Chapter 15: In Bolas's Clutches
I've lost him.
Liliana let out a light sigh, inaudible over the bustling crosswinds atop the citadel. As she directed the Dreadhorde, she bore witness to every event that unfolded before the eyeless sockets of each Eternal. She had seen them level buildings, uproot trees, and cut down civilians, but she tried her best to ignore these machinations of war. Instead, by simplifying her commands to the zombies and allowing them to move mostly autonomously, she could devote her focus to seeing where her former allies were gathering. And, not a moment ago, Gideon had slipped from her view as he headed to the Boros stronghold of Sunhome. She didn't know if her sigh was borne of frustration or relief, and this inability to know sent tremors of loathing rumbling across her mind.
Whatever. It doesn't matter now. He's probably talking to Aurelia because he thinks that she'll be able to help. Gideon's lucky he's pretty. If he thinks any plan he comes up with can stop Bolas, he must be as thick in the head as he is in the arms.
The words felt forced. Perfunctory. Like another person was funneling their thoughts through her mind. It's not that she didn't believe the words, that she doubted the might of Bolas' plan against the Gatewatch's scrabbling. It was the exact opposite. She knew that Bolas could not be stopped, but that didn't mean she wanted it to be so.
They're going to keep fighting him, no matter what, and they're going to lose. Gideon probably thinks he can come up with a strategy to stop Bolas, but there's nothing he can come up with that that dragon hasn't already thought up and planned around. They're all just rats running around his maze, thinking they'll find a piece of cheese that isn't there.
Amidst the sea of her nihilistic musings, another thought bubbled to the surface. It was pervasive, one she'd thought many times already that day, and one that she dreaded whenever it made itself known.
And what does that make me, then?
The sentiment echoed across the reaches of her brain, a knell that threatened to drive her to tears once more this day. She felt the weight of the words on her chest, pulling her heart to the smooth black rooftop with a strength that made her knees buckle. These thoughts pushed her inward, forcing her back into the theater of her mind. Though her face pointed out to the Ravnica skyline, her eyes were focused through the Chain Veil, on the atrocities befalling the city by the Eternals' hands.
By my hands. I may not wield the blade, but I gave the order that made it fall.
As seconds ticked away, the plague she had unleashed spread further and further into Ravnica's urban bloodstream. She watched an Eternal tear a bush from the ground before tossing its crumpled remains aside. She watched a crop of Eternals stomp through a community garden, leaving it in ruins. She watched a young couple, stalking around corners to remain unseen, bump into an Eternal just before tasting its blade. These scenes played out over and over again, in every conceivable nook and cranny, avenue and alley, of Ravnica. Incalculable collateral damage and countless lives lost across the plane. Liliana watched it all unfold, but even when faced with what her Dreadhorde had wrought, she did not cry. Instead, her face pulled into a stoic grimace, unwavering in the face of the devastation, anchored by a single thought:
No matter how bad it could be, it is because of me that it is not any worse.
Just as it had throughout the long day thus far, it was this thought that kept Liliana's mind buoyed in the ebbing sea of self-loathing.
It's because of my commands that the Dreadhorde aren't entering buildings or destroying anything bigger than a person. It's because of me that the only people who have died are those who got caught in the Eternals' way. If I had refused this position, Bolas would have just found another general for his army. One who's not as powerful or skilled as me, of that I can be absolutely certain. They'd be sloppy, careless. They'd let the Eternals run roughshod over this plane, leveling it and killing even those who tried their best to stay out of the fight. If I broke my contract, then I would have died and Ravnica would be the worse for it.
Her knees ceased their trembling, instead locking into an immovably straight posture. Her face, hidden beneath the Veil, hardened once more. The tears that verged on the brim of her ducts receded as if sucked in by a powerful vacuum. In an instant, the old Liliana returned.
The Gatewatch thinks that they are the heroes of this day, but nothing they do is stopping Nicol Bolas more than what I have been doing since he invoked my contract. I don't care what the Gatewatch or the Raven Man say, I made my choice, and I am doing what I must.
