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Chandra walked alone along the streets of Ghirapur, which had turned out to be a mistake. At least when Nissa or Liliana were with her she could sort of distract herself from the facts. Focus on the colourful buildings, the cheerful crowds, the interesting market stalls. Without them, she could hear every clanking footfall of the Consulate contructs or the faint whirring of every spy thopter.
Suddenly all those buildings were just colourful facades painted over a rotten truth, the smiles of the busy people looked rather strained and all those market wares were government-approved baubles to keep the populace content and unquestioning.
Oh, it could've been worse. She knew that, probably more than nearly anyone else on Kaladesh. She'd been to Zendikar, to Innistrad. Compared to places like that, a corrupt government bent on security and order wasn't that bad. But it was still bad. It got on every one of Chandra's nerves. At least the Eldrazi never acted like they were graciously doing their victims a favour.
One of the patrolling automatons walked up to Chandra and turned its featureless face towards. Chandra walked on undeterred. It had no business with her. None that it could possibly know of, anyway. The machine walked on as well and the spoke in a dull, metallic voice.
"Halt."
Chandra turned around. The construct had stopped a dwarf with an impressively pointy moustache in the middle of the road. The people flowed around the sudden roadblock, either uncaring or smart enough not see what was happening.
Chandra walked towards a nearby building and leaned against a wall. Probably a stupid thing to do, but she wanted to see what was going to happen next.
"Identification," the machine commanded.
The dwarf reached down into his pockets and grabbed some papers. "Here you are, sir."
'Sir', Chandra noted. It was just a construct going through a programmed routine and the dwarf had called it sir.
"Scanning. Everything seems to be in order," said the machine. "Have a nice day."
"Thank you, sir," the dwarf replied.
The Consulate construct clanked away on its appointed rounds. The dwarf moved on as well. And did he mutter one bad word under his breath? Did he shoot even a single dirty look at this machine had wasted his time for no good reason? Was he at least the tiniest bit annoyed that, while going about his lawful business, someone had just randomly stopped him to check if he was on the level?
No. None of that. Because this was ordinary. It was 'the way things were'. It was 'necessary to keep people safe'.
Chandra could feel her hair wanting to ignite and her hands just ached to start flinging some fire around. Instead, she took off at some speed back to her hotel.
The crowds thinned a bit as Chandra got away from the main roads. When she'd planeswalked here, all of the really fancy hotels had already been booked solid because of the Inventor's Fair and not even Liliana's charms could do anything about that. So they'd ended up at a pretty decent place that was somewhat removed from where all the excitement was.
As the chattering of people dimmed, the whir of the thopters got ever louder. They were everywhere, hovering overhead. The Consulate spy, sorry, 'surveillance' network. Hundreds if not thousands of eyes in the sky, constantly sending data the city's many security agencies. They were completely useless. There just weren't enough people to be able to watch all the data all of the time. The chances of anyone up in the security towers spotting anything of use was remote. But, like the patrolling constructs randomly stopping people in the streets, the thopters were a symbol.
The Consulate is always watching you.
Of course, they didn't put it like that. It got all dressed up in fancy words about security and constant vigilance against subversive elements and all the other dreary old words the powerful had always used to justify their power. The thopters zoomed overhead to assure the loyal followers and make the thoughtful think twice about doing anything... unwise.
As the modest hotel came into view, Chandra felt quite proud for not unleashing a firestorm on the wretched things. Not because she'd get into trouble - there was no trouble that she couldn't get out of with yet more fire. But because a lone pyromancer causing havoc would be just the kind of thing the Consulate would seize on to impose more restrictions. Timing was everything.
As Chandra walked into the lobby, a nearby thopter started to smoke, fell out of the sky and wrecked itself on the hard streets. If anyone were to bother checking what had made it fail, they would've found that a few small, but important, parts had overheated and fused together. Possibly it had flown too close to the sun. Or something.
Chandra headed for the ground-floor room she shared with Nissa - Liliana had got herself the Consul Suite on the uppermost floor. It looked pretty much the same as she'd left it. White stone floor with decent, if faded rugs. White stone walls decorated with intricate designs of brass. The jungle was new, though.
One half of the room was a forest. Thick bark from floor to ceiling, gnarled roots digging into the concrete to severely inconvenience underground waterpipes, a canopy of leaves blocking most of the light and some thick vines in case a playful monkey felt like visiting.
Nissa sat on one of the rugs, her eyes closed, as still as a calm lake. Chandra flopped down onto one of the beds. When they'd got here, they'd agreed that one of the beds was hers and other was Nissa's. She couldn't quite remember which one was whose, but she had a 50/50 shot of getting it right. And besides, it wasn't as if Nissa would mind if she got it wrong.
