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the Project	By : theLureln Category: +M through R > Magic: The Gathering Views: 11901 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Magic the Gathering characters or settings, anything else is mine. This story is not being written for profit.

Chapter List
- 1-the Project
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-10
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-Fourteen
- 15-15
- 16-16
- 17-17
- 18-18
- 19-19
- 20-20
- 21-21
- 22-22
- 23-23
- 24-24
- 25-25
- 26-26
- 27-27
- 28-28
- 29-29
- 30-30
- 31-31
- 32-32
- 33-33
- 34-34
- 35-35
- 36-36
- 37-37
- 38-38
- 39-39
- 40-40
- 41-41
- 42-42
- 43-43
- 44-44
- 45-45
- 46-46
- 23
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- 25
Niv-Mizzet had not expected Jace to seek out Lorissa again. He rarely overlooked a possibility when crafting tactics, in fact every plan he considered had multiple contingency paths in place. Yet when it came to the designs he had laid out for his little mundane archivist, he discovered he’d been making miscalculations left and right.
For some time he had been observing Jace Beleren, even before his ascendance to status as the Living Guildpact. The human boy was a mystery; his life on Ravnica an abrupt line of appearing and disappearing over time. For one as old as the Firemind, such an oddity was intriguing in that it kept life interesting. Where did the man go and more importantly, how? Once Jace became the Guildpact, Niv’s interest in him increased. To have such a tool at his disposal would be useful indeed.
When he had first run across Lorissa, it was a whim to try and find her a mate. She was intelligent and shrewd with a work ethic he had rarely seen in one of so few years. It took him very little time to discover she also had influential family members in many of the guilds. Having her loyalty had its uses and a possibility for more in the future. Why not see to her happiness and use her to secure the fealty of her mate as well, once he had an adequate one in mind.
Jace had shown up while the Dracogenius was trying to decide upon a companion for her and he had instantly known it would be in his best interest to tie the Guildpact to his guild. What better way than by pairing him up with the industrious Lorissa deCar; he could kill two birds with one stone. In his experience, human males were exceedingly rash when their hormones were engaged. It was possible by introducing the two of them; nature would take its course without more than a nudge or two by the dragon. Both Jace and Lorissa were attractive enough members of their species; she did have the fault of lacking magic but the Firemind had a hunch such a flaw could be overlooked in the short term. Long enough for the man to fall for her. Of course, he knew almost nothing about Jace on a personal level; only what his minions had learned while tailing the elusive mage. Still, he didn’t think the man would be a threat to her.
So he had orchestrated their initial meeting and then watched first in amusement, then amazement and finally in abhorrence as Jace proceeded to take an obvious physical attraction between them with a promise of something more and run it into the ground. The man was a complete idiot when it came to Lorissa; the reserve and level headedness that Jace seemed to normally possess vacated the premises every time he was around her. He said the most arrogant, selfish, baffling things to her that the dragon had ever heard. Granted, the Dracogenius was only privy to parts of their conversations that took place in the library or when she was carrying around one of the guild insignias. But it was often enough that he realized Jace was damaged and wary in the relationship department. Niv-Mizzet was going to have to find another way to bind him to the Izzet League.
It was annoying having to admit defeat, particularly when his archivist was the one suffering due to his poor judgment in picking a mate for her. She was too professional to let her personal problems ruin the quality of her work, but it was easy to see when he visited her that she was feeling sad and confused. She seemed to have developed a sudden doubt about her own self worth, which the dragon could lay directly at the feet of the Mind Sculptor and therefore at his own feet as well.
When Venser had seemingly fallen into the Firemind’s lap, he had been delighted with the opportunity to bind another tool to him and restore Lorissa’s formerly strong self confidence. This new man was definitely a traveler; or a Walker as they liked to call themselves according to the person he had located who was discretely investigating such things. His henchman had been able to confirm as much with an outside source who had been feeding the dragon reliable information about the subject for months. Although Venser was no Living Guildpact, he was still well worth investing in.
And so Niv-Mizzet had agreed to allow the man the use of his library, with every intention of calling in the favor the Sojourner would owe him. He had been most pleased to discover the fellow already knew Lorissa and had ties to her family, it made the task so much easier to start. The two worked well together and complimented one another in ways that had never been apparent or allowed to develop with the Architect of Thought. But the pace was incredibly slow, and the dragon had begun trying to think of a way to speed things along when Jace suddenly showed up in the library to see Lorissa.
