Darkstalker

"She looks so much like you," Fathom whispers. "It's kind of terrifying."

Clearsight laughs. "Yes, Fathom. Absolutely horrifying." She rolls her eyes, giving him a friendly shove in the shoulder. "What did you my literal child would look like? A RainWing? I swear..."

Fathom laughs, giving her an affectionate shove back. "I can't believe you two are parents."

"Me neither," Clearsight sighs, sipping her tea. "It still feels surreal, to be honest. The amount of attention we get at work because of it... oh, moons." She rubs her forehead.

On the outside, he sounds pleasant and put together, but on the inside, Fathom's mind is practically on fire. I wish I could block it out; it's kind of ridiculous.

She's an animus. This little, innocent dragonet is an animus.

How can they love her and still risk her life this way? Don't they see how unfair it is to her, how much damage she could do to them? To the world?

She's just a dragonet. She doesn't deserve to be cursed like this.

I swear. I'm trying to stay calm and all that, trying to be the Happy Father, the Good Friend, the Adoring Husband. But if I didn't have to do any of those things, I'd be screaming right now. I like Fathom, I really do--but he can be pretty melodramatic when it comes to animus magic.

"And you'll be her Uncle Fathom," Clearsight says, cracking a small smile. "Doesn't that make you feel so old and squirmy?"

"Are you sure she's an animus?" He says, rather than responding. Great kingdoms. What is wrong with this dragon?

"Yeah. We're sure." Clearsight sighs, awkwardly fiddling with her talons. 

"But couldn't you just get rid of her powers? Why would you--how could you--?" His voice cracks a little. Shadowhunter might not be able to understand what we're saying exactly, but I can tell she knows we're arguing.

She scuttles behind my wing and presses herself against my side.

Fathom looks down at the ground, expression twisted with guilt. It's all going to be my fault, his brain natters, spinning around the same worries it's been thinking about ever since he found out.

"Let's not talk about this anymore," Clearsight says finally, glancing at Shadowhunter.

Fathom looks down at the ground. I don't need to be a mind-reader to know what he's thinking.

And then someone knocks at the door, distracting us at least temporarily.

***

Seeing Whiteout feels like entering some kind of weird alternate universe. We still exchange the occasional letter with updates on our lives--kind of ridiculous, considering her house is only a half-hour flight from mine--but for some reason we haven't talked in a while. Wow, when I think about it... I've only seen her once or twice since my wedding.

She lights up when she sees Shadowhunter. I forgot what Whiteout's smile looked like. They play with each other for a long time in the garden, and after a while Clearsight, Fathom and I join in. A cold wind brushes over our scales, and the last tinges of white-pink sunrise glaze the sky.

It's totally ridiculous, right? But for a moment, talking to her, falling back into the familiar rhythms of our relationship, it feels like we're kids again. The two innocent, strange dragonets with the weird scales and the haunted past who couldn't yet comprehend the extent of the pain they were surrounded by. Playing scavengers-and-dragons with each other, chasing each other around the house, squealing with joy.

My talons clench. The fire in my belly is there again.

I let out a deep breath, and force my breathing to slow down; my thoughts to fade into oblivion. Stop it Darkstalker. There's no reason to cry.

Everything. Is. Fine.

***

The next day, Clearsight and I have to wake up early for work. I was up most of the night, and I'm only capable of keeping my eyes open because I magicked myself to need less sleep than regular dragons as a way of tolerating my... late nights. Oh, and to make matters better, Shadowhunter started freaking out in the middle of the day, and Clearsight was up for a good two hours dealing with that with me. There are bags under her eyes, and she looks even less enthusiastic about this than I am.

Anyway, basically, all the queen's advisors are required to have a War Council meeting once a month. Now that the IceWing-NightWing war is in a magically enforced ceasefire, usually we spend most of it talking about our relationships with the other tribes and reviewing all interactions that have taken place with all tedious, moons-blasted six other tribes. I can't remember a single time since I got this position when these meetings have accomplished anything--but we all have to put a crazy amount of work into preparing for them anyway.  It's agony. 

Clearsight's tail taps against the floor. She fiddles with her talons from her seat at the large, round table several spots away from me. Soft chatter fills the room. 

When is the queen planning on getting here? Are we just going to sit here all day? Heartfire wonders crankily.

Several slow minutes go past, before the heavy mahogany doors creak open, and the queen, draped in gold and silver chains, enters the room, her talons thudding against the cold stone floor. 

There's a long moment of silence.

"Hello," The queen says finally, her voice echoing around the chamber. "What do you all have to say for yourselves?" Her snout is all wrinkled up, like something in the room smells bad. Typical Vigilance. Her mind exudes rage, but I try my best to ignore it.

The minister of agriculture (Daggerclaw) immediately launches into an overly defensive monologue about how the SeaWings have been not only refusing any animus-touched goods (one of our top exports) but launching attacks on supply lines designed to carry those goods to other kingdoms, which is a new development. (Everyone already knew this.) 

