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Chapter Text

            I will not set this centaur on fire. Not even his stupid beard.

            Chandra repeated the mantra to herself as she glared up at the four-legged horse man who had been blocking her path for the last ten minutes. He was clad in the greens and whites of the Selesnya Concave, he also had a stupid curly beard that was just begging for some light immolation, but Chandra held herself back. She’d long ago come to terms with the fact that if she dealt with every annoying person through a generous use of fire, she’d never have time for anything else.

            “Furthermore,” the centaur said, she couldn’t even remember what his name was—Frendly-lasalasa or something flowery like that. “You are clearly not a member of the conclave-"

            “Don’t you lot welcome anyone who wants to enter? Isn’t that what you tree huggers are all about? Everyone holding hands and doing sing-alongs?” Chandra asked, taking a personal pleasure from the disgruntled sneer the horse man sent her.

            “Do you wish to join the conclave?” he asked sourly, his front hooves clopping against the ground as he drew himself up and glowered at her.

            “… If I say yes, will you let me go in and find Nissa?” Chandra replied flatly. That was literally all she wanted to do. It would take, like, five minutes. Seriously, he was acting like she’d asked if it would be all right if she set their trees on fire.

            She had something she wanted to ask her… friend? Was that the right term for someone you joined souls with to immolate not one, but two plane-devouring monsters? Chandra supposed it was pretty good ground for a friendship, but Nissa was kind of hard to read. One minute she’d be gleefully bringing mountains to life to stomp all over hordes of monsters, the next she’d be nervously shying away from a crowd of noisy people. Chandra was having trouble figuring the elf out, but she wanted to put in the effort, especially if they were going to be fighting together in the future.

            Either way, she was trying to find the elf. But half an hour of searching through the Gatewatch headquarters had proven it to be an elf-free zone. She’d asked Gids if he’d seen her, the muscle-ly meatstick had told her that he hadn’t, and that she should ask Jace.

            Once she’d found the mind-mage squirreled away in the library, he’d told her that Nissa was still on the plane. While that technically narrowed down the elf’s potential location quite substantially, it was still an annoyingly unhelpful answer. It wasn’t until Liliana passed by and mentioned seeing the elf heading towards the Selesnya Concave that Chandra had made any progress

            All that running around had left her with little patience to deal with this grumpy horse and far too irritated to give up.

            The centaur’s glare broke as his eyes widened in alarm and Chandra realized that her hair had been starting to smoke. Chandra took a deep breath to calm herself, but it was too late. Mr. Horse had already taken it as a threat and was clearly preparing to call for help to throw her out.

            “Excuse me?” a new voice cut the centaur off before he could yell. Chandra glanced past the equine irritation and saw one of those elephant-men, a loxodon, ambling towards them. “Might I ask what is going on here?”

            Chandra wasn’t sure if she should feel threatened or not, the newcomer outweighed her a dozen times over and he could probably snap her in half with one hand, but his voice and demeanor was so gentle that Chandra would be willing to bet that stepping on a butterfly would make him cry

            “Forgive me for disturbing you, lord keeper,” the centaur bowed, his tone and manners changing from donkeyhole to humble servant in about half a second. “I was just about to eject this troublesome pyromancer from the conclave.”

            Chandra’s eyes narrowed. Troublesome was she? This horse didn’t know the meaning of the word. If he tried to lay so much as one of his burly, overly-manicured fingers on her, he’d find out what trouble really was.

            “I see,” said the loxodon, his ears flapping mildly as he turned to her. “And what does the pyromancer want?”  

            “I’m just looking for a friend,” she blurted, eager to get her piece in before Mr. Horse could start talking about how she’d tried to burn him alive or something. “Her name’s Nissa; elf, green eyes, bunch of tattoos on her face that point toward her nose?”

            “Ah yes.” The elephantine head nodded amiably, “The Worldspeaker. Yes, your friend is indeed here. Follow me, I shall take you to her.” he turned and began to slowly walk deeper into the trees.

            “My lord keeper!” the centaur protested, his voice rising an octave like a whinny, Chandra had to fight back a giggle at the sound. “You cannot be serious! This… this pyromancerno doubt wishes to burn our groves to the ground! She as good as threatened to do so to me! We cannot allow one such as her to set foot in our sanctuaries!”

            The loxodon paused and turned his head back. “The conclave welcomes allwho come in peace.” He said pleasantly, “But nonetheless, those are serious accusations.” He looked to Chandra his marble-like eyes blinking. “Tell me, my child, if we grant you entrance to our sanctuary, do you promise to leave it as unburned as you found it?”

            Chandra stared. As she watched, one of those liquid eyes closed as the loxodon winked.

            Chandra clasped her hands behind her back, endeavoring to project as much innocence as she could. “I wouldn’t dreamof it,” she said, batting her eyelashes.

            “There you have it.” the loxodon said happily.  He patted her gently on the shoulder with his trunk. “Come, child, your friend awaits within.”

            She didn’t particularly care for being called child, but the look on the centaur’s face was so fantastic she was willing to let it slide. She followed the elephant man up the steps, leaving the fuming horseman behind her.

