萝伊，她脸上也和其他人一样满是怒火。或许我只是不服管教，但我真觉得这场表演应该搬到戏院里。

“How long have their boots been on our throats?” His voice begins to rise, its edge sharpening. “The chem-barons. They use our home to build their wealth, and what do we get from it? We get poison in the air we breathe, in the water we drink. Sickness, pain, death—is this what we deserve?”

“要我说，到此为止了。”那个声音怒吼道，“我们为倒下的兄弟姐妹们流的泪到此为止，我们眼看着孩子们荒废的生命到此为止。男爵们将为他们的所作所为付出代价，但还不止于此，我们将让那些真正有罪的人受到正义的审判。”

“No!” The crowd is angry now, playing right into his hands. I glance at Roe beside me, and see the same rage on her and every other face. Maybe it’s the contrarian in me, but I feel like they should have found a theater to hold this performance.

重点来了。

“I say, no more,” growls the Voice. “No more will we weep for brothers and sisters too weak to stand, or watch our children’s lives waste away. The barons will pay for what they’ve done, but more than that, we will bring justice to those they truly serve.”

声音向天上伸出一根控诉的手指。“在我们头顶那座高高在上的城里，那群腐败的商人。阳光照耀的地方让他们盲目，看不到他们在这里犯下的罪行。他们伤害了你，伤害了你爱的人。他们躲在盲目的光明里，因为他们觉得光明能保护他们。但他们错了，因为他来了。”

Here it comes.

惊讶的低语填满了会场，就好像他刚刚说的是一位神明。萝伊从眼前擦掉一滴泪。他们全情投入，但整件事感觉太诡异了，这个声音讲的每一个字我都不相信。

The Voice stabs an accusing finger skyward. “The corrupt merchants in that city towering over us. A city where the sun shines so bright it blinds them to the crimes they have committed here. The pain they have caused you, and the ones you love. They hide in that blindness, because they think it will protect them. But it will not, not after he arrives.”

“他说的是谁？”我问道，但萝伊朝他努努嘴，继续听他讲。

Awed whispers fill the room, like he has just spoken of a god. Roe brushes a tear from her eye. They’re all drawn in, but nothing about this feels right, and I’ve yet to trust a word that’s come from this Voice.

“我是他的声音，我们都是他的孩子。我见过他的脸。我听过他说的话，还通过了他的生存考验。他把双手递给我，他选择了我，为他寻找追随者，准备迎接他的回归。那一天很快就要来临，我的兄弟姐妹们。来的不是复仇，而是正义。”

“Who is he talking about?” I ask, but Roe nods back to him as he continues.

“可是谁愿意为之付出血的代价？”

“I am his Voice, and we are all of us his sons. I have seen his face. I have heard his words and survived his test. He laid his hands upon me as his chosen, to seek out his flock and make ready for his return. That day is soon to dawn, my brothers and sisters. Not one of retribution, but of justice.”

周围安静了下来。所有人的目光都看向我，我发现自己不由自主地站了起来。

“And who will pay the blood price for that?”

“你干什么？”萝伊嘶声说着，拽着我的手。

Silence descends. All eyes turn to me as I find myself standing.

我这爆脾气。蔚，你根本不会当间谍。这下好了，没法回头了。

“What are you doing?” Roe hisses, tugging at my hand.

“我以前就听过这种话，”我的话同时说给声音和人群。“花言巧语，专门蒙骗那些含恨蒙冤、一无所有的人。他们以正义为名煽动别人，他们只想看到自己的提线木偶跳舞，因为他们想当神。”

Damn my temper. Vi, you’re a terrible spy. Well, no going back now.

声音听我说完，耐心的表情没有任何改变。“我以前没见过你，姐妹。你是新加入我们的——没人会责怪你看不穿。”

“I’ve heard this kind of talk before,” I say, both to the Voice and the crowd. “Glib talkers who prey on the pain of the wronged and the dispossessed. They rile them up in the name of justice, when all they want is to see their puppets dance, because they want to be a god.”

“我看穿了。”我对他怒目而视。“我看到的是一个想要见血的秘教。我看到的是一个许诺自由与繁荣的骗子。我看到的是一个派混混把手每个入口的懦夫。”

The Voice listens, without any change to his patient facade. “I have not seen you here before, sister. You are new to our ways—none can fault you for not seeing them clearly.”

“这些都是我们赢取自由的必经之路，”他淡然地答道。他上下打量我一番。“如果我的兄弟们袭击了你，那我向你道歉。你必须理解，一条狗被踢了太多次最后也会咬人。我们等待了太久，但现在新的一天即将到来。”

“I see clearly.” I glare at him. “I see a cult getting whipped up to spill blood. I see a liar promising freedom and prosperity, but putting armed thugs at every entrance to his territory.”

他从瓦砾土堆上走下来，张开双臂慢慢接近。

“They are what will win our freedom,” he answers plainly. He looks me over. “If our brothers attacked you, then I am sorry. You must understand that a dog can only be kicked so many times before he bites back. We’ve waited and we’ve waited, but now there is another way.”

“我在你身上看到许多痛苦，我在你眼中看到深深埋藏的伤痛。我看到一个祖安的孩子偏离了自己真正的家。皮尔特沃夫的腐化痕迹遍及你全身。你认为力量在于帮助我们的压迫者去改变，但他们永远都不会改变。你有力量，你的力量应该帮助解放这些人。”

He walks down from his mound of rubble, slowly approaching with his arms spread wide.

他真的很会说话。我意识到我已经握紧了拳头，长舒一口气松开了手。虽然在他头上开个坑会很好玩，但随后我挺不过五秒。

“I see much pain in you, a hurt you keep hidden behind your eyes. I see a child of Zaun who has strayed from her rightful home. Piltover has its corruptive mark all over you. You think strength lies in helping our oppressors to change, but they won’t ever change. You have strength, strength that could be used to help liberate these people.”

“我有什么痛苦都是我自己的。”我一拳捶在自己胸口。“我背负着我自己的选择。我不会把这些负担推给别人。我不会让别人顶罪，而且我也不觉得自己受到了屈辱就有正当理由报复到别人头上。”

He certainly has a way with words. I realize I’ve made fists, and exhale to slowly release them. As much fun as making a crater out of his head would be, I wouldn’t last five seconds after.

