To my discredit, I found the third entry in this story arc too poor to try to salvage, so I never even tried, which is a shame because it leaves my own story unfinished. Or maybe I stopped at four and this is two and three. I did the second one, tho, so.
Ravnica—a plane so centrally important to Magic that even stories about other planes cannot help but return there—spread out before Jace's cracked open bay window as the mild headache that had been his constant companion for the last thirteen months threatened to become more than mild. He took a long sip of his coffee to fight it back, knowing full well the cause and outright refusing the solution, thinking of the pain as simultaneously a small price to pay and a just penance for his crimes of secrecy. Expanding his thoughts to other people's problems, he reviewed the facts: Nissa was in the wind, having left his manse before sunrise. She hadn't taken anything with her she hadn't brought, and she even made the bed he had loaned to her for the night after sleeping in it. Nahiri had taken an artifact that could destroy elementals and was searching for another component of it. He was almost out of coffee. Despite the situation seeming from a distance to be impossible to resolve—Nissa and Nahiri needed each other but wanted opposite things for their home plane—Jace felt hopeful, even relieved. Distractions like this would keep the others from uncovering his secret. There would come a right time to share with the other planeswalkers, Jace assured himself. The city stench momentarily failed to overpower a different, familiar one from inside the house, and Jace sighed, maintained his illusory magic, and collected a fresh diaper from the closet. Hiring a nurse would carry a risk, but taking his child along for the adventure would carry far more, and he owed it to Nissa to help her out.
Zendikar—the actual setting of the story—reaffirmed for Nahiri the justice of her cause by way of the Roil-tossed path back to the nearby settlement of Sea Gate being differently arranged than it had been on the initial journey. The temptation to try to stretch out the raw power of her orb to undo what the Roil had done here gnawed at the back of her mind, but that was not the plan and was far too great a risk. If she were to ever hope for Nissa's forgivness, she couldn't use the orb again without its companion calibrator. Complete the orb set, activate some abilities, rid Zendikar of the Roil for good. That was the plan. Seeking out Nissa afterward would be a stretch goal, and the part of the plan Nahiri eagerly wanted to skip ahead to. She fidgeted with a small set of interlocking hedrons that served no practical purpose as she made her way back to Sea Gate, the fractional satisfaction of feeling it click into various shapes failed to soothe Nahiri's frayed nerves. Fidgeting the thing faster and faster, she knew of at least one place in Sea Gate that might possibly help.
Nahiri burst through the entrance to Madam Kesenya's House of Pleasure, slammed a fistful of coins on the counter, and demanded, "What's the plural of pirate hooker?"
Later, deep within the throes of meritritious but not meritorious engagement, Nahiri, naked but for the garments of her regrets, decided the lusty party of prostitutes who yet slept warm against her were insufficienty virile to fully cast aside her stress. The pressure she required could not be found within the arms of these inadequately adventurous workers. It had helped, though, and as Nahiri gently rubbed the naked rump of one of the number of her hired help, she closed her smoke-lined eyes and pictured a particularly robust elven lass, and the imagining once over again melted her entirely. The answer to the question of "Is this woman worth a whole plane?" had kept Nahiri's sleep as troubled as an average human's, those sapient beings who seemed endlessly enduring and awake compared to all others Nahiri knew of, and the answer, if absolutlely and always a lie to herself, kept changing between yes and no. Nahiri shook her head. If she was smitten, then she was damned. The plural of pirate hookers may have that night proven insufficient comfort to quell her dire thirst for Nissa, but she resolved to carry on to the task's end even so. The martyrdom of never attaining full carnal knowledge of that sweetest and most bounteous of elves would have to be the full and willing cost for restoring her home to being a regular place instead of a place where just playing your land for the turn caused all manner of nonsense to ensue. The ragged insouciant sleep of a human overtook her at last, the tactile sensation of her hand upon a fraudulent ass manifested in her dreams as that of her green desire.
The next morning as Nahiri was on her way out, the Madam favored her with a bit of idle conversation, a small payment toward the incalculable and invisible debt she owed the planeswalker for having bankrolled her brothel in the first place, as well as other deeds even less welcoming of the light of day. The shamelessness of it made Nahiri tilt her head down and laugh to herself.
"My lady, you know of course you could take some of my employees along with you. I can give you the best rate."
"Kes, I've said before you don't owe me anything, ok? I paid a fee for a service, right?"
Kesenya's aspect darkened as much as the pearlescent sheen of her kor skin would allow before she replied, "Nahiri, I know you well enough to know what this is about. What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," Nahiri lied, her reinforcing smile failing to go all the way up to her eyes.
"Uh-huh, well you know I can't press you-"
"Kesenya, you can, I mean, you know I'll always be there for you."
"Like you were when we reached the top of Kazuul's cliffs?"
The rebuke struck Nahiri in a twisting path from her forehead down to around her lungs. Her remaining feelings for Kesenya treasonously redoubled in size as her words called to mind Nahiri's choice from long ago: she had not paid 3 generic mana. Kesenya leaned into her, a truly gentle creature as she was, and Nahiri felt obligated to return her embrace.
"I know you still want what's best for me," Nahiri began, "but please understand I want what's best for Zendikar, and I will do it no matter the cost."
"I know."
