I really like Magic the Gathering. I especially like Chandra and Nissa as they are being written in the stories on the wizard of the coast archive. They've got some talented authors over there.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the important characters. Only the minor ones and the plot.
Chapter one: Let's go on an Adventure
S&DS&DS&DS&D
I will not set this centaur on fire. Not even his stupid beard.
Chandra repeated the mantra to herself as she glared up at the four-legged horse man who had been blocking her path for the last ten minutes. He was clad in the greens and whites of the Selesnya Concave, he also had a stupid curly beard that was just begging for some light immolation, but Chandra held herself back. She'd long ago come to terms with the fact that if she dealt with every annoying person through a generous use of fire, she'd never have time for anything else.
"Furthermore," the centaur said, she couldn't even remember what his name was—Frendly-lasalasa or something flowery like that. "You are clearly not a member of the conclave-"
"Don't you lot welcome anyone who wants to enter? Isn't that what you tree huggers are all about? Everyone holding hands and doing sing-alongs?" Chandra asked, taking a personal pleasure from the disgruntled sneer the horse man sent her.
"Do you wish to join the conclave?" he asked sourly, his front hooves clopping against the ground as he drew himself up and glowered at her.
"… If I say yes, will you let me go in and find Nissa?" Chandra replied flatly. That was literally all she wanted to do. It would take, like, five minutes. Seriously, he was acting like she'd asked if it would be all right if she set their trees on fire.
She had something she wanted to ask her… friend? Was that the right term for someone you joined souls with to immolate not one, but two plane-devouring monsters? Chandra supposed it was pretty good ground for a friendship, but Nissa was kind of hard to read. One minute she'd be gleefully bringing mountains to life to stomp all over hordes of monsters, the next she'd be nervously shying away from a crowd of noisy people. Chandra was having trouble figuring the elf out, but she wanted to put in the effort, especially if they were going to be fighting together in the future.
Either way, she was trying to find the elf. But half an hour of searching through the Gatewatch headquarters had proven it to be an elf-free zone. She'd asked Gids if he'd seen her, the muscle-ly meatstick had told her that he hadn't, and that she should ask Jace.
Once she'd found the mind-mage squirreled away in the library, he'd told her that Nissa was still on the plane. While that technically narrowed down the elf's potential location quite substantially, it was still an annoyingly unhelpful answer. It wasn't until Liliana passed by and mentioned seeing the elf heading towards the Selesnya Concave that Chandra had made any progress.
All that running around had left her with little patience to deal with this grumpy horse and far too irritated to give up.
The centaur's glare broke as his eyes widened in alarm and Chandra realized that her hair had been starting to smoke. Chandra took a deep breath to calm herself, but it was too late. Mr. Horse had already taken it as a threat and was clearly preparing to call for help to throw her out.
"Excuse me?" a new voice cut the centaur off before he could yell. Chandra glanced past the equine irritation and saw one of those elephant-men, a loxodon, ambling towards them. "Might I ask what is going on here?"
Chandra wasn't sure if she should feel threatened or not, the newcomer outweighed her a dozen times over and he could probably snap her in half with one hand, but his voice and demeanor was so gentle that Chandra would be willing to bet that stepping on a butterfly would make him cry.
"Forgive me for disturbing you, lord keeper," the centaur bowed, his tone and manners changing from donkeyhole to humble servant in about half a second. "I was just about to eject this troublesome pyromancer from the conclave."
Chandra's eyes narrowed. Troublesome was she? This horse didn't know the meaning of the word. If he tried to lay so much as one of his burly, overly-manicured fingers on her, he'd find out what trouble really was.
"I see," said the loxodon, his ears flapping mildly as he turned to her. "And what does the pyromancer want?"
"I'm just looking for a friend," she blurted, eager to get her piece in before Mr. Horse could start talking about how she'd tried to burn him alive or something. "Her name's Nissa; elf, green eyes, bunch of tattoos on her face that point toward her nose?"
"Ah yes." The elephantine head nodded amiably, "The Worldspeaker. Yes, your friend is indeed here. Follow me, I shall take you to her." he turned and began to slowly walk deeper into the trees.
"My lord keeper!" the centaur protested, his voice rising an octave like a whinny, Chandra had to fight back a giggle at the sound. "You cannot be serious! This… this pyromancer no doubt wishes to burn our groves to the ground! She as good as threatened to do so to me! We cannot allow one such as her to set foot in our sanctuaries!"
The loxodon paused and turned his head back. "The conclave welcomes all who come in peace." He said pleasantly, "But nonetheless, those are serious accusations." He looked to Chandra his marble-like eyes blinking. "Tell me, my child, if we grant you entrance to our sanctuary, do you promise to leave it as unburned as you found it?"
