Trials of a Planeswalker Ch. 01: Rising

"Let us pass." Blayne warned.

The officer responded by pulling a horn from his belt and he put it to his lips. Varia lunged, but her blood spear didn't pierce his body before he had blown one long, loud note. Bird stirred from the towers around them at the echo of the horn. The officer fell off his horse, dead as the rest, his corpse also drained of blood.

"I don't feel good about that." Varia said, looking back at Blayne.

"Yea, neither do I. Let's get out of here." Blayne said, turning and leaping back on Shyara.

"Great place for a landing." Varia followed him, her sphere of blood splashing on the ground.

'I'm sorry! I didn't know any place was worse than the last.' Shyara huffed.

"Fly, any direction, it doesn't matter. Just get us moving. I'm going to try and find friends." Blayne said to Shyara.

"We're running away?!" Varia cried in disbelief, "I could kill them all!"

"What happens if they have someone on their side who you can't kill. What would you do against a machine or a construct that has no blood?" Blayne asked, "And I'm still too drained to fight effectively. No, we need to find the Izzet again."

"You mean the ones that the dragon who tried to kill us is the guild leader of?" Varia asked flatly.

"Not the whole guild, just a couple of friends. Lizz and Tazz. If they're still alive, they could help me. They're the reason I came back here. Them and Jace. I need to know they're still okay and I need to tell Jace thanks for his help. Now please be quiet for a moment while I try and find them." Blayne said, closing his eyes. He began to cast out his mind and, although he knew full well that he couldn't reach Lizz or Tazz, maybe he could find someone who could direct them to the Izzet District. Then he could find the guild hall and try to contact them somehow.

"Still say this plan sucks..." Varia grumbled.

*******

"What're we doing in this dirty and dank alley?" Varia whined.

"Lizz told me they would meet us here. It's got to be far enough from the guild hall so Crixzix and any of the other guild mages don't find us." Blayne sighed, "That's also why I had to send Shyara back. She would only attract attention."

"This cannot end well." Varia groaned and shook her head.

They were waiting in a back alley a half-mile from the Izzet League main hall. Blayne had telepathically found and contacted Lizzex. They had decided on this location to meet and here Blayne and Varia sat, waiting for more than an hour now.

"Hey there Blayne." Lizzex said from the end of the alley.

"Lizz! Good to see you." Blayne exclaimed, walking towards here.

"What're you doing back here?" Lizzex asked.

"I'm here to see you and Tazz." Blayne said, smiling widely.

"Tazzex is dead." Lizzex sighed and bit her lip.

"Oh god, how did that happen?" Blayne asked worriedly.

"Because of you." Lizzex looked up, "Because of your fight and then she cast the spell to help you escape. Crixzix killed her."

"And now I'm going to kill you." Her voice came from behind them.

Blayne snapped around and saw the grungy looking goblin woman standing at the other end of the alley. Her face was severely scarred and she had half of a head of frizzy hair; it was all remnants of their fight. Dozens of metal constructs stepped into the alley in front of her and in front of Lizzex. They were in the shape of men, crafted from shining metal. Mana glowed in their bodies, fueling their movements.

"It's only fair Blayne. You caused the death of my sister and now we kill you." Lizzex said, magic glowing in her hands.

"That makes no sense! Crixzix killed her, not me! It's her fault!" Blayne yelled, jamming a finger at Crixzix.

"No, it's your fault! The Firemind told me you attacked him! You invaded his home and striked him without cause. He told me you put the idea into Tazzex's head to make her help you. When Crixzix killed her, it was by your hand!" Lizzex cried.

The constructs got closer and closer, lifting swords and shields to face the two Planeswalkers. Varia raised her hand and nothing happened. The constructs were without blood and thereby without anything for Varia to use against them. Blayne looked up and found a number of Izzet mages lining the roof above them.

"Blayne! What do we do!" Varia said, ripping her saber from it's sheath.

He reached up and began to pull red mana from the sun above them. It glowed in a bright spiral above him, swirling down through the buildings. The Izzet Mages tried to fight and stop him from gathering mana, but they were no match for his new powers. He pulled it all into himself and grabbed Varia's belt.

"I don't know what this is going to do, so get down!" Blayne yelled, pulling her down and releasing all the mana from his hand. There was a deafening detonation, a fiery shockwave racing down both sides of the alley. It made all the constructs take a step back and knocked the Izzet Mages away from the edge of the roof. The blinding, disorienting power of it made Blayne crouch down alongside Varia. When the wave had cleared, something still glowed above them.

