"Loresearcher," Ink called.

The hybrid sighed, and looked over his wing towards his brother. "What is it now?" he asked. "I'm a bit busy here." He folded up the scroll he'd been reading, and set it down next to the others he had been reading. Starflight cocked his head, hearing the noise. The library wasn't really a place to chat.

"Um, I just heard something from Polar," Ink notified him, lowering his voice. "He says that Toxin says she saw Aurora on the way here."

"Toxin?" Loresearcher asked.

Ink nodded. "She's a hybrid too. She came with Queen Glory. Apparently Aurora was captured, but killed some RainWings back in the rainforest in her escape. I think she might be coming here."

If Loresearcher was surprised, he didn't show it. He pondered on this for a moment, Ink awaiting what his brother decided to do. He wondered why Aurora would be here. His half-sister, who'd helped Crystal kill Ink's mother and sister. His claws tensed up, just thinking about her. The two brothers had seen her again, a couple of years ago. Ink had tried to fight her, but there was no chance of him winning. He felt the scar on the underside of his right wing that she'd given him. If she'd wanted to, she could've gutted Ink. But she'd let him live with the reminder. Loresearcher wasn't scared of anyone, but if there was one dragon Loresearcher were to be scared of, it would be Aurora.

"If she's coming, then we need to make sure we're focused when she arrives," Loresearcher decided. "We can't have interference from outsiders." Loresearcher set down his scroll, and started walking towards the library's exit, turning the tunnel.

Ink nodded. His brother was truly wise beyond his years. He thought about what Loresearcher meant. "Do you want to . . . evacuate the school?" Ink quietly followed behind his brother, wondering where he was going.

"No," Loresearcher responded. "I doubt the headmaster would listen to us. They had a series of murders and attempted murders a few years ago, right before Queen Scarlet returned to power. They didn't evacuate then. It would take a few natural disasters to cause them to evacuate the school now." Loresearcher considered the idea for a moment, wondering how plausible the idea was. He shook his head. Too risky, especially if Aurora would be here soon. Or worse, if she was already here, just waiting for the right time.

"So, how do we . . . stop interference?" Ink asked.

"My main concern right now is Seahorse," Loresearcher responded. "He's a wild card. He has something enchanted, and I don't trust him not to use it. I doubt he's working with Aurora, but I don't know his motivations. We need to remove him from the picture."

Ink gulped. "When you say remove him from the picture, you don't mean—"

"Kill him?" Loresearcher asked, slightly annoyed that Ink seemed to be questioning him. "That's probably the safest way to do things, but I plan to get more information first."

"Oh," Ink replied unhappily. He sighed. This wasn't the first time this had happened. He knew by now that he couldn't stop Loresearcher if he'd made his decision. There wasn't really much point in trying. At this point, he could tell where Loresearcher was taking him: back to the guest room.

The two turned into the room. Polar was laying on the ground, reading a scroll, while Seahorse was in the corner, resting. Ink had hoped he'd be asleep, but no such luck. He opened his eyes as the two came in.

"Polar, leave," Loresearcher demanded.

Polar frowned. "Excuse me?" the IceWing growled, the symbol of the First Circle hanging from his neck. "I only take orders from Queen Glacier. A mutt like you has no business telling me what to do in my room."

Loresearcher was unpleased. He slowly removed his harness and the wooden contraptions on his wing, setting them to the side. Ink whimpered nervously, tucking his tail between his legs. He knew what that meant. Loresearcher was preparing for a fight, and didn't want his stuff to get hurt in it.

"Queen Glacier is dead," Loresearcher flatly announced, his eyes focused on Seahorse rather than Polar. "Your aunt, my step-mother, murdered her five days ago. Now, unless you want to end up like your queen, leave."

Polar stood up. A mixture of confusion, rage, and loss filled his head. Queen Glacier, dead? And now this hybrid was threatening him? And what was this about Crystal? He bared his teeth, and stretched out his claws. He huffed, a puff of cold mist coming from his mouth. Loresearcher stood still, and slowly started to turn his head towards the IceWing.

"Polar, please," Ink begged the IceWing. He'd gotten to know the IceWing over the past few days. He didn't want him to die like this. "This isn't about you. Don't do this. Just run."

