The Sphinx of Foresight pawed nervously at the ground with the distracted energy of a decade-old kitten. His eyes darted from face to face, inspecting each citizen that gawked backed. He ground powerful claws into the patchwork cobblestone, glad for the sheer amount of pacing space available in Azorius lands. He had settled for fluttering his wings sternly when his eyes landed on his one of his few Underworld Connections, an Ogre Slumlord that had been described to him as "damp", an adjective that never ceased to make him uncomfortable.
"Hail, Master Griggs!" he exclaimed, causing several clusters of children to scatter among the carts.
"Ajimalin!" came the return. From the crowd, a tall ogre with a build like a tenement on Gruul outskirts, extricated himself. His limp hair, what was left of it, stuck to a shimmering forehead, his arms, nearly as thick and corded as, Vitu-Gazi wrapped tenderly around a small stack of rats.
"Turns out Branko wasn't kidding about a big favor!"
Griggs' laugh, which comprised primarily of phlegm, was infectious enough to shift the stern stones that seemed to weight the corners of his mouth.
"Master Griggs," started Ajimalin, "Master Branko may lie about everything from his skill with a sword to how many ears he has but on this... I fear he's more right than he knows."
"You're one of those future seein' guys, right?" Griggs turned to inspect the sphinx's face, pushing his hair back from his doughy face in a process that left his forehead dry, his hand glistening, and his hair somehow even more limp. "Profitable, right?"
"A prophet. I am, like many of my race, but I did not believe myself to be a trustworthy seer. I know now the only scene I've seen is, in fact, due to it's severe impact on our plane."
"Tad dramatic, that."
"You know only the least of it, I fear, Master Griggs." They turned off of the street and onto a side path, the merchant activity growing sparse as the grew nearer a Gruul Guildgate. "I do not understand the future I see: The guilds subverted, the world at war, armies bent to a cruel conqueror's will."
"Guess I was right not fixing number five's water then."
"I'm very glad you aren't a seer yourself, Master Griggs."
The ogre drew breath to remark on a sphinx cracking a joke when a brilliant light caught his eye. The two drew to a stop not fifteen feet from a scrawny young human woman, curled hair flying about her face like swarms of cardinals with each violent turn. She fussed with a silvery device that made the ogre's sticky fingers twitch at potential gains, it's light glittering off of the tack used to hold an Azorius building-code violation to it's wooden frame. -(Editing pass 1 pause point)
"Nikya, I come with a request - no, a demand! No no that won't work!" She muttered to herself, unaware of the other two until she turned in her pacing, running headlong into Ajimalin's densely furred leg. With a gasp and a nimble tumble, the woman had mounted the gate and had her Chromatic Lantern held aloft as though it alone could stop all harm.
"Hold, we come to speak with you, we mean you no harm?"
"We do?"
"Be still, Master Griggs." The sphinx sat back on blue haunches, appraising the human who, in the few moments in which they spoke, had conscripted a bear, previously unseen, from the underbrush to guard her. "Careful, child, beasts need a master as wild as they and you don't strike me as much of a Wild Beastmaster"
"You don't know! And... And I don't know you!" She called, the bear casting her a look that clearly doubted her resolve before lazily returning to foraging. Her desperate calls for held fell on deaf ears as it trundled off.
"You speak the tongue of beasts, but it's clear you aren't ready to pass those gates, much less bring forth the spirit of Ilharg. Glare at me all you like, but I have need of your skill and you look in need of a meal."
The malnourished woman slowly came down from the crumbling infrastructure, a hand wrapped around her stomach, but stopped short as the ogre made a hasty approach. Griggs towered over the girl... then slowly uncrossed his broad arms, his hands filled with a writhing ball of rats. "I think King likes you!"
After a few hours, a hot meal, and a few dozen rats untangled at the tail, the three stood outside an unassuming house buried deep in the darkest corner of the district. They gathered no looks here, for the few sparse citizens on this street were careful to not even meet eyes with their own reflection.
