Chapter Fifty Four

Inside Jade Mountain, the five days spent waiting and preparing for the night of the summit crawled by seemingly as slow as a snail in honey. The hours crept by, a feeling of being hung in limbo, perpetually stuck between wanting to do something whilst waiting for something else. The first two days were spent feeding Moon a consistent supply of cactus flowers, the Dragons of Destiny reading up on all they could about Darkstalker in preparation for this assembly, or otherwise resting and consolidating their power. Moon in particular felt restless, for not only was she out of normal sleep schedule, she was also suffering from a sense of insomnia. Her mind was too cluttered to sleep easy, her thoughts too loud. And when she did finally manage to find sleep for a few hours every dawn, she was plagued with persistent nightmares

On the third day, she found herself in the prey centre with Tsunami and Clay. The two dragons of destiny were talking over a shared carcass of a cow. Moon had a hunger for meat, but very little energy to go and hunt anything. So instead she plucked an apple from a pile of fruit that had been gathered since the morning. She came back to sit a small distance from the other two - thinking it would be more weird if she isolated herself from them when they were the only dragons here.

"... Sunny was furious," Clay was saying. "Nearly dropped the Dreamvisitor when she jolted awake."

Moon paused mid-bite. She hadn't realised fully that the Dragons of Destiny had a dreamvisitor. How? She rationalised that it must've been from Scarlet - the last dragon known to have had one, who'd died in proximity to Clay and Peril in the Sky Kingdom. Moon's mind ticked over this information, trying to remember all that Darkstalker had told her of how the dreamvisitors worked.

Tsunami snorted. "I would've loved to have seen that."

"Yeah, Thorn's not happy with him either, but no one's seen him yet." Clay looked over at Moon. "Could you… you know, use your future-sight to find Qibli?"

Moon shook her head sadly. "I've been trying. But the Skyfire he wears blocks me. We just have to have faith that he'll come back to us."

"Well," Tsunami shifted her wings uncomfortably. "If you can't use it to find him… maybe you could find my sister? It's princess Anemone, she went missing weeks ago. My mother's been beside herself with worry."

Guilt and surprise made Moon's eyes go round and her heart fill with shame. How had she missed this? "I-I thought Coral knew… You mean she doesn't know where she is at all?"

"No, she just disappeared one night. The whole Kingdom of the Sea has been in uproar over it."

Moon hung her head in her palms. She assumed Coral had known about Anemone's location. Or, at the very least, Anemone had told her she was safe. And now what? It would look like Darkstalker had kidnapped the princess if it was learned that she was in the NightWing dungeon!

"Anemone…" Moon struggled to find the words to begin. "She heard of Darkstalker, and wanted to learn from him-"

Tsunami's eyes grew round, but her pupils shrunk to dangerous pin-pricks. "You knew?"

"I didn't know that Coral was looking for her. I-I thought Anemone would let her know where she was. But she wanted to learn how to control her animus powers so she came to us and-"

With a roar, Tsunami launched herself over the carcass, her feet crushed the cow's ribs as she used it to leap into the air. Her talons and teeth were bared, ready to ensnare Moon. But before she could touch her, Clay wrestled her out of the air, his huge arms wrapped around her wings and waist and using his weight to pin her down. Tsunami fought like a wildcat, desperate to wriggle free and get to Moon.

"Tsunami-!" Clay grunted. "Calm down… or I'll-!" When one of her knees punched him in the side, he growled and then snapped his jaws on the end of her flailing tail, managing to catch the soft under scales - every dragon's weakest point.

"Ow!" Tsunami cursed. "Alright! I get it! But YOU-!" she pointed a claw in Moon's terrified direction. "You need to start talking. Now!"

With a shaky nod, Moon began to babble. "Anemone sent guards looking for Darkstalker, to track him down and tell her where he was. Then she followed - convinced him to teach her. She spent time with us, learning from Darkstalker."

"So he could turn her evil?"

"No." Moon shook her head. "That was my fault."

Tsunami frowned, her resistance finally ceasing. "What do you mean by that?"

"Anemone wanted love and attention. She wanted Darkstalker to notice her, be proud of her, be devoted to her. But I was in the way of that. She grew jealous and I didn't see the signs of how lonely and fragile she was. She never told us the weight her powers had on her. Five nights ago she used her magic to attack me - maybe she thought that once I was gone, Darkstalker would give her his full attention."

"She tried to kill you?" Clay asked in quiet horror.

"I don't think so. I don't even think she knew what she would do. Not truly. But when Darkstalker discovered what she'd done, he was furious. She was raving, upset. For her safety and the safety of others, he had her put in the dungeons. I told him to tell Coral of her whereabouts so that she could be collected and taken home. That was the last I saw of her."

"Do you think he-?" Tsunami had gone pale, looking as if she might be sick if she finished that question.

Moon dared to take a step closer. "No, he wouldn't. Anemone was… trying, at times… but he wouldn't harm her. Please believe me on that."

"Tsunami," said Clay softly, releasing his adopted sister and allowing her to stand. "What if her soul…?"

For the first time in her life, Moon thought she could see tears glistening in the corners of the SeaWing's eyes. "Do you think? I mean, what if the magic… and her soul…?"

