"Magical Gemblade dagger! Enchanted in mystery!” screamed Kat in a Crackling Soprano. “All Real Baloth Tusk, great for weapons!” she then said, as if it would help attract people. Her voice was drowned out in the ocean of the bazaar. Kat let out a deep sigh before continuing in her verbatim. “Vampire fangs! Plucked straight from the mouth of a kalistra lackey!” No one seemed very amused. In her boredom, with passive intent, Kat nicked a small decorated cube off the belt of an intimidating man walking by. Fine cracks and creases ran across its surface, and four crimson gems were carefully inlaid on each side. She took a few moments inspecting the cube before losing interest.
“Beautiful Decorated box for sale! One of a kind!”. She waited a few moments for any interested buyers, but for some reason everybody was running and screaming. In a matter of 30 seconds the market was completely empty, the only sound: a horrifying crunching. The sun seemed to disappear as a looming shadow enveloped her.

Kat turned around to greet her new customer.

“Hello new customer! What are you looking for today? Perhaps some medicines for that horrible skin of yours?” She casually sidestepped as a tentacled arm came crashing down towards her; the earth cracked under its weight. “How about a hat for that bulbous head of yours?” She then ducked as a another tentacle swooped for her skull. The Eldrazi let out a shriek that would horrify even the most battle hardened warrior, and catapulted a punch straight for Kat’s brow.
“How about this Beautiful Box? Very expensive.” The blow stopped a foot in front of her face. “Ah, you're interested! I’ll give it to you for 20 credits”. The monster reached for the cube, but Kat pulled it back.
“No no no, Pay up”. Kat insisted forcefully. The monster had no face but it looked disappointed. A few hours of seconds passed by before anyone (or anything) spoke. “Fine. Fine. I’ll give it to you for 15. You drive a hard bargain sir”. Again, silence ensued for a millennium.
“Ah, I see, you want to trade! I’m so sorry but I don’t do trades.” The monster aimed for the throat this time, but kat pivoted and the punch flew past her collarbone. Kat raised her hands in an exhausted gesture. “Fine fine, you’ve beat me! What do you have to trade?” The Eldrazi grabbed the box out of her hand with surprising speed.
The Eldrazi toyed with the box as Kat complained. “So you’re you're just going to take it? Fine. Fine. I’m sure you really needed it”. Soon little pieces of the box floating into the air. Kat berated the monster some more. “Go ahead. Take it. I don’t even care anymore”. The small cube unfolded into a complicated metal flower, with steel petals gliding through the air. As the Eldrazi removed the final piece, black tendrils sprung out of the center, seizing the monster in a matter of seconds. “-and another thing! You’re ugly”. As the monster was squeezed to death, it let out a terrifying scream, which shrunk into a painful whimper. “-and fat-” The monster was letting out a quite, ghastly whistle as its head was popped off by a particularly ambitious tentacle. “-smelly-” The monster fell limp on the floor. “-and dumb”, she said, as the tendrils retreated back into their box, which reconstructed itself. The cube fell onto the floor, normal again.
~~~
“Monster skull for sale! Monster skull for sale! Great for Armor!” Kat screamed into the crowd. While surveying the mass of people, she noticed a man precariously eyeing her stand from a few feet away. “Ah, an honored costumer! I can see you’re interested in this exotic monster skull. I’ll tell you what, add in three extra credits and I’ll throw in this beautiful jeweled puzzle box. Very mysterious!”

I stood completely still. While a stealth suit prevents you from being seen, it does not hide your sounds. Of course it made no difference in this case, as the Neurok never could come up with a way to mask their scent. The wolf found me immediately. Sniffing loudly, he spoke.
“Ena, show yourself. We have no time for trickery.”
With a sigh I deactivated my suit. After years as a spy and courier of secret messages I always felt exposed without it, but right now it made no difference.
“Greetings, Al-Heshon. Where are the others?”
“There are no others. The plaguechildren struck last night, and we fought valiantly - but ineffectually. Now I am alpha, but I have no pack. If Al-Hayat could have seen this his tears would flood the traitors out of Tel-Jilad. But he is no more, just as my pack is no more, just as all Mirrodin will be no more if we do not succeed in turning the tide of this war.
