Torrent and Nightreader flew above the ocean north of Pyrrhia, flying above the cold waves. There was no land in sight, and it was fortunate that Nightreader had made the journey to the Night Kingdom enough times to know how to conserve her energy so she could fly the entire way. Torrent, on the other claw, had little worry about that; when his wings started to get sore, he just dove into the ocean, swimming alongside Nightreader.

Nightreader had originally thought about taking the tunnels her brother had created into the Night Kingdom, before realizing how risky that would be. With Torrent with her, she'd have to find a way to sneak him past the guards constantly posted on the tunnel. It would be much quicker, sure, but the risk wasn't worth it. So, the two flew towards the island, the plan being that Torrent would wait in the waters nearby while Nightreader collected the scroll she needed.

A light rain started to fall on the two partway into the flight, while Torrent was flying besides Nightreader above the surface. The waves started to pick up slightly, the salty spray from it feeling good against Torrent's wings as he flew low. It was unfortunate that the NightWings couldn't live in the water, they had so much of it around. "Are there fish near your island?" Torrent asked.

Nightreader shook her head. "Not much," she replied. "The volcano poisons the waters, and we overfished what little fish we had years ago. The population hasn't returned."

"Volcano," Torrent stated. "I've heard of those in scrolls before, though I didn't think Pyrrhia had any. There was a story about an animus who caused one to erupt in order to get revenge on the kingdom who had banished her. Not sure where the story took place. Maybe the Lost Continent, or somewhere like that. They seem kind of scary, with lava and ash flying everywhere."

"You're not wrong about them being scary," Nightreader snorted. "There was a small eruption a few decades before I was born, and apparently it killed a bunch of dragons. A few of the older NightWings remember it. There's lava all over the islands, but most of it is pretty slow, so it's not too threatening unless someone pushes you into it. Our scientist Mastermind thinks that the volcano will erupt again within my lifetime, much larger than the last one. He says no one will be able to survive."

"No one?" Torrent asked in concern. "It's good you left then, isn't it?"

Nightreader shrugged her forearms, flicking her forked tongue in and out. She didn't seem too happy about it. "I don't want my kingdom to be destroyed."

"Why not just move?"

Nightreader laughed. "Believe me, we would if we could. None of the other unclaimed islands we've looked at are able to support the Night Kingdom food-wise, as small as the kingdom is. The IceWings own some larger islands in the north of their kingdom where they exile the criminals they won't execute. They're freezing cold, and are barely more than frozen icebergs, but at least it'd be something. Our queen led an attack on one of them a few years ago, but it didn't go well. They met resistance from a small number of IceWings who'd been banished there, and we were slaughtered. Our queen was injured, badly from what I've heard. And the mainland is heavily occupied." She looked over towards Torrent. "I shouldn't be telling you this, but the Night Kingdom is not strong. We have a couple hundred dragons at most, the majority of them even weaker than I am from starvation. You remember how easily you and Griffin were able to take me on. That wasn't because I'm untrained. If we faced an attack from any decent number of dragons who felt threatened by our territory claim, we'd be massacred."

Torrent was silent for a moment, unsure what to say. Things really didn't sound good for the NightWings. Maybe his mother would be willing to help them? Torrent doubted it, and it's not like she'd ever listen to some random prince who'd disappeared years ago.

Suddenly, Nightreader's head perked up, and she looked in the distance in alarm. "Dive into the water!" she ordered Torrent with urgency. "Now!"

Unsure what was going on, Torrent folded his wings against his side, diving down into the water with barely a splash, swimming beneath the surface. Nightreader continued her flight above the surface, angling herself barely upwards. As she started to rise, Torrent saw what Nightreader was worried about. In the distance, two black dots were slowly moving towards them. They weren't alone.

Nightreader smiled as the two NightWings approached her, though it quickly turned into a frown. The NightWings had changed their course, flying slightly to the left in order to pass closer to her. That was unexpected; most dragons tended to avoid Nightreader, knowing who her brother was. She held back a gulp of alarm as she recognized who they were. The first was a smaller blueish NightWing around Nightreader's age, his ribs poking from his scales. Windtoucher. He carried a small purplish-black egg within his claws, and was panting heavily from the flight. He hadn't gone off the island too many times before. Normally, Nightreader was the one who did that.

