Ravnica At War

by BeautifulDuwang

A retelling of the War of the Spark novel, with the tone, events, and writing quality that the story deserves. Planeswalkers are being drawn to the plane of Ravnica by a mysterious Beacon, including a fractured Gatewatch. Once there, the twisted machinations of Nicol Bolas become realized, and they must do everything they can to stop his plans from coming to fruition.

47. Chapter 47: Sunbound

Chapter 47: Sunbound

Against all odds, Dack Fayden could not hear anything. As he and his allies flew through the open air of the hidden Azorius sanctum, cocooned within a vortex of Tamiyo's whirling scrolls and Daretti's clockwork guards, the Greatest Thief of the Multiverse found himself completely deaf. Nothing outside their mobile defense perimeter made a sound, at least as far as his ears could tell. Not the thopters, whose buzzing had been growing increasingly erratic until moments before, when their activity suddenly ceased altogether, and their constant attempts to spear their way to the planeswalkers was replaced by their lifeless bodies falling onto them like silent, heavy rain. Not the Eternals that were now swarming to replace the neutralized thopters, flying as fast as they could towards the newly revealed epicenter with all manner of weapon, magic, and brute strength at the ready. Not even the Immortal Sun, which continued to spin on its suspended axes and whose interlocking gears and gems threw waves of churning heat that seemed to exponentially grow in intensity with each inch closer they moved.

It was not as though the external sounds were drowned out by the activity inside their protective bubble. Dack could not hear any of that either. Not Tamiyo flying before him, her head swiveling between speaking over her shoulder to Daretti and bending low to her shoulder bag towards her hidden homunculus companion, who handed her the scrolls she needed to throw at the barrier as necessary bulwark. Not Daretti either, whose chair hovered just behind him, its spindly legs striking through the gaps like a set of phalanx spears while the goblin tinkerer summoned a continuous stream of clockwork defenders to keep any interlopers at bay. He did not even hear his own heartbeat, which he could feel thundering in his chest and sending out shockwaves of anxiety to even his furthest extremities.

For Dack, this whole chaotic overture never reached his eardrums, blocked by an immovable wall of static. The same did not hold for his other senses. He could still see the uncovered Ravnican skyline filled with incoming Eternals, feel the waves of heat radiating from the Sun washing over him, smell his own sweat pooling in every crevice, taste the charred metal that seemed to permeate the air. For whatever reason, though, no sound could reach him. The only thing he could hear amidst the low hum was not truly a sound at all, but the voice in his head.

I don't think this is exactly what I signed up for. Is there still time to turn around and just find a quiet place to hide while this whole thing blows over?

He recognized that he was joking, performing his braggadocious schtick for an audience of one that knew better than to believe it. Despite this, he also recognized the truth behind it. He had no intention of turning around now, not when he knew that the safety of all the planeswalkers trapped here rested on his shoulders, and especially not after Chandra had said on multiple occasions that the priority of this mission was getting him, and him alone, to the Sun. The only difference now as opposed to back when he readily volunteered for this was that he had no concept of what doing this mission would feel like. Now, he was in the thick of it, and it was far more than what he ever could have prepared himself for.

He had been on stressful missions before. He had plundered artifacts, whose very touch was far more lethal than anything the Sun could produce, from demons and cutthroats who could kill him just as brutally as any in Bolas' ranks. He remembered the tension well, the tautness in his nerves that could snap at the slightest provocation from a creaking floorboard or scuffling footstep, signaling him to escape as fast as possible with whatever loot he could carry. It was a sensation so familiar to him after countless heists that it barely registered, like the resting beat of his heart. That stress had become second nature, always there but never overwhelming, allowing him to revel in the thrill that came with every successful theft.

What he had failed to realize until today was that such compartmentalization was only possible because he had worked exclusively in the shadows. Skulking and sneaking gave cover for both body and mind, an assurance that, even if something were to go awry, he could slip away unnoticed. Whether nicking a priceless artifact from a disgruntled count, or backing out of some souring back-alley negotiations, or seeing the knights of the lady you just robbed turning over a man who looked suspiciously like yourself, Dack had always known, in the back of his mind, that he could slink away and move on with his life. In the face of the Immortal Sun, such assurances had evaporated. Layer after layer of mental protection was being stripped away by the heat, leaving bare Dack's anxious core.

It's fine, he kept telling himself. It's fine. You can do this. You're the Greatest Thief in the Multiverse. And once you pack the Sun's magic away, you can leave.

His mind suddenly flashed back to his less-than-savory allies from earlier in the day. He saw furious Nixilis, apathetic Davriel, and cruel Ashiok. They were all off on missions of their own, assisting the planeswalkers just as he was, though perhaps not so centrally. He recalled how openly they spoke of working together and fighting against the Eternals as nothing more than a means to an end. There was no altruism in anything they did, and it did not seem to bother them at all. These three vicious faces soon parted to make room for the overwhelming presence of sadistic Tibalt. He looked just as he had in the last moments Dack saw him, with crimson skin wrinkled and pallid, yet still pulled tight against a rictus grin of ecstasy. His mouth did not move from its final bliss, but familiar words filtered out regardless.

"You may not see it, Dack, but we are on the same side, and closer than you may think. You're just like the rest of us…"

No! Dack responded, shaking his head furiously enough to scatter the remembered faces like thin dust. When Tibalt had first spoken those words to him, his responsive anger had been fueled mostly by insecurity. Now, it flared with his newfound conviction. This isn't about me. This is about everyone else. All the planeswalkers are counting on me to take down the Sun. They can leave, and that fucking dragon won't get any stronger. And hell, who says I'm even going to leave once it's down? Maybe I'll stay and fight. I could use the Sun to keep Bolas from planeswalking away while the others kick his ass. I might get myself killed, but at least I might finally save some people who need it.

As soon as this thought appeared in his head, the words began to glow. They began to coalesce into a familiar female form, set against an equally familiar backdrop. He did not need the details to recognize Mariel, leaning over the railing of the stairs that led to their favorite pub in Drakestown. The memory had been burned into his brain, or at least as much of it as he could manage. After all, he had not expected that this outing with Mariel would be the last time he would ever see her.

Before the image could form fully, however, it was blown away by a sudden gust of activity from the real world. Their protective sphere shook from an impact on its side. While it had been weathering countless blows from the downpour of inert thopters, this strike was enough to disrupt their trajectory. Dack found himself jolted awake by the need to reposition his winged sandals to keep himself between Tamiyo and Daretti. His allies were similarly thrown by the tremor, but recovered quickly enough that their defenses did not slip.

Once he found his footing on the lofty air, Dack turned to where the impact had originated. Any wound in the scrolls had already been papered over, but he could now see the likely cause for that first strike. It seemed the flying Eternals that had been bearing down on their location since Dovin's illusion disappeared were faster than anticipated. While hefty lazotep-coated angels and crocodile-snouted dragons still lumbered in the far-off sky, the smaller members of the Dreadhorde's aerial infantry had already reached them. Drakes, anthropomorphic birds, and even normal Eternal soldiers cloaked in levitation magics from some unseen skylord, were beginning to fill the airspace surrounding the Immortal Sun. They did not yet have the same density as the thopter network, but they more than made up for it with their considerable strength.

Dack did not see what became of the Eternal that caused the first impact, but he saw another Eternal, an aven wielding an ornate, symmetrically bladed scythe, just as it readied to swing at them. He alerted Tamiyo, his own urgent words barely audible to him. Fortunately, the moon sage's hearing seemed in perfect working order, as she immediately waved her hand in the aven's direction. A blast of icy magic leapt from the calligraphy of the closest scroll, causing the Eternal to freeze in its reared posture and plummet out of sight.

"Good save," said Dack.

Tamiyo nodded. She spoke over her shoulder to him, clearly loud enough to be heard over the massive din of battle. To Dack, it was little more than a whisper, but enough that he could still make it out.

"Thank you for your assistance, Dack. It is becoming more difficult to both maintain our defenses and keep us moving at the same time. Are you okay? Were you injured in the impact at all?"

