Episode 2 of the March of the Machines: The Aftermath story begins with Nahiri, who has secluded herself deep below the Emeria Skyclave on Zendikar.
The ancient lithomancer painstakingly fights to remove all traces of Phyrexia from her home plane – ripping the twisted metal from the rock. Having been turned into a Phyrexian during the fight, Nahiri was surprised to have awoken with her body normal, albeit lacking her planeswalker spark.
While focusing on the task at hand, Nahiri recalls the moments before the fall of the Skyclave, where she was blasted with Halo, and speculates that it was this event that reverted her Phyresis and obliterated her spark.
After completing the separation of the metal and rock in front of her, she moves on to a series of metal walls, seemingly in place to protect something important. Tearing them down one after another, Nahiri finally finds herself in a metal chamber where she had previously bound herself to the Skyclave. In this space she finds a hedron containing her spark. The power from the hedron is enough for her to form a way out, and Nahiri climbs to the surface.
Once back on the surface, Nahiri is met with the devastation the Phyrexians brought to the plane. Blaming herself, Nahiri vows to restore her spark and fix her home. After formulating a plan, she sets off to locate an old acquaintance, but is interrupted by the tell-tale sound of a planeswalker approaching — Ajani. With his spark intact and all traces of Phyrexia removed from his body, Ajani explains that all the other planeswalkers who had fallen victim to Elesh Norn’s influence were dead, except for the two of them and Nissa, who’s spark had also been destroyed.
Ajani attempts to recruit Nahiri to travel the multiverse and help repair the damaged they caused, but she is bitter and skeptical of Ajani’s true motives. Whether the Leonin intended to harm her or truly wanted her to join him for a tour of atonement, we won’t know, as Nahiri rebuffs his offer and ultimately causes a fight to break out between the two. Summoning power from the hedron and her spark, Nahiri attempts to put up a wall between her and Ajani, but instead accidently destroys the ground beneath herself and plummets into the ruins below.
Upon waking, Nahiri finds herself impaled through the shoulder with Phyrexian metal, her hedron damaged, and Ajani no where to be found. Rage begins to build within the lithomancer, and she finds herself consumed by the thought of how other planeswalkers always end up causing trouble for her and Zendikar. The chapter ends with Nahiri vowing to do whatever she could to seal the plane off from “outside forces who would do it harm.”
Read the original article from Wizards of the Coast.