A/N: Welcome back, everyone, to Chapter 3.

Not too much to really say about this one except that this should be the last chapter that takes most of the dialogue from the book. Like I said earlier, I don't much like doing that, but it's necessary.

Anyway, if you like Different Threads so far, feel free to follow/favorite and leave a review. And, of course, enjoy...

Chapter 3

Clearsight's Meeting

"Well, this is quite the change," Darkstalker told Clearsight as they exited Queen Vigilance's throne room, "Yesterday you didn't want to be in the palace at all. Now you'll be living here."

He'd arrived home last night from Fathom's welcoming party and only had a few hours to do a bit of enchanting and get some much-needed rest when she'd shown up in a panic, going on and on about having to save the kingdom. Apparently, Clearsight and Listener had decided to try to rescue a few scavengers from the school (a notion that Darkstalker scoffed at) and had released them on the North Beach. During their escapade, they'd unwittingly come across two Icewings that had swam into the area, triggering Clearsight to have several visions of Icewings invading the kingdom by sea and taking the whole Night Kingdom by surprise.

Needless to say, Clearsight had insisted that she warn the queen of the impending peril. They'd gone that morning, most Nightwings still asleep, with Darkstalker using his own credentials to ensure that she got an audience. After he explained that Clearsight was a seer, she told the queen everything that she saw, and everything that she feared was about to happen.

Vigilance was impressed. She was more than impressed, actually—Darkstalker could see in her mind that she was practically ecstatic about her newfound tool in Clearsight. Unlike the other seers, Clearsight didn't speak in oddly worded prophecies or tell of clouded visions; she had the ability to simply see what would or could happen and then tell it as it would, removing almost all the guesswork that seemed to go into prophecies.

Realizing this, Vigilance had immediately brought her into her service. From now on, Clearsight would live and work in the palace as one of the regular staff. Pending the fulfillment of her visions, she was almost definitely going to become the queen's top seer.

Unfortunately for Clearsight, that wasn't quite what she had wanted.

"This wasn't the plan," she sighed as they walked. She was still wearing her bracelet, so he couldn't see her mind, but Darkstalker knew that she had been expecting some reward and recognition, but not a total life change. She enjoyed, he knew, living with her parents, and now she was going to be pulled away from them.

At least she'll be closer to Fathom and I, Darkstalker thought. He knew that they'd be spending a lot of time together in the palace.

As they left the throne room, they entered into the heart of the palace: the central courtyard. It was filled with a series of grand ballrooms (such as the one that the party had been in last night), majestic gardens, and magnificent atriums with tall glass ceilings. He looked at Clearsight as she walked through it for the first time. She looked impressed, despite her dismissal of the palace's luxury in the past.

He grinned, then saw her attention turn away from the palace and to something else. He followed her line of sight and saw four blue and green dragons a short way off, looking down into a small decorative koi pond on the outside edge of one of the gardens.

"Fathom!" he heard Clearsight yell as she left his side and bounded over to the Seawings, "You're here!"

Before she could reach them, Darkstalker saw a dark bluish-purple dragoness that could only be Indigo leap to her feet, grab a spear that she had resting beside her, and turn it towards Clearsight, all in the blink of an eye. "Stop right there!" Indigo cried, "Don't touch him!" The tip of the spear nearly caught Clearsight in the throat as she yelped and skidded to a stop.

"Hey," he roared as he caught up to her, "Unnecessary!" Threatening him last night was one thing, but Clearsight…

"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" Clearsight said quickly, shaking her head with a startled expression, "Aaargh, I've never done that before."

"Who are you?" Indigo demanded, not moving her spear.

"I'm Clearsight," Clearsight said, spreading her wings low to try to appear nonthreatening. Indigo snorted in a very unamused way.

"She's with me," Darkstalker said, grabbing Indigo's spear and pulling it down. His eyes met the Seawing's and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I—I see the future," Clearsight went on, ignoring his and Indigo's looks, "I've seen Fathom in my visions—but seeing you now I forgot that we haven't actually met yet. I'm sorry," she spoke the last part directly to Fathom.

"Me?" Fathom asked, surprised and kind of nervous at that thought, "You've seen me in your visions?"

Darkstalker let go of the spear, but he and Indigo continued to stare each other down. He'd taken some time before he'd gone to bed in the morning to check some of the futures where she was concerned. He hadn't encountered that odd one again, so he had finally dismissed it completely (even if he couldn't quite forget about it). Other than that, the future had showed him that Indigo was nothing but trouble, and there were several different paths he saw that had very…satisfying ways to be rid of her.

"Lots of times," Clearsight went on, oblivious to the silent war the two were waging, "We're going to be friends, I promise." She looked at the other Seawings. "Soooo, who are these?" she asked, motioning to his guards.

"Well, this is Warf and this is Lionfish," Fathom said, gesturing to each guard respectively, "And of course, the dragoness with the spear is Indigo."

