Chapter 39

The Fall
Part V -Final: Tears Fall
~

I bought my ticket for the long way 'round
the one with the prettiest of views
It's got mountains, it's got rivers, it's got sights to give you shivers
But it sure would be prettier with you.

You're gonna' miss me by my talk
You're gonna' miss me by my walk, oh
You're gonna' miss me when I'm gone.

-Cup Song: Extreme Edition, by John Cozart
Imperia's song

Malefor glided up to the rooftop of his fortress. When he had woken up collapsed on part of the stairs of the tower he had laid still and silent, listening to find out what was going on above him. He felt that he'd been brought back to alertness by a sound, perhaps a scream, but when he listened he had heard nothing more. He waited for almost a minute for his power to recover, and then he took off and flew back to the platform. In only moments he saw why there was no sound of fighting or conversation up there.

Cynder and Imperia lay on the floor together; Spyro was nowhere to be seen. It took Malefor only a second to realise that the silver dragoness was dead.

Cynder was crying softly, she'd tucked herself under Imperia's wing and was clinging to the silver female's body. Malefor hadn't been prepared for this. He felt a sudden painful feeling in his chest and he felt his throat constrict, making it hard for him to speak.

His voice was a croak once he finally managed to use it.

"Cynder."

The black dragoness didn't look around, didn't make any response whatsoever.

Malefor walked forwards, his usual caution in dealing with Cynder was forgotten. Cynder had never looked less dangerous; in fact she looked heartbroken and utterly defeated.

The pain in Malefor's chest wasn't going away. There was no physical injury, either external or internal; Malefor had fully healed himself of the wounds he'd suffered in the fight. But this pain wasn't going away. In fact it was getting stronger.

Malefor distanced himself from it as much as he could, but he was already creating a hypothesis as to what it was, and he knew that it would claim him eventually. While he still had the power to plan with calculating logic he decided on a course of action. It wasn't a great one by his usual standards, but it was all that he could think of.

Seeing Cynder like this made the pain worse, but nothing hurt quite so much to look at as Imperia's still form. Malefor walked up to them and stopped. He very gently, tenderly in fact, lifted Imperia's wing aside to look at Cynder.

Neither of the dragonesses reacted to his presence in any way, but Cynder was still crying and Imperia was not breathing.

Malefor used his purple magic to coax Cynder off Imperia, he felt that he had to do something but he wasn't entirely sure how or what to do.

"Cynder. She's gone. We can't help her now." Malefor spoke softly, trying to get through to the distraught black dragon without success. He cast around for something to get her to react, and as usual his mind hit upon a brilliant idea. "Cynder… where's Ember?"

That made an impact. Cynder's head raised and the black dragoness spoke in a quiet, broken, voice. "She… she wanted us to be together."

Malefor looked at her, not understanding. "Ember wanted you and Imperia to be together?"

"No." Cynder shook her head dully. "Imperia wanted Ember and I to be together. She… she wanted us to be friends."

"She did?" Malefor phrased it as a question, he hadn't known this.

It fit perfectly with what he knew of Imperia, she would always try to solve the arguments of those around her, but he had assumed that Cynder and Ember had made up with each other without Imperia's help. Finding out that she was more directly involved was unexpected. Imperia had talked to him about wanting to help the two of them, but she'd never confided in him any plans for doing so.

Cynder thought that Malefor was making a statement. She nodded in response. "Imperia wanted Ember and I to get over our rivalry, and work together. She hoped that we would."

"She was right." Malefor said softly. That if nothing else he was certain of.

"Yes… she's been right about a lot of things." Cynder felt more tears coming. Malefor spoke before Cynder could close off from him again.

"Ember is in the castle, she's been captured. The General wanted her to be safe."

"Where?"

Malefor glanced over his shoulder, he had sent mental summons to any orc in the vicinity the moment he'd decided on this little plan of his. A pair of orcs crawled up onto the platform; he sent one of them away with a brief dismissal and then gave orders to the other while also talking to Cynder.