Those simple, honest words tore open Nahiri's aching heart, the twin of what Nissa had said when they had been deep within their lusty embrace. Nahiri responded by squeezing Kesenya as tightly as she could, arrogantly hoping her strength could act as a proxy for Nissa's.
"At least," Kesenya piped, "take some of my adventurers with you."
"Wait, adventurers?"
"Yes, I've expanded our service offerings while you were away. We offer guided tours, line-slinging, bodyguards-"
"Uh-huh, 'bodyguards'?"
"Don't make fun, they're all vetted and trained."
"So you want me to, what, interview some of them?"
"For you I had a full party of legends in mind, you already know Akiri and Kaza from last night, and they work with some fellows named Orah and Zareth."
"Kes, it's sweet that you want to send some bodyguards with me but I'm fine. Hire them out to someone who will pay their full rate."
"You haven't even seen what they can do."
"I mean I half have. Look, Kes, I'll be fine. Where I'm going I would probably just get them killed by some removal spell or other. I'm good."
"I know you well enough to know you aren't good. You're not even okay. Please, Nahiri, let me in!"
Nahiri let her go with a sigh.
"I know you're trying to help, I get it, but I'll be fine, really. There is something you can do to help me, though."
"Name it."
"If any other planeswalkers come through here looking for me, try to distract them for as long as you can."
"What's a planeswalker?"
"People, I mean if any people come through here."
"Ok Nahiri."
Kesenya watched Nahiri go, instantly impatient to see her again. She let the warmth of their ancient history together wash over her for a moment, then let her pragmatic Zendikari cynicism take control once more. She nodded a signal to one of her spies, making sure Nahiri would not be travelling alone, even if she didn't know it.
Jace realized into the plane of Zendikar south of Sea Gate. Going from the endless city to the sparse wilds was jarring. Zendikar was a place of encampments, bivouacs, and enclaves, only rarely did some place within it manage to slump into calm enough conditions to be built more permanent, and the guiding beacon of Sea Gate's famous lighthouse was one such place. Where there were cities there were rumors, and Jace needed all the help he could get if he was going to succeed in tracking down Nahiri and either stopping her or reasoning with her. No sooner than he had taken his first step toward the city, the cloying voice of the Blind Eternities chittered a soundless herald, and in another instant that feeling of tugging madness in space became Nissa Revane.
"Nissa? I thought you had taken off."
"What gave you that impression? I came back from the market to find you gone. Your maid told me you did not want to be disturbed so I figured you had left yourself. I must say the initiative is uncharacteristic of you. Usually you brood over things more."
"I determined that the correct approach to this situation was straightforward."
Jace felt a small gust of relief that Nissa hadn't pressed him further about why he was hustling so much or why he hadn't called in any of the other oath-swearers for help. His little lie would hold for the time being, and hopefully for the remainder of the adventure.
"Well it was nice of you to come to my aid, but you should have told me first. I don't know if you remember but this is a harsh land. We should stick together," Nissa said.
"You're right. Besides, blue and green have been a powerful combination lately."
"Don't flirt, you wouldn't want me as a rebound."
"I wouldn't dream of it. Anyway I thought you were a, you know," Jace made swordfighting gestures with his forefinger.
"Don't overthink it, mind mage. Now come on," Nissa gave Jace a quick pat on the behind as a kicker and began walking the road to Sea Gate.
"Wait a moment," Jace called, "we shouldn't just waltz in as ourselves."
"Whyever not? My fondness for fashion involves seeing and being seen you know."
"We're both heroes. Any hope of finding good information will die in the arms of our admirers. We need a more subtle approach."
"I remember you saying 'we need a more subtle approach' any number of times. Oh, don't pout! Ok maybe pout a little because it's rather a cuter look for you than brooding."
"My distaste for the sitution is irrelevant. If you're feeling impatient it is for good reason, but that could turn into extra time spent escaping our own shadows."
Nissa stopped and bowed her head, then closing her eyes and lowering her voice, said, "I just want her back, Jace."
"I understand. But if you wanted a blue mage who would help you skip to the good part you should have asked Teferi. I'm the overthinking guy, remember?"
"You're right, only the birds can skip from seed to tree."
"Is that an elven expression?"
"Only in that I'm an elf and I expressed it. Now what do you suggest?"
"I will work some illusory magic to disguise us as locals and we can do our investigating in secret."
Drawing upon the secret words lying deep within his scrimshaw memory, Jace weaved illusions about the two of them, glowing blue glyphs appearing at his fingertips to honor the effort of the spellcraft. Jace had long studied illusion, and this came easily. When he was done, Jace's appearance was of an elder merfolk diver, and Nissa was a rugged human warrior. Nissa examined her new self.
"Now now, this will never do. You're lucky I'm with you, Jace, or this plan of yours would have died as a sprout."
"What do you mean?"
"Fashion sense, dearie, look at us. People dressed like this a decade ago. We would stand right out and then we'd be back to square one."
"What do you suggest?"
"Follow my lead, and let's have a little fun."
"Ok," Jace shrugged, thinking privately of this loss as a win. Nissa wasn't thinking too much about how good Jace had become with illusions, making it less likely she would uncover his secret. Also, Nissa could use a distraction and he knew her love of fashion would provide her no end of pleasure if she could completely change appearance at the wave of his hands. His expectations bore that out: Nissa first instructed him in what her new human warrior form would be wearing, then set in on suggesting other outfits and personae. After perhaps 40 total makeovers, Nissa was evaluating the toss of her third ballgown when Jace finally interjected again.
