Author's Note: For the readers of my Rewrite, I'm sorry for the delay, the next chapter of that story had really stumped me for a few days, so I decided to at least write this one to not have BOTH fics take a crazy amount of time to release an update, the Rewrite is 100% coming next one of these days.

— Chapter 11 —

Oracle

Even after he wrote these words with his own talons, the Nightwing himself was still surprised that he actually did that since, well… He just offered his friend to take a visit to Mafia Town to rob the head honcho of the mafia, and that's… Yeaah…

But with what they've got on talon, there are not really a lot of other alternative ways to get through the dilemma that is Vulture wielding one of the most bothersome Animus objects to currently exist, so the sooner he loses that advantage, the better. And hey, they've got magic they can use, tons of it actually.

Oracle and Qibli kept up some more casual chatting for now to cover the true conversation, merely talking about their day to day at the academy, their favorite things to eat, and about how sparkly Winter can be.

And in the meantime, Oracle had been quickly writing more, thinking hard of any good spells, recalling as many superpowers and spells he remembered reading or watching in works back on his world, and eventually he had a good enough idea.

There's many things that we can do for a stealth mission even with the limitations, besides classic things like turning invisible and making others unable to hear or smell us, I thought that we could also go for intangibility to let us phase through solid things like ghosts. There's also something like teleportation for a quick escape but I feel like that could be scary if the effect goes wrong at all.

He saw the Sandwing consider it, his claw hovering over the scroll for a moment before he wrote back.

I like the sound of these powers, and quite a lot I gotta say. Are you confident that things like that would let us be unnoticed?

And to that, Oracle's reply was: Absolutely, literally what could they EVEN do? Can't see us, can't sense us, can't even touch us, if somehow there's a trap then we can literally just go through the walls and casually leave.

Qibli appeared to like the sound of that, as Oracle saw him grinning a bit when reading that last part, but to be honest, it would look extremely funny in hindsight if that legitimately happened. So now he waited to read his response, for the limits that they have due to being 2 members of the court, he felt like he was doing as well as he could.

Okay! Let's try out some magic and see what we can do, if these spells work as intended, then I say we could go.

The Nightwing gave him an energetic nod, and now… He brought out the other scroll, carefully opening it as Qibli leaned closer to look as the magic happened. Oracle still had the scroll they've been using to communicate at his side, and he wrote some more stuff there.

Obviously, we need to be able to see and hear each other in that state, but adding the exception "besides to Qibli/Oracle" would be affecting someone else, so how do we write that part?

Qibli only needed seven seconds to think before writing back a reply.

Quite simply, we don't write exceptions, we could give ourselves the general powers to see the invisible, alongside a better hearing that allows us to listen to whoever's nearby.

Oracle as quite often, was impressed by Qibli's very quick thinking and nodded again at him, and after a moment he began to write down on their communication scroll.

I'll write down a spell then in this one so you can give it your review, and if it works then we'll each write it in the other scroll, sounds good?

He received an agreeing gesture from that, so after half of a minute, the spell began to be written.

I enchant this (we still need to get an item!) to grant the wielder the powers of invisibility but still able to see themselves, the ability to avoid detection by not being heard or smelled. And also the power to phase through any solid matter like a ghost and be able to breathe wherever. Objects carried or touched by the wielder will be under these effects too and can be touched by the user. This will also give the wielder the ability to see anything invisible and hear magically covered sounds. (Also maybe some keyword that can be said or thought to turn off the effect? Gotta think of one!)

Qibli reviewed the wording extremely thoroughly for two minutes, claw on chin as he inspected it while Oracle sat patiently to see what his verdict was to this. The Sandwing eventually smiled and gave him a vehement nod, he agreed with this spell!

But then he appeared to consider something else and wrote it down now.

We should probably leave some sort of message when we leave or we'd wind up in even more trouble if nobody even knows what we did. Also what about our follower?

Oracle thought now about the fact that they've got a… Rainwing supposedly still following them and ready to help if needed, and if they just vanished and left without trace, that Rainwing would be left to themselves without being able to potentially help.

They could be convenient if something truly happened, I haven't even seen any trace of them yet, so basically even without these spells they're about as good at sneaking, so maybe we could give some sort of heads up or such? Oracle wrote.

Yeah, sounds fair. The plan is great, but can't ever be 100% sure, so at least we could still have another invisible dragon supporting us later.

Okay, then we could leave back here a scroll specifying our general plan, and for super extra safety we enchant it so dragons with bad intentions can't take it if they find it first.

An agreement was reached, and Qibli left for a minute to search for an item, then eventually came back holding an earring on a talon.

Here! Thought you might like this idea. It should look quite inconspicuous as a magical object, and more important, we'd have a matching earring!

