//------------------------------// // Old scars, new wounds // Story: City of Guilds // by donceluzza //------------------------------// City of Guilds Chapter 5: Old scars, New Wounds Shining Armor stood in Feather’s office with Cadence. The two ponies waited as Feather shuffled through paper after paper, doing the absurd paperwork that came with being a guild master. Finally she set the papers down and gave her attention to Shining and his wife. “This had better be good news, Armor, I’m having a bad enough day as it is.” Shining stood at attention. “Well, I discussed the issue of Borborygmos with an outside source, Twilight Sparkle.” Cadence seemed pleased by his admission, Feather not as much. “So we have a problem with a force of destruction, and your idea was to get the help of someone even more destructive.” Shining blushed. “Good idea, good to know that the stress ain’t getting to you.” Cadence stepped in. “My husband’s sister is a paragon of magic in our realm; you should show a little more respect.” Shining’s face turned even whiter as Cadence stepped even closer to Feather. “She’s not the one I’m worried about, perhaps you should be worrying about the Mafioso who’s helping because you promised her a toy for Hearth’s Warming Eve.” Feather closed her eyes and breathed in and out slowly. She was really trying to be nice here, but these ponies… “Listen, I’m keeping an eye on the Orzhov alright, but this sister of his, she’s one of the most destructive members of the Izzet League, a guild known for being destructive idiots.” She pushed her face closer to Cadence, who stared back unblinking. “The Izzet are smart people who do dumb things. They want to test a generator, so they place it in a civilian area and let it blow up. Tell me how am I supposed to protect this plane when my trusted generals are teaming up with criminals?” “Twilight actually came up with two good plans, both of which are already in motion.” Shining’s voice called the two out of their staring contest. Shining allowed himself a sigh of relief that he got the two women to back off. “Her plan for catching Borborygmos so that we can request his aid is actually restrained, for an Izzet.” Feather relaxed back into her chair. “Go on.” “She plans to use an invention of hers that she calls ‘Vedalken Shackles’ in order to restrain him once we get him by surprise.” He inhaled sharply before continuing. “We’ve made a deal with Pinkie Pie in order to hold a Rakdos performance to lure out Borborygmos.” Shining looked into Feather’s eyes and saw her distrust. Any plan that began with ‘deal with Rakdos’ was a plan doomed to fail in the eyes of most Boros. “What are her terms?” she whispered through gritted teeth. “There is an apartment in the undercity that she wants us to leave alone. It’s an apartment for guildless apparently, and there is one more thing.” He looked over to his wife, hesitant. “She wants Celestia to promise to leave her here on Ravnica, and she won’t help unless this request goes through.” Cadence’s expression darkened. Those were words that she hoped she wouldn’t have to hear. “I understand, I’ll return to Equestria and talk to Celestia; maybe she’ll understand.” She gave Shining a short-but-loving kiss on the lips before she vanished. Feather sighed before going back to her paperwork. “Well, you seem to have everything under control to a certain extent. I’ll just assume that you have some leads on the murder of Scognor; you’re dismissed.” She started to wave him out, only to notice that he hadn’t budged. “You have something else, Armor?” Shining shifted slightly in place and inhaled before continuing. “I wanted to know about the Dissension crisis.” Feather placed the papers back onto her desk. “My partner and to a certain extent myself are starting to believe that the rumors of the Dimir, aren’t as unfounded as we originally thought.” She turned the picture of the human man to herself and looked straight at it, a small smile gracing her lips. “I need to know, who is this Szadec? How was he stopped before?” Feather pushed the picture over to Shining. Grasping it in his magic he looked at the picture of the human man. He was tall, brown-skinned, and wore a similar style of golden armor to Shining himself. “Argus Kos,” Feather muttered. “He started and ended the Dissension crisis.” Shining gave a quizzical look to Feather. “Szadec was bound by the original guildpact; his purpose was to attempt to destroy it, and Argus denied him that purpose, which ended in the destruction of the guildpact.” “So how was he stopped?” “All of Ravnica came together. Everyone knew that we were under attack, and everyone came to arms.” She sighed and opened her desk up, revealing another small trinket. The object she held was a burned piece of cloth. “Everything collapsed, the Dimir and the Simic tried to destroy everything, but in the end the destruction was stopped, and Argus Kos made the call to be the warden of the Dimir.” “The warden?” “When Szadec was banished to Agyrem, no one was naïve enough to believe that it would last