Well we've seen the opinions of Terrador, Volteer and Cyril. But there is one more guardian who needs a bit of love; perhaps the closest one to Imperia of all. On the topic of loving Flare I have a song recommendation for her: Beethoven Virus by Diana Boncheva; classical violin and epic rock blended together in an ode to one of the greatest musicians of all time. The song just completes her character, classical and dignified, but something that makes you want to dance to it, I can imagine it might be what plays inside her head that makes her twirl her tail all the time.

I'll try to leave the link to Bethoven Virus down here, I recommend it incredibly highly:
watch?v=DtKCNJmARF0

Imperia also gets a song for her moment in this chapter: Not Afraid, by Eminem. I hadn't listened to many Eminem songs until recently, but I've been enjoying them very much and Not Afraid is a particular favorite which also fits in well for this chapter.

With that, I hope you'll enjoy the chapter!

Flare was naturally a light sleeper and always quick to wake, alert to the faintest sounds. She preferred to be aware of her surroundings and it had proven a valuable habit to strengthen during the war. Being caught asleep behind enemy lines was practically a death sentence; the apes had been quick to take advantage of the fact that every dragon had to land sometime.

The night after Imperia's trial was not a night for very much sleep, light or otherwise. Flare found herself lying awake looking at the stars through her window for hours.

It had been an unpleasant surprise when Cyril had gone against her, voting for Imperia to stay. Deeply unpleasant.

She had expected that her choice was going to be the final say on the matter; and she had made her peace with that. Imperia just wasn't ready to be a guardian yet in a lot of ways.

She had chosen carefully with the belief that the final decision was going to be hers. But it hadn't been; her carefully planned decision had been disrupted.

And so Flare did what she always did. When faced with an unavoidable problem she compromised, she recalculated her position, and she started looking for ways to solve it.

She couldn't solve the vote, the vote wasn't the real problem anyway. Imperia was the problem, and Flare had been trying to solve her for the last sixty years.

While she thought fire twined around her claws, becoming vines, tender shoots sprang up, thickening into slim branches and sprouting leaves before flickering away to be replaced by new growth.

It was beautiful, the firelight reflecting off mirrors in her room. The mirrors were a practical inclusion, during the day they caught the sunlight and spread it around, helping to keep the plants in her room alive.

Where Imperia's room was an opulent palace with a bed made for sharing, and Volteer's room was a laboratory; Flare's room was a greenhouse for plants. Ferns and flowers in neatly arranged pots lined the walls, clustered around the patches with the most morning sunlight. She had a dedicated team of moles to keep her floors clean, she couldn't stand the idea of living in dirt, although she wasn't shy of getting her paws dirty when it was time to move plants into their proper homes in the gardens around Warfang.

Flare worked with the moles to transport plants across the city, arranging the garden beds and tending to ferns and flowers and shrubs. She took great pride in her work, it had been her pet project since mere days after the war against the Dark Master had ended, and now that she had the resources of a guardian she'd only been making the gardens more and more beautiful.

The flames flickered off the shiny green leaves of the plants, bouncing off the mirrors. In the daylight Flare's room was a lush tangle of life, with her a blossoming rose with her crumpled wings and bright red scales in it's centre. At night the shapes of the plants were always unfamiliar as new ones were constantly moved in and out, Flare's room rarely felt like going to sleep in the same place two nights in a row. It would have been almost spooky, if not for the soothing soft sounds of insects, leaves rustling, and the comfortable greenhouse warmth.

A significant part of her mind was celebrating for Imperia. For all of her concerns about this new development Flare certainly couldn't say that Imperia keeping her job was a bad thing. A challenging thing certainly, but not a strictly bad thing.

She also had to consider what the rest of Warfang wanted. The public vote had been very significantly in Imperia's favour. Decisions far more significant than this one had been made on slimmer margins than Imperia's sixty five percent.

Flare's thoughts wrapped around themselves, tangling and shifting just like the fire in her paws. The green moon slowly arced through the sky, the stars wheeling with it.

It was long past midnight before she finally lay down her head and slept.

