VII.

LILIANA

Liliana stood with her arms crossed and watched with a contented smile as Jace wandered, awe-struck, through the Mystical Archive. The soft light from the glowing blue orbs that lit the truly endless chamber were reflected in his eyes as he muttered to himself in amazement. In that moment, she was thinking how beautiful he was…

When she caught herself being sentimental, however, she returned to her senses and sauntered over to him. "I thought you might like it here. Although, I'm afraid you'll find it's not organized quite how you would expect it…"

"How so?" he asked, but then his eyes were drawn to the wonderment of it all once again.

"Well, I mean, I know how you like your library organized and I'm afraid you'll find this is nothing like what you're used to."

Jace squinted his eyes at her. "Speaking of which—it was you, wasn't it?"

Liliana raised her brows. "What was me?"

"The books…in my sanctum. On Ravnica. It was after you joined the Gatewatch. Before we—before Kaladesh. It hasn't happened since you were there."

She met his gaze with a faint smile, remembering all too well what he was talking about, but insisted, "I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to."

He continued to regard her suspiciously, the vaguest hint of a smile at the corners of his lips. "The books that were out of place. You did it on purpose, didn't you? Just to get under my skin. Ha! How did I not figure it out? Of course, it was you."

"Jace, I don't know what you're talking about." She shrugged. "That was a long time ago."

"Mmhm," Jace hummed skeptically.

"At any rate," Liliana changed the subject, "we are here, and we better not spend too much time, in case someone authorized decides to show up."

Jace drew in a deep breath and looked around thoughtfully. "Where do we even begin?"

Without a word, Liliana summoned a shade. Its sudden appearance in front of them caused Jace to curse aloud and jump in horror. "Warn me when you're going to do that next time."

Liliana chuckled then spoke to the shade in a whisper. "We need to find anything in this archive that speaks of the Planar Bridge, or anything relating to portals within the Blind Eternities…bridges to other planes."

The shade drifted away, and Liliana turned back to Jace. "Shades are perfect for this sort of work."

Jace swallowed with apparent discomfort, and said, "How will we know when it finds something?"

"It will come back and tell me."

"Right. Um, I'm also looking for some things on something called the Lithoform Core. I've exhausted all my own resources in trying to understand it…"

"All right," she said, summoning another shade to send off in search of whatever that was.

Jace cleared his throat. "And the…Meditation Realm."

Liliana turned slowly. She noticed he was rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding eye-contact. She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. "Bolas's Meditation Realm? Why?"

"Well," he cleared his throat again. "Tezzeret spent some time there…before we found him in Kaladesh, you know? And I…think it could be useful to understand some things. About his time there. That could maybe answer some of our questions about where he may have gone."

"Do you think he's hiding out there?"

"Possibly…" His answer didn't exactly sound convincing. There was something he was keeping from her. Eventually, she was going to push for answers, but she decided to let him have this small victory.

"Well, I can summon another shade to search specifically on that topic." She did just that and, like the others, it drifted off into the stacks. Then she turned back to Jace. "Anything else?"

"N-no. Thank you." After a pause, he asked, "Now, what…?"

"Now, we wait." She moved toward one of the tables and pulled out a chair, looking at Jace to see if he was just going to stand there like a buffoon. Instead, he grabbed a chair and sat down next to her, leaning with his elbow on the table. She breathed a sigh of relief. It made her uncomfortable when he didn't at least attempt to relax.

"So, that's it? We let the shades do all the work for us?"

"They won't be doing all the work for us. They'll just help narrow it down a bit. It's a lot easier than wandering aimlessly on our own. I mean, you see how big this is," she said with a graceful gesture with her hand.

He seemed to accept she had a point and finally sat back to wait for results.

JACE

Back in Liliana's sanctum, as Jace had taken to calling her second office, she let him light some of the candles on the table with real flames to make it easier for them to read. While they paged through books and examined scrolls, he noticed the zombie lingering nearby and shivered. "Why does it just stand there? What does it want?"

Liliana was reclined in the chair next to him, her legs up on the table and her ankles crossed. There was a scroll in her hand, but she had stopped looking at it sometime ago. With a careless shrug, she answered, "To be useful. He does whatever I need him to do and otherwise waits for direction."

