I've been having fun doing a review trade with Soulfire72, it's a really good way to get feedback on your story from a fellow writer. Personally my favourite thing about trading reviews is that it gives a good reason to write thoughtful and considered reviews. Those are the types of reviews I love best, so if anyone is interested in doing such a trade with me then please do contact me.
I've re-drawn my picture of Imperia and put her on Deviantart, you can find me there as 'Always4Dragons', I wanted to mention that here because this chapter involves Imperia. For the start of this chapter I once again suggest Cynder's song (Bleeding Out, by Imagine Dragons) and Ember's song (For Those Who Wait, by Fireflight). These two were quite fun to write together.
For Imperia's scene I chose Angel With A Shotgun, by The Cab. The song is moving, and matches with Imperia perfectly.
Story now:
Cynder and Ember were escorted to another pleasant spacious room. There certainly seemed to be a lot of nice rooms. Then again it was a palace, and such things were to be expected from palaces. The purple dragon left them there, closing the door behind him with a soft click.
Ember and Cynder looked around the room; it was a large circular chamber with a high ceiling. There were no windows, and only one other door. Quick exploration showed this door to be a bathroom with a very large bath. The bed too was very large, there was only one bed, but two adult dragons, or even three, could easily sleep in it without intruding on the space of the others.
Cynder didn't see any easy means of escaping the room, so she reluctantly went to the bed and lay down on it. Ember walked around the circular walls of the room for a few laps.
As Cynder looked around the room she recognised Imperia's style. In fact the whole fortress, now she thought about it, looked as if it had been decorated by the silver dragoness.
It was small touches, like putting the bed near the wall and opposite the door, the luscious carpet and the occasional bookshelf, which convinced Cynder that her friend had been here before.
Cynder frowned. Were they still friends? Had she and Imperia even been friends to begin with? Or had that always been something more than a simple friendship? She sighed. All she wanted was to sit down with Spyro and Imperia and to just talk and relax. That was all she wanted right now.
Ember circled the room for a third time before giving up. Apparently the room was still round. The pink dragoness saw Cynder looking melancholy and walked over to her.
Ember recalled how Cynder had immediately leapt in front of her defensively when Malefor had found them, and acting on instinct she put a comforting wing over the black dragoness, lying down on the bed right next to her.
"What are you thinking?" Ember asked.
"I was thinking about Imperia." Cynder admitted. "I can still hardly believe that she'd serve Malefor. But she must have been with him for ages; this whole place seems to have been designed by her."
Ember frowned. "When you say Imperia is 'with' Malefor…"
"I don't think it's in that way. Besides Imperia is basically mates with Volteer and Flare." Cynder smiled slightly. "And the use of purple is a bit of a tease. It's one of her favourite colours, but she's using it here at least partly to make fun of Malefor. It'd appeal to her sense of humour to surround the purple dragon with his own colour. I don't think she'd do that if she was with him as some sort of… sex slave, or whatever."
Ember nodded. "Sorry."
Cynder narrowed her eyes, looking at Ember. "And while we're on that subject, Malefor is no rapist, and he never did anything to me." Cynder looked at Ember, the pink dragoness looked away.
"I'm sorry."
Cynder felt bad immediately. She waited a few seconds before speaking again.
"I shouldn't have said that accusingly. I really want us to be friends." Cynder sighed and rested her head on her paws. Ember's wing squeezed her gently. As much as she'd disliked it when dragons assumed she'd been kept by Malefor for that reason it was far from the worst thing that they'd thought about her. She didn't feel right about getting even with Ember about that insult.
"It's ok, Cynder. It's not your fault."
The two girls spent a minute in silence, and then Cynder leant across and whispered to Ember.
"Ember I'm really sorry, but I think I can get out of this room alone, and I want to save Spyro."
Ember nodded and whispered back. "I'm no great fighter, you go and I'll stay here and cover for you. I can lock myself in the bathroom and pretend we're both in there if someone comes to check on us."
