Will McDermott - The Moons of Mirrodin

The vedalken didn’t speak. He merely dropped Bruenna’s body and began moving around the pool toward Glissa. The end of his staff pulsed with energy.

“Why?” asked Glissa as she continued to gasp for air. “Why do you want me dead?”

“Because you threaten our way of life, our mastery of this world,” said Janus. “Because Memnarch will use you to destroy Mirrodin, and it is our duty as the master race to protect the other races-from you!”

“Liar!” someone screamed.

Pontifex rose up from the Pool behind Janus. He floated above the liquid, his wet robes matted against his body, glistening in the flickering lights of the room. “Liar!” he screamed again. With a flip of his hand Pontifex flew toward his leader. Liquid sprayed from his robes behind him like a wake as he slammed into Janus and pushed him back into the wall of the chamber. Pontifex grabbed Janus’s staff and tossed it to the floor behind him. The leader of the Synod grabbed at the researcher’s wet robes and tried to push him away. But Pontifex grabbed the leader’s domed head in two hands and flung it against the wall.

Glissa heard a loud crack. Liquid begin oozing from the dome covering Janus’s head. The leader let go of Pontifex and grabbed at his headpiece with all four hands, frantically trying to find the source of the leak. Pontifex, still holding Janus, turned to look at Glissa, who was still kneeling on the floor watching the strange spectacle.

“He convinced the Synod to destroy the champions of each race,” explained Pontifex, “and told them it was to safeguard our power, told them we would lose our power if Memnarch succeeded.”

“It’s true!” screamed Janus. “Memnarch will destroy the world. We will all be lost.”

“All but you-isn’t that right, Janus?” Pontifex turned to accuse his leader. “I have seen all of your lies, hidden deep within the Pool of Knowledge. You would usurp our god and take his place, dooming us and everyone on Mirrodin-all for your own glory.”

Janus’s robes darkened from the liquid draining from his dome. The level inside the dome had fallen past the top of the leader’s head. Janus began to shake uncontrollably. Glissa glanced over at Bruenna. She still lay unconscious where Janus dropped her, but she was dangerously close to the edge of the Pool.

“You were right, Glissa,” continued Pontifex. “Memnarch doesn’t want you dead, for he needs you alive for the final phase of his grand experiment. Janus ordered you killed because you arrived too soon and upset his own plans, for, you see, this snake planned to take Memnarch’s place in the grand design. But he wasn’t yet ready to move against our god, so you needed to be eliminated.”

The liquid was now below Janus’s flattened nose. Glissa could hear him gasping for breath. His eyes, which had been dark and sunken, now protruded from their sockets. He struggled against Pontifex, obviously desperate to get away from the researcher and fix his cracked dome. The two vedalken pushed against one another. Their arms flailed for purchase on each other’s wet robes.

Janus whipped his head forward and slammed his cracked globe into the front of Potifex’s own dome. The researcher’s head snapped back, and he lost his balance. Pontifex fell away from Janus. He tried to grab the leader’s robes to steady himself, but Janus knocked Pontifex’s arms away and pushed him to the floor.

“I will kill you for this insolence, Pontifex,” screamed Janus. His voice warbled as the liquid sloshed around his mouth.

Janus stepped over Pontifex and headed for his staff, which still pulsed with summoned mana. Glissa scrambled forward and dived for the staff. Janus reached for it but fell to the floor just short. Glissa grabbed the staff and rolled over. Pontifex grasped his leader’s robe again, pulling him away from the staff. Glissa scrambled to her feet and lowered the head of the staff to touch Janus’s cracked dome.

“Leave him to me,” said Pontifex, “and I will make sure Janus pays for his lies, pays for his crimes against the vedalken and our god.”

“I think not,” said Glissa. “He needs to pay for his crimes against my people-my family.”

She flicked her wrist as she had seen Janus do that night in the Tangle. She wasn’t sure the staff would work for her, but Janus hadn’t spoken when he activated the staff’s power earlier. It all seemed to be in the hands.

A stream of blue energy streaked from the staff and enveloped Janus. The vedalken screamed and clutched at his chest. Pontifex released the leader’s robes and rolled back toward the wall. Glissa held the staff steady and poured more mana into the effect. The remaining liquid inside the dome began to boil. Bubbles filled the dome and popped against the cracked glass.

Smoke rose from Janus’s robes as he tore at the fabric with his hands. Glissa kept pumping mana from the staff into the spell. The skin on the vedalken’s arms blistered and peeled away. Layer after layer of skin sloughed off until the vedalken’s muscles were exposed. These melted off the bones, leaving a sticky goo on his smoldering robes.

It was a gruesome sight. Memories of Kane welled up inside her as Glissa watched Janus melt before her. Tears streamed down her face, but she didn’t turn away. She had to see this through. Exact her revenge. The glass dome on Janus’s head shattered and Glissa could see his eyes, almost pleading with her to let him die. After all that, the leader still lived. Glissa could have ended his pain with a quick swing of her sword, but she didn’t. He didn’t deserve a noble death at the end of her sword. He deserved pain.

Finally, there was nothing left of Janus except robes, bones, and a skull rattling around inside the shattered dome. Glissa broke the vedalken’s staff over her knee and dropped it on his robes. She glanced at Pontifex, who was curled up against the wall. She shook her head and walked over toward Bruenna’s crumpled body. Glissa sat down next to Bruenna, lifted the unconscious mage’s head, and cradled it in her lap.

“It’s over,” she said.

“Not exactly, my dear,” said Pontifex. He had risen and walked over to the door that led to the corridor. The researcher passed his hand over a dark circle on the wall, and an alarm began ringing out in the corridor. “For you see, I am loyal to Memnarch, and I plan to deliver you to him for the final phase of his glorious experiment.”

Bruenna moaned. Her skin was pale and her breath shallow. Glissa laid the mage’s head down on the floor and bent over to check her leg. The leather strips Bruenna had tied around the wound were soaked with blood. The barbed head of the harpoon stuck out the back of her thigh, along with the jagged end of a bone. Glissa had to get the harpoon out so she could set the leg. Only then could she apply any forest healing magic. But pulling on the harpoon would do more damage. The barbed head was lodged behind the bone. She couldn’t push or pull on the weapon without ripping the broken bone from Bruenna’s leg.

Glissa looked up at Pontifex, who was moving around the Pool toward her. “Help me,” she said. “She’ll die if we don’t get this harpoon from her.”

“Perhaps you didn’t hear me,” said Pontifex as he came closer. “You are my prisoner now. Leave her. She is not important.”

Glissa stared up at Pontifex. “She is important to me,” she replied. “Besides, I just saved your life. You owe me this.”

“And I saved yours,” said Pontifex, “so I owe you nothing.”

“Fine,” said Glissa. “We’ll call it even. Now, help her and I will go with you peacefully.”

“I don’t believe you, but you will go with me, peacefully or not, for as we speak, several squads of guards are on their way.” Pontifex moved up beside Glissa. “With Janus’s death and my knowledge of his treachery, my place on the Synod is now assured. So tell me, why should I bargain with you, you who have nothing more to give me but your life?”