A/N: Yes, I know, another chapter that took far too long to get out. The next one will be faster, you have my word on that.
Also, I wanted to make a note that, at the time of posting this chapter, Different Threads has 100 favorites and over 200 reviews. I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who's supported this story so far. It's because of you guys that I find the drive to keep writing, and I really do appreciate your interest and engagement in the story.
As always, if you've liked the story so far, feel free to favorite/follow and leave a review. And, of course, enjoy...
Ch. 33: Return
Despite Queen Diamond's insistence mere moments ago that they would be safe, the Nightwing generals did not seem pleased with Diamond's plan. Indigo couldn't really blame them, either. After all, they had just spent more than half a decade fighting to keep the Icewing army out of their kingdom, and now Diamond was expecting them to just step aside and let her in. In any other situation, the notion would have been completely ridiculous in every way.
"With all due respect, Queen Diamond," General Swiftclaw of the Nightwing Army spoke tentatively, "You cannot expect our soldiers to simply lay down their weapons and escort you to the capital."
"If their generals command it, then yes, that is exactly what I expect," Diamond answered matter-of-factly, "Or are you soldiers so ill-disciplined that they cannot obey a simple order to return home?"
Swiftclaw growled at the implied insult, but was silenced by General Stargazer. "All the same, you are asking for no shortage of faith in you," he spoke, "What is to prevent you from butchering our soldiers as soon as we surrender, or seizing our land once you are there. None of us wish to be the dragons that condemned our kingdom."
"All that you have is my word as a queen," Diamond said, "A queen who came seeking peace, unlike your own. A queen who could, if I chose, likely have you all slain where you stand, removing the leadership of your armies. How long would it take to win the war then, I wonder? Six months? A year? But it does not matter. Enough blood has been shed. I wish to end this, and if you wish to do so as well, you will do as I say."
General Stargazer gave a frustrated growl. "Yes, we want peace, but you must realize that—"
"You can trust her," Clearsight spoke, interrupting them, "If you listen, if you do as she says, the future is…well, the future is better than if you don't."
Diamond gave an amused snort as she looked over the Nightwings. "You trusted your seer enough to see your queen killed. Will you not trust her now?"
There was a pause as murmurings spread throughout the black dragons, then Stargazer nodded, more in defeat than agreement. "Very well," he said, "I will tell my soldiers to lay down their weapons. We will not fight you, Queen Diamond, but we will be watching you closely."
"Good," she said, "That is enough. Go give your instructions to your soldiers. I shall meet you and your troops south of the city in two hours, then we will fly together to the Night Kingdom."
A few more questions were asked, and instructions given, and soon the Nightwings departed. Not all of them looked very enthusiastic about the manner of how they would be bringing peace, but none openly voiced their disgust. Given the situation, it was probably unwise to.
"Are they going to do it?" Indigo asked Darkstalker once the last of the Nightwings had left. Her tail was still wrapped comfortably in his own, which was a nice distraction from the dead body of Queen Vigilance that rested at their claws. Indigo was not a stranger to violence or death—being part of the honor guard had seen to that—but she had never done something so severe as kill a queen. While it had been an almost instinctual thing to protect Darkstalker, she couldn't help but feel, and even tremble, at just exactly how big of a deal what she'd done was. Nor could she help but wonder if there had been another way.
"General Stargazer means to, yes," Darkstalker answered, "I'm not sure all the others will agree. In the end, it may come down to the common soldier. If they hear their queen is dead, they may decide to take matters in their own claws, orders or not."
"How likely is that?" she asked.
He shrugged his wings lightly. "I really don't know. I'd have to look closer. But I don't think it will happen. Stargazer is well respected, and if he wants peace, he'll see that it happens."
A silence fell between them, one that was not matched by the rest of the room. Queen Dimaond had hardly missed a beat; as soon as the Nightwings had left, she was giving orders to the Icewings around her. Orders on getting the army ready to go, orders on getting their important documents out of the town and back to the camp, and orders to relay on how to treat the Nightwings. It was all quite a lot to Indigo, and she felt more than a little out of place.