"Are we expecting to get our information at a gala?"
"No I just rather like this one, you should have been a dressmaker."
"If I ever get to retire from whatever it is I do now I'll consider it."
"And do consider doing this again for your next date, dearie, this was very enjoyable."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"I can tell when you're being patient with me, you know."
"Take your time, friend. I'm here for your sake, after all."
That affirmation worked far more quickly than any rebuke could have. Nissa felt mollified instantly, simultaneously ashamed at her own delay and proud of this new intelligence Jace expressed. Though she knew he prided himself on his mysteries, just what had changed to bring about this attractive tenderness in him was quite clear to her. She regarded Jace with new warmth and trust, seeing through his illusory form to see Kytheon smiling back at her. She shed a nonillusory tear of pride that the memory adept was keeping their fallen friend's memory alive.
"Oh very well," Nissa huffed amicably, "put me back in that jerkin with all of the belts."
Good as his word, Jace did so, re-establishing their outwardly visible forms as simple adventuring folk of Zendikar, making sure neither of them bore the ally type since that had gone out of style.
Nissa let Jace take the lead, since this operation was more his idea than hers and he would be better suited to acquiring information. Even in a different form, she found she liked to watch him work, gathering rumors, combining viewpoints, guessing at what could fill holes and modifying his questions accordingly. He surprised her with his clever guesses at where they should go next or what he could ask of people. Most of all, she determined he wasn't simply peering into people's memories like so many past printings of Jace might have done. He had learned to work with people, to ask and understand them. She made a mental note to find him a good partner, as she felt he had become quite a catch. They took a seat on a public bench to discuss next steps, the warm sea air and bright skies their only other companions.
"Seems we both got to have a little fun today. I love the challenge of putting together the pieces of a puzzle," Jace said.
"And what have you put together?"
"Nahiri did pass through here. She did not have anyone with her either coming or going. She kept a low profile. Her route took her out the north exit but that's where my information becomes speculation and I'd rather not leave it at that."
"What would you suggest as a next step, then?"
"We need to find someone who actually spoke to her. What I have is basically just a full outline from folk who happened to see her yesterday."
"Do you have any leads?"
"A solid one, but you might not like it."
"Where did she go?"
No sooner had Jace and Nissa entered Madam Kesenya's House of Pleasure then an effusive greeter in a ruffled shirt welcomed them and set in determining their desires.
"We of course have couple's rooms, and you can review anywhere between zero and four companions for the afternoon," the greeter chirped.
"Oh, we're not together, I mean we are here together but not, oh tsch, this is too much!" Nissa said aloud, feeling a deep ambivalence at knowing Nahiri's first stop after their fight had been this of all places. The worst was that she couldn't blame her; Nissa had had a passing thought at the very same thing. But people grieve in different ways and Nissa sublimated her ambivalence into learning as much as she could about who Nahiri was. Jace stepped in.
"My friend, while I'm sure my associate and I would have a wonderful time in one of your rooms, we're here to see the Madam. We're old friends of Kesenya from her adventuring days."
A feeling prickled the base of Nissa's spine at the ease with which Jace had just outright lied to this man, it felt for a moment that The Old Jace had returned. The greeter paled, no longer effusive in their manner. Jace stood up to his full height and turned partially to Nissa.
"Prepare for a fight, they're going to try to bounce us."
"How do you know that?"
"This place isn't just a brothel, and Kesenya is no ordinary madam. I'm going to try to defuse this but if I can't, I'm going to need to lean on you for the attacking and blocking part."
Nissa changed her stance to that of a pre-fight posture as she turned her back to Jace. She noticed that some of the 'patrons' in the waiting room had taken on menacing looks. Any Zendikari could pick a dozen places in the room to hide a cache of weapons, and that was just for the several people she could see. Roil take this development!
"If you have a play, Jace, I think we're running out of time for you to make it."
"Cover your ears."
Trusting him enough to comply automatically, Nissa barely made it in time to prevent the worst of the shrieking howl that filled the room, causing everyone in sight to turn away or even double over in pain. Nissa felt Jace's hand at the small of her back, leading her away from the front desk and toward a door to the rear. Their illusions were also gone, replaced by no image whatsoever, in an instant Jace had turned them invisible and created an illusory sound to cover their tracks. Once in the back hallway and away from the noise, Nissa let her hands down as Jace maintained the cloak of invisibility upon the pair of them. He then took her hand and led her deeper within the brothel, seeming to know just where to go.
"Where are we going?" Nissa quizzed.
"To meet Kesenya."
"How do you know where she is?"
"Even if I do not read their thoughts, I can sense the minds within this place, one of which is the most orderly and businesslike. I admit it's a guess but we're pressed for time."
"You could have let me beat up all the bouncers."
"And I'm sure you could have done it but that might not endear us to the Madam. I'm going for a light touch."
"Like that hellish noise?"
"Light-ish."
Before opening the office door, Jace restored their images to those of their chosen illusions from before, thinking better of appearing as two heroes of the plane in front of one of its community pillars. Jace had learned across a lifetime of mistakes that the best way to wipe a memory was to never create one in the first place. They barged in on Kesenya reviewing her ledger.
"Who are you?" Kesenya blurted out.
