Planar Chaos

The Portal Saga

Chapter 1: Sverre's Celebration

"Dear do you think these flowers are too much?" Oona called to Sverre from across the room. The once barren palace situated in Helheim, the land of the dead, was now overgrown with vines and various other plants that enjoyed a cool, wet, shady environment.

"Darling, you may do as you please. This palace is your home, my gift to you to beautify as you see fit. I would tear it down and remake Glen Elendra if you decreed it." Sverre stood in the doorway watching his wife arrange the pale blossoms with her delicate hands. Helheim was inhabited only by zombies and dumb beasts, and the Guardians residing in Azheim hadn't been down to the land of the dead in over two hundred years. Sverre wondered if they could even tell the difference between Oona and the Guardian he had murdered, Ehla. "I'm retiring to my study for some time. Our guests should be arriving soon."

He ducked out of the doorway and down a series of winding hallways, each one constructed of the same dark blue stone that winked with flecks of silver. High arches held up domes and spires. The palace had been far too grand for Ehla's purposes, Sverre thought, but it served him just fine.

The study was less of a study and more of a large alchemical laboratory lit by sporadic candle light. It had been a ballroom of sorts, though what a region inhabited by death needed a ballroom for Sverre couldn't say. Perhaps this building had once existed in Medheim, the world of mortals above, and it had perished in some earthquake or Ragnarok only to be reborn in the land of the dead.

Several human-sized brass containment tanks that were obviously borrowed from Odom's personal stash were set up in the corners, the glass viewing windows frosted over to prevent prying eyes from seeing the desiccated corpses within. These were past Guardians, born out of Yggdrasil from the souls of fallen heroes chosen by the Valkyries during each Ragnarok. Sverre had only witnessed two of these events in his lifetime, and each time they provided him with new material for his experiments. Every hundred years the Guardians and the forces of destruction led by Sverre's favored pet Jormungandr engaged in a massive war that only ended when everyone on both sides had fallen. Sverre had been ordering Jormungandr to bring him the Guardians directly rather than waiting for them to be interred and appear as nothing more than mundane zombies. This way he might be able to access the true source of their immortality.

Guardians could be killed in battle, but they knew no age nor illness. They were born fully formed from the world tree ready to protect a world who eagerly awaited their sacrifice. Sverre caught his reflection in the metal of a tank and frowned. His skin had grown paler as of late and had begun to pull at his cheekbones. There were dark circles under his eyes as well. And was that a liver spot? He shuddered, rushing to a dark wood cabinet, flinging it open. Inside sat rows upon rows of a silvery, glowing serum in neatly stoppered crystal phials. He struggled with the cork of the first one he grabbed, and in his impatience smashed it onto a table covered in delicate glass instruments that would distill more of the serum from the Guardians' bodies. Sverre eagerly licked the serum off of his shaking hands, a wild light in his eyes.

Catching his breath, Sverre turned back to the cabinet and calmly took out another phial. He twisted the cork and it popped out with a sound sweeter than champagne and burned like a shot of whiskey going down.

"I must not let myself get carried away like that," he laughed. "What would my friends say if they saw me scrambling about like a vampire in need of blood?"

"I'd say I've seen worse," Odom said, his voice echoing through the chamber.

Sverre went white.

"Don't worry, dude," Odom said, "I won't tell anyone." He clapped Sverre on the shoulder.

"Well you see how I've been. How about yourself?"

"Eh, I had to hire a new assistant. Again."

"That's the third one in two months?"

"It's more like six in Ravnica time, but yeah. Still a high turnover rate. I can't help it, Sverre, it's hard to find someone who lives up to her."

"You mean it's hard to find someone who has your level of disregard for ethics."

"That too…"

"Did you reach out to Kyari?"

"I have," Odom sighed. "But she's been preoccupied with finding Brock. And Marthel's spent the last three weeks in and out of the Cult of Rakdos. I have no clue where to find Lisandra, then again nobody knows what the hell you're talking about when you say House Dimir on Ravnica anyway. I never would have known about them without having the ear of one Niv Mizzet."

