Ari Marmell - Agents of Artifice

"And let me guess," Jace said, mind racing. "Payment's due."

"Not quite yet. Soon, though." She shuddered. "You have no idea the terrible things they'll demand of me, in order to keep my magics-and my soul."

"Terrible things?" Jace scoffed. "Worse than, oh, say, betraying the man you claim to love, and then conspiring to slaughter his friends?"

"Yes," she told him without hesitation.

Jace stood and paced the cell, the singed straw crunching and crumbling beneath his bare feet. She watched him in silence.

"What's this got to do with me?" he finally demanded. "What did it ever have to do with me?"

"The Consortium," she said simply. "I need a way out, and the Consortium's got the resources to help me find it-if I'm in control. Or if I have enough influence over the one who is."

Jace's mouth twitched. No, he didn't buy it. Her plans were too complex, her need too immediate, to gamble everything on an organization that might help her find an answer.

But at the moment, he chose not to press. There were other answers he wanted-needed-first.

"All right," he said thoughtfully, replaying it all in his mind. "You heard about me, about my leaving the Consortium. And you decided I could do what you needed done."

She nodded. "Even if I thought I was strong enough to take on Tezzeret, I couldn't take him and Baltrice and his guards all alone. And there was no way for me to find him, anyway, or to take the knowledge necessary to run the Consortium from his mind. But you…"

"Right. But me, and my wonderful gift of mind-reading that's done nothing but get me reamed over and over for the past half a decade." The bitterness in his voice could have curdled the contents of the chamber pot behind him.

"So you sought me out, found me in Lurias-within days of my getting there, I might add. I don't suppose you care to tell me how? Somehow, I don't think it was really as simple as your specters picking me out of the crowd."

"No." Did she actually sound nervous?

"Fine. So you pretended to fall in love with me-"

"I didn't pretend!" she protested, but Jace plowed on, ignoring her.

"What I did to Kallist must have presented you some problems." Jace frowned. "Did he have to die, Liliana?"

"I'd hoped not," she said, and Jace found he actually believed her. "But when the spell didn't reverse itself, I didn't see any other option."

"Just like you had to do everything else," he spat. "But fine. Everything else was about making sure I had no choice but to confront Tezzeret, wasn't it? The first time, you tipped Paldor off that I was living in Lurias District. That's when he sent Gemreth and the others. So why not just tip them off again, the second time? Why go through Semner?"

"Because-"

"Ah, right. Because you needed me to be me, and you couldn't risk the Consortium sending someone who could actually kill me before that happened. You needed me to try to 'save Jace,' so I could be me again."

Liliana nodded sadly. "When Kallist was 'you,' he had many of your magics, but not all of them. And even if he had, he wouldn't have your Spark. It had to be the real you."

"So Tezzeret thinks I'm after him, I think he's after me. Every time he lost track of me, you pointed him in the right direction, didn't you? Every time I tried to walk away from the fight, you argued me out of it. And every time he came close to killing me, you fought to make sure it didn't happen."

"That wasn't the only reason," she said with another sigh. "But yes."

"And," he added, with sudden revelation, "now that it's all gone straight to hell, you get to foist all the suspicion off on me, and stay in his good graces. So what story did you tell him, exactly?"

"That the spirit you used to trace him here was yours, not mine, and that I decided it was safest to come with you and try to deliver you to him rather than to risk confronting you on my own." She smiled wanly. "Not the most waterproof story, but since his truth elixir didn't force me to change it…"

"And that would be why? No, wait. Same reason I couldn't read any of this in your mind when we met. You want to explain how that's possible?"

"No. That, you don't get."

"I know you couldn't have done it yourself, Liliana. You're powerful, but you're not a mind-mage. Who helped you?"

"No."

Jace glowered but let it go. "So if you've managed to keep pristine through all this, why help me escape now?"

"Because I don't want to see you suffer what they're going to do to you." Then, at his expression, she actually slammed a palm against the floor. "I mean it, Jace. I really do care for you. I won't pretend it'll stop me from doing what I need to do, but it's true all the same."

"Say I believe that," Jace said, and he was shocked to realize that he wanted to believe it. "What's the other reason?"

"Because I've gotten too close to give up!" Liliana leaned in, her eyes suddenly bright. "We can still win!"

Jace shook his head. "You're insane." "No, think about it! He won't be expecting a second attack, not from you!"

"I can't beat him, damn it!" He found himself clutching the bars, unsure of when he'd actually grabbed for them.

"Not alone," she whispered.

"You? So who handles Baltrice and the guards?"

"No, I didn't mean me. We get help, Jace."

"Who could… You're not serious!"

"You have a better idea? All we have to do is get Tezzeret to Grixis."

"Oh, is that all?"

"Much as he hates you? If he thinks you're escaping, he'll follow you just about anywhere. And if he realizes you're going to Grixis, he'll be that much more desperate to stop you! He knows as well as we do that he can't stand up to you and Bolas."

Jace could only stare. "Even if it proves that easy, you really think Nicol Bolas would interfere?"

"He helped us before. We might have to make a deal, but I think it'd be worth it, don't you?"

That was it, then. Jace could all but hear the last piece of the puzzle click into place in his mind.

Of course. The Consortium wasn't her prize, could not free her from her debt; it was payment, payment to the only one who could.

And now he knew what he had to do.

"If we're actually going to try this," he told her thoughtfully, "there are a few things I need you to find out first."

It was some few days later, as best Jace could tell, when Liliana returned. He'd suffered through only a single "session" with Baltrice in the interim; she must be busy.

"We've less time than I'd hoped," Liliana said to him as the door once more slid shut behind her. "The dreadful duo are conducting some sort of experiment, but I don't know how long that'll keep them occupied."

Jace forced himself to stand, ignoring the pains of his most recent burns, and shuffled across the cell.

"I thought we were waiting until they were off-world again."

Liliana shook her head and placed a large bundle on the floor near the bars. "I don't think we can, Jace. I think they're close to finishing."

He didn't need her to complete the thought, felt himself trembling again at Tezzeret's plans. "Then I guess we'd better hurry," he said, voice quavering.

Despite his frayed nerves, however, he couldn't help but smile as Liliana began to unwrap the bundle, and he recognized the equally frayed blue cloak that served as the bag. She glanced up at his expression and smiled in turn; for just a moment, it was almost enough to make him forget that more than bars now stood between them.

Her movements swift but precise, she laid out an array of odd devices, near the cell but not directly beside it.

"The guards won't miss those?" Jace asked.

Her grin turned nasty. "The guards have bigger problems right now." On cue, the door slid open, and a quartet of Tezzeret's soldiers shambled into the room. Jace barely had to glance their way to see that they were already dead.