Chapter Text
Prologue
Spyro paced around anxiously, his claws scraping the stone of the temple floor. The three guardians were still down the hall. Their whispers were loud enough for Spyro to tell that they were arguing, but low enough that he couldn’t tell what they were saying. Meanwhile, Cynder laid down in the nest, protecting what the guardians were arguing about. She stayed silent, but she was just as anxious as Spyro. Still, watching him pace like that irritated her just as much as the guardians’ bickering.
“Spyro, please stop. You’re actually making this worse.”
“I’m sorry,” Spyro sighed. “They’ve been at it for what feels like hours. You know them, they argue all the time. But this is different.”
He walked over to her and laid down in the nest, too. They both curled around the center of the next like a yin yang, with the egg between them. It was night, and Cynder’s black scales blended in with the shadows. Spyro’s purple scales put him in the middle. And the moonlight fell right upon the egg, making its already sheer white shell gleam like the moon itself. Spyro put a finger on it delicately.
“What do you think is inside?” he wondered aloud.
“Our child,” answered Cynder.
“Yes, that’s what’s inside,” Spyro agreed. “That’s all that matters.”
A chorus of booming footsteps echoed down the hall, and then the guardians appeared. Spyro jumped to his feet, and approached Terrador.
“What did you decide?” he asked him.
“Forgive us, Spyro. We compared our knowledge of the ancients. We even dug through the scrolls in the library, but too little remained. We cannot think of any reason for it. There are only four dragon elements, excluding the dark elements that Cynder possesses. A fire dragon is born from a red egg, thunder dragons are born from yellow eggs, ice dragons from blue eggs, and earth dragons from green eggs. Purple is the only other color, one that was prophesied in ancient texts and has been known to the guardians for generations. Absolutely none of the legends that we are aware of have ever spoken of a white egg. We have no answer to give you.”
“Then what do we do?” asked Cynder impatiently.
“There’s only one thing we can do,” declared Terrador. “We must watch the offspring that hatches from this egg very carefully. It must stay here in Warfang, in the temple, so the guardians can study and observe any powers it might develop. It is a kind of dragon completely unheard of and unseen in the history of our kind.”
“Yes,” huffed Cyril. “If you ask me, the likelihood of it becoming a threat is high.”
Cynder suddenly leapt to her feet. “My child isn’t born yet! How can you say things like that until it can show you that it is?”
“It’s just that the entirety of this situation is so confusing and utterly fascinating,” Volteer added. “It’s like a once in a thousand years, no ten thousand years, no maybe one million years type of coincidence, and we have absolutely no idea what to do about it or who to consult about it so we have to conduct our own hypothesis and research!”
Terrador turned to Spyro. “Cyril is right, though. But, I would say that this strange dragon is lucky to have you as its father.”
Spyro looked over to the egg, still like a small moon in the middle of the room. Cynder was calm again, looking back at him with anxious eyes.
“My child will not become a threat,” Spyro declared. “Cynder and I will do our best to make sure of that.”
Terrador nodded, and then he led Volteer and Cyril out of the room. Spyro returned to the nest with Cynder. They both looked down at the egg. It didn’t move. It was not close to hatching any time soon.
“What do we do, Cynder?” Spyro asked. “We can’t let our child be confined to this temple. That’s no life.”
“But what if it Terrador is right about its powers? There’s still evil in this world, Spyro, even with Malefor gone,” replied Cynder. “I won’t let what happened to me happen to our child. I’m so torn right now. I don’t want them constantly watching us, but… maybe they do have a point.”
Spyro moved closer to her and brought his head to hers. She moved to meet him there, and they both gazed down at the egg.
“Terrador forgot to mention that our child is lucky to have you as a mother, too,” Spyro whispered.
“I’ll do my best…”
“There is hope again, Cynder,” Spyro assured her. “There is new hope for the dragons to continue. So, I am hopeful, too.”
Cynder leaned her head further on his shoulder. It had not been easy getting to this point. The two of them had barely made it out of the fight alive. Yes, the dragons would continue. But so would the mysteries. So would the challenges. The egg lay still in the middle of the nest, and after a while, Spyro and Cynder laid back down on it and went to sleep.