Again, Moon dared to step closer, and even more daring, she tried to touch Tsunami's shoulder, to offer comfort. "Darkstalker had a theory that maybe magic doesn't destroy the soul. Maybe what Anemone needs is-"

"Is to get away from him." Tsunami whirled on Moon, her bioluminescent scales flashing. "I can't let him keep my baby sister! I want to know everything about him, how he thinks, how he fights. We know he's immortal, but does he have any weaknesses or blind spots?"

Moon quickly withdrew, taking several paces back, her mind struggling to keep up with the rapid shift in the conversation. "I told you I wouldn't help you kill him."

"But you should help us defend ourselves!"

"Not even you could win in a fight against him, Tsunami." Moon pulled away further, feeling nauseous at the thought of her friends fighting to the death. "I won't engage in this conversation."

Tsunami came after her, and this time Clay wasn't fast enough to stop her. She grabbed hold of Moon's shoulder, forcing her to turn around. "You owe us-"

"I don't owe anyone anything!" Moon snapped. "What do you want me to say? You want me to tell you how he's the result of a breeding program to make the strongest, fastest NightWing alive? You want me to describe how his teachers beat and abused him, how they made him fight in over a dozen battles and kill over a dozen dragons? You want to picture the dragons I love fighting each other and pick a side by telling one how to hurt the other? No. I won't. Because even without his magic, Darkstalker is probably the most dangerous dragon in the world."

"So you admit he's a threat?" Tsunami demanded.

Clay moved forward, a pitiful expression on his face. "He really went through all that? Why?"

Moon's eyes were downcast. "Because he was picked for a destiny he didn't choose, and made to be a tool for what others wanted in their future. I would've thought you would relate to that."

Tsunami didn't have an answer for that.

That night, Moon was once again plagued by insomnia. It was only a few hours till dawn and the rest of the mountain was silent, leaving her with nothing but her own thoughts. She mulled over everything, the upcoming assembly, the attempted assassination, the truth about Prince Arctic… It felt as if everything she knew about the world had been turned upside down. She'd been blown off course in a terrible storm and now needed to find a star to point her to true north.

She needed to speak with Darkstalker, she needed to settle this.

Quietly creeping out of her cave, she used her eyes and memory to navigate the mountain in complete darkness. With everyone blocking her mind-reading abilities, she couldn't use it to pinpoint her target, so instead had to rely on memory alone. From memory, she found her way to Tsunami's chambers. The SeaWing was sleeping soundly, her snores filling the cave, her bioluminescent scales providing a soft light that danced on the stone walls much similar to the reflections of water. Tsunami lay on her bed of cushions with a rack of spears and swords within arms reach. One arm lay flopped outside of her nest, a blue sapphire in the shape of a star on the floor two inches away from her claws. The Dreamvisitor.

Moon could've sighed in relief. She'd figured Tsunami would use it tonight to try to contact either her sister or mother, and feared she'd walk in whilst Tsunami was using it. That would make it very hard to steal it without anyone noticing.

Not stealing, she corrected herself, Just borrowing.

Skulking low to the floor, slow and with all the grace she possessed, Moon stealthily crept across the floor towards the sapphire. Was it her imagination or did it glow a little? Tsunami gave an abrupt snort in her sleep and Moon froze on the spot. The SeaWing shifted a little, smacking her chops before settling back down. Moon waited, rooted and still as a statue, until Tsunami's regular snoring continued uninterrupted again. Pressing her lips together, so that not even her breathing could grow too loud, she crawled to the sapphire. Carefully she wrapped her claws around it, to lift it silently. The moment the cold crystal touched her flesh, she felt a soft hum across her flesh, the magic calling to her. It was easy to get mesmerised by such a feeling and the pretty light it made. Moon shook her head to rid herself of the feeling and as carefully as she could, made her way out of Tsunami's chamber and back to the safety of her own.

Only when she was back and in her own nest did she finally let loose the long, loud breath that she'd been holding in. Then came the agonising wait until dawn, when she knew that Darkstalker would be heading to bed. She would need to be quick, or otherwise risk someone noticing the Dreamvisitor was gone. Her tail trembled. There was a flutter in her gut. She was suddenly afraid to do this. What would she find in Darkstalker's dreams? What if she spoke to him and every evil thing she'd been told was only confirmed? But she couldn't turn back now. It was all or nothing.

Curled up in her nest, Moon tried her best to get comfortable whilst also positioning the sapphire star against her head in a way that would be hard to spot should anyone walk by. Taking a deep breath (and then another for good measure), she closed her eyes and whispered a name to the jewel: "Darkstalker…"

Almost instantly, Moon felt herself be launched out of herself. It was nausea inducing, like someone had hooked her under the ribs and pulled her down a drain. And when everything stopped spinning, the dream opened to her, and the only thing that could be described as a hellscape awaited her.

There was chaos all around her, dreams shifting in and out of reality, the senses overloading with conflicted messages, voices and music all clashing together as one. It was not at all what she had pictured. She wasn't in a physical world, her body did not touch ground, instead she seemed to be floating in vortex of colours and emotions. It was so perplexing, she thought she might go mad trying to understand it. Moon thought she could hear Darkstalker's voice, but whether he was somewhere further in the dream or all around her, she didn't know.

A rumble came over the mindscape, one that Moon was familiar with. A vision? Flashes of several visions were presented to her all at once. She saw dragons fighting dragons, a thunderclap, a castle crumbling to rubble! Another one: of a NightWing shivering on an arctic island in the middle of the sea. Again came another: IceWings and NightWings at war, blue and red blood raining from the sky. With a cry, Moon tried to push past these terrible visions, to plunge deeper into the dream to find Darkstalker. But even as she went she couldn't help but be as confused as this mind was.