"Private investigators on a little job," Jace responded, "all apologies for the suddenness, I was hoping to get a more formal introduction but that proved too difficult for my timeline. I'm Jaco Watersprout and this is Nice Lady. Tell me about Nahiri."
"About who?" Kes played dumb.
"She's been here recently and she is your secret backer. The chairs in your main entry are not of this plane. They bear the crest of house Markov on them, the vampire rival of your patron. She's the only person who could have put them here. Let me guess: when she was helping you establish the place she offered to help furnish it as well, she was even a little pushy about it?"
Kesenya's lip quirked as surprise and irritation left her eyes. It returned anew as Kesenya realized this Jaco knew more than she did about the providence of her furniture.
"So she brought me some chairs, so what?"
"Again, not just any chairs. She intentionally left them here as a sign to flaunt her rival, should he ever learn of it or even come here and see for himself. It's a brazen act but one that also carries with it absolute trust in you. She knows you won't get rid of them and also that you are prepared for what would happen if the rival returned. Which brings me to my next point, a small favor you could do for me?"
"What is it you want?"
"Primarily to know where Nahiri went, but first, please ask your spies to leave the room."
No longer shocked that Jaco could have known this too, Kesenya gave a special nod and two previously hidden rogues appeared from opposite corners of the room and walked out, closing the door behind them. Her nod included the information that they should take their time doing so, and so the pair's steps had been deliberate, their body language a clear promise of quick revenge should Kes come to any harm. Kesenya guessed that Jaco and Nice were in a hurry, and wanted to draw out their conversation to press that advantage she had over them. She was fully confident that these interlopers didn't want a physical confrontation, even if Nice Lady was built like a baloth, but even if they did, Kes could hold her own.
Jace's voice became more friendly, "Thank you, Madam. Nahiri happens to be a mutual friend of ours. We're worried for her safety and came to catch up to her."
"She told me some people would come asking about her."
Kesenya's gaze evaluated Jace's false visage, hesitating a calculated amount of time that would appear to be thoughtful rather than stalling. When the apparent merfolk did not fidget, she decided to play a different card.
"She went to Murasa. I sent a spy with her. Hasn't been caught yet."
"Can you be more specific?" Jace asked.
"Not possible, between their destination being hidden in itself and the Roil being active in that place lately, until I get my next report in that's the best I can do, and by that time..." Kesenya finished with a shrug.
"Why are you suddenly being so helpful?" Nissa asked with her false face.
"I get the sense that you two would be good to be owed a favor from, and this is a pretty big one, isn't it."
Jace and Nissa exchanged looks at Kesenya's canny apprehension. Kesenya allowed herself a chuckle at their shared gesture.
"Oh don't worry, I don't have you exposed. It's just that I know Nahiri well enough to know she would never have come to me if she thought either that you were a threat she could handle on her own or wanted me to misdirect you."
Kesenya turned her gaze to Nissa's false one.
"Oh no. I think she wants you to catch up to her."
A pang of lusty hope flared up in Nissa's chest and stomach. She fought it back, reminding herself that this was no race and she could not skip ahead, unless...
"Thank you, Madam," Nissa bowed, "we shall leave you in peace. Oh, and this also:"
Nissa placed a sack of coins on the desk.
"For the good information. Now let's go, Jaco, we've not a moment to lose."
She grabbed him by the elbow and they marched out of the building before Jace let himself ask, "What was that about? I could have gotten more out of her."
"I don't doubt it, but there's another way. Hold my hands."
Jace took her supinated hands in his pronate ones, and in an instant Zendikar's Roil had swallowed up their bodies, retracting the pair beneath the earth. They slid together into a makeshift grotto that featured one large and smooth wall of shist, as well as two mossy seats.
"Jace, meet Zendikar. Zendikar, my good friend Jace Beleren."
"Uh, pleased to meet you?"
"Do make a bow, dearie."
"What is happening."
"The land speaks to me, often quite directly. Here," she sat and turned to face the wall, "Zendikar, could you be a dear and show me where Nahiri is?"
The wall became a crisp image of a jungle deep, it was surely Murasa, and there, blazing a trail as she was so skilled at doing, marched Nahiri, trusty machete in hand, resolve in her eyes. Nissa barely kept herself from swooning at the sight.
"You mean," Jace began, "you could have done this from the start? You let me do all that work, I put us in danger!"
"I rather liked to watch you work, it was pretty impressive. And we learned some facts along the way that we couldn't have if I had just asked for this picture in the first place. She wants to be found, for me to find her! Isn't that exciting, hopeful?"
Jace restored their images so he could give Nissa his very own face's considerate, mildly worried expression.
"Nissa, as someone who has spent his life reading people's minds, I've learned it often does more harm than good to read too much."
Nissa turned away, her cheeks flaring at the thought of it. He was right that she could be reading too much in, that her past relationship with Kesenya was still a big unknown and probably complicated their own mutual, she hoped mutual, feelings. She shook her head with resolution.
"All the same. I would chase her down even if she didn't want it. We need to stop her first."
Jace, standing, offered her a hand up.
"Lead the way."
(Imagine a put a dingbat here. I would also like a horizontal rule, but that does structural things to cohost posts that already jammed up the first one of these I did, so.)
