Part 3 - Court of Phyrria

"How in the blue blazes did you capture SCARLET of all dragons alive?" I demanded, as we began an impromptu Council meeting outside the Village. We were all gathered around the Volcano Island Portal - Me, my Queens, Grandeur and Fox, Mastermind, Sparkling and Morrowseer. The latter two looked a bit haggard and scratched, but the Nightwing had the confident swagger of a drake who knew he caught the big fish. In a sense, he had.

"It was no easy thing," He admitted, "We certainly weren't expecting a confrontation on our way to The Den."

"Considering how much loot we were carrying away," Sparkling pointed out, "I'm surprised they didn't catch us at the Palace gates. We didn't exactly leave a lot for Kestrel and Osprey to keep the kingdom running."

"We took our fair share," Morrowseer insisted, "It's only what we're owed, for a successful operation and deposing a Mad Queen."

"I'm sure you'd feel differently if we did the same when we came to your home."

"That's not-!"

"Focus!" Grandeur snapped, cutting off the argument.

"...Right," The Nightwing shot her a glare, "Anyways, we were in the mountains before the desert, when we were intercepted. We had enough time to maneuver into the deeper parts of the mountains before they came into range of our crossbows. We kept them at a distance, whittling away at their numbers, breaking their morale. Scarlet went into an absolute fury, and charged right at us."

"I had to hit her with two tranq darts to bring her down," Sparkling added, "Even after she crashed into the ground, it took five dragons to hold her down and tie her up for transport. I had to use the rest of my tranqs just to keep her docile on the way back!"

"Once their Queen was defeated," Morrowseer continued, "The entire army broke, scattering to the winds. Those that didn't surrender to us flew ahead of us to the Jade Mountains. We had to intervene more than once to make sure that none of the angry mobs of refugees didn't kill them after they surrendered."

"What about Hypaethral?" I asked, "Was she among them?"

"'Fraid not," Morrowseer said, "Scarlet left her in command of their forces when she left. The Skywings are still running free in the desert between the Palace and the Den."

"Shame," Grandeur lamented, "We could've rid ourselves of two monsters today."

"What are we going to do with her, anyway?" Fox asked, looking at all of us, "Everybody says she's not the type to surrender."

"I still say we kill her and be done with it," Morrowseer said, "She's an unmanageable, psychotic bitch, and her death would nothing short of a relief for her subjects and Phyrria as a whole." The Rainwings flashed varying shades of pale orange - the color of indignant outrage.

"We're not going to kill a prisoner," Grandeur stated plainly, "I don't care how morally bankrupt she is. It's not the Rainwing Way."

"I'm afraid she's right," Nessy agreed, "The Council would never agree to an execution. Not to mention she has no heirs. If she dies, we trigger another succession crisis, and Hypaethral stands the best chance of winning by virtue of having the largest army around."

"We could keep her imprisoned," Fox suggested, "We have a quicksand pit that we keep our troublemakers in. I'm sure it's big enough to hold her." As one, all my Queens shook their heads emphatically.

"Nuh-uh!" Batty said, "No way. I might not want her dead, but there's no way in hell I'm going to let her be within reach of my eggs. If she ever got out, we're all in danger."

"Not to mention she can't govern from prison," Mastermind added, "Keeping her here just leaves us in the same position as killing her."

"So what're we supposed to do with her, then?" Morrowseer demanded, "We can't kill her, we can't keep her a prisoner. There's no other options!"

"Um, excuse me, Your Highnesses," Stonemover spoke up, briefly wilting as we all looked at him, "I think I have an idea. I've been doing research on Animus magic, and there's the mention of a spell that can change a dragon's personality. All I have to do is enchant a piece of food, get them to eat it, and I can make them act any way you want them. I just thought that, I dunno, maybe we could enchant her to make her not so evil?"

Everyone just stared at him, as the implications began to set in. He seemed to shrink down into himself, but he remained rooted to his spot. After a long moment, Batty said, "...Well, that would solve most of our problems."

"Is that really ethical, though?" Mastermind asked, "Rewriting a dragon's personality and consciousness like that? We know so little about what makes up the mind and the soul. Wouldn't we be effectively killing her?"

"And how do we know it'll even work?" Fox added, "What if the process just kills her?"

