A/N: Welcome, all, to Chapter 14.

This was a fun one to write, and it's one I think that you'll enjoy. It's been a busy time of the year for me, so I'm sorry that updates are a bit slower than you'd (and I'd) like, but I'm doing my best. Well, maybe not my best in terms of timeliness, but it's a passion project: what do you expect? I'm also working on a few other things that I hope to put up soon, which also take time, but I'm hopeful you all will enjoy those when they're ready as well.

As always, feel free to favorite/follow if you like the story so far, and leave a review if you feel so lead. And, of course, enjoy...

Ch. 14: Little Steps

With a loud yawn, Indigo stretched herself out in the dim light of Fathom's room. It was early morning—or her new early morning at least, considering she was now on the Nightwing schedule. She rose when the sun fell and slept when it rose, completely reversing how she'd lived out her sleep schedule since she'd hatched. And so, even though the sun was setting outside instead of rising, to Indigo it was now morning. For when day is night and night is day, what else was it supposed to be to her?

It was interesting, she mused, how despite the changes it wasn't actually that difficult to grow accustomed to. Before arriving in the Night Kingdom, she hadn't looked forward to living in darkness all the time, but the Nightwing's home proved to be anything but. She'd learned quickly that the black dragons loved their lights, especially moonlight and starlight, and the architecture of both the palace and all the homes in the city reflected it in more ways than one. Illumination was not hard to come by at all, and it was rare that Indigo ever found herself legitimately bothered by a lack of light.

Of course, being a Seawing probably helped with that. Though not as great as the Nightwings' was, she knew her kind had very good eyesight, helping them see in deeper water far from sunlight. While most of the Seawing cities were, admittedly, in shallow enough water that a lack of light was never a problem, Indigo had been to a few of the deeper towns in the east and seen just how much of a difference it could make. She'd heard stories before of Seawings who'd tried to settle even deeper, but those settlement had been lost to time and the creatures of the abyss. Still, that they could even seek to make their homes where the light so rarely touched spoke to the strength of eyesight that her tribe still possessed.

She glanced outside a window and out at the Night Kingdom below. In the west the sky was filled with hues of red and orange as the sun executed its disappearing act, casting now familiar shadows over the land. It wasn't an unpleasant sight, and it was one that Indigo was beginning to appreciate the longer she stayed in the Nightwing's domain.

"Something on your mind, Indigo?" she heard Fathom ask, turning her attention away from the scene outside and to him. He'd awoken earlier than her, although she wasn't sure exactly when. It had been Lionfish's turn to spend the day in his room as guard while he slept, and it had been Lionfish to rouse her and have her take over once Fathom was up. The Seawing prince had already been writing in a scroll, working on something or other, when she'd come in and had kept at it as she'd taken her post. Apparently, he'd noticed her absently looking out of the window and thought something may be wrong.

"Nah, not really," she answered him with a shrug of her wings. "Just thinking about home. The Sea Kingdom is a far sight different from here, isn't it?"

Fathom gave a small, almost wistful sounding sigh, "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"Do you know when we're supposed to go back?" she asked. "I can't say I've heard anything, and it wasn't in our orders. In fact, I don't remember having a single contact from the Sea Kingdom since we got here."

He gave a shake of his head. "No, we haven't. I was never given a date to return by, and I don't expect to get one anytime soon." His wings slumped and he lowered his voice a little. "Honestly, Indigo, I think Queen Pearl just sent me here to get rid of me. To make me someone else's problem. So that if I lose it I do damage here instead of there. It's honestly a good idea on her part…"

"Don't say that!" Indigo exclaimed, bumping her wing against him to jostle that thought out of his head. Fathom seemed to be in some sort of mood, and it was her duty as a friend to get him out of it. "One, I'm sure that's not the case, and two, you're not going to lose it. It was probably just an oversight, and besides, you're here to make friends with another animus and change his ways, and that's not something that can just be done overnight. There's probably no time limit just because there's no way to know how long it will take."

Fathom sighed but gave her a small smile and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I just…I get frustrated at times. It seems like I've done almost nothing to change Darkstalker's mind since I've gotten here. And since I can't be with him all the time, Queen Vigilance has decided to fill my time by throwing anything at me that she thinks can be useful. It's not even kept to animus magic anymore," he gestured to the scroll he'd been writing in, "This is a report she's having me do on Seawing military history. I don't even know Seawing military history that well, save for the general stuff I learned in my classes."

