Interlude: The Chain Veil (Patreon)

Interlude: The Chain Veil

The girl was a single step shy of utterly infuriating.

“And so I thank you for your tutelage. But I’ll be heading my own way, now.” Taylor said.

Liliana ignored the small pang in her chest with the ease of long practice. It was said that such things get easier, but in truth one just became more…versed in the art of self-deception.

By now, Liliana well considered herself a master.

“Oh, so soon, Taylor?” She said, folding her fingers in a steeple. “Why, we’ve only just begun your lessons.” Not to mention that it would be a shame to lose her wager with Beleren after finding such an apt pupil.

“I believe you’ve already taught me the most important lesson I can learn here,” the child said. Ah, how long had it been since she’d looked at the world with such a fiercely determined gaze? Probably not since the start.

“And was is that?” Liliana asked.

“That I can’t rely on others to solve my problems,” Taylor replied. “And that I should never rely on you.” Liliana smiled in reply.

Infuriating. Utterly infuriating.

But Utterly Brilliant too.

“If that is your estimation,” Liliana said, waving her hand. “Then by all means, take your leave of the college.”

Liliana easily to picked out a twitch of surprise from the young girl, a slight tension around the eyes. Still, Taylor comported herself with a level of etiquette that it took Liliana years to master. Such a shame.

Liliana allowed herself a sinuous smile. “Do you think you are some prize to be fought over?” she said.

Taylor held herself well, but Liliana’s practiced eye easily picked apart the irritation. Yes, she was a fascinating child, but still a child.

The girl opened her mouth, no doubt to stay the course and then storm off in a tizzy, but Liliana would be a poor mentor if she allowed an apprentice to get the last word so easily.

“Still, your assistance with this Plane’s wards was more helpful than I’d first anticipated,” Liliana said, running an intentionally idle hand through her raven tresses. “I would be a poor mentor…if I let a student depart having given more knowledge than they received. We’ve barely scratched the surface of Divination, after all.”

The girl was clearly torn, to seek knew knowledge or stick by old wisdom, a lesson Liliana had faced many times in her years.

“And what’s in it for it?” she asked.

Fortunately, Planeswalkers were never the type to settle. “Call it pride.”

And pride it was; the best deceptions were the truth, after all. The ward Taylor created had exceeded her expectations for this Planes magic, but just as assuredly had proved useless at dealing with the Veil. Liliana felt a bit of irritation at that, that a girl barely growing into her power could make a better ward than Liliana herself.

Perhaps if the mewling mages of the college proved half as interesting, she would have been interested in protecting them. As it was, she was ready to be quit of this Plane as well, so perhaps all these events came to a pleasant confluence.

“…Alright,” Taylor said. “I suppose I can stay for one more lesson.”

Liliana waved a hand. “If that is all you wish,” she said. Because it wouldn’t due for the girl to think she could get more.

As intended, Liliana’s remark firmed Taylor’s resolve to leave. Liliana could see it in the set of the younger Walker’s shoulders. But enough of that, first, there were matters of divination to attend to.

“In our first lesson, I spoke to you of the cantrips of divination,” Liliana started. “Small glimpses of the future, useful in their own way, but would I be wrong to say in your own experimentation you found them far too…limited?”

After a moment, Taylor nodded, quirking her lips.

“Of course you did,” Liliana said. “You said you were seeking something far away, did you not? The simpler spells are not for finding something distant, but for what is already close at hand.” She stood, crossing the distance between the two of them in a single stride. Leaning closer, she put a hand next to her mouth. “You need something grander, don’t you? Something worthwhile.”

At that, Taylor nodded. 

Yes. Their kind was always in search of more.

“Let me show you how to find the knowledge you seek,” Liliana said. “It is an old spell, and a shattered one, the more powerful versions of it lost to time. But what remains will suffice.”

As expected, the younger walker learned the spell with almost frightening alacrity. While with cantrips and other trifles, such was to be expected, but Liliana had never seen a walker learn magic even of this middling level so quickly since before the mending.

Taylor would be a frightening one, in a few decades.

For now though, she was still just a child.

It was easy enough, in the flurry of magic, to slip in another spell. While distracted with the intricacies of detaining and bargaining with the quasi-demons of knowledge, Taylor did not even notice her mentor casting another spell.