forever.” Feather continued to fiddle with the small piece of cloth. “He was far too powerful, and we all knew that without a sacrifice he would return sooner rather than later. So Argus Kos offered to become a ghost warden. He died and sealed himself in Agyrem to stay and watch over Szadec, to watch and wait for the time when he’d try to escape.” “So you honestly think that Szadec could escape? Even with all of these precautions and preparations?” Shining scoffed and placed the picture back in front of Feather. “Have more faith in him and in us, there is no way that Szadec will get by us, he will not make it to Ravnica.” “That’s the thing, Shining,” Feather muttered. “I’m afraid he already did, and we just didn’t notice it.” A human burst in through the doors, panting and clutching a scroll in his hands. “Captain… captain,” the recruit wheezed. “Problems… problem…” Shining placed his hoof on the recruit’s back. “Get a grip on yourself!” Feather responded in a more annoyed tone. “What news is so bloody important?” The man placed the scroll on the table. “Another murder.” The captain and the angel exchanged a look. “Another major figure.” He took a deep breath. “Myczil.” He had barely finished saying the name before Shining was already running out the door. “It was at the promenade,” the human screamed back at him. Shining had already guessed that part. He ran towards the Promenade screaming for people to get out of his way. Shining knew about Myczil, and he knew the political shit storm that was about to hit once the various parties he was a part of arrived at the Promenade. Myczil was born a devkarin, a dark elf. The devkarin were normally associated with the Golgari guild, but there is an exception to every rule. Myczil was the exception as his guild was the Selesnya. There was a reason for this disparate pairing, and that had to do with Myczil’s heritage. His mother was Fonn, one of the Selesnya heroes of the Dissension crisis. But his father was Jarad, current guildmaster of the Golgari guild. In the end he decided to become a servant of the Selesnya guild, but retained a healthy enough relationship with his father. Hence why both guilds coming together and making trouble was certain at this point. Shining finally arrived at the Transguild Promenade. And much like the last time that he was here, all four days ago, a crowd surrounded the body in the center of the Promenade. The body of Myczil hung limply from the statue of his mother Fonn. He was a tad more muscular than the average elf, basically an average human in terms of muscle mass. His darkened skin, which marked him as a member of the devkarin race, was covered in blood. While some of it was the grayish blood of the devkarin, there was also a decent concentration of normal red blood. “Out of the way, investigation in progress,” Shining yelled, dispersing the crowd. Pushing through the crowd, Shining stood in front of Myczil’s body. The body was stabbed multiple times, much like Scootaloo. The wounds seemed eerily similar to those of Scootaloo’s as well. ‘No doubt about it, this is the same killer.’ Shining allowed the humans already there to take care of the preparations for the body as he stood pondering. ‘Scootaloo’s body could be chalked up to a grudge. The Gruul aren’t exactly well-loved. Myczil was a good guy though. Despite his heritage, a lot of people liked him.’ The humans removed Myczil’s body from the statue, causing many Selesnya patrons in the crowd to begin chanting something. A loud voice called Shining out of his reverie. “Make way for a Jedav of the Selesnya guild.” This was followed by a whisper of, “umm, if you don’t mind.” Two forms pushed their way through the crowd. One was a particularly loud elf, and the other was a butter-colored pegasus. “I have come here with the Selesnya garden keeper, Fluttershy, to claim Myczil’s body.” “What is your claim over his body?” called one of the humans that had gotten the body down. “We Boros require the body for autopsy; we believe it to be part of a serial murder.” The human was basically reading from the Boros handbook at this point. “He is our great ancestor Fonn’s son. We of the Selesnya wish to bury him in the Worldsoul.” the Jedav responded. “It is our right to bury our heroes.” “Except that he ain’t just yours!” screamed another voice in a familiar Southern drawl. Applejack, having no problem getting people to step aside, stomped her way to the body of Myczil. Once she reached his dead body, she bowed to it and dipped her hat in reverence. “Get that weed away from him!” screamed the Jedav. “Weed?” Applejack giggled. “Ah reckon they don’t teach comebacks in yer fancy Jedav School?” As much as Shining didn’t want to, he laughed. The Jedav shot him a glare, which would have had more impact if she wasn’t blushing. “My ‘comebacks’ aren’t the important thing here,” she said. “Thankfully for you,” Applejack responded. The Jedav’s hand immediately went to her sheath. “Stop,” screeched a voice behind both of them. Fluttershy stood between Applejack and the