JACE

"Damn it!" cried Chandra, with fists clenched and a fierce stomp. Her hair sparked and Jace stepped back a pace, just to be safe. Then Chandra said, "I'm going after her."

"We'll both go. I should have prepared everyone before she came. It's my fault this all went wrong."

"That's because you never think!" Chandra yelled, before disappearing in a fiery burst of energy.

Jace mumbled to himself, "All I ever do is think. I'd love to know what it's like not to think for a change."

With a frustrated sigh, he followed Liliana's and Chandra's trails. He was surprised when he found himself, not at Strixhaven, but inside the crumbling walls of the Vess estate on Dominaria. He looked around, wondering where the two of them could have gone. He shouldn't have been that far behind, but there was no sign of them beyond the end of their aether trails.

Suddenly, he heard an explosion come from somewhere nearby, and he ran to investigate. At least he knew where to find Chandra. He was hoping Liliana was there, too, but also feared they might have erupted into battle. That was just what they needed, to be fighting amongst themselves. When he found Chandra in the courtyard, though, she was standing next to a large pile of ashes.

"Please tell me you didn't just incinerate Liliana," Jace joked. Although, for a moment he did worry.

Chandra rolled her eyes. "It was a wolf. Don't…tell Nissa, okay?"

She looked around and shook her head. "What happened here? It looks worse than it did the last time we came."

Jace shrugged. "There's no one here to take care of the place. Other than Lili, the whole family's gone."

"Why do you think she came here?"

"Probably to keep you from following her to where she's really been. Not a bad move, considering everything."

Chandra pursed her lips. "Well, I'm her friend not her enemy. Why can't I know where she's been staying?"

"When she knows for sure you won't turn on her, then she'll tell you."

"Won't you tell me? I mean, come on, Jace. I'm not a threat."

"I'm not going to say anything unless she's comfortable with it. Sorry, Chandra."

"Well," said Chandra, scanning the area, "I don't see any signs of another aether trail, so she must still be here somewhere." She looked at him with her arms crossed and shook her head. "Way to go, Jace."

He gave her a look, but then said, "Let's split up. We should search the grounds first. If we don't find her somewhere in these crumbling ruins, we should check the swamp next. It used to be a forest, she told me once. She spent a lot of time there in her youth."

"Given the state of this house, I think we should check the forest…er, swamp…first. I don't think she'd be wandering around these ruins."

Jace smirked. "A decayed house doesn't strike you as someplace she might want to be?"

"Not when it's her family's home. Too many sad memories, I'd think."

Suddenly, Chandra folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "But why should we go wandering around a strange place in search of her? Can't you just…read her mind and find out if she's somewhere nearby?"

They heard the sound of pebbles smashing underneath someone's boots and turned just as they heard a familiar voice. "Relax. I'm right here. I knew you would follow me."

"Liliana, please come back with us," said Jace, stepping toward her. "I'm sorry. I know I messed this up. But I can make it right. I will make it right."

Her eyes scanned the ruins. "That used to be my bedroom. Now, I can't even get to it. The staircases have all rotted away."

Jace turned and saw nothing but a crumbling wall with partial frame of a window. It was overtaken with vines that were almost as thick as the trunk of a small tree, in some places.

"But that's fitting, really," she continued. "Necromancers and rotting things generally go hand-in-hand."

"Lili…" said Jace, approaching her carefully. He wanted to take her hand, but he was afraid she might suddenly turn on him just as readily as she might accept him.

She looked at his outstretched hand absently and remained perfectly still. Then her eyes met his and she almost smiled. "My family's been dead for more than two centuries. It's strange when you think about it. I should have died along with them. I should have died so many times… I suppose I don't regret my contract, especially now that I'm freed of it. But it gets lonely sometimes, you know? There's no one in my life who will go on living beyond a normal lifespan. Everyone I know will die but I'll keep on living."

"Teferi…" Chandra began. But Jace held up his hand to stop her. When she looked at him, he slightly shook his head and then he turned his attention back to Liliana.

"The dead are good that way," she went on, as if she hadn't heard Chandra speak. "They'll never leave me. And if they do, I can always bring them back." She sighed. "They're obedient. But to be perfectly honest, they make for rather dull company."

She giggled then. It was unusual. She almost sounded like a girl. Jace was growing increasingly concerned about her mental state and he tried to connect, but she wouldn't let him in.

"I tried bringing them back once, you know. My parents. My sisters. Even my mentor, Lady Ana. Oh, I raised her for the first time when I accidentally cursed my brother. But I raised her again when I tried raising everyone else. My best friend, too. Her name was Arine. I don't think I've ever told you about her. We were sisters of the Forward Order, both apprentice healers to Lady Ana. She was as good as I was bad, but she was always looking out for me. A lot of good that did."

Mischief flashed in her eyes, and she smiled. But then her smile faded, and her eyes became pensive again. "I thought if I raised them all again, I could return to my old life. Start over where I left off. It was only my brother I couldn't find anywhere in the ground. He wasn't in the family graveyard or in the village. Well, now I know why that was, of course… I'm glad he's free now, at last. But he was gone a lot, anyway, so his absence wasn't too far from the reality I left behind."