Funny how she'd come more or less aligned with the Nightwings, and now would be leaving more or less aligned with the Icewings. The same was true of Darkstalker, she supposed. But at least she'd had time to get comfortable and knowledgeable about Nightwings and how they did things in her time with Darkstalker leading up to the meeting; here, she had no real idea how to approach the Icewings.
Perhaps sensing her feelings, Darkstalker nudged her with a wing. "I think I'd like some fresh air," he said, motioning outside, "Care to join me?"
She gave him a relieved smile. "Of course."
It was nice just to leave the body of Vigilance behind, even if they were stepping into the sun to do it. But all in all, it wasn't too hot outside, and Indigo was relived to be out in the open again. It felt more private, somehow, even as she watched both Icewing and Nightwing soldiers running and fly by overhead as the two sides scrambled to prepare. For them, no doubt, it was a frantic preparation. For Indigo, it was finally some relief.
She found herself leaning into Darkstalker's side, and he returned the gesture by resting the side of his head against her own. She took a deep breath as she felt the rise and fall of Darkstalker's own chest as her side, and then sighed contentedly. For all of her hours of worried anticipation throughout the night and into the morning, as well as that of all the weeks preparing for the meeting in the first place, it finally felt like things were falling into place. At least for now, that is. Both she and Darkstalker had survived Vigilance's machinations, and they had given their best for peace. Whatever happened now was out of their claws.
"Thank you for what you did," Darkstalker said beside her, not pulling away as he did so, "With Vigilance, I mean. Not every dragon would have stuck a queen with a spear like that."
"She was about to do the same to you," Indigo pointed out, "I wasn't about to let that happen. And if there's anyone to thank, it's you for getting me out of that cell."
Darkstalker did pull away then, but only to fix her with a grin. "Let's call it even, then, shall we?"
She returned his look and nudged him with a wing. "I guess I can work with that."
Darkstalker snorted, amused, and held her eyes for a moment longer. Then, as though remembering something, his smile faded and his eyes looked downward. He shifted, as though in discomfort, and Indigo's own grin turned to a frown.
"What's wrong?" she asked him, concerned.
He took a breath and didn't meet her eyes. "Nothing, it's just that…in order to save you—well, actually to save myself, and my father and Diamond—I had to break that promise I made to you and Fathom. I used my magic, Indigo, even though I said I wouldn't."
Indigo swallowed cautiously and looked him over. "How so?" she asked evenly.
"When Snowfox struck, she did so without warning. I don't think anyone saw it coming," Darkstalker explained, "I only had a few brief moments before we all were going to be killed and…well, I enchanted the spears to freeze."
Indigo blinked. "That's all?"
He nodded. "It was enough to confuse them and get the dragons loyal to Diamond to act. I figured that since it was to save lives and to protect our chance at peace, it was okay. Well, that's not quite right. In the moment, I didn't think at all, I just acted. And while I do believe it was the best thing to do, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you. After all, I wanted to prove to you that I could do this without my magic, and it seems that I failed."
She smiled, a soft smile, and raised a claw to his chin, lifting it so he met her eyes once more. "I thought I already told you that I far prefer you alive and using magic than dead," she said, "And if you're using magic to save, to protect, then I don't see anything wrong with that at all. It's what's in here," she dropped her claw to his chest and tapped it, "That matters. And I think you've more than proved to me that you're a good dragon, Darkstalker."
"Still," he hesitated, "Are you sure you're okay with this? With me using my power?"
She answered him with a small kiss, and rested her head against his own. "I am if you are. And as your personal soul-reader, I don't think you've gained a speck of white sand."
He gave what sounded like a relieved sigh. "Thank you, Indigo."
"I love you, Darksalker," she said in a whisper.
"I love you, too."
