JACE

A snow-globe. A bloody, dirty snow globe. That's what it reminded him of, when he found himself standing behind Teferi, the master of time. The entire battle was locked into a slow-time bubble, beyond which stood Teferi, his features illuminated by his magics. His face was wrinkled by the effort to hold everything within that snow-globe in place—not unmoving but moving so slowly it almost seemed that they were frozen in time. Beads of sweat formed on his brow as Teferi gritted his teeth with the effort.

When Jace appeared behind him, Teferi released a sigh of relief. "What took you so long?"

Jace stepped up beside him on the precipice, overlooking the snow-globe battlefield. A gentle breeze rustled his hair, getting in his squinted eyes and occasionally obscuring his view of the battle, but he ignored it like always. Were it not for the tension in his muscles, he might have smiled at Teferi's jest.

"You might have waited for us," Jace suggested.

Meanwhile, the others began appearing behind them, one-by-one. They, too, stepped up to observe the battle and stood in amazement at Teferi's power over time and space.

"If I had," Teferi explained, straining with the effort, "Chandra would have been lost. I can't hold it much longer, but if I let it go now, she will be."

Jace turned his gaze to scan the view. Caught up in a storm of flames, the pyromancer was easy to spot amidst the chaos. His lips parted as he made sense of what was happening inside the slow-time bubble.

Chandra was locked in battle with a hideous Phyrexian that looked like some kind of cross between a scorpion and a centipede. It was missing several of its legs, which appeared to have been singed off. Meanwhile, Chandra appeared to be blasting flames toward the stinger it had raised above her, ready to strike a fatal blow. But Jace quickly surmised that was not the true danger. Chandra's flames would easily burn the stinger off the beast, so she had that covered. There was a second Phyrexian, a hulking monster with an arm like a war-hammer raised to crush Chandra from behind, but she was so focused on the creature in front of her that she couldn't see it.

"The bishop," Jace muttered.

"What?" Teferi grunted.

Jace shook his head. "Nothing. I'll explain later."

He attempted to project a warning directly to her mind, but he could feel the strain of slowed time affecting his thought projection from the moment it entered the slow-time bubble. It was like trying to move through a thick pool of gelatin. Jace dissolved the thought projection and shook off the discomfort.

"I can't send a message to her," said Jace, frustrated.

"Is there anything you can do?"

Giving it some thought, Jace said, "Somehow, I need to get in there to warn her."

"I can pass through the time warp unscathed," said Karn. "If I can get there fast enough, I can block the hit."

Turning to face him, Jace gave it a thought then shook his head. "That thing is too big. You'll be crushed."

"Better me than Chandra."

"No, Karn," said Jace. "There has to be another way."

"Won't work either way," Teferi managed. Jace knew he was right.

A flash of purple closely followed a blast of flame, both coming from behind. Jace almost felt his anger resume when he realized one of them was Liliana. Seemingly unbothered by his earlier outburst, she stepped up beside him and looked down at the battle.

Standing beside her, Jaya said, "There's Chandra!"

Looking at the scene and pointing in horror, Liliana said, "Yes, but what is that thing behind her?"

"It's a Phyrexian," said Jace, resisting the urge to finish with a sarcastic, What do you think?

"They don't make them for looks, that's for sure," she sniffed disdainfully.

Jace sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her flippancy. Focusing on the task at hand, he explained, "The moment Teferi releases the time warp, Chandra will be crushed to death."

"How do we stop it, then?" asked Jaya, her voice tense though she was trying to be strong.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," said Jace, taking a deep breath and thinking through a thousand different scenarios, none of which seemed sufficient.

"Figure it out a little faster, please?" Teferi pleaded.

The higher his anxieties rose, the harder it was for Jace to think. If he didn't care so much, it wouldn't be so difficult, but this was Chandra about to be crushed by that thing. It was bad enough they had almost lost Nissa, but now Chandra was on the verge of being extinguished. That was something none of them standing on that ledge overlooking the battle wanted to see.

