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DARKSTALKER

I didn't have to comply with you, you know, Darkstalker thought as he soured his grimace at Pearl. I could have won this war. I could have won a war against the rest of Pyrrhia. I only tried cooperating with you because I wanted to be polite. Because I had faith that we could resolve things peacefully.

So why are you trying so hard to make me regret the restraint I've been showing all this time?

"To be completely honest with you, Darkstalker," Pearl said, "that enchanted scroll was a good idea."

"It's a little too late for flattery, Pearl," Darkstalker growled.

Pearl gave an airy chuckle. "I was only giving a compliment; no need to assume I'm trying to be malicious with it. And besides, it's true. All the queens agree."

"In fact, we think this scroll of yours is how all animus magic should be conducted moving forward," Queen Carmine injected.

"Then make your own scrolls; that'd be fine with me," Darkstalker said. Though, he realized as he said so that that wasn't completely true. He wasn't too comfortable with other dragons making their own scrolls and casting spells whenever they wanted. He'd been able to restrain himself despite being unburdened by the stress animus magic induced on his soul. He wasn't so sure if other animus dragons would be able to do the same.

Carmine shook her head. "You misunderstand, King Darkstalker. We think this scroll of yours is how all animus magic should be conducted moving forward."

Darkstalker felt his heart burst with rage. "So you wish to steal my scroll and use it for yourselves, is that it?"

"We wish to make animus magic a power that no individual dragon can harness by themselves," Queen Crane said, her voice overpowering Darkstalker's with ease. "Nobody can be trusted with that much power."

"You've seen the spells I wrote down already, have you not?" Darkstalker asked. "When have I ever cast a spell that was alarmingly malicious? Where have I shown that I can't be trusted with the powers I've had all these years?"

"I could point to a few spells that I don't particularly like," Pearl said. "But even if I couldn't, these matters go beyond us at this present moment. I've seen gentler dragons than you turn into monsters. We can't be sure that the same won't happen to you. And that's saying nothing about the animus dragons that have yet to hatch. How can we be sure they will all be responsible with their magic?"

That … was actually a good point. If the wrong dragon ever ended up with animus powers, they could do worse than murder a royal family. They could destroy the entire world.

He refused to dignify Pearl with any sort of admission to this, though. Not after she played that stunt with his scroll.

After Darkstalker had been silent for a few heartbeats, Pearl spoke up again. "What we'd like to do is take the powers of all animus dragons and put them into this scroll, just like you did with your own powers. That way, we can maintain collective control over animus spells. No one dragon will be able to cast a spell all on their own."

"How will animus spells be cast, then?" Darkstalker asked.

"By vote, or by agreement," Queen Carmine answered. "If any of us have a spell we wish to cast, we would gather everyone here together and discuss whether or not we ought to cast it. If we all agree, we will then take out the scroll and write the spell."

"The scroll would be kept in a secret location, guarded by a vetted and trusted dragon," Queen Anaconda said. "And I suspect we wouldn't use it except in very specific circumstances."

"If a new animus dragon is ever hatched, we will know the moment they cast their first spell, thanks to our other enchanted scroll," added Queen Scorpion. "We can find them and have them give their animus powers to us. Once they turn seven, they'll be granted a seat on the council and be given a vote on which spells to cast."

Darkstalker clenched his teeth. "So not only are you robbing me of my animus powers, but you also intend to rob everyone else who hatches with the same gift?"

Pearl shook her head. "That's not the right way to look at it, Darkstalker."

"You're thieves!" Darkstalker shouted, climbing on the table and scrambling towards Pearl. "Give me back my scroll!"

He was just about to wrestle Pearl for control over the scroll, when another dragon blindsided him. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground, with the heavy arms of Queen Crane pinning him down, threatening to crush his ribs. It was a good thing he was invulnerable, as otherwise some of his bones would already be broken.

"Stay put, you petulant child!" the MudWing boomed. "You're an embarrassment to your tribe."

"That's my scroll!" Darkstalker flailed his arms, trying to claw at her, but only reaching the air beneath her snout.

"Not anymore," she said, slamming her palm against the bottom of his chin to keep him from breathing out a plume of fire at her. "Stop trying to fight your way out of this, you conceited fruit bat! You're not going to overpower any of us."

"I'm invinthible," Darkstalker hissed, his jaw pressed shut against his head by her talon.

"But not inexorable. We don't need to keep you in this room, Darkstalker. We have your scroll already. So are you going to put up a fight and force Queen Carmine to send you to the dungeons, where you'll be locked up until your invincibility spell expires and you're put on trial for assaulting royal guests? Or are you going to behave yourself like a civilized dragon?"

