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FATHOM

Clearpool and Ripple grew as fast as any other SeaWing hatchlings, but it still surprised Fathom and Indigo just how fast that was. It only took three months for them to start forming complete sentences and swimming all on their own with ease. They were more than twice their original size, and — as Fathom predicted — they became troublemakers at an early age.

"Did you get into the fruit basket?" he asked Ripple, while he was in the house. Behind him was the fruit basket, which was knocked over.

"No," Ripple said, while his face was covered in mango pulp.

"Then who did?"

Ripple pointed to Clearpool, who was sitting next to him with a face also covered in mango pulp. Clearpool shook her head.

Fathom held his breath to try and keep himself from laughing. "Why is the ground all sticky, then?"

Ripple and Clearpool shrugged.

"And why do you have mango all over your faces?"

Ripple and Clearpool slowly looked at each other, looking as though they had no idea what he was talking about.

Fathom sighed. "So how did the fruit basket fall on the floor?"

"Ripple climbed on the table," Clearpool said.

"Ah, so Ripple's big enough to climb on the table now?"

Silence.

"How many mangoes did you take?"

More silence.

"Just one?"

Clearpool said, "No," and Ripple said, "Yes." Then Clearpool said, "Yes."

"Uh huh," Fathom said, trying very, very hard to frown at them. "Did you throw away the pits like you're supposed to?"

"Yes, Daddy," they said, in a more confident tone of voice that sounded a lot more honest.

Fathom walked past the spilled fruit basket and into their pantry, which was a small, dark room whose entrance was covered with a curtain of jute fabric. In the corner of the room was a waste basket covered in a fiber-woven lid. When Fathom opened the lid, he spotted five fresh mango cores resting on top of the small pile of other older fruit remains.

"You guys really need to learn to cover your tracks better," Fathom murmured so that the kids couldn't actually hear him. He picked up the basket and took it out of the pantry.

"Okay, listen up," he said, looking at his dragonets. "Mommy said that I was supposed to keep an eye on you two while she was out doing swimming lessons, and she's gonna be mad at me if she finds out that I let you get into the fruit. So we're gonna need to clean everything up before she gets back. Clearpool, go get the rags. Ripple, go get the bucket and fill it up with water. And wash your face off before you get back."

Ripple pouted. "But daddy, I hate getting the water. It's so heavy."

"It makes you stronger, Ripple. Now go; I don't want to hear any more complaining."

Ripple continued to whine, but slowly made his way to the bucket against the far wall of the room.

Fathom fought a grin. "You'll need to go faster than that, Ripple. C'mon, I want that bucket filled with water and back here in one minute."

Ripple panicked at that and darted for the bucket. "No fair, I can't do it that fast!"

"If you're big enough to reach the fruit basket, then you're big enough to clean up your mess after getting into it. Now go; I'll be counting."

As Ripple scrammed outside with the bucket handle in his mouth, Clearpool gathered some coarse rags which were kept in another small basket against the wall.

When she returned to Fathom, he took one of the rags from her talons and started wiping her face down. Clearpool closed her eyes and started pulling her face away.

"Hold still, sweetheart. The more you squirm, the longer I'll take."

Clearpool whimpered, but held herself still, letting Fathom wipe her scales down more thoroughly.

Fathom couldn't remember what he was like when he was their age. Most of his memories began after his discovery that he was an animus. Prior to that, he just remembered being a quiet, reserved little prince who spent all day with Indigo. He wasn't even sure if he got into trouble all that much before then.

If I did, I hope I was better at it than these two idiots, he thought affectionately.

When Clearpool was all clean, Fathom rose to his feet and turned around, starting towards the fruit basket. But at the doorway leading outside, he spotted a larger, female SeaWing looking straight at him.

His reflex to jump in surprise seized him before he could process that it was Pearl and not Indigo. "Oh, Pearl," he said, calming himself down a bit. "Uh, it's good to see you again. You haven't run into Indigo yet, I assume? She'd probably give you a hard time if she saw you."

Pearl had been visiting about once every other week ever since Clearpool and Ripple hatched. Fathom got the impression that she came here mostly to get her mind off of being queen, even though she never outright said so. She complained a lot about how stressful being queen was, and kept Fathom up-to-date with a lot of the affairs going on in the Sea Kingdom.

But normally when she came to visit, she didn't have this dark, serious look on her face that she did right now.

"Fathom, I need to speak with you," Pearl said. There was a harsh confidence in her voice that Fathom hadn't heard in a long time. It made him a little bit frazzled.

"Um … okay, but I need to clean up this house right now and go shopping for some mangoes," he said as he trotted to the fruit basket and picked it up. "Can it wait until Indigo gets back?"

"No, it can't." Pearl followed Fathom inside as he placed the basket on the table in the pantry. "Fathom, listen. I don't know how else to say this, but you were wrong about Darkstalker."

