Chapter 7: Worlds Divided
#8 of A Dragon's Final Song
The Worlds Divided
When Cynder walked towards the cave mouth, she never would had expected any surprises besides Spyro landing in front of her. Yet, this time, though, as she turned around the corner, she wasn't only seeing a purple dragon standing by the cave, but instead, there were three dragons she knew a lot standing there, waiting for her. The revelation surprised her, and she made a gasp.
"Impossible...I'm not dreaming, right? Is it really..."
"Well, there's still a sun up there so...you're not dreaming, Cynder. Quite a place you got here. Love how it's subterranean than inside a..."
Sannourah didn't quite finish the sentence when Cynder jumped to him and forced him to fall down. With a smaller body than her now, he couldn't do anything, except saying, "Cynder?!"
"You goddamn bastard! You think I'm okay waiting half a century for you to return?! I thought you're gone forever and you dare coming back here?! You should be ashamed with that dimensional shit of yours!"
"Cynder, wait! Aren't you supposed to be with our kid?!"
She abruptly stopped, which gave Sannourah a breather. Cynder took a deep breath before saying, "Really now...you two need a good explaining to do."
They moved inside the cave, where Spyro enacted the night shield that acted as a door. When Cynder saw that, she said, "Don't mind him. He's just a very anxious dad."
The four of them walked towards the center of the cave. It was a vast room lit by magical torches that were placed strategically to lit the place without using up too much of them. The room was divided by rooms seemingly made of wood, with a very big cushy mattress in one of the room, suitable for two dragons sleeping. At one side of the room, though, both visitors could see that there was a small dark purple dragon sleeping soundly, content of the world.
"Have you given him a name yet?" asked Sannourah.
"You know this is kind of weird, but his name is Alduin," said Cynder. "Apparently, my...husband...thought naming your son the World Eater is a good idea."
"I can't help it, Cynder."
"As if Malefor is not enough."
"We can stop talking about this, Cynder, Spyro," said Yrelka. "First of all, everyone in the Dark Sentinel was saddened when one day the portal to your world abruptly closed. Then, we got another problem at hand. Do you still remember why Sannourah is stuck in his youngling form?"
"About that imposter, right? But why haven't you grow since then?"
Yrelka made a pause, before saying, "That's the problem, Cynder. Yorloka...and the other aspects of pain realized something was wrong with Sannourah before he closed the portal. We thought he was tired, given the burden given to his youngling body. By that time, Yorloka's souls became restless, and something's wrong."
"Half of my power was taken from me by an unknown adversary," said Sannourah. "Not only it took my powers, half of my life force was taken from me. So, I maybe 150 years old, but the truth is...right now I am actually a teen dragon."
"So you're saying that you're reverting to an 18 years old dragon?"
"He's 50 in this current state."
"My memories and powers are still intact, but if not for Spyro knowing that the place we lived is actually in the same dimension, we wouldn't be able to come here, even if we perfected transdimensional..."
"Wait a minute, Sannourah. What do you mean 'the same dimension'? Is it..."
"Volteer just found it some hours ago," said Spyro. "One of his drones found their island and they opened a bridge here. The Guardians are suggesting making a trade connection to their island, but..."
"He won't be able to do that, I know," said Cynder interrupting him. "The sea around the island is inhabited with dangerous wilderness that could take a dragon's life in an instant. I may need to talk to him. Anyway, Yrelka, can I talk to you in private? You boys can talk to each other."
Cynder pulled Yrelka to an empty cave room where she enacted her Dark Silence ability to prevent any sounds out of the room. She never used the power except if she wanted to have a good night sleep without being bothered by Spyro's friends, but right now she used it for something more important.
"Yrelka, what happened to Sannourah...it's like he was attacked by a vampire dragon."
"I first thought so, but as far as I know, no vampire dragons can be invisible. A humanoid vampire wouldn't be able to absorb that much of Sannourah's life energy without blowing into bits."
"Let's scratch that line of thoughts. Avila might be able to handle it. The problem is now about the Dark Sentinel. Why is it you and Sannourah that found the drone? Where's Coraero and the others?"