The second dragon was the one Nightreader was worried about. The NightWing she had been most hoping to avoid. The only dragon in the Night Kingdom even Princess Greatness took orders from. Morrowseer. Even in the daytime, he was intimidating. No matter how little he ate, the NightWing's muscles were always strong, his body filled out. He was even larger than Torrent, and no matter his mood (which Nightreader wasn't sure could be anything but perpetually frustrated), had an expression on his snout like he was hoping he'd just kill any dragon he looked at with his eyes.

Unfortunately, he was the dragon Nightreader had to work with the most. She hadn't gotten much of a choice, with her brother being an animus, but at least it meant she got to go off the island more than most of the other NightWings. It had made most of the dragons there quite jealous of her, including her and Stonemover's parents, but it was worth the costs. Still, Nightreader had wanted to avoid Morrowseer on her hopefully quick return to the island.

Morrowseer's constant frown turned into a snarl as he came up Nightreader, his sharp fangs too close to her snout. "Fly with me," he ordered. Not seeing much of another choice, Nightreader turned around, gliding along with Morrowseer and Windtoucher. She thought about glancing down, to see if Torrent was watching from beneath, but that would just draw more suspicion. And if she could see the SeaWing, Morrowseer could too. Hopefully he was far beneath the surface.

Nightreader bowed her head to Morrowseer. "The mission was a success, sir," she lied.

Morrowseer gave her a glare, his mood unchanged by positive news. "I wasn't expecting to see you here. You should have taken the tunnels to the island. And you should have been there long before now."

Windtoucher tried to keep his eyes averted, but shot a quick glance at Nightreader. She ignored it. She was higher up in the NightWing pecking order than he was just because of her brother's powers. Doubtless Windtoucher wanted to displace her, but both knew that there was little he could do to cause that. Well, he wouldn't have to wait much longer.

"Stonemover needed to go to the exit point of the third tunnel to start it," Nightreader fibbed, keeping her voice calm. She'd decided that mentioning her encounter with the 'animus hunters' in her lie would be dangerous. Morrowseer didn't know how the specifics of how animus magic worked, and she wasn't wrong either. At least for the previous two tunnels, her brother had gone to the exit points to find an appropriate spot to place them. "I went with him. I thought it would be closer to fly over the ocean than back to the desert tunnel, especially with rumors of a battle."

Morrowseer frowned, although that said very little about what he was thinking. He beat his enormous wings, the current created by them almost sucking Windtoucher inwards. Finally, he turned back to Nightreader with a growl. "Don't try to fool me. Stonemover's orders were to build the third tunnel. Yours were to return directly to the island as soon as you gave him his new orders, not to fly with him."

Nightreader glanced down, feigning shame. Morrowseer let out a puff of smoke. "You disobeyed my orders in order to spend more time with your brother. Weak and pathetic," he scolded her. "Your duty is to your kingdom first, not your family. I will be making sure that Princess Greatness hears of this after I return from dropping off this egg with the Talons."

Nightreader lowered her head. She held back a smile. If everything went right, she'd be long gone before Morrowseer ever returned to tell Greatness anything. "I apologize, sir," she quietly answered. "But if you only allowed me to spend more time with h—"

Morrowseer let out a roar, baring his fangs. "No buts. You should be groveling in thanks that you get to see him at all, or that you get to leave the island. Most NightWings do not get that privilege. You are treated much too well."

"I'm sorry, sir. I spoke out of place."

The huge NightWing snorted. "Yes, you did. We will speak of this later. Return to the island." He was quiet for a moment, as Nightreader waited for him to dismiss her. He turned back to Nightreader again. "Were you followed?"

"Followed?" Nightreader asked, her scales tensing up. "No, I was very careful to make sure I left under the cover of night."

Morrowseer glanced upwards, as if checking what time it was. Nightreader's story checked out—she and Torrent had left during the night. "I thought I saw a blue speck following you," he muttered.

Nightreader smiled, and glanced behind her, as if checking herself. "It could have been a cloud, or a bird, or a shark."

Morrowseer glanced down, with Nightreader following his gaze. Torrent was nowhere to be seen, fortunately. He glanced back up. "Make sure you're careful in the future," he ordered, receiving an enthusiastic nod in response. "You're dismissed. Return to the island."

"Thank you, sir," Nightreader said as she raised a wing to turn around, the two NightWings flying past her, heading towards the mainland. As sure she was soon as they were far enough, she let out a sigh of relief. Morrowseer wouldn't be on the island, at least. That was good.