Confidence surged through her body, fists balling with conviction in her actions. A powerful gust shot up from the side of the citadel, but Liliana held fast. She did not falter, she did not bend, and she did not feel the chill over her body. Only the tinkling sound of the Chain Veil's fluttering links indicated that any wind was blowing. When the short burst of air petered out, she remained steadfast in her position over the city.
She looked out over the landscape, eyes flaring over with thick swirls of necromantic energy. Though she faced Ravnica, her sight was once again splintering through the eyes of her Eternal subjects. Now that her guilt was assuaged for the time being, she could once again focus on the task handed down from Bolas.
I may have lost Gideon somewhere in the Boros region, but I still have eyes on plenty of other planeswalkers. Now, let's see where they're headed.
She had been keeping close tabs on her former friends. She remembered that they were gathering in a park on the border of Azorius territory. They had arrived with new faces, and it seemed they were meeting up with another group of potential planeswalker allies. That was the last she saw before they cleared the area of Eternals for her to spy through. Now, she refocused her effort and scanned through the ground troops' visions. Her eyes flicked around rapidly behind the Veil, searching for distinctive features. Blue hood, flaming hair, ghostly green creatures, Orzhov gold, Izzet chrome. She would not stop until she found them all, and luckily for her, it only took a few seconds before they were in her sights.
There they are. She smiled, content both with her swiftness in finding them and with what she saw. It looks like they've split up even further. I may not be able to hear what they're planning, but if I know Jace and Gideon, they'll be trying their damnedest to rally the guilds.
Something about this thought didn't sit right. It felt out of place in her mind, like an article of clothing left by a guest in your home. Then she realized why: it was Bolas who had warned her of the Gatewatch's plan. It had been days ago, long before any of them arrived on Ravnica. She had asked the dragon why he was okay with trapping his enemies on the plane, and she could still see the contemplative smoke that arose from his nostrils as he answered: I HAVE SEEN THROUGH THEIR PLANS. NOTHING THEY DO CAN HARM ME. THEY WILL BEAR WITNESS TO MY ASCENSION, AND THEY WILL KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE POWERLESS.
She shuddered, thinking about how Bolas' voice chuckled in her head, his unerring confidence obvious in his words. His psychic tendrils wrapped around her mind as he went on to explain the Gatewatch's inevitable stratagem, tightening around her brain with the grim realization that he must be right. No matter how much she wanted the Gatewatch to succeed, she knew firsthand that Bolas had prepared for whatever ruse they had planned. It was the first time she had felt truly hopeless in a long time.
The memory crept further into her mind, a lingering dread following close behind like an oncoming storm cloud. Knowing what that meant, she quickly waved away the thought, deftly sweeping it under the rug of her conscious mind. Once it was gone, she filled the space with the vision from the Eternals, readily returning to her surveillance of the planeswalkers.
Ok, let's see exactly where everyone is. Maybe it'll be obvious where they're going…
Her train of thought tapered off as she searched once again for the planeswalkers' telltale vestiges. It wasn't long before she found them yet again, still following the trajectory she had seen for them a moment before.
So, it looks like Chandra and Jaya are headed to Vitu-Ghazi. Whomever thought sending the two pyromancers to a giant tree probably isn't thinking clearly. Jace is moving on his way to the Promenade with Ral Zarek and that archer woman. If Zarek is with him, he's probably going to the Izzet headquarters. He probably wants to read through Niv-Mizzet's notes now that the dragon isn't hoarding them. Just as expected, running to unite all the guilds against Bolas. Good luck with that.
Taking mental notes of their position, Liliana shifted her focus from the main players to the other possible accomplices in their plan to take down Bolas. Rifling through the vision of her Eternals, she began to gather whatever information she could about the others.
