Chapter Two - Best Laid Plans

10 Griev 10.075 Z.C., Afternoon

Lilla trudged back to the battle, caught up in her memories and dreaming of revenge. When she arrived near the fighting again, she climbed an overgrown wall, once part of a building smashed in a long-forgotten raid. This vantage offered a better view of the battle. Rejoining the mayhem on the frontlines seemed so futile and stupid. She could find a better way, if just given the opportunity.

Once on top of the wall, Lilla crouched low and assessed the area, looking for options. Beside the garrison sat a collection of barricaded and derelict tenements - a firewall against Gruul incursions, but not impenetrable. Behind the tenements, she spied a Boros healer’s station with uniformed Legion medics and reserve civilian nurses treating injured soldiers. Even though she scoffed at the other guilds, they looked well-organized, and the white mana fueling their spells fortified the ailings’ spirits as well as healing their injuries.

As she watched, a nurse tending to one of the wounded straightened and ran into the garrison. From this vantage point, Lilla could see all the way inside the side door where the woman went. The guards didn’t challenge her, she didn’t even pause to show identification. She just went in.

Inspired, Lilla grinned like a hooligan on Rauck-Chauv. She wasn’t as dumb as Boulder Tooth, Rugilar, and Nianæ thought - she was going to get the weapon her way. That would teach them to underestimate her. What they considered cowardice, she considered brilliance.

Wasting no time, Lilla climbed down and retreated farther from the Gruul staging grounds, careful to avoid sentries who might confuse her for a deserter. Crouching, she snuck between the barricades of a fortified alley between two of the decaying tenements, as near to the garrison as she dared.

Closing her eyes, she pushed away the din of the nearby battle and focused inward. With a steady rhythm, she summoned the last of her mana reserves, visualising the wellspring of power inside her. Holding the gathered energy in her mind’s eye, she visualized herself dressed as one of the Boros reservist nurses, detailing the insignia as best she could remember it. When it seemed convincing enough, she traced a magic sigil in the air with a finger and muttered the command word.

Lilla opened her eyes and looked down, and she could see the glamour taking effect. A shimmer of red and green magic danced around, coating her armor in the illusion of the nurse’s robes. Her thin lips curled into a smile, confident only she could see through the disguise.

She stepped out of the alley, no barricades on this side, and hurried to the healer’s tent. Acting casual, she slipped inside the tent. The occupants ignored her, each already tending wounded soldiers, cleaning bandages for reuse, or working on other tasks. With even strides she walked right through to the other side, releasing a soft sigh of relief when she made it without raising the alarm. Her disguise passed the first test.

She continued on unchallenged, breaking into a brisk trot as she headed for the side door of the garrison. Just as she’d hoped, the guards didn’t stop her or ask for identification. They simply stepped aside as one opened the door for her. Giddy with her success, she made haste into the massive fort.

This side entrance to the garrison opened into a short hallway. Ignorant of the layout of a Boros garrison, Lilla realized this may be harder than she thought. Where would they store this experimental weapon? Come to think of it, she didn’t even know much about it. She just knew Boulder Tooth heard a rumor about the Boros Legion and the League of Izzet working together to develop a secret weapon. The Boros were providing knowledge of arcane ordinance, while the Izzet were the brains and handled the technical schematics and construction of the weapon.

According to their operatives, the Legion delivered one of the prototype models here for test firing in the rubblebelt. Of course, Boulder Tooth wanted the weapon so he could gnash it to bits and add the pieces to his armor. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his ridiculous quirk.

Not sure what else to do, she followed the hallway to its end, then went down the next one, and the next. She passed only a few soldiers, and they didn’t pay her any mind, just nodding in passing. She nodded back, holding her breath each time until they’d passed, worried she would be discovered before she found the weapon.