"...not let them…" came his voice, echoing from the centre of these horrid visions. Moon surged onwards. As she came close to the heart of him, she couldn't help but wonder: were these visions a future Darkstalker was trying to prevent or were they a kind of wish fulfilment? There was hurt and anger here, colouring the mindscape and leaving a bitter taste in the air.

In the midst of all this, she found him. Darkstalker, seemingly curled up, his coils bound tightly around himself, his head in his talons. He was muttering to himself, pleading with an entity Moon could not see. He looked to her as he did when he first emerged from Agate Mountain: emaciated, almost skin and bones, a smaller version of his true self. Moon tried to reach for him, unable to watch him suffer this way. She wanted to pull him out of this nightmare, the same way he'd done for her many times over.

But then, suddenly, the mindscape shifted. A memory warped into view all around her. It was dawn, and Darkstalker was stood beside her on an overhang on a mountainside. Behind him, Moon could see Jade Mountain in full view. But that wasn't right, there wasn't another mountain this tall so close to Jade Mountain. Darkstalker looked… young, no taller than Moon herself, a vigour to his well-built physique that told of a young and strong warrior. But there was a silent anger in his cold blue eyes, a hurt… a betrayal.

"So you've come." said a voice that was oddly familiar. Moon turned and instantly regretted it. There, stood in the threshold of a cave mouth, was her mirror image. But then… not quite the same either. She had the same shape of face, the same pattern to her scales, the same build and height, but her eyes were like amethysts and she lacked the silver teardrop scales by her eyes. But there was no denying the resemblance. If they stood side by side, Moon was certain anyone would mistake them for sisters.

That meant this was… Clearsight.

Beside her, Darkstalker snorted. "You didn't really give me much of a choice. Did you and fathom cook up your little plan together? Is that why you had him fight me?"

Clearsight didn't answer right away, instead looking out to the east, watching the sun rise. "Did you know that come tomorrow, Agate Mountain will collapse in an earthquake, and from then on Jade Mountain will be the tallest peak in all of Pyrrhia."

"Is that supposed to be a metaphor? Something about the most powerful dragon falling in some epic battle and another rising to take his place? Not your best work, I must say."

She laughed. It was weird for Moon to watch herself-yet-not-herself laugh and look upon Darkstalker with such a sad, longing look. Her claws fiddled with a moonstone bracelet on her wrist. "You know, I used to think that if I studied the futures hard enough, if I made all the right choices, and urged you onto the right paths, we could still have our happy ending. And now look… all my work… gone to ash. Shows what I know."

"We can still have our happy ending, Clearsight," Darkstalker insisted, taking a step closer to her.

"What happy ending could possibly come from all this? Will you enchant me to just forget all the blood and death? Make me your happy little puppet?"

Darkstalker flinched, looking mortified. "No! That wasn't what I…" He growled to himself, and when he next looked at her, his pupils were paper thin. "As if you have any moral high ground. You were always checking on the bad futures, Clearsight. Always believing the first bad thing you saw. You never once believed in me, did you? Only the version of me that you wanted to create."

"For our future!"

"But you couldn't just be happy with me?" Darkstalker pressed, her eyes filled with hurt. "You couldn't let me try to make things better for everyone?!"

"Clearsight faltered, looking away. "I want to, Darkstalker… but what you're doing…"

"They deserved it!" he snarled, throwing his arm out wildly. "After everything they did to me, every abuse I have suffered, why am I not allowed justice?!"

"Vengeance is not justice." Clearsight caught hold of his talon in both of hers, her purple eyes softening. "And this is not love. Maybe it never was."

"What do you-?" But before Darkstalker could complete the question, Clearsight slipped the moonstone bracelet off of her wrist and quickly onto his. Darkstalker's eyes went wide, magic seizing hold of his body, and then he was falling, his eyes closing.

Moon knew exactly what this moment was now - it was how he became imprisoned under Agate Mountain, this was the beginning of his imprisonment. Darkstalker fell as if boneless, Clearsight jumping aside to let him fall. Moon went to catch him, to stop his head from smacking onto the ground -

The moment her claws touched him, things seemed to warp and shift and change around her. And then, Darkstalker had caught himself, breathing heavily, panting, crying. He was bigger than before, much closer to the version she knew. When he looked up, his eyes were filled with fear and sadness. "Please don't do this," he begged quietly. "Please, I can't do this without you."

"No." said another voice, and when Moon turned she was horrified to see herself - her actual self, green eyes and all - glaring up at Darkstalker, hate and anger in her eyes. "You've betrayed me for the last time."

"I didn't mean to!" Darkstalker pleaded. "I was just trying-"

"To look out for yourself!" Moon hissed. "Same as before, same as now. You will never change. And for that, I am leaving."

"No!" he cried, lurching forward to catch the Moon-illusion, to hold her, to touch her face. "Please, you don't understand, just let me explain! I l-"

"I don't care!" the fake Moon cried. "You don't care for me! You never did! Get away from me, you monster, get away!"

The dream shifted, the mindscape turning black and blue, the air heavy with sorrow and grief. The fake Moon vanished like swirls of ink in water, and Darkstalker was left to grasp at nothing but the air. He collapsed into himself, weeping a screaming, holding his head in his talons again whispering to himself over and over.

