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CLEARSIGHT
Things were cordial at the beginning of Clearsight's first meeting with Keen Eye and her council. There were lots of 'hello's and 'good-day's and 'very-pleased-to-meet-you's. Several military chiefs sat at the council table, including — much to Clearsight's surprise — Darkstalker's mother. Apparently Foeslayer was an expert in military intelligence, and directed a large wing of the NightWing air force. She sat alongside a ground general named Blackhorn, a medical chief named Charcoal, and an operations manager named Evenfall.
The council room was small and stuffy, and the conference table was carved from a deep red mahogany that had been sanded down so smooth that it shined. Clearsight sat at Keen Eye's right wing, feeling an odd combination of confidence and anxiety as her new boss read through her written report.
At last, she set the report down on the table. "Clearsight, I don't know how to say this respectfully," she said, "but you're obviously making this up."
Now it was just anxiety. "I'm sorry?" she said, nearly in a whisper.
"This is by far the most thorough report I've ever seen from a NightWing seer in all my years serving as the Queen's advisor."
Clearsight didn't like making comments that sounded too conceited, but she didn't think she could avoid it this time. "That's … unsurprising. I try not to be too boastful about it, but I realize I'm one of the more talented seers of our time."
"This goes beyond the scope of seer powers," Keen Eye said. "It's one thing to be able to decrypt your visions and deliver them in a clear report. It's another thing to go through practically every forthcoming contingency in pristine detail."
"I haven't changed anything about the way I write my reports. Ask Queen Vigilance if you don't believe me."
"I intend to," Keen Eye said, keeping a brow raised at Clearsight. "I suppose this would explain why Queen Vigilance practically ignored all of her advisors after she hired you. But … if these are accurate, it doesn't make any sense why we haven't won the war yet."
"What does the report say?" asked Foeslayer.
"A lot," Keen Eye said, raising the paper to her nose. "'The IceWings won't push their offenses beyond the Valley of Shadows for another two weeks. Instead they will take time to regroup and funnel in more troops to the newly conquered region.'"
"Well that much is obvious," Blackhorn said.
"'The troops will be brought in from a reserve that they have stationed in the Arid Dunes, just along the west coast.'"
"That's … less obvious. If it's true, we could probably prepare a coastal attack against them with—"
"'—If we choose to attack the IceWings here with a platoon of sixty dragons or more, the IceWings would retreat to the south rather than engage in battle. However, this victory would be short-lived. Depending on which platoon is sent to carry out this attack, the lieutenant will either wait for fortifications and indefinitely stagnate, or they will follow the retreating IceWings south and engage in a battle that they will lose.'" Keen Eye flipped the parchment over to show the rest of the dragons the writing. "That was just the first paragraph. It goes on like this."
"Is this some kind of a joke?" said Charcoal, his nose twitching as though he smelled something foul.
"This report can't possibly be reliable," Blackhorn agreed. "Nobody can predict that far ahead, not even a seer."
Clearsight felt a knot forming in her stomach, but her pride flared through her nerves. "I understand why you would think that," she said, keeping her voice firm. "But I know what I saw. I looked for what would happen if we attacked the IceWings, and that's what my powers told me."
"Seer powers don't work like that," Charcoal said. "Surely you don't believe you can fool us into believing otherwise."
A snarl escaped from Clearsight's face. "You think I'm trying to fool you? Was I trying to fool the queen as well when I was reporting to her?"
Nobody responded, but their silence clued Clearsight in on the answer they wanted to give.
"Fine, then!" Clearsight said, rising to her feet. "If my powers aren't going to be taken seriously by any of you, then I might as well just go."
"Clearsight, don't be childish," Keen Eye said. "We don't want you to leave, but we need to be able to trust you if we're going to include you in these discussions."
"And you don't, so goodbye." She started for the door.
"You have not been dismissed yet, Clearsight. Come back here and sit down. That's an order."