Jedav. “It’s an insult to Myczil to fight like this; we both have an equal claim.” The crowd murmured amongst each other, clearly diagreeing. “He was both our ancestor and her guildmaster’s son.” The murmuring amongst the crowd continued. The Jedav stepped in. “We cannot stay long, for we must prepare a burial rite before the Centennial Celebration.” Applejack walked forward, pushing her face pushing against the Jedav. “Well then ya’ll can leave, and I’ll take the body back for Jarad to bury him.” The Jedav once again reached for her sword. Vines circled around Applejack, spanning from her body outwards. Shining and Fluttershy stepped between the two, Shining’s horn glowing with white magic. “The Promenade is a place of peace. You will not engage in battle here.” Fluttershy snapped to attention and ran to Applejack. “I know what we can do; we’ll ask for an Azorius judge to decide!” Fluttershy seemed excited over the idea, Applejack less so. “Won’t that be great?” she asked aloud. “A fantastic idea, madam, and surely they will side with us, and allow us to bury our dead,” the Jedav added smugly. “Now wait, it isn’t set in stone…” Fluttershy added. “Yeah, yah don’t know that they’ll side with you over me,” Applejack interjected. “Jarad is just as deserving of burying his son than you are, more so even.” Applejack turned to leave. “We’ll see if the Azorius can have a trial set up for tomorrow.” “Yes, until then the Boros can hold onto his body, just to make things fair,” the Jedav added, going to follow Applejack. Fluttershy started after the Jedav and Applejack, turning back to Shining Armor. “I’m really sorry about all of this, Shining Armor.” With that she ran off, probably to New Prahv to request an immediate audience. Shining did notice however that she left with a certain amount of sadness in her tone and posture. Shining, on the other hand, was pleased as punch. The argument hadn’t resorted to violence, it was going to be resolved by someone other than Shining himself, and as an added bonus he actually would have some time to analyze the body before it had to be handed off. Shining hopped on the cart that the humans were using to carry Myczil’s body. The trip back to the guildhall was uneventful. The thought at the forefront of Shining’s mind was the Centennial Celebration. He hadn’t really been thinking about it the last few days, but now that he had been reminded… “Shining Armor,” Feather’s voice called, snapping him back to reality. “Report.” “Right.” He saluted his guild parun. “The body has been confirmed as Myczil of the Selesnya. The arrival of a Jedav with Garden Master Fluttershy complicated matters somewhat.” Feather face-palmed. “And I suppose that Jarad also made his presence known?” “Actually no, Applejack did.” “Huh.” Feather looked to be contemplating whether this was better or worse. “How much trouble?” “None, they agreed to allow the Azorius to settle it tomorrow; until then the body is ours to look over.” Feather laughed heartily and slapped Shining on the back playfully. “Good, finally some decent stroke of luck found us.” She gave the stallion a small wing-hug and unwrapped Myczil’s body. “Alright.” She slapped her hands together and began chanting a spell. Light shone from her fingers and spread throughout Myczil’s wounds. The humans who had brought Myczil in descended from the cart. “So we really think that this’ll give us the lead that we need?” Shining nodded. “Yeah, if we locate what the magical signature is that is preventing reanimation on the body we might be able to figure out the caster.” He watched as Feather’s magic enveloped the body more thoroughly. “If someone is powerful enough to prevent reanimation, then we might be able to figure out who’s responsible. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that with the body of Scognor.” “Why not?” the human inquired. “Two reasons,” Shining responded. “One is that the Golgari got there first, so we wouldn’t be able to tell what was their magic and what was the killer’s magic. Second is that Scognor was a pegasus; where I came from that means that she doesn’t have as much natural magic, so we would’ve gotten a weaker signal than from a dark elf.” Feather removed her hands, and her magic, from Myczil. “Odd.” She looked to Shining, who seemed dissatisfied with her one-word answer. “I’ve never seen magic like this, but at the same time I have. I know it can’t be her, partly because she’s dead, but this magic reminds me a great deal of Savra.” “Jarad’s sister?” Shining questioned. “She had a great deal of magical power, particularly in the field of necromancy. Specifically, she could cancel a necromancer’s ability to regenerate.” “Whoa,” the humans responded in unison. “So she could beat any necromancer in a fight, huh?” asked one of them. “Not necessarily,” Feather continued. “She tried to take over the Golgari, ended up killing Svogthir, the parun, and the sisters of stone death, but was killed herself.” The realization hit Shining like a mountain of bricks. “The Scry Tome.” Feather smiled, she always