Chapter 1
I hated mornings. But, the sun through my window was falling right in my eyes. I didn’t want to open them. It would be another same old, same old day, and there really wasn’t a reason to wake up. But, I got up and stretched. Once I was awake, I usually couldn’t go back to sleep even if I wanted to. The sun from the window bounced off my white scales, creating a glare from my own self. I rubbed my eyes and flexed my wings. I sat up and found myself facing the mirror in my room. I looked at my silver white scales and my midnight blue wings, underbelly, and horns. My turquoise eyes still wouldn’t open all the way. The only good thing about today was the fact that my dad was coming home.
“Beyaza,” came Mom’s voice from downstairs. “Breakfast.”
“Coming,” I groaned.
Breakfast would probably be the same, too. My dad’s cooking was much better than my mom’s. Dad wouldn’t be back from his trip until the late afternoon. Maybe, instead of training with him, I’d actually get to talk to him for once.
I trudged down the stone spiral steps down to the kitchen, really just a hearth room with a cauldron. Mom and Dad had decorated it a lot more in the last few years, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still the boring inside of a stone temple. I sat down in front of the cauldron, which was cooling down. Mom pushed a stone slab with the breakfast on it in my direction. Noticing my uninterested stare, she furrowed her brow.
“What’s wrong, honey?”
“You overcooked it again,” I answered.
“You know there was a outbreak among the moles not too long ago.”
“Yeah, for the moles, not for a dragon.”
“You still don’t want to risk getting sick,” Mom explained. “Then you can’t train with Dad.”
“Mom,” I retorted. “I’m fifteen and I’ve never developed any elemental powers. The guardians were wrong, okay? I don’t need to train with Dad anymore because nothing is going to happen at this point.”
“Since the guardians passed, Dad promised he would uphold their mission for you,” said Mom. “There’s still a chance, honey.”
I sniffed my breakfast. “Let’s face it, Mom. I’m a dud.”
Mom sighed and started to eat her own breakfast. She wasn’t done talking, though. She usually had something else to say, to change the subject.
“You know,” she said. “Dad is returning with Sparx today.”
I actually lifted my head. “Uncle Sparx? What for?”
“He hasn’t seen you in a while,” Mom smiled. “Nothing more than that.”
“Well, that’s cool.”
“Eat your breakfast, honey.”
I finally started eating my breakfast, then kept talking with my mouth full. “When do I get to meet my dragonfly grandparents?”
“I don’t know what Dad has planned,” Mom answered. “And, please don’t chew with your mouth open! Do you eat that way at school?”
“Mom, the moles completely ignore me,” I grumbled. “I sit alone at lunch. No one cares how I eat.”
“Well, you’re not doing that in the house.”
“Sure, Mom.”
Uncle Sparx returning would at least be interesting. It would break up the repetitiveness of my life. After Dad got back, I would train with him for two hours, then it would be dinner, and then it would be time to do my homework. Then the next five days would be school, then late evening training, then do more homework. Training really was useless. I had been training since I was seven years old, and I had never been able to summon a single element. All I was ever told was that I had to keep trying, first by the guardians, and now even by my dad. At least he wasn’t strict, at least he didn’t belittle me. I bit down on my breakfast. The overcooked meat was tough to chew. The world couldn’t all be on repeat. There had to be more to life.
I was quiet for the rest of the meal. I was aware Mom was watching me carefully.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked when I was done eating.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Hang out in the temple library. Read the same books I’ve read thousands of time. Take a walk and go to the battle wall. That’s all I ever do.”
Mom furrowed her brow again. “Beyaza, please not this early in the morning.”
I pushed the stone slab away and stood up. “All right, Mom.”
The Warfang dragon temple was all I ever knew. After the near destruction of the world, which my parents had prevented twenty years ago, the temple and the city were rebuilt under the supervision of the guardians. The moles, who had lived there just as long as the dragons had, came back to the city and made it thrive again. But, there were no more dragons now, except for my parents and me. We were the last of our kind. And though the moles regarded my parents in high respects, I was treated like an outlier. I had no friends at my school, I received funny stares from the townspeople, and had even been looked at funny by the guardians. It didn’t make sense that my parents were regarded as heroes, but I was different. So, I stayed in the temple most days reading the ancient tomes and dragon lore, all that was saved from the attack, and I wandered the streets when I couldn’t stand to be inside anymore. But all I could think to do now was go back to my room and wait for my dad. He would understand.