Polar caught Ink's eyes. The two exchanged a glance for a moment, and Polar relaxed from his fighting stance. Loresearcher turned back to Seahorse.

"This isn't over," Polar growled at Loresearcher, before he left the room, trying to grapple with the news the hybrid had just told him.

Seahorse had patiently been biding his time, cautiously looking back and forth between the fighting dragons. "Do you want me to leave, too?" he asked. "I'm not here to fight."

"Stay where you are," Loresearcher ordered. "Ink, search his belongings." He stayed at the entrance, blocking it. Ink bowed his head, and slowly walked over to the white cloth that held Seahorse's treasure. He ripped the fabric open, the contents spilling out. All sorts of shinies spilled out: jewelry, chalices, huge gemstones, and gold pieces aplenty. Seahorse could buy himself a small kingdom with this.

The SeaWing stood up. "What is the meaning of this?" he growled. "I've done nothing to you. I'm not doing anything wrong."

Loresearcher didn't bother answering his question. "You have so much jewelry, but you always wear that one silver locket around your neck. Why?"

Seahorse stiffened up nervously. "It's important to me. It has personal meaning. Why do you care?" Ink continued looking through the treasure. Other than the sheer amount of it, nothing in it had seemed unusual. Had Loresearcher been mistaken?

"What's inside of it?" Loresearcher took a few steps forward and to the right, putting Seahorse between himself and Ink.

"None of your business," he answered, his breath starting to speed up as his heart raced. "Now, please leave. You have no right to look through my stuff." He turned his head towards Ink, who had moved on from the sack, his eyes caught on a scrollcase that Seahorse had laid down next to him. Alarm rushed through the SeaWing as he reached for it.

"Don't touch that!" Seahorse yelled in surprise, and swung out a foreclaw, grabbing Ink by his leg and swiftly throwing him to the side. A loud crack resounded in Ink's leg, the bone snapping in two. The young hybrid yelled as the throw sent him flying across the room, slamming into the cavern wall next to the exit. He screamed in pain as his left wing hit the hard rock surface, crumpling against it as the bones in it shattered. He back contorted around the exit, and Ink slid to the ground, his wing caught under him.

Seahorse stared in shock at Ink as the hybrid screamed in agony, like he hadn't been aware of his own strength. "Oh three moons, oh three moons, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that. No, no, please don—"

In Seahorse's shock, Loresearcher leaped at his neck, his claws grasping around her silver locket and ripping it from his neck. As he landed on the ground, Seahorse's form started to quiver and shrink. His thick tail thinned and curled as his snout narrowed, his strength becoming sapped. The SeaWing's aquamarine scales started to shift colors, morphing into a blinding lime green. Even though he was older, the RainWing's head barely reached Loresearcher's. The hybrid frowned, slightly surprised. He'd expected that Seahorse just had some sort of strengthening spell in the locket, not that he was a different dragon altogether.

The RainWing's eyes darted towards Loresearcher, and he bared his fangs with a hiss. He opened his jaws and a burst of venom shot out, barely missing Loresearcher as the hybrid dived to the right. The RainWing jumped towards his pile of treasure, grabbing at a mess of iron chains holding boxes together. As Loresearcher turned around, leaping at the RainWing, he slipped them on. His form suddenly grew in size, the green scales turning to the black of a NightWing's. Loresearcher's claws grabbed onto him, but his talons were unable to pierce into the NightWing's scales.

The NightWing turned, ready to attack Loresearcher, but the hybrid had already leaped off him. Loresearcher slowly backed away as the NightWing walked forwards. "You can't hurt me in this form," the NightWing growled.

Loresearcher carefully stepped out of the cave, over the whimpering Ink, wrapped around the exit. The NightWing followed him into the hallway. "Don't try to run."

The NightWing's head suddenly turned, as the voices of dragons came from further down the hallway. Ink's screams had been heard by someone. Peril, Turtle, and Kinkajou, quickly followed by Tsunami and Polar.

"What's going on?" Tsunami growled, as she took in the scene. The huge black NightWing, standing over Ink's crumpled body, Loresearcher behind him.

