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DARKSTALKER
The throne room doors opened.
Listener stepped in, alone and unannounced. Her thoughts skittered and bounced in her brain like a swarm of panicking mayflies. He could almost audibly hear her nerves, no mind reading necessary.
"Listener!" Darkstalker said cheerfully from atop his throne. "What brings you here?"
He tried to ease her anxiety by sounding pleased to see her. There was no reason she should be afraid of him. There was no reason anyone should be afraid of him, unless they crossed him. But he didn't do bad things to his friends. Only evil dragons would do that, and Darkstalker was not evil by any stretch of the imagination.
"Hail, King Darkstalker," Listener said, bowing. "Er … where is Queen Clearsight?"
"Taking the dragonets out on their first hunting lesson," Darkstalker said. "I would have done it myself, but Clearsight tends to get caught up on the worst possible futures. She insisted on taking them herself, so that she could make sure they stayed safe."
"Oh — okay," Listener said, her eyes darting to the empty throne beside Darkstalker. "When will she return?"
"Not until we've both retired for the night," he said. "Is there something important you have to report? By all means, do let me know. Clearsight and I rule the kingdom together, after all."
Part of his attitude was an act. Clearsight had told Darkstalker that Listener would probably show up while he was on the throne, and she asked that he be gentle with her. Darkstalker found that a little ominous, but he obviously promised that he would. It was Listener, after all.
He expected her to bring him some bad news. Perhaps another so-called ally showed signs of treachery and betrayal, and had to be exiled from the Night Kingdom. Or perhaps she caught wind of a conspiracy against him. Or perhaps those dastardly freeloading daughters of Queen Vigilance were considering exercising their right to challenge Clearsight once-and-for-all. He should have taken away that right a long time ago. Clearsight was a fool to let them have it for so long.
"I would very much like to speak with both you and Queen Clearsight about this," Listener said, her voice stuttering slightly.
Darkstalker frowned. "There's no need for that, Listener," he said. "If you come bearing bad news, I can handle it. And if the matter is relevant to both Clearsight and myself, then I promise I will run it by her."
Listener's thoughts slowed, but she remained nervous as ever. In fact, right now it seemed as though she were trying to find a way out of this room.
"Listener, out with it; I insist," Darkstalker said. "And no lying: I'll know if you're lying."
Ah, there was the resolve that broke her shell. He heard Listener's inner thoughts let out a long sigh, and from it, there came a confrontational spark. She clenched her fists and looked up at him. "I received word that you banished Shadowhunter yesterday," she said.
Darkstalker blinked. "Oh, that's what this is about?" he asked. "Yes, I did. He was going to betray me. The future was littered with his treachery."
"He was my head informant," Listener said. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to do my job without him."
"You can find other informants," Darkstalker told her. "I thought it was a good idea to have multiple sources of intel."
"But Shadowhunter had connections," Listener explained. "Without him, I'm deaf to half of the organizations in this kingdom that are most likely to actually form a coalition against you."
"Yes, I know the connections he had," Darkstalker said. "Those connections can corrupt a dragon, Listener. He was moments away from double-crossing me and being at the head of one of those coalitions. You need to be careful with dragons like that. Their loyalty needs to be unquestioning."
"I'm a mind reader too, Darkstalker, and I've been in his mind more than you have. He wasn't going to betray you."
"Well I have future seeing powers, and I can promise you that he was." Darkstalker let out a huff. "What would you like for me to do, anyway? Track him down, unbanish him, and hire him back as your informant?"
"Well — yes, ideally," she said. "It wouldn't be hard to do. We could use the Obsidian Map you enchanted a few months ago find his exact location, and—"
"—Listener, I don't make the decision to banish dragons lightly," Darkstalker told her. "This was a carefully-thought-out decision that I made with my best judgment."
"That's a lie, Darkstalker!" Listener shouted, spreading her wings. "If you used your best judgment, you would have at least talked to me before you banished him! I worked with Shadowhunter every day. I was constantly listening to his thoughts. If you wanted to make an informed decision, you would have let me be a part of it."
Darkstalker narrowed his eyes. He was starting to read another emotion in Listener's head now — one that she'd been trying to hide. It wasn't the sudden anger; that had been there the moment she decided to talk to him about this.
It was the fact that she had feelings for Shadowhunter. They revealed themselves in the form of resentment towards Darkstalker for taking him away from her.
Listener was always more on the emotional side. She'd outgrown some of her more childish proclivities, like falling in love with the first dragon she ran into every other day, but she was probably still a passionate romantic at heart.
Which was worrisome, because that meant her loyalty could be swayed. He could already feel his future sight warning him that she might go looking for Shadowhunter on her own. Perhaps she was no longer trustworthy.