At the mention of her name, Indigo finally looked away and back to Fathom. Darkstalker gave a small grin that he'd won that little game, even if it wasn't even real. Yet, he noticed that at the mention of Indigo, Clearsight turned and gave him a confused look. He figured it was probably for the same reason he'd been so confused to see the dark blue Seawing.

"I think everything's fine," Fathom told Indigo, and she reluctantly laid her spear back down against the pond where it was before. Fathom went on to dismiss his other two guards, and soon it was just the four of them together.

It would have been absolutely lovely, Darkstalker thought, if not for Indigo.

"Guess what," Clearsight said to Fathom as the other guards left, "I'm moving into the palace, too! We'll be basically neighbors." Darkstalker didn't fail to notice the sudden change in tone from just minutes before, when she was not happy about making that move. "You, me, and Darkstalker. You met Darkstalker, right?"

He realized that, with all the excitement of Clearsight's visions of an Icewing attack, he'd never actually been able to tell her about his night with Fathom.

"Yes, we met," Darkstalker said before Fathom could. He leaned in to nudge Fathom's wing with his own, but stopped after receiving a particularly nasty glare from Indigo. "It inspired a really great idea, actually," he continued, "Can I show you guys?" He reached his talons into the pack he had with him and began rooting for his most recent enchanted object.

"All right…" Fathom said, a little hesitantly. Darkstalker could tell that he still didn't have the Seawing's full trust. "I mean, I guess we aren't doing anything right now. Honestly, I don't even know what we're supposed to be doing. I think the queen may have forgotten we're even here."

"She's having a bit of an emergency today," Darkstalker explained as his claws found what they were searching for. There was no need to go into full detail about the Icewing invasion that Clearsight had (hopefully) thwarted. "Besides, I'm pretty sure your only real job is to hang out with me, and you're doing an excellent job of that right now."

Fathom's smile brightened a bit at that, and so did Darkstalker's in turn.

"Well, you're also supposed to be teaching him things," Clearsight suggested with a mischievous grin of her own, "Maybe try looking more stern, or a little menacing. Say something wise and insightful now and then."

"Um," Fathom said, "Like, never eat an orange long-legged sea crab in the evening?"

Darkstalker laughed at that. Even if he didn't understand it completely, it was good to see his friend trying. Fathom blinked at him with delight as he saw his words go over.

"Just like that," Darktalker assured him, "That's the kind of advice I like." Much better than 'never use your magic or we're all doomed', he thought.

"Anyway," he continued after a short pause, "After last night I went home and started thinking about that thing we talked about, Fathom. It may not be the most beautiful device, but here's what I came up with." He pulled out his new contraption, which to the outside observer would appear to just be a small telescope with a golden hourglass mounted to it—which was, actually, what it was. What made it special was what it could do. "Watch this," he said as he pointed it at Clearsight. The hourglass began to spin, then after a few seconds stopped with a mountain of black sand on the bottom of it and a small sprinkling of white sand on the top.

"Awww," he said, looking at the results, "Look how good you are."

Clearsight looked at it, confusion in her face. "What in the world?" she said, "What's this supposed to mean?"

"It's a soul reader," Darkstalker declared proudly, holding it up a bit higher, "It can reveal the balance between good and evil in a dragon's soul just by pointing it at them. Good is in black, like the Nightwings, and evil is white, like the Icewings." He nudged Clearsight with a wing, "See, you're almost entirely good. Practically completely."

"You really made it," Fathom whispered, his eyes focused intently at the device in Darkstalker's talons. He looked almost sick. "But—but didn't you hear me? I warned you. You have to stop using your magic. Every time you do, Darkstalker, it gets worse. You can't…you just can't."

Darkstalker held in a sigh as he listened to the terrified thoughts of the Seawing. I'll have to tell him about my scroll soon, he thought, that might calm him down. He noticed Indigo looking at him in a similar way to how she had last night when she tried to convince Fathom to let her kill him. He could read in her mind that she was beginning to regret not doing it.

"It's all right," Darkstalker said, trying to calm Fathom down, "Here, look. Clearsight, point it at me." She took it from him and pointed it at him. A few seconds later it settled on a result not too different from Clearsight's, with only a little bit more white than she had.

"See," he exclaimed, pointing at the soul reader, "My soul is almost entirely good. I'm fine, Fathom. There's nothing to worry about."

Clearsight turned with the device to point it at Fathom, but Indigo jumped in the way. "Don't point that at him," she hissed, lashing her tail. Darkstalker saw the soul reader take her reading instead of his. It had as much black as Clearsight's reading had, if not more.

Darkstalker thought that a bit odd. He wouldn't have expected the dragon who had tried to have him killed just last night would have that much good in her soul. She definitely didn't show it—at least not to him—but he wondered if there was a way to bring it out. That thought lead to a memory of the future he saw the previous night, and he shook his head, trying to erase it.

No, he told himself, she may be 'good' according to the soul reader, but that does not make her friendly, likeable, or trustworthy. She's still a dragoness that I have to get rid of.

"It won't hurt him," he heard Clearsight say, snapping him out of his thoughts, "You just saw us point it at one another."

"But it could be specially enchanted," Indigo said, "To—to do something to him."

