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CLEARSIGHT

They got caught.

The very next school day, the teachers were on Listener's case, since she'd been asking a suspiciously large number of questions about scavengers lately. Darkstalker knew that all of them would get caught if they interrogated her, so he went to the school principal and confessed before they could bring Listener in for questioning. He tried to reconstruct the story so that the scavenger rescue was mostly his idea and therefore mostly his responsibility, but it didn't work in the end.

It might have, if Listener didn't have so much pride.

"He said what?!" Listener barked once she and Clearsight were called to the principal's office. "How dare you try and take credit for my idea, Darkstalker!"

Darkstalker grimaced at Listener, but didn't say anything. Meanwhile, Principal Starstreak folded his brow at them. He had silver teardrop scales that were so bright that they nearly looked like they were glowing. Clearsight found them extremely intimidating. "How long have you had this plan?"

"Over a year now!" Listener said. "Darkstalker only came in like two months ago. He has no right to pretend he's the one responsible for this!"

"I disagree," Darkstalker argued. "I helped work out just as many details as you did, if not more."

"You so did not! I spent a year figuring out the when and how, and you slunked in at the last second to figure out the where."

"You were tentative on the when and how at best," Darkstalker said. "You may have been the one to come up with the idea, but the way it turned out was pretty much entirely me. Just admit that you have no responsibility for what happened."

"You jerk!" Listener fumed. "You know that's a lie. How could you even say that?"

"That's enough!" Starstreak said sternly. "I don't care who did what. I don't care why any of you did this. All I care about is that it happened, and that you're all responsible. Since all of you participated, all of you are guilty." He pulled a couple of papers from his office cabinet and began to write on them with a fine-tipped pen. "I hope you understand the severity of this. You didn't just violate school policy. You vandalized public property and broke the law. Since the school is in the Great Diamond, I'm going to have to report this to Queen Vigilance, and she will decide what to do with you. In the meantime, the three of you are suspended until further notice."

Clearsight tried not to care. She wasn't going to be missing anything from her suspension, since she'd already finished the semester during her last timeline. And the two dragons she cared about the most were getting suspended with her, so she knew she wouldn't be missing any school drama among them.

But she still felt like breaking into tears then and there. This has to be a mistake! I'm a good dragon! I'm not the delinquent student that gets detentions and suspensions; I'm the star pupil that aces all of her classes and listens to the teachers. I'm so ashamed of myself. What are my parents going to think of me?

Starstreak gave them each signed notes affirming their suspension, and dismissed them immediately afterwards. When the door to the office was shut behind them, there was a strange tension among the three NightWings — as if each of them individually wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but none of them were actually relieved yet.

"Well, what's done is done," Darkstalker said. When Clearsight looked over at him, she was a little relieved to see that he looked a little distressed too. "We did the right thing, and that's what matters. Let's just go home."

Clearsight dreaded the days that were going to follow. Her parents confronted her after they were instructed to go to a meeting later that night regarding Clearsight's behavior. As expected, they grounded her, which they actually seemed a little excited to do. "Remember how before you went to school, we punished you by forcing you to go outside?" her father asked her. "It's nice to see we have to do the opposite now."

"Do you really have to do this?" Clearsight asked him. "It's bad enough that I can't go to school anymore."

"I can't let you go out and get into more trouble when you're supposed to be punished," he said, his tone of voice changing in a way that seemed to suggest that he had to remind himself to be angry again. "Consider yourself lucky we're only grounding you for a week. What got into you? This isn't something the daughter we raised would do."

"I thought I was doing the right thing," she said.

"Really? Because from where I'm standing, there's nothing right about what you did. You broke into the school. You destroyed expensive equipment in the science lab. You rendered the rest of the biology curriculum completely infeasible until the teachers find more scavengers to replace the ones you stole. You embarrassed your mother and me in front of the principal, and you'll probably do the same in front of the queen when she summons us for the laws that you broke." He shook his head. "C'mon, Clearsight. You're a seer. I thought you were supposed to be good at figuring out the consequences of your actions."

Clearsight hung her head and pinned her ears. "But those scavengers are free now."

"So what?" her father said. "You didn't put a stop to anything. They're working on finding new ones right now. If you want your school to stop keeping scavengers, then you do that by talking to the dragons in charge, not by recklessly taking matters into your own talons and causing all this trouble. Now no one's ever gonna listen to you about this."

Clearsight didn't have anything to say for herself. This felt so much more heroic and valiant in the last timeline where we didn't get caught.

