o

CLEARSIGHT

The two months that followed should have been calm. The war was being put on hold. NightWing troops retreated to occupied lands, infiltrating SeaWings left the Night Kingdom, and fighting was put to a halt. For a time, the Night Kingdom returned to simply dealing with domestic issues.

And to everyone but Clearsight, Darkstalker, Fathom, and Indigo, that was the case. But between the four of them, the upcoming animus congress weighed heavily on their minds. They were afraid. They were uncertain. It had been a long time since they were uncertain like this: Clearsight's powers usually helped clear away the mists of the future.

But Clearsight's powers didn't solve everything this time. The congress was still two months away, and there were still so many threads and so many branches that she needed to explore.

And she needed to be prepared. So much rested on them walking into that meeting informed and aware of what would be happening. Dark, dismal paths were opening up. Virtually every possible disaster could result from the wrong steps being taken.

She saw futures where the NightWings got wiped out entirely, where the Great Diamond crumbled to ruins and the Talon Peninsula fell to desolation. She saw futures where NightWings were beset with the curse of powerlessness, stripped of their mindreading and their future sight, where Darkstalker and Fathom were stripped of their animus powers, and where Clearsight was stripped of her crown.

She saw futures where war cursed Pyrrhia for the rest of their lives — where blood and destruction was so in use and the shower of dragonfire so familiar that mothers didn't even mourn when they beheld their hatchlings quartered by the talons of war. She saw futures where Darkstalker's tyranny returned with a vengeance, where all of Pyrrhia fell into a sea of endless night, where all other tribes were vanquished from the world.

Clearsight dedicated herself to resolving their uncertainty. In her free time, she boarded herself in her study room, and combed through the paths ahead of them.

It was hard to find a place to start, so she just began to chase the first ideas that came to mind. What if they decided not to show up? Then war would break out, the other animus dragons would feel the need to use magic against them, and either the NightWings would be driven to extinction or Darkstalker would eradicate the other animus threats first before they got the chance to do so.

If the latter happened, the rest of the tribes would be terrified and rebellious, and the war would continue. Without the threat of other animus dragons, Darkstalker could easily seize more and more power, becoming dictatorial over the continent. And even if he didn't …

…

… Clearsight was having a very hard time finding a thread where he didn't. He'd be paranoid of the other tribes, afraid that they might do something to his dragonets, or to Fathom, or to Clearsight, or to himself. And the other tribes would be paranoid of Darkstalker, driving them to act in defiance. There didn't seem to be any way of resolving that tension that didn't involve unstoppable tyranny.

So, they should probably attend the meeting. Clearsight spent a few hours considering different excuses that they could give for not being present, but none of them worked. They all led to the same outcomes, or simply delayed the meeting by a few more days.

What would be discussed in the meeting, then? What would they have to be prepared for?

It was hard to figure this out. Her future sight didn't want to cooperate with her on the details. When she looked ahead, examining the day of the meeting, everything grew fuzzy. She only managed to catch wind of a few hazy snapshots, like one future where they left the meeting feeling rattled and defeated, and another future where they were instructed by SkyWing palace guards to remove all of their personal belongings, including jewelry, before stepping into the meeting room.

Clearsight shared all this with the others the following day. They discussed matters in the king and queen's private chambers, where they were protected on all sides by soundproof walls. Their dragonets, Solstice and Remedy, were busy painting with Whiteout, so nobody was around to listen in on them talking.

"Under normal circumstances, I'd be offended that you're worried about me going tyrannical," Darkstalker said after Clearsight reported her findings. "But this time, I actually agree with you. I don't want to be faced with the choice of either witnessing my tribe's extinction or beating the remaining tribes into submission. I know the choice I would make."

"Yeah, it looks like we really do have no choice but to go," Fathom said, frowning. "If the other tribes really are that afraid of our animus powers, we need to be there to try and calm them down."

"It looks like that is the best course of action, yes," Darkstalker said, laying down on the carpeted floor and grumbling. "But I'm still very wary. I don't want to be in that meeting room without my scroll."

"To be fair, it's obvious that they'd ask us to take off our jewelry," Indigo remarked. She was sitting opposite to Darkstalker, mirroring his distressed, thoughtful look. "If I wanted to negotiate with an animus, the first thing I would do is make sure they don't have any animus items to use against me."