I lay sprawled out on my back, wings splayed out to the sides, and stared out the window. The blue sky was inviting. I knew how to fly, but I didn’t know where anything was on the map. I had never even seen a map before. I searched for hours in the archives, but had never found one. Mom had to be hiding one from me. There was no way we didn’t have one. Mom just didn’t want me to see it and get “ideas.” I sighed. I knew the story. There was no more evil left in the world. Therefore, there was no reason for me to be grounded. None of it made sense. A white cloud drifted into view. I actually felt envy for an inanimate object. But, if I tried to fly away in that sky, would that really change anything? Dad went on his trips to deal with the fact that the outside world was still reeling from the near end of the world. All he did was rebuild towns, so it sounded like there was nothing out there. I was just going to lie down until he got home. But, I still couldn’t go back to sleep.
After zoning out for eternity, I finally heard my mom talking to someone downstairs. The voices were muffled, but I knew it was my dad. I practically bounded down the stairs. First it was Dad’s voice, and then a flash of purple. I was hurrying so fast that I couldn’t even make out clear shapes, but that color was all I needed. I head butted him hard in the side. He let out a big “OOF!” Next thing I knew, Mom was stepping on my tail.
“Beyaza!” she scolded me. “What are you doing?”
“It’s all right, Cynder,” Dad chuckled and regained his footing.
“No, it’s not!” Mom shot back, then looked at me sternly. “Beyaza, you are fifteen. Don’t act like you’re a child!”
“Dad said it was all right,” I reminded her.
Suddenly, Uncle Sparx flitted out from behind Dad. His eyes lit up when he saw me.
“Hey, Beyaza!”
He buzzed around my face and I followed him with my eyes. I hadn’t seen him in at least a year. He moved back to the swamp where he and Dad grew up a while ago.
“Uncle Sparx, how long are you staying?” I asked.
“Actually, a few weeks,” he answered. “It’s been a while, so I thought I’d stay. What’s up these days?”
“Nothing!” I declared with a big, facetious grin. “I still never do anything!”
“That’s not true,” Mom huffed and rolled her eyes. “Tell Uncle Sparx about what you’ve been learning in school.”
“Right now, in history, we’re learning about the war against Malefor, but I already know that, of course,” I answered, waving my paw. “I don’t even listen because all the homework questions are about my own parents! Not to mention how awkward it is when we have to talk about this in front of me!”
Mom sighed, but Dad gave me a knowing smile. I turned and looked up at him now.
“Well, Beyaza, it sounds like you’re doing well on your homework right now,” he said.
“Yeah, but the teacher says I write with an ‘attitude.’”
“Why do you think that’s funny?” Mom asked angrily.
I ignored her and kept going. “Dad, please can we skip training for a few days? I want to know all about your trip. You went to Avalar, right? Did you see Hunter again? Tell me any new stories about him.”
“Sorry, honey, but Hunter wasn’t there this time,” Dad said. “He was away on business in another land. I’m afraid the stories I have this time are incredibly boring.”
“Spyro, don’t entertain this,” Mom went on. “Beyaza, what kind of homework have you been turning in?”
“Homework that gets good grades,” I replied.
“But, what is this about writing with attitude?!?!”
“Woah, calm yourself, Cynder,” Uncle Sparx said. “This is Spitfire we’re talking about, after all.”
“That doesn’t mean she can write like one,” Mom snapped.
“Dad,” I pushed on desperately. “I want to hear all your stories, even the ones I’ve heard already. Can we just walk around before dinner or something?”
“Where would you like to walk to?”
“You’re not walking anywhere, not yet,” Mom said declaratively. “Spyro, I need to talk to you first.”
“Can I get settled in?” asked Uncle Sparx.
“You know where you sleep,” laughed Dad.
“Okay, I’m going up there, then,” Uncle Sparx announced and buzzed upstairs.
Once Uncle Sparx was out of earshot, Dad turned back to me. “Beyaza, it’s true, though. Why do you feel the need to act this way in your homework?”