"Can't you warn her?" asked Liliana. "Use your telepathy."

Jace cursed under his breath. "I've already tried projecting my thoughts directly to her, but it didn't work."

"Well, we need to do something," she insisted, as if it wasn't obvious.

Frustration tinged his voice when he explained, "We can't enter the slow-time bubble without being affected! We'll never reach her in time!"

"What about your illusions?" Liliana suggested, ignoring his tone.

"Thought projections aren't immune to the slowed time!"

"Yes, but your illusions are different, aren't they? Once created, don't they exist outside of yourself; outside the laws of time?"

Jace was prepared to give a sarcastic response at whatever his wife had to say, until he paused to think about what she had actually said. All of a sudden, he pulled her into an embrace, even going so far as to kiss her firmly on the lips without being concerned by the presence of others. "Liliana, that's brilliant! It just might work!"

When he released her from the embrace, she smirked, clearly pleased with herself. Much to Jace's surprise, however, she didn't say anything to applaud herself. Instead, she let him do the talking, and now he spoke with manic speed. "I don't know for sure if it'll work, but I can conjure the illusion and if I adjust the frequency of its energy field to match the time distortion while maintaining its own core frequency in unison with natural time, I may be able to send it in to distract the beast in the hope it will abort its attack and go after my illusion instead."

Liliana scoffed and rolled her eyes. "That's not going to work, Jace. That beast is not going to stop mid-attack to chase 'you' when it's prepared to crush Chandra. You need to alert her to the danger so she can dodge the attack. Anything else is too much of a risk."

Annoyed at being contradicted, Jace was about to speak when Jaya said, "She's right, Jace. I think she has a better chance if you alert her to the danger, rather than trying to stop the blow."

"Sounds great," said Teferi. "Just make it happen!"

Everyone could see that he was losing his hold over the battle when the slow-time bubble flashed and almost began to fade. The battle inside jumped forward by about a second in time and Jace realized there was no more time to deliberate. He had to act fast and hope it worked. Only now he was anxious, being even more pressed for time than he was a few seconds before. The stakes were too high for him to mess this up!

That was when he felt a soothing touch on the back of his head, and all the tension released. It was Liliana. She had slid her fingers through his hair and placed her other hand over his heart, and she whispered, "It's all right, love. You can do this."

She may not have his gift of mind-soothing magics, but she had the gift of a gentle touch that worked all the same, at least for him. He met her gaze and offered a grateful smile, projecting the thought, Remind me to thank you later.

She smiled in response and stepped back, giving him space to work. Then he closed his eyes and pulled mana from an underground source—he knew from his research that even where no bodies of water were obviously present, Lorwyn was filled with underground springs and rivers, so he was easily able to locate one nearby from which to draw the mana needed to create an illusion of himself. Then he sent the illusion into the slow-time bubble, part of his awareness moving with it. As they had hoped, the illusion slipped through the dome of light as if it wasn't even there and continued to move through the seemingly frozen battle at what would likely appear to be lightning speed to anyone trapped within the slowed time.

He gave the illusion all it needed to know before sending it off and was now only attached to it as an outside observer, the same way he might be with any real, living creature. Once it reached Chandra, whose awareness Jace could sense, the illusion stopped in front of her and delivered its message. She knew of its presence and was now prepared to dodge the attack that was coming from behind.

Gritting his teeth, Teferi said, "Can't…hold…much…longer."

As soon as he was sure the message was being processed by its recipient, Jace said, "Now, Teferi!"

TYVAR KELL

At Jace's command, suddenly the slow-time bubble fell. The battle continued at its normal pace, equal in time to the rest of the plane. Jace's illusion dissipated simultaneously and Chandra Nalaar, the hero of Kaladesh, now made aware of the Phyrexian creature behind her, was able to twirl out of the way using flame jets to propel her. It was like everything Tyvar had ever heard from the legends, and he was amazed at getting to see the illustrious pyromancer at work.

