#trnlore

[elder-dragon-bolas]

Terran Summary: Chapters 1-7

Prologue: Imprint

Sorin Markov plans the creation of Innistrad’s protector, Avacyn, on a remote city-plane known as Terran. He is attacked, however, by a group of drunkards and troublemakers known as simply “The Cult,” just before he leaves the plane. Using death magic, he reduces the group to skeletons, and planeswalks away. The vampiric planeswalker accidentally leaves behind a drawing of Avacyn, however, and when another Cult group enters the room later, their minds put together the corpses of their comrades and the drawing of Avacyn as proof of a dark, angelic god, which they name ‘Zepada,’ and out of that moment, the Cult of Zepada is born.

A Brief History of Terran

This one is written in summary format itself, so you will just have to read it. It is not an absolutely necessary read, but does help with understanding of certain events and is not that long. I would recommend it. What is most important is that the city-plane of Terran was shaped by an elf named Dayn into mostly forest over a few years, and that only one last city, Zon, remains, protected by the forcefield of a planeswalker known as Edwin.

Chapters 1-3: Plea, Decision, Arrival

Edwin, Zon’s Time Sage, has been having visions of the city’s destruction, and of one man who is meant to save it: Jace Beleren. Using interplanar magic, he contacts Jace Beleren via scroll. After intense personal debate, Beleren decides to help the plane, and the scroll guides him to the plane of Terran, where he makes his way through a part of the Hydrean to reach the Last City of Zon. There, he meets Edwin.

Chapter 4: Heart of the Wood

The elf Virya has finally come of the age where she will embark upon a journey to the heart of the Hydrean Wood to meet Dayn, creator of the Wood. However, she learns that this year the entirety of the Wood is going as well. When she reaches the heart of the forest, Dayn tells the gathered that he needs their energy to create a massive hydra, one that is capable of destroying the Last City. At that moment, Virya is struck by a vision of the destruction of both the elves and Zon, presided over by a skeletal, winged figure. She flees the clearing as stealthily as she can, and makes her way to the Zon, hoping to warn them of the elves’ approach in order to stop the dark future she has foreseen.

Chapter 5: Forces of Zon

Edwin introduces Jace to the heads of Zon’s government. Beleren reads their minds as well, discovering that many of them have darker pasts than he imagined. The administrator Sarev is haunted by shades that stalk her at night, Nikolai, the chief of the Trailblazers, is a Planeswalker who lost his lover Sylvia to a gorgon. Greziel, the head of the Exterminators, was once Nikolai’s friend, but they fell apart after Sylvia’s death. Benjamin, Zon’s ruler, has a far deeper relationship with Nikolai than Jace could have imagined. As the meeting ends, a messenger informs Benjamin that an elf by the name of Virya has arrived with a warning of Hydrean attack. After the meeting, Edwin takes Jace to his undercity chamber. He reveals to Jace that he showed Jace only an illusion of himself, and that his real self can never leave the chamber, as it takes all his power there to fuel the forcefield that keeps the Last City protected from the Hydrean’s creatures.

Chapter 6: Dark Machinations

Zira, the highpriest of the Cult of Zepada, executes a number of operations in order to prepare for the dark angel Zepada’s awakening. She uses her Shades to torment Sarev and her children in order to force her to reveal the location of the Time Sage’s secret chamber, then sends more Shades to track Nikolai’s location. In the Tomb of Zepada, she reports this information to a dark pool of matter that she believes the dark angel will be reborn from. Zepada promises to reward Zira with godlike powers once she is fully reborn.

Chapter 7: Running from the Past

Nikolai runs between Zon’s outposts to warn them of the coming attack, from where additional messengers will warn Zon’s farther castles. On the way, he remembers his past: how he first planeswalked from a metallic plane after his parents had died; how Benjamin had found him in the Hydrean Wood and raised him as a child unknown to the rest of the city; how he had lost his lover Sylvia deep underground during a raid of a mad scientist’s labyrinth. It had been after seeing her die that he had planeswalked away from Terran for the first time, arriving in a swamp in which he made an oath to never leave Terran again, since he associated planeswalking with every painful event in his life. In the present, Nikolai arrives at the last outpost to find it destroyed, fighting off a group of elves before making his way back to the Last City.

Meanwhile, Dayn, the hydra colossus Arkthus, and the rest of the Hydrean Wood’s forces have arrived to surround Terran. How they will get past the Time Sage’s forcefield is currently unknown.

----CHARACTERS---

Jace Beleren is a powerful mind mage and planeswalker who has no memories of his childhood, or his life before he planeswalked away from his now unknown home plane. Along with the Gatewatch, he saved the plane of Zendikar from destruction at the hands of the Eldrazi titans Ulamog and Kozilek. At the request of Terran’s Time Sage, Jace traveled to Terran to save the Last City of Zon from destruction at the hands of the savage forces surrounding it.

Edwin is a temporal mage and planeswalker who is incredibly ancient, although it is unknown if he lived before the Mending, a time long ago when planeswalkers were as powerful as gods. Using his power, he shields the city of Zon from destruction, but does so at great physical and magical expense to himself. He is known to the people of Zon as the “Time Sage.”

Benjamin is the ruler of the Last City. Many years ago, he found a near-toddler in the Hydrean Wood, took him in, and named him Nikolai. He raised the child, but eventually had to lead him at an orphanage due to it raising questions about who the child’s mother was — a scandal unfit for a city’s ruler. Still, he visited Nikolai almost every day, eventually allowing the boy to join the ranks of the Last City’s Trailblazers.