"Who cares?" Morrowseer countered, "It's Scarlet. She's killed and maimed dozens of dragons. If there's any dragon who deserves to be the first subject of a soul death, it's her. At least this way something positive could come out of her miserable life."

I looked around at my Council. "Alright then," I said, "What do you guys think? Is this something we should pursue?"

Majestic looked at my Queens, and all nodded. "We do," She said, "She's too important to kill, and she's too dangerous to leave alone."

"Fox and I agree," Grandeur said, "Anything other than death would be preferable."

We all looked to the Nightwings, and Mastermind sighed. "As much as I have my misgivings over the matter," He said, "I think this might be our best option overall. I vote for enchantment."

"Then we are in agreement," I announced, as I turned back to Stonemover, "We're going to enchant her. Now, tell me, how can we make this happen?"

"You should've done this in the Mountains, whelp. Could've saved us both a lot of time." I turned back to face a large, dark orange dragoness, bounce in heavy iron chains, glaring at me with more hate than any I'd ever seen before. Gone were lavish jewelry, her golden armor, the air of snooty superiority and arrogance. Now I saw a caged animal, angry and spiteful, certain of her death but too proud to beg for mercy. I looked back, offering a smug smile and chuckle I knew would drive her up a wall.

"I didn't bring you here to kill you, Scarlet," I told her, "Not... completely. My Council was very adamant about keeping you alive, and it'd be bad precedent to give them power only to ignore them the moment it became inconvenient. You're also too dangerous to let anywhere near my home, so we're not going to bother building you a new prison in the middle of nowhere."

"So what are we doing here?" She growled, looking across the vast landscape. Located between the Mountains and the Rainforest, we could see a dozen little camps, where Sandwing refugees, Skywing outlaws and Nightwing settlers lived and worked together under the watchful eyes of the Rainwings. It was easily the most diverse place in all of Phyrria, but perhaps it was a tentative first step to a better tomorrow. My dream was coming closer and closer to fruition.

"This is where I first saw the Rainforest," I explained, "This is where my life changed for the better, and so will yours. I'm gonna wipe away the darkness in your soul, and put you on the right path."

"You mean the path where I join your little harem and do everything you tell me to do?" She hissed. The guards around us snickered, and I openly cackled.

"Haha, hell no!" He jeered, "My days of pining over psychotic bitches are way behind me. I'm turning you into a good queen, one the Skywings will love rather than fear."

"I'd prefer an arrow in my eye. At least I'll have my dignity."

"You know what your punishment is, Scarlet? I sentence you to be rehatched and remade. I sentence you to become a better dragon."

"'Better'? You mean 'softer'."

"No. I mean 'better'." With that, I gestured to the guards to hold her, and open her mouth. She was about to breathe fire, but I struck her side with my tail, right in the spot between her ribs and her gut where a dragon's flame sac would be. Blood and flammable yellow liquid oozed out of the small wound as she cursed and roared in pain. My poison could in time kill her, but Stonemover had told me that any injuries gained along the way would disappear when they transformed.

I grabbed hold of Scarlet's mouth, but before I tossed the fruit in, I stopped. This bloodthirsty sadist was the last tether I had to my old life. My parents were hiding somewhere in the desert, if they were even still alive. Oasis, Burn, Blister, all dead. Blaze, lounging about under guard in a sieged Palace. My childhood friends and workplace colleagues, dead or scattered across the continent. With the passing of this Skywing, everything that had been connected to the young, amoral inventor I used to be would be gone. Ending her would be burying the dragon who stole jewelry from corpses, who framed an ambassador, who latched on to sociopaths to further his own ambitions.

I'd been alone then, serving a master who viewed me only as a tool. Now I had a family, a Kingdom of my own, and half the continent praising me as a hero and savior.

You can't always get what you want, I thought, But if you try sometimes, you get what you need. I lost for Burn, but I won for everyone, and I won for me.

"Goodbye," I said, and not just to her. Tossing the berry into the open maw, I squeezed her mouth shut, and waited for the magic to kick in.

