Planar Chaos

Chapter 13: Preparations

After Odom left for his appointment with Niv Mizzet, it was time for Ashleigh to feed little Abby.

"I'm curious," Sverre said, peering over Ashleigh's shoulder at the abomination, "what does it eat?"

"At the moment, we're feeding it a concoction similar to what Maelstrom Wanderer eats. It seems to like it." She placed a glowing syringe next to the creature's beak. The shimmering liquid was squeezed into its mouth, then the syringe was refilled from a large beaker several more times before the creature refused any more.

"Are any of its abilities emerging?" Sverre asked.

"We'll know more as it grows and gets larger. I think it's going to be able to fly. Abby's got vestigial wings, but they might grow to be big enough to support it." Ashleigh flipped the creature onto its belly and extended one leathery wing. The beginnings of a crest of feathers could be seen on its skull, snaking their way along its spine to the tail. The seven tentacles twitched and writhed, trying to find purchase on Ashleigh's lap.

"I certainly hope it grows fast," Sverre said. "We might need a trump card if we're going to access that research before the others get there."

"I think you have a trump card already, dear," Oona said, crawling from her hiding place inside Sverre's hood. As soon as the arguing started, she'd taken refuge inside her king's cloak, not daring to come out until some semblance of a tranquil atmosphere had been achieved. She sat elegantly on Sverre's shoulder, looking into the eyes of her former champion as she did so.

Ashleigh almost dropped the abomination in her lap. Her jaw dropped so far that it would have, if it were capable of doing so, hit the floor.

"Oo-Oona?" she stammered. The Queen of the Fae just smiled politely.

"But," Ashleigh's mind was reeling more than usual. The combination of the ever present voices and the shock was too much. When she spoke, she looked at the creature in her lap, not at Oona. "You died. I saw... and Maralen, she... Lorwyn is... How?" Her face turned dark. She looked up at Sverre accusingly. "You!"

"Not me." Sverre held up his hands in a non-threatening gesture. "Well, kind of me. But no resurrection at all. We made a clone, secreted Oona away. She's been living with me on Helheim ever since as my queen."

"You didn't think to tell me?" Ashleigh narrowed her eyes.

"To be fair, I'm not exactly welcome on Innistrad, and you did a pretty good job of holing yourself up there."

"Not exactly welcome? The whole place is filled with Ghoulcallers and Stitchers. You'd fit right in."

"Sorin would have it a different way," Sverre said sheepishly.

"What could you have possibly done to make the lord of Innistrad that angry at you?"

"I may or may not have tried to resurrect a dark angel at some point. Avacyn got angry and dragged Sorin into the conflict."

"Well it's a good thing you never tested your luck. The angels have gone mad. Everyone is a target for their purification now. My house is testament to that." Ashleigh sighed. "But how is Oona our trump card?"

"As Queen of the Fae, I've found that I command the respect and obedience of every fairy on every plane I've visited with Sverre so far. My influence stretches farther than our enemies could imagine. We can easily pick their plans from their dreams as well." Oona fluttered over to Ashleigh, placing a tiny hand on the woman's cheek. "You were so young when we parted, but it makes me happy to see you've made a new family for yourself."

"I was alone for a while, you know," Ashleigh said grimly. "I had to be. Maralen, she did something to me. I don't know what it was."

"May I?" Oona asked. When Ashleigh nodded hesitantly the Queen of the Fae slipped inside her mind, searching through her dreams for a cause.

"I can't be sure that Maralen didn't have powers I couldn't control. This torment might be her doing, but it might be a natural response to the changes on Lorwyn. With the daily cycle reinstated, the denizens could very well have daily fluctuations in their mannerisms. You are not of Lorwyn, but lived there long enough to be bound to its magics." Oona drew her hand away. "Unfortunately there is nothing I can do."

"It's fine, Oona," Ashleigh looked back down at the gray abomination in her lap. It returned her adoring gaze. "Abby does enough."

0000

"You guys go back to wherever you're going to be, I'll catch up." Sa'Raah broke from her group and headed in the direction she thought the main Izzet laboratory complex would be. Her comrades knew of her plans to speak to the Firemind, to bring him to her cause, and they were more than a little skeptical.

"Good luck, Sa'Raah," Kyari said, still keeping a firm grasp on Brock's wrist. They watched as the dragon girl faded into the crowded Ravnica streets.

"I don't understand why you're going to let them keep that thing," Brock said. The vein in his forehead still throbbed with frustration.

"And I don't understand what your obsession with destroying it is. It's an innocent creature, and a completely new life form. Aren't you the least bit curious?" Kyari said.