Cynder blinked. She hadn't thought of that. "Would… would you really do that?"
"It's the best way I can think of helping." Ember said. "It may not fool them for long, but I'll do my best."
"Wow… um… thank you, Ember." Cynder got up gracefully, yet suddenly feeling very awkward. "I sort of expected you to be difficult and not want me to leave without you."
Ember blushed, looking away. "No. I know that I'd just slow you down, at least this way I'm not totally useless. Just… don't forget about me, ok?"
"I swear I won't." Cynder said.
Internally she was stunned. She hadn't even thought about how scared Ember would be about not being retrieved after, if, Cynder saved Spyro. She tried to put herself in Ember's position and found that she simply couldn't. She wasn't able to picture herself trusting someone to come back for her after saving Spyro.
Cynder looked at Ember; her mind was struggling to put her thoughts into a coherent order.
"I'll be back, Ember."
Cynder walked across to the door, there was a tiny gap underneath it; about enough space to slide a note under the door. She looked carefully at the door; there were magic seals sketched upon it. Imperia had taught Cynder the basics of symbols, and Cynder knew enough to know that while the door was very well protected indeed, there would be nothing harmful about trying to get through it and failing. It had no malicious symbols and no destructive power. It was designed only to be impassable.
It probably wasn't impassable.
Cynder shrouded her body in shadow. Ember watched with complete fascination as the other dragoness shaped cloud of darkness billowed under and around the door. Ember watched, awed, until the smoky tip of what was probably Cynder's tail slithered out of view, leaving her alone in the room. The pink dragoness looked around, deciding what to do next; then she got up from the bed and got to work.
On the other side of the door was a stairway, it had steps leading both up and down. Considering the circular room it was likely they were in the lower part of one of the towers of the fortress. Malefor had led them up several staircases, so they were probably somewhere on the middle floors.
Cynder scanned the staircase for threats first, and then she gathered her shadows and returned to a physical form. She touched down on the ground; far more cautious this time then she had been before. She padded down the staircase, head low and every sense alert for danger. Her wind expanded out around her, searching the corridors for any shape that should not have been there.
She crossed several rooms silently, but encountered nothing.
It would be too slow for her to search the entire castle like this, and the risk of encountering Malefor would be too high. She needed to work out where she should-
"I knew I'd see some form of escape attempt."
Dammit…
Cynder growled and straightened up. Her hearing, sight, keen sense of smell and the sensation of her wind magic had all completely failed to see Malefor coming, and she didn't even know how, which was annoying. She also didn't know where exactly he was, which was even more annoying.
Cynder looked around, seeing Malefor standing at the top of a broad staircase. The purple dragon descended, looking amused.
Cynder found that she couldn't sense him with her wind magic; it was as if he wasn't there.
"What? How?" She was astonished. Her mind worked rapidly, and managed to piece together some of the puzzle. She glared at Malefor. "You're just a lightning copy! I didn't detect you because you have no mass."
"Correct." The copy nodded, looking pleased. "In combat this ability might not fool you anymore, but it can still sneak up on you undetected."
"How are you speaking?" Cynder asked cautiously.
"A little trick I learned from the Dark Master." The copy stepped aside, revealing a dark purple crystal hanging in the air inside where the copy had been standing. The voice of Malefor radiated from the crystal, and within it was shown a gleaming purple eye. "This magic projection also has no mass, and can be freely moved around. It allows me to see whatever is in front of it and also lets me speak through it."
"The Dark Master used that to send a message to all of Warfang, just after he summoned the Destroyer." Cynder said, remembering.
"Indeed. But I found many more uses for this ability than he did. Using it in tandem with my lightning clone gives me a nearly flawless ability to duplicate myself."
"But it can't attack." Cynder said. She had been electrocuted by one of these clones before, but against any dragon who knew what they were dealing with it wouldn't be a great threat.
"No. It's a distraction. While you've been focused on this image and voice…" The magic projections vanished, and Malefor spoke from the far side of the room.
"I have trapped you."
