"Must you break everything, Nalaar?"
"Of course." Her jocund laughter echoed over the plains. "It annoys you." It was not often that he found her while travelling the planes. In fact, he hadn't meant to find her in the first place. And yet, though he had better things to do than rise to her bait, Jace felt as though he had no better place to be than on this godforsaken plane watching the wanted Firebrand destroy everything he worked so hard to summon.
"You know, you have got to be the most saturnine, disconsolate person I've ever met," she mused while destroying his phantasms. "Don't you ever smile?"
"I haven't the time."
"That's sad, but knowing you I guess you're used to it." One of her fireballs ripped apart his newly-acquired phantasm and he groaned. "At least I'm not as deranged as you are, Nalaar."
"Better deranged than boring and lethargic like you. And I do have a name. You could at least use some of the manners you grew up with and address me by it, Jace."
"I am not boring. Or lethargic. You can ask anybody." The mists surrounding her blew away in the face of her flame. You could find no one better than Chandra Nalaar when it came to breaking things. "I did. Gideon told me enough about you." A pause. "And Liliana."
"I don't suppose you have the time for another round." Liliana snapped the garter over her leg again with finality. "You're a memory adept. Try remembering how it feels while I'm away." He watched her dress herself, as he did every time she let herself in through his window. Liliana Vess was not a regular woman by definition. A succubus, maybe, but not a regular woman.
"Where do you go at times like these?" She looked over her shoulder at him, expertly hooking her bra. For all his intelligence, Jace Beleren was still a man. And men, by her own experience, never figured out the bra. "What do you care where I go?" It was her nature to keep such things to herself. "I'm not allowed to ask, then?"
"Hmph. You never ask." He allowed himself a smirk. Liliana finished dressing and made for the window. She never left by the door; sometimes Jace wondered how she managed to get into windowless places. "Then when will you be back again?" he asked. She knew, just as well as he knew, that he hid whatever trepidation behind a mask. She pushed open the window and stepped on the sill.
"Eventually."
"When is 'eventually'?" Another smirk, this time from her.
"Eventually." She disappeared into the night.
"Didn't you ever think that maybe the reason she left you afterwards and barely ever came back was because you just weren't good enough?" Her flames had dwindled down to small sparks now. They were taking a break. "I like to believe that I was all she'd ever need."
"Right, right. An apathetic guy like you and a girl as capricious as Liliana. You must have been the perfect couple." Jace sat behind his aether shield. Of all the planes in existence, why did he have to wander on to the one she was on? "Emotions are a waste of time, Nalaar-"
"Uh, uh. What did I tell you about manners?"
"That they didn't apply to you."
"Very clever." She sounded a little miffed under all those layers of bravado. "Emotions are a waste of time, Chandra." Jace muttered. The Firebrand perched herself on a rock to watch him warily. "And why might they be a waste of time?"
"Because they muddle up logic." She crossed her legs on the rock.
"That's not why."
The girl counted her money at the table by candlelight. She had snuck in again through the window she kept unlocked. True, the plane she was currently on was given to goblin thieves but she didn't care. It would be their loss, anyway, breaking into her room. If she were in when they did, they would be burnt to a crisp. If not, they would be wasting their time looking for money that wasn't there.
Chandra Nalaar preferred to travel light. Any money she had would be promptly invested in several courses of meat and the finest ale. It was one of the perks of being free; no one to hold her back, no one for her to worry about. And no one to worry about her in return.
"Psst!"
"Psst!" A pebble bounced against her window. She looked out. It was that boy, that Makarov boy. A good friend, or so she thought. She slid out and down to the alley. "I was looking all over for you. Where've you been?" She dragged him in for a languorous kiss, one of many they shared in that particular alley.
If only walls could speak. Oh, the things they would say.
"Does somebody sound worried about me?"
"Obviously."
They snuck off to the outskirts of the city, taking a pretty amount of food with them. It's what young love is: sneaking out with each other, becoming each other's world... and Chandra relished every moment of it.
"GET HER!"
At least she did until the moment a goblin jumped out at her.
"Then why are emotions useless, Chandra?"
"Much better."
"What?"
"You're using my name, Jace."
"Well, if you'd rather I called you 'Nalaar'-"
"I think I liked you better elegiac." The fight long forgotten, the two planeswalkers were now just enjoying the pleasure of the other's company. "What else did Gideon say?" She looked at him quizzically. "About me, that is."
"I didn't think you'd be so concerned about it." Jace's face didn't change. She sighed and stared into the distance. "He told me enough."