Moon felt a tear slip down her cheek. Her heart was breaking. This couldn't be a vision of the future - she refused to believe she could ever be so cruel to him. Watching the effect her words had on him was torture. She couldn't bear to see him like this. Again, she tried to gently reach out to him, to take him in her wings, to offer him comfort, to save him from this nightmare. She filled her mind with his music, hoping the familiar tune would guide him back to sanity.

"Darkstalker," she whispered as she gently tried to hold him in her arms. "I'm here, it's alright…"

He stilled and looked up at her. There was a long moment where he seemed to stare as if he couldn't believe his eyes. Encouraged, Moon hummed the music a little louder, attempting to pull him in closer. "M-Moon?"

"Yes," she smiled, thinking that finally, things might be alright. "It's me, Darkstalker, we need to talk. I have so much I-"

But again, the world warped and changed. This time Darkstalker wasn't being swept away in it, instead staying with her, to be a witness just the same as her. But he seemed to know what was coming. "No! No, no, not this! Moon, don't look, please!"

The diamond quarter was revealed to her, bustling with hundreds of dragons. Tents and stands and stages were erected, lights and strings of colourful fabric hung from buildings - this was a festival. And then, she heard a voice, Darkstalker's voice call out. That was when she saw him stood on the stage, Clearsight at his side. An IceWing that had the same shape of nose as Darkstalker, the same colour to their eyes. Prince Arctic. And then behind them was a beautiful looking dragoness, with scales of the deepest blue-black, a mane of spikes between her horns, similar to an IceWings, and her wing membranes were white, dotted with black gem-like scales. Moon recognised her from the memories of a dragonet she had seen in Darkstalker's mind: Whiteout.

And then to the side of them all was a dragon that Moon recognised with a shock. Turtle? No, not Turtle, she realised. He was thinner than Turtle, and the webbing of his crest was slightly different, but there was no mistaking the resemblance. Much the same as how Moon couldn't ignore how much she looked like Clearsight. Questions whirled around in her head, what could all this mean - but then the Darkstalker on the stage was calling out.

"My people!" he yelled, a great handsome grin across his face. "Gather round! I have an important announcement to make! I have caught a traitor!"

A gasp rippled through the crowd, and they all turned towards the stage one by one, quiet enveloping the plaza. Darkstalker pressed his talon on the back of Arctic's neck and the IceWing knelt obediently. The crowd was curious, whispering their questions to one another. Arctic was a traitor? Why wasn't the IceWing chained up? Why didn't he just fly away?

"Confess," Darkstalker ordered. "Tell them all what you planned to do before I stopped you."

"I was taking my daughter to Queen Diamond," Arctic said, his face contorting as if he was trying to stop himself but the words were coming out anyway. "I was going to offer her talons in marriage to whomever Diamond chose, so that she could hatch heirs for the IceWing throne that might have animus blood. I was going to get my wife back! In exchange I would give Diamond all the secrets of how to get into the Kingdom of Night. I would use my magic to help her destroy you all if she asked!"

Murmurs started through the crowd, outrage and confusion, mostly. The NightWings were all wondering what was going on. Wasn't punishing traitors up to the Queen? Was this a trick? Why would Arctic be confessing to all this?

"You see!" Darkstalker shouted boldly to the crowd. "We have fought a war for him! We have lost brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers. The Queen happily allowed NightWings to die to protect him here in this city, where he has enjoyed our comforts and freedoms. And THIS is how he repays us?"

The crowd grew more restless, leaning into the outrage Darkstalker was feeding them. Yes, they whispered. How dare this NightWing betray everything they had done for him! They had fought a war for him and he would've wiped them out. At the back of the stage, Clearsight and Fathom made their escape.

Beside Moon, the real-Darkstalker tried to pull her away from the scene, but his talons passed through her like smoke. "Please, Moon," he whispered. "Please don't watch this!"

But she couldn't, even if she wanted to. She was hypnotised, unable to look away, to watch the memory-Darkstalker as his grin turned darker, nastier, hungrier. "Your treachery is at an end. You brought this war upon us. You have stood by whilst NightWing died for you. Now you seek to destroy us? No. Not while I breathe. I, Darkstalker, will protect this tribe! I will save us from the IceWing threat and I will lead us into our bright and glorious future - as I was made for!" He turned fully to Arctic, a strange, distant light in his eyes. "Now. Admit that I am the greatest animus of all time."

"You are the greatest animus of all time." Arctic echoed, eyes darting wildly.

"Admit that you wish you'd been a better father."

Arctic barked a sudden, sarcastic laugh. "Ha! I do wish I'd been a better father! If I had, I would've recognised you for the monster you are and strangled you the moment you came out the egg!"

"Cut out your tongue."

The words came out so quick, sharp and cold. There was a fury radiating out of Darkstalker's muscles, a frantic hurt and anger melding together, wanting to lash out. Moon clapped her talons over her mouth. Arctic's eyes went round with horror. He shook his head as his own talon slowly rose towards his face. She could see he was trying to fight it, crying out as his jaws opened without his consent. His talons seized hold of his own tongue and dug into the soft flesh. With one quick rip, the serrated edges sliced through. The crowd gaped in terror and disgust. Arctic gave a gurgled scream at his own pain, and then nearly choked on the fountain of blood that spurted out of the stub left behind that flailed in his mouth. He doubled over, vomiting blue blood onto the stage.

Next to Moon, real-Darkstalker was shielding himself away, not watching, muttering to himself over and over. "No, no, no! Please don't, not this!"

