Magic, Visions, Betrayal

Chapter Seven

 Hurricane flicked her tail, plowing through the currents as fast as she could swim. She kicked her hind legs against the strong flowing streams of water, her webs flapping in the sea.

The Seawing princess found the deep ravine and whirled around to dive down it. Her night vision kicked in as she swerved around the outcropping of rock and cliff from the sides of the stone walls as she pushed herself down. She slammed her tail upwards and flared open her wings to stop, and she swam into the cave at the side of the wall. Unconsciously she flashed a few stripes on her snout, but not in Aquatic.

Eerie aqua light surrounded the end of the cave. Hurricane squinted and then realized that a dark turquoise dragon sat in the cave, huddling with her wings spread, royal stripes lit, and something glinted in Marine's talons, something blue, like a sapphire. Her older sister had it pressed to her temples as she had her eyes closed, muttering tiny bubbles in the waters. The pearl bracelet Marine wore on one of her wrist was specially made by herself, and it glowed, bouncing gently on her arm in the swirling waters.

Hurricane felt a stab of sorrow. Marine had been her best sister, sharing scrolls and treasures, playing together. All of that was washed away when everyone discovered Marine was an animus, and she had been using her magic, to the point where she changed and turned bitter and darker.

Did she lose her soul?

She felt the tingle in her talons. She didn't allow the Seawings to find out she had magic. She manipulated and fooled the Animus Test that day, and tried to persuade Marine to do the same.

"No!" Marine had said, tossing her head bossily, "I'm not a boring princess! I want to be revealed, in attention, and respected! I want to be special, to be extra loved and noticed!"

And it went downhill from there, if you ask Hurricane.

Marine put down the sapphire, and opened her eyes. With a jolt, Hurricane recognized the sapphire, from the pictures in the scrolls.

The dreamvisitor.

Created by an Animus.

Why was Marine using a dreamvisitor? What for?

Something was creeping into Hurricane's senses, something that warned that her sister had secrets she never knew, and that was putting most of them in constant danger.

But she didn't get much time to register the fear inside of her before Marine lifted her head and whirled around. Her face twisted in fury once she saw Hurricane, and Hurricane flinched back slightly.

"Why are you here?!" Her sister flashed angrily in Aquatic, brighter than usual, and Hurricane had to blink. "What. Are you. Doing. Here."

"I was..looking for you", Hurricane said desperately, clasping her talons together. "What are YOU doing, I should ask?"

Her sister's eyes flickered back to the dreamvisitor and clutched it tighter, claws curling over the sapphire, trying to hide it. The eyes were more blank than before, and Hurricane felt a twist of fear that she was using her magic, again.

I should stop her, Hurricane thought, But how? I'm not ready to reveal myself, not when she is in league with the businesses like this. She would hand me over for me to use my magic and..oh god.

Not now, another way to stop her.

"Marine," Hurricane began, a lump in her throat, "What did you just do with your magic? Where were you this morning?" She realized that her sister was gone earlier today, and she couldn't find her.

Marine snorted more bubbles, fiddling with her dreamvisitor and putting it back in her seaweed-woven pouch tied on one of her hind legs. She shot Hurricane a cold glare as she did.

"We've got a new enemy," Marine said, her stripes flickered dimly, slowly, menacingly, "The Skywings."

"W-what?" Hurricane stared at her, "How and..why?"

"Me, obviously, that's the reason," Marine said, flicking her tail in the dark waters.

Hurricane felt fury surging up her veins. She lunched at her sister and grabbed her sister's shoulders.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Hurricane roared, her stripes more brighter than ever, her wings flared open. She sank her claws into her sister's shoulders, beads of blood swirling in the water.

"I did what I want to, what I'm ORDERED to," Marine snarled, "And it has NOTHING to do with you."

Hurricane felt Marine's strong talons grab her wrist, twisting it painfully. Hurricane bit her lip and grabbed her sister's arm that was clutching her, wrenching it off her own arm. Marine roared and pushed Hurricane back, and she crashed into the cave wall, scales scraping against the wet rock. Her wings folded in as her breath was knocked out for a second. Gasping out bubbles, her gills raising and settling heavily, she stumbled up towards her sister.

"Marine, stop," Hurricane clasped her talons together pleadingly, "Stop this. You're losing yourself, you know?"

Something flashed in her sister's dark green eyes. Was it fear, that Hurricane was seeing, in Marine's eyes? Hurricane couldn't tell. A few moments later, Marine turned away from Hurricane's gaze.

"Leave. Now."

Torn between grief and frustration, Hurricane flashed her sister a glare before finding herself swimming for the sunlight. She realized that she wasn't far from the Seawing Deep Palace, after all. She surged up to the surface and spread her wings, blinking into the harsh sunlight, in the bright sky. Water splashed under her talons and she slammed her tail up front for momentum before coming back gracefully into the water below.

Worried thoughts surrounded her mind as she continued to swim, deeper and deeper. Worry for her sister, worry for their future, worry for everyone involved, especially Marine's soul.

How could she stop her sister and save her?

Is there only one way, which is..revealing her magic?

She remembered reading about a scroll, about a Seawing prince named Turtle. Choosing to keep his animus power hidden, but in the end he gradually revealed it to his friends, until it came for him to reveal it to his animus sister, the hard way.

It was hard to think of what would happen to her.

The deep palace was her home. She was glad to see the underwater palace, full of Seawings surrounding the palace, bustling around with their own business. It was a peaceful and friendly area to conduct their own jobs, and Hurricane had chose to keep herself there most of the time, in the quiet waters, with more privacy.

She rubbed her wrist gingerly as she floated into the palace. Council members and guards bustled past her, nodding and bowing at her politely and she smiled at each of them. She continued to swim and nearly swam into a set of familiar scales.

"Hurricane?"

"Monsoon," Hurricane burst out. Monsoon was the only prince of the Seawing Family, only brother to Hurricane. He shared the worries of Marine's soul loss as well.

Monsoon was startled. He stumbled back for a moment and his stripes started flashing slowly.

"Hurricane, have you heard?" He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, "We might be going to war."