"This orc will take you to her. None of the orcs in the fortress will attack you now, our disagreements with each other are over now Cynder, we've both lost what we had and there's nothing left to fight over."

Cynder saw the hurt in Malefor's eyes and heard it in his voice. She left silently, following the orc that had been tasked with leading her.

Malefor felt a surprising surge of admiration for the black dragoness. She was still thinking of others as well as just herself, even as her closest friend lay dead before her feet.

Once Cynder was gone Malefor sighed, abandoning all of his pretence at being cold and in control.

Imperia had meant everything to him too. She wasn't just his closest friend; the silver dragoness had been his only one.

It wasn't rational, it wasn't logical, and it wasn't the action of a Malefor who was capable of creating a new better world. But right now he didn't care. Right now he wasn't that Malefor. That Malefor saw Imperia as nothing more than a tool. That Malefor was gone; perhaps he had been gone for a long time.

He sat beside the still form of the wind dragoness, resting a paw on the curve of her throat and looking at her still face, she looked peaceful and sad, but with a bittersweet smile touching her lips. A funny thought as she'd died, perhaps.

Tears began to fall from Malefor's snout. He let them, Imperia deserved no less then all of the emotion that he could show. She deserved more emotion; the feeling in his chest had expanded to fill him with sadness. It was grief, just as he had thought it was. If he had have been able to weep then he would have, but he couldn't do it. Imperia would just have to trust that he felt more then he showed.

"Well… here we are. My plan failed, and you're the one to blame. Why, Imperia? Why did you do this?"

Malefor sighed, he stroked Imperia's throat, examining her scales.

"Nevermind, it's not so hard to work out. The same reason that you did anything. You thought it'd make everyone happier."

Malefor gently shifted Imperia's wings so they folded neatly. He reluctantly grasped the Dragonslayer and drew the bloody blade from her breast. The golden spear felt unusual, it gladly came out of the wound it had inflicted, and it rested mournfully in his paw once Malefor had removed it.

Malefor knew that the Dragonslayer had consciousness, it knew in some limited way that it had just slain its mistress, the dragon who'd cared for it lovingly and wielded it so skilfully. Malefor wondered if it was sorry.

"You got the spear back for us, but that's not something worth sacrificing your life for."

Malefor pondered.

"You'd still be alive now if you didn't intend to sacrifice your life. If you weren't prepared to go through with it you'd have been more cautious and never gotten within range of the spear. I know you, Imperia. You were ready to die when you came here, even if you didn't want to."

Malefor tilted his head; there were so many fond memories he had of his long talks with Imperia, memories tinted now with pain at her loss. A pain too deep to express with actions, too complicated for him to show it using his emotions. He had to talk about it, try to explain it to her and to himself.

"You never liked sacrifices. I sacrificed my kindness for the good of my plan, and you couldn't stand that. Remember? Of course you remember, we argued about it for years. I said emotions weren't going to help, they were a luxury that I didn't have if I wanted to succeed. You told me that I was too cold, you didn't think that I should conceal my emotions."

He sighed; he curled his tail around and rested it against Imperia's head.

"You were right about a lot of things; maybe that's one of them."

Malefor looked at Imperia.

"I'm sure you'd be smiling if you were alive to hear this. What could you possibly have to smile about?"

Then he chuckled.

"No, I see it now. You lost the rational argument, so you tried a more persuasive tactic. You wormed your way into my mind, pleasing and frustrating me with your personality, and your antics. You helped me overcome my loneliness, you were understanding and caring and all along you were doing it to try to win me over to your way of thinking."

He reached down and picked up Imperia's paw, squeezing it gently.

"And you win. That's what you want, isn't it? Well you have it. You made me care about you. I had just finished proving to you that caring wouldn't help me and then you had to go along and make me care anyway."

Malefor shook his head slightly in frustration and another tear dripped, this one landed on Imperia's wing.

"Well done, you proved that I have a heart. I must have a heart, because… because loosing you has left me heartbroken."