Dack shook his head. "I'm fine. No need to worry about me." A rueful smile played on Dack's lips at Tamiyo's fussing over his safety. He knew it mostly came from his importance in their mission, but it also felt deeply maternal, like when his own mother would scold him for sneaking around in the High City after dark. "That wasn't even enough to throw my hair out of its style."

"Well that's a relief, 'cause it's about to get a lot fuckin' worse real fuckin' soon!" sneered Daretti, his unmistakably phlegmatic voice barely filtering through to Dack. "These Eternals are comin' in fast. If we don't get ya to the Sun soon, we're gonna be swallowed up!"

"We are already moving as fast as we are able while still maintaining the control needed to maneuver around incoming obstructions. I cannot instruct the scrolls with more haste without risking the integrity of our defenses."

"I figured. I'm still workin' on jump-startin' the thopter array, but overhaulin' an entire dead hivemind from a single tampered specimen ain't exactly a slapdash kinda job."

"How far out from the Sun are we?" asked Dack.

Tamiyo reached for her bag, and a pair of small green-brown hands handed her a spyglass. She held it to her eye with one hand, the other now working doubly fast to maintain her spells. "I am not sure, but it appears to still be several meters away. It will be another few minutes before we are above it."

Dack paused for a moment, contemplatively stroking his goatee. "How clear is the Sun right now?"

"At this moment?" Tamiyo asked. "Well, it seems as though the Eternals are not yet explicitly aware of our goal. They are filling the airspace, but only insofar as it is on their way to our current location. The surface of the Sun appears unoccupied at the moment, though I assume that will change as soon as we land."

Another Eternal entered their vicinity, a hunched drake that flew nose-first at them like a javelin. Tamiyo moved to draw out some magic to stop it, but her careful spellcraft was too slow. Fortunately, Daretti had a battalion of clockwork guards at the ready to intercept it. The drake tore into them, causing a series of minor detonations that, while enough to dispatch the drake, also violently rattled the bubble's contents.

"If we even get a chance to land, that is," growled Daretti. "I'm runnin' low on constructs over here. Magical artifice tends to work faster when I can actually collect the scrap afterwards. I'll try and make 'em last, but I can't promise anything."

"That's okay," Dack finally said. "We'll get you all the metal you need, and we'll keep Tamiyo's scrolls from being spread so thin."

Both Tamiyo and Daretti peered over their shoulders at him, heads cocking from lack of understanding. The goblin's hands even stopped moving for a moment, pausing his continued tinkering with the thopter carcass on his workbench.

"And how exactly are we gonna do all that? You got some sorta plan, Mr. Greatest Thief in the Multiverse?"

Dack could not help but rakishly smirk. "I always do, though normally it involved running the opposite way from danger. If we're not going to make it to the Sun like this, then we'll just have to improvise. These sandals of mine can move faster than sound if I let them. If I can blast out of this bubble and cut through the Eternals hanging over the Sun, then maybe I can get through and start shutting it down before they even notice."

Daretti snorted. "That's the dumbest fuckin' thing I've ever heard. Great plan, pretty boy."

Tamiyo's response was far demurer than their companion. "I do not know if I quite like the sound of that. Even if you can move that fast, how will you protect yourself in case you collide with an Eternal? Their shells are quite hard."

"I have a few armor spells locked away. They don't work for protracted contact, but if it's just a glancing blow, it should be enough to keep me in one piece."

"But what about your trajectory?"

"The sandals steer well enough. If I get knocked off course, I have a magnetization spell for my gloves that's draw me right to the Sun."

"Gold ain't magnetic," said Daretti.

"True, but I've never been able to keep gold from finding its way into my hands. Why should it stop today?"

Tamiyo shook her head, her ribbonlike hair fluttering against her cloaked shoulders. "This seems most dangerous. Even if you were to land safely, what then? You would be completely exposed on the Sun's surface, and you cannot hide from the Eternals as long as the Elderspell lives within them."

"Well," Dack said, "I figure that means someone will just have to come with me. Seeing as Tamiyo has more expertise in the skies, it would make the most sense for Daretti to join me on the ground, so to speak."

At this, Daretti finally turned all the way around to look at Dack. His beady goblin eyes narrowed on Dack's swashbuckling façade. "You're serious, ain'tcha?"

He flashed a slight grin. "Seems like the best shot we have. Unless you have a better idea."

The two stared at each other for an unblinking moment. Then, Daretti heaved a facetious sigh. "Well, you got me there. But you better work fast once we get down there. I can't be saving your ass while I'm trying to mobilize these thopters, y'know."

"Now hold on just a moment," Tamiyo interjected, her voice unintentionally raising an octave, "I do not know if I approve of such a reckless plan. If anything is to happen to Dack, then we have lost our chance to neutralize the Sun. This seems like an unnecessary risk."

Turning to her, Dack gave her the most disengaging smolder he could muster as he shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, it really is. Trust me, no one wants to keep me alive more than me. But if there's one thing I know, it's that once you know Plan A isn't going to work, you gotta switch to Plan B. It's not the first choice, but at least it isn't a failed one yet."

Tamiyo stared at him a moment, features wrinkling in consternation as she clearly tried to refute his claim. After a moment, she instead looked to Daretti. "And you agree with this?"

"Ain't like there's a better option for us right now," shrugged the goblin. "Besides, I ain't ready to go down just yet, but if I do, I'd rather go down swingin'."

Tamiyo was conflicted, her eyes ricocheting back and forth between them. She seemed ready to provide some further retort to their scheme, but she was interrupted by sudden movement at their flank. The density of the incoming Eternals was increasing, and a detachment of three avens had decided to divebomb them in a compact V formation. Tamiyo managed to react in time, sending her magic to a long scroll at the top of their sphere. The ink lifted from the parchment, and the calligraphed characters transformed into a cluster of small black spirits. They intercepted the Eternals, latching onto their eyes and diverting their trajectory towards the ground below, though not fast enough to stop their extended spears from tearing through a few layers of parchment.

As Tamiyo quickly flung fresh scrolls from her bag to cover the damage, Dack saw a look of resignation overtake her features. She heaved an annoyed sigh. "I suppose if this is truly the best option, then for the benefit of the other planeswalkers, it is not my place to stand in your way."

"Thank you," said Dack, resisting the urge to smile and nod with the emphatic triumph he felt.

Tamiyo must have sensed this, casting a knowing frown at him, though luckily not one that seemed to deter her decision. "I will open the barrier long enough for you two to pass through. Fblthp and I will follow close behind to catch you if anything happens."

"I appreciate the vote of confidence."

"It is no joke, Dack, but I think you know that. No matter what, we will do what we can to keep you safe."

Dack softened his smile. "I know, I know. We will definitely need all the help we can get."

"Speak for yourself," muttered Daretti.

"Once you two are on the Sun," continued Tamiyo, "we will keep the Eternals from reaching you. If you need immediate help, please flash some sort of signal to us. We will extract you as soon as you need, whether you shut down the Sun or not. Do not forget, we can always try again."

He nodded again. "I've never been a fan of trying to pull off the same heist twice, but hey, it's already a day of firsts for me. Why not add that to the pile?" He raised his thumb in a sign of acceptance. "I'll send up an illusion beacon if I need help."

Daretti reached into the crevices of his chair and pulled out a deactivated clockwork guard that fit in the palm of his hand. He tossed it Tamiyo, who managed to catch it despite her surprise. "If I see either of us in need of an assist, that thing'll start movin'. That's your cue, bookworm, got it?"

"Yes, I understand." She placed the construct into her bag, exchanging a few whispered words with the homunculus. After a moment, she nodded, then returned her attention to them. "Fblthp will monitor it and let me know if it has been activated."

"Alright," said Dack. He peered over Tamiyo's shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of the Sun through the whirling sheets of parchment. A few flitting images in the gaps confirmed that, while the area above the Sun was not suffuse with Eternals, it would be soon enough. "If we're gonna do this, no reason to waste any more time, right?"

"Yeah, might as well get it over with," snorted Daretti, who began adjusting his chair by fiddling with a series of oversized levers.

Dack smirked. "Love the enthusiasm." He took a moment to concentrate on the psychometric magic that summoned the sandals, finding the regulations he would be switching off. He then pulled forth his magnetization spell to his hands. The dull grey energy covered his gloves, fastening them to Daretti's chair. "Alright, I'm ready when you are."