声音低下头，轻轻笑了两声，然后又对上我的目光。“他会喜欢你的。不过，如果这不是你要走的路，那就请离开吧，你不会受到伤害。但如果你敢再回来，我就无法做任何保证。”

“Whatever pain I have is mine.” I thump a fist against my chest. “I carry the weight of the choices I made. I don’t push them onto others. I don’t make scapegoats, and I don’t believe the wrongs done to me justify my inflicting them on someone else.”

我向下瞄了一眼萝伊，每一张面孔都在瞪我。“我会走的，你们都应该走。不会有神明降临，不会有伟大的存在来拯救你们。我看到的只是一个普通人，寻找迷失的人替他做事。”

The Voice looks down, chuckles softly before meeting my gaze again. “He would like you. But, if this is not your path, then leave now, and no harm will come to you. Return, though, and I can make no promises.”

又是那个柔软的微笑，几乎有点悲伤，不带一丝恶意。“不，我的孩子。他是真真切切的。而且很快，你就不需要听我空口无凭地讲他了。”

I glance down at Roe, at every face staring at me. “I’ll go, and so should all of you. There is no one coming, no great being to deliver you. All I see is a man, looking for lost people to do his bidding.”

他说的没错，我离开的时候没一个人碰我。也没有语言的威胁。我没有听到任何尖锐的话语，直到我离开那个地方，萝伊追上了我。

Again that soft smile, almost sad and without a hint of malice. “No, my child. He is very real. And soon enough, you won’t have to rely on my words to know that.”

她挡在我前面。“你以为自己是谁？”

“我——”

True to his claim, no one touches me when I leave. Not even a threat. I don’t hear a harsh word until I am clear of the place, and Roe catches up to me.

“你离开了，”萝伊厉声说，“几年过去，你突然回来，然后觉得自己能替我做主？”

She cuts me off. “Who do you think you are?”

“我听不下去了。你不会告诉我他说的你全信吧？”

“I—”

“相信他很难吗？相信这世界上有人在乎地沟里发生的事？”

“You left,” Roe snaps. “Years pass, and all of a sudden you just walk back in and think you know what’s best for me?”

我深吸一口气。“我一听就知道他是在煽动你们，萝伊。他们动动嘴皮子，几句话就把人绕进去，但到最后手上沾血的永远都不是他们。他正在利用你们所有人。”

“I heard enough. You can’t tell me you actually believe all of this.”

“他在帮我们。”她怨恨地摇摇头。“你都不记得这下面是什么样子了吗？你出去了，但我们其余的人可就没那么幸运了。我们在这里走投无路、孤苦伶仃，一切都不会变。他将解放我们！”

“What’s so hard to believe? That there’s someone out there who gives a damn about what happens to the Sump?”

“怎么解放？”我正在用尽一切努力让自己听上去不像警卫。“到最后你们能活下来多少人？你知道他的确切计划吗？如果你知道什么事，萝伊，求你，一定要告诉我。”

I take a deep breath. “I know a demagogue when I hear one, Roe. They talk, and they say anything to spin folks up, but in the end it’s never their hands that get bloody. He’s manipulating all of you.”

她的眼神变了。“为什么？你知道以后要告诉谁？你到底为什么来？”

“He’s trying to help us.” She shakes her head bitterly. “Do you even remember what it’s like down here? You got out, but the rest of us aren’t so lucky. We stay separate and alone, and nothing will ever change. He’s going to set us free!”

“我想知道到底发生了什么。”我举起双手，不想让怀疑把谈话弄僵。“我想知道即将发生什么，这样我才能避免让两座城市分崩离析。”

“How?” I try like hell not to sound like a warden just now. “And how many are going to be left alive when it’s done? Do you know what he plans to do? If you know something, Roe, please, it is very important that you tell me.”

萝伊大笑起来，但有一半是在哭泣。“你晒了太多太阳。你这么多年来一直活在上面，你说你在乎，可你又为我们做过什么？”

Something changes in her eyes. “Why? Who are you going to tell it to? Why are you even here?”

“萝伊。”

“I want to understand what has happened.” I raise my hands, trying to walk back the suspicion curdling our talk. “What is happening now, so that I can keep two cities from falling apart.”

“说出一件来，”她咄咄逼人，“说出一件你为这些人做过的事，哪怕是为我一个人。还是说你全都是为了把我们关在这里？”

Roe laughs, but it comes out as half a sob. “You’ve been in the sun too long. You’ve lived up there for all these years, you say you care, but what the hell have you done for us?”

“没那么简单。”

“Roe.”

“为什么？”

“Just name something,” she presses. “One single thing you’ve done to help these people, to help me, instead of keeping us all locked where we are.”

这是个简单的问题，但它就像一把刀捅进我的肚子里。这是一个孩子的问题，只有孩子会想去弄清为什么这个世界不合理。

“It’s not that easy.”

“算了吧。回上面去吧。你不属于这里。他要来了，蔚，你会亲眼看到的。你们上面人全都会看到的。”

“Why not?”

“谁？”我扶住她的肩膀。“萝伊，他是谁？”

It’s a simple question, but it hits me like a knife in the gut. A child might ask it, trying to figure out why the world doesn’t make sense.

她的表情冷漠。“所有人都知道声音说的是谁。只有你不知道。他是无畏战车。”

“Forget it. Go back up. You don’t belong here. He’s coming, Vi, and then you’ll see. All of you up there will see.”

“无畏战车？”

“Who?” I grip her shoulder. “Roe, who is he?”

舞步走廊已经入夜了。小凯把所有显眼的东西都留在上面了，在两座城市交融喧嚣的地方，没人会认出来皮城女警。

Her expression goes cold. “Everyone knows who the Voice is talking about. Everyone but you. It’s the Dreadnought.”

“你能听出什么端倪吗？”我问。

小凯摇了摇头。“我会查一查，看看能挖到什么。你还打听到什么了？”

“Dreadnought?”

我把看到的都说了一遍。墙上遍布的记号。地沟区的彻底掌控。声音在集会中说的话。

It’s night up in the Promenade. Cait’s left behind anything that might make her stand out, to be recognized as a sheriff of Piltover in the bustle of where the two cities touch.

“他们是有组织的，”我告诉她，“而且他们十分愤怒。已经不是如果事情闹大了，而是迟早的问题。”

“Mean anything to you?” I ask.

