Mr. Murry tessers to the planet Ixchel. There, Meg returns to consciousness slowly. She is cold and can’t move, her body “as lifeless as marble” (163). She hears Calvin and her father but not Charles Wallace, and she wonders why her brother doesn’t join the conversation. Mr. Murry tells Calvin about the tesseract project, how he was the second in a line of people to try tessering. The first man never returned. On Mr. Murry’s turn, he aimed for Mars but ended up on Camazotz, where he was imprisoned.

Meg finally manages to make a sound, alerting Calvin and her father that she’s awake. She opens her eyes. She, Calvin, and Mr. Murry are on a gray planet without Charles Wallace. Her father couldn’t take Charles Wallace with IT tugging on him, and Meg finds herself blaming her father for everything. Three vaguely humanoid creatures approach. They have tentacles for fingers and no eyes. One examines Meg, who is repulsed until the creature touches her, bringing warmth to her frozen body and heart. The creature picks Meg up and tells Mr. Murry and Calvin that it’s “taking the child” (175).