"Do you want to tell me why we're here, Aji?" broke the silence, Griggs' beady eyes flickering across the windows above them.
"Do you want to tell me why you thought a rat king was one creature?" came a snappy reply.
"Master Griggs, Mistress Trijana, I ask for a moment more of your patience. We have one more member of our band to collect, though, if research proves true, we'll find her on our way through." He took a step towards a nearby industrial sewer grate, then hesitated "Rather, she will find us."
Coming retorts were silenced in favor of an exchange of looks, the sphinx not bothering to explain further as he lifted the grate with a paw and gestured inside. "You know the saying, you only find a Dimir Guildgate..."
Trijana hesitated by the door, eyeing the dark. "... If you were summoned..." She reached into her bag, but a surprisingly soft hand stayed hers. A quick shake of the head from the ogre before he descended told her there would be more trust needed here than she was ready to give. Just before she grabbed the ladder the warm voice of Ajimalin nearly caused Trijana to back out now.
"A word of warning. My kind, among the Dimir are... Well, you've seen the Firemind?" She nodded, "And you've seen a drake?" She nodded again, this time a slow nod of dawning comprehension. "Just stay close."
The warm food in Trijana's belly had long since dwindled. A new hunger clawed at her stomach after yet another hour of sewer water lapping at her feet. They'd descended far deeper into the city than she'd ever known possible, yet still infinitely deeper the sewer seemed to run.
"... And over there, I dumped this limp-legged goblin for not paying rent for the third week in a row..." Came the jovial tone of the ogre, who's incessant, forced, and very phlegmy good cheer had grown grating on everybody's nerve.
"Did you now?" Came an unfamiliar voice not ten feet behind the group. They each wheeled about in turn, Griggs with as much slipping and stumbling as Trijana had anxious grace, their large blue friend wedging himself forward and back like a wagon in one of the cities many gridlocks.
Before them stood - well, hovered - a well dressed vampire. Her dark eyes glittered with the last dying light of her many victims and her hands mysteriously dripped blood from what seemed to be no source.
"Well? What are we stopping for?" she demanded imperiously, "We have another hour still." She swept past them and onward down the cramped tunnel. After the long process of turning back around, Ajimalin met Trijana's glare with a shrug that indicated more bemusement than resignation. The ogre did his best to match pace, splashing with thick boots and high knees to keep up. "A-actually, miss, your highness, biter of the bleedy, someone hasn't really told us why we're crossing your uh... unholy and steamed ground!"
"Esteemed"
"Did you now?"
She regarded him, cold eyes looking over his doughy, sweaty face as he huffed along, continuing to match pace as she slowly accelerated. Soon, the two were nearly out of sight, leaving the seer and the beastmaster in near claustrophobic silence.
"So..." Trijana said, cutting the silence with the strength and resolve of a Tin Street Baker's bun. Still, the sphinx responded with a tired sigh.
"Apologies for the poor conversation, mistress" he huffed, "I fear my decades in libraries have done little for my sewer crawling stamina."
She gave a soft laugh, surprised as any that he had a sense of humor. Her hand rested on her bag as they continued on, warmed by the echos of her laughter.
"You may bring that out for the moment being, mistress, now that we've met our Regent you should be fine until we get to the necropolis."
"Thanks" She murmured, drawing the lantern from it's casing and holding it aloft. She whispered to it, the activating keyword spoken in a tongue only known to beasts and monsters. In moments light of every hue burst forth, radiating from each pane, banishing the shadows and the growing sense of panic she'd felt for the past half-day.
"I've never seen a Zur-Taa carrying a lantern so popular with the Dimir." Ajimalin commented, the insinuation heavy in his tone.
"I'm... You know I'm not Zur-Taa." She responded bluntly, red locks covering the twisted expression she herself had trouble deciphering in the reflection of sewer water. "It was... my sister gave it to me. Made it herself, her own design." Her face relaxed as she let herself become immersed in the past. "She could never understand animals like I do, but she had a way with machines... The Izzet would have loved to have her."
