Wings of Fire - The LostWing Chronicles, Book 1 - The Awoken

Chapter 6

 In fact, they could. Anadrom had always been lonely, but back at the Talon's Hideout she'd had her parents to talk to and the limitless ocean to explore. Now there was only the interior of the island for her to examine, as she lay on the beach surrounded by a silent, hostile, and ever-present guard. As if to taunt her prisoner, Estuary set up her enchanting platform within view and sight of Anadrom's beach, often sending her hostile glares throughout the day. Every day at noontime, the false animus approved the request of the chosen noble and glared at Anadrom threateningly until their desired magical object materialized before them. Luckily, almost all of these requests were mellow in nature. The council treasurer desired a bowl that would turn the water inside of it into gold coins and precious stones; the guard leader a set of helmets that would allow the dragons wearing them to not require sleep; and the head of dragonet care a violin that would, when titled at a certain angle, play a song that would put a spell of restful sleep over all nearby dragons except the holder of the instrument for a few hours.

There were some spells that made Anadrom rather nervous, however. The leader of espionage asked for a more refined version of the Obsidian Mirror, one that allowed the observer to see the exact location of the speaking dragons and have the ability to teleport to them. Anadrom had no idea why such a thing would be needed in peacetime, and tried to hope that the spy would use it to take down the Loyalist Force instead of destabilizing the other kingdoms.

The fact that her Informaband allowed her to cast such spells was even more troubling, and she wondered if she could have phrased the protection enchantment more carefully. If she had good intentions behind casting an enchantment, no matter how evil it was, would the Informaband always settle on a net balance of good and allow it to go through? How did I phrase the spell upon it? But Nocturne had said the Informaband prevented me from going insane in most of her possible visions of the future. Why did she have to be so vague on everything?

Days passed one by one, with no contact from Abyss or Nocturne, and Anadrom fell into a gloom she hadn't known she was capable of. Every day was the same; a night of broken sleep followed by heavily-supervised trips into the hidden lake and a great deal of time sitting on the beach, watching Estuary in case the false animus had cause for her powers to be displayed. Anadrom began dreading every noontime, where she would once again have to make Pyrrhia a more dangerous place. The only comforting thought she had was that her soul-meter was still entirely full, but her doubt on whether the thing actually worked rendered that hope into almost nothing. She barely touched her food, and her sleep was crowded with nightmares.

On the twelfth day of enchantment, Tsunami was chosen to receive a gift, and Anadrom was lifted from her gloom for a moment in curiosity as to what the SeaWing hero would desire. The renown princess stared hostilely at Estuary as she landed upon the pavilion. Without a pause, she hissed, "If this must happen, I would GREATLY appreciate a necklace able to prevent any magic from being used on me, including NightWing powers. One that only I could remove, of course." She stared at the false animus and her challenge flooded Anadrom with hope.

She completed the enchantment, relishing the look of intense anger upon Estuary's snout, supposing that the blackmailer couldn't really blame her for this. Once the necklace materialized before her, Tsunami carefully placed it upon her shoulders with a sharp glance at the guards hovering behind her. Anadrom was slightly surprised that the princess trusted the mock-animus, and she wondered if Tsunami had somewhat hoped for an ill effect that would allow her to have the grounds to kick Estuary out of the kingdom. When nothing seemingly happened, Tsunami frowned somewhat, then turned to the false animus again. "Prove that this works," she snapped, and actually moved one of Estuary's talons onto her arm.

"I enchant this dragon to become a brightly colored starfish," Estuary snarled, while Anadrom thought the same. When the spell didn't come to fruition, Anadrom felt a strong sense of relief, and Tsunami seemed pleasantly surprised. This was definitely a positive thing; one of the dragonets of destiny was now entirely safe from her magic, no matter what else happened.