Zix shoveled another handful of coal into the boiler and wiped his brow. It was hot, thankless work down here, and dangerous too. It was better than the sewers though, all cold and damp. At least stoking the flames reminded him of home.

He reached into his robes and felt the smooth round bit of darksteel he had taken with him years ago, on his first planeswalk. He thought about New Phyrexia, once Mirrodin, fairly often. An existence there before they showed up might have appealed to him, in another life. In this one, however, he was pushing fuel into a fire for his "betters". In this one, he listened to his fellow goblins chattering excitedly about the mad scientists' inventions up above. Speaking of their ambitions, but never taking the time to actually try and accomplish them. Zix was better than that.

He threw one last shovel-ful in, and closed the boiler's gate. "Will" be better than that, he corrected himself. His shift was over, and he slipped outside to join the crowds of guildless. The wizards upstairs were weaker than they thought, he mused to himself. Their inventions are powerful, but unpredictable. Often unusable. Their ideas lacked direction, and it showed, with useful things only coming out of every couple hundred projects, most of them inspired, created, then abandoned. Zix's way was better, he just knew that. His train of thought would have continued praising himself were it not for the thin arm dragging him into a side alley, then holding a knife to his side.

"Empty your pockets and I'll only take one organ, runt."
It was three of Zix's local "relatives". He slipped off his hood, revealing the metal plates growing at the base of his neck.
"I really don't have time for this."
It was less intimidating than he had hoped, but recognition flickered in the leader's eyes.
"Wait a sec, you're the metal freak Krenko's after!"
Of course. This wasn't the first time he'd encountered Krenko's thugs.
"Well if you know who I am, you know that I've told Krenko before-"
"Yeah, well Krenko gets what Krenko wants."
"Listen, I REALLY don't have-"
One of them grabbed, Zix, and that was it. His eyes flashed, and time slowed to a crawl.

Leisurely, he squirmed out of the leader's grip, then wrested the knife from his hands. He considered killing them, but decided against it. Instead, he slashed one ankle on each of them, stuck the knife in the leader's gut for good measure, and walked away. From their perspective, it happened lightning fast. From his, he was a block away before they even hit the ground. Zix told many lies, but the one he used the most often was almost certainly "I don't have time".

____

Zix's apartment was tiny and neat. A bed, a dresser and a workbench were all he needed. On the bench sat his project, one he had been working on ever since he arrived on Ravnica and joined the Izzet League; an hourglass he could use to reverse time, instead of just slowing it. He had poured a lot of time and resources into this, knowing its completion would lead to the recognition and promotion he so rightly deserved. The concepts were difficult, however, and even though he got the sand to flow up, getting the mana to flow backwards had proved difficult. It continued to prove difficult, even years later.

"Cute project you've got there," a voice said from behind. Zix spun around to find the source, and saw a bald, bearded, old man.
"Who are you?" he tentatively asked.
"It's an interesting idea, reversing time, but one that I think you'll need far more power to make happen."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"Making the sand fly up is purely cosmetic, you can't really think that would have helped it work, right?" Zix's eyes flicked back and forth from the man to his hourglass.
"... No. Of course not. That would be stupid." He made a mental note to stop experimenting with it.
"Anyway," the man came closer. "I detected some fairly powerful time magic, and managed to trace it to its source. I'll say, I didn't expect a goblin, particularly not one from Mirrodin."
"Okay old man, that's enough talk, who are you?"
"Well, New Phyrexia now."
Zix was tired of this. It was time to evict the codger, one way or another. He reached for a dagger, and the world began to slow.