Memory-Darkstalker grabbed hold of one of Arctic's horns and wrenched his head back so that he could look into Darkstalker's cold eyes. "Now. Take your talons, rip open your stomach and show all of us what you're really like on the inside. Pour your life out on this stage."

And he did. Arctic sat up, exposed his belly to the crowd, and ripped open his own scales. Pulling out his intestines and organs. Blood ran in rivers over the side of the stage and onto the plaza below. Arctic was screaming in pain wordlessly as he carried out the gruesome task. The crowd was screaming in terror too. Falling over each other to get away from the gore. When it was finally over, Arctic lay in a bloody heap, his eyes open and unseeing, pieces of him all around him like a halo of horror.

Darkstalker, who didn't look as happy as one would expect, stood on his hind legs, opened his wings and roared. The crowd seemed to grow more fearful, pushing each other out of the way as they began to stampede towards whatever safety they could find.

"The traitor is dead!" Darkstalker shouted, his voice booming across the plaza. "The Queen let this happen, she brought him into our midst! It is time for the end of her. A new age is upon us, my NightWings! The age of the Darkstalker!"

And with that, he launched himself into the air and flew, straight as an arrow towards the castle. NightWings screamed as he passed them, there was chaos. He flew straight for the balcony overlooking the diamond quarter, where Queen Vigilance stood, having watched the whole fiasco. Two guards either side of her threw spears at Darkstalker as he flew for them. Darkstalker flicked his wrist and the spears abruptly turned midair and flew back towards their own masters. They impaled the two NightWings through the chest, pinning them against the wall behind them. Vigilance didn't have any time to move out of the way. Darkstalker landed on the balcony railing, one talon holding on to root him in place, the other wrapping around the Queen's neck. With one violent tug, he ripped her throat out of her neck. Vigilance's eyes went wide and she clutched at her neck, as if trying to find her missing piece. She lost her balance and fell over the railing, Darkstalker moving aside to let her fall the three hundred foot drop into the nothingness below. He only moved to drop her windpipe and catch her crown in the same bloodied talon.

A shaky, ragged breath erupted from him. Tears stung his eyes and his limbs began to shake. Clutching the crown like a trophy, Darkstalker turned his fury to the sky, letting loose a blood-curdling roar.

Moon watched it all wide-eyed horror, her mouth agape. She didn't recognise this dragon. This wasn't at all what she'd pictured.

But then the real-Darkstalker was trying to step in front of her, trying to block her vision. "Moon, please! That's not me anymore, I'm sorry! You shouldn't have seen that! Moon, please, please!"

She wanted to reply but there was something hot and searing and painful happening. Moon could feel herself getting pulled away. Darkstalker looked terrified and tried to reach for her, calling her name, begging her to stay, to listen. Moon tried to reach for him but could stop herself as she felt that hook under her ribs again as it pulled her up and out.

She awoke with a shriek. There was heat all around her, almost to the point of pain. A poke of her shoulder, and then there was pain, not much, like she'd held her scales over a candle flame for a moment too long. It burnt but not enough to disfigure. She scrambled back, having half a mind to catch the Dreamvisitor before it could go hurtling across the room. And that was when she saw the dragon above her. Moon screeched in fear at the mass of red and yellow scales lurking above her, that quickly pulled back, bright blue eyes wide.

"Sorry!" Peril said quickly, pulling her talon back away from Moon. "I was just passing and I could hear you in a nightmare. I tried to yell at you but you wouldn't wake up. So I-"

A new pain gripped hold of Moon's mind. A pressure was building in the back of her skull. She'd been pulled so suddenly from the dream, it felt like her spirit was being stretched in four different directions, leaving her exposed. The magic of the Dreamvisitor was still rippling across her scales, Darkstalker's cries still echoed in her mind, and her own panic was suffocating her. The pressure built rapidly until it burst all at once. A vision swept through Moon's mind, the images too fast for her to make much sense of but she still felt the voices of her ancestors marching through her brain, taking over her mouth and using her mouth to speak with their voices.

Burn the threads, burn the seeds,

Burn your heart to ashen the deeds,

A thousand strikes, a thousand burns

Till you fall and burn in turn

Moon clamped her mouth shut as soon as the words were out. She stared up at Peril, who was wide eyed with fear and hurt. Had Moon just predicted Peril's… death? No! She refused to believe that. But her head was growing clouded again, she needed to get out of here! Mumbling her apologies to Peril, she rushed past her, clutching the Dreamvisitor in her talon.

On the fourth day, Sunny couldn't take the whole waiting around much longer, and so chose to occupy herself in whatever way she could. Tsunami offered to take her hunting but that didn't appeal to her. So instead she decided to go to her father. Stonemover was nibbling on a rabbit when Sunny arrived, probably courtesy of Dinner. The eagle in question was asleep in her nest, looking a little more grey and shabby than Sunny could ever remember her being. She wondered how old Dinner was, and wondered what it would look like when she wasn't around anymore to offer food to Stonemover.

Noticing his daughter enter his cavern, Stonemover patted the rug beside him. Sunny put on a brave face, trying to smile so as to forget the weight on her shoulders. She'd brought with her a basket filled with the usual items she brought to these visits. Fruits, biscuits and other little treats that Dinner couldn't provide for him. A new scroll for him to read when she left. And most importantly a jar of medicinal cream.