Flare woke before dawn; she was good at waking on time. This time she didn't get up immediately, instead she lay in bed; waiting as the sun started to peek through her window. The warm light slowly crawled across the floor towards her.

The fire dragoness tucked her tail tightly around herself, wondering if she would drift off again.

There was no sound to alert her; but Flare still knew the moment she wasn't alone in the room anymore.

"Well you're awake earlier than usual." Flare said softly.

There was a sigh from behind her. "You're scary, you know that? You even knew it was me."

"Imperia you're the only one who would enter my room without knocking." She opened her eyes and turned, looking at Imperia.

"How do you do it?" The silver dragoness asked. "How do you always notice?"

Flare shrugged and smiled mysteriously. "I have my ways. What do you want?"

"I've come to apologise…" Imperia bowed her head. "For everything. The way I've treated you. I abused your trust, and you've trusted me so much more than I even realised. I'm sorry…"

Flare sat up. "You woke at dawn and came here to apologise?" Flare raised an eyebrow slightly. "You didn't think it could wait?"

Imperia shook her head. "I'm sorry if I woke you. But Cynder told me about your vote…"

"She wasn't supposed to say anything about how anybody voted…" Flare frowned.

"I know." Imperia nodded. "She thought I needed to know; and afterwards she asked me to apologise to you on her behalf for the fact that she told me. She also said you might want to start an apology collection."

Flare laughed slightly. "You owe a lot of apologies right now; not just to me. I should give you one in return though. I'm sorry I voted against you. We both know that it might have been for the best if you didn't remain a guardian, but off the record I'm very glad that you made it."

Imperia bowed her head again as she accepted Flares words, knowing that it was the truth. She had overstepped the line, she had put others in danger. Her intentions had been good but her actions had been selfish. Her contrite mood was balanced by a soft glow of relief at the remainder of Flare's comment.

"You were right to vote against me yesterday. Yesterday I may have been ashamed and hurt and regretful, but I was still arrogant. I've always known it's my flaw, but I didn't even think… I never thought it was a real problem until all of this happened. I want to be better. Today I want to be worthy of my guardianship."

Flare raised an eyebrow. "Really? Are you sure that in your efforts to be better you won't become even worse? The more inspired you are the less you tend to ask for permission. You might go ahead and do the least arrogant think you can think of… and it ends in a disaster nonetheless. Besides I try to imagine you without your overconfidence and I quite simply draw a blank. I cannot picture it."

Imperia bit her lip. "You're not wrong. I don't know how to stop myself from that. But… maybe I should follow your lead a bit more from now on."

"I wouldn't ask for that. Just remember that you can talk to me whenever you have an idea. I'm here for you, and you don't need to be running off on your own."

"Even the stupid ideas?"

"Especially the stupid ideas. You can trust me."

Imperia nodded, smiling softly now. "I will! I promise."

"Come here." Flare offered a hug, which Imperia gladly accepted. "If we'd had this conversation before the trial I would have possibly voted for you to stay, you know."

"Possibly." Imperia observed with a faint laugh.

"Yes possibly. You have issues Imperia, but you're far from a bad dragon."

"Heehee, I certainly wouldn't want to be a Bad Dragon."

"I'm sensing some kind of joke here about a bad dragon. Are you referencing something?" Flare frowned.

Imperia shrugged innocently.

"Anyway what I'm saying is that you have many fine qualities and if you could just be a little bit less…" Flare paused to decide on a word.

"Chaotic." Imperia offered.

"Chaotic and dangerous. I know it's harsh, and I know that you had good intentions and things have worked out… well… not exactly all right yet, but better than they might have done."

"It's okay. I needed a kick in the ass. I really have been going too far. I'm just glad that I didn't lose you…"

"As am I." Flare agreed softly. A sudden smirk crossed the fire dragoness' face. "What did you say you needed?"

Imperia saw the smile and tilted her head. "Erm… a kick in the ass? What are you- oh." Imperia gulped nervously. "You want a training dummy again don't you? I was talking about a metaphorical kick."

