This chapter was rather difficult to write, and I'd like to thank everyone who has been patient in waiting for it.

I have a very particular piece of music for this chapter; and it caused a further delay in getting this finished because until recently it did not appear anywhere on youtube!

I've uploaded the song for this chapter myself, it's the only video I have on my youtube channel.

The song is 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' by Tina Arena and the Australian boys choir. It belongs at the end of the chapter and Imperia sings it, but you can play it at any time. It is how I have typically imagined her voice would sound and is a uniquely beautiful song.

paste this into youtube to find the song: watch?v=nb2k5hHPKFM

Enjoy!

Malefor hadn't moved from where Cynder had left him; a few seconds after she'd shouted at him and disappeared into her shadows the purple dragon had simply collapsed where he stood. He was now lying as if tossed carelessly over some of the rubble, near the middle of the explosion crater.

Ember was gone, along with Volteer and Altia; dozens of dragons were picking through the ruins around them although as Cynder approached she noticed that they all kept a cautious distance from Malefor. Cyril, Flare and Terrador still remained, standing near the purple dragon and keeping watch over the proceedings. Flare nodded to Cynder as the black dragoness approached, and she noticed that Cyril did the same; she returned the gesture, Imperia's revelation about how much Cyril valued her was still in her mind.

"Is everyone okay?"

Terrador turned around as she approached and nodded with a sigh of relief. "No injuries to speak of, just property damage."

He glanced around at the ruins of the city.

"A lot of property damage."

Cynder had to smile faintly at that. "When Spyro is going to get something done he always gives it his all. The same seems to be true of Hope. That's what Dark Spyro is calling himself by the way."

Malefor raised his head at that. "So he has named himself. Not a wholly unexpected name, all things considered. On the topic of the unexpected I did not realise that Dark… Hope, would be able to enter convexity so quickly. His desperation must have let him unlock it instinctively. It was something that took me a long time to learn. I am sorry for not warning any of you; and Cynder I am sorry for what I said."

"Me too." Cynder replied. "I was frustrated, and I still am a bit. But that's no excuse for taking it out on you; on any of you. You all did everything you could." Her eyes flicked to Cyril as she spoke and she saw him taken by surprise. Clearly he had expected she would have been a lot less forgiving towards him. A sort of understanding passed between the black dragoness and the ice guardian.

"You have nothing to apologise for. Your reaction was quite reasonable considering that I should have warned you he could open portals to convexity. My comment to you was not so justified." Malefor said.

Cynder shrugged. "You were frustrated too."

Malefor nodded. "Yes; but that's because I have not been sleeping lately. I am not at my best; I was slow, foolish; we could maybe have had him if I had been less proud."

Cynder tilted her head. "Why haven't you been sleeping well?"

"You misunderstand. I have not been sleeping at all." Malefor told her.

The moment he said it she saw it; not just in the obvious way he had collapsed with exhaustion. Now she was looking for it she saw how sunken his eyes were, how much duller his irises were compared to the brilliant violet colour she had seen in him the first time they'd met. The aura of power that always surrounded him was fragile, more like a brittle shell put up around something tender, not radiation coming from a hot point of energy.

"Why haven't you been sleeping?" Cynder asked; confused.

"It is not a habit I have kept for the last thousand years. Time means little in convexity; and it is a struggle to adjust. Additionally, I have been… cautious."

"Cautious?"

"I am not well liked in this world; and in Warfang in particular there live three poison dragons who would likely be capable of killing me in my sleep."

Cynder frowned. "I wouldn't do that; although I won't deny that I've been tempted. The other two poison dragons are Miasma and Nadder; and they wouldn't kill you in your sleep either. At least I don't think so."

"You're right, of course. I am a fool to trust Warfang so little as to even refuse to sleep here."

"You could have slept with me; I'd have looked after you." Imperia said helpfully.

Imperia paused for a moment. Cynder raised an eyebrow.

"That came out wrong. I just meant… well, you know what I meant. It was a platonic offer of help."

