Spyro walked over. Wordlessly, I set the journal back on the desk and stepped aside so he could see it. The handwriting inside of the worn, leather-bound book was next to unintelligible.
Don't be disappointed in me, Malefor. I didn't mean to fail you. I'm sorry I'm not strong enough, not strong enough to save you. But I'm so loyal... I'll always be loyal to you.
I
tried
He'snotgone
Ifeelhimtherewaitingforme
I'll kill them for you, Malefor, kill the traitors who took your life away. I'll make them suffer, the way I've suffered. I'll kill them... slowly... All for you... and all for me!
Redredredredredredred REDREDREDREDREDBLACK
Yes! I've got one of them! The girl, the purple dragon known as Crystal! But something went wrong. Somebody saw as I was about to kill her, so I had to get my friends and slaughter all of the townspeople. When we were done, I had a better plan. If I killed her, I would be a suspect, and they would be able to tell. Even if I used convexity, they might catch me. So I framed her. Yes, I killed them all... and you remember my friends, don't you? Natish, Whirlwind, and Bane? They helped me destroy the city. Each is a different element... fire, earth, electricity... but I have ice and convexity! And those are all of her elements!
When the guards from Warfang figure out who allegedly committed the crime, she'll be punished... she'll be killed, at no expense to myself! And then just Cynder and Spyro will be left! Ha ha ha!
I'll kill them all and get revenge your death I swear I shall avenge I will not stop til blood flows red and I have the traitor's head
No, no, no! They didn't give her the death sentence, despite all my efforts! They've given her life in that wretched Barrin's Keep! Aargh‼ Oh, no matter, she's out of the way, at least. Once Spyro and Cynder are dead, I'll go after her.
Mother had left me to die I sat beside her and I cried for hours I continued to weep until a sharp pain made me sleep
Has it really been a year? A year since the girl was imprisoned? No, no, yes. Kori doesn't know. Kori only waits. But what is it I wait for? The time to strike is now. I will go after the traitor first.
Failure. Failure, again. I'm sorry, Master. She hit me with fear. She made me run. But she did not see, for you shrouded me. Even now, you protect me. I must try again... Kori must not fail you. You gave me power, breathed life back into me, so I will give that power and that life back to you.
You are the blood, you are the very grip of death, so cold. You are the silence that I cannot hear. You are the cry of a mother who has lost her child, the agony of a tortured soul. You are the the wrath that drives so many. You are the betrayal of one brother against another.
You are in Kori. And Kori will release you. Kori will save you. Kori understands.
Loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty loyalty
only to you
Eleven years... so long. And nothing. I did everything I could, but I can't kill them. I just can't get close enough. So many times I have almost gotten them, but then they just don't die. The boy is too strong, the girl is too tightly locked up, the traitor is untouchable.
You gave me power... you gave me so much power... I couldn't take it all. The traitor could, but I could only bear convexity. And you tried so hard, too.
I failed you so many, many times. I failed you by not being able to contain the elements, like I should have. I failed you by not being able to save you from death. I failed you by not being able to exact your revenge.
I shall live out the rest of my days in shame. I will stay in this town, alone, forever. I cannot bear to live any longer, but I must.
I'm sorry.
I was so close.
I tried.
STOP! THE VOICES WON'T GO AWAY! I TRIED, MASTER, I TRIED! WHY DO YOU PUNISH ME? ! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP! GO AWAY GO AWAY GO AWAY!
Kill kill kill kill how are you very well thank you kill why do you red and see the tree with a bee what do you mean kill it kill it please don't don't please no kill yourself try harder I won't I won't go away red green yellow blue red green RED RED blood like hello hello hello it's raining kill no no no no yes yes yes why look at yourself WEST WEST WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST have my loyalty so limp put it down do it thank you don't hurt thank you just go away breathe the kill kill roses are redviolets are SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP kill
"Wow..." I whispered, shuddering. "Kori was insane..."
"It really wasn't you," Spyro murmured, just as shocked as I was. "Somebody did try to kill me once," he continued. "A dragon, but he stayed in the shadows and eventually ran, so I never figured out who it was. And now that I think about it, it's happened many times through the past few years."
I stepped back. "Wait, I was in that prison for twelve years. And this entry was written twelve years after I was imprisoned..." My eyes widened and I looked around. "That means he's still here!" I hissed.
"You're right," Spyro whispered, looking around. "Come on. We better get out of here before Kori comes back."
I picked up the journal and turned, quickly heading for the exit. Something about that place just made me feel so unsafe. The shadows, alive, reached out to grab me. When I turned, they snapped back. Every step I took made me want to whirl around. I was tense.
