They are Nissa began.
Very terrible, said a screechy voice from behind. Mudheel stepped out of the shadows.
Nissa jumped. Mudheel! she said. It was all she could think to say, and she immediately regretted saying it as the word echoed down the cavern.
Where is your kor mistress? Sorin said.
The goblin s eyes cast down and then around the darkness. Mudheel shrugged his shoulders.
They stood in the near dark of the cave looking at one another. The drakes screamed outside as they fought over the meat still clinging to the bones of their fallen comrades.
How did you get past the drakes? Sorin asked, after a time.
I crept through at night, the goblin said.
Little dragons see like humans in the dark.
Well, Nissa said. Should we continue to Ugin, whatever it is?
The goblin stared at her.
Which way is it? Nissa said, finally.
Oh, Mudheel said. There. The goblin lifted one hand and pointed away, where the cave continued into blackness. But we cannot go there.
Why? Anowon snapped. Why not?
Because my mistress is surely there.
That does not concern us, Sorin said, brushing past the goblin. Even now I feel the containment spell weakening. I must reach it.
She will be vexed, Mudheel said.
Nissa watched the goblin closely. What is she like when she is vexed?
She is most cruel, Mudheel said. The words stuck to Nissa for some reason, and she looked around before following the others down into the darkest part of the cave. Nissa listened for Mudheel, who finally followed them.
They walked downward for many hours. Anowon was at the head with the glowing tooth pinched between his fingers. The cavern remained large. Large enough for a full grown basalt crawler to move through without touching a scale, Nissa thought.
Each of their footfalls bounced off the wet of the deep cavern and came echoing back to them as deep growls. The others seemed to make no notice of the noise.
But there was another sound, a far quieter but more persistent sound than their footfalls. Nissa stopped and turned her head, angling her long ear for better hearing. The sound was too irregular to be drips. It occurred in sudden bursts and then stopped for a time.
A bluish glow began to appear in the volcanic cavern ahead. As they walked the glow became stronger, until it was bright enough for Nissa to see her hand grasping her staff. The rock on either side of them began to slope downward, until they entered a huge carved cavern with no floor Nissa could see. Many thin causeways of chiseled basalt zigzagged at different levels across the deep chasm and trailed to a tunnel filled with blue light on the far side of the cavern. Multiple levels of stairs and paths joined the chiseled basalt causeways. The middle of the immense chamber was littered with debris, some of it scorched. But the lack of a floor was not the feature that caused Nissa s heart to start beating fast.
Hedrons floating in the air and pointing at skewed angles. In the middle of the chamber many hedron sat side to side and piled on one another, but they all seemed to be pointing loosely at the tunnel on the far side of the cavern. It was as if a great magnet had pulled them into place.
The cavern was so large that Nissa could see neither the floor nor the ceiling, and as she stepped out onto the causeway, the air seemed to ripple and refract.
Wait, Sorin said. He put one cold hand on Nissa s shoulder and drew her back. I will go first.
Nissa stepped out of the way and let the vampire pass. They followed him across the huge cavern and entered another after that and another after that. The light grew brighter and brighter until a glare caught Nissa s eye ahead. Sorin stopped and turned. The corner of his cloak swirled the foggy blackness under the causeway.
Ahead is the entrance to the Eye of Ugin, Sorin said. I will talk for us as it is I who will have to sing the containment back to fortitude, Sorin said. He fastened Nissa with a hard look. Do not speak.
Nissa jerked her chin up. Must you strengthen the prison? she said.
Sorin turned his head. The most particular expression played across his face.
Yes, he said. I must. Otherwise the Eldrazi will scream free and eat your precious Zendikar in three bites. Do you not hear them? That far off sound? That is them clawing at the walls of their enclosure. They have been scratching for centuries. They never stop.
Nissa heard the same irregular sound she d heard before, only now it was louder. A long, slow scraping.
How are they unable to get out? Nissa said.
Keeping them contained is the job of Ugin, Sorin said. The containment spell is one the ancients could never hope to break, without help from outside. To break the spell, the ancients would have to perform an action that is against their fundamental nature.
They are their own prison? Anowon said.
Precisely, Sorin said.
Yet the spell fails.
Because of outside intervention, Sorin said.
They all stood listening to the Eldrazi scratching on the walls of their prison.
We do not want them here, Anowon said.
No, Nissa said, shaking her head. We do not. They are the cause of Zendikar s Roils, her gravity wells
They are strangers here.
Sorin regarded them both for only a moment before speaking.
Zendikar is naturally dangerous. The mana existed here before the Eldrazi arrived and will remain here after they have rotted to dust. Zendikar is savage, and its most savage behavior is in its inhabitants, Ghet.
Do not call me Ghet, Anowon said. I will not have the slave masters of my people sucking the energy of Zendikar as they once sucked vampires dry.
You know they would leave this place and travel to other planes, Nissa said.
I do not know that, Sorin said. There is mana in abundance here. That is what they lust for.
They will leave, Anowon said.
How do you know?
I know.
How can you?
Nissa turned to look at Anowon. It was a good question, she thought. How could he know?
Anowon snarled. I have read it.
Sorin sighed. He looked at the bright light ahead of the causeway.
It is true that the magic we wrought to bind the Eldrazi in their prison has had some undesired effects on this plane, he said. But the prison is not the only reason this place is so wild.
The hedron stones? Anowon said.
Are devices we made to condense mana and keep the containment spell strong.
Anowon s smile was unrestrained and large.
Then you will cease this travesty, Anowon said.
By your own admission
Enough! Sorin boomed. Nissa staggered backward, pushed by the vampire s voice.
I am Sorin Markov, the vampire boomed. Rock dust sifted down from the ceiling of the cavern as his words echoed. Sorin straightened his arms to each side. Blue-black energy snapped around his fists. I will slay anyone attempting to stop me from performing the task given me.
Sorin s words were like weapons bludgeoning down on Nissa. She found it difficult to stand. The sound was in her, in her head echoing. Mudheel lay face down on the causeway next to her covering his head in an effort to escape the sonic assault.
Nissa squared her shoulders and stood despite her body s intense desire to fall to the ground. Years of Joraga training had given her the ability to ignore pain, but Sorin s voice was something else entirely every part of her screamed in agony. Still, Nissa could tell by the shocked expression on the tall vampire s face that he was impressed she was still standing.
Blinking with effort, Nissa twisted her staff and drew the stem sword.
The words Sorin said were unknown to Nissa. But the pitch and timbre of Sorin s voice increased, and she felt those words ringing off the marrow of her bones. Yet still she stood.
Sorin winked at her before turning toward the light at the back of the chamber. He dropped his hands and the light brightened. Nissa could see the huge stone face of a dragon. Arc-shaped patterns filled the wall around the dragon s face and it was from these arcs that the glowing light emerged. The wall appeared slightly fluid. A huge stone hedron covered with markings writhed to the right of the dragon s eyes.