'Mastermind' is an adult male NightWing who was introduced in The Dark Secret. Before the events of the NightWing
Exodus, he lived on the NightWing island and served as the head
scientist for his tribe. He currently resides in the Rainforest Kingdom,
where he is imprisoned for his crimes against the RainWings. He is the
father of Starflight and was Farsight's partner until her death.

## Description

Mastermind has black scales and curious, bloodshot eyes. The silver
scale patterns on the underside of his wing membranes spray outward,
like a splash of water, similar to Starflight's. He is whip-thin, and
his snout is pockmarked with small scars.

## Personality

Mastermind is highly intelligent. He is passionately devoted to science
and appears to care greatly about Starflight. Like his son, he has a
tendency to use a wide and complex vocabulary. He gets nervous in
difficult situations, such as when Battlewinner left her lava pool
before her armor was complete, leading to her death. Mastermind was
loyal to his tribe and was willing to follow the queen's orders.
However, Mastermind did not have any intentions to torture the RainWings
— he intended to create a defense to RainWing venom, and expand
Dragons|dragon knowledge for the purpose of science, as well as
following the queen's orders. However, he seemed to believe that
RainWings were inferior, barely considering them dragons, which
explained his lack of remorse in their imprisonment and kidnapping. He
is somewhat similar to Starflight and Cricket, as both are devoted to
science. Unlike them, however, he seems to lack the critical thinking
skills to question his orders and lacks both the moral compass and
empathy that restraints him from experimenting on living creatures.
Despite being willing to experiment on the RainWings, he was quite
friendly when he met Starflight showing that he cares about his son. He
uses large vocabulary, so elaborate to the extent that other dragons
sometimes cannot understand him. He is obsessive about keeping others
from touching his things.

## Biography

### The Dragonet Prophecy

left The Dark Secret
When Morrowseer and Starflight were hunting, Starflight remarked
disgustedly that he would not have developed the correct antibodies to
protect against the dangerous effects of eating rotting NightWing food.
Morrowseer then commented that he now knew who the dragonet's father
was, based on Starflight's so-called 'speaking style.' Morrowseer then
took him to visit Mastermind.

Mastermind was in the middle of a 'crisis' when they arrived, the crisis
being constructing venom-proof armor, and told them to leave because
Greatness|Princess Greatness had threatened to shut his research down.
Morrowseer informed Mastermind that Starflight was his son, at which
point he calmed down and first examined Starflight, overjoyed to have
found his son. He then began talking about how the certain traits they
shared (such as their jawline and the water spray silver-scale pattern
on their wings) were genetically dominant, then showed Starflight some
of the experiments he was working on, including desalinization (the
process of making salt water drinkable) and volcanology. Starflight was
awed by it all, and wanted to work with his father.

Mastermind then showed them his current project: RainWing venom and its
capabilities. In order to study the venom, seventeen RainWings, three of
which did not survive, were brought from their homes to the Night
Kingdom against their will, and were then imprisoned so that Mastermind
could safely conduct his experiments on them. He was working on Orchid
at the time. He wanted to learn more about RainWing venom, such as what
materials it affected and what it did not. Mastermind had learned that
it only affected organic matter, and would quickly kill anything if the
venom got into either the eyes or the bloodstream. He then began the
construction of armor to resist the venom, but could not finish it due
to being unable to find a suitable material as the eyepiece. However, he
was so caught up in his research it never occurred to him that he was
torturing the captive RainWings. This caused Starflight to decide that
his father was sociopathic. He wanted nothing to do with Mastermind and
his venom experiments and tried to avoid him.

Mastermind was also secretly working on lava-heated armor that would
enable Queen Battlewinner to leave her pool of lava without freezing to
death. This way, she would be able to lead the attack on the rainforest.
Starflight saw it, but did not assume who it was for, and why. However,
the armor never achieved completion before the eruption of the volcano,
which destroyed everything on the NightWing island. The armor was
presumably destroyed during the eruption.

After Viper died, Starflight wanted to go dreamvisit his friends to warn
them that Sunny might be captured, however at that moment, Mastermind
invited Starflight to come see the library and help him research
SandWing venom antidotes. Starflight reluctantly followed Mastermind to
the library, and later when Mastermind was called to a council meeting,
Starflight followed him there to listen in on what was going on.

Before the volcano exploded, rendering the NightWing island
uninhabitable, Mastermind was among the evacuating dragons. He was
bringing with him a bundle of scrolls, much like Starflight had tried to
do so in the underground cave. He voiced his worries about the RainWings
hating him for what he has done to their tribe to Starflight and
Tsunami. Starflight sensed his father wanted to hear an assuring lie.
Instead, he told his father to apologize to the Queen and take whatever
punishment she gives him, and Mastermind escaped through the rainforest
NightWing tunnels|tunnel with the rest of the NightWings. His labs and
research were all destroyed in the eruption; only the scrolls that he
brought with him were saved.

left The Brightest Night

Two RainWings brought Mastermind to Queen Glory. She ordered
him to be tied up until she could decide what to do with him. As of the
epilogue, he was awaiting to stand trial for his crimes against the
RainWings.

