Glorious Politics
AN: I'm beginning to understand that I won't be able to do the 6000+ word chapters anymore. So we'll have to go back to 3-4k word chapters if the (technically) weekly updates can continue.
Speaking of, I had to work both Friday and Saturday, which I don't usually have to, so I only had two days off this week, and one of them was Thanksgiving, so I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted. Plus...I'm beginning to understand that I need to adjust my mentality. In my mind, writing is something you do when you have a block of three or more hours of free time. Sitting down for just thirty minutes or an hour feels like a waste of time to me. But I only ever have ninety minutes of free time before work and about four hours after. Usually less. That doesn't leave me a lot of free time, and definitely not as much as I'm used to. Still...I could probably do five hundred words in an hour, and I really need to change that mentality.
But as with all adjustments...that's going to be difficult, at first. I'll do what I can, though. I already feel bad for the screwy update schedule, and I want to fix that as soon as possible.
Vent over...enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Wings of Fire. Nimbus, Sobek, Mistral, and Veneno are my OCs. Bloodwalker belongs to SpyroAndSisuFan. Certus, Solstice, and Swiftback belong to Epsilon33. Bear belongs to Schwanze. The concept for the character Soulseer partially belongs to SpyroAndSisuFan. Mystic belongs to Flerovium.
Chapter Forty-Five:
She was really coming to appreciate Peril's training methods. Actually, she was beginning to appreciate training, in general. Ever since she suffered through Kestrel's horrendous teaching methods, combat training had held zero appeal to her. When they'd escaped their prison—because that's what it was—she'd immediately dropped anything to do with it, if only out of spite. A few years later, DB had eventually convinced her to pick it up again, though she never pursued it very fervently, and when the incident that tore them apart happened, she dropped it again.
All of that was a basic summarization of why she hated training. In layman's terms, she'd had a lot of bad experiences with it. Peril, however...
Peril found a way to turn the thing she hated into something she enjoyed. In all honestly, she never thought that possible, but here she was...hot, dirty, sore, and having the time of her life.
Right now, they were playing a game Peril liked to call 'swat the Skywing', and all it entailed was her trying to land a hit on Peril, whose only job was to dodge every attack and generally keep away from Glory. So Glory would close in, throw a bunch of strikes that Peril would dodge, and when there was an opening, she would break away and Glory would chase after her.
And, by the moons, was it the funnest game she'd ever played!
It wasn't complex at all. All she needed to do was touch Peril once, and she won. But the Skywing was just so fast and light on her feet that she had managed to keep away from the Rainwing for an entire hour! It was a game of not only skill—sloppy form would make it harder to hit her—but also of speed and endurance. Both of those traits weren't exactly great for her, but she liked to think she had improved since her first training session with Peril, which was not that long ago, actually.
"Ready for a break yet?" Peril had been tempting and teasing her with such offers since about ten minutes in, but Glory had yet to give in.
Until now, that is. "Y-Yeah..." She was a bit breathless from all the exercise, and her muscles burned, though in a good way. Of course, she could already tell that she was going to be quite sore tomorrow.
The two had gone to the Sandwing arena, which according to the dragons she asked, had been shut down since Cobra and Mastermind were broken out and the whole mole problem had become a genuine concern. Even with no events, off-duty soldiers and dragonets sometimes came here to fight, so while there weren't too many dragons here to watch them, there was still a handful watching from the stands.
Peril relaxed her stance as Glory all but flopped onto her belly on the floor, her breaths coming fast and her heart pounding in her chest. Even Peril seemed a bit winded, though she was clearly still fit to go another hour. Probably more, if she wanted. "Probably a good idea." She took a deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly. "It's a bit hot out here, even for me. We don't need you getting heat stroke." She turned to some of the guards that had been watching. "Can one of you fetch some water for Queen Glory?" After a few glances between each other, one eventually stood up with a shrug and a nod, heading off to get what was requested.