knew that Shining was a good detective. “If the Scry Tome can utilize the magic of any soul trapped in it, then that means that someone could use Savra’s magic.” “Yep, they wouldn’t even have to have a connection to black or green mana, they could be an Azorius and still the spell would work. Before you ask, Shining, I did look into the whole Scry Tome mess.” “And?” “My personal tome, the one we owe Trixie, Niv-Mizzet’s, and one of our back-ups are accounted for; one of them is missing.” Everything clicked. Someone had stolen the Tome and had been using it for murder. They had somehow gotten a hold of Savra’s soul and were using it to prevent reanimation in their targets. Only one question, aside from who was doing it, remained in Shining Armor’s mind. “Why these targets?” he asked. “Why Scootaloo? Why Myczil? Why the Promenade?” As much information as the body of Myczil had provided, it only served to make the investigation more complex. It didn’t need to be voiced that the remote possibility of Rainbow Dash being the killer was kicked to the curb. Aside from the logistical questions regarding her access to the Scry Tome and how to work it, she had no feud with Myczil. The possibility of the Dimir was now growing into a full-on truth. The Dimir were known, when they were still operating, as a guild of information. They knew everything about Ravnica, everything. There was little, if anything, worse than fighting a Dimir, especially one who knew about something as dangerous as the Scry Tome. “Shining.” Feather snapped him back to reality. “You’ve been zoning out for a while there, got any leads?” “Well…” he began. “Unfortunately, I see no other possibility than the resurgence of the Dimir guild.” He gulped. “Clearly someone with an insane amount of magic as well, we aren’t dealing with common vermin, we’re dealing with…” “A new guildmaster,” Feather finished. The implication of a new guild guildmaster for the Dimir, either working for or independent of Szadec, was a terrifying prospect. A shiver shot down Feather’s spine. Shining’s muscles tensed and he gritted his teeth. “If this is true, then we aren’t just talking about an interguild incident…” “We’re smack-dab in the middle of a new Dissension level crisis,” Shining finished. “And we’re the only ones who know anything about it.” Applejack had finally returned to her home in the undercity. She and the Jedav had managed to get the Azorius to break protocol and set them up a trial tomorrow. Her gaze fell upon the mutated tree house that she called her home. In terms of structure it seemed similar to Twilight’s old home on Equestria, however only in the broadest terms. The bark was gray and lifeless, the branches had long since wilted, and leaves hadn’t grown on the tree since long before she came to Ravnica. On the inside Applejack had a decent living space but not much beyond that. She had a small one-person bed, missing most of its springs but still intact. A small couch also adorned the small living space, beyond that a simple bathroom; that was all that Applejack needed. Jarad provided everything else in exchange for her services. Applejack threw herself onto the bed and let out a dramatic sigh. “I take it that things didn’t go well,” a voice called from her backroom. Jarad stepped into the living space, clothed in his usual rotted leather cloak. Applejack couldn’t bring herself to even look the devkarin in the eyes. “It isn’t your fault.” “Nah, it’s them,” she muttered. “Trial tomorrow, decides who gets the body.” Jarad nodded solemnly. Both of them knew this couldn’t mean anything good. While the Azorius prided themselves on being the untainted law of Ravnica they were just as susceptible to profiling as anyone. It was pretty well understood that when it came to rulings the Azorius favored people like the Selesnya or the Orzhov that followed, or at least pretended to follow, their rules. Meanwhile anyone in the Izzet, Rakdos, or Golgari guilds were often fined higher, charged harder, and arrested quicker. “I understand that you’ve done your best, and I hope that you’ll continue to do your best when you represent me tomorrow at the hearing.” Applejack jumped off of her bed and bowed before Jarad. “Ah want to thank you for yer trust in mah abilities.” Jarad put a rotting, bony hand on her head. “Ah just wish that we had a better chance.” Jarad laughed a sinister laugh. “Yes, but that isn’t the only thing that we have to worry about.” Applejack stood, and Jarad handed her a slip of paper. Using the vines coursing through her body she grabbed the paper; it featured Myczil being followed by an equine. “As you can see, we have more things to worry about than just my son’s death; as much as I would love some time to grieve, having a Ravnica to grieve on is a tad more important.” “Yah really think it’s Szadec?” “Absolutely, and I have a theory about the anti-necromancy enchantments on the bodies, but I’ll need your help with this.” Applejack perked up. “I need you to, after the trial of course, look into something called a Scry Tome.”