            “I appreciate your patience with acolyte Frensisa’cesasa.” The loxodon said mildly as she drew level with him. “I’m afraid he can be somewhat… overzealous in his duties at times. We’ve had a number of goblin arsonists gracing our groves recently who seem to think that pacifism is the same thing as defenselessness.”

            “Yeah well…” Chandra muttered. She felt like she should be annoyed at the implication that was like a goblin, but the loxodon was radiating such an aura of peace she half-suspected a spell was involved. It was hard to stay irritated in his presence, and getting irritated was one of her best talents. “Nissa might get upset if I started torching people.” She finished lamely.

            The loxodon led her down a pathway lined by trees. Everywhere she looked, Chandra saw white and green-robed figures hurrying around. With her red and gray armor, she couldn’t help but feel like she stuck out, kind of like a cow in a field of sheep, no that was terrible. She wasn’t a cow… a dragon in a field of soldiers. Yeah, that was way better.

            After a few minutes they left the crowd behind them and stepped in a ring of white trees and the sounds of the city seemed to fade away. “Here is your friend.” The loxodon said, somewhat unnecessarily pointing with his trunk.

            Nissa was sitting cross-legged, eyes closed in the center of the trees, motionless.

            “You might not be able to talk with her just yet.” The elephant said. “She’s-”

            “Meditating, I know.” Chandra interrupted. “I’ve seen her do this before.”

            “Then do you mind If I leave you here? I have a number of things to attend to.”

            “Uh, yeah. Sure.” The elephantine head bowed once and he shuffled off, leaving her alone with the elf. Chandra stared at Nissa, uncertain whether she should disturb her or not. Her question wasn’t thatimportant and Nissa might not even be in her body at the moment.

            Chandra groaned slightly. She was going to have to wait for Nissa to wake up, wasn’t she? It’s not like Chandra could leave without talking to her, not after all the annoying people she’d had to deal with to get here.

            Well… whatever. Chandra plopped herself down across from the elf and taking the chance to really look at her. Now that she was looking, she could see the elf wasn’t actually sitting still, but swaying as though to a song only she could hear. Back at the monastery, Chandra had often been told to meditate—usually while greeting the sunrise or some such thing, but she’d never been good at it. Restlessness came naturally to her and instead she’d just gotten really good at channeling fire without moving—heating tea to near boiling right before someone took a sip and stuff

        But she couldn’t deny that there was a certain peace about the elf that looked kind of nice, like she didn’t need to blow stuff up to calm down.

        Well… it’s not like she could play with fire to keep herself entertained, not with all these very flammable plants around. So…

        With nothing else for it, Chandra scooted herself over into a patch of sunlight, crossed her legs, and closed her eyes.

          Nissa wandered through the soul of the world.

          She was still not certain how much she cared for this plane. The endless expanse of buildings, people, and noise crowded in on her from every angle, even in the quiet moments at the gate watch, she could still feel them needling at her.

          Nonetheless, she had sought out the world's soul. Perhaps it was just the nature of a planeswalker to explore, to taste the different ways of life that permeated the multiverse, to understand them, even if she did not care for them.

          But even among all the planes she had seen and spoken to, Ravinca's soul was strange.

          For starters, it had ten of them.

          Well, not exactly. It had ten shards of one soul; these obviously reflected the guilds and she could even hear the distinct notes of their songs.

          She could hear the righteous drums of the Boros, beating out a marching rhythm; the oily choir of the Orzhov, which left her feeling like she needed a bath; the savage roars of the Gruul which filled her with nostalgia for Zendikar; and all the others. They beat against each other in a clashing cacophony that almost overwhelmed her. But the more she listened, the more she began to hear the greater harmonies beneath the chaos.

          In truth, it was beautiful, if a bit messy. The ten kept the balance of the plane’s mana, though they clashed and shifted all around.

          At the moment, Nissa was trying to determine if this phenomenon was natural or not. Had the plane always had a ten-piece soul and the guilds manifested around them? Or had the guilds themselves grown strong enough to influence the soul. It was difficult to tell, but at the very least, the soul of the plane did not appear to be suffering under the arrangement.

           Perhaps this was because of the shining threads of the guildpact, which wove in and out between the voices like a river, smoothing out the harsh edges and discords between the melodies. As she followed the twisting leylines, she found that they all seemed to converge on one point and, to her surprise, she recognized it.

           It was Jace.

           She had known that he had become the embodiment of the guildpact through a series of events that she didn't truly care to explore. But until now, Nissa had understood neither how literal that statement was, nor how entwined with the plane's soul he was... perhaps it wasn't such a good idea that he be constantly planes-walking away from plane of cities. She wasn't sure what effect his absence might have on the soul of the world. Maybe it would make no difference, maybe it would unravel the plane at its edges. Nissa did not know but she did not want to find out.

            Eventually she grew satisfied with her exploration of the plane. Taking in the surprisingly melodious discord for one last moment, she returned to her body and opened her eyes.

            Almost immediately, her ears were assault by a different noise: a deep, rhythmic rumbling. 

            Nissa blinked.

            Chandra?