Teferi is still at the Planar Bridge with that dragon-mage Sarkhan. They're slowing my progress through the portal, but not stopping it, and it looks like they're both getting tired. I'm surprised Tef's still standing after what that aven did to his arm. I doubt they'll be able to hold out much longer, and then the floodgates will open again.
Ajani is out running with that merwoman again. The two of them were evacuating people to the city limits earlier, but it looks like now they're headed to the Simic Combine. Probably got word from Jace about the plan. They've also picked up some new faces. I don't recognize that boy or that woman, but judging by their clothes, I'd guess they hail from the Plane of Mountains and Seas.
No matter where I look, I can't seem to find that Azorius woman that Jace had met up with. She must've slipped away somehow, but where the hell could she be hiding?
And it looks like Kaya is returning to the Orzhov with Nahiri and the boy with the shields. That fool…
Liliana's thought fell off as a cloud of condescension blew into her mind at the sight of the new Orzhov guild leader. Her lips twitched as it fought between curling down in a contemptuous grimace and turning up in a grin of superiority. The dueling emotions broke, and her mouth evened back to a straight line.
Bolas had told her all about Kaya and her part in his plans. How he had contracted her to kill the Obzedat, knowing that she would be locked into their soul contract and inherit their leadership. How he offered her release from her newfound obligation in exchange for fealty. How she refused, and how Bolas abandoned her there. When Liliana had first heard Kaya's tale, she had likened her to Baan or Rade, just another pawn to give Bolas greater control over the guilds. But now, she realized that the fate of the ghost-assassin mirrored her own, except for one difference: she turned down Bolas and lived.
Liliana wanted to be mad at Kaya, to let a maelstrom of rage buffet her thoughts at the injustice of that winged bastard letting her walk away while Liliana was trapped in the palm of his hand. She had envied Kaya's position, for even though she was locked into a contract with the Orzhov, she could still do and act as she pleased. She could still stand up to Bolas and fight him. At first, Liliana wanted nothing more than to switch places with Kaya, to fly free instead of watching the world from between the bars of a cage. All she could see was the 'what' of their disparity, but it was only when she fully grasped the 'why' that her anger transformed to pity.
Bolas only let you go because you're weak, she silently sneered at Kaya's image as it ran across her Eternals' eyes. You're too weak to be of any use and too weak to pose a threat. Bolas knew that long before you turned him away. And yet here you are, still aimlessly sputtering around the city, desperate to help. You haven't even realized it yet, that if anything you did this day mattered, you would already be dead.
Then, the distant voice from the back of her mind, the one she had silenced a moment ago, spoke up. She tried to ignore it, but its message came in clear: If you gave up your power, you could be free too.
A violent convulsion ripped across Liliana's body as it took all her strength to not retch at this ludicrous notion. She maintained her footing, then let the disgust be washed away by a swift surge of rage. With a shake of her head, she swiftly stamped out the voice once again.
Give up my power? I'd rather let Bolas claw my heart out himself. No, I'll make sure this entire plane knows what true power is. Better to be a dragon in a cage than a bee in the sky.
Liliana pulled back her vision from the Eternals pursuing Kaya and her associates, and her anger began to level out. Once her head cooled, she put a hand above her eyes and looked to the sun over the horizon.
Judging by its position, it's about the time Bolas wanted that update. If he wasn't so preoccupied with the Elderspell, he could do it himself. He probably just wants to test me, see if I'll disobey…
She let out a heavy sigh that rustled the hanging tassels of the Chain Veil. Slowly, she began retaking a mental inventory of the planeswalkers' activities, sorting everything out per Bolas' instructions. As she went about her task, her eyes stayed fixed on the horizon, listless with her lack of outward focus. Then, something blew over her head and streaked past her vision. She reflexively swung at the unknown object but felt only air strike her palm. Her eyes followed its trajectory, and she saw a crow soaring over the rooftops. The bird let out a loud caw that echoed across the city before it vanished from sight. Liliana tried to ignore it, begrudgingly returning to the task at hand, but she couldn't help but think that the crow had sounded like it was laughing.