The second episode of Magic’s Reality Fracture story picks up with Tam in her dormitory, preparing to turn in for the night.
Looking out her room’s window, Tam silently compares the Hexhaven campus to Strixhaven, and notes how quiet everything is in Jace’s realm. Moments later, her thoughts are interrupted by a knock at the door, and Tam opens it to find another Hexhaven student, who plainly asks if she wants to study. Tam declines, finding the timing odd and the person boring, like all the other students she’s met.
Turning to her desk, Tam brandishes a pen and paper and begins to write a letter to Abigale. Struggling to find the right words, Tam pleads for understanding and forgiveness, but knows the letter will never reach her former friend, so she decides to burn it instead.
Switching perspectives, we find Liliana still behind bars, left utterly helpless thanks to Jace’s magic and careful attention to remove anything her necromancy could utilize. Despite being bored to death in her lonely cell, it isn’t long before the silence is replaced by the approach of her doppelganger, Opal.
Naturally, Liliana cannot stand this “perfect” version of herself, but has no choice but to endure the conversation, as Opal taunts her, bragging about being the version that “made the right choices.” Thankfully, it isn’t long before their conversation is cut short, as Tam arrives to question the real Liliana.
After sending Opal away, Tam opens the necromancer’s prison, but Liliana is far from free. A magical shackle forms around her wrist, binding her to Tam, who beckons for her to follow. After a brief walk, the pair enter a room containing a “real-time copy of the orrery in [Jace’s] sanctum.”
Breaking the silence, Tam tells Liliana that the new multiverse is unstable and Jace believes it will need to “overwrite” the existing one in order to stabalize. She then follows her statement with a question, asking Liliana what will happen to life in the multiverse when it is overwritten. Considering briefly if she should lie, Liliana opts to tell Tam the truth – that “overwriting means replacing the original” and after snuffing out the original, what moves into that shell will be completely different.
“It won’t tear them apart, but layering one Multiverse on another will smother the souls of everyone in the original. Your friends will spiritually suffocate. And what reanimates them will be someone else.”
Ever the scholar, Tam searches desperately in her mind to locate some trace of knowledge that could refute what Liliana is saying, but comes up short. Sensing the student’s discomfort, Liliana lays on the guilt thicker, stating “If we betray the people that mean something to us, then we betray ourselves…”, and Tam grows even more uncomfortable.
Doing her best to shake off the weight of Liliana’s words, Tam fires back, declaring that there must be some other way, to perhaps merge the souls instead of replacing them. Hearing this, Liliana doesn’t refute the claim, and instead encourages Tam to go to her maker and explore their options, and after leading the necromancer back to her cell, Tam turns to do just that.
Driven by thoughts of her friends, Tam ascends The Theorist’s tower, passing by this multiverse’s version of Chandra along the way. Before long, Tam finds herself outside her teacher’s chamber, and doesn’t hesitate to barge in. Inside the chamber, several students look up from their work, distracted but not surprised by her sudden entrance. Sensing something is wrong, The Theorist sends the others away as Tam begins to launch her thoughts at her maker.
After correctly deducing that Tam had spoken to Liliana, The Theorist calmly approaches and kneels, pulling Tam into a calming embrace. He explains briefly that he too understands the burden she feels, which was why he cut those pieces of his “old life” away, so nothing could distract from his goal. Continuing, he explains that he was trying to “calculate a way to safely contain the map of the Multiverse…” but cannot do it in his current state and requests that she go to Innistrad to collect its “planar dimensions, including extraplanetary bodies.”
Moments later, Tam finds herself standing before an omenpath, equipped with a rucksack. Before going through, The Theorist cautions that not all planes are tranquil, and tells her that Strixhaven is “infamously pleasant.” He tells Tam to stay at a specific inn, collect the required data, and be back within a day, and sends her off saying “Stay safe. Understand what we’re fighting for. You can do this.”
Read Reality Fracture | Episode 2: Purge Yourself of Doubt in full from Wizards of the Coast.