"Sparring partner dear, sparring partner. How many times do I have to say it? Sparring partners are like training dummies that hit back."

"Not like I ever land a hit on you anyway…" Imperia grumbled. Both of them knew that she wasn't really reluctant; but she certainly made it sound very convincing.

"You do hit me sometimes. Didn't you just say you wanted to follow my lead more? Well now I'm leading you to the training arena."

"Okay okay I'll fight you… I already have to upgrade all the water pipes though…" Imperia whined.

"Aww… Don't you enjoy sparring with me?" Flare teased.

Imperia laughed. "I enjoy all the time I spend with you. I just hate bruises and scorch marks on my scales. I like quiet dinners and romantic nights better."

"Tempting. We'll have a nice dinner sometime this week if we can find the time. But you're the only dragon in the whole city who's fast enough to present me a challenge and it's for the good of the city that we're both performing at our best."

"What about Terrador? Surely he's a challenge."

"Yes he is, and I spar with Terrador all the time."

"You see Terrador behind my back?" Imperia looked at her with mock outrage.

Flare rolled her eyes. "Sure. You can think that."

Imperia had picked up Cynder on the way to the training field after Flare had commented that Cynder would benefit from seeing the two of them in action. Imperia suspected that Flare secretly just wanted to embarrass her in front of the black dragoness, and she resolved to try extra hard to win this time.

Imperia had fought with Flare many times, both of them holding back of course. They didn't want to hurt each other or bring down the building. She won occasionally, but she rarely beat Flare the same way twice and she had been running out of new tricks and techniques for years now.

Cynder was very excited to see the match, she was already grinning as she looked back and forth between the two of them.

Imperia rapidly started to catch Cynder's enthusiasm, before long she was grinning too. Flare raised an eyebrow at them both. "You're looking confident Imperia."

"Oh goodness no. I'm just looking forwards to getting beaten up." Imperia laughed.

"Well I'd hate to scare you…" Flare glanced down slightly. "I'm not that good…"

"You're brilliant." Imperia said happily. "And I'm terrified."

Flare fixed her with a playful scowl. "I won't let you use psychological warfare on me. You're not really scared, you know we're both just going to have a fun time and possibly end up a bit sore afterwards. You're putting on a show because you want to impress Cynder."

"Well you didn't have to just spell it out." Imperia protested.

"I already knew it." Cynder chimed in.

"Shush. Let me have my fantasies." Imperia laughed.

"Your delusions, you mean." Cynder replied teasingly.

Imperia nodded cheerfully and shrugged.

Flare guided them through the Dragon Temple, taking them down several corridors and to a large room with more than a few scorch marks on the walls.

"How many training areas does this city have?" Cynder asked, tilting her head. She'd never been in this one before.

"Quite a few. There is the public colosseum where Spyro fought, then there are three general purpose ones available to anyone, then there are four which are dedicated to an element each. Imperia has also taken over a spare meeting room and had it reinforced to make another one for her students."

"So nine?" Cynder said, mentally counting them up.

"Nine main ones, yes."

"Well you could have just said nine." Cynder said.

Flare laughed. "That would have been far too easy, and you wouldn't have really learned anything about where they are or why they exist."

Cynder rolled her eyes. "Why do I hang around with schoolteachers?"

"You make that sound so uncool." Imperia said.

"I'm uncool, and I don't care." Flare said with a shrug.

"Actually you're super cool Flare." Cynder told Flare. "Both of you are. Sometimes being a teacher makes you even cooler. It seems to make it impossible for you to give me a straight answer though."

As Cynder spoke Flare walked across the room, her tail spinning and swishing over the stone floors. Cynder glanced to Imperia.

"So… are there seats? Where should I watch? Can I place bets?"

Imperia gestured to the roof. "Maybe if you're right at the top of the roof you'll be out of the way."

"Alternatively you could sit wherever you please and anybody who gets too close to you is the loser." Flare offered.

Cynder laughed. "That's a pretty good idea. A furious fight where if anybody so much as brushes past me they're the instant loser. I think I know a way to watch and not interrupt though."

