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DARKSTALKER

It was hard to concentrate.

If Darkstalker stared at any spot in the sky, he'd start looking for silhouettes that would try to take his dragonet away from him. There might be more SeaWings hiding in his kingdom. If nobody had spotted that one then there could be others, hiding, waiting, staying clear of even the futures that Clearsight saw, and three moons, was Solstice still sitting there on his back? WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM? Where did he—?

Oh, wait, he was still there. Yes, those were definitely his talons digging into his left shoulder. And that was definitely Remedy sitting next to him.

This wasn't a feeling that Darkstalker was used to. Usually, the world was as he saw it. His powers, coupled with Clearsight's, made sure that any lurking, unpleasant surprises would be detected and nipped in the bud before they materialized. But one of those surprises made it through, and it almost cost him his son's life. And the worst part was that he had no idea how or why it made it through in the first place.

All of a sudden, the world wasn't so simple anymore. Things could happen without him knowing. Danger could be lurking in the shadows. Danger would be lurking in the shadows. The SeaWings weren't going to give up on their trickery: it will only be a matter of time before something like this happened again.

He felt dizzy when he touched down in front of the palace. His eyes kept darting back and forth looking for anything out of the ordinary. When the guards let him and Fathom enter, he wanted to scold them for not looking alive, but they actually looked quite fearsome and dedicated, so he gave them a pass.

"I'm going back to my chamber," Fathom said once they were inside. "I need to find Indigo."

"We'll talk about this more tomorrow," Darkstalker told him. "You can tell Indigo, but make sure nobody else knows what happened, okay?"

Fathom nodded before trotting off to the nearest staircase and disappearing behind the palace walls.

Darkstalker prostrated himself and extended his wings to let his dragonets off of his back. Solstice had woken up by now, but neither he nor Remedy had spoken a word during their flight. "Keep your wings brushed against mine, okay?" he told them.

"Yes, daddy," they both said. Darkstalker lowered his wingtips so that they arced over both of them, and they each extended their wings to connect with Darkstalker's.

He led them to their chamber near the throne room, where he knew Clearsight was right now. He walked as if he were crossing through a pit of venomous dragonbite vipers, aware of each step he took and every movement he saw. He eyed down any dark spots on the ceiling and in the reflections of the mirrors for hiding assassins or traps. When he found an armor-clad guard walking the opposite way, he called her over.

"Yes, my king?" she asked, bowing her head before him.

"Scout the area between here and my chamber. Make sure it's a hundred percent safe."

"Yes, my king." Promptly, the guard flew ahead, lurking close to the ceiling as she studied the palace corridors. Darkstalker continued to walk ahead, feeling slightly safer.

When he made it to the door to his suite, the door guards opened it up and let him in. Darkstalker had ordered the layout of the suite to be modified so that all of the homely accessories were behind a single, heavy, well-guarded, sound-proof door.

The queens before Clearsight had mostly lived all throughout the palace, but Clearsight and Darkstalker were both used to a more non-royal living style, where all of their necessities could be made a private matter if they so wished. Behind the door to the suite was a carpeted hall, with the three bedrooms on one side and the bathroom door on the other. At the end of the hall was a bend, which led into the lounge and the kitchen.

He could hear Listener and Clearsight talking with each other in the lounge, though he couldn't care less what they were discussing. He lifted his wings and knelt down next to his dragonets. "Now go to your rooms, you two. Try and get some sleep."

"But I'm not tired yet," Remedy told him, sounding innocent as ever. Darkstalker didn't tell her what had happened yet. He wasn't sure if he would, or if she'd even understand.

"Go to your room anyway. Why don't you make some paintings? You can paint and paint until you get tired, and then you can show me what you made tomorrow."

Remedy nodded, though she looked a little worried, like she could tell something wasn't right.

When she went off to her room, Darkstalker looked down at Solstice. "You too, buddy. To your room, alright?"

Solstice shook his head. He extended his talons and clung to Darkstalker's leg.

Which was a remarkably convincing argument. Darkstalker was persuaded enough to return the gesture, and brought himself down to scoop Solstice up into a tight hug.

