Magic: The Gathering: Say You'll Haunt Me

Chapter 8: Mending Wounds

Kerrick

A scream awoke me from the trance. I found myself surrounded by skeletons and burnt patches of ground. 

What happened?

Wait… Nixilis… He tried to make me kill Lili.

Where is she?

The scream was my answer. I ran towards the sound of agony to find my mentor in a sobbing heap on the ground, covered in blood.

"Kerrick…" she croaked, reaching toward me, her arm trembling from the effort it took to simply move. "Help me…".

I ran to her side and took her hand. "What happened?!" I asked, looking her up and down to find the source of the bleeding.

"The Veil… I had to use The Veil…" she whispered to me, pulling me closer to her. "Please… get me out of here…" she pleaded. 

Tears began to well up in my eyes as I saw that it wasn't a wound, but Lili's scars. They had just opened, letting her blood flow freely onto the ground.

As she bled, I noticed shapes moving in the shadows.

Then it hit me. Blood… Blood means only one thing: Vampires.

I got up from beside Liliana and ignited my fists, ready to vaporize any one of the parasites stupid or bold enough to reveal itself.

One shape moved out of the shadows, which I immediately torched. I kept my jet of flame trained on the shape for ten seconds before I felt the bite of cold steel against my throat.

"No more light show, pyromancer," an eerily calm voice said. "I'm going to remove my blade from your throat, and you're going to turn around slowly. If not, I'll simply leave you and the necromancer as ash on the wind. Understood?".

"Do I really have a choice?" I hissed back.

"Just do as I say, boy. No one else needs to die tonight." The voice said in an attempt to calm me.

I did as I was told, slowly turning around… to find myself face to face with Sorin Markov.

My heart jumped into my throat. I was now in the presence of one of the oldest planeswalkers in existence, at his mercy, surrounded by death, in his domain.

I gulped as my eyes met his. "Thank you," the vampire said, sword still pointed at me. "Now, what happened here?" He demanded.

I was speechless. All I could do was stare at him, petrified. "Well?" He said firmly, breaking the silence. "What happened?" He asked again, narrowing his eyes.

"Um… Miss Vess and I came here to- oh, wait, the woman there is-".

"I am fully aware of who Liliana is, boy. I've known her since she was your age," he interrupted. "Just tell me what happened. You're wearing my patience thin.".

"Um, Miss Vess and I came here for personal reasons when we ran into Ob Ni-".

"What were you doing here?".

"I told you, it was per-".

Sorin pushed the tip of his blade against my throat. "Boy, this world is mine. Stensia is mine. Ashmouth is mine. Everything you do, you do in my domain. Now, what were you doing?!".

"I was trying to make a deal so I could live forever, but Ob Nixilis tricked me into trying to kill Miss Vess, but Miss Vess fought Nixilis and killed him using The Chain Veil, but The Veil hurt her and-".

"Okay, you can stop," Sorin said, lowering his weapon. "I just needed to know if Nixilis was the only threat. There's no way you could be a threat. You're a nervous wreck." He stated.