Nikolai is a planeswalker who, like Jace, does not know his home plane. When he was very young, his parents were slaughtered before him, igniting his Spark and whisking him to the plane of Terran, where he was taken in by Benjamin. Although he suppressed the memory of planeswalking, he ended up unintentionally leaving the plane again under the stress of seeing his lover, Sylvia, killed. After her death, he made an oath to never leave the plane of Terran again, giving himself the title “Nikolai Faithful.” Although he was once friends with Greziel, the two fell apart after Sylvia’s death.

Dayn is an elven planeswalker who, many years ago, used the explosion of green mana known as the Wellspring to shape the city-world of Terran into the nature-covered expanse it is now. He rides upon Arkthus, a massive hydra created through the collective power of nearly all the Hydrean’s elves. He is hellbent upon Zon’s destruction.

Zira is the high priestess of the Cult of Zepada. She rallies and directs the city’s underground cult, preaching that the day the Cult’s dark god’s (Zepada) rebirth is fast approaching. She carries out Zepada’s orders, which come to her through a sarcophagus deep within the angel’s tomb. For reasons currently unknown, she harbors both a deep hatred for the Last City and an extreme passion for the Cult. She is able to fully control a set of thirteen chains attached to her back, as well as a number of shades who do her bidding.

Virya is a Hydrean elf who cannot seem to fit in with any of the savage elves around her, instead preferring to look at the world through a more calm scope. On the day of her coming of age journey to the center of the Hydrean Wood, she is struck by a vision of a broken world; devastation of both the Hydrean and the Last City. In order to prevent it, she runs to warn the people of Zon, and for some reason, is able to pass through the city’s forcefield. After her information is given, however, she is detained in a cell near Zon’s North Gate.

Sarev is a Zonite government official who oversees a great number of the city’s affairs. She is haunted by Zira’s shades, who torment her and her children until Sarev finally surrenders the location of Edwin’s secret chamber under the city.

Greziel is the leader of Zon’s Exterminators, and is a master of incendiary weapons. He was once friends with Nikolai, but avoids talking to him following the death of Sylvia.

Amriel is the leader of Zon’s Expedition Unit, a group of many scouts devoted to mapping out the Hydrean Wood.

[elder-dragon-bolas]

Chapter 7: Running from the Past

He had been so young. So young, in fact, that he had never even learned the name of the world he had lived on. It had a metallic surface, and the creatures that lived upon that surface were anything but normal. Many of them were near completely composed of metal, and the few beings with flesh remaining were hunted viciously. Nikolai had been among those few.

Before he had even learned to speak, a massive, oil-dripping creature had invaded his home. It had chopped several other survivors down, then, with one swift strike, cleaved both of Nikolai’s parents’ bodies into bloody chunks.

He had screamed, then, and disappeared from that world in a blast of heat. He had reappeared, crying, in a massive forest, where he found he had no will to do anything but roll up into a ball and cry. When he awoke, he was not alone. A massive beast with a dozen heads loomed over him, and after bellowing out a primal roar, extended its massive necks to crush him. But just as Nikolai closed his eyes and accepted his fate, he had heard the slice of metal against flesh, and looking up, saw a man looking to be around thirty standing above him. He had scooped up Nikolai and rescued him from the forest, and as the years passed, Nikolai had come to known him as not just Benjamin, but also “Father.”

In the present, Nikolai swerved to avoid a tree branch. He was almost at the final outpost he needed to visit, and then he would run to North Gate, where he would fight alongside Benjamin. To pass the time as he ran, he forced himself to remember, however much it hurt him, as he always did before battles of consequence.

He had never understood why he had not died upon the metal world, why he was whisked away so miraculously. He had done his best to erase it from his mind.

He had to stop living with Benjamin only a few years after the man had saved him, as questions of who this mysterious boy was would have been raised, and could have gone so far as to create theories of an illegitimate child, as Zon’s leader was known to not be married. Benjamin had put him in an orphanage, but had visited him every day, sharing stories and taking him on adventures around the city.

As Nikolai had grown up, he began to manifest superhuman running capabilities. Benjamin had happily offered him a spot among the Last City’s Trailblazers, and Nikolai had happily accepted. He rose quickly through the ranks of the Trailblazers, eventually becoming their leader. In this position, he commonly interacted with the leader of Zon’s Exterminators, a man named Greziel. They quickly became friends, and after enough time, they were as close as brothers.

It was around that time that they met Sylvia.

Even the memory of the woman hurt Nikolai, and he had to catch himself before he tripped over a large branch near his foot.

Sylvia had been an expert Trailblazer. Although not skilled in physical combat, she was incredibly nimble, and possessed reflexes that put even Nikolai to shame. She and Nikolai had grown closer each day, until Nikolai’s heart eventually fell for her. And yet, he held himself back, for he had noticed that his friend had similar feelings for Sylvia. It had become a topic of minor argument among the two, but never anything dire enough to shake the foundation of their friendship. When it became apparent that Sylvia loved Nikolai and not Greziel, the Exterminator had dropped the topic.

As Nikolai wiped a bug from his cheek, he noticed that his lips had become a smile without him noticing.

There had been a joint mission between the Trailblazers and the Exterminators, called to deal with one of the deepest evils the Hydrean Wood harbored. There existed a group of scientists known as the Slavir, some human, most gorgon, that experimented upon the bodies of the dead. In order to acquire humanoid bodies, they often stole away more novice scouts from Zon’s Trailblazers and Expedition Unit. If a recruit went missing, the Slavir were almost definitely to blame.

