"What is pure good and what is pure evil?"

"Pirates are evil? The Marines are righteous? These terms have always changed throughout the course of history! Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values! Those who stand at the top determine what's wrong and what's right! This very place is neutral ground! Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will! Whoever wins this war becomes justice!"

Solstice knows whose good side she needs to be on in order to survive; she has been doing it ever since she was a young pup. War corrupted her family's clan, driving them out of their homelands, and before they could even recover from the destruction, the Shade had struck as they had begun a new life within the Tangled Wood. They fled from the Darkness into the sunshine of the Lightweaver's territory with hope for a bright future, but Luminax appeared in the Sunbeam Ruins as a terrible, zombified creature, trampling and crushing any ounce of dreams that remained for a peaceful existence. Her life continued to fall apart little by little; day by day. Solstice became jaded; there was no hope for a simple life nor was there any way for her to undo what had happened to her family and clan. It seemed like tragedy clung to them wherever they went, as if it were simply written within their destiny.

Solstice learned the hard way that no matter how good and kind she was, the world was not going to be kind back.

Their tragic-stricken clan grew smaller and smaller until the last few of them left arrived at the Viridian Labyrinth, and ultimately decided to go their separate ways. No other dragon clan was trusting of them, seeing as their small, ragged little gathering was so worn from travel and terrible events; they were mostly looked upon with suspicious eyes, called tricksters or spies and always turned away.

So, Solstice made do on her own, bargaining with wandering traders and caravans and making her way through the jungle. She spent many a night considering what her next move was going to be. Perhaps she should return to the Icewarden in the frozen wastelands that were the Southern Icefield, and become a true Warden or Sentinel like she was created to do. Maybe there was a calling for her back in her homelands under the Plaguebringer, or maybe she'd live out her life as a nomad and never stay in one place for too long. After all, nothing good had come whenever she settled down anyway.

And then she met Amet.

He quite literally embodied the very essence that had destroyed everything she ever loved.

And yet, she knew from the moment she saw him that he would be the key to her peaceful, uncorrupt future.

The presence of the Shade within him was visible, tangible; shadows leaking from his maw in inky, misty wisps and a darkness gleaming in his eyes. The cold pressure cascaded off him in spine-chilling waves, and even so, Solstice was determined to become as close to him as she could get.

He could be her downfall, or her salvation, and she was determined to make her dreams of a perfect future come to fruition.

No matter what she had to do to make it happen.