"Any word on Rinok or the artifact?"

"None. I know he went back to Valla, or at least I think he did, but I don't know where it is." Odom sighed again. "You know how terrifying it is planeswalking to a plane you've never been to. It might not even be where you think it is."

"Sa'Raah?"

"Tarkir, likely. Sarkhan hardly leaves the plane these days and from what we gathered in the maze they're romantically involved."

"This isn't good at all," Sverre pouted. "I went to all this trouble to set up a celebration of life for your poor little creation and you're the only guest who bothered to come. You could have at least found Ashleigh and gotten her to show up."

"I keep telling you all I'm not her keeper, just her friend."

"Still going with that, huh? Anyone can see you guys are more than friends."

"Okay, so we mess around sometimes."

"You miss her. You spent years making her a present that could only be brought to life when she decided to come back. You defend her at every turn, and I heard you say you love her. Face it, Odom. You've got a girlfriend. An actual girlfriend, and I'm honestly quite proud of how much you've grown not only as a planeswalker but as a man. The reason your assistants aren't working out is because you don't want an assistant, you want a partner."

Odom looked off to the side, searching anything to not meet Sverre's eyes. He'd always considered himself too busy for actual attachments. People were like variables in an experiment, they could be changed until the right result was achieved, but replacing Ash hadn't worked at all. It was practical to keep looking for new assistants rather than waiting around on a partner who might never show up, but did he really want to do that?

"You have a lot of thinking to do, so I'll leave you to it. I have a feeling I'm needed in the grand foyer." Sverre brushed past Odom and made his way back along the darkened halls.

Leaning against the wall talking idly with Oona was Marthel, accompanied by a very distraught Kyari.

"Friends, welcome to my home. I see you left your angel at home, Marthel. I hope she isn't too worried about you. The confines of my realm are some of the safest on this entire plane," Sverre said grandly.

"I'm just pleased to finally be invited to your house, Sverre, although being underground doesn't really sit well with Kyari."

"Can you not smell it?" Kyari asked Oona. "Death everywhere. It's nauseating."

"That's what the flowers are for," Oona said, stroking a petal lovingly. "Besides, without death on this plane there would be no new life. When creatures die their bodies wind up here to be consumed by fungi and brought back into the great tree."

"But… there are zombies."

"Just a quirk of the magic," Oona explained. "There is an endless cycle of birth and death, war and peace, order and chaos. Each time the cycle turns to war, death, and chaos, the zombies here take up arms and follow Jormungandr to the surface to clash with the Guardians living above in the tree branches."

"That's…" Kyari paused, thinking about all the different forms in which she had encountered the balance of nature. "That's actually quite beautiful. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. But how does this cycle avoid meaningless death?"

"The Guardians are reborn from the souls of willing heroes every cycle. Only those who choose to give their lives have to, and from these the Valkyries select candidates to be reborn as Guardians out of the great tree. The Valkyries are sort of like angels, they do have wings and are immortal."

"That's actually where Nadia is now," Kyari said. "She's intrigued by angels of all planes. I hope she doesn't draw too much attention to herself, though."

"She'll be fine. I'm sure the Valkyries will welcome her as a sister. New ones do appear from time to time, and sometimes older ones disappear. There are writings of a Valkyrie without wings who was the most powerful of them all, said to have created them and blessed them with wings to distinguish their purity and valor from other races," Oona explained.

"Let me guess, her name was Serra?" Kyari asked.

"Her name was lost to the ages, but if theories surrounding the ancient planeswalker Serra are correct, it might be an artifact of all planes being connected and a sort of racial memory among all angels."

"Sverre's been teaching you a lot, hasn't he?" Kyari asked.

"No," Oona said, smiling smugly. "I just listen well when he has conversations and forgets I'm in his hood. It's easier to eavesdrop on planes where I'm smaller, though."

"Oona, I'd like to apologize for underestimating you," Kyari said sheepishly.

"No worries. I have become used to people underestimating the fae because we are usually so small."