The undergrowth brushed and slapped at Nahiri's lower three-quarters as she made her way toward the city long lost to Murasa's wildness. Nahiri had forgotten the name of the place now known to locals as a skyclave. The going was rougher without using her trusty machete to clear the way, but the slower pace and additional, minor, and constant physical sting felt appropriate. The first few hacks she had taken after leaving Sea Gate reminded her of Nissa again, gently but firmly stopping her from harming any foliage, then simply creating an easy path for the two of them. Nahiri preferred the pain to the memory. She paused in her march, pulled a device out of a small outcropping of stone and studied it for a few seconds while it worked. She adjusted her path accordingly and allowed the device to re-become the silent rock it had been before. The way on was gradually increasing in grade, and threatened to stop being a hike and start being a climb. Nahiri grinned to herself in the face of such an empty threat.
"Threaten me with a good time, Zendikar," she said, unknowingly, not just to herself.
Zareth adjusted his path with hers once again, easily invisible through the thick of the undergrowth at a middle-distance, this particular stalking barely requiring a fraction of his trained expertise and longtime practice. This kor the boss had sent him after with a gesture behaved as if nothing could touch her. Zareth did not then know what cost she would be made to pay for that arrogance, and spent most of the idle time he accumulated on this easy detail speculating to himself about what it might be. He made his report to a pebble, opened his non-drinking canteen, fed the pebble to one of his trained eels, and dumped it out in the nearby river. The eel skitted off through the water with magical speed, homing on Sea Gate. Zareth allowed himself to hope that this job at some point would evolve beyond a basic tail, but by no means would he make the decision himself: if dirty deeds were his first area of expertise, healthy fear of Kasenya's wrath was his second. He resumed the tail with no hassle, tsking internally at how childishly easy this job was.
The salt faded from the air as the sandy plains on the outskirts of Sea Gate dovetailed with the larger and more tenacious scrubs and bushes of Murasa's outermost spread. A mild warmth spread through Nissa's chest as she doted on the ferns and flowers with her eyes. The war with the Eldrazi had left all too many lands of Zendikar able to tap for colorless mana only, and this fresh vibrance contrasted with that ashen memory reinforced for Nissa the belief that Zendikar could survive anything. She privately hoped she could do the same. The thought immediately pivoted to a different one: that her hopes might no longer be all that private what with her traveling companion being Jace "Mind Mage" Beleren. He had kept her pace so far without complaint, which had once again elevated him in her estimation. He would have a long way to go still before either they reached their objective or he had risen in her estimation to the level of attraction sufficient for her least pure thoughts about what she might do with him in the meantime to become more than butterfly-fleeting, but along both roads he was making steady progress. Something had changed about Jace since the Battle for the Plaza, or maybe at some point in the year or so that the oathsworn had taken off from similar conflicts. Even the non-Gatewatch amongst them had decided everyone had had enough of planeswalkers for a hot minute. A sudden worry bubbled up within her breast about the comparative laxity of the Gatewatch's actions following the Battle. Truly they did all need to rest and recover and grieve, but during that time, could some previously unknown 'walker have rolled up somewhere to cause mischief? She shook her head to dismiss the worry. No, if that did happen without the Gatewatch around to fix it, such a person would just eat a ban.
Jace signalled for them to stop and rest. Perhaps he finally had flagged at her pace. Nissa gracefully arranged herself toward the ground to sit in the elven style. Jace popped a Ravnican squat.
"I need to catch my breath for a moment," Jace huffed.
"Take your time. I can't imagine Nahiri could do better than I can through Murasa's thickest jungles, and Zendikar is certain she's in the thick of things now."
"Sorry to slow you down all the same."
It took Nissa a full second to recognize Jace's second attempt at signaling to her that he wanted to have a mental conversation. She chastised herself for not being prepared to notice the little eyebrow scrunch and blink pattern that Jace used as a means to request private conversations with those close enough to him to warrant sharing the signal. She had been momentarily distracted with how blue his eyes looked while they were full and open to the midday light of her home plane. She caught up with her senses and offered the counter-signal to permit the telepathic link. He hadn't been flagging at all, he merely needed some pretext for her to look him in the face. Nissa wasn't fond of secrecy as rule, but if Jace needed it, there was a reason, and the feeling gave her a momentary chill.
-Thank you for accepting the link. I need to inform you of a development in a way that makes it look like we're just carrying on with our journey.
-What is it?
-I sensed the minds of two or three people following us. I took extra precautions to 'look' for them after leaving Kesenya's place.
-She gave us good information, though? You thought she was trustworthy.
-I thought the information was trustworthy. It takes more than a few scraps of info to make me trust someone who dismissed two hidden guards when we walked in the room. She's a spymaster for sure, and now the proof of it is following us from further away than I can see with my eyes.
-Why don't we just deal with them? They couldn't possibly stand before my might, let alone with you helping.
-I'm certain you could squash them with ease—judging by your impressive new physique you probably wouldn't even need to summon an elemental to help—but I don't want them to know I've made them.
-Are you sure? We could just send them packing and enjoy the rest of the journey with a regular amount of danger ahead of us.
-I'm sure that would make it worse. Think about it. They're professionals, they know how to stay hidden. If they sense that I've made them, they'll run back to Kesenya. They'll make their excuses, and if she trusts her own operatives enough, she will put together how impossible it was that I noticed them. She's seen me work illusions, so familiarity with magical arts would lead her to guess I had sensed them by their thoughtsounds, and the next spies will not have minds.
-That is chilling to think of, but hold on, she didn't see you work illusions.
