**Chapter 3**

Bronn had left Seidan's guest house about an hour ago, and was currently walking at a comfortable pace down a wooded path. Taking the time to run over what Seidan had told him about the Guilds of Ravnica, he quickly realised that he had hardly retained any of the information.

"Gruul are a tribe, Rakdos a cult" Bronn muttered to himself. "Boros are an army, Orzhov are a business..."

This continued whilst walking down the path, each rotation of the Guilds making Bronn feel less and less certain that he was correct. Judging by what Seidan had said, Bronn was about 2 hours away from the city of Ravnica when he decided to have a rest. Justifying the break with his near death experience, the confused soldier sat down and closed his eyes to try and identify the nearby sources of mana. Upon blacking out the world, Bronn's senses scattered far and wide; looking for the mana sources his body was attuned to. His senses passed over the nearby Swampland and Plains, settling on a vast lake with several small Islands. Pushing out again, Bronn's senses found a Mountain range off in the distance and a section of a nearby Forest teaming with life.

Bronn smiled as he pulled in some of the mana from the sources he found. Playing around with the mana, he remembered the day he discovered he could command 3 colours of magic. Most people who could manipulate mana could only command one colour, with the rare case of people using two. This trend seemed to be the case in the land Bronn had ended up in, with the Guilds all representing Two Colours. Bronn had only discovered this by accident, after he summoned a wolf using Green mana. He had already found he could control the magic of Blue and Red so hadn't even tried to reach another colour. Bronn had kept this ability a secret, claiming he had used a lot of Blue magic to create the illusion of a wolf to anyone he had seen. He wasn't sure what people would make of this anomaly, and didn't really care to find out.

Still lost in his memories, Bronn was taken off guard when a shout emitted from the nearby woods.

"SIMIC" It screamed, "YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS IN OUR STOMPING GROUNDS"

Bronn could not detect where the voices were coming from, but they didn't sound friendly. Drawing in more mana, Bronn prepared for a fight before stating: "I apologise, I am not from around here and didn't know I was trespassing. I will leave now"

"A LIKELY STORY" Yelled the voice in response, "YOU WEAR THE ROBES OF SIMIC AND WILL DIE IN THEM"

At the word "die", two things happened. Bronn expended some of the Green mana he had collected to turn his skin to wood. The second is a crossbow bolt was suddenly sticking out of his chest.

"Holy shit." Bronn muttered to himself, almost fainting in shock. Had he been a moment slower casting the spell, he would likely have been dead.

"I mean you no harm and mean what I said. I was rescued by a Simic Healer who gave me these robes. Allow me to leave and I won't cause any trouble."

"TROUBLE?! YOU THINK A SIMIC MAGE COULD CAUSE TROUBLE FOR THE GRUUL?" The voice replied, almost sounding insulted.

Bronn was barely listening at this point, and was busy drawing in all the mana he could to escape this situation. He didn't want to anger and of the Guilds before he had even reached the City, but he also didn't particularly want to die. He had taken two more crossbow bolts by the time he was satisfied, and his spell was starting to wear off.

"I didn't realise the Gruul Clans had so much in common with the House Dimir." Bronn called out, hoping his recollection of the Guilds was accurate.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SIMIC?"

"I'm sorry, I just didn't know the Gruul hid in the shadows because they were too afraid to fight."

There was a pause for a beat, then a mighty roar as a wild boar rushed out of the woods next to Bronn, missing him by feet. It took all he had to not flinch. On the back of the boar was as goblin holding a spear. In fact two goblins, one holding a fireball. Now two goblins, one holding a spear and one with empty hands, and on Bronn that had just taken a fireball to the chest and had been flung backwards.

"STILL THINK US COWARDS?" Yelled the goblin holding the spear.

"No," replied Bronn, whose eyes were now a burning red, "but I do think you're a pair of fucking idiots."

Bronn then released the spell he had charged. Bronn threw both arms together in front of him and they combined and morphed into the form of a dragon's head. The dragon's mouth them opened and let loose a ferocious roar and a stream of fire. Both Goblin's screamed and tried to force the boar to flee. The boar tried with all it's might but was not quick enough, and the Banefire met it's mark. The goblin's and the boar were burnt to a crisp in seconds and the spell dissipated.

Using the last of his Blue mana to put out the fires he had created, Bronn began walking towards the city again. He knew when he reached town he was going to have to purchase some more neutral clothing. He had been lucky that his opponents in this fight had been dim-witted enough to be goaded out of hiding, but was not convinced that he had met and adversary of average intelligence.

Some two hours later, Bronn had reached the city of Ravnica and was overcome with a sudden feeling of dread. Knowing he was about to enter a world of war and factions, condensed into one city, Bronn took a moment to steel himself before moving towards the City Gates.