Cynder had been in a bad mood before, but now she was even more irritated. She used wind to confirm that the Malefor now walking towards her was the real one, and it seemed to be, unless he had found yet another way to fool her senses.
Walls of energy had sprung up around the two of them, activated by several orcs that Cynder had also failed to spot. She had been distracted and outplayed, again.
Malefor walked past her, back towards the room she had only just escaped.
"I take it you escaped with shadow magic? I should have thought of that before I left you there, but it completely slipped my mind until about a minute after I had closed the door. I considered going back and adding more protection to the door, but I was curious as to what you would do. How is Ember?"
Cynder followed him, behind her the energy field closed in, stopping her from running.
"Ember's fine. She let me go."
"Really?" Malefor looked interested. "And what was she expecting to happen when I came to bring you food this afternoon?"
"She planned to shut herself in the bathroom and pretend we were both in there." Cynder admitted reluctantly. Malefor laughed.
"How interesting." The energy field closed in around Cynder, forcing her to stop walking. Malefor smiled. "I'm curious to see this. I'll be back in a few minutes."
The purple dragon walked away before Cynder could even hiss at him. She paced back and forth in her little prison, utterly frustrated and feeling more than a little bit concerned for Ember's safety.
Cynder spat poison at the energy field, but it just hovered in the air, useless. She tapped the field with her tail blade; it gave her an unsettling tingling feeling. Eventually she just sat down and waited.
True to his word Malefor returned after only a few minutes. He noticed the poison Cynder had spat, but didn't comment on it.
"I can see why you chose to bring that young lady. She is quite a remarkable dragoness." Malefor said.
The energy field opened up and Malefor escorted a very confused Cynder back to her room. He added an energy field identical to the one Cynder had been trapped in to the door, and then he left her there with Ember.
Ember was sitting with her backside pushed hard against the bathroom door, looking both petrified and confused. She saw Cynder enter the room and her expression turned to a combination of relief and horror.
"Y-you were caught!?"
Cynder nodded, still stunned by Malefor's comment. "How… what did you say to him?"
Ember shrugged. "I h-have no idea."
"Wow."
Ember relaxed a bit, distracted by Cynder's reaction. She stopped pressing herself against the door. "What?"
Cynder laughed slightly. "Malefor said to me, and I quote: 'I can see why you chose that young lady, she's a remarkable dragoness.'"
Ember couldn't help but blush. "He thought you chose to bring me?"
Cynder nodded.
Ember giggled, still slightly in shock. "He thought you chose to bring me!"
Cynder suddenly realised how tense she had been since they had been caught and put in this room. She breathed out deeply, relaxing slightly as she did so. Watching Ember giggle was oddly funny.
The pink dragoness had to be having a reaction to stress; Volteer had mentioned such things once before, while he'd been chattering about random subjects.
She laughed slightly, Ember's eyes met hers, and the pink dragoness snorted and looked away, trying to control herself, but failing.
Within a minute both dragonesses had collapsed on the floor, laughing hysterically.
Imperia had visitors. She put her book down and rolled off the bed, coming to the front of her cell. There were several dragons; it had to be the guardians coming to see her.
She was right. Terrador, Cyril, Flare and Volteer emerged from the stairway and came to stand in front of her.
Imperia smiled brightly to them, and got three faint smiles returned. That was a good start. She sat down, bowing gracefully and respectfully as she did so, and waited for her fellow guardians to speak.
Terrador took the lead.
"How are you, Imperia?"
His voice had concern. Imperia met his gaze, allowing some of her gratitude to show in her eyes.
"I'm fine, thank you for asking. And thanks for letting me have some books; it was rather boring here without them. The cell is ok, I'm not uncomfortable."
Flare spoke up. "I notice that the cell bars are scratched."
Imperia nodded, smiling playfully at Flare. "I couldn't force my way out of this chain, but I thought it would be such a waste for me to be the first guardian dragon ever to be imprisoned down here without at least trying to escape."
"What did you do?" Flare asked, amused but not surprised by Imperia's reply.
