The fourth installment of the Magic: The Gathering Secrets of Strixhaven story picks up from the perspective of the students who find themselves trapped in the caverns deep beneath Titan’s Grave.
Following Chandra’s offensive, the giant archaic’s retaliation had collapsed the entire area around the campsite, sending both planeswalkers, all five students, and the Shattered down into the depths of the hollowed out earth.
The last to regain consciousness, Tam scans the area to find her friends aiding the Shattered, with some working to free those still trapped in the rubble and others searching for signs of a way out. Noticing that Tam had awoken, Lluwen tells her that, according the Shattered, they were in Titan’s Grave, “…deeper than we have any records of going.”
Moments later, Abigale, who had been surveilling the vast cavern from the air, lands and beckons for everyone, the Shattered included, to gather for her report. Despite some lingering concerns surrounding their past, the students had gained a mutual understanding that they need to trust the Shattered in order to maximize their chances of survival. With Chandra missing in action, a girl named Suki had stepped up to act as the group’s temporary leader, and following her prompting, the rest of the Shattered join the other students to hear Abigale’s report.
“I wish I had more to share, signed Abigale. Her signing was broad and expressive—sometimes she did that with new faces. It was a bit like raising her voice so they could hear her better. We’re in a chamber of some sort—that much is obvious. But there are at least two dozen ways out of here, maybe more. I counted only the ones that were plainly visible. It’s possible, even likely, that there are some we can’t see, thanks to the roots or the rocks.“
Following the conclusion of the report, Kirol suggests that they could search for signs of airflow, prompting Lluwen to step up, citing his expertise as a scout. To the group’s surprise, Suki speaks up, recommending that Lluwen not go alone, and naturally, Kirol volunteers. Roles decided, the pair heads off down one of the dozens of tunnels, but it’s not long before Lluwen spots a pack of Lumarets, the same frog-like creatures he observed earlier above ground.
“There were six of them by Lluwen’s count, all balanced along a bramble behind Kirol. The tallest of them bore a little banner of luminescent moss. The others were waving their wings and pointing to the moss-bearer in the center. When Lluwen’s eye fell upon them, the ones at the edges started to jump and dance.”
Putting two-and-two together, Lluwen believes the presence of his forest friends points to there being an exit somewhere connected to this tunnel, and quickly turns to hurry back to the group with Kirol in pursuit.
Back in the main cavern, Tam decided to make use of her time by searching for a water source, and it wasn’t long before she found one. Approaching the water’s edge however, Tam notices something strange about her reflection, and in the time it takes for her to blink, it is replaced by a man in white. Briefly stunned, Tam opens her mouth to speak to the man, but is interrupted by Lluwen and Kirol calling out to the group. Turning back to the water, the man is now gone, and Tam has no choice but to return to the others without answers.
Gathering both parties together, Lluwen leads everyone through the corridor, feeling proud to have made himself useful again after so many blunders. Just as before, Lluwen spots the Lumarets, and follows them onward, but he soon notices that the others aren’t sharing in his excitement. Put off by their expressions, Lluwen finds himself growing unreasonably angry. Moments later Kirol speaks up, asking “Does anybody else have this weird feeling in their chest? Like something’s trying to tear you apart from the inside?”
Despite several others corroborating Kirol’s feelings, Lluwen uncharacteristically downplays the situation, telling his friends they’re overreacting. As tensions continue to rise, Suki steps in and points out that the “happy-go-lucky lumarets were scattering into the thick bramble-root walls.” Moments later, the tunnel around the group begins to shake, and Kirol speaks up, warning the group that there are “…creatures on Arcavios that feed on negative emotions… “Horrible creatures who try to offer you power when you’re at your weakest…” which Suki puts a name to — Daemogoths.
“An awful laugh echoed through the tunnel. A pair of sickly green eyes burned in the dark. “I thought I’d have longer for you to ripen.”
There was no more time to speak. All at once the tunnel itself was turning against them—brambles whipping at their sides, hunks of stone crashing against them, bone shards slicing at their skin.”
Before he can react, vines spring from all directions, binding Lluwen and holding firm despite the student’s best efforts to free him. Realizing his friends wouldn’t be able to overpower the Daemogoth, Lluwen pleads for them to let him go and save themselves, but thankfully a familiar voice echoes through the tunnel, and Professor Fel steps forward, accompanied by an “…explosion of life: grasses rolling over the surface, the dark roots shot with green, the rancid smell giving way to an insistent bloom of flowers.”
Speaking directly to Fel, the Daemogoth says “Dellian. Have you returned to make that deal with me?” but the creature’s words elicit no response from the planeswalker. Finally reaching Lluwen, Fel uses his magic to free the youth with next to no effort. Finally able to move again, Lluwen turns to get a look at his attacker, but only manages a quick glimpse before Fel’s magic overwhelms the creature.
“Lluwen watched as the flowers filling the pit crawled up and into the demon itself. From its fearsome bones sprang marrow-flowers; from its foul blood sprang a row of bright mushrooms, grapes forming from its eyes and lichen from its teeth.
The daemogoth screamed in the moment before glorious life sprang from its head, bursting its skull.”
Reeling from the experience but still conscious, Lluwen asks Fel what he’s doing there, to which he replies: “I have been trying to surmise a way to keep a promise I once made. A promise whose roots run deep in the soil of my soul.” Prompted by Fel’s words, Tam speaks up, revealing a piece of information about Fel that Oracle Jadzi had told her: “That’s why you were interested in the archaics, wasn’t it? That’s why you were here. Because of their relationship to nonlinear time. You wanted to try and find some way to go back and save the woman you loved.”
“Ajani was right about trauma creating Planeswalkers, wasn’t he?” said Kirol. “Poor guy. Is all that power really worth it?”
The surge of incredible life Lluwen had seen; the waver in Professor Fel’s voice as he’d spoken. No wonder he’d been so insistent on the students finding something new here. He must have already combed this place years ago. The daemogoth had offered him help and Fel … Fel had refused it.”
With at least part of Fel’s mystery unraveled, Lluwen takes the opportunity to finally approach the planeswalker with the information on what he had seen after falling into the cavern the day prior. Sparing no detail, Lluwen tells Fel about the archaics, how they were chanting, performing some kind of ritual gathered around a snarl. Turning to face his student with eyes “…bright as the grass that had killed the daemogoth…” Fel asks Lluwen if he was sure it was a snarl, and after receiving confirmation, says “There are no snarls in Titan’s Grave. There never have been… Can you take us there?”
Read Secrets of Strixhaven Episode 4 in full from Wizards of the Coast.