-----

### The Jade Mountain Prophecy

left Moon Rising
In
the prologue, Secretkeeper accidentally ran into Farsight and Mastermind
while trying to get to the Rainforest tunnel to see her daughter,
Moonwatcher, hatch. Secretkeeper feared that Mastermind somehow knew
about Moon's egg, judging by the expression on his face. Mastermind
seemed impressed when Secretkeeper yelled at Farsight about her having
two living children, after Farsight was trying to calm her about her
"broken" egg.

left Winter Turning

When Glory and the RainWing healers were talking about prisons, it was
brought up that the RainWings do not have such things. Mastermind was
mentioned to have been submerged in quicksand, since the RainWings did
not have prison cells and do not want to kill him. The RainWings had to
haul him out every few hours so he did not sink to his death.

left Talons of Power
When Darkstalker created a prison, he mentioned that Glory could put
Mastermind in there instead of leaving him in quicksand.

-----

### Winglets

left
Prisoners
Mastermind yelled at
Strongwings when he was his assistant, telling him to never come back
again because Strongwings ruined Mastermind's lab somehow by knocking
over a bottle of "uh, something" into a vat of "something else."

-----

### Field Guides

left
A Guide to the Dragon World

Mastermind was mentioned in the RainWing chapter of the guide where
Glory stated that Starflight theorized that Mastermind did something to
the monkeys in the Rainforest Kingdom to make them scream. He was later
mentioned by Kinkajou in her story about Silver to have mentioned
calculus while Kinkajou was imprisoned on the NightWing island.

In the NightWing chapter, Mastermind was interviewed by Glory and
Deathbringer where he shared about how life was like for the NightWings
on the island along with the historical achievements of the NightWings.

## Relationships

### Farsight

Farsight was Mastermind's partner. They seemed to like each other, but
otherwise, the nature of their relationship is unknown.

### Starflight

When Mastermind first met Starflight, he was overjoyed and happy,
finding out that they have a lot in common. Starflight was also very
enthusiastic, and Mastermind thought he would be a great lab assistant.
However, when he showed his son the RainWing experiments, Starflight
lost all interest, being disgusted by his father. However, Mastermind
did not seem to notice. It is unknown what their relationship is
currently, or if Mastermind is now aware of his son's true feelings
toward him.

### Strongwings

Strongwings was once Mastermind's lab assistant. Mastermind immensely
disliked him because he was big and clumsy, knocking things over and not
being on time for work. Strongwings did not wish to be the lab assistant
but his parents forced him to.

## Quotes

No, no! […] I must not be interrupted! This experiment is
at a critical juncture! And Greatness says I might be shut down at any
moment! Everyone please leave!
to Morrowseer, Starflight
and Fatespeaker The Dark Secret

47

-----

Three moons. […] What a handsome dragonet. He does look like
me; I knew he would. As I suspected, his jawline is genetically
dominant. […] Ah, and yes, see the way the star scales on our wings
spray outward, like a splash of water? Whereas Morrowseer's, for
instance, curl inward, more like a snail shell. All theories at this
point, of course.
to Morrowseer, about Starflight
The Dark Secret
47-48

-----

But I have a son! I, of all dragons! Let's see Strongwings
laugh now! Just wait until everyone sees my handsome offspring. […]
So strong and healthy! You can be the assistant I've been looking for.
What are you interested in, son?
to Starflight
The Dark Secret
48

-----

Fantastic! […] I have lots of scrolls. How about
desalinization? Know anything about it?
to Starflight

The Dark Secret
48

-----

Very good. […] We have only one freshwater source on the
island, and it's become rather contaminated with ash over the last few
years, so I invented this magnificent contraption to provide safe water
for the entire tribe…
to Starflight
The Dark Secret
49

-----

Here is where I do all my volcanology. […] I'm testing for
materials that can withstand eruptions, and working on scale models of
barriers, and outlining possible implementation systems. No wonder I
need an assistant, right?
to Starflight
The Dark Secret
49

-----

Not going very well, as you can see! […] Queen Battlewinner
isn't pleased about that. Of course, she has her own ideas about where I
should be focusing my attention. Come, come!
to Starflight

The Dark Secret
50

-----

Mastermind was our science teacher, and the tribe's resident
genius, if you can believe all the hype about him. I say, if he's such a
genius, he should be able to explain stuff in a way that dragons can
actually understand. Instead he showed up once a week, blathered on for
hours using the biggest, most made-up words possible, and then slithered
back to his lab, leaving all of us even dumber than we were before.

Fierceteeth about Mastermind
Prisoners

-----

I'm sorry. […] It was… I was just… for science…
to
the RainWings when they confront him for capturing RainWings and
experimenting on them The Brightest Night (book)|The Brightest
Night
7

-----

YOU'VE RUINED IT! THE WHOLE THING! OUR ENTIRE TRIBE COULD BE
WIPED OUT BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPIDITY!
to Strongwings

Prisoners

-----

DON'T COME BACK OR I'LL DISSECT YOU ALIVE!
to
Strongwings
Prisoners