"Principal Starstreak told us that it was mostly your friends who did the scheming, not you," he went on. "Is that true?"

"I guess…"

"I suppose that's good. But it doesn't put your friends in a good light. You and Listener have been close for a long time now, and she hasn't gotten you into any trouble before. As for Darkstalker — you're still dating him, right?"

Clearsight tilted her head. "Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Because you're not anymore," he said. "I don't want you seeing him again, alright?"

"What?!" Clearsight straightened herself up and stood firm. "Dad, you can't split us up!"

"I can and I will," he said. "Your mother agrees. He's too bad of an influence on you."

"But Darkstalker didn't — Listener and I were planning to do this before he even got involved."

"But you didn't actually do anything until he got involved."

"We were going to do this whether he joined us or not —"

"Clearsight, that's enough. Your mother and I aren't changing our minds on this." He walked to her bedroom door and turned his head. "We're not used to punishing you. I hope this doesn't start to become a regular occurence."

When he closed the door on Clearsight and left her in her room, such a strange concoction of emotions stirred through her. She knew that she was going to see Darkstalker again and that this wasn't going to change the likelihood of them sharing a future. In fact, in pretty much all of the likely futures ahead of her, they eventually forgot about this mishap and forgave her in the end.

But right now, that didn't matter. She felt like a dragon who was just pretending to be the morally sound Clearsight that she had once been. The fact that her parents weren't on her side right now — that they were directly opposed to her being with Darkstalker — it made her alone and abandoned and ashamed and sinful.

Maybe it should have. She angered a lot of kindhearted teachers, robbed her fellow students of a large section of their biology curriculum, and broke a promise she'd implicitly made to not violate any of the school's policy.

Maybe her father was right. Maybe she should have tried to talk Darkstalker and Listener out of their plan. Maybe they should have looked for another way to free them without breaking school rules, perhaps by starting up student movement to pressure the teachers into freeing the scavengers by themselves. That would have been the approach she would have taken if she were the one making the decisions.

But it wouldn't have worked, a voice told her — a voice she believed. We would have just broadcast our intentions sooner and made rescuing them ourselves impossible, all while the teachers refused to free the scavengers themselves.

No, she did the right thing. Darkstalker and Listener were right. She shouldn't have been ashamed that she helped them, even though she had to break a few rules and upset a few dragons and make a bit of a mess in the school in order to do it. Perhaps she was just upset with herself for getting caught this time.

Nonetheless, she spent the next four days in her room, festering over that feeling that she was worse, and that she couldn't trust herself to know right from wrong anymore. And she would have kept festering for longer had it not been due to a letter from Queen Vigilance.

"Clearsight, you've been summoned by the queen," her mother said after opening the door on her. "She wishes to see you tomorrow evening at sunset."

Clearsight — who had been lying on her bed at the time — dropped the scroll she was reading onto her chest and groaned. "Great."

"You shouldn't be so pouty," her mother scolded. "You brought this on yourself, you know. Pick out some nice jewelry to wear, alright? We'll be leaving early in the afternoon to meet with her."

As far as Clearsight could tell, tomorrow was actually going to be a pretty good day. She was going to see Darkstalker again, and the queen appeared to be pretty likely to go easy on them. At the very least, she didn't see any futures where Vigilance threw her in a prison cell or forced her to do any menial labor.

It was tough for her to siphon out any refined details, though. There was going to be a lot of talking, and she learned at this point that trying to trace the trajectory of of conversations was impossible. There were too many threads — too many ways in which outcomes could change because someone said something differently, or with a slightly different tone. She was better off getting to sleep early and being well-rested when she saw Vigilance.

The next day, Clearsight put on her favorite crescent moon earrings and ate a fresh squirrel for breakfast before polishing her scales with some fragrant oil and flying to the palace. She showed up in Queen Vigilance's throne room accompanied by her parents right at sunset. Darkstalker was already there waiting with his entire family. His face lit up when he saw her approaching, and Clearsight found herself standing taller and prouder because of him.

"Young Clearsight," the queen said as Clearsight bowed low to her. "You and your friends have had quite the adventure this past week, I heard."

"I beg your forgiveness, Your Majesty," Clearsight said automatically. "I acted believing that I was truly doing the right thing."

"Your apology is accepted," Vigilance said. "I have much more important things to worry about than your acts of vigilantism. I brought you in to discuss a different matter entirely."

Clearsight tilted her head. "You did?"