Much to the relief of everyone who had not yet jumped into the fray, Chandra got out of the way just in the nick of time. The Phyrexian centipede scorpion creature was not so lucky— unaware of what was coming and not having time to react, it was smashed by the blow that was meant for Chandra. Meanwhile, she had immediately turned an immolating blaze on the second creature before it could turn on her again. Everyone watching from afar cheered, including Tyvar. He was watching the creation of an epic unfolding right before his eyes!

As soon as he had released his time spell, Teferi dropped to his knees and hunched over to catch his breath. Karn and Jaya moved to help him, as Jace turned to command the rest of them. "All right, no more standing around and gawking. Lorwyn needs us! And more importantly, our friends need us! Let's move, now!"

Realizing now was his chance to become a part of the tale being woven by time, Tyvar pulled out his weapon and ran eagerly toward the battle. As he came nearer, though, he became aware for the first time just how little he understood of the enemy they were up against. These were not the normal types of creatures he had faced before in battle—the one Phyrexian creature he and Kaya had encountered on Kaldheim seemed bad enough, but he had not yet understood how numerous their kind were. There were countless monstrosities, each one unique in its ugliness and power.

It was then he realized just how dire it was—how desperately Lorwyn needed them. This was not just about earning a name for themselves. This was not simply a matter of earning a place in history and legend. This was about the survival of an entire plane. Jace had said, "If we don't stop them from overtaking Lorwyn, they will continue to spread like a virus across the Multiverse." Now, Tyvar understood what he meant. And he intended to fight with all he had in him for the survival, not just of this seemingly pristine plane but, of all planes.

WILL KENRITH

Ro smiled at him the moment Jace gave the command for them to move forward into battle. She was ready. She had been waiting for this. Will had been waiting for it, too, but suddenly he did not feel so confident. He forced himself to smile back before following his sister into battle. It wasn't as easy for him to run with his false leg, but the leg was secure, and he had been training for this for several weeks. Ajani had been especially helpful in this department, being keen on helping the boy overcome what many considered his handicap.

The leonin warrior had scoffed when Will had called it that. "What, because you are missing something, this makes you incapable of being a good warrior? Look at me, boy. Look at my face. Look at my eye—do you think I have ever let this stop me?" He pointed at the missing eye. "Others may see your injury as weakness, but I say it can become your strength if you know how to use it."

They had begun training together immediately, almost daily, and Ajani had not gone too easy on him. Will had quickly lost count of how many times he ended up on his back. He had almost given up more than a few times, too. Who needs to be a warrior when they've got magic on their side? At that, though, Ajani had scoffed yet again.

"You use magic like a crutch, but it will not always be there to save you, boy. What will you do when you've exhausted your mana and there's no easy source from which to draw? You need to be able to fight. More than fight—you need to be able to hold your own in battle, and to win. Learn to fight like a soldier, not a mage. Only then will you overcome what you call your 'handicap'."

He had grown up being taught how to use a sword in battle, but that was long before he had lost a leg in the battle to save Strixhaven from the Oriq. Learning to fight with a false leg was like learning to fight all over again. Nevertheless, with determination and consistent practice Will had begun to learn what the leonin was trying to teach him—how to harness his strength and turn his handicap into an advantage. Now, bearing his magic but carrying a sword on his back, he ran toward the battle prepared to use whatever means were necessary. Especially now that he knew Ajani was caught up in that mess. Ajani had done so much for him, and now it was his turn to help Ajani. This gave him courage. He narrowed his brows as he struggled to keep up with his sister, but he would not be discouraged by anything he faced. He could do this.

Then all at once the smells of blood, dirt, excrement, and death filled his nostrils. He gagged but managed to keep moving forward, until he slipped in something that squished beneath his feet. To his horror, it turned out to be the innards of a dead elf. Finally overcome, Will began to heave.

Most everyone else was already in the thick of it by this time, but Rowan had seen him fall and stopped to stand watch over him at the outskirts of the battle, swinging her sword and casting bolts of electricity at anything that came near. He looked at her through his tears as he continued to be overcome by wave after wave of sickness. He was surprised that she seemed less bothered by the putrid smells around them—probably all that time she spent on the Witherbloom Campus, where putrescence seemed to be the relative norm.

