"Alright, if you would stand up straight and extend your wings all the way, please."

Null did as instructed, side-eyeing the rod in Volteer's paws. There were marks down its length at regular intervals. Probably some kind of measuring stick, though Null hadn't seen one like that. Volteer muttered to himself the whole while, making observations as he leaned the rod against Null's legs, then torso, then tail, then wings. After a moment he pulled away, making notes.

"Below-average height and wingspan for a dragon of your age. Substandard muscle mass. Abnormal growths on the wings…" Volteer tapped one claw against the front edge of Null's wing, causing him to flinch. "Does that hurt, or is it just an abnormal sensation?"

"It just feels weird. Like tapping on my knuckles." Null frowned.

"Hmm, and it's rigid. Bone growths, perhaps? Not unheard of, and every now and then you find dragons with new unique physical mutations." Volteer rubbed his chin. "Do let me know if any irritation or persistent pain makes its presence known, and we'll see if we can treat that. Could you step on the scale, please?"

Null looked up at the scale. He'd seen small ones before, devices that relied on a finely-balanced set of platforms. This one was a single platform, dragon-sized, with a bar that moved up and down as he touched it. He stepped fully onto the scale, causing the platform to sink a bit as the bar lifted higher.

"Right, now over here." Volteer gestured to another contraption, with pulleys and springs and a bar on a rope. "Pull the bar, please. As hard as you can."

Null took hold of the bar with his front paws and pulled, leaning away to get as much leverage as he could. The springs unwound, just a little bit, and the rope the bar was attached to pulled just a little bit out of the machine. He pulled harder, pushing with his legs and flapping his wings to keep balance, but it was fruitless. He let go of the bar with a heavy gasp, realizing suddenly that he hadn't been breathing while he exerted himself.

"Below-average weight and physical strength as well, though about what would be expected given your dimensions." Volteer nodded. "Underdeveloped perhaps due to diet, or maybe due to magical deficiencies."

"Tell me something I don't know…" Null muttered, still trying to steady his breathing.

"Well, it could simply be that you are slight of build, er, more petite. Fear dragons, for example, are smaller at every age bracket than their contemporaries, due to their bodies devoting more energy to distilling mana into the exceptionally potent form that fear magic requires to work," Volteer said cheerfully, "It's really quite a fascinating process-,"

"Volteer," Spyro interrupted gently, "We should continue with the examination."

"Right, of course. Null, if you would give me your paw. We need to test your magic immunity" The lightning Guardian extended one paw, holding it out flat.

"Are you going to electrocute me?" Null hesitantly put his paw on Volteer's.

"Only a little bit. For most dragons, this would be a minor, but painful shock. Perhaps some minor involuntary muscle movement but no actual damage. If you are immune to magic as you say, then this should… well, we'll have to find out," Volteer explained brightly, "Now you don't want to be too tense when exposed to electricity or you could suffer permanent muscle damage, so-,"

Electricity arced along Volteer's leg, anchoring in Null's scales. Where the crackling static touched him, Null could feel his skin tingling. But there was nothing else. Just a mildly unpleasant sensation.

"Given that you haven't recoiled, I am a little bit worried I may have paralyzed your nervous system."

"No, it's fine. It just… tingles." Null pulled away, flexing his paw. It was a little bit numb now, but the sensation was rapidly returning. "Barely even felt it."

"Spectacular!" Volteer nodded excitedly, going over to his notebook to write something down. "Now then, are there any other strange consequences to your lack of magic, or other skills that exceed those of your peers?"

"Well…" Null gave it some thought. "I drain spirit gems on contact, including dark crystals. My claws are sharper than they should be, and they're detachable, along with my tailblade. This morning I accidentally stabbed Apex, and he was just… exhausted afterwards. His magic was all kinds of messed up. I don't know, I'm good at being sneaky, I guess?"

"I have an explanation for that last one, actually," Spyro said, stepping forward, "Volteer, can you detect Null with your magic?"

"Hmm, well, most creatures are very easily noticeable to electroreception, even if the electroreception in question is magical in origin. That's because the nervous system operates on - I'm getting sidetracked. Let me…" Volteer closed his eyes, then frowned. "No. Wait. Just barely. He is invisible, translucent, obscured from my senses. How very interesting."