            The fiery planeswalker was sprawled across the soft grass of the Selesnya sanctum. Her red hair was splayed out in a fan around her head as she let out another snore that almost shook the trees.

            Nissa glanced left and right, but there was no one else around to explain Chandra's presence. Obviously, the pyromancer had come to seek her out, but had found her in meditation. Instead of shaking her awake, Chandra must have decided to wait and dozed off instead.

            The elf shifted uncomfortably, wondering if she should wake the pyromancer up. It would be awkward. But it wasn’t like she could just leave and pretend she hadn’t seen her. But waiting for her to wake up on her own would mean subjecting herself to those maddening snores.

             So only one real option, then.

            “Chandra?” she called. The pyromancer snorted, and leaned over a little more. Nissa frowned, and opened her mouth to speak louder before thinking better of it. She’d seen Gideon shake Chandra awake once, and if the soldier wasn’t inherently everything-proof, his hands would have acquired a couple of third degree burns. Perhaps this called for a gentler touch.

            Calling on the mana around her, Nissa summoned a smooth wooden staff into her hand. Holding it carefully, she approached the prone pyromancer. 

            And prodded her in the stomach.

            Chandra sat bolt upright, snorting out a ring of fire. Not quite strong enough to burn anything, but just enough to singe. Nissa felt the nearby trees twitch, their branches rustling for a moment, before shifting back to stillness. 

            “’issa?” Chandra asked groggily, yawning and blinking up at her. “Did you just poke me with a stink.”

            “No.” Nissa answered, hiding the stick behind her back. 

            Chandra stared for a moment than shook her head, she glanced up at the sun. “Must have dozed off” she muttered. “How long was I out?”

            “I don’t know when you arrived.” Nissa answered. “I also don’t know what time it is now.”

            Chandra rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah. Duh.” She pushed herself up to her feet and stretched. “Oh, that feels good.” she muttered. “I should sleep on grass more often.”

            “It is comfortable here.” Nissa agreed. “Did you need me for something?”

            Chandra froze mid-stretch. “Oh. Uh…yeah, there was something I wanted to ask you. A favor, actually.”

            “And that is?”

            “I… wanted your help with elementals. Fire elementals, obviously.”

            Nissa frowned, her head tilting to one side in a way that made her look like a cat. “I’ve seen you summon them before.”

            “I didn’t mean summoning them, that’s easy.” Chandra assured her. “Calling up phoenixes or living flame is easy. You just call them and they come, provided you give them something to burn they’ll be happy as a bonfire. Also, I’m fireproof. That helps too. But,” Chandra hesitated, seeming uncomfortable with the direct attention. “I can’t, uh, talk to them. Not like you do. I mean, I can tell them burn that guy and they do it. But whenever you’re with one of your walking tree things, you always seem to be listening to them and I was wondering if you could, uh… teach me to do that with…” Chandra’s face was starting to go red as Nissa stared at her. “I mean, I just kinda wondered what that was like. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but…”

            “Did you have a specific elemental in mind?”

            “Yeah—wait, you’ll do it?”

            “I have no reason not to.” Nissa nodded, it was an interesting question. She’d long been able to talk to land elementals—mountains and forests called out to her, solid and steady as the ground beneath her feet. But the more transient elementals—those of air, fire, or water—not so much. She could hear their voices, but it was muffled, indirect, as though they didn’t have much interest in talking to her. “We could go now, if you wish?”

            “No, I meanyes. I mean… you know what I mean. Thanks.” Chandra grinned, the redness leaving her face as she spoke. “So about this elemental. Tell me, have you ever heard of a plane called Lorwyn?”

Chapter Text

        Nissa followed Chandra’s path through the Blind Eternities with an ease that surprised her. The pyromancer’s passage left great fiery streaks in the swirling Æther that served as an excellent guideline for travel, something she was very grateful for; Nissa never felt at ease in the eternities, the vast emptiness between the planes was too deep, too easy to lose oneself in. 

        And, of course, it wasn’t empty, was it? if you got lost here, who knew what things you might meet?

        The Eldrazi, for example.

        Nissa shuddered. 

        The sooner they left this place, the better; she hurried after Chandra’s wake a little faster and popped back into existence on a grassy hill overlooking a rolling plain of tall grass. The sun overhead was bright, but not harsh. A cool breeze rustled the grass and tugged playfully at her hair. 

        “Oh good, you made it.” Nissa blinked and turned, Chandra was standing a few feet from her. The pyromancer nodded. “I was worried you’d wind up somewhere else on the plane and I’d have to go looking for you. That would have sucked.” she paused for a moment, then swept her arm out to gesture at the world around. “Anyway, welcome to Lorywn.”

        “Thank you.” Nissa tilted her head to one side as she examined the world. It felt different from Zendikar—very different. She could see a forest in the distance, feel it too, but rather than the savage and defiant song of life she was used to, it sung in her mind like a gentle celebration. It didn’t just look peaceful—plenty of places in Zendikar looked positively tranquil, right up until a mountain stood up and stepped on you.   It was that the plane felt peaceful. The hillside was more than pretty, it was picturesque. 

