Clearsight

Darkstalker is in his office. Judging by the hurricane of paper scattered all over the place, he hasn't left it all night.

I rub my eyes. "Hey. Evening."

He doesn't respond.

I sigh, nudging him with my shoulder. "Hey. I'm here? Your wife? We need to talk."

He frowns. "Oh. Um, hey."

"We can't just keep hiding away from the world forever. We need to go to work today."

He's silent.

"Well?" I sigh, giving him another nudge. "This is important. I'm sure your scroll can wait."

Darkstalker rubs his temples, spinning around to meet my eyes. "Yes. You're right. We should go. Shadowhunter will be safe here, I've been fortifying the protections all night, and I think I have some pretty good intel into what's happened while we were... away yesterday."

I frown. The scroll he's holding is starting to look eerily familiar.  "Darkstalker, what..."

"I used your navigator. I hope that was okay?"

I nod quickly. "Oh yeah. Of course—"

"And... look at this. I've been analyzing this all night." He passes me the scroll.

"Three moons," I whisper, stomach dropping like a stone. "Darkstalker... This is a mess. Are you okay?" His sharp handwriting is scattered all over the place--I can barely make out the drawings below it, let alone what he's trying to communicate.
He snatches the scroll back and slams it against his desk, growling. "Yes. I'm okay."

I fiddle with my talons, mostly so I don't have to meet his eyes. "Really? You know if you need to talk, I'm here, right?"

"Clearsight," he hisses, adding another note to the scroll. "How many times do I need to say it? I'm fine."

***

"Do I look okay?" I examine my jewels in the mirror, frowning. I normally don't care about how I look. But for some reason tonight, it's impossible not to feel self-conscious.

Darkstalker sighs. "Clearsight. You look great."

I groan, taking another sip of coffee and looking away from the mirror. "I guess we should ask your mom to look after Shadowhunter or something."

Darkstalker nods absently. "I'll work something out."

I force myself to breathe. It only half helps.

"If something happens—if my life is in danger, you have permission to make me invulnerable. Okay? Just in case things go wrong today. I don't think they will, but--"

"It won't come to that," Darkstalker says calmly, face made of stone.

"I'd rather be careful," I mutter.

***

"Lady Clearsight and Lord Darkstalker," Darkstalker says calmly, passing a palace guard our IDs. (A system Queen Vigilance only recently introduced—even though it's pretty much useless.)

The guard does a double-take. "But—aren't you supposed to be..."

"We returned early," Darkstalker says curtly.

The guard nods, eyes wide with poorly masked confusion. "You may enter."

At first, I can half-trick myself we're going to be able to pull this off while maintaining a low profile. Dragons are pretty self-absorbed, after all.

And then... they see us. Not all at once. But slowly, whispers growing exponentially louder and louder...

"Lady Clearsight!"

"Lord Darkstalker!"

"Why are you back so early?"

"Where is the true queen?"

I don't know! I wish I could scream, as they start to crowd around us--an ocean of black and purple and dark green scales and silver eyes suffocating me.

Darkstalker takes a deep breath. "Calm down, everyone. We're not releasing information to the public now. We don't know any more than you do."

I shoot a hesitant glance at him, before dragging him up the stairs without another word. I need to get out of here before I explode.

But before I can make my way to his office--which is closer to the foyer than mine is--an imposing dragon in a tiara begins to walk down the stairs toward us. Her scales are a sort of deep navy colour, eyes a dark green. The resemblance between her and her mother is so striking it's a little scary.

She bows politely. "Hello, Darkstalker. Hello, Clearsight. I'm Regent Star. I've been waiting for you."

I pause. I knew to expect this--even if I weren't a seer, it wasn't exactly hard to put the pieces together. But it's still a shock to see any other dragon than Queen Vigilance in power.

"It's an honour to meet again." I actually don't remember if we've ever met before, but I figure since she's the queen's eldest daughter, it's safe to say we have. "We have a lot to discuss, Your Highness."

"Of course. Come to my office, we should discuss this somewhere more... private."

Dragons are starting to rush up the stairs now. Star barely even looks at them.

***

Regent Star sits down at the other end of the long, stone conference table. It feels strange without all the other Council members--but I guess they already know everything that happened.

I feel like such an idiot for spending all of yesterday like I did. Dragons needed you, and you let them down.

You failed.

I force myself to breathe, trying to flush the thoughts out of my head--but no matter how hard I try, I can't make them leave.