"Indeed. Darkstalker has told me much about you these past couple of days. He claims that your clairvoyance skills are impeccable, and that you would make a fine choice as my head seer. Would you care to share some of your prophecies?"

Well, there's one I'm seeing right now where Darkstalker is sitting where you are, wearing a much larger crown and ruling over a much larger kingdom. She refrained from mentioning that one.

This happened last timeline, didn't it? What did I do before? She scanned the queen's court and found Allknowing — the seer professor at her school — scowling at her. Oh, right.

"As a matter of fact, I very recently had a vision that I was going to tell you about on my own behalf," she said, using her memory more than her powers for this. "Your Majesty, there's going to be an IceWing invasion on North Beach. If you don't do anything to stop it, they will attack on the next night where there are two new moons."

Queen Vigilance stiffened up and eyed her suspiciously. "That doesn't sound like a prophecy to me."

"I know it's not a fancy poem, but it is what I saw," Clearsight told her. "Most of my visions don't come to me in the form of cryptic rhymes. They're actual visions. And if I close my eyes and use my powers to look further ahead, I can make more come to me."

Vigilance's eyes widened. "Is that so? Actual details instead of confusing rhymes … I like that."

Allknowing suddenly chimed in. "Your Majesty, I must recommend against appointing this dragon."

"And why is that?" Vigilance asked her. "Because you would be demoted if I did?"

"No, Your Majesty. It's because she is lying about the extent of her powers." Allknowing's eyes narrowed. "Clearsight was a student of mine prior to her suspension. I've had to dismiss her numerous times for reciting false visions and exaggerating the meaning of prophecies."

"What?!" Clearsight nearly shrieked. "Queen Vigilance, that's completely untrue!"

"Seers don't have the abilities that she claims to have," Allknowing went on. "She's advertising the impossible to you, and if you're gullible enough to appoint her, you'll be wasting precious resources that we need to win this war."

Clearsight was so astounded that she couldn't speak. She genuinely wondered if Allknowing believed her accusation. After her first day in class with her, Clearsight tried to be more secretive about her powers, but she knew that Allknowing was continually suspicious and jealous of her. In the last timeline, Allknowing hadn't said any of this, but Allknowing also hadn't had time to prepare for Clearsight's arrival. This time, she must've known ahead of time.

This had to be intentional. Allknowing knew exactly what she was doing. And something passionate burned in Clearsight that demanded she not let Allknowing get away with this.

I can prove my powers are real. I can show her that I know things only a seer as powerful as me can know. She was so going to regret this.

"Perhaps you're right, Allknowing," Vigilance said contemplatively. "I will have to think about this further. Tell me, what do you think about her vision of an invasion?"

"I will grant that she may have had a vision of the IceWings staging an invasion by sea," Allknowing said. "I saw the same thing, if you recall. 'Waves of ice dragons will wash at our gate' was a line in my last recitation. As for whether it will be on the shores of North Beach, however, I assume is guesswork on her end."

"It's not guesswork," Clearsight insisted. "If you don't listen to me, the IceWings could establish a foothold in the Talon Peninsula. That could lead them to a victory in this war."

"I think if you do listen to her, you'll focus your attention and resources on a red herring, which will leave other openings to our kingdom exposed," Allknowing retorted. "Queen Vigilance, don't forget that it was only last week that the dragons in front of you broke your laws and got suspended from our school. Is it really wise to listen to them, let alone appoint one onto your council?"

Vigilance frowned. "I'm afraid I must trust the advice of my head seer," she said. "As annoying as her rhymes have been in the past, she has never deceived me before."

"Your Majesty, you're making a mistake," Darkstalker said, rising to his feet. "Clearsight's powers are exactly as she claims they are. She can see further in the future than any other seer I know."

"We can attest to our daughter's abilities as well," Clearsight's father said. "She studied the timelines she saw quite obsessively before she started school. I know she's young, but I think you should consider appointing her. She always wanted to work under you."

"That's enough," Vigilance commanded. "I have already stated my intended course of action on the matter, and I will not reiterate it. I will keep scouts on the shores of North Beach until the night you are referring to, Clearsight. If your vision ends up being true, I will reconsider appointing you. But for now, there will be no more talk of it. Our next matter of discussion is —"

— Clearsight's eyes flashed. "Darkstalker," she and Vigilance said at the same time. Darkstalker glanced over at her, confused.

Vigilance grew quiet. She looked royally offended, but she waited for Clearsight to speak again.

