The blade thudded satisfyingly into the rubber of the target, causing the wooden frame to wobble a bit before stabilizing.

"Twenty-five." Spyro made a note. "That finishes out the accuracy tests. With six misses, one catastrophic miss -," The purple dragon shifted, taking weight off of one leg. Null winced in sympathy and shame. "- And an impressive eighteen direct hits. Of those, fifteen were within four inches of the center of the target. Seven were bulls-eyes. Very good, aside from the first attempt."

"Sorry." Null shrank in on himself, grimacing.

"It happens." Spyro shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time someone's gotten hurt in a training exercise, although it would be the first that didn't include magic."

"...I may have thrown it too hard."

"Probably. But it was an impressive ricochet." Spyro picked up his notes. "You say you hadn't practiced this much?"

"Until about a month ago, I didn't even know I could detach my tailblade." Null climbed over the barrier that separated the firing range from the 'safe' zone. Not so safe after all, but the range hadn't been insulated against bone projectiles, apparently. He retrieved his tailblade and examined the edge. Still wickedly sharp, despite the repeated slams into thick rubber. "I spent a week hunting to feed myself and Apex after we ran into the boread in the Ancient Grove, but even then I hit a lot more throws than I missed."

"Interesting." Spyro nodded. "Sounds like an instinctive grasp of the skill. Like flying, or using magic. Er, for most, at least."

"Yeah." Null frowned, glancing over at Spyro. More specifically at the gash along the purple dragon's right foreleg. He shook his head. "Speaking of elementals, when are you going to tell the council about that?"

"Well, most of the councilmembers already know, actually. Most of us know each other outside of work, after all." Spyro flashed a quick grin. "But our next official meeting is tomorrow. We'll bring it up in an official capacity then."

"...And… the other thing?" Null swallowed nervously, not even wanting to talk about it. Just thinking about it was making his stomach churn, and he hadn't even been alive when the Dark Master had threatened the world. "Are you going to cover that?"

"...Not yet." Spyro took a deep breath, shaking his head a little bit. "That one… we haven't told anyone."

"What? Why not?"

"Because if we're wrong, then telling them will spread undue panic." The purple dragon sighed. "We need to be sure."

"But Cynder said… it was him." Null frowned. "Do you not -,"

"I believe her. I believe her with my whole being. Which is why I was willing to bring it to the council immediately." Spyro sighed again. "But she's not sure. It could have been someone else. Malefor's not the only dragon with yellow eyes, and not the only person capable of harnessing convexity. Others - not dragons, mind you, but other species - can command magic of any kind with the right tools. We've seen more than a few who could command the remnants of Malefor's army, and others who could make their own orcs. We just need to verify before making such a calamitous announcement."

"But if it is…"

"If it is, we're still going to keep a closer eye on things. We've cleared out all the orcs we could find below the city, and everything else down there. If whoever's behind this manages to slip something in anyways, we'll try to track it back to the source."

"...Okay." Null nodded, looking down at the ground for a bit. After a moment, a thought occurred to him. "Do you think the upsurge in elemental activity is related to whoever sent the orcs?"

"... I don't know," Spyro said, "It feels too scattered to be the doing of any one person. But then Malefor did command an army large enough to choke the earth. It's hard to say."

"Alright."

There was a brief moment of uncomfortable silence, leaving Null to stew in his unanswered questions. What Malefor was back? And what if he was responsible for the goliath? For all of the elementals? What then?

"Come on, let's get out of here. It's getting stuffy and I feel like I haven't seen the sun in far too long," Spyro eventually said, "Besides, Cynder and Apex should be done by now."

"Right."

Spyro started walking, and Null followed behind. They made their way up winding tunnels and ancient staircases, passing through long-forgotten basements and abandoned maintenance tunnels. After they reached the upper layers, Null noticed that Spyro visibly relaxed. He was limping a bit, thanks to the gash Null had accidentally cut across his leg, but a barely noticeable tenseness went away. It seemed he was uneasy going beneath the city. Null could sympathize.

