A Wizard of the Coast owns Magic: The Gathering TCG. All Characters that are represented here from the Game and Novels are owned by WOC. I don't expect or will not accept any monetary gain from my writing of the story that follows. However Praise or comments will be accepted.
I will Endeavour to keep all known characters as Cannon as possible however some interpretations will be used.
Chapter: 1 - First Encounters
Deep in the Aviatic Mountains lays a valley that is protected on three of the four sides by mountains. The fourth side is home to a large town; you could almost call it a City, for its size only three hundred people live here.
Walls encircle the town at heights that the steeples of the tallest building cannot be seen. This alone makes the villagers feel safe, knowing that they are well protected. Until this day that is...
A lone figure rests against a tree wrapping up a nasty gash on his left forearm. As he finishes he leans back against the tree and closes his eyes. Memories of his life in the valley flood into his head as a light glow comes out from under the homemade bandage. He looks down at the bandage as a warmth floods through him. Removing the bandage he sees only a small scar where once a nasty bloody gash once was.
"I see..." A voice rings out from in front of him. Looking up his hand instinctively falls to the metal dagger that is seethed on his belt. With widening eyes he watches as the form materializes in front of him, standing there is an older man long white hair and a white beard hiding much of his features. The only thing that sticks out is how blue his eyes are. "You can still feel the power of the Plains cursing through you veins can't you boy." Comes a gruff voice from somewhere under the beard.
Pulling out the dagger to protect himself he points it at the old man, who only looks at it. Looking at the dagger the old man wields his own magical powers to ensnare the offensive object; slowly the dagger changes it into a poisonous snake. The boy just stares at the snake as his eyes grow bigger, the warm feeling spreads through him again. With out thinking about it his will encircles the dagger slowly forcing it to change back. As the dagger forms into it natural state the two men meet each others eyes, the younger man backs farther into the tree as he sees the mans eyes change from the blue they once where to Multicolored crystals. "Who are you; what are you; your eyes?" The Younger man stumbles over his words as he turns and runs.
The Older man shakes his head and Sighs. Hitting his staff on the ground roots spring up and grab a hold of the escaping boy. Walking over he moves past the struggling boy and places himself between him and the villages rear gates. "What do you see when you look at my eyes, young one?"
Realizing that there is no escape from this wizard he stops his struggling "Your eyes there not human, they changed; Crystal… Blue crystal, your entire eyes are that color now." He states as he just stares at the older man seeing more of the illusions from the wizard being torn away, first the white beard is replaced by a well maintained blonde beard, his hair changes to the same color blonde. The man seems to stretch as he grows a good three inches taller then he once was, and blue and grey body armor replaces the cloak that he once wore. "Who are you?" the younger man now more intrigued at what he is seeing than angry asks.
A chuckle comes from the man's mouth as he realizes what is happening. "As the disenchantment spell that you mysteriously cast on me, no doubt told you I am not what I appear to be. My name is Urza; I'm not from this world. I come from a Land called Dominaria." After answering the question he lays down one of his own, "Now I told you who I am what name do you go by?"
"Raffe WindLight." Is all Raffe tells Urza.
"Good that's a Start." Urza responds as a warning Gong rings from the village's highest tower.
Hearing the Gong Raffe allows the Warm filling to fill him once more, and the roots that hold his feet to the ground return to there home underground. Without thinking of anything else he is halfway to the village before Urza can even turn and watch him go.
Urza Sniffing the air, like a dog, can detect a very distinct odor in the air. Calling on a link to his friend my worlds away he starts to explain what is going on. "Barrin, the Phyrexians have invaded this World as well." Urza says to his oldest friend.
"Urza, you are in no shape to fight them on your own, Return home now." is the response he receives from Barrin.
"No, Barrin I can not leave yet, I was drawn here by a Magical Presence unlike any I have felt before. I came to find a Boy, this one is special."
"Urza, you think they are all special the ones that you find. And they normally have no more magical power than any one that resides on Tolaria now. So I'm begging you return now before those devils find you there and attack again."
"Barrin, he saw through my enchantments. He is using the magical energy of this plain like it was second nature. I just watched him restore himself with out thinking he uses the spell Haste like he's truly not even thinking about it. I'm not letting him die on this world or worse yet let his power get into Phyrexian hands".
With that Urza Planeswalker disconnects the mental link, and disappears mentally following the boy towards the village.