Tempted as he was to let them try to take him away, he knew it would be a stupid idea. He wanted to be here for this. Queen Crane was right. As his current inability to breathe was proving, he wouldn't be able to take any of them on, even with the help of his friends. His best bet at getting his scroll back was to either talk them into giving it back, or to get Fathom out of this room so he could use his magic again.

He relaxed. Crane got off of him, and he timidly rolled over and stood back on his feet. He could hear the feelings of tense resentment his friends held towards the queens as he walked around the table. He especially heard Clearsight's fury at Crane, a sour rage at how she'd made her husband become so submissive in front of everyone else.

I am not submitting, Clearsight, he wanted to say to her. They think they've figured everything out, but they haven't. They will not get away with this.

At some moment while Darkstalker had been pinned to the ground by Queen Crane, Pearl must have gotten a bottle of ink out from somewhere. She was already using an inky claw to write something. In his scroll. His eyes stayed fixed on the words she was scrawling. If that spell even begins to look malicious, you will regret it, Pearl.

"As we were saying," Pearl said once Darkstalker had taken his seat, "our plan is to domesticate the use of animus magic. To put a fence around it, so that it won't be free to run wild and endanger the rest of us."

"Animus magic isn't some wild boar that runs around in the rainforest," Darkstalker said. "It already is domesticated: by the dragons who harness its powers."

"Dragons are corruptible," Pearl said. "And animus magic can and will corrupt a dragon who uses it too much."

She finished writing the new spell, and to Darkstalker's relief, it wasn't anything that would disable him any more than he was now. Pearl's claw writing was neat and straight, and the words were clear: 'Enchant this scroll to absorb the animus powers of any animus dragon who touches it.' Fine. If any other animus dragon in the room wanted to touch the scroll now, Darkstalker would be more than thrilled. As long as it wasn't Fathom.

As for Pearl's remark about dragons being corruptible … "Why would you expect animus magic to be any different for the kings and queens as a whole?" he asked. "Why should you all be trusted with the ability to use other dragons' magic if you don't trust the animuses to use it themselves?"

"Darkstalker, do you honestly believe that it'd be safer for us to let all animus dragons have access to their powers without restriction? Do you know what the limits of animus magic are? If one animus dragon has a bad day, and impulsively enchants the world to explode, would that be the end of dragonkind? I don't want to find out."

"But you don't need to steal everyone's magic to keep that from happening."

"Yes, we do. We don't know who the next Albatross is going to be. If we take a risk on anyone, we allow for the possibility of our existence being erased."

"But we can't—"

"Darkstalker, that's enough." Pearl tapped on the scroll with a clean claw. "We already have what we need from you, and we're not giving it back. All we need right now is Fathom's cooperation."

"He's not going to give up his animus powers," Darkstalker said.

"Let Fathom speak for himself," Pearl told him.

"I'm not going to give up my animus powers," Fathom said in a similar tone.

A sigh came from Pearl's nostrils. "Fathom, would you think for a moment about this?"

"I have the power to save lives with my magic," Fathom said. "That's not something I'm willing to give up."

"And how many lives did Albatross end for each life you saved, Fathom?" Pearl asked, her mind suddenly swimming with emotion. "Have you forgotten that our parents were cut down in a matter of seconds because of what his magic did to him? Don't you want to keep anything like that from ever happening again?"

"Yes, which is why I'm not giving my powers away! If I'm in the middle of another royal massacre, I won't have time to call up a meeting and ask to use the scroll."

"Another royal massacre won't happen if nobody can wield the power of animus magic at their clawtips."

"Animus magic isn't the only way dragons can kill each other."

"Nor is it the only way dragons can save each other's lives, Fathom. My point isn't that animus magic can only bring harm. It's that the world would be safer if animus magic was controlled."

"Whose world? Not Darkstalker's. If animus magic was controlled, his son would be dead. And what about Indigo? If animus magic was controlled, your guards would have killed her when they tried to take us away."

"Fathom, please," Pearl said, her voice softening. "You're smart enough to know that we can't let animus magic go by completely unchecked. You know how dangerous it can get. Arctic, Diamond, and the Jerboas know it too, and they're willing to act on those convictions by giving up their powers. I'm hoping that you'll willingly do the same, Fathom. I'm hoping I won't have to force your talons, but if you refuse to hear the voice of reason, I'm not going to have any choice."

