Mentor and Student
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Nahiri lived amongst her people for a few decades before she once again became tired of life. Once again, she fell into a deep slumber.
One thousand years later.
Nahiri was one with the world.
Eyes closed, Nahiri remained in her cocoon of stone, every inch of her skin connected to the bedrock, the solid foundation of Zendikar. Everything that touched the earth touched her, an endless march of meaningless motion as she and the world simply existed, being without doing.
Nahiri felt a change ripple through the world. The tremors were minor at first, not urgent enough to shake her from her slumber, but soon she could not ignore them any longer.
Nahiri awoke.
She scattered the rock that she had piled around herself and stood slowly, stretching limbs long unused. With the stone floor bucking beneath her, she took careful steps—anchoring each foot to the stone with her lithomancy.
Her hands felt strange. Feeling...felt strange. She looked at her palms. There were small scratches on them. Scratches that she had not initially noticed. She willed the wounds closed, but nothing happened. Her body was no longer an extension of her sense of self. Once again, as it had been long ago, it was just...a body. Flesh and bone. She could feel the blood pumping through her veins, every breath forcing air into lungs that had needed none for millennia.
Stunned, Nahiri wondered if she was still a Planeswalker. She pushed against the walls of the world, experimentally, and tried to move in that unreal direction only Planeswalkers could sense. She felt the walls of the world around her—she was still a Planeswalker, whatever had happened to her body—but as she probed them, those walls proved far firmer than she remembered. They had been a soap bubble; now they were a barrier that would take will and time to overcome. Was she so diminished, after her long slumber?
But no. No. She pushed, the way she always had. The problem wasn't strength. The walls really were higher, thicker. The Blind Eternities were less connected to this place than they had been when she arrived. The shape of the universe had changed, while she slept. She could feel it.
But she was still a Planeswalker. Whatever that meant.
With effort, she cast herself into the Blind Eternities. They tore at her, assailed her, just as they always had.
She looked up and saw the Helvault before her.
Nahiri had returned to Innistrad.
She spent some time searching for Sorin. Searching for answers. Unlike before, she was unable to sense him. She had lost much of her powers over the millennium, yet mercifully she still retained her powers over stone.
Eventually, she met other Planeswalkers. She briefly came across a Planeswalker who wished to regain youth and power, and from this Planeswalker, Nahiri learned about the Mending, an event that had changed the Planeswalker spark. No longer were Planeswalkers the immortal, all-powerful, beings that they were before. Planeswalkers were now mages who were barely able to travel between planes.
Nahiri considered the consequences of her mortality.
For millennia, Nahiri had guarded Zendikar. Protected Zendikar from the Eldrazis imprisoned on the plane. Twice over the past thousands of years, Nahiri had awoken to disturbances where the Eldrazis had attempted to break free from their prison. Twice, Nahiri had to use her powers of lithomancy to seal them.
Nahiri had spent many years teaching lithomancy to generations of kor. Yet, no one cared to maintain the hedron network that imprisoned the Eldrazis. It was a burden that Nahiri had to shoulder alone.
Who would carry this burden once Nahiri was gone?
A sound brought Nahiri out of her thoughts.
Nahiri looked up to see an angel carrying a young woman to the mountain pass where she stood. No sooner had the angel set the woman down on the ground, did she fly back up again.
The young woman gazed up at the angel, awestricken and amazed.
Nahiri silently moved until she stood beside the woman.
The woman appeared to be a simple mortal with a petite frame. Her dark eyes were staring in wonder at the angel that was flying away. Her dark hair, which could have been neater, was slightly haphazardly strewn down to her shoulders. Her fair skin was illuminated by the setting Innistrad sun. The woman wore a thick light grey shirt that covered her torso and arms. A symbol and lettering that Nahiri did not recognize adorned the front of the woman's shirt. Below the shirt was a simple pair of rough dark blue pants with what appeared to be small pouches on the front. Only the woman's thick leather boots appeared to be suited for the woods of Innistrad.
The clothes that this woman wore were not from any culture on Innistrad. Her demeanor and her appearance did not seem to fit with the people of Innistrad.
This woman was another Planeswalker.
The woman turned and was startled to see Nahiri standing beside her.
"Hello there!" she greeted Nahiri.
Nahiri merely smiled.
"Erm, I'm Christina," the woman said hesitantly.
Nahiri extended a hand.
"Nahiri"
Nahiri spoke with the young woman. Christina was born on a plane called Earth. Apparently, she had left her home to purchase food and supplies when she was attacked by a large explosion. The attack had forced her Planeswalker spark to ignite. Understandably, the young woman did not know what a Planeswalker was and had assumed that she had died.
"So, I ended up on this place called Innistrad," Christina said conversationally, "Wow, and I was just thinking to myself, Heaven is a bit different from what I imagined."
Nahiri simply listened and said nothing.