"No, I'm not. And that thing is not innocent. It was born from evil and will be raised by evil. I told Marthel her influence over Odom worried me, and now he'll see why."

"I'll see what?" Marthel ghosted up beside them in his white cloak.

"You'll understand exactly why the Voidcaller and that thing have to be destroyed for good, for the protection of the entire multiverse. You'll see why we can't let anyone else have that research because they'll misuse it," Brock said emphatically.

"So you want to hide the truth from people?" Marthel asked. "For the greater good? Isn't that what your master did? Isn't that why Narset got thrown out of the Ojutai, because she sought knowledge and wanted to share it?"

"I'm all for peace and the greater good, I just can't see why you have a vendetta against someone that hasn't done anything yet. You need patience, Brock, maybe then you'll understand your enemy and have the means to turn her into an ally." Kyari switched from a vise grip on Brock's wrist to calmly holding his hand.

"I don't want to ally myself with someone that mentally unstable," Brock retorted. "And you sound just like the Soratami, Kyari. I'm sorry. I'm human. I won't live as long as an elf, so I can't exactly have your level of patience. If there is a threat, I have to take it out immediately and they're all threats now, Sverre, Odom, and the Voidcaller."

"How many times have I ever heard you refer to her by name?" Marthel asked. "Because I think I can count them on one hand."

"What does it matter? You of all people should understand what her magic can do, Mathel. You saw what happened to Bant when the Conflux happened. You can't tell me she's any different from the creatures of Grixis that spilled over and defiled your home." Brock threw his hands up, breaking Kyari's grasp.

"I do understand," Marthel said darkly. "Nobody understands more than I do, Brock. When I said the multiverse is my home, I meant it. I've been just about everywhere there is to go, studied everything I could, and learned what I could from every creature I've encountered. You might say that corrupted me, made me selfish and gave me a bit of a temper, but I think it's made me a well rounded person. I understand people. I can help you understand her, if you so desire. If you don't, then we might have a problem in the future. I'm not taking sides in this conflict of yours. I don't want to see my friends tear each other apart over something that might not even be as important and world-shifting as we think it could be. You and Kyari and Sa'Raah can try to get there first, but unless you can work like a team, the kind of team Sverre, Ashleigh, and Odom have, where you're united by your goal, then you won't get very far."

"What exactly does that mean?" Brock asked defiantly. "Kyari agrees with me, we need to keep the research out of the hands of people who would misuse it."

"Brock," Kyari said, "it's not just that goal. I want to amass knowledge, to understand the world and how it grows and changes over time. I could have joined the gatewatch if I wanted to. I could have fought the eldrazi, but fighting them doesn't lead to understanding. That understanding is for the greater good, but I did something you saw as unequivocally bad. Does that make sense?"

Brock opened his mouth to speak, but Kyari cut him off. "I wasn't finished. Sa'Raah's entire worldview is centered around dragons being the superior life form. Whether or not she's right, I can't say. I haven't studied enough dragons yet. But I can tell that you don't think so. You want everyone to be free to determine their own paths, but at the same time you would prevent people you think are 'evil' from doing so. Is Sa'Raah evil because she believes her path to be the Envoy of Dragonfire? We know her. We can agree that she's incredibly kind, one of the nicest walkers I've ever met, but your obsession with preserving the current order skews your ability to accept change. The multiverse is like an ecosystem. Planes have life cycles. They're born, they grow, they die. How are we to decide what is natural and unnatural?"

"We're not." Marthel answered for Brock. "That's the problem we keep running into."

"But," Brock began.

"No buts. There's something you need to see." Marthel grabbed Kyari and Brock by the hand and planeswalked with them to the very first plane he visited upon hatching this plan.

They went to Innistrad.

"Be quiet. Don't make any sudden movements. And whatever you do, don't pray," Marthel instructed.

They were hiding in a bush on the outskirts of a town. Brock felt a strange buzzing in his mind, but ignored it in favor of what was going on in front of him.

Angels, with bloodstained wings, were descending on the township and destroying everyone they saw, from elder to child, even the crying infants in their mother's arms who couldn't understand why those pretty women with wings who decorated the walls of their homes were suddenly so terrifying. Blasts of light rained down from a dark haired angel with a staff. Another one with flaming red hair gutted people on the ground with her twin swords. Other angels followed their lead, corralling the townsfolk and murdering them with twisted expressions of rage and glee.

"Impure!" the lead angels cried in unison. "In the name of Avacyn, we destroy you! Innistrad will be cleansed. Cleansed!"

The other angels followed suit with indecipherable shrieks that occasionally morphed into the words "Impure! Tainted! All men must die!"

"What is going on here?" Brock breathed in horror. "What did this town do to deserve its fate?"