“好吧。”她深吸一口气，思索着目前的情报。“等闹起来的时候，我们知道什么地方或者什么方式吗？”

Cait shakes her head once. “I’ll do some digging, see what I can turn up. What else can you tell me?”

“我不知道。”

I explain all that I had seen. The marks on every wall. The complete control over the Sump. The Voice’s words when they gathered.

小凯接下来的问题换了个声音。低沉、悄声。“你听到他们提起过海克斯科技吗？”

“They are organized,” I tell her, “and they are angry. It’s not a matter of if this boils over, but when.”

“海克斯科技？”我皱起眉头。“这和他们有什么关——”

“Okay.” She takes a breath, processing. “And when it boils over, do we know where, or how?”

“海克斯科技，”她又说了一遍，盯着我的双眼，“如果你听到任何人开始说起宝石、水晶、魔法就一定要立刻让我知道。”

“I don’t know.”

我脑袋里出现一个问题，我不想问，但却存不住。“你是不是已经知道要找什么了，小凯？”

Cait’s voice changes with the next question. It’s lower, quieter. “Have you heard any of them mention hextech?”

她看看我。“我们是一伙的，蔚。”

“Hextech?” I frown. “What does that have to do with—”

“是哪伙的？”她居然不得不用这种方式回答，我更加不安了。“牵扯到的不仅是男爵，是吗？他们与各个帮派的不和已经很多年了，我们从来都没动过一根手指。突然出现了一个男爵拴不住的新玩家，现在你又说起海克斯科技。各大家族的利润受损，所以他们要我们下去管好祖安？”

“Hextech,” she repeats, locking my gaze to hers. “You hear anyone start talking about gems, crystals, magic, that is news I need to know immediately.”

小凯没有回答。我感觉一股血蹿上头，缓缓呼出一口气。“看来我得自己查了。”

A question surfaces in my head, one I don’t want to ask, but will stay lodged there until I do. “Do you already know what you’re looking for, Cait?”

“能告诉你的我都告诉你了，你还需要知道什么。”她打量我一番，目光落在我手上。“你受伤了。”

She looks at me. “We’re on the same side here, Vi.”

“不要紧。”我站起来，走了出去。

“And what side is that?” The fact she has to say such a thing puts me even further on edge. “It isn’t just the barons involved with this, is it? We’ve watched them feud with the gangs for years, and never lifted a finger. Suddenly there’s a new player on the scene that the barons can’t keep on a leash, and now you’re talking about hextech. The clans get spooked about their margins, so they need us to go down and keep Zaun in line?”

黎明的晨光照不到这么深的地方。闪烁的炼金路灯代替不了阳光，我再次走上希望之屋的台阶，那个小男孩独自坐在那。

Cait doesn’t answer. My blood’s up, and I push out a slow breath. “Guess I’ll have to find out myself.”

“嘿，”我轻轻说，“还记得我吗？我是萝伊的朋友。我叫蔚。你叫什么？”

“I told you what I could, what you needed to know.” She looks me over, her eyes falling on my hand. “You’re hurt.”

我们两个都小心翼翼，我凑近了点。他噘着嘴，脸蛋通红，双手抱在胸前。“尤雷。”

“I’ll manage.” I stand, and start walking.

“尤雷，”我在距离他几个台阶的地方停下。“你知道萝伊去哪了吗，尤雷？”

他点了点头。“她走了。”

Dawn’s light doesn’t reach this far down. The flickering chem-lamps make a poor substitute as I climb the steps to the front door of Hope House, where that little boy sits, alone.

我肚子里一阵凉意。“走去哪了，尤雷？”

“Hey,” I say softly. “Remember me? I’m Roe’s friend. My name’s Vi. What’s yours?”

男孩看着我，他受的伤让一张脏脸蛋上的两只大眼睛分外明亮。“她气冲冲地回家。然后和一些朋友们离开了。”

Both of us are careful as I close the gap. He’s pouting, cheeks flushed and arms crossed over his chest. “Yulie.”

“尤雷，这件事很重要。”我慢慢伸出手，把手放在他所坐的台阶上。他看看我，没有躲闪。“你知道他们去哪了吗？”

“Yulie,” I say, stopping a few stairs shy of him. “Do you know where Roe is, Yulie?”

“她说他们不会再等了。”尤雷啜泣着，“我也想去，但她说我必须留在这。”

He nods his head. “She’s gone.”

“他们去什么地方了？”我尽量让声音柔和，怕吓到他，但我开始不耐烦了。

Something goes cold in my stomach. “Gone where, Yulie?”

“新塔。”尤雷望向中层广场。“她说他们在那里制作魔法的石头。我问她能不能带给我一块，她答应了，等她回来的时候，每个人都有份。”

The boy looks at me, the hurt making his eyes shiny in a grimy face. “She came home mad. Then she left with some of her friends.”

我已经跑起来了。

“Now, Yulie, this is very important.” I reach out, very slowly, and place a hand on the stair he’s sitting on. He watches me, but doesn’t flinch away. “Do you know where they went?”

跑到中层广场需要时间，但一到地方，我就知道该往哪走了。

“She said they were done waiting.” Yulie sniffles. “I wanted to go, but she said I had to stay here.”

那座尖塔。它是祖安百姓头上的压迫者的符号象征和实际形象。它跨越两座城，但祖安这边流着血汗，皮城那边留下钱。尖塔的顶端是穹顶，商会家族的代表执掌着下面的工人。

“Where did they go?” I try to keep my voice soft so as not to spook him, but I’m getting impatient.

如果他们心血来潮向下看的话，将看到一番奇景。他们高塔的基础会被鲜血染红。

“The new tower.” Yulie nods up toward the Entresol. “She told me they make the magic rocks there. I asked if she would bring me one, and she promised that, when she got back, she’d have enough for everyone.”

I’m already running.

It takes time to make it up to the Entresol, but once I’m there, I know where to go.

The spire. A symbolic and literal image of the common Zaunite’s oppressors. It spans both cities, but while all the sweat and blood are shed in Zaun, most of the money is spent in Piltover. At the very tip of the spire is a dome, where the merchant clan’s representatives lord over the workers below.

What a sight will greet them today, if they bother to look down. To see the base of their tower turned red with blood.

