It had been three years since Orca's Talons of Power ceremony. She had managed to hide her secret well: as far as she knew, no one had discovered her powers. True to their word, Coral and Gill had created two more siblings for Orca: a violet-scaled princess named River, and a cerulean prince named Torrent.

After River was born, Coral had become totally occupied with the newborn princess, and Orca had been left to her own devices since. She continued having private lessons with Whirlpool, but she was a fast learner, and schoolwork couldn't hold her attention for long. In her free time, if she could remain unseen in her room in the Deep Palace (luckily, her old rooms which had been attached to her mother's had been given to River) she might attempt to practice using her animus powers, but Orca tried not to practice with them too often, in fear of losing her soul like the legends had warned. Instead, she had taken up sculpting as a hobby.

Orca enjoyed creating models of her family and the other dragons who lived in the palace, and had a few busts of some of her family members. While she did have a few enchantments on her sculpting tools to make things a little easier and smoother, she preferred not to make her sculptures entirely from enchantments; it took away all the fun.

Another hobby of hers was reading scrolls. This was what she was doing now, nosing around the underwater library for fascinating things to read. The scrolls in the Deep Palace library were all coated with a smooth resin, preventing them from dissolving in the water, although apparently all of the scrolls had to be copied every hundred years or so.

Orca pulled out a scroll from the shelf and read its title. Role of the SeaWings in the War of Queen Fen. If she remembered Whirlpool's history lessons correctly, Queen Fen was an animus who had used her powers to create a amulet that created a giant bubble of air, allowing the MudWings to attack the Deep Palace for the first time in history. Orca hadn't seen this scroll before, and it involved animus dragons, so she placed it in her pile with a series of other scrolls. A couple were on sculpting, and there was one Whirlpool had assigned to her showing how monarchies were the ideal system of government, but the rest were stories and recounted legends that Orca would read in her free time.

She tucked her pile of scrolls in her claws and was just about to exit the library when suddenly, another SeaWing ran into her, knocking the scrolls out of her claws and onto the ground.

Her older brother, Rift, looked down in embarrassment. Oh clams, he flashed in Aquatic, I'm super sorry about that. Ugh, I've been so squid-armed today.

You're always squid-armed, Orca japed. Rift started attempting to re-capture the scrolls, which were gently floating away from the two in all directions.

Rift glanced at the title on one of the scrolls. Reading about Queen Fen? he asked. Whirlpool assign you more boring history scrolls? He sure has for me. I'm reading a history on the years right after mother became queen, and he keeps bragging about how much he did to strengthen her reign, and how 'the SeaWing Kingdom would have plunged into anarchy had I not been alive then.' The funny part is that the scroll mentions his name zilch times.

Oh, Orca responded, no, I'm actually reading this for fun. It just looked a little interesting to me, and I thought I would check it out.

Rift snorted. One of the Sea Kingdom's biggest military failures if you ask me. Speaking of that, you mind me asking you about something?

Orca gulped as she picked up another scroll. Could he have found out? But how? Maybe she could enchant something on him to make him forget . . . no, that seemed wrong, controlling dragons like that. Ask away, she flashed, not knowing how else to answer.

Well, Rift replied, I was thinking about how closed-off the Deep Palace is. We have guests occasionally, but it's just so boring.
Orca breathed a sigh of relief. Yeah, I suppose.

So, I've decided that I want to leave the Sea Kingdom and join the army.

Orca eyes went wide open. The army? What if you get hurt? Or even worse, killed?

Don't worry, Rift replied, I'll be fine. I'm a prince, I'm not going to be placed on the front lines. Plus, we have the entire SeaWing army, the MudWings, and a third of the SandWings. The SkyWings and the IceWings are too busy fighting among each other, they don't have a chance. The war will be over in a year or two, max, so I won't be gone that long.

Orca fidgeted nervously. If she had learnt anything from Whirlpool's history scrolls, it was that wars killed dragons. Have you asked Angler about it yet?

Angler might have been twin Rift's brother, but he was smart, and wasn't scared to tell dragons if he thought they were wrong, his own brother included. He would know better how to handle this.

Not yet, Rift replied. Do you think I should?

Orca nodded. He'll have some good advice for you.

She took the last of the scrolls she had dropped from Rift's claws, and glanced at him as he started to leave. Stay safe, she flashed in Aquatic.

Rift grinned backwards, flashed You too, and left, swimming down the cold undersea corridor.

Orca glanced up at the roof of the dark cavernous hall leading from the library. The Deep Palace had always seemed too large for her. The large distances between the rooms created a divide within her family; she could go without seeing one of her siblings for a whole day. It had seemed so much more inviting and full when she was following mother everywhere, but now it was just lonely and empty. She wondered how many times she had talked with her father in the past week; she could probably count them on her claws. They generally ate supper together in the banquet room, but the Deep Palace was so large that Orca didn't know if she had encountered Gill outside of meals. Yet, if Rift followed through with his idea and left the Sea Kingdom, the Deep Palace would feel larger still.

Orca sighed and carried her scrolls back to her room. After her old room had been passed down to River, Orca got the choice of almost any unused rooms in the palace. She had chosen a room nestled deep within the palace. She thought it could have been placed directly beneath her parents' rooms, a number of levels below, but she wasn't sure. It was almost a maze to reach it, and it was easy to get lost if you didn't know the way. From the library, Orca had to swim up two floors, go across a bridge leading to a fringe wing of the palace, head down another four floors or so, swim through a tunnel back to the main palace, and travel up a strangely slanted corridor to get to where her room was.