After Nightreader was certain the two NightWings were completely out of sight, she glanced down towards the water, and motioned with her claws for Torrent to surface. For a moment, she was worried he'd lost her while beneath, but a splash broke through the ocean's waves as the SeaWing lifted into the air, water dripping from his scales. He glanced towards her, then back behind him. The two NightWings were gone.

"Who were they?" he asked cautiously.

"The small one was Windtoucher," Nightreader explained, "and the big one was Morrowseer. I think I mentioned him while we were with Clarity." Torrent nodded in confirmation. "He's the second most important NightWing, before Princess Greatness and behind our Queen, moons bless her soul. He leads all our operations with the Talons of Peace, and was the one who wrote the Dragonet Prophecy. Since the queen's injury, he's been in charge of most of our . . . war interference."

"If your queen is injured, why doesn't Princess Greatness just challenge her?" Torrent asked, confused.

Nightreader snorted. "Greatness isn't the leader type. She doesn't particularly want to be queen either. Her primary duty is communicating the queen's instructions to the rest of the kingdom for her. She'll obviously have to challenge her mother eventually, but she seems to be putting it off as much as possible, and if she did become queen, she'd just become a figurehead for Morrowseer."

Torrent glanced up. The sky above seemed to be greying, though the light rain had seemed to have subsided. A light whiff of sulfur reached his nose. Nightreader seemed to have noticed it too. "We're getting closer to the island," she notified him, "so you should try and stay out of sight. Beneath the water."

Torrent nodded. "So the plan is that you go onto the island while I wait nearby?"

"Yes," Nightreader replied. "There's a large bay surrounded by ash-covered beaches on the southern end of the island, with cliffs around it. Stay just inside of it while I'm on the island, and when I return, flash your light-up scales to tell me you see me, so I know you're following me. After that, you'll swim beneath me until we reach a safe distance, then surface."

"What if something goes wrong, and you don't return?" Torrent asked. "How long should I wait before going in after you?"

Nightreader thought for a moment. "Wait as long as you can. There's always the chance I'll be delayed by something unimportant or other. If I don't return, don't come after me. Leave, and see if you can find Griffin and Stonemover by yourself. You're a SeaWing, you can navigate the ocean better than I can, and if you find him, Stonemover could help. It would be suicide to try and enter the island on your own, you don't know it at all, and a big blue SeaWing will stick out like an extra wing there. There's not much water to hide in, unless you can swim in lava."

Torrent didn't like that, just abandoning her if something went wrong, but it made sense. "I can do that," he affirmed. "Do you know where the Obsidian Mirror is?"

"I think so," Nightreader answered, "Princess Greatness has it somewhere in her chambers, I believe, but I think she'd notice it if it went missing, and they might go after me." She wasn't particularly keen on using it. It had a dark feeling to it, something much worse than any object Stonemover had ever made.

Torrent drew out his dagger and passed it to Nightreader. "The amethyst on that gets warmer when you point the dagger towards an enchanted object, just in case you have trouble finding it. If you don't want to take it, you can at least prevent anyone else from using it. Tap the dagger to it while pressing a claw to the emerald, and the mirror will be disenchanted. While you're using the mirror, make sure the dagger isn't too close, or it won't work."

Nightreader took the dagger carefully, as if it was made of glass. She turned it over. There was a small spherical indent on the hilt, where it looked like a third gem should have gone. The faintest of claw marks seemed to have scratched around the indent. She wondered what had happened there. "Are you sure about this?" she asked. "Your sister gave it to you, and it's your only protection against animus magic."

Torrent snorted. "It wouldn't be the first time someone else has used it. And if something happens to you, it's enchanted to return to me. Speaking of that, it'll tug on you when you're holding it to try and go back to me. Just don't let it out of sight or keep it too long, and it'll probably be fine."

Nightreader nodded, and glanced forward. The sky was getting darker with smoke and smog. She crunched up the scales around her nose. She wasn't excited about returning to the Night Kingdom. "See you, then."

Torrent nodded, and dove beneath the water. Nightreader watched him swim out of sight, then turned forward with a boost of speed. As the oppressive smoke started to surround her, a landmass in the distance, the volcano rising high into the air, and the orange glow of lava emanating from the NightWing island, obscured by the dark smog. The water beneath her started to grow clouded and dark.

Home sweet home.