Jace awoke, cold and disoriented, beneath a single blanket. The person lying beside him whimpered and stirred in their sleep, and he looked over to see Emmara's pale, drawn face. He rose, frowning, and groped for his clothes. He felt strangely cold and empty, but looking out miserably across the smoking ruins of the Tenth District, perhaps that wasn't surprising.
Jace felt despairing tears prick at the backs of his eyes. He was a failure.
"Jace?" Emmara's voice.
"I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" he asked dully, still staring out at the ruins of the city.
"I think I just woke up," she said softly, coming over to touch his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault, Jace. You did everything you could."
Jace looked at her quietly, then took her hand. "I'm so sorry, Emmara."
"I told you," she repeated gently. "It wasn't your fault the Verdict went off. You've been truthful and trustworthy throughout all of this. The only person who has acted that way toward me."
Her words burned against his ears, but Jace let her speak them, let her lean against him and catch his lips with hers, as Ravnica smoldered around them. He felt empty.
Lavinia scooted cautiously along the thin ledge connecting the window of the antechamber to the window of Jace's office. She needed to get a good look at him without him noticing her, because there was definitely something wrong. Such as "Jace" being an impostor.
She peered cautiously in the window, trying to see into the room while also being inconspicuous about it. It was frustratingly difficult to find a useful position. She could tell, though, she was getting close to a good angle. Jace was sitting at his desk, with his back to the window, and—not really doing much. Lavinia frowned. It was so much more difficult when lawbreakers were intelligent about it.
She started to notice a vaguely irritating humming noise, which got louder as if something were moving toward her. And then, suddenly, Ral Zarek was standing beside her. The Izzet mage was standing on some kind of bizarre, hovering contraption and looked about as surprised to see Lavinia as she was to see him.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded. Zarek was not someone she had any desire to see currently. He had been a thorn in Jace's side from day one and showed no signs of relenting.
"I could ask you the same question," Zarek responded irritably. "However, since this is such a dire situation, I will answer you. I have no doubt you will fail to believe me—such is the fate of all great minds."
Lavinia waited. "Done posturing yet?" she queried.
"You would posture as well if you had news of such great importance as I do. Very well. Try to contain your—shock. I am here because I very much fear that the Living Guildpact—"
"—has been replaced with an impostor?"
His face was a study. "How did you know? Did you do it? Is this some kind of Azorius trick?"
"I noticed because I work closely with him, and he hasn't been behaving normally," Lavinia said icily. "How did you know?"
Ral Zarek gave her a supercilious smirk and shrugged. "Perhaps I'm just—brilliant?"
Lavinia gave him another irritated look. "Well, this isn't doing any good," she said. "He's just sitting there."
"Not tearing his hair out?" Zarek asked.
Lavinia shook her head.
"Definitely not Beleren, then. He ought to be raging by now."
"What did you do?" Lavinia bit out suspiciously.
"Experiment." Zarek waved a hand vaguely. "Important to check whether he was just ignoring me. It's fine. Just minor structural damage."
Lavinia filed that under "deal with later" and began to make her way back across the ledge.
"Much as it pains me to consider the possibility," Ral continued, matching pace with her on his hovering contraption. "You are a lawmage, familiar with procedures and with access to certain areas of the city that I might find it difficult to enter. I, on the other hand, am a genius."
"So modest, too," grumbled Lavinia.
"The point is, we may be able to help each other out here."
"Oh really, 'genius'. Then tell me one way you'll be useful."
"I happen to know on which night the Guildpact disappeared."
Lavnina had made it back to the first window. "How could you possibly know something like that?"
"Simple," Zarek said, putting out a hand to prevent her from climbing back in. "I had a—meeting—with him last week. He was acting—ah—normally. We arranged another—meeting—for the following day, and he did not show up."