Oracle giggled at that, grabbing the earring, and then Qibli handed him over his own earring as well so he could enchant both, so he got into spell making, writing over what he showed earlier on the magical scroll. And for keywords he chose cool ones like "Bring me to the shadows" and "Enlighten me" to turn the spell on and off, even by just thinking of a keyword for a few seconds. Theeen he remembered a safety hazard so he quickly added that they can't turn off the intangibility if they're currently going through something.

Yeaah, good catch, I don't want to imagine what would happen if we accidentally turned it off during a time like that. Qibli wrote on the other scroll with a nod.

Qibli took back his earring, putting it back on, and then with a big grin he just vanished in thin air as if he was never there. The Nightwing looked attently, trying to listen to make sure everything was working correctly, and indeed he saw or heard nothing and so he shook his head, making Qibli appear once more with his grinning.

The Sandwing then grabbed a different scroll where he wrote the general gist of what they're doing and why they might not be found at the palace for some hours, and then Qibli vanished once more in front of him.

Oracle carefully put the earring on, piercing his ear a little, and then thought the words "Bring me to the shadows" for a few seconds, and right afterwards, he vanished. Well he assumed he did because to his own eyes, he was still visible and he spotted Qibli hovering at a side. But at the same time he yelped as he immediately began to fall through the floor and had to quickly flap his wings during freefall and bring himself back up to the room.

"Qibli!" He protested now. "I probably should have realized this would happen, but maybe a little heads up? You did this, so surely the same thing happened to you!"

"Nah, I started flying the moment I did it to prevent that," Qibli replied as he shook his head, looking in amusement as Oracle grumbled. They're using vague enough language right now to not outright tell what they did, as it is impossible to know the exact enchantment of the Mirror, so it's possible it may still hear them at least.

"Well… Everything's set now so, let's do this, oh it is gonna feel weird," Oracle said, literally not even able to touch the floor, needing to keep himself up in the air at all times while the spell is on. Qibli agreed and casually flew through a wall as if it was nothing, with the small dragon following, going through a solid structure, and after just a minute they phased through the palace and were outside.

The sun was at its very peak, in the desert, which is utterly horrible, or it would be but Oracle didn't feel it as hard as he probably should, which surprised him as he tried to think of the logical reason this time.

Hmm… I'm invisible, so I guess that technically, the light wouldn't really quite "get" me? Well that's surely handy, I just need to turn myself invisible anytime I come visit the desert for whatever reason! Oooor just cast a spell to make it not feel as unbearable, should've done that.

They flew south in silence for the most part, there wasn't quite a lot to say at the time, and even if there was, Vulture might or might not be able to still hear them, and writing things to each other while flying would be more irritating since they cannot place the scroll on any surface to write on it.

In the meantime, Oracle's mind was rushing with thoughts, and knowing Qibli, his mind must be rushing at triple the speed too. And both of them certainly must be thinking about the fact they're just going towards one of the most dangerous places in Pyrrhia. One wrong step, if the spell backfires or doesn't work in some unexpected way, and they'll be absolutely toast.

They eventually saw the walled off perimeter around the dangerous city, flying higher up they could already see the bustling streets filled with several Sandwing shapes walking or running around, and then with a closer look, Oracle was able to see the many rows of stalls and tents where dragons would try to get anything in exchange for their goods in such a place.

They hovered right above the Scorpion's Den, with the Nightwing looking at the Sandwing, but he wasn't able to read Qibli's expression as he was doing quite well at concealing how he must be feeling.

Qibli signaled Oracle to follow him, and they began to soar around the streets of the city, going through several alleyways, and both made their best effort to not go through anyone around. It's not because the intangibility shouldn't work, it should, but because seeing literally inside someone would be a little much.

He wondered if Qibli would think about visiting his old home like in the regular timeline, but they just went down a series of alleys without stopping by any of the houses, doing a sudden turn to the left, then to the right, and now they were in front of an incredibly tall wall that made this look like a dead end.

Qibli pointed at it with a claw, and even if his face looked normal, his eyes very subtly betrayed what he felt, the Sandwing most likely still wishing that it didn't have to end up with seeing his grandfather, even though Vulture most likely won't see him back while under this spell.

The taller dragon flew through the wall and Oracle followed, immediately finding himself in the most over the top luxurious place he had seen yet in person either in his previous life, or this one.

The walls, the ceiling, and even some parts of the floor were riveted with gemstones and precious metals, walls coated in gold and covered in rubies, sapphires and more. Statues with black diamond eyes lined up the sides of the halls, and when a segment of a wall didn't have some sort of gem there were instead some of the finest tapestries and paintings near the marble doors.

