Torrent woke up to a sharp rap on the door outside. The SeaWing placed his claws over his ears, trying to drown out the noise. He heard another rap. "Torrent, are you awake?" Queen Moorhen called.
"Yes, your majesty," Torrent groaned as he rolled out of the bed. He swished his tail back and forth, stretching out his wings. Torrent crawled over to the door and opened it. The giant MudWing queen stood before him, patiently waiting.
"C'mon," she said, leaving Torrent no time to wake up further. He followed her across the palace to where he supposed the dining room was. The walk was short, but still exhausting for the not yet awake dragonet.
When they reached the dining room, Queen Moorhen led Torrent in. The room consisted of a long table with a series of place on it, with a beautiful chandelier above it, crystals shimmering in the candlelight. Around ten MudWings stood by the table, eating, two of them situated around the head, Granite and another one of Moorhen's brothers. Moorhen motioned Torrent to follow her, and while she ate at the head of the table, he stood nearby.
Across from him stood Prince Granite, who gave Torrent a glare as he tore into a roasted pig. Torrent looked away uncomfortably and turned to his own meal. The dragons continued in silence until one of the other princes spoke up.
"Prince Torrent, is it?" the second prince asked. He had scales just a slightly lighter shade of brown than Queen Moorhen's, and two large hoops hanging from each horn. He tapped a long, shining talon on his plate. "You've come quite a way, haven't you? The Deep Palace is quite a ways away, isn't it."
Torrent nodded silently.
"Good, good," the MudWing prince continued, "how is life in the Sea Kingdom? It sounds tranquil."
Torrent again nodded. He glanced back at his dish uncomfortably.
"Speak up!" the prince demanded. "It seems nice living in a palace under the sea. No SkyWing armies to ever bother you, huh?"
"Be polite to your guest, Mole," Moorhen muttered, her mouth full of pig.
Prince Mole snorted indignantly. "You must eat a lot of fish, Torrent, don't you?" he pressed. "Enjoying the pork?"
Torrent nodded vigorously. In truth, he was enjoying it. "Fish is nice, but it gets boring," he replied quietly.
Mole smiled. "Not all SeaWings would agree. When I was last on the field, with your uncle, I gave him salted pork once. Spat it right out, he did, and cursed me. He complained that it was stuck in his teeth for the next week." Mole chuckled slightly.
Torrent politely smiled in response to Mole's anecdote, and the MudWings returned to eating. The rest of the meal went smooth, although Granite continued to give Torrent nasty glares. After it was done, a few MudWing servants took the dishes and leftovers away, while Moorhen motioned for Torrent to follow her. The SeaWing prince did so, and they left the dining room.
Moorhen smiled as the two walked through the palace. "Was the meal to your liking?" she asked.
"Very much so," he replied, following closely behind her while attempting to avoid the stares of the MudWings they passed. Many of the dragons didn't seem to have been around many SeaWings before, and looked curiously at the guest.
"Good, good," Moorhen said. "I was worried that you were just saying that to please Mole, he can be quite . . . forward. I will give your compliments to our chef."
The two continued through the palace a fair ways until they reached a small staircase, leading down in a circle to what Torrent suspected was Mallard's quarters. The bottom of the staircase opened up to a pair of doors, which Moorhen subsequently unlocked and opened with a creak. A spider crawled up Torrent's claws, but he quickly shook it off. This place had apparently not been cleaned in quite some time. He wondered why, one would think that the MudWing queen would keep her palace in shining shape.
The two doors opened to a long room stretching down the palace, with a dusty scrollshelf running along either side, packed to the brim with scrolls. A number of lecterns were strung around the room, with scrolls hanging haphazardly from them. Large inserts into the walls broke up the scrollshelves, with small, circular holes carved into the stone floor and ceiling. It looked like steel bars had once fit between them — this 'library' had once been a prison. At the far back of the room was a rug with scrolls thrown around the edges. A small burnt-orange MudWing sat on top, whom Torrent recognized as Mallard.
"Mallard!" Moorhen called. "You have a guest!"
Mallard appeared not to notice at first, but after a number of seconds passed, she looked up from her scrolls. "What is it?" she growled, frustrated at the interruption.
Torrent waved a claw and smiled awkwardly, hoping she would remember him. She did. "Torrent?" Mallard asked. "Is that you?" Torrent nodded.
"It's been a while!" Mallard exclaimed. Glad she wasn't angry to see him, Torrent started to open his mouth to respond, but Mallard cut him off.
"Thank you again for those scrolls you gave us," she said, "they'll be a massive contribution to the war effort! Now, what's brought you here?"
The war effort? Torrent wondered what she had meant by that, but he didn't ask any questions. The MudWings were on the SeaWings' side, anything that was good for one kingdom would be good for the other. "Well, I was staying here for a while, and I wanted to ask you about borrowing some more scrolls."
Mallard thought for a moment. "Did you bring any in return?" she asked. Torrent gritted his teeth, and winced a little. He hadn't brought any, his trip to the Mud Kingdom was somewhat unplanned. He thought for a moment, wondering of there was anything he could give instead.
