Kitty Pryde Fact — November 6, 2026

Today's Fact

A dead friend's last gift, sheathed somewhere no vault could hold it — inside Kitty herself.

ILLYANA'S SOULSWORD HID INSIDE KITTY PRYDE — AND CAME OUT THROUGH HER STOMACH!

The Featured Fact

When Illyana Rasputin died of the Legacy Virus, her Soulsword — the blade forged from a piece of her own soul in Limbo — was supposed to vanish with her. Instead, as Professor Xavier's instruments later reconstructed, the dying Magik quietly bonded the weapon to the person she trusted most: her best friend and roommate, Kitty Pryde, who had sat at her bedside at the end.

Kitty neither knew nor wanted the inheritance, and the blade did not ask permission. In Excalibur Vol. 1 #83–85 (1994) it forced its way out of her body — emerging through her stomach — along with traces of Illyana's eldritch armour, and its corrupting pressure began twisting Kitty's temper the way it had once twisted Illyana's, until she stood over a wounded Moira MacTaggert with the sword raised.

Two rival sorcerers, Gravemoss and Shrill, descended on Muir Island to claim the blade, and Kitty beat them both with the skills Ogun had drilled into her — then used the Soulsword the way Illyana once had, purging Gravemoss from Nightcrawler's possessed body. Her last act as its holder was to hand it to Amanda Sefton for safekeeping, giving the sword — and her friend — up for good.

Why It's Obscure

Phasing through walls was never the strangest thing Kitty's body learned to do.

The bedside bond

A transfer nobody witnessed — Xavier only found the evidence afterward, in energy readings taken during Illyana's final hours on Muir Island.

1994

The emergence — Excalibur #84 opens the buried secret: the sword returns to the world through Kitty's own body, armour and all, whether she consents or not.

The corruption

A borrowed darkness — the blade pressed on Kitty's mind as it had on Illyana's, which is why a weapon that harms almost nothing physical could still wound Kitty herself.

The hand-off

Sefton takes custody — Amanda Sefton separated Kitty from the sword and passed it to her mother Margali, ending Kitty's one tenure as a sorceress by inheritance.

Gallery

Kitty herself, and Illyana twice over — the Soulsword and the eldritch armour that travelled with it.

Kitty Pryde with a blade in hand and Lockheed behind her — **The unwilling heir**Kitty Pryde, blade in hand and Lockheed looming at her shoulder — a phasing ninja by training, who never asked for magic and got handed its sharpest artifact anyway.

Illyana Rasputin, Magik, raising her glowing Soulsword — **The original owner**Illyana Rasputin, Magik of the New Mutants, raising the Soulsword she forged in Limbo — the blade that outlived her by moving into her best friend.

Illyana Rasputin in golden eldritch armour holding the Soulsword — **The armour that came with it**Illyana in the eldritch armour that manifests with the Soulsword — traces of that same armour surfaced on Kitty when the bonded blade forced its way back into the world.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

UncannyXMen.net — Excalibur (1st series) #84 Full issue summary: the sword emerging from Kitty, Xavier's reconstruction of the bonding, and the fight over the blade.
UncannyXMen.net — Soulsword object profile The blade's chronology, including its passage to Kitty on Illyana's death and Kitty's earlier turns wielding it.
Excalibur Vol. 1 #83–85 (1994) The primary source: Warren Ellis's three-part arc of Kitty's inheritance, corruption and surrender of the Soulsword.