Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Episode 7 begins from the perspective of Haliya and Syr Vondam as they prepare to invade Taro-duend in search of Alpharael.
Despite having the hole in his head tended to, Vondam tells Haliya that he does not feel like himself, and as such, he expects this will be his last mission.
“My decisions can’t be trusted. The object has touched me. It has guided a black hole through my brain. In a sense, Haliya, you are now the knight and I the squire.”
The Knight then explains his theory that something within Sothera is reaching out for a vessel, and that this entity is somehow manipulating Alpharael’s fate, hence all the improbable circumstances that keep happening around him. If correct, Vondam believes that the manipulator plans for Alpharael to acquire a relic that will allow for a direct connection between the two, which must be stopped at all costs.
“No, thank the Sum. It has limits. It can only influence pasts connected to its wielder. All the improbabilities surround Alpharael, that’s what tipped me off—when Captain Slats foresaw my very improbable death as a certainty, I knew something anstruth was afoot. It surrounds Alpharael. He will contact this object.”
Vondam continues, stating his plan for stopping Alpharael, which is to accompany the troops down to Taro-duend and sweep the area until they find Alpharael and the artifact. Upon locating the targets, Vondam says he will contain them long enough for Haliya to give the order for the ship to open fire and destroy everything in the area – civilians, Free Company soldiers, Vondam, everything.
Naturally, Haliya refuses to go along with this plan, and demands that she be the one sent down below, citing the fact that he could collapse at any moment and jeopardize the mission, but in reality, she just doesn’t want him to die.
“There’s a better option,” she says. “You don’t go down there. I do. You conduct your search, grid by grid. I find the place where Alpharael’s improbable escape is most likely—or most unlikely. I armor myself with one of the anathalmanac’s tricks, catch him there, and kill him.”
Shifting to Alpharael’s perspective, he awakens from another falling dream to find himself strapped to a bunk aboard Sami’s ship. While unbuckling his restraints, he notices a clean hole through his right hand that is “…perfectly transparent and edged in a ring of refraction. There’s a little swirl to it, like it’s slowly, slowly twisting. Like an enormous invisible drive shaft runs through his hand and it’s cranking up to speed.”
Rising to inspect the ship, he finds that he has been locked inside, and looking out the ship’s windows reveal he is still on Kavron. Moments later, he sees a Sunstar Free Company patrol ship pass over the town in the distance, followed by an “armored rain: the tiny figures of Solar Knights descending on spikes of plasma.”
Rushing back to the ship’s hatch, Alpharael raises his hand to try the handle again, and in doing so, notices that the hole in his hand is allowing him to see through the hatch. With nothing left to lose, he pushes his other hand through the hole and finds he’s able to unlock it from the outside. Emerging in a cargo bay, Alpharael notices the stasis cask containing the artifact sitting among a pile of other items from the ship’s hold.
Reacquiring the relic, Alpharael is surprised to find that nothing happens when he touches it. He pleads for it to answer his requests to bring Sami back and get him off the planet, but receives no response. Behind him, the heavy door of the cargo bay stirs, opening to reveal Haliya.
Alpharael orders the rock to make her disappear, but once again his command goes unheard, and receives a blast from her energy weapon instead. Two additional shots, and Alpharael falls, hardly conscious on the cargo bay floor. Haliya approaches the downed man, but instead of finishing him off, she places a bomb inside his mouth and tells him that it will blow up unless it receives a code from her every 10 seconds. Next, she demands that he use the relic to reverse what happened to Syr Vondam on the Dawnsire.
“I need you to change things so that I was the one you killed,” she says. “I can still survive, if you want, with a hole in my head, or I can die. But the important thing is that Vondam can’t be harmed. The important thing is that Vondam’s judgment goes unimpaired. He’ll know what to do better than I. Then, I’ll have fulfilled my duty to die before my knight.”
Alpharael agrees, unsure if he even has the ability to complete her request. Just then, the communicator in Haliya’s armor statics to life, and Vondam requests an update. She tells Vondam that she has located the targets but then decides to reveal her true plan. Vondam pleads with her, demanding that she kill Alpharael, recover the artifact, and escape with her life, but Haliya refuses, believing that her solution would bring the greatest good.
Interrupting their conversation, Haliya’s armor detects two lifeforms approaching from behind — Sami and Tan. Among the chaos caused by the rioting Kav combatting the Free Company, the pair had managed to regroup and return to their ship, but seconds after entering the cargo bay, Haliya turns and shoots Sami through the heart and Tan barely has time to process their death before he too is slain.
“Killing them feels awful. They never had a chance. She should’ve used the stunner instead, even if they would’ve died a few moments later. Now Haliya really does want to die. She wants Vondam to fire on her position and get it over with. She doesn’t want to live the rest of her life with the memory of that Kav’s terrible grief in her mind.”
Turning back to Alpharael, Haliya feels a sharp pain in her ankle and looks down to see that his eyes have gone black and he has used the hole in his hand to bypass her armor and stab her directly with a jet injector. In just seconds, she feels her muscles go stiff and the last thing she sees before blacking out is the pink glow from the mysterious artifact.
Read Edge of Eternities Episode 7 in full from Wizards of the Coast.