Blayne glanced up and, much to his surprise, a regal angel stood over them. She smiled a familiar smirk and looked down at Blayne.

"Hello there brother."

*******

CHAPTER 25 - ODD ENDS

"Man, what a dream!" Robin laughed, raising the worn silver sword in her hand high. She swung it forward and an impressive wave of light erupt forth, racing down the alley towards the Izzet constructs. It cut them down and pushed them aside. She slashed the other direction and blew the other side of the constructs away.

"Robin?!" Blayne yelled in surprise.

"Of course it's me! Let's go!" Robin yelled, shoving her sword in her belt.

She grabbed Blayne and Varia by the belts and leapt upward, angelic wings held tight behind her. Her feet kicked off the wall near the top and she launched past the Izzet mages. Her beautiful chocolate and gold wings snapped open and carried them upwards. A powerful draft of wind rushed behind them and carried them away. Blayne watched helplessly as they soared over the buildings, fireballs from the Izzet racing after them.

Robin curved and dipped, sinking between another set of buildings. She carried them down one of Ravnica's deep chasms, sinking into the darkness. They landed on a shelf far down the chasm and she set them down.

"Where are we now?" Varia groaned, looking around.

"Some abandoned sub-level building." Blayne said, looking at the carved archway before them.

"You know, this is the first time I've actually realized I'm in a dream. This is so cool. I have wings!" Robin said, wafting her beautiful wings back and forth slowly.

Blayne turned and looked at her. She had her usual brown hair, except it was longer and tied in a tight pony tail. She wore heavy bandages on her forearms and around her palms. Her chest was covered by a small white tanktop that clung tightly to her newly tanned skin. A small brown leather skirt was wrapped around her waist and she had above-knee leather boots. The entire ensemble was topped with a frayed yellow scarf wrapped around her neck and shoulders.

"Robin, how did you get here?!" Blayne asked hurriedly.

"I went to bed, I woke up here. It's a dream Blayne!" Robin laughed, "Come on, I want to go on an adventure with you! I mean, here I am in this world of magic! I have cool wings and my god I'm wearing a sexy outfit!"

She looked down at herself and ran her hands over her taunt abdomen.

"Varia, do you have any idea how I could summon my sister here?" He asked, turning to her.

"Sorry, I only some dark spirits and the souls of the damned." Varia shrugged.

"Look Blayne, you didn't summon me. Since you came back the first time, I've been having dreams of magic and you show up all the time. This is just the first time I've had that... what do they call it..." Robin snapped her fingers and looked around, "A lucid dream!"

"Robin, it isn't a dream. You're here on Ravnica and this is me." Blayne said, grabbing her hand.

"Oh yes it is. I can't be here with you and even if I could, I wouldn't have wings! I don't have wings! Plus I have all these skills in my head that aren't even my own! Watch this!" Robin said and she unsheathed her sword. Standing on the edge of the shelf, she swung the sword skillfully, dancing about and stabbing at fake enemies.

"It's magic. He can give you skills that aren't your own." Varia said.

"Come on, let's find some shelter in here and hide." Blayne said and he walked through the archway.

The halls inside were big, carved centuries before and abandoned some time since then. Blayne lit a globe of fire in his hand and looked around. Things were dusty, but there really wasn't anything here. When they had walked down the hall a good distance, he stopped and dropped the ball of fire. It stuck to the floor and grew into a nice little fire. Blayne and Varia pulled of their packs and set them on the ground.

"Come on guys! Let's go on an adventure! It's a dream! Who cares about the dangers!" Robin exclaimed, throwing her hands up.

"Robin! This is not a dream. I summoned you here. You are on Ravnica, on another world and you have wings. I don't know how and I don't know why. But the Izzet will be out in force looking for us and until I get some rest, we can't go anywhere. I fought Niv-Mizzet earlier today and I just don't have the energy to do anything after summoning you." Blayne said.

"What a boring dream." Robin huffed, walking over and sitting by the fire with them.

"Robin! What do I have to do to convince you that this isn't a dream?" Blayne sighed, opening his pack.

He pulled out a can of food he kept from Robin's cupboard and set it by the fire before taking his bedroll from the bottom of the pack and unrolling it.

