The dragons clustered around the chair in the middle of the room. Torches flickered on the stone walls and cast their light over the traitor shackled before them. Slanderlies was unconscious for now, but the sleep draught they had given her wouldn't hold her for long.
Sunspot was the first to break the silence. "Okay," she said, holding up the Arbiter's Mirror, "we know this can only be used on a dragon once. How are we going to make sure that Slanderlies doesn't wiggle her sneaky way out of this?"
"We can't be too specific," Flutterfire said, looking appraisingly at Slanderlies. "Because if we're wrong-"
"There's no way we're wrong!" Sunspot interrupted, his skin flaring into the colors of annoyance. "Her name is Slanderlies. Slander and lies! That's bad even for a Nightwing. Plus, she's always sneaking around the queen, whispering who knows what into her ear. She has to be the traitor." He turned the mirror towards the bound dragon. "Slanderlies! The Arbiter's Mirror compels you- tell us your deepest secret."
Slanderlies stirred. The Arbiter's Mirror began glowing ret 4, a pure and blinding light that cast a long shadow behind the traitor. With her eyes still closed, Slanderlies began speaking. “My name… is not Slanderlies.”
Sunspot gestured wildly with the hand not holding the mirror, a clear I told you so to Flutterfire. The traitor continued, seemingly oblivious to her captors or even her bonds.
“It’s not pronounced Slanderlies, I mean.” Flutterfire blinked, confused. Sunspot’s mouth fell open. “When my moms named me, they both wanted to name me after their moms- the NightWing Slanderslayer and the RainWing Daylilies.” Slanderlies frowned, recalling what must have been a genuine point of contention for her mothers. “But Mother said that no daughter of hers was going to have a soft name like Daylilies, and Mom said that she didn’t want me to have violence in my name. So they compromised.”
“Is this actually her deepest secret?” Flutterfire hissed at Sunspot. Sunspot shook faer head, glaring at the Arbiter’s Mirror like it was defective. Slanderlies continued, oblivious.
“My name is actually pronounced Slander-LEES, to rhyme with lilies. But when I went to school, I had a NightWing teacher who assumed it was a NightWing name, and she pronounced it Slander-LIES, and I never had the heart to correct her, so now everyone thinks that’s how my name is pronounced.” She sighed sadly and tilted her head. “Even the queen thinks that’s what my name is, and I respect her too much to say any different. I just don’t want to be a bother to anyone about it.” She lapsed into silence, the mirror’s hold on her evidently spent.
Flutterfire massaged their temples. “So either the Arbiter’s Mirror, an extremely powerful animus-touched object, has failed to compel Slanderlies- sorry, SlanderLEES, to tell us the truth, or her actual darkest secret is that she’s too nice to correct people on how her name is pronounced.” They glared at Sunspot. “Are you willing to admit that maybe, just maybe, Slanderlies is not the one impersonating a loyal dragon to sell our secrets?”
“But if she’s not the impostor,” Sunspot asked, “then who is?”
amogus
Author's Notes:
Written 10/14/21. Slanderlies is my Wings Of Fire OC- half nightwing, half rainwing. I always think it's really funny when an evil vizier type is entirely well-intentioned. Also in the original google doc the amongus was there as a jumpscare, so I have preserved it exactly as intended.