"Cynder! Master Frélix wants you, now!" an earth dragon called, running into the magic training room.
The dragoness in question stifled a growl, turning around with a raised eyebrow to stare at him straight in the eye. "What now? I'm in the middle of supervising a lesson on fearbringers with some new recruits here," she deadpanned. "Can it wait a little longer?"
"No, Master Frélix said it's very urgent. I don't know the details, but all I know is that he's waiting with a dragon from one of the other dragon cities in the Temple," the dragon replied, panting as he tried to recover his breath from getting here as quickly as he could.
Cynder groaned, throwing her head back and squeezing her eyes shut as frustration washed over her. "Fine. At least it's not vital that I supervise these sessions like I would for a venomfang," she huffed, before turning around to the ice dragon standing beside her. "Jupal. Take over this for me."
Jupal, a soldier high in the ranks assisting her in the supervision, turned to her and nodded. "Sure thing, General. I'll also let Vetar know you're gone," he said.
"Good," Cynder murmured, before she turned to leave.
Spreading out her wings once she was outside, she flew as quick as she could to the Warfang Temple, using her wind element to propel herself forward in the air. Uncertainty gripped her. What advancements had been made now that the guardians were summoning her on urgent matters?
Considering her summons, there was a high chance it wasn't something good.
She arrived at the Temple in no time, and immediately made her way to the meeting room, where Frélix stood waiting for her. However, the sight of the dragon standing beside him made Cynder falter, gasping with shock.
The dragon was clad in light steel armour, wearing a golden pendant around his neck with a ruby embedded into it. Underneath his armour, Cynder took notice of the colour of his scales. They were grey, indicating his element to be wind. She didn't know how many wind dragons there were still alive, but there couldn't have been many; she'd done many travels to many different cities over the years and even now, she had never seen another wind dragon apart from Aerus.
So where could this wind dragon have come from?
Before Cynder could voice her question, Frélix started speaking. "Cynder, there you are! This is Cybalt K'urren, a messenger of Queen Lehftin, the Queen of Typhaar," Frélix said, the mention of her family's home city catching her attention, her eyes widening at its name. "He has unfortunately come with some very grim news and a request for help."
"Okay, sure. What's the problem?" Cynder questioned.
"Well, since the war with Spyro began, we at Typhaar have been aware of everything happening, but we never ended up directly involved. However, about four months ago, one of the neighbouring towns nearby Typhaar was attacked by a bunch of dark dragons and we went out to help them, just out of kindness," Cybalt explained. "Queen Lehftin is sure that that has now put a target on us, since after that, we've been having some rather infrequent murders happen. Whole families and households slain, and in the rare case of a survivor, we have always been told that the murder was a regular looking dragon, but… not quite right… not quite normal… as if something was controlling them. One of them said that she could see dark runes on the body of her parents' murder."
"Could that be the Assassin Corps?" Cynder murmured. "That sounds very much like what I was like under Malefor's control."
"It could be," Frélix replied. "We lost track of what they were doing and where they were operating almost a year ago. They could be up at Typhaar now."
"They've always been hard to track down and find," Cynder huffed with a shake of her head, knowing that they had never been able to catch a member of Spyro's Assassin Corps since they first discovered them four years after Armageddon. "Hopefully we can finally catch one and try and restore them."
"Restore them?" Cybalt questioned. "What do you mean like that?"
"I'm sure everyone in Typhaar knows of my story, right?" Cynder asked in reply, to which the wind dragon nodded. "Well, these guys are like me. Taken away either as eggs or kids and corrupted to do Spyro's dirty work. They often tend to go after people in positions of power to throw cities and towns into disarray, but I've noticed that sometimes they tend to just go on stealth-killing sprees."
"Oh…"
"How many have been murdered over the last four months since they started? And how many have been regular citizens?"
"Most of them have been normal citizens. We've lost some guards, councillors, politicians, but we also lost all of their immediate families with them, as well as some random households throughout Typhaar," Cybalt explained. "These murders have been happening maybe once every week or two, but there's no real pattern as to when in the week they happen, or where they will attack, so we've never been able to anticipate them or track them. They've been getting more frequent over the last month tho, to the point where last week, we had four nights of murder. We think they're stepping up their game and preparing to pick off the Queen soon. Her… her two daughters were killed two nights ago.
"We… we were hoping that you would be able to come over to Typhaar and help us deal with this situation. We can't lose our queen; Typhaar's already in enough chaos and disarray as it is. Everyone is scared. We heard you've been one of the main figures in this war and know not only Spyro but the tactics of darkness well, so we thought you would be a big help to us."
Cynder turned to Frélix, an eyebrow raised, silently questioning him if he thought it was a good idea. The ice guardian hesitated for a bit, before giving a small nod. "Okay. We can have a look. No promises that we'll find anything or if we can even do anything, and if we remain fruitless for too long, we'll have to head back here," Cynder said. "After all, protecting Warfang is a top priority of ours, particularly since it holds the biggest percentage of the dragon population, and the fact that it's closest to Dark Peak and the most open to attacks."
"I understand," Cybalt replied, his voice shaking as the possibility of not finding anything and having to send Cynder back home entered his head.
"Great. I'll take maybe one or two other soldiers with me for backup in case we need it, but I won't take too many so we're not cutting our own defenses too much," Cynder added. "Master Frélix, if you could let the other guardians know, that would be great."
The ice guardian nodded, before he turned and left the room. Cybalt wore an expression of relief on his face, smiling widely at Cynder. "Great, thank you so much! We really appreciate it!" Cybalt exclaimed. "We'll leave just before sunset. It's about a day's flight, so we should be there by tomorrow afternoon if we leave then."