我抵达的时候地面上已经堆满尸体。海克斯水晶虽然发往皮城，但尖塔建在炼金男爵的场子里，他们也要从中揩油，所以他们会确保手下养了足够多的的壮汉，保障工厂的安全。

The ground is already thick with dead when I arrive. Piltover may be the destination for the hex-crystals, but the chem-barons get their cut for having the spire on their turf, and they make sure they have enough brutes on hand to keep the factory secure.

秘教成员肯定冲击了正门，像潮水一般淹没了门卫。我看到地上散落的尸体分别来自双方。安防力量拥有炼金科技武装、训练和经验。但他们无法阻止疯狂的人墙，即使只拿石头和木棍做武器，也足以让他们为了一丁点报复的机会而往前冲。

The cult must have run at the gates, dragging down the guards like a tide. I see corpses from both sides littering the way. The security force had chemtech weapons, training, and experience, but they couldn’t stop a wall of fanatics, armed with little more than blunt objects and the chance to get a little payback.

大门被冲开了，我看到那次集会上的人们，搬出箱子，查看架子上的金属罐。我保持距离，混进人群。我找到大多数人聚集的地方，他们围着一堆从尖塔里夺来的箱子。到处都找不到萝伊。

The gates have been thrown open, and I see men and women that I recognize from the gathering, hauling crates and inspecting racks of round metal canisters. I keep my distance, blending into the crowds. I find my way to where most of them are massing, around a pile of crates seized from the spire. I can’t see Roe anywhere.

声音站在箱子堆上。他的脸上有淤青和血迹，衣服被扯烂了。他看上去经历了激烈的战斗。撬棍拿在手里，他撬开了身边的箱子，里面是一排排小巧、闪亮的蓝色石头。

Standing atop the crates is the Voice. His face is bloodied and bruised, his clothing torn. He looks like he had been in the thick of the fighting. Using a pry bar, he levers open the nearest crate, revealing racks of small, gleaming blue stones.

合成海克斯科技水晶。

Synthetic hextech crystals.

“这是重要的一天！”声音举起一块水晶摆出胜利的姿态。“看啊，这是我们获取自由的工具。这么久以来，我们付出了所有，却一无所获。今天，有了它们，我们将扳回劣势，夺回理应属于我们的东西！”

“This is a momentous day!” The Voice holds up one of the crystals in triumph. “Behold, the instrument of our freedom. For so long we have given everything, and received nothing in return. Today, with these, we will balance those scales, and take what is rightfully ours!”

他的庆祝被打断了，金属刮擦岩石发出可怕而刺耳的声音。

His celebration is interrupted by the terrible screech of metal against stone.

所有人都看向尖塔的墙边，有一个黑暗的身影缓缓降下，伴着肮脏火花形成的瀑布。即使从远处看，它也巨大无比，一整只手臂被换成了巨大的火炮，躯干被安装在许多条机械足上，机械足向四面八方伸开，末段是锋利的尖爪，每一步都在尖塔上刻下深深的伤痕。随着它接近，我看出来上半身隐约是个人类，无血色的肉体被焊接在金属上，身上还挂着摇曳的绿色药管，但那些腿只属于怪物。

All eyes turn upward to the walls of the spire, where a dark shape can be seen descending in a great shower of dirty sparks. Even from a distance it is enormous, an entire arm replaced by a massive cannon, the body perched upon a multitude of splayed mechanical legs, segmented and ending in sharpened claws gouging deep wounds into the spire. As it gets closer, I can see that the top portion is vaguely human, pallid flesh fused to metal and lambent green medical tubing, but the legs belong to a monster.

或者蜘蛛。

Or a spider.

无畏战车。这个名字从人群中频频传来，就像一句祷词。

Dreadnought. I hear the name flicker through the crowd, whispered like a prayer.

我以为那个声音是骗子，或者是受骗者。我以为那个生物是他编出来，好给自己召集人手的。但他是真的。整件事突然变得格外危险。

I had believed that the Voice was deluded, or a charlatan. That the creature was something he had conjured up to rally an army for himself. But he is real. Things have suddenly become far more dangerous.

无畏战车跳到地上，激起一阵云雾和碎石。人们敬畏地安静下来，他蜘蛛般的腿脚迈开步伐，耸立在他的布道者头顶。

The Dreadnought crashes down to the ground, making impact in a cloud of dust and rock splinters. The people fall to awed silence, parting before him as his clicking spider legs bring him to loom over his prophet.

“您来了，”那个声音狂喜地悄声说道，“您终于来了。”

“You’re here,” the Voice says, an ecstatic whisper. “You’re finally here.”

“的确，我的见证者。”他真正的声音像雷电，从钢铁熔炉中响彻。“我来了。”

“Indeed, my witness.” His true voice is thunder, rendered through furnace iron. “I am here.”

我挤进了围观者最密集的地方，我的眼睛四下搜寻，一边寻找萝伊一边看着事情发展。声音从木箱上跳了下来，手里捧满海克斯水晶。

I push into where the onlookers are thickest, my eyes darting, going from searching for Roe to watching what is unfolding. The Voice leaps down from the crates, his hands full of hex-crystals.

“伟大的无畏战车，”声音激动地说，“我把这献给您，用您儿女们的鲜血赢来的。通往我们解放的钥匙。”

“Mighty Dreadnought,” the Voice says, beaming, “I offer these, hard won with the blood of your children. The key to our liberation.”

声音把水晶倒进他主人所剩的一只手上，后退一步准备接受表扬。

The Voice pours the crystals into his master’s flesh hand, stepping back in preparation for praise.

“你为什么把这些拿到我面前？”无畏战车的手微微倾斜，水晶洒到了地上。

“Why do you bring these before me?” The Dreadnought tilts his hand, and the crystals spill to the ground.

一片寂静。然后，“我不明白。”声音吃吃地说，看着无价的宝石落进尘土中。

Silence. Then: “I don’t understand,” the Voice stammers, watching the priceless gems scatter into the dust.

“显而易见。”

“That is clear.”

“我们为您赢得了财富。有了这些，我们可以购买武器、组成军队。”

“We’ve won you a fortune. With these we can buy weapons, armies.”