Yrelka then became silent, which made Cynder uneasy. Anything she said past this point wouldn't be good. Just then, one of Yrelka's darkness snake-like creature made an otherworldly hiss towards the front cave mouth.
"There's a familiar face at the door," said Yrelka with a slow but withdrawn tone. "We can talk about this later."
At the front of the cave, Avila just arrived with Terrador at tow when she felt the familiar darkness residue usually left over by a dimension traveler. As she walked inside, she could see Sannourah and Spyro talking to each other about lost experiences. They seemed oblivious to their presence until Sannourah's ears (yes, he had ears) made a twitch and he turned around to meet with Avila's eyes. Avila had a mixed feeling then, whether she could accept Sannourah's presence there or not. Nevertheless, she silently walked towards him and, using her front legs, hug the dragon.
"For the last time...I hate goodbyes...," said Avila slowly, with a hint that she was holding her tears. "Why make me wait for 50 years until you give me an answer?"
"You really should hear what Yrelka has to say, Avila," said Sannourah after breaking off the hug.
When the dragon came, she said, "Okay, this may one of the worst requests we had ever done, given that we had just returned after a while, but...right now the Dark Sentinel is not what it used to be. Older dragons like Coraero and Jekizira are having a feud with newer members over the way they do things, especially after there were unexplained deaths and attacks in account for vampires. We knew their race is going to die anyway after the veil covering the Dark City was gone when the world cooperated, but recently, some years ago, there was an unexplained flux of restless souls somehow coming from all around the Realm. Yorloka told me that a shade was attacking people and killing them, but despite of his lordship over souls, he couldn't determine the shade. Luckily, that helicopter thingy came to us and we can pinpoint this location."
"So...you're asking me to find them, because..."
"You know the reason already, Avila. You're a death dragon."
"Yrelka...I really wish I could help, like old times...but I have my own obligations. Like Cynder here, both of us have kids now, and my problem right now is...my mate is having a problem on his own. So...we're really sorry."
"We understand that too...I had my own people to lead, and my own family to be with. At least...we'll go back to our Realm and tell the others that you aren't coming. They'll understand."
With that, Yrelka made a silent nod before walking away to the night. Yet, unknown to her, the Darkness (her sentient 'other self' manifested as the serpentine dark incarnate around her body) talked inside both female's mind in its usual sinister shrill voice.
"She's not lying to you two bitches," said the voice. "It's only natural that you return what's indebted to them."
"Why are you talking to us? Just go away," said Avila.
"Oh, but in your mind, you wish you want to help her, right? All in the while, giving away the burden to your purple dragon husband here. Or maybe you're scared to be like your silver husband? I envy him, having that madness inside him. I would love to make him give me more..."
"You are not possessing him like you did to my friend, Darkness. You'll have to go through me."
"I'm not scared of you, Avila. You see, there's a distinction between an Angel of Death and Death itself. And...she's just a small, naïve dragon, ripe for harvest. What will she fall into when she realized what she had done?"
"Just get out of my head!"
Avila and Cynder pushed the Darkness's influence, but in the process, they became exhausted, and just as Yrelka went out of Spyro's magical barrier, both females fell to the floor, panting hard as if they had just given the time to breathe after working out very hard.
"What happened?!"
"It's okay, Spyro," said Cynder gagging. "It's the influence my friend had. We're out of it now. Avila..."
The death dragon caught her breath and said, "Just as I thought. Damn that little demon."
"What is it? Just tell me, okay, I'm not a dark dragon," said Spyro.
"My vision see everything in negative contrast, but it can show anything that cannot be seen with normal eyes. As I suspected...Yrelka doesn't even know it. I feel very sorry for her."
"Is it true, then? Yrelka is the one killing them?"
Avila made a nod, confirming Cynder's concern. She then make a growl. Before Spyro could say anything, Cynder said, "Unlike us...Yrelka's darkness is because of a demonic pact, Spyro. That demon manifested into a separate entity we simply call Darkness."
"First Seraphor, then Shirdan, and now this? Things never get more complicated."