As Flare and Imperia watched curiously Cynder stepped back against the wall and shrouded herself in darkness. The shadows shrank and flattened until there was nothing but an inky black dragoness shape on the wall.

"That's… kind of creepy." Flare admitted.

"I love it." Imperia said.

The shadow made a motion of bowing to them, then sat down; clearly watching them.

Flare bowed to Imperia. "Are you ready?"

Imperia curtsied, smiling. "Ready!"

Flare's tail swished upwards like a flag at the start of a race, flicking once, twice, and then sweeping downwards.

Imperia moved instantly, blurring across the room and her tail slammed into Flare's wing, the hard block from the fire dragoness stopping her dead.

After a half second's pause Imperia whirled around, her tail swiping twice at Flare's head and then twisting low and sweeping at her feet.

Flare tilted her head to one side, then ducked; evading the first two sweeps and skipping over the third, her wing shot out like a whip; cracking off Imperia's paw as it was blocked.

"Ow!" Imperia yelped, annoyed despite having deflected the attack, she swatted her wings at Flare and then jumped into the air and lashed several kicks into her opponent.

Once again Flare seemed to dance out of the way; her wings flicking as she bowed and slinked across the floor, finishing the move with a flourish.

Imperia whirled and spun, building up momentum and lashing out with an extremely powerful kick; but Flare stepped inside the range of the kick, putting herself inside Imperia's forelegs and then instantly smacking her in the head with an elbow strike.

Imperia huffed slightly, bouncing back and hovering for a moment to regain her composure; the wind starting to softly play with her scales as her speed increased. She attacked from above and below, bouncing and jumping and twirling as she carefully aimed attacks at Flare, seeking to confuse her and land a solid hit. Fighting on the ground and in the air were identical when Imperia did them.

Flare was forced backwards step by step; driven towards the wall. Her movements were incredible; Cynder watched in admiration. Somehow despite the seeming gentleness and unnecessary size of the motions Flare never failed to deflect or dodge all of Imperia's attacks.

The fight almost seemed to follow music; Imperia attacking and Flare defending to a beat that they both seemed to know.

After several seconds, Imperia's attack perfectly matched against Flare's defence, the fire dragoness sensed the wall was only a few steps behind her. Imperia saw the sudden thought in Flare's eyes, the fire dragoness realising she was going to have to change the direction of the fight. That was what Imperia had been waiting for. That single moment of distraction.

Completely off beat in the fight, in the middle of Flare's 'turn' Imperia's attack turned into a feint and her paw shot out towards Flare's snout in a hard straight punch.

Flare moved faster than Cynder would have believed possible. As Imperia jabbed forwards Flare caught the clenched fist in her own paw with a satisfying smack, and the fight froze again. Deep green eyes gazed calmly into Imperia's bright blue ones.

"Now that you're all warmed up how about you fight for real?" Flare said.

Imperia hissed and reversed the grab, yanking Flare towards her by the wrist. Their chests hit and Flare twisted and threw several elbow strikes into Imperia's side, the first one hitting before Imperia blocked the others. At the same time Imperia kicked and bounced and twisted; her attacks were all blocked but she pushed them both off balance and knocked Flare onto her back; diving on top of her and trying to beat her down.

Flare swatted Imperia's attacks aside with ease and struck out in response, her claws deflecting off the scales of Imperia's lower jaw but still getting a startled yip from the silver dragon. Imperia pushed off, using Flare's body to try and spring up. Flare grunted as the hard impact to her chest nearly winded her, but she kept hold of Imperia's paw and reversed the grab again, yanking Imperia down even as she was pulled to her feet.

Imperia nearly hit the floor hard, but stopped herself at the last second to land lightly. She pushed off with her feet, slamming into Flare and attacking savagely. Cynder had never seen Imperia fight with her claws out, slashing and swiping with a vicious growl in her throat; while still mixing up her moves with quick straight jabs and kicks to make it even harder to predict.

Her speed was incredible and Flare was finally starting to struggle. There was no more dancing, Flare's defences were strictly as much as she needed to block each attack, because by the time one was dealt with there were always three more coming.

