Wings of night shall come to you

Starflight found it odd how many of the Icewings hated him immediately upon sight, almost as if some deep part of them knew that Nightwings were not to be trusted.

Being surrounded by so many minds had at first been overwhelming, but as Starflight was once more getting used to it, he realized just how much better it was than the wartime dreams of base four. In comparison, the ice palace was almost calm.

They'd been there for almost a week as queen Aurora and princess Tsunami traded information and talked about details of how an alliance would go. If it happened that is. It sounded more like Aurora didn't want to commit until she knew more about the Cavewings.

The day before, Tsunami had stormed into everyone's common room with a disturbed look, and talked quietly with Uhar for several minutes. Her mind was a mess of emotion and uncertainty that Starflight didn't want to touch, so he ignored it, trusting that eventually, he would probably find out.

When they finally departed from the ice palace, he was once more relieved to be away from the constant presence of thoughts. Slowly, Starflight was starting to figure out how to be an individual, but it was still so strange to be able to hear himself think.

After a few hours of flying while Uhar described to his best ability where he'd come to the surface, and lots of yelling from Tsunami, one of the Icewings, Storm, perked up, "it might be the place on the map wheren the frostbreath would come out if it was a dragon. You know, those mountains."

"Frostbreath?" Echo echoed.

Radiance glanced at him, and looked thoughtfully at Storm. "it's probably just an icewing thing."

Echo frowned, "alright. So mountains then? I've seen mountains, I feel like there would be caves under mountains."

Cactus gave him an odd look, "I've been assuming until now that you know how caves work, but now I'm sort of doubting that assumption."

Echo shrugged, "I know how caves work, but only when I'm inside the caves. Everything outside the caves is the weird part."

"Alright," Radiance said, looking toward Tsunami, "so I guess we've got some ideas then, we'll search around those mountains for caves, see if anything is on Echo's maps." she squinted at Uhar, "have you shown anyone else those maps? There might be something you don't get that someone else would."

Echo pulled out his book. Such a strange object. Starflight had to concentrate on flying straight to keep himself from focusing on how much more efficient it was at storing knowledge. It was almost like a flattened scroll in some ways.

He handed the book to Radiance, "you can look at it, though it seems mostly like scribbles to me besides the very last ones."

Radiance tucked it under an arm, "do we want to land so we can look through it?"

Tsunami was watching the book, "yeah. Good idea."

---

"No, this looks just like the Night kingdom."

"I think you're going insane, it's clearly a very energetic lake."

"Snail brain."

Glory sighed and took the book from the bickering Tsunami and Radiance, who didn't even notice as it slipped out of their grasp. She flipped through the maps pausing every few pages as she examined the map with a thoughtful gaze. Somewhere near the middle, the maps changed, going from maps of Pyrriah to caves. When that happened Glory flipped back a few pages examining a full sketch of the continent.

She pointed to a small circle on Pyrriah's head, "is this a lake?" she was looking toward Radiance, but she was too busy arguing with Tsunami. Glory sighed and glanced toward the other three icewings. "Is this a lake?"

One of them, Storm again, peeked forward-looking at the map for a minute. "No, there aren't any lakes in that region, especially not ones large enough to be included on such a big map..."

"It's probably important though, is that where we were going?"

Storm nodded, "that's wheren I was talking about."

"Fantastic." Glory said. She glanced at the still bickering dragons. "Three moons Tsunami, you aren't getting anywhere with this, I figured it out, can we go now?"

"What?" Tsunami looked at Glory, frowning, "you figured it out?"

Radiance had been halted in the middle of a retort and frowned as she stalked off. Annoyance radiated out of her mind like a bad stench. She seemed to be a very prideful dragon, and the fact that she hadn't been the one to figure out the map was making her salty.

There are far too many controlling female dragons around right now... ah, an opinion. Such an elusive thing. Starflight had almost forgotten it was there. Especially since it was his own.

"Yes, it's been figured out. Let's go now before we think of another reason to go at a snails pace." Glory explained dryly. "Storm, lead the way!"

Radiance and Tsunami grumbled as they got moving, but overall it was probably the best outcome. Starflight let himself smile as they flew onward, wondering just how bad this could be with dragons like this on all sides.

That was exactly the wrong thought to invite. Exactly the wrong one.

Because at that moment, a vision leaped on him out of nowhere, a vision stronger than any that Starflight had ever experienced.

There were dragons of all colors, fighting fighting fighting... there was enough death that it rivaled what Starflight had seen in the places of nightmares. There was enough death that he sincerely doubted that all the tribes would live through it. There were dragons like Echo, dying in battle surrounded by friends who were also dying. There were Mudwings and Rainwings, Icewings and Skywings, Nightwings and seawings, sandwings and death.

That death looked starflight in the eye and smiled.

Above it all the eye shined, sparkling with blood as Soulseer watched the battle with a sorrowful expression that Starflight knew all too well. And then death came for her as well, for it will not be held back. Death knows all eventually.

The bringer of Soulseer's death was unseen by Starflight, whoever had accomplished that task didn't seem to be the focus of this vision.

But that didn't matter because the vision was finally fading. Starflight blinked and looked up, seeing his companions, focusing on Sunny. Sunny made everything alright, Sunny could help him.

Starflight tried to tell them that he was alright, but words spouted from his mouth that weren't his. Words were intricately woven into the tapestry of that vision and tied around the strings. Too many strings. Too many broken dragons that couldn't do this. Too many fates that Starflight could see at that moment.

The words came, and he reluctantly let them:

"The Judge of souls saw wrong.

Her fate is worse than any will come,

The bringer of death was freed,

Ready to strike and ready to bleed."

Starflight let out an undignified whimper and looked down, massaging his temples as everyone else took that in. "Gah, that was painful."

"Is no one going to say anything?" Tsunami asked. "I really want to say something but I have no idea what to say."

"Are you alright, Starflight?" Sunny asked, sitting beside him. When had they gotten onto the land?

"That was a prophecy, wasn't it." Glory said with a sigh. "Soulseer dying? Yes please."

"Aren't they usually more complicated than that?" Cactus wondered aloud.

Starflight shrugged, getting to his feet and wincing at the terrified thoughts radiating from the icewings. "Let's just... keep moving. It doesn't matter right now."

"I feel like it does," Radiance said, "when were you going to tell us that nightwings could see the future? Aren't they the ones you're fighting?"

Starflight glared at her, sharply, his headache just a mild annoyance in comparison to his anger that flared out of absolutely nowhere. "You're about to say that it's an advantage to see the future? It might seem that way but most of the time knowing a future is only a pain because now guess what? You'll spend the entire time worrying about that and get literally nothing done." 

He kicked a rock with his anger and watched as it flew a good distance. "And it's not like Soulseer's got a dragon so dedicated to the future that they've mapped out every single possibility and know exactly how to breathe right to make the future they want."

Radiance opened her mouth a few times but didn't answer. Good.