So this was why Clearsight wanted him to be gentle with her. It wasn't because she came bearing bad news, but because she came bearing a reason for him to question her allegiance.
Oh Clearsight, how can you be so concerned about how I treat other dragons now when you can see what can happen in the future if I risk being compassionate and merciful?
"Listener, you're in love with this dragon, aren't you?" he asked, getting straight to the point.
Listener winced, scolding her mind for being so readable. "I am, yes," she said. "But I swear, that has nothing to do with this. He was not an untrustworthy dragon; of that I'm certain."
"I'm sure you believe that," Darkstalker said, "but he's going to be someone you'll need to let go if you want to move forward."
That answer didn't seem to do much. The anger in her head continued to stew.
Darkstalker sighed. "Okay, okay," he said. "Look, I understand how much love can matter to a dragon, and I don't want to be the one who gets in the way. Would you like to go and find him? If I gave you the chance to be with him, would you take it?"
She looked up at Darkstalker, her eyes a little bit brighter. "Yes," she said. "Yes, of course I would."
"Very well, then," he said. "In that case, you are hereby banished from the Night Kingdom."
His words snuffed out all of the hope in her eyes. "W-what?!" she stuttered, wide-eyed. "Wait, no, that's not what I meant at all!"
"You can use the Obsidian Map to find Shadowhunter's location before you leave, but after that, you are to immediately leave the Night Kingdom."
"You can't do this!" Listener shouted. "Darkstalker, my entire life is here in the Night Kingdom. I didn't do anything; please let me stay here."
Ah, she was good at making him doubt himself. She looked so devastated; Darkstalker actually felt bad for her. Was he being evil right now?
No. No, he had to think about the wellbeing of the kingdom. Listener was obviously at risk of becoming a threat to him. And besides, he knew Listener. He was sure she'd find happiness with Shadowhunter once they found each other. They'd be so cute, living in exile together.
"Listener, I'm not going to be negotiating this," he said. "You are banished. Now get ready to leave this kingdom before I ask the guards to force you out."
Listener looked back at the pair of guards standing by the throne room door. When she faced Darkstalker again, tears were filling her eyes. "Darkstalker, I'm begging you; let me stay. I'm your friend. I've always been on your side, haven't I?" She prostrated herself, face falling to the ground. "I will always be loyal to you and the Night Kingdom. I would never betray this tribe."
Before Darkstalker could summon the air to speak out a response, the throne room doors swung open. Clearsight marched in, her brow flattened into a blazing scowl. "Listener, you are not banished," she said. "You may stay here in the Night Kingdom, and you will remain our spymaster for as long as you wish."
Listener ran over to Clearsight and hugged her fiercely, sobbing into her shoulder. Darkstalker said nothing; he simply looked at Clearsight, quietly fuming.
He didn't like being undermined like this, and Clearsight knew it. It wasn't very good optics to have the king and the queen at odds with each other, especially when they were supposed to rule side-by-side. And yet Clearsight still did this sometimes: she directly opposed Darkstalker's decisions right in front of their subjects, seemingly not caring how bad it made them look.
Not to mention that whenever she did that, Darkstalker couldn't get his way. But he tried not to be petty about that. After all, it was still her kingdom just as much as his. It would be evil of him to get too petty over not getting his way from time to time.
"Head back to your room," Clearsight said. "I need to have a private word with Darkstalker."
Listener let go of Clearsight. "But — but I still—"
"—I'll talk with you about Shadowhunter later, I promise," she said. "Now run off. That's an order."
Listener nodded, and promptly left the throne room. Before the doors closed, Clearsight addressed the two door guards. "You two, stand watch outside of the throne room and don't let anyone in."
"Yes, Your Majesty," they both said, before breaking formation and leaving. The doors shut behind them with a loud, murmuring echo that took far too long to totally fade.
Now that the room was empty, Darkstalker rose to his feet and Clearsight looked back at him, her eyes still ripe with anger.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked.
"Same thing I do every day," he said, making his way down the steps. "Trying to keep our kingdom alive and thriving. What do you think you're doing? You're supposed to be with the dragonets."
"I was, but then my powers told me that you were about to expel Listener from the entire Night Kingdom, and I found that a little bit more important!"
"Ah, glad to know that you find undermining my authority as king more important than looking after our own kids," Darkstalker said with a huff of smoke.
"If undermining your authority keeps my best friend from being exiled, then yes, that's more important than doing a hunting lesson with Solstice and Remedy that we could do at any time."
"Oh, don't take this personally, Clearsight. She's my friend too."
"That makes it worse!" she shouted, her scales bristling. "She's your friend. How could you do that to her?"
"Because we can't trust our friends anymore. Any of them could betray us. Just like Fathom did." He looked away, scowling at the marble seat of his throne.