Peril sat next to Glory, using a wing to shade the exhausted Queen from the worst of the sun's direct rays. A few minutes later, the guard returned, accompanied by two dragons Glory hadn't expected to see. The first was Mistral, who she had honestly expected to stay inside out of the heat—specifically in whatever room DB was in to keep an eye on the assassin. The second was even more surprising, though. Queen Thorn, wearing the Eye of Onyx, had just entered the arena looking none-too-happy about something.
She stopped directly in front of Glory, who had been polite and respectful enough to stand up. "What are you doing here?" Glory immediately winced internally because of how stupid a question that was.
Thorn, at least, found it somewhat amusing, at least, snorting at the question, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "This is my Kingdom, Glory. But more specifically, I need to talk to you." She looked to Mistral, who was standing a little bit behind her. "Both of you."
"Should I go, then?" Peril asked, her expression clearly indicating that she was uncertain if she had already overstayed her welcome.
Thorn looked to the Skywing and shook her head. "You can stay, Peril. You might actually be our most important asset right now." Immediately after, she turned to regard all of the other dragons watching curiously. "But the rest of you can go! This arena is supposed to be shut down, anyway!" They all scattered pretty quickly at that.
"Thanks..." Her tone and expression obviously indicated that she didn't know whether to feel insulted or complimented by being called an 'asset'.
"It's a compliment, dear," Thorn said simply, and Peril nodded. "I'll get straight to the point here. I don't trust a damn thing those two Nightwings said."
"That makes two of us," Mistral commented.
"Three," Glory added. "The whole thing seems too..." She trailed off, looking for the right word.
"Convenient?" Mistral finished for her, and she nodded.
"That was my thought, too," Thorn nodded. "I've been in positions where discerning truths from lies is absolutely vital my whole life. I'm a master at picking up little tells and reading body language, and during that whole story they told me, Deathbringer was giving off all sorts of red flags."
"What about the other one?" Mistral asked, curious and interested to hear her opinion.
Thorn hummed. "I didn't get anything from watching him. Either they're telling the truth, and Deathbringer was simply nervous about something else—seeing Glory again, perhaps—or Soulseer has one of the best poker faces I've ever seen."
The three remained silent, thinking about the two possibilities, but Glory turned to the one dragon who hadn't given an opinion. "What do you think?"
Peril just frowned and looked away. "I'm...not the best judge of character." Mistral scoffed, which made Peril glare at him. "You got something to say to me?"
"Hey, woah!" Glory turned to the Skywing in surprise. "Chill out, will you? Let's not start a fight." Then, she turned to Mistral. "And seriously, the attitude is not helping you make friends."
The look her gave her was a clear 'I don't need friends' look, but he refrained from actually saying that. Maybe she should talk to him later, see what was bugging him. Because he seemed way more tense than usual.
Thorn glanced between the Icewing and Skywing with a raised brow, having not expected such animosity between them. However, she decided to simply move on. "I'm more convinced it's the latter. If Soulseer had actually worked for Vulture since the final years of the war, then there's no telling how good at manipulating and deceiving others he might be."
Mistral and Peril had remained glaring at each other since Glory's intervention, but the former turned to the Sandwing upon hearing that. "So why are they here, then? To keep an eye on us?"
She shrugged. "Makes sense. Possibly to interrupt my investigation into the mole, as well." She frowned. "Speaking of, though I am loathe to do it, I will be accepting your help in finding them. They've eluded me thus far, and with two master assassins now walking my halls with unknown motives, I find myself in dire straits at the moment."
"Can't you just get..." Mistral paused for a moment, glancing at Glory before continuing. "...Moon to just read their minds and find out the truth?"
"We already tried," Thorn revealed. "They're both wearing Skyfire."
"DB doesn't own Skyfire," Glory muttered.
"And the stuff is so rare and ludicrously expensive that it makes you wonder how they got it," Thorn nodded. "Vulture has the means to acquire it, I'm sure."
"So what are they trying to hide?" Glory wondered aloud.