"And a greatly appreciated one." Malefor responded. He glanced over at Flare. "Although I think you're still confined to your cell. Is that right Flare?"

"She is." Flare nodded.

"Aww…" Imperia whined. "It only took a threat to all of Warfang to drag me out, and now you're just going to lock me up again?"

"Yes; until your trial."

"My trial could be weeks away…"

"Too bad."

Imperia sighed. "Fine… Wait, is my cell even intact? Half of the temple is in ruins!"

Flare raised an eyebrow. "You know full well that the cell is on the other side of the temple. Of course it is intact."

Imperia grumbled unhappily.

"I'll come with you." Malefor said; staggering to his feet.

"Yay!" Imperia brightened up considerably.

Malefor chuckled slightly. "Don't expect much in the way of conversation."

Imperia shrugged. "Oh well; I can talk for both of us."

"I can't imagine that will help me fall asleep." Malefor commented.

"Well then I'll sing you to sleep."

Malefor considered that for a moment. "That… would be nice; I think. Thankyou."

Cynder watched as Imperia and Malefor walked away; she sighed slightly.

"You look lost."

The black dragoness looked around; seeing that Flare had stepped up beside her. "Oh, hey. I guess I am a bit. I want to go save Spyro, but I don't know where he is. I was talking to Imperia about everything, but now she's gone. I want to help fix the city or something, but I don't really know how to help."

"I didn't think of that before sending Imperia away. Sorry."

Cynder shrugged. "Well it's fine. Why are you so insistent on her going to the cell though? She's escaped once and then you let her out this morning to help with fighting Hope. She sure doesn't seem to be treating it like she's a prisoner. Also aren't you two in a relationship or something?"

"That's a good question. We are in a relationship, but I can't let that get in the way of duty. I think that she needs to stand trial; and she needs to be aware that her actions have consequences. The guardians play an important role in keeping the city safe; in fact our authority is almost as absolute as the fire king Magmar had over his fire dragons. He could order them to their deaths without anybody being able to question him. The population of Warfang need to know that we can be held accountable for abusing our power."

"You could order dragons to their deaths?" Cynder raised an eyebrow.

"You look like you could use a distraction. Let's walk and talk about it. Neither of us have elements well suited to the cleaning process."

"Sure."

Flare began to wind her way through the rubble, towards the undamaged parts of the city. Cynder followed a step behind; admiring Flare's spinning tail.

"As lord of the fire dragons Magmar could send his people out on suicide missions. Depending on the mission that's as good as a death sentence. He also has the power to execute traitors. And it's not completely without question; it would be possible for the citizens to rebel, or for a strong dragon to challenge for the leadership. Unfortunately that seems to be the case for Asha, Magmar's sister."

"What do you mean?" Cynder looked at her in confusion.

"We've had messages from Shattershelf about an attempted coup; a few of Magmar's old guards decided that because Asha lost to me in single combat, didn't punish her bother's killers, and then attempted to make peace with Warfang that she is a weak ruler."

"Seriously? She wasn't as nasty as Magmar was, but she definitely isn't what I'd call weak. She was very commanding and controlled, and I thought she was next in line because she was the next strongest dragon in the city."

"It turns out she is; she easily defeated the chosen challenger and retained her position, and then survived an assassination attempt the following night and had one of Magmar's old guards executed for his part in it."

Cynder frowned. "I see…"

"The guardians of Warfang exist in a better balanced system than the Shattershelf dragons, because in my case the other guardians would keep me in line the same way we're going to do to Imperia. If I tried to abuse my authority then they would stop me. However I get the benefit that not just any dragon could replace me by outfighting me. They would need to prove themselves in an official capacity first. There is more oversight and safety."

"What stops the guardians from picking favourites? If the four guardians had been you, Volteer, Imperia and Terrador on the council then would you have ever let Cyril join? I would probably have voted against him being allowed just out of pure spite, no matter if he had good things to bring to the team or not."

