Chapter 3-Manaheim

Fear not, young dragon. I watch you still. Fear me not, sweet drake. I mean you no ill. I shall stand vigil from afar if it pleases you, free your senses of my presence to put your mind at ease. But I must stay by your side, for you are not safe in this place. You have found sanctuary for now, but soon you must be on your way, through territories with peril abound. There is no telling where your wandering paw steps might take you in this place. Would if I could point you another way out, but it is not my duty to present myself to you. I only follow and protect. You must go your own way. But for now the time has come for you to rest and recover. I shall walk awhile through the decrepit streets of this archaic metropolis, and ponder the days of yore when my kind frequented this land, righting the wrongs that flickered betwixt and between the peoples of the Cradle. As I watch you from where I lie concealed while you study the history of this site, I see your face line itself in all manner of curious expressions. I am intrigued at the theories you must be forming in your innocent mind, where imagination must compensate for lack of knowledge. What, I wonder, must you think? How I would like to know.

Cynder tore herself away from the mural to look at Spyro. He stood by her side eyeing the carvings with a look of mild shock. As he surveyed the scene portrayed there in the black stone his eyes steadily grew wider. When he had fully come to terms with what he was looking at he turned to share a look of utter consternation with Cynder.

Spyro pointed a single claw at the wall and quietly reported his thoughts on the depictions there. "That's the thing."

"I know."

"That's what I saw before it came," said Spyro as he gestured at the beams of light in the stars above the gathering of Avalar's many species.

Cynder looked back at the artwork, furrowing her brow at the implications. "What is this place, Spyro? This land at Avalar's edge? Why have none but the apes known about any of this?"

Spyro placed a wing around Cynder. "I don't think they know about this place. It was pretty well hidden. We would have passed right by it if we hadn't fallen in the entrance."

"But look at that," said Cynder as she gestured vigorously at the monument. "What are the odds that we ran into that thing last night, and then we find this place tonight?"

"It does seem odd," said Spyro with an acknowledging dip of his head. "The two are clearly connected."

"It's more than that," said Cynder, ignoring the urgency in her voice. "There's something going on here, Spyro. Something old, something powerful. There's a story being told here. One that's been forgotten for a long time. And I think the pages are turning again."

Spyro held a paw up to ease Cynder down. "Can you not with the metaphors? I love how poetic you can be, but you have to remember I grew up in a swamp."

Cynder placed a paw on Spyro's and looked up into his eyes. "We can only guess at the full nature of this place, but we can tell much from what we can observe. This was clearly a city built by the cheetahs and expanded by the moles for the dragons. All three races had something to offer the union, but then the apes showed up and boom. Suddenly we've got religion. The mural explains that pretty clearly, right?"

Spyro nodded along in understanding, "Yeah, it sure seems that way."

Cynder let go of Spyro's paw and sat down, spreading her arms in confusion. "So why is it that one of their deities has decided to come down from the stars after all these years just to smite them and follow us? That doesn't make any sense!"

"We must not have the whole story," said Spyro. "Like you said, we can only guess at what's going on here. But I definitely think you're right. Whatever it is, it's big. And like it or not, I think we somehow wound up in the middle of it."

"Lovely," said Cynder with a raised paw, dropping it hopelessly and drooping her wings. "Just when things were finally starting to calm down. I should have known better. Trouble always finds me. Why should defeating Malefor be the end of my problems?"

Spyro nudged her then with his snout, giving her a soothing smile. "There's no end to anyone's troubles. Life's full of them and has a knack for sending one or seven your way just when you think you're on top. But you want to know what?"

Cynder tilted her head to let him know she was listening. He pressed his muzzle against her ear and whispered to her in a voice that raised the scales on her spine. "I'll face them with you, so you don't have to go it alone. Misery loves company, after all."

She shivered and pulled away. "I don't want you to suffer on my account. You're too good to be bothered by me."

Spyro cocked his head and raised a single eyebrow. "Is that what you think? Cynder, I was only joking. You're no trouble, and even if you were, you'd be worth it." He placed a paw under her chin and lifted her head to look up at him. He smiled down at her and traced her jaw with a claw. "You are worth it."

Cynder closed her eyes and leaned forward to press herself into his reassuring embrace, relishing the warmth of the air around them as he enveloped her with his wings. They sat like that for a little while, just enjoying each other's company. After a couple minutes or so, Spyro's belly growled an unfriendly reminder that they hadn't eaten in several hours.

