The Phyrexian Portal Is Destroyed
Previous: Xantcha Reunites With Urza in Serra’s Palace
Chapter 17 drops us back to Dominaria and the aftermath of the ambulator battle. And it’s one of those chapters where three characters stand around a Phyrexian corpse and everyone learns something they didn’t want to know.
Urza Shows Up (Late, As Usual)
Xantcha wakes up in a broken apple tree. The ambulator explosion threw her hard enough to shatter the trunk when she landed. Urza’s armor kept her in one piece, but her battered arm is a mess.
Ratepe is standing among the branches, not looking at her. He’s staring at something else. Urza has arrived. Eyes blazing with lightning and fire. Garbed in stiff armor. Carrying an ornate staff that throws a web of lightning around him.
He looks like a painted statue, and he’s not in a good mood.
“You should have known better than to engage a Phyrexian with my brother beside you!” he roars.
A few things to notice here. First, Urza came because Xantcha’s amber heart flashed when she hit the tree. He’s been watching it. That means he does care, even if his version of caring looks like showing up after the fight to yell at you. Second, he calls Ratepe “my brother.” The delusion is holding strong.
Ratepe steps up and takes the blame. “This was my idea.” And Urza turns to actually listen. The dynamic between these three is fascinating. Ratepe is the only person Urza will hear, because Urza thinks he’s Mishra.
The Anatomy Lesson
What follows is basically CSI: Phyrexia.
Xantcha gets on her knees and pries the face plate off the dead priest. Underneath is “a skinless but still recognizably childish face.” She walks Urza and Ratepe through Phyrexian anatomy with the clinical detachment of someone who almost became this.
Compleat eyes with coiled wires in the sockets. An articulated mouth (that’s priest-level). Uniform metal instead of scrap (also priest-level). No guts, just an oil bladder. A compleated brain that “makes it go.”
And then she tears off a shred of what used to be flesh. “This is what flesh becomes when it is compleated.”
Ratepe can barely handle it. He’s the kid who couldn’t help with butchering on his family’s farm. But he asks the question that matters: “So, this is what would have happened to…?” He can’t finish. Xantcha finishes for him. “If I’d been destined to become a priest.”
This scene is important because it’s the first time all three of them confront what Phyrexia actually does to people. Not in the abstract. Not through old stories. They’re looking at a child’s face under a metal plate.
The Demon in the Room
The conversation shifts to demons. Ratepe’s eyes glaze over as the Weakstone feeds him memories. “Mishra met a demon,” he whispers. “Gix.”
Urza dismisses it. Names are just sounds. The Brotherhood of Gix was ancient before he was born. They worshipped gears and clockwork. They couldn’t have been Phyrexian.
But Xantcha knows better. She told Urza about Gix long before Ratepe ever showed up, and Urza never listened. Now Ratepe is hearing the same name from the Weakstone, and Urza still won’t accept it.
Then Xantcha makes the argument that finally pushes Urza over the edge: “Why is it that everything you believe is the absolute truth and anything I believe is foolishness?”
She points out that the Phyrexians keep coming back to Dominaria specifically. They tried to conquer the Thran. When that failed, they used Urza and Mishra against each other. Now they’re stirring up dozens of little wars. There’s something about this particular world that draws them.
Urza planeswalks away rather than answer. And Xantcha knows she blew it. “I shouldn’t have challenged him. I always lose my temper at the wrong time. He was so close to seeing the truth, but I had to have it all.”
The Dangerous Thought
But the chapter’s real gut punch comes from Ratepe. He wraps his arms around Xantcha and says, casually: “You’re more like Mishra than I am. Must’ve been something Gix poured in your vat.”
He’s joking. Sort of. But Xantcha’s heart skips a beat. What happened to Mishra’s flesh after he was compleated? Flesh was rendered, never wasted. Was she growing in the vats while Urza and Mishra fought?
She tells Ratepe to stop. “Don’t say anything more. Don’t think anything more.” But he can’t unhear what the Weakstone showed him, and she can’t unknow what she’s always suspected.
The chapter winds down with their journey home. Xantcha’s arm takes weeks to heal without Urza’s magic. They travel slowly. They spot Shratta strongholds that have gone quiet. Ratepe’s plan to spread the word about the Red-Stripes worked. The countryside has shifted.
And then they arrive at the cottage to find Urza. Shirtless. Tanned. Stirring something in a pot. He runs toward them like a normal person. Hugs Ratepe. Calls him “Brother.” And announces: “I’ve been busy. I have a plan!”
For once in his ancient life, Urza actually learned something.