River swam down the long passage to Orca's room. It had been two months since the news of Rift's death had arrived, and River had decided to investigate her older sister's room again. Maybe this time, the gryphon would be there, or there would be another clue to what was really going on with Orca and Torrent behind the scenes. She had a little more than an hour before Torrent and Orca were free again, which would hopefully be plenty time to solve this mystery.

River stuck the spare key into Orca's door again, almost breaking the key, and unlocked it. She swept the door open, but again, it was empty. River sighed in frustration, but with a hint of relief. While she wanted to find out what the gryphon really was and if Orca was actually an animus, as River suspected, River was also frightened. If Orca was an animus, she had powers, and that could be very dangerous for her.

Again, River noticed some of the feathers on the floor, new ones. Where had they come from, if the gryphon wasn't in the room? River thought about it for a moment. They had to be keeping the gryphon somewhere. A palace servant surely would have mentioned it if they had seen the gryphon, so it was out of sight. Yet, the gryphon had to be able to get into Orca's room fairly easily, or else there would be no feathers. That meant the gryphon was being kept in one of the rooms near Orca's, probably a locked one: it could quickly get back and forth between the two rooms without being seen, since very few SeaWings ever came down here, Orca and Torrent being the sole exceptions.

River swam back outside Orca's room, locking it behind her. There were three rooms nearby, the gryphon had to be in one of them. Swimming as quietly as she could, River put her head up against one, hoping she could hear it. Nothing. She moved on to the next. Nothing—wait, no. There was a sound in the room, like something moving around. It was faint, but River could hear it. There was something alive, or at least somewhat alive, in the room, and River was almost certain what it was.

She glanced at the door lock. There was bound to be a spare key in Coral's room, and fortunately, her mother was with Orca at the moment, conducting more "queen preparation," of course. River quietly swam away from the gryphon's room, and as soon as she was out of hearing range, swam as fast as she could to her mother's bedroom. River wasn't sure how much time she had left, and she didn't know when she would have another chance.

When she entered Coral's bedroom, she quickly pulled out the box of spare keys beneath her bed. She tore her claws through them, looking for the right one for the room. She found it, and returned the box to its previous place.

River thought for a moment about her plan. She would capture the gryphon, and bring it to Coral in order to prove it was real. But how would she capture it? River remembered that there was a small fishing net in a storage room nearby, maybe she could use that.

River swam to the storage room, and rummaged around its contents, looking for the net. It took a few minutes of moving around useless junk before she got it, and even longer to untangle it, but she got it done. Grabbing the net, she swam back down the passage to Orca's room, attempting to keep it as untangled and as flat as possible.

The net and key in her talons, River stood in front of the door. The sound was still there, and this time, River was sure she would succeed. She slowly unlocked the door, and opened it, pushing aside the water behind it.

She looked inside, and sure enough, her guess was right. The small gryphon was inside the room, and looked up in surprise at the mischievously grinning River. River rushed inside, and slammed the door behind her to prevent the gryphon from easily escaping.

As River slowly swam forward, the gryphon backed away into the wall. River raised her net, and jumped at the gryphon, but she was too slow, and its tail slipped out from under the net. She growled in irritation, then swam after the gryphon, heading to the door. She wouldn't let it escape, not again.

As the gryphon attempted to open the door, River pounced on it, covering it with the fishing net. It tried to struggle loose, but the gryphon's feathered wings got caught in the net, tangling it further. After a short struggle, the gryphon was trapped beneath the net, glaring up at her.

River smirked triumphantly. She had done it. She had captured the gryphon. River would bring it to Queen Coral and show everyone Orca's lies, putting River in line for the queen. Queen River. She liked the sound of that. What would mother think of her then?

"Let me go," a voice hissed. River jumped in shock. Where did the voice come from? There was no one here, and they were underwater. She glanced at the gryphon, frowning.

"Yes, I can talk," the gryphon said, almost reading River's mind. "Okay, you got me. Now let me go, alright?"

Had Orca enchanted it to speak? Weird. Did it understand Aquatic? Now, why would I do that? River flashed. I went to all this effort to capture you.

"Because you're a nice SeaWing?" the gryphon asked, slightly confused. "What do you want with me, anyways?"

River grinned, beaming. I'm going to use you to become queen. Orca enchanted you, right?

The gryphon nodded through the net. "She did. Your name is River, right? You're Torrent's sister?"

I am.

"Why do you need me to become queen?" the gryphon asked. "Can't you just challenge Queen Coral?"

Not before Orca does, River hissed, and if she's an animus, then I have no chance of winning against her, or Coral beating her.

"Orca doesn't even want to be queen, though."

Maybe, but she doesn't want me to be queen more. She's said so, many many times. And now I'm going to beat her.

River thought for a moment. She didn't think she had much time left before Torrent and Orca came back. She needed to leave now. We're going, she flashed, dragging the net with the gryphon with it through the water. The gryphon struggled a bit, but gave up, realizing that it was to no avail.

When she got outside, she started to swim down the path to the main part of the palace. She turned around the first corner, then quickly ducked back around, hiding behind the wall. Torrent and Orca were swimming down the hallway. Had she spent too much time? River didn't think they had seen her, but she didn't know where else to go. There wasn't another tunnel back to the main part of the palace as far as she knew, so she couldn't slip past Orca and Torrent. She had only one choice, she had to hide with the captured gryphon in one of the other rooms, and hope that Orca or Torrent didn't notice he was missing.

She started to turn around, changing the direction she was dragging the gryphon. "Change of pl—" the gryphon started to ask, before River clamped his beak shut with her claws.

Yes, she flashed, heading back to the room. She pushed the entangled gryphon into the room, went in after him, then quietly shut the door. Now, she had to wait, and hope that she wasn't discovered.