Starflight let out a sigh as he heard the latest report on the progress of his current project, and with a wave of his right paw said "It's getting late, you can take the rest of the day off." And with that the MudWing worker wandered off. A year has passed since the Pantala Crisis, and these days everyone in Pyrrhia knows how it went. Whilst most of the Pantalans went back to their homeland, a few LeafWings and SilkWings have decided to stay in Pyrrhia. Little is known of what's going on in Pantala and few Dragons seem to care, despite the local Pantalan's petitioning for more contact to be made between the two continents, despite how difficult it is to trade information and resources between them. Starflight is interested in finding out more of what's going on in Pantala, but that's not his primary concern, rather it's his current project.

For a long time the tribes have had to go without any Animus magic, this has slowed down various reconstruction projects and experiments across Pyrrhia to a crawl, and that's where he comes in. Jade Mountain Academy houses some of the best and brightest minds across the six Kingdoms, and currently many are working hard to resolve this conundrum, himself included. He may be blind, but he's a fast learner and for months now has been working on a solution to this problem. Starflight has been delving into various scrolls from all across the six kingdoms detailing Animus magic and it's history among the tribes, but he's been stumped by this problem, as no other tribe's history seemed to offer a solution, not even the NightWings. He and Fatespeaker went over information of the earliest known users of such powers, the IceWings, and a month ago he may just have found a breakthrough.

Whilst an assistant looked over a scroll detailing the IceWing history with Animus magic, a passage was mentioned about how in the distant past, before even The Scorching, IceWing Animus Dragons would have devices which could generate their own magic to draw from and could at the very least lessen the effect that the magic would have on their souls. Of course the knowledge of how to build these things were lost in The Scorching and the centuries after, but in the scroll was an image of the device that they are currently working at. Although it was a single image, it was a very detailed one and before him in the center of the Great Hall is a copy of such a machine. Despite how far they've come with it he knew the scroll is ancient and the Dragons back then had a different way of speaking, so chances are there were some mistranslations.

As a whole, the object is five times his size and made completely from iron. The bottom is a plinth whilst above it is a ring with a pole going through it, at the center of which is a glass orb that's hold in place by a spherical cage. Between the orb and the outermost ring are four smaller rings which are capable of rotating seperately. The construction itself is complete, but there's one problem, it can't generate any magic, to do that it needs magic to be transfered into it. There certainly isn't any enchanted items in Jade Mountain which can do that, but Tsunami said she'd be on the lookout for such an item and would see if her family had something like that. Fortunately she wasn't needed right now as no new students were attending, although many of the Pantalans in Pyrrhia are young so that may soon change.

Just as Starflight burried his face into his right paw he heard the sound of running pawsteps behind him. Although he couldn't recognize Dragons just by the sound of their pawsteps like Tamarin can, he doesn't need to be able to so to know that it's Sunny from how springy they sounded, plus no other Dragon is currently at the academy who runs everywhere. Starflight grinned as he thought "Not a lick of talent when it comes to science or Animus magic, but i could use a shoulder to lean on right now." As he turned to face her he said "Sunny, is there anything i can do to help you?" He heard her skid to a halt as she said in an excited tone "Starflight, did you hear the news? Glory is coming over and will be here in three days, she said she wanted to see how the project is going."

Starflight took a moment to process what she said as it was spoken quickly, but after awhile he smiled and said "I can only hope that Tsunami can find the kind of enchanted object that's needed like she said she would." Sunny responded with "Oh, stop worrying. Stuff like that is hard to find, especially nowadays, i'm sure Glory would understand." Starflight turned his head back to the device as he went back to his ponderings. He could certainly count on Glory to understand the lack of progress that is being made, but at the same time he didn't want to look bad in front of her everyone. When it's to be activated a lot of former Animus Dragons are supposed to be there to bear witness, along with high ranking members of other tribes. To fail so spectacularly in front of so many Dragons would be embarrassing.

Sunny then said "So, is there any way that i can help?" Starlight clicked his right paws index finger on the ground for a few moments before saying "Just be yourself and give our soon to be guests a warm welcome." With that Sunny went off and Starflight returned to his thoughts. Glory may have little patience for his explanations on various matters, but she's at least willing to listen to him on important subjects, and what is going on right now would likely qualify as an important subject to her, as although Rainwings don't have any Animus users, the Nightwings do. Not to mention she values him as a friend despite how she may act towards him sometimes, he could hardly imagine a reality where they weren't. And so Starflight went back to work.

The next three days proved to be quite hectic for the Dragons of Jade Mountain Academy, making sure that everyone was informed on what was going to happen, making sure everything is clean, Clay had even insisted on laying out a feast for everyone, but few doubted that half of it would be gone before anyone got a chance to eat. Starflight had kept his excitement hidden, trying to remain professional and attempting to remind everyone that Glory is here for buisness, not out for some celebration, but she was still his friend and was eager to meet her again. From what he had heard things were going very well in the RainWing Kingdom lately, hostility between RainWings and NightWings is at an all time low and if the rumors are to be believed than Glory and Deathbringer are to be married soon, although he can't imagine that such a thing would go over well with the other NightWings, it might even cause the strain between the two tribes to go back to it's normal amount.