Professor Vess seemed even less bothered by the smells, which wasn't surprising. She floated by on a rolling cloud of black dust, keeping her boots and the hem of her skirts clean of all the carnage that now covered Will. He watched her, gleeful as she went along calling forth the discarded dead along the way and sending them ahead to fight once again. She stopped when she realized Will was lying in the filth and cringed.

"Will, what on earth are you doing down there? You can't very well be of use like that."

"I…slipped, Professor," he stammered. His lips quivered and he realized he was cold, but he couldn't understand why he was cold because the weather was beautiful, almost in spite of the battle that raged. In fact, in was warmer here than it was on Ravnica.

"Well, get up," she said, firm yet gentle. "And don't worry about cleaning yourself off. There's a lot worse to come."

"Yes, Professor," he replied, pulling himself up. Then he looked up at her, and said, "Stay safe, Professor."

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Just…don't get yourselves killed!" And she carried on, muttering something under her breath as she went.

Will stood dumbfounded and watching her move on, until suddenly he felt something tugging at his foot. He looked down and then up and found he was still standing on the innards of the fallen elf—only now the elf was standing there, unable to move forward. Letting out a horrified gasp, Will jumped aside and the zombie elf continued after his mistress, dragging his innards behind him. Will felt the urge to hurl once again but managed to hold it back this time. Then, at his sister's urge, they continued toward the center of the fray.

AJANI

It seemed nothing short of a miracle when he saw the familiar flashes of red, blue, and green mana coming from the other end of the battlefield. He had just brought down his battle-axe through the head of a Phyrexian when a flash of blue caught his eye. For only a moment, he was able to look and see Teferi was there, followed by many of the others. Jace was nowhere in sight, but he spotted Jaya and Karn and the Kenrith twins heading toward the battle.

He said a prayer of thanks in his mind and continued the fight, unable to waste any more time in looking around him. He knew the others had come, and for the first time since Nissa had fallen, he felt a twinge of hope. This gave him a renewed zest for battle. He roared as he raised a battle-axe that he had foraged from one of the fallen soldiers above his head, and then swung it around to slice through the chest of another Phyrexian. The axe stuck in whatever constituted for its ribs. Ajani stuck a boot on its chest to pull his axe from its writhing corpse, and then he moved on to the next one.

The battle had seemed hopeless, as the Phyrexians initially seemed to outnumber them six to one, not counting those who were unable to fight well. The Tribes had brought some of their best warriors to the conclave, but it was nowhere near enough for true battle and the majority had already fallen prey to the Phyrexian onslaught. They had been unprepared and now they were suffering the consequences.

There were a number of druids and mages from among the elves, the fae, and the other gathered tribes. Many called forth animals and elementals to join in the battle. There were even some giants fighting on their side. It helped, but it was still not enough. Ajani only hoped that with the arrival of the rest of the Gatewatch, the tables had turned in their favor. He was certain that the handful of them was still better than all the combined forces of the Tribes and their allies that had assembled prior to the attack.

He even found himself smiling when he caught sight of Liliana, floating amidst a sea of undead. For the first time since she returned, Ajani was truly grateful to have Liliana alive and on their side. Every living creature that had fallen in battle that day, or that lay buried deep within the earth around them, rose again to become a part of her undead army. Even Ajani realized how valuable was her power to raise the dead in a war that seemed otherwise hopeless.

ARLINN

It all happened too fast. Too sudden. There was no objective, no plan in place. The confusion and uncertainty naturally led to fear, which led to frustration. Rather than give in to the next phase, hopelessness, Arlinn was determined to do whatever it took to protect her friends. For now, that had to be the objective. Otherwise, this whole thing was so senseless. The Phyrexians had taken them by surprise. Somehow, they knew exactly when and where to attack. How was it that there were so many people gathered in this place, yet so few who were mages and armed soldiers to keep the people safe?

