Dragon's Maze

“Eksssss-ava!” cried Exava. “Of the illustrious cult of our demonic lord, Rakdooos!” Her Rakdos warriors yelled and cheered, stabbing the air with a variety of blades, flails, and spiked clubs.

Mirko Vosk floated over to the stage and whispered something.

“I’m sorry?” said Zarek.

“Mirko Vosk,” said Vosk, barely audible.

“What guild?” Zarek said.

“House Dimir.”

Zarek nodded. “Is there a Selesnya delegate?” He looked around. “Selesnya?”

“Start without the tree-lovers,” snorted Tajic, the Boros runner, to a chorus of agreement.

“As much as I would love to,” said Zarek, “we can’t begin without them.”

“I’m here,” came a voice, and the crowd parted to reveal Emmara.

Jace let go of a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.

All eyes turned to look at her. She looked strange somehow, though nothing was different about her appearance. Jace realized that she had no delegation: no elvish wolf-riders at her sides, no Conclave priests or woodshapers, no Calomir on his white rhino. She was alone, an aberration for the guild founded on the value of community. Hairs stood up on Jace’s neck, but he didn’t know why.

She walked to the stage by herself.

“Emmara Tandris, for the Selesnya Conclave.”

“Very well,” said Zarek, his lips cocked sideways in a half grin as he recorded her name.

From his hiding place among the crowd, Jace reached out to Emmara and touched minds with her. He encountered Emmara’s familiar flow of surface thoughts and emotions, and felt a flood of relief. He realized that for a moment, he wasn’t entirely sure the shapeshifter Lazav hadn’t taken her place.

“Good to see you,” Jace thought into Emmara’s mind.

To her credit, her face did not let on that she had heard him. She stared straight up at Zarek, thinking back, “Jace! Where are you?”

“I’m here, at the promenade, with you. Don’t look for me. But I’m with you.”

“I made it here, thanks to you. And I know the route. Jace—you were right about Calomir.”

“Oh. You faced him. I’m sorry.”

“That thing that killed Calomir is still at large. But I made it here.”

“Looks like the Conclave didn’t offer you much support.”

“Even knowing the truth about Calomir, it took a lot to convince them to send me. I think I’ve caused a crisis for Trostani, and for the guild. I think they believe I’ll be less trouble running around the city than stuck there in the Conclave.”

“Then she doesn’t know you very well.”

Jace could see her smile a tiny smile.

Next to Ral Zarek, the elemental creature stepped forward, clashing energies swirling within its body. “And I am Melek,” it said, bowing slightly, its voice buzzing and artificial. “I shall be the maze-runner chosen to represent the—” It stopped, interrupted by Zarek, who raised his gauntlet to ask for silence.

“And I am Ral Zarek,” said Zarek, smirking and imitating the elemental’s voice. With sudden violence, Zarek rammed his gauntlet through the back of the elemental creature, causing a jolt of electricity to crackle. The gauntlet absorbed the electric essence from the Izzet elemental, causing it to hunch and shudder. Sparks flowed out of the elemental runner, depleting it of one of its two elements, leaving behind only a skeleton of ice. Zarek gritted his teeth as the Izzet elemental’s power flowed into him, sending jolts of electricity throughout his body.

After a moment, the former Izzet maze-runner fell onto the stage, a heap of lifeless, steaming ice. “I am Ral Zarek, and I will represent the Izzet,” he announced.

Jace scanned the crowd. All the guilds’ delegations were agitated; they knew nothing would be certain in this race. “Get ready,” he thought to Emmara.

“We now have all ten represented,” said Zarek. “All the eyes of Ravnica are on us, the chosen champions of the guilds. And all of history hence will look back to this day. And now, please listen carefully for the rules.”

The rowdier guilds growled in complaint at the mention of rules. Zarek raised his gauntlet high above his head.

Zarek blasted an omnidirectional pulse of lightning out from his gauntlet. A wave of electricity cascaded from his hand, striking the competitors nearest the stage, knocking them flat and leaving them stunned. The stage broke into pieces, erupting with a flurry of small, foxlike lightning elementals. The elementals leaped on anyone and everyone, biting flesh with teeth made of raw static charge.