"Listen," he said. "Your mommy and I need to talk alone right now, but we'll be right there for you as soon as we're done. If you go to your room now, we'll let you sleep in our bed for the next week, okay?"

A total bluff. Solstice and Remedy were going to be sleeping beneath Darkstalker's wing for the next month at least, whether they were obedient or not.

It worked, though. Solstice quietly traipsed into his room and shut the door behind him. The moment his eyes left his child, he felt a tug of fear tug at his heart. What if a SeaWing snuck into the palace and was waiting in Solstice's room?

He closed his eyes and studied the near futures as carefully as he could. It looked like Solstice and Remedy were safe: he'd see them again soon. It didn't ease his tensions, but it convinced him that it was okay to walk into the lounge instead of Solstice's room at that moment.

He found it tough to look at either Clearsight or Listener when he walked into the lounge. He found it tough to lift his head at all, and instead kept his eyes to various corners of the room.

His mind was too scrambled by this lingering question of how? How did this happen? How was something this monumental able to elude the future sight of both him and Clearsight? And how was he going to keep himself from being eluded again?

"Hello? Darkstalker, are you there?"

Darkstalker finally lifted his head and faced Listener. "What?"

"I said, aren't you here a little early?" Listener asked. "You weren't supposed to be back at the palace for another hour, right?"

Was it just him, or did that sound accusatory? That crooked frown on her face wasn't the friendliest looking thing in the world. "What's wrong with me being early? Should I leave?" he asked, folding his brow at her.

"What? No, of course not!" Listener said, looking a little startled. "Clearsight saw you returning early in her visions. We were worried that something might've happened."

"Right, and that's suddenly a concern of yours," he said dryly as he started towards the kitchen to get some water.

"Um, yes, it is," Listener said. "Last I checked, you were my king, and I was your friend. Of course it matters to me if something happened to you."

Darkstalker clenched his talon and twisted his head around. "Well, last I checked, you were the sorriest excuse for a spymaster I've ever seen," he snarled. "You're supposed to be keeping an eye on the SeaWings, but you've been loafing around doing nothing while they're crawling around under our noses. Are any of those scale-brained idiots under your command actually doing anything?"

"What?" Listener said, looking at him as if he'd just grown a hideous second head. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"You see, that's exactly the problem," Darkstalker said as he marched towards her. "You should know what I'm talking about. You should have told me what I'm talking about."

"Listener, you should probably leave us," Clearsight said with alarming urgency. She extended a wing and started pushing Listener towards the door with it.

"Whoa, hold on!" Listener said as she scrambled away from Clearsight. "I can't just walk away without him telling me what happened."

"I'll talk to you about it later, I promise." For just a second, Clearsight glanced over at Darkstalker, and there was a wide-eyed panic in her eyes that he hadn't seen from her in over a year. Then she returned her gaze to Listener and said, "I have the feeling Darkstalker and I need to discuss things privately first."

Listener scrunched her snout and let out a pout. "Fine. I'll talk to you later tonight."

Clearsight led her to the door as Darkstalker stayed in the lounge. By the time Listener was gone and Clearsight had made her way back, Darkstalker was pacing in circles around the cushions and very seriously considering finding something to break.

"Did you have to torture her like that?" she asked him, still looking nervous. "She's overworked enough already with this war."

"I'm well within my rights to be angry, Clearsight," Darkstalker said with a snort. "Do you have any idea what happened to us?"

"Obviously something bad, but — Darkstalker, by all the moons, calm down! You look like you're about to explode."

Oh, he very nearly was. "Our dragonets' lives are in danger, Clearsight," he said, completely ignoring her advice to calm down. "We were attacked by a SeaWing in the middle of the woods. Why didn't you tell me that this was going to happen?"

"What?" Clearsight said with a stutter. "I didn't know that was going to happen."

"You told me he would be safe!" Darkstalker roared, glaring angrily down at her. "You said that Solstice would be alright — that all he needed to do was be careful around the ravine."

Clearsight looked confused. "Are you sure you're not overreacting to this? I-I mean, yes, this is a problem and we need to talk to the council about this immediately, but Solstice was alive and well in every single vision that I saw, and you're acting like he almost died."