"You can't make me surrender my powers," Fathom said firmly.

"Yes I can," Pearl said. "As long as you're in this room, you're powerless. But with this scroll in my possession, I'm not. Say the word and I'll hand this scroll to you. Once you touch it, it will absorb your powers. You can choose to do so on your own free will, without any hard feelings between us. Or we can hold you down and make you touch the scroll. It's your choice."

"That's not a choice!" Darkstalker said, slamming a talon against the table. "The only decision you're giving Fathom is how easy he wants to make it for you to take his powers away."

"I'm giving him the choice to realize that this is for the best," Pearl said.

Fathom looked behind him at the locked doors. Darkstalker could feel the last flares of hope dying in his heart. His spirits were resigning.

"Let's get started," Pearl said. "Once all of our powers are absorbed into the scroll, we can spend the rest of the meeting discussing further safety measures." She picked up the scroll and rolled it up before handing it to Arctic. "Arctic, would you like to go first?"

Arctic accepted the scroll without hesitation, gripping it firmly in his talons. "This magic is a curse. It would be an honor to relinquish it for this cause."

He handed the scroll back to Pearl, who then passed it to Queen Diamond.

"Don't you realize how dangerous this is?" Darkstalker asked as Diamond surrendered her animus powers by taking the scroll. "Putting all of the magic in the world into one scroll like this? What if someone steals it? Or what if it gets destroyed somehow after I've died? You're taking the most powerful magic in the world and bundling it up into one vulnerable object. How is that safe?"

"It's safe because we have the scroll. We can put measures in place to make sure it stays in our control," Pearl said calmly. "We can make the scroll indestructible, or make it so that spells only work when written by a select group of dragons. If you'd like, you can stay and help us address other concerns you may have with our plan. You don't need to be our enemy, Darkstalker."

Darkstalker bared his teeth. Unlike Fathom, he did have a choice here — even if he was the only one who knew that he did.

And it wasn't a choice he wanted to make. He wanted to be on good terms with the rest of the tribes, he really did. He wanted to stay on equal footing with them, and to see them as trusted allies rather than adversaries. All he wanted to do was secure the wellbeing of the NightWings. He wanted to be helpful and benevolent. He didn't want to be remembered as the cruel and coldhearted king of which Clearsight had grown so afraid.

But how could he be allied with this? How could he be allied with dragons who'd just cornered and humiliated him, who refused to hear his calls for negotiation? How could he take the side of dragons who harbored such disrespect for animus magic?

They made themselves Darkstalker's enemy. They shut down the offer he made for peace. They imposed their will on him, and assumed that he'd have no choice but to accept it.

They assumed wrong.

The two Jerboas passed the scroll to each other, then handed it back to Pearl. She turned to face Fathom and said, "It's your turn, Fathom. Give up peacefully."

Fathom backed up, still wanting to fight, but the lamentations of defeat sang loud in his mind. There was no more hope left in him.

Darkstalker put a wing in front of the SeaWing, shielding him from his approaching sister. "No," he said.

"Darkstalker, it's over," Pearl said, stopping and frowning at him. "If you can't accept that and move on, then grab your things and go."

"I can't accept that, no. I can't accept a world where you take our magic and turn it into some…" Darkstalker waved his talon. "Some public commodity."

"Animus magic is at its most dangerous when it is in the talons of singular dragons; it should be a public commodity," Queen Anaconda said.

"No!" Darkstalker pointed at the scroll in Pearl's talons. "That is my scroll! It is endowed with my magic!"

"Quiet, you disrespectful, selfish dragonet!" Queen Crane sneered, stomping her foot with enough force to cause the floor to vibrate. "You should be honored to have your scroll be the bedrock of our new way of doing magic, but instead you sit and whine about how your toys are being taken from you."

"I could never take honor in this," Darkstalker said. "I was gifted with that magic, and I intend to use it for my family and my tribe. I will not give it away, and force myself to have to negotiate its use with dragons that I don't trust: dragons who might want to see me and my tribe fail."

"It's not up to you anymore, Darkstalker," Pearl said. "This magic isn't yours to give away anymore." There was a little smile on her face. She liked watching Darkstalker resist her. She liked seeing him put up a fight, even though she was certain he was helpless.

Now it was time to wipe that smile off of her face.

Darkstalker reached for the quill holder that he had strapped to his wing — one that he'd enchanted to be undetectable by anyone aside from himself, with a spell that he'd cast while he was shrunken by the enchanted goblet.

And from it, he pulled out an enchanted black feather quill.