It was absolutely ludicrous, and reading about it in Qibli's book couldn't have prepared him to actually see such absolutely wacky sight, he wouldn't be surprised if even the gemstones had gemstones embedded on them. And he wondered where even that old dragon got this much money in the desert while living in the Scorpion's Den. Robbing caravans? Some old shady deal with a royal? He doubted it was just a classic of digging around with a shovel until he struck gold.

Looking at Qibli, it was clear enough that the Sandwing must be thinking about how this is really waaay too much, and of how this could literally just be used for improving the lives of many dragons instead of being a show off with the furniture.

They moved through the halls, the place feeling extremely eerie with how silent it was. There were cloaked dragons walking around the halls or leaving and entering rooms of course, but they were quite silent as well, their steps light, and they talked in whispers as if to not break the sacred peace.

Qibli brought out a regular scroll and actually managed to write quite clearly for being currently airborne, as he showed something to Oracle.

We should try finding my grandfather in case he's currently using the Mirror, otherwise we should look into his treasury for it.

Oracle was impressed by Qibli's words, it is the most reasonable thing, but outright saying that they'll look for his grandpa first is something that has to feel wrong for sure. Either way he nodded now and they began to search through the rooms by phasing in and out of rooms as they got deeper into the compound.

Qibli eventually stopped in a particular room, just hovering in place as he looked ahead with a resigned expression. Oracle looked in that direction as well and there he saw it…

The old Sandwing was tall, and if a dictionary had an image to describe the word "Danger", he'd be there. His back was covered by an elegant cape rimmed with gold. As for his actual body… So many tattoos everywhere, enough that Oracle knew that he would be on the Guinness Records for most tattoos if they were in his world, although all of them being black skulls to count each dragon he has killed made him not quite want Vulture to win the record.

His eyes were as usual the unsettling black that the Sandwings have, but somehow he managed to be even more unsettling by having it look looped, as if he were a snake that could come and hypnotize you. And then to finish the set, all of his claws and his tail barb were dipped in gold.

And he was just casually eating dates from a golden bowl with rubies embedded, very good dates based on how they looked and the way he was enjoying himself. But he didn't look defenseless at all, Oracle could see his sharp eyes taking looks at the sides, and his long tail looked ready to strike at incredible speed to anyone that might dare attempt something.

It felt extremely nervewrecking to be moving around in the same room that he was sitting on, blissfully unaware of their presence as they examined this extremely ostentatious room, with a black marble desk, the door legitimately having a diamond embedded on each side, refined bottles made out of crystal that most likely only held the best available beverages were lined up on a shelf above them.

They went all over the room, examining all the nooks and crannies, even daringly going close to Vulture, although before that they both had the same idea to make sure the spell is still on by phasing through something, just in case. They examined the table and around his talons and still no signs of the mirror.

Qibli signaled him to step away, pointing to outside the room. It seemed like the Mirror wasn't with Vulture at the moment, so they'll have to search into the other likely spot: the treasury.

They left Vulture so he could just keep eating his dates and they phased through a few more walls, ending up in a quite pretty courtyard, with a circle of potted palm trees. But they didn't linger for long to look at the courtyard itself, instead Qibli focused on a small fortress by one of the edges, lined up with spikes and looking perfectly menacing, so of course they just went through and Oracle was left with his mouth hanging open.

Wherever he looked, there was something valuable covering every single inch. A mountain of gold was in the center of the room, several niches on the wall held different types of treasure each, be it more precious metals, gemstones, finely crafted sculptures ranging from the size of a talon to that of a dragon's head.

Several extremely fine weapons lined up the walls, looking so sharp that they might as well cut by someone just looking at them, often adorned with golden hilts or having a gemstone embedded on a hilt or shaft. And there was a single splendid full set of armor for an adult dragon of the most sturdy steel and adorned by thin gold plates above the iron, and based on how shiny it was, it had to be cleaned very often.

"Three moons…" Qibli whispered, letting out a surprised whistle at this. Eyeing all that treasure, Oracle knew he must be wishing he could take part of it so it could help the Sand Kingdom instead of just filling Vulture's cloak pockets.

Qibli pointed at some very subtle and hidden gaps on different parts of the walls and the floor from which darts or such things must be fired, alongside some string so incredibly thin that it was almost as invisible as they were, and it was almost anywhere. Then he pointed at tiles on the ground that had a very small mark, a literal dot, Qibli poked his head beneath the ground and Oracle did the same, and under these tiles they saw a sharp spike that must retract and pierce upwards if anyone steps there.

They checked all over the treasury for the Mirror, assuming it'd be extremely guarded or among a lot of other treasure in one of these niches, but nope. It was at the very end of the room, on its own alcove, and the most baffling thing was that there wasn't a single string, nor a gap pointing to the spot, nor spikes anywhere near it.