It took a lot of restraint to keep himself from lashing out at her for saying something so wrong — so neglectful. "He didn't almost die, Clearsight: he did die! He was kidnapped, and I chased after the guy, but he threw Solstice into the ravine, a-and I couldn't save him in time." He paused to take a deep breath. "If Fathom didn't use his magic to bring him back to life, I would have his corpse on my back right now."

It looked like reality finally set in for her. Clearsight's eyes went wide as he explained what had happened, and she sat herself down, pinning her ears to the side of her head. "Oh, Solstice … Is he okay?"

"He's shaken," Darkstalker told her. "He doesn't seem to remember everything, but I'm sure he remembers being grabbed and carried away."

"Oh, my poor baby," Clearsight said, her voice practically a whimper. "I'm sorry. I had no idea."

A bit of Darkstalker's anger finally began to dissipate. It was hard to stay mad at her when she got all sad and genuinely understanding like that. He let out a strong exhale, which did nothing to quell the anxious buzzing inside his chest and brain. "You should have known this, Clearsight," he said, kind of trying to not sound accusatory, but knowing he probably wasn't doing a very good job. "Why didn't you know this?"

Clearsight thought silently for long enough that Darkstalker started to notice the sounds of Solstice playing with his blocks in his room.

"Well?" Darkstalker pressed.

"I … I think it's because I wasn't with you," Clearsight finally said. "I never would have been there to see what happened, so my visions never would have shown it to me."

Darkstalker tilted his head. "But … your visions have shown you things that you never saw, right?"

"No, they haven't," Clearsight said. "My visions are always about my life, not anyone else's. The only way my visions could tell me about Solstice dying is if Solstice permanently died."

"But what if he did permanently die? What if Fathom decided not to use his powers to save him?"

Clearsight looked into Darkstalker's eyes in a way that communicated without words. 'You know the answer to that already, Darksalker,' they said.

"That never would have happened," she said to him. "Fathom wouldn't have let Solstice die. No matter what, he would have tried to save him. And no matter what, he would have succeeded."

Darkstalker didn't have a response to that. He did know that, yes: it had crossed his mind far too many times when he was flying back to the palace with Fathom. But it felt like it was too scandalous of an observation. Darkstalker was supposed to be tempering the use of his own magic, and it was largely because of Fathom that he'd decided to practically stop using his scroll altogether. He remembered Fathom being so full of fear and self-loathing over his animus powers. He remembered Fathom repeating in his mind that promise he'd made to never use magic again.

But somewhere, somehow, that part of Fathom vanished. Now, Fathom was a dragon who was willing to use his powers for good: to use his magic to save someone else.

But not only that: he was a dragon who would always have been willing to use his magic. If Clearsight were right, then Fathom was so committed to using his magic to save Solstice's life in that moment that in no timeline would he have decided otherwise.

But not only that: he was a dragon who was confidently willing to cast a spell that brought the dead back to life. Darkstalker didn't even know that was possible. He never expected animus magic to be that powerful. His powers were supposed to have at least some limitations. He never truly tested where those limitations were, but he always figured that some spells would simply be too costly. Maybe they weren't after all.

But perhaps the most frustrating and scandalous part of this observation was that Fathom was still good. He checked the futures as intensely as he could. He checked to see if there were any signs of Fathom slipping or becoming more sinister in any way in the future. He even tried to find a future where he pointed the soul reader at Fathom and read the hourglass, though the visions he summoned were too fuzzy.

Even so, there was nothing. Fathom didn't corrupt his soul with that last spell. And if a spell that powerful didn't destroy Fathom, or even change him a little bit, then he didn't know if any spell out there actually would.

And just like that, Darkstalker was out of reasons to not use magic himself anymore. He wanted to show his friend that he was showing restraint and following his example, but his friend had just cast the most powerful and important spell that Darkstalker had ever seen in his life.

He wanted to accept that there were limits to his magic, and that he had to be careful because there were some things that his powers simply wouldn't be able to fix or undo. But Darkstalker suddenly found it hard to believe that those limits really did exist.