"How's the cold?" Sunny asked. Her father had been suffering from a sniffly nose last week, a little out of season, but Starflight reasoned that Stonemover's immune system wasn't the best any more considering he was cooped up inside one space all the time.

"All… fine…" said Stonemover in his usual slow way, but Sunny thought she caught the hint of a warm smile at the corners of his mouth.

Opening the jar, she was greeted with the now familiar scent of crushed rose, coconut and aloe vera. Bullfrog, the RainWing healer, usually made this cream for Stonemover, though he'd made sure to leave Sunny with a few jars and the recipe to make more when he left with the other RainWings. Taking a generous talonful, Sunny stood on her back legs so that she could reach her father's back. With a gentle touch, she began to rub the pink-white cream into the scars across her father's wing-shoulders and back. Doing this a few times a week had already begun to improve the look of his injuries and his scales looked less dull and cracked now. Today, Sunny looked at her father's injuries, the self-inflicted wounds that had crippled him so long ago, and her mind began to wonder about what things could've been. If Stonemover had stayed with Thorn, if Dune had never taken her egg… what might her life have been like? Stonemover once told her that he used to like a tinkering hobby, fixing little contraptions like toys or music boxes. Would Sunny have grown up in the Scorpion Den, doting over her father in his workshop as he taught her everything he knew? Then Thorn would come home from the Outclaws and sweep her up in her wings and tell them all how much she loved them?

Such thoughts made Sunny sad, usually. And confused. It felt like she was ungrateful of her friends and the life they had built when she fantasised about what might've been. But, since the war was over, since Darkstalker's letter, since Moon had come back, one thought had been on her mind more than others…

"Father," she began hesitantly, trying to gauge his reaction. "Do your scars give you pain?"

Stonemover tilted his head thoughtfully. "Sometimes… when it gets… cold in the mornings."

"Haven't you ever wanted to fix them? Use your magic to make you better?"

"Can't… Not without permission."

"But you can now," the words blurted out of her mouth before she could stop them. "I mean… Darkstalker broke the curse that holds NightWing magic back… maybe he broke it for all animus NightWings… including you?"

Stonemover paused, a biscuit covered in strawberry jam half way to his mouth. Slowly, he lowered the treat and turned his head to stare at Sunny. There was something fearful in his eyes. "The magic… is loose?"

"I don't know that for sure!" she said quickly, hopping back to the ground so that she could face him fully. "It was just a guess. You're fine, I promise."

It took a few breaths, but Stonemover seemed to calm down. "Good… good."

Sunny chewed her bottom lip for a moment before daring to ask: "But… wouldn't you want your magic back? Morrowseer is dead, and you don't have to go back with the NightWings if you don't want to. So it wouldn't be so bad to have your magic, right? You could use it to fix yourself, heal your wings - you could walk again, fly again!"

"No," Stonemover shook his head. "Magic… is too dangerous… It can't… be loose!"

"Not even if it means you could have a better life?"

"I am… content."

Sunny blinked, dismayed. "Content? How? You're in pain a lot of the time, you can't take care of yourself, and you're stuck in this room! How can you be content?"

"This," he gestured to his broken wings, "was my doing. To keep Thorn… and you, safe… Yes, it hurts… but it was done… for love… I am now… at peace with this."

"But what if I want you to get better?"

"Sunny," Stonemover said the word in his usual husky voice, but it was filled with such warmth. He reached out a talon and put it over hers. "You did. I… was not well… in my mind… before you came… Life was lonely, maddening. But now you… come here and talk to me… I can read scrolls, I have… comforts, all these things give me… life again."

She looked at the floor, a little ashamed. "Then why doesn't it feel like enough?"

"Not everyone… needs to be fixed. There might be… hundreds of dragons… maimed and injured in this… war. Some were born this way. Magic shouldn't… be used to fix them… They have nothing to be… ashamed of. Like me, so long as they… do not suffer and have… support, then their… new normal is not… unworthy."

That was something Sunny was embarrassed to admit she hadn't considered. Was it her place to try and save dragons from what she perceived as something terrible, regardless of their feelings? She didn't mean to imply that dragons who were missing limbs or blind or deaf, or otherwise challenged, were any less valued than 'normal' dragons. What about herself? She was a SandWing without the usual tail-barb. So many dragons had called her 'weird' or 'different'. Would she like it if someone else decided to use magic for her to change the way her body had been born?

Another thought occurred to her. "What about Starflight? He lost his sight due to the volcano - reading was his greatest love and it was taken from him. I mean, yes, Fatespeaker and him are working on a written language that you can feel to read with (I think they're gonna call it braille?). But shouldn't we give him the chance to have his sight back? I know why you couldn't until now, but Turtle's been here for so long and didn't even offer…"

Stonemover rumbled soothingly. "Do not be too… hard on him. Turtle… was afraid of what… others would do if they found out. Magic is… frightening when it is… your own. You can do great thing and… terrible things… without meaning to. That is a lot of pressure. If he fixed Starflight's eyes… with no explanation… you would be suspicious."

"But I wouldn't have done anything bad," Sunny tried to say. "We would've been happy - shouldn't magic make you happy?"

"But it would have taken… Starflight's choice. It is his body… his choice on how he wishes it to be…"

Sunny nodded. "You're right. I just… magic is confusing to me. I never know how to feel about it. Is it something we should use to fix the world's problems or does it only cause more problems and it's better left untouched?"

"You're… telling me!"