Chandra stared. As she watched, one of those liquid eyes closed as the loxodon winked.
Chandra clasped her hands behind her back, endeavoring to project as much innocence as she could. "I wouldn't dream of it," she said, batting her eyelashes.
"There you have it." the loxodon said happily. He patted her gently on the shoulder with his trunk. "Come, child, your friend awaits within."
She didn't particularly care for being called child, but the look on the centaur's face was so fantastic she was willing to let it slide. She followed the elephant man up the steps, leaving the fuming horseman behind her.
"I appreciate your patience with acolyte Frensisa'cesasa." The loxodon said mildly as she drew level with him. "I'm afraid he can be somewhat… overzealous in his duties at times. We've had a number of goblin arsonists gracing our groves recently who seem to think that pacifism is the same thing as defenselessness."
"Yeah well…" Chandra muttered. She felt like she should be annoyed at the implication that was like a goblin, but the loxodon was radiating such an aura of peace she half-suspected a spell was involved. It was hard to stay irritated in his presence, and getting irritated was one of her best talents. "Nissa might get upset if I started torching people." She finished lamely.
The loxodon led her down a pathway lined by trees. Everywhere she looked, Chandra saw white and green-robed figures hurrying around. With her red and gray armor, she couldn't help but feel like she stuck out, kind of like a cow in a field of sheep, no that was terrible. She wasn't a cow… a dragon in a field of soldiers. Yeah, that was way better.
After a few minutes they left the crowd behind them and stepped in a ring of white trees and the sounds of the city seemed to fade away. "Here is your friend." The loxodon said, somewhat unnecessarily pointing with his trunk.
Nissa was sitting cross-legged, eyes closed in the center of the trees, motionless.
"You might not be able to talk with her just yet." The elephant said. "She's-"
"Meditating, I know." Chandra interrupted. "I've seen her do this before."
"Then do you mind If I leave you here? I have a number of things to attend to."
"Uh, yeah. Sure." The elephantine head bowed once and he shuffled off, leaving her alone with the elf. Chandra stared at Nissa, uncertain whether she should disturb her or not. Her question wasn't that important and Nissa might not even be in her body at the moment.
Chandra groaned slightly. She was going to have to wait for Nissa to wake up, wasn't she? It's not like Chandra could leave without talking to her, not after all the annoying people she'd had to deal with to get here.
Well… whatever. Chandra plopped herself down across from the elf and taking the chance to really look at her. Now that she was looking, she could see the elf wasn't actually sitting still, but swaying as though to a song only she could hear. Back at the monastery, Chandra had often been told to meditate—usually while greeting the sunrise or some such thing, but she'd never been good at it. Restlessness came naturally to her and instead she'd just gotten really good at channeling fire without moving—heating tea to near boiling right before someone took a sip and stuff.
But she couldn't deny that there was a certain peace about the elf that looked kind of nice, like she didn't need to blow stuff up to calm down.
Well… it's not like she could play with fire to keep herself entertained, not with all these very flammable plants around. So…
With nothing else for it, Chandra scooted herself over into a patch of sunlight, crossed her legs, and closed her eyes.
Nissa wandered through the soul of the world.
She was still not certain how much she cared for this plane. The endless expanse of buildings, people, and noise crowded in on her from every angle, even in the quiet moments at the gate watch, she could still feel them needling at her.
Nonetheless, she had sought out the world's soul. Perhaps it was just the nature of a planeswalker to explore, to taste the different ways of life that permeated the multiverse, to understand them, even if she did not care for them.
But even among all the planes she had seen and spoken to, Ravinca's soul was strange.
For starters, it had ten of them.
Well, not exactly. It had ten shards of one soul; these obviously reflected the guilds and she could even hear the distinct notes of their songs.
She could hear the righteous drums of the Boros, beating out a marching rhythm; the oily choir of the Orzhov, which left her feeling like she needed a bath; the savage roars of the Gruul which filled her with nostalgia for Zendikar; and all the others. They beat against each other in a clashing cacophony that almost overwhelmed her. But the more she listened, the more she began to hear the greater harmonies beneath the chaos.
In truth, it was beautiful, if a bit messy. The ten kept the balance of the plane's mana, though they clashed and shifted all around.
At the moment, Nissa was trying to determine if this phenomenon was natural or not. Had the plane always had a ten-piece soul and the guilds manifested around them? Or had the guilds themselves grown strong enough to influence the soul. It was difficult to tell, but at the very least, the soul of the plane did not appear to be suffering under the arrangement.
Perhaps this was because of the shining threads of the guildpact, which wove in and out between the voices like a river, smoothing out the harsh edges and discords between the melodies. As she followed the twisting leylines, she found that they all seemed to converge on one point and, to her surprise, she recognized it.