"Fortunately," Darkstalker said, "There's a workaround for that. How many of you are willing to enchant your own scales?"

Clearsight tensed up at the proposition. No, no, no. That was how it started last time. "I don't think that's a good idea, Darkstalker."

"Why not? The enchantments could be reversed after the meeting," Darkstalker said calmly. "And besides, we haven't even decided what enchantments we would want to be equipped with when we arrive."

"It's not a path you want to go down," she warned. "One moment, you're enchanting your scales to be impenetrable, but then the next, you're enchanting yourself to be completely immortal. And before you know it, you're enchanting the entire world to do your bidding."

The other three stared at her in befuddled silence for a few heartbeats.

Darkstalker broke the silence by saying, "Why don't we just … do the first enchantment, but not the other two?"

Clearsight closed her eyes to keep anyone from seeing them rolling. "My point is that the first enchantment leads to the second one, Darkstalker."

"No it doesn't; you can just not do the second one. 'Enchant my scales to be impenetrable' can be followed by nothing."

"But when you justify enchanting—"

"—Actually," Darkstalker interrupted, "why don't we enchant ourselves to be immortal? Just until the meeting is over. I'd be quite comfortable knowing that none of us will be killed by the other dragons there."

"I've gotta agree with Darkstalker here," Fathom said, half smiling. "I don't see any harm in making sure none of us die."

Clearsight felt her patience faltering. "I'm the one with future seeing powers here," she said firmly. "And trust me when I say that Darkstalker being immortal is just one of those things that always leads to disaster."

Darkstalker was silent for a moment, pondering. "I could believe that if I enchanted myself to be permanently immortal," he said, rising to his feet. "But we're talking about a temporary set of enchantments here. Is it really the same story if the enchantment goes away?"

Clearsight had no answer to that. She wasn't sure.

"At any rate," Darkstalker continued, "let's make a working list of enchantments that we'll put on ourselves. We can all agree to defend our commitment to only applying those enchantments, and we'll agree to remove all of them the moment we return from the meeting."

He made his way over to the blackboard on the far wall, which they'd installed in the room a few months ago to help teach Solstice and Remedy to write. Darkstalker picked up a piece of chalk from the metal tray on the floor, and began to write the word 'Enchantments' on the top of the board. "I suppose we can save putting down immortality for later," Darkstalker said. "Any other suggestions?"

"How about an escape plan?" Indigo suggested. "If they try to trap us, we should have a guaranteed way out."

"Like an enchantment where when you cover your head and say, 'Get me out of here,' you teleport back to this room?" Fathom suggested.

Darkstalker beamed at Fathom. "Now where have I heard that one before?" He nodded. "I like it. Clearsight, what do you think?"

Clearsight frowned. "If we do end up using something like that, the outcome would probably be the same as if we never showed up in the first place."

"Not if we don't use it until we have no other choice," Darkstalker said. "We could stay and negotiate with them for as long as we can. If they threaten our lives, or forbid us from leaving, then when we escape from them, they'll know it will have been for the sake of self-preservation, not a desire to avoid talking with them. We could even offer a follow-up meeting to continue discussions."

Clearsight still wasn't so optimistic, but she had to admit that a backup escape plan would be useful if the negotiations went terribly south. "Alright, but we need to make sure not to use it unless it's absolutely necessary," she insisted.

Darkstalker nodded, and wrote down 'emergency teleport' on the list. "How about impenetrable scales, like Clearsight suggested?"

"It wasn't a suggestion!" Clearsight quickly said.

"Either way, I see no harm in it," he said. "It's not as severe as immortality, but it will protect us from hidden assassins with crossbows or spears."

"Well…" Clearsight sighed. "I guess you're right. We can put that down too."

After Darkstalker wrote in 'impenetrable scales,' he pondered for a moment. "What about something to make the other leaders more … amicable when we enter the room? Kind of like my enchanted snake earring that made everyone think I'm super handsome and charming, except more … direct."

"I'm not comfortable with that," Clearsight said. "Think about how it'd look when the others realize that we used an enchantment that alters their minds."

"Then let's just add an enchantment that makes them not realize that their mind was being altered," Darkstalker suggested in a tone that made Clearsight question whether he was joking. After frowning at him for long enough, he buckled. "Okay, fine. No mind-altering enchantments. Do we have any other ideas? I don't want to go in with just these two."