"Alright, I'll meet you here at sunset then. Bye, Cybalt," the dragoness replied, before she turned and left to begin organising who was going to go with her.
After arriving back at the barracks and briefing everyone, she had the two soldiers picked to go with her. The first dragon was Ta'torol, an earth dragon originally from Urgussen, who was very large and bulky—taller than Cynder too, which was a feat not many dragons could boast—and had many scars running down his left arm and chest. He also bore half a tail, as it had been chopped off by Cynder during her years as the Terror of the Skies. Now, he wore a metal tailblade, which was just as deadly as hers.
The second dragon she had picked to take with her was named Forlorär, a burly lightning dragon who was known for his strength, which rivalled that of Terrador back in the day. He too had fought Cynder, and was there when Cynder had kidnapped Terrador. He was left with a huge scar under his left eye from that day, but nowadays he bore if with pride, and since Cynder's redemption and new job as the general of the Warfang army, he had grown a lot of respect for her, particularly given the events of the first five months of the war, from Spyro's betrayal to Armageddon.
It wasn't long before Cynder also stumbled across her brother on the way to her house from the barracks to quickly grab some rest before the big flight and potentially more fighting. Aerus was startled to see her at first, not expecting her out of the barracks so soon in the day, and he could tell by looking at her face that something was up.
"Hey, Cynder. Is everything okay?" the wind dragon asked.
"Um… well, a dragon came to see Master Frélix earlier this morning, saying that there's been some mysterious murders, likely from Spyro's Dark Assassin Corps, happening in his city over the last few months. He said they're getting more frequent over the last few weeks, and that he's worried that their queen will be an eventual target," Cynder explained.
Aerus winced at the information. "And… which city is this?"
"Typhaar."
"Wait, Typhaar?!" Aerus spluttered. "As in my home Typhaar?! It's in trouble?!"
"Aerus, please don't panic. I, as well as two other soldiers, are going with one of the queen's messengers to investigate."
"Don't panic? Cynder, that's my home! You may have never lived there or had any ties there but that's home to me, Cynder!"
"Aerus…"
"Let me come with you!"
"Listen to me, it will be safer for you here."
"NO, CYNDER!" Aerus screamed, causing her to flinch at the sudden roar, something that Aerus didn't normally do.
Aerus took a few heavy breaths, an almost horrified expression on his face; Cynder didn't know whether that was from his uncharacteristic scream, the fact he screamed at his sister, the fact that he talked back to her regarding what was basically a military mission, or all three at once. At the same time, she could see the tears brimming his eyes as emotion crushed him. He turned his gaze, struggling to look Cynder in the eye.
He took a deep, shuddering breath, before he spoke again in a hushed, breaking voice. "It's my home. And it's in danger. I know that… Warfang is my home now, but Typhaar will always be home. It's my birthplace. I was raised there, and I was loved there," Aerus whispered. "All my childhood memories are there. I know you don't know what that's like, given your own childhood, but when you hear that your hometown, the place that you grew up in, is in danger and experiencing terrible things like several murders in a week, likely caused by Spyro's cronies? It… it hurts. It hurts… a lot… I have to come. I have to."
Cynder narrowed her eyes. She didn't know how to respond. She didn't know what the right answer was. She watched as her brother frowned upon her expression change.
"Please, Cynder. I know it's a military mission. I know I'm not a soldier. But it would mean the world to me if I could go along. I don't know if I could live with myself knowing I sat around doing nothing, hours away from Typhaar, knowing it was in trouble, and knowing that Queen Lehftin could be an assassination target. I promise I'll follow your orders, and I'll do what you ask. I know what your role in this mission will be and I'm not going to step in the way of that. I trust you'll do what's right over there."
She held her breath, still thinking it over in her head, before she finally let out a sigh. "Fine. You can come," she said eventually, immediately continuing before Aerus could get too excited. "But… our relationship on this trip will not be one of brother and sister, you understand me?"
"Yes. Yes, I understand," Aerus replied with a nod.
"Good. We need to focus on the task at hand, and we can't let our relationship get in the way of that. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be looking out for you, but it will be out of a duty to keep you alive under my command, rather than from a sibling perspective."
"I understand. Thank you so much, Cynder!" Aerus said with a smile. "You don't know how much this means to me. To finally be able to go home… despite the dire situation… to potentially see old friends… I can't thank you enough, Cynder. I just… hope it hasn't changed too much over the past twelve years."
Aerus' smile was a sad one. Cynder faltered, completely unsure what to say or do. She didn't do well with emotions, her own or other people's. Before the War of Eternal Darkness, she was very emotional, and was easily upset, however afterwards, she became hard and filled with anger and hatred. She rarely even felt positive emotions. She had closed herself off to them many years ago.
However, even in her emotional state, she had never learned how to comfort others. She had never been good at it. In her current state, where she saw emotions as weakness and a distraction to the job at hand, she was even less equipped to comfort someone. She felt extremely uncomfortable watching her brother start to be sad. Maybe that was why she had let him come along? Normally she wouldn't have done so, and normally she wouldn't have cared how the other person reacted, but because he was her brother, it was… different for her. She knew she still had love inside her for him, even Aerus knew it. She just wasn't brave enough to admit it.
Still, she tried, at least wanting to give Aerus a good last moment as siblings before she became his general for a few days. "You okay?" she asked, not sure what else to say.
"I… I don't know. Call me emotional, I don't care. I just… miss Typhaar. I'm scared for it and I'm scared for all the people in it. I don't know what else has happened in the last twelve years since I… since we… left Typhaar," Aerus murmured, before wincing as he thought of his deceased parents. "I'm sorry. I'll try not to be like this on the trip."