She walked over and peered at what he'd written. She had to suppress a chuckle; it really was just the basics, stuff that she was sure was already in any history scroll in the palace library. In fact…

"I'm pretty sure the uprising at Seagull's Beak didn't happen until after the Coastal War," she told him, pointing out a clear flaw, "We couldn't have even had that city then, because we hadn't taken it from the Mudwings yet."

"Thanks," Fathom grumbled good-naturedly, taking some ink and scratching out a length of text he'd written, "Maybe you should right this. You probably learned plenty in training in the honor guard."

She shrugged her wings. "I can help. They didn't teach us that much, though. We were trained to be guards, not regular soldiers and definitely not generals."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," he said, pushing the scroll over towards her so she could read it better. She began to scan over it, but another thought interrupted her.

"You know, Fathom, I think you might be doing better than you think," she told him.

"Oh, thanks!" he said, looking back at the scroll himself, "Did I get most of those dates right? I was pretty sure on most of them, but there was some stuff around the Green Woods War that I wasn't so sure on."

"That's not what I meant," she told him, "I mean with Darkstalker. I had an interesting conversation with him yesterday when I went for that evening swim and bumped into him at the lake."

"Really?" Fathom asked, giving her a surprised look, "What did he say?"

"Well, as odd as it sounds, he was asking me questions," she answered, thinking back to the exchange, "He seemed to be trying to figure out how much damage spells could do to a soul. He was worried, I think. You know how he always acts so confident that nothing he does will harm him? That didn't seem to be the case. He seemed worried for some reason, like he suddenly realized there was a real danger that he hadn't seen before." She paused for a second and shrugged. "Maybe he finally decided to listen to you."

"That's…good, I guess," Fathom said, a bit less enthusiastically than she'd expected, "Did he seem okay to you, though? That is, if there's something he's worried about, then maybe it's something bigger, like something I need to be worried about too."

She thought for a moment and shook her head. "He seemed a bit conflicted, but he never mentioned anything particular. I didn't get a sense that there was anything maleficent about him, if that's what you mean."

Fathom relaxed a bit more. "Maybe I am making a difference, then," he said, "I really hope I am, at least."

"I'm sure of it," Indigo told him with a reassuring smile, "I don't know if you've noticed it or not, but I think there really has been a change in him since we arrived."

Fathom tilted his head to the side a little, "Yeah, a bit. Towards you, if nothing else. It's nice that I don't have to worry about you two trying to kill each other every time we go out on a flight."

She gave an amused huff. "Yeah, that is nice. I just wish he would change in regard to what were actually here to get him to change. He's trending in the right direction, I think, but he still wants to use his magic."

"And as long as he uses his magic, then he's still dangerous no matter what else happens," Fathom said with a nod, apparently trying to finish her phrase even though she actually wasn't thinking that exact thing.

Indigo paused, tapped her tail, hesitated, then finally spoke, "Is he, though?"

Fathom looked at her, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"I…" she hesitated again, suddenly regretting her words, "I don't know. It's just that I had a thought while talking to him and…well…it's probably nothing."

"No, what was it?" Fathom prodded, "I want to hear."

She shifted a bit uncomfortably but decided to tell him. "What if Darkstalker only uses magic for good things?" she asked hypothetically, "Why would doing something good harm his soul? You did several good things with your magic and are fine."

Fathom gave her a look that could only be described as concerned. "I did a couple very small things," he said, deathly serious, "No more. That's why I'm fine; because I stopped before I could cross the same line Albatross did. I thought you knew this already, Indigo. If any dragon would, it would be you."

"Yes, well..." Indigo shook her head, a bit frustrated, but suddenly got an idea. "Just look, for a second." She left his side and walked to the other side of the room, where a small trunk sat which held the few possessions that she'd brought with her from the Sea Kingdom. Technically speaking, they should be in the other guard room, but considering how she spent more time with Fathom it just made sense to keep them there.

She opened it and looked inside at the few treasures she held. Several scrolls she'd brought with her filled the majority of the space, and a few necklaces and other jewelry (what little she owned) sat scattered around them. She noticed the enchanted stone that Darkstalker had given her resting on top and almost decided to use it to make her point, but she moved it aside as she lifted up several scrolls to find what she was wanting.