"I think we'll have a better idea of what spells we'll want after we know what to expect in the meeting," Indigo said. "Right now, Clearsight's future sight just isn't giving us enough to work with."

"I suppose you're right," Darkstalker said, putting the chalk down. "The meeting is probably just too far away for there to be a clear image of it. We'll meet again later, when the futures are less turbulent."

Fathom and Indigo left soon after, leaving Clearsight and Darkstalker by themselves. Darkstalker went to copy the enchantment list down on a piece of scroll, while Clearsight collapsed on a cushion and let out a heavy sigh.

"Something bothering you?" Darkstalker asked, pausing his copying to glance over at her. "Aside from the future depending on us doing this right, that is."

"I'm a little ashamed, I guess," Clearsight admitted. "I should have been able to figure out more by now. Maybe my powers are getting weaker."

"Nah, that's not it," he said, smiling at her. "I think the reason you're having trouble is very simple: they haven't figured anything out yet."

Clearsight tilted her head at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that all the other queens and animuses — they have no idea what they're doing. They have no plan, no course of action. The details of the meeting are still up in the air, to be figured out at a later date. And until they have it figured out, a lot of things can happen." He then grabbed an eraser from the floor and began clearing the blackboard. "Give it time. They'll figure it out. And when they do, you will too."

That morning, Clearsight continued delving into the futures, trying to find her way into the meeting that lay ahead of them. They were still as foggy as they were the night before, and she couldn't penetrate them no matter how hard she tried.

She tried again the following postmidnight, again to no avail. No matter how much she focused, no matter how tightly she followed the threads, they still dissolved into an unclear haze on the night of the meeting.

She continued into the following weeks, examining and reexamining the threads of time. It became like a puzzle to her — a code she needed to crack. She couldn't remember the last time she became this obsessive over the paths that she saw. It had to have been back when she was tiny, before she'd even met Darkstalker. Now that she was older and wielded a more sophisticated mind, she found that there was more to it than reading all the paths as quickly as she could. There was deduction to it: patterns she needed to recognize in order to make it easier to find the right threads.

Every now and again, she found herself observing a future where she stood before the SkyWing palace with Darkstalker and the others beside her. She could see the details clearly enough: the palace spires, the great peaks of the Claws of the Clouds in the distance, even the golden shine of the chest plates on the palace guards. She could hear the words of warning from Darkstalker as they were being escorted into the palace and down the long, echoing halls to the meeting room. She could see them shedding their jewelry and allowing their personal belongings to be confiscated for the time being. She could see Darkstalker's reluctance as he surrendered the case containing his enchanted scroll.

But she couldn't see more. The vision fuzzed away, and her focus broke. The part of her brain that controlled her seer powers would simply stop working.

The first time this happened, she figured it was just because she was too worn out from the hours of studying she'd done prior. The second time it happened, she figured the details were too chaotic, and isolating a single path required too much effort.

The third time it happened, she started to grow wary. Then it happened a fourth time, and a fifth time.

It didn't make sense. Why would she be able to follow those threads so closely, but lose grasp on them at the same moment every single time? She should have been able to see further into the future during at least some of those instances.

Moreover, she was still able to catch glimpses of the future that followed in the wake of the meeting. She still saw the futures where the NightWings fell, and the futures where the NightWings rose above and took over the rest of the continent. She even saw solitary moments where the four of them were flying back from the Sky Kingdom, where Darkstalker was seething with rage.

In other words, she was able to clearly see the possible futures that came before the meeting, and the possible futures that came after the meeting … but not the possible futures that came during the meeting.

If Darkstalker had been right, and the reason for her inability to catch wind of the details of the meeting was because the details of the meeting hadn't yet been finalized, then she would have expected the details to become clearer at some point. She would have been able to see what would be happening within the walls of the meeting room more and more clearly as they grew closer and closer to the date.

Instead, the opposite happened. As the days passed, her visions grew hazier and hazier. The futures surrounding the meeting became harder to breach.

It finally dawned on her what was happening. This was calculated sabotage. Clearsight's powers weren't getting weaker. They were getting manipulated.

They were using animus magic to keep her from seeing their plans.