Chapter Text
“So, Qibli, what do you say?”
One deal. One word. And then it would all be his. That was the promise. All the love, all the power Qibli could ever want. All of it within his reach. Darkstalker’s offer was one that couldn’t be refused.
Animus magic, in exchange for…nothing. Or, virtually nothing. All Qibli had to do was let Darkstalker conquer Pyrrhia. Which he would probably do anyway. Qibli alone couldn’t stop him, and there was no one else to help him. Well, there was Turtle, but he couldn’t really do much either. His only real skill was his animus magic, and since Darkstalker could sense any new animus spells, that wasn’t really useful.
It all came down to this. A single yes or no. A simple yes or no, although it was far from simple. A choice that could make or break everything.
“Yes. I say yes.”
“Excellent. It is done, then,” Darkstalker said, with a flourish.
Qibli didn’t know what he was expecting it to feel like, but he definitely wasn’t expecting a rush like the one he felt. It felt like pure power flowing through him, like he could conquer the world, and have whoever he wanted at his side.
“Now then, I do think you need to tell your…friends about this change of plans,” Darkstalker said. Qibli nodded. Telling his friends was exactly what he needed to do. He snapped his talons, summoning them all into the throne room where he stood. A simple spell to test his limits, and he pulled it off flawlessly.
Everyone looked around, bewildered. Moon’s eyes were the first to fall on Qibli. She flicked Kinkajou with her tail, pointing at him. Soon enough, he had everyone’s attention.
“Ah, that’s great. You’re all here. Some news. I’m an animus now. Surprise?” Qibli said lightly, like it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world.
“Wait, you’re serious? You actually…have magic now?” Moon asked, looking like she hoped that he was joking.
“I’m serious. I wouldn’t lie to you about this.” he said.
“But you’d lie to us about everything else? You’d lie to us about betraying us, about making deals with the devil for power. You know what, of course you did. I should have expected this,” Winter said coldly.
Qibli sighed. He should have known that Winter would take this the wrong way. He should have realized that Winter wouldn’t understand what he was trying to do. He hoped that everyone else would, though.
“Why, Qibli? Why did you do this? That’s what I want to know,” Kinkajou said, more solemn than Qibli had ever seen her. Her scales were a deep blue-gray, and she wasn’t even making an effort to change them.
“Power, Kinkajou. The ability to change the world. Something you wouldn’t understand,” he told her. Kinkajou just rolled her eyes, turning away like she couldn’t bear to look at him. Moon walked over to her, and they walked out together. Oh well. I’ll just find her later. She’ll come around, hopefully willingly. If not…
“You don’t know what you’ve done, Qibli, by saying yes. You don’t know how much you’ve ruined,” Turtle said darkly. “You made a mistake, and I bet you don’t regret it even a little bit.”
“Why should he? You know how it feels to have power in your talons, and I know that you love it,” Darkstalker said jumping into the conversation.
“I don’t, actually. I can’t have this conversation. I’m leaving.” He spun around and stalked out of the cave. Qibli didn’t care. Turtle wasn’t anyone important. That left only Winter, standing alone across from Qibli.
“I can’t right now either. You made your choices,” Winter said, starting to leave too. Qibli really wanted to talk to him though.
“No. Stay here and have a conversation with me,” he said.
Winter froze and then turned around. He sat down on the floor. “You want to have a conversation, so be it. Explain yourself. And hope I don’t walk out.”