An easy one, one that would settle over her like a thin gauze, so transparent that she would not even notice it over her eyes.

‘Come Find Me on Innistrad’

It would take time for the thought to find root. Longer still before she felt even a passing urge to act on it, this subtlest of compulsions. Perhaps it would come to nothing.

It was a gentle manipulation, and it brought a smile to her face knowing that Jace had done far worse and still considered himself a hero. So vexing, these younger walkers. Perhaps that was why she found them so intriguing. 

Regardless, the thought would always be there. And Planeswalkers lived dangerous lives. There would be a reason, and then, with this seed and a few traces of lingering good will restored from this last lesson, perhaps Liliana could expect some return on investment after all.

But until then, there were more important matters that required attention.

After seeing her erstwhile apprentice and the girl’s demon retainer off for the final time, Liliana retired to her study. The college was recovering from the attack quite nicely, perhaps she should even turn over the position of Archmage to that restoration professor, let the woman rise high on her borrowed good will.

With a slight sigh, Liliana pushed the distracted thoughts aside. All of it was just her putting off what she came here to do. 

She had changed little to the furnishings of the Archmage’s study during her tenure. But the most important was the ornate metal box she’d had forged on this plane. The soul gems set in the exterior were perhaps a bit less pleasing to the eye, but they served a valuable purpose. 

With a sigh, Liliana placed said box on top of the oak desk, running her fingers over the metal like a caress. Sealed so, she could barely feel the magic permeating it, barely hear the whispering of the spirits within it.

But still hear them she could. 

With a flick of her fingers the latch popped oven, revealing.

The Chain Veil.

She’d tried to use the strange magics of this plane to purge the spirits from it. To strip the curse from the power it granted. In that regard, Taylor had been immensely helpful. Liliana had taken the same technique and distilled the most powerful ward she could find to a single pane of hardened magic, linked a dozen of them, and tried to pull power from the veil through their protective shell.

A meaningless endeavor, in the end. If anything, having her own mana constructs in such close proximity to the veil only increased how quickly it began to overtake her.

Cursed sheet of metal.

Beyond that, what could this backwards place have to offer? She’d plumbed the depths of soul magic, what little of it they knew, and sought out more than a few daedric artifacts.

Or more precisely, sent her little pet dragon born to retrieve them. For a hoarder of power, the child had been surprisingly willing to hand them over for a spell or a lesson, something about ‘finally finding a use for them.’

But then, the daedra on this plane had only a pitiful ability to manifest their power from Oblivion. There chosen tools? Similarly one dimensional and lack lustre. 

And now, the one useful thing about this plane, the young walker Liliana had met here, was off, so perhaps it was time for Liliana herself to be quit of this backwater as well.

Idly, she ran a finger over the silken links of chain.

‘The eaters of worlds are near’ the spirits whispered, like a breath of wing. ‘Young ancients, slay them before they grow, slaughter them, ruin them, consume them. Before they become more.’

She snorted. Yet more useless advice from a demonic artifact. Perhaps, as a younger girl, she would have paid more heed to these droll whispers, but age an experience had taught her but one thing. 

Even demons of truth did nothing but lie. 

“What to do with you?” she asked herself. “Yet another plane exhausted, and you just as intractable as the day I slew Kothophed. Perhaps I should just cast you into the shivering see, and be done with it.”

Oh but for the sweet allure of power, she would have already done so. The demons of this veil were sinister and deadly, but Liliana’s own demons? Vast and powerful enough that she knew she could not slay them on her own.

Such was the burden of deals paid forward.

With a sigh, she shut the box, muting the veil once more.

Liliana had, perhaps, one more idea. Though it would only require her to return to her favorite plane to test, so there was no great burden. Perhaps she would even catch Markov there, this time, he was always the most pleasant company, no matter what pretentions of responsibility he may have grown since her last visit.

With that thought, she packed what few physical belongings she kept with a wave of her wrist, and penned a brief note to the head mage that under no circumstances should the restoration professor be appointed archmage.

With that endorsement, Liliana would be surprised if the mousy woman would be appointed within the day, or merely the hour.

And really, these neophytes thought themselves good at manipulation.