"You know, you've been reading the same scroll for five minutes and haven't touched it."

Polar glanced back over to Toxin. Other than Starflight, the two were the only ones in the library at the moment. Glory had headed back to the rainforest with Mastermind, and Tiger was back in classes. Deathbringer was still around somewhere, waiting for Aurora's arrival, even though Toxin's vision had already passed. "It's dense," Polar snorted.

Toxin rolled her eyes. "Oh please. You're still worried about him, aren't you?"

"I'm not," Polar retorted.

"Yes you are," Toxin teased. "You totally are. I can tell. You can pretend you don't care about him all you want, but you totally do. You have a crush."

"Shut up," Polar hissed, glancing around to make sure no one else had heard Toxin. Starflight twitched an ear.

"You've literally referred to him as cute multiple times to me. What, do you think someone's gonna Queen Glacier?" Toxin laughed.

Polar's expression fell, his tail drooping.

Toxin realized that she'd probably gone a bit too far. "Sorry," she apologized. "I know that must be . . . rough for you."

"It's fine," Polar sighed. It really wasn't. He felt his First Circle necklace, his thoughts taken off Ink. "It's just . . . Glacier was a little bit more than a queen to me. She was almost a mother. After my parents fled the Ice Kingdom, she took me in, raising me in the palace. It was far more than she had to do — before they fled, my mother was Fourth Circle, and my father wasn't even ranked. I had no right to live in the palace. Even talking to you and Ink feels treasonous, like I'm stepping over her memories."

"Cause we're half-NightWing, and we're hybrids," Toxin replied. "Got it."

"I'm not trying to be offensive," Polar quickly said. "Maybe you and Ink don't realize this, but IceWings and NightWings really aren't supposed to get along. We're not even supposed to talk to NightWings, we're supposed to kill them on sight. An eternal war. Had I realized Ink was part-NightWing when I met him . . ." Polar winced. He wondered if he'd really not suspected Ink was a hybrid, even in the low light. Had he just been trying to pretend he didn't know?

"Just cause I'm half-RainWing and a dragonet doesn't mean I don't understand," Toxin retorted, flicking her tail. "I know plenty of dragons who lived on the island. I know that IceWings basically murdered the old NightWing queen. I just don't care. I'm not even a full NightWing, it's stupid that I'm supposed to hate you all."

IceWings killed the NightWing queen? Polar wondered why he hadn't heard of that; news like that would've shaken the Ice Kingdom. "Yeah. I guess it'll probably be different from now on, at least for the NightWings. Queen Glory doesn't seem like the type to promote our feud. Although I wouldn't count on any changes in the Ice Kingdom, Bla — Queen Blackice doesn't seem to hate NightWings any less than Glacier."

"Ink wasn't raised in the Night Kingdom, right?" Toxin asked. "I don't think they were too fond of hybrids back on the island. I'm pretty sure my egg would've been thrown in lava instead of being added to the mix of RainWing eggs. Queen Glory changed that by the way; dragonets are still raised communally of course, but we keep track of our eggs now."

"I'm honestly not quite sure where Ink was raised," Polar admitted. "I think he mentioned Possibility? There's not a lot of places for hybrids. And I doubt he'd ever learn hate IceWings — he was part of the Talons, and my parents helped his adoptive father raise him."

"Oh," Toxin replied. "That's weird. Are you—"

"Jealous?" Polar interrupted. "Not really. They left me for dead. They couldn't have been that good."

Toxin frowned. "Just curious, when you said they fled the kingdom, did they leave willingly, or were they banished?"

"Queen Glacier told me that they left after their treachery was discovered," Polar answered. Toxin looked slightly skeptical. "You're not suggesting she lied, are you?"

Toxin waved her wings back and forth. "Maybe not full-out lied, but don't you think she could've twisted the truth a little bit? Like, why would your parents leave you behind in the Ice Kingdom? If they helped raise Ink willingly, they probably didn't hate dragonets."

Polar winced. Toxin was making sense. He shook his head. He didn't want to think about this, especially so soon after Queen Glacier's death. He quickly switched the subject. "I don't know. So have you figured anything out about the vision you had? What it means? It's metaphorical, right?"

Toxin sighed. "No clue. I haven't had metaphorical visions before, but yeah, a sea of blood is a bit much. Probably means someone will die or something like that."

Polar flicked his tail. He didn't really like the whole NightWing powers thing. It seemed pretty unfair — not only did they have creepy powers, but they also stole the IceWings' animus magic. Well, not much he could do about it.

Polar glanced back to the scroll he was reading, and put it away. "Maybe we should take another look at Nightreader's prophecy."