Daretti drew a three-pointed belt across his body, securing it with a hefty click. He wriggled for a moment, then sat back in his seat once he was satisfied with the precaution. "Yup, that should just about do it." The goblin grabbed the goggles that rested against his forehead and drew them down over his eyes. "Okay, yeah, I'm ready. Let's get this over with before my common sense gets the better of me."

Dack turned to Tamiyo. "Well, you heard him."

"Very well." Tamiyo raised a hand over her head, sending thin wisps of moonlight magic into the scrolls at the bubble's top. "We are clearer above than below. Just be sure to be careful. Shutting down the Sun is our top priority, but your personal safety should be a close second."

"Understood," said Dack. He leaned his back against Daretti's chair, speaking almost directly into his long goblin ear. "You ready to show them what happens when they mess with Fiora's best?"

Daretti let out a single, surprised wheeze. "Sure thing, pretty boy. Let's give 'em a proper High City welcome!"

The comradely joke brought a smile to Dack's face. As he chuckled, he purposefully gestured to Tamiyo with his eyes, moving quickly between her and the roof of the sphere. Though her face and movements were still stiff with reticence, she obliged. Her lunar magic took hold of the scrolls, which Dack watched intently with the focus of all his working senses. Then, with a deft flick of her wrist, Tamiyo opened the parchment barrier. At, it was as if some great veil had parted for Dack's senses. The aperture let in a flood of wind and heat and light, but also of sound, loud and clear enough to finally break down the staticky hum lodged in his ears. At once, he heard the roar of the Sun, the whirl of the scrolls, and the ominous screeching of the Eternals. While such a sudden onslaught of noise might have been enough to unseat the focus of some, for Dack Fayden, at that point in time, it was nothing more than a starting bell.

He had carefully aimed his body while Tamiyo worked, brought his psychometric armor to the forefront of his mind, and double-checked the security of his grip on Daretti's chair. As soon as she opened the way, he released the control he had been exerting over his winged sandals. Bracing his entire body, he let them flap as chaotically free as they could. It took less than a moment after that for Dack and Daretti to blast clean through the opening and begin careening on a parabolic trajectory towards the Immortal Sun.

Almost immediately, Dack began screaming. He had forgotten just how fast the sandals could go, and the sudden acceleration threatened to upturn what scant morsels still resided in his stomach. Bile rose in his throat, the stringent taste of which only served to dredge up more. While his organs felt like they were being pressed through a wringer, his limbs flared as if he were strapped to a rack. He had underestimated both the full strength of the sandals and the weight of Daretti's mechanical chair. As he was practically dragged forward by his enchanted feet, his arms were pulled down by the unchecked mass. All of this was only exacerbated further by the Sun, to which they were now closer and more exposed than ever. Its scalding aura lashed over every inch of exposed skin, seeping immediately into even his swarthy complexion.

Dack's screams, however, were not screams of pain. Despite this abundance of agony to which his body was suddenly subjected, what he felt did not affect him nearly as much as what he saw. Up until now, the Immortal Sun had been little more than an idea in his head, cobbled together from old treasure hunting legends. Even when they first entered the sanctum and he caught his first far-off glances, he still had no grasp of its scope. It had looked no different than a golden broach he would fence for a quick turnaround. Now, though, he found himself practically face-to-face with its enormous golden splendor. He could see the intricate carvings along its gilded surface, hear the quiet metallic glancing of its gyroscopic movements, even smell the ionizing effects of its planar detention magics that had been spread so thin over the entire plane. The sight of the Sun called to his mind every other artifact he had ever stolen, and even the most glamorous and expensive among them now seemed like little more than children's trinkets before this grand treasure. He saw now the greatest prize of his career staring back at him, and it was all for the taking.

He also saw for the first time the guards who stood between him and his lustrous goal. While most Eternals still charged headlong towards the planeswalkers, likely alerted only by the dissolution of Dovin's illusion and guided only by the Elderspell, some circled the Immortal Sun like a nightly patrol. Dack did not know whether they were being commanded to do so by their vigilant puppet master or if their autonomy was drawing them to the scent of a mighty planeswalker's spark locked within the Sun's chest. Frankly, though, he did not care either way.

At that moment, as he emerged into the open air, suffused with artificial dawn, he barely registered the Eternals that hovered between him and the Sun. More accurately, his vision, sharpened by instinct and amplified by adrenaline, registered only the gaps between Eternals, where he could see the Sun in its full glory. It was this honed sight that summoned forth the guttural cry of battle that he now projected over the area. It surprised even him, yet he knew deep down it was appropriate, just as a warlord charged into the fray to claim what he knew he must from those undeserving of it.

Before he could think about plundering the Sun, he and Daretti would have to make it there first. The artificer did not scream in unison with Dack, instead emitting a low, gravelly whine that was inaudible to all but the person who was fastened to him. Communication between them would not work until they landed, but Dack found himself so seized by this spirit of triumph that it did not bother him. He quickly found that his trust in Daretti was not misplaced. While their immediate ascent from the bubble was clear, it did not take long before they entered the Eternal-occupied airspace. A cluster of jackal-headed zombies, walking on the air as if it were solid ground, moved towards them with spears drawn. With his hands occupied and his focus on steering his mercurial feet, Dack could not summon his Avacynian torchlight to dispel them. As he braced for impact, Daretti cranked a lever on his chair. The legs inverted, reaching over both their heads and intercepting the Eternals. Then, as soon as they wormed their way between their assembled bodies, a spring-loaded mechanism snapped, drawing the legs back to their resting position and flinging the Eternals out of their way. It all happened faster than the blink of an eye, but it sent a surge through Dack's veins that made his scream even louder.

Body tingling with excited panic, Dack readied himself to deal with the next wave of Eternals. Though the inexorable tide of corpses moved fast to close in on them, they were still too slow. Besides that first grouping, Tamiyo had found them a proper route to the Sun, a one in a million channel that would be closed in a matter of moments, but for the time being, let them soar unabated. Some Eternals, those that flew swifter from greater strength or magical assistance, managed to reach out to Dack and Daretti with death-laced palms. Dack had to twist his body to keep them from pushing through his conjured armor. This left the job of batting their hands away, or severing them altogether, to his partner.

Dack kept a careful eye on the Sun, using his natural sense for descent to find them a suitable entry point. Once he spotted it, just off the Sun's center, he paused his sandals upward flight. In the ensuing moment of weightlessness, Dack maneuvered through his own arms in an acrobatic tuck. While keeping himself attached to Daretti's chair, he positioned himself above it with his feet sticking straight into the air. With the heavy bottom and scrabbling legs of the apparatus between him and the Sun, Dack reactivated the sandals.

They jettisoned towards the Sun, picking up more and more speed. While Dack focused on steering the chair into the narrow window he had found, Daretti manically worked the chair's levers. Its spidery legs fanned out beneath it, as if the chair's undercarriage were a great maw of jointed teeth. At first, Dack assumed this was merely to push any Etenrals out of their way, which it effectively did. As they got nearer to the Sun, however, it finally clicked for Dack that they would also need to act as their landing gear.

The supercharged air around the Sun provided a natural buffer to slow their descent, as did the magnetic hovering apparatus installed at the base of Daretti's chair. These still could not fully overcome the sheer momentum they had built up. Dack braced himself just before impact. The chair's legs slammed into the Sun's golden surface, sending shockwaves both up to the two planeswalkers and across the precessing central disc. Immediately, Dack switched off both the sandals and his magnetic hold on the chair. His body flew away from Daretti fast enough to make his vision blur. The summoned spell that armored his clothes let Dack bounce unscathed against the metal plane, though it was hot enough to gradually whittle the magic away. He quickly grabbed for a carved divot in the Sun's surface, momentarily reigniting his magnetization spell to strengthen his hold. It worked, allowing him to skid to a stop just before falling into the pulsating triangular core.

