"Nightreader," the NightWing answered, her hiss full of vitriol. She struggled again, testing Torrent's grasp, but the SeaWing didn't budge.

"Nightreader?" Griffin repeated. "Do you have prophecy powers?"

"Yes, like all NightWings," she spat.

"Should've predicted our movements," Torrent muttered under his breath, receiving a glare from Nightreader.

Griffin thought for a moment. He didn't believe her. She had already lied about having mind-reading powers, and from what Fracture had told him, the NightWing prophecies were false. Still, according to Trustbreaker, the NightWings did have visions, even if it was only a few of them. It would explain how she knew who they were — if she had seen that they were coming to kill the animus, that might also explain why she had met up with them.

"What are you doing here?" Griffin asked. "You still never answered that."

The NightWing kept her jaws closed for a second, as if internally debating whether to reply or not. She fidgeted again. Griffin was about to ask the question again, this time a little more forcefully, when she finally answered.
"I'm here to give orders to our animus, Stonemover," she finally responded. She gritted her teeth a little as she said his name.

"Our animus?" Torrent spoke. "You mean, the Night Kingdom has an animus that's working for them?"

Nightreader stayed silent. That was worrying. If the NightWings had an animus working for them, then who knew what they could be doing with its powers? Torrent was surprised he hadn't heard about it yet, but then again, the NightWings were known for being secretive. But if they had aligned themselves with the Talons of Peace, as Griffin had suggested, why hadn't they used their animus to end the war? They had an unlimited supply of power, but chose not to use it. It struck Torrent as surprisingly cautious. He would have thought most queens would have used an animus for power disregarding its dangers. Yet, the NightWings had this power, and had chosen to stay safe, when they could have ruled Pyrrhia with it. Odd.

"What are these orders?" he pressed. "What has your animus enchanted?"

Nightreader kept her jaws sealed, unwilling to divulge these secrets.

Torrent grumbled in frustration. "We're going to find your animus either way. If you don't tell us what it's doing, we'll find out soon enough."

The NightWing bared her fangs. "I have orders for him to build a third tunnel."

"Tunnel?" Griffin questioned.

"A portal between parts of Pyrrhia," she muttered. "It's what he's been enchanting."

Griffin brightened in realization. So that was why the blotch had been moving back and forth on the map; the animus was making portals. Portals didn't sound so bad, at least not compared to whatever the animus could have done.

"How did you know who we were?" Griffin said.

Nightreader let out a quiet laugh. "You really think you're that secretive? NightWing intelligence has picked up a few reports of a SeaWing and a small bird-like creature appearing near animuses who've died or disappeared, and I wanted to warn Stonemover. It's not very hard to put the pieces together."

"Do you know anything about green diamonds?"

Nightreader gave Griffin a strange glare, and shook her head. "No clue."

Griffin winced. So the NightWings, and presumably their animus, had nothing to do with whoever was warning the other animuses and helping them to get away. Which meant that after Stonemover, and not including Darkstalker, there was only one more animus on the map they needed to visit; one last chance.

"So, what should we do with her?" Torrent asked, turning to Griffin. "We can't just let her go, can we?"

Griffin thought for a moment. Maybe they had rope they could tie her up with? Still, there wasn't much to tie a dragon to in the desert, and leaving her to be discovered so close to Burn's Stronghold would practically be a death sentence, or worse.

"Look, please," Nightreader suddenly spoke up, "don't kill him. He's a good dragon. He's only doing what he's been told."

Torrent frowned, and turned back to him. He could feel that her heart rate had risen. "Your animus?" he asked. "What do you care? His powers make him a danger. You know what they can do? You know who Darkstalker was, don't you?"

He felt the NightWing give a small shiver, as if just saying the cursed dragon's name summoned his spirit to haunt Pyrrhia. "He would never hurt anyone with his powers," she stated, certain in her words. "Really. I don't think he has it in him."

"What if your queen told him to?" Torrent questioned with a small snort. "Would he turn traitor to your kingdom? Or would he willing to kill a thousand dragons with his powers for her?"

Nightreader winced a little, as if this wasn't the first time she had thought about this scenario.

"I'm not willing to let the NightWings have the power of an animus beneath their wings, no matter how good-natured you think he is," Torrent preached.