Thorn nodded. "Precisely the question that's been bothering me."
Peril spoke up here. "So if we don't trust them, why not just lock them up? They can't kill us if they're locked in a cell."
"If the mole can get Cobra and Mastermind out, they can get those two out," Mistral shot back, which made Peril sneer at him. Glory just shook her head, hating that two of her closest friends were at each other's throats. "Besides, we might be able to get some info out of them if we act like we don't suspect anything. They think we're not onto them, and they might just let their guard down enough for us to figure out their motives."
"I like that idea," Thorn nodded, rubbing her chin in thought. "So we keep an eye on them but don't tip them off that we're onto them..." And deep, pondering look entered the Sandwing's gaze, and she turned to glance at Mistral briefly before speaking. "I know neither one of you are going to like this, but..." Both Glory and Mistral exchanged a glance, wondering what was so bad that it needed an actual disclaimer. "Glory...I want you to break up with Mistral."
"WHAT!?" both dragons shouted at once, one looking outright betrayed, and the other utterly furious.
Thorn winced at the volume, rubbing her ears with a scowl. "Not for real, morons. I want you to put up an act. Pretend to break up with Mistral and start spending time with Deathbringer."
"Absolutely not! It's out of the question!" Mistral growled.
Thorn just glared at him. "I understand that you care for her, but she's my daughter, and this is my Kingdom. I'll accept your help, but we're going to solve this problem my way."
Mistral's growl grew louder. At least until Glory put a comforting claw on his shoulder. He turned to look at her, and his anger almost immediately vanished upon seeing the kind, caring look she was giving him. "I don't like it, either, but it is a good plan."
"But..." He began, only to trail off when she leaned forward to kiss him.
"You know I love you," she assured him. "It'll just be an act." Mistral frowned and looked away, but after several minutes of tense silence, he finally nodded. He stood and walked away without a word, and Glory felt her heart break for him. "Maybe this is too close to home for him..." she muttered. Thorn gave her a curious look, but didn't comment on it.
"Well...since he left, I'm going to be the one to speak up here," Peril began. "What happens if Deathbringer realizes he's being played?"
Thorn frowned, as if she hadn't thought of that, and Glory spoke up at that moment. "I know how he thinks, Peril. I'll be fine."
"No...Peril has a point," Thorn countered. "You knew the goofy, lovable Deathbringer, not the jealous one who's most likely working for one of our greatest enemies."
"That's a risk we're just going to have to accept," the Rainwing shot back. "I don't like the idea of being alone with him, especially now. He's been off ever since he came back, and I'm honestly terrified of what he might do. But I know him better than anyone, even his cousin, does."
"What if—" Peril began, but Glory cut her off again.
"Look, Deathbringer might do a lot of things, and some of those possibilities shake me to my core. But the one thing he won't do is kill me." Her voice held nothing but utter confidence in her assertion. The other two shared a dubious look but didn't argue. "DB still loves me, sick and twisted though it's become. It's clear he's envious of Mistral. He's angry. Jealous. He's not going to question me too much if I go back to him...especially if mine and Mistral's argument is going to be as real and heated as I think it might be."
Thorn and Peril was quiet for a while, the latter still seeming quite uncomfortable with this idea. The Sandwing, however, was more thoughtful than anything. "I know this was originally my idea, but...are you sure about this?" Glory just nodded. "Alright...best keep our plan between us, then. The less dragons who know about the ruse, the less chance they have of figuring it out."
"Agreed," both the Skywing and Rainwing nodded.
Thorn looked to her adopted daughter sympathetically. "Then, I guess you need to go have an argument with your boyfriend."
Glory looked down, sighing in guilt for putting him through this. "Hopefully, he's still open to actually being my boyfriend after this..." And that this plan doesn't screw him up even more than he already is, she mentally added. His trust and relationship issues ran deep, and this impending argument, fake as it may be, may just drive him away forever.