        “Yeah, it’s a pretty nice place.” Chandra agreed, clearly reading her expression. “At the moment, anyway. When night falls we should probably think about leaving.”

        Nissa raised an eyebrow. “What happens at night?”

        “The natives turn nasty,” Chandra answered. “It’s just something that happens on this plane, like when the mountains on Zendikar try to step on you. During the day, everything is all pretty like this, even most of the locals are friendly provided you don’t do something stupid. You’ll probably see what I mean soon enough. But when night falls, the plane and people…” Chandra paused for a moment, groping for the words, “change.It’s like a switch flips on in their heads or something; mischief becomes malice, suspicion becomes paranoia, that sort of thing.” she shrugged. “You kinda have to see it to believe it.”

        Nissa frowned. It sounded somewhat preposterous, but she had no reason to believe Chandra would lie to her—not to mention, there were far stranger things in the multiverse. Maybe she could see if she could find the world’s soul to investigate.

        “What kind of races live here?” she asked. The multiverse was a wondrous place full of unique worlds and people, but there did tend to be some patterns in the worlds. Elves, goblins, merfolk, humans; while there was often some physical differences plane to plane, the same original blueprints were oft repeated across the multiverse.

        “Pretty much anything you can think of.” Chandra answered. “Except humans, though, so I might stick out. But there’s so many weird things living on this plane, I don’t think anyone will take notice.”

        “I see.” Nissa nodded. “Any races in particular to look out for.”

        “Uh…” Chandra thought for a moment. “Keep an eye out for Giants. They are a lot bigger here than on Zendikar and one almost stepped on me once.”

        Nissa raised an eyebrow. “And what did you do?”

        “I threw a fireball at it. I don’t think it noticed, though.”

        Nissa stared, she'd seen exactly what Chandra called a fireball “Didn’t notice?"

        “When I said really big, I meant really big.”

        “Hmm…noted.” Nissa nodded thoughtfully. “Anything else?

        “Uh, yeah, the elves here are—” Chandra paused, staring open-mouthed at something over Nissa’s shoulder. The elf turned at once; ready to defend herself and stopped. Her own jaw went slack. 

        Crossing the field of grass was… Nissa couldn’t say what it was. It looked like a menagerie of animals stampeding together. But as she watched, the individual creatures shimmered, blurring together like watercolors. She watched the orange fox drat around the legs of a giant bear, leaving wisps of color behind. The animals shifted from one moment to the next; an otter, a rabbit, a dear, a tiger, and countless more flowing as one across the land.

        But how it looked was nothingcompared to how it felt. Its presence played upon Nissa’s mind in a cacophonous chorus.They spoke of mystery, whispering of secrets and wonder. It made her long to know more, to search for the truth behind its existence for no other reason than to simply bask in the joy of knowing.          

       There was a pause in the creature’s movement, a moment where every pair of eyes turned and locked on hers. Then it moved away, pouring across the grass into the distant forest and out of sight. Both planeswalkers remained silent, staring at the trees where the thing had vanished.

       “Chandra?” Nissa murmured.

       "Yeah?”

        “Whatwasthat?” The elf could still feel the wonder of the thing’s presence tingling across her mind like a firework display.

        “Specifically, I have no idea.” The fire mage answered. “But If I had to guess, it was probably an elemental. That’s why I wanted to come to Lorwyn for this; the elementals here aren’t just living rock or fire or whatever. They’re, uh, ideas?” Chandra hesitated. “I met a flamekin shaman once who explained it to me, but I didn’t really get most of the technical stuff. She said something about the elementals here being concepts given form. The place is loaded with them.

        “I believe I understand.” Nissa assured her, still gazing at the distant trees.

        “Okay, uh… so, communicating with them?” Chandra asked, waving a hand to catch the elf’s attention. “You’re the expert here, what do we do?”

        The elf glanced around. She could sense nothing that suggested this location was a leyline of the plane’s soul to tap into. Still, it would likely suffice for teaching her companion the basics. While Chandra was attempting to hear a voice, she could search for such a nexus of mana.

         Nissa sat herself down cross-legged upon the grass and beckoned for the Chandra to do the same. “Communing with the spirits of the land is difficult.” Nissa began, “Even those who have a natural affinity for it need to spend years of practice to convey anything meaningful, let alone request their assistance.”

        “Years?” Chandra echoed, looking uncertain.

        Nissa arched an eyebrow and Chandra flushed. “Did you think it would be easy?”

        “I mean, not exactly. But...” The pyromancer looked away sheepishly.

        Nissa lips quirked into a faint smile. “Don’t worry, I think you’ll find that you can do this. A large part of the process is developing the strength to commune. You’re already a powerful mage, Chandra. I can’t imagine you’ll have any trouble getting the attention of anything you please.”

        “Oh.” Chandra blinked, the color of her cheeks inching towards matching her hair. “Uh, thanks? So, I just need to call out to something? send up a sort of magic signal flare.”

        Nissa shook her head. “Just because you can poke a sleeping baloth with a stick doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. You must understand that elementals are alien to us. It can be difficult to tell what will upset them. Which is why it is so important to listen to them before you attempt to communicate. Lest you risk giving offense and rousing something bigger than you can control.”