They stayed like that for a while, but a moment like that could only last so long in their present situation. Not too many minutes later an Icewing approached and relayed instructions from Diamond that Darkstalker was to gather his belongings from the Nightwings' quarters and meet up with her at the town center, where she apparently was organizing her own generals and diplomats in preparation for the Nightwing surrender and flight south. Reluctantly, Darkstalker did so, leaving her alone and flying off. Indigo, in the meantime, decided it would be wise to do the same with her own belongings, and made her way back to the building the Seawings had been assigned to.
Fathom met her at the door, having left earlier and apparently already having finished packing. Which wasn't a big problem, since it wouldn't take her a minute to be finished herself. She entered her room, grabbed the dreamvistor from off her bed where she'd set it when she'd gotten her spear, and shoved it in her bag at the foot of the bed. She looked in the bag to make sure everything was there, glanced around the room just to be certain and, just like that, she was done. She flung her bag over her neck and walked out of her room, joining Fathom, Wharf, and Lionfish outside.
"The Icewings are meeting in the town square," Indigo told Fathom," We should probably meet them there."
"I know, and that's the plan," he nodded, "Queen Diamond asked us to join her shortly after you and Darkstalker stepped outside. She thinks that our presence alongside us will help things go smoothly, diplomatically speaking. It will show that she has the support of the dragons that were supposed to mediate the talks."
"Makes sense," Indigo said, and that was that. Lionfish went back inside for one last check that nothing was left behind, and the group of Seawings made their way to the center of town. Overhead, the Icewings and Nightwings zipped back and forth in frantic urgency, and even the Sandwing residents on the ground seemed to be buzzing around as though they knew the enormity of what had happened. Maybe they did, actually, or they just recognized that something was going on with the actions of the other tribes. Either way, the whole town seemed to be in such a frenzy that Indigo almost lost sight of Fathom and the others just walking down an ordinary street.
They made it to the town square soon enough, and it was no less packed and certainly not calmer than the rest of the town. Except here, almost all the dragons present were white Icewings; only a few black and tan scales shown through here and there.
After only a few moments of tentative pushing past Icewings, Indigo caught sight of Queen Diamond standing amidst the sea of white scales, her crown being almost the only thing that set her apart. She no longer appeared to be barking orders like she had before, but her face was intently watching as those under her did so. Indigo was also pleased to see Darkstalker standing near her, and he smiled for the brief moment their eyes met before a large Icewing walked in front of her and broke their eye contact.
Unsure what else to do, the Seawings approached the queen. They were stopped for only a moment by guards that Indigo hadn't even seen—but probably should have expected—before Diamond noticed them and allowed them to come closer. Indigo's attention, however, was still mostly on Darkstalker, although she did notice Arctic standing next to him.
"Prince Fathom, I'm glad you could join us," Diamond greeted, although her eyes mostly remained on her subjects.
"We are happy to provide assistance, and hopefully prevent conflict," Fathom said evenly, "And on the latter point, what exactly are your plans once we reach the Night Kingdom."
Diamond didn't even really look at him. "We take control and we end the war," she answered. "Hopefully, that's enough—" she paused and stepped forward past them, her gaze now fixed on something. "Captain Snowcap, how is the packing going? What is the status of the troops?"
"Nearing completion," A gruff voice answered, and Indigo looked to see one of the armored Icewing guards from earlier walking past, "One of my soldiers just reported it's around ninety percent done. We should be able to leave in under fifteen minutes."
Indigo blinked. That was impressive. Of course, military camps like the one that the Icewings and Nightwings were utilizing were designed to be picked up and transported very quickly. Mobility was key when it came to fighting wars, after all. But doing so in so little time…well, Indigo doubted the Seawing army could move quite so fast.
"We are moving out in ten," Diamond ordered, "Have a detachment stay behind and clean up if you must, but I want our army flying south as soon as possible."