A laugh burst out of her at that. Smiling, she came and sat beside her father's shoulder, leaning into him. "I'm sorry. Your magic is yours. You should always do with it as you please."

Stonemover twisted his neck so that he could rest his head atop hers. "That is all… I ever wanted."

The underground lake inside Jade Mountain was cool and fresh against Turtle's scales as he swam through it lazily. He'd hoped to come here to settle his nerves - as he often did. Today was the fifth day. The last day. In a few short hours, at noon, they would all be departing Jade Mountain to fly for the Scorpion Den. They'd likely arrive by nightfall, maybe sooner if the winds were in their favour. They all felt the weight of destiny on their backs - good or ill, this night would change everything.

With a thrust of his powerful tail, Turtle shot back up towards the surface. His eyes adjusted almost immediately from the blackness beneath the waters to the dim light on the shore. Blue glass lanterns had been put on the rocky shore, allowing for a dim glow that created the soothing atmosphere that Turtle enjoyed so much. On the shore lay Moon, curled up around herself, her eyes staring off into nothing, her tail flicking pebbles into the water with a soft plop. She'd been like this all this morning and throughout yesterday. Something was heavy in her mind; she'd been quiet and sad-looking, not as talkative or engaged as before. But she'd yet to say anything to anyone.

Paddling softly through the water, Turtle made his way towards her, his bioluminescent scales glowed along his neck, back and tail, offering further illumination. He lay his belly in the shallows, the water lapping at his sides. "Are you alright, Moon?"

She gave a long sigh. "As well as I can be. There is a lot riding on what happens tonight."

"Are you afraid?"

Her eyes finally broke away from their stare into oblivion and she finally looked at him. "No - well, I mean, not in the way you expect. I'm not afraid for myself, no matter how many times Winter tells me I should be. I'm not running away from this. If Darkstalker is a monster, then he is one of my making. So it's only right that I should be the one to fix this."

"If it's any consolation," Turtle said, picking up a stone from beneath the water - it was pink with beautiful lines of red running through it. "I don't think I'm afraid of Darkstalker either. Actually, yes, I am afraid of his magic but… not him. I kind of feel sympathy for him, actually. Even after everything I know about what he's done, the danger he poses… something in me can't hate him. Not after reading Fathom's journal, and the love they shared right up until the end."

"Really?"

"When I think about my brothers, by the tides, some of them really get on my nerves. They've done things that have hurt my feelings, or betrayed my trust, but I could never hate them. Fathom couldn't hate Darkstalker, either - I relate to that."

Moon got quiet for a moment. She sat up. "Maybe… that's because destiny has a bigger role to play than we realised. Turtle… I don't exactly know how to say this but… I've seen Darkstalker's memories and… you look like Fathom. And I look like Clearsight. There are a few differences, but the resemblance is uncanny."

"Wow," Turtle whistled, shocked. "Jerboa told me that I look like Fathom but… you're Clearsight too? Moon, you understand this can't be a coincidence, right? What are the chances that at the exact same time as Darkstalker wakes up, is there a dragon close by who not can not only hear him and has the ability to set him free, but also the reincarnations of his past lover and brother are here! If this was one of my mother's stories, I'd say that maybe we were meant to be here."

"But to do what?" Moon asked, wrapping her tail around her legs. "To finish the work Fathom and Clearsight started?"

He waded out of the water and set a cool talon on her shoulder. "Or maybe to set things right."

For the first time in two days, Moon's mouth twitched into a smile. "I'd like to think that." She took a deep breath, seeming to hold herself a little higher. "No matter what way this ends, fate has led us here. It's time to face it. And Turtle? You should tell Kinkajou how you feel."

Turtle almost choked on air in his surprise. "WHA-uh, I-I mean, what do you…? Did you hear that in my head?!"

She chuckled. "No. But I see the way you look at her. The way you've been looking at her for the past two years. You should tell her. Have no regrets."

"No regrets about what?" Came a cheerful, sing-song voice. Turtle felt his stomach drop into his toes as he and Moon whirled to look to the tunnel which led to this cavern. Kinkajou was skipping through the cavemouth, grinning from ear to ear, her scales popping between yellow and pink. "I came to find you guys! You won't ever believe this - Qibli just got back!"

Moon's eyes widened. "What? Really? He came back?"

"Yeah! He's upstairs right now getting his tail handed to him by Sunny and Winter. They are sooooooooo mad, but I can see they just want to give him a big hug!"

"Well," Moon stood. "Let me get in on that! Oh, and Turtle?" Moon paused midstep, looking to the SeaWing over her shoulder. She jerked her head in Kinkajou's direction. "Remember what I said."

Moon hurried to leave, and before Kinkajou could run after her, Turtle called out (in a graceless rush), "Um, Kinkajou? C-Can I talk to you for a minute?"

The RainWing paused, smile as bright and heart-melting as ever. "Sure!" She bounced back to him, sitting straight and tall as far from the water as she could get. "What you wanna talk about?"

He struggled to find the words. This was the part in the stories where the hero made some grand speech about how the heroine had changed his life, how she made him feel, how his life won't be complete without her. Turtle knew all these things, he felt all these things. When he looked at Kinkajou, it was like the sun had been pulled down to earth and he was staring at warmth and light personified. He felt stronger and better because of her. He'd never met a dragon in his whole life that made him feel the way she did. And yet… none of those words felt like enough.

So instead, he simply said: "I love you."