On the Island of Tolaria Barrin snaps back from the hard break of his mental conversation, he looks around at the students that busily prepare the Artifact creatures that will be used in the upcoming fight with the Phyrexian hordes that to this point still reside in the fast time chasm on the edge of the school. "Teferi" He exclaims as he sees the seventeen-year-old boy running down one of the halls.
"Yes, Professor" The boy stops by the door and looks at the older man who is coming towards him.
"How are things coming along with the new artifact creatures?" He asks, wanting to take his mind off the fact that Urza could be in serious trouble this time.
"Well, they are coming along in good time; we are getting lucky there haven't been any major attacks by the Phyrexians as of late, so we are actually making good progress. If Urza wills it we should be able to take the fight to them soon."
"Good, We just need to hope that we see him again. I have a bad feeling about this adventure he is on this time." A quizzical looks comes across Teferi face as a question is about to be asked. "Teferi don't ask; you know as well as I that Urza gets to side track we are mostly on our own" Barrin looks at the boy who says nothing about the comment, only nodding his head, knowing for a fact that it is very true. "Go see that everything stays that way Teferi." Barrin says as he turns around and heads back into the room.
Teferi says nothing about this either and starts to head back to where he was originally heading. Stepping into another of the rooms he notices one of the new students working on a Mantis Engines.
"Jeme" He says, trying to get the girls attention.
Jeme Dazette looks up from her job removing the Magnifying Glasses that Covers her eyes. Teferi is still mesmerized by the green emerald colored eyes that look at him questioning who disturbed her, as she sees who it is a beautiful smile comes to her face. She gets up and Walks over towards him, He watches as the sixteen year-old girl just starting to show the maturity of Womanhood approaches him. In a musical noted voice she asks him a simple question "What do I owe the pleasure?"
Teferi knowing the plain that Urza found the girl in. returns her warm smile knowing that this is how they normally talk and he has gotten use to understanding her better then most. In fact most students in the Academy avoided her. After being attracted at first to her by her looks and warm smile, they shied away and then ignored her completely after talking to her for only a few seconds. He was lucky enough to be one of the few that could, along with Karn the Silver Golem that Urza created for his time experiments. Barrin and his wife, both being her instructors became use to it, In fact Barrin's wife Rayne, who has spent the most time with her, has even been able to start talking to her this way, which is making things much easier to teach her when it comes do developing artifact creatures, and building the mechanisms inside these machines.
He snaps out of his thoughts as she snaps her fingers in front of his face. "Jeme, I'm sorry I was just thinking about something." He apologizes to her. "I wanted to see how you were making out with that Mantis Engine?" He asked her.
"Very well, actually" She harmonizes to him. "I almost got the power regulator set-up to increase its strength, It will be a little while before I'm ready to test it, but in theory it should work without an issue".
"Good. I want your help on something after you are done with that." He states rather plainly. "You know of the Masticore that Barrin and I have been working on?" She nods her head in response to his question. "We are now need the inner workings built for it, and would like you to look at it, and see if you can build what is needed."
"Why Me?"
"Rayne tells Barrin that you the best student she has ever had when it comes to Artifact Design and building. And that is exactly what we need right now. Someone that can build the machinery that is going to power this creature. Before we enchant it."
"But if you are using Mana, what do you need machinery for?"
"Well, the Simple thing is we are going to take an Artifact and using Mana, we are going to make it more Animal like. We have the shell for it already designed; we went with a Jamuraan Lion for the design. Let's just say it changes into something else when we enchant it. But that Barrin and I will take care of. We need this artifact Jeme, Will you help us?"
"Teferi, you should know that I would do anything that involves Artifacts; that is why I am here. So I will meet you in your lab in a little while."
"I will see you then." Teferi declares as he leaves the room and heads towards his own Lab.
Seeing Teferi leave Jeme turns and heads back to the job that she is working on. Wondering what changes that could come over this artifact creature when it is enchanted with Mana. Not being able to use Mana, she always amazed at what can be done with its use. But her first love has always been tinkering around with what they call Artifacts here at the academy.
As she goes back to work she hears a few of the girls walking down the hall chatting and laughing. A single tear comes to her eye as she puts the goggles back on and goes back to work on the Mantis Engine, She just reminds her self that as long as she has the Artifacts to work on she will be content, and even with the students at the academy shunning her like she doesn't exist, she will stay here.