Cynder just watched as he winced and wiped his eyes. She suppressed her own wince as the images of her parents being cut up and slaughtered replayed in her head. They weren't nice images. She still remembered vividly the way their blood poured onto the ground, the way that axe tore into her father's throat, and the way her mother cried blood from her eyes being torn out. She remembered watching as her mother's stomach was torn open, before her head was ripped off her neck. Even though she hadn't thought back on those moments for years, the images were still all too vivid.
There was no surprise that they were as vivid as they were. They were her parents after all, slaughtered in front of her barely minutes after she met them for the first time. It took her years to realise truly how messed up she was from that. After going twenty-three years without ever seeing her parents, they were suddenly killed just after she saw them. They never even spoke or had a conversation. Her parents never even saw her.
She had no more tears to cry for them. She'd cried them out years ago.
She couldn't even remember the last time she'd cried. Cynder had cried so much over the start of the war that now, she didn't think she had any more left in her to give. Crying felt foreign to her now.
Cynder looked back at Aerus, who was forcing back the tears that were very close to coming out of his own eyes. He wiped his eyes again, clearing his throat as he tried to calm himself down. She felt so awkward watching him so emotional like this. She didn't know what to do or say. However, one thing she was very sure of was that he wanted to move on from the topic. So did she.
"Alright. I'll see you this evening then. We'll meet up at the Warfang Temple at sunset," she said. "Do what you need to do to be prepared beforehand so we can leave as soon as everyone's there."
"Okay. Thanks, Cynder," Aerus replied, watching as Cynder then began to walk off. "See you then."
It didn't take long for sunset to arrive. It felt like it had come very quickly; Cynder was almost caught off guard by it. When she saw the time, she immediately made her way to the Temple to meet up with the other four dragons that would be accompanying her on the trip to Typhaar. Upon her arrival, she noticed that Cybalt and Forlorär were already there, engaged in conversation, and they both turned to greet Cynder when she arrived. Ash and Lagenon were also present, intending to see them off and wish them luck.
"Hey, Cynder. Thank you so much for agreeing to this," Cybalt repeated. "It means a lot to me, Queen Lehftin, and Typhaar."
"No problem," Cynder said, deciding not to mention Cybalt repeating his thanks. "Oh, I should probably let you guys know as well, my brother Aerus is coming along too. Typhaar is his hometown and when he heard about what was happening, he was immediately worried and insisted on coming. Not sure how, but he managed to convince me to let him come."
"All fine with me; the more help, the better," Cybalt said with a smile, before pausing as something clicked in his brain. "Hang on a second, did you say Aerus?"
"Yeah, why?"
"We were best friends back in our youth. We met when he was thirteen; I might have been… maybe fifteen or sixteen then. I was probably one of the only friends he had during that particular timeframe," the wind dragon explained, to which Cynder's eyes widened with surprise on the revelation that this was one of her brother's friends—it sure was a small world. "When I heard he'd gone missing, I was really worried. I knew him and his parents had gone to Warfang but I would have at least thought he'd write. For many years I thought him dead. Ancestors, it's so good to hear he's still alive."
Cynder took a deep breath. She had to prepare herself for many more connections to Aerus to pop up when they got to Typhaar. It hadn't properly clicked that there would be people in Typhaar that her brother would know until now.
"So, how's he been going then?" Cybalt then asked, his voice pulling Cynder from her thoughts.
"Um… yeah, he's been going great. He actually got a job as a librarian; he really likes his books. He only works part-time though, but he's got enough money to sustain him, and he's happy. He uh… He still struggles a bit with things though. He had a tough time during Armageddon, but then again all of us at Warfang did," Cynder explained.
Forlorär murmured in confirmation, and Ash just scoffed. "It wasn't just in Warfang. It affected the whole world; even the White Isle," he said.
"White Isle? It affected there too?" Cybalt asked, receiving a nod from Ash. "Wait, how do you know that?"
"Because all four of us guardians were there at the time," Ash explained. "We were doing our guardian training with the Chronicler, until Armageddon came up and we had to abandon the temple for the time being. The temple was extremely close to being lost."
Cybalt just blinked. He opened his mouth to ask another question, until the sound of wingbeats distracted all of them, causing them to turn towards the sound. It was Ta'torol. Aerus showed up about a minute after the earth dragon arrived, and Cybalt was quick to greet him. "Aerus! Ancestors, it's been so long since I last saw you!" he cried happily.
Aerus narrowed his eyes, as if trying to remember if he knew this dragon. He suddenly gasped with realisation. "Wait… Cybalt?! Is that you?" Aerus exclaimed.
"Sure is! It's been twelve damn years, but we've finally found each other again," Cybalt said with a smile. "I thought you were dead, but… oh ancestors, it's just so good to see you again."
"Okay, you can talk when we stop to rest, but the sun's almost gone over the horizon and we need to get going if we want to be at Typhaar before nightfall tomorrow evening," Cynder interrupted. "Now come on and let's go."
Cynder turned, flying off into the sky, before Ta'torol and Forlorär followed, leaving Aerus and Cybalt alone on the ground. "Don't get offended if my sister comes across too harsh. That's just… her. She's been through a lot of stuff over the last twelve years, and it's affected her quite a lot," Aerus said to Cybalt. "Anyway, we should probably go; we don't want to fall behind."
"You're right, I should probably be up front anyway," Cybalt said, before spreading his wings wide and taking to the skies, rushing forward with his wind element to catch up with the rest of the group. Aerus was quick to follow suit.