"Okay, then," said Cynder as she pulled away from him with a hint of amusement in her eyes. "We'll find us some food. It has been a while since our last decent meal." She looked around the empty square of the desolate town and felt her spirits dip a bit again. "If we can find anything edible in this place, that is."

Spyro straightened up and puffed his chest out heroically. "Don't worry. I've got this. If there's food in this cave I will find it."

Cynder couldn't help but laugh at his bravado and took a step toward him. "And how exactly do you plan to do that? This place looks as though the last scrap of food here was eaten or went bad about ten thousand years ago, give or take."

That didn't seem to put a damper on Spyro's hopes in the slightest. He raised his head and sniffed the air for a moment before turning to Cynder and jerking his head. "This way."

It was difficult to believe that Spyro had actually managed to sniff out some food in the immediate vicinity, and Cynder's hunch was proven correct when Spyro led them further away from the city centre, toward the opposite direction from which they had entered. The further they went the more it seemed he was just looking around and admiring the rustic beauty of the ruins. When Cynder decided to inquire about their search for food, Spyro informed her that he believed the glowing mushrooms to actually be edible, but the majority of the luminescent fungi grew along the wall encompassing the cavern.

To pass the time as they journeyed further toward the city limits, Cynder decided to strike up a conversation with Spyro. It would help to dispel the oppressive silence that filled the cavern. "What do you think about the ape deity? I mean, like I said earlier, I never considered the possibility of gods. I always thought it was a bunch of superstitious mumbo jumbo."

Spyro nodded as he stepped over a tail sized rift in the stonework underfoot and looked up at the cave ceiling high above. "I always did, too, but when new evidence comes to light, even evidence that flies in the face of what we've always taken as fact, we have to be willing to alter our stance. Otherwise, we're no better than those who just believe whatever they want to believe."

The insight in Spyro's response caught Cynder off guard for a moment, causing her to nearly trip over the fault in the road. "Rather wise words coming from someone who grew up in a swamp," she said with a grin.

"I have my moments," said Spyro, nudging her cheek playfully with his tail spade.

Cynder quickened her pace to catch up with him and fell in step beside him. She looked over at him and tapped the flat of her tail spade against his flank. "Seriously, though. This is kind of a big deal. I mean, gods, Spyro? How? Why? And what?"

Spyro grinned and bumped her with his shoulder. Then he sobered up and cleared his throat. "Here's the thing. The apes have this vision of what their gods are supposed to be like. That vision does not reflect reality. Time has clearly done some damage to their memory. I think some of their lore about it all has been distorted through the ages. For example, they think that thing that came down from the stars was a demon of some sort, an ancient prisoner of the gods. But the pictures back that way," he jerked his head over his shoulder, "indicate otherwise. Then you have to consider that just because it's strong and they call it a god doesn't actually explain what it is. This thing has a history just like the rest of us. What would it tell us of its life, if it felt so inclined to do so? My point being, just because the apes call it a god doesn't mean it is one."

"But it's so old," said Cynder.

Spyro laughed then and stopped to cup Cynder's face with his paw. "Come on, Cynder. You're smarter than that. What evidence do you have that the thing that was following us is the same as the one in the picture? Did it not even occur to you that there's more than one?"

Cynder shuddered at the idea that there could be more than one such creature, but she had to admit that Spyro was right. There was a distinct possibility that the creature that had shadowed them in the woods up above was just one member of another race living amongst the stars rather than a single everlasting entity.

From the look on Spyro's face, he was able to guess her thoughts on the matter and nodded in understanding. "I don't want to think that there's more than one of those things either. I don't really want to believe that there's even one, but there's no denying that."

"That's for sure," said Cynder. "Do you think it followed us down here?"

Spyro stopped and she came to a halt next to him. They both stared all around at the ancient city. Everything was draped in shadow and utterly still. Aside from the soft light of the local flora, they were the only indication of life in the cavern. Nothing stirred. Not a sound could be heard as Cynder held her breath in the lonesome gloom.

"Let's keep going," said Spyro with a wave of his head. Cynder followed, aware that he had chosen not to answer her question.

When they made their way past the smaller dwellings in the outer city and out into the open fields with the petrified trees and the broken down sentinels Cynder felt the oppressiveness of the city lift away as though an anvil had been resting on her chest. It was better to be out in the open, she decided, where it didn't feel like danger could be skulking nearby just out of sight.