There was no time to talk to Chandra and Ajani, who were fighting their own battles within the larger one. No time to ask them what had happened and how this had come about. There was no need for questions, though. At least to Arlinn, it was obvious that the Phyrexians had attacked them during the conclave. Very few of the people there, whether they were fighting, fleeing, or among the dead, were wearing battle attire. This had clearly been an ambush and that had given the Phyrexians the upper hand right from the start.

The Phyrexians were an enemy unlike anything she had ever seen. They were unnatural and terrifying in a way nothing else she had faced had ever seemed. This primal fear could only be matched by her inner beast, and Arlinn had to face these monsters by becoming a monster herself. So, while the others pulled out any number of weapons and sorceries, Arlinn transformed into her werewolf form and headed into battle.

Something about her beast-form made it easier to face the Phyrexians. Easier to dodge their attacks and launch her own. It also made her keenly aware that they were not truly living creatures—not in the sense of which she was familiar. Neither were they artifice, the way Karn was. Jace had said during one of their meetings that the Phyrexians did not bleed like normal living creatures. They were filled with something he had called glistening oil instead. Everywhere, the ground was soaked with it, where it had not been burnt up by Chandra's fires. And in her beast form, Arlinn could smell the strange oil that ran through their veins. Even the living Phyrexians wreaked of it; the smell assaulted her keenest of senses.

The first Phyrexian monster she faced head-on was a hideous creature that was almost human but with a lower half that resembled the body of a spider. It was one of the ugliest things Arlinn had ever seen and it moved with an agility and speed to match anything she could do. The creature also seemed to have the uncanny ability to anticipate every move and that made combating it especially difficult.

When she first came upon it, Arlinn lunged at the creature, going for its throat, only to have it whirl around on its many legs and pounce, grabbing at her with hands that were not quite hands. Its pointed fingers twisted through the ridge of thick fur around the scruff of her neck. She yelped as it dug into her flesh, but she managed to wriggle free from its grip. Then she came back around and tried to lunge at the creature from underneath. Again, it seemed to anticipate what she was going to do, and it leapt out of the way just in time to avoid having its abdomen ripped apart by Arlinn's hungry fangs.

Then the creature tripped over one of the fallen elves as it landed, and that's when Arlinn managed to get a hold on one of its many legs. As she dug her fangs into its leg, the bitter taste of glistening oil almost made her lose her supper. She managed to fight the urge, though, and clamped down harder on its leg as she pulled and twisted until the leg came off. The creature screeched in agony and came at her with all the fury of its seven remaining legs, and the arms that were attached to the humanoid upper half. The spider creature came down on top of Arlinn, crushing her with the force of its landing and pinning her to the ground. She could taste the blood- and oil-soaked dirt as her lupine face came down. Then she struggled to break free of its grasp.

Just when she thought she was going to die, though, she felt a tug and heard the creature scream, and then the weight was lifted as the creature appeared to levitate. Arlinn got up on all fours and shook off the confusion. Then she turned to see a giant was crushing the spider Phyrexian within its fist. She looked up in awe at the giant, for a moment taken aback by its size and even more so by the fact that it had huge gashes in its head and chest that suggested it should be dead.

It all began to make sense when she saw Liliana floating on a smoky black cloud nearby, happily raising the dead and sending them off in all directions. The necromancer winked at Arlinn and then moved on to seize control of every dead thing that was able to be commanded to do her bidding. Arlinn stood amazed, as a sea of dead creatures began rising all around her. Zombies of every creature type there was available on Lorwyn now walked, ran, flew, or limped along to continue the fight where they left off.

Overcome with excitement at this turn, Arlinn howled and then continued the fight.

CHANDRA

The reinforcements arrived late in the battle, but at least the leaders of the Tribes had managed to send someone away for reinforcements before they were completely overwhelmed by the Phyrexian monsters that swarmed around them like hundreds of ginormous bees. Or wasps. Or other kinds of insects, really, since most of them were not able to fly. The ones that did fly were a whole other level of terrifying.

