PART ONE

STRINGS

— Chapter 1 —

Oracle

Oracle was frozen in place, his eyes meeting the Icewing's in front of him as silence lingered for several agonizing moments as he took in all that sudden information he was just given, he could feel his mouth was slightly open from the surprise, and his eyes had opened up even more.

For a week, ever since he talked to Turtle at the underground lake, he had noticed the very odd voice in his mind that talked in third person despite seemingly still just being him, he had called it his voice of reason because quite often it gave him good ideas on how to proceed during tough situations, the voice had calmed him down slightly while half of his face was melting, and the voice had even made him act out Legends Darkstalker to better convey that information to the others, and also reminded him of the lines he may have missed or forgotten during the show.

And yet now he learned that this voice is not his, that voice has a face behind it, and that's the cold face of an unusual Icewing looming in front of him with a hard to read expression, oh and apparently he brought him to Pyrrhia?

"Not what you were expecting?" The dragon guessed after some seconds with the same fake and forced tone he had been using. "I guess it makes sense, rarely does someone get dragons like me in their head…"

At last, Oracle snapped back out of his shock, breathing heavily he began to speak.

"W-What…!? H-How… How did you do all this!?"

He appeared to be musing his words, but Oracle found out it was not the way he expected.

"Ah… The first time I actually hear you speak, and of course it is while you're, as very often, scared. Cute truly," the Icewing responded after some seconds.

I… Well I know I'm cute but this is not the time! Oracle thought to himself, flabbergasted.

And then the larger dragon had turned his head to look down at the scroll he had left on the table for some seconds, then he looked back at the Nightwing.

"Now's not the time? That's silly, this is our first and last meeting, so we might as well get everything out of the way since we're here," he said with a cold smirk as Oracle's eyes widened, realization starting to dawn on him about how this is happening.

But before he could actually say it, the Icewing took a quick look at the scroll and nodded. "Yes, you'd be correct, good job Oracle," he said with an extremely forced smile at the small dragon, and then the Icewing frowned afterwards.

"Now… You think I am forcing this smile? Well I may be, but that's not the way to think of someone that did something for you that you only were able to dream of before…" And after another second of reading it, he stared harshly at Oracle. "Oh, ah no, don't even think about the idea of snatching it, you wouldn't like it if you tried…"

Oracle nervously took a step back, for a week by now he'd been terrified of someone prying into his mind and finding out everything, thus the reason he accidentally tackled Turtle out of the air for some skyfire… But yet here he had someone prying within all along.

" Who even are you…?" Oracle muttered, a name, he needed a name, to see if it rings any bells, to see if his knowledge may help him here…

"Blizzard," he replied with an awfully smug expression on his face. "Does it sound familiar to you?"

Oracle immediately drew a blank, Blizzard, has he heard that one before? This dragon and the current circumstances are basically screaming Animus to him, but how in the world would he have missed an Animus? It's literally impossible plot-wise.

And the other dragon in question began to silently chuckle now.

"I don't even need to read the scroll this time to know what you're thinking. Thought you'd get a clue on me but ended up disappointed, didn't you?" Blizzard said with an arrogant tone.

Oracle was speechless, this dragon is completely outside of his knowledge, so either he appears later during arc 3 and he didn't get there yet or… This is beyond books knowledge, something brand new and unknown.

"Well, this is entertaining, but before we proceed onto the little things I had planned like the tour around, I have to do something…" The Icewing said and quickly turned to the scroll and wrote something short.

Oracle wanted to act right away, but he hesitated due to how surprised he's still feeling, and so the short command came through and into his mind.

Oracle will give me his scroll.

He could not stop himself, as much as his mind screamed and struggled, it didn't affect his body at all, which is mechanically moving through the motions, quickly taking the scroll off the pouch and handing it over to Blizzard, who took it and opened a crystal box, placed the scroll inside, then he closed the box.

Oracle gasped when he felt him getting back his body functions, his eyes staring at Blizzard. He is not some puppet for that dragon to control as he pleases, and he did nothing to deserve ending in such an awful situation.

He took a step forward, but the Icewing had quickly brought his quill closer to the scroll, his eyes squinting as he looked at Oracle, clearly daring him to take another step, to stop him before he may write two words.

… Oracle did not dare. Stepping back in fear. He had zero idea of how this scroll quite worked, it already has shown to be able to insert words into his mind and puppet his body which is already a lot, but what if the Icewing could even merely write "Oracle dies" and then his heart just stops beating or something instantaneously? He can't do this…

Blizzard scoffed amused, deep blue eyes hammering on Oracle, who looked off to a side a little as he felt even more scared of him.