Clearsight stopped. She'd almost forgotten, again, that she was still a subordinate. Even if she could leave, she probably didn't want to. It wasn't like she could go back to her old job.
She couldn't stand it. Everyone here was wrong, and she knew they were wrong. And yet they were the ones who got to order her around and act superior to her.
With a sour grimace, she returned to the table and sat down beside Keen Eye. Some visions began swimming in her head, reminding her that she and Keen Eye didn't have to be friends. Keen Eye could give Clearsight a life of glory and success, or she could have Clearsight permanently expelled from the palace.
She let out a sigh. Staying angry wouldn't do her any good. And she understood why these dragons didn't believe her, she really did. If some five-year-old dragonet came up to her and claimed to have special powers that no dragon had ever seen in hundreds of years, she'd have her doubts too.
"Why don't I test your powers?" Keen Eye asked. "That bracelet that you wear is what keeps me from reading your mind, right? Take it off, and let me peer into your mind while you look into the future like you say you can."
Clearsight brought her arm close to her body and cradled her wrist against her chest, shielding her bracelet from sight. "Please don't make me do that," she said. "There are … things in my mind that I don't want you to see."
"Clearsight, you can't show me anything that I haven't already seen a million times over," Keen Eye told her. "Every dragon has dark or treasonous or inappropriate thoughts from time to time that other dragons aren't meant to hear. We mind readers are trained to forget about them, because almost a hundred percent of the time, they don't mean anything. As long as you haven't committed some sort of heinous crime, you should have nothing to worry about."
Clearsight suddenly remembered the time when Darkstalker murdered Queen Vigilance in her sleep, and how she was right next to him when he did it, but she promptly pushed those thoughts away. "I'm more complicated than other dragons," she insisted. "My powers, they — if you don't know how to interpret the visions correctly—"
"—Clearsight, we don't have time to argue about this. Take the bracelet off. If you can prove that you're being honest, I promise I won't ever ask you to show me your thoughts again."
That wasn't the first time someone had made that promise to her. And it wasn't the first time that promise might have been broken. But she saw that there wouldn't be any backing out of this. If she didn't do as Keen Eye said, she might as well kiss her job for the queen goodbye.
She had to be very careful. If she accidentally revealed that she wasn't from this timeline, Keen Eye would never trust her again. If that were to happen, her promise would end up as empty as her patience.
She did everything she could to flush away the thoughts of her past. She needed to focus on the future. She knew what thread she wanted to chase to prove the legitimacy of her powers. Once she found it, hopefully she could focus on it without any intrusive thoughts getting in the way.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and took off the bracelet. Then she converged on one of the many closely-knit threads that wove out from the present. Blackhorn proposes that they carry out an attack, and Clearsight begrudgingly lets him have his way.
Four days later, in this same meeting room, Keen Eye enters with the war report, and admits sourly that Clearsight was right about everything. The attack was a success, but Lieutenant Moonchaser was too eager to press forward, and led her battalion to slaughter when she followed the retreating IceWings to a massive enemy fortification.
She opened her eyes to see that Keen Eye had gotten closer to her. She was sitting less than a foot away, staring at the top of Clearsight's head.
Suddenly, there was a flash. The lighting was dimmer and duller. She was in the palace throne room, sitting where Queen Vigilance usually sat. In the background, dragons were bowing. But Keen Eye, she was still exactly where she was, sitting right in front of Clearsight. In her talons was Vigilance's crown, which she raised in the air and lowered onto Clearsight's head.
She shook her head ferociously and immediately slid the bracelet back on her wrist. For a couple of heartbeats, she and Keen Eye looked at each other, wide-eyed.
"That—… I didn't—… You weren't supposed to—…" She bit her tongue, took a fraction of a second to gather her thoughts, and said, "Visions sometimes crash into me like that. They won't happen until — I mean, that future doesn't need to happen."