The Icewing guard nodded and flew off, his wingbeats catching rolls of scrolls and light supplies and blowing them around as he took off. A few dragons looked up and watched him fly, but most didn't even pay him any mind at all.
As soon as he was gone, Diamond turned her attention towards other matters, more or less ignoring the Seawings. Fathom shifted uncomfortably, but Indigo inched herself closer to where Darkstalker stood. Especially since he seemed to be about as passive an observer as she felt right now.
"Why does Queen Diamond want to get moving so quickly?" she asked him, and the Nightwing half-shrugged his wings.
"The sooner we leave, the less chance there is of the Nightwings outside the town changing their mind on surrendering," he explained, "And there's less time for word to reach the capital of what happened. The last thing we want is to arrive to the Night Kingdom only to get into a battle with dragons that don't know the full truth of what happened here."
She nodded. "I guess that makes sense." It still seemed a little eager to her, moving so fast, but nobody else seemed to question it.
A silence fell between them as they waited. Around them, the chaos seemed to subside a little as the Icewings finished organizing. When the captain of the guard—Snowcap, she remembered—arrived back after what felt like about ten minutes later, most of the dragons looked ready to leave.
"Is everything ready?" the Queen asked her captain as he alighted before her. When he answered in the affirmative, she gave a pleased smile. "Very good. Give the order to advance on the Nightwing positions. Once the army formally surrenders, we'll fly to the peninsula."
At once Snowcap relayed the orders, and at once the Icewings began to ascend. The air filled with wingbeats and shook with the force of a hundred winds as they took off into the air. Indigo and the rest of the Seawings followed Diamond, climbing into the sky and leaving the streets of Redstone below. Behind them, Indigo looked to see the whole of the Icewing army that had been stationed out of the city rising up as well, following their leaders. Almost at once, the sky was filled with so many white scales that any dragon could be forgiven for thinking that a blizzard was blowing into the desert town, no matter how ridiculous the notion would seem.
The flight, however, was brief. After all, it was only to get from one side of a rather small Sandwing town to the other. For below was the Nightwing army, appearing as a second layer of black desert sand from above, so many there were. And the Icewings landed in front of that hoard, filling the desert with such number that Indigo was reminded of the dual sands of Darkstalker's soul reader. In fact, she wondered which would be easier to count: the grains of sand that filled the device, or the number of soldiers in the desert?
They joined Diamond where she landed at the head of her host, facing the ranks of the Nightwings at their strongest. Flags and banners waved overhead, symbols of the generals and leaders that now held power of the Nightwing army. Indigo saw General Stargazer step out from amidst the dragons at about the same time she noticed that all the Nightwings were armed with weapons and armor.
She glanced at Darkstalker nervously. Are they going to fight after all? She wondered, Are they not going to surrender?
Darkstalker, however, looked unconcerned.
Stargazer approached with a group of aides the bore (that she could see) his personal banner, a scroll, and some writing materials. He neared them and offered the scroll to Diamond.
"This document contains the promise that our soldiers will be well treated if we surrender," he told her, "And states that every soldier maintains their honor and dignity. If you sign it, my soldiers have agreed to lay down their weapons."
Diamond read it over, then nodded. She motioned to one of the aides, who delivered her some quill and ink. She put it to the scroll, and signed.
"Thank you," Stargazer nodded. He reached over and took his banner from the aide that held it, and he gave it to Diamond. "You have my surrender, and my pride," he told her, "Let us use it now to ensure peace."
Diamond simply nodded, and Stargazer returned to his camp. Soon, Indigo could hear the clanking and clinging of hundreds and thousands of weapons falling to the ground. For them, at least, the war was now over, and as Icewings moved forward to collect those weapons, the Nightwings prepared to fly alongside their once-enemies on the way back home.
So began the long flight to the Night Kingdom, flying over desert and doing their best to keep out of the heat of the day. But unlike coming, the return had not just one, but two armies to account for, dragons upon dragons that had to be managed and guided. The going was slow and miserable to Indigo, but flying with Darkstalker made it more than bearable.