That was extremely weird, so they approached the oval piece of black obsidian and checked all around it even more, even phasing into the niche itself to see if there was anything below the mirror, like a pressure plate or any mechanism, but nothing.

For such an important thing,one would expect it to be more secure, but perhaps with it being at the end of the room, it was assumed that it had all of the previous security for it, or maybe not seeing anything nearby would make someone even more nervous, as it is with them.

The Nightwing took a deep breath, then pointed at himself, then to the mirror, signaling that he's going to grab it now. Qibli checked around for a whole two minutes for literally anything that might be a trap before he finally gave a short, reluctant nod.

"Enlighten Me…" Oracle thought as he felt himself touching the ground now for once, and Qibli wasn't visible to him anymore for now.

He extended a talon towards the mirror, it actually looked… Surprisingly jagged on the edges, he didn't remember if it was supposed to be always like that or not, but maybe it's due to the continued use. So he tried to be careful when grabbing to get the least possible cuts.

He was now holding the mirror, and oddly enough, it didn't give him a strange negative sensation as it should do the way Sunny described it on her book. He winced but it was only due to some of the edges scrapping against his talon, but he began to bring it towards his pouch…

He began to stumble forward, his eyes widened as he began to lose balance, his body feeling weak and odd. He made an effort to not stumble towards the more trapped parts of the room, but that was all he was able to do.

His talons were shaky, and he ended up dropping the Mirror… It instantly shattered with the sound of glass breaking, so the Mirror was…

Oracle fell to the ground, losing consciousness. He barely felt talons quickly touching him, probably Qibli in a panic, and distantly heard the sounds of multiple footsteps coming over, and then he fell unconscious.

His senses were slowly coming back to him, although he was still feeling doozy as he opened his eyes and looked up, before freezing in place upon realizing where exactly he was laying down.

He was back at the room where they found Vulture earlier on, and that Sandwing in particular was leaning against his chair about 15 steps away from him, staring down at Oracle with a smug, condescending look.

"Oracle of the Sky Kingdom" Vulture said with the most condescending tone he'd heard in his life. "One of the dragons I was most interested in seeing lately, so it's good that you just threw yourself at me, saved me needing to put any effort into getting you myself."

The Nightwing was absolutely terrified, and immediately thought "Bring me to the shadows" after Vulture talked, but much to his surprise, nothing happened. And now he noticed how he didn't feel anything on his ears, and neither did he felt the pouch on his neck.

"You appear even more surprised now, did something not go as you expected? Missing something?" Vulture said smugly, fidgeting with Oracle's earring on his left talon. "A very interesting spell for sure, based on what I was told my grandson was doing during your capture, and it didn't activate the moment I put it on, sufficiently smart."

Qibli… He must have escaped, right? They shouldn't have been able to capture him at least…

Oracle then noticed how he wasn't even chained or tied down, able to just stand up and stare up to Vulture, who was looking down at him with a constant aura of superiority. He knew that Oracle couldn't do much even if his body was perfectly free, the Sandwing could kill him in an instant, and there's probably plenty of cloaked dragons at the door, waiting for a signal.

"Given all your surprise, it seems like absolutely nothing went as you could have planned, definitively not the best look for a seer, but I am confident that I can still get a good use for you, your only mistake was believing that you could… What would be the word? Ah, outsmart me," Vulture seemed to rejoice even further upon seeing Oracle freeze and look in panic, showing that he knew his supposed power of foresight.

"You can't… You can't actually believe I'd read the future for you…" Oracle mumbled, trying to control his shaking.

"I believe that, and know you will. If you were any other thief, I would have set up that "mirror" with a lethal poison, not just put you to sleep. I detest those who believe they can somehow make a fool out of me, but your utility far outclasses most things, it would be idiotic to kill someone that can tell me exactly what I can do for every favorable outcome," Vulture said with a scoff, shrugging off Oracle's words, and then he leaned closer with pure malice on his expression.

"And also one of the dragons who can tell me where that scroll is,"

Oracle instinctively backed off immediately, but then Vulture's tail shot forward not even half a second later, stopping exactly one centimeter away from his face, the barb extremely close to the spot between his eyes.

"Something that everyone in this place knows is to not test my patience," he said with a dangerous tone. "I wouldn't want to kill you at this time unless you force me to. And my venom might not be the same as the one you are so afraid of, but you still don't want to try it."

Vulture even knew that, one of his greatest fears…. For how long had he been spying on them? He even knows about the scroll, which is literally so much worse than the regular timeline, because even if he got it with all of its limitations, he's smart and cunning, he'd certainly find ways to hurt others with the available spells.

Qibli, please, I hope you have something planned already, because I don't know how much I'll be able to take… Your grandfather is certainly going to… To try squeezing the words out of me, one way or another…