Keen Eye had already completely calmed herself by the time Clearsight was finished sputtering. "Settle down, Clearsight. I understand."
"What happened?" Evenfall asked.
"What did you see?" asked Charcoal.
"Nothing that you need to know about," Keen Eye said, frowning at them. "Don't be nosy. You know how secretive us mind readers are with other dragons' thoughts."
"Keen Eye, please don't take that vision the wrong way," Clearsight started.
Keen Eye wore a long frown, and refrained from responding for a few heartbeats longer than Clearsight would have liked. But then she sighed, and her frown broke into a light grin. "Don't worry, Clearsight, I won't. I don't know if anyone told you this yet, but I was hatched under two full moons. I'm a seer as well. And that last vision you had was the only one that actually seemed like a real vision. Short, sudden, completely outlandish, and … very awkwardly timed." Her eyes glistened, much in the same way that Darkstalker's did whenever he was brewing ideas. Clearsight nervously backed away.
"As for the other visions," Keen Eye continued, "they weren't true visions, but they didn't seem like pure imagination either." She glanced over Clearsight's shoulder. "General Blackhorn, is there a Lieutenant Moonchaser in your division?"
"Yes, there is," he said. "She was just promoted to Lieutenant a few days ago. How do you know her?"
"I don't," Keen Eye said. "And I don't imagine that Clearsight does either." She sat down back at the table, and glossed over Clearsight's report once again. A grimace of defeat crept into her eyes. "She's telling the truth," she finally said.
"Really?" Foeslayer said. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. I still don't know how reliable Clearsight's visions are. But they're definitely visions, and not her imagination. And that's reason enough for me to take this—" she tapped a claw onto Clearsight's report, "into serious consideration."
"Fine, then," Blackhorn said. "Supposing Clearsight's right and we shouldn't stage an attack. What should we do instead?"
"The most promising option I found was to reinforce the borders and wait for the IceWings to make their next move," Clearsight said. "They should leave open another vulnerability that we can take advantage of."
Blackhorn sighed. "I was afraid you'd say something like that."
"I doubt the queen will like that option," Keen Eye said.
"I don't like this option either," Blackhorn agreed. "The IceWings aren't getting any more vulnerable. There should be something we can do now."
"Maybe," Clearsight said. "Being defensive was the best option that I found, but I'm not a military expert. I've ruled out the possibility of most ambush attacks, and any retaliatory strike in the Valley of Shadows."
"No, I think you're right," Charcoal said. "Going on the defensive for now seems to me like the right call. It will give our medics more time to tend to the wounded."
"I have no objections to waiting it out," Foeslayer said. "Our aerial units still need time to regroup."
"Fine," Blackhorn said. "If we're vulnerable too, then let's get that fixed before pressing an attack."
"In that case, I'll pass our council to the queen, and we'll see what she has to say," Keen Eye said. "Now, let's move on to other matters…."
The meeting went on for about another hour, and Clearsight found herself feeling oddly at-home while it was going on. The meeting had all of the same characteristics of the council meetings that she'd had as queen, with the only difference being that none of her friends were sitting around the table with her.
There was still a sense of mistrust that Clearsight caught amongst the other dragons, but she felt it dissolving as the meeting went on. Whenever she made a good point that she shouldn't have been able to make on her own, or expressed knowledge that she shouldn't have had, the true extent of her powers started to get realized and respected.
Clearsight left the meeting with an optimistic buzz in her future sight. Her relationship with Keen Eye was still unclear, but her new position on the council seemed secure.
When she woke up the next evening, her future sight greeted her with a cold wave down her back.
Blood and tyranny flashed through her eyes. A furious Darkstalker stood on a spire before an army of enchanted NightWings, commanding them to march with him to the Ice Kingdom and raze it to the ground.
Clearsight had seen this sort of vision dozens of times in the past, but this time it came with far greater urgency. The vision was clear as the shining moons, and it was fast approaching. If she didn't do anything, Queen Vigilance would be dead in a week, and both NightWings and IceWings would be at risk of total annihilation.