        “I guess that makes sense.” Chandra nodded. “So how do I go about listening for them?"

        “You said you grew up in a monastery. Did you ever have to meditate?”

        Chandra sighed. “Yeah, somehow I thought that’s where this was going.”  

        Nissa had to suppress the urge to grin at the pyromancer’s glum expression. Chandra was a lot of things, but calm and contemplative weren’t among them. Nissa could sympathize, she’d hadn’t liked sitting still and listening to trees when she was younger either. It wasn’t until she’d truly made her first connection with an embodiment of Zendikar’s soul that she had truly understood.

        “So once I get all zen, then what do I do?” Chandra asked.

        Nissa shrugged. “It varies from mage to mage and there’s no single way to do it.” she thought for a moment. “You said you’ve conjured fire elementals before. Start with that. Reach out to wherever you call them from, but instead of actually summoning them to you, listen to what they have to say.”

        “Uh… okay.” Chandra said doubtfully, shifting herself against the ground. She put her hand on her knees and took a deep breath. Her red locks flickered in time with the breathing, as though they were embers being stoked by a blacksmith’s bellows.

        Nissa watched her companion breathe for a time before letting her own eyes close. She turned her mind back to the entity she had seen a short time ago and let her mind expand.

        There was a rock jabbing into her butt.

        It had been there since she sat down, but the longer she tried to meditate the more noticeable and more irritatingit became. Chandra fidgeted. Trying to surreptitiously get the stone out from under her, but it remained stubbornly in place. Nissa didn’t seem to notice, her eyes were closed and her breathing was serene. She was probably having a chat with, like, ten different elementals right now, wondering why Chandra wasn’t joining in.

        Whereas all she could focus on was how annoying this rock was. Giving up, she lifted herself up and plopped back down three inches to the right on a more pebble-free area. She glanced downed at the offending pebble and flicked it away.  

        Now she could focus. If she told herself that enough, maybe it would actually happen.

        She snuck another glance at her companion, but, of course, Nissa hadn’t noticed. She made this look so easy; like she’d been doing it for centuries. Actually, come to think of it, how old was Nissa. Chandra assumed they were close to the same age, but who could tell with elves? Nissa could be old enough to be her grandma for all she knew. Would it be rude to ask an elf their age? did it make a difference how old she actually was?

        Chandra growled to herself. She was getting distracted, again.

        Chandra closed her eyes and tried to think back to what Mother Luti had told her about meditating.

        ‘What part of quiet contemplation did you interpret as blowing things up, Chandra?’

        ‘Or burning things. Starting fires when you are bored is the opposite of self-control.’

        ‘Chandra, no.’

        Chandra sighed, and tried to think back a little farther.

        ‘You are a wildfire, Chandra, and there is nothing wrong with that. But if you could tame yourself, rein yourself down to the flame of a mere candle; how brightly you would shine! Try it. Just for a little while. You can always set something on fire later.’

        She closed her eyes and took an aggressively deep breath. Then another. And another. It took awhile but eventually she felt some of her tension loosen a bit as the flame of her irritation cooled.

        Alight, she was calm. A single candle lighting up the night. Now she could... what? Listen to the rocks until it started talking? This metaphysical stuff sucked. It had sounded so simple when Nissa had laid it out.

        She made an effort, straining her ears and any other senses she could think of, but...nothing.

        What else had Nissa said, something about reaching out for wherever she conjured elementals from. That didn’t exactly translate well. When she conjured a phoenix, it was more like she was calling them into existence from raw Æther, from the primordial soup of the Blind Eternities. They weren’t like natural elementals that just existed.

        But… it wasn’t a useless comparison either. She pulled the mana to call for such creatures from the land around her. Maybe she could just reach out to the land and instead of calling something she could just sort of poke around until she found something? She cracked an eye open and spotted a mountain on the horizon. She’d always felt a little more at home in such places, drawing strength from the land where lava churned beneath the earth.  

        Chandra took another breath and reached out, pausing to listen every couple of moments.

        And recoiled almost immediately when she felt something.  It was emanating from the direction of nearby mountain, a kind of presence tingling against her mind. Was that an elemental? She sent the mental line of fire arcing toward the mountain, trying to get a feel for the whatever-it-was. 

       She got the impression of rainbow fire.

       That seemed kind of promising.

       So she’d found something. Now what? She was just supposed to listen to it, right?

        But it was responding to her presence. It seemed to pull back from her, but only slightly, as if unsure what to make of her. Chandra hesitated.  She wanted to speak with an elemental, not just find one. To do that, surely she was supposed to say hello? But she didn’t think this entity was likely to understand words. What would a quintessential being respond to? Emotions? Images? 

        She gave a mental shrug. When in doubt, stick to what you know. 

        Chandra thought of fire. She imagined the boom and whoosh of an expanding fireball, the wondrous feeling of release, of freedom. The crackle of warmth and dancing light. She gathered those feelings into a metaphorical package and presented them to the creature before drawing back. She felt the presence stare at her message, edge towards it, and open it.