And he wanted to make sure that he wasn't destroying his soul — that he would never become anything like his father because he used up too much of his inner spirit to cast powerful spells. But it seemed that powerful spells didn't drain the good in his soul after all.

He turned around and started towards his bedroom.

"Wait, Darkstalker hold on; I know what you're thinking about doing," Clearsight called after him as she quickly caught up to his side.

"Don't try and stop me," he said with a cold softness.

"Do you really think your head is in the right place to be using magic again?" she asked. "Just stop and think for a second: you're angry and afraid, and you have every right to be, but —"

"Don't try and stop me," Darkstalker repeated, stopping only to look Clearsight in the eye. "I am going to do whatever it takes to keep our dragonets and our tribe safe. If you're too afraid to do the same thing, then stay out of our room until I'm done. If you're not, then help me come up with ideas."

Clearsight gave Darkstalker that look she had when she was fretting over the threads in her mind instead of actually paying attention to him. Which he normally didn't mind, but this time it was seriously starting to get on his nerves. Why did she have to be timid and restrained now? What was wrong with her? Why wasn't she furious? Did she not understand that she almost just lost her own son?

"Okay," she said, though not without a rather sour-sounding tone of defeat. She took Darkstalker's side. "I'll help you."

Darkstalker felt himself relax a little. All of a sudden, he found himself missing the old times, when she smiled at the gifts he made for her, when he wasn't leashed from his magical powers by her and Fathom. With Clearsight by his side like this, Darkstalker suddenly felt hopeful that those times might be coming back again.

Except this time, it'd be better. This time, he'd have both his magic and Fathom. This time, he'd have a kingdom. This time, he wouldn't just be having fun as a curious teenager: he'd be casting spells that changed lives, and made everyone happier.

He and Clearsight slid into their bedroom, and Darkstalker made his way towards the dark closet where they kept their more personal treasures. Along the far wall was a mirror, and below that mirror was a chest of drawers that contained pieces of jewelry and other meaningful mementos. In one drawer was Clearsight's enchanted watch, and in another was the pair of goblets that he'd enchanted a long time ago for Listener's scavenger shenanigans. It had been so long since he last looked at them that he'd forgotten which drawer actually held them. Silken robes hung against the other walls, and boxes full of old paintings and other keepsakes from when he and Clearsight were kids lay stacked along the edge of the room.

At one corner of the closet there was a long wooden chest encased in black leather. Darkstalker grabbed it and opened it up, and inside, right where he'd left it, was his scroll. It was still tucked in his leather scroll bag, and sitting in its own cubby hole beside it was a tub of black ink, with a dirty rag wrapped around it.

He took all of the contents of the chest out and transported them outside of the closet. He brought them over to the desk where Clearsight went to write down her dreams, and got everything organized atop the surface.

He unscrewed the inkwell and set it down in the hole in the desk. Then he unfurled his scroll and flattened it out.

"So, what are you thinking?" Clearsight asked, her head looming over his shoulder and looking at the blank roll of scroll.

"We need more protection," Darkstalker said, tapping at the table. "That should be our priority."

"Maybe we could enchant a map of the Night Kingdom that reveals the location of the SeaWings inside of it," Clearsight suggested.

Darkstalker shook his head. "That'll just remind us that we're vulnerable. We need a way to keep the SeaWings out — to keep them from hurting us."

"We can't keep all the SeaWings out," Clearsight reminded him. "What about Fathom and Indigo? What about their soon-to-be hatchlings?"

"Obviously we'll make an exception for them," Darkstalker grumbled impatiently.

"And what about the SeaWings we may want to invite for negotiations after the war ends?"

"Quit worrying; I haven't even suggested anything yet." He was finding it unusually difficult to come up with ideas too. He must just be rusty with the use of his magic.

"I know where your thoughts were going," she said. "In the last timeline, when we were still at war with the IceWings, you enchanted the mountains to our north to kill any IceWing that tried crossing it."

Darkstalker straightened up at that. "I enchanted the entire mountain range?" he asked. He felt a little stupid for not considering something like that. His mind had been stuck on the idea of enchanting trinkets and blankets and other day-to-day objects, but it seemed perfectly logical that larger things like mountains could be enchanted too.