"Liliana!" He was still following her. Three planes in a row and he still managed to follow her. "What?!"
And he couldn't find the words.
"For the last time, Jace Beleren, what?"
"Why? How could you?"
"I thought I had already explained that." She walked away, but he caught up to her. "No, I don't mean that." They both knew exactly what he was talking about. There was a multitude of things she wanted to say. She was weak, but he already knew. She was greedy, but he already knew. She was the worst there was, but he already knew.
There would be no point in explaining to a man like Jace who read minds at will. He would already know. But that wasn't what he wanted to know. He wanted an explanation. And that was something she wasn't willing to give. At least not now.
"You sold us both out to the Consortium, all for yourself," he was saying. "You could have told me before I was captured. All those nights, you could have told me then. And you didn't." He never lost his grip on her hand. "Why?"
"You already know why! You read minds, Jace. You've been reading minds all your life! How could you not know?!"
"Reading someone's mind is different from hearing someone say it with their own lips." Liliana stared at him. Disappointed wasn't what she felt, neither was pain.
Lugubrious. She was lugubrious. Never before had such a word applied to her so well.
"Goodbye, Jace Beleren." She planeswalked away, leaving him alone.
"Well."
"Well, what?"
"Is the great Jace Beleren feeling a little vindictive?"
"Is the great Chandra Nalaar feeling a little emotional at the story of my oh-so-turbulent love affair?" That was apparently the wrong thing to say, considering the size of the fireball that blew him away. A few moments found him bare-knuckle boxing with the Firebrand, her eyes glowing orange from the flames. "WHAT?! WHAT DID I SAY?!"
"I AM NEVER EMOTIONAL! EVER!"
"THEN WHAT ARE YOU BEATING ME UP FOR?!" The firemage went berserk for what seemed like no other reason. Jace took the time between blows to peer into the creases of her mind.
She looked down at the remains of the goblins still smoldering at her feet, then at the boy holding a wanted poster with her face on it. "Hey, hey, listen-"
Silence is deadly.
"I'm sorry, okay? I figured it would be good to get a little extra money for stuff like these."
Silence is ominous.
"Besides, you could take them on anytime! You're the Chandra Nalaar!"
And in Chandra's case, silence is death.
Nobody ever found Makarov again.
Choleric, fractious, and absolutely unpredictable. "So that's why." She stopped flailing. "You saw." He nodded. "I figured as much." The two sat down again on the surprisingly cold ground. "I'd ask if you ever repine for it, but I can't risk you burning my clothes off."
"Like you even have any left to burn off."
"Why don't you ever try again?"
"You really like asking people 'why', don't you? You ought to be a shrink."
"Shrinks do that just to get paid."
"Are you saying you really want to know what I think?" Chandra's face morphed into mock mask of flattery. "Yes." She wasn't expecting such a serious answer to a joke.
"Because love is a bridle."
"A bridle."
"Yeah. I've made it my point to be equable-"
"You're not exactly calm."
"Equable as in free of change. Love is change. Love changes you from the free and independent to clingy and trapped. I never want to be that."
"There's something else you don't want to be."
"Oh yeah, genius? What?"
"Hurt." She didn't look at him, instead opting to stare into the vastness. He went on. "Love is also knowing that the person can kill you anytime they want because they know how to or because they can, and still trusting them not to. You know what I think?"
"What?"
"Regular love isn't for people like you and me." Chandra nodded agreement. "Then what is for people like you and me, genius?"
"I don't know." She laughed and pulled something out of her pocket. "Here."
"What are these?"
"Smokes."
"Where'd you get them?"
"Doesn't matter." She lit his cigarette. "Aren't you going to light yours?"
"'course. You've got a light right there." It was almost, intimate, the way she lit her cigarette with his. Jace tried not to think about it that way. "Jace?"
"What?" The resounding blast left him alone on the plane with singed clothes, one word, 'Bye' etched in black across the ground. Jace Beleren licked his fingers and extinguished the small flame on his hair.
He was feeling pretty sanguine for a man who just got burned. He wasn't entirely sure why, but maybe the fact that it was Chandra who bothered to burn him was part of it.
Yo. Haven't had the pleasure of reading the book, but ever since I started playing Magic I've always shipped JacexChandra. Wahaha. I don't know why.
Late news, GRAY LIVED! *grayza ship slowly rises from the ocean* I shall make a celebratory fic once I've got more time on my hands.
See you, planeswalkers~