It was Jace.
She had known that he had become the embodiment of the guildpact through a series of events that she didn't truly care to explore. But until now, Nissa had understood neither how literal that statement was, nor how entwined with the plane's soul he was... perhaps it wasn't such a good idea that he be constantly planes-walking away from plane of cities. She wasn't sure what effect his absence might have on the soul of the world. Maybe it would make no difference, maybe it would unravel the plane at its edges. Nissa did not know but she did not want to find out.
Eventually she grew satisfied with her exploration of the plane. Taking in the surprisingly melodious discord for one last moment, she returned to her body and opened her eyes.
Almost immediately, her ears were assault by a different noise: a deep, rhythmic rumbling.
Nissa blinked.
Chandra?
The fiery planeswalker was sprawled across the soft grass of the Selesnya sanctum. Her red hair was splayed out in a fan around her head as she let out another snore that almost shook the trees.
Nissa glanced left and right, but there was no one else around to explain Chandra's presence. Obviously, the pyromancer had come to seek her out, but had found her in meditation. Instead of shaking her awake, Chandra must have decided to wait and dozed off instead.
The elf shifted uncomfortably, wondering if she should wake the pyromancer up. It would be awkward. But it wasn't like she could just leave and pretend she hadn't seen her. But waiting for her to wake up on her own would mean subjecting herself to those maddening snores.
So only one real option, then.
"Chandra?" she called. The pyromancer snorted, and leaned over a little more. Nissa frowned, and opened her mouth to speak louder before thinking better of it. She'd seen Gideon shake Chandra awake once, and if the soldier wasn't inherently everything-proof, his hands would have acquired a couple of third degree burns. Perhaps this called for a gentler touch.
Calling on the mana around her, Nissa summoned a smooth wooden staff into her hand. Holding it carefully, she approached the prone pyromancer.
And prodded her in the stomach.
Chandra sat bolt upright, snorting out a ring of fire. Not quite strong enough to burn anything, but just enough to singe. Nissa felt the nearby trees twitch, their branches rustling for a moment, before shifting back to stillness.
"'issa?" Chandra asked groggily, yawning and blinking up at her. "Did you just poke me with a stink."
"No." Nissa answered, hiding the stick behind her back.
Chandra stared for a moment than shook her head, she glanced up at the sun. "Must have dozed off" she muttered. "How long was I out?"
"I don't know when you arrived." Nissa answered. "I also don't know what time it is now."
Chandra rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah. Duh." She pushed herself up to her feet and stretched. "Oh, that feels good." she muttered. "I should sleep on grass more often."
"It is comfortable here." Nissa agreed. "Did you need me for something?"
Chandra froze mid-stretch. "Oh. Uh…yeah, there was something I wanted to ask you. A favor, actually."
"And that is?"
"I… wanted your help with elementals. Fire elementals, obviously."
Nissa frowned, her head tilting to one side in a way that made her look like a cat. "I've seen you summon them before."
"I didn't mean summoning them, that's easy." Chandra assured her. "Calling up phoenixes or living flame is easy. You just call them and they come, provided you give them something to burn they'll be happy as a bonfire. Also, I'm fireproof. That helps too. But," Chandra hesitated, seeming uncomfortable with the direct attention. "I can't, uh, talk to them. Not like you do. I mean, I can tell them burn that guy and they do it. But whenever you're with one of your walking tree things, you always seem to be listening to them and I was wondering if you could, uh… teach me to do that with…" Chandra's face was starting to go red as Nissa stared at her. "I mean, I just kinda wondered what that was like. You don't have to if you don't want to, but…"
"Did you have a specific elemental in mind?"
"Yeah—wait, you'll do it?"
"I have no reason not to." Nissa nodded, it was an interesting question. She'd long been able to talk to land elementals—mountains and forests called out to her, solid and steady as the ground beneath her feet. But the more transient elementals—those of air, fire, or water—not so much. She could hear their voices, but it was muffled, indirect, as though they didn't have much interest in talking to her. "We could go now, if you wish?"
"No, I mean yes. I mean… you know what I mean. Thanks." Chandra grinned, the redness leaving her face as she spoke. "So about this elemental. Tell me, have you ever heard of a plane called Lorwyn?"
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And there's chapter one. Hope anyone who read it is enjoying it, feel free to leave a review telling me so… if you want. I don't expect a lot of readers for an MtG fanfic, but I love the characters so much that I fully intend to continue this story regardless, but feedback would still be nice.
I also have no idea where, exactly, this story is going. So if any of you had some cool ideas, feel free to suggest it. There is literally a… multiverse of possibilities.
Eh? Eeeeeeeehhhhh?