"What if we leave our queen?" Nightreader pleaded. "Will you let him live then?"

Torrent was surprised. She was willing to betray her queen for this animus? "He's just your queen's weapon. Why do you care if he lives?"

Nightreader sighed. "He's my brother," she growled. "I'd be willing to betray every NightWing queen there's ever been if it was to save him."

Torrent frowned. It was bad enough killing a lone animus, but killing two siblings just seemed wrong. "I can't just let him go," he replied, still unwilling to budge. "How do I know he won't just return to your queen, or use his powers for some other nefarious purpose? Don't tell me he's a good-natured dragon again. Even the greatest animuses can turn to awful dragons if they use their powers."

Torrent thought back to Orca. She killed River and wanted to take over the Sea Kingdom, and she had certainly been a good dragon. He wouldn't have ever thought her a killer, at least not until Sunscorcher. He looked at Nightreader again. If her sibling was an animus, then in a strange way, she was in the same position he'd been so many years ago. What would Torrent have done if a strange dragon had tried to kill Orca?

"What if he gets rid of his powers?" Nightreader suggested desperately as she shifted under the sand. "Maybe he can enchant himself to be unable to use his magic? I'm sure he would if I asked him to."

Torrent's ears perked up in surprise. Was that even possible? He knew from Magma's that animus powers could be given, but could a dragon be enchanted to be unable to use their powers? He didn't see any reason why not, but something about it struck him the wrong way. Enchanting a dragon like you would an object. Being able to force them to do something, like what Goanna had done, but even more direct. Of course enchanting dragons was possible, though horrible. That much was clear from some of the fables about Darkstalker.

Griffin seemed to think similarly. He turned to Torrent. "We could prevent bloodshed this way," he suggested. "And this way, our animus won't get away."

Torrent sighed. It might be a little risky, and he wasn't quite sure it would work, but he really didn't want to kill this dragon. Other than the RainWing dragonet, all the animuses he'd attacked had been doing something harmful with their magic. If Nightreader was telling the truth, and Stonemover was just making portals, Torrent really wasn't keen on adding a second dragon to that list.

"Fine," he hesitantly agreed, "I'll spare him if he enchants himself to be unable to use his powers." Nightreader started to relax, though Torrent kept an eye on her. If he had heard one thing about NightWings, it was that they were good liars.

Torrent slowly stepped off of the NightWing, letting Nightreader turn over and carefully get to her paws. "Don't try anything," he growled.

"I won't," she snorted. "I have enough honor to stay to our deal. If you do too, that is."

Torrent glanced around. Sand, with no sign of another dragon nearby. "How far is he?" he asked Nightreader.

"Behind the hill over in that direction," Nightreader responded, pointing a talon across the desert. "Only a short flight."

Torrent withdrew his dagger, drawing Nightreader's gaze, and swiveled it around until it pointed in the direction the animus would be. It matched up with Nightreader's directions. She was telling the truth, almost to the Torrent's surprise. "We can walk," he still answered. He didn't want Nightreader to fly off to warn her brother and give him a chance to enchant something.

Griffin started in the direction the two were pointing at, his fragile bones still sore as he walked, his talons slipping through the soft sand. Nightreader continued a distance behind him, Torrent next to her, dagger still out.

The dune was much further than it had looked to Torrent, and the moons had swiveled across the sky by the time the three got close. Dawn was still a few hours away, but Torrent was starting to regret his decision of making them walk. Nightreader still hadn't made an attempt to betray them or escape, much to Torrent's surprise, but he was still on edge.

The three stepped up to the mountain of sand. "This way," Nightreader suggested, pointing them to the right of the dune. Griffin complied, and they slowly paced around the edge, their paws and talons leaving marks in the sand, quickly swept away by the dry winds of the desert.

As Torrent peeked around the edge of the dune, his target came into view. A large NightWing, a similar size to Nightreader and slightly smaller than Torrent, lay in the sand, his snout partly buried beneath it. From a distance, he looked like he could have been a huge rock half-covered by the dune, though the texture of his dark grey scales gave him away. A small sack was a short distance away, a desert mouse crawling on it, looking for an opening. As the newcomers approached, it quickly skittered away.