The group flew for about an hour and a half before they stopped to rest for a few minutes. Aerus wanted to stop and rest for the night, but according to Cybalt, they were barely a fraction of the way there.
Aerus had forgotten just how far away Typhaar was, only now remembering that he and his parents had been travelling for three days before they'd stumbled across Spyro's forced and were taken to Dark Peak. To be fair, they also took their sweet time travelling, especially since Kreshaar had never really liked long bursts of flying, and wanted to take time to enjoy the surroundings. They had even stopped at another town for a little bit.
Cynder had also said that it was quite dangerous to be on the ground at this time of night without any protection or city walls surrounding them, because at this point, they were still pretty close to Dark Peak. Her passing mention of bloodlusters also put Aerus on edge.
After the small break, Cynder had them flying for another two hours before they finally came to a rest. Adrano were both high in the sky, occupying opposite sides of it as they illuminated the rainforest below them. In this rainforest was a small but deep cave, that was just large enough for the five dragons to sleep comfortably in.
In the dark of the night, Cynder blended in so well that Aerus and Cybalt would jump when she moved, particularly the Typhaarian messenger. It took a while for their eyes to adjust to the point where they could see the faint sheen of Adrano's moonlight on Cynder's dark scales, as well as her silhouette.
Even though he could see her silhouette for the most part, Cybalt was still quite jumpy, not having adjusted to the silent, dark dragoness sneaking around them. Noticing Cybalt's jumpiness, Aerus felt an old childlike urge rise within him to play a prank on Cybalt and attempt to scare him. He immediately pushed the urge away, knowing Cynder would be on him like a flash if he did that, knowing that they needed to stay quiet so they could get to Typhaar without being spotted by anyone… or anything.
So, Aerus decided to make some softly-spoken conversation with Cybalt instead, walking up to him carefully and announcing his presence. "So, Cybalt. What do you do now, after these twelve years?" he questioned.
"I'm not sure if Cynder's mentioned this to you or not, but I'm one of the queen's messengers. The Queen heard of Cynder's active involvement in fighting Spyro's forces and decided to get her to help, because the Queen suspects it's Spyro's forces causing the murders," Cybalt explained.
"Oh, Cynder mentioned a messenger, but it never clicked that it was you, even with the flight here! How long have you had that job for?"
"About… five years maybe? Probably closer to six."
"Wow. That's really something, Cybalt. I knew you wanted to do something like that but to actually have the job is a true achievement."
Cybalt just chuckled in response. "And Cynder told me you work part-time as a librarian. Tell me about that."
"Yeah, it's pretty good. I like books, always have, so I guess it suits me. It's interesting seeing what types of books people read, and because I get to handle them and put them back on shelves, I actually stop to briefly read the blurbs of the stories to see what they're about. Some of them I've put on my reading list. It's pretty relaxed most of the time," Aerus explained.
"That's good. You know, it's really good to see you again, Aerus. It's been twelve years. There's so much to catch up on."
"I know. Maybe I could come back to Typhaar sometime to visit for a bit longer once the war's over. I have a friend who needs help with some very important things that all need to be done quickly because of the war. It'll be a lot more relaxed when it's over and I'll be able to visit."
"That is, if it ever finishes. Typhaar hasn't been too involved in it, but it has affected us quite a fair bit, and it's been going on for twelve years. I really hope the War of Eternal Darkness doesn't last for any longer than it has; I'm sick of all this war, especially after the Dark War as well. Eight years was barely enough of a break to recover from that war."
"Cybalt. Don't worry about it. We've survived the war this long. I'm sure we can survive until the end. With the ancestors' help, we can pull through it and this war will end."
Cybalt just nodded. He opened his mouth to continue speaking until Forlorär walked into the cave holding a few wolves in his maw. "I managed to catch us some food. We'd better eat to get some energy," he said after he dropped the wolves on the ground.
Aerus and Cybalt gave a small wince at the sight of the limp, dead canines. Just a few kilometres out of Typhaar, there was actually a small civilisation of foxes that were quite friendly with the Typhaarian dragons. Those foxes were sentient beings that walked on two legs, very similarly to many of the feline tribes and the moles, unlike the wild, feral wolves that lay dead in front of them. Even though they were merely beasts, wild animals, it still felt wrong for Aerus to eat canine meat. He got odd looks every time he turned down canine meat, but he was luckily never questioned about it.
He just heard Cynder give a low growl as she walked towards the pile of bloody wolf carcasses. "If the stories Aerus has told me about the fox colony near Typhaar are true, then you're probably not going to want to eat these, are you, Cybalt?" Cynder asked flatly.
Cybalt just shook his head.
Cynder merely huffed in response, before she bent down and picked up a carcass in her mouth, before throwing it at the two wind dragons. They both yelped as the wolf landed on the ground in front of them with a heavy thud, its head twisted at an unnatural angle from its snapped neck.
"Seriously, you two. We can't afford to be picky," Cynder snapped. "Out in the field here, this is all we have, and we need energy to get to Typhaar, as well as deal with whatever is going on over there. If you refuse to eat it, I do not want to hear you complaining that you don't have the energy, and I definitely don't want to see you straggling too far behind. So I suggest you suck it up and eat the damned wolf."
With that, Cynder bent her head back down and picked up another wolf from the pile, before stalking over to the far corner of the cave, submerged in darkness. The sound of snapping bones and the squelching of flesh and blood ensued not soon after as she began devouring the wolf carcass. The same sounds rose through the air much closer to them as Ta'torol and Forlorär also began to eat the wolf.