Pearl's eyes grew wide. "Wait, how did you—?"

With an effortless folding of his thumb, Darkstalker bent the feather at its base, cracking the shaft and spilling leftover ink on his claws.

The scroll, still in the clutches of Pearl's talons, immediately turned to dust.

Intense tingles flitted through Darkstalker's veins. The buzz of his magic: it had been so, so many years since he last felt it.

"Now remind me of how you worded the spell that suppressed animus magic in this room," he said, drinking in the terror in Pearl's eyes. "Did you say that it prevented all 'current' animus dragons from being able to cast new spells?"

"Guards!" Queen Carmine shouted.

"Enchant Queen Carmine to stop talking," Darkstalker said.

A heartbeat later, a trio of SkyWing guards opened the doors and stepped inside, spears drawn and teeth bared. "What is it, Your Majesty?"

Queen Carmine tried uttering a command, but she spoke with no voice.

Darkstalker grinned wide. "Enchant everyone in this room who is not my friend to sit down and be quiet."

At once, everyone except for Clearsight, Fathom, and Indigo had their rumps forced to the floor, as though someone had tied an invisible chain to the base of their tails and pulled them to the ground.

Darkstalker sighed through his nostrils. That felt good.

"Now that I know you won't be interrupting me," he said, stalking towards Pearl, "Let me tell you what I really think of you and your little plot."

Pearl's eyes stayed on Darkstalker. Her head shrank into her body, fearful and submissive. Oh how wonderful it felt to have the tables turned now.

"You declared me an illegitimate ruler when you learned of my ascension to the throne, and threatened to declare war on my tribe if I didn't send Fathom to the Sea Kingdom against his will. When we agreed to meet together for peace negotiations, you tried to have me and Clearsight assassinated. You failed, but Fathom had the grace to try and speak with you anyway. You repaid his patience with you by trying to kidnap him. But you failed at that too. And then, after you'd exposed yourself as the underhanded miscreant that you were, you followed through on your threat and declared war against me.

"Your war cost me thousands of NightWing lives, Pearl," he continued, snarling. "Dragons who had friends and families. Dragons who had hatchlings that they'll never get to raise, and wives that won't know how to continue living without them." He advanced to her, holding his glower until they were face-to-face. "But if that wasn't enough, you also sent spies into my kingdom to kidnap my dragonets. The tiniest of hatchlings, too young to even fly, and you would have had them carried away from me." He narrowed his eyes. "You know, you should be grateful to Fathom for being willing to use his magic again. Because if he wasn't there to save my son's life, you would be dead where you stand."

Listening in on the thoughts of everyone around him, Darkstalker heard nothing but raw terror. Even his friends were shaken by his display of power and ferocity. Clearsight in particular was displaying some 'Oh no, this is the beginning of his descent into tyranny, isn't it?' thoughts.

So he backed up a little bit. Just a little bit, though. "When I came into this meeting, I was genuinely hoping to make peace with you. I was willing to be the better dragon. To forget all of your egregious disrespect and aggression, and to become your ally — assuming you didn't propose anything too preposterous." He shook his head. "But your proposition was not only preposterous: it was offensive. You tried to steal my magic and Fathom's, not caring if we complied with you or not. And it made me realize that I could never be your ally. You're just too evil."

He circled back around the table and took his seat next to Clearsight. Her wings tightly tucked themselves against her sides when he approached her. He tried to reassure her by brushing his tail with hers, but her thoughts remained unsettled. Calm down, my love: I am the least evil dragon in this room.

He lifted his head, glancing around at all the silenced queens and former animus dragons. "You do not deserve it, Pearl," he said, exhaling a puff of smoke in her direction, "but I will spare you. You will return home and remain queen of the SeaWings, and our tribes will make peace. In exchange, you will owe us a substantial amount of reparations. We will send our specific demands to you shortly after we return to the Night Kingdom, and we will not accept any refusal to comply."

He raised his voice and continued, "As for the rest of you, I expect us to remain on good terms from now on. Don't forget that thanks to Pearl, Fathom and I are now the only animus dragons in existence. If you try plotting against us, we will find out. And we will make you pay. And there will be nothing you can do about it."

A/N: Hi, everyone! How've you been?

I was so excited to write up and share these past few chapters with you. My beta readers loved them, which eased my concerns about how they turned out in the end. I'm happy with how they turned out, but because of how important they were in moving the plot, I still stressed over their quality. As usual, please let me know your own thoughts. I'm always eager to learn from my readers.