In-Jace-tice for All
Author's Note: This is an odd duck. It's alternate universe and played straight, yet has Un-set accents and includes meta references to controversies that've arisen in the card game. Titled after episodes 18 and 19 of Justice League, "Injustice for All". Enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of Magic: The Gathering.
Summary:
Liliana Vess' encounter with the Oriq in the Biblioplex takes a detour.
The figure was masked, she could see now—the space where the eyes should be were covered only with smooth, flat metal.
Liliana slung her death magic at the intruder, holding back enough its impact wouldn't prove fatal. Based off the lethargizing effects of the extracurricular spell the trespasser failed to hit her with, she wisely deduced this crook breaking into the library wasn't enrolled at Strixhaven.
Excellent. She wouldn't have to explain to the faculty how she wound up "accidentally" killing a student.
The rogue landed on their back, shone blue all of a sudden, then transformed to reveal to Liliana an unforgettable face.
"Jace?" Her expression moved from gritted to genuine surprise.
Rumours about a secret society overhanging the university… a shadowy cabal…reduced to her on/off fling and former Gatewatch teammate.
What if the Oriq were all Jace? Projecting illusory copies of himself was one of the tricks in his bag.
A phase of angst-driven childishness playing on the gossip around school was preferable to a sinister intraplanar conspiracy. Liliana had sat through a lion's share of politics, politicking, and political assassinations during her brief stay on Fiora, and was not looking to watch more heads roll.
Just quiet time off to stew over Gideon's sacrifice privately (or to Beledros Witherbloom). Why was quiet so scarce in the Multiverse? It was always conflict, conflict, conflict!
Don't sell her the slogan that conflict tends to make for more compelling stories. She'd be compelled to respectfully disagree (the old young her wouldn't be as hospitable).
Liliana liked a stimulating battle or entertaining cheat. Just not this instant (which black sucked at). The events which led her to revisit her Witherbloom roots had physically and spiritually drained her.
"Jace" underwent second and third transformations, becoming the mascot for Quandrix, then lines of nothing.
A fractal. Liliana's expression moved again, now to severe. Plagiarism, of speeches, art, and individuals' identities without permission, may obligate suspension or expulsion from the university.
Of the five colleges, Quandrix was chosen by pupils majoring in numeromancy, mental magic a discipline thereof. Witherbloom offered classes where you could learn to brew potions to change a pest's form, but doubling, illusions, and polymorphing were Quandrix lessons. Prismari dabbled in illusion, but wasn't this subtle.
Someone in the "Math is Magic" crowd was Nicol Bolas-ing.
Ominous. Unless Jace Beleren planeswalked and was spotted on campus, the culprit would have no reference for replicating the thought architect's image. Strixhaven attendees were more aware planeswalkers and other worlds existed compared to the average person (the Mystical Archive archived every spell ever cast in the Multiverse), but that didn't mean any first-year could stroll into the Biblioplex, read about Jace, and recreate him at this level of detail.
Whoever they were, they were also a planeswalker.
Before Liliana reached suspicion's crux, Dean Shaile Talonrook called from the end of the hall.
"Professor Onyx?" The owlin frowned, and eventually, Liliana departed with her.
…
The blue in Kasmina's eyes decreased to an ember, the wavy locks of her honey hair undulating beneath her hood as she pressed forward on foot through the staggering vastness of the forest. Neither Liliana nor Dean Talonrook had spied Kasmina's familiar, one of multitudes, compulsively researching them above the stacks.
Here on Arcavios, planeswakers were easier to identify because planeswalking wasn't a retconned secret.
Give an alias. Teach magecraft. Liliana's motives for her low profile probably had to do with the enemies she made acting as the dragon's unwilling pawn. To Kasmina, Professor Onyx wasn't the enigma she set herself out to be.
Kasmina couldn't have Liliana's epiphany on Ravnica turn into a moral streak. Let her slow down someone else's plans.
Kasmina's "In-Jace-tice Gang" – the transmuted double agents she'd planted among the Oriq – would have to mislead Liliana while their mentor progressed. With any luck, after the number crunch, Jace and the merry heroes of the Jacetice League wouldn't be making an appearance.
Ringed by her owls, Kasmina picked up the pace toward the clearing where she arranged to meet Will and Rowan Kenrith, the sage squeezing tight her crooked staff.