Starflight shook himself from his thoughts, although his mind often wandered he knew he had to prevent his mind from doing so as he couldn't afford to be distracted when Glory arrived, and speaking of which. Currently he and the other staff for the academy were waiting at the entrance to the Great Hall, going outside when Fatespeaker told him and the others of Glory and Tsunami's immediate arrival. As Fatespeaker looked up to the sky she saw the sun being blocked by a blackened figure in the shape of a Dragon descending down to them, and so she whispered into Starflight's ear "She's here, and having grown a taste for theatric's too." Starflight only grinned at hearing this, and as he heard a loud thud Starflight bowed his head and said "Your grace."

Everyone went silent at this for some reason, which confused Starflight. After a few seconds an obviously male voice said "Your grace? You hear that everyone? I've became royalty earlier than expected. Whenever i fart you all better bow to me." Sighs went around at this. Even after all this time Deathbringer was still as cheerful as ever. A few more thuds were heard as a feminine voice said "You're going to have to wait awhile for that policy to be made official Deathy. And no need to be so formal Starflight, we're on a name basis." Starflight raised his head and said "Is Tsunami here, Glory?" He heard Tsunami's voice "I'm here." Starflight turned his head to Tsunami's direction and said "Do you have the sort of enchanted object that was asked for?" She responded with "Yeah, took awhile but Anemone found something that may fit the description of what you wanted. Here."

Starflight could hear the feint sound of Anemone muttering "Rude to talk about someone like they're not around when they're right behind you." Starflight slowly moved his right paw forward and grabbed hold of the object. It has a handle so it's probably small. He slowly moved his other paw up it's length and before long he figured out what it was "A knife." Tsunami responded with "Good to see that your paws are still as perceptive as ever." Starflight said "This is a knife." Tsunami said "When it stabs something it sends lightning into it, deadly considering how lethal lightning is when combined with water. It was probably used in assassinations or more likely, in torture." Starflight responded with "Hopefully it will do." Starflight spent the next few minutes greeting whatever guests had arrived.

Anemone, Turtle and other former Animus magic users. Of the royalty who were antending, Glory, Anemone, and Tsunami had come, but Coral couldn't attend due to her continuing obsession with Auklet, Moorhen was reported to be expecting an egg soon and so had to stay in the MudWing Kingdom, Ruby outright refused to attend due to the SkyWings views on Animus magic, whilst Thorn and Snowfall were too busy tending to their respective Kingdoms, but each Queen at least sent a representative via like-minded daughters, sons or advisors. By the time they got inside the Great Hall, which had tables arranged all around it with as much food as could be gathered with the device covered by a tarp, Starflight heard the sound of Fatespeaker snoutpalming next time him.

Curious of what was going on Starflight said "What's going on?" to which Fatespeaker replied "Clay... Is eating all of the food we took hours setting up." Starflight heard Clay say defensively with a full mouth "Sherry, i jusht couldn't reshisht." Animus magic may go away, but some things just never change. The assembled Dragons spent the next hour socializing, trying to catch up with each other and in this time many stories were shared. Mostly it was what they and those around them were doing since the Pantala Crisis. Currently he was listening to Deathbringer talk about his own accomplishements, although as time went on Starflight couldn't help but get the feeling that said stories were slightly embellished, probably due to all the wine running through Deathbringer's system.

For example the one he was currently listening to, which Turtle decided to interrupt "So, let me get this strait. When you and Queen Glory were attacked by these bandits you took on a dozen SandWings? By yourself? And you didn't take any injuries? I find that somewhat hard to believe." Starflight heard Deathbringer taking a large gulp from a wine vase before saying "What? Are ya doubtin' my abilitiesh or shomethin'? Ya... Ya... Thing." Glory, who was sitting next to him said "No, not at all." Deathbringer was silent for a few moments before saying "Oh... Okay then." Starflight heard Glory whisper to Turtle "It was more like six." Starflight grinned at this. Although he doesn't truly see Deathbringer as a friend, he has come to trust him with Glory's safety, despite of how clumsy he seems to be at times, especially now.

But despite that, he's currently the drunkest dragon at Jade Mountain. Glory was currently keeping in forelimb's reach to Deathbringer and trying to stop him from doing anything too stupid, as usual. Clay had gotten into an eating contest with the MudWings who had worked on the device and from what he had heard was winning. Tsunami had drawn a crowd, due to the SeaWing's various palaces being carefully hidden other Dragons had gathered around to ask how reconstruction of the Summer Palace is going or what the Deep Palace is like along with a variety of questions about her personal life. Starflight didn't need to be told so to know that she's probably about to punch someone in the throat. Out of the five of Sunny was the one who's doing the best, bouncing around from Dragon to Dragon, interacting with others and trying to make as many friends as possible.