After what seemed like a million years, I made it to the door, still open. I stepped out into the cool night air. The moons had nearly reached the middle of the sky, and were already beginning to grow larger, as they always did as it neared dawn.
Now that we have this journal, they'll be able to match his handwriting and they'll let me go free, I thought. Excitement welled up inside me.
How had the world changed the past twelve years? Was Saifae and the Temple's reconstruction finished? I supposed so, but had it become a city or stayed a small town? How were Mom and Dad getting along? The Guardians? Cynder and Sparx, and Spyro too? Of course, I could ask him all of those things, but that wasn't exactly the time to play twenty questions.
I glanced back at my torn wing as we walked down the road and wished I could fly. I felt somber again, knowing that I may never be able to. But no reason to cry over it; even if I lost my ability for flight, I'd rather that than staying in Barrin's Keep forever.
As we left the outskirts of the town, I glanced back. The town was nothing but a ghost of its former self now.
My vision flashed. The buildings reappeared in the whole forms, sitting still in the night. Two waxing moons were in the starless sky, casting light down on the houses. The lush grass waved slightly in the night breeze. As I stared back at the open road leading into the forest, a dragon came flying over it, young and female by the looks of it. She coasted over the houses and landed in the road, facing the building where Kori had lived.
The door to it opened and a dragon slipped out. He crouched to the ground and dashed into the shadows, making his roundabout way to the back of the town. Then, he made his way behind the girl, just as she was about to turn around, and quickly hit her in the head as well as her side. She fell to the ground.
But then another door opened and a dragon walked out of a house. He ran over, but before he could do anything, the first dragon blasted him back with convexity, dragged the young dragon over, and used her claws to cut into his chest before pushing her back to her original spot. He motioned to the house her had come out of and three other dragons emerged from it.
More townspeople exited their houses. It wasn't long until there was full-blown hysteria. The villagers ran, screaming, trying to escape or begging for mercy. They were all cut down. One of the the three dragons from the group flew over the houses, breathing a torrent of fire down on them. The blood-red flames lit the night, and soon there was only the occasional elemental blast. And then the massacre group, after a quick search through the woods, turned and flew away, leaving the young dragon amongst the burning buildings and limp bodies.
I shook my head and the vision faded away. All was calm again. The bodies were gone and the houses were just debris once more. The grass, which had been burned in a sweep of fire, was back and little trees grew in the areas where the forest had been burned down.
"You okay?" Spyro asked. He took a step towards me.
I shook my head again, trying to clear the thoughts. "Yeah, I'm fine. Come on, let's go. If we're quick, we should reach Warfang by dawn." I started walking down the footpath that led into the forest. And so I left behind the town where my life had ended. I never saw it again.
Eventually, the unused path became so overgrown that we couldn't follow it anymore, so we veered off into the forest. Spyro occasionally took off into the air to see if we were going in the right direction, but the vegetation became so thick that he couldn't do that anymore and we had to make our way through the forest-turned-jungle on foot.
I became jumpy. I kept seeing shadows following us, but when I turned, the shadows disappeared. I shuddered in fear when I heard the light footsteps and whirled around whenever I heard a crunch. Spyro just told me it was a wild animal or our own footsteps, but it wasn't.
"There it is again!" I exclaimed, whipping around.
"Crystal, what did I tell you? It's your imagination. Just calm down and—" Spyro was interrupted as an ice shard whizzed past his face, barely missing him.
Spyro and I exchanged glances. "RUN!" we shouted together, before taking off in a sprint.
Heart pounding, I dashed through the forest. The canopy blocked out the sun and with every turn, I either ran into a tree or tripped over a root. At one point, I realized that Spyro wasn't there anymore, but I didn't have time to stop. On and on I ran until I fell head-over-heels and rolled down a hill. I was on my feet in a second, though I was dizzy.
I had landed in a clearing. The grasses waved slowly in the wind. On all sides of the clearing was the endless forest, and above me the moons were beginning to set. To my relief, Spyro was on the other side of the clearing, unharmed.
But then, to my horror, Kori came bursting out of the forest. He looked very different than he had all those years ago. His light-coloured scales had dimmed to a blue-grey, and his eyes glittered with madness. He laughed maniacally as he ran down the hill, making a beeline for the disoriented Spyro. He collected himself and hastily breathed a half-blast of earth that staggered Kori, who retaliated with a ball of convexity that Spyro dodged.