Imperia darted to all sides, circling Flare like a miniaturised tornado. A hit landed, Imperia's claws scraped over Flare's scales, drawing sparks. More sparks flew as their claws clashed together and Flare was shoved back several steps by each impact. Cynder could physically sense the air crack around each strike. Cynder had never been hit even half that hard by Imperia. She felt slightly offended that Imperia had taken it easy on her, although she was also very glad she'd never taken a hit like that.

There was no way to beat Imperia in melee combat now that she had leaned this heavily into her wind element. It simply wasn't a fair playing field to fight a supercharged dragoness with nothing but normal reflexes and muscles.

Flare dropped a fireball at their feet, the explosive crack cutting through the crashes and thumps from their fight. Flare leaned into the fire and it passed around her harmlessly, darting forwards and striking towards Imperia; but the silver dragoness had bounced away to the far side of the room, pushed off the wall and was accelerating back towards the fight.

She rammed Flare with her shoulder and once again Flare was nearly knocked off her feet. Before she'd even gotten a chance to put all of her paws back on the ground Imperia was underneath her. She wrapped her wing around Flare and launched the fire dragoness across the room as if shooting her from a cannon.

Flare's claws screeched against the floor as she stopped herself from smacking against the far wall; a trail of sparks coming from her claws. She had been thrown the entire length of the room, and Imperia hadn't even grunted in effort. One of the sparks lifted up into the air and did a little circle before landing on Flare's snout. As it landed it ignited and pale red flames, barely even visible, started to spread out and wreathe her in fire.

"Well I agree that we've demonstrated our melee fighting plenty enough for now. You might as well go all the way with your magic and show us both what you're really capable of." Imperia smirked, panting ever so slightly from the effort she'd put in. "Now that you're, literally, warmed up. How about we fight for real?"

"For real? Very well then." Flare nodded, and then Cynder was briefly blinded as Flare radiated blazing light.

As her vision adjusted to the new illumination Cynder was no longer looking at a red dragoness, but a white one.

Pure blazing heat shone from every inch of Flare's body, the glow obscuring every detail of her form. The floor beneath her paws melted and warped, solid stone leaving Flare's pawprints in it as she stood, and even from her shadow form Cynder felt uncomfortably warm. Flare shone like the sun, and Cynder knew that she would have almost no chance of defeating the fire dragoness while she was in that state. Nothing could possibly come within ten metres of her, any poison would vaporise instantly.

Imperia looked on, a protective bubble of air doing it's best to keep her comfortable, although it was clear that she was still feeling a lot of the heat.

"There is a reason Flare has so few training partners. She has a nasty habit of setting herself on fire. Her defence is so good it's honestly cheating. Not that she normally does it to this level of course." Imperia said loudly for Cynder's benefit.

"Come and test it." Flare invited. Her voice was muffled by the sheer temperature around her, echoing through the rolling waves of heat and bouncing off the walls even as soot started to blacken them. "Before I come and test yours."

"I think I'll test it from over here. I like my wings non-crisped."

Imperia breathed in deeply and spat a condensed bullet of air. As it approached the wall of heat it exploded. Flare was forced back several steps, but then she hopped forwards, white hot fire with the same consistency as liquid flew from her tail, bouncing of Imperia's wind shield and sizzling as it hit the floor.

"I bet you'd smell good roasted." Flare said. Those words, spoken in that echoing voice, coming from that featureless white hot face was honestly one of the scariest things Cynder had ever heard in her life.

"Uhh… I don't really have a comeback for that." Imperia admitted.

The burning figure tilted it's head, and they both recognised it as a playful action despite only being able to see an outline. "See? I can use psychological warfare too."

They traded elemental attacks back and forth, a flurry of fireballs and small wind explosions rocking the chamber. Cynder hoped nobody would open the door, they could probably get vaporised by the sheer amount of heat which would pour out.

Imperia was clearly struggling, and before long she'd had enough. A much bigger gust of wind surged through the chamber, dragging in normal air from the windows high on the walls while blasting out as much of Flare's heat as possible. At the same time she brought her paws together and trapped Flare in a tight bubble of wind, cutting her off from superheating the chamber any further.