"Lili," Jace finally spoke up. "Please, take my hand. Come with us."

She met his gaze again, and said, "My zombie family was nothing like my real family. Same bodies, but zero personality. Someday, you'll die, too. But I won't try to raise you. I can't raise the people I love from the dead because they're never the same. Their souls are far away, even as their bodies rise to walk again."

"Lili," repeated Jace. "Please, don't do this to yourself."

"This is why I've spent so many years isolating myself," she went on. "I don't want to like people who are just going to end up leaving me, one way or another. I don't want to love someone I know I'm going to lose. But you just won't go away, no matter how hard I push. You're good at disappearing, but somehow you always end up coming back."

She looked at Chandra then, and said, "And you…I don't even know what to say. You hated me—and rightly so. I could handle that, because then I didn't have to care. But now, you don't hate me and that makes it all so complicated. It's easier to be hated than it is to be loved. Especially when I don't know how anyone could love me, after all I've done."

Chandra stepped forward, and said, "You can be pretty awful, it's true. But you can also be pretty amazing, and that makes you worth having around. And seriously, nobody can make me laugh like you."

Liliana shook her head, and said, "I'm not asking for compliments."

"Well, I'm giving you one anyway," said Chandra, just as stubborn. "And yeah, someday we'll all die. But you can't just go through life not loving anyone because it hurts to lose them. What's the point in living if you don't love anybody? I'd rather love people and suffer when I lose them, than spend an eternity alone and living only for myself. That's way worse."

"I know," said Liliana with a bitter smile. "That's why I'm trying to change. Sometimes, though, it just seems so much easier to go back to living the way I always have."

"Is that why you 'walked away?" asked Chandra.

"I 'walked away because I didn't want to stay on a plane where at least half the population wants me dead. I thought that was obvious."

"You don't have to be so salty about it," Chandra retorted.

Liliana's response was just another bitter smile. Then she turned away and looked up at the cloudy sky as a raven cawed and flew overhead. Jace heard her curse under her breath. What was it with her and ravens, anyway?

"Lili," said Jace.

"What?" she asked impatiently, turning to him with a sharp stare. Then she softened and let out a sigh. "I know, you want me to come back with you. You've said that numerous times. I'm not a fool. I know the Gatewatch can't defeat the Phyrexians without me. If we can defeat the Phyrexians at all. We'll probably die trying."

"Then at least we can say we gave it our best shot," said Chandra.

"I think we should move the headquarters to some other plane, though."

"You can't be serious," said Jace. "You do realize that would overcomplicate things a great deal for everybody—not least of all because we have a lot of people working for us who are not planeswalkers."

"Yeah, I get that, Jace. But those same people want to see me flayed alive, so there's a bit of a conflict of interest there. We can always recruit new people in a different plane."

"It would take years to train them up to the same level as the people we have working for us on Ravnica."

She crossed her arms over her chest and released a frustrated sigh. "Always an answer for everything."

"And everything I'm saying is true."

"You know what," said Chandra, "I think I'm gonna let you guys work this out. I've gotta go find Nissa and…see if she's ok."

Without further ado, she vanished into a flaming vortex. Liliana laughed. "She couldn't wait to get away from us. I think she assumed we were about to erupt into a giant argument."

"Were we?"

She looked him in the eye, and said, "No, because you're right and I know you're right. You're not always right, though. Just remember that."

"Never said I was," he answered with a smile. "So, will you please come back with me now? We have too much work to do, and no time to waste."

"If anyone attacks me on Ravnica, I will kill them. You do know that, right? I won't hold back."

"I know. But I intend to keep that from happening."

"You can't convince the whole world, Jace. You know it'll happen eventually."

"And when it does, I will support your decision."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

He stood there for a moment, wondering if now was the time to talk to her about something he had been thinking about for a while now. It seemed ridiculous, and yet at the same time, oddly fitting. He met her gaze as he considered it.

"Come on," he said, holding out his hand. "Let's go."

"Are we gonna 'walk hand-in-hand? How quaint."

"Knock it off," he said. "Just take my hand. I want to take you somewhere before we head back to Ravnica."

"Hmm, being mysterious. I thought we had no time to waste?"

"It's not a waste of time, trust me."

"Okay, Jace. Whatever you say."

With that, she took his hand and then he took her for a 'walk to a place where she had never been before.

LILIANA

The chaotic winds whipped around them, threatening to tear them apart, as they tumbled together through the between-worlds. Liliana closed her eyes and let it all pass by as Jace held her to himself to lead her to wherever they were going. When the journey was over and they found themselves on solid ground once again, Liliana nearly collapsed, but Jace held her against him to steady her. Letting him hold her, she listened to the steady rhythm of his heart, waiting for hers to stop racing so the dizziness would go away. It was never easy to 'walk twice in one day.

Listening to his heartbeat, she became aware of trickling water nearby. She opened her eyes and found they were surrounded by lush jungle flora. A small river flowed smoothly through the trees and the sounds of insects created a steady hum in the background. It was night but, even so, she could see the beauty of this place. She could sense no swamps nearby—her mana felt sapped—but it was a beautiful plane.