I was stunned. I had been meeting with the wolf pack for weeks now, and though their numbers had been dwindling from an already low number, I had not expected this. My heart sank as I realized that even if we could win the war the world was changed forever. Still, that simply strengthened my resolve. We were not defeated yet, if only we could put this plan together.
“The vedalken are ready. They have consulted the orrery, and Lyese will be in position soon, and the Eye of Doom soon thereafter. They have completed construction of the focus orbs and are ready to link them to the cages. That is, if the cages are ready?”
“The shamans have finished one, and are preparing the next. This is a difficult endeavor to keep hidden from the plaguechildren, but we are progressing well. Bring the architects and the orbs when next we meet, and we shall complete our task.”
After that we simply nodded to each other, turned and walked off in opposite directions.

The next day our meeting was far less stealthy. Granted, we did the best we could, but with three vedalken architects and six Neurok guards there was not much I could do. In the old days we would simply have brought an invisimancer, but there were none left, at least not in our resistance group. It still is hard for me to accept that I was the best person available to perform these missions. I have heard rumors that Kara Vrist is still out there doing amazing things for another resistance group, but this team had to make do with me.

Al-Heshon was also not alone. He had brought two elves, archers by the look of it, to help keep our little troupe of vedalken alive and well. Once proper introductions had been made, we continued the trek. Darion, the vedalken certarch, was carrying the crate with the focus orbs himself. Although I could tell that he was getting tired, he would not let anyone relieve him of his burden. I could understand why. The project that he and the two architects by his side had conceived, and which now had been secretly built deep inside the Tangle was the most fascinating piece of artifice anyone could have dreamed of it. And the fact that the elves had agreed to help construct it, and even brought in vulshok forge-tenders to help them, was another clear sign that Mirrodin had changed forever.

We knew that it would be nearly impossible to make it to the secret forge without being attacked, but the strike came sooner than expected. We knew that it was not worth the risk to fight, so we simply ran, trusting that Al-Hashon and his elven companions would know their way through the woods better than the monsters following us. Somewhere in the stress Darion finally gave up on his pride and handed the package to one of the guards. That turned out to be a better decision than anyone could have known, as a second strike force came in from our flank and was upon us before we knew what had happened. We lost half the group, including Darion and one of the elves, in that attack alone. Al-Heshon quickly took us on a different path, leading into a small valley. There was a narrow pass leading into the valley, and once we reached it Al-Hashon stopped. Confused, I looked to the wolf as he turned to the surviving elf and told her to bring us safely to our destination. I already knew what was happening, but I could not stop the words from escaping my throat.
“What about you? Where are you going?”
“I am not going anywhere. Someone has to hold them off, and I would only slow you down if I stayed with you. The time has come for me to rejoin the pack.”
He looked over his shoulder, and I finally noticed the wound on his flank. The accursed oil was bubbling as it mixed with his blood. We both knew that he would not live to see the end of the day. Even so I found tears forming in my eyes, and despite the fact that I knew how crucial it was to not give away our position, I just wanted to scream. Biting my lip, I knelt down next to him and threw my arms around his neck, burying my face in his fur. I allowed myself to cry a few silent tears before releasing him and getting back up. Then we simply nodded to each other one last time, turned and walked in opposite directions.

Although he never truly got to hold the position, Al-Heshon was a true alpha. He held that pass long enough for us to shake the plaguechildren, as he called them, and we arrived safely at the hidden forge. There were plenty of conflicting emotions at our arrival. While everyone was happy that we were reaching the final stage of our project, the losses we had suffered were stunning. We only had one of our three vedalken, and as far as we knew Al-Heshon’s passing marked the extinction of the Tel-Jilad wolves. I also found out that the elf we lost had a lover, who had to be restrained in order to keep him from running out into the woods to seek revenge. Perhaps we should have let him go. Such fury might have kept him alive long enough to distract the enemy for a few crucial moments. I wonder how this would have turned out if we had had those few moments more.