"Now…" Blizzard said with a slightly softer tone. "How about I give you a short tour and some… What would you call it? Lore exposition? Before this one meeting of ours is done? I'd simply say "Yes"... Oh, and I'll answer the most important questions at the end," he quickly added as if it was an afterthought.

Being fully aware that this dragon can just force him to do whatever, Oracle decided that at least he'd do this controlling his own body, so he slowly nodded.

Holding that horrible scroll alongside the quill on a talon, Blizzard turned his back at Oracle and began to walk forward towards another one of the chambers, and the Nightwing had to reluctantly follow.

"I welcome you… To Lightbringer's home," he said with clear dramatic flair for this introduction. "Made a long time ago, this is where her descendants have lived ever since, and as you have imagined based on what you've seen with me, indeed… A great part of them have been Animus."

Oracle couldn't believe this, it's even crazier than he'd imagined at first. This isn't just a single extra Animus, but a whole family has been roaming for generations!?

Blizzard checked the scroll then shook his head.

"Ah, I wouldn't call it "roaming", but for the most part just "existing"..." He said in a bitter tone as he kept on walking, showing Oracle a very elegantly decorated bedroom, it was large and followed the crystalline theming, although at least the bed looked soft. Near it there were racks of scrolls atop a big desk, all looking very orderly and tidy.

There was another bedroom nearby, but Blizzard didn't even glance at it, just walking past quickly while the smaller dragon trailed from behind.

After showing him some other rooms, including the first bathroom that Oracle had seen in Pyrrhia, which he now used to quickly excuse himself for a few minutes to have a panic attack without Blizzard nearby, Oracle steps out and the Icewing continues with the tour now, although he dared to throw a question.

"A-Are you… Reading my thoughts all the time, no matter what I'm doing…?" He muttered, and Blizzard immediately stopped in his tracks, glancing back at the dragon.

"... No," he surprisingly replied. "I am fine with not reading when you're taking care of any "business", and nor will I peer into your dreams," he said in a serious tone.

Oracle was shocked by that response, but obviously decided not to question it in case the Icewing changed his own mind on that regard.

Eventually they reached a very vast room, and Oracle had seen a couple of paintings around this place before, but this room was all paintings, basically covering the walls.

About all the paintings looked to be of Icewings, although most did have some different characteristics, black scales there and there, differently shaped horns, shorter spines, eyes of another color, etc.

"The Gift of Remembrance," Blizzard explained with a matter of fact tone. "Whenever a family member dies, their portrait appears here so they shall be remembered," he said and raised a talon to point at one of the portraits at the left.

Oracle approached it, and it was a rather gorgeous painting of a pale white dragon who was smiling at the observer. She had bright purple eyes, a long body, and her wings were open at her sides, showing the black underside of the wings.

"Lightbringer, founder of this house, her gift being this place for us," the Icewing next to him explained, then a small grin appeared on his face as if he looked amused. "And daughter of Whiteout and Thoughtful."

Clearly the Icewing had been expecting a reaction, and he got it as Oracle got startled and quickly turned towards him in shock.

"H-Huuh!? Wait… What? Whiteout? So that means that you're…?"

"Related to that dragon over there? Yes, I am," Blizzard replied with a nonchalant shrug as Oracle turned to the other portrait he pointed at, seeing Darkstalker giving him a sideways stare. "Of course, that one is not dead yet, so I guess someone decided he should just be there anyway."

"Oracle, I am slightly disappointed with you here," Blizzard said with a disappointed tone. "You're rather smart, but you've seen me and these portraits that clearly look like Icewing and Nightwing hybrids, and you know about our magic, but you didn't put 2 and 2 together and realize who my ancestors may be?"

Oracle looked down in silence, mentally facepalming for not making such a simple connection, but in his defense, a lot happened, among other reasons to not realize.

Meanwhile Blizzard had opened the scroll and looked at it for a moment. "Aha… So you also assumed Stonemover and Sunny were what remained of Whiteout's lineage? No, no, Stonemover comes from the Nightwing branch of the family, Lightbringer's side is the Icewing branch."

"And… So these branches know each other?" Oracle managed to ask.

"We know about them, they don't know about us. And given all the protection spells around here so that not even Darkstalker with all of his gifts and magic could find us or bring us out… That side will probably never know," he replied, then began to walk back to the living room.

When they got there, he pulled out two silver plates from the side and placed them at the table. "Join me for late dinner," Blizzard commanded, sitting down on one of the chairs.

Still very much aware that what he feels carries no weight here, he sat down at the opposite side of the table.

"This here is the reason that my family doesn't need to go outside much," Blizzard said as he held the plate in front of him. "These are enchanted to make whatever meat one asks for to appear, look… I want to eat a penguin," he spoke while holding the plate, and indeed, several chunks of penguin appeared there.