Finally, her claws touched something that felt like wood—but not quite like wood—and she lifted the now squirming creature up and presented it to Fathom. "See?" she asked, "How could something like this possibly be soul-destroying?"

Fathom's wings slumped a little. "That's not fair," he told her, "I made Blob to make you happy."

The octopus in question wriggled out of her grasp and climbed up her arm, then up her neck, finally perching itself on top of her head—its favorite spot. She felt a little bit guilty as it nestled into her; it had been a while since she'd gotten him out and really treated him like the pet he was, but she'd kept him concealed to keep him safe. Being technically made of wood, it was no problem for Blob to survive indefinitely without living in water, as well as living without food, light and pretty much everything else a real animal would need. But having a pet octopus miles from the ocean and living fine would doubtless attract attention, and Indigo didn't want Fathom to be bothered with those questions if she could avoid it. Not to mention that it was a reminder to Fathom about his own use of magic, which was an ever-present sore subject.

"And he has made me happy," Indigo told him, reaching a claw up to give Blob a pat, "He's a perfect pet. Which is why I have to ask: how is making something good supposed to be bad?"

Fathom shook his head, "Because, regardless of what I use it for, I still wind up using my magic. It's not a question of what it's for, its either I use it or I don't. Take Albatross: he was a good dragon until he used his magic, but he used too much, and you know what happened."

Indigo bit her tongue and nodded. She had her own set of thought regarding Albatross, and not necessarily all ones that Fathom agreed with. It was easier to just let him keep his conception that his grandfather was a once good dragon that had been driven to madness by magic than to try to convince him of anything else.

"You could be right," she admitted, "In fact, you probably are. It's just that…well, I look at something like Blob, and a dragon like Darkstalker, and I can't help but think that just maybe there's something more. I'm obviously not advocating using magic to try to figure it out, but this is just something that seemed to be on Darkstalker's mind, and I can't keep it from being on mine, too."

Fathom gave a long, sad sigh, "Trust me, Indigo, I've thought long and hard about this already. I've tried to think of some way, some rationalization, to try to convince myself that this power was somehow a blessing and not a curse. I can't. I just can't. Not after what I saw, what we saw. I'm glad Darkstalker is questioning his use of magic, and I hope he continues to, but this isn't something we can somehow meet him halfway on. He's my friend, and I think he can maybe be called yours too, but unless he can change completely than there's really no point and no hope."

Indigo glanced down at her talons. That's what she'd told herself ever since coming to the Night Kingdom. It was what she'd believed, and probably what she still believed, but she just felt like she was somehow missing something.

She gave a somewhat reluctant nod and let the issue drop there. It was their job, after all, to keep Darkstalker from using his magic, not to convince him just to not do evil with it. In fact, if he'd already decided to do evil with it than they'd probably already failed. It wasn't her place to be questioning these kinds of things, and it definitely wasn't her place to convince Fathom of anything contrary to his beliefs when it came to magic.

Getting her mind off things, she went back to looking over Fathom's report on Seawing military history. There were only a few minor errors that she caught, although there could have been more since she wasn't exactly an expert in the field. Fathom watched her over her shoulder, gradually relaxing the longer she worked in silence. With the light fading outside faster, he lit a few candles to illuminate the scroll as she went over it.

They were interrupted momentarily by the palace staff delivering their breakfast, a mix of what looked like deer and some other meet along with an assortment of Nightwing fruits. Fathom gave a sad kind of groan at the meal. In the time they'd lived among the Nightwings he'd proved not to be the greatest enjoyer of their food. Then again, that was all they'd been having recently: gone were the days of plentiful fish they'd received back when they were new guests. No longer did the kitchens go out of their way to make special seafood dishes for them, and while Indigo didn't mind quite so much, her fellow guards and Fathom took it just a bit harder.

After breakfast, of course, almost always came one other thing—or rather, one other dragon. The sun was just in its final stages of setting outside when Darkstalker made his appearance, but this day things were a bit different than usual.

If she hadn't have been expecting him, Indigo would have been more than a little alarmed when the door to Fathom's room was suddenly thrown open and the Nightwing strode in with a purpose. As it was, she immediately jumped to her feet in preparation of a fight until she realized it was just him. The lack of a customary knock had caught her off guard, and she only had a second to relax before she saw the serious look on his face and tensed back up again.