Now the Dracogenius was undecided as to what to do; a position he rarely found himself in. While Jace was the far more powerful piece to have at hand, past encounters between the man and Lorissa seemed to clearly indicate anything between them was doomed to fail. Venser, although not nearly as powerful, appeared to be much more suited to her. He was just taking an eternity to do anything about it.
Niv-Mizzet pondered the matter as he absent mindedly listened in to the awkward conversation between Jace and Lorissa, viewing the issue from as many angles as he could muster given that he knew little about human romance, before he finally concluded he should settle on the more reliable Venser and give the man a bit of a push.
To this end, he summoned one of his brightest and most ambitious mages, the rather reckless Ral Zarek. The young man was headstrong and given to bouts of impetuousness, but he had an abiding loyalty to the guild overall. And he was incredibly powerful in his own right. Niv-Mizzet had drawn his own conclusions about the nature of the young man but given that he still didn’t completely understand those who were able to cross dimensions, he kept his deductions to himself.
Ral looked bored and impatient when he answered the summons, but he gave a bow that was deferential enough to let him live to see another day. “Greetings, my liege.”
The dragon snorted at the feigned subservience, well aware that this man was every bit as arrogant as he was himself. His usefulness kept him alive and in favor. “I have a chore for you. Venser, the man that I had you look into previously, is going to be in residence in our library for some time. He’s under the care of one of the archivists by the name of Lorissa deCar. I would like for you to…encourage a pairing between them.”
If the Dracogenius had asked him to dress up a pig and kiss it, Ral couldn’t have been more surprised. He, like many in the guild, had noticed the parun’s unusual interest in the personal life of the female. She had passable good looks and seemed intelligent enough, but her lack of magic made her unremarkable for the most part. He couldn’t understand what about her drew the Firemind’s attention for the life of him, although now he began to suspect the dragon was using her as a means to enlisting outside talent into the guild. It wasn’t a terrible idea, but the choice of bait seemed odd to Ral.
And being asked to play matchmaker was beneath him. He had enough on his plate, not only on this plane but in his exploration of others as well. But he couldn’t very well go against the guildmaster’s wishes; at least not directly. He might not be thrilled with the thought of acting like a chaperone but it would give him a chance to more thoroughly study Venser, who he recognized as a Planeswalker albeit different from himself.
He was about to respond to the dragon when the doors to the inner aerie burst open and the Living Guildpact strode in. Ral had conflicted feelings about Jace. He respected the other man’s powers and intellect as much as he envied them. He also had a bit of an axe to grind thanks to the way the other mage constantly seemed to interfere with or alter Ral’s plans. The two had an uneasy truce due to their positions and following Ral’s discovery of their shared nature. But he didn’t like the man much.
Niv-Mizzet acknowledged the impatient entrance with a droll, “Do come in.”
Jace had the grace to look disconcerted for a moment, as if he hadn’t realized how forcefully he’d entered the room. Then he cloaked the uncharacteristic sign of weakness behind a bored expression and said, “I’m a little early for our meeting; if you don’t mind I have a question for you before we get started.”
Ral sighed, aware that in his obvious state of agitation, the other man hadn’t even noticed his presence yet. Niv-Mizzet glanced at Ral in amusement before saying, “Go on.”
They both watched in surprise as the Living Guildpact began to pace back and forth in agitation. “There’s a man in your library working with archivist deCar. Who is he?”
The dragon was rarely caught off guard and yet this human continued to manage it at every turn. “He’s visiting from the Azorius Senate, his name is Venser. Why do you ask?”
Jace waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, but the Dracogenius knew his curiosity had to be due to Lorissa. Perhaps the man had deeper feelings for her than he realized. It was a shame he was too emotionally stunted to see them.
Ral, still unnoticed by the distracted mage, also had a similar conclusion based on his own various observations, although he didn’t understand what could have possibly drawn the powerful man to a plain human woman. There could be no doubt that was the case though. And suddenly, the idea of putting the young lady with Venser grew infinitely more appealing. It would give him a chance to finally thwart the man who had been a constant annoyance since the day they’d met. And it would further other plans he already had in motion.
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