Nissa - Manipulates Kefnet

She thought of the evil of Nicol Bolas, of how he had corrupted Kefnet and the other gods, but as each thought arose it was mauled by Kefnet's touch. He did not seem to know, or care, of Bolas's blighted touch upon his essence.

Even now she could see through to the essence of the god, his essence made out of the world itself. The corrupted leylines of Amonkhet were the same strands of corruption in Kefnet, a strange melding of potency and virulence, inimical to Nissa's desire for the natural beauty of a world. The leylines inside Kefnet were tiny fibers, bound together so tightly that it was easy to overlook them.

The God of Knowledge was made of leylines. Leylines she could manipulate.

Nissa frantically wove a spell in the seconds left to her. An infusion of magic burst from her hands, coating the leylines of Kefnet, seeping into their pockmarked surface. She guided her magic through the essence of Kefnet.

She remembered her witnessing of Bolas's corruption of the gods, a dark helix in the night sky. She could not undo what he had done, but she used some of that knowledge to create a small pattern of her own making.

She saw the thread she wanted. She pulled it, and added a new fiber of mana to its mix.

The windstorm ceased. Kefnet stood there, unmoving, as Nissa's thoughts returned to being solely her own. She took a deep breath, shaking, aware of just how close she had come to nothingness.

"You may go now, initiate. You have passed your trial." The ibis god barely seemed aware of her as he flew off to some other destination.

Her spell had been broad, clumsy. Nissa was the merest amateur at manipulating a god. No, manipulation was far too strong of a word. She had merely altered him enough to no longer want to destroy her. And it had worked.

***

THE HAND THAT MOVES