The three made their way back inside in silence, Thorn and Peril going one way while Glory went the other, heading towards her and Mistral's room. The entire way, she dreaded what might await her. Was he currently tearing the room to pieces in a furious rampage? Was he even going to be there? Would he be trying to avoid her, so he wouldn't have to experience such heartache, 'pretend' though it was supposed to be? Would he be crying? She'd not seen him do so often, but he'd done it before.
When she gently pushed the door open and peered inside, it was quite hard to miss him standing in the middle of the room, his eyes locking onto hers as soon as he saw her. So he wasn't trying to avoid her, then. And, looking around, the room was still intact. Nothing was destroyed, and there weren't claw marks in the walls. After giving the room a once over, her gaze landed back on him, and he was still staring at her intently.
"So..." she hesitantly began. "How do you want to do this?"
He shook his head. "Shut the door, first." She looked at him curiously—the whole point was for others to hear them—but she soon understood that he wanted some private words together first. Once the door was shut and she was looking at him again, he continued. "I don't care what Thorn says, we're not going along with this plan."
"I don't like it, either, but there's so much we might be able to learn from Deathbringer. We could learn the cult's plans, where Vulture is, what the deal with Darkstalker is, why they're—"
With every listed possibility, he bared his teeth more and more, until he eventually snapped, cutting her off. "I DON'T CARE!" She recoiled in surprise and stared at him in surprise. His shout was so loud, it actually caused reverberations in the windows. "I've been through this before," he ground out. "I've dealt with the lies and the ulterior motives before, and I can't...I can't do that again, Glory."
Once her heart finally stopped pounding from the scare, she took a step towards him, only for him to step away from her with a small growl, a silent warning to stay away from him. "It's not going to be real, Mistral," she tried to assure him.
"It's going to feel real to me," he shot back. He took a shuddering breath and continued. "I promised myself a long time ago that I would never allow myself to feel for another dragoness, but you managed to worm your way into my heart. I never thought I would love, or feel loved, again until you entered my life." He shook his head vigorously in denial. "I don't care if it's supposed to be a ruse, I'll never believe that it's anything more than some elaborate scheme to get rid of me."
Her heart broke for him. The waver in his voice grew worse with every word, and she could tell he was on the verge of another panic attack, like the one he had after Sobek attacked her in the rainforest. "Mistral..."
He looked her dead in the eye, and what he said next completely shattered her heart. "I would rather die than be left alone again." As her eyes went wide in horror, he looked away, unable to meet her gaze anymore. "I-I can't be alone again..."
"It won't be real," she reiterated. She stepped towards him again, and this time he let her approach. She cupped his jaw with her claws. "It's just for the investigation, to find out what Deathbringer knows."
His expression went from distraught to furious in the blink of an eye, and he backed away from her again. "Then I'll go kill him right now and make the whole thing pointless!"
That made her gasp in surprise. "You'd do that, even knowing it would probably doom your tribe, and possibly all of Pyrrhia?"
"I don't care about Pyrrhia!" he snapped. She gasped again. "I don't care about the Icewings! And I don't care about Snowfall! I care about you! You—" He cut himself off. "You..." He sighed and looked away again. "You make life worth living again." It was so quiet that she barely heard him, but hear him she did. And in that moment, Glory realized fully just how broken he really was inside. "I'd give up everything to be with you." He sighed again. "I know I'm not perfect. I know I still act a bit distant despite how much you've come to mean to me. It's just...difficult for me to open myself up like that again."
Never before had she felt like cursing Greatness so much as she did now. She had absolutely broken the young, too-trusting dragonet that Mistral used to be, which caused him to grow up into a cold, distant shell of his former self. And now that shell was slowly starting to peel back as he began to accept the idea of them being in a relationship.
But then Deathbringer shows up and ruins everything. Again. She knew playing the Nightwing was the best way to possibly get some info on the cult, but she also knew that Mistral's trauma made that prospect a massive issue.