Of course, Indigo didn't have to deal with the worst of it all: keeping the Icewings and Nightwings in line. For the most part, the two groups flew separate of each other, which was perhaps for the best since whenever the two sides met fights almost inevitably broke out. Turns out dragons that had been fighting a war with each other just a few days prior didn't exactly get along when having to travel together. Indigo could tell that Queen Diamond was getting more than a few headaches from all the reports of incidents that slowed them down and kept them from moving forward.
It probably didn't help that most of the Nightwings didn't have the full story about what had happened with Vigilance. Some, it seemed, thought that Queen Diamond had had her killed out of treachery and spite, and these were normally the ones that picked fights with the Icewings. And Icewing's taunting Nightwings over having to surrender didn't help matters at all. Really, it was a mess, and Indigo was glad that all she had to worry about was flying without dehydrating in the desert heat.
Well, that was almost all that she had to worry about. For it was the day after their departure when she and Darkstalker were joined by another dragoness. A Nightwing. And one that Indigo was not very glad about seeing.
Clearsight had more or less disappeared in the time following Vigilance's death and the Nightwing surrender. Indigo had caught a glance of her here and there in the midst of the Nightwing leadership, especially when Diamond held meetings with them to smooth out some of the tensions, but the seer had yet to approach either her or Darkstalker. Until now, that is, when Indigo spotted her hesitantly flying over to where they flew together near Diamond's group.
A spike of indignation filled Indigo at the Nightwing's approach. Even though Clearsight had stood up and opposed Vigilance after the Icewings had confronted the treacherous queen, Indigo still felt betrayed by the part she'd played in her capture. Not to mention the Nightwing's complete lack of help in Darkstalker's planning of the meeting—who knew how much more smoothly it all would have gone if Clearsight had shared whatever visions she may have seen? In fact, Indigo wasn't convinced that Clearsight wasn't in league with Vigilance all along and only betrayed the queen to save her own scales.
She gave a small hiss at the Nightwing dragoness, who didn't meet her eyes. "What do you want?" Indigo growled, intentionally placing herself between Clearsight and Darkstalker.
"I came to apologize," Clearsight said quietly, "And to explain."
"I don't want your—" Indigo began, but Darkstalker stopped her.
"Let her speak."
Indigo huffed, but did so. Even though it took a moment for Clearsight to find her voice again.
"I'm…glad," she began, "That things have turned out as well as they have so far. And I wanted to say that I really wanted to do more for you, but I couldn't."
"Why not?" Indigo demanded, "In fact, it hardly seems like you've done anything for us at all."
"My secrecy was necessary," Clearsight sighed, "If I were to openly help you, Vigilance wouldn't have trusted me. I'd never be able to influence her, or push towards the best futures. I couldn't have made sure that we were all alive right now along with all the dragons we're flying with. I've always been trying to do what's best for the tribe, Darkstalker. You realize that, right."
Darkstalker snorted. "That's not everything, though, is it?"
Clearsight growled, but more so at herself than him, "What do you want me to say?" she asked, her voice frustrated, "I swore to myself that I wouldn't help you, that I would share any of my visions. After what you did, I —" she stopped herself and shook her head. "Fine. The truth is that I didn't want to help. I wanted you to worry, to fear over what may come. And part of me wanted to see you fail, too."
"You wanted revenge," Darkstalker observed, his voice neutral, although there was an edge in it.
"Yes," Clearsight admitted.
Indigo growled. "You faithless sea slug," she hissed, "I should—"
"But I couldn't go through with it, not really," Clearsight interrupted her, "Even after what happened…I could still see the bigger picture. Once I found out about Vigilance's plans, I couldn't just stand aside. I had to protect my tribe. I knew what part I could play, and I did what I thought was best to do it while keeping myself distant from you. I tried to do both things, although I suppose I couldn't do it forever."