The Expedition Unit had recently discovered a stronghold that could potentially be a base of Slavir operations. It was a relatively small tower. Upon exploration of the structure, the Expedition Unit had found no signs of life (or unlife). It had been Nikolai who had stumbled upon a well-hidden trapdoor. Below it, the Expedition Unit had found a massive pile of scout-recruit bodies, each with their own variety of mutilations.

The Exterminators had been called in to perform a mass cremation of the bodies, but when it had ended, it became evident that the pile had been used to conceal a pathway that led deeper underground still. Upon this discovery, many more Trailblazers, Scouts, and Exterminators had been called in, and the exploration of the tower’s underground began. They had found that the area expanded and writhed into a labyrinth so grandiose even the Expedition Unit struggled to map it.

The labyrinth had split the once large group into several smaller ones, but there were plenty of horrors for each of those groups to witness, including botched experiments and desecrated corpses. Occasionally, a group would encounter a gorgon Slavir administrator, which usually meant that the Zonites would not only have to fight off the gorgon, but also the gorgon’s pets — strange combinations of different species and body parts held together by dark and unknown forces. These encounters slowly picked off members of each group, but when the groups began to retreat, they found that the labyrinth had shifted on its own, denying them any means of escape.

As he remembered, Nikolai’s breathing became short and quick.

Sylvia and Nikolai had led a group of some of the most veteran Trailblazers, but even their numbers had dwindled. There came a moment when Nikolai had looked back and found no one behind him — not even Sylvia. He had continued to walk, and then run, alone and with sweat dripping from every pore.

When he finally reached a massive, square room which he could only hope was the labyrinth’s center, what he saw terrified him. A pile of corpses many times bigger than the one they had burned to get down into the labyrinth lay before him, consisting of the men and women who had entered the maze just hours ago.

Around the pile stood a ring of horrific mutants, some holding bodies, some consuming them. A single gorgon stood at the far end of the room, smiling at Nikolai. Quickly, the Trailblazer’s eyes scanned the pile for familiar faces, and although he saw many, he noted that Greziel and Sylvia were not among them. Nikolai drew his sword, opening his mouth in a battle cry, and charged, when he was interrupted by the gorgon’s smooth voice.

“Now, now, not so fast,” the gorgon chided. “If you kill me, how will you ever leave this place? How will you ever find your friend again?”

Friend? Thought Nikolai. Don’t you mean friends? He thought better of asking this, however, not wanting to give away any more information than he had to.

“Now, let’s get to introductions, shall we? I am Vivze, the chief administrator of this sector. And you are…?” The gorgon pointed an upturned finger at Nikolai.

Nikolai said nothing.

Before Vivze could open her mouth again, a familar figure ran through the doorway to the wall next to Nikolai. Greziel was blood-splattered, some of it his own red blood, some a darker, purplish shade. The gorgon’s mouth opened in a wide O of exaggerated surprise. “Another guest is still up and running? What a treat! Well, then, I suppose we’ll just skip straight ahead to the best part.” Vivze snapped her fingers, and a mutant appeared from the shadows, tugging a chained-up Sylvia along with it. His lover’s breath was ragged, her clothes torn.

“Do you two recognize her?” Vivze asked with glee in her voice. “Well, boys, I have a deal to make with you. I give you back —”

Nikolai and Greziel were already charging forward.

Nikolai’s speed allowed him to reach Sylvia before Vivze and her mutant even had time to react. With a soldier’s precision, he cut loose the chains surrounding Sylvia, and reached his arm around his lover. When he turned to look into her eyes, though, he saw a spiked chain wrapped around her neck, causing his eyes to widen in shock.

In this moment of shock, Vivze revealed a black knife from her sleeve, and with one stroke, ripped the front of Sylvia’s throat into bloody tatters. She fell to the ground with a shriek, her last conscious movement a hand thrown towards her love.

Nikolai saw Greziel screaming, saw him charging towards the gorgon, but Nikolai found himself unable to move. A flood of memories had come back to him as he had seen the knife come down, as he’d seen his lover fall to the ground; he’d seen his father and mother cut down beside Sylvia, he’d seen the oil-dripping monstrosity who had killed his parents in the face of every Slavir amalgamate surrounding him. He had screamed a scream of rage and pain and sadness, and he felt an old feeling, a memory he had tried so hard to forget, surrounding him. He felt the temperature rise as the air around him shimmered, he felt himself rise into the air, he felt the stare of every living being in the room upon him. Nikolai felt Terran fade from existence, and he felt himself carried away from the plane by the same power that had carried him there so many years ago.

By the time the last outpost came into view, hot tears ran down Nikolai’s face.

He had laid there, on the swampy ground of a world whose name he did not know, and had wept. The ponderous weight of memory had crushed him, and he resolved to die there, in the muck of that unknown world’s bayou. Many-legged insects and rats crawled around him, and still he had not moved.

He had spent hours, weeping for himself, for Sylvia, for his mother and his father. Night had become day when finally a different image had lighted upon Nikolai’s feverish mind. His thoughts turned to a crying Benjamin, a father shedding tears for the son he had lost at such a young age. For him, he would go back. He remembered Greziel, alone and abandoned in that dark, hopeless maze. For him, he would go back.