To the NightWing's left was the side of the dune, and implanted in it, Torrent saw an eerie hole, giving off a feeling that he could only be as that of nothing. Where the sand ended around it, it just seemed to fuse and disappear, like someone had plastered darkness on the dune, the edges flaking and peeling away.

The NightWing still didn't seem to have noticed the new arrivals. Griffin turned to Torrent, and poked him with a talon. Torrent turned to stare at him for a little. He hadn't really thought about it before, but in some sense, Griffin had the same odd feeling to him. If he squinted close enough, the edges of his feathers seemed out of place imposed with the sand on the ground, and the dim light from the moons seemed to hit him in a unusual way. For a moment, Torrent was a big creeped out by it, but his vision quickly shifted, and Griffin returned to the normal look Torrent had been seeing for the last decade.

"Look at him," Griffin hissed, pointing a talon at the resting NightWing.

Torrent turned, wondering what Griffin was talking about. "Yes?" he whispered back.

Griffin sighed. "He looks like her, doesn't he? Sunscorcher?"

Torrent frowned, and looked again. Griffin was right. The NightWing in the sand had a resemblance to the animus Griffin and Torrent had met with Orca, though of a much smaller size. He wasn't quite sure why: maybe their snouts were similarly shaped, or their wings were both slightly shifted back compared to their forelegs, but he did notice the similarity. He supposed the two could be related — animus magic did run in families, after all, and how many other NightWing animus lines could there be? Torrent glanced over at Nightreader again, wondering why he hadn't noticed the same resemblance in her until this point.

"Stonemover, it's me," Nightreader suddenly introduced herself. The NightWing in the sand, who Torrent guessed was Stonemover, raised his head, loose sand falling from the cracks between his scales.

Slowly, the animus crept to his paws, lifting himself up. Compared to Nightreader, he was in great shape. His ribcage was hidden behind his underbelly, instead of protruding through the thin scales there. Still, his posture was very different. Even if he was physically stronger, the NightWing held his head low, glancing up at his sister in a sort of submission. His scales shook slightly, and his dark eyes radiated a look of haunted fear, though they were aimed at a point behind any of the three arrivals. Torrent glanced behind him to where Stonemover was staring, though his night vision confirmed that there was nothing but air, sand, and the occasional cactus in that direction.

"Nightreader?" Stonemover asked softly, almost mumbling the name.

Nightreader nodded, then took a nervous glance back at Torrent and Griffin. Stonemover's eyes seemed to have adjusted by now, and the two came into his view. Shaking, he lowered his head more, and took a step back. Torrent's claws clenched up, worried that the NightWing would try to make a run for it, but he seemed too shocked to try and escape.

"Who are they?" Stonemover whispered. He didn't wait for an answer. "Oh, this was an awful idea," he lamented to himself, "now the SeaWings have captured us. Queen Battlewinner will kill us if the SeaWings don't."

Nightreader winced. "Don't worry, we haven't been captured," she quickly explained, "and we can't say her name in front of outsiders, remember?"

"Battlewinner?" Stonemover clarified. Realizing his mistake, he tensed up. "Sorry," he murmured.

Griffin rolled his eyes. "Trustbreaker already told me her name; it's not a problem."

Nightreader frowned, the scales around her mouth almost clenching into a snarl. "I can see why your NightWing friend is called that, then."

Griffin opened his beak, planning to defend Trustbreaker, but what if Nightreader was right? Trustbreaker said he had taken on his name for something he had done. What if that was betraying his queen's trust? Maybe it was smart of the NightWing to not use his original name; if it was found out, the NightWings could come for him. Griffin put these worries to rest for a while; right now, they needed to deal with Stonemover.

"What is that?" Stonemover asked, slowly swiveling to Griffin. He looked more frightened than curious. "What do you want?"

Griffin gave out a quick sigh. He didn't care to explain exactly 'what' he was to another dragon yet again. Maybe Stonemover would just figure it out eventually; he was an animus himself. "We're animus hunters," Griffin squawked, introducing himself and Torrent.

Stonemover flinched. At this point, his head was so low to the ground his scales were almost against the sand, and it looked like his scaly tail was curled around a leg. "You're here to kill me?" He sighed. "I suppose that's for the best."