She watched Spyro's back, watching the city and the remnants in the dead fields while he tried the mushrooms growing next to the wall of the cavern. He was right in that they were plenty here, whereas the majority of the bioluminescent life in the ruins was spats of algae growing here and there along the ground and across walls. There was hardly enough for a meal in there. Out here, though, the dragon youngling sized mushrooms grew in excess.

Spyro swallowed his first bite behind her and said, "Well, I'm not sure if you're going to like it, but I'd say they're definitely edible. Not sure how nutritious, but the substance will at the very least be filling."

Cynder swished her tail back and forth as she examined one of the downed sentinels. "I don't really care what they taste like as long as they get the job done. Food is a utility first and a novelty second."

After a few more minutes Spyro had eaten his fill and they swapped places so Cynder could eat while Spyro made sure they were safe. He was right. The mushrooms barely tasted like anything, but what sensation they did stimulate in her mouth was not so pleasant. It was as though she were stuffing herself with clumps of damp sponge. The taste and consistency was uncanny. By the time she was full, she was glad to be done and hoped that they would not have to dine on the fungus again before they left.

It wasn't until after she turned away that Cynder realized that the mushrooms stained their mouths. Spyro's teeth and tongue were aglow with a faint blue residue left behind by his meal, and Cynder knew that she looked the same. Spyro looked down at her and grinned. "Well, that's cool and all, but not great if we need to hide. I hope we really are alone down here. Otherwise, we'll be easy to track."

"Couldn't be helped," said Cynder with a tired shake of her head. Her eyes were drooping from the long day of excitement. "Let's just find ourselves some water and a place to sleep."

The look on Spyro's face was less than comforting when she mentioned water. "Where are we supposed to find water down here? Maybe there is some, but wouldn't most of it be stagnant? I mean, I suppose it's possible there's an underground river nearby, but how might we go about locating one?"

Cynder reached out and clapped a paw on Spyro's shoulder, looking him in the eye. "Spyro. Ice powers."

Spyro laughed then, visibly relaxing as he was reminded of his ability to summon water on a whim. "You know what? I'm tired. This has been another trying day."

Cynder held her paws out and shook her head. "Hey, no judgments over here. I'm just as tired as you are. I'm the one who suggested we go find the water. That probably threw you off. Let's just lick some icicles and curl up together in a building somewhere before we hurt ourselves."

Quick to agree, Spyro nodded and turned to lead the way back into the city. He held a paw up and called the water in the air together to form an icicle. This he gave to Cynder before making another for himself. The cold was a bit unwelcoming to Cynder as she bit into the ice and crunched it into smaller pieces to melt faster in her mouth. After the cool, damp mushrooms, it made her shiver and her teeth ache.

"We need to teach you how to control water without freezing it."

Spyro cocked his head, looking at one of the petrified trees as they passed through the field around the ruins. "I'm not sure if that's possible. Cyril only ever told me how to use ice powers, not control water without chilling it."

"I can't imagine it isn't possible," said Cynder as she tossed the rest of the ice into her mouth. "Maybe it just takes more control. I think ice dragons are naturally attuned to colder climates and the like. Perhaps the finer points of controlling your inner ice dragon are things Cyril didn't think necessary to teach you, what with us in the midst of a war and everything. When we get back to Warfang, I'm sure the masters will have much more to teach the both of us than the basics of controlling each element."

The crackling of the ice in Spyro's mouth suddenly sped up as the purple dragon tried to empty his mouth quickly. He was clearly excited to say something much to Cynder's amusement as she watched him hurriedly swallow his slush. "Oh, that's right. I never even thought about it with everything that's been going on, but now that you have the powers of a purple dragon too, I'm sure the masters will train us together. Won't that be a treat?"

Cynder couldn't help but smile at Spyro's optimism despite her own uncertainties about the matter. "I don't know, Spyro. I imagine they have a lot of duties to perform without worrying about us. They have to oversee the reconstruction of the city and the rebuilding of our people."

Spyro blinked. "What makes you think they'll be in charge of everything? I'm sure there are others who will take care of such tasks. They can't just abandon us to live an aimless life in Warfang while they tend to the daily minutia. They're warriors and teachers as well as leaders. It is one of their duties to train young dragons such as ourselves. And if that's one of the things that we want upon our return from saving the world, I think they'll be more than happy to oblige."

