As the students reach the chamber, reality cycles through incompatible landscapes and freezes the older planeswalkers in place. Jadzi begins a precise spell to soothe the archaic. Tam follows familiar mathematical constants through the chaos, approaches the oracle and pushes her into the nexus before anyone understands what she intends.
Tam admits that she was made for this purpose. Her affection for the group was real, but so was the command buried beneath it. She follows Jadzi through the closing passage, leaving Kirol, Lluwen, Sanar and Abigale to face an unstable archaic and the knowledge that their friend chose both love and betrayal.
Lluwen reconstructs Jadzi’s interrupted gestures. The others join him, and small lumarets combine their bodies to reproduce the spell’s shapes. Their many limited contributions accomplish what none could alone: the archaic settles and the chamber holds. Arcavios survives, while Tam and Jadzi awaken inside the hidden reality that will become the next crisis.