"You want to move Darkstalker into the palace," Clearsight said. "Since he's supposed to be spending time with Fathom, you've prepared a suite for him in the palace for him to live in until Fathom returns to the Sea Kingdom." She smiled victoriously. "Is that right?"

Vigilance still didn't say anything immediately. She stayed quiet and calculating until Allknowing began an attempt to sputter something out. "Of course she knew —"

"— Quiet, Allknowing," Vigilance interrupted calmly. "Clearsight, tell me how you knew that."

"It was in the future," Clearsight said. "There was nothing else that could have happened to keep this matter from being discussed, so I was able to see it very clearly."

"Come on, Your Majesty, do you really think there was no other way for Clearsight to figure this out?" Allknowing argued. "Darkstalker must have learned about this ahead of time and talked to Clearsight about it."

"I certainly did not," Darkstalker said, frowning. "If I did, I probably would have spoken to the queen about it before Clearsight."

"Plus, Clearsight has been grounded all week," her father said. "She and Darkstalker haven't spoken in days."

Vigilance hummed in thought. "You're starting to sound very convincing, Clearsight," she said, "but I'd like to rule out any other possibilities. Can you see in your visions the suite that I have prepared for Darkstalker?"

Clearsight took a second to look ahead. "I can," she said. "It has a very nice fountain." She tried to avoid glancing at Allknowing as she slowly began to contort herself into a ball of rage.

"As I'm sure you know, there are hundreds of rooms in this palace," Vigilance said. "Since I planned on leading Darkstalker to the room that I've prepared for him, would your future sight be able to tell you where it is?"

"It would be," Clearsight answered.

"May you lead us there yourself, then?"

Clearsight smiled victoriously. "Gladly," she said.

They began to follow Clearsight down one of the many halls of the royal palace. She used the threads of future memories to help lead her through the palace chambers, ascending a flight of shallow stairs and starting down a long corridor.

Darkstalker stepped ahead and brushed his wing with Clearsight's. "How long did you know about Vigilance's plans for me?" he asked her quietly.

"Only just now," Clearsight whispered back. When she looked over at Darkstalker, she saw his face filled with frustration.

"I wish I'd known sooner," he grumbled. "She could have asked me about it first."

She stopped in front of what she was certain to be the suite the queen had prepared for her. Vigilance brushed ahead of her and opened the door, inviting everyone in. Orange lanterns adorned the walls, lighting up a large room with black marble columns and a coal-black carpeting. A mural of the galaxy was painted on the ceiling, and a pair of curtains shielded a balcony on the opposite end of the room. There were doorways on either end, one of which presumably led to a washroom while the other led to a bedroom. There was a bookshelf at one corner, a desk at another, and four or five cushions and mats organized neatly in emptier parts of the chamber.

"I've changed my mind, Clearsight," Vigilance said. "You'll be working for me now, starting tonight. I will bestow a generous salary to you and your family, and you will be given a room in the palace before the end of the day."

"A room?" Clearsight's father said. "I'm sorry, but does that mean that Clearsight will be moving into the palace?"

"Of course," Vigilance said. "All members of the royal court live in the palace. Clearsight should be no exception."

"But she's only four," he argued. "She still needs to go to school, and be looked after by her parents."

"Then I will arrange for her and her friends to be unsuspended before next weekend," she said. "And she will be fed and cared for just like every other dragonet that has lived in the palace." She tilted her head at her parents. "I figured you'd be more enthusiastic about this. You said yourself that Clearsight has always wanted to work for me."

"She did," Clearsight's mother said, "but we weren't expecting you to take her out of our house."

"I promise you, there won't be any drastic changes," Vigilance insisted. "You can visit any time you want, and she can still go and see her friends, as long as she does her duties for me. Plus, she'll be living in the palace with Darkstalker: the two lovebirds can now see each other whenever they want."

Clearsight's father clamped his mouth shut and grimaced.

"Actually, about that —" Darkstalker piped up, "Queen Vigilance, this is a very nice suite, but I don't believe I ever said that I wanted to move into the palace."

"Yes, I didn't wait for your opinion this time," Vigilance said. "Prince Fathom convinced me that I ought to be keeping an eye on what you were doing, and I figured that the only way to do that reliably would be to bring you into the palace."

Uh oh. Clearsight didn't like that sour face that Darkstalker was wearing. "I think that's a little unnecessary, Your Majesty," he said. "I don't need to be watched like a hatchling. I've proven my good behavior, haven't I?"