There was a blossoming explosion within the air bubble. Imperia hissed and clenched her paws, gritting her teeth as she had to fight to keep the bubble intact.

Flare exploded again, the bubble twisting and bulging massively as it struggled to keep it's shape.

The third time it was too much, and a rolling firestorm erupted across the chamber; instantly sending the temperature back up.

Imperia launched one last attack, swiping her wings twice at Flare before leaping back against the wall.

"Okay okay! Match over!"

The heat stabilised, and then retreated, absorbing back into that glowing figure. The stone on Flare's side of the chamber was all glowing a dull red; a colour which Flare's glow slowly faded to match. The heat all sank into her, the excess magic which had been flooding the air returning until needed again.

Flare walked towards them, a smile on her face and smoke rising from her body. "Good fight!"

Cynder groaned as the leftover warmth hit her, her shadows had protected her from the heat as she hadn't been there to feel it; but as she returned to her form in the room she got some idea of what Imperia had been dealing with. "Wow… That was really something. I feel like I'm being cooked."

Flare curtsied to her; the heat diminishing a bit more so that Imperia and Flare were comfortable. "Thanks… It takes a lot of energy to do. Luckily I've trained to have a lot of energy."

"I can see why Imperia almost never beats you." Cynder laughed. Imperia glared slightly.

Flare coughed. "Well actually I'd have to call it a draw." She showed Cynder the tip of her left wing, where the scale on the very tip of her wing had been neatly cut in half. The wound was tiny, but clearly the result of Imperia's last wind blades. She then raised her paw and showed that the top millimetre of her middle talon had been similarly sliced. "She gave my nail a trim but could have certainly aimed for my head."

"I was aiming to clip all of your nails, not just one." Imperia admitted. "It was still a good shot though."

"And if I really wanted to win I could have probably squeezed a bit more heat out; not to mention just throwing more fireballs around." Flare shrugged.

"Training is training. If you were both trying to kill each other then you'd both be trying to kill each other." Cynder waved a paw. "Equal rules means it's still a fair fight."

"Well you're not wrong. Training is indeed training." Imperia smiled playfully.

"You know what I mean, smartass." Cynder grumbled.

"I know what you mean; but do you know what you mean?" Imperia tilted her head. "Give me a quick summary of the differences to keep in mind between a training fight and a real fight."

"Well if you're training you don't bite or scratch at full power, you definitely don't stab. You say when the fight is over. You give your opponent proper respect."

"Or keep score of contacts using a point system." Imperia added.

"Oh yes that too. Which reminds me that's another way Flare beat you, she got more hits even though she defended for nearly the whole fight."

Imperia giggled. "I'll accept that."

"And in a fight?" Flare asked.

"Anything goes." Cynder grinned. "Go for the eyes and the throat; put magic and terrain and as many things between you and the opponent as possible. Don't try fancy things. Unless you're me."

Imperia raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Cynder smiled innocently. "That last bit is word for word what you told me."

"Yes but by 'me' I meant me not you." Imperia said. "Don't try fancy things unless you're me."

Flare scowled playfully at Imperia. "Most of your advice is great, but I'm sensing some small blind spots here and there."

"Cynder also left out my main piece of advice, which is that running away is almost always the best tactic."

"That is good advice." Flare nodded.

"And how about if you're not looking for a fight but a murder?" Imperia asked.

Flare fixed Imperia with a stern gaze. "No young dragon should have to think about such a thing. No offence intended Cynder."

"None taken." Cynder shrugged. "If I could spend all my time lounging on a beach with Spyro I'd happily do it and never kill anyone ever again. But I do have to think about things like this."

Cynder bit her lip slightly. She'd gotten the chance to end the life of a potential new dark master. Hope had trusted her; his life had been hers to take. Imperia had taught her a dozen techniques she could use to kill but had never so much as tried to train Cynder in killing intent.

"I have to think about this… Just in case…"

Imperia nodded softly. "It won't come to that. It won't. I just… I guess I just want you to be ready for everything. Even the impossible."

