Agents of Artifice p-1

by Ari Marmell

  "Worldwalker!" the man proclaimed, and Jace almost felt sick at the reverence in his voice. "You do me great honor!"

  "Get up," Jace snapped, for some reason angrier than he'd been in a long time. "Get up!"

  The priest rose, but only to his knees, his eyes brimming with tears. "I never thought to meet one of you in my lifetime," he breathed, reaching out a hand as though to touch Jace, to confirm that he was real. "I never dreamed…" "How did you even know?" Jace asked, real curiosity in his voice. "We can't even always identify each other."

  "What sort of priest would I be, if I did not know those who stood in the light of divinity itself? We know you-perhaps better than you know yourselves."

  "Damn it, get up!" Jace demanded angrily. "I'm not a god, you old fool! I'm not even close!"

  "You need not believe," Talqez said, smiling behind his beard. "It is true, all the same."

  Jace felt his fists clench of their own accord. "I'm no god," he said again. "And you wouldn't call me one, if you knew why I was here."

  "Oh, I know," the August Questor said calmly. "You would have been welcome, had you come among us openly. For you to feel the need to sneak in, clad as you are-you can only be here for me."

  "Then let's get it done." Jace dropped into a crouch and called out, hands clutching at the air as though to yank it open and reach for the mana within. The air turned suddenly humid as a wet wind whipped through the chamber, spinning parchments around their feet. Bestial forms began to take shape, slowly, faintly, in the accumulating dew. Jace's eyes, even his fingernails, began to glow blinding blue.

  He focused his mind into a stabbing blade, ready to cut into the August Questor's mind, to interrupt any spell he might cast before it could manifest. Indeed, Jace was ready for anything…

  Except for the old man to simply spread his arms wide and close tight his eyes.

  Jace knew that he shouldn't question, should take advantage of any opportunity no matter how strange. He swore he could hear Tezzeret shouting over one shoulder, Kallist coaxing over the other.

  Seconds passed as Jace stood frozen with indecision, his minuscule soldiers buzzing and hissing around him.

  Then, cursing, he raised a hand. The winds died as rapidly as they'd risen as Jace allowed some of the accumulating mana to fade back into the waters of the world. Still scowling, he crouched on the balls of his feet.

  "August Questor?"

  The old man opened his eyes, and his smile broadened in contentment. "You are a planeswalker," he said simply. "I don't know what good my life will do you, but if that's what you have come for, it is yours to take."

  Jace felt his stomach turn and his hands shake. He replied, his voice strangely gentle and even sympathetic, "You misunderstand me, Questor. You're no use to us dead."

  Only then did Talqez seem to understand. Only then did his face blanch, did his breath catch, did he seem to consider resistance rather than submission.

  But by then he had waited too long, and Jace was already inside his mind.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  "Jace!" Kallist sat up, surprised, as a familiar figure appeared in the doorway. "I hadn't heard you were back yet."

  "Good." Jace's voice was low, practically a monotone. "Then maybe Tezzeret hasn't either."

  Kallist stood. "Jace, what-?" He stopped, staring at his friend's bloodshot eyes. "What happened?"

  What happened? Jace bit his lip, clenched his fists, anything to keep from falling, weeping, to his knees. Such a simple question…

  What happened?

  Did he have the words even to answer? To explain to anyone but another mind-reader what it was to feel another man's faith? To not merely hear, or to see, but to understand his belief in something larger than he was?

  How could he explain what a horrible revelation it was for someone like Jace Beleren to realize that faith was directed at him? That someone could be so deluded-or so devout-as to think him holy?

  He couldn't explain, even if he could find the words.

  Nor had that been his only motivation, the only reason he fled the church, leaving the August Questor, puzzled but unharmed and uncompromised, behind him.

  "I saw the Questor's mind, Kallist," Jace explained. "I saw how many of the rumors are false-and how many aren't. The Church… There's a lot they can do, with magic, with mana, with those who manipulate magic and mana." "Yeah?"