Dack quickly scrambled to his feet. As he brushed himself off, checking that he had not sustained anything worse that the further tattering of his outfit, he could not help but take a moment of pause as he drank in the Sun's surface. The gold shone bright enough to blind, illuminated from beneath by the turquoise battery that hummed with the power of the great sphinx's spark. Just as overwhelming was the heat, now unrelenting as the Sun's power wove convection currents across its surface like a great loom and smothering him with the resultant cloth. Even as sweat began to cover his entire body, Dack had no room in his mind for any discomfort.

I… I did it. I did it! He threw back his head, letting a silent laugh resound across his skull. It worked! I got to the Sun. I'm here, now! Finally! Oh thank the gods, I didn't think that would work, but it did! I did it! Well, we did it. Oh wait, shit!

Realizing, he quickly reupped the icy crown around his head, which helped to focus his senses away from the all-consuming nature of the Sun. As his vision unblurred, he swiftly traced back to find where Daretti had landed. He spotted the goblin halfway between his position and the Sun's edge, his chair scuttling back and forth as its systems acclimated to the heated surface.

"Daretti!" Dack bellowed. "You okay over there?"

He turned around in his chair and flung his hands out in an exacerbated display. "I've definitely been fuckin' better! Don't you worry about me and my bruised ass, though. Get this thing shut off already, will ya? We only got so much time before w-"

Daretti was suddenly cut off by a loud screeching. Dack looked up and saw a detachment of half a dozen Eternalized drake swooping down towards the Sun, their talons all aimed at him. He fell onto his back foot, ready to divert them with a few blasts of torchlight. Before he could, a gust of cerulean clouds moved in to envelop the drakes, with Tamiyo pushing it forward from behind a reduced halo of scrolls. The drakes scattered, though not all fast enough to escape the moonfolk's spell. Four were swallowed by the clouds, which flung them far out of sight. The remaining two drakes, teetering in midair from their evasive maneuvering, were intercepted by a pair of cogwork sentries that Daretti had summoned and thrown into the air. The sentries thrust their blades into the drake's mouths. They were not strong enough to pierce the lazotep, but they could establish enough of a hold for when they self-detonated a moment later. The drakes' heads were engulfed in oily flames, and without the ability to regulate their flight, they zipped past Dack, eventually rebounding off the Sun before disappearing over the edge.

The sudden commotion left Dack somewhat stunned. Frozen in place, he turned back to Daretti. The goblin's attention had already returned to fiddling with the thopter on his workbench in between short bursts of artifice magic. He was not so engrossed that Dack's rigidity went unnoticed. Daretti lifted one lens of his goggles and leveled a beady eye at him.

"Well what the fuck are ya waitin' for? Bookworm and I will keep ya covered, you just worry about shutting this thing down. Now get started already!"

His grating admonition, yelled from the top of his lungs, pulled Dack from his stupor. He blinked at Daretti, who had already turned away to dispatch a flock of avens who had entered his range. His eyes wandered further up the sky, finding Tamiyo, whose face was determinedly set. Her scroll sphere swept out a radius above the Sun, doling out neutralizing magic to any Eternal who crossed her path. Her homunculus companion now joined her on her shoulder, huddled nervously against her neck as it watched her back for any threats she needed to address. Seeing his allies work so hard, putting their lives on the line, all for his sake, filled Dack with certainty.

Daretti's right. I trust them to keep the Eternals off my back. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can all get outta here!

Dack felt his entire body tense with anticipation. His unseated guts had yet to stop somersaulting, but he quashed the discomfort down as far as it would go. Without hesitation, he dropped to his knees, lowering himself to the Sun's surface as close to the core as he could get without being blown away by its raw power. Seizing his left glove, he quickly yanked it off. He did the same for his right glove, revealing the bright red mark that covered the entirety of his right hand and forearm.

Clenching his gloves in his left, he stared at his right for a beat. He recalled when he received this indelible scar, just one result of his prolonged torture after a heist went wrong. It had been meant to forever brand him as a thief, to let the world know exactly who Dack Fayden was. At first, he had been disgusted by it, hiding it by any means necessary. It did not take long, however, before he displayed it with pride, reveling in the knowledge that all who saw him knew he was not just Dack Fayden, a mere theif, but the Greatest Thief in the Multiverse. He realized now, as his sweat-soaked hands dried in the Sun's rays, that the only reason he had been wearing gloves today was because he had been performing a heist earlier that required a steadier grip. To recall this morning, whose hours between then and now felt like a lifetime, brought a light smirk to Dack's face.

Who'd have thought, he thought as he flexed his red right hand, that we'd have come this far, huh?

With one last stretch, he splayed his bare fingers out before him. Reaching down deep within his chest, bypassing the endless shelves filled with acquired spells, Dack found an empty spot. He touched it with his mind, drawing forth the fullest extent of his psychometric abilities. His magic flowed from his spark, down his arms, and into his hands. Faint purple smoke seeped from his pores, and he felt the familiar tingle in his extremities, like fairies dancing just beneath his skin. With a final, deep breath, Dack thrust his miasmic hands against the Sun's surface, sending his psychometry straight down to the core.

No matter how braced his body was, Dack was wholly unprepared for the overwhelming sensation of the Sun's magic. It immediately threatened to overtake him, so much so that Dack had to press his entire weight atop his arms to maintain the connection. It was like nothing he had ever felt before. As a thief, Dack knew better than to steal anything he could not easily smuggle away. Every magical artifact he had stolen, every spell he had extracted so he could sell the empty husk for a profit, could fit neatly in the palms of his hands. The Sun could never hope to be contained in such a way. He barely had to work to pull the magic out, as it coursed readily to fill every inch of him.

Each of Dack's senses were overloaded by the unbridled influx of magic. He felt all his skin alight with radiating warmth from within and without. His eyes were smothered by the blinding golden light, shifting and rushing like rivulets just behind his pupils. The sounds of the turning gears and the churning magic filled his ears, once again deafening him to all else. The magic rushed to his nose and mouth, saturating every hair and bud with light. It was as if pure sunshine were being dripped down his gullet and coating every surface it touched along the way. What came as the greatest surprise to the Greatest Thief, however, was how exhilarating he found it.

As Dack drank in the Sun's power, he felt it become his. It felt powerful, and so he felt powerful. He tried to compare how he felt now to how he had felt throughout the whole of his life, and he found nothing even close to reaching a proper comparison. Though his senses were engulfed by the Sun, they had never felt so awake as they did now. It was rejuvenating, almost transcendent. Without even knowing or feeling it, a smile spread across Dack's face and tears began to gather at the corners of his sun-blinded eyes.

This… this is it. I can't believe it. The legends definitely did not disappoint!

An unexpected explosion of mirth burst from his windpipe. Though the filter of the Sun, his warped voice sounded almost angelic.

I'm doing it. I'm doing what no other thief before me could have done. I have my hands on the Immortal Sun, and pretty soon it's going to be all mine! Bolas never deserved this, and I can't wait to see his smug face when he sees just who stole it from right under his pug nose! And with everyone saved, I can finally… I can finally be a… hold on.

Dack's jubilation was cut somewhat short as he felt a pressure beginning to build within him. The spreading warmth was slowly transforming into building pain up and down his body. The intoxicating scents and tastes were beginning to choke him. Though he had no way of confirming it, he knew what was causing this steadily mounting problem.

The Sun's got too much mana powering it. Even my spark can't hold it all right now. I need to vent it out, before I fucking pop. But we need the Sun locked down fully. I don't know if Bolas could reignite it from just a trace of its magic in the air, but I don't think I can take that risk. Dack looked inward. He saw the Sun's magic pour into him without any signs of slowing, bumping into everything else that sat within his spark. Seeing this, Dack immediately understood what he needed to do. I need to make some room.

He reached into his spark and grabbed at the codex of psychometric spells. With automatic haste, he flipped to the back, where the spells that he seldom used sat, gathering dust on their shelves. One by one, he took hold of these most neglected of his prizes and let them go. These weak spells, uncharged mana batteries and razor-edged boomerangs and baubles of ancient juju, were each washed away against the obdurate tide of the Sun's magic. He would normally push the magic out through his hands, but with that route occupied, there was only one other means to release the pent-up magic. He hacked and coughed, and one at a time, the psychometric energy flew from his mouth. Magic and memories came sputtering out in wads of condensed vapor, which evaporated almost instantly upon hitting the supercharged air.