“Why do you think, Dad?” I grumbled. “I don’t have any friends and I don’t do anything or go anywhere. I want to come with you on one of your trips, I don’t care if it’s just rebuilding towns. I want to see outside of Warfang, and I don’t want to train anymore. We all know that it’s useless. I have white scales, so it’s obvious I’m not a fire dragon, thunder dragon, earth dragon, or ice dragon. I’m a blank dragon. I don’t have any powers.”
“There has to be something in there,” Dad suggested. He was trying to encourage me, but I wasn’t having it.
“Well, maybe I’m a wind dragon, like Mom, but Terrador always insisted that I wasn’t allowed to learn that one.”
“Yes, and he had good reason for that,” Mom added hastily.
“But, no one ever told me why!”
“Beyaza, I will walk with you and we can talk about this,” Dad said. “But, I do have to talk to Mom first. Why don’t you head upstairs and cool off?”
I pouted. I started walking up the stairs, but I stopped around the corner. They couldn’t see me, but I could hear them.
“Cynder, you know we can’t hold her back for much longer,” Dad was saying. “She can visit her grandparents soon. That’s a start.”
“Yes, and I have considered that strongly before,” Mom replied. “But, her behavior in school bothers me.”
“You know she doesn’t really belong there.”
“If we don’t make her go, what will she do all day? It will only make it worse.”
“She’s fifteen, Cynder.”
“She lacks maturity. I thought training would at least teach her some.”
“We need to talk about training, too, but let’s do it later.”
I wanted to hear them talk about training right then. But, I knew why Dad said to wait. He knew I was listening. He always did, even if he never let on. I quietly tiptoed back up the rest of the stairs and sulked back to my room. I knew what I was giving into, though. As soon as Dad knew I wasn’t listening anymore, he would talk to Mom about training. If I stayed, he’d never do it. But I knew one thing - Dad was on my side. I didn’t get Mom. Why couldn’t she see it? I was a dragon, after all, the daughter of the two heroes who saved the world from breaking apart. I deserved my own grand story.
I occupied myself flicking pebbles across my room floor until Dad appeared at the top of the stairway. He poked his head in with a smile.
“Hey, Spitfire."
I perked up. “Can we go for a walk now?”
“Yes, just a quick one.”
“Why a quick one?”
“Because you’ve got homework to do.”
“It won’t take me very long. It’s all about you.”
He smiled wider. “Come on, Spitfire.”
We walked around the marketplace, because Mom actually wanted us to get something for dinner. The moles nodded and waved at Dad, and Dad nodded back. But, when I nodded, too, they turned away. I let out a frustrated sigh. Dad turned and looked at me hanging my head low. He gently pushed me with his wing.
“Don’t mind them, Beyaza,” he whispered.
“But, why do they do it to only me and not you and Mom?”
“They didn’t accept me and Mom at first, either.”
“So, if I save the world from breaking apart, then I’ll be normal?”
He leaned down close. “If you ask me, I’d say they avert their eyes because of the way your white scales shine when the light hits you. It’s just too blinding.”
“Very funny, Dad.”
“I understand why you want to travel with me,” Dad went on. “And I agree that Mom is a little too firm in her own reasons. But, just because Malefor has been defeated, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still bad things in the world.”
“None that I can see or hear,” I huffed.
“The only reason I have kept you here for so long is because I promised the guardians that I would continue to train you,” he explained.
“But, I’m a dud.”
“I don’t believe that,” he smiled. “But, maybe the traditional elements are not in you.”
“Then what’s in me?” I begged to know. “What about Mom’s powers? What’s wrong with knowing wind? And if Mom is a wind dragon, why are her scales black? Shouldn’t they be white like mine? What am I, Dad?”
“You’re my daughter.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What else?”
“You’re my Spitfire.”
“What else?”
“You’re Beyaza.”
“Ugh…” I groaned.
“That’s not good enough for you?” he asked.
“No, because all it is my name.”
“What else do you want, then?”
“I want to stop feeling like an outcast, the only outcast in this entire city. There have to be more dragons out there somewhere. If I found them, then I wouldn’t be an outcast anymore.”
“Well, we don’t know of any other dragons,” Dad said.