Aerus just turned to Cybalt and gulped nervously, before turning his gaze down to the wolf splayed out in front of them. Not wanting to think about the animal that he would now be forced to eat, Aerus closed his eyes and raised his tailblade, before cutting through the wolf's flank. He picked up the flank and turned away from the wolf so that all he could directly see was a hunk of flank meat with a small patch of bloodied fur on one side of it. It was pretty unrecognisable as a wolf's hide when the flank wasn't a part of the body. He bit into it, trying not to focus on the taste of the meat and blood, but rather just focusing on getting food into his stomach.
There was the sound of a loud thump behind him, before there was the sound of more slicing flesh. He didn't have to look back to know that Cybalt had come to the same decision as him, rolling the wolf over and taking the other side of its flank, before turning away from the carcass to disassociate the meat from the animal.
It wasn't long before they all finally finished their food, before they all laid down to sleep for the night. Or… tried to, at least. Aerus couldn't get to sleep. He was worried. He knew he was going to be on this trip to Typhaar, so he had sent Forzen, who was still staying with him, back to live in Muras' house. It took a decent amount of convincing to get Forzen to go, but he finally did so.
The young purple dragon was far from happy about it, and seemed to be more than just angry when Aerus dropped him back off at Muras' house. He also seemed to be… quite scared as well. He was worried for Forzen, especially since tomorrow was Glaenday, when he would start his first day of school.
He was also worried for Typhaar, his home. It was in danger. He didn't like the sound of all the murders going on. He had come along to try and help stop it. But what could he do? The realisation of it all only just now seemed to hit him. He was weak. He wasn't strong like Cynder. He wasn't anything like Cynder. He knew he might have to fight, but he didn't want to. He was almost scared too. Not only was he not the greatest at it, especially amongst his sister and two soldiers from the army, but the thought of violence terrified him.
After his experience being possessed during Armageddon and watching everything he did in the back of his mind, stuck inside his own body… it was horrifying. He hated watching the violent acts he was committing. The last thing he wanted to do was engage with even more violence.
But he knew he had to in order to protect his home, he had to fight. In order to protect his family, which he supposed now included the little purple dragon that was his nephew, he had to fight. In a time of war, fighting was the only way to protect.
He didn't know how long he was pondering over his thoughts, before he was interrupted as a strangled gasp came from one of the dragons in the cave. A small, suppressed groan of frustration then followed, and it was feminine. It had to be Cynder.
Aerus looked over towards Cynder's direction, squinting hard to try and spot her silhouette in the darkness of the cave. There was a few seconds of silence, before the sound of scales scraping against rock sounded as she stood to her paws. He could hear her claws tapping across the rock as she made her way over to the entrance of the cave. With a sigh, Aerus stood up and followed her.
"Cynder?" he began, but with a sudden, low growl, Cynder whirled around with bared teeth and a vicious snarl, her tailblade aimed at his throat.
Aerus leapt back with fear, and Cynder faltered. She let out a low growl, glaring daggers at him. "Don't sneak up on me like that, you fool!" she scowled, withdrawing her deadly weapon.
"I just wanted to ask if you were okay. I heard you wake up," Aerus muttered.
"I'm fine. Just a little nightmare," she dismissed, looking away from Aerus and out into the dimly lit rainforest.
"You don't have to dismiss it like it's nothing, Cynder. You can talk about it if you need to."
"Well, I don't need to, so don't bother," Cynder spat, making Aerus recoil at the venom in her voice. "Do keep in mind what I said earlier back in Warfang. I don't want any of this sappy stuff between us. On this trip, we're comrades, and I am your general. No sibling relationship, remember?"
"No one else is awake, and it's the middle of the night. Surely it's fine just for tonight. I just want to make sure you're okay."
"Well, I am okay. And I'm not asking for your help."
"You don't seem okay. I was always told that talking about what's wrong always helps."
"And who told you that? Mother?"
"Um… yeah?"
"Okay let me make this clear, don't you ever try to force Mother's parenting on me, got it?" Cynder spat, and Aerus reeled backwards in fear. "I don't care if that's how you were raised, but I was not raised that way, and those types of teachings will never help in a world like our own. Not only that, but I never even knew her. Don't try and pull the 'but Mum always said' card on me because I never heard any of that in the first place. I never knew or saw our parents before we saw them in that damned torture chamber. They were strangers to me. I know you're my brother and I do care for you, but don't you dare force the words and teachings of a stranger onto me, even if said strangers were my parents."
"Cynder, I'm sorry. I—"
"Shut it. Go back to sleep."
"I swear, I didn't mean to—"
"GO."
Aerus flinched. He was used to hearing his sister angry and fuming with rage. It was a very normal thing at this point. But he had never heard her this angry before. She wasn't even yelling; it was almost scarier than when she was. Her voice was so thick with venom and rage that just the sound of her voice felt like it was tearing into him.
The wind dragon turned around and slowly made his way back to his sleeping spot in the cave. He turned back to get one last glance at Cynder, who stood there unmoving, staring at his, her eyes burning with fury. The way she was ominously silhouetted against the moonlight didn't make things any better.
He laid down on the ground, curling himself into a ball. He wanted nothing more than to just lie down and cry, but he knew Cynder would have his head if he burst into tears right now. As he laid there with his back turned to her, he could hear frustrated growling and the sounds of foliage being torn up as Cynder clawed down the trees and bushes in the rainforest. He was successful on keeping his sobs in, but he was rather unsuccessful with keeping tears in. They dripped slowly down his face as he listened to Cynder take out her rage on the plants outside.