"Well I tried to cut the bars with wind, but they were too strong. I tried to pick the lock, but I couldn't. Finally I tried to ram the door down, which was completely silly." Imperia grinned.
Volteer raised a paw. "Actually I don't think you were the first Guardian dragon to be imprisoned, trapped, detained or… ah… captured here. Thoran, the lighting guardian before me, he was a captive down here, I believe."
"Technically he was never locked in a cell." Cyril said briefly. "He escaped before he was even imprisoned."
"How inconsiderate of him." Imperia commented.
Terrador quickly put the conversation back on topic.
"Cynder has not returned, and we've also been informed that Ember never made it back from Shattershelf. Lady Asha swears that Ember left shortly after the rest of the Warfang dragons, and I believe her, but Ember never arrived here. We don't know where she is. Imperia, are you willing to tell us the information you told Cynder?"
"I talked to Cynder while we were by Ember's bedside, she may have been conscious. It's not impossible that they're travelling together. And I'd like to hope that they'll be forced to work together. They'll have to put aside their enmity and maybe even become friends."
Cyril scowled. "It does not matter if they become friends; I would rather see them alive and hating each other then as two dead companions. Cynder may be the only one capable of stopping Malefor, and you sent her straight off to him, she could easily be walking into a trap."
Imperia looked hurt. "Cyril please, I don't want them in danger any more then you do, but you don't have all the facts. Malefor won't hurt them, I can guarantee it."
"Speaking of Malefor…" Terrador said. "I'll take your word about that for now, and assume he is unlikely to harm Ember or Cynder. I'll also respect your decision to not tell us where he is. But there is more information we need."
"I'll tell you everything that I can." Imperia said.
"Does Malefor know that you've betrayed him? Are you in danger from him now?"
Imperia laughed. "I'm in no danger from Malefor, so that's a simple question to answer. As for the other, well, I didn't tell him about what's happened, in fact I told him that everything was fine, but he could easily have figured it out by now; especially if Cynder, Ember, or both, have turned up on his doorstep uninvited." Imperia smiled at the thought. "It's safest to assume that Malefor knows everything. Always assume he knows everything."
The other guardians shared a glance, unsettled by that comment. Imperia didn't seem to notice the effect she'd had on them.
"Oh, and could we please stop using conjugations of the verb betray? I didn't betray Malefor; I just… ah… did something that he… wouldn't entirely want me to do."
"Betray: to expose one's own side to danger, nominally done by giving information to an enemy." Volteer spoke up helpfully.
"Volteer! You're not helping." Imperia glared at the lightning dragon for a moment, but then she giggled. "Aww… I just can't make myself mad at you."
Cyril coughed. "Now is not the time for flirting."
"Every time is a time for flirting." Imperia responded immediately.
"So you're not in danger from Malefor?" Terrador asked, before an argument could develop.
"No, I am not." Imperia giggled. "Any other urgent questions?"
"Have you now decided to tell us where Malefor, Spyro, Cynder and presumably Ember currently are?" Flare asked.
"Sorry dear, but no. I haven't decided to tell you that in the minute it's been since I was last asked."
"I didn't think you would." Flare said. Imperia shrugged. Flare sighed. "We could make you tell us."
"That sounds like it could be kind of fun actually, especially if you did that personally. But please don't. I'd really rather not say."
"We won't force her to tell us anything." Terrador stated. "It's your turn then, Imperia. What do you want to tell us?"
"Oh lots of things." Imperia winked at Terrador. "But I assume that what you want at the moment is to know about my association with Malefor?"
"Indeed." Terrador said. "And what you tell us now will help us decide what to do with you later."
Imperia nodded, smiling. "Of course." She sat down, tapping her claws thoughtfully. "Now… where do I start?"
"From the start." Cyril said, looking unamused.
"As you wish." Imperia said. She took a pose that she thought felt suitable for storytelling.