"Why, because he started occupying the Tail Peninsula? I don't see anything wrong with that; it's unowned land." As he spoke, Ripple returned soaking wet, carrying a bucket half filled with water. "Great job, Ripple; you got back so fast! And you're nice and clean now too. Now, you and Clearpool start wiping down the floor, okay? Make sure to scrub extra hard anywhere that's all sticky. If you finish early, I'll take you two for another swim when you're done, and you'll get to choose what fish you want to have for dinner."

"Yes, Daddy," Ripple said, grabbing a rag. "C'mon, Clearpool."

Fathom beamed at them as they got to work. They both paused for a moment to look at Pearl, but were too shy to say anything.

Fathom turned to Pearl and said, "Were we that obedient when we were their age?"

"Don't change the subject, Fathom," Pearl said sourly, which completely killed Fathom's good mood. "This isn't about the Tail Peninsula. Just a few hours ago, I received a letter from the Rainforest Kingdom. Queen Anaconda is dead."

Fathom straightened up. He looked over to his hatchlings, and decided that he didn't want them hearing any of this. So he gestured for Pearl to follow him outside. They stepped down onto the grass and he lowered his voice. "How did she die?" he asked.

"The letter says that it was a heart attack, but I do not think this was naturally caused." Pearl curled her head in towards Fathom, and she continued in a whisper. "Just after my last visit here, Queen Anaconda came to my court. She told me that Darkstalker had sent her a message, asking her to allow the NightWings to set up encampments along the southern coast of the rainforest."

Fathom tilted his head, confused. "That sounds like a very strange request."

"It was to establish a physical connection between the colonies and the Talon Peninsula," Pearl explained. "He wants to occupy the entire coastline."

That … actually did sound a little bit like something Darkstalker would want. But it surprised Fathom that he would actively seek it out; there was no way the RainWings would be willing to just give the Night Kingdom their coastline. "What did Queen Anaconda say?"

"Obviously she said no, but she believed Darkstalker was threatening her. That's why she came to me: she was afraid for her life."

"You think Darkstalker killed her?"

"Queen Anaconda's oldest daughter is Fantasia, who by all accounts is a lazy idiot with no backbone and the social skills of a baby sea turtle. Anaconda knew this, and she suspected Darkstalker did too. She figured that he'd be able to use his future sight to find out that if he killed Anaconda, then Fantasia would take the throne, and he'd have a much easier time manipulating her."

Fathom didn't believe it. There was no way. Darkstalker wouldn't do that. And even if he would, Clearsight definitely wouldn't.

"This was probably just a coincidence," he said, trying to sound dismissive. "Her heart attack was probably just a result of stress, or a bad diet, or something."

"No, it wasn't. Queen Anaconda was healthy; she wasn't the sort of dragon that would suddenly drop dead like this."

"And Darkstalker isn't the sort of dragon that would suddenly decide to kill her for his own convenience," he said. "I've checked his soul with the soul reader plenty of times; he still has plenty of good in him."

Pearl placed a talon on Fathom's shoulder. "Fathom, I know you want to believe that Darkstalker is still the same dragon, but dragons change. We've seen it with Albatross. Now we're seeing it with Darkstalker."

Fathom swatted Pearl's talon off of his shoulder. "I'll prove to you that you're wrong," he said, starting towards the beach. "I'll use my animus magic to find the truth."

"No, Fathom!" Pearl shouted, running after him. "You can't just use your powers for small things like this. You're the only good animus dragon left. You need to protect your soul."

"I'll be fine," Fathom said. "And this isn't a small thing. You're accusing my best friend of murder."

"But you need to—"

"—Pearl, the last time you accused Darkstalker of doing something terrible without proof, you were wrong. Have you learned nothing from the war you just lost?"

Instantly, the intensity in Pearl's eyes vanished, and for the first time, Fathom finally saw some doubt in them. That was good. He couldn't afford to let her be confident right now. He had to be the one who knew he was right.

"Let me prove it to you, just this once," he said. "If you're right, and Darkstalker really did do this, then I'll turn my back on him and return to the Sea Kingdom. If you're wrong, then I don't want to hear another word from you about Darkstalker again."

Fathom picked a pebble off the ground and stopped in front of the ocean, where the sand was wetted by the receding waves. He looked back at Pearl to see if she would try and stop him, but she simply nodded at him.

What if she's right? he wondered as he looked back at the pebble. What if this was Darkstalker's doing? Would I be able to trust anyone anymore?

No, Pearl couldn't be right. She had to be mistaken. It was a fair mistake to make, but it had to be a coincidence. Darkstalker would never do that. He wouldn't.

But even as he started thinking that, tendrils of doubt swam through his brain. He remembered the way Darkstalker acted in front of all of the queens when he got his powers back. He remembered how he used his powers to brand the moon with the insignia of the Night Kingdom. He remembered how the soul reader was showing that he was getting more evil. Could he really be slipping?

A part of him didn't want to know. Suddenly, he was afraid of using his powers to find the answer. He believed Darkstalker was a good dragon, and he wanted to keep believing that. He didn't want to be proven wrong.

"Fathom," Pearl said, breaking him from his thoughts. "Go on ahead. It's okay."

