A/N: In which Jace opens up, and Ral attempts to call in the favor Jace owes him.

Chapter Eight

Ral's joints were aching, and the world had shifted yet again. He blinked hard against the sudden influx of sunlight, putting up a hand to shield his watering eyes. What had those damn gorgons done?

"Zarek, are you all right?" Iskra's voice piped up from his side.

"Jace—where's Jace?" He tried to open his eyes, but the sunlight spearing down forced him to squint, and all he could make out was the vague silhouette of an overgrown, square-shaped building.

Iskra tugged on his sleeve and pointed, and this time, straining against the sunlight, he managed to make out what seemed to be a temple, twin fluted columns holding up a roof that was covered in dark green vines. And a blurred figure in blue resting against the pillar on the left.

Ral blinked the moisture from his eyes, and the scene finally came into focus. He drew a sharp breath. Leaning rather wearily against the temple entrance, but missing the ugly bluish pallor that had been spreading across his face, was Jace Beleren.

Ral's stomach flipped, heat rising in his veins, his heart pounding suddenly loud in his ears. "What the fuck were you thinking?" he demanded, jerking his sleeve away from Iskra and starting forward. "You could have died. You should be dead!"

"Sorry to have disappointed you," Jace said in a somewhat flat voice. "We can leave now. That's what you wanted, right?"

"That isn't—that's not—" Of course it was! All Ral had wanted to do since setting foot on this cursed plane was to leave! Krokt only knew what Niv-Mizzet was thinking by now—Ral and the Guildpact, both of them missing for nearly a week. He was toast. He was dragon-food. Ravnica might be dragon-food by now, for all he knew. And yet— "Why, Jace?" He grabbed Jace's shoulder. "So you disagreed with me! Did you know you'd be able to wander off and find a magical cure? Just didn't feel like sharing?"

Jace's eyes slid to the side. "No," he said quietly.

"So you were trying to kill yourself. Because that would have been useful for Ravnica."

"No!" Jace's hand slammed down onto Ral's wrist. "You don't get it, Ral! This has been my whole goddamn life."

"What?" Ral asked in confusion, taken aback by Jace's violent outburst.

"Do you think I just have nightmares about knives and death? I wish I did."

Ral stared at him. "All my life people have tried to use me—all my life that I remember, anyway. The man who did—this—" he gestured awkwardly at his own back, "—he was using me as a tool to control his organization. The first person I ever loved—" Jace swallowed, eyes sliding shut for a long moment before he continued, "—turns out she was just using me too, to steal the same organization from him. Ironic, I guess. And then I think I've finally got away from all of that shit—and then—" He broke off suddenly, his mouth shuddering and turning down at the corner.

Ral suddenly felt very small. "And now everyone wants to control the Guildpact." Jace didn't actually respond, but his mouth twitched again. Ral rubbed a hand across his face. "Fuck. Look. I'm sor—I may have—tried to push you too hard. But still—that was incredibly fucking stupid, Jace." His hand beneath Jace's was trembling, and Ral didn't know why.

"You do stupid things all the time," Jace said irritably, and Ral responded with a quiet growl.

"Not like this," he said.

"Oh?" Jace asked, an interested eyebrow creeping upwards.

"You had a thermogenic manastone in your chest, and it didn't occur to you to say anything to the one person on this entire plane who knew what that could do to you!"

Jace paused. "A what?" he asked carefully.

"Why," Ral said, with elaborate care, "did you decide not to tell me you had been poisoned, Jace? And goddammit, what just happened? Wasn't my shoulder dislocated? Weren't we in a completely different place?"

"The gorgons healed you and him," put in Iskra, reminding Ral suddenly and forcibly that he and Jace were not alone. "They turned his blood to lead around the stone."

"I—" Jace tried to respond, standing up unsteadily. "I just—" he paused. "I didn't want to worry you," he said quietly. "You were so concerned with being able to leave, and I just—"

"Fucking seriously, Jace? That is the kind of information you need to tell people. So they can help you."

Jace looked away, and Ral saw his throat move convulsively as he swallowed. "Yeah," he said. "Um, yeah, I know, actually. I—I panicked. What is a thermogenic manastone?"

"They burn you with a fever," Iskra put in. "And they aren't from this world, are they?"

"Uh," Ral said intelligently, sharing a sudden, panicked look with Jace. "What makes you say that?"

"Because I've seen other worlds," Iskra said in a hushed voice. "I saw them in the sparks you showed me."