"I was born in Warfang a bit over a hundred years ago, and spent my childhood here, but once I was old enough my father sent my sister and I off to a nameless little wind dragon settlement, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, hidden among the sand dunes on the outskirts of fire territory. The wind dragons of the desert are masterful teachers, and most young wind dragons go there to learn for several years."
She sighed.
"We were there at the wrong time. As you know the ice and fire dragons have always been opposed, and there were regular skirmishes and raids taking place. Because the wind dragons aren't technically under fire dragon rule, they had thought that our place was safe." She shrugged. "It wasn't. In the event of war the wind dragons would invariably side with the fire dragons, so that made us an enemy."
Imperia saw Terrador nod gravely, she continued.
"Ice dragons don't get far in fire territory, so they hired other dragons to infiltrate our home. Mercenaries, and exiles from distant places. I liked them when they first came in, they were exotic and interesting and they weren't wind dragons, I wanted to hear their stories. I didn't know who they were. Then once there were about fifty dragons gathered they just… well, they killed practically everyone." Imperia looked sad.
"My sister and I were kept alive, and we were… ah… prisoners… for about a year. It felt like ten." Imperia closed her eyes, wishing away the memories. She understood just how Cynder felt when she recalled things she would rather forget. "Eventually one of the leaders of the mercenaries had an argument with his friend, and it became a fight. We were able to escape and run away in the confusion, and we came all the way back to Warfang."
Volteer nodded sadly. He had heard that part of the story before, and it still upset him to hear it. He knew Imperia didn't like to dwell on what had been done to her by those dragons, but she dealt with it admirably. "That's when we met." He said.
Imperia's brilliant smile returned as soon as she glanced at him. "Yes indeed. That's when we met. My sister… well… she was changed by what had happened to us. So was I, but I think that I was changed in sort of a good way. I chose to dedicate my life towards helping others; I never want anyone else to go through anything like I did. There were two obvious ways I could achieve my goal. Become strong, and get authority."
Imperia shrugged and stretched her wings.
"Ignitus was informed when my sister and I arrived in Warfang, tired and weak. He arranged accommodation for us as easily as I can flick my tail, everyone did what he said, and his voice and his manner and his smile were just so… so comforting…" Imperia closed her eyes, a tear rolled down her cheek and she absently licked it away.
"By the next morning I had decided, beyond any doubt, that I had to become a guardian. When the guardians returned to their temple I went with them." Imperia opened her eyes, smiling proudly.
Cyril nodded, slightly impatient. "And you now are one. Which is, of course, remarkable. But none of this has anything to do with Malefor. Although I do finally understand a bit more about you and your insistence on training, eating and sleeping in the dragon temple like the guardians in training did."
Imperia giggled. "I'd like to think I was cute. And Ignitus and Terrador were very supportive of me. Indeed even you were nice, Cyril, back all those years ago when I was young and I respected you as my elder."
Cyril didn't deign to respond to that. Imperia gave him a teasing smile before continuing.
"My hanging around with the guardians was, of course, what brought me into contact with Volteer and Flare." Imperia looked adoringly at the two dragons she had just named. Volteer blushed and shuffled back slightly. Flare merely tilted her head. "I wanted to get to know them a bit, and of course we got along very well indeed."
Terrador unexpectedly chuckled. Imperia looked at him, surprised.
"Just a funny memory involving you." Terrador said, waving his paw to dismiss his comment. "Please continue. I assume you're getting to the part with Malefor sometime today?"
Imperia scowled and laughed. "Yes, yes, I'm getting there." She glanced back at Volteer. "I should talk about you and your adorable stutter and embarrass you further, but that would be mean, wouldn't it? Still if I got Terrador to chuckle again then it would all be worth it."
Terrador laughed. "Imperia, focus."
"Sorry…" Imperia smiled. Even Cyril was looking at her with some fondness. This was going just as well as she had hoped. "Well I guess the bit with Malefor started when I first asked Ignitus if I could be the wind Guardian. I'd been living at the temple for several years, and I'd trained with Flare and Volteer all the time. He must have known what I wanted, but when I went to him and asked he told me no and wasn't even able to offer me a good reason as to why not."