Nikolai had scooped himself out of the mud, and reached towards the void between worlds. The void reached back, and for the first time, he felt himself leaving a plane of his own choice. But a thought occurred to Nikolai, and he cut the connection short. There’s something I have to do first, he thought. Reaching down, Nikolai picked up the sword he had cast to the ground, the weapon that had failed to slay his love’s killer, and cut his palm with it. He then planted the sword into the ground, and looked up at the sky. Raising his bloodstained palm, he made an oath to never leave Terran again. It had been the leaving that had been there at every painful moment in his life. He would not allow it to happen again. He would forever be loyal to only one world — Terran.

From that day onwards, he had gone by the self-proclaimed title “Nikolai Faithful.”

As he reached the outpost, Nikolai wiped the tears from his eyes, pulling his thoughts back to reality from his melancholy reverie. As he surveyed the outpost from up close, though, anxiety began to claw at his heart. Many of the buildings were damaged or covered in claw marks. Corpses littered the ground, and armed, savage elves ran from building to building. It took only a moment for Nikolai to put the pieces together — the Hydrean army was far closer than the people of Zon had thought.

It was not long before the perceptive elves took notice of Nikolai, moving to surround him on all sides. They wielded sharp, long knives, and had not a civilized hair on their body, from their uncut nails to their frenzied eyes. With no route of escape, Nikolai accepted the only remaining course of action: to fight. Raising their weapons high, the elves charged. Their screams of bloodlust turned to gasps of shock quickly, however, when they saw a quarter of their numbers fall onto the ground, sword wounds cut into their chests. Nikolai had moved so quickly that they hadn’t even seen him draw his sword before this. The elves recovered quickly, though, and the deaths of their brothers and sisters only served as fuel to their rage.

Running at a speed so fast that his feet barely touched the ground, Nikolai blocked sword after sword, each of his parries fluidly transforming into a precise strike, each aimed at a different elf’s vitals. In a flurry of feet and blades, he felled more elves than he could count to, but their numbers swelled faster than he could cut them down. They were everywhere at once, filling his peripheral vision to an extent that made him wonder if he should have just tried his best to flee.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a Hydrean charger stomp onto the scene. It wasn’t the largest of beasts, but it packed a punch, and was too durable for him to fell it quickly. He had to escape before it reached the fray.

A club crashed into the back of his head — a punishment for pausing to analyze the stomper. Struggling to stay on his feet, Nikolai whirled around, coming face to face with the club’s wielder. The elf was bigger than any he had ever seen, its build bulky and its stature looming. One of its ears was completely torn off, and its fangs were twice the size of those of the other elves. The goliath roared and brought down its club again, this time aiming for Nikolai’s sword. Dazed by the impact, the Trailblazer was unable to react, and his weapon was knocked out of his hand and somewhere far into the tangle of elves around him.

With his weapon gone, Nikolai did his best to dodge the circle of knives and clubs closing in on him, but knew it would not be enough. He received another crack from the brute’s club, and realized that if he didn’t take him down soon, he was going to be too dazed to continue running. I’m going to have to use that technique, Nikolai thought, and grimaced.

Shaping his hand into a spearhead, Nikolai sprinted at the large elf. The elf swept its club low, aiming for Nikolai’s legs, but this time, the Trailblazer hopped upwards, leaping on top of his enemy’s club. Focusing his strength into his legs, Nikolai propelled himself towards the elf, then turned in midair, kicking with all his strength. The elf was dazed for only a second, but it was enough. Making his hand into a point once again, he ran faster than he had in a long time, aiming his hand directly for the elf’s heart. His speed brought his hand straight through the elf’s flesh, gouging his organs. The colossus fell with a bellowing scream.

“Huh,” Nikolai joked. “I think I might’ve broken a nail there.”

The elves did not find this amusing.

Without the largest elf clubbing him, Nikolai regained his natural rhythm, and slowly began to turn the fight once again. He weaved his way through the crowd, retrieving his sword, and his odds started to look for the better.

Then he remembered the charger, which had now arrived at the fight. An elf sat on top of it, pointing at Nikolai and barking a command which didn’t quite reach his ears. The charger ducked its head and charged at Nikolai, who dodged the creature’s assault just barely. Then, however, Nikolai felt the force of the shockwave the charger’s attack had left behind, and fell onto the ground. A swarm of elves dived on the opportunity, but Nikolai got to his feet just in time to dodge away from their slices.

I’m not going to win this fight by ordinary means, thought Nikolai. I need to do something big. His eyes drifted up to one of the outpost’s towers that was still standing, and then down to its weak bottom support — four wooden legs. A plan formed in his mind, and he made a break for the tower, the crowd of elves on his heels. The charger followed them with foam dripping from its mouth.

As they got into position, Nikolai turned his head back at the charger, baring his teeth in a challenging grin. The charger got the message, and ran straight for Nikolai, but the nimble Trailblazer sidestepped the charger with ease, instead sending it into the tower’s weak legs. Before the crowd of elves had time to react, the entire viewing tower was crashing down upon them, felling even the massive charger as it went.

Nikolai ran back to the Last City with all the energy he had left. He had to warn them before it was too late.

---------------------------------------------

On the back of the massive hydra known as Arkthus, a single elf looked down upon the city that had eluded destruction for so long. Today was the day it met its end, and his arrival would herald its fall.

For the first time in decades, Dayn of the Hydrean Wood smiled in earnest.

[elder-dragon-bolas]

Chapter 6: Dark Machinations

The highpriest of the Cult walked with a slight swing in her step, her hips moving side to side in a dangerous expression of seduction, not done so much for romanticizing, but more for her to delight over the mixture of fear and dizziness it inspired in the people she met. From the sides of her tightly sewn shirt dangled thirteen chains, creating a menacing sound as she walked down the damp, gray caverns spiraling deeper and deeper underground.