"Don't have any better ideas," Toxin muttered. She'd considered going back to the rainforest with Glory, but had decided to stay at Jade Mountain instead after her vision of blood. She'd started to regret it. It was getting kind of boring. She pulled out Historical NightWing Prophecies and Visions and opened it up to the prophecy. "Anything new?"

Polar scanned over it, reading it a few times. "I told you that I talked with Stonemover, didn't I? I saw Nightreader. The modern day one."

"Wait, really?" Toxin asked, surprised. "Did you ask her—"

"She's dead," Polar notified Toxin. "Turned to stone. She was one of Crystal's victims. But I'm pretty sure she's Ink's mother."

Toxin thought about this for a second, putting the pieces together. "Wow, y'all had some wild parents. For a group of pacifists, the Talons of Peace sounds pretty intense."

"And we're the ones who have to clean up their mess," Polar grumbled.

"So, what did Stonemover say about the prophecy?"

"Oh, er, I didn't ask him," Polar answered. "He just ranted about how evil animus magic was."

Toxin huffed. "Really?"

"Sorry," Polar apologized. "I know where Stonemover is now though. I looked through a map of the caverns and there's a straightforward route to it, so we can go talk to him later."

Toxin glanced down to the prophecy again. "'When the stones of old awaken,'" she mused. "Think that could refer to the Eye of Onyx?"

"Not just that," Polar suggested, "all of the Seven Eyes. Crystal killed Queen Glacier for a reason, and I'll bet she took the Eye of Diamond too. And you saw the amethyst that Aurora was wearing, with the two wings? It looks just like Queen Glacier's Eye of Diamond. It's probably the Eye of Amethyst."

"The SkyWing Eye," Toxin concluded. "Which would explain her windy powers. Okay, so Crystal and Aurora are going around collecting ancient super-weapons."

"'The fires of death must burn.' That's probably the drought." Polar continued.

"Or the volcanic eruption," Toxin said. "That might make more sense with the next line, 'When the lives of many have been taken.' No clue what 'the ground of Pyrrhia will be turned' means. Turned to what? Sand cause there's not enough water?"

"Sure, let's go with that." Polar looked at the next set of lines. "I think this is a listing of dragons. Hey, 'the fumes untamed.' Maybe that's you."

"Me?" Toxin laughed. "I'm not the one involved in this mess, you are. There's no way I'm in some ancient prophecy. That's ridiculous."

"I'm serious. You're the one having visions," Polar responded. "You saw both Crystal and Aurora. That's pretty important, in my opinion. And fumes, toxins, it would make sense."

"Then what?" Toxin snorted. "'Frozen claws' sounds like an IceWing. Is that you?"

"It doesn't make sense," Polar admitted.

"Yeah, but you're definitely more involved in this mess than I am," Toxin continued. "Hey, what about 'darkness be tamed'? It could mean the 'polar night'."

"What?" Polar chuckled. "How do you even know what that is?"

"Mastermind told me," Toxin explained. "There was one on the NightWing island, where the night would last for over a cycle of the smallest moon. They couldn't see the aurora, of course, too much smoke."

Polar tossed his horns from side to side. "It's possible, but a tenuous connection," he decided.

"What about 'deepest black'?" Toxin asked. "If we're going with names being referenced in the prophecy, that could be a NightWing with a night-related name."

Polar shook his head. "That's penguin-brained. Usually nights aren't even that dark with the moons out. It's why IceWings don't need night-vision. Really, only SeaWings do. Speaking of SeaWings, what if it's Ink?"

"True," Toxin replied. "I can't really imagine anything darker than ink. And 'the tablet forgotten'?"

Polar thought for a moment, but couldn't come up with anything. "I don't know. Maybe Stonemover will, though. It is his sister's prophecy, apparently."

"Alright, we can try and get him."

Checking the scroll out from Starflight, the two headed down into the tunnels, Polar lighting the way with a moon globe as Toxin followed one of the maps distributed to the students. Stonemover's cave wasn't marked, but Polar knew the approximate location. This time, the path they took was far more direct than how Polar had gone through the tunnels before, and before long, they reached the NightWing animus.

Stonemover slowly raised his head as they entered, small chips of stone falling from his neck. He stared blankly at Polar. "So," he greeted, his voice wheezing. "Did you give up animus magic?"

Polar winced. "Er, not exactly."

"Wait, what?" Toxin yelled, glaring at Polar. "You're an animus, and you didn't tell us? Your secret IceWing project worked?"

"Sort of," Polar sighed. "I'm not really able to do much with it. I've only been able to do tiny things like making pebbles float, and it drains a ton of my energy." He didn't tell her that it was also probably killing him.

"It's the thingy on your arm, isn't it," Toxin snorted. "The one that Aurora has too. That's why you told Glory to destroy it."

