The Moons of Mirrodin Read Free

flowing blouse and skirt. She ran her fleshy, clawless
hands over the skirt, feeling the softness of the petals against the warmth of her new hands. A word came to her mind unbidden
.
    “Leaves,” she said
.
    There were no such things in the Tangle, only metal—copper covered by molder, the dull green growth that tarnished all within the forest
.
    Glissa surveyed the strange forest, trying to find some landmark she could recognize, but there was a remarkable sameness to this place. Every brown tree grew straight up toward the sky and branched out into myriad leaf-covered limbs in every direction. No terraces swept high in the air; no curved spires marked one’s way; no luminous gelfruit hung from the trees to light the way home. There were leaves and that bright yellow light straight overhead
.
    Then she saw it—an odd glow coming through the trees. At first Glissa thought it was the light of the blue moon, but the light was too white, and the blue moon was never that bright so low in the sky. Staring at the glowing light, Glissa began to walk toward it. She didn’t even realize she was moving until she had passed several of the weird, brown trees and the glow had gotten larger. She willed her legs to stop but no longer had control over her body. She stumbled forward through the forest, moving ever closer to the strange light
.
    Glissa tried to grab onto a passing tree or branch, but their rough surfaces stung her soft flesh and cut into her palms as her legs pulled her onward. The glow loomed ahead of her. It now seemed to stretch to the tops of the strange trees. Frustrated, Glissa raised her arms up toward the golden light streaming from the sky and screamed. As if in response, tendrils of green energy, brighter than a gelfruit, enveloped her hands and began to run up her arms. Glissa shook her hands, trying to fling the energy away, but it continued to grow and branch, just like the limbs of the trees around her. They consumed her arms and reached up her neck toward her face. Glissa screamed again
.
    *   *   *   *   *
    Glissa was back in the Tangle. She lay at the edge of the terrace, the squirming vorrac’s leg still in her hands. She could still hear herself screaming even though her mouth was closed. Glissa looked down at the wounded beast and saw green tendrils of energy coursing over her clawed fingertips. She gasped and pulled away, dropping the vorrac, which plummeted to the ground far below. The tendrils of energy remained for a moment on her claws, then discharged into the terrace. She felt a small charge of electricity run through her body. When she looked up, Kane was kneeling beside her, his eyebrows furrowed with concern. Had he seen the energy, too? She dared not even ask.
    “I’m fine,” she said to the unasked question.
    “Did you have another flare?” asked Kane as he offered his hand.
    Glissa nodded and grabbed Kane’s arm to pull herself up, but then stared at their entwined limbs as if seeing them for the first time. Her flare had felt so real that the sight of metal growing into flesh and flesh fused into metal seemed somehow unreal. Their arms glinted as the dim light from the moons reflected off the dull, supple metal. Kane’s metallic skin stretched as his elbow bent and his muscles flexed. The metal melted naturally into the soft, pale flesh of the elf’s shoulder—the same skin Glissa had seen covering her whole body.
    Why should it seem so odd now to see her metallic parts move that way? Why did the vision in the flare seem more … normal?
    “They’ve been coming more often lately,” she said, finally, to cover up the awkward pause. She tried to avoid Kane’s eyes, but was it the strange flare she’d had or the extra tingle she had felt when she and Kane touched that kept her silent?
    “They always do as we get closer to the rebuking ceremony,” he replied. Apparently unaffected, Kane led the way along theterrace. “I nearly fell over on duty in front of the