As Skobeloff pretends to fall asleep on his feet and rests his head against the older dragon, he feels one of her wings fold over him and press him closer to her. He can hear Fogdance's heart racing inside her chest, revealing that despite her attempts to appear as gentle and welcoming as possible, she is actually on the verge of complete panic: the Darkness has warped her perception of the world around her, causing her to see threats round every corner. However, instead of being afraid for her own well-being, her focus seems to entirely be on protecting those under her care. It's likely, from what Fellwing shared about her vision, that Fogdance is holding Tamba and Pleexem here against their will in an attempt to 'keep them safe', and plans to do the same with Skobeloff. This suspicion is confirmed as they reach one of the rooms, and Fogdance has to pause in order to go through her keyring in search of the correct key. This gives Skobeloff time to consider his options.

Over the many centuries since the Moonlit Isles were first raised into the sky, much work has been done in an attempt to understand the Darkness, with Houses Myndoth and Kebros taking the most active role in research. As such, Skobeloff has a decent amount of information to go off of concerning shadow selves: when the Darkness fully overtakes someone, it targets a trait or belief that is core to that individual and twists and exaggerates it until they are a dark parody of themselves. The best way to return someone to themselves is to challenge this belief. From what Skobeloff can tell, Fogdance's normally nurturing soul has been turned to an over-protectiveness, bordering on possessiveness. Her desire to love and care for those smaller and weaker than herself has been poisoned so that she no longer able to recognise them as individuals with their own needs and wants, but objects that need to be hoarded and kept safe at all cost. Because Skobeloff has been playing along, Fogdance has been rather docile. Should he start exercising his own will and independence, however, he will likely bring out a viciousness in the older dragon, the viciousness of a mother trying to protect her young but to absurd, self-destructive degree. Skobeloff needs to find a way to convince Fogdance, either through word or action, that her smothering nature is at best unnecessary and at worst harmful to those she seeks to care for.

At last, Fogdance seems to locate the correct key and opens the door to a small, dark room. The windows have been closed and no light sources are visible, but Skobeloff can just about see the sleeping forms of two small drakes, likely Tamba and Pleexem. He feels Fogdance start to gently nudge him into the room. What will Skobeloff do?

[hr]

Alpin leads the dragons away from his corrupted brethren and deeper into the marshier part of the jungle. At first, the young brownie is quiet, keeping his pace quick and his eyes in front, only pausing when he hears a sound or detects movement. Whenever they encounter one of the other brownies, he stops completely and raises his hand to signal that the dragons should do the same. Once the threat has moved, he starts scurrying forward again. After walking long enough without encountering another living creature, to where the trees are sparse and the ground is more water than soil, he finally starts to slow down a little and will often look over his shoulder at the dragons. In particular, he keeps looking at Fellwing. Obviously, the seer calling him by name has confused the brownie, and he appears to be trying to recollect if they may have met at some point.

Eventually, he gives up trying and just says what he's been thinking this whole time. "So, hey, I'm Alpin," he introduced himself, still walking forward as he speaks. He then tilts his head towards Fellwing. "But then, you already knew that. Somehow. And can I say, that's very strange because I haven't met many dragons in my time - they don't have much reason to come round here - and I certainly haven't met a pure black dragon before. So I'm afraid, friends, you have me at something of a disadvantage, because you know me and I don't know you." He tilts his head towards each of the dragons, as if he's waiting for them to finally introduce themselves.