The road to the storm's heart passed through Tarkir's unresolved history. Narset and Elspeth found the Crucible marked by hedrons and a direction toward a temple hidden within the storms. They also found Sarkhan Vol. Desparked and unable to assume dragon form as he once had, Sarkhan had reduced his world to a single grievance: the Multiverse had taken from him the body and belonging he considered true. He imagined a cosmos ruled by dragons because anything else reminded him of that loss.
Sarkhan attacked. Elspeth was prepared to end the threat, but Narset stopped the killing. She had already watched too many lives become acceptable costs in somebody else's design. Mercy did not heal Sarkhan, however, and Taigam was ready with a path aimed directly at his obsession. The ritual he offered resembled the clans' act at the Crucible but inverted its meaning. The khans had risked their own lives together; Sarkhan cut open a young wild dragon and consumed its living heart.
The sacrifice restored his transformation with terrible additions. Sarkhan became a vast dragon able to command the wild creatures forming inside the storms. Ajani, living in self-imposed exile among the Abzan after his Phyrexian crimes, saw the new flight gather around him. That sight joined two wounded men at opposite edges of the same choice. Sarkhan made pain a licence to dominate. Ajani had made pain a prison, believing permanent shame was the only honest response. The approaching catastrophe would force both to decide whether remorse should serve life or merely keep the past in power.