“你的想法和他们一样。”无畏战车用责罚的语气说。他看向人群。“憎恨皮尔特沃夫的现在，却尊敬他们的祖先。勤勉、坚定，那些人拥有力量，能够驾驭我们世界内部的魔法，并为他们服务。他们的确很伟大。”

“You think as they do.” The Dreadnought says it like an accusation. He looks out to the crowd. “Hate Piltover for what they have become, but revere their forebears. Industrious, committed, those people possessed the strength to harness the magic within our world, and bend it to their will. Truly they were mighty.”

我能感觉到人群的困惑，因为我也一样。他们对救世主的讲话可能有各种期待，但我绝没想到是这样的话。

I can feel the crowd’s confusion, because I share it. Of all the things they expected their savior to say, I can’t imagine it was this.

“但时间久了，他们铸造的工具变得更加沉重。它成为了离不开的拐杖，然后成为了他们的主人。他们把自己变成了奴隶。他们每次醒来都被这些宝石束缚，没了它们，传承至今的文明就将终结。”

“Yet over time, the tool they had forged bore more weight. It became a crutch, and then it became their master. They have made themselves into slaves. They awoke so shackled to these gems that in their absence, the civilization they had inherited would end.”

他转身回看声音。“财富是罪恶——不是力量。我那天找到的孩子表现得有价值。是我错了吗？”

He turns to the Voice. “Wealth is a vice—it is not strength. The boy I found that day appeared worthy. Was I mistaken?”

不安和焦虑在人群中播散。我们已经看得非常清楚，无畏战车的每个角度都是夺命的、带尖的、改装成武器的。他用手掐住声音的下巴。

Unease sweeps over the crowd. We all become very aware that nearly every facet of the Dreadnought is lethal, bladed, and weaponized as his hand cups the Voice’s jaw.

“我是您的选择，”声音哀求道，“那一天。您饶了我。”

“I was chosen,” the Voice pleads. “That day. You spared me.”

“的确。”那个怪物缓缓点头。“但我也会犯错。我只能找到我的失误，进行纠正。”

“Indeed.” The monster nods slowly. “Though I am not infallible. I can only seek out my failures, and correct them.”

声音尖叫一声，尖锐、短促。一阵短暂的剧痛，然后就结束了。无畏战车扔掉了尸体，立刻忘在脑后。

The Voice screams, a sharp, short sound. A yelp of agony and it’s over. The Dreadnought discards the body, immediately forgotten.

“我是厄加特，”那个怪物开口说道，转身面向人群。“我听到了你们，祖安。我听到你们心中的轻语，你们希望中和梦中的我。不同的名字、不同的称谓。解放者。神。我现在直接对你们说，我不是那些东西。我是更伟大的存在。我是一种理念。”

“I am Urgot,” the creature says, turning to address the crowd. “And I have heard you, Zaun. The whispers of your hearts, the things you have hoped and dreamt for me to be. The names, the titles. A liberator. A god. I speak before you now to say that I am none of these things. I am greater. I am an idea.”

每个人都围到他身边，在他怪物般的身躯旁边围成一圈。他伸手拿起一个金属罐，我看大门里还有几十个一样的罐子。“我是这个世界的反省，我是力量与软弱之间伟大对抗的回响，我们每个人的灵魂，每一次呼吸，都是这场伟大对抗的一部分。我无法成为你们的神——我没有那样的力量。我只能提供给你们一次考验，让你们知道自己是否拥有足够的力量成为你们自己的神。”

Every person there flocks to him, ringing his monstrous form like a congregation. He reaches for one of the metal canisters, and I notice dozens more of them within the gates. “I am a reflection of this world, an echo of the great contest between strength and weakness waged in each of our souls, with every breath we draw. I cannot be a god to you—that offering is not within my power. What I can offer you is a test to learn if you bear the strength needed to be your own god.”

一种恶心的感觉顺着我的脊背往上爬。厄加特示意了一下他身上的药管，两端分别连着机械身躯和口鼻处的面罩，然后他举起金属罐。上面贴着警告标志：剧毒，毒药。

A sick feeling creeps up my spine. Urgot gestures to the medical tubing linking his mechanical body to the mask covering his mouth and nose, and holds up the canister. It’s covered with warning sigils: toxic, poison.

“这个金属壳里面是我现在呼吸的空气。我把它吸进去，征服它，因为真正的解放是由内而外的。这就是我们传达给敌人的信息，那些想压迫我们的人。”

“What lies within this metal shell is the very air I have come to breathe. I took it in, and conquered it, for true liberation comes from within. That is the message we will take to our enemies, our would-be oppressors.”

厄加特的视线扫过人群。“你们之中谁有力量追随我？谁来把这苦难纳入自己体内，并坚持下去？”

Urgot scans the crowd. “Who among you has the strength to follow me? To take this misery within yourself, and endure?”

他们每个人都双膝跪地，渴望接受洗礼。

Every one of them sinks to their knees, yearning to be baptized.

“厄加特！”他们狂叫。“厄加特！厄加特！”

“Urgot!” they roar. “Urgot! Urgot!”

“很好。”厄加特把手放在金属罐的阀门旁，苍白的手指握成利爪的形状。“那就试试吧。”

“Very well.” Urgot closes his hand over the canister’s safety valve, pale fingers forming a claw. “Let us see.”

他扭碎了阀门，气体从厄加特的指缝间喷出。他在金属罐表面撕开一个口子，绿色的烟雾包裹了他的追随者们。我比较靠后，没有在最浓的地方，但几乎马上就有人开始死去。

The gas bursts out from between Urgot’s fingers as he crushes the valve. He tears a rent in the canister, and a green cloud rushes out to envelop his followers. I’m near the back, away from the greatest concentration of it, but almost immediately people begin to die.

“萝伊，”我小声喊着，推开人群，这时恐慌开始落下。人们纷纷倒下，嘴唇和鼻孔流出粉红色的泡沫。我从装备库的废墟里找到一个废弃的呼吸面罩，戴上的同时已经可以感觉到空气在撕扯我的喉咙了。

“Roe,” I whisper, pushing through the crowd as panic begins to set in. Men and women collapse, pinkish froth boiling from lips and noses. I find a breather mask discarded by the wreck of an equipment shed, and pull it on as I feel the air begin to claw at my throat.

腐臭的绿色雾霭阻隔了视线。我只能看到身边大致的人影，颤抖着、抽搐着翻到在地。我必须找到萝伊。我必须把她救出来。我必须找到她。

Visibility devolves into a putrid greenish haze. I see silhouettes all around me, shivering and thrashing and toppling over. I have to find Roe. I have to get her out. I have to find her.