Zira hummed a tune that only she knew, a constant variation on three notes. To most, it did not sound that musical, but her critics were rather short-lived. She wore a blindfold, a black loop of silk around her forehead rather than her eyes. It had earned her a nickname within the Cult: Zira Three-Eyes. She took it as a title of respect and not an insult, not only because of the mysteriousness it granted her, but because the statement wasn’t so far from the truth.

“Highpriest Zira!” a voice echoed from down the hall just as her feet touched the staircase’s last platform. A short, blood-covered goblin scrabbled into view, an urgent look on his face. “The Tomb was shaking again just a bit ago!”

Zira smiled. “Scurry off, loyal one. I’ll head there myself. ” A roar from deeper underground reminded her of something. “Oh. Don’t forget to make sure that it’s ready for Zon’s surprise party.” As the goblin ran off, the smile on Zira’s face intensified into a wide grin. The Tomb of Zepada had shaken eleven other times this week, and each time it did the glee growing inside her heart expanded exponentially.

Every step she took echoed off the walls of the long hall extending endlessly before her. Time always seemed to come to a crawl as she walked this path. Finally, Zira reached the far end, and saw the golden gate that loomed from three times her height, a small golden statue of a winged humanoid at its top. The gate’s doors opened without her hands ever touching them.

The Tomb of Zepada was a fairly empty room. A massive sarcophagus with a skeletal design extruded from its surface lay at the center of the room. Zira approached the coffin with reverence, and cautiously placed her hand upon the skeletal design’s face. The sarcophagus’ lid slowly floated upwards, moving higher until it finally reached the ceiling, where it came to a rest floating in midair.

Inside the box was not a body, but a strange black substance that was not solid, aqueous, or even gaseous. It bubbled and steamed, and if Zira stared at it closely enough, she could almost see the outline of a person. Without warning, a grating, feminine voice emanated from the coffin. “It is time at last, highpriest Zira. The bloodbath is imminent, and I will be more than pleased if you execute it properly. How goes your progress in setting the puppet show’s strings?”

Zira smiled. “Perfectly.”

------------------------------------------

Sarev was in a good mood today. The Visitors had not made any appearance today, and for the first time in months, she had been able to focus on her paperwork without the black things watching her, whispering to her. As the moon set, she tucked her children into bed. Her husband was a soldier deployed to East Gate currently, in case the elf Virya’s warning turned out to have merit.

Tentatively, she climbed into bed herself. The potential of a coming battle at the walls frightened her, but the exhaustion of the day’s work and stress eventually lulled her into a deep slumber.

She was sitting in her home’s workroom, poring over stacks of paper, when the Visitor appeared. It was tall, black, and its only feature was a pair of glowing white eyes. It had long claws, and only stared at her. It had no mouth, yet she could hear its whispering, a sound like the scratching of rusted nails upon a sword, telling of things she could not comprehend.

(You’redreamingthisisn’treal)

Yes, she told herself, I’m dreaming. When the Visitors actually came to Sarev, their whispering was much, much louder, and inescapable. They had never asked anything of her, only stood their, disappearing if she looked directly upon them, slowly driving her mind over the edge.

Sarev awoke in a cold sweat. Flustered, she decided to go check on her children, sleeping in the room down the hall. She slipped out of bed, faced the door to open it, and then stopped, horrified.

A Visitor was standing there to block her way, its hands shaped into long claws.

Sarev woke up again, screaming. She reached to her arm this time, pinching it, and felt the sharp pain. She was finally awake. Sarev walked fearfully to the door — no Visitor this time — and started down the hall.

Then she heard a long, scratching noise.

Sarev bolted to her children’s room, feeling the floor under her bare feet press against her. She was awake. She was awake. She was awake. Sarev threw the door to the children’s room open, and stopped dead midshout.

Three Visitors stood in the room. One held her little Sarah in a hug off of the ground; she was still asleep. The other held poor sleeping Lric in a similar pose. The third stood to face her, and for the first time, the whispers were comprehensible. “Do you care for them? Answer me this. Where does the Time Sage live? Do not lie, or we will be back, and we will not be so kind.”

Sarev could only stare.

“Answer quickly,” it commanded. The two Visitors holding her children grew white, teethy mouths, and grinned simultaneously at Sarev.

Sarev snapped back into reality, pinching her arm one more time to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, and started speaking frantically. “Underneath the center of the city!” she gasped. “Eye Alleyway in the 1st district. There’s a stairwell at the back of the alleyway if you turn left and move a grey slab from its top. Please leave them alone, please, have merc—!”

Sarev was sitting on top of her bed again.

She ran to her the room her children slept in, and found them sitting on their beds as well. Their eyes were wide open, but they did not speak or move, only staring at Sarev.

Sarev fell to her knees and cried.

-----------------------

“That’s the Time Sage, then, but what of the other Traveller?” the voice asked Zira.

“I have information on him, too, don’t you worry,” Zira responded.

------------------

Nikolai sprinted through the forest towards one of the last outposts he had to notify of the coming attack. In turn, messengers from those outposts would make a beeline for Zon’s outermost outposts, which were in fact massive castles, each about one-fortieth the size of the Last City.

Above him, an unseen pair of black figures flew through the treetops, barely able to keep up with Nikolai’s inhuman speed. They had followed him for a very long time now, gathering any information they could. When Nikolai reached the next outpost, they listened in on the conversation.