"YOU!" Kinkajou suddenly yelled out, quickly recognizing Shapeshifter as the dragon who had put her in her coma. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

Peril stood still. She knew this dragon. Her expression dropped. "Chameleon," she said shamefully, looking at Ink. "Why . . . ? What did you do?"

Turtle looked up to her, a worried look on the young prince's snout. Polar stared, shocked, at Ink's body, barely breathing.

Shapeshifter shook his head, like he was trapped in a bad dream. "No, no. Please, Peril. I'm so sorry. This wasn't supposed to happen, it was all an accident." He looked over towards Ink. Bone was protruding from his leg, and he was losing blood quickly. Ink's vision started to get blurry. "I can explain. I can help him."

Shapeshifter turned back to the cave, his eyes focused on his scrollcase, but he suddenly felt scales pushed against his neck. He turned to see Loresearcher. The hybrid had poked his head beneath Shapeshifter's chained jewelry, trying to sneak under it. Shapeshifter tried to pull him out, but realized too late what the hybrid was trying to do. Loresearcher's body suddenly started to grow, the blue hues fading out of his scales as the enchantment transformed him into another Shapeshifter. With neither of the dragons' impenetrable scales able to give way, the chains snapped around the two's necks, the enchantment breaking.

As Shapeshifter transformed back into Chameleon, Loresearcher took no time to hesitate, and tore his fangs into the RainWing's exposed throat. With a rip and gurgling noise, he tore Chameleon's throat out, blood dripping from the hybrid's jaws as the RainWing fell to the ground. Blood poured from his neck, pooling up on the ground as Loresearcher stood up, victorious.

Ink's vision started to go woozy, the world turning around before him. He heard the screams of a dragon in anger, but he couldn't tell who. A white blob stood before him, and pressed a gemstone to his chest. The pain started to subside

"Please, don't worry, it will be okay," Polar's voice whimpered, trying to comfort him as his vision faded into darkness.

Ink's eyes suddenly opened, gasping for breath as he let out a short yell. He moved his eyepatch over his blind eye, shutting it tight. He quickly touched his paws to his wing and leg. Both felt fine, albeit a little sore from sleeping on them wrong. He looked around the guest room. Inferno was the only other dragon in there. She opened her eyes, awoken by Ink's sound.

"Are you alright?" she asked, concerned.

Ink nodded, as he took in a few deep breaths to steady himself. "Yeah," he huffed. "Just a bad dream." The room was hot, warmed up by Inferno's constant supply of heat. Ink moved his wing, as if to check it was still working. He quickly looked around the room, keeping the memory of his vision fresh within his head. It wasn't real. Loresearcher had been dead seven years. It couldn't come true.

Inferno let out a yawn. Ink hadn't lied about her being tired. The two had went to bed after their conversation with Peril and Turtle, maybe a little bit early. Ink wondered what time it was. It felt like the middle of the night. "Where's Polar and Seahorse?" Ink asked Inferno. "They should be back by now, right?"

Inferno shrugged her wings. "I haven't seen Polar. Seahorse left and accidentally woke me up, so I guess he's still out there. He seemed a bit restless. Maybe he's on a midnight flight or something."

Ink nodded. That was probably for the best. He tried to remember when the events of his vision had happened . . . Loresearcher had said five days after Queen Glacier's death. That didn't help him at all. Was Queen Glacier even dead in this world? He had no way to know. "Inferno, I'm worried about Seahorse. I think he's hiding something, and I'm worried that he's going to end up hurting himself or someone else."

"Seahorse?" Inferno asked, confused. She hadn't really seen Ink interact with Seahorse much. Yet, Ash had told her to be cautious about the both of them. "How so? He's a little unusual, but I think he's a good dragon at heart." Hopefully Ash didn't mind that she disagreed with him on this.

Ink nodded. "Yeah, maybe you're right." He hadn't really gotten a sense of evil from Seahorse, or Chameleon, or whoever he was. Thinking back on the events of his vision, Seahorse hadn't really meant to hurt Ink. He'd just been scared, rightfully so, of Loresearcher. "Do you know why he came to Jade Mountain?"

Inferno thought about if for a minute. "Yeah," she replied, "he told me he had a relative here he wanted to talk to. He actually wanted my help talking to this relative, believe it or not." Inferno laughed, as if the idea was ridiculous.

