Arthur and the rest of his retinue headed out the barn to the back area which was not visible from the street. He was torn between amusement and exasperation.

Honestly, Horatio could simply project an image of his card out to everyone so they could read it and understand what this supposed great power was within a few seconds.

But the amused part noted how Horatio kept glancing at Soledad over and over. His friend wanted to impress the girl.

Too bad for him, Soledad seemed to be more interested in corralling the exuberant Equinox to make sure he didn’t run off after something interesting in the flighty way hatchling dragons commonly did.

Equinox and Asha still hadn’t gotten the hang of flight, and they probably wouldn’t for some weeks yet. It would be longer still until they were large and strong enough to hold their riders.

However, they were growing up nicely and Arthur was looking forward to them reaching their maturity and joining his retinue in full.

So was Brixaby. He kept talking about how strong his retinue would be compared to Whitaker’s Crag’s bunch of toe-claw lickers.

Arthur wasn’t as confident as Crag’s group would have dragons with decades of experience, but he wasn’t about to burst Brixaby’s bubble. And he couldn’t argue that they weren’t going to be impressive themselves.

Horatio’s dragon, a big yellow named Sams, was waiting outside the back for them. He snorted a greeting to them all.

Around the corner of the barn and beyond, the streets were empty. It was a combination of a lot of people who were still working through the challenges of the dark heart – though by now, most of them were likely never to return. Or those who had not gone in and had chosen instead to hide away, waiting for the next societal reshuffling to happen.

Judging by the reports of the card-powered fights in the city center, they were right to find defensive positions.

Arthur turned his mind away from that dark thought and focused on Horatio. “Alright, let’s see what you got.”

“One thing real quick, if you don’t mind,” Horatio said and then activated his Rainbow Knight card. Colors played over his skin in varying geometric patterns that always made Arthur a little seasick to focus on for too long.

This was a side effect of Horatio gathering what he called all the spectrums of light. By his side Sams, too, seemed to glow a brighter and brighter yellow. It should have contrasted with his purple belly, but if Horatio was to be believed, ‘purple’ was a sort of semi-invisible light spectrum, too. Arthur had no idea how it worked.

Abruptly, the colors playing over Horatio’s skin faded away and even Sams dimmed.

Arthur waited for something – a blinding flash of light, fireworks in the bright blue sky, or even a bunch of illusions. One could never tell with a light card wielder.

Nothing happened at first.

Except… were the shadows growing deeper?

Arthur glanced up, fully expecting to see a cloud pass between them and the sun. But the sky was entirely cloudless without even a bird to be seen. Yet it was definitely growing darker.

The whole world felt like it was dimming by shades.

He looked around and met eyes with Horatio who grinned back at him. The whites of his teeth were exceptionally vivid.

In a world growing dimmer by the second, he and Sams were the only two who were still lit clearly.

“What’s going on?” he heard Asha ask Marion.

The little Silver had pressed up against his leg and was looking around, scared.

Marion put a hand on her head. “It’s only a light effect. It will be okay.”

Joy glanced over to the hatchling and said shortly, “His rider is just showing off his new card.”

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Brixaby added, “They are part of my retinue and showing us what our enemies will see… or not see.”

That was one interesting thing about dragons. Brixaby and Sams seemed to have taken over the basic teaching for the little hatchlings. While Joy generally seemed—well, not annoyed because she generally had a bubbly personality – but apathetic. Like they were teammates who hadn’t quite proven themselves worthy of the name yet.

Arthur had heard that naturally, female dragons generally took care of the eggs while the males over the hatchlings. That was on display now.

He glanced again at Brixaby and noticed that his dragon’s blood-red gaze had not left Sams and Horatio.

“What is it?” Arthur asked.

“I’m sensing… void energy. This resonates with my first card.” Brixaby sounded rather impressed. He turned to Horatio. “What exactly are you doing?”

It was now as dusky as early evening and rapidly falling dark around them. Horatio and Sams were the clearest thing as far as Arthur could see.

“The first thing you should know is, when we use this card for real, you’ll be able to see just as well as I can see you,” Horatio said. “And that though it probably looks like the whole city is going dark, I’ve just contained this effect to this yard.”

“Is that because you didn’t want to panic the locals, or does it eat up that much mana?” Soledad asked in her blunt way.

