Gatecrash

Skreeg came up for air, coughing puffs of ash out of his nose and mouth, squinting through watery eyes. “I’ve cast a battery of detection spells. There is no writing, carving, or runic pattern of any known idiom within the boundaries of this sanctum. It’s all burned away.”

Ral couldn’t face Niv-Mizzet with no leads. Even more than that, he couldn’t admit that this mage Beleren had outwitted him. He touched the tips of his fingers together thoughtfully, creating a web of electric sparks. “It’s all burned away,” he said. He watched the tiny curls of lightning scatter around his hands. “Burned away, yes. It’s burned. But it’s all still here.” He clapped his hands together, dissipating the lightning. “Skreeg. Levitate the ash.”

Skreeg’s head cocked to the side. His eyes scanned around the wreckage. “Levitate it, sir?”

“Yes. Hurry up. Levitate it. All of it.” Ral knew the goblin’s hesitation wouldn’t last.

“Normally that kind of venture would require more than just one goblin, sir—”

“Just do it!”

“Yes, sir!”

Skreeg took a deep breath, summoned up power, and cast his gravity-altering spell. Ash and charred wood hovered into the air, only in thin wisps at first, then in thick clouds. The goblin’s gauntlet lit up with power, and his small hands shook with effort. A sheen of sweat appeared on his brow. Debris floated up all around the goblin, forming a storm of confused wreckage that hovered above the crater that had been the sanctum. Finally, Skreeg floated up into the debris cloud himself, cartwheeling in the air while sustaining the spell. Ral stood at the edge of the cavity that held the ruins, beholding the cloud of debris before him.

“Now, drop out everything that is stone or brick,” said Ral.

“Sir?”

“You heard me. We won’t need anything that was originally stone or brick. Leave the ashes.”

As Skreeg swam through the cloud, quivering with strain, he made alterations to his gauntlet. The mass of debris wobbled, and then some of the wreckage floated down into the pit, separating from the finer particles of ash.

“Aha!” squealed the goblin. “Sir, I think I did it!”

“Now get rid of glass or thicker pieces of wood,” said Ral, stroking his chin.

Skreeg whimpered briefly. “Of course, sir.” He altered his spell once again, and other fragments of the cloud filtered out. All that remained were fine flakes of ash, swimming and rolling on air currents.

Ral wove a matrix of tiny strands of electricity between his palms, stretching and expanding them into ever-finer threads, forming a gauzy mesh of lightning. “Now bring the ash close together. And get out of the way.”

Skreeg was moaning with the complexity of the spell. The ash cloud condensed into a flat sheet, several feet on a side, and Skreeg’s floating body rolled to one side. Ral lashed out at the sheet of ash with strands of electricity. Electricity zigzagged throughout the cloud, bounding from particle to particle like a dense thunderstorm.

“I’m exploring the natural resonances of the materials,” said Ral. “Keep floating.”

Ral sent another web of delicate lightning through the ashes. He studied how the tiny bolts leaped from fragment to fragment, connecting similar substances.

“Ow!” yelped Skreeg as one arc of electricity crackled through him. The floating ashes shuddered as the goblin shook and gritted his teeth with the effort of his spell.

Ral altered a control on his mizzium gauntlet, gathered a strong swell of mana, and electrocuted the floating debris once more. This time his lightning not only danced between the specks of burned materials, but drew a selected collection of them together into a stable, fused lattice. It lingered there, hovering before him, a crackling pattern of electric threads.

“All right, Skreeg. Now drop everything but this.”

Skreeg exhaled in relief, and crashed through the burned floorboards and into the cellar. The ash floated down after him. The goblin and various pieces of debris clunked and clattered in the pit below Ral’s feet.

Ral had what he needed. “Routes,” he said, scrutinizing the puzzle still assembling itself in the air before him. The connected fragments of ash reunited in his electric field, forming readable passages of notes. “Beleren had discovered a series of routes through the maze. They were encoded, but viable. He had almost solved it. Skreeg, where are you?”

A pair of small hands appeared at the edge of the pit. The goblin pulled himself up, and flopped onto the ground by Ral’s feet, huffing and coughing. “Can we find Beleren now, sir?”

Ral grinned. “You know, Skreeg, I don’t think we need Beleren anymore.”

We don’t even need Niv-Mizzet anymore, he thought.

AID FROM AN ENEMY

Jace left the Selesnya grove feeling like a puzzle with its pieces scattered. He pulled his hood up over his head and his cloak around his arms, and stalked off into the metropolis, letting the endless buildings and crowds of pedestrian traffic swallow him.