Blizzard looked back up towards Oracle, and he must have noticed his face filled with discomfort.

"Aaah, yes… Vegetarian, I forgot, apologies for that," he said in thought before standing up, going to the box from earlier and bringing out Darkstalker's scroll.

Oracle immediately felt himself tensing up, is the Icewing going to write down a spell? But what should he do? If he swoops forward and somehow manages to snatch that scroll off him, all that Blizzard needs is to get the other magical scroll and stop him.

Normally he'd have something planned, or at least an idea, he wants to do something, but after all these revelations he's just feeling… Broken, and completely unsure on how he should act.

Blizzard grabbed one of the plates on a talon while writing down something on the magic scroll with the other talon, then he placed the plate in front of the Nightwing.

"There, I upgraded it. Now you can say anything you want to eat that is, well, edible, and it will appear.

Oracle looked at the plate with a frown, then looked back up to Blizzard, not summoning any food yet, which made the hybrid raise an eyebrow a little.

"What is it? Oh wait, let me guess without even reading your scroll… You believe I added some extra enchantment and don't want to risk it," he promptly guessed, and Oracle slowly nodded his head.

"That's my Oracle…" Blizzard said with a tone that sounded like fake pride. "I can assure you that I have no reason to put any devious enchantments on your plate, but I guess I could show you the scroll so you see the spell… Just don't even think about snatching it from my claws…"

Oracle gulped but decided that trying to take it back would be a terrible plan, he doesn't have his own quill ready, still in his pouch, and not inked, so going for a spell would take too long.

The scroll was held in front of him and so Oracle eyed at the last spell written… And saw how there was nothing wrong, merely an "I enchant this plate so that in addition to its previous spell, using the same command it can summon anything that can be eaten."

"Satisfied?" Blizzard asked with a smug smirk and Oracle had to reluctantly agree.

Oracle pulled the plate closer to him, and decided that if he'll eat something, might as well be a thing he won't be getting much of in Pyrrhia.

"I want to eat chocolate cake…" He surprisingly said, and there a whole cake suddenly appeared on top of the plate, making Blizzard actually look baffled for a moment before he composed himself.

"Well, not at all what I expected, but I guess I should thank you for reminding me that dessert exists…" He said in thought. "Maybe I could try out some of that… Ice cream that I know many Icewings love."

Oracle devoured his cake in a few minutes. He hadn't eaten something like this ever since his arrival in this world, so he'll take it.

"Well then…" Blizzard finally said when they were both done eating at their respective plate. "I promised that at the end of this, I would give answers to the biggest questions, so it's time I do so…"

Oracle immediately perked up and looked straight up at his eyes, finally he'll get these answers… He needs to know what exactly is going on.

"Okay… I have two extremely simple questions for you…" Oracle began to speak. "Why? And… How?"

Blizzard began to chuckle slowly, and as he did that, it sounded as if the forced nice and cordial tone fully slipped away now, just leaving cold behind.

"These questions are really simple to answer… As for why I would do this? Merely because I despise your kind, human," Blizzard spat that last word with a low growl, his eyes staring at the Nightwing.

He flinched, stepping back after the hybrid said that, and Blizzard had said it with such deep hatred in his voice… It was terrifying.

"And no, it's not even about these little funny scavengers around Pyrrhia," he said slowly, dragging each word in a dramatic manner. "But your kind in particular from your world."

Oracle remained still and speechless, this is personal, a dragon from this world hates humanity from his reality, how…?

"I live in a home filled with magical objects," Blizzard continued, as if answering the questioning look in Oracle's shocked expression. "And as you've personally experienced, Animus magic appears to be capable of reaching between worlds…"

"But… H-How could you even find out about this in the first place? Simply… How?" Oracle questioned.

Blizzard looked off to a side in silence for a moment, staring at a few items on one of the shelves.

"You know… How sometimes when one is feeling down and depressed, that sometimes they just ask themselves really deep questions that bloom from their sorrow?" He asked, looking blankly.

Oracle slowly nodded, he could confirm that had happened to him.

"I've gone through that… And I assume that unlike most, I made these questions while holding a magic scroll meant to give answers to any question… And you may imagine that even while in that state, I could not have expected that when I asked "Is any of this even real?" That I'd be answered with an instantaneous… "No."

Oracle looked baffled by that, there's no way that's how he casually found out the truth of this world.

Blizzard let out a humorless laugh. "Sounds unlikely? It is, but I happened to be the unlucky dragon to find out my whole world is meaningless, and its purpose is to sell stories to other humans…"

He stopped looking off to the side and looked at Oracle in the eyes again. "Yes, after that answer, of course I had to ask more… For days I asked different things, and that's how I found out the truth of this "reality"..."