Her growls and grunts were shaking; Aerus knew that sound anywhere. She was on the verge of tears too. It had been years since anything had done that to her. His heart ached as he realised just how much he had broken her trying to bring their mother's soft words into the conversation. They had always helped him, and he thought those words would help her too, but he was wrong.
Aerus understood Cynder's point of view. He had never thought of it that way before, but now that Cynder had put it into words, the harsh reality of it all hit him with a force he couldn't explain. She would never get to know her parents. She met them for the first time in that torture room, and watched them get torn apart and slaughtered. She never even got to speak with them. That was the only exposure to her parents that she had ever had. Aerus didn't know what that would be like… what that would do to someone. Cynder had always been good at bottling up her emotions and not letting them show. He had no idea just how much that concept had messed with her. Even what Cynder had let out during their conversation, and what she was letting out now, was surely not all of it.
There was more hidden deep down inside her hurting soul, Aerus knew it.
Finally, the sounds of Cynder's quiet wrath came to an end, and a few moments later, she stormed back into the cave, returning to her spot in the darkest corner of it. Very faintly, Aerus could hear her sniffling. He looked up above his paws to just faintly see Cynder wiping her eyes.
Ancestors, I made her cry, Aerus thought.
He'd always wanted her to be able to cry and let out her emotions, but not like this.
He felt awful.
It was hard for him to sleep that night, the guilt weighing him down and keeping him awake for the majority of the night.
"Alright, everybody up!" Cynder barked loudly.
Ta'torol and Forlorär woke up calmly and stretched, before standing up. Ta'torol rolled his head around, cracking some of the joints in his neck as a satisfied sigh escaped his jaws. On the other hand, Aerus and Cybalt weren't nearly as calm as the two soldiers, jolting awake with a yelp due to the sudden shout cutting through their sleep.
Aerus groaned and looked up, seeing Cynder standing over him, looking down with an unreadable expression. There was still fury burning in her eyes when she looked at him, but Aerus wasn't awake enough to fully register that. "Come on, Cynder. I'm tired," Aerus complained.
She reached out and slapped him. "I did warn you I'd be waking you all up early," Cynder snapped. "Now get up for breakfast."
Ta'torol just smirked at the little argument, also not quite registering the animosity Cynder had towards her brother. He flicked his half-tail in amusement, before going to strap his metallic tailblade to the end of his tail. He made his way to the entrance of the cave, immediately looking up into the sky.
"Don't worry, you too. It's not that early," Ta'torol chuckled.
"Oh yeah? What hour is it?" Cybalt groaned as he slowly stood up.
Ta'torol rolled his eyes. "It's about the eight hour, probably close to the ninth."
"Technically, we've slept in," Cynder grumbled. "I wanted to be up before the eighth hour to get to Typhaar by the sixteenth. I want to talk to Queen Lehftin about what's going on and get as much information as I can before tonight. With the rate the murders have been increasing, I'm sure they've probably hit almost daily by now; we've gotta keep our eyes open."
With that, Cynder made her way outside, the two soldiers following her. Aerus and Cybalt stayed behind a little bit, neither ready to move. Cybalt approached Aerus, noticing his conflicted expression. "Hey, you alright?" Cybalt asked, placing a paw on Aerus' shoulder. "You look awful."
"Cynder and I had… an argument… last night, while you guys were all sleeping," Aerus murmured.
"Oh. What happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it. You'd be better off not getting involved either. Trust me."
Without another word, Aerus left the cave, leaving Cybalt standing there in confusion, before he finally snapped out of it and followed his friend. When they found the rest of the group, they were plucking fruits from a tree; Cynder had suggested a bit of a sweeter, fresher breakfast rather than trying to find some more meat, however Aerus was also sure that she just didn't want to deal with the way he and Cybalt didn't want to eat wolf meat.
They ended up with nineteen large pieces of fruit. Cynder took four, leaving five for the rest of them. They ate in silence, and before long, they had taken off to the skies once more, flying in silence. As they flew closer and closer to Typhaar, the air turned grim among the five dragons as their reason for being there suddenly became all the more real to them. It was especially grim for Aerus. This was not just a fun trip to say hi to everyone and meet old friends; this was a mission to stop a murder spree. It was a mission to stop a potential regicide.
Their flight continued in silence. They flew, they rested, they flew again, stopped for lunch, and returned to the air once more. It was halfway through the seventeenth hour by the time they made it to Typhaar.
Upon arriving, Cynder could tell Aerus was hiding his excitement as he landed in this familiar city. She quickly got Cybalt to take them to see Queen Lehftin to inquire her in more detail about what was happening. Cynder wanted all of them to come with her, including Aerus.
The queen was quick to meet them in the foyer of Typhaar Palace once she was notified of their arrival. She was a very large dragoness, almost Cynder's height, and wore luscious cyan robes down her glistening grey scales. She was astoundingly beautiful, especially for a three-hundred-year-old dragoness. Her voice showed a bit of age, but was still fairly smooth and regal.
"General Cynder, I'm glad you could make it," she greeted, bowing her head to Cynder, to which she gracefully and respectfully repeated back to the queen. "There's been some awfully pressing matters in Typhaar, as I'm sure Cybalt has likely explained to you."
"Yes, Your Majesty. He's told me," Cynder replied.
"Now, we've tried to figure out who the culprit is on our own, but it's been getting increasingly more dangerous now that we've had four nights in a row of murders, one of which included my younger brother last night. The murderer is always gone by the time we get there. They're quiet and quick to silence their victims, but they're incredibly messy."
"Sounds like the work of Spyro's goons. Anyone working for Spyro often turn out to be messy killers, from what I've noticed. It's sickening."
"So you agree that it might be someone working for Spyro?"