When Christina had finished excitedly talking about her first impression of Innistrad, Nahiri begun to explain. Places like Innistrad were called planes. Planes are self-contained universes and there are an infinite number of planes within what is called the multiverse. The spaces between planes are the Blind Eternities. Only incredibly powerful gods or Planeswalkers have the ability to travel through the Blind Eternities.
"So, besides being able to travel between planes, what else can we do?" Christina asked.
Nahiri could not sense any magical powers coming from this young woman.
"Being a Planeswalker does not granted you additional powers beyond being able to travel between planes. Your innate magical powers may be enhanced, but that is only if you had magical powers to begin with," she replied.
Nahiri did not mention the Mending or how the Planeswalkers of old were much more powerful.
Nahiri stretched out a hand. The stones in front of the lithomancer became white-hot, and she willed the contents from the molten stones. She drew a blade, pulsing with the energy of their stone forge, and grabbed it.
The young woman watched Nahiri.
Slowly the woman raised her own hand. The stones in front of her glowed the same way Nahiri's had. The woman then drew a stone blade from her molten stones.
"Like this?"
From a distance, one can easily mistake the stone blade for Nahiri's.
Nahiri gripped the blade and examined it.
Upon closer inspection, Nahiri saw that the appearance of the stone blade was an attempted imitation of her own. Yet, even though the stone blade was not as intricate as Nahiri's, it still carried the same power. It was good enough.
Nahiri regarded the woman in a new light. She now sensed a magical power flowing through the woman. A magical power not unlike her own.
Nahiri decided to test something.
"Do you see those humans before us? The ones over there?"
She pointed at a group of cathars resting on the wide Hofsaddel pass, not far from where they stood. A few of them were casting minor healing spells on their comrades.
The young woman squinted at the cathars. She pulled out a small device—two round pieces of glass fastened by thin wires. She placed the wires on her ears so that the two pieces of glass were in front of her eyes.
Nahiri observed that the woman had poor eyesight.
"They seem to be healing each other," Christina commented. Her brows furrowed in concentration. Her own hands glowed with the same healing magic, as Nahiri watched her.
This woman was able to mimic the powers of others.
"Try using the healing magic on your eyes," Nahiri suggested.
The young woman looked at her in alarm. "But what if—?"
Nahiri smiled reassuringly. "I will help you if anything goes wrong."
Christina looked at her glowing hands and took a deep breath. Her eyes started to glow with the same power. After a moment, she pulled off her eyeglasses.
"Wow! After so many years, I can finally see without them!" she exclaimed.
Nahiri smiled.
For the next few months, as they traveled between Zendikar and Innistrad, Nahiri taught Christina the basics of lithomancy. During their lessons, they discovered that Christina was able to convert mana from one color to another.
Her new student was stronger than she had expected.
The young woman had many strengths. For one, she was a fast learner and soon she would be able to progress to more advanced topics of magic.
Of course, everyone also had their weaknesses.
"AURGH!" Once again, Christina had managed to planeswalk into the air, a meter from where the Innistrad ground was.
She crashed unceremoniously onto the ground.
Nahiri landed more gracefully on the ground besides her. Nahiri was a kor from Zendikar, after all. Leaping from precarious place to precarious place was second nature to her.
Nahiri shook her head.
"That simply won't do."
Christina rolled over onto her back.
"Ow. Ow. Owww."
Nahiri frowned at her student. Christina understood and quickly got up. She cast the minor healing spell that she had learned so many months ago, and had gotten so accustomed to.
"You must learn to land on your feet," Nahiri often said.
"But I can just heal myself," Christina had always replied.
Nahiri saw her student easily mimic the mountain climbing skills of the kor in Zendikar. She also saw her student mimic the physical combat that the cathars in Innistrad practiced. She saw her student learn the basics of lithomancy on the dangerous cliffs of Innistrad and Zendikar.
Nahiri didn't understand why her young student couldn't learn something as simple as landing on her own feet.
Nahiri had also noticed small things about her student. She loved life. She loved good food, good conversation, and good companionship. She also loved music and dance, which she would demonstrate by playing songs on a small device that she often carried with her.
She loved to share, and Nahiri would often find her student bringing her delicious food. Interestingly, she noticed that her student did not eat meat of any kind.
Her student loved to talk. She loved to ask questions. She asked about Innistrad. She asked questions about angels. She asked questions about Nahiri and the Zendikar plane that she came from. Eventually Nahiri did tell her student about the old Planeswalkers and how the Mending changed their powers. She told her student about the Eldrazis and how they were sealed away in her plane. She told her student of the years she spent in slumber, yet feeling and watching over her plane.
Yet, she noticed that her young student rarely talked about herself. Once, when Nahiri asked to visit her plane, her student simply said,
"It's dangerous. More dangerous than Zendikar or Innistrad and my world is ruined anyway."
Nahiri didn't ask any more questions about her plane.
Despite the mysteries surrounding her student, there was no doubt that her student was loyal, responsible and most importantly, reliable.
"Would you help me destroy the Eldrazis?"
