A tense Ral knew it was now his turn. He had been hoping against hope that either Kaya or Vraska might have failed, too.
But no.
Inhaling deeply and running one hand over his shaved head, he stepped forward into the Verity Circle, holding Tezzeret’s arm. With a nod to the Wanderer, he described in a clear voice their journeys and battles.
“All true,” she confirmed. “Although I am forced to admit that I lost consciousness and planeswalked away. I did not witness Tezzeret’s end.”
All eyes in the Senate House turned back to Ral Zarek, still holding Tezzeret’s etherium arm. Niv-Mizzet and Tomik and everyone else expected him to regale them with the tale of his opponent’s demise.
Ral hesitated…then, despite the fact that the Firemind had long ago taught him a spell that could thwart an Azorius Verity Circle, Ral told the absolute truth: “Tezzeret beat me. He could have killed me easily. Instead, he gave me this arm to use as false proof of his death. He assumed I would be too vain or too frightened to reveal that I had failed. I am neither.”
Everyone was too surprised to gasp or murmur.
Thus, the silence allowed Ral to actually hear the Wanderer breathe a sigh of relief. This revelation clearly tallied with her assumptions. She said, “After recovering consciousness, I planeswalked back to Esper. The fortress was completely deserted. And too little time had passed for that to be the result of Tezzeret’s forces meandering off on their own. It was an organized abandonment, which suggests that Tezzeret himself was behind it and used his Planar Bridge technology to execute it. Moreover, that technology, which had previously made it so easy for me to follow him, was no longer registering upon the Blind Eternities at all. I suspect that I had previously been overestimating my own skills—that Tezzeret had been intentionally leaving a trail for me. Now that he believes himself ‘dead’ to the Multiverse, he has made certain that trail has run cold.”
Ral dared a look at Niv-Mizzet, whose expression revealed acute disappointment in his protégé. Ral looked at Maree, who was smiling more broadly than Ral had ever known her to smile in her life. Finally, Ral looked at Tomik, whose face was full of pity for his lover.
And somehow that’s even worse…