The merchant hall had become uncomfortably crowded within the hour as more planeswalkers arrived with each passing minute. The space that had seemed a good size for our initial group. It now strained to accommodate more than forty distinct beings, each one radiating power that made the air itself feel thick and charged.
Razia had positioned his soldiers at separate points throughout the hall, trying to maintain some semblance of order while also keeping watch for external threats. The Boros legionnaires looked increasingly nervous as more powerful entities packed into the space, their hands never straying far from their weapons even as they tried to maintain professional composure.
I stood near the center of the main floor with Chandra, Ranni, and several other planeswalkers who'd gravitated toward our impromptu leadership position. Whether I wanted that responsibility or not, people decided I was someone worth listening to after my confrontation with the guild commanders earlier in the plaza.
"Look, we need to establish what we're working with," I said, raising my voice slightly to carry across the space without shouting. Conversations died down as attention focused on me, dozens of powerful beings suddenly silent and watchful. "See, how many of us are trapped here, what capabilities we have available, and what information anyone might have about similar situations they've encountered in their travels."
A human man with grey-streaked hair and weathered features stepped forward from the crowd. "I am Teferi," he introduced himself. "I am a temporal mage from Dominaria, though I've been to more planes than I can count at this point. I've encountered suppression fields before, but nothing with this level of sophistication or power. Whoever designed this understands planeswalkers at a level that suggests either extensive research or that they themselves are a planeswalker."
"Do you think you can break it?" Chandra asked with her characteristic bluntness.
"Not alone, I cannot. Time magic doesn't interact well with dimensional barriers since they exist outside normal temporal flow." Teferi's expression turned thoughtful as he considered the problem from multiple angles. "I could potentially slow or accelerate localized temporal fields around the beacon, but that won't help us escape the suppression itself. What concerns me more is the purpose behind all this effort. Trapping this many planeswalkers requires enormous resources and years of preparation. They want something from us, and whatever it is, probably isn't good for any party involved except themselves."
A woman with stark white hair and piercing eyes spoke up from near the wall, where she'd been quietly observing. "The names Liliana Vess. Necromancer with more experience than I'd prefer regarding people who try to bind and control planeswalkers." Her voice carried bitter knowledge earned through hard lessons. "Usually it's to brute force service through contracts and bindings, and the alternative being death."
That information sent a ripple of unease through the assembled planeswalkers like a physical wave of sound moving across the room. Several hands moved toward weapons or began gathering magical energy defensively in response to the implied threat.
"Let's not assume the worst case immediately," I said, trying to prevent panic from taking hold before we'd even established basic cooperation. "We have time before whoever set this trap makes their next move. We should use it to coordinate our efforts and share knowledge rather than frighten ourselves with speculation about what might happen."
"Easy for you to say," muttered a semi-familiar leonin warrior I hadn't been introduced to yet, his feline features twisted. "You're a god or something close to it, based on what I felt when you were talking to those guild soldiers earlier. Some of us are more vulnerable than others and don't have divine essence to protect us from whatever they might be planning."
"Which is exactly why we need to work together instead of individually," I replied, meeting his eyes steadily. "A coordinated defense is stronger than forty separate ones, and pooled knowledge is more valuable. Now, who else has relevant skills or experience that might help us understand or escape this situation?"
A goblin in a surprisingly well-maintained suit raised his hand. "You may call me Daretti. I am an Artificer from Fiora with a specialization in artifact construction and constructs. If there's a physical component to the beacon's operation, I might be able to disrupt or disable it given enough time and access to examine the mechanisms involved."
"Access is the problem," Razia interjected from his position near the soldiers. "The barrier is impenetrable from what we've tested so far. Every assault we've attempted has either failed to affect it or triggered defensive countermeasures that retaliated with considerable force."
"Has anyone tried spatial displacement?" asked an elf woman with green-tinted skin and a bright green aura. "I'm Nissa Revane, and I specialize in working with leylines and natural magical flows. If the barrier is anchored to specific points in space, we might be able to shift those anchor points rather than breaking through the barrier itself and forcing the entire structure to collapse."
Teferi shook his head with visible disappointment. "Spatial magic is suppressed by the same field that's preventing planeswalking. I tried a short-range teleport earlier and got nowhere despite using considerable power. The suppression is comprehensive and well-designed to counter multiple approaches."
"What about going under it?" Chandra suggested, her mind working through alternatives. "Most barriers usually have a defined boundary, even if they're well-constructed. If it's a dome shape, there might be gaps underneath where it meets the ground or connects to the city's foundation."