"Fathom!" Darkstalker said loudly, commanding the Seawing prince's attention, "I need your help!"

Fathom, already alert at his sudden entrance, perked up at the request. "Sure!" he said immediately, then paused for a second. "I…uh…what do you want?"

"I need you to convince Vigilance that I can't use my magic," Darkstalker told him, his tail lashing behind him in an agitated manner, "I don't care how, just persuade her that it's a horrible idea that should be absolutely avoided at all costs."

The Seawing prince faltered, his wings drooping, "I…I can try. I have been trying," he told Darkstalker, "I already told her about the dangers. I told her about Albatross—"

"I know," Darkstalker interrupted, "…But the only thing she got out of that was how Albatross could build a whole city, not how he massacred his family afterwards." Fathom flinched at the reminder and Darkstalker instantly softened a bit. "Sorry," he apologized, "It's just frustrating."

"Yeah," Fathom said with a nod, looking down, "I mean, I guess I can try talking to her a bit more. I can at least try to persuade her, even if I doubt she'd actually listen."

Darkstalker, so tense and intense before, relaxed at his friend's response. "Thanks, Fathom," he told him, stepping forward and reaching out to touch the Seawing's shoulder with a wingtip, "I'd really appreciate it if you would."

Indigo had been watching the exchange in silence, and only now did she feel the opportunity to make a comment of her own. "Well, this is a change, isn't it?" she observed, "I thought you were still fine with using your magic."

"Well, I am," Darkstalker said, looking away from Fathom and at her for the first time since he'd come in, "It's just that…" his words died on his tongue and his eye ridges furrowed in confusion. "Wait, is that an octopus on your head?"

She heard Fathom burst out laughing as she immediately reached up and pulled her pet off of her, the tentacles sticking in protest at being yanked out of its comfy place. She'd completely forgotten about Blob, and she could only imagine how stupid she looked with him resting on her like a hat. Darkstalker gave her a semi-judgmental look as she tried to keep herself from looking flustered and not like the stoic guard she should be.

"This is Blob," she said awkwardly, holding the octopus out towards him even as it tried to crawl back up her arm to get back to its spot on her head, "He's my pet."

Darkstalker cocked his head and looked at Blob with renewed interest. "Is that so?" he asked, "I'm curious how you've managed to keep an octopus alive this far from the sea."

…And right there was the question Indigo had wanted to avoid, the reason she'd kept Blob out of sight since arriving in the Night Kingdom. She looked over to Fathom, silently asking if it was okay for Darkstalker to know, and he gave a reluctant nod.

"That's the thing," she told Darkstalker, "He's kind of not alive. Not in the normal since, at least. Fathom carved him out of wood and enchanted him to come to life and be a perfect pet, but he's sill, well, wood."

"Huh," Darkstalker sad with an amused huff, reaching out a claw, "May I?"

Indigo hesitated for only a half-second before she set Blob down on his claw. It immediately wrapped its tentacles around his wrist in a small embrace, then began crawling its way up his arm as he reached up and felt it, giving it a small pat on its round head.

"What an interesting little guy," Darkstalker spoke, a touch of softness in his voice, "I had no idea you're so creative with your magic, Fathom."

"That was before the massacre," Fathom said quickly, before Darkstalker could get any other impressions, "I would never had cast the spell if I knew what I did now."

For some reason, that really stung as Indigo watched her beloved pet crawl all over the Nightwing animus. She knew that Fathom had more than a tiny bit of regret over using his magic in the past, but to hear him dismiss what he'd made for her just like that…it didn't feel good. The sting vanished quickly, though, as she watched Blob finish his trip up Darkstalker's arm and neck, finally resting on his head like he had just done with her.

"I think he likes you," she said with a chuckle she couldn't suppress, "Three moons, do I look that when he's on me?" The Nightwing looked ridiculous with the round, blob-like head of Blob on top of his own head and tentacles hanging down like wriggling, inverted horns.

"What, are you saying I can't pull it off?" Darkstalker joked with mock hurt in his voice, "If sea-based fashion ever becomes a thing in the Night Kingdom, I'm sure this will be the epitome of style." He reached up and gave Blob another pat on its head and its tentacles curled in delight.

