Inscrypion x Wings of Fire : Leshy's Endgame

Chapter 12 - Darkstalker

Darkstalker's world grows cold... okay, maybe that's a bad choice of words, but it's still something... as Clearsight asks him to have protection from mind-readers. Does she not trust him? Sure, it's hard for him sometimes when her thoughts start racing around like a whirlwind trying to suck him in, but maybe he may occasionally want to see things from her perspective.

"It's not about you," Clearsight tells him, though Darkstalker doesn't need to peek inside her head to know that it is, to a very slim extent, her worrying that he's not keeping the promise. It hurts his heart. "You know my best friend — Listener — she's a mind reader, and so is the principal of the school. I can't shield my mind the way you can. I'm always worried about what they might hear about the future. And now they might see something about your scroll, too. Wouldn't it be safer if no one could listen to me?" She pauses so long that Darkstalker starts feeling uncomfortable. He knows that she wants to say more but she's taking too long to get the words out.

Before she opens her mouth to continue, Darkstalker says "I understand. You're right. It will keep the scroll safe." He himself pauses as he glances briefly into the futures. "And us. I can see that, too." He glances at the drawers. He sighs. This is it. No turning back. He sets down the scroll, held open by the inkwell, and the box as he opens the drawer and gets a bracelet.

It is made up of a bundle of woven threads made of copper, holding a trio of moonstones in place in the middle. He remembers that it may, one day, betray him. A glance back at Clearsight's sudden shivering tells him that she remembers too. He sets it on the scroll and thinks for a moment. An idea comes to him and he writes, Enchant this bracelet to shield the wearer's thoughts from any mind-readers.

Clearsight reads it over his shoulder. "The wearer?" she echoes.

"Well..." Darkstalker says with a smile, "I feel like it needs to be able to be passed down to one of our dragonets. I mean, I am making a very powerful, animus-touched object. It should be something that can be used forever." Not to mention that this is still dangerous. I shouldn't be using my magic without thought until I'm truly safe. Until then, I need to be careful to make each and every enchantment worthwhile. He feels a slight chill in the room but ignores it. It's just a bit of wind.

"Very smart," Clearsight says as she puts it on and studies it in the torchlight. She smiles back. She opens her mouth to speak, then sees the box. That isn't good. Darkstalker doesn't know why her seeing the other scroll is a bad idea. After all, he hasn't tried to find anything out about it. It's just... he doesn't feel like he wants her to know about it. "What's this about?" she asks, pointing a talon at it.

Well... I suppose I could be honest. "I don't know," Darkstalker admits. "It just appeared next to my head when I woke up one night. Any time I leave it behind or destroy it, it always returns to be resting next to me. The only way I can get it to not bother me in my sleep is if it's with me or my scroll. And... ever since it appeared, let's just say that you were right about me writing. I just can't seem to stop thinking about what I want to write."

Clearsight is left blinking. Her legs shake and he reaches out to catch her just in time for her to collapse and be left suffering from convulsions, scratching him on accident and making him wince in pain. She's having another string of visions. By now, Darkstalker also would've fallen into a similar fit because of her. That bracelet is already doing amazingly well. Now, whenever she has an incident like this, it won't mess him up. And it seems like the mystery of the occasional, mysterious injuries is solved as well. Now he knows to stay out of Clearsight's reach when she has a blackout.

Very quickly, her shaking stops, leaving her gasping as she tries to stand. She looks at Darkstalker. "Write a story when you're alone," she says. "Do it on that scroll this time." She sounds urgent about it. He shivers, partially from the cold that has yet to go away and partially because of how clearly she's making it that he needs to write in it.

He decides to change topics. It's much colder than it usually is, even in a house like this with an IceWing and a very obvious hybrid (and a much less obvious one). Of course, it doesn't bother him very much, but it may be uncomfortable for Clearsight "Let's make something else," he says, flicking his tail happily as he snatches a blanket from his bed. He writes Enchant this blanket to keep any dragon it covers at the exact perfect temperature. He grins and flings it around Clearsight, letting it rest on her shoulders.

"Ooooo," she says, quickly relaxing herself in the warmth. "I have one! Can you enchant our boring history scroll to read to us?"

Darkstalker opens his mouth to agree and do just that, but then he remembers. He's not safe yet. He won't be safe until he can guarantee that he won't kill his father and break Whiteout's heart... or do any of the other nasty things that he has seen himself doing. However, Clearsight is the solution. Clearsight and, Darkstalker is forced to stifle a gasp of shock as he glances into the future and realizes, Arctic himself will help him. He needs her to be happy when he breaks the bad news to her, so he may as well do something just for fun.

"Of course!" he says, trying to sound like he was just thinking of how he wanted to enchant it. He digs Ancient Wars of Pyrrhia out of his desk, carefully dips his now-dry claw in the blue ink, and writes (Clearsight again watching him) Enchant this copy of Ancient Wars of Pyrrhia to read itself aloud whenever a dragon says "Bore me to sleep!" and stop reading whenever someone says "Spare me!"

He looks at Clearsight, grinning. "You're a lunatic," she says affectionately.

"Ready?" Darkstalker asks as he adjusts the blanket so they could both be under it, curling up beside her. He looks up onto the desk, at the trio of scrolls... the one he had just enchanted in particular. "Bore me to sleep."

"Ancient Wars of Pyrrhia," the scroll drones. "Introduction. Every dragon knows the history of the Scorching and the tribal shifts and alignments that followed, but many may not realize that five hundred years later, the continent of Pyrrhia was in a state of constant warfare."

Clearsight gasps. "Screaming scavengers!" she exclaims. "It sounds just like Professor Truthfinder!"

"So bored," Darkstalker says in agreement, "but also very suspicious of all of us!"

They burst into laughter. They are laughing so hard that they don't hear the rattle of chains of a necklace being removed.

They failed to hear the claws striking the stone as a fourth dragon entered the room, getting right behind them.

They, with their blanket, don't feel the wisps of frostbreath being spat at them with each, angry breath.

They don't even understand that there was someone who has returned early due to Whiteout getting in trouble.

They don't notice who's glaring at them and the speaking scroll... not until it's too late. Not until the... intruder... to the room speaks in a thunderous, glacier-cracking voice.

"What do you two think you're doing?" Prince Arctic snarls.

They were caught. Arctic had been sitting at the doorway the entire time Darkstalker revealed his secret to Clearsight, and he had been adamant that Darkstalker didn't show the scroll to anyone. And now, here Arctic was, having caught the two of them playing around with the magic that has not yet made Darkstalker entirely safe.