Chapter Text
Jace knocked at the steel door once again, looking around and ducking his head at the attention he was getting. He was sure glad he'd raised an illusion to discourage attention; he couldn't imagine how much more he would draw without it.
The door was rusted but sturdy, and it had years of peeling paints flaking off in brilliant reds and blues. It made Jace wonder how long Ral had been affiliated with the Izzet. He'd obviously been important enough to have his own lab for at least a decade.
In a voice that got louder as the heavy foot stomps came closer, a muffled yelling came through," I told you to leave me alone, Kreg. If you've sent one more damned weird, I'm going to—" The door wrenched open and his shout fell silent on his lips as a confused light dawned in his eyes. "Oh, it's you," he said with a downturned quirk of his lips, voice drawling with bored indifference. Ral's mind spiked with anxiety however, and Jace found himself backing up reflexively as he felt the static tension in the air, the hairs on his arms standing on end.
Jace retracted his mind, remembering the other mage's distrust of his magic, and looked at his feet awkwardly. He didn't actually have a plan of what to say, which made him feel even more uncomfortable in his own skin than he was used to, but he was… concerned. Ral Zarek had missed three Guildmeet assemblies now, and word was he hadn't left his lab in over two weeks.
"What do you want?" Ral demanded, trying to come off as annoyed. He ran a hand through his greasy hair and grimaced. He couldn't remember the last time he showered. Perhaps three days ago? He remembered prying himself from his work long enough to shower once in the last bout of fervent research.
"I…" Jace looked down to his handful of papers, remembering belatedly the paperwork Lavinia had thrusted at his person as he mentioned he was heading out. He hadn't actually mentioned he was heading to the Izzet League, but regardless she was apt to hand them to him. "I have notes," he said, cursing the confused tone in his voice.
Ral sighed and mumbled," I missed some meetings." He reached out for the stack of paper, already annoyed with the reading that he knew would take him longer than he really felt like spending.
His hand retracted as something started sparking back in the lab and Ral just let out a defeated sigh. "Not again…" His eyes set in annoyance, red and shadowed like he was days behind on sleep, Ral looked back over his shoulder.
"Need any help?" Jace offered lightly, looking past Ral and seeing a small device on the work table hooked up to a generator that seemed to be the source of the sputtering bits of metal and energy.
"You're no inventor," Ral said dismissively.
"No," Jace agreed, then smiled slightly and said," But I know a fair bit about artifacts and I'm a fan of puzzles."
Ral gave him an enigmatic look, mulling Jace's presence over for a brief moment, then shrugged and waved him in. "You can check my math or something."
Jace laughed and agreed," So long as it's not written on Azorius grade legal paper, sure. I'd love to."
Jace set the papers that Ral never took on one the many tables that filled the rather impressive lab, managing to find a enough free space to fit them. The stack of orderly paper looked so out of place in Ral's space. His eyes ran over the myriad of projects Ral had going, or rather the impressive amount of projects he'd abandoned due to his short attention span.
Crumpled papers were shoved into Jace's hands as he turned back to Ral, and he looked down to see barely legible numbers scrawled on paper that definitely didn't meet Azorius standards. "I didn't mean the paper had to be to Gruul standards," he joked, but bit his tongue as he received a harsh glance from Ral.
With a crumundgy scowl, Ral grumbled," Try not to blather or what not. I don't like to be distracted while I work."
It was very different from what Jace was used to. He was used to having an assistant for his research. He was the Guildpact. People bent over left and right for him as much as they begrudged his title. He'd come a long way from being Tezzeret's lackey, and apparently he had become a little pretentious in that time, not that he'd ever been exactly humble.
"Right," Jace muttered with a quick nod. His palms were getting sweaty and he held the notes with the tips of his fingers. Why did he feel so nervous? He paged through quickly, trying to figure out what he was doing.
"The math's off," Ral explained, pointing at the notes with a quick bob of his hand. "I'm trying to stabilize the field, but I can't quite get the variance correct. Needs to fluctuate to—"
Jace gaped as he looked at the figures before him and sputtered," Are you trying to—" He looked up and saw Ral's smirk. The storm mage closed his eyes, raised his brow, and shrugged, his smug smile only widening. Ral couldn't brag harder if he actually spoke.
A slightly more serious mien took over. "This work's important to me. I've been working on the theory behind all of this for almost a decade now."
Cracking his eyes to glare at Jace, he tagged on," You should feel honored to get to see it."
He'd never let his underlings help him with this project. Turning about and going back to his prototype, he found himself trying to cover his confusion. Why in the multiverse was he letting Beleren of all people look at his beloved project?
When he was pretty sure his face was composed, he glanced over to Jace. The other had curled up in a corner and was currently sketching his equations in the in the air, whisps of blue coloring his tracing so Ral could almost read it. He wore a serious expression, and he looked so focused on what he was doing, Ral wondered how big an explosion it would take to startle him.
Chuckling to himself as he imagined doing so, he got busy again, running his trials and taking dutiful notes. His eyes were so very heavy, but he pushed on. He was so close—so close to cracking the missing piece for his work! Now wasn't the time to give up for mere sleep when he may have all of the time in the world for it later.
Defeat came with a solid thud as his head hit the desk, and Jace looked up in bewilderment, pulled out of his deep thinking and momentarily forgetting where he was. Right, Ral's lab. He'd accidently got himself wrapped up in another tantalizing puzzle in the lab of Izzet's mercurial maze runner and failingly dependable delegate, Ral Zarek.
Jace wanted to continue working on the math, but he felt awkward staying in Ral's lab—and judging by how many empty ration tins littered the floor, probably at least half home. He also figured it would not end well if he took Ral's work with him. So, he splayed the papers before himself, muttered arcane magic under his breath, and committed everything fully to memory. The door barely clicked as he left as soundlessly as possible.