The sixth installment of the Lorwyn Eclipsed story resumes with Maralen, Tam, and Sanar sandwiched between the forces of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor.
As Isilu approached the small group, Ashling moved to stand between them, but after drawing in a great breath, Isilu seemed to recognize that the small group posed no threat, and turned its attention to the advancing elves.
“It’s protecting us,” said Tam, awed and confused. “It wants to keep us safe. But we’re not from here. It shouldn’t care about us.” “Night is flawed,” said Ashling, picking up a spear dropped by one of the circling kithkin. “So is day. Both can care for things outside their normal boundaries.”
While everyone else was focused on the battle to come, Maralen had turned her attention to the tiny faerie that circled Isilu. In the light of Lorwyn, she hadn’t recognized the blue faerie, but now bathed in Shadowmoor’s darkness, she recognized it as her brother. Despite her best attempts, the faerie refused to respond to her, and instead stuck close to Isilu.
“My brother was made to be a shapeshifter like Oona herself. The blue faerie that accompanied us was his Lorwyn self, and unfamiliar to me. Now we stand within Shadowmoor, and I can see the truth of him through his skin. I know him. He must know me. I just don’t understand why he’s staying so far away.”
As the elves grew closer, the group could see that some carried weapons while others carried captured Sunlight Elementals, fastened into torches that would repel Shadowmoor’s darkness. Finally, they had come close enough for the battle to begin, and the kithkin surged to meet their attack.
As the group watched on, the small faerie suddenly swooped down, alerting Maralen to a group of elves that were sneaking up from behind. Left without a choice, the students were forced to go on the defensive, with Sanar slinging rocks with surprising accuracy and Tam using her gorgon powers to stun attackers unlucky enough to meet her gaze.
While they gave their best efforts, Tam is struck by an arrow, and Sanar moves to defend her. In the chaos, Maralen had retreated closer to Isilu, but failed to notice that Rhys had finally caught up to her. Despite one last attempt to convince him that she wasn’t Oona reincarnate, Rhys drew his poisoned dagger and slashed the Queen’s arm.
“He didn’t cut deeply—just a narrow slice across her arm—but that was enough. She sighed, a sound like all the winds of the world running out, and sagged as the wound bled petals in place of blood, her knees going weak and dropping her to the bloodied ground. Rhys stepped back as she fell, blinking rapidly, like a veil had been removed from his eyes.”
All at once, Rhys began to realize the gravity of what he had done, remarking “You didn’t fight, or try to control me, or promise me riches beyond counting. You didn’t—you weren’t—”. From above, the small faerie descended, transforming along the way, “growing larger, taller than any elf of Lorwyn or Shadowmoor.” Once the small blue faerie, a man now stood between Rhys and the dying Maralen – Oko.
“Oona is dead. Maralen was my sister,” snarled the faerie that had hovered above, dropping out of the air fast and hard and landing between Rhys and the fallen Maralen. He changed as he descended, growing larger, taller than any elf of Lorwyn or Shadowmoor, taller than the still-flickering Ashling. His wings vanished as he landed, leaving him grounded and glaring at Rhys, fury coming off him in waves.”
Understandably, Rhys remained skeptical of the man’s claims, but Sanar corroborates the planeswalker’s story, briefly relaying what Maralen had told them about him before trying to steer attention back to his injured friend. Not one to be interrupted, Oko took the opportunity to explain the events leading up to his sister’s attack.
“Oona made me to rule Shadowmoor, knowing she would never grant us our independence. Once I understood that also, I left and forswore the idea of family.” He said the word like it tasted somehow foul. “I had no sisters then, and no intention to ever return. So imagine my dismay when I met a wanderer who told me tales of my own homeland, of Oona’s fall and Shadowmoor resurgent. Then I got here and found my mother right where I had left her … or so I thought. The woman you call Maralen looked enough like Oona that I believed her to be Oona herself, reborn in an elf’s guise.”
Oko goes on to say that because of him confusing Maralen for Oona, he took on the faerie form to “taunt and torment” her, and when it didn’t work, decided to lure the outsiders to Lorwyn with hopes of “sowing chaos.” In doing so, he had accidentally convinced Rhys that she was losing her mind and Oona was returning, making the pair equally responsible for Maralen’s condition.
“She was always Maralen,” said Rhys, with dawning horror. “You convinced her that Oona was returning, and she convinced me without intending to, until I raised arms against her! This is your fault as much as my own!”
Cutting in once again, Sanar pleads for them to stop and help both Maralen and Tam who were swiftly dying. Oko reveals that Maralen had been poisoned with moonglove, and that there was no known antidote, but Tam still had time left. The only issue was there was no medic near them in the field and no way to get her safely out of the battle.
Right on cue, a roar cuts through the battlefield, and Ajani arrives on the scene with Kirol under his arm. Reunited with two of his classmates, Kirol and Sanar catch up briefly while Ajani uses what healing magic he has to remove the arrow from Tam and seal the wound. With three of the four students secured, Ajani turns to address Rhys and Oko.
After hearing one of the students mention Professor Vess, Oko asks if that happens to be Liliana, which Ajani confirms, and Oko divulges how they know each other. Ajani then asks what happened to Maralen, and Rhys explains the accidental poisoning. Overhearing mention of moonglove, Kirol asks if it has any relation to dawnglove, which Rhys confirms.
“Yes,” said Rhys with surprise. “Moonglove grows only in Lorwyn. It makes the deadliest poison known. Dawnglove grows only in Shadowmoor. It can be used as a poison, but it has curative properties as well and can be used to mend what’s been broken. The elves of Shadowmoor guard it jealously. How do you know of it?”
Explaining what he had done while in custody of the High Perfect, Kirol speculated that the dawnglove could be used to off-set the effects of the moonglove. Hearing this, Oko presses the youth for information on where they had picked the dawnglove, and swiftly takes off to go find more. As Ajani tends to Tam and Rhys to Maralen, Kirol and Sanar decide it best to track down Morcant, assuming that she would have the dawnglove on her.
Sure enough, they find the High Perfect facing down Isilu, sword in one hand and the vial of dawnglove in the other. Launching a rock, Sanar manages to get Morcant’s attention, and she advances on the pair. Raising her sword, Morcant prepared to slash Kirol, but luckily Lluwen is there to catch her arm.
“Lluwen, brow now crowned with thorn-peppered horns and asserting his Shadowmoor self, slammed his forehead into hers, hard enough that Kirol and Sanar heard bone crack. Morcant staggered back as far as she could while Lluwen held her wrist. He leaned over to pluck the vial from her hand.”
After disarming the High Perfect, Lluwen then grabs the vial of dawnglove and hands it off to Kirol before next removing a gourd from her belt. Almost instantaneously, Morcant was overtaken by her Shadowmoor self, while Lluwen reverted back to his Lorwyn form, and the trio took off back to Ajani and the Queen while Morcant was left to apologize to Isilu.
Read Lorwyn Eclipsed Episode 6 in full from Wizards of the Coast.
Lorwyn Eclipsed releases January 23, 2026. Preorder your sealed products today!