Flare dropped back a step to walk in pace with Cynder as they finally made their way out of the rubble field and into the undamaged streets.

Flare continued to talk, choosing which streets they walked down. Cynder noticed that Flare was taking them somewhere, but she didn't really pay attention.

"We guardians tend to choose candidates to train far in advance; Terrador and Cyril are training Seizo and Cyria respectively as possible replacements. I believe you've met them both, Cyria shares Cyril's caution and sense of order, but she's much more agreeable to talk to in my opinion. Seizo is the intellectual prodigy, young, but with a great deal of raw potential. They're both almost certain of achieving their respective positions; however… any dragon who passes all of the tests is able to be a potential guardian. Ignitus actually did that; he came out of nowhere, a powerful and confident young drake who stunned all of Warfang with his skills, and disrupted a master apprentice chain that had lasted for well over three hundred years. It was quite a scandal, and believe me Ignitus was monitored very closely during his first hundred years in the job. But he really was the greatest fire dragon of his time, and he was a great guardian."

"I didn't know that. I knew he was something of a living legend; but that's… pretty cool." Cynder said thoughtfully. "I may ask him about it if I get the chance."

"Imperia may have undergone guardian training, but she didn't undergo an apprenticeship because she had no official mentor. Technically speaking she passed the tests and came out of nowhere as well."

"And now she's officially in trouble."

"Indeed she is. It's not a common occurrence; Imperia and Thoran are the only two guardians who've betrayed the group since before Malefor was born. Still it's a price we have to pay in order to give a wide variety of different perspectives an equal chance to influence the system."

"As long as they have a guardian element."

"You don't need to tell me about elements outside of the main four-now-five getting little say in the way that Warfang is run. Imperia has told me about that more times than I can count. However it's a small problem: right now there are only two dragons in Warfang not represented by a guardian. Miasma and Nadder. Before Imperia there would have been more because we'd be counting her and the other wind dragons, perhaps twenty in total, including yourself."

"Just because there are only a few doesn't mean that discrimination is a small problem." Cynder countered.

"That's not what I'm meaning. As a fire dragon I'm not expert on the matter, but I believe we are taking steps forwards in seeing that all dragons have equal representation. I mean that it should be a bigger problem which effects more than just this one city. That because the guardians are so localised to Warfang we're not really achieving everything we're capable of. There are stories of poison dragons out there. Not fear or shadow dragons that I know of, but I do hope that there are some of them as well. The Guardians were meant to represent all of dragonkind, not just one large city and population."

"You think the guardians ought to have more power? That sounds kind of like what Malefor goes on about. Unifying all of dragonkind under one rule."

"Kind of." Flare agreed. "I think Malefor could be a worthy guardian. I'd like to see him integrated into the tradition somehow. I think that you could fit in well with the guardians too."

"You know Imperia said something pretty similar to me just a bit earlier. She said something about me being like the sixth guardian."

"You know… we could make that official; if you were interested. Cynder, poison shadow and fear guardian of Warfang. What do you think?" Flare winked.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Cynder shook her head. "I'm willing to help others, but I'm not comfortable with a responsibility like that."

"I understand. This city hasn't left a very warm impression on your heart so far. The offer will remain open, but I knew it was a long shot to suggest it."

"It's not so much that. Actually you might be surprised how much I like this city. I really do appreciate the offer, I know it's a pretty big deal."

Cynder looked around at the familiar architecture, her eyes running over geometric green gardens and pleasant yellowish stone.

"It's beautiful here, and I have a lot of friends. But I'm just not comfortable with being a guardian; there are rules and responsibilities and all of that sort of thing. I don't think I could handle it."

"I think you'd do better than you give yourself credit for. You've already shown talent and kindness. You've proven that you can handle the pressure and go above and beyond what anyone could expect from you. Those are exactly the traits that the guardians need to have."

"I guess so; but something about it just feels wrong to me. Maybe someday."

"I hope so." Flare said with a smile.

The two of them walked in silence for a few moments, and then Flare stopped at a tree in a courtyard.