Before the Tribes' reinforcements arrived, though, the Gatewatch appeared and that was even more exciting. Chandra hadn't even seen them arrive but all of a sudden, they were there fighting alongside her and Ajani and the battalions of elves, fae, dryads, and other creatures that made Lorwyn their home. She barely had time to celebrate, but when she saw Teferi and Jaya tag-teaming a Phyrexian rhinoceros thingy (seriously, what the heck was it!?), she whooped for joy and continued her own part in the fight.

Of course, Nissa was constantly on her mind, and that only fueled her own sense of rage and purpose. Was she okay? Had she survived? She didn't see her among the others, but everyone had split up and it wasn't like she had time to stop and take rollcall in the middle of a frickin' battle. Nissa must have made it back to Ravnica if everyone was there. And, surely, everyone was there even if she couldn't see them all because she was too busy kicking Phyrexian butt.

These were some of the toughest things she had ever gone up against, though. The Eldrazi were tough, for example, but there were nowhere near as many of them. Sure, they were beyond ginormous and had powers that really messed things up wherever they went, but the Phyrexians seemed to be better equipped with powers AND form. They were not alive, exactly, but neither were they dead; nor were they artifact creatures, even though in many ways they seemed like they could be. Whatever they were, they were weird. Like, really awful, scary weird. And gross. They were also really gross; some of them anyway.

One of the monsters she came up against was this long, skinny thing with, like, a hundred legs and a scorpion stinger at the other end. The front of it was really ugly, too. Its head was shaped almost like the head of a praying mantis, but it was this sickly grey color, and it had a narrow mouth filled with hundreds of tiny but very sharp-looking teeth. She was ready to fry that thing when, out of nowhere, Jace showed up right in front of her and told her to watch out behind her. She had just moved out of the way on a propulsion of flames when, BAM! This enormous hammer thing came down on top of the hundred-legged thing and whatever constituted for its brains were smashed all over the place. It was pretty gross.

She had to think fast, though, because once it realized it had smashed one of its own the hammer-arm thingy turned to look for her. Before it was able to pinpoint where she'd gone, she was lighting it up in flames, the odor of burnt oil filling her nostrils. She was kinda growing used to the smell and could almost like it, even though it didn't have the cleanliness and purity of aether.

When she realized the Jace that warned her was only an illusion, she managed to spot the real Jace on the outskirts of the battle among some of the others before he vanished. She assumed that one was the real Jace, anyway, and that he had just gone invisible, but she couldn't be sure. His illusions could be pretty convincing, although she was getting pretty good at telling them apart from the real Jace. Not as good as Liliana, who was never fooled by a fake Jace, but that was to be expected because nobody seemed to know Jace as well as Liliana did.

Another pang struck at Chandra's heart when she thought of Nissa. Nobody seemed to be in mourning, from what she could tell, but then who would have had time to mourn when there was a battle to be fought? She was grateful when, sometime after the Tribes' reinforcements came, Jaya managed to fight her way to her. By then, they had been fighting for hours and were just about out of steam. Thankfully, the reinforcements were able to take over a lot of the fight, giving everyone left from the earlier part of the battle a brief respite.

As she approached, Jaya lifted her goggles from her face and pulled Chandra into a tight embrace. "I am so glad to see you," she said, giving Chandra another squeeze before letting her go. "I almost thought we'd lost you!"

"Nissa?"

"She's all right," said Jaya.

Chandra almost felt like collapsing in a heap, she was so grateful to hear that wonderful news. Grateful and exhausted. She bent over, holding her legs just above her knees, while Jaya continued, "We left her behind to rest, but the worst of her injuries was completely healed."

"I'm glad she didn't come back," said Chandra. "I was afraid she would, and then I'd be worried even more the whole time. But…how was she healed so quickly? That thing ran a stinger all the way through her!"

Chandra's eyes stung with tears at the memory, only a few long hours ago.