Eventually, she arrived at a small courtyard within the garrison. Far from the untamed beauty of the rubblebelt, the flora here seemed more functional than aesthetic. Two officers sat and chatted on a bench, with a tree placed precisely on either side of the bench, a single bush a spear’s length from one of the trees, and a lamppost in the exact center. Typical of the Boros, she thought to herself as she examined the military precision of the courtyard. She continued walking, almost out of earshot when a few of the officer’s words caught her attention.

“... but with a prototype you can’t be too careful,” a man’s voice cautioned. Lilla stopped dead in her tracks, then tiptoed backwards toward the nearest tree. Examining the officers, she now realized their uniforms lacked the usual Boros trimmings. Instead, they both wore white jackets with blue and red trim, and one sported a delicate-looking clockwork eyepiece. They must be Izzet engineers! Willing to push her luck, she settled in to listen to the rest of their conversation, and see if they would reveal its location.

“Well, I think break time is about over. Let’s get back to work,” the second researcher finished, abruptly ending the conversation. Lilla wanted to call out, to beg them to keep talking. Everything she’d worked for depended on this. Getting this weapon would give her a perfect chance to exact revenge on Boulder Tooth for the death of her parents. But of course, she couldn’t just ask them to tell her.

The pair rose, and started toward the opposite side of the courtyard, toward a hallway she hadn’t explored yet. Their conversation picked up again, but she was too far to make out the words, just the rumble of their voices. She cursed her luck under her breath and followed, hoping they would lead her to the weapon.

Lilla had never shadowed someone inside before, let alone down a hallway. She lived and tracked quarry in the rubblebelt, where cover abounded. Even in the city, she could blend in with the bustling crowds. But the attack emptied the hallways of bystanders, and there was nothing to hide behind. Curse the Boros and their disdain for decorations, she thought, wishing for a suit of armor or potted plant to duck behind. She did her best to stay one corner behind them, keeping an impassive look on her face.

To Lilla’s good fortune, the two scientists cared more about their conversation than watching their blinds; neither of them glanced back even once. Did they even know about the Gruul attack? She tailed them, matching their pace almost step for step. No one else passed them, and the men didn’t glance back at all.

After following them down a flight of stairs and through an ordered network of corridors and hallways, Lilla saw the two men pause at a doorway. One pressed their guild signet against a panel on the large iron door and it slid open, revealing a darker room beyond. She watched the researchers pass through, and the door started to slide shut behind them.

She hesitated as she watched her window of opportunity close, her mind racing. On the one hand, hiding from them would be impossible if she stepped through and they turned around. On the other hand, she couldn’t risk being locked out at this stage. She’d come too far.

Putting herself on the line, she leapt forward, slipping her foot in the door’s path just before it shut. Holding it open, she waited to see if the men noticed the door didn’t clang shut. Lilla forced herself to count to ten, to slow her racing heartbeat.

No sound of alarm came. Still, she counted a little higher to be sure, then eased the door open just enough to squeeze inside. Silent as a shadow, she stepped into the room, stopping just inside to keep the door from slamming shut. Then, she turned to examine where the men led her.

She stood inside a small antechamber leading to a larger room. Only a single oil lamp lit the dark chamber, hung suspended on a cable. The floors, walls and ceiling looked like builder’s stone, but a shade unfamiliar to her. Slinking further into the room and sticking to the shadows, Lilla peered through the archway on the far side of the chamber.

The room beyond appeared cavernous and also dim, with a row of oil lamps suspended on a long cable running from the top of the archway and disappearing out of sight. The lamps illuminated a row of workstations against the far wall, with myriad tools and gadgets spread across them.

Her eyes adjusting to the darkness, she spotted the two researchers she’d followed here. They sat at a workstation in the middle of the row. Besides them, she counted four other researchers, all engrossed in their tasks.

This seemed a promising place to find an experimental weapon. After making sure no one spotted her, she angled her back against the wall and edged in. A lot of light beamed out of … something. She couldn’t see it on the far side of the room. Voices also echoed from that direction. She took a step, and someone cleared their throat. She froze, afraid she’d been discovered.