Jace coughed and winced at the pain in his throat as he wearily staggered into his office. Thank—somebody—that he was back on Ravnica again. This had not been a good day. He was still worried about Garruk, but the green mage had proved that there was nothing Jace could do about him, at least not by himself. He pulled his knees to his chest and sat miserably at his little desk.
The door swung open to admit Ral Zarek, the only person on Ravnica who didn't knock before entering the Living Guildpact's headquarters. He bounced over to Jace, then caught the look on his face and paused. His eyes flicked from Jace's face down to his throat, and his gaze hardened.
"Who did that, Guildpact?" he asked.
"Go away," said Jace. Ral bent over him and touched the bruised flesh lightly.
"Only I am allowed to mangle you like that, Beleren, and you're too vanilla to enjoy it much anyway."
Jace coughed wretchedly. "I said go away."
Ral pressed a kiss onto Jace's cheek, and Jace found himself leaning against the Izzet mage before he realized what he was doing. Ral made a triumphant humming noise. "Make no mistake," he murmured throatily to Jace. "I will find out who did this, and I will make them pay for it."
Jace still had no idea what he was going to do about Garruk. But at least he was starting to feel better. "I still hate you," he grumbled.
"Of course you do," Ral Zarek said cheerfully.
Ral Zarek was underneath a table in his laboratory, rooting around for a tool he had thrown across the room in a fit of pique about a week ago. When he heard the door open, he ignored it on the grounds that whoever it was would probably leave if it wasn't important.
"Zarek," snapped Lavinia's voice.
Oh, this should be entertaining. To his knowledge, the Azorius arrester had never before set so much as a toe near Nivix. He rolled out from under the table and gave her a confused look. "If this is about the golems, I told you, they weren't programmed to do that."
Lavinia scowled. "I don't want to be here any more than you want me to be here," she said sourly. "But I need—" she paused, her face screwing up as if she were chewing on a lemon.
"Yeeeees?" His eyes glinted dangerously.
"Jace needs your help."
"Oh, really? You know, I'm flattered he thought of you, but I hardly think we need a go-between to arrange our trysts."
Lavinia strode across the room, grabbed him by the collar, and hoisted him off his feet. Ral was vaguely impressed.
"Listen to me, Zarek!" she snarled. "We've had a number of reports of violent, bestial murders coming in. I have to go track the perpetrator down. Jace is inside his office panicking. I've never seen him this upset. He begged me to get hold of you—tried to come himself, but he said he'd never make it."
That was faintly troublesome. Ral's brow wrinkled. "And you want me to…"
"Calm him down. You're Izzet—you're good with emotions!" He raised an eyebrow. "Well, better with them than an Azorius arrester," she admitted.
"That is a stereotype," Ral told her severely. "However, I suppose I could visit Beleren."
Lavinia released him. "Just—help," she said tersely. "I've never seen him like this before."
Ral, despite himself, felt a twinge of concern.
Jace couldn't stop shaking. He couldn't make the breath in his lungs stop moving in and out so fast it made him dizzy. He'd tried reaching into his own head, forcibly slowing his breathing, but his concentration had dissolved at the first hitch. Now he was sitting beneath his desk, his hands about his knees, the strongest invisibility spell he could muster wrapped about himself, but the fear just would not go away.
He should be fine. He'd faced far worse enemies in his time, been far more powerless in his past. And yet, the thought of Garruk's hand clenching about his throat, tearing through his illusions, reaching for his heart—
The door slammed open, and Jace nearly screamed, then crumpled with relief when he heard Ral's voice. Ral was safe.
"Guildpact?" There was a pause. "If you don't come out, I'm going to just have to have my way with Lavinia here instead."
Jace couldn't. The thought of dropping the invisibility was too much, even though he knew it wouldn't protect him. Not against the hunter.
"All right, I'll admit that's a little worrying," said Ral's voice. "I would have thought that would get him out."
"What did you just threaten?" So Lavinia was here as well. Jace's heart was sore with pounding and self-reproach.
"Oh, relax. I just wanted to get him out. Now run along and do your thing. I'll see what can be done here."
He heard Lavinia sigh, and her footsteps faded. The door shut behind her.
"All right, do I have to fill the room with lightning and fry you into the open?" demanded Ral. Jace reminded himself that the door was closed, that his invisibility would do him no good whatsoever, and slowly let it drop, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make a sound.