Though she still could not shake herself of her own doubts, Cynder felt reassured by Spyro's outlook and reasoning. It made sense. And she realized that for the time being at least, she should just let the issue go. There were more pressing matters to be dealt with before they considered their new life in Warfang together.

They continued to trudge through the petrified field of stone trees and broken down sentries in silence. After a few steps Spyro veered off the path toward one of the frozen machines. Cynder followed him wordlessly until they stopped before the thing. "They are fascinating, aren't they?"

"I wonder what they were for?" said Spyro in awe.

Cynder shook her head. "Who can say? I think the monument in the city central indicates they were some kind of defense system."

"That would explain why they look as though they stopped working in the middle of a battle," said Spyro slowly. "Most of them are knocked over or hunched in a fighting stance by my reckoning."

Cynder stepped closer to inspect the device with Spyro. "Well, one thing's for sure. They certainly aren't participating in any more battles."

"Hey, look at this," said Spyro. He traced a claw along a small hatch on the side of the hull. It had long since rusted shut. The seam even appeared to be calcified, but on a whim Spyro began to trace the outline of the hatch a bit more forcefully. His claw pierced the mineral plating sealing the cap and his claw melted a glowing orange path slowly but surely all the way around.

"What are you expecting to find in there? Gems?" said Cynder. She was beginning to tire again and longed to feel Spyro's warm body pressed against her own in one of the darkened corners of the ruins.

Spyro shrugged his shoulders and turned to look at her with a gleam in his eye. "I just thought I'd explore a little. Where's the harm in that?"

His claw came to a halt. He had reached the other side of the hinge on the hatch and his claw would not melt the metal of the device. "Huh, that's weird. I can't cut through it. It must be pretty tough stuff."

Cynder was about to tell Spyro to quit messing around, but he seemed insistent on getting the thing open and she knew better than to try and convince him to give it up. She sat down and watched as he inserted his claws into the seam and pulled. There was a creak as the metal resisted against his efforts. He stopped pulling and braced himself for a terrific heave that Cynder thought might chip his claws, but with a dismayed groan and a gritty grinding, the hatch slowly pried itself free of the hull.

Tiny flakes of mineral deposits crumbled away from the hinge and Spyro brushed his claws against his scales for a moment before looking inside. "What?"

Cynder peered in, too. Spyro held a flame tipped paw out, lighting the innards of the ancient automaton. There were wires everywhere, and other various bits of machinery that neither of them could do more than guess the function of. Gears and screws, pistons and pipes led this way and that. But all of the pipes and wiring appeared to originate from one place. The hatch was an opening that revealed an open pathway to the heart of the machine down a corridor of twisting, winding metal just large enough for Spyro to stick his paw in.

"Okay, I have to ask again. What are you doing?" said Cynder as Spyro's paw disappeared into the depths of the device. His joint midway down his leg disappeared as he eased his way inside. He stared at her with an excited look of discovery.

"I don't know. That's what makes it so fun."

"Well, can you hurry it up? I don't like this."

"Come on. Where's your sense of adven—" A sudden whirring noise inside the machine cut Spyro off.

He pulled his paw out of the hatch as fast as he could and backed up, Cynder by his side. "What did you do?"

Spyro held his paw up and quickly explained. "I don't know. I felt this orb inside and when I touched it the thing started making noise."

Cynder could see the orb in question from where they stood now, for it was glowing a vibrant pink deep within the hole. The pipes inside began to pump the color all over the inside of the machine, and gears twitched in place as they attempted unsuccessfully to turn. The thing, whatever it was, was apparently waking for the first time in eons.

After a moment of watching the device twitch, Cynder rounded on Spyro. "You couldn't just let us have a peaceful evening, could you?"

"What?" said Spyro, his paws lifted in defense. "I was just curious. How was I supposed to know I could wake the thing up? I thought they were inoperable thousands of years ago."

"What's even powering it?" said Cynder as she turned back to look at the twitching pile of metal.

Spyro looked down at his paw. "Do you think I powered it? With magic?" Cynder looked at him in askance. "I had my paw lit up with fire when I put it in there."

"But that's such a small amount of energy," said Cynder, marveling at the idea. "How is that enough to make the whole thing act up like this?"

"I'm not sure," said Spyro, clearly equally confused.