"That's ridiculous," Lavinia snorted, grabbing Zarek's hand and applying pressure until he moved it with a yelp of pain. "I schedule his meetings. I'd know if he had—" she stopped and looked back at Zarek's face. He smiled at her widely, and she finally placed the familiar smell of burnt ozone that had always seemed to be hanging around Jace recently. "—oh, Krokt. You? He's involved with you? I knew Jace had poor taste, but this is—"
"Actually, he tastes quite good," leered the Izzet mage.
"Krokt," groaned Lavinia again. "I do not want to hear it." She paused. Zarek was correct that this would be useful information, and if he had a reason to want Jace back, it might be barely possible to keep him under some semblance of control. Admittedly, it wouldn't be pleasant—but Lavnia needed all the allies she could get. "All right," she said. "We can—work together. But if you decide to do anything unlawful, I will arrest you. Are we clear?"
"Naturally," said Zarek smoothly. Lavinia hoped she wasn't making a terrible mistake.
Jace's head and heart were both heavy as he surveyed the damage. New Prahv lay in ruins before their feet, and a few survivors picked their way through the wreckage. Jace wanted to ask Emmara what to do, but she was staring at him wordlessly, clearly wanting to do the same thing. He managed a smile. "We'd better, um, see if we can help," he said awkwardly.
"Yes," agreed Emmara.
As they made their way down hand-in-hand, Jace wondered why her hand felt too small in his.
The investigation had run into some difficulties. Namely, the fact that Lavinia had discovered that it was difficult to both make discreet inquiries and ensure that the person they were questioning was telling the truth. Taking the time to draw a verity circle generally raised unfortunate questions from the people that Zarek insisted on referring to as "marks."
"Can't you just read his mind?" she hissed to Zarek. They had spent a frustrating half hour "chatting" with the guard who had been on duty the evening Jace had disappeared.
"Me? I can't read minds! You're thinking of Jace—you know, the less attractive one?"
Lavinia groaned. "Well, I suppose we'd better be going," she said, with false cheerfulness, before grasping the sleeve of Zarek's shirt and dragging him away.
"You know talking probably won't help anyway," Zarek said as they left. "This is almost certainly a Dimir plot."
"Yes, I know," Lavinia responded grimly. "What do you want us to do? Walk into a room and ask everyone who isn't a Dimir spy to raise their hands?"
Zarek looked contemplative. "That might actually work."
"What? Everyone will raise their hands!"
"No, no, only the Dimir will. No one else will be certain enough."
Lavinia shot him an angry look as they exited into the street outside New Prahv. "Is this really the time for jokes, Zarek?"
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Of course."
Lavinia put a hand to her forehead. "Zarek…"
"Don't give me that, Azorius. Joking is one of the ways I get my ideas."
Lavinia gritted her teeth. "Fine."
"What if I electrocuted all the passersby until we found a Dimir spy?"
"I still don't think your jokes are funny."
"That wasn't a joke," he said, deadpan. Lavinia couldn't tell if he was just trying to mess with her or not.
"You can't do that," she pointed out calmly. "It's illegal."
"All right, I could electrocute every member of the Izzet until I find one."
Lavinia gave a brief chuckle.
"What?" asked Zarek.
"I'm just imagining the Firemind chewing on your arrogant head."
Zarek stared at her, then grinned. "So you have some fire in you after all, Azorius."
Lavinia made a mental note to expound to him about the approved usages of names, nicknames, and titles some time when she felt she was less likely to snap and try to kill him. "Look, we need to go somewhere and come up with a plan. Preferably somewhere not too—associated with the guilds."
"What, do you want us to go to another world?" responded Zarek snidely, and Lavinia rolled her eyes at him. "All right," he shrugged. "I'll take you somewhere there are too many people to notice us, at any rate. Acceptable?"
Despite noticing the unnerving glint in his eye, Lavinia nodded. She hoped she wouldn't regret this later.
Jace walked through the dead city with Emmara beside him. For the last few days, they had been traveling across Ravnica, trying to get help to people who needed it. Jace tried his best to coordinate the rescue efforts, while Emmara healed people tirelessly. But it was so clearly too little, too late.