"I'll tell you about it later. It's a pretty interesting story, if you ask me, but right now there's no time to tell it. Do you have it in you to keep up the fight?"

"I think so," Chandra answered with a nod, even though she didn't feel that way at all. Thinking of Nissa almost dying had powered her through, but suddenly knowing she was okay seemed to take all the life out of Chandra. She just wanted so badly to go back to Ravnica and hold Nissa close, and to never let her go. But she knew she had to stay to see it through, even if Nissa couldn't be there to fight alongside her. Nissa would never forgive her if she gave up now, when they might actually stand half a chance at winning this battle.

"Come on," said Jaya, holding out her hand. "We can do this. For Nissa."

"For Nissa," Chandra said with a nod.

Then the two of them pulled down their goggles and prepared to run back into the fray.

Roasted Phyrexian coming right up!

KAYA

It was blood-filled chaos. Standing upon the same overlook where Jace and Teferi and all the others had arrived some hours earlier, Kaya thought for only a moment of high tailing it out of there. But those were her friends down there, fighting for their lives. She couldn't abandon them—especially after her companions arrived just behind her.

Vraska stepped up to look down at the battle, her expression grim. "Well, looks like everyone that came before us is still alive. Unless the necromancer turned them all into zombies after they died. Hmph. At least she's efficient."

Kaya wondered if Vraska was a little jealous, but she wasn't about to say anything.

Ral appeared beside her then, and said, "I hope Jace knows what he's doing."

Kaya knew he was referring to accepting Liliana back and all of that. Like most everyone else, Ral was still not fully convinced she could be trusted. Jace had told him about it himself, but Ral was still getting used to the idea.

"He does," Kaya reassured him. "And so do I. We're all in this together, remember?"

The storm mage gave a nod and looked up at the sky. Not a single cloud for him to pull energy from, and Kaya could see by his dire expression that he was disappointed by this. Still, there were other sources for him to pull from, so she wasn't worried. Ral was always savvy about making something out of nothing.

"Where's Nissa?" asked Vraska.

"I'm here."

The elf stepped up from behind them, having just arrived in a burst of green. She looked sadly at the battle that was being waged, the winds catching some loose strands of her auburn hair. Then she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Lorwyn is hurting, but there is hope. I feel it. All is not lost."

While the others had left for Lorwyn, Kaya had gone straight to Lavinia to tell her of Jace's request for a healer. Lavinia had known just who to send for and, while Kaya continued on her mission to alert Vraska and Ral to the sudden need to make their move on Lorwyn, the Selesnyian priest Emmara Tandris had come to Jace's residence to work her healing magics on Nissa. By the time Kaya returned with Ral and Vraska in tow, Nissa was fully prepared to return to Lorwyn to continue the battle.

Now, fully equipped with her weapons of choice and appropriately armored, she turned to the others, and said, "Let's go."

Kaya inhaled deep and slow, pulled out her weapons, and ran toward the chaos alongside the others. She was surprised, at first, to find so few dead lying upon the ground within the battle, but she quickly came to realize that most of those she was fighting alongside were not exactly alive. She remembered then that Liliana was probably raising every single fallen creature she could to fight once again. Necromancy comes in handy, when you're on the same side.

She didn't know where anyone else was, once she was in the thick of it, but she could see the many-colored flashes of spells from other planeswalkers and mages and she knew they were around somewhere, even if she couldn't see them. She didn't need to see them, though. She was too busy fighting those damned Phyrexians to worry about the rest of her friends and allies. They were just as capable as her. She knew they could take care of themselves.

Even the Kenrith twins were skilled mages and capable fighters. Kaya came across them as she wove her way through the battle, going into ghost form and dodging hits before bringing one of her ghostly blades up into Phyrexian ribcages and slicing through larynxes, or severing tracheas. She was surprised when she saw the twins, standing back-to-back and casting dual spells, working together as a perfectly harmonized pair the way Liliana had said they did. Now she understood all the fuss that was being made, and all the praises Liliana had sung of these two seemingly inexperienced kids. They were clearly far from inexperienced, even if they still had much to learn.