Terrador went to speak, but Imperia spoke before he could.
"Oh he came up with reasons eventually, and he tried his best to let me down gently. 'There have always been four Guardians' 'Many traditions seem unusual to us now, but they're all a part of our history and should be honoured' 'Such changes should be made with caution, there is ancient magic surrounding the position of being Guardian, and that magic may not allow wind dragons.' As well as a few more reasons I have forgotten now."
Terrador nodded. He had been going to defend Ignitus' perspective, but Imperia was telling her story with fairness to the previous fire Guardian, and she spoke accurately as far as he could tell.
"I told him I understood. And I did understand, but that didn't mean I liked it. So I started trying to counter each of his reasons. Firstly by demonstrating that the rules of the Guardians never expressly said that there were only four, merely that four guardians have to remain together, and can only divide under certain circumstances."
"Which is true." Volteer said. "You made me read over those rules too."
Imperia nodded. "You agreed with me, so I went to you for help with a lot of my research. But some things I had to keep hidden. I'm sorry."
Flare smiled. "But your main argument came from Malefor."
The other three unimprisoned guardians all looked at her, surprised and confused. Imperia laughed.
"I take it that you've already put the next part of the story together?"
"I did that years ago." Flare said.
Imperia responded with a smile of her own. "Go on then."
"You were able to counter all reasons against you being the wind guardian, but you never had a really good reason for why there should be a wind guardian. Volteer and I helped you try to find reasons, at first, but after a while you began to do most of that on your own. While you had Volteer and myself looking for leads; you were already following up on the one that had caught your interest."
"Malefor's origin story." Imperia said, grinning. "Oh, you clever girl…"
"That means a great deal, from you." Flare said.
"I'm still ah… confused? Puzzled. Unsure." Volteer said. "What precisely did I miss, and how exactly did I miss it?"
Imperia gazed at Flare. "Since when did you suspect me?"
Flare spun her tail. "For years."
Imperia giggled. "Well done. Although I guessed you might have suspected me."
"And I sometimes wondered if you knew that I knew." Flare said with a hint of playful amusement.
"Let's not get into this discussion too far, or else we'll get seriously side-tracked."
"That has already happened." Cyril said. Imperia nodded.
"Sorry Cyril, can I just have a moment?"
Cyril sighed. "Fine…"
"Flare, I have to ask. Why did you never tell anyone else that I might be working with Malefor?"
Flare looked away, ashamed. "Because I didn't want to believe it."
"It's ok." Imperia pressed her body against the bars, reaching out to Flare with her paw. "Why didn't you want to believe it?"
"Because I thought that you were too good, and too kind, to ever do something like that." Flare tried to keep hurt out of her voice, but Imperia heard it.
"Flare, just hear me out, will you?" Imperia said.
The fire dragoness clasped Imperia's paw for a moment, then she nodded and let go. "You might as well continue the story then."
"We'll talk in private later, ok? Please come and visit me when you decide you want to talk."
Imperia waited a moment until she saw Flare nod, then she stepped away from the bars. She walked back and laid herself down on the bed. "Where was I? Oh yes, Malefor's origin story. Flare was entirely correct. While I had her and Volteer look for leads, I was already chasing one. In Malefor's legend details are rather sketchy, but one thing that is mentioned is that he mastered first his fire element, and then… his wind element."
Imperia paused for dramatic effect.
"That attracted my attention and demanded further investigation. If Malefor had the four Guardian elements, and he also had wind, then was that not evidence for my point of view? So I started looking in the library, even travelling far from the temple and poking around for several weeks in the Warfang underground, while Flare and Volteer had to train."
"You left the temple for several months." Cyril said.
"I came back a few times each week, mostly." Imperia said defensively, and then she smiled. "Why, did you miss me?"
Cyril huffed and muttered something about flirting.
