The cool air of the outdoors is refreshing in the newly arrived summer heat. With the sun down and the air still, it is difficult to find comfort indoors. You have never enjoyed the humidity in the valley, and this night reminds you why.

You make your way across the monastery, passing dark halls and archways that could hide demons, ghouls, or vampires, but the only creature you see is one of the monastery’s cats searching for a late-night snack. You pay little attention to the details that pass you by: the engraved designs on stone benches that tell of legends long forgotten, the elegant flowers arranged in dazzling patterns for the garden that no one but monks will see, and a bronze emblem above your head, a relic of some former war or king’s coronation, impossible to know which in the shadows of night. Eventually, you tire of your walk and decide to pay the old man a visit.

His study is worse than your cell of a room, the air hanging like wet rags. Still, you have arrived and do not wish to anger the old man by leaving immediately. Perhaps suffering in his stale study will ease the torture of your own chambers when you return.

Good evening. You look to be distressed. Might a short tale ease your troubles? It need not be part of my usual tapestry. I could tell you something quite inconsequential, a tale that is unimportant to the rest of your history lessons.

Yes? Very well, I will do my best to distract you.

You hope the old man succeeds, and aim to concentrate on his story as completely as you are able.

Tonight’s tale shall be on a skyship named the Predator. You remember my tales of the Weatherlight, do you not? The Predator was the Weatherlight’s rival, much like Mishra was Urza’s nemesis. However, they were not connected from the beginning like the infamous artificer brothers. The Predator was built on an entirely separate plane, conceived by a Phyrexian mind. Perhaps it is possible that the Phyrexians knew of Urza’s plans with the Weatherlight, but I find that to be a naïve thought.

The Predator was built on the plane of Rath—strangely enough, Yawgmoth’s mirror plane to Dominaria, the Weatherlight’s birthplace—as the flagship of a fleet of skyships. This fleet’s sole purpose at the time of construction was to stamp down the rebellions of Rath’s other inhabitants, the Kor, Vec, and Dal tribes. The rest of the fleet was never built, but that was not due to troubles on the Phyrexians’ part. The Predator was so effective at trampling the Rathi tribes—for they had no way of fighting such a powerful weapon in the sky—that no other ships were needed.

So what of the conflict with the Weatherlight? Urza’s creation would prove to be the most difficult foe the Predator faced, and it eventually defeated the Phyrexian ship upon their third meeting. But that shall come later in my tale.

The first meeting of the two skyships took place when the Weatherlight came to Rath in search of its captured captain, Sisay. The Predator lay in wait, giving it an advantage of surprise and speed that the Weatherlight and its crew could not overcome. In a battle that lasted mere moments, the Predator’s crew boarded the Weatherlight, took Karn, Tahngarth, and the collected pieces of the Legacy, and left, the Weatherlight barely able to stay aloft, much less pursue its attacker or flee the plane.

The Weatherlight’s defeat on Rath was the worst it would ever endure, but it was not the end of Urza’s skyship. The Phyrexians’ true prize, Gerrard Capashen, was knocked overboard during the battle, and would later rescue his friends taken by the Predator. The Predator meanwhile, had barely a scratch upon its hull, and returned to the Stronghold victorious in the first challenge to its dominance over the skies on Rath.

The next time the two skyships met was immediately after Gerrard’s daring rescue of his friends from the Stronghold. With no safe haven on Rath and its interplanar engines damaged in the preceding battle, the Weatherlight and her newly restored captain fled to a planar portal Gerrard had found after the first battle. Without the aid of an ambush the Predator was unable to match the smaller and faster skyship, and could not prevent the Weatherlight and her crew from escaping the plane.

During the brief skirmish the Predator was heavily damaged, and required numerous repairs in the Stronghold’s docks before it could fly again. Seeing an opportunity to rid themselves of the oppressive weapon, the Rathi tribes formed a small team in hopes of destroying the Predator, and infiltrated the Stronghold. Their sabotage effort failed, but the skyship required such extensive repairs that it remained in dry dock until the Rathi Overlay.

The Rathi Overlay—and subsequent Phyrexian Invasion—were the setting for the Predator’s final battle against the Weatherlight, though it was no longer the biggest ship in the sky. Skyships from the home plane of Phyrexia took over the majority of fighting in the air, and the Predator was relegated to defending the Stronghold’s new position in Dominaria. Once again the Predator was able to surprise the crew of the Weatherlight, and Phyrexians boarded the faster ship before it could run.

Unlike their first meeting, the crew of the Weatherlight was prepared for such an attack, and the Weatherlight itself had become stronger since the events on Rath. Gerrard was teleported into the Stronghold by Ertai, a former member of the Weatherlight’s crew, but he was the only casualty. The rest of the Weatherlight’s crew overpowered the Phyrexians. The Predator’s weapons no longer outmatched the Weatherlight’s, and events turned south on the Predator’s Mogg crew very quickly. In the end, the Weatherlight survived with little damage, and sent the Predator crashing into the Stronghold it attempted to defend.

With the end of the old man’s story, you awake from your trance, and realize that the old man succeeded in making you forget the weather for a short time. With the realization, heat once again floods into your pores, but it is no longer the unbearable burden it was hours ago. You thank Issar Roon for the respite, and then make your way down the cool stone corridor.