"I have something that you might find relaxing." Flare said to Cynder, before gesturing to the tree.

Cynder watched as Flare placed one of her paws against the tree trunk and closed her eyes. The leaves turned brown and curled, and for a moment Cynder thought that Flare was going to burn it down, but instead it seemed like the fire dragoness was somehow making the tree dry it's leaves. After several seconds of focus Flare removed her paw and pirouetted on her heel, giving the tree a firm kick straight to the trunk, knocking the now brown leaves to the ground.

"Step on one." Flare told her.

Cynder frowned. "Okay?" She put a paw over one of the leaves and pressed down; crushing it beneath her paw with a satisfying little crunch.

"What do you think?" Flare asked.

"About stepping on leaves?" Cynder stepped on another one, getting another little crunch. "I guess you're right. It is kind of satisfying." She crushed a few more.

"Oh good. I was worried you might think me strange."

"Uh…"

"You do think me strange, don't you?" Flare smiled, seeming perfectly content for Cynder to think that.

"Well… you are always dancing. It's beautiful, very beautiful. But it is… strange."

Flare laughed and flicked her wings, her tail spinning faster. "You make a good point."

"So why the dancing? I've been wondering about it ever since I first saw you. I get that it has to do with your fighting style, you like deflecting and defending, but is that all it is? Why do you do it all the time? All of the extra fancy footwork seems like a waste in the middle of a fight."

"Practice." Flare smiled. "The thing about being defensive is that you need the stamina to keep it up for longer than your opponents can keep up their attacks."

"It's endurance training? But you do it all the time!"

"Well then I must have a lot of endurance." Flare said, nodding.

"How long have you been dancing for?"

"Only about sixty years."

"Only about sixty years?" Cynder laughed slightly. "I don't know what's more incredible, that you can say that so casually or that you've been doing it for that long."

"It's soothing. Would you like to practice it?" Flare offered.

Cynder nodded. "Of course!"

Flare gestured to the fallen leaves. "Well this is the best way to practice." With her tail she brushed some gaps in the leaves. "See if you can circle the tree without stepping on any leaves."

Cynder looked at the leafbed and started picking her way through it; she needed to make a few little hops in order to do it, but she didn't have much difficulty. Flare poked around at the leaves again, covering several of the gaps.

"Your balance is remarkable. Imperia taught you how to massage on top of someone's back, didn't she? The skills required are similar."

Cynder nodded. "I've done things like this before."

"This is a starting exercise that you can add variations on top of; it's mostly just about balance and getting comfortable with the constant movement. Things become more and more challenging. You can even fight on a leafbed like this; but that's very difficult."

"I like it." Cynder smiled.

Flare returned the smile happily. "I thought that you might." She stepped onto the leaves, circling in the same direction as Cynder.

The black dragoness laughed slightly. "It feels like we're doing some sort of tree worship ritual."

"Well trees are nice, and this is a nice tree." Flare commented.

"I don't get you." Cynder said. "You're sort of silly, but also not. You seem like you don't really notice anything, but then you're much more suspicious and come across as very alert when you're talking. Why did you join the guardians?"

"We haven't really talked, you and I, have we?" Flare said thoughtfully. "I feel like I know you from Imperia talking about you."

"I don't like it when I'm talked about behind my back. Although I can't really stop it, I guess, and if anyone is going to do it then at least it's Imperia."

"I never just believed her, not until I met you for myself. Only then did I start to decide what I thought of you. But why did I join the guardians? At first it was because I was told to."

"You were told to?"

"Yes, practically commanded. Ignitus saw potential in me, more than I ever would have thought I had. I was never reluctant, but I never really believed either. I just did what I was told and began my training."

"Really?"

"Doing what your told quietly might not be something you could really imagine a reason to do, but among fire and ice dragons discipline and loyalty to your elders is quite an important thing. The Old Fire dragons name themselves such because their more totalitarian power structure is closer to the traditions of the first great fire dragons from whom they claim to be pureblood descendants; although ever since the first Malefor catastrophe we lost the historic records that could confirm if they're telling the truth or not."