"It turned out that Malefor had left plenty of clues for finding him, and when I followed his trail I eventually found a ritual he had hidden. He needed a way back into the world. There was no point in him locking himself away, oh yes he did that to himself, the Guardians never locked up Malefor. There was no point in him delaying the problem, when he needed time to plan and solve the problem. The ritual was his way to prepare for his eventual release. I learned the ritual, and then I went to the Well of Souls on the eclipse of a Night of Eternal Darkness, many years ago."
"The Well of Souls?" Cyril asked, not immediately recognising the name.
"It's the more literally accurate name for what we'd call the Mountain of Malefor." Volteer told him.
Imperia shivered. "Oh it was spooky and very scary. You see the mountain on that particular night is haunted by evil things that very rarely see a living being, and they are hungry and hateful. I did the ritual and there were spirits and symbols and chanting and a virgin sacrifice an-"
"What!?" Volteer yelped.
"I'm teasing." Imperia was overcome with a fit of giggling.
Volteer looked shocked, Flare and Terrador looked amused, and Cyril looked disapproving.
"Don't worry. There was no virgin sacrifice! Although I did have to use some of my blood, so there was a sacrifice of a kind…" She laughed at the look on Volteer's face. "That was so mean, oh darling I'm sorry."
She took a minute to stop laughing, and then continued.
"It really was quite dramatic, though. I performed the ritual and summoned the spirit of Malefor."
"You could have died!" Volteer exclaimed. "You… you went to summon a dead, evil, vastly powerful dragon, alone?"
"That he would possess my body and come back to burn the world was more of a danger then my dying." Imperia said innocently.
"That's so much better." Volteer replied sarcastically.
"Don't worry too much. I learned the ritual, I didn't just memorise it. I understood what I was doing, and I knew that I was protected from the direct power of the entity I summoned."
"And?" Flare asked, interested despite herself. "How did it go?"
"I accidently summoned the Dark Master." Imperia giggled. "And it did not go well."
"What happened?" Flare asked, fascinated.
"He didn't care who I was. Anything that found the ritual and used it was either a vessel or a meal. He decided to kill me on the spot." She laughed. "Fortunately he wasn't able to. There are two rituals, one was created by the Dark Master and has no protection. The other was made by Malefor and keeps the summoner safe. The consciousness of the Dark Master was brutal, and it attacked me, but he could not harm my body. The pain was incredible, but it was survivable. I staggered out of the circle of symbols I had drawn, his presence left my mind, and I promptly fainted."
Imperia grinned.
"And do you think I learned my lesson and decided not to meddle with things a young dragoness should leave alone?"
Volteer snorted and shook his head. Imperia laughed again.
"I learned my lesson for a whole day. I woke up that next day with a horrible headache, and made my way back to Warfang. I didn't want to return to the dragon temple immediately. I was scared that Ignitus or someone would look at me and see what I had done. Then I'd have gotten in trouble."
Imperia gave the Guardians a sweet smile.
"So I stayed in Warfang that night. That was when I found out that something had happened to my mind."
"You were mental even before you disappeared." Cyril said.
"Touché." Imperia admitted. "But this only affected me while I was asleep. I dreamed of a voice calling me, but I couldn't tell exactly what it was saying. I was afraid it was the Dark Master, so the next day I spent figuring out how to remove it. That night the voice was stronger, as I had feared it would be. But this time I could understand it, and it was apologising."
"And you trusted it?" Terrador looked sceptical.
"Not really. It introduced itself as Malefor, and told me that I had done the ritual too well. I shouldn't have done it on an Eternal Night at the Well of Souls. That was what had caused me to get the Dark Master on the other end of the connection, not Malefor." Imperia laughed. "I didn't trust that they weren't the same individual, just buying time to gather their strength before attempting to kill me again. I figured out how to remove the voice and was prepared to do it but… I hesitated."
"Why?" Terrador asked.
"Because this was the chance I had wanted. I told Malefor that I'd remove him if he didn't assist me, then I questioned him about my problem, and about his elements."