They crested the hill to see Nivix—or what remained of it. The home of the League had been utterly pulverized. Some of the other guildhalls had had portions that remained standing, but Nivix was gone, as if some great giant had reached down and ground it into powder.
Jace turned away, feeling sick. Emmara slid her hand into his. "It wasn't your fault," she said. He'd been trying to believe her, but the sight of the carnage here was just too much.
"Yes, it was," he said. "I failed. I failed at making Melek understand the others and then—it was too late."
He looked out across the destruction of Nivix and had a sudden, maddeningly disorienting feeling of complete wrongness. His brain slowed back to the moment at the end of the Dragon's Maze, trying to gather together the minds of all the maze-runners. For a brief moment, in a crackle of lightning, Melek seemed to have been replaced in his memories with another mind, and then the feeling was gone. Jace shook his head against the blossoming headache. Emmara's awkward, sympathetic pat on his arm did next to nothing to combat the pervasive feeling of emptiness.
"Pivliccino's!" announced Zarek, throwing out a dramatic arm. "Everyone here is conspiring about something! We won't even be noticed."
Lavinia looked around doubtfully. Admittedly, there seemed to be members of a number of different guilds, in addition to a number of the guildless, seated at a variety of tables. "Old establishment," Zarek went on, flagging down an imp wearing a discreet symbol of the Orzhov. "I believe it's always been held by the same family, but I'm not sure if the original Pivlic is still alive anymore or not. We'll take a table, please," he continued, speaking to the imp. "Nothing fancy, just human entertainment."
The imp nodded. "We haven't seen you here in some time, Guildmage," it said, then glanced at Lavinia. "Is this the lucky lady?"
Zarek's smile broadened, and he spoke before Lavinia could say a word. "Oh, yes," he said. "This is Lavinia of the Tenth. We're—" he batted his eyelashes at her, "—very close."
Lavinia gritted her teeth against the wave of homicidal rage that gripped her, though she did kick the back of Zarek's calf as they were shown to the table. "I'm so sorry," she said solicitously when he yelped.
"It's fine," gasped Zarek, sinking into the seat the imp indicated and sadly rubbing at his bruised leg.
"What was that for?" Lavinia growled as the imp fluttered away.
Zarek gave her an innocent look. "If they believe we're an item, they won't ask any other questions about us being here together. And any furtiveness will be dismissed as me two-timing Jace."
Lavinia ground her teeth and with difficulty restrained herself from stabbing him with her fork. The worst part was that he had a point. It was a good cover.
"Fine," she mumbled. "So what's the plan?"
"Chat until we come up with something?" Zarek suggested brightly, then, at her murderous look, continued. "What? I'm not a miracle-worker, you know."
Lavinia sighed. "Then talk, Zarek."
Lavinia flattened herself against the wall of the building opposite Jace's office. She peered cautiously around the corner, then felt a chin come down on top of her head. "Zarek," she growled. "What are you doing?"
"Aren't we trying to see how this test run goes?" he asked, continuing to rest his chin on her head.
"And if you think that's your best vantage point, I can improve it by removing your head," hissed Lavinia.
She could hear the smirk in Zarek's voice as he responded, "Then who would control the impostor's impostor?"
She groaned. "This is such a stupid plan."
"Those are my specialty." She felt him reach for his belt and make a few motions, and then their own facsimile of Jace walked out into the street and stood staring up at his own office. After a few minutes, they saw Jace's face appear at his office window, and then turn and hurry back inside.
"Okay, retreat," Lavinia murmured.
"Wait for it," said Ral.
"No, retreat! Hurry up!"
"Wait for it…"
"Zarek, if you don't—"
"NOW!" The facsimile sprinted back towards them, rounding the corner just before the original impostor reached his door, opened it, and looked around cautiously. He paused, shook his head, and headed back inside.
"Why did you do that?" demanded Lavinia. "There was no reason!"
"Drama?" suggested Zarek.