"Might I ask where she is now?"
They walked for nearly half of an hour before a response came. Her voice came with a hollow forcefulness of someone reading a script. "She's with our parents, in a better place, away from the chaos and... and..."
Still more time passed before her vision cleared of the tears. She tried once more, speaking in hurried tones "I don't really know what happened. They hadn't fin... finished cleaning her off of the..." She gestured, indicating an inexact area of a vertical surface "By the time the legionaries had found me. We burned what was left in an Izzet furnace, though what little was left..." She formed the shape of a half-foot cubed box with her hands before bringing them to her chest in reverie.
The silence rang heavy between them as a glimmer of light appeared in the distance. Ajimalin stopped, leaning down to meet the young beastmasters eyes. His expression was intense, his eyes glowing a brighter azure than ever before.
"Do you trust me?" He asked.
After a few moments, she nodded.
"Good, because I trust you. I do wish I was able to come at a better time, or under better circumstances, but Mistress Trijana, disturbing things are afoot and if my visions are to be believed, that is a trust that will save all of our lives in the very near future."
He lifted himself and continued on. She stowed her sister's lantern as she followed. She was used to fear, to sadness, to pressure, but a new feeling began to grow in her core, it's icy peaks making her heart feel like it was collapsing in on itself. She'd always been afraid of her surroundings but never before had she been afraid for her future.
The sewer had let out into a small antechamber, then into a slightly larger one that cleansed the filth from them as they passed through, a magical effect that left Trijana far less grimy than she'd ever been before. Beyond that, there lay a hall so immense and opulent it would make any member of the clan she admire so weep in futile frustration on sight.
Upon entering the hall the two of them heard the booming voice of Griggs, the source resolving to be a speck on a comically long couch, sunk as he was into the plush pillows. He appeared only slightly less oily than before entering the sewer, a wonder and credit to modern magic's efficiency.
Ajimalin did his best to disguise his elation as he finally stretched his broad wings, rotating them and reaching as best as he could to the distance ceiling. It took a full few minutes to reach them from across the room, though it took them as much time to notice the regent perched a foot from Griggs, the black lace of her dress blending into the upholstery. She regarded him with a cold disinterest, though her eyes never failed to return to his throughout the night.
"... and so that's when I said, 'hey', and she was like..." He pushed his hair back from his face in a way far more exaggerated from his typical tick. He finally noticed his compatriots approach, launching off of the couch in a flurry of pillows, sweat, and frantically scattering rats. "You made it! Finally!" He laughed, gesturing to their host, bowing at the waist with such speed and enthusiasm it left him winded "Necropolis Regent Viktoria van Jaou, Queen of the Undercity!"
She rose, approaching with an empty expression, black eyes flickering to each of theirs as a practiced smile struggled to reach her eyes. "Well met, a friend of your told me you'd be coming and that I should welcome you. I owe this man quite a lot after his help with a certain Golgari pest, otherwise, I doubt any one of you would have made it to the grate."
"We are in your debt as much as you and I are to our benefactor. We only need cross your lands, Mistress Regent, we need to delve still deeper to the Forest, business I'm afraid I can't divulge with certain keen ears residing in the walls."
The vampire considered the three of them for a moment, a sweat drop dripping down the side of Grigg's face, though from nerves or habit, it was hard for Trijana to tell.
"We'll leave immediately." She stated suddenly. She snapped her fingers and before the rest had time to react a host of vampiric handmaids descended from the rafters. In short order the regent had been outfitted in strange armour even the researcher had never seen. Griggs, who'd averted his gaze from the woman who had clearly given up on physical privacy many centuries ago, was the first to react. "So, why are you're coming with us, my lady, stalker of the night mice?"
All in the room froze, a vampire actually letting lose an audible gasp of surprise. All eyes were on the regent as she seemed, for the first time, to hesitate a moment. It had been over a decade since she'd had her motives questioned and she was sorely out of practice in responding. "I... want to make sure you are... I..." a blue tinge grew in her cheeks "I can't have guests die on my land unless they're meant to." came the reply, and with it, a tangible release of tension in the room.