Well, Dack thought in between dry heaves, I suppose there's nothing wrong with a bit of repatriating, is there? Hell, maybe some old Ravnican magic can make its way back where it belongs.

He resisted the urge to wipe his mouth of the accumulating dribble forced out by the magical regurgitation, keeping both his hands firmly planted on the Sun. With each belch, he felt more of the Sun's energy channel up his arms and feed into the freshly cleared space. Though the mental work of his psychometry was beginning to become arduous, Dack felt his confidence blooming.

This is working. I mean, it had to work, but it's working! He could not tell if the warmth in his chest was produced by the Sun or his own exuberance, but he was more than willing to lean into it. If I keep making room as it's needed, I can take all the Sun's power. At this rate, I don't think I'll even need to purge everything. And then the planeswalkers can leave, and the ones left can t-

Suddenly, Dack's victorious daydreams were cut short. Through the celestial light clouding his eyes and the divine cacophony filling his ears, he caught wind of a commotion happening nearby. He could not make out the exact sounds, but his sense of orientation was not so lost that he could not identify that the noise came from around where he had last seen Daretti. The sublime sensations of the Sun were instantly poisoned by Dack's dormant anxiety reawakening. Seized by panic, he concentrated as much of his mental fortitude as he could spare to wiping his eyes clear of the Sun's deific magic.

Dack had no idea how much time had passed since their landing. He had been too consumed with his duties to observe anything else. Now, he saw how untenable the situation had become in his brief absence. Where the density of Eternals around the Sun had started low, it now seemed to act as the central hub for all the Dreadhorde's masses. The skyline was no longer visible amidst the crush of blue bodies closing in on their location. The zombies glowed in the harsh sunlight, making it appear as though great sapphire beast was dropping down onto them, ready to swallow them up in its domelike maw.

The only thing visible against the interminable tide of blue was Tamiyo. Dack breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his ally was still alive and airborne, but even while his eyes adjusted to the natural light, he could see she was struggling. Her barrier of scrolls still stood, but fraying edges now flapped from across its surface like light streaking off a comet. She flew just as fast around her aerial perimeter, catching as many Eternals as she could that tried to access the Sun. This did not even include those Eternals that chose to attack her directly, slamming into her with blades, magic, or even just their natural strength. She managed to rebuff them each, but more endlessly leapt to take their place. She could not stop moving for even a moment, and barely had the time to summon forth new scrolls to reup her defenses.

While she performed her job admirably, Tamiyo was spread far too thin to stop all the Eternals from reaching the Sun. The immediate airspace was beginning to fill with bodies moving unchecked towards their prey. As his eyes lowered to the surface, Dack could see that Daretti was still working to address them all. Unfortunately, much like Tamiyo, he was only holding up as best as he could. His head moved in all directions, fast enough to give Dack empathetic whiplash, as his focus jumped from the Eternals above him to those around the rest of the Sun to the thopter that now blinked with a glowing red light from his workbench. Sweat and spittle flew in all directions as he dispatched an endless army of clockwork drones, now smattered in gold from Daretti's salvaging from the Sun, to drive the Eternals away.

His chair was also working on overdrive, as evidenced by the thick plume of smoke that billowing from its back. Worse than that, however, was that it was now missing several of its arachnoid legs. This, Dack realized, had been the sound that drew him out of his daze. An Eternalized drake had swooped low and bitten through the chair legs that rose to meet it, filling the air with the sound of scraping metal, exploding gearwork, and goblin swearing. The drake did meet a swift end when the residual power of the legs let them burrow out of the drake's stomach, but the damage, it seemed, had already been done.

Seeing all this stirred Dack's insides. He saw how, despite the lopsided odds, his allies refused to fight with anything less than the fullest extent of their abilities. He wanted to help, but he could not leave his vulnerable position, the one they were working so hard to maintain. Instead, he did the one thing he could do from his spot.

Right now, we don't need careful action, he thought. We just need to get this done. If they're gonna give it their all to keep me safe, I guess the least I can do is the same.

Turning back to his psychometric codex, Dack redoubled his emptying efforts. In rapid succession now, he purged himself of the excess spells, the coughing growing so consistent that it became more of the prolonged groan. He worked his way from the back, grabbing fistfuls of underutilized spells and tossing them to the wind. He could feel nodules appearing in his throat and a cavernous sensation in his chest, but these were all quickly wiped away by the increased flow of the Sun's magic into the vacant space.

From his best estimate, it felt like his renewed efforts were working. Beneath his knees, the Sun felt as though it was starting to fade. The external glow of the golden rings seemed to be dulling, the crystal core no longer blinding him with turquoise light. While it was still boiling on the surface, the convection currents were gradually slowing. Even the Sun's movements seemed to be reduced, moving at what appeared to be half speed.

That's it! If I can just keep making room, all this magic will flow even faster. At this rate, we should be done in no time at all!

Brimming with excitement, Dack looked out to his allies, hoping he could inspire their fight for what time they had remaining. His jubilance was immediately stopped, however, by the sight of a massive shape bearing down on them. In the time since Dack had first identified the different legions of Eternals converging on their location, those at the back had finally begun to reach them. Past the waves of flocking Eternals that buzzed around their perimeter, Dack saw a massive, lazotep-covered dragon approaching. It was already close enough that each flap of its wings sent palpable gusts across the Sun's surface. It kept its crocodilian snout aimed straight at them, flying like a bolt loosed from an arbalest. But what truly allowed it to stand out amongst the sea of reflective blue bodies was the luminous orange flaring out from in between its teeth.

Shit! I need to work faster, before that thing burns us all down.

Without thinking, Dack seized upon the sudden panic that flooded his system and channeled it into his psychometry. No longer making any distinction between the importance of his absorbed magics, Dack expunged everything he could find as fast as he could lay his hands on them. Tears streaked down his face and instantly evaporated, leaving trails of brine to pull at his skin as he heaved spell after spell. The Sun poured into him faster and faster, filling him further and further with its ascendant sensations. He could not revel in its rapturous embrace, however, as his focus was now entirely on the dragon. Its mouth was now open, revealing a roiling inferno dancing just past its desiccated tongue. Staring down on Dack and the others, the great beast took in a massive breath, stoking the flames to fill every inch of its azure jaws.

No, no, no! Shit! I'm not done yet. Fuck, what should I do? His eyes darted away from the dragon to his compatriots. To his dismay, both Daretti and Tamiyo were too busy with the Eternals in their immediate area to recognize the overwhelming danger just beyond. I can't stop that thing. One of them needs to. I need to send Tamiyo a signal before it's too late.

Dack directed his mouth, still as wide open as the dragon's, towards the moonfolk scribe. Unlike the dragon however, what he tried to summon to his throat made no show of emerging. Between the deluge of regurgitated magic coming out and the torrent of solar energy coming in, there was no room for his words to manifest. All that fell out was an unintelligible gurgle, not even loud enough for Daretti to hear several meters away.

It took Dack a moment to realize the futility of his attempt, as he waited for a reaction from Tamiyo that never came. By the time he tried to figure out an alternative, he saw the dragon rearing back, the flames barely contained within its throat. His body began to buzz with anxiety. He suddenly remembered the promised signal to Tamiyo, the illusory beacon he would light at the first sign of danger. Unfortunately, his codex was in such disarray that he could not immediately find it. While his brain searched for the spell that he could not even confirm still existed within him, the dragon showed no hesitancy. With its pointed snout opened as far as it could go, it unleashed an enormous pillar of flame towards the Sun.

The sky above the Sun was suddenly bathed in blazing umber. The fire consumed the Eternals in its direct path, their lazotep no match for the indefatigable heat of the draconic breath. Even surrounded by the Sun's radiating warmth, Dack could feel the sharpness of the flames barreling towards them. This seemed to be enough to draw Tamiyo and Daretti's attention, but as Dack stared directly into the roiling inferno, he feared it was too late. The blast was coming straight for them, consuming everything in its path that would soon intersect with their own.

Then, to Dack's complete surprise, the fire changed its course.