She turned to Jace and studied his face. "What is this place?"

"Ixalan," he replied. "It's the place where I lost myself…and found myself again."

Liliana pursed her lips. "It's the place where you met that gorgon pirate wench…"

Jace sighed. "I don't want to talk about Vraska right now. She's not why I fell in love with this place. She's not why I brought you here."

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked, curiously.

"To show you a place that means a great deal to me, even now."

She cast her gaze around the jungle and up at the night sky, an endless sea of stars beyond the towering trees. "It's beautiful here."

"This is where I came after…after the devastation of Amonkhet. I guess I should say it's where I ended up, not where I came, since I didn't choose this plane. I guess, in a way, it chose me."

"Yes," she agreed. "The way Innistrad chose me."

He nodded and took her hand, then led her to the stream. "Look into the water."

She did as he instructed and gasped at the pale green glow coming from the riverbed. "Bioluminescence."

When she turned back to him, he was gazing at her with a gentle smile. "I know it's not as impressive as some of the bioluminescent plant life you're familiar with on Arcavios, but I thought you might like to see it. I love the way it lights up your eyes."

"It's beautiful," she said, meeting his gaze. "Thank you."

"Come on," he said, taking her hand and leading her through the jungle.

She followed him to where the jungle gave way to a white sandy beach. The palm trees swayed in the gentle breeze. Across the bay and out toward the horizon, the ocean stretched for as far as the eye could see. Where the ocean ended and the sky began, it was impossible to tell in the dark of night.

Jace removed his cloak and laid it out across the sand. "Here. So you can sit without getting covered in sand. It's definitely one of the worst sensations, getting sand…everywhere."

Liliana laughed, and then she carefully sat down. Looking up at him, she mused, "You realize I'm impossibly dressed for this place."

"Then there's only one solution, as far as I see it."

"Mmhm," she said, giving him a knowing look. "This was your whole plan, wasn't it?"

"Not exactly," he replied. "But it's definitely appealing."

"All right, then. Help me with the laces…"

She twisted so he could pull the laces on the back of her dress, and then she stripped down to her corset and underskirt. Removing her high-heeled boots, she set them aside with her dress and sat back with her palms face down as she gazed out to sea.

Then, looking at him from the corner of her eye, she said, "Who knew you could be so romantic?"

He answered with a half-smile.

"So, what's the occasion?"

Running his fingers through his uncombed hair, Jace cleared his throat, and said, "No occasion." Then, with a sideways glance, "But I'm hoping we can make it into one."

A tightness in her stomach and her breath caught in her chest. Nine Hells…

"Lili," he said, changing his tone, "you…know I love you. And after all we've been through, after nearly losing you forever, I've come to realize that life without you is…empty." He sighed, and then continued nervously, "I know I get caught up in everything. My work and my studies, and just thinking about so many things all at once. I know I can be…difficult to live with sometimes, and because I'm always thinking, I can seem cold and distant. But I love you and there is not a woman in the Multiverse who has ever possessed me so completely that I feel like I could give up everything just to have one more moment with her."

He paused and glanced at her. She was smiling at the way he rambled when he was nervous.

Clearing his throat, he continued, "The Multiverse is probably in more danger than it's ever been before, and we've got a lot of work to do if we have any hope of saving it, but…whatever time we have left, I want to spend it with you. So, what I'm trying to say is, I want to marry you when this is all over."

"Nice, Jace," she teased. "Propose to me when we're probably going to die before it's over. Clever way to avoid making a commitment."

"Okay, then let's do it now."

"Here? Is there even a person here who can officiate?" she joked, looking around as if someone might suddenly appear from within the jungle.

"Okay, you're right," he admitted. "Then when we return to Ravnica. The Gatewatch can bear witness."

Liliana got up and straddled his lap, facing him with her arms draped over his shoulders. "You do realize if you marry me on Ravnica, you are basically marrying a fugitive."

"The thought occurred to me, yes," he answered with a charming smile as she met his gaze.

"And that doesn't bother you in the slightest?"

He took her hand, and said, "Lili, I don't agree with the Firemind on this matter—on many, in fact. This one, in particular. He may be the new Living Guildpact, but he's wrong. I love you. I want to marry you, and I don't care what he or anyone else thinks."

"Hmm, but I thought you didn't like public displays of affection?"

"I don't," he answered definitively. "But this is different, so stop playing games and just say yes or no."

"Would you be crushed if I said no?"

"Yes, actually, I would."

"Then I guess I'll have to say yes," she replied, leaning in with a kiss.

She looked at him and ran her fingers through his tangled hair with a smile. "I love you, Jace Beleren. But I'm not taking your name. You know that, right?"

He chuckled and looked into her eyes with awe and wonder. "I love you. But I agree, Liliana Beleren does not have a nice ring to it."

"You could always take my name," she suggested, jokingly.

"Jace Vess? It sounds even worse!"

They laughed and he fell backward, pulling her down with him onto the sand.