"So," Spyro said after a while, "I hear you've met Nos' son. Vlad."

"Yeah." Null frowned. How was this relevant to anything? Why go to small talk? Was Spyro just trying to alleviate Null's tension?

"Nos is a good friend of mine," Spyro continued, oblivious to Null's confusion, "What do you think of Vlad?"

"I think he thinks he's clever. I've yet to see if he's right." Spyro snorted at that, and Null continued. "He's a bit high-energy. Charismatic. Has a strong personality."

"That he does." Spyro nodded. "Very different from his parents."

"...His mom's on the council. I'd think that would require some measure of charisma, wouldn't it?"

"She's very good at pretending, but I think fear dragons from the Darklands are just predisposed to being timid. Her husband, Tepes, went out of his way to find something to do that doesn't require talking to people. He scouts abandoned buildings and old mine shafts to map them out with echolocation." Spyro shrugged. "They just expend more energy when interacting with people, I suppose."

Well, Null could sympathize with that.

"So why are you asking about him?" Null asked, "Because there's something you're not saying."

Spyro stopped for a moment, looking down at Null, then continued walking. "Because I was worried about both you and him."

"Worried?" Null raised a brow at that.

"I understand that you've had mostly negative interactions with most dragons your age," Spyro said carefully, "And Vlad has been in a similar situation. A lot of people are, well, scared of fear dragons. Regardless of what the fear dragons do." He paused for a moment before continuing. "I just wanted to make sure that the two of you were getting along."

"He's not bothering me, most of the time. He usually just hangs out with Apex." Null shrugged. "I dunno, it's preferable to what I'm used to."

"That's good."

They emerged from the dragon temple and into sunlight. They were supposed to meet Cynder and Apex here, but apparently the other two were still busy. Still it was nice to sit in the sun for a bit after being so deep underground.

Not that Null hadn't had a meaningful time of it. He'd gotten some combat tips from Spyro - tips that Spyro had used himself to outmaneuver larger foes, back when he was saving the world. Not that he wanted to be in a position to use them often. Maybe once or twice. Just to prove he wasn't useless. And he'd gotten to pick the purple dragon's brain on magical theory, which was fascinating. Having access to every form of magic apparently made knowing how it all worked even more useful, since it made almost anything possible.

Null was just starting to get impatient when a small light buzzed towards them. Great, just what he needed.

"Yo!" Sparx called out as he approached, "How's my big purple brother doing?"

"Just fine." Spyro shuffled a bit, making the cut on his leg a bit less obvious. "Could have used a bit more light down there, though."

"Nuh-uh. No. I am not going down there again." Sparx crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Fair enough." Spyro chuckled to himself. "It can be a bit claustrophobic."

"Yeah, I don't know how you manage it. Being freakishly huge, and all," Sparx said, pulling a face.

Null closed his eyes, hoping against hope that the dragonfly would just… be done and go away.

"Hey, kid."

…here we go.

Null opened his eyes to affix Sparx with a glare. "What."

"I, uh, I get that I can be a bit much," Sparx began, grimacing. He seemed genuinely reluctant to be talking about this, but here he was regardless. "The relationship I've got with Spyro and Cynder may seem a bit, uh, abrasive -,"

"Some might say abusive," Spyro added, his smug smile clearly showing that he knew just how unhelpful he was being.

"Gee, thanks." Sparx rolled his eyes. "But yeah. Our banter gets out of hand pretty quickly. And once we get going, I have a hard time keeping it contained to just us. So while we're all having a good time, other people kinda get caught in the crossfire."

"...I noticed." Null narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say here is sorry. For making you uncomfortable and all that. I wasn't aware that my behavior was upsetting you, and that's on me."

Oh. That… wasn't what he had expected. His initial impression of Sparx had been of someone with an ego bigger than they were, incapable of admitting fault. Clearly he'd been wrong.