  "And," Jace's voice hardened, "I don't care for the idea of Tezzeret having access to that power." He trembled faintly, remembering the touch of the manablade dragging across his skin. "Not over other sorcerers and planeswalkers, certainly not over me. It's too dangerous. It's too much. I can't trust him with it, Kallist, not after seeing the sides of him I've seen."

  The blood drained from Kallist's face like someone had pulled a plug. "You failed," he whispered.

  "Yes."

  "On purpose!"

  "Yes."

  "Gods and demons, Jace! Why did you come back here? They'll kill you once they figure it out!"

  Jace smiled shallowly and shrugged, emphasizing the sack he carried slung over one shoulder.

  "You can't possibly have come back just for your stuff," Kallist challenged.

  "No. I came back so you could come with me."

  "I-you what? What are you talking about? You can't."

  "I can't walk with you, no. But Ravnica's a big world. Not even the Consortium can search all of it. I have places I can-we can go, where we should be safe."

  "Look, Jace," Kallist said slowly. "You're a great friend. I hope you make it; I'll even do what I can from here to make sure you do. But I'm not going to just walk away from my life for you. I'm sorry."

  What little smile he had managed fell away. "No, Kallist, I'm sorry. I didn't want you caught up in this.

  But I'm not asking you to come for my sake. I'm telling you for yours. We've been friends and partners for almost three years, and Paldor already knows you've helped me out-in violation of policy-before. If you tell Tezzeret, 'No, I don't know where Jace went,' do you think for one minute he'll believe you?"

  "He would eventually," Kallist muttered, but his own face had fallen as well.

  "And what will have happened to you in the meantime, while he convinced himself? What'll become of your place in the Consortium after, with the shadow of suspicion hanging over you?"

  Kallist turned away, then spun back, driving a fist through the uppermost drawer of his dresser. "Damn you, Jace!"

  Jace only nodded in agreement. Kallist shook his hand, sending an array of splinters and blood across the furniture, and then moved about the room gathering what he thought he'd need. Jace could only watch, sorry for what he'd done-and yet, deep within, secretly rejoicing that he wouldn't be going alone.

  Eventually Kallist stepped up beside Jace, and either his anger had already begun to fade or he was doing a damn fine job of hiding it. "All right. I've got a plan."

  "You do?" Jace asked, startled.

  "Sure. First, you reveal to me that you're actually the reincarnation of the greatest wizard of the Azorius Senate."

  "Umm…"

  "And then you use that great power to smite our enemies."

  "I see." Jace managed a second grin. "And if I find some flaw in this plan?"

  "Well, then you'd better have one to replace it, because that's all I've got."

  It was only on the last word that Kallist's voice quavered, and Jace knew that his friend was afraid. It was, in its own way, more startling than anything else that had befallen him. In all their years working together, Jace had seen his friend worried a hundred times; but he'd never seen him afraid.

  "Actually, I do," Jace said slowly. "But I think you might decide that yours is better."

  "Jace!" Paldor said standing behind his desk as the door to his office burst open. "You're supposed to be-"

  Jace whispered a sound that was not a word. Paldor staggered a single step and fell senseless to the floor by his chair.

  "Dead?" Kallist asked
softly.

  "No. Not even unconscious in the most technical sense. But it'll be hours before he can form a sentient thought again."

  "And what would we have done if Tezzeret had been here?"

  Jace shrugged once, moving toward the leftmost wall. "Died, I imagine." He took a long moment to examine the aether-filled contraption hanging from the wall. Then, "Lock the door. You get started on the window while I deal with this."

  Carefully, examining each tube, every knot-like twist, Jace began to construct an illusory duplicate of the device whose destruction could call Tezzeret to Ravnica. And then, just as carefully, he began to shatter that illusion, while cloaking the real device in an image of blank wall.

  He had no idea how long the image might last once he was gone-he'd rarely tried to maintain such an illusion from a distance-but every moment of delay was a moment they could run that much farther. With Paldor down and Tezzeret unreachable, the ensuing confusion might buy the fugitives extra hours, possibly even days.