She smiled fondly. "He was extraordinarily helpful. He told me everything I had hoped to learn, and more. You know that even now he has memorised the entire contents of the Warfang library? Books have been lost since his time, and many have been added, but many of the ones he knew are still there even now. He told me about books that could help me with my wind element, and suggested ways I could prove my case to the Guardians."
"So you weren't afraid of him taking control of your body anymore?"
"Not at all." Imperia said. "He taught me a lot about symbols, and about the mental connection we had established. Indeed I trusted him enough that I even strengthened our connection, when I could easily have just cut it." She smiled. "I was curious about him. Malefor is clever, patient, brilliant, and kinder then he would like to admit, and he's also more than a little bit charming." The silver dragoness sighed. "He didn't just interest me, he awed me. He was my friend, and I trusted him completely."
Imperia looked at Volteer, who was looking awkward.
"Should I not be talking about Malefor in this way? Is it too weird?"
"It's… a little bit unsettling, yes."
"Unsettling?" Imperia giggled. "Not a word I'd have chosen, but ok. Anyway we started to talk more, about lots of things. We shared interests, and we shared goals. My desire for a better world was just the same as his, and we could help each other. He taught me about the nature of magic, and about the true nature of dragonkind."
"True nature?" Volteer looked interested.
"Many of Malefor's theories are things that you and I have talked about ourselves. I must say that you both make for excellent conversation."
"Umm… thankyou?" Volteer said. Imperia nodded.
"Malefor and I always have a few extended discussions going on, and it's nice. The true nature of dragons, according to him, is that we are unique among living creatures in several ways. Not only are we capable of accessing magic, but magic is tied to our very existence. Malefor believes that dragons do not age, and do not die."
Volteer raised an eyebrow. "There are a few issues with that idea."
"I know. We've talked about it in the past and we are not discussing those issues right now." Imperia said. "What Malefor and I discuss isn't relevant at the moment."
"Tell us about Malefor's plan." Cyril said.
"His plan? His plan was brilliant, dangerous, and even a little bit mad. I thought suited him perfectly. Naturally I had some suggestions for him, and as soon as he found out I was interested he gave me the most important role. Malefor told me where to find his other servants, the ape king Gaul, as well as the ice dragons Gracious and Seth. We were working with Gaul out of necessity, and I didn't much like him. Gaul thought I served the Dark Master, and he would always address me as 'The Dark Mistress', which I found a little bit disturbing."
"I can imagine." Flare said.
"I don't know if it's the Dark Master who seems like the type who'd go in for that sort of 'mistress' thing, or if it's because of my looks and personality, but it's quite a common assumption about us." Imperia said.
Flare shrugged. Imperia continued.
"Gracious is a decent dragon, but his brother was a little bit… weird. Seth thought I was some sort of reward Malefor was offering them; I think that he imagined me being a sacred priestess, and that he could earn me somehow. Those two thought of Malefor as a god, not as a friend."
"You associated with Gaul, as well as those dragons?" Cyril asked. Imperia nodded.
"Yes." She flicked her wings. "And eventually Malefor showed me his most precious secret. An object you'd recognise. A purple gem, about the size of my paw."
"Malefor's spirit gem, recovered from the centre of the world." Volteer murmured.
"That's not exactly what it is. It's a vessel for a soul, and it was linked to Malefor during the time we had it. It was created by the Artisans, at about the same time as the Dragonslayer was. That crystal is the source of Malefor's immortality."
"And it was right within our grasp." Volteer said. "We had it, right here in Warfang."
"Yes we did. When Malefor told me where to find the crystal I finally knew that he trusted me as much as I trusted him. That crystal was the cornerstone of his plan, and without it he would almost certainly be doomed. I took it home with me and hid it under my bed." Imperia laughed. "I made a few jokes about stealing his heart, but he trusted me with it. I kept it for many years, and Malefor and I became close friends. And then a purple egg and a black egg were laid at the Dragon temple."
Terrador sat up straighter. "And so the story of Spyro and Cynder begins."
-4Dragons