In previous timelines, a vision like this might have caused her to panic. But she'd encountered these situations before and got out of them. She just needed to stay focused.
The first thing she needed to do was figure out what was going on, and the most obvious dragon to talk to about this was Darkstalker. She shared this vision with him at the palace mess hall during lunch. It nearly made him choke on his salmon.
"That's … frightening," he said, his voice low.
"I'm glad you agree," Clearsight said. "So you haven't decided to start making any plans to kill …" She bit her tongue. Saying the wrong thing in a room where there might be prying ears could land her in a lot of trouble.
"Of course I haven't," Darkstalker assured her. "For goodness' sake, I'm only six."
"It wouldn't be the first time you tried this at your age."
Darkstalker groaned. "Do you have to compare me to myself from different timelines like that? It really doesn't feel fair."
"I'm just saying, it can happen. I see it in the future, and I saw it in the past."
"Fine. I'll check my soul with the soul reader just to be sure, and I won't cast any new spells, just to be safe."
Clearsight shook her head. "I don't think this has anything to do with your magic. It didn't last time."
"That's true. Last time, it was my mother, I remember. But Mom isn't in any danger now, is she? I mean, you'll be seeing her later today."
Clearsight looked ahead for signs of Foeslayer, tracing out her fate. Darkstalker was right. She would be at Keen Eye's meeting today, and then …
Oh no.
Darkstalker's ears flattened when he saw the way Clearsight's face changed. "Clearsight."
"Queen Vigilance is going to send her on an ambush mission," Clearsight said. "I can save her. I'll be meeting with her in less than an hour. We'll figure this out."
"If you need any enchantment, tell me," Darkstalker said. "I can make a necklace that gives you perfect persuasion, or something that can make Queen Vigilance change her mind."
"No," Clearsight said, shaking her head. "Not that type of magic."
"But this is my mother, Clearsight! I don't want to take any chances with her."
"Not with that type of magic," Clearsight insisted. "If I need an enchantment, I will come to you. But until then, let me do this on my own. It'll be safer this way."
She did her best to lace her voice with confidence, but her thoughts probably betrayed her. She knew that she couldn't fail this, and Darkstalker probably did too. He knew that if Foeslayer died because of an order by Queen Vigilance, he might respond by killing the queen and taking her place.
They finished their lunch early. Clearsight returned to her chambers and spent her final precious minutes before the council meeting thinking over what she wanted to say. She knew from experience that using her future sight was practically useless when it came to directing conversations. All she managed to glean during her preparations was that she was going to have to be direct if she wanted to have a chance at saving Foeslayer.
She made it to the meeting a little early. The torchlight in the room kept it warm, which eased her nerves a bit, but she was still pacing in circles around the table until Keen Eye arrived.
"Hello, Clearsight," she said. "Are you alright?"
"Not exactly," Clearsight said. "I had some visions about the ambush."
"Ah, so you've already found out about what Queen Vigilance wants us to do," she said with a sigh. "Unfortunately we don't really have a choice. Her order is final. We're just going to have to work with it as best as we can. Hopefully we can plan properly and minimize casualties."
"I really don't think that this is something we should follow through on," Clearsight insisted.
"We'll figure it out, Clearsight. For goodness' sake, try and calm down. You won't be of any use if you're all jittery like this. Let me go get some water for you. I'll be back in a minute."
As Keen Eye escaped the meeting room, Foeslayer made her way in. Her presence helped ground Clearsight back in the present. It was comforting to see her. She just hoped this wouldn't be the last time she did.
"Greetings, Clearsight," she said. "How's Darkstalker doing? I haven't seen him in a couple days."
"Happier than ever," Clearsight said. "He loves it here in the palace, where he can see me and Fathom whenever he wants. He's sad that he doesn't get to see you and Whiteout as often, though." Clearsight took her seat. "Foeslayer, have you ever … been in a battle before? I assume you must have, given your rank and all."