Indigo couldn't quite keep the smile off her face at the sight of Blob happily sitting on Darkstalker's head. She rolled her eyes at his joke as Fathom snickered, and she couldn't help but really feel comfortable in the Nightwing's presence for what may have been the first time.

"But, to answer your question from earlier," Darkstalker said once the moment was over and the focus was no longer on Blob, "…I am still fine with using my own magic. I just don't want Vigilance to be the one to decide how I use it. She wants me to use it for war and death and destruction and…well," he paused for a second and gave a lash of his tail, "I just don't want to use it for that. Not for now. It's better if she just stays out of what I do with my magic altogether and leaves it at that."

War and death and destruction, Indigo thought, repeating his words in her head. She was certainly glad that Darkstalker was taking steps to avoid those things, and she kind of got where he was coming from. If she was an animus, she wouldn't want anyone forcing her to enchant anything, especially not for that.

"I guess that makes sense…" Fathom said with a nod, no doubt having a similar thought. There was a little bit of what was probably exasperation in his voice, considering Darkstalker had admitted to still being willing to use his magic, but Indigo hoped that he would recognize it as a step in the right direction, if nothing else.

"Like I said," Darkstalker continued after a short pause, "I don't care what you have to say or do to convince Vigilance to abandon her ideas, but please do your best to make sure she does. I'm not sure any of us will like the way things go if she decides to push me."

A chill went down Indigo's spine as his words and eyes darkened at bit at the end, but he shook his head and was fine a quick moment later. With him being a seer and all, she couldn't help but wonder if that was more than idle speculation about the consequences that could follow…

"Anyway, want to go flying?" the Nightwing quickly spoke again, changing the topic away from that before anyone in the room could think too deeply on his previous words, "We can try to force Clearsight to come too. It's been a while since all four of us went out together."

Fathom brightened at the suggestion—those flights were some of his favorite activities. "Of course!" he exclaimed without hesitation, "Let's go get her."

Darkstalker removed Blob from his head and gave him back to Indigo before he and Fathom left to go to Clearsight's room without any more discussion. Indigo stayed a moment before going after them, partly because she had to return Blob to his safe place, but also for another reason. There was something that Darkstalker had just said that Indigo found odd, but not in a bad way. Not in a bad way at all. "Four," he'd said, "All four of us." For all the flights she'd been with Fathom, Darkstalker, and Clearsight on, never had Darkstalker ever counted her among their number. To him, she had always been just the bodyguard, the dragon to be ignored. Now, with just that one word, she suddenly felt included among them.

She found she liked that feeling, and she found just a little bit more spring in her step than usual as she followed them out and the trio made their way to the room of their fourth.

Unfortunately, but as was normal recently, Clearsight proved not to be quite as enthusiastic as Fathom and Darkstalker were.

"I'm sorry, but I have a lot of stuff to get done," she told them once Darkstalker had knocked on her door and gave her their plan, "Queen Vigilance has me absolutely loaded with war reports, including a few on domestic matters. I don't have the time to take a pleasure flight when there's so much to do."

"You say that every time," Darkstalker challenged her, "Come on, Clearsight. It won't hurt to take a short break. Besides, we haven't taken a long flight together for over a week."

"It's not been that long," Clearsight said with what tried to be a scoff, but failed as she began to realize that he was right. "Okay, maybe it has been a while, but this is important stuff."

"And so is spending time with your friends," Darkstalker said right back, "The future will take care of itself, Clearsight. Remember to live in the present every now and then."

Clearsight looked back at the pile of scrolls in her room and tapped her tail on the ground. She looked back at Darkstalker, who gave her a comedically pleading look. "Fine…" she said, causing him to raise a clenched claw in joy, "…But on one condition."

"Name it," Darkstalker said, already reaching out, taking her claw, and guiding her out of her room before she could change her mind.

"If we're going to go flying," Clearsight insisted, "Then I think it's time we show Fathom and Indigo the cave."

Darkstalker paused, just for a second. Indigo saw his gaze flicker towards her in an instant, an odd looking coming over them, a look that she had no idea how to make out. But that instant was gone just as fast, his eyes fixing on Clearsight once more.

"Done," he said, and not long later all four dragons were flying together over the Night Kingdom.

A/N: To all who celebrate it, I wish you a Happy Easter. Have a good one, guys, and I'll see you next chapter.