"Of course." Her young student had answered without hesitation.
Christina looked at her refrigerator. It was empty, except for the water that leaked from an edge of the machine to the first shelf.
Ever since her city—no—ever since the world shut down, there had been many limitations imposed on her life. How long people were allowed to wander outside their homes. Where they could travel. The quantity of supplies and food they could purchase. Christina followed these rules and found herself with an empty refrigerator.
She sighed.
Her friends were busy with their own lives. Before the current crisis, they had only met in person every few years. While they have continued to keep in touch, leaving occasional messages for each other on social media just wasn't the same as meeting with each other in person.
Her closest family had passed away a few years ago. Her remaining extended family simply viewed her as a source of income. Any correspondence was to ask for money, never caring about whether she was alive or dead.
Regardless, she still needed to eat.
Christina closed her refrigerator door. She changed her t-shirt into her favorite brand name sweatshirt, and exchanged her pajama bottoms for a pair of expensive navy-blue jeans.
She slipped her smartphone into her jeans pocket and tucked a handheld solar charger into her other pocket. Her smartphone was at full capacity, but Christina still carried her solar charger. To her, it felt like a good luck charm.
She then habitually started looking for her keys. Then she remembered that the current home that she was renting used a fingerprint keylock system. She had no need for keys.
She only had herself that she needed to support. Sure, there were a few people who constantly asked her for money. But she wasn't obligated to support them. They had income and savings. Some of them even lived more comfortably than her. They didn't need her money.
With the money that she made, she was able to live a comfortable, albeit lonely, life.
Well, her life was as comfortable as it could possibly be in this time of danger.
Christina stepped outside her apartment and closed her door. No sooner had she left her building when a terrible flash of light lit up in front of her.
Someone had thrown a small makeshift bomb into the store in front of her.
Christina turned around and started running in the opposite direction.
But there was another explosion there as well.
A brilliant flash of light.
Christina was falling.
Am I dead? Is this what dying feels like?
A pair of strong arms caught her. The person holding her was weightless, yet powerful.
Christina opened her eyes and found herself looking up at a rather stern and determined expression. The red-haired woman holding her had an expression befitting a warrior, and her steel-grey eyes were fixated on the approaching ground before them.
Then, she noticed the wings.
An angel was carrying her.
Is this Heaven?
The angel set her down on the ground, on what seemed to be a large mountain pass, and flew off.
Christina couldn't help but gape at the angel. The majesty, the strength, and the beauty of the angel elicited awe.
But she felt someone watching her, and that someone was slowly moving towards her.
Christina turned around and was startled at what she saw.
A woman with white hair and dusty white skin stood next to her, observing her. She wore a leathery material that seemed suited for blacksmiths.
Over the years, Christina had gotten pretty good at reading people. It was a necessary skill that one would need to learn to live in the dangerous world that she came from.
This woman was simply curious. Rightfully so, Christina looked pretty different from her.
Christina decided to greet her. After all, that was what people did when they saw other people right?
"Hello there!"
The woman merely smiled.
"Erm, I'm Christina," Christina said hesitantly. Was she supposed to offer a handshake? Did this woman do handshakes?
The woman extended a hand.
"Nahiri"
Christina made a new friend that day. A very valuable friend who quickly became her mentor.
Nahiri taught her many things. The first thing she taught her was that she was now a Planeswalker. The second most important thing that she taught her was that she now had the ability to mimic other people's powers. The third important concept that she taught her was that she could convert mana from one color to another. Well, the second and third things were discovered by accident, but without Nahiri's help, it would have taken her some time to notice it.
Christina knew that there was a reason why Nahiri took her as a student. After all, there is always a price for everything.
Christina knew what she had to do. She made it a personal goal to share a delicious meal with her mentor at least once a week. She asked her mentor to take her to see Zendikar and learn about her people, the kor. She was open and (mostly) honest with her mentor. She asked questions when she was confused. She voiced (most of) her opinions openly.
Over the course of time, Christina's friendliness and openness won her mentor over. She eventually got Nahiri to open up to her. She discovered that her mentor was not just a few years older than her, but rather thousands of years old. Nahiri was part of an older breed of Planeswalkers who were immortal and powerful. After the Mending that happened a few years ago, an event that even her mentor had very little knowledge of, the nature of the Planeswalker's spark had changed. Planeswalkers were now mortal mages that were barely able to travel from one world to another. Nahiri had spent most of her long life guarding the Eldrazi titans who were trapped in her plane, preventing the titans from freeing themselves and wreaking havoc. Yet, now that she was mortal, she worried about who would watch over the Eldrazis. When she discovered Christina, she realized that she may have the power to help her finally destroy the Eldrazis once and for all.
Christina couldn't imagine spending thousands of years watching over forces that could destroy the multiverse. It was an amazing feat. Even more amazing was that she may be able to help eliminate these terrible forces. So, when her mentor asked her if she would help her finally destroy the Eldrazis, she was already prepared with her answer.
"Of course."