        Then it exploded. 

        Chandra’s eyes snapped opened, angry fireworks going off behind her eyes. Nissa was staring at her, green eyes wide.

       “Chandra?” she asked quietly. “What, exactly, did you just do?”

        Chandra hunched her shoulders guiltily. “I think I… poked the baloth with the stick.”  

        Nissa opened her mouth, then closed it and turned to face the distant mountain, smoke began to rise from its peak. Then fire blossomed from the stone. A ball of fire rose into the air, silhouetting itself against the sky. It began to swell and they could see limbs forming as the fire churned, burning a rainbow of colors as it formed a pair of heads formed and wings stretched outward.

        The pair of heads swiveled and even from this distance Chandra could tell it was looking straight at her.

        “Maybe it will be friendly?” Chandra said, smiling weakly.

        Fire scorched the sky as the creature shot towards them, screaming bloody murder.

Chapter Text

            The fiery apparition only got bigger as it approached, stretching to fill the sky like a winged tidal wave of fury. Nissa saw Chandra form a pair of fireballs, but didn’t launch them. Probably for the best; adding more fire to the situation didn’t seem like it would solve the problem.

            “Should we just planeswalk away?” Chandra asked, frowning as she eyed the approaching inferno with teeth. “It’s not like it can follow us.”

            Nissa shook her head. “It would still be on the rampage. We woke it up, we have a responsibility to calm it.” She looked to Chandra. “What did you do to it, exactly?”

            “How the heck should I know?” Chandra threw her hands up. “I’m pretty sure I just said something along the lines on: Hi, I think fire is neat.”

            That didn’t give her a lot to work with, but it was hardly the pyromancer’s fault. Nissa was the expert here, she should have been paying closer attention to what Chandra was doing. But blame could come later, for now she had to fix it.

            “I don’t suppose you could make the ground stand up and hit it?” Chandra asked hopefully.

            Nissa shook her head. “That would only escalate the situation.” The elemental was really moving quite fast, she could almost swear she could feel the air around them heating up at its approach. “I’m going to try to commune with it.” she set her feet firmly against the ground and pressed her palms together. “Can you keep it away?”

            “I can try—no, I will.” Chandra nodded resolutely, her hair igniting into flames as she cracked her knuckles. “You can count on me.”

            Nissa smiled. “I know.”

            And then it reached them. With the roar of a wildfire burning beyond control, it rainbows flames rained down upon them. Chandra stepped in front of Nissa and clapped her raised hands together, making the flames parted around them. The air became an oven as rainbow wisps of light danced in every direction, threatening to bake them alive. But then Chandra grit her teeth and shoved her hands upwards, palm extended. The fire surged away, taking much of the heat with it as it slammed back into the creature and swept it straight up back into the sky like a furious firework.

            Nissa stopped paying attention. Closing her eyes, she sent out tendrils of thought and magic to the raging elemental. The connection was surprisingly easy to make; the creature’s mind was like an gate thrown open to any who wished to enter. The roaring of fire fell silent as she immersed herself into the creature's mind. It could feel her. She sent it her thoughts of apology, of peace, and mollification. She felt the connection deepen, the elemental welcoming her deeper inside its essence. She redoubled her efforts, entreating the beast for calm.

            And then, with the a sound like the rush of rising flame, it pounced. Wrapping tendrils of fire around her soul and holding tight, refusing to let her draw back. Fangs of fire her sunk into her essence, injecting lava into the flow through the connection and into her.

            In moments, her mind was ablaze.

            “Nissa!” there was a cry of outrage, and she felt the creature’s fangs leave her as something ripped it forcefully away. Through the tears and smoke she saw the creature tossed back across the sky as Chandra poured her magic into an enormous fireball, catching it in the up draft and rocketing it away.

            Chandra’s hair and eyes were ablaze as she thrust out her hands and grabbed at the air. The elemental froze and midair. Chandra thrust her arms downward and the living fire followed the motion, slamming hard into the ground and screaming against Chandra’s grip.

            “That’s it, just hold it there!”

            That hadn’t sounded like Chandra’s voice, but through the haze of fire and pain there was no way for the elf to be sure. There was a flash of light that jabbed at her eyes, a band of golden fire shot into the sky.

            And the fire went out like a snuffed candle.

            Nissa gasped, on her hands and knees with no memory of having fallen. The burning may have stopped, but it still felt like someone had shoved a smoldering ember into her brain and left it there.

            “Nissa!” there were warm hands on her shoulders, gently easing her into a sitting position. “Nissa? Are you alright?” Nissa said nothing, trying to get her bearings in a world that was just one big shimmer of heat haze.

            “What…what happened?”

            “Nissa! Your brain isn’t toast!” Chandra cried in relief.

            “No, it’s not.” Admittedly, it might feellike it was. But she was fairly certain she’d recover. “What happened?”

            “I happened.”

            There was that other voice again. Nissa pressed a palm to her forehead in a vain attempt to hold back the burning headache. She glanced through her fingers trying to see who had spoken, and saw a figure approaching.