"Aside from your refusal to attend last week's party in favor of vandalizing the school, yes, you have." Vigilance frowned. "But that can change, just as it did for Albatross in the Sea Kingdom. I can't let the NightWing's first animus be as disastrous as the SeaWing's first animus. I'll need to keep an eye on you to make sure that doesn't happen."

"Your Majesty?" Arctic asked. "Where will we be staying?" He spread his wings, gesturing towards Foeslayer and Whiteout.

Vigilance blinked. "What are you talking about? You have your own house, right?"

"We do, but I assumed that if Darkstalker would be moving into the palace, the rest of his family would be moving in as well."

"Oh," Vigilance said. "Well, you assumed wrong."

"May I at least dwell alongside my brother?" Whiteout asked innocently. "We've been braided together since I hatched, and it looks like there's room for another bed in these chambers."

"Most certainly not," Vigilance said before Darkstalker could even nod in approval at the idea. "An oddity like you would not be appropriate company for the royal court."

Darkstalker sent a death glare to the queen, and Clearsight felt an intense swell of doom as a violent vision crashed through her mind. But just as quickly as it showed up did it vanish when Whiteout promptly responded. "Perfectly understandable, Your Majesty! I must visit often, then. My brother will need me when he starts asking for silver."

"Very well," Queen Vigilance said. "Try and speak with Darkstalker outside of the palace to schedule your visits. We wouldn't want you interrupting important council meetings. In the meantime, Clearsight: I shall have a study room prepared for you at once. I want all of the details of this invasion written up and handed to me by morning."

"Yes, Queen Vigilance," Clearsight said.

The queen then walked off, heading back to her throne room. Clearsight saw Darkstalker walking up to her, looking much more welcoming compared to the analytical scowl that Queen Vigilance had been holding for so long. Meanwhile, their parents began to murmur their concerns amongst one another.

"So, uh, I may have spoken to the queen about you a little bit," Darkstalker said, raising his ears playfully.

"Y'know, I would have appreciated it if you'd told me about your plan to recommend me to the queen ahead of time," Clearsight said to him. "There's a whole concoction of unknowns I'll have to deal with now."

"I figured now would be as good a time as ever," he said to her. "We're not in school right now, and I knew you wanted this position. Besides, you tried pretty hard to convince her, so this can't be too disappointing for you. When did you learn about that invasion plan?"

"In the last timeline, actually," Clearsight said. She drifted forward, further away from her parents so that she and Darkstalker could talk more privately. "I got the vision when Listener and I were freeing the scavengers. I warned the queen about it, and she rewarded me with a job in the palace — just like she did here." She shook her head a bit. "But it's different this time. This time, Allknowing is probably going to get fired, which means I'm going to have to stop showing up to her classes … I might have to stop going to school entirely if the queen starts to overwork me."

"Well, I can't say I'm too thrilled about all this either," Darkstalker said. "The whole 'I need to be watched' thing does not sit well with me. Stupid Fathom: why did he have to blabber on to the queen like that?" He thumped his tail against the ground. "And did you hear what she said about Whiteout? Argh, I was ready to strangle her right there."

"I know," Clearsight said. "You're lucky Whiteout interrupted before you did."

"This isn't so bad, though," he said, smiling at her. "It'll be nice staying here in the palace with you."

Clearsight flicked her tail, smiling back. "I agree with that. Though I don't think our parents will."

"They'll have to deal with it, I suppose," Darkstalker said. "Now come on, let's take a look at the suite before Vigilance comes back to drag you off."

Something changed in the timelines, Clearsight noticed. Today sent ripples through the possible futures, changing the landscape of the world ahead of her that she saw.

And it changed the futures in a worrying way. They didn't get darker, at least not as far as she could tell. But the good and the bad futures intermingled themselves in ways she hadn't seen before. Paths that were once bright and safe now had black tendrils snaking off, leading to new, grim possibilities. Paths that once were hopeless now had weak threads of light sprouting through them.

She couldn't be certain why this happened, but it didn't surprise her. With two animus dragons and the world's most powerful seer now living under the ceiling of the royal palace, there were plenty of opportunities for very good and very bad things to happen.

This would have been great if Clearsight had complete control of the pathway to the future. But she'd been doubting just how much control she actually had ever since she was forced to turn back time.

A/N: I had to do a lot of revising in this chapter, adding an extra 1,000 words to the original draft, so it took a touch longer than expected to get it out. I want to add another scene in the next chapter and restructure things a little bit, so please patient with me until then. As always, let me know what you think! :)