Then it began to speed up again. The man had stopped rambling.
"Please don't try that on me. If you must know, I am Arete. William Arete."
Zix was spooked. He hadn't encountered many mages who could stop his time magic like that.
"Why are you here, William Arete?"
"At first, it was to look for answers on a particular problem of mine. Then, it was to find the source of the time stop about half an hour ago. Now, I want to know what a Mirran goblin is doing working under the Izzet League on Ravnica."
"I'm building. I'm experimenting."
"At home? On only one project? Doesn't sound like the typical Izzet scientist."
"I'll get there."
"Will you? Why should you?" William paced around the room. "After all," he said with a wry smile, "You're better than them. Come with me instead. Let me show you a REAL project."
Zix sat on his small bed and pondered. Part of him knew his ego was being appealed to. Another part knew his ego was always correct. Finally, he stood up and extended a hand.
"I'm in. Where do we start?"

____

It was always dragons, wasn't it? On Mirrodin they tumbled inelegantly through the sky, propelled by explosions, but thankfully few of them made it through the invasion. On Ravnica, aside from Niv-Mizzet himself, pit dragons hindered his every foray into Rakdos territory.

And now, on Tarkir, they were everywhere. Violent antlered lizards, larger than any Zix ever had the displeasure of seeing before. Large enough to rival Niv-Mizzet in size, he imagined, although he never met the beast himself. A distant lightning storm crackled and dragged him back to the task at hand; evading the hunt-beasts before he was burned to a crisp. Only a few minutes ago, he had arrived, and they spotted him immediately. Now, scrambling between the rocks, he noted with some panic that they were getting closer. What could they possibly want with prey as small as him? Surely they couldn't sustain their prodigal size with scraps as small as a goblin. Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely they'd understand this very valid point. One perched on the ground, reared back, and engulfed the goblin in flame.

Zix grinned from a nearby cave as the imbecilic beast searched for the charred remains that were, unfortunately, absent. One of the very first things William had taught him was illusion magic. "You can't brute force your way through every problem by stopping time, Zix. Sometimes, you must outwit." The old man hadn't been around for long, but Zix had to admit the advice was useful. But by now, the dragons had moved on, and the time for memories was over. He renewed the invisibility spell, snuck out of the cave, and started the journey to the crucible.

One of the last things William did before leaving was show Zix a rough chart of the multiverse. He'd never really considered how he would find new planes to visit; Ravnica was a happy accident, and he figured that the rest would be the same. William had pointed out how to walk the planes using the map, and suggested Tarkir as somewhere Zix might like to visit, if he was serious about greater control over time. He spoke of an alternate timeline, vastly different, brought upon the plane from the actions of one planeswalker's visit to the past. A visit that began at the crucible. A visit that rewrote history and brought someone William knew long dead back to life. When Zix asked about how that all worked, he sighed the sigh of one who'd been asked that question many times (even though this was the first time it had come up), and simply said "It's very complex. We'll figure it out one day." The crucible no longer had the power to send one back in time, as far as anyone knew, but it still might be worth having a look at, he finished. The next day he left in a hurry, leaving Zix without much to go on except the plane Tarkir, and a map pointing out where in the mountains the crucible lay.

That, and lots of dragons. He wished he had come here before... after... while... he wished the dragons were extinct. At least then he wouldn't have to waste so much energy on renewing his invisibility. Clambering down the ravine was difficult enough already. However, with only a few tense moments waiting for circling dragons to pass, Zix reached the bottom, and got his first close-up look at the hedrons. The designs were intricate and fascinating, even though he knew they had nothing to do with time travel. They extended as far as he could see to the left and the right. If Ugin really had lay here, he must have been gigantic. Zix paced by the hedrons for hours, staring at their symbols, trying to piece together some explanation for why at this one place, on this one plane, a mage was able to travel centuries back in time.

Nothing came to him, until he climbed up one of the sides. It took a monumental effort, but it was worth it, for when Zix looked down into the interior, he had an epiphany and saw what he was missing. The hedrons had nothing to do with the time reversal. If he wanted answers, he'd have to find the one who's bones were here when it happened. He'd have to find Ugin.

He slid down to the ground again, mentally noted the style of the hedron designs, and consulted his map of the multiverse. It was time to go exploring.