"Actually, no. I got my position through study, and through some connections I inherited from my grandmother," Foeslayer said with a smirk. "I was one of the youngest dragons to become a Lieutenant. And I'm still a little too young to be a soldier. Dragons aren't usually put into battle until they're in their twenties, and I'm only nineteen."
Clearsight bit her tongue and looked over at the door. Blackhorn, Charcoal, and Eventide all stepped into the room, quietly wrapping up their conversations before they took their seats. Soon thereafter, Keen Eye returned with a metal pitcher of water and a few glasses, which she placed on the table.
"Good, we're all here," Keen Eye said as she poured Clearsight a glass. "Let's begin with the queen's orders as of this evening. She has decided, a little surprisingly, to ignore our call to act defensively. She insists that we attack now, and wants us to do so with an aerial ambush."
Keen Eye grabbed a map of the west coast of Pyrrhia, which was sitting on a stack of parchments next to the chalkboard. She flattened it against the table and pointed to a spot just northwest of the mountains bordering the Night Kingdom, near the Valley of Shadows.
"Thanks to Clearsight, we know that reinforcements are coming into the Valley of Shadows from the IceWing fortifications along the Arid Dunes. The queen wants us to intercept those reinforcements right here, before they make it to their destination."
"But Clearsight already established that that wouldn't work," Blackhorn said. "We don't have any field captains in our divisions that can effectively lead the ambush."
"There are no captains, but there is a lieutenant," Keen Eye explained. "And that lieutenant is our own Foeslayer."
Foeslayer straightened up, as though Vigilance herself entered the room to see her. "She wants me to lead the ambush?"
"She orders you to lead the ambush. She's confident that you're more than capable."
"I'd … be honored," she said, a slight quiver forming in her voice. "She doesn't believe I'm too young? I thought standard practice was to wait until dragons entered their mid-twenties before having them see battle."
"Dragons in their teens are usually looking after their first brood of hatchlings, which is why they're not called on to do dangerous field missions such as these," Keen Eye explained. "But Queen Vigilance reckons that this doesn't apply to you, since Darkstalker and Whiteout are nearly adults already."
"Well … if Vigilance is confident in my success, then so am I."
"Keen Eye, I have to object to this plan," Clearsight said. "Even with Foeslayer leading the ambush, it's going to fail."
"I explained the risks to Queen Vigilance," Keen Eye said, turning to Clearsight. "She told me that it was our job to mitigate them."
"But it's so much riskier with Foeslayer," Clearsight tried to explain. "It's not just a matter of whether the mission fails or not. If she actually takes part in the ambush, there is a very good chance she ends up dead."
The other NightWings cast nervous glances at Foeslayer, who now looked horrified.
Clearsight stood up. "Listen, Foeslayer is the number one enemy of the IceWings. If they see any opportunity to take her down, they're going to take it."
"But I have an enchantment on my earring," Foeslayer said. "It should protect me from harm as long as I wear it."
"Someone could take it off. And if that happens, you'll no longer be protected from the enchantment Queen Diamond put on you. Once it takes effect, nothing will be able to bring you back. Not even animus magic."
Some dark undercurrents began to ripple into the fabric of the futures. Maybe she shouldn't have revealed that.
Foeslayer gently touched her earring. "Queen Diamond put an enchantment on me?"
Clearsight nodded, and the dark futures simmered ever harder within her head. She pressed a talon against her temple, trying to decipher what was happening in these futures, but the visions were giving her a migraine, nullifying her ability to focus.
"Wait … I'm seeing something," Keen Eye said. When Clearsight looked up at her, her eyes were pale, a sure sign that she was having her own vision.
It was a long vision, one without words or prophecies. Silence hung over the table, even after Keen Eye returned to the present. When her eyes returned to normal, she closed them, looking down thoughtfully.
