The second installment of Magic: The Gathering’s Edge of Eternities story begins from the perspective of Sami and Tan – two explorers hired by a mysterious entity known as the “Metalman” to investigate a remote mining colony — Sigma’s Reach.
Upon arrival, the pair realize that the facility is devoid of inhabitants. Without on-site staff, Sami concludes that the facility must have been activated remotely by the Metalman and the machines likely found something that requires inspection by living personnel.
Moving deeper into the colony, the pair comes upon housing facilities that appear frozen in time – as if residents just up and left without warning. Turning onto a larger avenue, they find hundreds of discarded spacesuits (known colloquially as slipsuits), scattered on the ground. Kneeling to touch one of the suits, Sami states that it feels warm, as if just recently shed. Worried that there may be people in the area, Tan connects to the colony’s viy, a type of wireless, artificial intelligence database, and asks it to scan the area.
According to the viy scan, there are no lifeforms nearby, but records state that the suits blew out of a storage container that had passed through the area. While the explanation makes sense, Sami struggles to accept it, as it doesn’t explain the feel of the suit or why each one had its breathing apparatus activated.
Sharing the feeling of unease, Sami and Tan discuss why the Metalman would send only the two of them to investigate and not a team of specialists. The pair concludes that it’s possible the Metalman knows what was uncovered and only sent them to “limit losses,” but before they can theorize any further, Tan announces that the viy pulled an audio recording that sounds like a cat.
Thinking it may be their missing cat, Mirri, Sami immediately requests a waypoint from the viy. Despite insisting that there are no cats on Sigma’s Reach and that the audio recording was nothing more than “metal under repeated stress,” the viy relents to the captain’s request and without hesitation, Sami rushes off to sound’s location.
Struggling to keep up, Tan follows Sami into the colony’s cargo hull, then deeper still toward the mining face. As they rush onward, Sami can’t help noticing the various workstations that, while empty, look and feel as though people had just been there. Then suddenly, as if to confirm their suspicions, Sami notices something baked into the clay, it was “…glazed impressions of bodies, twisting in anguish. The silhouettes reach desperately for the shadow of the rail but cannot reach it.”
“Sami runs, astonished, through a field of glass flowers. Frozen explosions in the clay. It looks as if the center of the colony was bombarded, prickled with explosive heat from the sky. And the bombardment stopped mid-second.”
Without slowing their pace, Sami asks the viy what happened here, to which the system responds “lightning strikes” before going on to explain that “Lightning fulgurites may resemble human forms…” and that “Orographic lifting builds up charge in dry dust storms ascending the tethys. The lightning discharges at the mining face due to the presence of large metal structures.” The viy’s explanation makes sense, but once again, Sami cannot fully believe it.
Rushing onward, they come upon a series of clay processing sheds, and the sound of the presumed cat can be heard coming from inside one. Without hesitation, Sami breaks open the shed’s access point and dives in, falling into a pitch-black room, with the light from their suit illuminating just enough to make out a floor label designating the room as a quality assurance holding tank.
From somewhere in the darkness, Sami can still hear the cat, but gets no response when they call out to it. Moving towards the sound, their suit begins to experience “a series of software crashes” before coming upon a “dark unpolished egg…” glowing with a faint pink halo.
While it may not be the cat they were hoping for, Sami ascertains that this must be what the Metalman sent them to find, and despite having reservations of potential dangers unknown, Sami reaches to collect the strange artifact.
Finally catching up, Tan attempts to help his captain secure the target, but Sami, seemingly not in their right mind, reacts viscerally to his approach and accidentally knocks the artifact loose. Acting quickly, Sami is able to secure the item in a holding bag, but falls unconscious shortly after.
Upon waking, Sami realizes they’re back on board their ship, The Seriema, and traveling through space. Nearby, Tan moves to check their condition, and informs Sami that they likely passed out due to inhaling too much mold dust while running. Despite the circumstances, Tan tells Sami that he sees no signs of permanent damage and that he managed to get them safely back to the ship, along with the artifact.
With their target acquired and crew (mostly) in one piece, the pair chart a course for Kavaron, Tan’s home planet, to meet the Metalman and reap their reward.
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Curious about the world-building of Edge of Eternities? You can find an in-depth breakdown of the universe here.
Read Edge of Eternities Episode 2 in full from Wizards of the Coast.
