Let The Chaos Continue

About Time You Figured It Out

Wren and Raven dragged Ray and Ander out of the room after that, leaving Prism alone, still tied to a chair.

"Two animuses?" Wren echoed. He didn't understand why one animus would enchant his cousin, let alone two.

"I don't even know ONE animus, let alone two!" Raven exclaimed. 

"Who are they?" Wren demanded. Ander and Ray exchanged a glance.

"I don't think the stars will permit us to say," Ander said vaguely.

"Besides, one is keeping themselves  hidden," Ray went on. "Undetectable, untraceable. Quite intelligent."

"Indeed." Ander nodded. "Oh, can we give them a hint? I want to give them a hint." They paused for a moment, checking, and then Ray nodded. Ander clapped happily. "You know one of them."

"We know one of them?" Wren repeated. He frowned, searching his mind for all potential animuses.

"I don't know any animus..." Raven reminded them.

"That you know of," Ray countered.

"Well, the only ones I know," Wren started. "Are Firefly, Stardust, Stonemover, Turtle, and Anemone."

"And Jerboa!" Ander piped up. "Can't forget her."

"But none of those dragons would want to hurt Prism, and none of them have been in contact with her to help."

"Animus magic is a strange thing." Ray said. "You do not need to be present to control someone."

"Then I guess we just have to narrow it down."

"I'll help," Ander declared. "It's not Jerboa, Firefly, or Stonemover."

"How do you know?" She rolled her eyes.

"Stonemover is hanging onto life by a mere thread, Firefly put her magic on lock down after the war, and both of them think animus magic is rightfully evil and they refuse to use it. Anemone and Turtle think similarly, although it's still possible, and Jerboa would not meddle in such a minor affair as this one."

"Okaaay," Wren thought for a moment. "Well then I guess I could ask Joy to contact Anemone and Turtle and ask them." Ray scoffed.

"Contact Turtle? No one's heard from him in years!"

"Well somebody's got to know where he is,"

"And somebody does. I'm just saying it's unlikely."

"But this doesn't tell us who cursed Prism in the first place," Raven insisted. "It's got to be someone Prism at least knows, right?" Wren's eyes widened.

"What about Cyan?" He realized. Ander and Ray glanced at each other, smirking.

"Cyan's not an animus," Raven said.

"WE don't know that."

"But how could he be? Animus lines are so rare-"

"Not in the Sea Kingdom." Wren proclaimed. "Coral had 32 sons. She passed the possibility of animus magic onto all of them. What if Cyan is one of Coral's grandsons, and he got magic from it?"

"That....actually makes perfect sense."

"Then we've got to go tell Joy! She can talk to Queen Auklet and help us track down Cyan before he hurts Prism!"

"Then let's go!" Wren glanced back at Ander.

"Are we right?" He asked. He didn't want to rush into this, only to be horribly wrong. Ander smiled and patted him on the head.

"Smarts in this one." She commented. "The monkeys would love to eat your brain."

Wren chose to ignore that last part as he and Raven headed out of the hut.

"Wait, what do we do about Prism?" Raven started, stopping as soon as he saw it. He and Wren paled.

The chair was empty. The vines they had used to tie her up lay discarded on the floor.

Prism was gone, and probably still had the weird super strength she had had when they had dragged her to Ander's in the first place.

"That's not good...." Raven admitted.