Lavinia started counting to ten and then decided that wouldn't be enough. Maybe she'd just keep going until she couldn't remember the numbers.
Jace shivered with cold and exhaustion.
"Jace, you need to stop," Emmara said softly.
He started and looked up, his head dazed, his ears ringing. "I have to keep searching for people." I'm missing someone. The thought was strangely clear in his head, and he couldn't understand it. All the maze-runners had been located—their corpses, at any rate. Jace felt an extraordinarily horrible twinge at the sight of the Azorius runner—Lavinia—and couldn't quite understand why her death was hitting him this way. As bad or worse than Kallist's or Kavin's or—
Now was not the time. He had to keep searching.
"No, Jace, you have to stop," Emmara said sternly, reaching out to touch his face. Her finger came away bloody. "You're going to hurt yourself. You've done everything that anyone could ask of you. Please?"
Reluctantly, Jace let the questing tendrils relax back into his mind and allowed Emmara to pull him against her. She stroked his forehead. "It's going to be all right, Jace. Just rest."
The hollow, searching feeling had not faded.
"This would be much easier if Jace were here."
Lavinia sighed, tried to avoid reacting, gave up and gave him an incredulous look. "We wouldn't be doing this if Jace were here."
"And wouldn't that be much easier?" Zarek asked brightly. Lavinia sucked in air for a retort, then let it out again. "He's coming this way," she murmured. The two of them glanced up carefully from beneath their large, guildless-style hoods, then Zarek headed off to a nearby street stall, so Lavinia could genuinely appear to be waiting for him to return. She kept an eye on the strolling figure that looked so exactly like the Living Guildpact. He did a very good act, too—just not quite good enough. Lavinia knew Jace too well to be fooled, and Zarek—she glanced after him—well, apparently he did as well.
By degrees, they followed him slowly across the city. Lavinia's heart was in her mouth the whole time, terrified that he was going to look around and notice them, wondering what they would do if he did. He wouldn't start a confrontation, most likely, but he'd know they were following him and be able to act accordingly. Lavinia chewed on her lip.
Zarek flitted from place to place, always staying within her view, but actually doing a very good job of making himself seem inconspicuous. She was impressed—not that she'd tell him that, of course.
They had gone through several districts, and it was becoming more difficult to tail their quarry as the crowds thinned, when they saw him turn and head into an alleyway from their vantage hidden in a doorway. Lavinia took a step after him, but Zarek grabbed her arm and shook his head. "I'll take it from here, Azorius." He reached into his belt and pulled out three small, metallic objects. "Pity their range is so limited, but that's a cul-de-sac, so I'm fairly certain we've got him." He flipped them into the air and sent a tiny spark flying from his fingertips into each of them.
Lavinia's eyes narrowed. "Those look like Azorius work to me," she said. "In fact, I'm fairly certain no one else should have access to them."
Zarek grinned at her. "I made some modifications," he smiled. "And I notice you didn't think to bring any." The objects shuddered and unfolded into small metallic birds, which took off after the impostor. Zarek opened the palm of his hand to display a small, round mirror crackling with energy. The image displayed in it was the front of the alleyway the flyers were entering. Lavinia had admittedly never seen keyrunes used in such a manner, but that didn't mean Zarek's procurement of them had been legal. She made a note to prosecute him at a later date.
Lavinia and Zarek watched silently as the fake Jace strode into the alleyway. He paused for a brief moment, then jumped forward. Instead of landing on the ground, he fell through. Lavinia's brain floundered for a moment, then recalled something Jace had told her several weeks ago about his experiences during the maze-running. "It is the Dimir," she said. "We were right."
Jace couldn't sleep. The nagging sensation of forgetting someone had only intensified.
"Jace?" Emmara's sleepy voice sounded from the other side of the bedroll. "What's wrong?"
He sat upright. "There's something wrong with my head," he said with suddenly clarifying certainty.
"What?" Emmara didn't sound sleepy anymore. She scooted across the bedroll to end up next to him, touching his shoulder with concern. "Jace," she soothed. "This had been a terrible ordeal, but you're not crazy."