"I… accept your apology," Null said.

Sparx let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Good. Not trying to make your life any harder, cuz you've had a bad time of it all. Are we cool to start over?"

"Yes, I think so." Null nodded slowly.

He was about to add something when Apex and Cynder finally arrived. Cynder was clearly trying to suppress a smile, and he could see why. Apex was walking with weird, stuttering movements, occasionally jittering all the way to one side before nearly overcorrecting. Half his face was twitching like crazy, while the other half was scowling.

"What happened?" Spyro asked with a sigh.

Apex grumbled to himself, looking at Null pleadingly. Or, well, trying to. His head kept jerking to one side. "I - ow - electrocuted myself - ow - and I can't stop."

"We may need to be a bit more careful when training elements we're unfamiliar with," Cynder said diplomatically.

Spyro shook his head exasperatedly. "I'll see what I can do."

O-O-O

"Hey Null, what's up? I'm just dropping in to - what are you doing?"

Null paused blinking a few times. He was tempted to turn his head towards the speaker, but his legs were already wobbling. Then, against his better judgment, he turned to look anyway. He didn't see a dragon there, but instead a mass of swirling crimson glowing magnitudes brighter than the surrounding environment. Bits detached and floated away, whorling into skulls and bats before dissipating. They were so magically dense that it just floated off on its own - something that didn't happen with Spyro or Cynder despite their immense power. Perhaps it had to do with the size of the creature compared to the raw magical power…

Sighing, Null pulled the goggles off to look at Vlad. The fear dragon had a look of utter bewilderment on his face, his ears perked up. "I'm trying to get better at walking while wearing these."

"Goggles?" Vlad asked, raising one brow. "I mean, I can see why that could be difficult if it's messing with your vision, or crushing your head, but they just look like goggles."

"They're not just goggles. They let you see the world like a purple dragon does."

"...Okay that's awesome." Vlad leaned forwards in excitement. "Can I try?"

Null wanted to say no immediately, to keep his cool things and not let anyone take them from him. But then he thought about what Spyro had told him. How Vlad had been in a similar situation. And he couldn't justify saying no anymore.

"Yeah, sure." Null took the goggles off and handed them over.

Vlad accepted the goggles with sparkling eyes, marveling at them as he lifted them to his face. He slipped the goggles on and looked around with wide eyes. "Whoah."

"Yep." Null nodded.

"There are colors I have never seen before just… dancing through the air." Vlad reached out with one wing-claw to touch some unseen pattern, then stopped and stared at his own claws. "It's like I'm… overflowing with magic. I wonder if it has an effect on anyone else or if it's just… dispersing? Is this what all fear dragons look like through these goggles? And why are you just… gone? Is this a prank? Have you -," Vlad stood up, then reeled backwards. He looked nauseous "Oooh no."

"And that's why I was practicing," Null said.

Vlad pushed the goggles off, closing his eyes and swaying a bit. "Urgh."

"Mhm."

"No thanks." Vlad handed the goggles back, scrunching his face up as he tried to avoid falling over. "My brain is already set up for audial chaos, visual stuff is too much."

"I suppose that makes sense." Null accepted the goggles and fiddled with the strap a bit. Vlad had tugged it a little out of shape but it was a simple fix.

"How'd you turn invisible? I thought only certain subsets of shadow and light element dragons could do that… but then the goggles only show magic and magically induced invisibility wouldn't work so -" Vlad stopped, shaking his head. "Not the point. I came here for a reason."

"Ominous. Go on." Null raised one brow.

"I wanted to ask you and Apex - wait, where is he?" Vlad frowned.

"He cast a spell to conjure lightning without making sure that the magic would have a grounding point, so he created a circuit where he keeps electrocuting himself with low-power static. Not a problem that arises with wind magic, apparently. Anyway, that was yesterday and took hours to safely fix, so today Volteer's teaching him how not to do that." Null shrugged.

