Vendetta Means…Vendetta!

Author's Note: For those unaware, Eunice Blackblade is a gag character referenced in a single line of flavour text on the Arena League printing of the Unhinged card, Granny's Payback. Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of Magic: The Gathering.

Summary:

Her primary competition removed, Geyadrone Dihada resurfaces to rule the Multiverse. Unfortunately, her true nemesis, Eunice Blackblade, also comes out of hiding to settle their vendetta.


The Dragon was dead. Or as dead as one could hope of the now nameless Nicol Bolas, jailed for what promised to be not an insignificant eternity by his twin brother Ugin in the Mediation Realm, if you weren't a gullible newcomer who only ascended yesterday.

The Elderspell-imbued Dreadhorde delivered unto evil countless planeswalker sparks, only for evil to meet a humiliating defeat.

Jace Beleren's illusion of Bolas' demise worked. To the Multiverse, the scorn of Nicol Bolas had blown past like the final sands of Amonkhet through the destroyed Planar Bridge, disappearing with raised swords and a planewide celebration.

But a planeswalker as old as Dihada possessed a way of thinking unthinkable to contemporary planescrawlers, extending beyond modern horizons. Had Sorin Markov and Nahiri not been so concentrated on their feud, Karn and Teferi on making up for their failures, Jaya Ballard on cracking wise, Ob Nixilis on random acts of torment, and Liliana Vess on the tragic cost of her freedom, they may have cared to see through Beleren and Ugin's deception as Dihada did.

Nicol Bolas had been scrupulous and unscrupulous despite his schemes ending in his literally shattered ego. He'd studied his victims' abilities, strategically kept the Veil-cursed Garruk Wildspeaker off Ravnica to keep him from hunting the same prey, and paraded his army with the God-Eternals purposely arriving last to indulge in the depths of despair his foes experienced watching their slim prospects of a comeback wiped away cruelly by four zombie gods.

Oketra, Kefnet, Bontu, Rhonas. One from many. By force of will. Forged by might. Driven by fire. Born by death. To rise eternal.

With Bolas toppled, challengers to take the crown were picking up. The Phyrexians, obviously, and others Dihada was observing magically to fathom obstacles to her rulership among the divided heavens and blood-milked stars.

Clearly, someone shared the idea, sending this fearful messenger to Dihada's temporary fortress. A far cry from her roaming Unholy Citadel.

"Your argument as to why I should spare you lacked substance. Now, so do you." She flayed the woman's essence, leaving a mess red as her own cape.

This forerunner was nothing. Not a quality trap, but quality bait, anticipating Dihada would miss the enjoyment of casual murder since entering hibernation at the conclusion of the Planeswalker War on Corondor. But not nearly as displeasing a pull as the Interplanar Beacon that Nicol Bolas' pawn unwittingly set off to lure potential energy sources to Ravnica. The snare which first stirred her.

Bolas being Bolas, he knew of Dihada's survival after Corondor. He simply didn't factor her into his plans because she was yet inactive at the time. Bolas' ego was such that he ignored those he didn't perceive as threats, much like he didn't perceive the Phyrexians as threats in the heyday, even when Yawgmoth was in charge.

"Geyadrone, how long has it been, dearie?" The messenger's master stepped on top of her coerced emissary's juiced corpse, roaring proudly on Dihada's doorstep.

"Eunice. How searing to my eyes. You found a means of remaining among us." Her sclerae seeped between white and black.

"We don't all have demonic lifespans or an Elder Dragon to absorb and sup upon, Geyadrone. I won't bore you with specifics. I recall you detest people chattering over you. Adequate to abridge, I'm here to add your body to the pile of enemies I've killed over the millennia."

Few remember the exploits of Dakkon's grandmother, Eunice Blackblade. Dihada's champion Dakkon was the power-hungry warrior Dominaria remembered. The Shadow Slayer. The Spirit of Darkness. But unbeknownst to anyone else on any world including Dakkon himself, Dihada's meddling in his family reached further back.

Before Dakkon accepted the profane tutoring of Geyadrone Dihada, before he forged the Blackblade, his house sired another warrior: his grandmother Eunice, who he heard little about during his youth.

Eunice wielded the original Blackblade. The Blackblade Dakkon gained superior infamy for – the weapon capable of drinking its sacrifices' souls – was an enchanted variant of the ordinary blade his grandmother carried, which Dihada tasked Dakkon to smith out of competitive mockery towards the original's holder, when Dakkon was really smithing himself into the fiercest weapon – the ultimate soldier and perfect tool – for her.

There was no sympathetic backstory here. No hidden history to humanize the villain. Truth is, Eunice was as inhumane as the almost inhuman creature her grandson became in their surpassing cravings to acquire power. They slaughtered everywhither while bellowing rage, and while a planeswalker spark isn't transmissible via ancestry, Eunice and Dakkon both beat the smaller-than-Segovian odds to both be born with a spark and ascend.

Of course, in Dakkon's case, it was Dihada who struck the match.

Dihada also battled Eunice in Dominaria's ancient years, pre-Antiquities, and her hatred of Eunice turned to opportunistic entertainment and ploys once she sensed inklings of the tremendous power of a god resting in Dakkon two generations later.

Then, prerevisionist sorts identified openly as planeswalkers regardless of their footing, thus the official records are murky except where the major figures were involved.

"Remind me which Elder you duped my descendant into striking down. Rhuell? Pairoo? No, that's not it. It was Piru, wasn't it? Forgive me. My age has finally begun sinking in. Yours too, I presume?"

Eunice was attacking an unwilling unravelling the veterans underwent. Change Dominaria's weekend warriors Teferi, Jhoira, Karn, Radha, and Venser aided. That saved creation. That frayed the great Nicol Bolas' omnipotence and made him desperate. Dihada bothered less about appearances (not like Bolas), and more about power (also like Bolas), though her magic had admittedly waned and was slowly draining to ashes.

"I thought you came to kill me. Or has Eunice Blackblade become so feeble she can scarce heft her sword?" Dihada countered, her suckered, kraken-esque coils coiling beneath her.

"My friend Geyadrone, you have not commanded your retainer in years. Your call for my scion's protection is currently weakened. If the Nameless Dragon's control can be totally lost, if even he can face an hour of devastation, what does that imply about your chances?"

"Even gods shall kneel," Dihada used Bolas' statement against him.

"That's the fate of the weak," Eunice stole another against Dihada.

Par for the course, Eunice Blackblade's feats continued to not be remembered. Geyadrone Dihada was already a truant presence in the Multiverse. Who should notice should her beheaded head and corruption not return to the premier narrative?