before the war

That day, the queen proposed marriage to the man in the bubble. It was more than just a last act of love before she ran off to war. It was a guarantee that Darastrith would not be left without a ruler while the dragons searched in vain.

She drafted her will and testament, leaving her belongings to him and her favorite attendant, to be divided between them.

She had been chasing the pieces her dreams had led her after all across the planes, and the full picture of the puzzle was looking more and more grim.

But she knew if she ignored the eventual call, if she refused to fall into the trap, her plane would be next. Everyone’s would. Her planebound friends would surely die, and those who had no choice but to stay would wonder why she abandoned them.

To her, to the last, they were all adrift together.

–

Damn it sister. Damn it, sister!

The President of Kaldraixen stared grimly and distantly at the stack of papers the goblin officiate placed on her dress. She had no time for more explosion ordinance, not now. Her twin was going to get herself killed, and to top things off, she was avoiding her.

Somewhere inside, she knew why. She knew that her sister would happily run off and die for everyone she cared about. She knew how dire the situation looked, she was a Dimir spy now after all. But damn it, why oh why couldn’t she care about herself and ignore it?

That made it sound like she wanted all those people to die, but it was quite the opposite. She didn’t.

She just didn’t want to lose her sister more.

She rose from her seat and threw the goblin presenting her with papers against the back wall with a blast of crackling black energy.

She had somewhere to be.

–

Troubling, troubling and troubling some more.

Cecelia drifted about her undersea lab, absently tinkering with a clockwork spider, then reversing it back into its component parts. Though she did not emote the same as others, it troubled her all the more the signs she saw.

All across the multiverse, heightened tensions. More and more cross-guild attempts on peoples’ lives on Ravnica. It was becoming difficult to be the masterful surgeon that she was believed to be. In truth, she had returned home for a much-needed change of scenery, and sleep, after spending a week wide awake treating case after case.

But she could not ignore the plights of those who would suffer under whatever dread thing was coming. To do so would be unprofessional.

–

Elis couldn’t help but look upon his sleeping daughter with a sense of dread, these nights. He denied it and denied it as hard as he could, in hopes that his beliefs would stave off the apocalypse. He believed that the forest blocking the Gruul would keep her safe, it had to keep her safe, people weren’t dying because of it, they couldn’t be.

He could leave, his friend could leave, but she couldn’t.

He looked at the naga that now shared his humble home, and she looked back at him balefully. Her beloved lab had been raided two days ago by Azorius arresters while she had been away from it, and several of her krasis companions seized and killed. The arms of the Conclave were open to all, but he knew her true calling was the Simic laboratories, and to see her so despondent after knowing her as bright and passionate cracked his facade of denial.

He prayed to Mat’Selesnya that night that she would keep his daughter safe in the coming trials.

–

Kaede skittered through the back alleyways, taking her anger out on every arrester that she saw that night. A knife through the ribs, and she’d twist it while she watched them die. She didn’t like a lot of people, but how dare they take the joy out of that sweet snake.

This was how the Nezumi ninjas settled things. She’d go out doing what she knew how to do.

Something was looming on the horizon, and frankly she knew she might not make it out. People were going to die and everyone knew it. But she had knives and a whole lot of bitterness, and for once, she actually had friends.

The very least she could do for them was get even.

–

A cat stalked the rat as she stalked the cops making peoples’ lives hell.

Midnight couldn’t help but be curious as to this rat woman’s motives, but she kept herself quiet, watching her work. She couldn’t help but be impressed at the skill behind her actions, even though murder wasn’t necessarily her favorite activity in the world.

When the rat ran off again, she carefully sorted through the belongings on the body, taking any valuables she found along the way… and, unusually for her, weapons.

She would have to be doling these out to folks who needed them more than the pig, she reckoned.

A little nagging voice in the back of her head told her to go back home, tell her naga lover and their child that she loved them. Go find An’haiyith and finally tell her about your kid so you can stop leading her on and she can decide whether she’s okay with that.

She hoped she’d have time to by the time tonight’s alleyway case was done.

–

The two twins were never seen without each other.

Khenra were born in pairs, always, and Noel and Leon were no exception. They sparked together when the Hours finally struck Amonkhet, and learned that all they had known had been a twisted lie. In the months since, they had found a circle that accepted them for who they were and what they had been through.

But they, more than anyone, knew what the God-Pharaoh had done to his last quarry.

They remembered the Eternals. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends and lovers who had won the trials and been promised paradise. They had been enlisted to an army of the dead. It was used to destroy everything, and in that chaos, they found themselves together on a plane of spires and stones. Safe, for a time.

They prayed to their fallen goddess that they would never see it again, as much as their dearest friend prayed that he wouldn’t lose his daughter.

–

Emilius was angry.

He was angry that the queen had vanished again, angry that she had decided to marry a pencil-necked human nerd from Curu’nen. Angry at everything. Angry enough to blow up a mountain.

Last time he did that, he got yelled at by his cousin, the royal attendant.

Now it was on him again to find the wandering queen and bring her home. The patterns of disappearance couldn’t really be anything else to his eyes – some how, some way, the queen of Darastrith had sparked, and now spent an awful lot of time away from their plane. It was either find her now, or the dragon guard searches the entire plane for her again.

He was angry about that, too.