And then there was the massive revelation he'd just dropped upon her. Until now, he'd not seemed to really care much about their relationship, such as it was. Yeah, he was slightly more open with her, but things seemed pretty much the same as when they were merely friends. Now he tells her that she's the most important thing in his life? The way he was talking scared her. Seeing him act and speak as if he was utterly broken was a far cry from the strong, stoic dragon she thought him to be. Then again, she shouldn't be surprised he was so messed up inside. He'd given her small peaks before.
"That's... Wow..." She shook her head, not knowing what to say to that.
"It's concerning, I know." He huffed humorlessly. "I'm all sorts of messed up, and living in the Ice kingdom didn't help. We're all emotionally stunted or broken in some way or another..." He shook his head and looked out the window. "And with the time I've spent away from that frigid Hell, I've come to realize that...I don't want to go back."
Glory stared at him in surprise and slight admiration. "You sound like someone else I know."
He huffed, a small smile forming on his face. "And to think I used to believe Winter was wrong to leave his tribe... But I understand now. That environment up there is stifling. For the first time in a long time..." He took a deep breath, and his smile grew more genuine. "I feel free."
Glory smiled back at him. "I'm very glad to hear that, but..."
His smile fell, and he sighed, looking back at her. "I know how important it is, but I can't do it, Glory. I can't just pretend to be okay while you spend time with another dragon. Especially one who might hurt you if you make a mistake."
"What if I snuck away to spend time with you every day? That way you'd always have a constant reminder that we're okay." Despite giving him what she thought was a good plan, he shook his head.
"It's too risky," he argued. "All it takes is for one of them to follow you, or for the wrong dragon to see us and blab to the wrong dragon, and the gig is over." When he put it like that, she supposed it wasn't that good of an idea, after all.
The more she thought about this particular conundrum and how to fix it, the more she realized that there wasn't one. At least, not one that could be done through conventional means. "What if..." she began, and he looked at her, curious to hear what she might say. "What if we didn't need to be together to be together?"
He blinked and frowned in confusion. "Come again?"
She thought of a way to phrase this without saying the big 'A' word. "What if we could speak together without needing to be next to each other? And no one could hear us. Like our own private communication method."
"Like...sending letters?" He immediately shook his head. "No...you said we'd be speaking not writing." After a few more seconds, he frowned deeply. "You're talking about a spell, aren't you?"
She nodded, unable to meet his gaze. "Y-yeah. Just a telepathic link between you and I. That way we could talk without being near each other. You'll know I'm alright at all times and have instant warning in case something goes wrong."
"That's a...big ask, Glory." At least he didn't shoot it down immediately. He seemed more thoughtful than anything, so she took that as a good sign.
"I know it's asking a lot. It's a lot of trust you'll have to place in me, and I in you. But as far as I can figure, this is the only way to solve both problems at once." He didn't respond, still deep in thought, so she said one last thing. "But you said I was your everything. Well, you know what? I want you to be my everything, too. I trust you, Mistral. I'm willing to do this if you are."
Ten minutes of pure silence passed. Never once did she shift her gaze away from him or say anything else or rush him in any way. Like he said, this was a big ask. She would let him think through it on his own terms, in his own time. Eventually, when he finally met her gaze, he gave a single curt nod. "Let's do it." She smiled, relief flooding through her, but before she could say anything, he leaned down and caught her in a passionate kiss that she instantly returned. When he broke away a few seconds later, he sighed happily. "I trust you, too."
AN: So, yeah...Mistral's been hiding some issues for a while, but I'm sure all of you already guessed he was a bit broken inside. As for the animus spell, I have my reasons for it beyond just the romance plot. It'll come into play later. And yes, since I know people are going to point it out, I'm aware everyone in Glory's group is wary of using animus magic because of Jerboa and the threat of retaliation, but even if they do have a way to know when and what spells are cast, I highly doubt Vulture will care about Glory and Mistral sharing a telepathic connection. Plus, who knows? Maybe Anemone already has a piece of jewelry for that.
Spoiler alert, she does.
Until Next Time
AdmiralCole22