“Do you actually think we’re the only ones left?” I asked in a small voice. “Am I really all alone?”
Dad suddenly stopped, then looked up at the sky, then back at me. He motioned with his head towards an overlook in the city wall.
“Let’s go over here,” he said.
He led me aside and pointed upwards at the sky. The sun was starting to go down, if only just enough to make an orange hue. I looked up at what he was pointing to. Even in only the first colors of the sunset, the dragon constellation in the sky twinkled brightly and brilliantly over our heads.
“Dad,” I replied. “I know about the constellation. She appeared in the sky after you and Mom defeated Malefor. I stare at her out my window for hours whenever I can’t sleep. I know everything about her.”
“Why do you refer to the constellation as female?” Dad asked.
“Because she is,” I shrugged. “But, why are you pointing her out to me now?”
“I was going to say that this constellation will guide you home whenever you feel lost,” Dad answered with a smile. “But you seem to already know that. If there are any other dragons out there, they can see the constellation, too. So, you’re already connected.”
“Why don’t you ever go looking for them, Dad?”
“Because, I’ve still got some things to do,” he chuckled. “And you and Mom are here.”
I snorted. “You’ve just lost your sense of adventure.”
“I don’t know about that,” Dad said. “But, I’ll tell you one thing, Beyaza.”
“What?”
“Now that you mentioned you think of the constellation as female, I can’t stop thinking that myself.”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “It was always pretty obvious to me.”
Dad smiled at me wider. “I’d love to talk more about that another time. We unfortunately have to head home soon. Mom has to make dinner.”
“Mom has to make a charred, overcooked dinner that will be nearly impossible to chew.”
“That’s a little exaggerated,” Dad replied.
“No, it’s not."
We walked back towards home. The moles continued to give me funny looks. I tried to ignore them. I felt the constellation above my head, and I looked up at her again. It was like she was beckoning me. I had no choice except to plod away from her, though. But, I knew she would never be gone. She’d just be blocked out by the walls of my room.
In the temple, there was one place where I wasn’t allowed to go - the temple keep. It was opposite the training dojo, but the guardians told me that it required a special incantation that I wasn’t allowed to learn to open the door. I often wondered if that was really the case, but it still wouldn’t open every time I tried. That had to be where the maps and books were. Volteer once blabbed that there was a “vision pool” in it. I used to beg my dad when I was little to let me in there, but he always refused like the guardians did. He always refused my requests with sad eyes. He didn’t actually agree with guardians. But, he was still stricter about not letting me in the room than he was about my protests against training. And, when it was just me and Mom, I never even attempted to open that door. She had caught me trying so many times. Now she expected me to do it and watched me like a hawk. But, I was fifteen now. Maybe Dad would finally let me in, if I asked him the right away.
It had been a week since he got home. We were in the middle of another useless training session in the dojo, but it was the first he had made me do all week. We were practicing fire, the so-called easiest one, but no amount of meditating, flipping, and spinning was doing anything. Not a single little flame or measly puff of smoke was anywhere to be seen. I lay on my stomach, panting, as Dad stood watching me from the corner.
“Tell me what you’re thinking about, Beyaza,” he said.
“What am I thinking about? This is a waste of time!” I shot back. “That’s all I ever think about training! I don’t want to do this anymore, Dad! I don’t have any powers.”
He walked over to me, took my paw, and helped me to my feet. He wasn’t upset with me. He actually had a small smile.
“Beyaza, I know you have something in you,” he said. “Maybe you just need a little extra encouragement.”
“Like what?” I sighed.
“I’m going to show you something.”
I gasped. Maybe I didn’t have to ask after all.
“Wait… really? You’re actually going to let me do it?”
“Do what?”
I was practically bouncing up and down in his face. “Go in the temple keep! That is what you’re talking about… right, Dad?”
Dad blinked at me a few times, then smiled. Only, it wasn’t a big, happy smile. It was the sad smile he made when he was about to let me down… again…
“No, that’s not it,” he said.
“Then whatever it is you’re going to show me, I don’t care!” I spat, and started marching away in the opposite direction.
“Beyaza,” he called after me. “I don’t know how to open the temple keep.”
I stopped short and turned my head. “What?”