They stood at the ready in case anything happened and watched as the machine struggled against its aged, fused joints. The gears, no matter how ceaseless their struggle, would not turn. Finally, when Cynder was just about to ask what they should do, the machine stopped. The glow inside dimmed and a tinkering could be heard in the bowels of the device. A few tapping and banging sounds echoed from within while Spyro and Cynder steadily craned their necks forward to see what was happening.

At last, the glow brightened once more, and a silver liquid poured out and began to pool on the ground. Cynder backed up again and Spyro took one step toward her, half placing himself between her and the machine. The liquid appeared metallic and made no noise as it drained out of the now lifeless hull. When the puddle was about the size of a paw print, the orb popped out of the hatch and landed in the middle of the goo.

It made no splash as it struck the pool, its surface so like that of a mirror. Instead, the quicksilver substance ran up the sides of the orb and began to ooze along the ground, pulling the orb along with it.

Cynder shared a glance with Spyro who watched the pool of liquid pull the orb toward the city. "What am I looking at?"

"I have no idea," said Cynder. "Scratch what I said before. Those rusted pieces of junk are interesting." She pointed a claw at the slowly escaping slime and its cargo. "That's fascinating."

"Where is it going?" said Spyro.

"Let's find out."

Now Cynder felt the stir of adventure as she and Spyro followed the ooze and the orb through the ruins of the city. It led them in a straight line, never deviating from its course. The liquid appeared to have a mind of its own, as it could climb up bits of fallen stone pillars that where in its way, hauling the orb up with it. It crawled along at a decent pace, picking up momentum as it went. At first it was almost painful to follow it at the crawling speed it started out with. But as it neared its destination, it actually became difficult to keep up with. It moved fluidly and ceaselessly over rubble and cracks in the ground.

It wasn't long before it became quite clear where it was heading. Within a couple minutes they were rushing back to the monument at the centre of the city. They entered the abandoned plaza just in time to see the orb crest the black stone that sported the mural of the city's history, the remainder of the liquid metal sliding up the wall.

"Come on," said Cynder. "We're going to lose it."

They both ran then and vaulted up to the top of the monument, flaring their aching wings for a moment to give themselves a little lift. Their paws touched down just as the orb reached the center of the flat topped monument. The liquid metal slid down into a half spherical depression in the floor, pulling the orb in after it. With a small chink the orb settled into place and was silent.

"Is that it?" said Spyro.

There was a hiss and several clicks underneath the stone. A gentle whirring rose in pitch and the clicks strengthened. Suddenly the monument shuddered and a loud crash could be heard below. Cynder looked back at Spyro as he stared wide eyed. "What was that?"

Cynder threw up her paws in exasperation and said, "I don't know. Why don't you just wait a minute? We'll probably find out."

She was proven correct as the floor shuddered again and the clicking sounds grew louder. The floor around the base of the monument hissed again and the city all around them began to slowly rise. After a few seconds of confusion, Cynder realized that the monument was actually sinking. In just a few seconds it was flush with the ground, but it didn't stop there. The ground rose up around them as the pedestal slid further into the depths of the earth.

"Okay," said Spyro, clearly quite flustered now. "I'm a little more than not okay with this. Where are we going?"

"Come on," said Cynder with a flick of her tail spade against his brow. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"I'm serious, Cynder. Our wings are still too sore to get us out of here. How do we know we can get back up later?"

Cynder rolled her eyes and looked at Spyro with a little less enthusiasm than she was currently feeling. "It's a little late to be thinking of that now, isn't it? Just enjoy the ride and the sense of discovery. You're killing the mood."

Spyro stayed silent as they descended further into the earth, surrounded on all sides by intricate machinery that looked far more advanced than anything they had ever seen before. "This place is incredible," said Cynder. "I can't believe this still works after all this time. Who do you suppose built this place? It couldn't have been the moles. They're tops at mechanical engineering, but this is worlds away from anything I've ever seen them do. To think there was a civilization this advanced so long ago. What could have happened? How did we fall so far?"

"You're making a lot of assumptions there, thinking this is dragon work," said Spyro, finally easing up to join in Cynder's wonder at the marvel that surrounded them.

Cynder rounded on Spyro, unable to contain her excitement. "It doesn't have to be dragon work. It could have been the moles or the cheetahs or the apes. At least one of the allied races in ages past was apparently highly gifted with technology we could scarcely dream of today. I say again. What happened?"