"Lightning?! Why does a wind dragon have lightning?!" Vlad asked, utterly baffled.

"Lightning's actually just a product of static electricity which can be produced with the correct application of friction and wind is actually fully capable of manifesting static on its own with enough condensation," Null mumbled, mostly to himself. He cleared his throat. "Long story."

"Right." Vlad stood there for a moment.

"You wanted to ask me something?" Null asked drily.

"Right!" Vlad perked up, then cleared his throat. "I wanted to ask you and Apex - but Apex isn't here so just you - if I could get in on the thing you two have going on?"

Null looked at him for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly he'd just been asked. "Thing?"

"Yeah, the whole relationship the two of you have. I was wondering if you'd maybe be open to a third?" Vlad sat on his haunches and fidgeted with his wing-claws, looking bashful.

"I mean, I've known you for less than a week so I'd give it more time before I'd say we're friends, but I'm not opposed to it." Null scratched his head. "Apex seems to enjoy your company so I don't see why the three of us couldn't be friends."

"Wait." Vlad furrowed his brow. "Are… are you and Apex not a thing?"

"...I feel like we're speaking two completely different languages here," Null said.

"...Are you two together?"

"We're from the same village?" Null was getting increasingly confused at this point. "It becomes increasingly obvious to me that there are some things to which I am utterly oblivious, and this seems to be one."

"You and Apex," Vlad began slowly, like he was trying to piece something together, "Are just friends?"

"A bit more than friends. He's been like my brother for most of my life."

"So you're not dating?" Vlad asked.

It was like a light illuminating a dark tunnel, and Null suddenly realized what Vlad had been asking the whole time. He let out a sputtering cough. "No. No, that's not the sort of thing I do."

"Oh." Vlad seemed stunned for a moment. "You're, uh, not into guys?"

"I don't think I'm into anyone, to be honest."

"Oh." Vlad was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again it was almost under his breath, "That's a shame. I thought you were kinda cool with the whole sharp edges and all-knowing sort of thing you had going on but if you're not interested then I suppose that's not something that'll ever…" Vlad trailed off, his rambling quieting down before he seemed to realize something. "Then… is Apex… single? And into drakes, I guess that's probably also important to ask before I psyche myself up again."

"Yes, and yes. As far as I know." Null shrugged.

"Then… could I ask him on a date?"

Null pulled a face. "Why not just ask him?"

"As his best friend, I sort of want your… your blessing. Your confirmation that you aren't bothered, or anything," Vlad said nervously.

Null was struck with a strange sense that he was missing something. He had no idea what Vlad was feeling, had no frame of reference to sympathize. He'd never felt the sort of emotions that led dragons to act like this, even if he'd seen it before with Apex. He knew what love was, what that felt like. He'd loved his mother, he currently loved Apex, and Teneris… well, he might get there some day. But it never made him want to act like that. Maybe that was the sort of infatuation he'd read and heard about. He was left out of it entirely. For better or worse. Either way, it was clear that this meant something to Vlad.

"Sure." Null nodded. "Apex is his own dragon. It's entirely up to him if you two get together or something. It doesn't bother me."

"Thank you!" Vlad crossed the room in a rush, wrapping Null in a hug. The fear dragon's soft fur brushed against Null's scales and tickled at his nostrils.

Null held very, very still.

"Oh. Uh. Sorry." Vlad pulled away meekly. "I probably shouldn't touch without permission, huh?"

"I… didn't mind. I'm just… covered in blades," Null explained, "I've already stabbed Apex. I don't think it's safe to touch me."

"...Well I think they make you look very sharp." Vlad chuckled nervously.

"...You and Apex will get along amazingly. You've both got the same sense of humor." Null shook his head with a snort.

"Ancestors, I hope so…" Vlad sighed. After a moment he gave Null a smile. "Thank you Null."

"Yep." Null nodded.