Chandra looked up at the bare, white ceiling, then turned her gaze towards the verdant invasion.
"Something different about this place," she said.
"Oh, yes?" said Nissa.
"Way I remember it, when I left, there were just the two little plants. They looked pretty sickly."
"They're much better now," said Nissa.
"So I've noticed. Forced them to grow that big, did you?"
Nissa opened one pure-green eye. It was really impressive, the amount of pure disdain she could cram into a single glance.
"Fine, fine," said Chandra. "Persuaded them to grow into a forest?"
"Encouraged," said Nissa. "After our walk through the city, I felt a real need to be near some actual nature."
"Same here," said Chandra. "Well, actually, I just wanted to blow some things up, but I think it's basically the same idea."
"This plane is a garden," said Nissa, not quite managing to hide the pain underneath the calm.
Chandra nodded. It was a very... Nissa kind of metaphor, but she got what she was getting at. Beautiful to look at and carefully tended. But not wild. Stifled and completely controlled. Not real nature. And every branch that grew out of place got hacked off without a second thought.
Seeing the quietly meditating elf, it was hard to imagine her need for the wilderness. But then again, nature wasn't all bloody fangs snarling at each other.
"I admit, I was surprised when you walked back in," said Nissa.
"Oh?" said Chandra.
"I expected you to get chased in here by the authorities or come walking out of some smoking wreckage," said Nissa. She smiled as she said it.
"I do have some self-control, you know," said Chandra. "Sometimes."
Nissa stood up and walked to the sylvan side of the room. Chandra got up from the bed to see what she was doing. As it turned out, the elf held up her hand near one of the many branches. For a moment, nothing happened. Then a green bud grew rapidly from the bark and bloomed into a brilliant, pink flower. The flower dropped off the branch and into Nissa's waiting hand.
Nissa turned around, holding the flower in front of her. It had nothing on the intricate metalwork that seemed to cover all of Ghirapur, and yet there was something about its natural simplicity that made it more beautiful than any artificer's greatest masterpiece.
The fact that it was Nissa holding it was quite besides the point.
"For you," Nissa said.
"Oh... Uhm. Thanks," said Chandra. Which was lame, but she couldn't think of anything better.
Nissa stepped closer with her usual elven elegance and put the flower in Chandra's red hair.
"There. Try not to burn it."
Chandra reached up and touched the flower with her fingertips. It was soft and curiously fuzzy and smelled of an ancient forest after heavy rain. Which wasn't a usual flower smell, but one that Chandra could still really appreciate in the iron confines of Kaladesh.
"It's lovely," she said.
Nissa took her hand. "Lovelier now that you're wearing it."
Chandra smiled. "Would you like one for yourself?"
"Are you going to grow one for me?"
Chandra bit her bottom lip. For once in her life she almost sort of regretted that she was so awesome at burning things down rather than able to make them grow.
"Well, I have to give you something," said Chandra, and kissed her.
It wasn't the most fiery, passionate kiss ever. It was slow and gentle and allowed her to really feel every inch of Nissa's soft lips on her own. It was delicate and intimate and could last forever. Or as close as made no real difference.
Chandra swept Nissa up into her arms and carried her to the bed. They lay down, Chandra embracing Nissa from behind.
"Isn't this so much better than the floor?" Chandra said.
"Softer and warmer, certainly," Nissa replied.
"And so's the bed," said Chandra.
"Indeed."
Chandra kissed the back of Nissa's neck. Nissa squirmed with delight. It was a lovely little moment, but it was still only a moment. Outside the door of the room, there was still Kaladesh, still controlled to the tiniest little detail by the Consulate.
Chandra sighed.
"I am going to change this place," she said. "Somehow."
"You can't," said Nissa. "Not unless the people want change."
"Well, they do," said Chandra. "They might not know it yet, but once people learn it's possible to survive even without your every move being monitored, well... they're going to wonder why the Consuls have that much power over everybody's lives."
"And you have a plan to accomplish this?" said Nissa.
"Of course not," said Chandra. "But I'll figure something out. Besides, there's enough graffiti around the place to see that I'm not exactly the only one who feels this way."
"That does make it easier," said Nissa.
"So... when the time comes... will you help me?" Chandra asked
"I'm insulted you feel you have to ask," Nissa replied.
Chandra smiled. It was physically impossible to pull Nissa closer, but she made the attempt anyway. Nissa shifted in her embrace a bit to make herself comfortable for the long haul in Chandra's arms.
"Good," said Chandra.