Chapter Text
Chapter 5: Sinkhole
Ajani was levelled. His heart felt as if it was frozen in his chest, a cold sensation oozing its way thru his limbs.
He could hear Thokk snarling and swearing death on Phyrexians, but it was muffled, as if thru a bale of cotton.
He was in shock, and did not even hear the chanted syllables which washed thru him, warming and returning him to the present.
Marek waved his wand, chanting quickly. A pair of cheering and calming charms restored a bit of color to Ajani's face, which had momentarily bleached from shock. A warming charm and a patronus served well to ease the shock to his system, preventing his very obvious pregnancy from suffering any permanent harm.
"Thokk, are you aware of what glistening oil IS?"
Guttural, bone-chilling snarls were his only answer.
"It is a literal mana-driven Von Neumann machine. I presume you are familiar with Human scientific theories?"
Less snarling, and an angry nod was his answer.
"Long story short, it's fixable."
Stunned silence and baleful glares that really reminded him of Mr. Tibbles from Mrs. Figg's house on Wisteria Walk.
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Thokk's mind was a shambles. His perfect life, seemingly torn away from him in an instant, and then restored timeless, hideous breaths later. He could barely process the weight and warmth of his Mate, the shock which clogged his normally-clean scent.
"HOW?"
This was the sum total of what Thokk could manage.
He knew of the Glistening Oil. He knew of the gut-deep terror Ajani held for it. He had seen first hand how it enslaved Karn, once one of the mightiest of them, and turned him into less than a puppet.
He knew that a world once contaminated, would slowly succumb. Perhaps over months, or years, or millenia, but it would slowly color and twist anything it touched.
The very notion of Ajani being taken from him, as his own body turned against his soul and heart..... beyond anathema.
To hear that this little wisp of a young man could "fix it" was simply beyond his experiences and frame of reference.
But it drove home the truth of Marek's existence. That he was more than his body, and hidden in that puny human shell was the spark of a God. Thokk's only question now was simple.
"Will you heal him? Can you save our children?"
The words torn from his very soul, hovered in the air, burning brands of breathless hope, edged in murderous wrath.
"Of course I will. Likely this is one of the main reasons I was pulled back to this universe. As a lesser God of Knowledge, I'm well aware of your past. And how much harm has been averted by your chance meeting with Ajani.
"You didn't need to even ask. I wouldn't leave anyone tainted like this. Not unless they explicitly asked it of me. I've already quarantined the.... Oil. It won't spread. There was a single particle of it hidden inside Ajani's empty socket. Buried inside so much white and green mana, I almost didn't see it. But the scans showed it clearly.
"Given it's proximity to Ajani's brain, it could have caused him to be selflessly loyal or reckless in helping others. Possibly it would have steered his wandering or investigations towards a world where he could be captured, and then experimented on. Thank goodness, that won't be an issue now."
Several chanting passes of a wand later, and Marek again summoned a deep scanning array of Ajani, body and soul. The poor Leonin had remained silent, stupefied by this revelation. Probably hanging on to his composure by his clawtips.
"The Glistening Oil is unequivocally gone. I've scanned everything on this planet, and everything associated with both of you. Think of a pearl. The Oil was the kernel in the middle. But it could have still influenced Ajani given more time, and a mana-rich environment with more black mana available."
One last pass of the wand, and a conjured bauble of chromed steel materialized in Marek's palm. He passed it over to Thokk, who simply took it, still to bewildered to do more than comply.
"Here, this is synchronized with a sorcerer of my acquaintance. She'll be able to help you avoid any future encounters with the Oil. Just scan it with your teleporter, it'll take you straight to her front door."
A blue glow began to seep thru the cracks of reality around Marek, and Ajani only had enough time to reach out with one hand, and clasp Marek's hand in his own.
"Thank you. THANK YOU SO MUCH."
Tears streamed down his face, this time of relief. Marek simply smiled and said, "You're doing a lot of good. Keep it up. And congratulations on the new family."
With that, and a soft puff of replacing air, Marek vanished again.
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Both Thokk and Ajani simply sat, curled tightly around each other. The day had left them rattled, shocked, disturbed, and relieved, repeatedly and in such rapid succession they felt nothing but tired.
Thokk realized now how much he had changed inside. Once perhaps he would have slain Ajani out of hand as a threat. Now the very notion left him wanting to vomit and claw his own innards out for even having the idea.