            It looked female, as far as she could tell. Her body seemed to be made mostly of black stone, with swirling white tattoos painted all along her body. Her few clothes were simple enough, made of thick brown and red cloth that looked quite fireproof.

           She was also on fire.

            Flames shimmered around the figure’s head and neck, making her face look like a floating mask of black stone with two narrow slits chipped in it for eyes. The newcomer looked cross, but it was difficult to be sure; for all Nissa knew, that’s just what her face looked like.

            “She’s a flamekin.” Chandra muttered, perhaps sensing her befuddlement. “When I was holding down the elemental, She leapt onto it and did… something. Made it vanish.” She flicked her fingers to emphasize.

            “So,” the flamekin said, crossing her arms and staring at them. Her voice was what Nissa imagined a campfire would sound like if it could talk. “Which one of you woke it up?” The fiery slits looked back and forth between them. “Come on, speak up.”

            “Me.” Chandra admitted, positioning herself between Nissa and the fiery figure. Nissa wasn’t fireproof enough to complain.  “I didn’t mean to. It was an accident.”

            The eye slits narrowed further, then she nodded. “Yeeeessss,” she said slowly, her voice hissing like water poured upon a fire. “I think I am prepared to buy that. Only an idiot would wake up Hostility on purpose.”

            “Hostility?” Chandra echoed. “Is that what that was?”

            “Yes, in almost every sense of the word.”

            Ah. That would explain why it had tried to burn her brain to cinders without warning like that. She had attempted to speak soul to soul with a literal embodiment of aggression. Well, at least it would make an interesting story to tell one day. Maybe after her head stopped hurting.

            “Nissa?” she felt a pressure on her shoulder as Chandra tightened her grip. “Are you alright?”

            “I’ve…” Nissa winced as a particularly vivid tendril of flame flashed through her mind. “Felt worse.”

            “I’m sorry.” Chandra said immediately. “I screwed up.”

            “Yes,” said the fire person. “you did.” She considered them both for a moment longer. Then her stone eye slits widened, becoming rounder and less accusing as she sighed. “But, I can see you didn’t meanto.” The creature shrugged. “Nobody burned to death, so in terms of mistakes this one had a happy ending.”

            Chandra whirled on her, hair ablaze. “You call this a happy ending?” she snarled, gesturing at Nissa.

            The flamekin gave her a fiery equivalent of a chilly look. “If your friend was going to die from this, she would already be ashes. She’ll live. So yes, a happyending.” Her eyes dimmed slightly and she looked down. “Count your blessings; not everyone who meddles with elementals is so lucky.”  Then she shook her head and looked back at them. “I am Ashling,” she declared, inclining her head slightly.

            “I’m… Chandra.” Her hair cooled back to normal as she introduced herself, “This is Nissa.”

            “A pleasure to meet you both,” said a new voice. Nissa looked around and saw a second figure approaching that she immediately identified as an elf. The high cheekbones, the tall and slender figure, and pointed ears were dead giveaways.

            The hooves and horns were a little unusual, but it took all sorts to populate a multiverse.

            “About time you caught up,” Ashling said. She jerked her head at the newcomer. “That’s Rhys. He’s… a friend. Theoretically he came to help me to deal with your issue; but he’s not fireproof so he couldn’t do much beside be useless.”

            “That’s hurtful.” The elf commented. “I assure you I was ready to rush in the moment I thought you needed help. A good hunter chooses his moment.” He bowed to Chandra and cocked his head to one side when he looked at Nissa. “Are you alright miss?”

            “I will be, thank you.” Using Chandra’s shoulder as a ladder she pulled herself back to her feet, gritting her teeth against the pain.

            “Hmm…” Rhys tapped his chin thoughtfully. “I believe I can help you with your injury. Would the two of you like accompany us back to our camp?”

            “Do I not get a say in that?” Ashling asked.

            Rhys raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you have a problem with it?”

            “...I guess not.” Ashling grunted. “I suppose this way I can find out why there were poking an elemental with a stick.”

            “What do you think?” Chandra whispered.

            “If he can help, I am willing to give it a try.” The only other options were to wait until she felt better—not exactly a pleasant option—or to planeswalk back to Ravnica and get help there.

            As much as Nissa didn’t want to wait the pain out, she wanted to wander the Blind Eternities with a splitting headache even less.

            “Alright,” Chandra declared in a louder voice. “Lead the way.”

            The horned elf had led them to a copse of trees on the far edge of the field. Chandra had watched him closely as he helped Nissa onto a fallen log and started fiddling at the ground. Under his hands, a plant grew from a clear patch of soil, putting out a single leaf that curled in on itself, the leaves folding over to make a kind of cup. The elf plucked it from the stem and waved his hand over it, making it fill with liquid.

“Here you go,” he said, offering Nissa the leaf. “This should help soothe the pain.”

            “What is that?” Chandra demanded. The liquid inside was a shiny yellow color that didn’t look at all healthy.

            “A mix of magic and tea.” Rhys answered calmly. “It won’t hurt her, I promise.”

            “And if it does, you can always burn him to death.” Ashling added. She had opted to sit out from under the trees, instead perching on a rock that jutted out of the grass in the sunshine.

