Animus

Chapter 3

Eld was still angry, she could tell. His thoughts were simmering from across the new war table, seeming as Eld had melted the last one. She'd enchanted this one to be completely immune to any negative effect his flames would have; Eld could get up on the table and dance for all she cared, and the table would still be there.

"They say Pathfinder burnt himself alive after delivering the war message, and that action burnt down the foundations of several NightWing buildings, killing one innocent bystander when a statue fell down. The NightWing's are terrified of us, and according to my informants, they desire a SkyWing exodus." One of her mother's advisors was imputing. Finch, that was his name. His thoughts were twittering along, respect me, My queen, notice me, love me, show how proud of me you are, see how I am the best advisor.. the thoughts of all of those advisors were always exceedingly dull, getting worse with each thought that breezed out of those tiny minds.

Her mother, the queen, acknowledged the words with a twitch of her tail. "No matter. We have Sangria, don't we?" A chorus of disgruntled agreement echoed across the room. Her mother's eyes fixated on her, "Well? Can you enchant something to kill the Queen of the NightWings? That would certainly solve this problem for us."

Of course she could, if she wanted. And she didn't particularly want to. War would be so delightfully fun, and she wouldn't let her enjoyment be spoiled. "Sadly, it is beyond my ability to enchant Queen Shadowsoul to die, or enchant something to kill her without having seen her first." She flashed a smile in her mother's direction, and the thoughts of Queen Tanager simmered in anger.

War, war is inevitable. It can't be finished quickly- they'll be so much death... Sangria smiled once more, and shook her head. "Mother, you mustn't be so pessimistic," she let out a small sigh, shaking her head once more. Tanager went rigid, staring at Sangria. So often did these poor fools forget that she was not only an Animus, but also a mind reader.

"Though I can't outright kill the queen or king, I have the ability to create weapons of mass destruction, for the war effort, of course." Automatic interest blossomed from them all, and heads swivelled round to face her. "I have some ideas already, if you'd be interested?"

She reached one claw off of the table so as to withdraw a small black box and place it upon the table.

"Well? What is it?" One of the advisors prompted. That one was Avocet, if she remembered correctly.

"This may look completely mundane, but this small black box is incredibly deadly to anyone
who isn't a SkyWing. This tiny black cube will emit a gas that will only effect you if neither of your parents have SkyWing blood, or if their blood has very diluted SkyWing ancestry. The gas will, in effect, turn their brains to ash and kill them all-" the shock was evident, so she flashed a disarming smile, "painlessly, of course."

"I also have plans to create a weapon that will knock any high ranking NightWing in the vicinity unconscious, so we can take them back for questioning, and I also plan to create daggers and spears that automatically track down NightWings and kill them."

"Hang on," Sangria narrowed her eyes, as Eld and his flame-thoughts barged into her. "If you can create weapons to track down and kill NightWings, why not the queen? Why not the king?"

Eld always gets in the way, he's like a thorn in my side. I'll have to deal with him soon, she thought bitterly. But she had prepared for this sort of question. "Well, the queen and king are specific dragons, whom I have never met- but NightWings on a whole are completely different to individual beings, you see. If killing the queen and king was in my range of abilities, I would have already done it."

Though Eld merely snorted, from the other's thoughts, they appeared to be satisfied. Except one pesky though, buzzing in her ear. Oh yes, Bumblebee. That annoying hybrid, who claimed ancestry of the mad tribe. How do we know it works?