Another few days had passed, but to the SeaWing prince, it felt like weeks. Each day, he had gone down to Mallard's chamber and asked for news from the Sea Kingdom, but he had received none, and Torrent's anxiety only increased.

Torrent had continued reading and gathering information from the scrolls, but was unable to find a cure for soul loss. Just enchanting one's soul to return didn't seem to do the trick, and if were that easy, no animus would ever go towards the dark. Maybe the problem was something other than losing one's soul? Torrent asked himself. In that case, an enchantment curing one's soul wouldn't work, since that wasn't the problem to begin with. He supposed an enchantment forcing an animus to only do good could work, but there might be workarounds for that. What if two dragons disagreed on what was good? Anyways, it seemed a bit wrong to him to control a dragon like that, though he supposed it might be tolerable if the only alternative was to let an evil animus have free reign over their powers.

Deciding that it would be worthwhile to write down notes about the animus legends he had read, along with what he thought some curing possibilities could be, Torrent opened the scroll case he had brought from the Sea Kingdom and spilt its contents on the ground. He rolled open the scroll of notes that he and Orca had been taking, and started scratching new script into it. He grimaced slightly as he saw Orca's messy scrawl above his own clawwriting.

Something caught Torrent's attention out of the corner of his eye. Along with the scroll of notes, there were a few other pieces of parchment in the scroll case, including the map that Orca had enchanted in order to find Sunscorcher. Torrent rolled it open to reveal the enchanted parchment. There was a small number of ink blotches strewn around the map, each representing an animus dragon. The first thing Torrent noticed was a brick-red blotch not far from Moorhen's palace, in the huge swamps to the north. That meant there was an animus dragon not too far from him.

Torrent's eyes then turned back to the Sea Kingdom. He looked around the unmarked area where the Deep Palace was, scanning for a blotch indicating Orca. Nothing. There was no blotch. Maybe she was in the Summer Palace? No, the nearest animus to the Summer Palace was a small orange dot in the eastern Sky Kingdom. Maybe that was Orca?

Torrent's claws started shaking a bit, and he started to think through the possibilities. First, Orca could be one of the dots outside the Sea Kingdom, but that seemed unlikely. He supposed she could have gone to participate in a battle, but it seemed too soon after her ascent to the throne for that. Anyways, Torrent remembered Orca's dot as being a dark green, the same color as her scales. Second, Orca could have given up her animus powers somehow. Torrent didn't know if it was possible, but it was his favorite option by far. It would explain why Orca wasn't on the map, and if she gave up her powers, it meant she was just an ordinary dragon without powers. Queen, maybe, and possibly a malicious soulless one, but not an animus.

The final option was what made Torrent's claws shake in worry. What if Orca had lost her challenge with Mother? She couldn't have, that wasn't possible. Orca was an animus, and was willing to use her power the last time Torrent had seen her. She wouldn't just let Coral kill her, would she? At least if she's dead, she can't hurt anyone with her powers, a small voice whispered into Torrent's head.

Torrent immediately felt guilty for even thinking the thought. No, even if it meant that Orca would harm others, Torrent would never want her dead, would he? She was still his sister, his best friend, no matter how many dragons she hurt. He shoved the thought to the back of his mind, along with his ridiculous theory that Orca was dead. He would go down to Mallard again to ask for news. Something surely would have arrived by now.

Torrent crawled the halls of Queen Moorhen's palace to Mallard's room. The SeaWing prince pushed the doors open to see Mallard at the far end of the room, reading some scrolls as usual. He returned the scrolls he had read, placing them down in front of her, causing her to look up. "Done already?" Mallard asked. Torrent nodded in return, it wasn't as if he had much else to do while he was in the MudWings' palace.

Mallard took the scrolls from him and carefully placed them on the shelves. "What's wrong?" she asked Torrent.

"Oh, nothing," Torrent replied, trying to push his theories of Orca to the back of his mind again. It was no use speculating.

Mallard frowned, and continued to press the question. "Your tail is dragging and your ears are drooping. There's clearly something wrong, what is it?"

Torrent sighed. "It's Orca again. I'm worried about how she's doing, and what happened in her challenge." He didn't particularly want to tell Mallard about the map and what it showed him.

Mallard thought for a moment. "She's an animus," she replied. "She's got practically unlimited powers, doesn't she? I doubt something as mundane as a royal challenge could harm her."

Torrent nodded, but even so, the map still worried him. There were no animuses in the Sea Kingdom. He supposed that Orca could have done something to the map which hid herself, or found another enchantment that did the same thing. That was it. She knew Torrent had the map, and didn't want him tracking her!

"Thank you," Torrent said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"You're welcome," Mallard replied with a smile, pulling out a few more scrolls from the shelves. "Anyways, we should be getting a messenger any day now, so you won't have to worry for much longer. I'll make sure you'll be the first to know."

Torrent thought about the map again. There was an animus in the Mud Kingdom on it, wasn't there? He hadn't read about any MudWing animuses since Queen Fen. "Mallard," Torrent asked, "what do MudWings do with their animuses?"

A slight grimace appeared on Mallard's face. "Well," she answered, "we do similar to the SkyWings. If we know they're an animus, we kill them as soon as they hatch — "

"Oh," Torrent interrupted, thinking Mallard was done.

" — along with all their siblings," Mallard finished uncomfortably.

Torrent scrunched up his snout in disgust. Their siblings too? He could see their reason for killing the animus dragonet itself, but it's siblings were completely innocent.

"It's to keep the siblings from passing on animus magic to their children," Mallard explained, seeing Torrent's facial expression. "MudWings don't do mates like you SeaWings, so otherwise we wouldn't know where the animus magic is coming from, and we might get more slip-ups. We've done it since Queen Fen was killed, and we don't have any animus dragons, so it's worked."

No, it hasn't, Torrent thought, remembering the blotch on the map. He couldn't be certain, but since it was deep within the Mud Kingdom, the animus was almost certainly a MudWing. "Alright, thank you," he said.

"It's nothing," Mallard grinned, handing the scrolls she had gather over to Torrent. "Any luck on finding a cure for Orca?" she asked.

Torrent pondered for a moment. "Maybe," he answered, "I don't know if it would work, but she could enchant herself to not be an animus, though it wouldn't solve the problem with her soul."

Mallard paused, tapping her tail on the ground. "Well, good luck. If you need anything else, just ask."

The young SeaWing smiled and thanked Mallard for her help, then traversed the palace corridors back up to his room. He set the scrolls down, and opened up the map again. The spot in the MudWing swamps was still there, and there were still no animuses in the Sea Kingdom. He furrowed the scale-ridges above his eyes in a frown, but there wasn't much he could do about it now. Maybe tomorrow, news would finally come.