Dragon's Maze

Jace crouched near the ledge of the adjacent Azorius tower, his cloak billowing in the wind. A transparency spell shimmered around him, keeping him concealed from any nearby minds. With his mental senses, he eavesdropped with interest on the conversation that was still going on between Lavinia, the sphinx Isperia, and someone they referred to as Kavin.

He did look like Kavin. But Jace knew it couldn’t be the man he knew; he had left Kavin locked beneath miles of stone, a blood-starved vampire. Besides that, Jace couldn’t see into the mind of this vedalken man with whom they spoke. It was a negative hallmark, a sign of the shapeshifter Lazav that Jace could sense by the absence of perceptible thought.

He listened in on Lavinia’s mind instead. “Never heard of it,” she was saying.

Jace had come to pry secrets from Lavinia about the verdict, but after tracking her down, he found that Lazav was asking questions about the verdict as well. It was a coincidence that Jace didn’t like.

“Where did you hear of this?” asked Isperia.

“In my research with Beleren, we discovered it,” said Lazav, in Kavin’s voice. “I think it may be related to the maze. I need to know how it might be triggered.”

Lazav was lying, at least in part. Jace had never encountered this aspect of the maze until he found the bailiff. Lazav’s interest in the verdict gave Jace a cold, tight feeling in his stomach.

“The verdict is a powerful and ancient Azorius spell of devastating justice,” said Isperia. “It’s used only in times of extreme need. It’s said that the verdict was designed to punish all the guilty across an entire district at a time, if such a time ever came to pass.”

“And what if everyone were deemed guilty?” Kavin asked. “It would destroy the entire district?”

“Destroy it utterly, with a wave of devastating power,” said the sphinx. “That’s the nature of the verdict.”

“That’s terrifying,” said Lavinia. Her words echoed Jace’s thoughts exactly. “But what would cause an entire district to be judged guilty?”

“Of course,” said Isperia. “The Implicit Maze. The maze is the test. Azor’s test. And the end is Azor’s verdict.”

“Then all the more reason you should be chosen as the maze-runner, Lavinia,” said Kavin. “You’ve been this district’s most valiant protector for most of your career. You can keep us safe from the verdict. That’s why your choice was true, Your Honor.”

That wasn’t the reason, thought Jace. Lazav wanted Lavinia chosen because he thought he could manipulate her into triggering it, releasing a wave of ruin across the district, killing the thousands of people within it.

THE STARTING LINE

It was the day the dragon had appointed for the maze to begin. Under the curving archways of the Transguild Promenade, Jace surveyed the teams from the sidelines, hiding his location, trying to find one particular woman’s face. He recognized many of the faces, but didn’t see Emmara’s.

There was Exava, effulgent in a new war ensemble featuring shoulder torches and a full spine of shining metal spikes, surrounded by a small horde of burly Rakdos warriors.

There was Ruric Thar, the presumptive Gruul maze-runner, accompanied by the same war party. Ruric and Thar looked bored and impatient, and members of his war party snarled and chest-thumped at anyone who made eye contact with them.

“Move,” growled a guttural voice, and Jace jumped and turned around. A troll lumbered past him, his skin covered in scars and mushroom-like growths. It was Varolz, the Golgari troll he had encountered when tracking down Emmara in the undercity. He was flanked by a trio of dreadlocked elf shamans, all of them wearing a splotchy Golgari guild symbol over their faces in white paint. They moved past him toward the Promenade, scratching their skin and squinting suspiciously at the sun, looking thoroughly uncomfortable to be above ground.

Hovering five feet in the air, concealed in a pocket of shadow under one of the curving columns of the Promenade, was a figure that Jace recognized as Mirko Vosk. He looked to be alone, but Jace didn’t trust that the vampire didn’t have other Dimir agents hidden everywhere. Jace had last left Vosk deep underground, and wondered how he came to be the Dimir maze-runner.

A council of well-armed Azorius lawmages did their best to look composed and nonchalant, but by the way they shifted their feet and constantly sized up the other guild teams, Jace could tell they were out of their element. Jace recognized Lavinia among them, who stood on two feet, immovable as a pillar, one hand on her sword hilt. She barely moved, but Jace could see her eyes scanning the buildings beyond the assembled crowd, possibly even looking for him.