Agents of Artifice

EPILOGUE

Now that she knew where he made his lair, they held their final meeting deep in the caves of Grixis, rather than on the featureless plains of that dead and nameless sphere. Here, separated by many long halls from the divination chambers of the coven, the screams of agony were almost inaudible. Almost.

Over half the walls in this great circular cavern were covered with faint images, not so much engraved as somehow burned into the stone. Some were dragons, some humanoids of various species, some of races unseen in any civilized corner of the Multiverse for thousands upon thousands of years.

They stared out over the chamber, their eyes wide, their mouths agape in silent screams, and who they were none but the Forever Serpent could say.

In the center of it all stood a great stone column, wrapped from top to bottom in velvet-lined cushions. Coiled around it so that the bulk of his body was off the ground, Nicol Bolas studied, with unblinking eyes and a faintly bored scowl, the tiny human standing stiff and furious before him.

"… to discuss," the dragon was saying, his attention already drifting on to other matters.

"Nothing more to discuss?" Liliana seethed, her voice rising. "Nothing more than my magic, and quite possibly my soul!"

The cushions rippled up and down the pillar as Bolas shrugged. "You chose to make the deal, Liliana Vess."

"And you made one with me, Bolas!"

"Indeed. A very simple and straightforward one, on which you failed to deliver."

"Tezzeret and the Consortium are out of your way!"

"True." Bolas shifted around the pillar, perusing the images as though searching for one particular face. "But there was the matter, necromancer, of you returning the Consortium to me while I kept my focus on other matters. The plan, unless I rather woefully misunderstood, was to place someone in charge you could influence on my behalf, if not for you to rule it yourself. Unless I've grown extremely nearsighted in my old age, the final results of all your scheming don't much seem to resemble the outcome you promised."

"How could I possibly know that Jace wouldn't-"

The dragon's head whipped around the pillar, his tongue flickering out to stop mere inches from Liliana's flesh. She froze, paralyzed beneath his infinite gaze.

"Do you really believe that making excuses now is your best option?"

"Great and mighty Bolas," she said, trying hard to modulate her voice, "please. I came to you because you're the only one I know with the power to break this pact, strong enough to bend even a cabal of demons to your will. If you could just-"

"If I am, indeed, the only one so gifted," Bolas interrupted, "then I suggest you come up with some other way to make yourself useful. Offer me something else worth the trouble you bring me-and make no mistake, a quartet of demons is trouble even for 'great and mighty' me-and I will make you the same bargain.

"Alternatively," he added, his tone suddenly thoughtful, "you might swear allegiance to me. A planeswalker and necromancer of your power might prove useful indeed, and I would, of course, seek to protect my investment…"

Liliana's face went red, her eyes jet black. "You'd have me trade one master for another?"

"Why yes, I suppose I would."

"Go find your own personal hell, dragon!"

"I've got a rather nice one here on Grixis, I should say. When you come up with a better trade, be certain to let me know. You're always welcome here, my dear Vess."

Liliana stared, mouth working as though to voice some new argument she'd not yet considered, and Bolas had at least to give the mage credit. In his youth, had he been in her position, he might well have attacked, even knowing he could not prevail. But with the realization that there was nothing left to say, Liliana turned on her heel and strode from the chamber, and if her shoulders were slumped and even shaking, still she held her head high until she vanished from the dragon's sight.

Bolas flickered his tongue over the stone faces, as though tasting the flesh of those they represented, then uncoiled himself from around the pillar and crept through the tunnels until he reached his workroom. It, like many of his private chambers, utterly lacked a door; he breathed a few syllables of magic, scarcely an effort to one such as he, and caused the wall itself to open for him. Between racks of alchemical equipment and half-built artifacts, through spaces where his great bulk should never have fit, the dragon wound his way to a marble worktable in the cavern's center. Atop the great slab, dwarfed by the scale of the table and indeed the entire room, lay the object of his current endeavors.

No, Liliana's efforts had not restored to him the Infinite Consortium. But they had given him instead an opportunity even he had not foreseen. He'd needed to act fast, before the nezumi could ruin it beyond use. It had cost him greatly to acquire it and would require much labor on his part to make it functional once more, both inside and out. With the right repairs, though-and the right adjustments-it just might prove a greater tool than even the Consortium itself.

Nicol Bolas bent low over the mangled and mindless body of Tezzeret. "Now, little artificer… What shall we do with you?"