When it comes to Animus Magic, all that's required are two things: The Caster's will, and a precisely worded command. Spoken, written or thought, the more detailed the better, so as to ensure there aren't any unintended side effects. Mastermind, Grandeur and myself all worked with Stonemover beforehand, writing up and drafting the enchantment we wanted him to cast and how to do it. For the enchanted item, we chose a strawberry - a small, common berry in the mountains, often used symbolically for the Skywings in old poems and stories. For the enchantment, we phrased it like this: This strawberry, when ingested by Queen Scarlet, will turn her into a good dragon. Replace her cruelty with compassion, her vanity with duty, her anger with mercy, and her hatred with love. Make her personality the opposite of who she was before she was captured. There was a brief conversation about making her more susceptible to my suggestions and ideas, but I decided against it. I didn't feel comfortable turning another dragon into a mean puppet (even someone as awful as her), and I felt confident that with her new personality and my newly found charm, I could get her to side with me and disown Hypaethral.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. I figured it'd take the 'berry reaching her stomach for the magic to kick in. Scarlet had time to look up at me with this smug little glare, and for a half-second I feared that it wasn't going to work. Then, her eyes went wide, pupils dilating as she tensed up. I released my grip and stepped back, watching and observing as I would any other natural phenomena. The Skywing's body began to spasm and shake, and she wheezed and groaned as she was no doubt wracked with pain. She collapsed on the ground, and to all the world it looked like she was having a seizure. The guards shifted uncomfortably, the scene no doubt alarming. I, however, had been given my clipboard and started taking notes, ensuring to better understand the effects of magic on the draconic body.

After about two and a half minutes, her body stopped twitching, and I could see her breathing. The first thing that struck me was that she was smaller: The Scarlet I met at her Palace towered over me as a mature female, but the dragoness before me was between Grandeur and Nessy's size - She de-aged by at least ten years, making her biologically the same age as Greatness, maybe even younger. The wound on her side was healed and unblemished, and I concluded that my venom was also gone. By all accounts, she looked fine and healthy.

But as she got to her feet, I could see something was wrong. She stared down at the ground, her eyes darting as though deep in thought. She wretched and dry-heaved, trying to empty out the contents of an empty stomach. Then... Then she started screaming. We all took an involuntary step back, as she wailed into the ground, making sounds of abject horror and grief.

"Whoa whoa, hey, Scarlet!" I demanded, "Why're you-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"What's wrong?! Why are you screaming?!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Gah! Stop that! You're hurting our ears!" One of the guards shouted.

The Skywing kept screaming. I motioned to the guards, and one of them readied a tranq round, shooting it into her neck. She dropped to her belly, covering her face in her paws, but still continued to wail. The guards looked at each other, shrugged, and dragged her ragdolling body away. Her cries continued to echo throughout the mountains and valley long after she passed out of sight.

"I'M SORRY!" She cried, "I'M SORRY! PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!"

I just stood there, confused and unnerved, wondering just what that spell actually did to her...

I went back to her cell the following morning, the knot of concern in my gut having churned all night. The guards said she kept on screaming for hours, until her voice gave out and she collapsed into exhaustion. She still hadn't taken any food, hardly drank, and had slept for twelve hours. I was starting to fear that the enchantment might've broken her psyche completely (which would've been just as bad as killing her). What's the point of sparing a Queen's life if she's left a gibbering wreck?

When I saw her again, she was a broken shell of the dragoness she once was. In the morning light leaking through the bars, she looked even thinner than before. Her scales seemed even paler, when they weren't covered in mud and straw. Her breathing sounded hoarse and gravelly, and her eyes were now red-ringed from spent tears. She, like all Skywing prisoners, was supposed to have a muzzle on, but she was so pathetic now that the guards didn't deem her a threat anymore.

"Uh, hey there, Scarlet," I said weakly, "How're you feeling?"

She didn't respond.

"Yeah..." I scratched my neck awkwardly, "I spoke with Stonemover last night to try and figure out what could've gone wrong. The strawberry was enchanted to turn you good. To turn you into the opposite of who you were, specifically. We don't know why you'd just start freaking out like that. Maybe you can tell us what you're feeling?"

When she spoke, it was a gasping, raspy whisper I could barely hear. "I remember... everything."

I furrowed my brow, and stepped closer. "I'm sorry?"

"Do you know how many dragons I've hurt?" She murmured, "How many I've killed?"

I opened and closed my mouth, confused. "Is... is that a rhetorical question, or...?"

"Dozens," She answered, her voice thick with sorrow, "I've killed dozens. By my orders or my own claws. I remember them now." She looked up at me, her eyes red from crying and exhaustion. "I remember all of it. Every dragon I tortured, all the blood on my talons. I can see every dragon I've ever wronged," She tapped her head, and tapped it again and again until it became a slap. "I feel their pain and my guilt and it just won't STOP."