"Absolutely nothing," Marthel responded softly. "The angels have been corrupted by their purpose. They've taken it to the extreme. Without humans, there would be no Ghoulcallers, Stitchers, demon cultists, vampires, werewolves, or any other evil force on Innistrad. So if the seeds of men are tainted, you destroy the seeds before they take root. Do you understand now what we've been trying to tell you?"

"They aren't wrong, though," Brock said. His voice took on a dreamlike quality. The buzzing in his mind grew louder. "They're being proactive about a threat, which is what I'm trying to do."

"Destroying innocent lives isn't something either of us can condone, Brock, you know that," Marthel placed a calming hand on Brock's arm and stared deep inside of Brock with his dark eyes. "I know what you're feeling right now, and you have to fight it. Fight it or you'll end up like them, twisted monsters, a shadow of what they once were."

"Please, Brock," Kyari shifted to kneel in front of him, embracing him and burying her face in his chest. "You need to see."

Brock instinctively wrapped his arms around Kyari, subconsciously protecting her from the corrupted angels. Part of him knew something was wrong with the image, but he couldn't figure out what. The cool touch of Kyari's hands on his temples brought him back to himself. He saw the carnage in front of him for what it was. Senseless slaughter of innocent lives by beings that were supposed to protect them from the evils present on Innistrad. They were the light that had now fallen into shadow. Brock felt as though he was going to be sick.

"We need to leave," Marthel said. "They spotted us." All warmth had drained from his dark face, leaving it ashen.

They planeswalked, back to Ravnica where Sa'Raah would certainly be waiting.

0000

"So what's our plan," Vilhelm asked Rinok and Rhyne as they wandered the streets of Ravnica. "How are we going to go about getting this research and using it to wage eternal war or whatever?" The act was getting difficult to keep up. Vilhelm didn't see himself as a team player, but he now had at his disposal the two most destructive planeswalkers he had ever met. The vampire couldn't help but smile slightly. If anyone was capable of destroying every other walker in existence, including each other, it had to be these two.

"Simple. We get to the maze and murder everyone in our path," Rhyne said, picking at his nails. "It shouldn't really be that hard. Rinok has an army."

"Unfortunately they are current indisposed elsewhere," Rinok said. "I can amass another quite easily, though, as the herald of war."

"I bet the gods of Theros just love you," Rhyne rolled his eyes.

"Mogis and Iroas, certainly," Rinok agreed. "To a certain extent Erebos, Athreos, and possibly Phenax. That last one gets a lot of souls for people bargaining their way out of death."

"You're really excited about this, aren't you?" Vilhelm asked. There had been something in Rinok's voice that made the vampire think the warrior was hiding something.

"I'm just going to enjoy tearing that dragon girl to shreds and sending her body to her precious Sarkhan piece by piece." Rinok's face twisted into a sadistic smile, one mirrored by Rhyne.

"Can I help? Please? If there's anything I know how to do, it's a good dismembering."

Vilhelm wasn't so sure. A dragon army could be useful in his plans of not so hostile takeover. "Why not corrupt her instead? You've both had dealings with her in the past, correct?"

The wild man spoke before the warrior. "I ran into her once. I know it's still in there, that wildness she can't shake. She's tried, but I know one day if we try hard enough she could go feral and revert to her true self."

"I could turn her into a warmonger if I wanted, use her as an eternal combatant, but she did something that can't be forgiven and for that she has to die. She tamed Sarkhan, one of the greatest warriors the Mardu ever knew. He sacrificed hundreds of warriors and achieved his spark ignition in the process. War is a part of him, and now he advocates for peace? I almost preferred him when he was mad." Rinok sighed. "No, the dragon girl has to die. I need to see his warrior spirit again. It's the only way to keep him from fading into shadow, away from the light of glory. It's our place as Mardu warriors!" He thrust a fist into the sky.

Vilhelm himself wasn't listening. He was lost in thought. If they were leaving the plane, how would he break it to Teysa? The great puppet of souls was now himself tethered to the Envoy of Ghosts, at the mercy of her craving for the exquisite sensation of his feeding. Vilhelm had thought a few times of draining her dry and being done with it all, or taking things to their next logical conclusion and making her a vampire to finally be rid of her demands. On more than one occasion he'd been so caught up in feeding that he'd almost bedded her. That hadn't been on his mind since before the Falkenrath had chosen him to join their family. Vilhelm had more important things to think about then, and had more important things to think about now. Those plans meant he needed the Orzhov, at least until the true nature of this research could be ascertained.

Yes, Vilhelm was satisfied with his pawns and how the pieces had fallen on the chessboard. The game would soon begin.