Greg Weisman - War Of The Spark_ Ravnica

The three of them still hadn’t achieved the cathedral, but they were no longer alone. Teyo, Rat and Kaya were now in the company of an increasing number of Domri Rade’s Gruul warriors,
including Rat’s father Gan Shokta, plus shamans, druids, an ogre and a couple of bipedal lizard-women that Rat called viashino. During a battle against another Eternal phalanx, they had also
been joined by what Rat called “terraformers, super-soldiers and merfolk” of the Simic Combine, led by “Biomancer” Vorel; and by Izzet “mech-mages”—human, goblin, and blue-skinned
vedalken—led by Chamberlain Maree. A second battle had added two more Planeswalkers to their ranks: a merfolk woman named Kiora from a world called Zendikar, and a young human
woman named Samut from Amonkhet, which was apparently the source of the Eternal threat.
Samut fought with a fury and a passion Teyo had never seen before. She seemed to know the names of every single one of her lazotep foes, grimly saying, “You are free, Eknet. You are
free, Temmet. You are free, Neit,” as she slew each one.
Teyo had come to realize that Gobakhan—with its diamondstorms and monks, its humans, dwarves and djinn—was a rather tame world relative not just to Ravnica, but to every other plane
that every other Planeswalker hailed from. He no longer felt overwhelmed by this. He was so far beyond the concept of being overwhelmed that the remarkable, the astounding, the
sensational washed over him like the unending wheel of the sky, leaving him in a permanent state of awed wonder, to which he was simply growing accustomed.
This seemed to amuse Rat to no end: “You’ve never seen merfolk before?”
“We don’t have much water on Gobakhan.”
“You’ve never seen a vedalken?”
“I know people with black skin, brown skin, tawny skin and tan skin, but I’ve never seen anyone with blue skin before.”
“You’ve never seen a viashino?”
“Maybe some of our lizards grow up to be viashino?”
She laughed at every answer. It was a lovely sound, like precious water, flowing from a miraculous plum faucet. He knew she was teasing him, and he had always hated being teased by
the other acolytes—but with Rat, he somehow didn’t mind.
“Ever seen a rat before?”
“I’ve seen many rats on Gobakhan. None like you.”
She laughed again and punched him in the arm. (Not gently, either.)
If anything, the one bit of strangeness most curious to Teyo Verada was the schism between father and daughter. Gan Shokta refused to even look at his daughter, let alone speak to her,
let alone thank her for saving his life. Araithia Shokta would steal the occasional glance at her father, but she made no attempt to confront him, reach out to him or communicate with him in
any way. Teyo, an orphan, longed to ask why, longed to know the history behind their sad divide, but though she seemed to take this snubbing with uncommon composure, he could tell that
beneath the surface it caused his new friend substantial pain. Maybe he would ask her sometime, if they survived long enough to ever have a private moment.
At this moment, they were in the midst of yet another battle against yet another crop of Eternals. The Dreadhorde had the high ground atop a cobblestoned hill, and Vorel shouted a
command to take the invaders out.
The Izzet leader Maree was about to object to taking orders from the Simic biomancer, but before she could speak, Rade scornfully told Vorel he could take his orders and shove them
someplace Teyo thought was anatomically impossible.
Rade nevertheless led his troops uphill, shouting, “C’mon, mates! We don’t need these lab rats teaching us how to knock heads!”
Teyo glanced at Maree, who had clearly decided she’d rather be Vorel’s ally than Domri Rade’s peer.
So the Gruul, Simic and Izzet stormed the hill, accompanied by Teyo, Rat, Kaya and Kiora. Teyo looked around for Samut and realized she was already up there, killing Eternals: “You are
free, Haq. You are free, Kawit.”
Just as Teyo reached the summit, two women suddenly materialized within arm’s reach of him. Karn’s spell instantly identified both as Planeswalkers with golden auras trailing into the sky
—in case the materializing hadn’t been enough of a clue. Both of these Planeswalkers had warm brown skin. Otherwise, they could hardly have looked less alike. One—whom he later learned
was named Huatli—was armored and armed, with a long tightly braided black ponytail emerging from beneath her helm. She was short but powerfully muscled with searching eyes and a
determined mouth. The other—later introduced as Saheeli Rai—had on a long swirling dress, decorated with plentiful gold filigree. She was taller and wore her hair in swirls atop her head,
which made her seem taller still. She was lithe and graceful with curious eyes and a smiling mouth.
Despite their differences, they were clearly friends. Attempting to size up the situation, they exchanged a quick glance but stood there doing nothing, perhaps unsure which side they
should be on. Teyo inadvertently answered their unspoken question by throwing up some small bit of geometry to block an axe thrown by one of the Eternals that might otherwise have split
the taller girl’s skull.
She thanked him, as did the shorter girl on behalf of her friend.
Glancing the newcomers’ way, Rat scurried past them to attack another Eternal. They paid her no mind, and Rat returned the favor.
Teyo increased the size of his four-pointer to protect all three of them.
“Might we ask what’s going on?” asked Saheeli.
“Or where we are?” asked Huatli.
“You’re on Ravnica. I just arrived here myself. I’ve been a Planeswalker for all of four hours, so I’m probably not the best person to fill you in, but we’re all fighting these undead monsters.
They’re invaders to this plane, attacking and killing everyone they can. They’re called Eternals, and they work for an evil dragon named Bolas. That’s the short version. Rat could explain it
better.”
Saheeli asked, “Invaders? Are they all Planeswalkers?”
“No. They came—well, really, they’re still coming—through something called a ‘Planar Bridge.’ It’s a big portal. Like a window to another world.”
Saheeli’s mouth became a straight line. Her eyes became slits. She said coldly, “I know what it is.” She reached into a small purse at her side and drew something out. It seemed to be a
little ball of spun gold. But it quickly spooled open, transforming into a kind of golden clockwork hummingbird, which hovered before her face. She nodded once. The bird nodded back.
Then it shot straight up into the air, flying over Teyo’s shield. At high speed it flew right through the forehead of one Eternal, emerging out the back of its skull. The Eternal staggered and
dropped. But the bird never slowed. It repeated the process on another Eternal and another.
Huatli had drawn a short curved weapon, the likes of which Teyo had never seen before. She nodded to him. He didn’t understand but nodded back. It seemed the polite thing to do.
“Let me out from behind this,” she said curtly.
Teyo nodded again, slightly embarrassed. His four-pointer reduced down to three points, covering only Saheeli and himself. Teyo was briefly distracted by the fact that he had achieved
that tidy little bit of shieldmagery without chanting anything. He wasn’t quite sure when he had stopped chanting, but he’d been creating geometry without words for some time now without
noticing it.
He smiled grimly: The abbot would not approve.
Huatli, meanwhile, was taking quite well to the killing of Eternals.
The battle was not without casualties. The Gruul ogre had rushed in too far ahead of his fellows. Though he crushed five or six lazotep skulls with his stone hammer, the Eternals
eventually swarmed over him, dragged him down and stabbed him about thirty times. A Simic shaman took a moment too long to cast her spell and wound up beheaded. The fallen head did
manage to speak the last few necessary words before expiring, and the creature who had killed her exploded in a shower of lazotep and goop.
Despite these horrific setbacks, the battle was over a few minutes later. They had won, and not a single Eternal remained alive or undead. As the small crowd of heroes caught their
collective breaths, Teyo heard a remote but earsplitting CRACK, like heat lightning in the middle of the Western Cloud. They all turned, and from their vantage atop the hill they could see four
immense Eternals towering over the distant Tenth District Plaza.
Rat said, “Whoa. Big.”