"Clearsight," she finally said, "what you said about Foeslayer — her earring, and its enchantment — it cannot leave this room. Nobody can know about it, not even Queen Vigilance." She opened her eyes again, and looked around the table. "That means everybody here must keep their thoughts and words sealed regarding this matter. If I find out that any of you let this information slip, then I'll have you personally executed for high treason."
And just like that, the darkness in Clearsight's mind settled. She took a deep breath and a sip of water, more grateful than ever that Keen Eye was a seer too.
"Now, back to the matter of this ambush," Keen Eye continued. "You raise some good points, Clearsight. But Queen Vigilance has already given the order."
Then ignore her orders and follow mine instead, she wanted to say. "Can we not appeal to her?" she asked.
Keen Eye shook her head. "She insisted on having Foeslayer lead the ambush. It was a very deliberate final order. If we disobey, we can be executed."
That wasn't an empty threat. Looking into the futures, it seemed as though Foeslayer had no choice but to either lead the ambush herself, or be deemed a traitor. She'll either be executed or stripped of her enchanted earring after being imprisoned.
Clearsight focused, trying to find the decisions she could still make that would save her.
"If we have to send Foeslayer, then the most important thing is to make sure she doesn't get seen." She opened her eyes and looked at Foeslayer. "The easiest way to make sure of that would be an enchantment. I can ask Darkstalker to use his animus powers to make something that turns you invisible."
Foeslayer winced, as though those words stung. "I'm not sure. I don't want to have another dragon lose their soul trying to protect me. Especially not my son."
Clearsight knew what she wanted to say, but took her a few seconds to find a polite way to say it. "I know. But it would hurt his soul more if he had to live the rest of his life without his mother."
Foeslayer opened her mouth, as though she were about to say something. But she closed it, and nodded. "Okay," she said quietly. "I'll be sure to have the enchantment before I leave."
Clearsight felt the weight of the world lifting from her shoulders. Visions of apocalypse and bloodshed slithered away from her mind.
"I'm glad to hear that," she said. "I think you're going to be safe." She rose to her feet, looking briefly at the other council members. "Now, let's figure out how to execute this ambush. Charcoal, do you know which platoon in Foeslayer's wing has the most active medical units?"
"That would be Platoon Six," Charcoal said. "They should be stationed at North Beach."
"We should have the medics from Six rendezvous with Platoon One here at Fort Orion," she said, pointing at a fortification on the map that lay east of the palace. "Make sure their flight path falls over the Great Diamond. They'll wait at Orion for Foeslayer until the night before the ambush."
"Where on the IceWing flight path should we stage the attack?" Foeslayer asked.
Clearsight spent a few heartbeats combing through the futures. "Pretty far south," she said. "There's a patch of forest a few miles northwest of the Valley of Shadows. Foeslayer, I want you to lead the squad there and take cover until the ambush is executed. Whether it succeeds or not, the team can return to North Beach to resupply and provide medical aid to anyone that got hurt." She closed her eyes, straining her future sight a little further. "It looks like supplies are going to be running thin soon. Evenfall, you should have more of your researchers focus on the routing and supply chain issues. I don't think—"
"—Clearsight," Keen Eye interrupted, looking at Clearsight in a way that made her worry that a bug might have just landed on her face. "I'm sure these are all good ideas, but you need to be giving suggestions, not orders. Let's back up and discuss things one at a time."
"Oh." Clearsight fell back to her seat, and politely tucked her tail around her body, feeling her ears go hot. "Sorry, ma'am."
For the remainder of the meeting, Keen Eye kept giving Clearsight this weird glare. It kind of looked like Keen Eye was trying to break through the bracelet and read her mind again, and kind of looked like she was growing increasingly impatient with her existence.
Clearsight was too on edge to make any major suggestions in addition to the ones she had already made, but by the end of the meeting, everything she did suggest ended up getting approved by the rest of the council.
