Chapter 4: No Rest for the Wicked
The early morning Ravnica air was chilly and damp, a thin mist still lingering from the lightning storm the night before. Though the sun was shining fully, the low arc of its rays was cut short by the jet-black ziggurat towering over the Tenth District. It cast a brutal shadow over the nearby streets and houses, keeping them in a perpetual state of near-night darkness. The wind currents, normally unimpeded, now slammed against the structure's flat, slanted walls, travelling up and over the behemoth in their way. It howled, as if the plane itself was crying out against the travesty that had been newly birthed on its surface. All of this culminated in Liliana Vess wishing she had brought a coat.
She hugged her hands tight against her sides in a vain attempt to keep them warm. Her flowing purple dress, while still her favorite, cut off at the neckline, leaving her shoulders bare to the wailing winds being forced up to her perch at the top of the citadel. She watched the visible puffs of breath escaping her lips. They were uneven, quicker than they should be. Liliana wanted to blame the temperature, or the height, but she knew that it all had to do with who she was meeting up here.
"Oy, Vess, you're lookin' a bit chilly." She turned to her right, then lowered her gaze until she saw the smirking face of her newly-made ally, Domri Rade. Her eyes narrowed at the shirtless boy whose eye level didn't pass her chest (in more ways than one).
"What of it, Rade?" she accosted.
His smile widened as he crooked an eyebrow. "Well, I'm more'n happy to help you keep warm."
"Take one step in my direction, and it'll be your last. I doubt a corpse would provide much warmth."
"Woah, easy there!" he exclaimed, taking a step back. He held one hand up to her, the other tightening its grip on the large horned staff he was leaning against. "I'm jus' 'avin' a bit of fun, no need to get all tight-lipped on me. Ya know, you could learn a thing or two from the Gruul."
It took all of Liliana's restraint to not send a blast of eldritch mana through Domri's chest. Instead, her face contorted in a combination of disgust and aggression. "I doubt I have anything to learn from your guild of savages except whether they smell better alive or dead. My money would be on the latter."
"Would the two of you kindly stop your bickering?" The two turned to the glowering figure standing on Domri's opposite side. Tezzeret stood slightly taller than Liliana, though she had no idea if that height was natural. Besides his head and left arm, Tezzeret's body was completely metallic. Silver filigree swirls made up his torso and arms, all of it glowing with a faint violet light from the machinery within.
"Aw, whassa matter, Tezz," Domri chided, "do you need your battery charged? Maybe a sip o' oil?"
"Shut it, pest. Do you know how much mana it took to raise this citadel last night? Master Bolas didn't exactly give me any breaks, so forgive me if I don't want to listen to a demon queen prattle on with a boy who's got more hair on his jacket than his pecker."
Domri's smile turned, while Liliana raised a gloved hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh.
"That's tough talk for a man who ain't got a speck of meat beneath his shoulders, you glorified street sweeper." Tezzeret smirked and continued, unmoved by Domri's supposed insults.
"Honestly, the two of you are about as bad as that thing whining in my ear." Tezzeret pointed a mechanical claw to his other side, where a solitary thopter was hovering, its wings emitting a low hum as it fought against the updrafts. "How come Baan doesn't need to be here in person?"
"I assume he's already attending to some of Bolas' dirty work." Liliana spoke coolly, but something about her words rung hollow. If it's such dirty work, then why am I doing it? Am I no better than these three sycophants?
Domri let out a small yawn. "How much longer is the big guy gonna keep us waiting? Don't he know I got things to smash?"
Then, as if on cue, an aperture at the center of the citadel irised open, widening until it was nearly the size of a house frame. It stopped, and out from the citadel's center floated Nicol Bolas, his massive wings folded in so he could fit. He hovered for a moment, looking down at his gathered minions as the opening gradually closed. Once the flat surface of the citadel's roof returned, he landed, his weight causing a tremor across the structure.
Liliana felt her breath quicken at the sight of the Elder Dragon descending before her. She tried to calm her nerves, but nothing could be done. At this point, she couldn't tell if the emotion she felt towards Bolas was anger or fear, but it hardly mattered when she could act on neither.
A brief silence followed Bolas' arrival, but it was cut short as a soft clicking sound started from the thopter. The stinger-like protrusion on its front opened, revealing a lensed piece of mizzium. Light from the thopter's abdomen began to glow, and a full-body projection of Dovin Baan appeared before it.
The hologram Dovin took a deep bow. "Greetings, Master Bolas," he said, voice slightly garbled by the transmission. "I love what you've done with the Tenth District."
"Spare me your pleasantries," Bolas bellowed. Liliana was used to hearing his voice only in her head, rumbling through her brain like a swarm of locusts. She knew that he could not project his thoughts into the hologram, but it was still odd to hear his rasp.
"I trust that the Immortal Sun is fully operational?" the dragon snarled.
"Indeed, the Sun has been secured within the stronghold of New Prahv and is ready to activate. At your command, the planeswalkers on Ravnica will be stuck like flies in a spider's web."
The dragon smiled, revealing his pointed teeth to the four. "Excellent. Tezzeret will send the signal once he planeswalks to Amonkhet and sets up the Planar Bridge. Now go and ensure that the Sun is truly secured."
"Of course, master." Dovin once again bowed deeply, then the hologram disappeared as the thopter closed its proboscis and flew back to its master.