“It is extremely mana intensive,” Sams said.

Horatio grimaced. “Yeah, okay, that might be part of the reason why it took me so long to reveal this all out to you. The problem is that it takes a steep mana kickstart.”

“They do sell mana chips here—” Arthur started, but Horatio interrupted him.

“Won’t work. It needs a light-type mana.”

“Mana can have types?” Cressida asked, and Arthur was glad he wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what.

Horatio shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. Which is why I needed to use Rainbow Knight to gather all that energy. Then I focus it on Sams who can use one of his cards to transfer that light to mana, which he then throws back to me. So, it takes a lot of setup. But when it’s ready…” He snapped his fingers and suddenly it was as if all light had been sucked out of the world.

It was complete and utter darkness, even more so than if Horatio had put out Arthur’s eyes. Not even a hint of a shape to be seen.

Feeling a sense of vertigo, Arthur threw out his arms and ended up smacking the back of his hand against the side of Brixaby’s hide, who drew back in surprise.

Judging by the shouts around him and the higher pitched shriek from Asha, he wasn’t the only one disoriented.

Horatio wasn’t cruel and let it go on for a few seconds to make his point before light flooded back into the world. In some ways, that was even worse. Arthur was squinting, eyes watering like he was looking into the sun.

Out of all of them, Marion looked the least taken aback by the card, and the most intrigued. “And you say that it will be dark for enemies, but still light for allies?”

“That’s right,” Horatio said. “As far as I can tell, my limit will be about twice as big as this yard.” Which was plenty big in itself, as it was able to fit all the dragons in it.

Soledad broke into a smile. “I like it. If anyone or anything messes with us, just plunge them into darkness.”

“Is that the plan?” Cressida asked pointedly, looking at Arthur. “Will we be put into a position for people to, uh, ‘mess with us’?”

The two women exchanged smiles that didn’t seem friendly at all. Then all attention turned to Arthur.

He had been avoiding answering this question, but now it was time.

“It will take us a few days to gather together all our supplies, but then we’re going to head out.” He stopped right there because if Horatio could drag out his card reveal for a few weeks, he could do the same for a few measly seconds.

Marion was the first to take the bait. “And where, exactly, will we be going?”

“Well… Brixaby and I have been talking…” Arthur said carefully.

At that point, Brixaby decided to destroy his fun. “There is little point going to Wolf Moon hive right away. The next card in my set is in Blood Moon.”

“That’s an ominous name,” Soledad said. “But it’s not like Wolf Mon is much better.” She stopped as he saw the dour expressions on Horatio and Cressida’s face. “What is it?”

“Blood Moon hive has a reputation,” Cressida said.

“Ohhh, didn’t Shadow’s former rider come from that hive?” Joy asked.

“That was Laird,” Arthur said. “And he wasn’t happy with that place at all, though he never pinpointed why, exactly. You all know I received some… uh, abbreviated leadership training from Wolf Moon hive. From what they told me, Blood Moon keeps to themselves.”

“I don’t know much about them,” Cressida added. “But my noble father never allowed any suitors to come from Blood Moon territories, even though it was supposed to be fertile land and easy to manage.”

Sams rumbled. “It has been long rumored that Blood Moon hive has a dedicated dragon hunting wing.”

“A what?” Arthur asked.

Horatio answered, his voice grim. “You know how Wolf Moon hive have the Lobos – the purples and smaller blues who go around and rescue people out of an active eruption zone? Well, the dragon hunters are supposedly an assassination wing that picks off people who couldn’t defend themselves to collect their cards.”

“There is no way the other leaders would allow that.”

Horatio shrugged. “It’s just a rumor, but a strong one. I don’t think they went after Rares. But if you were a Common who tackled eruptions by yourself… you’d have to watch your back.”

“I’m not so sure it’s just the Commons. I’ve seen something like that before,” Arthur said. “Back when I was a kid during my first eruption. Two dragons came out of nowhere and took out a Rare Pink. I didn’t know enough to look for hive markings.”

Horatio shook his head. “They wouldn’t have had any markings on them – no one wants the dragon hunters tied back to them.” He gave his friend a look. “You know I’ll follow you anywhere. I’ve already traveled across the world, but… Are you sure about Blood Moon hive?”

“Brix’s next card is there,” Arthur said, steeling himself. “So, yes.”