“After the last outpost, I’ll head to North Gate and fight from there,” Nikolai informed the outpost leader. “If the fight starts going for the worse, I’ll head to Edwin’s chambers and see if he can offer any further help.”

The shades nodded to each other, and disappeared.

-----------------

“With that information, I’ll find and take care of Nikolai after I’m done with the Time Sage,” Zira assured the voice.

“Perfect, then. When I am reborn into this world, Zira, you will be rewarded greatly.” The voice was full of promise, and Zira couldn’t help but grin. She had the utmost faith that Zepada would take her and make her into a god like her. She would look down upon the people of Terran, and they would feel pain for her pleasure.

--------------

Benjamin, the ruler of Zon, stood on the highest point of North Gate’s wall, gazing at a faraway mountain. The forest below was quiet and peaceful, a stark contradiction to the thousands of soldiers rallying themselves at each of the city’s Gates.

A messenger ran up to him; Benjamin recognized her as the viashino who had brought him to speak to Virya earlier today. She looked as tired as ever, but through her gasps she stuttered, “There are reports of attacks from inside-the-city sources at all four Gates, Benjamin. Their numbers include goblins, humans, zombies, and some things that I can’t even name.”

After those words, the viashino was not the only one sweating. “Have the Gateleaders deploy one-sixth of each Gate’s guard to investigate and dispatch the attackers,” Benjamin commanded, and the viashino ran off immediately.

With anxiety beginning to grip his heart, Benjamin looked at the horizon once more, and noticed something odd.

The faraway mountain had moved closer.

[elder-dragon-bolas]

Chapter 4: Heart of the Wood

The day is finally here.

Every child of the Wood dreams of the day that they will visit the Wood’s center, its pulsing Heart, the central point where the Wellspring began and created the beauty around them. It is a coming of age, and for many, it is a time of epiphany and self-realization.

Then why am I so worried?

Since the day has started, something has felt off within the Wood. The leaves are whispering to each other in secretive tones, and the elders are silent today. Even the ground feels unstable beneath my feet, a dark omen for what is to come.

But I’m just being nervous, right?

“Virya!” A familiar voice snaps me out of my worries. “It is time for Communion, my daughter. Almost everyone is at the Leaf-Circle by now, we’ll be late if you stand talking to roots any longer.” Mother’s voice is kind but stern, and I follow her with light, bounding steps.

“Coming, Mother.”

As we approach the Leaf-Circle, the excitement among the others of my age is practically tangible. Their bright eyes dart around like fireflies, voices chattering to each other in a language I know the words to but have never been able to speak, not like they do. No, the others do not like to talk with me. I am not like them.

When they run with the beasts, I sit with the moss. They dance with hydras, I sketch a tree. They talk of how one day they will grow to trample the people of Zon, and I… I have different ideas. We will never be the same, and we all know it, but no one says it. I walk by Mother, and they walk by one another. Sometimes I am sad, but sometimes I think that I am different for a reason.

I’m still waiting for that reason, though. I have been for a long time.

The few elders who haven’t arrived at the Leaf-Circle yet carry a different mood. They speak in quick, hushed cricket-tones, all but one of them bearing a grimace upon their face. I only wish my ears could pick up their words; the unknown is a beautiful but terrifying thing.

At long last, the Leaf-Circle comes into view. It is as beautiful and undisturbed as it was four moons ago, a perfect circle of dark-green kryest leaves, not moved since the settlement’s creation. Each of us steps reverently over the leafy border and into the circle of Communion that unites us all. At its center, on top of a tree trunk whose body was shattered by skyfire, is Elder Jurisa. As always, she carries an authoritative yet loving mood, similar to Mother’s.

“Children of the Wood,” Jurisa begins, “I declare this Communion initiated.” A sudden ripple flows through all of us, barely noticeable but always, always there. We feel it, the same mana that connected all of Terran many years ago when the Wellspring rewrote the world as one of nature rather than skyspires.

“Today is the day that you have all been waiting for, the journey of your children to the Wood’s Heart,” she continues. “There their eyes will be opened to the true beauty of the wood, the glory wrought by the Greenherald.” Jurisa’s eyes flash green briefly before she speaks further, and they turn without her face’s accompaniment, surveying the entirety of the Circle that is to her front.

“This year’s journey will be far different, however. This year, the children will not make their journey to the Circle alone. We will accompany them there. Not just us, the elders, not just their parents, all of us will make that journey.” A feeling of confused excitement ripples through the crowd as she says this. “The Greenherald has spoken to the eldest elder in each village with a beautiful message, one we have all waited for for many years. I wish I could tell it to you myself, but the Greenherald wishes the words to come from his own lips.”

At the mention of Greenherald Dayn, our pointed ears perk upwards. It was him who harnessed the Wellspring, him who created the Wood we all know and love. Surely something momentous is happening.

“We will begin the journey within the hour. Ensure you have everything ready.” Elder Jurisa smiled. “I declare this Communion closed.”

Immediately, the gathered crowd bursts into excited chattering. We depart shortly after. Everyone else’s feet move eagerly ahead, but mine slow and tread carefully. I am not so sure about what is about to happen as they are. Then again, I never have been.