As she finally approached her room, after her long swim, she saw another SeaWing there, knocking on her locked door. It was her newest brother, Torrent. She wondered how he had gotten down here, as far as she knew, no one had told him how to get to her room.

Hey, Orca flashed in Aquatic, the bright bursts of light getting Torrent's attention. What are you doing down here?

I need help understanding a history scroll I'm reading for Whirlpool. Gill was busy so I asked Angler, but Angler was busy so he told me to come down here to ask you. Are you busy too?

Orca sighed. She had been hoping to read some of her scrolls, but she didn't want to just pass Torrent along after he had come all the way down here. Maybe Whirlpool had assigned one of the more interesting scrolls.

No, I can help, Orca replied. While pinning her scrolls against her body with a wing, she unlocked the door and led Torrent into her room. Orca's room was a comfortable size. Not too small to be at all cramped, but not as overwhelmingly spacious as the rest of the palace. Orca breathed a sigh of relaxation as she entered it, glad to be out of the creepy corridors.

A few scroll-shelves lined the room, with maybe twenty or so scrolls in total on them. Orca added the ones she had picked out from the library to the collection. She would return some of them to the library as soon as she had finished reading them.

On the side opposite the scroll-shelves stood Orca's sculptures. A few chisels and a hammer sat beneath these. They all had various enchantments on them (for example, they could float in the water by Orca's claws without sinking), but Orca had placed a clause in her enchantments that she had to flash a couple specific words (seals and salmon) for them to work, so that no one would activate them accidentally and discover her secret. Her stone sculptures stood next to them, in the likeness of various dragons. She had an emerald-eyed bust of her father, and a head bust of her mother next to it, her eyes represented as beautiful black pearls. She was currently working on a full body statue of Coral's mother and Orca's grandmother, the late Queen Atoll.

Torrent pulled out his scroll and set it down before Orca and himself. He rolled it open, revealing what appeared to be a scroll on the reign of a SeaWing queen from around eighty years ago, Orca's great-grandmother, Queen Tidepool. It discussed how she had used various reforms in order to gather wealth for the Sea Kingdom and make them the richest kingdom of Pyrrhia at the time.

Okay. First, Whirlpool wants me to describe why Tidepool was called the 'Queen of Trade' and how she got into that role, Torrent flashed to Orca.

Alright, Orca replied, the scroll glosses over this a little, but the way Tidepool first started to get into trade was by buying a bunch of land along the Diamond Spray River from the MudWings and the SkyWings. The MudWings of the Diamond Spray Delta have always been a bit more rebellious against the MudWing queens, because the palace is in the south of the kingdom. Tidepool paid a few of the MudWing nobles in the area to stir up trouble in the area, and because the MudWings were already in a war with the SandWings at the time and didn't have the resources to deal with it, their queen let Tidepool buy the land from her as long as Tidepool would keep the nearby MudWings from rebelling. After buying a little more land from the SkyWings, Tidepool used the Diamond Spray River in order to tax anyone passing through.

Okay, thanks, Torrent replied while furiously scratching down notes. Next question . . .

This continued on for a while. Although this wasn't one of her favorite periods of it, Orca enjoyed history, and loved to talk about the subject to others. She was actually starting to have fun with it.

After the last question, Torrent flashed with a sigh of relief, All done. Thank you for the help!

No problem, Orca replied. If you want to read more about the time period, I know a great scroll in the library on Tidepool. It's much more interesting than the one Whirlpool had you read, I promise.

Ugh, no thanks, Torrent groaned. I hate reading scrolls, they're all so boring.

Orca raised her eye scales in skepticism. Really? All scrolls? she flashed.

Torrent nodded in reply, a little confused.

Well, I've got a surprise for you, Orca answered, grinning. She swam over to one of her scrollshelves and pulled out a scroll. She passed it to Torrent, and he rolled it open.

Legends of the Lost Continent, Torrent flashed, reading the title of the scroll.

You should try it, Orca recommended. It's one of my favorites. It's a series of stories about a magical land across the sea with all sorts of fantastical creatures.

Torrent glanced a skeptical look at his older sister. Alright, he replied. I'll give it a try when I finish my homework for Whirlpool.

Orca smiled. Don't worry, it'll be worth your while. Just return it to me when you're done.

Torrent nodded and rolled up the scroll. He tucked it under his wing, and swam over towards the door to Orca's room.

Thank you for the help and the scroll, he flashed in gratitude. Orca waved goodbye as he left the room.

After he closed the door, Orca breathed a sigh of relief. She had enjoyed spending time with Torrent, but she was ready to sit down and read some of the scrolls she had gotten from the library. She had just opened up the scroll on Queen Fen when she heard a knock on her door. She silently groaned before getting up to open the door.

Torrent was back again, looking slightly embarrassed. I just realized that I don't know how to get back to the main part of the palace, he flashed stiffly.

Orca nodded, feeling inadequate for not thinking that Torrent might not have been able to find his way back. Yeah, sorry. Here, I'll show you the way.

After shutting her door behind her, Orca swam through the passageway back to the central part of the Deep Palace, Torrent tagging along right behind her.