I cleared the field in a few seconds and breathed an arc of electricity that missed Kori by a mile. Growling in frustration, I backed up and aimed. With a whoosh, an ice shard shot towards Kori and never even came near him, much to my shock. I may not have had practice, but... I never missed, not with ice.
My anger only increased as I continued to miss at range and was unable to get close to him. Though he was focusing on Spyro, whenever I came near, he spun around and breathed ice or convexity. I managed to land a few hits, but they were far from life-threatening. I had lost my touch; the years of lethargy had caused my skill to diminish.
Finally, I managed to get a good attack in. A blast of fire hit Kori and left his side blackened. He cried out as some of his scales peeled off, leaving discoloured splotches and blisters all over him. Rage flashed over his features, and he whipped around. I didn't know he had breathed in until a blast of convexity hit me head-on, sending me flying.
I groaned in pain and lay there. I couldn't even move; I was in so much pain. That was so powerful. Convexity... the very essence of power, and I just got hit with it full force. Spyro and I hadn't been trained to use it, too, but Kori...
I groaned again and tried to pull myself into a sitting position, but dropped back down. Convexity, thankfully, wasn't as corrosive as poison, but it hurt so much more... it incapacitated the wielder's victims and left them helpless to fight.
So the battle raged on between Kori and Spyro, but it was doomed from the start. Kori peppered Spyro with blasts of convexity and ice, and Spyro couldn't get close enough to inflict any real damage. He went down next. As strong as he was, that didn't help him dodge the quick-firing convexity breath. He was practically crippled then, unable to move, unable to fight back...
To my horror, Kori was already standing over Spyro. I pushed myself to my feet, ignoring the wave of searing pain that shot through my body.
"No!" I cried as Kori drew in his breath, charging a blast of convexity that would surely destroy whoever it hit.
I charged forward, but I knew I wasn't fast enough to get there in time. The burst of convexity had thrown me almost all the way to the end of the field. I would never be able to get to Kori before it was too late.
I could hear my heart pounding and my feet hitting the ground, see Kori as he was finishing his attack, but I felt numb all over. I was so frightened that I wasn't.
There is a power inside you, a power that has been dormant for a long time. You previously depleted this ability, but now, at least for the moment, you shall have it back. The voice that suddenly invaded my head was familiar, so fleetingly familiar... but I couldn't quite figure out who it was.
Before I even knew what was happening, my vision suddenly tinted blue and the world slowed. The sides of my eyes pulsed and I felt something, the long-dead power the strange voice spoke of. I continued running forward, slowly coasting through the air like water. I was just a little bit faster than the pace the world was moving at, but I was fast enough.
I pushed myself off the ground once I was close to Kori, into a flying leap. I sailed over the grass, and halfway through my jump, the world returned to its normal speed. I collided into Kori, knocking him off his feet. We both rolled over the ground and I came out on top of him. I raised a paw to slash his throat open, but I hesitated.
Kori took advantage of this. He shoved me off of him. I hit the ground and a blast of icy cold flew above me. I was on my feet in a second, and my own blast of ice retaliated.
I felt considerably drained now, after all the fighting and all the damage I had taken. Kori seemed to be hurt as well, but not injured enough to be unable to dash forward and slash three long cuts in my side. I cried out. The wounds were deep and long, and they hurt.
With a growl of anger, I opened my mouth and a convexity attack. I was going to end this, once and for all! I saw that Kori was doing the same thing as I was and went into a fighting stance, an action he mirrored.
"Do you know what you did to me?" I managed to hiss through the growing ball of convexity. Blood, streams and trickles from the slashes we had received, stained the grass around us red. "What you took away?"
Kori laughed and the glow of his beam became a little less brighter. Tiny purple particles swirled around us and collided with the charging convexity, adding to the power.
"My family?" I asked. I glanced at Spyro, who was still on the ground. He was severely wounded as well. He stared at us with dead eyes and didn't move, hardly breathed.
"My friends?" Brighter...
"My childhood?" Brighter...
"My life? !" I could hardly see Kori now. He was no more than a dark figure in the white-purple light that covered much of my vision.
We both released our charged breaths at the same time. The beams shot towards each other with astounding speed. Everything I had was in that beam.
I couldn't help but think how stupid I was. I was likely going to kill myself as well as Kori. But then again, it didn't matter anymore. I had nothing left to lose. It had all been taken away.
The beams met in the middle. The light became brighter and brighter until it blinded me, but I stood my ground. I never knew there had been an explosion until I realized I was flying through the air and skidded in the dirt. I felt pain wrap itself around me, but just as suddenly as it had come, it slipped away. In fact, I slipped away too. As quietly as I had come into existence, I faded from it.