The Bookmage and his Guard

by Dr.JohannesGeorgesFausteXIII

Airia was an artificial plane created by a Planeswalker before the mending. It was a constantly shifting landscape where the impossible was possible thanks to two rival factions: The Bookmages, who fashioned grimoires of spells and complex constructs dedicated to maintaining reality, and The Nettlekin, who protected the wilds from new horrors. That all changed when an Eldrazi came.

1. Prologue- A Silence Louder Than Screams

Faust'ian Paktu awoke with a jolt to the sounds of screams. Not any physical screams, but the ones that still haunted him from his dying home. "No." Faust'ian shook his head, thinking aloud quietly to himself. "Dead. Not dying."

Irides'net stood nearby her painted wood-like armor glinting in the starlight. Her voice was tired, irritable from the travel across dimensions. "Good, you're awake. I tried to scout a little, but I still can't make heads or tails of where you have taken us."

Faust'ian groaned. Every bit of his body ached. "Why do you sound so accusatory, Des?"

Irides'net scoffed and her reply was seething with sarcastic ire. "Oh. I don't know. Perhaps because the bookmages were toying with forces beyond their understanding? Or it could be you and me should have died with Mes'chre?"

Faust'ian sighed and looked at his surroundings. Around them was an odd cityscape of abandoned buildings, but they didn't have the infinite overlap of home. No mobius strip architecture that defy gravity, no staircases to nowhere or everywhere where time didn't seem to matter, but most unfortunately, it was unfamiliar in it's mundane normalcy. "Can we discuss this later, please? I mean, shouldn't we discuss our immediate survival?"

The Former Captain of the Nettlekin took a deep breath and pursed her lips. "You're right, Faust. It's just been rough. Doesn't it concern you? Everyone we ever knew is dead."

His hand instinctively twitched to the leatherbound book with vellum pages that lay strapped to his side like a satchel. 'Should I tell her?' He thought. Aloud, he cleared his throat and looked her in the eye. "We're bound together now, Des. It doesn't matter what came before. What matters now is to assimilate into this place and learn what we can. Did you at least learn the name of this place?"

She nodded her her head wearily. "The city is called Paliano."

"Well, then. Let us learn about this Paliano. The emptiness here in this place...the silence is louder than those screams that haunt me."

With that, Faust'ian Paktu went to find a library where he could do research and reluctantly Irides'net followed.