"Right. I can't sense him with any of my magical senses either. Even aethersight. Especially aethersight. Nothing is invisible to aethersight, except Null." Spyro shook his head.

"What, exactly, is aethersight?" Null raised one talon to try and get someone's attention.

"Aethersight is an ability that only I have innately, as far as I know. The name is a bit… misleading, but I named it when I was younger and it stuck," Spyro said, "Almost every element has its own additional senses. For example, wind-sense, electroreception, umbravision, and clairvoyance are additional senses granted by the wind, electric, shadow, and divination elements, respectively. Aethersight is that for aether, the basis of all magic. It lets me sense all magic around me, and know what elemental affinity it has as well, if any. You, Null, are the only thing I have ever encountered that has no magic whatsoever. If I know what I'm looking for, I can tell you're there, but otherwise… you can't see something that isn't there."

"Okay, so magic immunity extends to magical senses as well, but why does it also work on animals? I can get really close and they just won't notice me."

"Well, that's because even the most simplistic life forms depend upon some limited form of mana-based perception!" Volteer exclaimed. He lifted a pair of metal-bound goggles from a bench, tiny glowing gemstones visible behind glass panels in the rims, and put them on. "I see what you were talking about, Spyro. He may as well not even be there!"

"...The goggles give some kind of aethersight?" Null raised one brow.

"Indeed they do! It took a great many years to make them operate as intended, but operate they do! One of my finest creations, I must say," Volteer said proudly, "And they simply do not register your existence! Of course, I can see you through the lenses, but the goggles don't work."

"...Huh." That was… interesting. Goggles that let one see the world like the purple dragon did. "That's cool. I imagine they let you see a lot about how the world works."

"To be quite honest, it's rather overstimulating!" Volteer chuckled, sliding the goggles off. "The flow of magic is not something I am acclimated to perceiving. Perhaps with repetition the experience can be less disorienting, but it is not for me."

"Let's move to the next test. You said you messed with Apex's magic supply? Could you replicate that?" Spyro suggested.

"I could stab someone, sure," Null said sarcastically, "Any volunteers?"

"Well, it should be a fairly simple affair. The pad of the paws heals quickly and is quite thin compared to scales." Volteer extended his paw. "A quick stab, puncture, minor impalement does seem to be in order."

"...I wasn't expecting you to actually volunteer but okay…" Null muttered to himself. He raised one paw, frowning as he looked at Volteer. When the Guardian nodded, he pushed the tip of one claw through the skin of Volteer's paw.

"Oh, the mana destabilization is immediate. Very interesting sensation, and entirely unpleasant." Volteer pulled his paw away suddenly, and Null nearly stumbled as he tried to keep his balance. His claw disconnected, staying in the lightning Guardian's paw as the larger dragon pulled the goggles back over his eyes to look at the detached claw. "Oh! Spyro, are you seeing this?"

"Yes, I am. That's something I've never seen before…" Spyro narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow, leaning closer to look at the claw. Then he looked at Null, then back at the claw embedded in Volteer's paw. "That's a new one."

"An explanation for those of us with mortal eyes?" Null asked.

"Ah, of course. Here." Volteer pulled the goggles off with his free paw and handed them to Null. At Null's hesitation, he smiled. "Nothing to worry about, all the components are internal. Your magic absorption doesn't appear to extend beyond your contact - or the contact of your detached claws, clearly."

"I'm sorry, absorption?" Null took the goggles and fiddled with them for a moment to resize the nose-piece. Then he put them on, tying the strap under his horns.

His eyes were immediately assaulted by a kaleidoscope of swirling colors. It was almost too much to handle. Rainbow patterns danced through the air, splintering off into colors he'd never even seen before then fading back into the background noise. Just looking at the walls was an almost hypnotic display of movement, but it was everything else in the room that was more engaging. The devices on the benches around the room were filled with straight lines of magic, rigid and carefully constructed to serve a purpose. The dragons were even more interesting. He could see the flow of mana through Spyro's body. Royal purple moving in branching paths from a solid core in his chest, reaching every inch of his form. Volteer's was similar, with the yellow of lightning magic instead of the purple that was Spyro's unique magic. And of course, the phenomenon that was most eye catching was a stream of that yellow magic being siphoned from Volteer, through the air, to Null.

Null looked down at himself. Nothing. Not an iota of magic. The stream of lightning magic entered his body and just disappeared.