"Can he…go somewhere else to wait? At least for now…"

Liliana rolled her eyes, sat up, lifted her arms, arched her back to stretch, and then with a delicate wave sent a silent command that the zombie seemed to understand. It let out an obedient moan and walked away. Jace could still smell it, but at least it was out of view.

"How does it stay animated like that? Don't you have to exert energy and continually draw mana to give it life, or something?"

"Normally, yes. But you remember the Eternals of Amonkhet?" She stopped suddenly and a shadow of pain came over her face. He knew she was thinking of all the horrors, not just of their defeat on Amonkhet, but also how those same lazotep-armored undead creatures were under her command in Ravnica. The Dreadhorde.

Jace reached out to touch her hand, to comfort her. She seemed to come back to him, then, and pushing back tears from her eyes, said, "Well, it's basically the same principal, only applied to this chamber."

"Another gift of knowledge from the Mystical Archive, I take it?"

She nodded. "If Kollema were to leave this room, I would need to reanimate him to keep him going. So, he stays here and helps with my research."

"The…uh…zombie does research?"

"He was a highly esteemed professor in his time," Liliana insisted. "His knowledge and wisdom have been very useful in my endeavors."

"Is that the necromancy-non-necromancy, forbidden research you mentioned earlier?"

Liliana smiled faintly, apparently amused. "It's hardly his area of expertise, but he's a quick study. And gods know he has far more time on his hands than I do these days. He's made great progress for me."

"I…see." Jace cleared his throat and returned to his own research. He knew better than to ask her for details again, and decided it was best to let it be for now. Eventually, he would find out what she was keeping from him—and he would try not to use his mind-reading capabilities to do so.

They fell into a mutual silence for a while, as Jace continued leafing through the book in his hands, occasionally stopping to take notes. He did mumble to himself while he worked, as it helped him focus, but the conversation ceased until Liliana asked, "So, how are the Gatewatch these days?"

"The Gatewatch?" He paused for a moment, then sat back. "That's a loaded question."

"How so?"

"It's a long story."

She waited for him to continue.

"Nissa's left us," he said finally.

"Oh, is that all? I say good riddance." She rolled her eyes when she spoke.

Jace knew the two had complicated feelings about one another, at best. He had hoped they would work through their differences, but Nissa had never trusted Liliana and Liliana reacted accordingly. Perhaps they were too different. Complete opposites, really. Nissa was a guardian of living things, while Liliana was…mistress of death. Jace had finally come to accept the two would never see eye-to-eye.

Heaving a sigh, Jace thought of the last time he saw Nissa, when he tried (and failed) to help her on Zendikar. He still hoped he could make it up to her, that she might forgive him, but he knew she was not likely to join the Gatewatch again, either way. She had lost her faith in them. She had lost her faith in everything, except Zendikar. He still hoped he might find a way to regain her friendship, but for now it seemed a lost cause.

"How's our little flaming tempest?" Liliana inquired. Her tone and demeanor were nonchalant, but Jace knew she was more interested than she was letting on—after all, she was the one asking about everyone.

"Chandra…? Oh, she's good I suppose. We don't see each other much, but she pops by my sanctum every once in a while to catch up."

He noticed Liliana changed her position and was now sitting up, looking away pensively. She seemed to be watching the flames on the candles dance.

"You miss her, don't you?"

"Does she miss me? Or does she hate me for…Ravnica?"

"You know Chandra," he replied. "She was angry, at first. But her anger cooled, in time. She doesn't talk about you, but I know she misses you." He paused, feeling a hint of guilt for reading Chandra's mind the last time he had mentioned Liliana. She had pretended not to be interested—ever Liliana's understudy—but he had peeked into her mind to see otherwise. "You were like a sister to her. She really looked up to you."

"Until I messed everything up," Liliana sighed.

"She understands it better now. We all do. Mostly, anyway."

"Well, I'm glad everyone is well," she answered. Then she pushed up from the table, and said, "I think we should call it a day. We've been at this all afternoon. You can come back in the morning if you want. Now that you know the way."

"What about you?"

"I've got my classes to teach tomorrow. I wouldn't dare take another day off without good reason. They are finished by the afternoon, though, and I can join you then."

Jace looked toward the darkened corner, where he had seen the zombie disappear. He couldn't see it, but he knew it was there. Liliana seemed to understand, and said, "He won't trouble you. I've already let him know you're a friend. And I can tell him to leave you be while I'm away."