Clearsight shut her mouth and looked innocently off to the side, which for some reason put Darkstalker in quite a good mood.

"Oh, what, was I not supposed to know that?" Darkstalker asked, teasing a smile at her.

"I just don't want you getting any bad ideas," Clearsight said.

"Don't worry, Clearsight. You know how terrible I am at getting bad ideas. Now, back to the scroll." He grimaced at the blank paper, then said, "Do you think I should enchant the mountains?"

"Of course not!"

"Obviously not with that enchantment, but with something else," Darkstalker quickly clarified. Although now that I think about it, is that enchantment any different from the IceWing wall that kills anyone that even approaches it? If they can get away with making something like that, why can't I?

"I — I still don't think so," Clearsight said. "We don't want to make it obvious that we're using magic, or else using magic will become fair game for both sides. You were the one who argued that in the first place, remember?"

"Right, but that was before Solstice and Remedy existed," Darkstalker said. "And besides, we know they've been using magic themselves. The IceWings have been using their seal pool to give the SeaWings free food."

"I'm just saying we shouldn't make anything too powerful," Clearsight told him. "I can see futures where the IceWings officially ally themselves against us, and it won't be pretty if we convince them that using more powerful magic is a fair option."

Darkstalker let out a long sigh. "Fine. But we can't let them get away with what they did to Solstice." Almost immediately after he said that, an idea jumped into his mind. "Can I enchant other dragons too?"

That question made Clearsight instantly grow pale, and Darkstalker remembered why only a heartbeat thereafter.

"Right, my father," he said abashedly. "You told me about what I did to him. I remember that." He tried to give Clearsight a look of assurance and added, "I wasn't thinking anything like that, don't worry."

"Then what are you thinking?" she asked, her ears flat against her head.

"I was thinking about teleporting the kidnapper into a dungeon cell. He's probably still flying back to his outpost, so nobody would know if we used our magic on him."

Clearsight unpinned her ears a bit, looking both relieved and tentative about the idea.

"He belongs in our dungeons, Clearsight," Darkstalker said. "Besides, he could be helpful. He could tell us what he knows. Think about how much they need to be spying on us for them to know where I was going to be today."

"I … alright. You're right." Clearsight took a step back from Darkstalker. "Let's go to the prison cells."

"I'll go to the prison cells. You can stay here." When he saw how Clearsight raised a brow at him accusatively, he quickly added, "One of us should be here to look after the hatchlings. I told Solstice that we'd be here for him once we're done talking. But I promise I won't do anything evil. I'll even show you the scroll when I get back."

That seemed to persuade her. "Don't take too long," she said before handing him the scroll bag and sealing the ink well for him. Soon, Darkstalker's scroll was attached to his body and he was out the door.

It was a laborious task actually getting to the dungeons. They were deep below the palace, where the pressure of the mountains above would make even MudWings squirm with discomfort. It was accessible only by a slow screw drive elevator that was large enough to fit no more than four dragons at a time. It was tucked away in a corner of the palace that most dragons had never even seen before, and the steady mechanical clucks of the winch that descended him to the depths was just about the most ignoble sound that was regularly produced within the palace walls.

When the elevator came to a halt at the bottom and the doors opened, Darkstalker was met with the smell of rust and mold festering in the cool, damp corridor ahead carved out of the mountains. On both sides of the corridor were several heavy metal doors, black as charcoal.

A young female guard was at the head of the corridor, readied for whoever would be on the elevator. She jumped to attention when she saw that it was Darkstalker. When he read her thoughts, she turned out to be expecting another prison guard who had the shift after her.

"Your Majesty," she said, bowing low. "Are you looking for someone here in the dungeons?"

"Take me to the closest unoccupied prison cell, and make sure you have the key to lock it," Darkstalker told her.

Though she looked curious, the guard promptly nodded and turned around to lead him further into the dungeon walls.

It wasn't long before she stopped in front of a cell door that looked no different from the others along the corridor. The guard produced a key from her armor and unlocked the door. When it swung open, Darkstalker stepped inside and examined the cell. It was actually quite spacious, supplying enough room for him to fully extend his wings. One side of the floor had a loose pile of moldy hay, and the other had a moist wooden bucket from which Darkstalker instinctively kept his distance.