Kinkajou was still for a long time. With every second that went by of her just staring at him, Turtle felt his panic rise up in his chest. Did she not feel the same? That was fine! Had he just ruined their friendship?!

"You told me that back at Fathom's sanctuary," she said slowly. "You haven't said anything else about it since then…"

"Because I was worried," he said, stressfully turning his talons over and over. "I thought you might not feel the same, or that you thought it was a fluke before, or with everything happening you might not want to do this now - which is totally fine, I get that! But I just wanted-"

His words were cut off when Kinkajou lunged forward and pressed her nose against his. Electricity seemed to spark across Turtle's scales. The world stopped. His heart was doing front flips and backflips. After three solid seconds, Kinkajou pulled away and Turtle could finally breathe again. Had she just…?

"I love you too, you big melon head," she said with the most beautiful smile Turtle had ever seen. "I wanted to tell you sooner but I thought I'd let you come to things in your own time."

All the breath seemed to leave him at once. He felt like laughing, like he'd just lost his mind. "You realise I almost didn't? You might've been waiting forever!"

"Naaaaah, I knew you'd get there. Eventually." She giggled, leaned in, and kissed him again. Turtle thought his knees might give way. "And I promise we will sort all this out once we're back from this Assembly. Give us some proper time to sort these feelings out. But for now, lets go find the others."

"Whateveryousayiloveyou," Turtle mumbled out, following Kinkajou along with the wobbly legs of a drunk.

They travelled back up through the mountain. They were still two corridors away from the entrance hall when they started to hear the shouting. Winter's voice could be heard loudest of all. "And do you have any idea the kind of stress you've put us through?! Going off without telling anyone?"

"Because I thought you'd talk me out of it." came Qibli's voice.

"OBVIOUSLY! Because it was stupid and reckless! And you're telling me you didn't even make it to the Kingdom of Sand anyway?!"

"Well, no, because I thought better of it."

"And you couldn't have done that before even going?!"

"Winter," came Moon's soft admonishment. "There's no need to shout like that."

"I think there is," came Sunny's voice. "You had me worried sick, you lizard-brained, toe eating, cow-fart of a dragon!"

"I already said I was sorry!"

Kinkajou and Turtle finally came into the entrance hall. Sunny and Tsunami were gathered with Winter and Moon, all four of them huddled around Qibli, who kind of looked like he wanted to run and hide somewhere. Sunny face-palmed. "Honestly. What, by the moons, made you suddenly see sense and change your mind?"

Qibli tried to stand straight, though he looked to the others like he feared someone would cow him back down. "Because I realised that I don't stand a chance without you guys. And that the rest of the world doesn't stand a chance without us. I was too busy thinking about myself and what I could and couldn't do, and then…"

The SandWing's eyes locked with Turtle's. There was a long, awkward moment. Turtle wasn't quite sure how to feel. He'd been confused about Qibli since the SandWing had told him off by the lake. Once, he'd looked up to him, saw him like a big brother, but then Qibli had told them all how he really felt and everything felt like it'd been built on a lie. Turtle felt this sense of unworthiness around Qibli, and at the same time an urge to guard his powers fiercely, like they were something physical that the SandWing could steal away.

Breaking away from the others, Qibli walked straight over to Turtle and hung his head. "And then I realised that I was being ass, to you most of all, Turtle. I spent so long wanting to be worthy, when I was a dragonet. It's followed me my whole life. With my mother, grandfather, Thorn… I guess I never saw that it followed me here too. And then I realised I was trying to be worthy of dragons completely outta my league. So I envied and I coveted… And it kind of outgrew me, took me over. And I became an ass."

"Yeah," Turtle murmured, his voice thick. "You really were."

Qibli winced. "Yeah… When I was in the wilderness I had a moment to think about all the things I would do with magic. All the clever ways I could fix things. I'd be worthy of everyone then, because then everyone would like me. But… then it occurred to me, that if I need to force dragons to be my friends… then they aren't really my friends at all."

Kinkajou huffed. "Kind of a no-brainer, don't you think?"

He nodded. "So I'm sorry, Turtle. I'm really, truly sorry for the way I've acted. And I promise to make it up to you. Someday. And if you want to scold me, tell me how awful I am, go ahead. I deserve it."

"You know what," Turtle murmured, flexing his jaw a little. "You really were the worst. You were mean and you were hard to understand. I looked up to you because I knew I wasn't as clever as you, I knew you would be the one to set me straight when my silly spells didn't have any kind of thought put into them. And no matter what I did to try and please you, nothing felt good enough. You were horrible and all I wanted was my friend - which I'm very grateful for having back now, so if we could all hug this out I would very much appreciate it!"

Qibli looked a little dumbfounded, like he was trying to catch up with all the words Turtle had said. Kinkajou was the first to move, putting one wing around Turtle, the other around Qibli and pulling them all together. Moon was the one who came in next smiling broadly. Then they all felt the cool touch of Winter's wings. Turtle felt like he could finally take a deep breath. Everything felt right in the world.

Across the cave, Claw and Peril came out of a tunnel. Sunny and Tsunami quickly whispered to them what had happened to get them all caught up. Peril looked happy at first when she noticed that Qibli was back. But then her eyes fell on Moon and she suddenly looked ill. Turtle had noticed they'd been avoiding each other the last two days. He planned to talk to Peril about that later. For now he wanted to enjoy this moment of happiness and togetherness with his friends before they all flew out towards the assembly, and towards their fate. Whatever that might be.