After Keen Eye adjourned the meeting, Clearsight started for the door in a hurry. However, Keen Eye stopped her. "Can I speak with you one-on-one for a moment?" she asked, extending a wing and herding her further into the room.
"Sure," she said, looking enviously over her shoulder at the other dragons making their exit. "I really am sorry for giving instructions like that. It wasn't my place."
"It's alright. I suppose you're not used to working with a council. I trust you'll learn all the courtesies in due time."
"Yes, ma'am."
Keen Eye looked around, then started walking towards her seat at the conference table. "I'm curious, Clearsight, do you have any experience in a position of leadership?"
"Well—uh, no, no I don't," Clearsight said, shaking her head.
"Really? Well, for better or for worse, you seem to have a knack for it. I've got to say, I'm a little bit jealous."
Clearsight blinked. "Jealous?"
"Yes. When I first got this job, I was so nervous. I had no idea how to give orders or direct a conversation. It wasn't until I'd been in this position for a few years that I started to get enough self-confidence to do my job well. You, on the other talon, have enough self-confidence for the both of us. You have it to a fault, but it's a fault I wish I had possessed when I was your age. It comes naturally with your powers, I suppose."
Never in Clearsight's life had she imagined someone would fault her for having too much confidence. "Oh, no, I'm really not as confident as I might appear," she said, shaking her head. "Most of the time, my powers just tell me how uncertain everything is. And when that happens, I have no idea what to do."
"Don't be modest, Clearsight. Your confidence clearly shines when you're given the chance to speak, knowing that others are listening." She brushed her wing against Clearsight's and gave her a smile. The gesture seemed to ease a lot of the tension that had been sitting in Clearsight's bones. "May I ask you a slightly personal question?" she asked.
"Of course," Clearsight said.
"I know that you've had visions about becoming queen, but have you ever actually … seriously thought about it?"
"No, not seriously," Clearsight immediately said, suddenly feeling like she was being tested. "I mean, I have daydreamed about it, but what girl doesn't daydream about being queen from time to time?"
"Of course," Keen Eye said, nodding.
"Why do you ask?" Clearsight asked.
"Oh, no real reason. It's just …" She paused, tilting her head for a moment. "I guess it doesn't surprise me that it's possible."
Clearsight blinked, feeling again like Keen Eye was somehow reading her mind.
"Don't get any ideas, Clearsight," Keen Eye said, smirking. "If you do end up conspiring to overthrow the queen, I'd have to cut off your head, and that wouldn't be fun for anyone." She then extended a wing, gesturing towards the door. "Now, you've got important things to do, so I'll let you go."
Clearsight nodded and started towards the door.
"Oh, and Clearsight."
She looked over her shoulder at Keen Eye.
"I'm sure you already know this, but keep an eye on Foeslayer when you're looking towards the future. The balance of the kingdom seems to depend on her."
A/N: Hey everyone! Hope your summer has been doing well.
I had a pretty brutal semester. I'm working towards a PhD in pure math, and I ended up taking some very heavy geometry courses this spring. I didn't schedule my time too well, and ended up having to take an extended break from writing just to stay on top of everything else. When I finally had free time again, I was disoriented enough that getting my momentum back proved to be a challenge. I'm actually embarrassed to say that I had this chapter pretty much done for the past six months now, but never found the time or motivation to clean it up to presentable levels until recently. Hopefully now that I'm uploading again, I'll be able to find a routine that lends itself to more frequent chapter releases. My plan moving forward is to try and maintain a permanent schedule of new chapters every two weeks. When I know what I'm doing, I can usually finish a chapter in five to seven days, so having a biweekly upload schedule should enable me to build up a comfortable chapter buffer that can hopefully be maintained indefinitely.
To those of you who have been waiting, thank you so much for your patience! I'll see you all in the next upload, which should hopefully be fourteen days from now.