"And knowing about how to quickly take a life lets you take the critical steps which allow you to avoid suffering the same fate." Flare said. "Dragons like Ignitus and Magmar would never have gotten so far as they did without being able to survive. Okay. So Cynder, what is the most important thing to remember about assassination?"

"The permeation paradox." Cynder replied confidently.

"You're right, but what does that mean?"

"It's the fact that it's impossible to hurt someone from inside. You can't create a spike of ice in someone's brain. You can't boil someone's blood in their veins."

"But as you know you can shoot a spike of ice into someone's brains or boil them by setting them on fire." Imperia said thoughtfully. "Why?"

"You can't create magic directly inside someone else's magic. Their body is permeated by their magic, and even in creatures other than dragons their bodies are just too full of magic to control directly."

"Except…" Imperia prompted.

"Except if you have absolute trust with the target, and not just one way trust. You both need to know with confidence that you would not harm each other… I was able to wrap wind around and through Spyro. I could have hurt him with it, but we both knew I didn't want to. The moment you have any ill intent towards whoever it is then your magic goes back to being unable to occupy the same place. Thus it's a paradox. The only time you could truly kill someone from within is the same time when you couldn't possibly be in the mental state to do it."

"But there are some ways to cheat. Poison magic is obviously the best one, if you have a way of getting it into someone's body." Imperia said.

"You need to be careful to protect your head, especially your mouth and eyes." Flare said. "Cyril can create thousands of tiny razors which you can breathe in, all while looking like a cloud of harmless mist. You've recently figured out a wind technique which is similar, taking away the ability to breathe so subtly that it's almost unnoticeable."

"I'll have to teach you that by the way Cynder. With a bit of luck you should be able to master it in only a few days. Just remember to stop using it the moment your enemy faints, otherwise it can kill them."

"How do you protect yourself from things like that?" Cynder asked.

"In most cases, like Cyril's ice razors you can survive by simply charging the air around you with mana. A lightning dragon fills the air with lightning, a fire dragon with heat, and so on. No matter what element you have you can create a bubble of space around you where nobody except you can create and control magic. After that you only need to be careful of things being thrown at you or physical attacks."

Cynder's eyes went unfocused for a moment. She created a wind bubble around herself for a moment; then did the same thing for a bubble of shadow. The darkness hung in the air around her, so faint it was barely noticeable. She decided not to try it with a poison or fear shield just in case one of the others accidentally stood in it, but it certainly seemed to work.

"Perfect." Flare nodded. "Be careful of pockets of superheated or supercooled air, particles of rock or ice which can get in your eyes or mouth; and of course elemental knives and blades. They are by far the most dangerous things to a dragon like yourself who wins most honest fights. They can't be created inside your shield, but if they're launched at you or you accidentally walk into one that has been set up as a trap it's a very painful experience."

"Hope doesn't seem like the most strategic type. I don't think he'll go for things like that; but if he does I'll be ready for it." Cynder smiled to them both. "I'm going to do my best to be okay. Although if we don't stop him within a few weeks he might simply become too powerful to stop…"

"Let's not think about that right now." Imperia said. "Here, you can use me to practice how to knock someone out with wind magic. Flare will be the safety manager. I'll walk you through the steps."

I hadn't planned for this chapter to be the Flare chapter; but I'm incredibly happy with how it turned out. Writing Flare is always very fun, and getting to show her rebuilding her relationship with Imperia wasn't something I had originally meant to include in the story, but which I'm very glad I did.

Naturally I also had fun writing the fight scene; fight scenes are always great fun to write, and I was really excited to finally reveal Flare's secret ace in the hole power.

I have a bit of a decision to make about the next chapters, and I would like people's opinions on what to do: Spyro and Hope have got a few days worth of things to do before word of their next action reaches Warfang... which means I have an opportunity for Cynder and the others in Warfang to talk to each other before the final conflict begins. Is there anyone who you want to see get some more time in the story, and who would you like to see them talk with?

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! The next few chapters should hopefully be quite quick after this one.

Thanks for reading!

-4Dragons