然后我找到了。

And I do.

她正和别人跪在一起，浓雾的触须翻滚着扑过来，淹没到他们胸口的高度。

She is kneeling with a group of others, tendrils of mist rolling up their chests as it finally reaches them.

“萝伊！”

“Roe!”

她抬起头，看见了我。是我记忆中的那个腼腆的小姑娘。萝伊看着我的双眼，眼神中充满信念，然后深吸一口。

She looks up, seeing me. The shy little girl I used to know. Roe stares me in the eye, vision clear with absolute belief, and breathes in.

“别！”我滑到她身边。她的皮肤开始发暗，毒性侵蚀的血管在她皮肤上勾勒出黑暗的网。她的嘴徒劳地开合。血沫沾在她嘴唇上。我从脸上扯下呼吸面罩，想要按到她脸上。萝伊已经无力地倒向地面，却依然在用最后一丝力气抗拒我。她的笃定、她铁甲的信念，始终在她的眼神中，直到没了生气。

“No!” I skid to her side. Her skin begins to blacken, dark webs of corrupted veins filling with poison. She gags. Bloody foam rings her lips. I tear the breather mask from my face, trying to press it to hers. Roe spends the last of her strength fighting me, even as she sags to the ground. Her conviction, that ironclad belief, never leaves her eyes until the life does.

当毒雾最终消散，活下来的人还不到一半。大多数幸存者都是经过增强的，他们的下巴都架着厚重的黄铜喉滤装置和义体气管。我的嘴里泛起一股血和焦糖的味道。泪水在我满脸的尘垢中开出两条路。

Less than half of them are still alive when the cloud finally dissipates. Many of the survivors are those who are half augmented, their jaws bracketed in clunky brass esophilters and prosthetic windpipes. My mouth tastes like blood and burnt sugar. Tears cut through the grime on my face.

“起来。”厄加特举起一只手，他的军队爬了起来。“那些通过考验的人拥有权力，以及使命，要给这个世界带去同样的试炼。”

“Arise.” Urgot lifts a hand, and his army clambers to their feet. “Those who have passed the test bear the right, and the duty, to grant that trial to the world.”

他的目光瞄准了尖塔的顶端。“他们与自己完整的劳动成果已经分开了太久。是时候让他们也品尝一下了。”

He turns his eyes to the peak of the spire. “For too long have they been separated from the full fruits of their labor. It is time we return it to them.”

厄加特封锁了尖塔，他的追随者在空气过滤系统中打开了所有金属罐。毒雾就像狡诈的青蛇一样向上蜿蜒攀升，一层又一层地灌注窒息、麻痹的死亡。

我在他们锁门之前溜了进去。我沿着楼梯向上爬，心脏在狂跳，呼吸面罩紧紧捂在脸上。我不知道这一路上经过了多少尸体，但一种感觉逐渐在我心里落下，我恐怕过不完今天，就要和他们一样躺下了。

Urgot had sealed the spire, his followers opening every canister inside the air-filtration system. The toxic mist is coiling up the tower like a sickly green snake to fill floor after floor with choking, paralyzing death.

如果这就是秘密行动的代价，那就让我付出吧。

I had managed to sneak in before they locked the gates. My heart pounds as I climb the stairs toward the top, clutching the breather mask to my face. I don’t know how many dead I pass on the way, but a feeling settles in my gut that I may join them before this day is done.

这是一场赛跑。秘教和他们怪物般的领袖正在向着穹顶蜂拥而至。顶上的人都是家族成员，如果他们死了，两座城里就会有更多人死。这种共生关系，这脆弱的和平，都将结束，那些等待借口使用暴力的人就将得偿所愿。那样的战斗，祖安永远都赢不了。

If that’s the cost of a reckoning, then I’ll pay it.

我已经准备好献出生命阻止这一切，保护这些人，就等于保护那些真正无辜的人。但当我破门而入，进入家族的私室的时候，眼前的景象让我想要憎恨他们。

It’s a race now. The cult and their monstrous leader are swarming up to reach the dome. The men and women at the peak are clan folk, and if they die, so will many more from both cities. The symbiosis, that fragile peace, will end, and those waiting for an excuse to use violence will finally have one. That’s not a fight Zaun ever wins.

塔尖是闪亮的玻璃穹顶，用精致的细节彩喷出了爽朗晴空的画面。满目的雍容华贵穷奢极欲，从考究繁复的家具，到银托盘里的糖渍水果。家族代表在这里的居所并不是实验室或者工作间——他们给自己修了一座宫殿。

I’m ready to give my life to see that prevented, to protect these people so that the true innocents might be spared. But when I throw open the doors to the clan’s sanctum, all I see makes me want to hate them.

我快步走向那一小撮惊慌失措的皮城人，想要压住自己的火气，这时一个熟悉的面孔从他们中间走过来。

The peak of the tower is a shimmering glass dome, painted in painstaking detail to resemble a clear, clean sky. Opulence is heaped upon opulence, from the richly appointed furnishings to silver trays of sugared fruit. The clan representatives here do not reside in a laboratory or workspace—they are in a palace.

“小凯？”

I hurry toward the knot of frightened Piltovans, trying to suppress my anger, when a familiar face steps forward from their midst.

警长轻轻摘帽致意。“在舞步走廊，有的时候很难说祖安在哪里结束，皮尔特沃夫从哪里开始。有的时候你真的分不清哪是自己的管辖区。”

“Cait?”

我告诉她刚刚发生的，以及即将找上来的。

The sheriff tips her cap. “Up here in the Promenade, it can get murky where Zaun ends and Piltover begins. Sometimes you just aren’t sure where your jurisdiction is.”

“那好吧。”她拎出一个大箱子交给我。“这是你需要的。”

I tell her of what has happened, of what is coming.

拳套重新活了起来，发出满意的低鸣。我握紧了拳，指骨的疼痛已经成了回忆，我等待着即将来临的斗殴。毒雾翻滚着爬了近来，立刻蛰疼眼睛啃咬肺脏。几个家族成员开始呕吐。

“Well, then.” She produces a bulky case and hands it to me. “You’re going to be needing these.”