Bolas watched the thopter depart, then turned his attention back to his three present underlings. With the thopter gone, the dragon's voice once more reverberated through their skulls. TEZZERET, GO NOW AND BEGIN SETTING UP THE PLANAR BRIDGE. BE SURE THOSE INSOLENT PESTS ON AMONKHET TO NOT DISTURB YOUR WORK.
"At your command," Tezzeret stated. He offered a quick salute and was engulfed by a portal of violet light as he planeswalked away.
DOMRI, projected Bolas, the echoing words still worming their way into Liliana's head, RETURN TO YOUR HORDE. SPREAD THE GRUUL WAYS ACROSS EVERY PAVED AND INDUSTRIALIZED INCH OF THIS CITY. THE END-RAZE WILL BE UPON US SOON.
Domri beamed as if he had been given the greatest birthday gift of all. "You got it boss. I'll tear the stone from the streets and heal the soil with the blood o' the betrayers! Me 'n the boys are gonna raise some hell!"
THIS WORLD TURNED ITS BACK ON THE CHAOS OF NATURE. SHOW THEM NOW WHAT POWER IT HOLDS.
"You don't gotta tell me twice!" With a triumphant cry, Domri leapt over the edge of the massive citadel. Liliana's eyes followed him, half-hoping to see him splatter against the concrete below. To her dismay, he quickly waved his hands and loosed a guttural chant, and a large hawk appeared beneath him. He landed squarely on its back and rode it to the ground, where a veritable horde of painted humans, giants, viashino, centaurs, and goblins waited for their leader. As soon as Domri landed, he removed the hawk and summoned a large boar to ride. The crowd roared with bloodlust and rode off through the city streets, a wake of minor destruction already starting to appear.
Liliana turned back to Bolas, whose attention was not on her, but looking out over the city. She stared in contempt at the dragon, but she dared not speak. She waited for Bolas to usher his command, but he seemed preoccupied by the horizon.
What is he waiting for? she asked herself, and the answer came almost immediately. She suddenly felt something bathe over her, an energy that seemed to leash around her neck and chest.
GOOD, THE IMMORTAL SUN IS ACTIVATED. NO MORE PLANESWALKING. NO MORE ESCAPE. He now turned once more to Liliana. YOU SHALL WAIT HERE FOR THE BRIDGE TO ACTIVATE. YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO THEN.
"Yes," she said curtly, emphatically leaving out any 'master' or 'lord'. "And what shall you be doing in the meantime?"
I WILL BE PREPARING THE ELDERSPELL WITHIN THE CITADEL. THERE IS STILL MUCH TO BE DONE BEFORE MY PLAN CAN COME TO FRUITION.
"Of course," she added, trying her best to keep the pent-up sarcasm in her thoughts from leaking into her words. "I will wait here and keep watch." Hearing her own complacency made the bile rise in her stomach.
VESS, DO NOT TAKE ME FOR A FOOL.
Liliana looked up, surprise mingling with fear across her face. "I'm not quite sure what you mean."
YOU ARE NOT LIKE BAAN, OR TEZZERET, OR RADE. YOU STILL WISH TO FIGHT AGAINST ME. YOU ARE HOPING I DO NOT SUCCEED IN MY PLAN, THAT YOUR FORMER ALLIES WILL BE ABLE TO DEFEAT ME.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," she lied through her teeth.
DO NOT FORGET THAT I HOLD YOUR CONTRACT NOW. IF YOU DO NOT OBEY MY COMMAND, I WILL NOT HESITATE TO END IT.
She did not respond, only grit her teeth in frustration. The two stood in silence for a few moments, the ache of Bolas' psychic intrusion starting to wane. Eventually, Liliana heaved a grievous sigh and looked back to Bolas with a dejected acquiescence.
His scaled lips curled, dripping with sadistic glee. Then, he uncurled a clawed finger and pointed it past Liliana. She turned and saw him gesturing to the Transguild Promenade, a neutral zone where members of all ten guilds could meet and live without threat of feuding. Flashing a villainous grin, Bolas' claw began to glow with an eerie red light.
Liliana audibly gasped as a stone pillar suddenly shot from the Promenade's center, upturning the concrete and bursting through the vaulted gates meant as a symbol of guild unity. She had seen obelisks like this on Amonkhet, but this one was made of a pale green limestone. It was also much taller, growing higher than even the citadel she stood on. By the time it finished growing, it strained her neck to look at its peak.
Her head whipped to watch Bolas, just in time to see him belch out a torrent of blue flames from his maw. She followed the fire as it shot towards the obelisk, engulfing it in an azure inferno that bathed the streets in alien light. When the flame dissipated, she could she that it had forged the blank obelisk into a statue. A hulking, towering, terrifying statue of Nicol Bolas himself, gold trim adorning its smooth surface.
THERE, Bolas proclaimed, the mirth in his voice filling Liliana's mind, LET THAT SERVE AS A MESSAGE TO YOU, VESS, AND TO THE CITIZEN OF RAVNICA. THIS PLANE NOW BELONGS TO NICOL BOLAS, THE ELDER DRAGON!
Bolas flapped his mighty wings and hovered off the ground as the aperture on the citadel's roof once again opened. Without another word, he slipped back into his fortress, leaving Liliana alone.
She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream to the heavens. She wanted to march into the citadel and kill Bolas where he stood. But she could not do any of that. All she could do was look out at the statue of her captor and wait for his command.