"Can I just…take some of these back to your quarters with us tonight? I'd rather not take the chance of getting lost here. Or being discovered without you to vouch for me."

She shrugged. "I suppose we can take them. We're not supposed to remove them from the archive, but I guess we've already broken the rules thus far…so we may as well. Take whatever you can carry—discreetly. We can return together to collect the rest when I'm done with my classes tomorrow."

VIII.

JACE

Jace slept late again but managed to wake in time to kiss Liliana farewell before she headed to her first class. Then he got up and had a meager breakfast—some fruit and a couple stale biscuits left over from their supper the night before. Then he worked diligently for hours, combing through the tomes he had managed to sneak away and taking copious notes—complete with drawings and diagrams, as needed. This was how he spent every morning now, while Liliana went to teach.

Around midday, he would break for lunch; alone, or with Liliana when she had time to slip back to her office between classes. Finally, at the end of her day, they would head to the Mystical Archive together and spend the rest of the evening in her hidden sanctum with ever-lurking Kollema. After a few days of this routine, Jace found himself surprisingly less bothered by the zombie's presence. And while he still didn't like the smell of decay, at least it didn't make his stomach churn quite as much as it had in the beginning.

"I'm surprised," he said on one of these excursions, "you don't take old Kollema back to your office with you, to bring your meals and serve your tea."

He was mostly joking, but Liliana frowned. "I'm not allowed to employ zombie servants. Apparently, it makes some of the students and other faculty uncomfortable."

Jace didn't wonder why.

Every day, he worked obsessively, getting more done while Liliana was teaching than when they were together, naturally. Not only was there less distraction—welcome, though it was with her—he needed to pass the hours and preferred productivity over leisure. It was only when his eyes started to ache that he stopped and sat back in Liliana's oversized desk chair. His eyes often fell on Liliana's golden crown, resting on its stand on a table in the back of the room, not far from the window. She had taken it from an angel she had killed in some battle long ago, before the Mending and certainly long before Jace even came into being.

Unholy Hunger | Art by Lius Ladahido

Seeing it there brought back memories—some good and many bad. Liliana used to wear the unique headpiece frequently, often into battle, and he wondered if she ever wore it now. On one rainy afternoon, while lightning flashed outside the big window, he decided to get a closer look at the crown that had become something of a symbol of the infamous necromancer.

Jace ran his fingers over the smooth metal, amazed at how free it was from dust and how good it still looked after everything it had been through since Liliana acquired the piece. Suddenly, a vision of the last time he had seen her wearing it flashed in his memory. That moment on Ravnica when she stood amidst the carnage and destruction, clearly in a state of shock after Gideon had died and Bolas had been…neutralized.

Having touched her mind to understand what had happened, Jace urged her to go, knowing she would be in danger if she stayed any longer. The guilds and citizens of Ravnica, he knew, would want revenge. And when she planeswalked away, following his advice, he thought he would never see her again.

It all seemed so unreal, even now.

Jace shivered at the memories and took a deep breath, before reaching to take the crown in his hands. He felt the weight and solidity of the metal, realizing he had never held it in his hands before and marveling how much lighter it was than he had expected. A sharp pain, like a dagger through his heart, and the stinging of tears swelled as the memories finally became too much to bear.

Just as he carefully set the crown back on its stand, the heavy wooden door opened, and he turned in time to see Liliana close and lock the door after entering. He stepped away from the crown and was hesitant to greet her. He could sense her mood had darkened since she left him after dining together for lunch that afternoon.

She walked over to a table and poured herself a glass of wine, draining the whole glass before setting it down and turning to face him.

"Rough day?"

She rolled her eyes and inhaled deeply. "You have no idea how painful it is dealing with students who think themselves master mages and refuse to take direction from their betters!"

Jace stood there helplessly as she turned to pour herself another glass, continuing, "You wouldn't believe what I have to put up with sometimes. Every day, there's at least one student. Always. The. One."

She paused to down her second glass as quickly as she had the first, then began refilling it a second time, as her voice rose to a caustic resonance. "Oh, of course, I've only been raising the dead for the last two centuries—what do I know, really? Certainly not as much as a twenty-year-old senior who insists she doesn't need my class to graduate, but then she can't even raise a cadaver without it going psychotic on her classmates."

She downed her third glass as quickly as she had the first two, while Jace asked, "You use cadavers?"