-As I 'said,' those are her spies behind us, and I dropped the screens after we got far enough away from Sea Gate that I felt we no longer needed them. That was my mistake but it isn't big enough to mean a game loss yet.
-What should we do?
-We take a small detour. I'm still working out what we should do with our tails. We already know Kesenya's got one or more on Nahiri, too.
-All the more reason for us to join up with her!
-I know that joining up with Nahiri sounds good to you right now, but we're kindof enemies at the moment. How do you suppose that conversation would go?
-Fair point, but by the same token we can't let her get too far ahead or she'll get that deucetaken other orb of hers before we can stop her.
-Like I said I'm still working that out. For now the spies are the problem.
-I still 'say' you should let me crush them.
-I am tempted to see you in action again, certainly, but I expect that will come up soon enough without us picking fights.
Nissa ended the link, "Don't get fresh with me, Jace. I'm a strictly one-printing-at-a-time kinda girl and I'm focusing on someone else right now."
"What about Kaladesh?"
"I was figuring things out!"
"Uh-huh."
Nissa gave Jace a sideways glace, her mild irritation at his stupid grin mixed with the pleasing warmth of his winning smile. She rolled her eyes as Jace enjoyed a chuckle at her expense. Jace wanted the two of them to appear unguarded and easygoing, and had come up with a way to induce it naturally for her. He had changed all right. Grown, she corrected herself. Nissa put far down on the list of her thoughts and worries figuring out why that was. And besides, she knew that Jace had been fed more on mysteries than food as a kid. He had finally and pleasantly filled out a bit, so maybe this was him finally casting off that wretched upbringing of his.
Behind them, Kesenya's rogues kept stalking.
(another dingbat here)
The grade had finally become almost sheer. Nahiri gripped at holds in the cliff face with both hands and one foot, feeling out with the other foot for a hold she had surpassed with her hands just moments before. Her grip ached from the first length of the climb so far, the forest canopy had given way to a spread open wound of terrain floating lazily in space thanks to the stray hedrons of her ancient handiwork that to this day pockmarked all of the landscapes of the plane. With each furtive test of her toe to the cliff, Nahiri imagined all the mechanisms she could invent on the spot to make this climb a mild inconvenience rather than a sore test of her skill and sinew. Stairs, a thopter, rotating chain lift, aligned hedrons with directed antigrav. She could even melt the whole damn cliff to bring the skyclave to her with her powers of lithomancy, but she knew, she kept reminding herself, that this particular buried ruin had already fled from her powers once. The image from earlier that day haunted her: an entire city plus surrounding levistone just pushing off from the other cliff she had mutated into a convenient shape. A cool analysis following a bout of shouting curses suggested that over time the clave had developed a sort of polarity to her hedrons, making it naturally repelled by any fresh work of stonecraft she attempted.
Her secure foot slipped as she just found the new crease with her other foot, plopping her front side against the wall and leaving her dangling by her handholds, tasting the dusty stone. Nahiri stilled, caught her breath, then took three gulps of air and pulled to reposition her feet. She found the first grip, then the second, and she was free once more to rest her sore hands just a little. She had brought titans to heel, worked masterpieces of her art that lasted millenia and became legend, bested armies, but without lithomancy she was just a kor. She swore her saga would not end with her killer being some ordinary cliff. With her own eroding strength the only thing keeping her from a lethal plunge, she thought once more of Nissa, and the thoughts bouyed her heart once again.
As if to answer Nahiri's promise to not die to an ordinary cliff, a rumble sounded from deep within the land, and in another few seconds, the Roil saw to it that neither Nahiri's grip nor mood mattered in the slightest. She held fast to her holds, mentally preparing to sling a line and hope her hook found a grapple if she slipped. But as the rumble seemed to subside, she felt a little lighter? The grips didn't dig into her hands and toes quite as much, and she even started to feel as if she was being pulled from behind.
"Oh shit."
The land's gravity was shifting like a player deciding they would rather play the card's reverse face than the obverse, which left Nahiri's body gradually working to pull her directly away from the cliff face. A dozen solutions leapt to her mind, but she batted them all away for using her powers. What she needed was not magic, but grit. The rope dart would just have to hit something. She willingly let go with her dominant arm and in an instant had the rope dart in hand. She waited a moment to judge the attitude of the new gravity while building rotational momentum in the dart on the far end of a bit of slack rope she let out. Nahiri spared a moment to look down at her failure condition: she would no longer plunge into the forest canopy, but far beyond it into the vast obscuring mists, the distant flat of the plane below it but the subtlest suggestion of a fresco etched into the hazy blue sky. The moment had come, she tossed the dart, not even waiting for it to find a mark before she let go. There was only time for one attempt, and if it didn't work, she would take lethal damage on the backswing. The rush of adrenaline made the less than a second feel like several minutes, Nahiri's freefalling body tensed about the end of a rope that had yet to grow taught.
A metal-on-stone percussive click reported from what had been the midway point to the cliff's summit.
The dart held.