"The Golgari could investigate that possibility," Razia said thoughtfully, already considering. "They have extensive tunnel networks throughout the city that most surface dwellers don't even know exist. If there's an underground approach to the beacon's source, they'd be the ones who'd have knowledge about potential routes."
I filed that possibility away for later consideration while keeping the conversation moving forward. "Daretti, you mentioned artifacts and constructs, and I assume you have a spell to analyse constructs? Can you examine the suppression field itself and figure out how it's constructed and what might disrupt it?"
The goblin artificer nodded enthusiastically despite our circumstances. "I'd need to get close to the barrier and have time to analyse its structure without being attacked by any defensive systems. Magical constructs always have weak points or exploitable mechanisms, regardless of how well-designed they appear. It's just a matter of finding them and understanding how to apply pressure in the right places."
"I can assist with that analysis," said a tall figure who'd been silent until now, their presence somehow both commanding and understated. They wore robes that seemed to shift colors constantly like oil on water, and their features were difficult to focus on clearly even when looking directly at them. "Ugin sent me to investigate the anomalies before this beacon caught me. This certainly qualifies as unusual by any standard. My name is Karn, and I have considerable experience with complex magical engineering."
Ranni had been listening quietly during all these exchanges, her four arms folded in various contemplative positions. "The warding barrier deriveth its might from a domain far beyond its own bounds. No work of such grand magnitude can endure without a continuous wellspring of power to sustain it.
Should we but find this hidden source and sever the flow, the barrier must needs crumble, regardless of its cunning design, or how fiercely its defenses are wrought."
"That's a good point," I said, appreciating her approach. "The beacon itself is the most obvious power source, but there might be secondary sources or a distributed network feeding it from multiple locations. We should investigate both the barrier's structure and the city's leyline system to see if we can identify vulnerabilities in how it's being powered."
Chandra had been growing increasingly restless during this discussion, her hands occasionally sparking with small flames. "This is all great for people who like thinking, but it's taking too long. Every minute we spend talking is another minute whoever trapped us has to prepare whatever they're planning. Some of us should keep hitting the barrier while others analyse. Maybe if we coordinate our strongest attacks properly, we can overwhelm it through sheer force before they're ready to do whatever they brought us here for."
"That didn't work earlier," Razia reminded her with caution.
"Thats because it wasn't organized then. We were just random individual attacks, hitting whenever people felt like it." Chandra's voice carried conviction born from combat experience. "What if forty planeswalkers hit it simultaneously in a coordinated assault? That's got to be enough raw power to crack even the strongest defenses ever constructed."
Teferi looked skeptical at the proposal. "I think coordinating that many different people would be nearly impossible without some control. We'd likely interfere with each other more than reinforce our efforts, especially given how many different magical traditions are represented in this room."
"Hmm, I could try synchronising the attacks through time magic," Teferi added after a moment's consideration of the possibilities. "I could ensure that every strike lands at precisely the same instant. The coordination would be complex and mentally taxing, but theoretically possible if everyone follows instructions."
"It's worth attempting," Liliana said with pragmatism. "I've seen supposedly impenetrable defenses crumble when sufficient force was applied in the right way at the right moment."
I could see the group beginning to fracture into different camps. Some wanted immediate, aggressive action, others preferred careful analysis before committing resources, and a few looked like they were considering just hiding until the situation resolved itself.
"We can do both approaches simultaneously," I said before the division became more pronounced or led to arguments. "Those with analysis spells work on understanding the barrier's structure and identifying weaknesses we can exploit. Those with more direct combat abilities organize into strike teams that can test different approaches and apply force where the spells suggest. We share information between groups constantly and adjust based on what we learn from both success and failure."
Razia nodded approval at the balanced strategy. "This is a sensible division of labor that plays to people's strengths. I can provide my soldiers to assist with coordination and communication between groups since we have experience operating in hostile conflicts."
"I'll lead the analysis team," Karn said with assured authority. "Anyone with expertise in magical theory, planar theory, or artifact construction should join me. We'll examine the barrier inch by inch and document our findings in detail so others can benefit from what we discover."
"I'm hitting things," Chandra declared. "Who's with me on the combat approach?"
About a dozen planeswalkers moved to join her, their expressions suggesting they shared her preference for direct action over thinking. Among them, the leonin warrior, a minotaur with large muscles, and several human mages whose hands were already beginning to glow with gathered power in anticipation of combat.
The analysis group that formed around Karn was smaller in number but included some of the more obviously intellectual planeswalkers. Daretti joined immediately with visible enthusiasm, as did Nissa and a few others whose specializations suggested they'd be more useful studying magical structures than breaking them.
