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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
- 39
- 40
- 41
Lorissa found that working on the complaints for the Izzet League was far more interesting than she’d thought it would be. She had known that there was a great deal of responsibilities and activities in what most people would consider every day running of a guild, but she hadn’t given it much thought. Now, as she read through case after case, she had a better appreciation of the numerous things that could go wrong as well. There were shortages of supplies, misappropriated funds, seating arrangements that led to uncomfortable working conditions. All of these complaints she deemed as unnecessary for outside guidance, shuttling them to a pile for Niv-Mizzet’s attention. She assumed he would simply set them on fire.
However a complaint against the Azorius Senate for interfering with the work on the main boilers in New Prahv was something she decided the Living Guildpact should address. She knew how secretive the guilds were in regards to the interiors of their guild halls; the Azorius would not like another guild going through any section of their inner areas. However it was the charge of the Izzet engineers to oversee civic duties. The Azorius in this case should allow the repairs; perhaps with oversight from a Senate official. She jotted down a recommendation in the margin of the complaint and added it to a much smaller stack of papers that she had for Ral Zarek.
The afternoon passed quite quickly as she scoured through the various documents; it was with some surprise that she looked up to discover the Storm Mage silently watching her from the doorway. His expression was thoughtful bordering on curious, but as soon as he realized she was looking for him, it faded away to one of annoyance. “I thought you were going to bring those by my desk.”
She snorted at him, gesturing at the massive mound in front of her. “I’m still working on it; doesn’t look like anyone’s been going through these on a regular basis.”
They both knew he hadn’t bothered doing it in the past; it was the only explanation for such an enormous amount of paperwork. He sniffed disdainfully as he strode into the room. “I’m afraid I was too busy handling experiments for the guildmaster to have time to do it.”
“I’m afraid your ego was too big to make time,” she muttered under her breath.
Ral couldn’t quite hear what she said, but he had a general idea and he had to suppress a chuckle at her defiance. She was an interesting girl despite her lack of power. In spite of being unable to defend herself against most enemies, she still indulged in an impertinence that was as unwise as it was amusing. Perhaps she didn’t fear death. Instead, it could very well be that she feared being controlled by her lack of power. That would explain her constant challenges to authority when she didn’t agree. And suddenly it fully hit him how terrible it would be to go through life defenseless. He could still recall the difficult days of his youth, memories he shied away from.
So his demeanor was much milder, tempered by remembered pain, when he said, “Why don’t you just call it an evening? It looks like you have a few things for me to present to the Living Guildpact already and frankly I never take too much to him at once. He already has quite an assortment of issues to handle on a daily basis.”
Lorissa studied him suspiciously, unused to deliberate thoughtfulness from the magewright. When he maintained his coolly benign look, she finally smiled and replied, “That works for me. I was able to prune the requests I went through down to just a few. Are you going to see him tonight?”
Ral Zarek glanced down at the pages she passed to him, nodding absently as he did so, completely missing the calculating smile that came to her lips at his gesture. “Yes, right after I finish up a last experiment in my lab.”
She leaned forward to gain his attention as she said, “Excellent! Do you think I could come with you to meet him?”
Ral experienced a rare surge of panicked indecision. On the one hand, he wanted her to discover Jace’s identity because he had a hunch it would throw a serious wrench in the Mind Adept’s attempt to seduce her, thereby furthering Ral’s own mission of setting her up with Venser. On the other hand, after what he had seen at the party, he wanted to prevent her from meeting up with Jace any more than necessary thanks to the towering lust the two of them seemed to share. It was possible that she might forgive the man for his gross lapse in the heat of the moment. And outside of Niv-Mizzet’s machinations to set Lorissa up with a tool of his choosing, Ral had his own reasons for steering her towards the Sojourner.
“Not tonight,” he finally answered, his mind sorting through plausible excuses and future arrangements. “I’ll need to get his approval first; after that we can set up a meeting for the two of you.”
Lorissa frowned in disappointment, but she recognized the logic in what he was saying. The Living Guildpact was a very busy individual; it made sense he would need to schedule out his time in advance. Still, she was curious not only to meet the man in person but also to know what had prompted him to promote her to emissary. She also wanted to present her resignation. She had no intention of remaining in the position a moment longer than necessary; she firmly believed someone like Tabozav to be more worthy of the role. She couldn’t exactly quit without speaking to the person in charge though.
Ral hastily took his leave before she could ask him anything else, for a moment she watched his retreating figure bemusedly. Then she started clearing off her desk, only to pause when a shadow fell over her. She looked up into the smiling eyes of Venser as he reached over to neatly stack a pile of papers before handing them to her. His warm presence was relaxing to her senses; together they cleaned up her area and then wordlessly started walking to her house. He had become such an integrated part of her life; she saw him on a daily basis at work and on the occasions when she visited her parents place. It seemed they loved him almost as much as their own children and her brothers spoke highly of him. As if she needed anyone to sing his praises to her; she was well aware of his wonderful qualities. With a pang, she realized how empty her life would feel if he weren’t there.
As they paused in front of her door, she impulsively threw her arms around him in a quick hug. Startled, Venser nonetheless drew her in close for a moment, his arms secure around her as she listened to the steady beating of his heart. “Thank you for being my friend,” she murmured an instant before pulling away from him, smiling at him as she stepped inside her home.
There was a brilliant warmth shining in his eyes as he waved goodbye to her and continued on down the street.

A cloaked figure emerged from the shadows of the alley across from Lorissa deCar’s residence, eyes burning with barely contained fury. Jace hated how he felt whenever he saw her with another man, but the feelings were particularly intense and loathsome when the person in question was Venser. He had seen with his own eyes that day in the library at Nivix that the other man was attracted to her and he knew they spent virtually every day together. Any time he spotted the pair together they were usually talking comfortably or laughing. The interactions between them seemed relaxed and peaceful, a far cry from the tumultuous ones between her and Jace. He couldn’t remember a time she had smiled at him other than recently when she thought she was dreaming. Yet she freely bestowed such gestures on Venser with consistent frequency. Jealous and resentful didn’t even begin to describe the way he felt about the guy.
Seeing Lorissa hug Venser only added fuel to the fire; what exactly were her feelings for him? The two of them were obviously close; were they just friends or something more in her eyes? Was Venser one of the reasons she seemed so hesitant in pursuing anything with him? None of these were questions Jace could ask her; he had no right and he suspected if he tried to broach the subject it would anger her. The last thing he wanted to do was get into another argument with her; she already didn’t take his interest in her seriously and he didn’t want her to think every time they talked it would degenerate into a disagreement. But he had to know something about how she felt for Venser; the doubt and suspicion gnawing at him like a festering wound as he purposefully strode to the door, the air around him shimmering with magic.
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