The surviving vedalken, Solan, quickly brought the focus orbs to the central forge. I remember feeling intense pride as I followed and saw the project in its full glory. A large network of perfectly crafted metal rods had been laid out. It was hard to grasp the range of the project, as the rods continued out and mingled with the roots of trees. The elves had even, to the dismay of Solan’s vedalken sensibilities, crafted leaf and flower patterns onto the metal to make it blend in even better. Solan was forced to agree that it was a reasonable way to avoid something so large being discovered, and he knew that there was no time to change the design, so he simply walked up to the center of the structure and opened the case he was carrying; within floated five orbs, beautiful imitations of the suns above. Muttering an incantation, he reached for the green orb which represented Lyese and pulled out a small pin from it. He carefully inserted the pin into a slot at the center of the intricate metalwork, and took a step back. Suddenly a faint green glow began to spread along the joints of the construct, and Solan turned to the elder of the elf shamans.
“We will not keep this hidden for much longer. Prepare the final step.”

The final step was of course the most difficult. Through a combination of elven, neurok, vedalken, and vulshok magic the little band of survivors were going to lift this entire construct into the sky and make it fold over on itself and become a cage for the green sun. The idea was that the cage would absorb the power of Lyese and transfer it into the focus orb, where we could have exclusive access to it, effectively doubling the power we could get out of the elves’ and sylvok’s magic as well as denying the invaders that same power. With that power in place we could then easily complete the next cage and do the same with the blue Eye of Doom, and eventually all five of the suns. It was simple and brilliant. It was also foolish to think we could get away with it.

The lift was near perfect. Even if I live to be a hundred, which seems less likely by the minute, I doubt I will ever see anything that beautiful again. Held by the strings of twelve different mages of various species and cultures it floated up to seamlessly connect around its target. We all stood in stunned silence for a few moments, and then someone began to laugh. Knowing that our position was already compromised by the fact that we had just launched the largest artifact ever seen into the sky, we broke out into a cheer. We thought it would make no difference. What we hadn’t considered was the fact that cheering drowned out the sound of the guards raising the alarm. They had found us much sooner than we had expected, and we soon found out why: the wolves had returned to us.

Except it was not the proud, wise wolves of Tel-Jilad. It was a horrific mockery of the creatures I had come to love and respect. There were three of them that broke into our midst, followed by a morbid gathering of various monstrosities which seemed a cruel mirror of our own motley crew. Our elation quickly turned into panic as they began tearing into us, making their way toward Solan, who still held the focus orb. He turned to run, but he did not get far. One of the wolves, whom I had once known as En-Sheera, jumped on him and tore his arm off with a single bite. One of the archers managed to hit the wolf, but the orb was lost to us. I watched in horror as it half floated, half rolled to the feet of what had once been a sylvok shaman. Unlike the wolves, the oil had clearly left some mind in this one, and the battlefield froze as he picked it up and we saw it glow as he began harnessing its power. We had lost everything.

The next moment one of the archers lit an arrow on fire and sent it into the air. We all knew what that meant. It was the agreed upon signal to the group working at the second forge site that something had gone wrong. This was important, because before starting construction on the second sun cage, that team had built something else: a lux cannon. My eyes was flickering between the twisted shaman and the power he was radiating into his companions and the sun cage, praying to whatever might hear me that the cannon would work, and soon. At that very moment a shaft of light burst across the sky, blinding us all for a moment. The next moment the cage broke apart. As suddenly as the enemy had gained power, it vanished. As the cannon blast struck the cage, the orb exploded in the shaman’s hand. Then the debris started falling. We all ran, invaders and resistance alike. I saw a large piece of metal crush the head of another wolf, while the last wolf leapt over it. In that moment I recognized the last wolf. It was Al-Heshon.

I already said that I doubt I will live to be a hundred. Now I tell you I doubt I will live to the end of the day. I do not know if anyone will. Still, I will leave this letter in the hope that someone might one day read about the caged sun, and know that the people of Mirrodin were capable of great things. Now I have to go and find my friend. Although he will probably find me first, despite the stealth suit. Either way I must try to end this. Al-Heshon should have died a hero. I will not let him live on as a monster.