"...Oh?" I said, unsure of what else to say. What could I say to that?

"Please," She whispered, closing her eyes, "...Kill me."

I did an honest-to-Moons doubletake at that. "What?" I asked incredulously, almost offended, "No! No, I'm not going to kill you! We need you alive, so-"

"End me, dammit!" She snapped. She bared her neck to me, pointing between her throat and my tail. "Congratulations, you've won! I'm a monster! I can see how dark and twisted I am, I get it! Every waking moment is anguish! Just get it over with and end me already!"

"You have no sisters," I said, talking slowly and loudly like to a disobedient hatchling, "You have no children. Without you, the Skywings have no Queen, and Hypaethral will swoop in and take it all. I'm not going to let someone worse than you take over a Tribe that's been through so much."

"AAAAAHHH!" She screamed in frustration, so loudly in that confined room that my ears shifted away and I stepped back. "FUCK YOU! JUST END ME!" She bared her neck, stretching out to expose as much as she could, "I'm here, I'm open. Take the shot. Take the Shot! TAKE THE SPIRITS-DAMNED SHOT!"

"STOP IT!" I shouted back, getting angry now, "I'm going to kill an unarmed prisoner! What's wrong with you!?"

She screamed again, this time lunging at me, pulling against the chains. Metal bonds that should've held against much stronger dragons somehow snapped (no, unlocked), and she pressed against the bars, desperately grasping for me and my barbed tail. I pulled my tail away, but she caught me just below the barb, desperately trying to pull me closer to her neck.

"Stars and Stones, girl!" I swore, "Get a hold of yourself! You're acting like a crazyyYYYYWHATTHEHELLISTHAT!?"

I felt that familiar and horrifying static shock sensation run up and down my spine, centralized along my tail. Before our very eyes, my tail GREW. It lengthened and curled around Scarlet's hand, looping around another foot or so until it was easily long enough to reach her throat. It felt... Spirits, how do I describe it? Consciously I knew this should've been extremely painful, but instead it was oddly pleasing, like a deep muscle massage. That juxtaposition of body horror and soothing calm stunned me to silence, my mouth open and aghast. Even Scarlet was caught off-guard, staring at my tail in utter bafflement.

I had enough mental clarity to pull my tail away, scrambling back and out of reach. Scarlet stared at her paw, utterly mortified and amazed. Out of the corner of the room, a shadow shimmered, and a dart flew out and struck her neck. Her eyes fluttered, and she collapsed, unconscious once more.

I stood there, dumbfounded, looking between the sleeping Skywing and my quarter-longer tail. It still moved right and felt right, but now it made me feel like I'd been turned into some kind of demonic squirrel. It took me a moment to notice Radiant at my side, her brown scales now mottled with pale green.

"Hmm," She observed, "The homicidal queen is now suicidal and magical. What exactly was in Stonemover's spell?"

"...To make her a good dragon." I said, trying to puzzle out how something completely inexplicable like this could've happened. The dragonet wouldn't have secretly added a spell to turn a known tyrant into a reality warper like him, would he? Not when he had friends, or my Queens, or me, or literally anyone else who wasn't known to be evil? If it was just a literal thing of "turning her into the exact opposite", why didn't she turn into a male Icewing, too?

"Hmm, didn't know that being good gave you superpowers," The bodyguard quipped, "You should talk to him about this. And maybe get your tail fixed. Or not, if that's you're thing."

"...Yeah," I said cautiously, "Tell Grandeur, too. And keep Scarlet sedated until we figure out how to fix this."

And so we did. Stonemover was adamant that he had no idea why she got powers. He admitted to still feeling lonely about being the lone Animus, but he insisted the spell he put on the strawberry was focused on making Scarlet good. A lot of us wanted to remove her new powers, but Stonemover feared that it it was so intertwined with his spell, that removing any part of it might undo the whole thing. As such, so long as she was good, there was no chance of her abusing her power against us or anyone else. It wasn't much consolation, but we couldn't do much more than wait and see how she developed.

I couldn't do anything more for Scarlet, or things I couldn't control. But there were things I could control, and there were a few things I'd been putting off for far too long that I needed to take care of...

A/N: Special Thanks to Scruffy808, for doing fanart. Say hello to our new cover image.