I could tell you about the journey to the Heart, but that is not the important part of my story. The important part came at the Heart itself. The Wood’s center is a beautiful thing, and its title is well deserved. There lies a marvelous flower, pulsating as it flares a blood red coloration from deep within. Surrounding it are verdurous leaves of jade green, cradling it as a mother holds her child. Every child of the Wood knows that this place was where the Wellspring originated, the tide of wild magic that changed the city-world of Terran into a sprawling majesty of green. Its petals were closed, as if it would soon blossom.

Before the flower stood the most important elf in all the Wood — the Greenherald himself, Dayn, his head looking at a tiny mound of dirt piled before him. To be in his presence was almost like standing before a god; he had created the Wood, and without the Wood, none of us would be who we are now. Perhaps some of us would have never come to be at all.

Dayn raises his head and begins to speak, and I have never been more ready to listen. But when the words come, they fly past me. I hear them but do not understand them, they are like dust in the wind, blowing by my ears but never through them. I look around, and see that all the other children are staring at the Greenherald intently, their parents and elders smiling in remembrance.

(Why can’t I hear him? Why can’t I hear the words of our creator?)

Suddenly, the Wood fades from my eyes, and I am in another place. Still, I hear the sounds of the Greenherald’s voice, but now I am in the city of Zon, the Last City, and the scene before me is horrifying. I see the people of Zon, the humans, the goblins, the vedalken, the viashino; and I see the denizens of the Wood, the elves, the beasts, the krakens, the hydras; all looking up at a great darkness in the sky. I see the Greenherald himself, lying on the ground, unable to move. Tears well at his eyes, and he stares unblinking at a raining sky. Farther away from him is an unfamiliar yet important-looking man. He stands over another man, one that I have only heard stories of, weeping, not stopping. A woman wrapped in chains laughs from underground, and a deeper voice starts to rise.

(whatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthis)

And then I am back in the Wood, and now, I can hear Dayn’s words.

“And that is why, my children, we cannot tolerate Zon’s defiance any longer. The world belongs to us, as it always has. As civilization once trampled nature, we shall return the favor. This is why I ask of you to lend me the power that was once given to you, the tiny bit of Wellspring that lives within you. With it, I shall bring forth a champion to blot out the sun, a being so powerful that all of Zon shall quake in terror. Benjamin will drop his sword and weep when he sees it. Yes, children, extend your hands and open your hearts, and lend me your power.” Dayn closes his eyes.

(thisiswrongsowrongwhatishappening)

Each of the elves around me close their eyes and extend their hands, and I can feel the invisible energy flowing from them. The flower behind Dayn begins to pulsate violently now, and the headache I have worsens. This is so very wrong. I don’t extend my hand. I shouldn’t, I can’t. Then it happens, and my heart stops.

Just for a brief second, I swear that Dayn opens his eyes and looks at me.

Then, the thought is gone, and he is closing his eyes, his head tilted downward just as it was before. I raise a trembling hand and extend it towards the Greenherald, but still, I feel nothing. Once more, I am not like the others, I am not like them at all.

The flower swells, then bursts into green light.

The roar that follows deafens every noise in the universe; not even my thoughts are safe. When my eyes can finally see again, they struggle to take in the absolute behemoth before me. The hydra rises beyond the trees, its necks as thick as trees and covered in thousands of tiny spikes. Its lower heads skim the treetops and its highest reach far beyond the clouds. I cannot help but shake.

The Greenherald looks easily two decades older now, but he is smiling. “Its name is Arkthus, and it is our champion. It will lead us to vic…”

His voice trails off, and I am in Zon once again. I see the hydra rising above the city, tearing it and its people to shreds. I see the beasts of the Wood charge in, its elves shortly behind them. I see bodies on both sides crash to the ground, blood coming from every open orifice. I see children crying and trampled, families cowering in fear. And out of every body cut down, out of every drop of blood spilled, I see the blackness, the darkness, well up. I see it gather, and I see it rise. It grows wings, it holds some horrible weapon, and it looks down upon me, pointing a long, skeletal finger.

And then, I am back in the Hydrean again, surrounded by rejoicing voices and deafening roars. But now I know — this is not where I must be now. I seem to be the only one who knows, the only one who has seen. I must stop this. I must go to Zon, and I must warn them. I must stop this… whatever this is.

I run, and I hear the shouts behind me as I go. I see the Greenherald look at me in confusion, and then I see her. Mother. But she is not angry, or confused. She smiles, as if she knew this would happen all along.

I must go.

[elder-dragon-bolas]

Chapter 3: Arrival

This was not dignified.

Jace Beleren, wearing a vibrant blue coat laced with beautiful white curving patterns, eyes glowing with magical energy, and wielding a powerful extraplanar scroll, stood next to his toilet.

Lavinia, the Azorius representative who was tasked with monitoring the Guildpact’s activities, would be furious if she discovered her charge was leaving to another world - that was, if she even knew there WERE other worlds. The lawmage had not the slightest inkling that Jace was a Planeswalker, or that such a thing even existed.

Regardless of what she knew or didn’t know, though, the leader of most legal activity on the entire plane of Ravnica vanishing without a trace would surely upset her. Lavinia did her best not to let him out of her sight.

Thus, here he was, in the one place Lavinia had the respect not to come look for him - the restroom. The lawmage certainly wouldn’t be happy, but Jace was sure that she could handle things for just a bit while he was away - right? Right. Probably. Maybe. Eh.....