"How much did you see?" Darkstalker asked, "How much did you know of what would happen."
Clearsight tilted her head back and forth. "Most of it," she said, "The largest variable was you surviving Snowfox's attack, but I was pretty certain that you would. Especially with the warning."
"What warning?" Indigo sneered, "I was going to warn him, and you gave me over to Vigilance. If you cared at all, why didn't you warn him yourself?"
"I couldn't, not directly," the Nightwing answered, "I couldn't risk Vigilance finding out, and I didn't want to take the chance of Darkstalker not believing me," she paused at the look Darkstalker gave her at that, and shook her head, "And I didn't want to help in such a way, either. But I did make sure that he got the warning, even if it took me a few times to get your dreamvisitor through the prison window's bars."
Indigo narrowed her eyes. "That was you?" she asked, "I don't believe it."
"It was," Clearsight confirmed. "I retrieved it as soon as I could after Vigilance took you, so you could contact Darkstalker. I knew he'd listen if it was you who appeared to him."
"But you let me be captured," Indigo pressed, "You were there, and turned away. She could have killed me, Clearsight!"
"That was unlikely," Clearsight sighed. "And again, I couldn't risk Vigilance thinking I was anything but on her side. If I would have helped you, who knows what could have happened. She could have changed when Snowfox would attack, or set an ambush elsewhere. I needed to keep the best futures on course, for all of our sakes."
A silence fell, as both Indigo and Darkstalker mulled over her words. For her part, Indigo still wasn't completely sold. She supposed that what Clearsight was possible. Maybe even likely, since she was a seer. But all the same, Clearsight had refused to help, all but abandoned them, and had undoubtably handed Indigo over to Vigilance. Indigo was very reluctant to give her the benefit of the doubt, even if parts of her story checked out. After all, who else could have given her the dreamvisitor? Fathom hadn't, neither had Darkstalker, and with those two eliminated the only other dragon that Indigo knew of that had knowledge of the enchanted sapphire was Clearsight. But she still didn't want to accept that.
Finally, Darkstalker spoke. "And you were with us the whole time?"
Clearsight nodded, then glanced down. Slowly, she removed the bracelet on her wrist, then looked him in the eyes. "Yes."
Another short silence fell as she put the bracelet back on. Darkstalker's eyes softened a little bit, and he let out a tired sigh. "Thank you, Clearsight," he said, quieter now, "And for what it's worth, I'm sorry too."
A moment passed between them, and then Clearsight turned and flew away. Soon, she was gone, disappeared into the vast cloud of black scales that flew alongside them not far away.
Indigo couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy as she watched Darkstalker watching Clearsight go, but as she looked closer, she could see that she had nothing to worry about, not really. There was perhaps a bit of regret in his eyes, some of the sorrow he'd just expressed, but there was no love, no longing. There was no doubt about who he had chosen.
"Do you believe her?" Indigo finally asked once his gaze had flickered away, and Darkstalker gave a small nod.
"I do. It has always been Clearsight's nature to help others. It's why she's spent so many hours studying futures, trying to save lives and bringing about happy endings," he sighed, "She's a good dragon, Indigo. We can trust her."
Indigo looked away. I hope you're right, she thought to herself. But she knew he probably was. Clearsight had told her before about the bracelet she wore that kept Darkstalker out of her mind (something that Indigo personally wasn't as interested in herself), and removing it meant Darkstalker could read her mind for the first time in a long, long time. He'd seen the truth of Clearsight's actions, Indigo was sure of that.
She was pulled out of her musings by Darkstalker brushing her wingtips with his own. There was a small smile on his face. "I'm looking forward to being back in the Night Kingdom, at any rate," he told her, "I can't wait for us to just go flying alone together again, or spending a morning at the beach. I've missed that."
She returned his smile. "So have I."
They'd be there soon, she knew. And almost as soon, the war would be over. What would come next, she didn't know, but she was positive that she couldn't wait to be going through it with him.