Ajani was his world, their cubs his future. A soft sob, worked its way slowly from the very bottom of his gut, and echoed in the room. He hadn't cried out loud in centuries. But for Ajani and the reprieve they'd received from Marek, he sobbed, then wept, then wailed, clutching Ajani to him, fearful of Ajani vanishing from his life as quickly as he'd entered it.
Ajani for his part, merely wept silently, His heart was bruised, buffeted by the terrible reveal. But he had left the anguish and fear behind already, clinging to the knowledge that he was cleansed, and they had the ability to prevent it happening again. He mentally noted the world-time-line they had already visited for sweets, to search it thoroughly to prevent it being tainted.
Now Ajani simply let Thokk cry, holding him and reminding himself to not chastise Thokk for keeping him wrapped in Kratha Silk for the next year or twelve. He once again asked blessings of every being he knew, for Marek, for this salvation they had been gifted, from a danger they had not even imagined.
Ajani also brooded, remembering that Jace and Liliana were both less than careful with their mana, and their spells. He remembered the horror of Tamiyo, compleated and set loose. How quickly would he have succumbed, cornered or lured into an ambush? Alone and without aid. Again he remembered Elspeth and mourned her loss. Again he cursed Ashiok for not simply speaking plainly of what had befallen her.
And again he vowed they would seek this sorcerer Marek had told them of, the moment they had regained their emotional centers. Anything for their cubs.
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The teleportation definitely took longer than usual, in terms of Thokk's considerable experience. But the world they exited was rather interesting. It LOOKED and felt like Earth, but there was an underlying energy he was unfamiliar with.
They stood in a small courtyard, adorned with potted vegetation, dwarfed trees, herbs, and what appeared to be a selection of medicinals.
The buildings were brick and heavy timber, reminiscent of Nepal on the first variation of Earth he'd encountered the laughably-named Invincibles on.
But this was clearly a very different world. People could be seen thru a moon arch off to the left, wielding lashes and rods of golden light, looking rather like hard lights or plasma.
Interesting, but unimportant for the moment. Thokk looked to his Mate, and hugged Ajani closer, renewing the scent marking he'd made before they'd Ported. Ajani's mirthless smirk reminded him why they were here, and they hurried on.
Fortunately, the door they were facing swung open without visible aid, and out stepped a spare, rather slender woman. Authority and power were clearly visible despite the worn nature of her robes.
"You are the Sorcerer Marek told us about?"
"Yes, it would seem so. Marek has helped me several times up to now, and appeared just long enough to give me his transcribed notes on your situation. No more than 10 days ago, by the reckoning of this dimension. It was sufficient for me to find the best form to combat this threat."
At those words, Thokk deflated, but with relief. Ajani conversely, perked his ears, and his gaze sharpened with clear intent.
The sorcerer beckoned to them with a single graceful flick of her palm.
"Please, come in and make yourselves comfortable. This will be a lengthy lesson, but very valuable to you."
They both stepped eagerly thru the double door, stooping to clear the lintel without hitting their heads. The ceiling inside thankfully was just high enough to accommodate them.
They both clutched each other as the view of the ceiling.... stretched, in a truly disconcerting fashion. It stopped as suddenly as it began, and the ceiling was now just out of reach of one curious clawtip.
Both Leonin turned to look at her with extreme fascination. Not a word was spoken, but they'd clearly underestimated the versatility of this form of sorcery.
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The Ancient one had them served with tea, and smoked fish. They noticed only that the fish was not of any world they'd seen so far, and smelled absolutely irresistable. After a Very Polite snack, they settled in on a pair of cushions around a low table as the Ancient One began her lecture.
"Glistening Oil at it's heart, is the realization of a dream. A dream of endless efficiency. However it is powered by mana, which allows for connotations not in the original design. Such as the greed, malice, and sadistic bias of its creator, who I've been reliably informed was a Thran exile known as Yawgmoth.
He cannibalized a planeswalker's power, though never successfully stole her spark. This gave him at that time, almost limitless mana to start his project with. You are familiar with the concept of Teferi's Mending, yes?"
A pair of nods, and a slight grimace from Thokk at the notion of simply WILLING a dimension into existence.