"So this is it? I have a really cool dream where I can actually control it and my brain wants me to just sit here, eat beans and stare into a magical fire?" Robin sighed dejectedly.

"Exactly." Blayne nodded, picking up the can. He cut the top off with a small twirl of his finger, exposing the beans and allowing him to place it near the fire to cook.

"Well screw this. I want to go explore." Robin said, starting to get up.

"No! Robin, you don't get it! This is not a god damn dream! I swear it!" Blayne finally yelled, "Stay there and believe me for once! I summoned you here and I don't know how, but you're here now and you have to stay with us!"

"Blayne, why don't you just send her back?" Varia suggested.

"Because I can't without knowing how I did it! I mean, only Planeswalkers are supposed to be able to move between worlds!" Blayne exclaimed loudly, "So I don't even get how this worked!"

"But you summon Shyara easily enough outside of Azeroth." Varia pointed out.

"I know, but she's a creature of magic. That's different, she can survive it somehow. This is my sister! A plain, normal girl with no special talents like that!" Blayne said, waving at Robin.

"Hey! Right here!" Robin said, holding her hands up, "God my own dreams are mean to me!"

"Alright then, how about this. You didn't summon her body. Maybe you just summoned her spirit? Wouldn't be the first time such a thing has happened. I mean, I've summoned the spirits of dead ancestors to me, but it wasn't across Planes. She did say that she went to sleep before this. It would explain why she thinks it's a lucid dream." Varia postulated, glancing between them.

"That would make sense. Her body isn't here and so she's given one through the magic, in this case that of a brown-winged angel." Blayne nodded.

"Hey! My wings aren't just brown. They're a deep color up here and they fade down to a beautiful gold around the bottom." Robin yelled, pointing at the thick feathers on her wings.

"Alright, alright. Sorry. Brown and gold winged angel. Happy sis?" Blayne groaned, staring teasingly at her.

"God, if this isn't a dream, it would sure explain how you're being such a turd." Robin grumbled.

"Hey, it all makes sense. Look at the watch Robin. It shows ten pm. You would have gone to bed not too long ago!" Blayne said ecstatically as he held his wrist out for her to see.

"Okay, let's say you did summon me here and this is real. Can I just stay with you?" Robin asked.

"Well no. I don't want you getting injured. Now that we have this figured out, you're going home." Blayne said.

"No! Blayne, you ass! I'm finally here with you on one of your adventures! Let me help! I have a sword and I have wings! Plus, if my body is safe back at home, doesn't that mean that I couldn't really die?" Robin asked eagerly.

"One way to test that." Varia grinned widely.

"Varia, no. Robin, how about this. I'll give you a little knick. Then you go back and see if anything happened." Blayne said, pulling a knife from his pack.

He reached over and sliced Robin's thumb lightly. She yelped and jerked back in surprise.

"You meanie!" Robin cried out, moving to suck on her injured thumb.

"Bye sis. Good to see you. I'll try and summon you at ten tomorrow night, so be sure to be asleep." Blayne said, waving with a slight grin. She disappeared as he reversed her summoning and released the magic from it's binds. He sighed and looked up at Varia.

"So you summoned your sister here." Varia said flatly, "Great. As if a servent beast was bad enough."

"Heyyy~! You like Shyara!" Blayne said, pointing at her warningly.

"Yea, yea. I suppose I do." Varia groaned.

*******

Back home, Robin snapped awake, jerking upright in an instant. Her bedroom was dark and she looked around quickly. The clock said ten ten. She pulled her knees up to her chest and remembered the feeling of being there with him. Having those wings and having saved him from danger.

"Blayne... was that really you?" Robin wondered, looking at her clearly uninjured thumb.

She sighed and flopped back among her numerous pillows. If it really was him, maybe he really would summon her again the following night. She rolled over with a huff, cursing him again in the silence of her lonely bedroom. Her heart also clenched with worry over him. All those magical things ready to kill him and he had looked so helpless. What if it really was him and he couldn't help her next time?

What if he died and left her all alone?

*******

"So what's next?" Varia asked when they woke up a few hours later.

"Jace. I've only got one more tie here on Ravnica. Since Lizzex has shown her hatred for me, there's no longer a tie to the Izzet for me." Blayne said with a tone of disgust.

"Just like that? She helped you so much when you first became a Planeswalker and you're just tossing her aside?" Varia said suspiciously.

"Yes! What do you expect me to do? Go back and ask her not to kill me?" Blayne exclaimed, cinching the cord tight around his bedroll.