Vlad set off, exiting Null's room with his head held high and his tail waving excitedly behind him.

Null wondered for a moment if he was missing out. If the wonders of attraction and romance were something his life was somehow worse without. Maybe he would be happier if he could reciprocate Apex's feelings. Maybe he was broken inside, and that was why he didn't feel the same way other dragons seemed to.

He shook it off quickly. What a bunch of nonsense anyways. He had a friend - multiple now, apparently - and he had family. He didn't need to go chasing handsome drakes or pretty dragonesses. He wondered if maybe he should have felt jealous of Vlad. Or maybe of Apex. Or maybe just flustered all around. Really he was just bemused.

Oh well. Romance was a waste of his time and energy anyways. He had more important, more interesting things to do.

Null returned his attention to the goggles, slipping them back on. As the dancing colors of magical flows returned, he wondered if perhaps he could fly with them on. The consequences of failure would be disastrous, but if he could pull it off.

Well, he might as well try.

O-O-O

As it turned out, flying when you could barely see was a bad idea on its own. Adding a nauseating pattern of magic dancing through the air was only going to make things worse. At least he hadn't made it too far off the ground before colliding with a wall. So instead of broken bones, he was just bruised.

Apex had fussed over that for a while, bemoaning how he could have provided a fall breaker or negated his momentum. Null merely shrugged at that. If nothing else it had been a learning experience.

Null shifted in his seat, wincing as his back twinged in pain. He wanted to be here, for the council meeting, even if it hurt to do so. He also didn't want to ask for spirit gems, given how minor his injuries really were. He could ignore it.

"We are gathered today for the weekly meeting of the Council of Warfang." Null snapped to attention, realizing that all of the council members were present. The one who had spoken was Jed, the odd dragon whose scales were gray with a blue gradient around the edges. He knew now that Jed was a force dragon - a rare but still relatively common kind of dragon who could harness raw kinetic energy with their minds. While most dragons had to move to cast magic, force and mind dragons could use many spells without moving a muscle. That was part of why many were wary of them - mind dragons more so than force dragons.

Regardless of Null's ruminations, Jed continued in a flat, rote tone. "Today's docket includes the following: establishing elections for the new earth dragon representative; the appearance of 'elementals', and what will be done about them; adjusting tax brackets to accommodate for changes in the economy; and housing for the increase in immigration."

"Let's go in order, shall we," Aurum suggested. The golden-scaled representative of lightning dragons smiled. He'd cut off both Niall - the slimy water dragon representative - and Magnus, the fire dragon representative. "The new representative of the earth dragons. That's just a matter of establishing an election, isn't it?"

"Earth dragons represent the second-largest demographic of Warfang's dragon population," Spyro said, "We need to ensure that there are enough polling places to get everyone's vote."

"Putting one or two stations in every district should suffice," Glacia said offhandedly. Null almost forgot she was there altogether. The ice representative spoke rarely, and her absurd jewelry didn't compare to Aurum's glittering form. "Wormwood, don't you have the maps from the last time general elections were held? Just use those."

"Hmm. That may be a good solution. Earth dragons are quite widespread in population. We'd need to review specific locations but I don't see why it wouldn't…" Wormwood trailed off, putting one claw to his chin. His other head rolled its eyes and spoke up. "It'll work. We'll get it together tomorrow. Setting up polling stations will take time, best to schedule a date now."

"Early next month should do," Glacia waved one claw dismissively. "It should give enough time for candidates to put their names out there."

"...It really wouldn't-," Teneris began, only to be interrupted by the fire dragon representative.

"Elections aside, we should focus on the important things here!" Magnus declared loudly, "These elementals, do they pose a threat to Warfang?"

"From what we've heard…" Spyro and Cynder shared a look, and Null narrowed his eyes. He could understand that behavior every now and then from people who knew each other well - and there was zero doubt that Spyro and Cynder knew each other well - but they did it too often for it to be normal. He'd have to wear his goggles the next time they did that. "They are… exceptionally dangerous, though on an individual basis they range in threat from relatively minor to unstoppable."