That's ironic, Ink thought. He'd lied to Polar himself about coming to Jade Mountain to visit a relative. He probably should go talk with Stonemover when he found the time. And maybe Polar himself. He hadn't seen the IceWing much the last few days. "I believe it."

Inferno's laugh stopped. "Oh no. I'm really not sure I could help with talking to other dragons. You saw how I was with Peril and Webs."

"Don't beat yourself up about it," Ink replied, "I'm sure you'll do fine." He frowned. "Do you know of a RainWing named Chameleon?"

Inferno shook her head. "No clue."

Ink thought for a moment. Inferno was the closest to Seahorse here. If he wanted to avoid what he'd seen in his vision, it would be best if he told Inferno what he knew. "I think Seahorse can turn into other dragons, including a RainWing named Chameleon."

Inferno looked at Ink curiously, wondering if this was a joke. "You're serious?" she asked. Maybe he was a bit addled from his nightmare.

"Yeah," Ink replied. "It's why he's so unnaturally strong. You saw the bag of treasure he brought with him, right?"

Inferno mused on this. Ink was right, but this just seemed too out there. "There's probably a better reason than that. Maybe the bag is just really light?"

Ink shook his head, and walked over to the cloth sack. He pulled at it, but could barely move the sack of treasure. Inferno frowned. She still didn't believe it.

Ink sighed. "Alright. I think there's something in here that can prove it. Go to the entrance to make sure Seahorse and Polar don't come back." He started opening up the cloth sack.

Inferno squirmed. "You shouldn't do that," she suggested. "We shouldn't be going through his stuff." Still, she slowly got up, and walked over to the entrance.

Ink let the cloth unfold, revealing the treasure within. He carefully looked through it, trying not to displace anything, until he found what he'd seen in his vision. Iron chains, with a few boxes on them that looked like they held something. He lugged the heavy jewelry out of the sack. Inferno nervously peeked around the hallway, worried Seahorse could come back any second.

"Watch," Ink said. He slipped the chains over his neck, and his body suddenly started to transform, growing larger as his scales darkened. When the transformation finished, Ink had turned into a huge NightWing with glistening scales.

Inferno gasped as Ink transformed into Shapeshifter. He'd been right.

Ink, now Shapeshifter, waved his wings up and down, feeling the power in them. "Oh wow," he said. "This is awesome." He tapped a talon on his scales, feeling how hard they were. He barely felt the heat from Inferno. "I think these scales are fireproof! I bet you could touch me and I wouldn't burn."

Inferno winced. "No thank you," she replied, "I think I've had enough touching for today." She shivered as she remembered Peril's embrace.

The huge NightWing grinned, and took off the iron chains, returning to Ink. He looked back to the pile of treasure. "I wonder if every piece of jewelry does this," he considered. He put on a golden necklace, but nothing seemed to happen. "Nope, guess not."

"We shouldn't be playing," Inferno said. Why did Seahorse have all this stuff? He wasn't like, secretly a ninja assassin or something, right? That seemed unlikely. Maybe he'd been an ninja assassin before joining the Talons of Peace? A piece of jewelry caught Inferno's eye in the pile. "Hey, I've seen that earring before," she told Ink, pointing to it. "It was on a dragon named Cirrus. He used to be in the Talons." She gasped. "Put it on," she suggested.

Ink carefully picked the earring up, and placed it on his ear. His form suddenly shifted again, his spines growing as his scales turned hues of white and purple. "Woah, I'm an IceWing now. Do you think I can breath frostbreath?" He thought about trying, but decided not to, since it could leave some residue. "Wait, do you think Seahorse killed Cirrus and took his identity? That's bad, but also pretty cool. Why does my voice suddenly sound evil? Bwahahaha."

"No, no," Inferno sighed. "Take it off. Seahorse was Cirrus all along. Cirrus left the Talons a few months before Seahorse joined, around the time Queen Scarlet rose back to power." In hindsight, she supposed it made a little sense that they were the same dragon. She'd noticed a few similar quirks, but Seahorse had always seemed less menacing.

Ink swished his spikey tail around, admiring it. "Alright. I really hope Seahorse is good and not evil. Maybe he could make me into an IceWing. I'd bet that Polar would like me a lot better. Do you think he finds IceWings hot? Or should I say, cool?"