Darkstalker rolled his eyes as though the notion was ridiculous, but internally he was forced to admit again that Indigo was a rather sharp dragoness. He had indeed considered putting a special kind of enchantment on it that would help ease Fathom's mind, but he'd decided against it. If he had done it, though, he was sure he'd be hating Indigo more right now than he currently did.

"Let her do it," Fathom said, touching Indigo's tail with his own. For some odd reason, all Darkstalker could think of when he saw that was the feel of her tail on his as they sat on the beach in that far away future that he'd—

No! Stop thinking about it!

"Please. I want to know," Fathom went on, and Indigo reluctantly relented. Clearsight pointed the soul reader at him, and the result was nearly identical to Darkstalker's. The Seawing stepped up closer the to the device and studied the sands carefully. "This is real?" he asked hesitantly after a few moments had passed.

"I promise," Darkstalker answered. "You know, we kind of have matching souls, don't we? Doesn't that make you feel better?"

Fathom looked at the sands in the hourglass for another moment, then looked up at Clearsight. "Yes," he admitted. He turned to Darkstalker, a tired look in his eyes. "But please, stop using your magic, not even for me. I don't know what made my grandfather turn evil, but it may have only taken one spell to make the difference. It could be anything, even the smallest thing, and it could destroy you."

"Fathom," Darkstalker said gently, trying to get his friend to understand, "Your power is a gift. You rule it, not the other way around. You shouldn't be terrified of it, you just have to figure out how to use it safely and make it work for you." He heard Indigo give a low growl, and he looked to her giving him a very hostile look that he returned with a glare of his own. "It's not a trick. I just want him to be happy. Don't you?"

"I believe he can be happy without any magic," she said, not backing down from his gaze. Her defiance infuriated him, yet, also, there was something else there. Not every dragon had the gall to stand up to a dragon as powerful as Darkstalker, and he couldn't help but feel a little…impressed? Not impressed enough to change his opinion of her, but enough to respect her a tiny bit more.

He noticed Clearsight looking between the two of them, concern on her face as she undoubtably was beginning to pick up on the tension between them. He was actually surprised that it had taken her this long to notice, what with the way they'd been doing it for practically the whole of their encounter. They weren't exactly trying to conceal their dislike for one another.

Darkstalker opened his mouth to give a retort to the Seawing dragoness, but Clearsight beat him to it. "It's a beautiful day for flying," she said, no doubt trying to change the subject away from animus magic and catastrophes, "Why don't we show you around the Night Kingdom? There's a great beach not too far from here."

Fathom's face lit up at that suggestion, and in a moment he was stretching his wings in preparation. Darkstalker and Indigo gave each other one last look, then let it go for now. He had no doubt that this would be far from the last time that they'd be clashing over this issue.

He stretched his own wings and felt them still a bit sore from last night. He hadn't exactly rejuvenated from the party and the flight with Fathom, but he wasn't about to just them fly without him. He could bear it for his friend.

They took off into the air a minute later, flying out through one of the palace's open-roofed gardens and into the open sky above. Clearsight flew ahead, leading the way, and Fathom and Indigo fell back a little ways, talking to each other. With a few hard flaps of his wings, Darkstalker caught up to Clearsight and flew next to her.

"So, where are we going?" he asked, as she angled them towards the sea in the distance.

"I thought that Black Bat Beach would be a good place," she said, and he noticed a bit of an odd sound in her voice. Looking closer at her, he saw that something seemed to be bothering her.

"What is it?" he asked, softly, concernedly.

She gave a small sigh and glanced back over her shoulder, looking at Fathom and Indigo. "It's—it's probably nothing," she said, "It's just…well…I didn't expect her to be here. I doubt you did either."

"Ah, yes. Indigo." He tried not to spit her name out, but he couldn't quite keep all his contempt from it. Clearsight gave him a small look at that and shook her head.

"Don't be so mean, I know that she's a good dragon," she told him, "From what I've already seen, she'll likely be just as good a friend as Fathom. It's just…" she shook her head again and looked away from him, back over the landscape in front of them, "…now I have so much more work to do. I have no idea what's changed."

"Hmmm," was all Darkstalker really could say to that, but inside, he couldn't help but once more think of that unexpected and unwanted future he had glimpsed. As unlikely as it was, it was exactly the kind of thing that Clearsight meant. He'd have to talk with her later, once she'd had time to look ahead, to see what she could uncover about what the future may bring. After all, he himself had a destiny to fulfill and a life to live, and he did not want any untoward Seawing messing with his plans.

A/N: So, just to kind of clarify, the events of the previous night with Clearsight and Listener as well as Indigo and Fathom (chapters 16 and 17 of Darkstalker, respectively) are considered to have happened pretty much exactly as they did in the book. As such, I didn't want to just go back and rewrite them since it really wouldn't be adding anything to this story or the original. I really don't think it will be any issue, I just want it be clear.

In laying the groundwork thus far, I've been adhering much more to the original story. Next chapter, however, won't just be a rewrite of established events, but rather the true beginning of a different thread entirely.