  Kallist worked diligently at the massive window that occupied one wall of the room, attempting to provide them an unguarded exit. He knew well that the magically augmented glass would never shatter, so instead he struggled to pry it loose from its moorings, even going so far as to jam the tip of his broadsword into the top of the frame, wiggling it as a makeshift pry-bar. And if he occasionally envisioned Jace's face when he slammed the blade home into the wood, if the clench of his jaw was as much resentment as it was exertion, well, it didn't distract him from his endeavors.

  It took them half an hour-a half-hour they really couldn't spare, but would be worth it if it bought them more time to run-but finally Jace was content with the broken image he'd made of the device, finally the window slid from the wall to strike the carpet with a muffled thud. The warm, sweat- and dirt-flavored air of the slowly recovering Rubblefield wafted into the office, tousling hair and sleeves and Jace's cloak.

  "So what now?" Kallist asked gruffly. "You going to fly us out of here?"

  "Actually," Jace began, "that's exactly what-''

  The door to the office slammed open, the wood splintering as the heavy bolt was torn aside. Baltrice stood framed in the open doorway, fire dancing across her fingertips, something long and scaly writhing through the cloud of smoke that filled the hall behind her.

  Jace cursed, even as he spun toward her, hands raised. Damn it all, he hadn't even known she was on Ravnica! What was she doing here now? He could probably take her-almost certainly could, if Kallist was willing to help-but could he do it fast enough? Could he do it before the guards arrived, or with sufficient strength remaining to make his escape?

  She took one step forward, a second, and then, with a bitter curse, dropped her hands to her sides. "Get out of here, Beleren!"

  For an instant, Jace couldn't move. He couldn't have been more stunned if she'd announced that she was having his baby. "What?"

  "For Kamigawa," she snarled. "We're even now, Beleren, your life for mine. If you're stupid enough to let me catch you after this, I will kill you, and I'll enjoy every minute of it!"

  Still thunderstruck, Jace nonetheless turned toward the window. He'd have time to be flabbergasted later, damn it! Sporadic flashes of azure light whipped about him, carried by a wind that gusted up from the floor in time to his steps as he moved toward Kallist and the open window. Pure telekinetic force lifted them high, spreading forth from Jace like invisible wings. And then they were gone, speeding off into Ravnica's darkened skies, already beginning to descend beyond the nearest buildings as Jace's strength quickly burned out.

  And behind them, in the office now open to the night air, Baltrice grinned broadly. Let him go; they'd find him, sooner or later. But even if they didn't, it hardly mattered now. Jace Beleren was, at least to her, to the position and the power she'd worked so long to achieve, no longer a threat.

  She almost found herself whistling as she turned and strode from Paldor's office, not even bothering to check on the fellow who lay, staring at nothing, behind his desk.

  They'd spoken little after that, during the many days of their journey. Kallist had brooded nearly the whole way, his every expression and monosyllabic grunt discouraging all attempts at conversation. They passed through a dozen districts via wide open streets and underground passages so cramped they had to crawl on hands and knees, atop bridges so high that clouds passed beneath them, blocking all view of the ground, and alongside buildings so massive that even their shadows pressed down with the weight of years. And ever so gradually, they felt the first easing of the tension they carried between them like a wounded companion, as the territories of the Infinite Consortium fell ever farther behind them.

  Eventually, their route took them to the banks of one of Ravnica's great rivers, and the streets that ran beside its coursing waters. For many days more they followed it downstream, until the breezes turned cooler and the tang of saltwater spread before them, the whispering voice of a sea that was now partly buried beneath the great city's unstoppable sprawl.

  And finally, as they neared their destination, Kallist had begun to open up again. "Why Lurias?" he'd asked Jace one morning. "I've never even heard of the district before now."

  "That's partly why," Jace had answered. "And because my friend Rulan-did I ever tell you about

  Rulan? Well, he's… Let's say he'd have made a great Orzhov, except that he's not a completely soulless bastard. He's got a lot of contacts with moneylenders and banking guilds. And Lurias is one of the smaller districts where he helped establish one of the accounts I've been feeding with everything the Consortium paid me. We'll have funds enough here-for a good while, if we're careful."