"Well," Sverre interjected himself into their conversation, "if these are all the guests that will be in attendance, then I suppose the feast should begin. This way to the dining hall."

"I made sure to prepare some plant based dishes for you, Kyari, in case your tribe of elves doesn't dine on animals," Oona informed her.

"Thank you, Oona. That's very thoughtful."

"I've encountered many different creatures on my travels. It never hurts to be prepared."

Odom was already inside. A large banner painted with the words "CELEBRATING ABBY" hung across the dining hall and a long mahogany table piled high with roasted meats, boats of soup, bowls of fresh fruit, and a rather ambitious centerpiece of vegetables assembled to form a swan with bright red cherry tomatoes for eyes greeted the guests.

"I had planned for all eight of us to be present, obviously excluding Rinok and his ilk. Not that they would come, anyway. They'd view this as a trap. And it would have been a good one. We could have recovered the artifact." Sverre said, taking his seat at the head of the table. Oona took her seat to his right.

Kyari sat down beside Oona, "Does it bother you that he forgot about you?" She whispered.

"He means eight planeswalkers. I obviously would be here. See, there are ten chairs."

"Can we actually start talking business, Sverre?" Marthel asked sharply.

"First, a toast," Sverre insisted. He stood and raised his golden goblet, filled to the brim with blood red wine. "We are here today to honor a valiant creature who is no longer with us. Of course, I am speaking of our dear friend Odom's creation, Abby. Abby came into this world only looking to be loved and many of us here did just that, we showered the creature with affection, eager to see what it might choose to become. But there were others whose selfish actions have now cost us the company of such an adorable being. When all Abby wanted to do was help us, they saw its actions only as malicious. They were clouded by bias and-"

"If this is just going to be a let's bash Brock hour, I'm leaving, Sverre," Kyari said.

"Agreed," Marthel said. "We need to talk about more serious matters, Sverre."

"Did any of you think this might be serious for Odom?" Sverre barked.

Every eye in the room turned to the unusually withdrawn mad scientist.

"Sverre, this is great and all, but I've already come to terms with what happened. I was ready for it the second it happened. The person who needs this kind of thing isn't here right now, and none of us know where to find her, so we can dispense with the frivolity and actually talk about serious matters. The artifact."

"We know Rinok has the artifact, or we think he does," Marthel said. "It wasn't around after the rest of you left, and I saw Ashleigh talking to him before he left. I'm thinking he took it and when she tried to stop him, he somehow threatened her into submission. It would have had to be a pretty powerful threat, because usually she doesn't know when to quit."

"Yeah," Odom said, "those self-destructive tendencies of hers."

"What do you make of what she cried out at the end before planeswalking, Odom. She said 'that wasn't what I wanted at all,' or something similar." Marthel picked at his food.

"When things don't go her way she tends to get a bit emotional," Odom said.

"A bit?" Kyari almost spit out her celery soup, which would have been a shame since it was delicious. She detected hints of Innistrad garlic, and some variants of thyme and fennel.

"Okay. A lot. She'll go off by herself for a while, adopt some new persona, and try to forget it all. She was a pirate captain on Alara for a while after we left, Kyari. Her nobility phase on Innistrad lasted a few years. She keeps coming back to Ravnica to try and get a place in the Izzet guild, which would be pretty easy considering Niv likes her well enough. She impresses him every time, and nearly explodes every time. Two things he likes." Odom explained around his mouthful of bread.

"So, she's unstable and runs off a lot when things don't go her way. Do you think she went after Rinok?" Kyari asked.

"Doubtful," Marthel said. "None of us have any idea about his plans, so she'd be running in blind which isn't the smart thing to do."

"If you'll recall," Oona spoke up, "she did serve under me as a sort of military commander. Running in blind was her specialty. Improvising proved to be her best tactic. It's likely she went after Rinok and that she's working on a way to retrieve the artifact and stop him."

"Oona, dear," Sverre smiled patronizingly, "it's been a long time since she was your little lieutenant."