He could make my scales normal, Inferno realized. She pushed the thought away. Maybe after this was all over.

Ink took off the Cirrus earring, and transformed back into his original shape. He looked over the earring. "Do you think Seahorse is an animus? Or Cirrus or Chameleon or whichever he prefers?"

"I don't know," Inferno said. If Cirrus had been an animus, he hadn't shown many signs of his power. He could've saved dead dragons, help stop the war. Why hadn't he?

Ink shook the earring up and down, examining it closely. A small, rolled-up scrap of paper appeared in one of its cracks. The hybrid unfurled it, squinting as he read the tiny script. "Turn the dragon who wears this earring into an IceWing named Cirrus." There were a few more lines that added in details, some of them appearing to have been written down long after the first line.

Inferno frowned. "Why would an animus write down their enchantments on a scroll instead of saying them out loud?" she asked Ink.

Ink's eyes went wide. "Oh," he whispered quietly. "I know this story. My dad told it to me as a dragonet. Sort of." A hint of confusion passed through his eyes as he tried to sort things out. That wasn't quite true. Torrent had read him and Loresearcher tales about animuses in his visions. But that wasn't real. Inferno looked at him expectantly. "Nevermind. But you've heard of the Darkstalker, right?"

Inferno shook her head, surprising Ink. He supposed it made sense she wouldn't know.

"It's an IceWing and NightWing legend," Ink explained, "so I guess the Talons wouldn't have told you." He knew there weren't very many IceWings or NightWings in the Talons, especially with Fracture and Clarity mostly absent. "The Darkstalker was an ancient NightWing animus. Well, according to the IceWings, he was technically a hybrid, but no one seems to remember or care about that. He did some really evil stuff with his magic I think, but what exactly he did depends on who you talk to. But he had a SeaWing friend who had a son that said that he apparently tried to make a talisman that would contain his animus powers so he wouldn't lose his soul. Maybe that's what Seahorse did, put his animus magic in a scroll."

"Alright, but if he was an animus, wouldn't he be doing something . . . cooler that hanging out in the Talons of Peace?" Inferno asked. "It's kind of a lame way to spend your life if you have superpowers. Especially if you're super-rich, which he clearly is."

Ink shrugged. "But these are scraps of paper from a scroll," he continued, "which means they came from a bigger scroll." His eyes turned to the black scrollcase on the ground. The one which had caused Seahorse to throw him in his vision when he'd tried to touch it. "I wonder what's in here."

"Maybe that's not such a good idea," Inferno squirmed. "Don't animuses curse dragons who touch their stuff?"

"Eh, I already touched his treasure. If I was cursed, I'd already be cursed probably," Ink replied as he grasped his claws around the scrollcase. Inferno didn't get the logic there — there could be a worse curse on the scrollcase — but it was too late.

Ink opened up the scrollcase, and a scroll dropped out. He quickly rolled it open, curious to see what was inside. Inferno looked out into the hallway again. This would be a really bad time for Seahorse to come back into the room. She turned back to Ink, and saw his eyes open in shock, a hint of fear in them. He dropped the scroll, and took a step away, as if just touching it had somehow hurt him.

"Ink?" she asked. "What is it?" She looked over at the scroll to see writing already on it, although she couldn't read any of it. She'd been starting to learn her letters, but she was hardly proficient, and the script on the scroll was too old for her to recognize any of the letters she knew.

"Umm, so you remember what I was saying about the Darkstalker? And him having a talisman that he put his powers into so that he didn't lose his soul?"

"Mhmm," Inferno replied. She suddenly realized what Ink was implying. "Wait, you don't mean—"

"Yeah," Ink gulped. "This is it."

"Are you telling me Seahorse is the Darkstalker?" Inferno stammered.

"Umm," Ink replied, thinking on it for a moment. "I don't think so. There are two different clawscripts on the scroll. And it's pretty clear which is which." He shuddered at the one enchanting Prince Arctic. Some amount of the lower section had been ripped out, but there were other enchantments written on them too, with the same clawscript that was on the earring. A lot of them seemed a bit . . . ordinary. Like the dragon who wrote them didn't really have any grand plans. For example, one had enchanted a mango into a golden crown, which had later been crossed out and re-enchanted to become a persimmon.