Amidst the wall of swarming Eternals, the straightforward cone of flame suddenly diverted to the right. Like water hitting the bend in a pipe, it channeled away from the planeswalkers and through the densely packed zombies, incinerating them before they could scatter. To Dack, it did not look like a deflection, but as if someone were drawing the fire away. He looked to Tamiyo, and then to Daretti, but they were each too preoccupied with their own threats to manipulate the flame. His eyes followed the inferno as it ate through a chunk of the surrounding Dreadhorde, eventually tracing it to its destination. There, burning bright against the darkened sky, he saw Chandra Nalaar hurtling towards them.

She looked different than before. Gone was the stone-faced stoicism and controlled blaze around her head. Now, her face was filled with furious emotion, and the halo of fire that framed her head matched that intensity. With flame-wreathed gloves extended out, Chandra drew the dragon's fire towards her like a magnet. Upon reaching her, she grabbed onto the pillar as if it were physical matter, diverting it once again away from the Sun and back to the dragon. Before the dragon could recover from the recoil of its devastating attack, its own fire flew back into its maw. The beast swallowed every mote before it exploded in a flurry of glowing slag.

Dack winced from the dragon's demise, but Chandra appeared completely undeterred. As soon as the dragonfire left her hands, she blitzed into the fray. Her fury now boiling over for all to see, she began throwing volleys of countless firebolts in all directions. The magic dampening of the lazotep shells seemed no match for Chandra's attacks. Each one smote any Eternal in their path, piercing through body after body in quick succession, taking down tens of zombies before finally smoldering out. The airspace above the Sun was suddenly alight with fireworks, and where anxiety had previously caved in Dack's chest, hope now expanded out.

Yes! I knew there was a reason they put you in charge of this, Chandra. That's our leader!

Amidst a swell of conviction, Dack found himself unable to return to the more measured pace with which he made room for the Sun's psychometric signature. He continued to throw away every artifact imprint he came across, no longer even bothering to look at what they were beforehand. While he did so, he watch Chandra's pyromantic display, entranced. She flew in a circular path opposite Tamiyo, torching any Eternals that dared to try and harvest her spark. Those spared her wrath fell back, widening the perimeter above the Sun and giving them all a bit more room to breathe.

After carving out this new radius, Chandra dropped out of her orbit to assist with clearing the Eternals that had already made it close to the Sun. Buzzing just above the golden surface, she made a beeline for where Daretti struggled to deal with the ensuing threats. As she passed overhead, she unleashed a web of streaking firebolts from her fingertips, which pierced the Eternals' heads and hearts with destructive precision. Once Daretti was free of immediate danger, she pulled back up to Tamiyo's height, ready to maintain the perimeter she had created.

While Dack's eyes seemed naturally drawn to Chandra's beaconlike flames, he found himself suddenly pulled away to look at Daretti. It seemed Chandra's intervention gave the artificer enough security that he could finally complete his work. The red light of the deceased thopter on his workbench no longer flashed, instead holding steady with an intensity and color rivalled only by the magic held in Daretti's hands. The next moment, Dack saw this same light appear in the corner of his periphery. Several hibernating thopters littered the Sun's surface, having crashed there after the deactivation. Now, this small detachment of thopters rose from the dead, their translucent chassis filled with Daretti's dark red mana.

The quiet whine of their wings undercut the overbearing din as they flew at the goblin's command. With only a flex of his fingers, the thopters launched themselves at the nearby Eternals. Despite their broken condition, the small mechanisms proved strong and fast enough to dispatch whatever they collided with first, even if it meant their own destruction. This did not seem to dampen Daretti's mood, as he cackled triumphantly while more thopters blinked to life to follow their predecessors' suicidal lead.

As Daretti's control spread, the sound of buzzing wings across the Sun's surface grew louder and louder. Dack listened intently, and it was not long before he recognized that the sound was not only coming from within the Sun's radius, but also from beyond it as the rest of Dovin's subjugated ranks rose at Daretti's behest. Looking beyond the mob of Eternals, Dack could see red lights beginning to fill the air between the three monoliths, each bringing another soldier to aid their fight. For Dack, these sights and sounds became a humming ode to their triumph over Bolas' forces. His already ignited emotions intensified even further, and while he continued at his relentless pace of work, he found his pain, exhaustion, and anxiety pulling away from him like steam.

This is it. We're doing it. We've almost done it! He felt his hands wanting to reach up, one to wipe the tears from his face and the other to pump in the air, but he resisted both urges. That was just what we needed. With Chandra's covering fire added to Tamiyo's, and now Daretti commanding every one of those thopters to help us, it might be enough. He quickly checked his progress, sensing how concrete the Sun's magic felt within him. It's almost there. Shouldn't be too long now. This is why I never stole anything I couldn't carry, but I guess when you have a crew like this, anything's possible.

He stared down at his hands, watching the flow of light from the gilded surface up his arms and into his chest. The Sun's luster was now nearly diminished, while his skin burned as bright as any celestial body he had ever seen in Fiora's sky. I can do this. If I keep pushing, keep getting rid of all this useless junk I've been sitting on all these years, the Sun should be mine in no time. I don't know what I'll do with it then, but it doesn't matter. Hell, maybe Daretti could use it for some invention of his. I bet his mind is already thinking of ways to…

Tickled by the thought of his goblin compatriot retrofitting the Sun to one of his gearwork contraptions, Dack's eyes naturally wandered to Daretti's position. When the image across the Sun's surface came into focus, however, the mirthful smile that had been plastered on Dack's face immediately evaporated. It seems he was not the only one distracted from everything happening around him. Daretti appeared overly enraptured with his success at seizing control of the Azorius thopter spy network. His hands both moved with ecstatic haste, with one suffused in red light while the other pulled back and forth on his chair's levers as if he were throttling a nest of snakes. He bombarded the circling Eternals with divebombing thopters and gold-infused constructs, watching the spectacle overhead. With his eyes pointed ever upward, Daretti could not see the danger coming in from beneath them.

It was just a single Eternal. An aven, bedecked in dark armor and wielding a spiked iron ball at the end of a long chain. Had anyone managed to see it, it would never be considered a singular threat to any of them. While Daretti, Tamiyo, and Chandra dedicated their efforts to keeping Dack safe from above, some Eternals realized they could attack from below. It was not an optimal plan for them, however. They would need to break through the mob of Eternals that crowded around the Sun, though the holes left behind by the thopters' detonations could prove a proper enough route. They would then need to make it through the oscillating rings of the Sun, a much more manageable task now that Dack had slowed them. They would finally need to move fast enough that none of the defending planeswalkers could catch them before they struck, and while the Eternals were not moving any faster than before, the distracting chaos of the battle gave them the leeway they needed. With all these steps completed, all it took was a single Eternal to break through the line.

When Dack saw the aven, it had already shot over the Sun's edge where Daretti's chair scuttled. It hovered in place for a moment, wings spread out far enough to cast a visible shadow against the sea of reflective blue at its back. It swung its ball and chain faster than the eye could track, gaining momentum until it reared its arm back, allowing the ball to drag the chain to its tautest reach. Dack knew he could not shout to Daretti through the choking magics, but that did not stop him from reflexively trying. He immediately realized that, even if he could have spoken clearly, and even if he had recovered his lost illusion spell, he would not have been fast enough to warn Daretti in time.

The spiked ball flew like a cannon shot. It crashed through the defensive perimeter of constructs Daretti had set up around him, breaking them with such overwhelming force that the ball's trajectory did not change. This sound finally alerted the artificer to the incoming attack, though not fast enough that he could mount a proper defense. All Daretti could manage in time was to duck down in his seat and command his chair to leap back to what he estimated would be a safe distance. What he could not have anticipated, however, was that the Eternal was not aiming directly for him. Instead, the ball and chain moved for the base of his chair. Before it could escape the range, the ball threaded through the gap left by the chair's missing legs. Catching on one of the frontmost legs, the ball wound itself around all the front-facing appendages, wrapping them in the chain as it did so. It quickly locked itself in place when a spike slotted into one of the chain's links. With this hold secured, and the chair's rider unable to react, the aven gave it a swift yank.