He shook his head, for the first time turning his mental sensors inward. "I don't mean that. Someone has set up a block in my head."
He couldn't find it at first. Then he sensed it—a subtle, rippling curtain that cut him of from—well, he didn't know what. He probed a little harder, sparking a wave of agony that traveled from his head to his arms.
"Jace! What are you doing?" Emmara caught his shoulder, jolting him out of his mental state. He looked at her in confusion, blinking away red. "Whatever you're doing, you have to stop," she said urgently. "Your eyes are bleeding."
Ral and Lavinia waited until the impostor was long gone before heading for the alley, Ral sprinting on ahead in eagerness. He stopped where they had seen the impostor disappear and, kneeling, felt carefully at the ground. "Hmmm," he said. "Azorius, why don't you keep watch while I investigate more—"
"Zarek," said two voices in chorus, and he glanced around.
There were two Lavinias, each glaring at the other one. Ral cocked an eyebrow at them. Apparently, the impostor had merely been waiting.
"Hm," he said, stroking his chin. "Apparently we have an impostor."
"This is stupid," both Lavinias said in chorus, before glaring at one another again.
"How troublesome," drawled Ral. "A perfect double of my companion. Alike in every respect. I dare not strike either of you, lest I hit the real one." Both Lavinias opened their mouths to speak, and he raised his hand and called down a bolt of lightning on the Lavinia to the left, who spasmed briefly and then keeled over onto the street.
There was a pause. "Very clever," said the second Lavinia. "You wanted to see my reaction?"
"Approximately," said Ral.
"Well, then, perhaps we had better—"
There was another loud zap.
Ral stepped carefully over the second Lavinia. "Lavinia would never call one of my plans 'clever'."
He knelt beside the Lavinia he had struck first, who was now struggling to breathe, one hand clutching at her chest.
"Sorry about that," Ral said carelessly, removing her breastplate and placing both hands on her chest. The third bolt of lightning was rather more subdued than the previous two. Lavinia gasped in shock, then batted at his hands.
"You bastard son of a one-eyed goblin!" she snarled. "What are you doing?"
"I was restarting your heart," Ral replied. "There's gratitude for you."
"You stopped it yourself! And get your hands off my chest."
Ral gave her a lazy grin. "Honestly, Lavinia, it's as if you think I like women."
Jace gritted his teeth against the pain. "Emmara, I need to get through this," he said. The memories weren't gone, just blocked.
"No, Jace, you'll kill yourself. Please don't. I—" She moved forward and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him desperately on the lips. "I need you, Jace."
When they turned around, the corpse of the intruder was gone.
"Looks like he didn't have a heart," Zarek commented. "Unlike me. But at least he's gone." He walked over to the spot they had seen the intruder disappear and prodded at it. Lavinia followed, still shaking with anger and the remnants of lightning beneath her skin.
"You do not have a heart," she snapped. "You are a heartless bastard, and I have no idea what Jace was thinking."
Zarek smirked at her. "Probably, 'Oh, Ral, you are so amazing, please do that again,'" he responded, continuing to investigate the area. "And I mean in bed, of course."
She let him feel around the entire spot before giving it a cursory examination and trying to use what Jace had told her to get through it, but it didn't work.
"Solid ground," Ral said slowly. He sent a bolt of lightning toward it, but it only dissipated, crackling outwards and fading.
Lavinia made a face. "If it's a Dimir wall, Jace told me how to get through them," she admitted.
"Well, don't hold back on my account."
"You have to," Lavinia pursed her lips. "Out-arrogance it. It's not working for me."
"Ah, but you think that I, with my superior skills—"
"Inflated ego," muttered Lavinia.
"—will be able to pierce it?" He eyed the brickwork. "Very shoddy work," he said. "So shoddy you'd think they weren't there. In fact—" he lifted a foot to stamp down and suddenly disappeared into the ground with a startled shout.
