Clearsight

They were close enough to peek into the room now. It was empty except for Darkstalker and Clearsight, with a wall of open windows overlooking the city below. A scroll was laid out on the floor; Darkstalker stepped over to it and made a note in green ink. Clearsight stood watching him with a patient expression.
“The memories are the tricky part,” Darkstalker said, half to himself. “But no memories at all is useless. OK.” He went over to Clearsight and placed one talon on the top of her head. “Be Clearsight with all her memories up until the day after she met me. But with no powers. Completely in love with me. No worries about the future at all.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again and smiled at him adoringly. “Whoa, are we in the palace? How did we get here? By all the moons, what happened to you?” she asked, blinking at his size. She went on without waiting for a response. “You know what’s weird? My visions don’t seem to be working. Isn’t that funny? It’s very relaxing. Maybe we should go to the beach today.” She glanced out one of the windows. “Hmm. There seems to be something wrong with the city. Did you notice? Oh, well, I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“Clearsight,” said Darkstalker. “Will you marry me? I’m going to rule the NightWings and I want you to be my queen.”
She laughed. “You can’t rule the NightWings. We have a queen, remember? Her name is Vigilance. But sure, I’ll marry you. If it makes any difference to the future, I can’t tell! Such a weird feeling!”
“Rrrrrgh,” Darkstalker growled. “Freeze.”
Clearsight stopped moving, frozen in the middle of a laugh.
“Maybe it’s not the memories,” Darkstalker said, leaving a smudge of green ink on his face as he tapped his snout thoughtfully. “Maybe … maybe your power was one of the things I loved about you. Even if it was spectacularly annoying sometimes.” He sighed. “Fine, be Clearsight, with all her memories and an understanding of what’s happening now, but only able to see the good futures, where everything turns out perfectly. Unfreeze.”
Clearsight didn’t move for a moment. She stared out the window, reaching toward the ruins visible below.
“Darkstalker,” she whispered. “What happened?”
“It doesn’t matter!” he said. “It’s all in the past. We’re together now. We can be happy.”
“Ruling the NightWings?” she said disbelievingly. “After everything you did, they —”
“Stop,” said Darkstalker, and she froze again.
“This is awful,” Moon whispered to Qibli.
“I don’t even understand,” Qibli whispered back. “It’s like she’s not real. He’s — he’s rewriting her, over and over again.”
“She isn’t real,” Moon agreed, “or at least, she’s not really Clearsight. He must have … made her somehow.”
“Be Clearsight,” Darkstalker said, now visibly frustrated, “exactly as I knew her but without any nagging or worrying or pessimism or telling me what to do and what’s wrong with me all the time! By all the shining moons!” He seized the scroll and ripped it into shreds. “Go on, be her!”
“Oh, poor Darkstalker,” Clearsight said soothingly. “Don’t you fret so much, darling. You’re just perfect. You’ll be a wonderful king.”
“Why isn’t this working?” Darkstalker said to her. “Why does being with you feel so wrong and weird?” He slumped to the floor and buried his face in his talons. “I really miss you, Clearsight.”
“I’m right here,” she said gently.
“Not you. Freeze.” She stopped with one wing around him. “The real you,” he said miserably to the floor. “What am I doing all this for, if I never get to be with you again?”
“That’s the dragon I see,” Moon whispered to Qibli. “Underneath the other dragon.”
“You’re right,” Qibli said to her. “Underneath the brainwashing genocidal murderer is a very lonely brainwashing genocidal murderer.”
“All right, I know, I get it,” she said. “But this is the right time to talk to him. Stay close?”
“I’ll be right here,” he said, brushing her wing with his. “I’ll always be close, if you need me.”
She took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

Darkness of Dragons C22