Surprisingly, the chair legs held. Their bound state left the pull too weak to rip them from their sockets. Instead, the Eternal pulled with enough power to disrupt the chair's footing and send it stumbling forward. It eventually came to a quick stop as it reestablished its balance on the Sun's surface. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about its unsecured contents. The dissected thopter went flying from the workbench, and Daretti followed soon after. He flailed in midair, grasping desperately for the glowing thopter. By some miracle, he managed to catch it in both hands. No sooner than he did was he caught himself, pulled into the awaiting hands of the Eternal aven.

It grabbed his around the throat, its talons sinking into his olivine flesh like a beartrap. Before a full look of realization could dawn on Daretti's consternated features, the aven's eyes darkly illuminated as its corpse filled with the activated Elderspell. It was only when tendrils of eldritch magic began to appear like veins across his face did Daretti finally show that he understood what was happening, and the abject terror that came with such understanding.

NO! Dack yelled in his mind, loud and pained enough to be heard over the tempestuous flow of the Sun's magic. To anyone else, however, his cry went unheard. Rooted to his spot and unable to look away, all he could do was watch.

Despite the dire situation, Daretti did not allow panic to swallow his senses. As his skin began to drain of color and moisture, his eyes fiercely turned not to Dack or the others, but to the Sun's surface, where several of his thopters now inertly hovered. Clearly struggling through the pain of the Elderspell ravaging his body, Daretti shifted the dissected thopter to one hand. Hugging it tight to his chest, he raised his free hand towards the thopters. Red light gleamed in his palm, and at once the thopters turned to attention. They began flying to him, streaking through the hot air like rocks from a sling.

Before they could even cross half of the Sun's diameter, however, the beacon in Daretti's hand began to flicker and fizzle. No matter how hard he gritted his teeth or strained his neck, however, Daretti could not draw any more power out. His hand grew dimmer and dimmer, while the Eternal's hand and arm began to glow brighter and brighter with the same red mana, diffused beneath the lazotep shell. In a matter of seconds, the Eternal's light eclipsed Daretti's, and his spell faltered. The thopters' wings stopped buzzing, and they crashed into the Sun, skidding to a stop against the gold.

It was then that Dack saw the fear that Daretti had partially abated finally take over. Even as his skin puckered and clung tight to his sharp skull, the look in his now bulging eyes was unmistakable. Gathering up what little strength he had remaining, Daretti let out a desperate cry. The wailing sound pierced through Dack's perception, shattering his heart as he continued to stay in his place.

I want to help him. I need to help him. But if I stop this now, the Sun may never go down. All those planeswalkers will still be trapped. But I have to do something. I…

Dack could feel his elbows buckling with the weight of his anxiety. His fingers, now drenched in sweat once more, felt like they may slip off the Sun's surface at any moment. His eyes glanced between his hands and his ally, unsure what to do. Fortunately, an answer readily presented itself. Dack's ears were not the only ones that Daretti's cry reached, as Tamiyo now rushed into his field of vision. Still centered amidst the swirling bubble of scrolls, Dack could see the frightened look on her face as she raced to Daretti. Her hands were outstretched, with runic spells already primed at her fingertips.

For a split second, Dack thought there might be a chance that Tamiyo could save Daretti. This delusion was immediately exposed as his frantic eyes glimpsed back to the Eternal. The glow of Daretti's spark was no longer contained to its arm. It now filled its chest, and was slowly filling its head with the bright red essence of his artifice. Though he did not want to recognize it, Dack knew instantly that he had seen Eternals in that state before. He had seen it with Domri and Tibalt, and he knew exactly what it meant.

She won't make it in time.

Tamiyo, having only recently joined the war, could not recognize that Daretti's end was already set in stone. Daretti, however, seemed to understand. It was the only explanation for what he did next. Rather than reach out to try and meet Tamiyo's hand as quickly as possible, Daretti unfurled the arm that he clutched to his chest. He shifted the glowing thopter into both hands, cradling it with whatever care his shriveling limbs could muster. Daretti drew both arms into his center and, after gathering what must have been the last ounces of his remaining strength, he flung the mechanical carcass directly at Tamiyo.

It did not fly fast or far, but it did not need to. Not even a second after the thopter left his hands did Daretti's body go fully limp and his eyes glass over like snowglobes robbed of their clockwork decorations. Just as soon as the light left the goblin's eyes did the sockets of the Eternal fully ignite. Red light shone through the aven's skull, filtering brighter and brighter until at once the creature's head erupted in a luminous cascade. Energy and viscera burst forth, pushing out in all directions. The bright spark that was Daretti flew straight to the sky. The bodies, now locked together in death, plummeted to the ground beneath the Sun. And the thopter, thrown as feebly as one's last act could be, was now rocketed towards Tamiyo on the subsequent shockwave.

She did not seem to understand the gravity of Daretti's last act from the surprise that overtook her face, but she knew she had to respond accordingly. In an instant, she pulled herself back from the nosedive and into an upright posture. The glowing magic around her hands disappeared as she held them both in front of her, ready to catch the discarded payload. The whirling scrolls around her shifted their flight, creating a small window through which the thopter could pass.

Gazing through this gap in her defenses let Dack see the twinned streams of tears that sluiced down her cheeks, reddening her pasty complexion. He knew his own face must look far worse, as he had already grown numb to the constant sensation of tears, spittle, and mucus flowing freely before evaporating instantly against his superheated skin. He felt grief filling his body as soon as Daretti disappeared beneath the Sun's golden rings, but the sight of Tamiyo's devastation as she prepared to catch the thopter transformed it to a frenzy.

Dammit! Daretti, why couldn't you have hung on for just a little bit longer? I'm almost done. I'm so close. I should've been working quicker. I should've been able to finish this before anything could've happened. Why the fuck couldn't I have just d-

Dack's thoughts suddenly stopped short. Rather, something stopped them. Something new, something that had not been there a moment before. Through the bluster and fury of the Sun's energy surging through him, a new sensation somehow made itself known. It was cold and alien, and enough to completely derail the flow of Dack's mind.

What… what in the…

He had to waft away the fog of the Sun's presence before he could focus into this unexpected sensation. As the curtain lifted partway, he found that it was not just one sensation, but two, both the same but coming from different parts of his body. One resting on each of his shoulders, applying its strange, frigid pressure directly down onto him. His mind still heady with rushing magic, Dack's eyes drifted listlessly down to his left shoulder.

As soon as his eyes focused on his shoulder, the haze of the Sun dissipated. Everything sharply crystallized as he saw what was applying this unfounded weight onto his hunched frame. A hand, five fingered and humanoid, protruding from a gilded sleeve cuff, but where there should have been soft flesh, there was only the cold metallic blue of lazotep highlighted by the indescribable pall of ancient magic.

His senses and perception slowed to a crawl. He stared at the hand for a moment as its fingers curled into his collarbone. As if in a daze, his head swiveled to the right shoulder now, where he saw a mirrored image of the hand, its grip just as steady and suffused with dark energy. He watched the minute tendrils of the Elderspell spill from the Eternal's hands, licking at the air and squirming for purchase past Dack's vestments. Even as he saw it sink through to his vulnerable skin beneath, his mind was too delayed to feel it. He curiously tried to crane his neck to see the face of what had grabbed him, but he found himself unable to turn around fully. Even as he strained his eyes to the corners of their sockets, he could not glimpse the face of the Eternal he knew lorded over him.

At once, all his senses shifted. Sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, all focused onto the disruption in the Sun's magic that now spread from his shoulders. Around his neck, he could no longer feel the all-encompassing warmth of the Sun. At first, he mistook the sensation for simply the absence of the Sun's magic. He assumed he had been entrenched in its burning serenity for so long that he had forgotten what he felt like without it, and that this sensation was merely his baseline. It soon became dreadfully clear to Dack that this was not the case.

It was not just that he could not feel the Sun. It was not even that he had grown to numb to feel anything. Instead, he could feel nothing. He could feel the nothingness that the Elderspell created as it greedily siphoned whatever magic it could find. It was utterly unlike anything Dack had ever felt before, as it was the very antithesis of feeling. His thoughts flashed to freezing ice, to deadening hieromancy, to consumptive demon altars, but all comparisons failed to fully describe it. It was as if a void were blooming within his body, stretching its roots into the fertile soil of his magical systems as it prepared to drink him dry.