Ignoring his comment as she refilled her glass yet again, she went on, "Thankfully, I was able to take over and get the damn thing under control, but not before it nearly tore the limbs off one of the other students! And now I'm going to hear it from the deans and have to explain that this was not a normal occurrence, so they don't pull raising the dead from my curriculum—as if one of the most important skills of necromantic arts can be so easily disposed of!"

Here, she paused yet again, but before she could drink her fourth full glass of wine, Jace decided it was time to step in and carefully extracted the glass from her tight grip. "I think," he said, placing the glass on the table and slipping his arms around her waist, "you need to take a moment to breathe."

When he met her sharp gaze, her lips twitched as though she was about to say something characteristically acerbic. Before she could react, though, Jace penetrated her mind with a soothing calm. He felt her tension wash away and with it she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she leaned forward to rest in his arms with her head on his shoulder.

"Better?"

"Thank you," she replied.

"It was nothing, really." He shrugged, but his grin stretched from ear to ear. Then, before he thought better of it, he attempted to make a joke, "Hey, you actually said it without sounding sarcastic this time!"

She frowned and he considered wiping her memory of his terrible joke, but then she asked, "What about you? How was your day? Have you learned anything new?"

Now he frowned and slumped into her chair with a heavy sigh. "Still stumped, I'm afraid. I'm so close—I can feel it. I just don't have enough to put it all together just yet. The answer is right there, yet it keeps evading me."

Suddenly, he gasped, sat up and started ruffling through his notes excitedly. "But there was a reference to another text that might hold the missing pieces I need to put it all together!" Finding what he was looking for, he handed her a slip of paper, and asked, "Have you ever heard of this title?"

She glanced at it, shook her head apologetically, and handed the slip of paper back to him. "Afraid not, my love. But I'm sure we could find it in the archive…"

"Right. Then off we go again, I suppose?"

Jace got up to slip on his cloak, pausing to pull her into a kiss. "You know, you're cute when you're angry."

She raised a brow. "You know, Jace, comments like that can get a man killed if he's not careful."

He chuckled and lowered his voice, "I'll take my chances." Then he moved in for another kiss.

They were interrupted by a firm knocking on the door. Liliana wrinkled her brows, and sighed, "Just when I thought I was done for the day."

She swung open the door and Jace peered out to see a tall man with a strong jaw and an immaculately trimmed goatee. His hair, dark brown streaked with grey, was slicked back but for a single curl that fell over his forehead. He was dressed in very official looking black and silver robes and a quick read of his mind revealed he was one of the many deans at the university. Jace would have assumed it was the dressing down Liliana had been expecting, if not for picking up on a very different purpose in the man's mind that made Jace bristle.

"Dean Lu," said Liliana, her voice high and welcoming. "What a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, I was just about to leave…"

The man's cold black eyes fell on Jace, and the two men regarded one another jealously over Liliana's shoulder. "Ah, so you do have a guest. No wonder I haven't seen you these past few days, Liliana. I've missed our…" he paused to consider Jace once again, a smirk snaking its way across his lips, "intimate dinners. I was hoping I could dine with you tonight, in fact."

There was an underlying tension beneath Liliana's voice, though she answered sweetly, "If you're lonely, Embrose, perhaps you should have dinner with your wife."

The dean's tan seemed to grow somewhat darker on his cheeks and he cleared his throat. "Yes, well. I'm sorry to bother you, Professor Vess. I will, ah…leave you to your guest."

He glanced once more at Jace—if looks could kill—before turning to stride away with his pride hurt but his head held high.

Liliana gently closed the door and lowered her chin with a sigh but remained with her back to Jace and her hand on the doorknob. Jace knew she was embarrassed, and perhaps a bit guilty? Nevertheless, he couldn't let it go.

"One of your lovers, I presume?" he said coolly.

She raised her head and turned to face him, putting on an air of indifference. "I've enjoyed his company from time to time, yes. But it was never anything serious. Anyway, it's over and I've moved on."

"Over, as of when, exactly? The day I arrived?" He knew it was the wrong thing to say, but he couldn't help himself. He felt lied to, used, and betrayed yet again.

Just when he was filled with a sense of righteous indignation, however, she deflated him. "Oh, and I'm sure you've remained chaste since our last encounter, right?"

Okay. Check mate.

Unable to counter strike, Jace sighed heavily and slumped on the couch. He rubbed his face in his hands, and admitted, "All right. Fine. You're right—I have no place to condemn you or criticize."