Then he scowled and grabbed the scroll that controls Oracle. "That was a year ago, and since then I've been thinking and considering what to even do… And that's when rather recently I decided to at least try and see if my magic could get that far, thus I made this spell."

Blizzard's eyes moved to the top of the scroll and he cleared his throat as he read…

I enchant this scroll so that it may choose any random "human" from the world where that species has written stories about this world, as long as the chosen human has read any of these stories.

This scroll will show their thoughts in real time and descriptions of what they're seeing, when nearing the end of the scroll then the older thoughts and descriptions will disappear to give space. And by writing on the scroll then it is possible to talk into their mind and give commands that their body must always follow.

This individual will appear in a random spot at Pyrrhia as a silver eyed Nightwing with the following characteristics:

(1) Their growth will be at half the rate of a regular Nightwing, even retroactively accounting their converted age.

(2) They'll be physically weak and stunted and have short claws.

(3) If they die, another random human picked with the same conditions will appear in Pyrrhia a week later, if no specific descriptors are given before that, then they can be of any tribe or hybrid mix, but they will always lack something, be it body parts, internal functions that aren't outright vital, and overall always miss some type of feature. The process will infinitely repeat as long as the previous human dies.

This scroll cannot be destroyed. And nor can this enchantment be reversed or stopped.

Oracle felt sick.

He couldn't believe everything he just heard, this horrible enchantment… The whole reason for him being here, and these conditions were terrible. Blizzard… He was absolutely petty and… Evil.

He made sure to show these thoughts to him at the forefront, and based on the Icewing's expression, he read them but didn't appear to care.

"This is my gift for this family's future generations," Blizzard announced. "I call it the Gift of Retribution. With this my descendants will be able to keep up with my work and make sure your kind lives… Interesting stories to tell."

"Y-You're horrible!" Oracle finally shouted, feeling both panic and disgust at the same time. "You can't do this to any random human literally a world apart!"

"You are here in front of me, so that shows that in fact, I can," he replied, scoffing.

"Not. The. Point!" Oracle exclaimed. "A-And why have parts with some of these conditions? Like my body…"

He just raised his head and looked down at Oracle with an amused expression. "Because… The struggles and drama that a character might have to face due to their conditions can only make them and their story more interesting, am I right?"

Oracle stared dumbfounded at this, oh god, that's what he's doing, Oracle and all these other humans in the future… For Blizzard they're merely his characters, with which he feels he can do anything for his work, anything to write a story…

"Correct," Blizzard nodded after a quick look at the scroll. "Just like how technically nearly every dragon here is meaningless… You and you kind could start to see what it feels like to just be someone else's tool for the plot."

Then the Icewing took strong, loud steps towards Oracle, looming in front of him. "So I will fight back the only way I can, with the powers that this fake world has given me. Because even if it's not real, what I've felt and what I've lived through… It all felt real to me," he said with a low growl that made Oracle recoil.

"Actually…" The Icewing muttered in thought. "Before we forget about all this… How about I tell you… No, I show you what I mean? How have these "stories" made from your world affected my lif?" He hissed.

The Icewing quickly reached for one of the alcoves on the wall, and from there he grabbed… A ring? And a weird looking one, in the center there was encrusted a pink-gold-white-green opal, with the rest of the silver ring looking like dragon tails that loop back around the opal.

"One of my ancestors… Apparently he wasn't sure of what gift to make, so instead he got us a copy of all gifts kept in the Icewing treasuries. There isn't a lot of information regarding this one, but I think that its purpose is to show someone… Visions of the past? This should do…"

Holding it, the larger Icewing stepped closer to Oracle once more while saying "Ring, show him my past, my sad and very depressing backstory…" Then Blizzard mumbled to himself. "I hope that's how it is done, I'd look foolish otherwise, just talking to a ring…"

Oracle stepped back, staring at the piece of jewelry… Blizzard wants to put an Animus touched object on him, but he does not want that.

"Oracle, put on this ring," Blizzard said with a stern voice, and the Nightwing took two more steps back.

"Oracle, this can be done willingly… Or unwillingly, put it on."

The small dragonet was panicking hard, knowing he's got no way around this, any refusal with Blizzard simply means that his whole body can be used like a puppet instead…

Shakily he raised forward his right front talon, and Blizzard quickly put the ring on one of his claws.

And that's when Oracle suddenly began to feel odd, his vision was looking blurry and foggy, and he was starting to lose balance.

"I'll keep up with what you're seeing from over here," the Animus said sitting back on the table with the scroll in front of him.

And then Oracle hit hard on the cold icy floor, his head shaking as a vision floods his whole being.