Cynder frowned. "That sounds ridiculous. Did you really not have a choice?"

"I certainly had a choice; if I didn't want to be a guardian in the end then no amount of training from Ignitus would have got me anywhere near passing the tests. I had to find a reason to want to be a guardian, something to give me strength." Flare turned a graceful twirl as they spoke.

"And what's the reason?" Cynder copied Flare's action as closely as she could, but she ended up stepping on a leaf. She huffed slightly and crushed a few more leaves to vent her annoyance, then kept practicing.

"Well it all started with Imperia."

"Seems like she starts everything." Cynder commented. Flare shrugged and nodded.

"Indeed. She came to the temple, following around after Ignitus like a little lost puppy. I didn't understand why she was there at first, but Ignitus asked me to be her friend. You may find this hard to believe, but at the time Imperia was very quiet and shy. She'd been through hell after being captured and tormented, she was emotionally fragile and scared. Bit by bit I became her friend and helped her heal, over time learning the story of how she'd come to be this way."

"I can't imagine a quiet Imperia. I know she was abused in the past but looking at her now I really can't see it. Sure she's over the top and flirty now; but that's not like a defence thing, it's just how she wants to be."

"Well it only took her a few years to get back to that kind of state. Suddenly it went from her being the quiet one and me gently pushing her to interact with others to me being the quiet one and her constantly dragging me into trouble."

Cynder laughed slightly. "But you still fell in love with her."

"Indeed. She's been my mate, albeit unofficially, for even longer than Volteer; even though I have known Volteer for longer."

"So how did Imperia make you want to be a guardian?"

"Well in part it was because she wanted to be a guardian so much. She almost never stopped talking about it; and it made me finally start to ask myself honestly what I really wanted."

"I see." Cynder said thoughtfully.

"I realised how important the position of guardian was; and understood just how much my strengths would benefit the team. I saw I had a chance to make a difference. But also I wanted to do it to prove that I could. At the time there had been only male guardians for over fifty years, and only male fire guardians for five times that long. The ultimate reason why I joined the guardians in the end was that I wanted to prove to the world that I was the best; and I still want to."

"Now that is a motive that I can appreciate." The black dragoness smiled slightly.

Flare laughed slightly. "I thought you might. I almost wish I'd gotten the chance to fight Magmar myself. His reputation is second only to Ignitus in terms of power, and both of them remained undefeated before their deaths. It won't be easy to prove that I am their equal, if I in fact am."

"He was scary; I wouldn't have gone looking for a fight with him. I wasn't going to back down from him either, though."

"I wouldn't go looking for a fight if it meant putting my life or Warfang in unnecessary danger; and I don't know if I could have defeated him, but there is a part of me which regrets that I did not try."

"I wouldn't have thought you were the glory seeking type." Cynder admitted.

"Well… I wouldn't use those words precisely; but I suppose the answer is yes, yes I am."

Cynder flopped to the ground with a groan. "My legs are tired. I can't believe you can do this all day."

"Well you have spent the morning throwing Dark Spyro through walls; that's bound to tire anyone out." Flare sat down opposite Cynder.

"I didn't have to spend too much energy; not compared to Malefor. Still… I am tired." Cynder nodded.

"I'm sure Imperia has said this already, but I think you've done really well, Cynder." Flare smiled.

The black dragoness nodded again; remaining silent for a few moments before a thought occurred to her. "Flare?"

"Yes Cynder?"

"Do you think I have a fifth element like Spyro and Malefor do?"

Flare hummed thoughtfully. "Well it's possible. I'm no expert, but I think there's a chance. Why are you asking me? I would think Malefor or Imperia would know better than I."

"Well four elements is a lot, but the reason I ask you is because if I had a chance to learn a new element then I'd want to learn fire."

"Really?" Flare looked at her, slightly surprised. "It's not the most versatile of elements, primarily destructive, but handicapped in dragon against dragon fighting due to all dragons having natural fire resistance. Wouldn't you prefer ice or earth?"