"I'm sorry about the dragons you had to deal with down there. Everyone is kind of panicking about all the things that have been happening of late. It's a lot to deal with." Star rubs her temples. "The truth is, we don't really know what's happening. I wasn't prepared to be expected to take control of the whole kingdom in this state, so suddenly." She rubs her forehead. "I've been trained and stuff, but I didn't actually think I'd have to do any of this in real life. It was just a drill, you know?" She clears her throat before forcing her shoulders to tighten. "I'm sorry, I lost track of myself for a moment. I apologize."

I give her a small, tentative smile. "You don't need to apologize."

"Can you help me figure out some things? My mother wasn't exactly the most communicative, and, well, I don't know where she left the key to the treasury."

"Um, I--" I start.

"I know where it is. Mind-reader, remember?" Darkstalker gets up, smiling a little. "C'mon, I'll show you where it is."

Many hours pass that way. I'm honestly amazed this dragon could possibly have descended from Queen Vigilance.

She treats us like actual dragons.

***

"Do you know anything we don't yet? I've heard so much about your seer ability. If you have any info about what's going on, it would mean the world," Star says, eyebrows starting to wrinkle up.

I pause. "I... I don't know." How am I supposed to explain the mess I am right now?

Star spins on Darkstalker. "You're a mind-reader--is there anything we could use? Anything we need to be prepared for?"

A servant across the hall from us stops dead in her tracks, ears pricked.

I take a deep breath. "I have a couple scrolls that might be useful. Can we discuss this somewhere more private?"

"Of course."

***

"Queen Carmen never seemed very... hospitable," Darkstalker starts, cringing. "She threatened to kill me and my daughter the first time we met her. So Clearsight and I had our concerns. She would make these weird, pointed comments--"

"Okay. Sure. I mean, what happened the day she tried to--you know. Execute you."

Darkstalker's face twists into something ugly and dark--something I've barely ever seen before. "She took our daughter, and chained her up. She pinned me to the wall. And then I did a spell to get us out of here. I've been trying to analyze the futures, but I haven't found anything useful yet. What about those spies we sent a couple weeks ago? Have you found a way to get in touch with them? I know the queen had them instated right before we left--"

"I have no idea how," Star says, rubbing her eyes. "I've scoured my mother's office, but I can't find any information about it. She was... well, pretty paranoid. I'm guessing she didn't tell you anything about it either?"

"Nope," Darkstalker says with a sigh. "Clearsight?"

I frown at the scroll. "Let me see that." I furrow my brows, running my talons through the different outcomes. I dig a pot of ink out of my work bag, scribbling frantically on top of Darkstalker's notes. This is your element, Clearsight. You know what to do.

Banging talons echo through the halls. Star frowns. The door yanks open, hitting the wall with a bang!

Heartfire.

My mouth hangs open in shock.

He limps toward Regent Star, panting. "Your Highness--Darkstalker--Clearsight--"

I rush to my feet. He looks exhausted and harrowed and weak, so different from the way he used to be.

"Heartfire, are you okay?" I spread one wing around him, catching him as he starts to topple to the ground. "What happened? Where's the queen?"

"They--they've taken her captive. And they won't release her until our tribe stops using animus magic."

Darkstalker frowns. "What, are they going to kill her or something?"

"No. But Carmen said we have--two weeks. Until they declare war on us. I saw a SeaWing there, too."

Darkstalker takes Heartfire's weight off my shoulders. He frowns, muttering a spell under his breath. Heartfire's breathing starts to steady, the shadows under his eyes erasing themselves.

"T-thank you," he stutters, taking a seat at the conference table. "The only reason they let me go was because they wanted me to take this message to you."

He adjusts his wing, and I catch a glimpse of an angry lash mark. They've tortured him.

My head starts to spin. I didn't even like Heartfire all that much, but the thought of him being tortured still makes me furious. "Three moons."

Darkstalker exchanges a glance with me. "I'll send a message to the RainWings. And the MudWings. I guess it's time to use those alliances."

I don't have time to think, let alone breathe. My mind is spinning, spinning, spinning, jumping from timeline to timeline at light speed.

Star takes a deep breath. "Clearsight, I want predictions and analyses as fast as you can, all right? I'll find someone to take Heartfire to hospital. War Council meeting in an hour."

My heart is pounding so loud and fast I can barely tell what she's trying to say over it.

"Yes, Your Highness. O-o-of course."

I force my talons to steady.

Your kingdom needs you, Clearsight.

Pull yourself together.