There was a pause, followed by a muffled thud, and then his head came back up.
"What was that?" asked Lavinia.
"Forgot to disbelieve it on the way up," said Zarek, a little miffed. "But look who I've got."
Standing the rest of the way up, he dragged the slumped, unconscious form of the Living Guildpact out onto the street, then patted him briskly on the cheek. "Rise and shine, Beleren!"
No response. Jace's head lolled limply to the side.
"Emmara," Jace choked, not wanting to pull away, but at the same time desperate to know what was hidden in his head. He held her gently as she kissed him again, but something about the embrace felt strangely off. Guiltily, he let her kiss him as he reached back into his own head and crashed against the mental block inside, feeling the corrosive touch of burning black mana.
"He's not waking up," grumbled Zarek.
Lavinia bent over Jace, examining him carefully. "I don't know what's wrong," she admitted. "Perhaps we'd better take him to a healer."
"And let someone else know the Guildpact is incapacitated?"
Lavinia shrugged and glanced from Jace's still face to Zarek's agitated one. "Well, you could always try kissing him."
"What?"
"It would work in a fairytale."
"What do you know about fairytales?"
"I catalogued a number of them in the Azorius library," Lavinia said primly. She wasn't about to tell Zarek about the bedtime stories Jek used to read to her.
"What were you doing cataloguing them?"
"It was a punishment," she responded stiffly. "I would argue, however, that Jace's safety is more important than the particulars of my encounters with children's stories."
"It's a stupid idea!"
"I thought you liked stupid ideas."
"Only when they're mine!"
"Is it really such a trial to kiss him, Zarek?"
There was a pause. "Of course not. I just don't want you getting your hopes up."
Lavinia smirked. "Afraid you're not his true love, Zarek? Or are you afraid that you are?"
The feel of Emmara's soft lips faded as the agony seared through him. The taste of black mana was stronger now, which Jace hoped meant he was getting closer to the source of the block. But this was too—he couldn't—Emmara was right—he was going to die. He struggled against the pain, trying to force himself beyond it, but that same hollow feeling of something missing held him back.
There was moisture trickling down his face; Emmara was crying his name. She sounded almost angry. That wasn't right. This whole thing wasn't right. Even the pain was wrong. Where was the—
-storm?
Crackling lightning seared through Jace's mind, sizzling through tiny holes in the blocks and dismantling them from the inside out. The feel of Emmara's lips on his own changed, became fuller and more forceful. Stubble scratched Jace's chin, and he blinked his eyes open slowly.
"—told you it wouldn't work," said Ral's voice from somewhere above him.
"Oh? Then why are his eyes moving?" Was that—Lavinia? As the last of the blocks cleared away, and Jace began trying to process what had happened, Ral groaned theatrically. Jace looked up to see his lover straddling him, his hand on his forehead in a gesture of frustration.
"I—missed something, didn't I?" Jace said cautiously.
"I need a drink," Ral said morosely. "Preferably the alcoholic kind."
"I hate to agree with you about anything, Zarek, but it has been an extraordinarily vexing day," said Lavinia.
Jace sat up slowly and shakily. "A drink or five. Yes."
Lavinia's temples were on fire. Eyes sticky. Teeth tasted like carpet. At first, she thought she'd been hit on the head while chasing a Rakdos criminal again, but it slowly percolated that she was not in the hospital wing. It smelled all wrong. And she wasn't in a hospital gown.
Her armor was gone, and her legs were bare and tangled around something warm. It took a minute before she realized if she wanted to know what was happening, she could always try opening her eyes. It took another minute before she was able to pry them open.
The first thing she saw was the pale back of someone lying beside her, scored with a number of ridged white scars. Then Jace mumbled and turned over, tangling their legs even further together.
Lavinia yelped and leaped to her feet, flailing her arms madly and nearly falling over as she landed on the floor beside her bed.
"Dear, dear, do be careful with the furniture," Zarek chided, choosing that moment to enter the room. He was wearing a silk robe, open to the waist, and carrying a steaming cup that smelled of coffee.