"Absolutely. I think I know what group of dragons it is as well. They're known as the Dark Assassin Corps, and they're a group of young dragons that have been raised to be killers. They rarely leave Dark Peak, but when they do, they're on a mission to kill, whether the intent is to cause havoc, to scare people, to kill someone of importance, or all three. With the way the murders have been increasing, I'm bound to think your head might be on the chopping block soon, especially with your daughters killed, and now your brother."
"I feared that too. There's just this feeling that I have that I'm next, very soon. That's why I sent Cybalt to reach out to you. Not only to protect me, but of course to protect my city and my people. They don't deserve to be living in this fear."
"No one does."
"Now, tell me about this Dark Assassin Corps. You said they were all young dragons. How young exactly are they?"
"Children. Your Majesty, they're like me."
An uncomfortable silence filled the room, the queen's guards looking nervously at Cynder, and the queen herself lowering her head in thought, shaking her head.
"This… doesn't sit well with me. I don't like what I'm hearing."
"I don't either, but it's true," Cynder insisted. "I saw as those kids got taken to Dark Peak to get corrupted and to enter this group of killers. Twelve years ago, the kidnappings started. I remember the sieges on many of the smaller dragon towns, where the children were the targets. We failed to stop them, and they made off with dozens of younglings, all doomed to meet the same fate that I did all those years ago."
"The thing I don't get is why they would target here," one of the guards murmured. "I mean, we've never really been involved in the war over the last twelve years, like… at all."
"Is there something here that Spyro might want?" Ta'torol piped up.
"Like what?" Queen Lehftin questioned.
"Anything that might be of value to him," Cynder clarified. "Don't get me wrong, sometimes he does things like this for a bit of fun, or to try and spread his twisted ideology and to assert himself over other parts of the world, but if there's anything valuable here that he could make use of, that could also be why he's doing this. It could be a tactic to scare the answer out of you once he finally comes here himself."
"Well… we do have many valuables here. We're wind dragons; almost everything we produce is all about valuables. Gemstones, rings, jewellery… that's what we do here. We even have several magic items and trinkets hidden away that we rarely let out into the open."
"If you have items of magical value then yes, you are absolutely a target for something that Spyro wants," Cynder explained. "We need to stay on high alert."
"That much I can agree with."
"Where are these trinkets located?"
Queen Lehftin leaned forward and whispered to Cynder, "Somewhere in the palace. However that is all I'll tell you; I don't want to tell you in case something slips."
"Fair enough, that's all we need to know. We'll stick around here then: to protect you and to protect these valuables. Ta'torol, I want you stationed inside the palace with the other guards should anything happen in here. Queen Lehftin, increase the security around your chambers, and maybe have a guard be in there with you just in case. Forlorär, I want you patrolling the outer perimeter of the palace. Aerus, I'd like you to join him. Get some guards around as well. I'll keep watch on the roof so I can get a wider view of the rest of the city too. I'll notice if anyone enters the city walls from up there."
"How come we're fortifying the palace so much? We can't be sure if they're making a move for the palace yet," one of the Typhaarian guards questioned.
"Just in case, especially with so many of Queen Lehftin's relatives being targetted already. The city will fall into chaos and disorder if she's killed; we need to make sure she's protected and safe," Cynder explained. "If they don't make a move on her, that's why I'm up on the roof. I have great night vision due to my shadow element, and I've gotten a very good eye for scouting for these sorts of things; it's one of the few things I can thank my time as the Terror of the Skies for. I'll be able to see any suspicious dragons and where they're going."
"Fair enough, that makes sense. Did you want any guards up there with you too, just in case something does happen?"
"May as well; a few extra paws couldn't hurt."
"Great. Agliar, would you be able to get Prafûr and Osmir and tell them to meet Cynder up on the roof of the castle by sundown?" Queen Lehftin asked the guard, to which he gave a nod and turned around, leaving them.
"Brilliant. Come sundown, I want everyone else to be in their position too," Cynder ordered. "Until then, is there anywhere we can go for food, Queen Lehftin? We've all been flying all day and it'd be good to get our energy back up ready for tonight in case something happens."
"To save you from trying to find somewhere, you can have dinner here. I'll get the chefs to whip you something up as quick as they can, especially since it's nearly sundown," the queen replied with a smile. "Guards, please show them to the dining table."
With that, they were guided down the hall to a large, fancy dining room, where a very long table sat. There was a really fancily decorated seat at the head of the table, supposedly for the queen, so nobody sat down there. All the other seats were still rather fancy, with large silver sequin cushions and fancy silver plates and chalices at each spot.
"So, how long will we be staying here, Cynder? I can't imagine it'll just be tonight," Ta'torol questioned once they had sat down.
"I don't think so either. I'd imagine we will stick around as long as we need to, hopefully only a few days. Hopefully everything dies down soon, as I think it'll be best to leave once we're sure that the queen, as well as the city, is safe, but we also need to make sure we're not leaving Warfang vulnerable without us, too. Especially without me," Cynder explained.
She looked at the guards in the dining room, who nodded. "The queen was hoping you guys would at least stay for a few days. We understand if we see nothing happen and you guys have to leave, but hopefully we can get to the bottom of this," one of the guards said.
"I agree. But, considering the frequency of the murders you've had recently, I'm ninety-nine percent certain that we will see some action tonight, so be prepared and attentive. You'll need it."
There was a small silence, before Aerus then spoke up. "So, you're getting Prafûr assigned to you I hear? That'll be cool," he said.
"Who is he? You sound like you know him," Cynder replied.
"He's one of our best guards here. Super fast, super skilled in combat, and I don't think he's ever lost a fight. Mother always used to speak very highly of him."