Cynder raised an eyebrow. "The fire guardian recommending things other than fire? I thought it would be your favourite element."

"Oh it is!" Flare laughed. "Make no mistake Cynder: Fire is the best element by far, beyond questioning. It confers resistance to cold, it has one of the strongest magic input to effect output ratios meaning you can use it all day, you can use it for mobility with comet dashes, it grants you a huge amount of -dare I say it- firepower, and the more skilled you become with it the more you'll realise that it's good for a huge variety of situations, not just burning things down."

"That's more what I expected." Cynder said with a smile. "I don't know if I could pick and choose, or if I would be limited to wind and one other. Perhaps I could learn all the elements. Perhaps anyone can? I don't know."

"That would be nice. All dragons are born with at least one, I only know of dragons who have mastered two; but there is still a possibility. I would enjoy learning a shadow element if it were possible; I think."

Cynder nodded. "We'll give it a try sometime."

"So this does mean you'll be staying in Warfang when this is over?" Flare asked curiously.

"Probably." Cynder nodded. "When we have Spyro back."

Imperia sighed slightly as she sat down against the wall of her cell for a third time. "I'm getting kind of bored of this room."

Malefor stood at the door for a few moments, until Imperia waved him over to the bed. "You've earned somewhere comfy to sleep. I'll be fine over here."

"If you say so." The purple dragon walked to the bed and flopped into it with a groan.

"You're definitely not looking your best."

"As observant as always." Malefor chuckled slightly, he breathed in, smelling faint lavender. "This bed smells like you."

"Well it is my bed; at least it has become my bed recently."

"Speaking of things that are yours…" Malefor raised a paw, and a long golden spear appeared in his grip, he threw it and Imperia hopped forwards to catch it.

The silver dragoness looked at the Dragonslayer Spear, smiling happily. "Oh I've missed you. It's good to have you back."

She licked her paw and started polishing the blade, settling down against the wall to work.

"Aww, I know you're sorry. I forgive you."

Malefor frowned slightly, with his eyes closed he had to assume Imperia was talking to the spear.

"Of course. I- what? I feel nice to stab? Now I don't know if you're just flattering me or not."

Malefor cracked an eye open, looking over to see Imperia looking quizzically at the weapon.

"Well maybe I have heard similar compliments about my insides; but you are a spear, not a living creature. Oh! Don't make me blush. No, you're not stabbing me again, no matter how nicely you ask. And yes, maybe I am just saying random nonsense to mess with Malefor, but maybe I really am having a conversation with an inanimate object."

Malefor groaned; Imperia looked at him with a grin.

"You'll just have to wonder."

Malefor sighed. Imperia let him wonder for a few moments before explaining herself.

"It doesn't really talk to me; but I can sort of feel moods from it. Right now it's happy; watch." She stroked her paw over the blade, smiling as she wasn't cut. "Don't try this yourself."

"I've seen that spear cut scales like paper. I'm keeping my paws away from it. I'm glad I don't have to hold onto it anymore; I may not feel emotion from it like you claim to, but when I hold it I can feel it trying to absorb my magic."

Imperia resumed her work cleaning the Dragonslayer until it shone. Malefor closed his eyes again, the bed was so soft and warm, he felt like he was sinking into it. How long had it been since he'd slept in a bed?

It was hard to fall asleep; his mind was reluctant to stop working. New ideas and questions constantly came to the front of his thoughts. Imperia must have realised he was struggling, because just like she had promised she began to quietly sing.

She sang wordlessly; a simple tune, something which slowed Malefor's mind, capturing his thoughts and his attention while still lulling him to sleep, it demanded to be listened to, and yet was too simple for his mind to overthink. Her voice was beautiful, it wrapped around Malefor and before long he drifted away.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed then please do leave a review.

The link to the song that Imperia sings for Malefor is here: watch?v=nb2k5hHPKFM

I hope you like it!

-4Dragons