Inferno frowned. "What should we do?" she asked. "The scroll has unlimited power. We could enchant anything with it. It pretty much lets whoever have it be an animus, right?" What would she do with animus magic? Get rid of her firescales, of course. But she wasn't quite sure what else.

Ink considered it. "I don't know. Maybe we should get rid of it. Animus magic in anyone's claws is pretty bad news. And I don't know if using it would do anything to our souls." Even if he'd only met his father in his visions, some of Torrent's views on animus magic had taken hold in his mind. If you used magic, it would always come back around to bite your tail.

"Don't destroy it," Inferno said, almost pleadingly. "I don't think we should make the decision without thinking about it first. It's also Seahorse's, isn't it?"

"Well, sort of," Ink replied. It was really the Darkstalker's. "You think we should let him keep it?" He remembered the Seahorse from his vision. He'd almost killed him, albeit accidentally.

Inferno shrugged her wings. "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. If he's just using it for simple things, that's not so bad."

Ink wasn't sure about that. There were so many ripped off portions of the scroll, he didn't know what Seahorse had used it for. "I still don't know what else he did with it."

Inferno tapped her tail on the rocks. "Maybe we could make it so that no one can use it, at least until we agree otherwise. You could write something like that down on the scroll, right? Or give it to me for safe-keeping, hah. It's not like I can use it. Actually, bad idea, I'd just set it on fire. Unless it's fireproof." She realized that if Ink agreed with this, she'd have no way of confirming that he'd written down what she'd asked him to. Well, she trusted him not to lie to her about it. He was the one who'd suggested destroying it, anyways.

Ink considered the option. Temporarily restricting it so that no one could use it. "That's a good idea," he agreed, "but I don't think we should be using the Darkstalker's magic. What if writing on the scroll hurts your soul, or lets the Darkstalker possess you or something like that? Maybe if we found an animus to enchant it to keep it from working. Maybe we should just let it be for now."

Inferno sighed. "Alright. So we just aren't going to do anything about this?"

"No, we'll investigate," Ink grinned. "I have a hunch that Kinkajou and Peril know more about Seahorse, but by the name of Chameleon."

"A hunch?" Inferno asked, confused what Ink meant.

"Er, yeah," Ink replied, "sort of like NightWing things, you know." He packed Darkstalker's scroll back in its case, and started to tie Seahorse's cloth bag closed.

"NightWing . . . things?" Inferno asked. "Like, NightWing powers? You can't read my mind, can you?"

"No, no, but it's a little bit like precognition," Ink continued. "But not really. It's hard to explain. I don't want to get into it right now, especially if Seahorse could be coming back soon. I'll tell you tomorrow, alright? And we can go see what Kinkajou and Peril know, 'kay?"

"Yeah," Inferno said, staring at the hybrid. He had NightWing powers, and hadn't told her? I mean, she kind of got why, especially with all the confusion going on about whether NightWings had powers or not. And it wasn't like Inferno had told him about Ash, either. But it still felt like Ink had dropped a dragonflame cactus on her, and hadn't explained it at all. Ink didn't offer any more explanation, though, so she supposed that was all she was going to get for the night.

The SkyWing walked to her stone bed, surrounded by rocks, and lied down. She let out a long yawn, quickly spiraling into her much needed sleep. Inferno could use a bit more sleep before she approached the subject. Or talked to Peril again.

"I can help you."

Inferno's eyes fluttered open. Grass tickled her underbelly. She looked up to see a familiar salmon-pink SkyWing. "Oh, good evening Ash," she yawned.

"You have questions about Seahorse and Ink," Ash continued. He seemed far more direct than usual. "I can help you answer them. Touch their scales, and I'll figure out everything you want to know."

"T-touch them?" Inferno asked, surprised. "Er, I can't. That would burn them."

Ash snorted. "They'll be fine. Maybe a small scar, but that's all. Or you can talk to Peril again. It's your call, but this way, you'll know for sure."

Inferno opened her mouth to speak, but Ash was gone. The grass beneath her started to burn, fire spreading across it as it crisped and blackened. The fire flared across the landscape, turning everything it touched to ash. In what felt like mere moments, the pristine landscape was no more.