"Sverre, do not patronize me. You don't know how to think about children."

"She's hardly a child," Marthel pointed out.

"Compared to me," Oona said, locking eyes one by one with every planeswalker in the room, "you are all children. Rinok will want to cement his victories, correct? To prove his dominance by disrupting natural processes and inciting eternal war? My guess is that he will want to start somewhere he has failed before."

"Kamigawa," Kyari breathed.

"What?" Sverre asked.

"When I first met Rinok, he was trying to incite another Kami War, but from what Tamiyo and Narset have told me, that effort failed. It was featured during one of their story circles with Ajani and Elspeth, may she rest in peace."

"Whoa hold up," Marthel sat upright. "Elspeth is dead?"

"You didn't know? Heliod, the Sun God of Theros, killed her after she went on a quest for him."

"I knew he killed someone, but…" Marthel grew quiet. "She was a hero to my people, to Bant. She wasn't born one of us, but she still saved countless people. That's… I… I never liked that guy…"

"That's all you can say? You never liked him?" Odom said, confused.

"What else am I supposed to say? I can't kill a god," Marthel said. "Not without a weapon of a god."

"You don't think Rinok would go after the Godsend, would he?" Kyari asked.

"No," Sverre said emphatically. "He has no reason to do that. If he's going to Kamigawa, they have plenty of ways to commit acts of violence against the spirits there to start another Kami War. The portal could help him move his forces from Valla, or at least a small portion of his generals. I don't think he'd take his whole army out of that fight, someone has to keep their endless cycle going."

"So he's going to use the artifact to move pieces of his army from Valla to Kamigawa. That's literally all we've got," Odom said.

"It's a starting point," Kyari said. "We at least know what we can do."

"We?" Odom asked.

"You're not coming?" Kyari asked, aghast at the suggestion.

"You've been spending too much time with Brock. I don't have a horse in this race. I just want the artifact so I can show my face in Niv Mizzet's audience chamber again. Stolen Simic technology that will make the other green aligned guilds obsolete can only get me so far." Odom leaned back in his chair. "Wars on other planes aren't in my wheelhouse. Go find the Jacestice League for that."

"He means the Gatewatch," Marthel said.

"But we're going to be responsible for the destruction he visits upon Kamigawa," Kyari said.

"Not really," Sverre said. "We merely lost possession of an artifact that allows people who are not planeswalkers to move between planes. If I recall, there was a young man during the War of Mirran Resistance who was trying to do the same thing."

"You met Venser?" Marthel said.

"In passing. Shame about his health, he was one smart cookie." Sverre took a bite out of his leg of lamb.

"I cannot believe either of you," Kyari said. She pushed her chair back and stormed out of the room.

"I had better follow her, Marthel stammered. "She probably just needs some air."

"Oh, I need more than just air, Marthel," Kyari called. "I need new friends."

"Look, let me find Nadia first and then we can go straight to the Oboro Palace. Tamiyo should be home, we can warn her."

Odom and Sverre were left alone. Oona quietly sipped her own bowl of soup, glancing back and forth between them.

"I think that went well," Oona said sarcastically.

"At least someone got spurred to action," Sverre said, grinning. "I would go, but I'm needed here. My experiments are far too delicate for me to leave them for an extended period of time right in the middle of the distillation process."

"I don't get why everyone keeps dragging me into stuff like this. I just wanted the artifact for my guild. I still want it. But there's really not much else I can do when it comes to a war. I'm not really a fighter, you saw that, right?" Odom said.

"I do recall that one time you impersonated Brock and freaked him out quite a bit," Sverre said.

"So I can morph myself into people. Did they want me to volunteer as a spy or something? Like that was going to happen."

"Odom," Oona said, "I think right now Kyari and Marthel are feeling pretty alone and all they want are some allies."

"I don't want to get involved with this, though. This isn't my fight."

"If Rinok succeeds, where do you think he'll stop?" Oona asked.

Sverre and Odom passed a knowing look between them. They both had the answer.

He wouldn't.