"Could you share some examples?" Ida asked, tilting her head.

"At the low end, orcs. Strong enough to pose a threat to untrained dragons at the least, durable enough to weather all but the strongest magic at the most." Cynder paused to let that sink in before she continued. "At the high end? Ancestors only know. Revenants, deep golems, walking oceans, and living blizzards. You all remember the Destroyer. That's the strongest elemental we've ever seen."

"You said revenants?" Niall leaned forward, raising one brow. He slowly turned to look at Nos. "I thought you said they were undead."

"Well, we don't know everything," Nos replied evenly. She seemed calm, but Null saw her tail twitch in agitation. She didn't like being put on the spot. "The sum total of knowledge is constantly being updated and revised."

"...Right," Niall said slowly. He clearly didn't believe her. "And why are we bringing this up?"

"Because there are orcs under Warfang, tidestriders roaming the shores, boreads in the forests, and revenants killing entire squads of elite guards." Cynder fixed the water dragon with a stare. To his credit, Niall didn't shrink back. Much. "They are threatening the lives of people everywhere, not just here in Warfang. The least we can do is work to find out where they're coming from."

"That sounds like a waste of time and resources. Why must we worry about these things so far from our city?" Glacia asked, "Yes, something must be done about the orcs, but how is that any different than simply taking care of vagrants?"

"...We must confess to agreeing," Wormwood said, "Elementals are naturally occurring. More is not strictly a bad thing, and their presence in abnormal places is not necessarily indicative of anything more than local magical disturbances."

"Shall we put it to vote?" Aurum asked, raising one brow.

"Motion to investigate the sudden upsurge in elementals. All in favor?" Jed looked across the table as paws and wings went up. "All against?" A moment and the motion of various dragons. "All votes tallied. Let the record show: Teneris, Nos, Spyro, Cynder, and Magnus voted in favor. Glacia, Niall, Wormwood, Zepha, Aurum, and Ida voted against. Jed and Delphi abstained. Motion dismissed."

"Right, with all that out of the way." Niall cleared his throat and smiled smugly. "Shall we talk about taxes?"

Null tuned out at that point, staring numbly at the floor. They'd denied the investigation. He'd traveled for a month and nearly died to tell the council and they just… dismissed it. It was all for nothing.

All. For. Nothing.

He'd been frozen, exploded, nearly sliced to pieces, nearly crushed to death, nearly impaled, and fought a creature that could siphon life from everything it touched, all for nothing. His mother had died and the council wasn't going to do anything. He almost wanted to cry. He was glad Apex wasn't here, or it would be even worse.

Null almost missed it when the council gasped in unison.

Delphi, the gray-scaled oracle, was standing up and staring at the air. Her blindfold did nothing to hide the glow of her eyes. And when she spoke, it was in a whisper that carried on still air and wormed its way into the ear.

"Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is eternal. Everything is lost in the Elemental Turmoil.
When catastrophe strikes and heroes fall, the only hope is the one who lost all.
Whether steeped in convexity or aether pure, world's destroyer or savior, nothing is sure."

And then she fell unceremoniously back into her seat, panting from exertion.

Silence reigned for a while, and then Aurum spoke.

"...Can we do that last vote again? I believe I have changed my mind," The gold-scaled dragon asked quietly.

"...Yes. Yes." Jed seemed shaken, swallowing before his voice returned to its standard neutral tone. "Motion to… Motion to investigate the Elemental Turmoil. All in favor?" There was barely a moment before Jed continued. "Unanimous vote, exempting Delphi due to health issues. Motion passed."

Null wasn't sure whether the feeling in his chest was relief or dread.

A/N:

We're beginning to close in on the end of what I have written, so after we hit that point I might not have a new chapter for a while. We'll see.