Magic: The Gathering: Say You'll Haunt Me

Chapter 5: The Gift

Kerrick

I woke up the next morning to find Liliana had already gotten up. "Good morning, darling." I heard her say.

I turned to my left to see her sitting at my desk, fully clothed, reading The Bestiary Daemoniorum.

"So, this is what you grabbed from that wretch's collection?" She asked. "You really are dedicated to your mastery of Black Mana. I thought you would have gotten some sort of weapon.".

She paused on one page and narrowed her eyes. "Abyssal Persecutor… what's so interesting about that one?" She asked me, an amused smile on her face.

I went pale. "Um… I wanted to start learning with something simple…?" I said.

She smirked at me and propped her head up with her arm on my desk. "So, eternal suffering is simple?".

"Well, now that I hear it out loud-".

"Wait," she demanded, holding up a hand. "Do you want to kill one?".

I scratched the back of my head. "Maybe…".

"You want to kill one so you can be immortal?" She said, still smirking at me.

I nodded sheepishly. She laughed loudly and got up, running her hand over my hair. "Oh, Kerrick… if you wanted eternal life, you should have asked. And anyway, Persecutors are on Zendikar, which makes them notoriously difficult to find due to The Roil. Innistrad is so much easier now that the Helvault is gone." She said, walking over to me. "Now, you're going to want someone who knows their way around demons, yes?".

I smiled at her. "I suppose you're right. To Innistrad we go." I said, before planeswalking to the dark plane.

The second I arrived, the darkness Liliana spoke of was readily apparent. I arrived in a dark mansion, surrounded by zombies. I was ready to torch the entire room, but was stopped when Lili appeared beside me and waved them off.

"Remember, Kerrick, this is my domain. If I'm being completely honest, I think of this place as home more than Dominaria. Just look at all my lovelies!" She said, gesturing to the corpses that occupied the roam.

The dead had a different feel to them here. They weren't as mindless as they were on other planes. They seemed more predatory.

"You see, darling, this plane isn't ruled by humans. And don't let that do-gooder Sorin tell you it's ruled by vampires. The dead rule here. And she who controls the dead…" she gave me a wicked smile. "...Is queen." She finished, staring up at the ceiling with her arms out, basking in her own glory.

"Just look at it. You've never seen an army of dead more imposing!" She bragged.

"The Dreadhorde was generations upon generations of trained warriors. They would slau-".

"We. Do not. Speak. Of them, Scargraft," Liliana hissed, glaring at me. "Bolas had his work cut out for him. Thousands of years harvesting the greatest warriors, and when the time came to bring them back, he wasn't even the one who made them rise. An insect did it.".

I shrank away from her. "Understood, Lili…".

"For those comments, it's back to Miss Vess. We don't talk about Ravnica." She scolded.

"Of course, Miss Vess." I corrected.

She held her gaze on me for a few seconds before bursting into a fit of laughter. "I really had you, didn't I? You bought it!" She said as she paused.

"That was a joke?" I asked, looking back up at her.

"Kay, of course it was! I'm not dumb enough to think that stupid dragon's army wouldn't be brought up! And anyways, you're so adorable when you're submissive like that!".