Little Cause, Big Effects

“There – I’m coming!”
Blap quickly put his tools in his pockets and his bag, and got down from the metallic structure on which he had been working.
“Because of you, we’ll be late to deliver our report!” grumbled a visibly exasperated Verak. “You should know that Urza hates waiting!”
Two meters above ground level, the goblin jumped and landed gracefully… in a rain of tools that had fallen from his bag. Behind his protective goggles, the viashino who was waiting for him rolled his eyes and started to walk.
“Oops, sorry! But I’m sure we’re not late!”
Blap started picking his tools up to put them back in his bag.

Ah, goblins! Verak always wondered why Urza had gone through great lengths to negotiate a peace between them and the viashinos. After years of open conflict, the two races now shared the mana rig in Shiv. He had to admit that goblins, although annoying, were very skilled in working on the rig, even if their mechanical knowledge was rather limited. Their skills seemed to be intuitive, as if the nasty little creatures were linked to the enormous antique Thran machinery through an unknown magic bond. But what could they do without the viashinos, their science and their logic? And of course, their resistance to heat… In the end, the viashinos-goblins tandem worked rather well, and work was progressing quickly. Urza would be happy with their report… And Verak would deliver it alone if that stupid goblin didn’t hurry.

Once he had picked his tools, Blap started to run in the rig hallways to catch his viashino partner. Really, there was no reason to get so excited! The way work was going, the powerstone would soon be ready, as well as the metallic structure of the flying ship. However, Blap had a bad feeling, as if he had forgotten something… The goblin emerged at last from the building and, once his eyes had gotten used to daylight, he saw Verak walking up toward Urza’s Tower, out of the industrial complex.
“Ah, at last,” said the lizard-man once the goblin had caught up with him.
“Don’t panic!” he answered. “I told you we’re not late!”

Walking, Blap looked in his bag and took a piece of bread from it. A big brownish slug stuck out of a corner of the loaf. The goblin bit into it and Verak turned away, disgusted… And at that precise moment, a big explosion detonated behind them. The top of the rig was suddenly engulfed in flames.
“Damnation!” shouted the viashino. “We have to warn Urza!”
He started running towards the tower. Paralysed by what he was seeing, Blap didn’t know what to do. Around the rig, the alarm rang and everyone was running in all directions. He continued eating his lunch and put his other hand in his pocket, where he found a sharp metallic piece. Horrified, he suddenly realized what had happened. He had used that piece from the transformer to pry the iron-gnawer slug out of its hiding place… Verak had arrived just after that, and Blap had forgotten to put it back. The explosion was the result. With a sigh, he ran back to the building to start organizing the repair crews.

At least, he thought, there was something positive to all this: the slug was delicious.

Glossary (click on the chosen word to return to the text)
Urza: A wizard who became a planeswalker (the supreme level of magical power), Urza devoted his life to oppose the plans of the Phyrexians to invade the plane of Dominaria.
Viashino: A lizard-man with green and scaly skin.
Mana : Mystic energy necessary to any magic, and drawn by wizards from the lands to which they are linked, or surrounding them.
Shiv: A volcanic mountain range in Dominaria, populated with dragons, viashinos and goblins.
Thran: An old and mysterious race that was technologically and magically very advanced. In their time, the Thrans had succeeded in defeating the Phyrexians, and that is why Urza tries to salvage the remnants of their civilization.

Text © P.O. Barome

Illustrations © Wizards of the Coast

This story was inspired by the Magic: the Gathering™ cards from the Urza’s Saga™ block.