小凯的脸色铁青，她把步枪举高，速度快到我的目光跟不上。我听到枪响，以及随后残留的耳鸣。我能感受到子弹撕裂了空气，击碎了强化玻璃的穹顶。

The gauntlets purr as they come to life. I make a fist, my aching bones a memory as I wait for the scrap that’s coming. Toxic mist tumbles in, immediately stinging the eyes and biting the lungs. Several of the clan folk begin to vomit.

子弹留下的孔洞周围迅速有裂缝发散，像闪电一样沿着表面延伸。穹顶破碎了。彩玻璃的碎片稀里哗啦地掉落在我们身边。气压的变化形成气流，抽打着毒气，飘散到塔的外面。

Cait’s face goes stony and her rifle snaps up high, faster than I can track. I hear the shot and the ring it leaves in my ears. I feel the air tear as the bullet strikes the reinforced glass of the dome.

我们争取到了一秒钟的呼吸，但也仅此而已。毒雾灌满了入口，暗影闪过，秘教教徒钻了出来。他们慢慢移动位置，耍弄着手里的武器，但全都克制着，等待着。

Cracks radiate out from the hole left by the bullet, rushing across the surface like lightning. The dome shatters. Colored glass rains around us, spinning and slicing. The pressure change lashes at the gas, whipping it out of the tower.

门口又暗了下来，这一次的影子挡住了全部。黑影最后凝成厄加特巨大的轮廓，他来了，冲进了穹顶的田园景致中，他的追随者纷纷给他让路。

It buys us a second to breathe, but no longer. The mist fills the entrance, darkening as cultists skulk through. They pace and rattle their weapons, but hold back, waiting.

厄加特看到毒气被吹散，笑了起来，发出碎石沙砾和齿轮脱齿的声音。“你以为你拒绝了这些人的考验？拒绝了你自己的考验？不。我将亲自考验你，等到你毁灭了，我再考验他们。”

The doorway darkens again, this time entirely. It solidifies into Urgot’s titanic silhouette as he arrives, stooping to enter the dome’s bucolic splendor, his followers parting before him.

小凯握紧步枪，枪膛里的海克斯水晶发出玫瑰色调的光。她回头看了看身后的皮城人。“赶紧撤。上桥去舞步走廊。这里交给我们。”

Urgot watches the gas dissipate and chuckles, a sound like gravel and slipping gears. “You think you have denied these people their test? That you have denied yourselves? No. I shall deliver it to you, and after you are destroyed, I shall deliver it to them.”

我双拳对撞，能量在我的拳套之间跃动。“看吧！”厄加特盯着我大喊一声。“如此珍贵的武器。你的主子给了你力量，但在外表之下，你已经残破。弱小。”

Cait grips her rifle, the hextech crystal in its chamber pulsing with rose-tinted light. She looks over her shoulder at the Piltovans behind her. “Get clear, now. Take the bridge to the Promenade. We’ll handle this.”

“我不需要这玩意也一样强壮。”我发出短促的嘲笑。“我不需要这玩意也照样揍你。戴上它只是为了好玩。”

Energy dances across my gauntlets as I crash them together. “Behold!” Urgot cries, gazing at me. “Such precious weapons. Your masters give you strength, but underneath you are broken. Weak.”

“我看到你和那个孩子在一起。”厄加特缓缓点头。“你抓着两个世界不放，祖安之子。迟早有一天你必须做出选择。”

“I don’t need these to be strong.” I laugh, bitter and quick. “I won’t need them to break you. They’ll just make it more fun.”

“别耍嘴了。”我的火气到底还是冒出来了。“别浪费时间了，赶紧让我揍死你报仇雪恨。”

“I saw you with the girl.” Urgot gives a slow nod. “You cling to two worlds, child of Zaun. The day will come when you will have to choose.”

我不知道战斗持续了几秒钟还是几小时。我只记得几道闪光过去。金属对撞。肋骨包裹指节的感觉。厄加特手臂火炮的雷鸣，刺痛的爆炸。鲜血在我的拳套上冒着泡沸腾干涸的声音。

“I’m tired of listening to you talk.” My rage finally slips. “I’m tired of doing anything other than beating you to death for what you did.”

小凯和我一起，我们一举歼灭了厄加特的追随者，最后只剩下他自己没有倒下，他是一只由火焰、子弹和铁链组成的钢铁怪物。不知道谁将是最后活着离开这座穹顶的人，直到小凯找到了发射绳网的破绽，决定了胜负。

I can’t tell if the fight lasts seconds or hours. I only remember it in flashes. Crushing metal. Ribcages wrapping around my knuckles. Thunder from Urgot’s cannon-arm, stitching explosions. The sound of blood, fizzing and popping as it cooks on my gauntlets.

厄加特被绳网困住发出咆哮，他的双臂被紧紧缠在身体两侧，他不留神的时间刚好够我冲过去。我把一切都倾注在了这一拳上，打得他乱了脚步，摇摇晃晃翻身从穹顶边缘落下。但我不会让他这么轻易掉下去。

Between Cait and me, we whittle down Urgot’s followers, until it’s only him left standing, a metal monster of fire and bullets and slashing chains. It’s unclear who will leave the broken dome alive, until Cait sees an opening with her bola net.

我收住了绳网的末端，拖住他惊人的体重，我的靴子打着滑停在边缘。我要再次看着他的双眼，然后在把他扔下去。

Urgot roars as it envelops him, pinning his arms to his sides and distracting him just long enough for my charge. I put everything into the blow, sending him teetering off the edge of the dome. But I won’t let him fall, not yet.

“让我们看看蜘蛛能飞多快。”

I gather up the end of the net, straining against his appalling weight as my boots slip and skid to the edge. I want to look him in the eye once more, before I drop him.

“等等！”我听到小凯在我背后喊。

“Let’s see how fast a spider flies.”

“到此为止吧，小凯。”我嘶声说道。

“Wait!” I hear Cait shout behind me.

小凯停在我身边，手里拿着一根铁杆。“真正的力量在于选择。如果你现在杀了他，我们就和他没什么两样。”

“This ends here, Cait,” I hiss.

她用铁杆在绳网之间穿梭，然后把厄加特钉到了塔上。我不想听她说。我只想要正义。但我知道正义不能换回被夺走的东西。

Cait stops beside me, a metal spar in her hands. “True strength is being able to choose whether you use it. You let him die now, you make us no different than he is.”