And now the disaster had become an opportunity as Nahiri swung her freefall momentum through the rope and across the now-ceiling of the cliff, even overreaching the former summit. She found her grip once more on what was now the final approach to the skyclave. What had been a stonework road in to the main building was now yet another cliff, but the eroded mortarwork left large, regular handholds for Nahiri to use, a sharp decline in the difficulty of the climb and a welcome home stretch. She scaled it as fast as an adult kor would have walked on it before it adopted this sickening new angle, and finally reached a relative break in the terrain upon which she could sit. She uncoiled her aching body as much as she could and plopped on the welcome surface, what would have been the left side of an entryway were it oriented in its original designed state. The excitement of the moment faded, making way for the steady beat of exhaustion and soreness that threatened to overwhelm her. She accepted it with dignity, letting her breathing slow to a more regular rate. The orb would wait another few minutes, surely.
Zareth didn't understand the play but he was going to make it without question. The latest response from Kesenya through the eel network was simply, "approach," which meant rather than remaining hidden, he was going to not only be seen, but appear before his mark directly. With no additional direction than this, other than those directions proven by their absence he was not to perform (approach was not eliminate, disable, or steal, after all), he settled on the approach he would take.
Nahiri sat up after resting for a few minutes, and gasped with shock as she saw the legendary merfolk rogue sitting on the other side of the door from her.
"Who are you? How did you get here?"
"Zareth, pleased to make your acquaintance. I used a sorcery to step through shadows to get here. Kes sends her regards."
Nahiri's expression changed from surprise and anger to just anger.
"Ooh! That woman! I should have known she would stick a rope on me. Well ok, Zareth, go ahead and deliver your message so we can get on with our lives."
"There's no message."
"Is that so..."
Nahiri pondered the situation. Zareth appeared neutral, even bored. She had just been lying back on the stone so if this was a hit he was really taking his sweet time about attempting it. If he had been following her then he might not know about her lithomancy, and though using it would set her back another difficult day of climbing, it was preferable to a stab wound. Just. So he wasn't a threat, perhaps an ally? No, there weren't allies any more. Kesenya could be extending an olive branch. And anyway Zareth here probably wouldn't just up and leave if she asked him nice, so she offered him this:
"Mr. Zareth, would you like to come with me to get the orb?"
After remaining silent just long enough to be awkward, he said, "Sure."
Jace and Nissa had found the outpost that they would use to pretend to take a rest while they executed Jace's plan. From further mental discussion, Nissa had agreed that the best course of action was to shake their tails rather than deliver a beatdown. Whatever information Kes wanted about them, just letting her collect it was probably not a good idea. If Nissa and Jace could give them a bit of a runaround, it would waste enough time for them to fade into the weeds. If they vanished right away, it could cause a panic or contingency and lead to more heat, and if they dawdled then the tails would stay stuck to them, so the timing had to be just right.
-We're getting close to the outpost. From here it looks like there are enough people for this to work.
-I still feel like I should just find and crush them and then Kesenya will think twice before she snoops on us again.
-If you force your opponent to think twice, you've got to think three times.
-Stow it with the mental backflip, mind mage. I agreed to your plan. What this woman hopes to learn by tailing the Gatewatch I have no idea, but I will be glad to have this behind us.
-What?
-What, what?
-You 'said' Gatewatch.
-Yes, well, technically that's us, right, I know Teferi and Kaya and Chandra and Liliana and-
-Rightrightright I know the others, I wasn't trying to correct you, it's just that I feel like a fool for not realizing it sooner.
-Realizing what?
-We're famous heroes here. Kesenya's spies saw us without my illusions up. She knows it's us by now but she didn't call off the spies.
-The temerity of it! After Nahiri, we will sort her out!
-Hmmn
-I can't believe you just hmm-ed with your mind.
Jace ended the link, and proved out his earlier hypothesis about just how the locals would treat them if he hadn't used illusion magic before to mask their identities as several of the outpost members called out to one another in excitement and appreciation for their heroes. A small crowd formed around the two as they entered the outpost proper before it became a large one. This much of a response wasn't precisely what Jace had wanted, but it was still well within tolerance for step one. Jace decided to greet and chat with the locals with as much humility as he could muster, which was a substantial amount considering how often in his life he had been categorically humbled. Nissa took his lead, herself especially focusing on children who were amongst the crowd. She took a knee to be able to see them at eye level, which reminded Jace of how Nissa had made the bed after using it. She was a fearsome and powerful opponent, a true force of nature on the battlefield. Here, she was doting and sweet. How much greater was the pain of a tender heart? Jace kicked himself mentally, but not the kind of mentally where his mind powers were involved, and vowed to redouble his efforts to figure out how he could solve the Nahiri/Nissa dilemma. In determining the future of a plane where islands of earth littered the sky, surely there could be a middle ground?
Jace gave Nissa the nod, and she asked the crowd to stand back so she could offer them a sort of gift. She reached out with her mana bond, and called forth a flowering tree from within the soil, the nascent branches and twigs crackling into place in seconds for what ordinarily took years. Bright purple blossoms lit up all over the crown of it, some even popping off the tree to shower the crowd with their petals. With the distraction now fully formed, Jace moved on to the next phase. He asked a few of the locals for a place to rest their feet from their journey, and maybe have a little privacy while they did so, and got a few acceptable answers. He had the decency to blush at the whoops of the crowd in response to his request for "privacy," which served only to spur them on all the more and deepen his embarassment. All the same, the plan was now fully on the rails. In another few minutes, they were sitting across from each other at the end of a long table, apparently in amiable conversation. Not fully hidden by any means, but neither were they surrounded by a throng.
