Pools of Becoming

A fanfic whose existence should be taken as a joke



“We were Gods once.”

“You keep saying that.”

“It’s true.” Bolas reclined nude, chest deep in what he called a pool, what the relatively tiny human Jace Beleren called a lake. “I ruled entire planes in my prime. If everyone worshipped me as a god, who’s to say I wasn’t one?” He let his eyes shut briefly in reverie. “It was a golden age.” Bolas lifted his forearm from the water and offered his palm to Jace, still standing at the salty shore. He gingerly climbed on. Bolas lifted him across the pool and set him on his shoulder. He knew Jace could’ve made his way across without much effort- he was a Planeswalker, after all; it was more a gesture of courtesy: something very few received from the dragon. Jace lay back and looked upward, into Bolas’ face.

“So what happened?”

“Didn’t that necromantic tart tell you? Time rifts on Dominaria. Everything changed.”

This wasn’t news to Jace. He knew all about the mending, even though it happened long before he was born, and Bolas knew he knew. This wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation. It wasn’t the first time Bolas had invited Jace to his private plane. They went through the motions out of habit. This buildup was comfortable for them. It was an excuse. It let them dance around their feelings and still have a chance to be together, because neither of them was ready yet to accept what they felt for one another.

Jace closed his eyes and opened his mouth in mock wonder. “I can’t imagine the power the elder walkers must have had. To hold entire universes as your playthings… What was it like?”

The elder dragon grinned. “Why don’t you see for yourself?”

And slowly, gingerly at first, their minds touched.

When Bolas enters another person’s mind, it can be most easily compared to a ****. He plunges the depths of memory and knowledge and rips out whatever he needs, often leaving the minds he touches permanently damaged. When Jace Beleren enters another person’s mind, it can be most easily compared to a spy infiltrating a castle- fast, deep, and quiet, and sometimes subversive. But this was different. When two mind mages embrace on the level of the mind and soul, they merge and react to one another, becoming one entity. They’re like two mirrors, reflecting each other infinitely in each direction. To feel your own lover’s desire, to truly become one, is better than sex. And it’s a pleasure only mind mages may know.

The moment was brief, and as seamlessly as it had begun, the two consciousnesses detached, without mark or wound. Bolas was the first to awaken, and with a single claw, he tenderly nudged Jace awake.

“Beleren.”

“What?”

“Your memories taste like goat balls.”

The class was suddenly silent when the large ogre stepped inside the classroom. He put his large cleaver against the wall, took of his ridiculously horned helmet off and wrote his name on the blackboard. “Welcome to Bradywalker High. I am Kazuul,”, he tapped on the blackboard when he said this, “and I will be giving you Algebra this year.”
Jace’s neighbor, a skinny Vedalken girl, leaned over to him and whispered: “The Tyrant of the Cliffs. I heard he once tied a boy to the front of his car for forgetting his homework.” Jace smiled at first, until he felt the pure fear coming from the girl. She truly believed a teacher would be allowed to do this. Jace smiled at the naivety, and relaxed in his chair. He looked around. Next to him was a large boy with a helmet and an axe next to his desk, looking a bit scared. Not the kind Jace would become friends with, too much muscle. In front of him sat a another boy with a helmet, playing with his pens, welding them together with the power of his mind. Jace turned his head, to see he was behind him.
“Mr. Beleren,” Surprised Jace took his attention back to the front of the classroom. “Could you pay attention to the class, instead of the charms of Ms. Nalaar. I believe she already has a boyfriend.” Kazuul was grinning, enjoying the effect his words had on both Jace and Chandra. Jace refused to show his annoyance, but the girl behind him clearly showed her feelings, her head suddenly surrounded by flames. Kazuul ignored this and went on: “If seven treasure hunters want passage into Murasa, but only 3 of them would pay the tribute to the local tyrants, how much ogres would be needed…”
Jaces mind drifted away, he didn’t feel the need to pay attention. He would get the answers straight out of Kazuuls head by the time they had a test. Instead he briefly touched the minds of the people in his class. Half of the class was actually paying attention. Some people where worried about trivial things, like troubles at home, or the next class. The boy in front of him had put away his pens and was now thinking about reshaping his desk. The Vedalken girl was part of the class that was paying attention, but he didn’t really need to read her mind to find that out. She was terrified of Kazuul. The boy with axe was scared as well, but to Jaces surprise not of their teacher. He was afraid of sitting in the classroom, he felt trapped inside this building, and not just in the overdramatization most teenagers felt. He felt genuinely bad, for being inside a building. Jaces mental barrier was weakening and he stopped reading the boys mind before the fear would spread into his. Kazuul was still going on about ogres and tribute, so Jace conjured up a few illusions to amuse himself until the end of class.