They were damn good fighters, too. When they didn't have time to cast a spell, they pulled out swords and began slashing and stabbing at their foes with skill unmatched by many Kaya had ever seen. They moved with such grace and finesse and speed that, as Kaya came up to fight alongside them with her own two blades, she thought she must have looked clumsy in comparison.

Once they had a moment of reprieve from the fight, however, Will and Rowan stopped to give her high-fives, and Rowan said, "How do you move like that?! I wanna learn how to fight like that!"

"Like me?" Kaya asked.

"Um, yeah!" Rowan exclaimed. Then she paused to send a blast of electricity against a smallish Phyrexian creature that was coming upon them. It popped and sizzled and was no more. Then Rowan continued, "The way you swing and twirl with those daggers…it's amazing! You make it look so easy and so elegant."

"You guys are the ones making sword-fighting look like some kind of courtly dance or something."

"Thanks," Will said with a grin. "Years of fencing back on Eldraine."

Then Rowan pushed herself in the way, and said, "If we ever get a real break from this, can you teach me to fight like you?"

"What, you mean dual-wield?"

"Yeah," said Rowan.

"Sure," Kaya answered with a smile. "Yeah, I'd love to train with you. And you'll teach me how to do all those fancy sword-dancing moves."

Rowan laughed, but then their moment was over as another onslaught began. For a time, at least, the three of them would stick together as the battle raged on, seeming as if it would never come to an end.

JACE

A mind-mage was most useful staying out of the direct line of fighting, whenever possible. And so it was that Jace remained poised within but not fully a part of the battle; observing but not observed. He sent out illusions of himself to distract and confuse the enemy, allowing his companions to strike a fatal blow or dodge one. He summoned a water dragon and a griffin to fly over the enemy's head and strike from above. And he watched his friends and allies, plotting and calculating as the battle raged on, always at the ready to aid in any way he could to ensure their success and survival against this seemingly impossible enemy.

He searched for each and every one of them, picking them out from within the chaos by a spell that allowed him to see their sparks like multicolored beacons. Thank you, Mystical Archives. He saw Chandra going about like a flaming whirling-dervish, destroying every Phyrexian in her wake, and Jaya using controlled immolation on the opposite side of the battlefield. He watched Karn destroying Phyrexians by pummeling them with his fists and using his artificial hands to knock their heads together to bash in their skulls. He wondered if the golem was able to pick up on any of their enchantments by his touch, as Jace had seen him do before.

He spotted Ajani at the other edge of the battle, swinging a battle axe to crush and slice his foes into pieces. And long before he saw Kaya and the others arrive, he witnessed Will Kenrith take his fall and his sister taking up her place to protect him. He had put a protective field around them to minimize the danger they might otherwise have faced while they got themselves together, fearing this was too much for them and wondering if he should have let them come along, after all. Liliana had insisted they were as fierce as any other, but suddenly Jace felt an almost fatherly urge to keep them safe. They did well on their own, though, and he soon realized Liliana was right to have so much faith in them. They did even better when Kaya showed up and fought alongside them.

And then there was Liliana. His very own complicated and beloved Liliana, floating above the fray and adding her own dramatic flair to everything she did, as usual. Early on in the battle, she had stopped to help Will and Rowan, during which time Jace had extended the field of protection to her, as well. He wasn't about to take any chances with the woman he loved, even if she did sometimes aggravate and perplex him.

While the battle raged on around her, Liliana was full of life and thoroughly enjoying herself. Raising and commanding the dead with one hand, snatching and draining the lifeforce of their foes with the other, she was orchestrating a symphony of death and undeath from within the very center of the battle. All with a smile on her face and even, at one point, laughing maniacally.

She was certainly in her element, possibly for the first time in years, Jace realized. And he smiled. Even amongst the carnage, with all the terrors that they faced, for just a moment he felt true joy at the sight of Liliana back to being her old self again. And, what made it all the better was that everything seemed to be going well and they were winning. That was, until HE showed up.