Author Games: Path of the Guildpact

Finals: Mikaela Gavreel

Red light shoots across the room in a brilliant swirl, curling around me like a tendril. A white hot pain crawls up my legs and pulls me to the floor, knees hitting the ground with a thud. I look up. Aurelia's eyes are glowing—burning—with an anger I have never seen, the archangel trembling beneath the weight of unrivalled fury. When she speaks again, her voice is dangerously low. "You, of all beings?"

The pain snakes its way round my throat. "I—"

Light shrouds her fists like a halo. "You, of all people. I expected you to understand the treason behind selling another's trust." She lets out a shuddering breath. "An angel from Boros. A soldier of the Legion."

"G—guildmaster—"

"You with the spirit I admired, the integrity I saw. The one I knew would keep going even if her comrade fell. And there you went, exceeding my expectations. I believed in you, Mikaela."

Believed. The word sounds so hollow for all its weight.

"Just like my trust, signing that contract destroyed the trust of Boros, of Dimir, of Selesnya, of Ravnica's nine other guilds. You betrayed the Gateless who look to the Guildpact for aid."

"I wasn't—"

"The first thing we teach you to serve is justice!" Her voice is a strike of lightning.

As the glow surrounding her begins to grow, I get to my knees and pull myself back. "Guildmaster. I promise, I—"

"I don't want to hear it."

"Aurel—"

"You knew better, Mikaela."

Something begins heating up the room, and I look up to see flames licking at her fists. Panic grapples at my insides. "Aurelia," I breathe, "please, don't—you'll hurt—"

"I'll make you see what it's worth."

"Aurelia, they're going to get killed if you—" The heat rises to that of an inferno. "Please." Desperation seizes my nerves as Aurelia's eyes ignite like embers and her entire being burns brighter than the afternoon sun. "Aurelia, listen to me please I'm begging you please don't—"

A deafening explosion sounds mere seconds after I look over my shoulder yelling a desperate "Stay behind me!" Through my peripheral vision I see Heccan and Iracun duck into a crouch, then the blow rains down on me as my wing muscles stretch and my back angles itself to protect the rest of my body.

The same blinding pain paralyses me from head to toe. My body almost crumples, but something pushes back against it from the inside and blossoms with a comforting warmth. I open my eyes to see a golden light reaching outwards, a dome-shaped shield extending in front of me and round my back, protecting whatever's behind me from harm.

Though the pain ebbs away, the strain comes again and again at full force as my mind conjures barrier after barrier to fend the attacks off. My focus begins slipping in and out, holes forming on the surface of the barrier as the pulse begins to lighten and the push begins to fade. My eyes meet Heccan's just long enough for me to tell them to run, and the two candidates flee through the doorway as my last bit of energy drains.

The second explosion sounds as the shield shatters around me, catching bits of the fire and falling, burning, to the floor.

As I find myself pinned down, gasping like a fish out of water but almost paralysed everywhere else, a part of me is relieved. Heccan and Iracun should be safe. If they haven't gotten out of the building, they'll be out of the explosion zone. A laugh works its way through my staggering breaths. At least Elijah had some sense.