I get that sounds like a big deal, but honestly, it's not--we get minor attacks on our supply routes all the time. Everyone is probably just overreacting because of how delicate our situation with the SeaWings has been for the past few years. We don't actually have evidence Queen Pearl was involved in the attacks yet, and although slightly more aggressive than the average bandit raid, they haven't ever been anything major. The minister of war (Heartfire) jumps in, with this whole IceWing conspiracy that's been circulating through the palace of late. "It has to be the IceWings, funding them to do this--in some way or other. They have no motivation. And we can't go on like this. We need to show them who's in charge, who has the power, before they take this any further..."

"There are Queen Pearl's personal issues with animus magic that could be driving her to do this," Euphoria offers. (He's the minister of education, and I'm not really sure why he's at this meeting other than the fact that he's old and terrifying and has probably worked here since the dawn of time.) "We know how she reacted to our powers in the past?" 

"This can't keep going on," Clearsight says finally, meeting the queen's eyes. "We can't just stand by and do nothing about the fact that three out of six of the tribes would love to wipe us out if they weren't so terrified of Darkstalker's magic and my powers or literally physically incapable of doing so. It's not--we can't--I thought we had established that using magic to stop the war was a temporary measure. This was never supposed to be the permanent thing. Making it physically impossible for violence to happen between the tribes--they'll always find a way around it. And what are we supposed to do about the SeaWings? The future SkyWing threat, what with their attitude toward animus magic?"

"Why couldn't we put them under the same spell?" Rogue asks, seeming genuinely confused. (To be honest, I'm with him about this topic.) 

"Because there's a point when that becomes a moral hazard! When that becomes downright barbaric?" Clearsight waves her talons around in the air frustratedly. (She always does that when she's trying to make a point.)

"But it would make our lives easier..."

"And it would be cruel. It would be horrible. It wouldn't be a solution." I get the sense she's been planning this out in her head for a long time. "If we say that's okay, where does it stop? This magic has to be used carefully. I don't understand why that's so hard to comprehend."

The table erupts in chattering, ministers and advisers and seers and mind-readers talking back and forth to each other in outrage.

The queen is glowering at her from the opposite end of the table. Suddenly, the whole room falls silent.

"Are you suggesting other tribes have the right to rule over us?"

"No. But they're dragons, and it's not right, and if we keep going down this path--" Clearsight takes a deep breath. "Eventually, it leads to the collapse of the tribe."

"Really? Or are you just making that up for your own reasons?"

Clearsight gasps, standing up on all fours. "How dare you? Do you know how much I sacrifice for this job?"

The talking in the room gets louder, thirteen voices all talking over each other, trying to make themselves heard first.

And then there's a knock on the door--loud and sharp.

Flameraiser frowns, shuffling her papers full of sketches anxiously.

"COME IN," The queen growls foully.

A blue-purple messenger with unusually faded star patterns on her wings takes a deep breath, meeting the queen straight in the eyes. "Your Majesty--there's been another attack on one of our major supply routes to the Rain Kingdom. Printing presses. All the details are here." She steps forward confidently, handing the queen a small ream of papers. "We're suspecting SkyWing  help, judging by the methods they used--they weren't anything we've seen before. I think they used--ugh, what are they called? Oh yeah, right, dragonflame cactus bombs. There's some information on them in here to refresh your knowledge, if you need it." She bows. "Anything else you need?"

Queen Vigilance twists her snout in displeasure. "You are dismissed."

The dragon takes a moment to adjust her satchel, and rushes out of the room.

Queen Vigilance glowers. "All of you are dismissed. We'll bring this topic up again in three days with a final verdict."

***

Clearsight buries her face in her talons, breathing quickly. Her talons wrap tightly around the door handle of her office at the palace, clearly about to slam it behind her. I grab onto her arm, gently holding it still.

"Hey." I try to meet her eyes, but she quickly looks away from me. 

"Darkstalker, please. I just... you should go home. Shadowhunter is probably wondering where we are." Clearsight smiles weakly.

"Can you please tell me what's going on?"

She quirks an eyebrow like there's something about that that she can't help but find amusing. "I... I will. I promise. Just give me a moment, okay?"

I open my mouth.

"I just need some space right now to figure this out," Clearsight says softly, her voice crinkled and worn-out. "All right?"

Hello my lovely beautiful artichokes! The posting dates for this story have changed--there will now be updates every Friday, not updates every Monday like you all are used to. Thanks so much for sticking with this story, and I hope you liked the chapter--sorry for posting a little late tonight (it's late by my time anyway, I don't know what time it is for you guys). Also, shoutout to the two name generators that kind of saved my butt in terms of naming all those pesky council members, you know who you are if you're reading this (I was the one who left frantic, all-caps comments) and I owe you my firstborn child now--honestly, you all are amazing. :)

-dragonwritesthings