"Yes," Polar said, rolling his eyes. "I assumed you'd both figured it out already."

"I was sort of busy having a vision of blood everywhere when that happened," Toxin retorted. "I have an excuse."

"Fine," Polar replied. "Anyways, we're not here to talk about that. Stonemover, we wanted to know about Nightreader's prophecy. She was your sister, right?"

Stonemover let out a deep sigh. He moved his claws slowly, stone scratching against stone. He followed that up another sigh. Polar's tail twitched impatiently.

"Yes," Stonemover finally answered.

"Well?" Polar growled. "Is there anything you know about it? Why does an thousands of years old prophecy have the name of a dragon who was alive a decade ago on it? Did Nightreader know about it? Did she travel back in time? Or forward in time?"

Stonemover shook his head. "I can't answer most of your questions. I'm sorry. I'm so useless. We never really talked about the prophecy much. It wasn't something we thought was urgent. Maybe we were wrong. Probably."

Polar smashed his tail on the ground in exasperation, making Toxin jump. "So how did you learn about it?" Polar hissed. "What does it mean?"

"Nightreader said that an IceWing with mystical powers told her it," Stonemover finally answered. "I think his name was Fracture."

"Wait, Fracture?" Polar yelled.

Toxin seethed. "Stop being so dramatic," she scolded Polar. "Do you know him?"

"You could say that," Polar grumbled. "Fracture wa — is my father. What do you mean 'mystical powers'? Like, prophecy? He wasn't secretly a NightWing, was he?" Polar checked his scales, as if making sure he wasn't actually a hybrid.

Stonemover slowly bobbed his head from side to side. "I don't think so. According to Nightreader, he was blind in one eye, but could use it to see 'what had been' or 'what might have been' or something like that."

"Well, that's interesting," Toxin commented. "You know who else was blind in one eye? Ink. At least until Aurora tore it out. If it gave him 'mystical powers,' that would explain why she did it. And if your dad also had similar powers, maybe that's why he helped raise Ink. Like to teach him how to use his powers or something like that."

"He said he could see the future," Polar explained. "Maybe that was what he meant."

"Did you say Ink?" Stonemover asked. "One of Nightreader's dragonets was going to be named Ink."

"Yes, yes, this is the same one," Polar snorted. "Apologies in advance for not telling you earlier. I thought he was going to visit. Unless he dies. In which case he won't visit."

Stonemover looked slightly distraught. "That's alright. It's not like anything really matters anymore." He sighed again.

"Look, we need to focus," Toxin interrupted. She started to doubt Stonemover's usefulness, and it began to make sense why Polar hadn't bothered talking to him more. "Nightreader's prophecy. Do you know the dragons in it? There's a few lines that we think are referencing specific dragons by their names. Since Ink and Polar's families are all entwined in this mess, they're probably two, and Polar thinks I'm a third because of all the visions I've had."

"Hey, what about Inferno?" Polar suggested. "'Eternal flames' sounds fitting for a fireborn."

"Alright, then who's the 'tablet forgotten'?" Toxin questioned. "If the 'frozen claws' line refers just to you, that's number five, not including our ancient evil. Who, from reading the scrolls and this whole name repeats nonsense, is probably Calamity."

"Or Darkstalker," Polar pointed out, giving Stonemover a quick side-glance. "Also an ancient evil with deathly name." He shivered just thinking about the ancient animus.

"Do you know what we have to do, then, after we find the fifth?" Toxin asked Stonemover. "Spark waters of life across some bridge and unite the tribes and lead them in a peaceful war? What does that even mean?"

Stonemover shut his eyes, and for a moment, Polar was worried the dragon would start crying. "I'm sorry," the NightWing sniffled. "I really have no idea. I don't even remember Nightreader's prophecy. It was so long ago."

"Well, you're still an animus, a real one," Polar brought up. "That can help us out, right? Maybe you can enchant a scroll that will tell who the five dragons in the prophecy or the three coming to devour the sun are, or maybe a compass that points to the bridge."

Stonemover's eyes opened up widely, and he shook his head vigorously, causing a burst of dust. "No, no! I can't. I won't use my magic again. I've caused too much damage already."

Polar gritted his fangs, and turned to Toxin. "Well, he's right. He's totally useless. C'mon, let's just go."

The two started back down the tunnel to the academy, Polar almost raging in frustration.

"Stonemover said you were an animus, didn't he?" Toxin asked. "If so, maybe you can enchant something that will help us."

"Doubt it," Polar grumbled. "It's probably too complicated for me. It might even kill me if I tried. Maybe I can start with something similar."

Toxin nodded with a sigh. She frowned. "Hey, do you hear something?"

Polar stood quiet for a moment, listening. "Yeah. Clawsteps. There are dragons coming this way."