He would always resent Fathom for leaving him like that. The day he received that letter from the Sea Kingdom was one of the worst days of his life in recent memory. The words hurt so much. They'd stabbed into his chest like a ghostly knife that carved out pieces of his soul. And he was left with hollow wounds that couldn't heal or clot or bleed, just fester.
He remembered studying the futures, just like Clearsight usually did, searching for a way to convince Fathom to come back. He knew he wasn't as good at it as Clearsight, but he still spent days trying. Every path he did manage to trace led nowhere. He'd never see his friend again.
Why couldn't Fathom have just talked to him? He could have come back to the Night Kingdom and discussed Queen Anaconda's death with him, the way mature adults did when they disagreed with each other. But instead he retreated to the Sea Kingdom, leaving Darkstalker behind without even the chance to say goodbye.
And it was all over the death of a single dragon, who was getting directly in the way of all of his plans. Why was that such a problem to him? Did he forget about the other time he killed a queen to get his way? Why was Fathom suddenly so upset when it was Queen Anaconda, but not when it was Queen Vigilance?
He never knew being an ambitious ruler would turn out to be such a lonely and isolating endeavor. If he ever pushed to provide the best for his tribe, he'd be labelled an evil tyrant by even his closest friends.
A part of him wondered why he even bothered showing restraint. If he was going to be betrayed by his friends and allies either way, what was the point? If he was going to be considered an evil king no matter what, why shouldn't he actually become one?
The futures where he did succumb to that temptation were probably the ones that Clearsight saw and feared. He saw them too, and he agreed that he didn't like what he saw in them. He had to be the better dragon.
"Darkstalker, I'm sorry Fathom turned on us," Clearsight said. "But you can't let that affect how you treat all your other subjects. I think it'd probably be best if you take some time off from being king."
"I can't take a break now," Darkstalker said. "Not while all this is going on."
"What do you mean?"
"This whole trust crisis," Darkstalker said, waving his arms in the air. "We don't know who we can trust and who we can't. First Fathom, now Listener — I don't know who's next."
"Darkstalker, I can handle that," Clearsight said. "I have powers, remember? And right now, the dragon I'm most worried about is you. You can trust me."
If he were being completely honest, Darkstalker couldn't trust Clearsight. He knew her heart was in the right place, but they were seeing eye-to-eye less and less often when it came to ruling the kingdom. He wasn't sure if she would undo all of the decisions he made if she got the chance.
Then again, she could technically undo his decisions whenever she wanted, so Darkstalker did have some faith in her.
"I'm not going to be taking any time off from being king," he said. "But maybe I have been a little too impulsive lately. If I want to exile anyone else, I'll run it by you first."
Clearsight sighed. "Fine, but I'll hold you to that. No executions or imprisonments or any serious decisions either. You need to have a bit of humility when I tell you that you're starting to sound just a little bit too much like a malevolent tyrant sometimes."
Darkstalker wished he could see into Clearsight's mind to make sure she was joking when she said that, but she started wearing her mind-blocking bracelet again. Apparently she was starting to see some darker futures, and because a lot of those dark futures arose from things Darkstalker did, she wanted to analyze them herself before sharing them with him.
Which was a little offensive, if Darkstalker were being honest. He wanted to help Clearsight by avoiding the futures where he was evil, and it was hard to do that when he couldn't see the sorts of things he did that led to those futures. He couldn't think of any good reasons for why she insisted on hiding her thoughts from him, unless she believed that they would disagree on what an 'evil' Darkstalker actually looked like. And if that were the case, then they really ought to have that conversation at some point.
"Oh, come now, Clearsight. I'm sure you'll warm up to me being a malevolent tyrant soon enough," he said sarcastically.
Clearsight shot a frown at him, and Darkstalker pinned his ears back. "Er, sorry. Probably wasn't in good taste for me to joke about that." He placed a talon on her shoulder and said, "Hey, why don't we both take the rest of the night off? I wouldn't mind finishing that hunting lesson with you and the kids."
Slowly, her frown slid up into a smile. "Now that is something we can agree on," she said, starting towards the throne room door. "Solstice is so excited to show you his masterful technique where he kills his prey by belly-flopping on them."
Darkstalker let out a fake shudder. "Those rabbits must cower in fear before him."
"Oh, you should see how they tremble," she said with a chuckle.
Darkstalker left the throne room with some comfort in his heart. He had no reason to doubt himself: just look at how he still made Clearsight smile! She still had faith in him, which meant that he was still far from an evil dragon.
Which was good, because he still had so much more planned for his kingdom.
A/N: Oooh, that was a fun chapter to write. I hope you enjoyed it just as much as I did!
Next chapter is gonna be fun too. We're going to be saying hi to an old friend. See you then!