"They knew each other?"
"He's her older brother."
"So… he's my uncle?" Cynder stammered, blinking in surprise. "And he's… alive?"
"By the sounds of it, yes."
Cynder just stared at Aerus in equal parts shock, happiness, and fear. Her jaw hung open slightly, and the corners of her lips twitched, unsure whether they wanted to curl up in a smile or not. She had abandoned the thought of having any other family alive outside of Aerus, but now she had an uncle. And he was alive.
I know we're on business terms tonight, but… tomorrow during the day I'll have to catch up with him, Cynder thought to herself. I want so badly to know more about him, more about my mother. I want to know if I have more extended family still alive. Did Mother have any other brothers and sisters. Did Father?
Her thoughts were interrupted as several servants walked into the room with plates of food and a large bottle of wine. They thanked the servants as their plates of food were placed down in front of them, but Cynder stopped them before the first chalice could be filled with wine. "None of us will have wine, just water thanks," Cynder murmured, a serious light burning in her eyes.
Without question, the servant holding the bottle of wine nodded, before leaving with it. Cynder caught sight of Forlorär frowning. "Forlorär, no frowning. You know we need to be on high alert," Cynder scolded. "No alcohol; you know my rules when we're stationed on."
"Sorry," the lightning dragon murmured.
It didn't take long before the servant returned with a jug of water, pouring it into each of their chalices. Cynder thanked the servants, before they all left them alone so they could eat in peace. It didn't take long for them to finish their food, and before long, they were on their way to their stations.
Ta'torol immediately made his way to find the queen, making sure he could be as close to her as possible. Cynder, Forlorär and Aerus made their way towards the palace doors so they could head outside. When they opened the door, they were greeted by a gorgeous sunset that painted the sky in a glorious, vibrant orange. The other thing that greeted them were two armoured wind dragons standing in front of the doors.
"Good evening. You must be General Cynder," the larger wind dragon said.
"Yes, I am. Are you the two guards assigned to me tonight?" Cynder asked.
"Affirmative."
"Great, then let's go. Forlorär and Aerus, good luck."
With that, Cynder spread her wings and flew up into the air, rising up above the palace so she could find a good lookout spot on the palace roof to stay the whole night. She quickly found a really nice spot and made her way up to it, the two guards following. They all settled down quickly, making sure each of them were turned so they could cover as many different parts of the city all at once.
"So, I'm told you're my niece," the larger soldier, to which Cynder assumed was Prafûr, said. "I haven't heard much of you since the days of Malefor."
"They're days I'm not proud of. Nonetheless, I'm glad I'm now fighting against the darkness rather than on it. I'd much rather put everything I learned from my days as the Terror of the Skies against the darkness that raised me," Cynder replied sternly.
"That's good. I'm glad to have you on our side, and to be working with you," the other guard, Osmir, said.
"Agreed. You and I will have to catch up properly tomorrow once this mission has passed," Prafûr added.
"I agree, but for now, let's just focus on the task at hand," Cynder insisted. "Now, I want you guys to be aware that there's a huge likelihood that the culprits are like me: children, barely in their teenage years, who were corrupted by darkness and manipulated to kill."
"Great, Spyro's doing that now?"
"Absolutely. And to a much larger scale; it's not an isolated instance like it was with me," Cynder explained. "There were dozens of children taken about twelve years ago when the main kidnapping happened. I don't know how many more have been taken since. And this is why I want us all to be darkness makes its host extremely deadly. They do not feel or have emotions; all they care about is the mission at hand, which in this case, is to kill. They will do anything to achieve that goal, and they will not stop at wounding someone enough to take them out of the fight. They will fight to kill.
"Now, I want us all to be completely silent once the sun fully sets, and completely attentive to all corners of the city. Keep a close look-out for unusual activity both in the sky and on the ground. Be ready to spring into action. And for the ancestors' sake, be extremely careful and look out for each other. I really don't want anyone dying tonight."
With that, not another word was said, grim silence washing over them.
The sun set, and the two moons rose into the dark night sky. Now all they had left to do was wait until things started.
Sooooo this was technically ready to upload last month but I completely forgot to upload it lol, so sorry about that! Anyway, it's here now, so hope you all could enjoy this one. I haven't done any writing for a while though and I'm hoping to pick it up again soon; I was busy focusing on Artfight this month as well as playing Warframe (been getting very into Warframe at the moment). However both of those have been put on hold for the last few days since I picked up covid on Wednesday, and while I'm still in isolation I'm feeling much better and actually able to do things now so while I'm still locked in my room I'm hoping to use this time to get a start on some more writing.
Also, due to the recent outages FFnet has had recently, as it's had a few over the last few years and particularly the major one recently, I'm planning to expand where I upload. I've applied for an invite on AO3 and should get the invite in the first week of August so once I get it, I'll be periodically uploading my fics to AO3, starting with Broken Perceptions. I'll make a profile update when I make my account with the link to it, and in the next chapter for both GEM and Outcast I'll also mention it too.
...
Dragon of Mystery:Glad to hear that, I really wanted to have something a bit more wholesome and still pulling on the heartstrings with that last chapter. It was good to write Jaarsol into the chapter and actually have an interaction with her and Forzen shown in the story, and I think by the sounds of it, it paid off!
In regards to the book Forzen started reading, I honestly just made it up lol XD Any reference there is unintentional, but I'll take it hahahaha
...
Alright, I'm gonna spend the rest of tonight starting another chapter (and maaaybe writing some music too), so hope you guys enjoyed this, and I'll see you all with the next chapter soon!