"You can think of the Blind Eternities as I have studied them, as zero-point energy. The raw energy and force of creation, without boundaries, definition, or rules of any kind. A person passing through them must successfully guard and enforce their own deliberate and conscious will over the entirety of their very concept of being or be unmade. As a result, most planeswalkers experienced a spiritual paring or simplification of the self, as most spontaneous planeswalks are at first by individuals entirely unready for the journey.
As one might imagine, this causes long-term issues throughout their existence. Case in point, the endless hatred of Nahiri, which helped cause the recent Eldrazi Threat. Another excellent point is Tevash Szat's betrayal. His own selfishness was core to his being, and the first and foremost part of himself preserved during the Ignition of his Spark. Likewise, the guilt and endless hubris of Urza, shaped his own self-fulfilling prophecy of destruction. And Karn's original inhumanity allowed the Glistening Oil to slip past his notice."
So too, did it cause you, Ajani, to become myopic in your devotion to others. And Elspeth's fixation on fairness, which left her entirely vulnerable to betrayal by Heliod. The Oil is indeed purged. However, you wish to understand how to combat and defend against future depredations and contamination. This is a different matter, made more complex by the need to anticipate and guard against constant attempts to outflank the protections against it."
Both males nodded once more, alert and entirely focused on her words. The Ancient One allowed the comparison to housecats waiting for a treat to fill her with a whimsical sense of the irony and comedy of it.
"In this case, designing the protective sigil was far harder than actually applying it. I gazed thru MANY futures to parse what the oil was truly capable of. But the function remains fundamentally the same. Creating a barrier was foolish as any barrier can be overpowered with time, trickery, or sheer force. But creating a ban, disallowing certain changes to certain concepts was far easier.
"It is an application of the concepts of Space, Time, Reality, and Choice. You Ajani, have chosen peace and family where another version of you chose to continue wandering and fighting others' battles. This is important as it has walled off a great many potential timelines which end in compleation."
"You Thokk, have eschewed endless violence and escalating bloodshed, where you should have simply died. These divergences from your original selves, has allowed me to make it permanent.
You now can no longer exist in any timeline connected to your own as compleated or an agent or carrier of such. Any attempt to infect you now, must first defeat the protection which means defeating every single new timeline in which you are as you are now, cleansed, safe, and immune. The Oil itself will literally be unable to cross realities to infect anyone in this new multiversal direction.
This rather conveniently includes my own portion of the multiverse."
The looks on both Ajani and Thokk's faces was really too much. The Ancient One smirked openly.
The two warriors could do nothing but gape, stupefied at this revelation.
FInally The Ancient One had to chuckle just a bit.
"I'm sorry, but your faces..... I can't help it, your faces are truly priceless!"
Following this, she conjured a small section of the Mirror Dimension to show them their own reactions.
Those faces proceeded to burn themselves into her memory also, as they flushed beneath their facial fur in embarrassment. Honestly, it had been worth a couple weeks in an astral version of the Master's Archive.
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"... and here is how you will apply each sigil. Remember, the more precise they are, the more efficient, and harder to remove they will be. Your nanoforge will be very useful in that regard, Thokk. Being able to engrave with fractions of a proton in precision will make them very nearly indestructible.
Granted you will still want to avoid Phyrexians where possible to avoid them trying to cross over in the first place. Especially any of the alternate selves which correspond to you. But that is something which I will leave for the scrolls I'm sending with you. They cover such contingencies in much greater detail than I have time for here.
Now you know the way, feel free to visit any time you wish. You especially Ajani. You and your children would be very welcome to come and study with us at any time."
Having said this, the Ancient One stood once more, and the two Leonin became aware of stiff muscles, hunger, and extreme thirst. So enthralled were they, the passage of the whole day and most of the evening had not registered at all.
After an extra-large pot of fresh tea, and another very tasty meal, they thanked the Ancient One and promised their aid if she ever required it. She thanked them in turn for the fascinating opportunity to study their home dimensions, and bid them farewell.
A quick teleport later, courtesy of a portal from the Sorcerer Supreme saw them step back thru their front door, daylight still slanting in thru the windows in shades of citrine and garnet as the sun sunk towards the horizon.
Another more substantial meal, if less refined, filled their bellies. And they stopped only to place the first sigil in their home, and microscopic copies on every portion of its structure and their furniture and utensils, before curling up in bed, and dropping off to sleep.
Dreams were mercifully quiet that evening, even with their minds bursting with new knowledge and concepts.
The following days would be even busier, though they did not know it.