Scars of Mirrodin: The Quest for Karn (Magic: The Gathering) by Robert Wintermute

Author:Robert Wintermute [Wintermute, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Publishing
Published: 2011-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

Venser made it light when he blew out a puff of wispy shapes that danced and flickered blue before their eyes. In the ghostly light Koth looked at Elspeth and Venser and spat. They were reeking and sweating, with a crazed look about them.

The smell was nearly unbearable. Koth began breathing through his mouth.

The artificer stood and followed Koth, and the blue will-o’-the-wisp followed him. “It is getting warmer. We are on the right path, obviously.”

Small metal creatures, no larger than hummingbirds, suddenly appeared around a fallen Phyrexian, eating the meat on it. There were hundreds of them. Venser squatted down to watch them work. There was no sign of phyresis in these small metal creatures. They were neither sharp looking, nor possessing of tense, asymmetrical bodies laden with teeth.

“So this is how cleanup occurs on Mirrodin,” Venser said. “I knew the ecosystem had to clean itself somehow.”

“Breakdown artifacts,” Koth said. “They devour whatever is small enough to be devoured. I have never seen so many in one place.”

“Are these found on the surface?”

“Fewer and fewer lately.”

“I wonder why?” Venser said. “And why they have no taint of phyresis on them?”

Koth shrugged. He looked closely at Venser. The artificer did not look well. His helmet was off and his sunken cheeks and pale skin unnerved Koth, who thought flesh looked disgusting enough even in the best case.

Elspeth stepped up next to Koth. She gazed around the huge room. So large was the room that Venser’s wisp did not even reach to its edges—shadows formed and disappeared among the intestinelike pipe work that made up the walls.

“You think that the little silver demon went this way?” Koth said.

“I have to think not,” Venser said.

“It could be following us,” Elspeth ventured. “It did before.”

“You mean Tezzeret sent it to keep an eye on us before,” Koth said.

“That could be,” Venser said.

“Do you smell that?” Koth said. He held his nose between two thick fingers.

They looked down at the Phyrexians. “All that smell cannot be coming from them,” Elspeth said.

“They must have been guarding something to have been standing there,” Venser said.

“Don’t think I want to find it,” Koth said.

But Venser was already at the wall, pushing and probing as he looked for the door that must surely be there. After a snap, a small door opened and a terrible stink wafted out.

“Why would we go into that place?” Koth said.

“Because they were guarding it,” Elspeth said, drawing her blade and glancing at the dead Phyrexians.

“Exactly,” Venser said. “And this may be the correct way, for all we know.”

Holding their noses, they entered.

Unaccountably, they were walking through festering meat that reached a depth of mid-calf in places. The smell was absolutely disgusting, and Venser found himself breathing tiny breaths through his mouth. All words came out with a nasal numbness. Still Venser felt the gore pushing up from his stomach.

“This way,” he said, pointing into the blackness ahead. Far ahead Elspeth thought she could see a faint light. When she pointed it out to Venser, he snapped his fingers and the blue wisps disappeared.

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