"No, I'm actually proud of you. Finally making an adult decision and letting go of things when they're not worth it any longer. So why do you need to talk to Jace?" Varia asked.

"I just want to alright? He helped me a lot too. He gave me the way to get back home and find out what happened to my mother." Blayne said.

"Blayne, can't we just move on? Go to another world or something? I mean, look at it. From what you've told me of Ravnica, this place is pretty volatile at the best of times. Think of the danger between us and Jace? Couldn't you just let it go?" Varia asked worriedly.

"Ugh... Varia, why do you do this?" Blayne groaned and grabbed his head gently. He sat back down and looked up at the ceiling. There was truth in her words, he just didn't want to believe it. Jace had given him his memory back and beyond that, he helped keep Blayne from being executed so long ago. He desperately wanted to see him and thank him.

"You know I'm right. We just need to get out of danger and move on." Varia said softly, stepping around the magic fire to sit next to him.

"Damn it, why do you have to be so sensible! I expect you to be crazy and balls all into danger!" Blayne cried out and laughed loudly, "Fine! We planeswalk onward! New worlds! New sights! My best gal at my side and magic in my hands!"

"That's the spirit! Let's go!" Varia laughed, smacking him on the shoulder.

Within the next fifteen minutes, they were back in the AEthers together. Blayne held her hand and looked around, unsure what to do. With his mind clear and his powers under his control, he could just sense where home was for him. Varia could do the same, but she had no interest in going there. Home only held pain for her and she might return one day, but not this day. She just couldn't bare it yet.

"There. That way." Varia said, pointing into the distance.

"Well lead on!" Blayne exclaimed as he raised her hand in his.

She started down the path and led them through a twisting curve of the AEthers. They descended and turned again and again, following an unruly and eratic path. Blayne began to wonder what she was doing when she stopped suddenly and looked at a cloud. The moment his eyes fell on it, he felt the intense pulling that Varia had sensed earlier. Something about this plane seemed incredibly deep and abiding. As if it were as ancient as time itself and it were a major focal point for everything that existed.

"Let's go here." Varia said.

"No kidding. I feel it too." Blayne said with wide eyes as he stared at the cloud. It seemed to pulsate with all five colors of mana, rich and wild in the plane. He stepped forward and they entered the world.

Bright light flared around them and their bodies were engulfed in a torrent of vitalizing mana. An enormous eruption around them led them into the world and Blayne gasped loudly. This world was even more rich in mana than Ravnica and he seemed to breath it in with every breath.

He shook his head and looked around. They stood on an open beach around a huge ocean bay, waves splashing on the shore below them.

"This is nice." Blayne smiled, looking up at the deep green hills behind them.

"Where do you think it is?" Varia asked as she stretched her arms over her head.

"I have no idea, but I like it here. Doesn't it just feel amazing here?" Blayne asked as he breathed in more of the rich mana.

"Yea, you aren't joking. The mana is so thick here that I swear we should be seeing it in a fog around us." Varia chuckled.

"Let's find out where we are. Maybe find somewhere to get a bite to eat!" Blayne sighed.

Varia nudged him and smiled, taking his hand once again. They found a path leading up the beach and across the hills. It was a worn pathway showing only hooves and wagon wheels. Whatever this world was, it was primitive.

When they topped the hill, they saw a nice village in the distance sitting in the crook of another bay north of them. A fork in the path ahead carried them in that direction. It looked like a town similar to those on Azeroth, simple and quiet. A squat stone wall surrounded it and farm land surrounded that. It took them a good bit of time to follow the well-traveled path all the way to the city.

"Welcome strangers. What brings you to Balshan Bay?" A soldier at the gate to the village asked.

"We are travelers seeking rest." Blayne said.

"You don't look that well traveled." The guard observed their clean clothes.

"May we enter?" Blayne said, ignoring his comment.

"Of course. Just know that what you bring here is what you will find. If you bring trouble, that is what you shall find." The guard said, stepping aside.

They passed him and entered the small village. Maybe three dozen buildings made up the entire settlement along with a number of worn docks and a single stone tower in the center of the village.

"So we're in a place called Balshan Bay." Varia said, "Looks like a lot of the little places from back home. There's an inn if you want something to eat."

She pointed ahead to an inn sitting on the edge of what could only be called the village's main square. Around the base of the stone tower were a number of trade carts and a bustling two dozen people.