That left perhaps twenty planeswalkers who hadn't yet committed to either group, including Ranni, Liliana, and Teferi. They were either waiting to see which approach proved more promising or had their own plans they weren't sharing with the larger assembly.
"What about information gathering?" I asked, turning to address the broader picture. "We need to understand who's behind this and what their capabilities are. Razia, can your contacts in other guilds help with that investigation?"
"I can reach out to my counterparts," he said while already thinking through the logistics. "Though with the war ongoing, intelligence sharing between guilds is limited and filtered through suspicion. Still, someone must have noticed preparations for a working this large. There might already be reports or observations that could point us toward the culprits if we can get people to share what they know. The guild leaders should be on their way as well already."
"I'll assist with that investigation," Liliana offered. " Sometimes the best way to find your enemies is to think like them and trace backwards from their goals to their methods and resources."
A commotion near the entrance interrupted our planning session. Raised voices carried across the hall, sounds of a scuffle, and then the doors burst open as several planeswalkers stormed inside, looking disheveled and angry. They looked furious, their clothing scorched and several sporting visible injuries that were still bleeding or smoking.
"The barrier fought back harder than we expected," one of them gasped, a human woman whose hair was still smoking slightly. "We tried a coordinated assault with six of us hitting it simultaneously from different angles with our strongest spells. The countermeasures were immediate and brutal beyond anything we anticipated. Lightning met fire, ice met force, some necrotic energy tried to drain our life force directly."
"How bad are the injuries?" Razia called to his soldiers, who were already moving to assist the wounded with medical supplies and healing magic.
"Nothing immediately fatal, but several of us won't be able to fight for a while until we recover." The woman grimaced as a medic examined the burns on her arm. "That thing's defenses are adaptive and intelligent. It matched our attack types with specific counters designed to exploit weaknesses. Fire met with ice, lightning met with grounding, physical force met with repulsion fields that turned our own momentum against us."
Teferi's expression grew more grave as he processed this information. "The adaptive defenses suggest that there is active control going on rather than pre-programmed responses based on common attack patterns. Someone is constantly monitoring the barrier and adjusting its properties in real time based on what they observe. That makes it significantly more difficult to overcome through any approach we've discussed so far."
I watched the wounded planeswalkers being tended to by Boros medics and felt my earlier dread intensifying into something more concrete. This isn't just a trap set and forgotten. Whoever's running this can see what we're doing and adjusts accordingly in moments.
"We need better coordination and greater unpredictability," I said. "If the barrier adapts to individual attacks, we need to overwhelm it with more variety than it can counter simultaneously or find approaches it's not designed to handle. Karn, how long until your team can provide us with detailed information on the barrier's structure and potential vulnerabilities?"
"Several hours at minimum to do a proper analysis," Karn replied. "Possibly longer if the defenses interfere with our examination methods or if the structure is more complex than initial observations suggest."
"Then we don't have time to waste standing around talking." I looked around at the assembled forces, at the powerful beings who'd been pulled from their lives and trapped here against their will. "Chandra, organize your combat team but don't attack the barrier yet. Wait until Karn's group has the intelligence we need to identify the best targets and timing. Razia, start gathering information from your guild contacts about unusual activity in the city over the past few weeks or months. Liliana, work on figuring out what someone capable of this would want with so many planeswalkers gathered in one place."
The groups began to disperse toward their assigned tasks, conversations breaking out as people coordinated with their new teammates. Ranni remained near me, her presence somehow both comforting and unsettling.
"I shall observe and learn," she said quietly. "The threads that bind mine own fate are not so pressing that they cannot bide their time, whilst we deliver ourselves from this more immediate peril, one that threateneth all who stand present."
Nissa had moved to one of the windows, peering out through a gap in the boarding at the streets beyond. She went very still suddenly, her body language shifting from casual observation to intense focus.
"There's something out there," she said, her voice carrying a warning tone that made everyone in the hall turn toward her. "Its moving through the shadows between buildings. It's humanoid in shape but the way it moves is wrong."
Razia joined her at the window, his hand on his sword. "Where is it?"
"Arccos the Eastern street, about a hundred yards out. It's moving toward the plaza where the beacon is located." Nissa's eyes tracked something none of us could see yet. "Wait, there's more than one. I'm seeing at least a dozen of them now, all moving in the same direction with disturbing movements and coordination."
Preview into next chapter
Interlude: Enter the dragon
"Let the pathetic insects study," I replied, allowing amusement to color my mental voice. "Understanding will not save them. The barrier was designed by minds far superior to any currently trapped within it. They might as well attempt to comprehend the workings of the Blind Eternities itself."