Jace would definitely get to the piles and piles of paperwork once he got back. He promised himself that - the kind of promise that he made simply to appease the tiny bit of mundane work ethic he had tucked away in the very back of his mind. Whatever. Paperwork and which Gruul member got the bigger meat piece could wait if a plane’s fate was at stake... probably. There he went again. There was no more time for self-doubt. Jace gripped the scroll in his hand, and reached with his mind into it. He felt the magic its sender had woven into it pulling him away from Ravnica, asking him to follow it. With a subconscious hint of reluctance, Jace let his bonds to Ravnica loosen until the world fell away, ready to follow the scroll’s trail through the Blind Eternities.

The scroll’s magic had other ideas than plain “following,” though.

The magic violently yanked Jace through the Blind Eternities, dragging him along like an Orzhov aristocrat would yank a disobedient caracal. The magic tugged the startled mind mage along, and on his way, he saw many worlds go by, wondering which one they would stop at.

One world was covered entirely in ocean, the next one covered in clouds. One plane he passed was what looked like a giant tree, extending in all directions from a point at the very center of the world. Then, Jace Beleren saw something that rattled him to his core. One world was pink and beautiful, as if the entire world was coated in vibrant blossoms. Time seemed to slow just so he could admire the world.

Then the pink faded to black, and the plane began to burn. It was not like how a fire burned, but a burning that left Jace feeling emptier than the deepest pit. The plane faded from view just as it collapsed in on itself, gone from the Multiverse forever.

It was strange, being able to see the planes around him in such great detail - it wasn’t something he was normally capable of such things. Perhaps it was the scroll’s magic, showing him the Eternities in more detail. Did it... did its owner... want him to see that?

Jace’s thoughts were shattered to bits by an arrival as forceful as the journey. A slit in reality opened four feet above the ground, and the mind mage crashed down from it onto a grassy clearing ringed by a circle of lush trees. Behind the trees, a ropy mess of sinuous branches formed a dense wall around the grove.

Then the branches began to shake. No, not shake, slither. What kind of branches slithered...? Jace Beleren realized with a start that they weren’t branches at all.

They were necks.

The hydra’s necks began moving at incredibly fast speeds around the grove, maneuvering between the cracks in the trees towards Jace. The body came following the heads at an alarming rate, unseen legs propelling it towards the frightened mind mage.

With his mind finally operating correctly again, Jace assessed the situation. Running was useless, and the creature’s mind was too primitive to do anything but alter its vision, which would be useless due to its sense of smell. It’d sniff the real Jace out of any number of clones.

Then what could he do?!

The heads came crashing down on Jace, converging all into the same space as if to mash him into the ground. The mage desperately conjured a ward, but his warding magic had never been strong - that was Gideon’s field. Just as the barrier cracked almost immediately under the stress put on it, and in a last minute spark of ingenuity, Jace jumped backward, the heads following him and pushing onto the cracking barrier. When it exploded, Jace flew backwards rather than into the crushing ground, flying across the grove.

Think, Jace, think.

Then another nail was thrust into Beleren’s coffin as the hydra’s eyes turned to him. In the greenness, he saw something beyond power and hunger. He saw... dominance.

He didn’t stand a chance. The hydra was towering over him, its heads about to strike. Who was he to stop it? It was towering ten feet, more, above him, with heads that he’d never manage to hack off. It was too late to try any complex magic unorthodox to him - only illusions were left to him, and no matter how many he called, the hydra would know which was him. It was lost.

No. Jace Beleren was a mind mage - one of the most powerful in the multiverse. No mere beast was going to get the better of his mind. A clarity filled his aching cranium - he was in control. Then the hydra’s heads charged again, and it hit him. The fear. The dominance. He didn’t need many Jaces...

He just needed one.

Jace Beleren towered above the great boughs of the forest’s highest trees, his head hundreds of feet in the air, trying to emanante confidence as his real body shook down below. The hydra’s heads stopped in a feeling it had not felt in a long time - fear. It sniffed. Yes, it was the tiny prey. But now it was... big.

The hydra hadn’t quite left yet. In an act of desperation, Jace did his best to look intimidating, letting out what he hoped was a growl. He realized it probably sounded like a mewl to the hydra. To ensure the beast didn’t get any ideas after Jace’s pitiful ‘roar,’ Beleren took his hand, many times the size of all the hydra’s heads combined, and made a thumbs-up.

The hydra had never been more horrified in its life. It dragged itself out of the valley at a rate that it could only hope was enough to outrun the hundred foot titan behind it.

Jace couldn’t help but laugh.

*******************************************************************************************

The scroll had guided him through the forest, and so far, no other dangers had confronted him. Either he was incredibly lucky, the scroll had a smart guiding system, or the hydra had decided to tell it its gossip group about the scary, large blue man rampaging through the forest.

Finally, the trees began to grow scarcer, and a high wall came into view, at its base a blue and gold accented arch composed of a flecked white material. the arch had a few parts extended outwards, and on one of them sat an esteemed-looking falcon, glaring down at Jace.

Below, a man leaned on one of the arch’s pillars, a white cloak embroidered with small trails of red and blue draped over his shoulders. A pocket watch encased in blue metal hung from a chain in his shirt pocket. He was obviously pretending to have been there for a while, although from his stance Jace could tell he’d just gotten there - almost as if he’d known Jace would be arriving at that exact time.

Jace tried to look into his mind, but was encountered by an issue he’d never encountered before - the man’s mind simply wasn’t there. Jace’s experience with illusions told him the man wasn’t one, so then why did it seem like the man himself didn’t exi-

The man looked over, his eyes startling pools filled with a liquid that shifted between red and blue coloration. He extended his hand.

“My name is Edwin. Pleased to meet you, Jace of Ravnica. There’s something we need to discuss.”