He turned his head and faced the prison guard again. "I'm going to use my magic to bring a SeaWing into this chamber," he said to her. "Keep him locked in here and make sure he isn't given any water until I come down to see him again."

"Shall the guards give him food, my king?" she asked, which Darkstalker appreciated. She didn't wonder about whom the SeaWing was or why Darkstalker was using magic suddenly: she simply wanted to know what her duties were.

"Only dry bread," he said. "Or whatever else you feed to the prisoners that happens to be dry. He'll probably stop eating after a couple of days either way. Now, if you would please close the door …"

When Darkstalker heard the click of the door behind him, he pulled out his scroll and inkwell and placed both on the cleanest part of the ground he could find.

He brought his talon to the paper and slowly scrawled out the words, "Enchant the SeaWing who dropped Solstice the NightWing into a ravine earlier this night to teleport into this prison cell."

Before he could even wipe the ink off of his claw, the spell did its work. A SeaWing with his wings extended materialized within the prison cell, facing one of the corners of the room.

The SeaWing yelped, and his body flailed about as if it were falling from the sky before his limbs secured themselves to the ground and he pushed himself to a standing position. "What happened?! Where am I?!" he sputtered.

He frantically looked around until his eyes locked with Darkstalker's. That's him, Darkstalker's memory roared. That's the one who stole away your boy.

There was only a split second of fear in the SeaWing's eyes before Darkstalker lunged at him and grabbed him by the neck.

The SeaWing, somewhat surprisingly, didn't put up much resistance. He pulled against Darkstalker's talons, which were digging into his scales, but made no effort to squirm or break free.

"You made a mistake trying to pull off what you did to my son," Darkstalker growled, feeling the weight of his eyes piercing into the terrified SeaWing. "You're lucky he's still alive, or else I doubt I'd have enough restraint to keep myself from tearing you limb from limb right now." He squeezed his grip on the SeaWing tighter, until he could feel his claws penetrating through the SeaWing's scales and drawing his blood. His biolights started to light up the cell.

"You are going to die here: I can promise you that," Darkstalker continued. "But before that happens, I'm going to get some answers from you. And before that happens, you're going to get a taste of what your last moments are going to be like if you try and hide anything from me. I hope we're clear."

"How did I get here?" the SeaWing asked with a croak.

"I have been holding back the use of my magic as a courtesy," Darkstalker hissed. "But because of you, that has changed. I may not need animus powers to defeat your kingdom in this war. But now I'd be happy to use them to make sure your kingdom never recovers after it's obliterated."

He threw the SeaWing to the ground and gathered his enchanted scroll. "Open the door," he said to the guard as he slid the scroll back in its case. "I'm done here."

The prison guard swung open the cell door and let Darkstalker slide out. Turning to the guard, Darkstalker said, "Don't tell anyone about how this prisoner got here for now. If anyone asks, say that he was a spy that I captured near the palace that I brought in myself."

The guard shut and locked the door and said, "Yes, Your Majesty. Shall I escort you to the elevator?"

"Please do. This dungeon is starting to make my stomach turn."

After he walked down the corridor and loaded himself onto the elevator, Darkstalker felt himself bubble with satisfaction. It felt like the world was starting to put itself into place. Justice had been served against one dragon, and all it took was a simple teleportation spell.

And soon, justice would be served to the rest of the Sea Kingdom too.

A/N: Is it just me, or does it feel like time is passing by faster now? I guess the lack of structure induced by my staying at home all the time has caused my creative routine to retard itself, because this chapter did not feel like it took a month to write.

Anyway, just to let you guys know, I'm going to be starting a short story that I've been meaning to write for a long time now, so the next chapter might take a bit of time to complete. It also might not, though! I hope it doesn't. I don't want to keep you waiting, and I'm getting more and more excited about where this story is going. But if the next chapter does end up taking a long time to get published, you'll know why.

As always, I love hearing your thoughts and critiques, and I read every single review I get for this story, most of them multiple times. Thank you all for your support. You guys make me feel like an absolute rock star. :)