"They're not here to kill you," Nightreader gently responded. "I made a deal with them. Something that I think will benefit us all."

"Please comply with us," Griffin stated, shaking his head. This dragon was so pitiful, he wasn't even sure he would have it in him to hurt him. Although Torrent probably would. "We need you to enchant yourself to be unable to use animus magic."

The scales around Stonemover's eyes narrowed in concern. He turned towards Nightreader, as if asking her for confirmation on what to do.

"Do it," Nightreader answered, "if you can't use your magic, you won't be losing your soul."

Torrent was a little surprised by this notion. He'd expected that Nightreader would say something like 'they'll kill you if you don't;' not that she'd have her own reasons to want her brother's magic gone. Had Orca ever considered that option? Torrent would have certainly preferred that to what had happened. But would she have even done it willingly?

"But what about Queen Ba — our queen?" Stonemover protested. "If I give up my magic, she'll kill us when we return to the Night Kingdom."

"Then we don't go back to the Night Kingdom," Nightreader answered. Stonemover's eyes lit up in surprise, as if the idea of leaving hadn't ever occurred to him. "We can desert and hide from her. Pyrrhia is big, and she doesn't have eyes everywhere."

There was a bit more excitement and relief in her voice than Griffin would've expected. Maybe she isn't such a fan of how their queen has been using her brother's powers and soul, he wondered.

"Well, C'mon, get to it," Torrent snapped, tired of the delay.

"It's too late," Stonemover grumbled, his front talons shaking. He glanced down on them, and placed the right forepaw one over the left, trying to steady it, though the shaking only got worse as he did so. Torrent clenched his claws around his dagger, almost poking into the scales on the underside of his claws. It now became a little clearer what Griffin had meant by him looking like Sunscorcher — it wasn't so much that familial resemblance, but his manner of movement. The trembling fear in his voice, his aloof gaze, the terrified look he gave off, as if he could see something that wasn't there. He glanced over at Griffin, checking if he was ready for a fight. If Stonemover refused, they might need to fight both him and Nightreader.

After a tense moment, Stonemover spoke again, finishing his thought. "But I can try."

Torrent felt a pang of pity for Nightreader and her brother as his claws relaxed, and instead of the foreboding Sunscorcher, he suddenly reminded the SeaWing of Orca. She'd said something like that the last time Torrent had seen her, that it was too late for her, for her soul. He thought he understood what Stonemover was trying to say: Stonemover believed that he'd used too much magic already, and had lost his soul, but was still willing to remove his magic. Maybe it wouldn't bring back his soul, but it would protect others from him. Torrent turned to Nightreader for a minute. She didn't seem too concerned. Maybe she was denying it, like Torrent had so many years ago. Pretending that Stonemover was completely fine; that the magic hadn't affected him. Torrent didn't blame her; he had done the exact same thing with Orca. If she wanted to believe that, he wouldn't try and stop her. It was the animus he was worried about.

As Stonemover opened his mouth, Torrent looked towards him in a slightly different light. It wasn't Torrent, Griffin, nor even Nightreader whom he was afraid of, it was himself. Still, Torrent prepared to plunge his dagger into the NightWing's neck as Stonemover started to cast his enchantment, in case he tried something.

Stonemover spoke his words strung-out, his voice quivering as he did so. "I enchant myself to be unable to use animus magic."

There was a momentary pause where no one spoke. It didn't seem like anything had happened, though Torrent knew that the effects might be invisible. "Tell the dune to move," Torrent ordered Stonemover. It wasn't a coconut, but it would work well enough as a test.

Stonemover fidgeted his talons nervously. "Dune, move," he commanded. There was no response as the dune remained in the same place. He glanced towards Nightreader nervously. "It didn't work."

She grinned, and untensed her wings in relief. "I know!" she replied in excitement. Torrent stepped aside as she walked towards her brother, then wrapped a glittering black wing over him in an embrace. "It's great, isn't it? Now we don't have to worry about your soul, and we won't ever have to return to the Night Kingdom!"

