The fifth installment of the Secrets of Strixhaven story catches up with Chandra and Ajani who, like the others, have fallen into the tunnels below Titan’s Grave.
After their disagreement over how to handle the situation at hand, neither planeswalker has the motivation to speak, and so the pair make their way ahead in awkward silence. While Chandra’s headache continued to get worse, the pain of her friend not trusting her judgement is just as bad. For Ajani, he wants terribly to reach out to Chandra, but finds that every line of thought he mulls over leads to an outcome he wasn’t prepared to deal with.
After walking for some time, the pair hear wails of pain that echo all around them, followed by the voice of Jadzi – “Oh, please, you’ve seen the birth and death of an entire civilization. A little first aid can’t hurt that bad.” Moments later, the pair enter a large, open cavern, and find the oracle tending to the giant archaic’s wounds, as well as what looked to be a snarl in the center of the area.
“Whatever this swirl of unstable energy was, it couldn’t be anything good. The tendrils of magic coming off of it frayed at the edges or went jagged. There were some that flickered like Kamigawan lights and others that shone with something like Theran essences. Like a loom being unwoven and rewoven, there was something of creation and destruction alike to it.”
While still struggling to process the scene before them, Jadzi acknowledges Chandra and Ajani and beckons for them to join her, and after seeing their visible confusion and discomfort, begins explaining the situation.
“Our new friend here is an archaic. Most people from Arcavios know what those are inherently, but since you’re visitors, and I don’t recall seeing either of you in Professor Vess’s offices, I’ll elaborate. Archaics are oracles, like I am. When we die, we don’t get to visit any of the places theorized by other worlds or religions; we’re flung back in time to relive all of history. Something about the process transforms us into those things. Got that to look forward to.”
Jadzi goes on to explain that the whole reason she came to Titan’s Grave was to investigate the archaic’s strange behavior, and after arriving, the massive one sought her out with an important message. According to Jadzi, the archaic before them would become the last of her kind, and worse yet, it told her there was something happening that was “…threatening the future of Arcavios itself.”
Hearing these words, Chandra interjects, reaffirming her claim that whatever was happening was being caused by Jace, and this time, Ajani takes more stock in his friend’s theory, but still didn’t have enough proof to fully agree. In that moment, Ajani notices a strange ripple of magic briefly come over the archaic, making it almost seem like an illusion, but seeing this, Jadzi provides another explanation.
“You can see the results of the meddling there, though. They’ve been flickering in and out of existence. If Arcavios has no future, then it has no archaics, no oracles. We stop existing the way we should. It’d be like drawing away all the oxygen from a fire. Or from water, for that matter. Things … fall apart… These archaics are walking along that path, but instead of rocks and sand, we’re talking existence and cold, empty nothingness. They exist and they do not. They cannot predict when it will happen, or how, or what will happen to them while they’re gone. There’s no guarantee that they’re even going to come back.
Moments later, the archaic lets out another wail of pain, sending what felt like a “lurching ripple” and feeling of “wrongness” throughout the cave, leaving all three present disoriented. After composing themselves, Jadzi explains that that had been happening since they arrived and was getting more frequent. Worse yet, she tells them that every time it happens, “…something about [the] future changes…”
Turning her attention to the snarl, Chandra asks Jadzi if she knew what it was, to which the oracle tells her she believes it to be some kind of nexus, and that she believed it to be at the core of everything happening. With no other leads to follow, Jadzi suggests that they could help her attempt to “unravel” the snarl, and both planeswalkers agree.
Beginning the process, Jadzi leads them through the ritual, but the longer it goes on, Chandra finds herself growing weaker, and begins to worry that this would be her only time to act, and if she didn’t kill the archaic that she would die instead. In that moment, another wave of pain floods into the pyromancer’s head, and she collapses to the ground, but as Ajani moves to aid her, she musters all her strength to let loose a blast of fire. Fortunately, Ajani realizes what Chandra is doing just in time to strike her arm, sending the magic careening off course.
Despite Ajani’s protests, Chandra pulls herself to her feet and tells him that “…killing the archaic before Jace can use it is [their] only choice…” and “…if you’re still standing in my way after all we’ve heard … I’ll go through you if I have to.”
“Ajani planted himself between Chandra and the ailing archaic. “I will stand here as long as I am able. Fire can only burn my flesh.”
Read Secrets of Strixhaven Episode 5 in full from Wizards of the Coast.