Ral was fairly certain Jace was glaring at this point. "I didn't show you any other worlds," he protested.

"I know, but I saw them anyway," Iskra said seriously. "I won't tell anyone, I promise."

Interesting. Ral only knew of one other person who had seen other worlds in their childhood. He felt his eyes drifting toward Jace, wondering if it was something that was consistent between planeswalkers, or if there was something about storm magic in particular. Did this mean that Iskra—well, he could keep an eye on her. Ral realized he was seriously considering returning to this damn gods-ridden world, and mentally sighed. "Yeah, well, make sure you don't," he contented himself by saying.

Iskra nodded.

Not a very wise decision, Jace's voice said in Ral's head.

I didn't show her anything! Ral protested. And I'm not the only one who was talking about other planes in front of her.

"Should I leave now?" Iskra asked awkwardly. "You're not coming back, are you?"

"Not right now," Ral said. "Uh. I mean, you need someone to make sure you're not totally screwing up your lightning work and stuff. So I'll probably be back around at some point." He didn't look at Jace, wasn't sure he could handle what the Guildpact's face looked like right now. Iskra nodded, then her ears went up, and she raised her hand and flicked a spark toward him. Startled, he almost didn't react fast enough, but he managed to catch it in his gauntlet just an inch away from his face and sent it crackling through the air back toward her. "You gonna be okay?" he asked. "I doubt you were supposed to lead me out here."

Iskra shrugged, catching the spark and letting it play across her arm and up her back. "My family might be angry, but they're my family," she said simply. "They'll get over it. You're not going to stay angry with Jace, are you?"

"What?" sputtered Ral, and this time, he risked a glance over. The Guildpact was leaning against the pillar again, his face twitching with suppressed laughter. "I, uh. Jace and I aren't—"

Iskra twitched her nose at him. "You're family," she said. "You both—" she paused. "You both speak the same language. Anyone can see that." Her tail lashed once, a little uncomfortably, and Ral realized that lightning was sparking erratically down his spine again.

"Okay, kid, you better get going," he said, after a minute.

She nodded and scampered toward the trail behind them, but halted at the clearing. "Zarek," she said seriously. "I'm glad I met you. And next time you visit, I'll make lots of bacon!"

Something unexpected welled up inside Ral, and he had to cough and rub a hand across his face. "Thanks," he said gruffly, watching her small form vanish into the trees beyond, before turning back to Jace, who was smirking slightly. "What?" Ral demanded irritably.

There was a pause. "So," said Jace. " 'Thermogenic manastone'?"

"The Izzet use them as power sources," Ral responded. "I don't want to get into the theory right now, but they're unstable. Close exposure to them is akin to poisoning. Has a lot of nasty side-effects. All of which you were displaying until those gorgons did whatever the fuck it was they did. Which incidentally confirms the attempted assassin is a member of the League."

Another pause. Ral stared meaningly at Jace until the other man finally looked away.

"Okay, yeah, not telling you was stupid," the mind mage admitted. "I do stupid things sometimes. I'm sorry that I worried you."

"I wasn't wor—" Jace gave him the most disbelieving look Ral had seen in a while. "I was concerned. About Ravnica."

"Right," Jace said. "That does seem perfectly logical. And you're always logical, aren't you, Ral?"

"Yes. Definitely. I am a man of science and logic, Jace, and I'm glad you understand that."

"Well then," Jace said with a sigh. "I guess this is just one more thing I owe you."

"That's right," Ral agreed, breathing a sigh of relief that they were moving away from the topic of his worr—concern.

"What would you like?" Jace asked.

"What?"

"As you've pointed out repeatedly, I owe you several times over," Jace said, and there was a subtle twist to his voice that Ral couldn't quite identify. "So how would you like me to pay you back?"

Ral's brain went blank. He had spent too long over the past few days bullying Jace into promising him that he owed him to have any idea how to cash in on it. Finally, he managed a grin. "Buy me dinner, and we'll call it even."

There, that ought to buy him some time to think.

"Sounds good," said Jace.

"What?" Ral asked, stupefied.

"Sounds good," Jace repeated with a smile. "I'll slot something into the schedule and swing by Nivix to confirm."

"You—what?" said Ral.

"You may want to think about how formally you want me dressed," Jace said with another grin, and before Ral could say anything else, he blinked out of existence and was gone. Ral stared at the place his hand had been resting for a long moment before he, too, slipped into the Eternities, homebound at last.