Fathom took a deep breath. Don't worry, Fathom. You have to be right about this. You know you're right. You have nothing to be afraid of.

"Pebble, I enchant you to write the truthful answer to the following question in the sand: Did Darkstalker kill Queen Anaconda?"

Despite everything, Fathom knew what the answer was going to be before seeing it. When the pebble hopped from his talons onto the sand, he knew in his gut that it would trace the word 'YES' in the sand. And it came as no surprise when it did.

But he still didn't believe it.

"W-wait," Fathom said, stepping forward. "Maybe I wasn't specific enough. What does it even mean to 'kill' something? Maybe the heart-attack was still naturally caused, and it was caused by Darkstalker stressing her out. That would probably still count as Darkstalker killing her, right?"

He grabbed the pebble again, and erased the word 'YES' from the sand with the palm of his talon.

"Fathom—" Pearl started.

"I enchant this pebble to write the truthful answer to the following question in the sand: Was Queen Anaconda's heart attack naturally caused?"

The pebble hopped off of Fathom's talon and wrote down the word 'NO' in the sand.

"Well — maybe it's unclear what 'naturally caused' means. Maybe being stressed out by a magical dragon isn't a natural cause of a heart attack." Fathom picked up the pebble again.

"Fathom, stop!"

"I enchant this pebble to write the answer to the following question in the sand: Did Darkstalker use his magic to intentionally cause Queen Anaconda to die?"

Onto the sand the pebble went, and beneath the word 'NO,' it wrote the word 'YES.'

Fathom felt like his brain was melting. "But — but, maybe Queen Anaconda was threatening him," he suggested. "Maybe he just killed her in self-defence. It wouldn't be the first time another queen has threatened him."

He started reaching for the pebble again, but Pearl tackled him before he could pick it up. "That's enough, Fathom!"

Fathom squirmed and clawed at the sand. "Let me go! Don't you want to find out too?"

"You can't keep wasting your magic like this," Pearl said, struggling to keep Fathom at bay. "You can't let yourself turn evil too."

"Darkstalker's not evil!" Fathom said with a whimper. "We just need to find out why he did this."

"Don't run from this, Fathom," Pearl said. "Queen Anaconda was no threat to Darkstalker. You know that."

Fathom's heart still protested. He wasn't ready to lose his best friend. He wanted so badly to believe that there was something he was missing — that Darkstalker really did have a good reason for doing this.

But this wasn't something he could deny. He knew Pearl was right. He knew that the only explanation for this was Darkstalker's soul turning bad. He hoped that there was something he could do to pull Darkstalker back, but right now, he was gone.

"Can you let me go?" Fathom asked. "I feel like every time we meet, you find an excuse to pin my face in the sand."

"Promise me you won't make any enchantments when I let go of you," Pearl said.

"If I wanted to make an enchantment I could make one right now," he said. "No magic. I promise."

Pearl let go of him, and Fathom slowly sat back up. The warm ocean waves crashed beside him — a sound that was still whimsical to him even after hearing it every day for the past four months.

"I might need some time to digest this," Fathom said. "It's still hard to believe."

"I understand." Pearl took one of his talons and grasped it tight. "But I need you in the Sea Kingdom, Fathom. If Darkstalker is willing to kill Anaconda, then he's willing to kill me too. I need your protection. We all do."

"Or maybe I should go back to the Night Kingdom," Fathom suggested. "I bet I could talk some sense into Darkstalker. He'll listen to me."

Pearl squeezed his talons tighter. "No. I'm not going to risk you being with Darkstalker again. I don't trust him to not do something to you. You need to be safe, and away from him."

Fathom would have protested. He would have complained that that sounded exactly like what the old Pearl would have said, and that he didn't want to be trapped in the Sea Kingdom against his will.

But he also cared too much about Pearl to risk not being with her right now, when he was no longer entirely certain that Darkstalker wouldn't kill her.

"I think we should find a way to contact Clearsight in secret," Pearl said. "Since this was Darkstalker's doing and not hers, she might still be in favor of peace."

"No," Fathom said, shaking his head. "Darkstalker put his animus powers back into a new scroll, and Clearsight has access to it just as much as he does. He wouldn't have been able to kill Queen Anaconda without Clearsight knowing. She has to be in on this too."

Pearl lowered her eyes. "Then I guess we'll just need to inform the rest of the queens," she said. "Let them know that Darkstalker is getting more dangerous, but Fathom is on our side."

"I'll try and figure out something to say to Darkstalker," Fathom said. "I'm also going to need to come up with some spells to cast. And a way to make sure my soul doesn't get destroyed in the process."

"Don't cast any spells without running them by me first," Pearl said. "Promise?"

"I promise," he said. "Look, I need to go find Indigo. We've got a lot to talk about. You should get back to the palace before it gets too late."

"I'll be back tomorrow," Pearl said. "Stay safe until then."

They wrapped their arms around each other, and then Pearl took to the sky. Fathom let out a sigh and started back to the house, wondering if he'd ever come back to it again after today.