And then there's himself. Where the other four had a large number of Dragons approach them, few came near him. He suspected it was because of the blindfold, they probably wouldn't expect some blind NightWing to be one of the fabled Dragonets of Destiny. And so he's been left at the end of a table, occasionally sipping from a wine glass and Fatespeaker once in a while describing what was currently going on. He didn't mind too much though, in fact he expected this to happen. An hour after the festivities started Starflight heard Tsunami speak to the assembled Dragons, her voice echoing across the Great Hall "May i have everyone's attention." Though he could not see it Starflight knew that everyone stopped what they were doing as the noise quieted down.

Although Tsunami still had a lot of 'excitement' in her system, she's been acting a bit more like royalty lately, likely due to the increasing amount of responsibilities that have been put on her shoulders. Tsunami continued "Now that you have had time to unwind, i believe it is time to show you the thing that you are all here to see." Starflight knew what was about to happen and began walking over to Tsunami with the enchanted knife in his right paw, Fatespeaker holding his left paw along the way and making sure that he didn't bump into anything. Starflight heard the sound of the tarp covering the device being removed and with that heard whispers all around him. He heard Tsunami say "Starflight, may you do the honors?"

Starflight reached out his left paw, grabbing hold of the outermost ring of the device and ran his paw along it, feeling the writtings carved into it. It took a month to construct this thing, now to see if all of their effort had paid off. After a few moments of grabbing around a found the orb at the center and carefully plunged the knife into it, his left paw jerking away as he felt a shock come from the orb. Surprisingly, the knife went into it quite smoothly and after a few seconds the whole blade was in and he backed away. And then he heard something. It sounded like something moving around quickly, a whistlling sound being made as it did so. Starflight said "Is it actually..." Fatespeaker, who now stood beside him said "Yes, the rings are moving, each in a different direction."

Starflight smiled at this, it looks like all those months of research had paid off. And then something that he didn't expect to happen did happen. He saw something, a feint light. Starflight's eyelids widened behind his blindfold as this shouldn't be possible. But then again, this is Animus magic, so almost anything is possible. The light then began forming shapes which he quickly recognized. Starflight said "Fate, the writings, they're..." Fatespeaker replied with "Lighting up like stars? Yeah, i see it too." The writtings were glowing in every color imaginable, and Starflight could see it, although it was near impossible to make them out with how fast the rings were moving. Before long he saw what he presumbed to be the orb in the center start to glow like a miniature sun, and then the light it emitted grew so bright that the orb couldn't be seen and after a few seconds it began to grow.

Starflight said "Are any of the Animus users here feeling any changes?" He heard Turtle say "Well, no, but somethings definitely going on. Starflight, i think there's been a mistranslation." As the orb grew to cover the whole device he then felt what seemed to be wind. Starflight thought "Strange, we're inside a mountain, and i didn't hear any Dragons use their wings, so their shouldn't be any wind here. Unless..." Starflight knew that the device is working, just not in the way that's expected, and as the wind picked up various loose objects from around the Great Hall then began to fly off the ground from where they once were and go into the orb, and soon after that he felt his himself begin to move. Starflight didn't know what was going on, but he knew trouble when it was happening and so took off from the ground and flew towards the cave entrance as he yelled "EVERYONE OUT! NOW!"

What ensued was a panic as Dragons all over the cave at once began moving towards the exit. The wind became stronger and soon enough Starflight heard Dragons begin to scream in panic as he heard what sounded like heavy objects moving through the air, the currents had become strong enough to lift Dragons off the ground. His heart nearly stopped as he recognized a few of the voices before they went silent. Glory, Sunny, Tsunami. Starflight began panicking as he realized that his mistake may have killed some of his closest friends. Although he was blind, he could still cry and tried to hold the tears back as he closed his eyelids, partly to prevent his blindfold from getting soggy, but mostly hoping that this was all some horrible dream that he could wake up from. And so he he tried to wake up, even as he felt himself be lifted off the ground.

So, that's the end of the prologue. I'm keeping a lot of the Dragons who got sucked in ambiguous as i want you all to decide who gets to take part in this little adventure of ours that happened because some idiot got a translation error, whether it be through reviews or private messages. Glory, Sunny and Tsunami are automatics as witnessed them actually get sucked in, but everyone else? I'll just leave that door open for you all to decide, but just know that my knowledge of the series primarily pertains to arc 1. Personally i'd like to have someone to share ideas with for this story and assist in developing it, but that's just a side objective. I gave little information on the Pantalan stuff as we don't know how it will turn out yet, but i might add stuff in it to this chapter when book 15 does come out.

For now, just know that this story will basically be the Wings of Fire equivalent to Game of Thrones (Season 1-4, not any of the trash that came later), so expect for the characters to get involved in the political game eventually. So for now, that is all.