Stonemover stared out at the dune, not feeling the same excitement as his sister. Torrent exchanged a quick look with him, causing the NightWing to gulp. Off to the side of the three, Griffin had meanwhile set his pack down on the ground, and had pulled out a scrollcase from it. After a few attempts with his unseemly talons, he unlatched the scrollcase, pulling out a rolled up piece of parchment paper from it. Keeping it gently pinched between his talons so the desert winds wouldn't whisk it away, Griffin rolled it open, scanning over the enchanted map inside. The map still showed a blotch representing Stonemover. That was worrying.

Griffin motioned Torrent over and the SeaWing lumbered through the sand. "Look," Griffin asked, "Stonemover's blotch is still here."

Torrent looked over it and frowned. "So he's still an animus?" Which enchantment had Stonemover meant didn't work? Was there some way he could tell, that Torrent didn't know of? An animus sixth-sense?

Griffin nodded and thought for a moment. "I suppose that makes sense," he decided, "he did enchant himself to be unable to use animus magic, not to no longer be an animus."

Torrent frowned. Hopefully, that wouldn't be a problem. He glanced back to the NightWing, his sister still celebrating. "I could remove the enchantment and have him do it again," he suggested, "I've already allowed it to function around my dagger, but I think I can still disenchant him."

Griffin shook his head. "It should be fine. He can't use magic anyways, and doing another enchantment would just cause him to lose more of his soul. But we could bring them along with us when we go west."

Torrent snorted, finding the suggestion absurd.

Griffin frowned. "I'm serious. This way, we could make sure he doesn't suddenly regain his powers, and maybe whoever's been giving out the green diamonds will come and find him to give him one."

Torrent flicked his tongue, still unsure. Maybe Griffin was right; if the NightWing did come with them, it would be safer.

"They also don't have any place to go," Griffin continued. "We could refer them to the Talons of Peace, and maybe find out what else Stonemover has enchanted."

"Can we really trust that they won't turn on us in our sleep?" Torrent asked.

"We'll just be careful, right?" Griffin suggested. "From Nightreader's relief at Stonemover's powers being removed, I don't think she harbors many ill feelings towards us."

Torrent closed his eyes and sighed. He was still uncertain. These dragons had been their enemies up until a few moments ago. But, he trusted Griffin's judgement. "Fine," he answered, "I'll try it out. But you have to convince them."

Griffin nodded his feathered head and walked over towards the NightWing siblings. "Hey," he called, getting their attention. He looked over towards Nightreader, as the NightWing turned her head down to match his gaze. "If you'd like, you can join Torrent and I."

Stonemover frowned for a moment, the glanced to his sister. "You're not considering it, are you?" he asked, seeing the thoughtful expression on her snout. "Didn't they want to kill me?"
Nightreader tapped a claw in the sand. "Maybe, although they've still made less threats than Morrowseer has. They chose to help us, didn't they?"

Stonemover muttered under his breath. "I'm not sure I'd describe it as helping us."

"Your powers are gone," Nightreader pointed out, "and it's not like we can just go back through the portals to the Night Kingdom. We're in the middle of the desert, and don't have anywhere else to go — and we need food and water, which they have." She frowned. They might also be helpful when Queen Battlewinner inevitably tries to reclaim Stonemover for herself.

Stonemover grumbled a little, and gave Griffin a nervous glance, but didn't protest.

"So, you're joining us?" Griffin asked. "Willingly?"

Nightreader nodded. "For now," she replied. "We'll re-evaluate after we're out of the desert."

Griffin wasn't quite sure he liked the sound of that. 'Re-evaluate.' Still, he didn't press it.

Nightreader turned back to her brother. "Do you want to find that SandWing you've been dating, to see if she'll join us, or to say goodbye?"

Stonemover's snout tensed up. "We . . . broke up," he grumbled unhappily. "She doesn't like me anymore, and told me I'd changed, and become too . . . emotional. I don't think she wants me to return." He glanced down at his claws, as if he was worried they were going to start strangling him.

Torrent had an idea of what Stonemover really meant. Stonemover's mate had left him because of whatever his magic had done to his soul, apparently. He wasn't quite sure he blamed her.

Griffin spoke up. "Then, if you're decided, we should get flying to the west." He pointed a sharp talon towards the east, where the colors of dawn were slowly starting to become visible in the sky. "We have a few hours of flight until we reach our next rest stop, and we'll want to be there before the sun reaches too high."