"What happened?" snarled Lavinia, advancing on him.
"Don't you remember?" drawled Zarek. "Well, what does it look like?"
"Tell me what happened," she ordered. When he didn't respond, she shrugged and summoned a mix of blue and white mana. "Then enjoy your time in that detention sphere. I hope you don't run out of air in there."
Five minutes later, when Jace woke up, Zarek was sulking in a corner of the detention sphere and starting to turn slightly blue around the edges.
"Read to talk?" Lavinia asked grimly, but he just shook his fist at her.
Jace groaned and sat up. "Krokt, my head feels as if someone was beating it with a hammer. What happened? And where's my shirt?"
Glancing over, Lavinia was slightly relieved to note he was still wearing trousers.
"Ask your true love," she snapped. Zarek started making faces that suggested he was shouting obscenities, but it wasn't audible from outside the detention sphere. Jace sighed. "Do I need to put you two in time-out?" he asked.
"I just want to know what happened last night," Lavinia said frostily, forbearing to point out that Zarek was basically already there.
Jace glanced across at Zarek and raised an eyebrow. "May I?" he asked seriously.
Zarek sighed, rolled his eyes, and nodded. Jace's eyes glowed briefly blue, and then spoke. "We got unbelievably drunk, and you kept making jokes about Ral kissing me awake, so after the two of us passed out, he, uh—posed us." Jace blushed. "Have you seen my shirt?" he asked in a small voice.
Lavinia dismissed the detention sphere with a sigh, and Zarek flopped to the ground, gasping dramatically.
"I'm not sure if I've thanked you properly yet," Jace continued, rooting around the room looking for his shirt. "How did you two even know?"
"You were just acting wrong," Lavinia said, a little embarrassed at having been acting on what amounted to a hunch.
"I'll say," Zarek put in. "He tried to get me to leave him alone."
"I do do that," Jace pointed out mildly.
"And expected it to work."
"I've been known to—"
"And didn't threaten to withhold sex."
"All right, admittedly that's suspicious—"
"And asked nicely."
Jace blew out a breath and laughed. "I suppose it's a good thing I'm dating you, then."
Pause. "Why, Guildpact, we're dating? I had no idea I meant so much to you."
"Oh, fuck you," Jace said tiredly.
Lavinia looked back and forth from one to the other. She still did not like Zarek in the least. But she'd let him keep doing what he was doing. Jace was smiling.
Three days later.
Lavinia knocked perfunctorily on the door, heard a muffled noise which she presumed was, "Come in," and opened it, glancing down at her clipboard of notes, most of which she needed the Guildpact to sign.
When she looked up, Jace was staring at her in consternation from his position lying backwards across the desk, his legs wrapped around Zarek's waist. Lavinia opened and closed her mouth, feeling herself going bright red, and was about to gabble out an apology and run, when she saw that the Living Guildpact's cloak—which he was still wearing for some reason—was pulled taut across a pair of breasts she was certain he didn't normally possess.
She turned her back to give them a little privacy and snarled, "I thought you said you didn't like women!" at Zarek.
"No, I merely pointed out you were acting as though you thought I did," Zarek responded cheerfully, slightly more out of breath than normal.
"C-could you two have this discussion another time?" gasped Jace, who sounded as though he were trying to suppress a moan.
"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU SLOWLY, ZAREK!"
"I'd say you'd have to catch me first, but honestly, I'm a little busy to be going anywhere."
Lavinia's ears were burning with embarrassment, but she managed to say, "Guildpact, when you're—done—I have some things for you to sign. And then perhaps I can have some time alone with Guildmage Zarek."
Zarek sniggered, and Jace gasped again.
"Whatever you like, Lavinia," he managed. "I'll help you kill him if you want."
"I'm sure I can manage it myself," Lavinia said grimly and headed out of the door again. She blushed and put her hand to her head, guiltily wondering what Jace looked like naked when he hadn't been transformed.