“Terrador never told me the spell.”
“But, why?!?!”
“He didn’t trust me,” Dad chuckled. “He was afraid I would try to use the vision pool for my own purposes.”
“What do you mean, ‘for your own purposes?’”
“He was afraid I would try to find the Chronicler again, or make contact with the spirit of my first mentor, Ignitus.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me that?!?! You could have told me that instead of making me think you didn’t trust me!”
“I’m sorry, Beyaza,” Dad sighed. “That’s not what I intended. Terrador was right, though. I would have used the vision pool to try and find them. Over time, I came to understand what his reasons were. And you… well, you’re just like me.”
“Who am I, Dad? Who am I really? I know I’m meant for something much bigger than life in this temple! It’s obvious I don’t have powers, but you and Mom still refuse to believe that. You’re still trying to protect me from some kind of evil that doesn’t exist anymore. So, what gives? Who am I?”
“The guardians didn’t know,” he answered. “The coming of the purple dragon had been foretold for centuries, but no prophecy or any of the ancient texts ever mentioned a white dragon. The guardians thought it would be best to train you in the original four elements until they knew more, but…”
“But what?!?!”
“They scoured the entire realm for information. They never found anything else.”
“Just… nothing…?”
“Who do you think you are, Beyaza?”
“I just said, I’m meant for something big!” I declared. “But whatever it is, I’m not going to find out from training in this dojo! I have to go out there, Dad. It’s… it’s destiny!”
Dad paused and looked at me like he was thinking about what I said. I was panting hard from all my shouting, and I was already pretty tired from training.
“I still want to show you something, Beyaza,” Dad finally said.
I frowned. “Is it another battle move?”
“Nope.”
“A meditation technique?”
“Nope.”
My hopes lifted slightly. “Then, what is it?”
Dad just smiled. “Come with me.”
I followed him impatiently as he led me around the corner of the dojo. He took me into a corridor I had never seen before, then up a staircase I had no idea existed. It seemed like we had been climbing it forever before we finally reached an ancient looking door. Dad pushed it open like it was nothing, because it was so worn away that it was off its hinges. We walked into a room filled with moonlight. Bright orbs hung from the ceiling, a huge glass dome that looked right into the stars. And, the dragon constellation shone directly above me.
“Is this… a planetarium?” I asked with awe.
“Yes,” Dad answered. "You figured that out fast."
“How did you know about this place?”
“I found it.”
“When?”
“A long time ago, before you were born. When I was intensely curious, just like you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this, either?”
“I didn’t remember it until we were talking about the constellation the other day. There’s so much spiritual energy in here, and I’m sure you can feel that.”
“Yeah…”
“And,” Dad went on with a wink. “Mom doesn’t know about this room.”
I blinked. “What do you mean by that?”
“Mom and the guardians only wanted to protect you, but I think you’re old enough now to find out your powers your own way. I do believe there is something in you, and I think this constellation may be the guide you need.”
“I don't need protection from anything! I keep telling you, there's no more evil!”
“There could be, and we were afraid someone would come after you and try to use you. The guardians didn’t know what you were capable of. They were trying to prevent another war.”
“Dad,” I actually started to choke up. “Are you saying that they thought I was dangerous? Like I was a threat or something? Even Mom?”
“No, honey,” Dad answered softly. “Mom experienced terrible things because of Malefor. She just didn’t want the same to potentially happen to you.”
I thought for a minute, then I looked up at the constellation. It was night now, so she was the brightest. But, she was always visible, even in the daytime, if only faintly. I wanted to bust right through that glass dome ceiling and join her up there. I could only gaze longingly, though. I turned back to Dad.
“Dad… is it okay if I stay up here for a bit?”
“Of course. That’s why I showed this to you.”
He left back through that ancient door. As soon as he was gone, I flopped right on my back, midnight blue wings out to the side. If I was silvery white like a star, then my wings were like the night sky. I focused on the constellation, begging her silently to tell me something now. She was reflected in all the orbs - all the planets - hanging around the room. I lost track of time while locked in her gaze, when suddenly, something came to me. This room was a planetarium. And, the ceiling was glass so it was possible to see all the stars. I jumped right back to my feet as I figured it out. This entire room was a map.