我啐了一口，把铁杆砸进地板。

She threads the spar through the net to pin Urgot to the tower. I don’t want to listen to her. I want justice. But I know it won’t replace what he has taken.

也不知道是多么慷慨大方的人，管地峡之外不远处的这几块风蚀严重的石头叫做岛屿。贫瘠的石块上只有盐渍，肯定不会有人想要在这上面定居。但看来几代人以前，皮尔特沃夫掌权者里面有一位看法独到的人，在这里造了一座监狱。回警队复职以后，我告诉小凯，我相信她一定会把厄加特押送到最严密的地方，确保万无一失。我要去地沟，要去看看希望之屋，用这双沉重的手帮忙重建，而不是破坏。但我觉得她知道这件事对我意味着什么，她想让我亲眼看到他所面对的正义。

I spit, and hammer the spar into the ground.

“我知道这件事你很难接受，”小凯说，“但我想让你看到你所选择的最终结果。我希望你知道这件事因你而有所不同。”

不同。这个词如鲠在喉，我的脑海中充满了那些人的身影，他们在进步留下的毒药中窒息。

It would take a very generous perspective to call the stacks of wind-blown rock just off the isthmus islands. Barren and lashed by salt-spray, they’re far from any place someone would want to make their home. Seems a few generations back, someone in a position of authority in Piltover agreed, and built a prison there.

“把他关起来，我们就为皮城和祖安减少了许多混乱。”

After my reinstatement into the Wardens, I told Cait that I trusted her to see that Urgot would be transported and interred to the letter. I was headed for the Sump, to visit Hope House and use these heavy hands to build instead of break. But I think she saw what it meant to me, and she wanted me here to see with my own eyes that he would face justice.

“你觉得在那片混乱中，会有更好的东西出来吗？”

“I know this was difficult for you,” Cait says. “But I wanted you to see the end result of all that you did. So you know that you made a difference.”

她看看我，轻轻叹口气。“或许会吧，又或许会更糟。如果有人一定要试一试的话，就会有许多人死，而我不允许这种事发生。所以我们才战斗，我们才履行职责，不让这个世界崩塌。这也正是法律的作用，是我们的作用。我们维护秩序。”

Difference. The word catches in my throat, and my head fills with the image of all those people, suffocating on the poison left in the wake of progress.

法律。秩序。二者能离开彼此存在吗？二者与正义有关吗？如果你问那个稚嫩的我，她可能会有答案。现在，我已经不太确定了。

“Putting him away, we saved both Piltover and Zaun a lot of chaos.”

“厄加特的影响会褪去的，”小凯说，“有野心的人会打碎他的传说，追寻力量。他们会忙着内斗，不会给我们找太大麻烦。”

“Do you ever think that something better might come out of that chaos?”

“你不在场，小凯。”我摇了摇头，“你没有亲眼见到我所见的。你没有看到人数，还有他们的坚定。我们还没有解决他们，必须从长计议。”

She looks at me, sighing softly. “Maybe, or maybe something even worse. A lot of people would have to die for anyone to find out, and I can’t let that happen. So we fight, and we do what we have to, to keep things together. That’s what the law does, what we do. We preserve order.”

我们站在吊车上，俯视牢房区块。我们两侧都是牢房，笼子都清空了，守卫和狱警押着厄加特沿着中间的路来到他的新家——一截巨大的强化钢铁管道，从上到下一整圈，就像把他关进巨大的活塞里。

Law. Order. Can you have one without the other? And what does either of them have to do with justice? If you had asked the younger me, she might have had an answer. Ask me now, and I’m not so sure anymore.

厄加特被铁链捆住。他毫不抵抗，跟着一行人来到自己的牢房。

“Urgot’s following will wither,” Cait says. “Ambitious folks will fracture it, looking for power. They’ll be too busy fighting each other to give us any trouble.”

“我们能把他拆掉多少还不让他死？”小凯问我，声音足够让无畏战车听到。“我说能拆掉绝大部分。”

“You weren’t there, Cait.” I shake my head. “Not like I was. You didn’t see the numbers, the commitment. We aren’t finished with them, not by a long shot.”

“那就上前来试试吧。”厄加特双眼放光。“还是说你们只敢吓唬一下。”

We’re standing on a gantry overlooking the cell block. Cells flank us on either side, the cages cleared as wardens and prison guards bring Urgot down a central passage to his new home, an immense tube of reinforced iron running from floor to ceiling like some gigantic piston.

“跟你直说了吧。”小凯扛起步枪。“你现在活着只是因为我们容许。我们让你吃你才能吃，我们让你睡你才能睡，我们让你喘气你才能喘气。多一点不行，少一点也不行。只要有任何形式的反抗，我就灭了你。明白了吗？”

Urgot is in chains. He makes no move to resist as the procession reaches his cell.

厄加特大笑道，“你以为你能灭我？你错了。你永远都办不到。那扇门永远不会对你敞开。”

“How much of him can we remove before he dies?” Cait asks me, loud enough for the Dreadnought to hear. “I bet most of him.”

“哦，那我只好退而求其次，先把这扇门关上了。”小凯对技术员点点头。他用力扳动开关，巨大的管子从厄加特头顶扣下来，紧紧锁在地上。

“Step forth and test your theory, then.” Urgot’s eyes glimmer. “Unless all you have brought with you are idle threats.”

我们离开的时候依然能隔着铁壁听到他的大笑。我在牢房区块门前稍作暂停，回头看去，一种挥之不去的畏惧爬上我的脊梁。

“Let’s speak plainly.” Cait slings her rifle. “You exist here on our sufferance alone. You will eat when we tell you, sleep when we tell you, breathe when we tell you. Nothing more, nothing less. Deviate from this in any way, and I will have you destroyed. Is that clear?”

在我看来厄加特并不是囚犯。

Urgot laughs. “You believe you have the power to destroy me? You don’t. You never did. That is a door that will never be open to you.”

他像蜘蛛，正在自己的网中耐心等待。

“Well, I suppose I’ll just have to settle for closing this one.” Cait nods to a technician. He throws a switch and the tube descends over Urgot, clanging to the floor and locking fast.

I can still hear him laughing through the iron as we walk away. I pause at the door to the cell block, looking back over my shoulder, a dread I can’t shake sneaking up my spine.

Urgot didn’t look like a prisoner to me.

He looked like a spider, waiting patiently in his web.