Fortunately, he was in luck. Seeing the expression on Torrent's face, Mallard quickly said, "No worries; the other scrolls were plenty help. Feel free to look at any in the library." She gestured around the room.
Moorhen smiled, satisfied that Torrent was in good paws. "I'm going to take my leave now," the MudWing queen said, lumbering off. "I'll see you two later!"
Mallard's eyes carefully followed her queen, and only after Queen Moorhen had firmly shut the door to the makeshift library behind her, Mallard spoke up again. "Your sister isn't with you this time," she noticed. "Where is she? I thought she was interested in animus magic too."
Torrent hesitated, unsure what to say. Chances were, Orca was now sitting on the SeaWing throne. "She stayed back in the Sea Kingdom," Torrent cautiously replied.
Mallard looked skeptically at Torrent, and tapped the tip of her tail on the rug, as if wondering what exactly to say. "Your sister, Orca. She's an animus, right? Or is it you?"
Torrent froze up. Mallard knew Orca was an animus? How had she known?
As if to answer Torrent's concerns, Mallard explained, "It's kind of obvious. It's not every day we have two royal SeaWings looking for scrolls on animus magic and dropping the name 'Sunscorcher.' So, which one of you is the animus?"
Torrent just stood there, shaking. He didn't know what to say. Had Mallard told Queen Moorhen about this yet? If Mallard knew Orca was an animus, and decided to expose her. . . it wouldn't matter. If Orca had used her magic during her royal challenge, there was a good chance half the Sea Kingdom would know already.
Mallard sighed, starting to get irritated at Torrent's silence. "Look, your secret is safe with me. I'm not going to tell anyone: I'm just a friend who wants to help."
Friend? Torrent thought. He hadn't really thought of Mallard as a friend, just a random MudWing he'd met. "It's Orca," he blurted out, "I left after she killed our sister and challenged Mother for the throne."
Mallard frowned. "Sister?" she asked. "I thought Orca was the only hei — "
"She used her magic to make everyone else forget about River," Torrent replied with a wince. Talking about this with Mallard was a little cathartic; it was nice having someone other than Orca and Griffin to reveal their secrets to.
Mallard was silent for a moment, thinking about what Torrent had said. Torrent wondered how much she knew about animus magic, had she even known that was possible?
"I'm sorry," Mallard replied sincerely. "It must be hard, losing so much of your family in such a short time-span." She said her condolences slowly, crafting the words carefully so not to offend Torrent.
Torrent shuddered. The scariest part to him was that he couldn't care. Rift was dead, River was dead, and now his mother was probably dead, but all he could do was just worry about himself. Was he just as bad as Orca?
"If you would like, I can tell you the news from the Sea Kingdom as soon as it arrives," Mallard offered.
Torrent nodded. He wanted to know what Orca had done as soon as possible. His life, or someone else's, could depend on it.
"So, what exactly are you looking for in these scrolls?" Mallard asked, walking over to the shelves and pulling a few down.
"Anything on animuses losing their souls," Torrent replied, "particularly on how to stop that from happening." He thought for a moment and frowned. "Or reverse it, if it's possible." By this point, Torrent expected that Orca was too far gone, and he was sure that this search would end up futile. He wondered what Orca would do to him if he returned to the Sea Kingdom: he was certain she knew by now that he had fled.
Mallard bobbed her head in understanding. She scanned the shelf she was looking at, and pulled a few more scrolls out, then handed the collection to Torrent. "I doubt these will be to useful," she grimly warned, "but there might be something interesting here. There has never been that much research on animus magic in the Mud Kingdom, since it's so rare, and test subjects are hard to come by. Apparently there's been a lot of IceWing research into it, but going to the Ice Kingdom to read their most recent scrolls isn't exactly an option, so you'll have to make do with what I've got."
Torrent knew what Mallard had meant by that: he had read about the Great Ice Cliff and how it was designed to kill any non-IceWings who approached. He doubted the IceWings would want a SeaWing prince into their kingdom anyways; the SeaWings were currently at war with the IceWings.
Torrent took the scrolls from Mallard. "Thank you," he gratefully said.
"It's no difficulty," Mallard assured Torrent. "If you need more, just ask anytime." She thought for a moment, and an idea popped into her head. "Depending on how long you're going to be here, I've been semi-secretly communicating by letter with an IceWing scholar named Boreal through the SandWings for the post couple of years. It would be a while, but I could ask him to send some scrolls over."
Torrent shook his head. "Sorry," he declined, "I don't know how long I'm planning to stay."
"Alright," Mallard acknowledged, "but come to me if you change your mind. It wouldn't be a big deal."
Torrent tucked the scrolls Mallard had given him beneath a wing, and waved his claws goodbye. After leaving the musty library, he headed back back to his room, only getting lost once along the way, As soon as he entered, the SeaWing set the scrolls down. He glanced over their titles to see which one he should read first. "IceWing Perspectives on the Dangers of Animus Magic and their Potential Effects." That looked somewhat hopeful. Torrent rolled opened the scroll, and started his reading.