            “Yeah. I guess that’s true.” Chandra admitted, locking eyes with Rhys and sending up a few meaningful wisps of smoke.

            Rhys took this stoically as Nissa took the offered drink. She eyed the contents for a long moment before drinking deep. There was a pause as her eyes widened, Chandra tensed for a long moment, but then the elf sighed. Relaxing down on her log as some of the pain-born tension left her body.

            “That is much better, thank you.”

            “My pleasure.”

            Chandra felt the knot in her gut loosen slightly. At least the worst consequences of her screw-up seemed to be over. Why did she have to be so friggin’ bad at this? All she’d wanted was to spend some time getting to know Nissa without two plane-destroying monsters thrown in the mix. Was that so much to ask?

            Well, duh. She was Chandra Nalaar, the biggest fire hazard in the multiverse.

            She’d never managed to set a friend’s mind on fire before though, that would be one for the books.

            “So,” said Ashling. Her stare felt like two embers placed against the skin. “What made you think poking Hostility was a good idea?”

            “I didn’t.” Chandra answered a little defensively. “Or, I didn’t know what it was. I was just trying to talk to an elemental.”

            Ashling’s frown deepened. “Why?”

            Chandra squirmed, but there was no avoiding it. “Because I wanted to see if I could.”

            Ashling’s face didn’t budge an inch. “You mean to tell me,” she began, her voice cold as week-old ash. “That you wished to risk rousing an ancient and quintessential being of unknown power… for your own amusement?”

            “…kind of.”

            Ashling stared at her for another moment longer, then her lips turned up into a smile and she laughed. “That’s good!” the flamekin smirked. “That’s very good.” Chandra blinked, the hand full of flamekin she’d met before always seemed to revere the elementals as something holy. She glanced at Rhys, but the was just watching his companion laugh with a resigned look in his eye. Chandra waited until the flamekin calmed down, but no explanation was forthcoming.

            Nissa took it on herself to change the subject. “How did you find us?”

            “Well, we had just finished setting up our camp for the day when we saw the giant ball of fire streaking across the sky.” Said Rhys. “Ashling insisted on investigating. She is… deeply suspicious of elementals, and wished to know why this one was going on a rampage. When we saw you in danger, we decided to help.”

            “Always happy to put an elemental in its place.” Ashling added, her eyes glowing. “Consider it a specialty of mine.”

            “I see.” Nissa nodded. “Well, regardless of your reasons, thank you. The assistance was appreciated.”

            “Yeah.” Chandra didn’t trust herself to say anything else, what do you say to someone who stepped in and cleaned up your mess? Even with all her experience with exactly this kind of situation, she’d never managed to figure it out.

            “So what are you two anyway?” Ashling asked. “I thought flamekin were the only thing in Lorwyn that walked around with their heads on fire.”

            Chandra’s hands shot up to her hair on reflex and she flushed. “I’m a human.” She said automatically; the word wouldn’t mean anything to these two anyway. “I’m not from around here.”

            “Nor am I,” Nissa added.

            “You don’t say.” Ashling drawled.

            Neither of them said anything. It was something of an unspoken rule among Planeswalkers that you didn’t tell everyone you met what you were. Assuming they believed you, it was likely the knowledge would either upset them or make them want to know how they could acquire the power for themselves—and there was no way that would ever end well.

            “Don’t be rude, Ashling.” Rhys chided. “If they don’t wish to tell us their life stories, they don’t have to.”

            “Don’t tell me what to do.”

            “My apologies.” Rhys sighed, holding up his hands placating. “I merely wished to point out that we are hardly without our own secrets.” he turned to them. “Regardless, the question remains on what you intend to do now. Ashling and I set up camp here because the aurora will be falling soon. It’s not a good idea to travel after the sun sets.”

            Chandra frowned and glanced at Nissa.

            “Our camp is as safe a place as you’re likely to find.” Rhys said. “I’ve set up a number of traps in case any boggarts or the like take an interest and Ashling is more than capable of handling any of the less corporeal threats that might come about. But we would be happy to have a couple pair of eyes to help keep watch.”

            “And we won’t give you trouble if you don’t give us trouble,” Ashling said.

            Nissa nodded, “that’s fair.” She met Chandra’s gaze and it was clear she was weighing the risks.

            Ashling and Rhys seemed friendly, but the sun was still out. She’d remembered the first time she’d tried to spend the night on Lorwyn. Thingscame out when the sun set, things that would attack anything that so much as looked at them funny, and there was always a chance that their saviors might just be one of those things.

            But to travel the multiverse was to walk into unknown danger every day. If you gave up at the first uncertainty, then you might as well damp your spark.

            Besides, she wanted to know how Ashling had made that elemental disappear. She had just jumped on top of its head, her hand had glowed with golden fire and then the elemental was gone.

            Chandra could feel the curiosity that plagued most planeswalker building inside her; that thirst to probe the unknown and discover. She could see it in Nissa’s eyes as well now that the pain was gone.

            “Yeah,” Chandra said, settling herself down on her own rock and glancing towards the setting sun. “I think we can stick around for awhile.”