He looked at her.

"How poetic. You'd be proud, wouldn't you?" He sighed. "Is that worth dying for? You died to show me that I can care? It's not a wholly encouraging message. It hurts."

Malefor sniffled slightly, trying not to laugh at the same time.

"I should be sadder. You deserve the sort of grief that Cynder could show for you."

A thought struck Malefor.

"Oh no… How can I tell Volteer? How can I tell Flare?" Malefor buried his face in his paw. "There are so many dragons who love and care for you. Your students and the Guardians, and I'm sure there are others. I don't know what to do!"

Malefor made a sad sound. He tried to imagine himself doing that. He was Volteer's wary look when Malefor approached him saying that he had news. He saw Volteer's expression turn to shocked disbelief as Malefor told him what had happened, and then he watched as Volteer was filled with pain and began to sob. He expected that the yellow dragon would cry, just like Cynder had. Maybe that wasn't the case; he didn't know Volteer very well after all.

How would Flare respond to the death of her mate? Malefor had no frame of reference for that, Flare was something of a mystery to him. Perhaps she'd be like him, too used to concealing her emotions, unable to show just how much she was hurt.

The one thing that he was sure of was that the news would pain both of them greatly. He was also sure that he didn't want to keep trying to imagine this.

"I'm not going to do anything now. Rest in peace now, Imperia, you've earnt some peace. I'll decide what to do once I'm calmer."

He stood up, and then he paused and looked down at Imperia.

"There's something else that you want from me, isn't there? I can tell. Your death here was too poetic, too perfect. Spyro, Cynder and I all had a part in your death, and I think that you planned that. It's a statement, the final part of something that you've been working towards for years. I'm sure you never wanted to die, but if there was ever a moment to die then this was the perfect one. What is it that you want from me?"

Malefor waited, watching Imperia. He squeezed her paw gently. A theory formed.

"You caused my plan to fail, hoping that it'd lead to us being friends. You never wanted Spyro to become dark either, but you didn't let that stop you from bringing Cynder and myself together. Oh, a friendship forged in tragedy. I imagine that you did just the same thing to Cynder and Ember. Now you want Cynder and I to put aside our grievances, to work together."

He felt another tear fall.

"You didn't need to die to do this! I wanted to be friends with Cynder! I wanted her to be on my side. You… Why did we have to lose you? Why did I have to lose you? Why…"

He looked down at the pale paw he was holding, and then he looked more closely.

"Surely not."

He lifted Imperia's head and looked at her blank lifeless eyes. Undeterred he examined her body, checking for a pulse and finding nothing. He found what he was looking for in her tail and her hind legs. Her larger muscle groups were not showing any indication of post mortal atrophy, but they also weren't functioning normally for a live dragon. Imperia's whole body had gone utterly limp; she was clearly dead, but not in a natural way.

Malefor began to smile faintly.

"Ah, you clever girl… Very clever indeed."

A mystery then: What does Malefor know that we don't?
All of the best puzzles can be solved, and you can solve this one. All of the facts are there, if you put them together.
I usually just ask for reviews, but this time I'm going to ask you for a conspiracy theory. How could Imperia survive? There is a way, perhaps there are several. What do you think?

Other news:
I'm going to re-write the early chapters of this story. Remember back before all of these horrible things happened and everyone was still happy? I want to go back to that time for a little while.

There may not be many new chapters posted for a while, but I am still going to be writing new things that you might enjoy reading. I'll post the new chapters as their own story as soon as I finish each one, so check my profile for that. It'll probably be called 'A Duel With Destiny, The Power of Time' because that's a really dramatic way of me saying "I think I've gotten better during one year of story writing, what do you think?"

If you're not interested in reading those and giving feedback as I write them then I'll let everyone know once I've updated the old chapters with the new ones. You can go back and re-read then without ever needing to leave the story.

Updates may be slow again from now on, however that gives you all plenty of time to think over what's happened to Imperia and come up with ideas.

Don't lose hope.

-4Dragons