  "Sounds positively fantastic," Kallist muttered.

  There was more to it, of course, but Kallist-even with the limited magic Jace had managed to teach him-would pick up on that soon enough.

  Built on the delta of this nameless river, buildings not nearly as tall or grand as those of Dravhoc lined the lengths of streets not nearly as wide. The arches were modest, the rare spires made of simple stone or brass rather than crystal. It wasn't a poor district by any objective measurement, but it was certainly far less than Kallist or Jace were accustomed to.

  Of potentially greater import, however, was the world beneath those humble streets. Most of the delta was soggy, shallow marsh-which was itself responsible for Lurias's poor foundations and irritating insect population. But at the district's far end and along the banks of the river, the waters rushing into the buried sea were clean and clear. Those neighborhoods were built not atop swampy knolls but on tiny islets, and it was there-there amid the saltwater and its rich mana-that Jace hoped to make his home.

  The first halfway acceptable option they found was a fourth-story flat, decently sized for the price, albeit in need of a fierce cleaning. It boasted three rooms, a number of tiny windows, and walls a hue so drab that it couldn't even muster up the enthusiasm to qualify as gray. Jace negotiated the landlord down to a rent that wouldn't eat through his reserves too quickly-without using any magic, thank you very much-and then he and Kallist ensconced themselves within like it was a fortress. Jace ventured out only under cover of an illusory disguise, acquiring what supplies they considered absolutely vital. They didn't want to show themselves on the streets until they were certain the Consortium hadn't somehow followed them here.

  So Jace gathered foodstuffs; a few bits of cheap furniture to suffice until they could acquire better; and new clothes, since nothing either of them owned was of sufficiently low quality to blend in with the other citizens of Lurias. Jace chose the garish bright hues of the middle classes-mostly in blues, of course-while Kallist instead adopted the drab and colorless garb of the lower.

  And then there was nothing to do but wait and talk. For days.

  "… isn't going to work," Kallist was insisting one morning, over a breakfast of cold eggs, warm juice, and cheap meat. "I'm not prepared to live like this, Jace. Not indefinitely."

  "You think I
am?" the other replied around a mouthful of egg. "It's just for a little while, until it's safe to find someplace a little more… more…" he floundered, shrugging.

  "More like a home, and less like a refuse pit?" Kallist finished bitterly.

  "Something like that." "And how," Kallist continued, getting up from the table, "do we plan to afford said palace?"

  Jace could only roll his eyes and pour himself another glass. It was an argument they'd had at least five times over the past two days, and he was already well and truly sick of it.

  "I told you," he began, in the tone of a man who doesn't expect to be listened to this time, either. "I'm a mage. I'll tote crates or stand at a vendor's stall when my other choice is starving, but not a moment before. My savings-"

  "Aren't going to last nearly as long as you think, damn it. Even if you do stay in ratholes like this, which I, for one, have no intention of."

  "Oh, so you're making plans for my gold now?" Jace challenged.

  "Since I seem to have lost the means by which I was making my own, yes, I think so."

  For long moments, they glared at one another over the table.

  "Jace," Kallist said finally, voice much calmer, "why are you fighting me on this? We both know that you'd have no problem making money-without 'lowering yourself to menial labor."

  "In a district like this? I don't think so."

  "Not everyone here is poor. There are more than a few merchants, bankers, and politicians who could spare a few gold coins in exchange for their secrets staying secret."

  Jace found himself staring intently at the fruit juice-he didn't even know what kind, he realized, and he'd already drunk a glass and a half-in his hand. "That's, uh, not exactly the best way to lie low, you know," he hedged.

  "You're an illusionist," Kallist deadpanned. "I'm sure if you try really hard, you can think of some way to keep your identity secret."

  "Any major use of magic like that risks drawing attention, Kallist." But the twitch in Jace's voice told the both of them it wasn't his only concern.