Chapter Text
New Phyrexia was a terrifying enigma. With the meagre intelligence they had, Vraska knew she and the rest of the strike team were taking a step into darkness. Ten would leave Dominaria. It would be fortune beyond hope if they all returned unscarred.
Crashing through a storm as she moved through the Blind Eternities seemed to confirm her worst fears. Rather than arriving in the Mirran Resistance’s camp, Vraska found herself stumbling into a vast pale expanse. A glance upwards, towards two glowing suns told her she was, at least, on New Phyrexia. Somehow, she had been redirected to the surface of the plane. Some sort of barrier that interfered with planeswalking. The same principle as the Immortal Sun, applied differently.
But the why and the how didn’t matter. Vraska was here for a reason. She shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts. Goals first. Try to find the others. Find a way down to the Mirrans.
“Why?” someone whispered in her ear.
“We’ve already failed,” another added.
“Just give up.”
They seemed so close, so trustworthy. Vraska knew that many people would listen to such voices. She had seen it firsthand, in the work of the Dimir, and machinations of Nicol Bolas. There was something sweetly familiar about them, like old friends. So close and tender. Pitiful as it was, that was how Vraska knew they were all liars. She had lived her life alone. Once, she had let Jace come close, before driving him away while conspiring with Dovin Baan. Then Baan had vanished, leaving her alone again.
But now wasn’t the time to wallow in her past. She pushed the voices out, and focused on what was real, what was present. The silence around her broke and she heard the sound of combat. She turned towards it, and realised she wasn’t alone.
Nearby, another person evaded what was certainly a Phyrexian. It was a mass of twisting, writhing metal, lashing out at its prey. Each attack was either avoided, or deflected by a mass of metallic sand pulled from the surface. This had to be Nahiri, who by Jace’s description was the most powerful planeswalker he could find in the time he had available. Even then, the Kor was clearly on the defensive, constantly moving back to avoid being cut in half by the Phyrexian. However, it hadn’t noticed Vraska. With a bit of luck, she would be the last thing it ever noticed.
She strode towards the creature, preparing herself. As Nahiri jumped back to avoid another attack, Vraska focused. The Phyrexian twisted, raising its limbs for another strike. Before it could complete the action, she unleashed her petrifying gaze. Metal and flesh dulled, turned to stone in a matter of moments. It this form, it looked almost like a creation of the Simic Combine, rather than a horrific melting of flesh and artifice. But even in stone, there was a sense of wrongness about it.
“Well, that’s one way to announce yourself,” Nahiri said, pulling Vraska out of her thoughts. “Effective, at the very least. A pity you can’t just petrify the entire plane.”
“I suppose it is. But as nice as that would be, it’s not an option,” Vraska replied. She looked across the wastes again. “Any idea where the rest of us ended up? Or where we should be going?”
“The Wanderer was here, but whatever we hit on the way in aggravated her condition along with scattering us. I have no idea if she’s still on the plane, and if she is, I wouldn’t count on her. As for where to go, based on our original trajectory, we want to head in that direction.” Nahiri pointed with her sword, although as far as Vraska could tell, she wasn’t actually pointing at anything other than the horizon.
“We should get moving. The defences here are pretty passive, but they definitely want use to stay in one place.” Nahiri gestured towards the ground, which was covered in a glimmering sand.
“Something tried to get into my head,” Vraska said. “Thankfully I’ve dealt with enough telepaths to know when a thought isn’t my own.”
For a moment, it looked like Nahiri was going to reply, but instead she shrugged.
“Keep an eye out for more of those things,” she pointed to the petrified Phyrexian. “And I suppose that’s all you need to do.”
With that, the two of them began their trek across the silence surface of New Phyrexia.