Lynn Abbey - Planeswalker

Urza was right. They were being tested. Xantcha hoped she had passed.

Xantcha slept well and awoke to the unmistakable sounds of children being quiet outside her door. They were not so fluent in Argivian as the household's adult members, but the tallest of the three boys-who understandably took himself to be older than Xantcha and therefore entitled to give her orders-made it clear that sunrise was coming and it was time for guests to come outside and join the family in its morning rituals.

The eastern horizon had barely begun to brighten when Xantcha settled into what was evidently a place of honor between Tessu and the ancient. They faced west toward the mountain, which was as monolithic black in the pre-dawn light as it was during Xantcha's bath. There were no prayers, a relief, and no Urza or Romom or Brya, either. Brya's absence could be explained by the motionless serenity with which the household awaited the coming of daylight. No toddler could sit so still for so long.

Xantcha herself was challenged by the discipline. Her mind ached with unasked questions, her nose itched, then her toes, and the nearly unreachable spot between her shoulder blades. She was ready to explode when light struck the mountain's rounded crest. As sunrises went, it was not spectacular. The air was clear. There were no clouds anywhere to add contrast or movement to the surprisingly slow progression of color and light on the mountainside.

But that, Xantcha realized, was Equilor's mystery and revelation. Those who dwelt at the edge of time had gone past a need for the spectacular; they'd learned to appreciate the subtlest differences. They'd conquered boredom even more effectively than the perfect folk of Serra's realm. They could wait forever and a day, which Xantcha supposed was a considerable accomplishment, though nothing she wished to emulate.

Find what you're looking for! she urged the absent Urza, moments before the dawn revealed two white-clad figures moving among the mountain's many caves.

The ancient rapped Xantcha sharply on the back. "Pay attention! Watch close!"

Guessing that some rite of choosing or choice was about to take place, Xantcha did her best to follow the ancient's advice, but it proved impossible. Brilliant lights suddenly began to flash from the cave mouths, as if each contained a mirror. She blinked rapidly and to no useful effect. Each cave mouth had its own rhythm, no matter how Xantcha tried, her eyes were quickly, painfully blinded by reflected sunlight.

"You'll learn," the ancient chortled, while tears ran down Xantcha's cheeks.

The dazzle ended.

Tessu embraced Xantcha with a hearty "Good morning" and pulled her to her feet before releasing her. Xantcha had scarcely dried her face on her sleeve before the rest of the household followed Tessu's example and greeted her with the same embrace they used with one another. She had never been so carefully included in a family gathering, and seldom felt so out of place. Her vision was still awash in purple and green blobs when she and Tessu were alone in the atrium.

"You aren't used to it yet," Tessu said gently. "You'll learn."

"That's what the ancient said."

"Ancient? Oh, Pakuya. She'll go up the mountain herself, I think, after you and Urza leave. We've been waiting quite a long time, even for us, for you to arrive."

The certainty in Tessu's voice was an unexpected relief. "Urza's in one of the caves, right?"

"Keodoz, I think. Romom will say for certain when he returns this afternoon."

Keodoz, the name of the cave or the elder who occupied it? Xantcha stifled idle curiosity in favor of a more important question: "Do you know when Urza will return?"

"Tomorrow or the next day. Whenever he and Keodoz have finished."

It was nearly twenty days before neighbors spotted a white-robed man coming down the mountain. By then Xantcha knew that there was no difference between the cave and the elder-or more accurately, elders-who dwelt within it. Romom, Tessu, and the rest of the Equilor community-and there was only the one community at the edge of time-lived their mortal lives in expectation of the day when they'd climb the mountain one last time to merge with their ancestors.

Despite their focus on their cave-dwelling ancestors, the folk of Equilor weren't a morbid people. They laughed with one another, loved their children, and took genuine delight in the small events of daily life. They argued, held grudges, and gossiped among themselves and about the elders, who, despite their collective spirits, were not without individual foibles. Keodoz, Xantcha learned, was known to be long-winded and supremely self-confident. As Urza's time in the caves had lengthened, the household began to joke that Keodoz had found a soulmate-a notion that distressed Xantcha. Idyllic ways notwithstanding, Equilor was not a place where she wanted to spend eternity.

When she heard that Urza had been spotted, she left the house at once and jogged along the stone road until she met up with him.

"Did you get your answers ?" she asked, adding, "I can be ready to leave before sundown."

"I have only scratched the surface, Xantcha. We are young compared to them. We know so little, and they have been collecting knowledge for so long. A thousand years wouldn't be enough time. Ten thousand, even a hundred thousand wouldn't be too much. You cannot imagine what the elders know."

Of course she couldn't imagine. She was Phyrexian.

"Remember why we came here. What about vengeance? Your brother? Dominaria? Phyrexia!"

He grabbed her and lifted her into the air. "Keodoz knows so much, Xantcha! Do you remember, after we left Phyrexia, how I was unable to return to Dominaria? I said it was as if the portion of the multiverse that held Dominaria had been squeezed and sealed away from the rest. I was right, Xantcha. Not only was I right, but I was the one who had squeezed and twisted it when I emptied the sylex bowl! It wasn't evident at first-well, it was. Dominaria was cooler when I left, but I didn't understand how the two were related. But it was in my mind, when I used the sylex, to protect my home for all time, and the bowl's power was so great that my wish was granted. No artifact device, nor planeswalker's will, can breach the Shard that the sylex created. The elders here at Equilor could not breach it."

"You turned your home into Phy- " Xantcha caught herself before she finished the fatal word and substituted, "Serra's realm?" instead.

"Better, Xantcha. Much better! The Shard is more than a chasm, and Dominaria is an entire nexus of planes, all natural and balanced. Dominaria is safe, and I saved it with the sylex."

"But the Phyrexians? Phyrexia? The Ineffable?"

"They are doomed, Xantcha. Accidents and anomalies, not worth the effort of destroying them, now that I am sure Dominaria is safe. There are more important questions, Xantcha. I see that now. I've found my place. Equilor is where I belong. Keodoz and the others have so much knowledge, but they've done nothing with it. Look around us, Xantcha. These folk need leadership- vision!-and I will give it to them. When I am finished, Equilor will be the jewel of the multiverse."

Xantcha thought of Tessu and Romom waiting to merge with all their ancestors. She wriggled free and said, cautiously, "I don't think that's what anyone here wants."

"They have not dreamed with me, Xantcha. Keodoz has only begun to dream with me. It will take time, but we have time. Equilor has time. They are not immortal, but they might as well be. Did you know that if Brya, Romom's youngest, had been born where I was born, she would be an old woman in her eighties ?"

Xantcha hadn't known and wasn't comfortable with the knowledge. Urza, however, was radiant, as intoxicated by his ambitions as she would have been by a jug of wine. "Urza, You haven't found your place," she said, retreating into the grass. "You've lost it. We came here to find the first home for the