"Oh. Absorption." Null slowly nodded. "Yeah. That's… new."

"I've never seen a dragon siphon magic from a distance before! For that matter, I've never seen a dragon siphon magic from another dragon… ever! Spirit gems, yes, but spirit gems are always emanating magic, searching for a nearby repository to add to. How fascinating!" The network of lightning magic that was Volteer moved, touching the void of magic embedded in one paw. Volteer's magic flickered in its entirety for a moment, and then the claw was removed. The stream of magic flowing into Null ended immediately. "Oh my, that's quite exhausting, though. I suppose having one's magic supply tapped like that would do that!"

"It has to have gone somewhere…" Spyro muttered, just barely audible. Watching him move was fascinating, the shimmering purple changing between every color imaginable at the end of each branching strand. Null pulled off the goggles to see the purple dragon frowning. "Null, could you pull the bar on the weight machine again?"

"Yeah, sure." Null reached out and wrapped his claws around the bar and pulled. It was much easier now, sliding easily as the springs pulled. He made it twice as far as the first time before encountering any real difficulty, at which point he looked over at Spyro with a quizzical expression. "Did… did you change something?"

"No, but you did." Spyro walked closer. "Magic doesn't just dissipate. It has to go somewhere. It must be bolstering your physical strength."

"A lot of things make a lot more sense now." Null let go of the bar, which retracted back to the machine. He looked down at his paws, then focused in on one claw in particular. "It also makes my claws grow back faster. Look."

"...So it does…" Spyro said slowly, "Your tailblade, is it a projectile or just a melee weapon?"

"I can fling it if I flick my tail right," Null replied, "I'm not the best at it, but I usually hit what I'm aiming at."

"Then we should head to the target range!" Volteer declared, "An examination of your coordination and reflexes does seem to be in order!"

"Volteer, the range is a lot deeper under the city," Spyro protested, "It's dangerous down there. We still haven't managed to clear out all the shadow apes, and just the other day Terrador reported orc movements near the edges of the city. Ancestors only know what else is down there!"

"I'm not defenseless," Null interjected, "Orcs are a type of elemental - a weak type of elemental, compared to some of the things that have tried to kill me already - and shadows are undead. One good swipe and any magic behind either of those is gone."

"Okay, but getting that swipe can be the difference between life and death. I'm not putting a fifteen year-old into that kind of danger."

"That's how old you were when -,"

"I don't want anyone to have to go through what I did," Spyro insisted, "I became a soldier in a war I didn't understand well before I was in any position to know what I was doing. I only survived because I was lucky enough to be born with purple scales. I can't even count the number of times I was inches from dying."

"I've been there and survived," Null argued, "I know what I'm getting into, and I can handle it. In fact, I'm uniquely well-suited to handling these particular threats."

Spyro took a deep breath, looking away. Null could tell he was getting frustrated, but he wasn't going to back down. He could handle himself.

"Spyro, if it's any comfort, we will both be there to defend, guard, protect, escort young Null through the ruins under the city. A Guardian and the purple dragon - few could ask for better protection," Volteer said, putting one paw on Spyro's shoulder and smiling kindly, "We will be fine."

The purple dragon sighed, then nodded slowly. "Okay." He fixed Null with a look. "Don't wander off. Please. I have a terrible feeling about this, and I don't want you winding up in danger."

"Apex is the one who goes into dangerous caves without a moment's hesitation. I practice a lot more caution," Null said, "Besides, the path should be pretty well-traveled, right?

"The last time anyone has been to the range has been more than a year," Volteer replied, "I do believe it was when we were doing auditions for Guardian training. Nothing the moles put together had adequate measurement for accuracy and power, so we used a room built for what seems to be precisely that purpose."

"In other words, it's a pretty long trek and I wish we hadn't told the moles to dismantle the prototypes they put together." Spyro sighed again, shaking his head. "Let's go."

They went down flight after flight of stairs, winding deeper and deeper into the undercity. The sheer amount of downward travel that was possible in Warfang was mind boggling. Null could clearly see where modern construction met with the much older Mole infrastructure, and where that infrastructure gave way to ancient architecture that differed greatly from the city above. The stone here was old, carved by a people who were long since dead. Indecipherable sigils marked some walls, along with faded murals depicting dragons.