"Now, no more interruptions, we leave within the hour. Griggory, you hold my sword."
In the catacombs below the necropolis, Trijana found her mind drifting almost as arbitrarily as their path. She'd been allowed her lantern and as she held it aloft she couldn't help but thumb at a blank place in the middle of the etched patterns in the silver. It had once had her name, but it had long since worn away. The constant worrying had etched away herself, leaving only the name they shared, a name she'd not used since the night her sister hadn't come home.
Before her, the glittering billed and plumed helmet and form fitting brass armour of Regent Von Jaou cut an impressive form against the darkness, made even more noticeable by the dark and hulking form of the grey humanoid at her side.
They'd been silent, a warning of blind, dangerous, and undoubtedly mad beings being heeded by all.
Without warning, the dark catacombs opened up, spitting the four out into a vast cavern punctuated by a building held upside-down to the ceiling by mold and hope.
"Welcome to the Golgari Guildgate." whispered the Regent. "Jarad fancied himself the king of the undercity," she stated coldly, "but he's merely the king of rot. Though maybe not. To her credit, Lady Vraska does not like leaving messes." The vampire turned to the seer, stating "I do hope you know where to go from here. I am not a scholar of fairy tales."
The sphinx hesitated, then posited in uncertain tones "From here the scrolls say to awake the Shepard, though..." He cast his glowing eyes to the many egresses of the room, each wall comprising of several dozens of arches. "The Golgari also adapt quickly, where ancient scrolls have a much harder time."
Trijana's brow furrowed as she considered the cavern, the icy feeling of dread slowly creeping through her veins once more.
"You have thoughts, miss lantern."
She turned back to the group, and to Ajimalin in particular. "Who are you people?" She said, her tone slightly louder, and slightly more accusatory than she had expected from herself. As she spoke, her tone grew in urgency and panic. "I don't know why I'm here, I don't know who you are, and I've just followed you into the depths of the plane just to find a forest? Cause that's where you picked me up from! What's the point of this and what is going to happen to our city?!"
Her tirade abated as fast as it had come, all eyes turning to the blue feliniform. He sighed, nodding slowly, and after a moment, the answer came in a tired, almost haunted tone.
"Our homes will soon fall victim to a war unlike the kinds ever seen before. Some... invader, some enemy I cannot yet see, is coming. I've searched for years through scrolls that'd drive a Dinrova magister to farther madness. And all I've come up with is, as Mistress Viktoria puts it, a fairy tale."
He paced the stoney ledge, wings fluttering in distress. "I've found the only record of a weapon made by the early Simic, when the city had only just begun to build on top of its old structure. It was a weapon that even they feared, for it lacked any way to control it, and thus was relegated to deep below the city. I think this weapon was stored where few could reach it, in what was once the wilds of our plane."
"And what does that have to do with me? Or him?"
"Well... Master Griggs posses qualities me benefactor believed our Mistress Van Jaou would find... agreeable, and serve as a convincing factor at best, a warm bribe at worst."
The ogre nodded slowly. "No, that makes sense."
Trijana stared at his casual acceptance with agape astonishment, but shook it off. "And me?"
"Well, you're a gamble I had to make. It's said a beast-speaker would be needed to unlock the final seal on the weapon's power. I had come across files on you during my research. I admit, I had already known about Tati-"
"Don't." Trijana cut in, then added "Please."
The vampire gave a dramatic yawn, murmuring "Are you sure you're Gruul? I've never heard one say "Please" before."
Trijana was about to come back with a bitter retort when Griggs interrupted. "Sorry to behind in here, your mistress of sharp toothness, but I think I might have a solution." Six eyes slid to the ogre, who held open his jacket. Inside, between burly torso and leather coat clung nearly a hundred rats. "These lil' babies normally stea-uhh collect rent for me, they can find just about anything considered money. I bet your shepard's gotta have an Orzhov coin or two on him, eh?"
(WIP)
