Kaya, Rat and Teyo had come to Dominaria to kill Liliana Vess, even if Teyo was expressly against the idea, and Rat hadn’t exactly supported it. But even the assassin Kaya was given pause when they saw Liliana wearing a servant’s collar while working in the garden of her ancestral home like an automaton.
Kaya looked around for any other eyes that might be on Liliana and, finding none, said to the others, “Stay alert.” Then she drew one of her daggers, quickly crossed the moonlit distance from the trees to the garden and stopped before her prey. Teyo and Rat followed.
Liliana just kept pulling thorny weeds from the soil with bare bleeding hands and seemed to take absolutely no notice of the three of them whatsoever. It was more than a little disconcerting.
This must be what Rat feels like all the time.
Maybe it was just curiosity—the need to know what by the Eastern Cloud was going on—but Kaya didn’t stab the necromancer. Instead, she tried to talk to her, whispering, “Liliana. Liliana Vess.” Receiving no response, she asked, “Liliana Vess, what are you doing?”
No response.
Kaya grabbed the woman’s bloody hand, preventing her from pulling another weed. This at least caused Liliana to look up. Her expression was blank. “Liliana,” Kaya said. “Can you hear me?”
No response.
Kaya released Liliana’s hand. Immediately the gardener went back to her gardening.
Teyo found himself sniffing Miss Vess. He thought maybe he smelled smoke upon her clothes, as if she had been standing beside a bonfire—or maybe in a room of burning incense. The smell reminded him of something, but he still couldn’t place it.
“Well, I’m confused,” Rat whispered.
“So am I,” Kaya grumbled, “to say the least.”
Rat looked at Teyo, who shrugged and mumbled something that might have sounded a little like “I dunno.”
Rat tapped her chin and pondered the situation. “If Miss Vess here is a prisoner, then who is the Mistress Vess who imprisoned her?”
Kaya nodded at the salience of the question and added, “And how could this Mistress Vess possibly be powerful enough to take down the only person powerful enough to destroy Nicol Bolas?”
Rat said, “Maybe I can find out,” and she scurried off once again. For a moment, Kaya looked worried for her, looked as if she might call Rat back. But she shook off her worries, fairly confident—as Teyo was—that Rat would go unnoticed and potentially learn something valuable.
Kaya still had a dagger in one hand. Taking a risk, Teyo nodded toward it and asked, “Are you going to kill her? It would be easy enough now.”
As he assumed, the idea of killing Liliana in this state was somewhat distasteful to the ghost-assassin. “No. Not now. Not until we learn more.”
It gave Teyo hope that he might finally be able to talk Kaya out of killing Liliana altogether.
Then he had another thought. “Maybe the problem’s the collar…” He reached out and attempted to remove it.
“Teyo, wait!”
As he fumbled with the latch, the gold collar heated rapidly. Liliana screamed in pain and grabbed for her throat, even as Teyo was forced to let go before his hands were scorched.
Kaya gave him a look that would have made Abbot Barrez proud.
Well, the old Abbot Barrez, anyway.
He felt like a fool. Right up to the point where Liliana reached out and grabbed him by the collar, growling out, “What in Urza’s name do you think you’re doing?”