Enwor scoffed at this development. As if attempting to hide in a crowd would be enough to shake them. He sent a signal to Nys that they would be closing in but remain out of anyone's sight until they could place Jace and Nissa inside. It would not do to get spotted simply emerging from nowhere. The two picked their moment, then approached the outpost like anyone else would, just another nondescript pair of adventurers, human and kor. Kesenya was right about the arrogance of the planeswalkers, relying on their magic more than their sense. Keeping eyes on Jace and Nissa was a breeze and more than occasionally a pleasure. After a short discussion with Nys that looked for all the world to anyone else just two guys being pals, Enwor entered the large tent that Jace and Nissa had retreated into. This would be one of the mind mage's illusions. Enwor would discreetly dispel it so the illusionist would know he had to make a move, then Nys would pick up the tail from there and they would move on. Any old activated ability to target the thing would suffice, and Enwor's pockets were deep enough to hide a multitude of sins. Sure enough, Enwor met Nys around the back of the tent, and an exchange of silent signals confirmed that Enwor's partner was as reliable as ever. They picked up and followed Jace and Nissa through the streets. The pair was still garnering accolades from the campers, which sorely tested Enwor's control. Getting mad was a surefire way to miss a crucial step as a spy, and Enwor and Nys both had it trained out of them long ago. Seeing these frauds pal around with the locals like a pair of mafficking heroes was nearly enough to make Enwor forget all that training. Nearly. Nys handed Enwor a snack he had purchased from a vendor while pretending to ignore the planeswalkers.
The operation lasted quite some time, if these interlopers had anything important to go and do, which Kesenya insisted was joining forces with the Patron, they sure were taking their sweet time doing it. Were they really going to personally greet the whole outpost? Nys sensed Enwor's impatience and signaled a half-question-half-rebuke. Enwor had lost more than Nys had in the war, but losing his cool now would only make matters worse, and so they kept up the tail. Before making his response signal, Enwor looked a little more closely at their targets. He felt a bit of deja vu, looking at the two of them, as if they had just made those exact gestures moments before. Sudden dread coiled at the pit of his stomach, and instead of answering Nys, Enwor broke into a dead sprint at Nissa and Jace, ending in a flying leap. His body passed through their images, which dissapated like smoke. A double illusion, and he and Nys had been following their fake bodies for an hour. Nys wore a look of abject horror. Jace had effectively left them holding their dicks for an hour. Kesenya would have their hides.
The relative ease of travel through the Murasa skyclave had done nothing to calm Nahiri's nerves. Zareth as an outcropping of Kesenya's continued presence in her life carried with him none of the shared history that may have helped put Nahiri's troubled heart at ease, nevermind that the aformentioned rogue proved darned handy at dealing with the multifarious tricks that an ancient kor city freely offered to the greedy and gullible alike. Nahiri stopped herself from affording the merman the face of respect at every turn, reminding herself that this was Kes in truth, and Zareth's presence alone was proof enough that despite all they had gone through, Kes was the enemy.
As long as Zareth did not know that about Nahiri's assessment of the situation, he could continue to live.
The unhappy pair climbed, marched, belayed, and scrambled through the unnaturally tilted hallways of the skyclave. Nahiri used her prefabricated stonework devices to apprehend the location within of the paired orb. Together with that which she had already taken back, the orbs could form the lithoform core, an artifact near endlessly hungry for generic mana the likes of which had at first beckoned the Eldrazi to this of all planes, and later also bound them here thanks to Nahiri's efforts, with a dagnasty vampire prince and a colorless dragon wonk encouraging her to that act which she now viewed as a misbehavior worth undoing.
As there were no new traps printed in Zendikar Rising, Nahiri and Zareth encountered no substantial dangers on their way deeper into the impossibly ancient city. Nahiri bothered for but a moment to educate Zareth about the value of graffiti as she had with Nissa, but upon viewing his countenance thought better of the effort. He was everything unattractive about men in a nutshell. Silent, unsupportive, there only for the most obvious reasons of shared needs. Beholden to unseen masters. Oh no. Nahiri had sworn off men for over one thousand years and it absolutely would not be this particular rogue that after all that would change her mind, setting aside that his body was a masterwork of the idealized male form across sapient species. Allowing him to think otherwise may yet prove the necessary advantage that could more than make up for her momentary anti-useful lithomancy. No matter her thoughts, they descended.
Uninterrupted by any action sequences, the kor and merfolk at long last delved the depths of the nominal Murasa skyclave sufficient to reveal unto the ancient lithomancer the chamber that held within it the twin of the lithoform orb she had obtained with the help of an impossibly attractive elf. She made no effort to prevent the smile on her face from becoming manic with glee. It was there. This would work. Zareth had his own misgivings.
"We should proceed with caution. There's no telling what-"
"Zareth, child, please. I was an apprentice when this city was hewn from the uncaring stone. I have witnessed the abject and distant other that flirts with all barely disbelieved perception and yet called them to heel. I am radiant!"
The orb-twin from within the center of the room snapped to Nahiri's outstretched hand just as she declared and also demonstrated her radiance. Zareth covered his eyes with his arms in a futile gesture to prevent himself from being vaporized by the power of the complete lithoform core. Kes had been wrong about the arrogance of the planeswalkers. In Nahiri's case at least, it had been earned.
Zareth's final report in that regard never made it back to his master.
Nahiri had reacquired her orbs.