It must have been enough, though, because Ral came around the desk. Bending over, he held out a hand to Jace, who could only look at it and breathe too quickly. After a moment, the lightning mage squatted on the floor. "I don't know how easy it's going to be for me to fuck you in there, but I'll give it a try," he said cheerfully.
Jace flinched and shook his head. "Don't," he managed, through a hoarse, constricted throat.
Ral stared at him for a long moment. Jace waited for him to leave, because he knew this wasn't really the other man's forte. They weren't really—they were just sleeping together. It didn't make them lovers.
Ral groaned, sat down on the floor, and scooted in beside Jace. "Don't you dare tell anyone about this," he said. "My reputation would suffer horribly." Then he put an arm around Jace's shoulder and drew him close. Jace felt sudden tears brimming in his eyes, and he turned and buried his face in Ral's shoulder, trembling.
"You're getting my shirt damp," complained Ral, but he pulled Jace closer, rearranging them until he was holding Jace in a tight embrace.
After a few minutes, the trembling subsided slightly, though the crushing fear had not ebbed. "Damn it," Jace managed. "I'm sorry."
"You should be, you're rumpling all my clothes. Not to mention the dust under here. So why the terror? Did you catch sight of Exava wandering around naked? Traumatized now?"
"No," managed Jace. Ral's hand awkwardly patted the top of his head. "We're going to die," he gritted out.
"Don't be stupid, we're planeswalkers. You're thinking of goblins."
"We're going to die because we're planeswalkers." Another wave of uncontrollable fear washed over Jace, and his teeth started chattering. "G-G-Garruk's going to k-kill us."
"Who is Garruk?"
Jace raised a shaking hand to point at the fading ring of bruises around his throat.
"Oh, so he's the one who tried to muscle in on my territory," said Ral. "So why is he going to kill us?"
Jace shut his eyes and breathed in Ral's scent, willing the panic to fade, but it continued to clutch and claw at him. "He's a hunter." He quickly outlined the last few developments regarding Garruk. "I—I think I sent some planeswalkers to die," Jace said softly. He knew he'd had no way of knowing what Garruk had become. He still felt guilty, but even the guilt was faded and bleached beneath the panic. "He can see through my illusions. I've never met anyone who could—"
"I imagine he'd be somewhat inconvenienced by lightning," Ral said dryly, and Jace managed a brief snort of laughter.
"I'm sorry," he said again. "I don't know why…"
"Mmm," Ral said. "Clearly, you wanted to spend the afternoon scrunched underneath a desk with your devilishly handsome Izzet genius."
"'My' genius?" Jace managed a smile.
There was a pause. "On loan," Ral said slowly after a moment. Jace could tell the lightning mage was trying desperately to save face. "At…a high interest rate," he added thoughtfully. "Yes."
Jace nodded, then shut his eyes as another wave of trembling swept over him. It wasn't quite as bad as before, though. The panic, finally, seemed to be starting to recede.
By the time Lavinia returned, Jace's breathing had mostly gone back to normal, though he still felt shaky.
"Lavinia," he greeted her, trying embarrassedly to crawl out from underneath the desk. Ral's hand caught his shoulder and dragged him back. The lightning mage sniggered.
"Well, we caught him." Lavinia said.
"Y-you did?"
"Repeat offender," she replied. "Some Golgari decided it would be a fantastic idea to raise the corpse of a condemned multiple murderer. Lost his head for his trouble. Jarad was apologetic, and it looks like we've got things under control."
Jace felt heat rising to his face. "So, uh, it wasn't…" he trailed off.
Lavinia bent over to smile at him. "It's fine, Jace. Everything's fine. You look better, too."
She glanced at Ral, who leered evilly back. "Oh, yes," he said, voice dripping with innuendo. "Would you like details?"
Lavinia went red. "No," she said swiftly. "Definitely not."
"Actually—" Jace opened his mouth to defend his own honor, and Ral shoved hand over it. "—mph!"
"The lady said she didn't want to hear it, Guildpact."
Afraid for your reputation? Jace chuckled inside Ral's head.
"I'll bring in the paperwork for you to sign," Lavinia said. "Please continue to be fully dressed when I get back. This time."
"Difficult, but, for you, we'll make the effort," said Ral.
Lavinia rolled her eyes and stalked out. Jace groaned and stretched in the cramped space, then slowly extricated himself. Before Ral could follow, he ducked back down and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks," he said. Ral growled unintelligibly.