Clearwing stumbled out into the open.

She most likely would've ran to Coal if she hadn't been paralyzed with grief.

In fact, if she hadn't been paralized with grief, she'd have slitted Wasp's throat, torn up the entire continent, and then gone back and stabbed the HiveWing queen's body some more.

After spending half a minute just there breathing, fighting back tears, staring into open space, she gathered herself and snuck out of the store. Luckily the voices had come from outside the shop, and a random crying SilkWing with black scales hadn't been shoved out in front of some customers. At least her wings distracted most dragons from the actually black scales next to her eyes.

As it turned out, the sun had started to set and the HiveWings who'd come back from their hunt had gone home, leaving the Glitterbaazar empty and barren. Which Clearwing guessed made sense; normally parties here might go on all night, but these dragons had probably just flown all over the continent and back in less than a day.

The SilkWing servants had begun appearing again as well; it seemed that without HiveWings to look at them and order them to do work, the multicolored dragons just sat around awkwardly.

She stayed in the shadows of the stalls and snuck around, emerging only to walk back towards Wasp Hive. When she reached it, she stopped to wait in a small alley for nightfall, eventually entering Wasp's mansion when the moons were climbing up the sky.

Taking keys from a sleeping guard, she sprinted down the dungeon, looking with hope for a black shape. Eventually she stumbled upon a cell with the hunched silhouette of a dragonet with natural armor and bat-like wings in the corner.

"Coal!" Clearwing whispered.

Coal looked up. "Clearwing?" He said. He still looked like himself, but there were bags under his eyes and a second stinger mark over his heart. "Clearwing.... What are you doing here?"

"I-" she paused. "I came to get you out of here. You know, like a rescue."

"Where do we even go?"

"I have a few friends from Jewel Hive we can stay with," Clearwing said, unlocking Coal's cell.

"Really," Coal replied. "When did you have time to do that?"

"Yesterday," Clearwing admitted.

"So how do you even know that they're trustworthy?"

"They are. You know that I can tell. Two of them are siblings — step-siblings — and the other one asks lots of questions. She'll convince the others to let us stay as long as I answer them."

Coal snorted in disbelief, or perhaps just to get some of the musty dungeon smell out of his nose. "Well, let's go meet them, I suppose."

The two snuck out the Hive, Clearwing showing the way around the guards — the way she'd come in to rescue him in the first place. As they exited onto the silk bridge, there was a yelp and suddenly the two of them were standing face-to-face with Cricket.

"Sorry," she said. "But I was worried Max had scared you off and you had a lot of answers and I was worried you'd get caught and locked up again."

"Ha," Coal said. "I kind of worried that, too."

Cricket's eyes did their light-up-because-there's-a-Hive-for-me thing again, and Clearwing tried to hide her smile.

"Are you the GreyWing, Clearwing's friend?" she asked.

Coal narrowed his eyes at Clearwing. "How much did you tell her?"

"A lot," the SilkWing admitted sheepishly. "To be honest, answering questions is my job. Other than being a good student. And running away and getting captured by HiveWings. The truth is out there, that's my motto. And how can you find the truth without knowing the answers to your questions?"

"Exactly," Cricket said. She turned back to Coal. "So. Are you?"

"Yyyes? I suppose. I think Clearwing at this point knows more about my tribe than I do."

"Well, I'll be sure to ask a bunch of questions when we get back to Polistes Polish. Since I'm guessing that dragon behind you wasn't supposed to be following you?"

Clearwing stumbled and turned around, her teeth bared. But it wasn't a HiveWing that was behind them — it was Blue, the flamesilk and Luna's brother.

"Hey again."

The two stared at each other for a moment, thinking the same thing at the same time.

"You're alive," Clearwing said quietly.

"So are you," Blue replied.

Coal jutted in, breaking the moment. "I understand that this is very touching in some ways, but I'm getting a massive headache and feeling very sick, so could we please move?" There wasn't just a headache on his mind; Clearwing caught a huge burst of jealousy from the GreyWing, strong enough to push through his mental shield.

The SilkWing had a weird tug on her mind, like a precognition, but not quite. She didn't let her wings relax as she nodded. "Yeah, we should probably keep going."

"C'mon, then!" Cricket said happily, bounding off towards Jewel Hive and talking to herself. "New pretty dragons! A new tribe! All of my questions answered!! This is the best day ever." Clearwing, Blue, and finally Coal followed.

The group of dragons finally reached Jewel Hive by the time the sun was rising on the horizon. They earned a few confused glances from SilkWings working on strengthening the silk bridge, but Cricket was ahead and Clearwing and Blue had their heads bowed lightly, so it still probably looked like a HiveWing mistress going on a stroll with her SilkWing servants. With an unusual-looking black dragon a few paces behind.

Clearwing kept glancing back at Coal, worry tugging on her mind. Was he alright? What did the second mark mean? Had the Vines given up trying to take him over, or had they won, or was the battle still raging? She hoped the former, but knowing the slithery voice and the sort of smug aura she'd been getting off of it, she guessed that it wasn't going to give up that easily.

Once they reached the shop (which was indeed called Polistes Polish) and Polites opened the door, Coal collapsed on the wall. He looked exhausted, out of breath, and struggling to stay awake, but for the sake of his life and the lives of the LeafWings, he had to stay awake.

"Coal, don't fall asleep," Clearwing said fiercely. "You can rest, but please, please don't fall asleep."

He murmured something like "just for a little while" back at her, but she shook him and he hissed lightly.

"Oh, my," Polistes said, eyeing the collapsed dragon on his floor. "Max, get me some obsidian and opal."

"He makes jewelry when he's stressed," she explained as she breezed past Clearwing. "Once he saw a rat and the entire store was overflowing with garnet and ruby earrings for over a month."

"RAT?" Polistes screeched. "WHERE?!"

"See what I mean?" Max rolled her eyes and pushed open the door, her black-rimmed scales disappearing around the corner of a shelf.

"She seems nice," Coal muttered sarcastically from his place sprawled across the floor. "Mmm. This rug is so soft..."

"Nope, stay awake," Clearwing shook him again, and he sighed dramatically.

"I wanna go to beeeeeeeed," the black dragonet moaned. He looked like he had flown across the continent and back in barely a day.

"Coal, you can't. You need to stay awake!"

It's too late, the Vine muttered, completely consuming Coal's mind. He's lost to you. Say goodbye to your friend.

"NO," Clearwing said, earning a startled glance from Blue, who was talking with Cricket, Polistes, and from Max (who had in fact returned with a fistful of obsidian and opal stones in one talon, and a long silver chain in the other). "Let him go, you monster."

Coal smiled up at Clearwing, his eyes fluttering closed. "Just for a little bit, dragonet." And then he was gone.