Then came the pain. He had not felt it at first, but the signal soon reached his brain swiftly and excruciatingly. At the edge of the spreading abyss, the Elderspell was not content to just steal his magic, but saw fit to rip it away as violently as possible. It was like claws rending his flesh from the inside so it could savor the most sumptuous bits. The pain was strong enough to completely overshadow even the Sun's radiance, and it proved a fitting herald for the utter nothingness that came in its wake.

Dack doubled over, his chest caving in beneath the weight of the agony that poured down into him like a waterfall. He felt his frame begging to collapse onto the golden surface, but the Eternal's grip kept him hoisted upright. It took all his strength to keep his hands locked against the Sun and the flow of magic steady. No matter how fast he absorbed the relic's magic, however, it seemed incapable of cutting through the gnawing torment the Elderspell wrought within him. Still, even as his thoughts began to cloud over from the intense pain, Dack knew he could not stop.

I need… I need to keep going. This can't be it. Oh gods, it hurts. His coughs now morphed to accommodate the screams and gasps that rose inexorably to his throat, forcing his psychometric inventory out with an unprecedented aggression. It hurts so fucking much. But I can't let that stop me. If this is what it feels like for the Elderspell is sucking up my magic, then that's just more room for the Sun!

His body tensed as he let out a roar of contention against the seeping anguish. As the blistering heat and glacial chill tore apart his systems before they slipped completely from his mind, Dack focused all his strength towards the Sun. There was not much magic left within it. The surface's glow was now as dim as a candle against a storm, and even the turquoise core had faded to little more than a collection of lustrous rocks. Despite this, the hold it exerted on the planeswalkers had yet to end.

It won't stop until… until it's completely drained. I have to get it all… before this thing… finishes me.

Dack did not even notice this acceptance of his fate. He did not take any time to contemplate its finality, to try and find a way to escape, or even to alert the other planeswalkers. He immediately, inexplicably understood that there would be no time for that, but such a thought did not even consciously register. Instead, the totality of his mind was focused only on the task at hand.

The Elderspell now covered his torso, draped over him like a cowl of burning night. He continued to empty his psychometric index, heedlessly shunting a lifetime of gathered plunder. Without any precautions, the regurgitated magic now tore his throat to ribbons, though these sensations were utterly lost in the abyss of the Elderspell. He knew it did not matter what state he was in. At this point, all that mattered was that he did what he came here to do.

His psychometric inventory dwindled in time with the Sun's captive energy. It would take everything he had, but the Sun would move within him in time. If he could seal it away, then no matter what happened to him, no one could access the Sun's power again. It should have been comforting, knowing that he had the capacity to complete his goal. Unfortunately, this coincided with a stark realization deep within him. At the center of his chest sat his spark, the locus of his power and his self. It was his soul, and it would soon be under siege. The tendrils of the Elderspell had stopped their solely downward descent through his body and had started to crawl inward. They centered around his spark, and the fire-tipped void now reached out for it like a million grasping fingers.

The Sun's light that filled his core slowed the darkness somewhat, but it could not stop it. At once, the Elderspell closed its grasp, and Dack felt his spark subsumed.

Oh gods… oh gods, he silently moaned. This is it… the pain that Tibalt talked about. What Domri and Daretti must have felt. It feels like… the end.

He felt like he was made of straw, ready to collapse at even the slightest gust of wind. His muscles cried to him for release, as if they wanted to completely unspool. His body wanted nothing more than a release.

No. No, I'm not done. I… can't be done. I need… I need to finish this. I need to absorb… the Sun… before this thing… absorbs me. All those people… are counting on me… to save them. Bolas can have my spark… when I'm done with it!

Despite the shadow that had fallen over his entire being, Dack kept going. He kept discarding his pent-up spells and drawing from the shallowing well of the Sun. He did not even see the magics he was shedding. He could not rightly see much of anything. His senses had all started to shut down as the Elderspell spread, and now that it had seized his spark, they were disappearing. It ravaged his soul, tearing away chunk after chunk and ripping them from his body through the eldritch conduit it established. It felt like pieces of Dack were being cleaved away, like he was on an abattoir's slab. His vision had been one of the first to go. Everything unfolding outside of him had blurred to the point of indecipherability, where not even the movement of vague colored shapes let him identify anything. Tamiyo, Daretti's device, Chandra, the Dreadhorde, were nothing to him now. He felt alone and helpless and picked over like carrion, but still he persevered.

Just… a bit… more. I… can still… do this… for… everyone.

Discarded spells flew from his mouth, muffling the howl of assurance that he was too deaf to hear. He was moving so quickly to expunge them that he was already reaching for the next psychometric memory before the previous one had even left his hand. Then, suddenly, he found himself with nothing more to reach for. As realization struck, he stopped himself for a moment before discarding the final spell. Pausing his frenzy, Dack turned the spell over. It was old and well-worn, that much was apparent. It had been so long, he did not recognize the spell itself. What he did recognize, however, was its signature. The magic of Fiora, of his home, always felt different to him. In an instant, it brought forth memories of his past. Memories of his life on Fiora, of his exploits there, and of the people for whom he performed them. Within the confluence of light and dark inside him, the small spell brought Dack a comfort he had not felt in a long time.

Then, knowing he could waste no more time, he let it go. The spell slipped from his mind, flew from his mouth, and evaporated on the wind. And with it, there was nothing left to block what remained of the Sun's magic. He felt it leap into him, carried by the momentum to fill every crack and crevice in his ravaged body. Together once again, the Sun's magic coalesced in his center, condensing into a luminous core that burned as bright and true as its previous vessel.

For a moment, Dack felt his spark unshackle. He heard the beckoning call of the Blind Eternities resonate in his bones. As he felt the Elderspell constricting tighter and tighter around him, however, he knew that there would be no time to planeswalk away. There was only time to lock the Sun's energy away within him, ensure that it would disappear with him. He squeezed it tight, burying it as deep within his spark as he could.

Light and darkness, pain and numbness, fire and metal, all roiled within him. The Elderspell closed in, blotting out the Sun. Dack's senses all shut down, but still he held onto the Sun, his charge, ensuring its safety against all else. The darkness consumed him bit by bit, and when he felt it reach for the last crumb of his soul, he closed his eyes as tight as he could.

Then, he heard a voice.

"Dack?"

He opened his eyes. Not only could he hear, but he found he could see once more. He was still bent over on his knees, with his hands still rooted before him. To his surprise, they were both the same color, the same as his skin. They were also no longer gripped tight enough to whiten his knuckles. They no longer had anything to grip. The Sun had disappeared from beneath him. Everything had. Though he still felt as though he knelt on solid ground, it appeared as though he were floating through pure blackness. As he stared down into the void, he noted that the sensation of ground beneath him was the only thing he could feel.

The voice came again.

"Dack?"

This time, he recognized it. He looked up, and saw Mariel standing before him, floating in the void with her feet firmly planted. She looked just as she had on the day Dack left, draped in a sheer dress of purple and silver silk, with her raven-dark hair falling straight over her shoulders. Her eyes, just as kind and deep as ever, stared at him lovingly.

"Mariel?"

"It's been so long, Dack."

"It really has been. I missed you."

"I missed you too." She paused. "You've gotten older."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I guess I have. I always thought we would have met a lot sooner, when I didn't have all these lines and scars."

"I like them. I can see all your adventures in them."

"I'd love to fill in whatever details they lay out."

Mariel smiled, the small smile that she tried to cover with her hand whenever he would catch her off guard. "I would like that very much."

Dack suddenly felt the darkness around them begin to shrink. He looked around, and though he could see nothing, he knew the walls were closing in. He turned back to Mariel.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you," he said.

Her smile did not waver. "It's okay. What you could not do for me, you have now done for so many others."

"I just did what I wish I had done all those years ago."

"And now all the Multiverse will remember the name Dack Fayden."

The void shrunk further, closing in on them. Mariel leaned down to him and offered her hand.

"Are you ready?"

As he stared at her face, he felt a smile spread over his own. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm ready to finally slow down."