Liliana continued to glare at him with her arms crossed, still poised and ready to draw blood. "How many? One? Three? Twenty? Honestly, Jace, are we really going to compare notes about our love lives? When have I ever asked you anything about your private affairs? Do I like the idea of you seeing other women? No, not at all. But I don't expect you to stay true to me if we're not in a relationship, nor should you expect it of me.

"And if you recall," she continued, stepping forward to shove him with a jolt of energy that radiated from her hand, "I was never the one to end it between us—it was always you that walked away." She finished with another burst of energy to shove him back another step.

Part of Jace wanted to push back with more words meant to sting, but instead he exhaled and hung his head. "You're right. You're right, Lili, and I'm sorry. I have no right or reason to be jealous."

"No, you don't," she agreed. Releasing some of her fury with a sigh, she said, "I know about you and…that Golgari woman—if one can even call her a woman."

"There's no need to insult her, Lili."

"Are you still seeing her? Is she expecting you to come running back to her arms on Ravnica? Will she come looking for you if you don't return soon and, in a jealous rage, turn us both to stone with her gorgon stare when she finds us together?"

"Vraska and I…haven't been together in a long time," he admitted. "She left me, actually. She thought I was…still in love with you." He angrily ran his fingers through his hair, and said, "Because I am still in love with you. I still love you. I've always loved you. And no matter how much I cared for her she could see through it all. She knew I was never going to stop thinking about you, talking about you, comparing her to you—for better or worse. So, no she's not going to show up here in a jealous rage. She gave up on me a long time ago because of you. And…now that I've found you again, I'm…glad she did. I won't have to break her heart, because I would if that's what it takes to have this second chance with you."

LILIANA

Damn him, she thought as he finished his confession. He said everything right; everything she needed to hear. And now she couldn't continue to nurse her anger, to let it fester. She couldn't take the pain she'd held onto for so many years—every stab, every cut, every assault against her very soul he had used to repay her for hurting him once so very long ago. To punish her for a mistake she had made before she even knew she loved him, but one she had to follow through despite her feelings for him. Even though it was, in her own twisted way, her attempt to protect him from the worst of what he could have faced at the hands of Tezzeret.

"I'm sorry, Jace." She had apologized before, but she always rationalized what she had done. This was the first time she had ever said those words without even a bit of a self-serving motive underneath. Even if he could never forgive her, she was still sorry for her part in the suffering he endured.

A single tear slipped down her cheek before she could turn away to wipe her eyes. Jace had already seen it and, while he hesitated, he finally came to pull her into an embrace. "Lili, don't think about it now. It's over. And I've…long since forgiven you."

For the first time since their love first blossomed so many years ago, Liliana finally whispered those words. "I love you, Jace."

She felt his arms tighten around her and his lips pressed on the top of her head. Lifting her head to look in his eyes, she asked, "Can we…take a break from our research today. I just…"

Jace put his fingers to her lips and searched her gaze. She smiled faintly and then she drew him toward the bedroom.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Liliana found herself wide awake and turned to watch Jace sleeping peacefully beside her. She watched him for a long time, admiring the shape of his lips and the way his hair fell over his forehead. He still didn't have much for facial hair, but after a few days without shaving he had developed more than just a five o'clock shadow. She noticed the new lines and creases around his mouth and his eyes; signs of aging she no longer had to worry about. Somehow, she thought, he had become even more handsome with age.

She reached out to touch the tattoos on his face. He stirred slightly and attempted to swat at what he likely thought was a bug on his face. She had to press her lips together to keep from laughing. Then she grew pensive and wondered how in the Blind Eternities he was there, lying beside her, loving her still after all they had been through and all they had done to hurt each other when they were hurting. He had said it was a second chance, and she realized then how unbelievably lucky she was to have that chance when she had once thought it was long gone and she had lost him forever.

Gideon came to mind again, and she wondered if he was somewhere out there, watching over them. Had he somehow arranged or influenced this? He had given her a second chance at life, to be sure. Perhaps it was too much to credit him with giving her a second chance with Jace. And yet, had he not died to save her, she would not be there with her love beside her, so he deserved credit at least in that capacity. And she thanked him.

Then she snuggled in beside Jace, who breathed deeply and pulled her into his arms. And, listening to the sound of his beating heart, she drifted off to sleep.