The whole while, Volteer talked. Rambling about the history of the area and the potential implications of the artwork on the walls. Null listened intently, absorbing the information as Volteer dealt it out. The theory was that Warfang was, largely, built on top of Warfang, going down for miles. There was the current city on the surface, then the maintenance layer inhabited and run by moles and other subterranean peoples, then below that was the ruins. And nobody had ever seen the bottom of the ruins.

As they exited a narrow hallway, Null could see why. They were now on the edge of an enormous chasm, so deep he couldn't see the bottom. Spyro summoned an orb of flames to hover above his head, then forged on through the darkness.

Mechanisms unlike any the moles created were commonplace down here, Volteer explained. Mechanisms designed to resonate with draconic powers, inoperable otherwise. Not just common magic, like fire, ice, earth, and lightning, but devices that required fear magic or wind magic to work right. There were doors that had been opened and then promptly shut again, due to the things that were contained within. Magical anomalies that self-sustained, contained in orbs of reinforced glass. Places where the stone was only barely real. Rooms where magic didn't work. Null was familiar with that last one.

After a while, Spyro came to a halt. He frowned, looking around for a moment before focusing on the floor.

"Spyro? Is something amiss?" Volteer asked.

"The floor here's… different. It was hard to notice at first, but the magic's wrong." Spyro looked up at Null. "You've still got the goggles, right? Put them on."

Null complied, slipping the goggles down over his eyes. The world was immediately overlaid by dancing patterns. There was a lot of noise, but Null focused on the patch of floor Spyro was looking at. "What am I looking for?"

"Proof I'm not losing my mind. The magic here is missing in patches, right?" Spyro tapped the floor.

Now that he knew what he was looking for, Null could see exactly what Spyro was talking about. Large parts of the floor didn't seem to have magic at all, interrupting the flow of natural mana. The magic in the air was repulsed, ever so slightly, from those spots. "I see it. That's not right."

"No, it's not. Something's wrong." Spyro looked around for a moment before speaking again. "We should head back. I've got a really bad feeling about this."

"Would you say a supernaturally bad feeling?" Volteer asked.

"An oracular bad feeling. My magic's screaming at me to get out of here."

"Then let us depart with utmost alacrity." Volteer nodded.

As the two adult dragons started moving, Null took a couple of steps. He was immediately hit by a wave of vertigo as the magic around him moved with a different speed and direction from the physical mass around it. He stopped, pushing down nausea as he looked down at a patch of the path where the magic avoided the stone. That was better, ever so slightly. He took a step forwards -

The ground wasn't real.

That was the first thought to pass through his head as he slid through the stone. His head dipped below the surface, and he saw for a brief moment the actual spellcraft at work. Structured, crystalline magic holding together in a flat plane to simulate the floor. Two layers, one of purple and one of blinding white. It would have been interesting, if he could hold himself there. Instead he fell through to the tunnel below, where earth magic vibrated in the walls. Tendrils of black magic lurked in the shadows, recoiling as he looked at them.

"Null?! Null, are you okay?" Spyro's voice echoed down.

"I'm fine." Null pushed the goggles up, shaking his head to get his bearings. He was nauseous, almost to the point of vomiting, but standing still with the goggles off helped. It was dark in here, almost too dark to see. "I'm in some kind of rudimentary tunnel. It looks like it was carved with earth magic."

"That means it was recent…" Spyro swore. "One moment, I'll get you out."

The ground shook, and dust and debris fell from the ceiling. But the ceiling held, and now Null could see that the gaps in the floor had been made of purple barriers. Some kind of forcefield? Either way, it had been disguised by illusions.

"Okay, much more durable than expected. This might take a bit."

Footsteps thundered from one direction, and Null looked that way to see glowing green eyes in the shadows. "Something's coming!"

"Damn it!" Spyro hissed, "Get out of there! I'll come find you when I get through this magic!"

"Seek out a path upwards!" Volteer advised, "Avoid the shadows! There are creatures down here that lurk in darkness!"

Stay out of darkness when he could barely see. Great plan. Okay then. The things in the tunnel were getting closer, making unnerving rasping noises and emulating hooting noises.

"I'll meet you somewhere else," Null said, glancing towards those green eyes. They were looking at him, but only occasionally. Not all of them could see him. "I have to go."

And he turned tail and ran down the tunnel, deeper into the darkness beneath Warfang.