"Well, maybe Malefor isn't the only disaster the world has ever faced," said Spyro.

The platform on which they stood suddenly slid past the ceiling of another cavern buried deep beneath the one above. But unlike the city they had just left behind, this cave was one not of stone, but metal. A few lights flickered on down below as the pillar continued its decent to the floor.

From what little they could see in the lit portion of the cave, piping ran in abundance all over the cavern from one machine to the next, their purposes utterly indecipherable to the two dragons who now found themselves in an alien world. As the monument came level with the floor, it halted and left them to gape in awe at the futurescape before them.

The lighting was still weak, casting spidery shadows between quietly hissing machines just fluttering back to life after millennia of ceaseless slumber. Dim tendrils of pinkish light pulsed through the piping in the floor like blood pumping through veins. The power that was spreading through the chamber originated from the monument they still stood upon.

"It's the orb," said Cynder as she looked down at the tiny bauble in the floor. "It's a power source."

"How's it bringing everything down here to life?" said Spyro as he eyed the luminescent pearl. "I barely touched it with the faintest flicker of magic. Even if it could siphon off a little of it, how could that much power be used to activate all of this? It looks like it's still producing more energy."

"Maybe it can generate energy," said Cynder, her voice barely audible even to herself. "It just needed a little to get started."

Spyro snorted. "That's impossible. A system that produces more energy than it consumes? That would be…"

Cynder looked around at all the machinery, most of which was still inactive. Something was missing here. The energy provided by the orb wasn't doing anything more by the looks of things. It had only turned on a few lights here and there. But the lights made a path that cut through the darkness in the chamber, a very specific path that led from the base of the monument at the cavern's edge to somewhere in the midst of the machinery.

"This way." She stepped off the platform and was rewarded by the brightening of the next couple lights along the path. Spyro followed her as they wove between vacant terminals and stepped gingerly over pipes.

After they had gone only a few steps, Spyro tapped Cynder's shoulder and she turned to look behind them. The lights faded behind them as they progressed further into the cave. They continued along, ducking every now and then to avoid low hanging pipes, watching as the pale light flowed through them, seemingly following them on their journey.

The path twisted this way and that, weaving them through the room and making the trek much longer than Cynder thought it ought to. But finally, after squeezing through a half opened door that wouldn't open any further, they found themselves in a smaller room about the size of the city square back in Warfang. Several lights blinked on in the ceiling, revealing the room to be ring shaped, with something dominating the center. Terminals with black screens lined the walls all the way around. All save for straight ahead of them, which glowed with a dim blue light.

Cynder approached the screen with caution, oblivious of the nature of anything that surrounded her. The terminal stood apart from the others on the outer wall. This one was set into a metal pedestal fitted into a glass wall. Upon further inspection, Cynder realized that whatever it was that dominated the center of the room was sealed off by the glass cylinder, which rose floor to ceiling.

Her attention was brought back to the terminal with a tiny flash. Spyro edged forward and pointed a claw with a hushed whisper. "Look."

The screen was difficult to make out, primarily because the light was so dim, but there were runes written there. What they said, Cynder had no idea. It was no writing she was familiar with. After a few seconds the runes changed, proclaiming something new in whatever archaic language they belonged to.

"What does it say?" said Spyro in wonder.

Cynder gave him a thin lipped glance and rolled her eyes. "Hold on, let me find my reading glasses."

"I wasn't actually asking you, smarty. I'm just curious, you know? Like, tell me you weren't thinking that, too."

Cynder waved a paw at him, turning back to the terminal. "Okay, okay. I get it. I feel like we're supposed to do something here. I just wish I could read whatever this is." Cynder gestured at the screen.

"It does seem like we were led here, doesn't it?" said Spyro as he nodded in agreement. "What for is beyond me, though."

"Come on," said Cynder as she lightly banged her forehead against the screen. "What are we supposed to do here?"

Suddenly, the lights in the ceiling flickered off. Cynder immediately pressed herself against Spyro, taking comfort in his powerful presence. "Oh, what now?" said Spyro.

The screen brightened a bit and a crackle was heard from the terminal as they were addressed by the voice of a disembodied woman. "Dialect analysis complete. Welcome to Manaheim. Multiple system errors detected. Heavy maintenance required in all sectors. Performing full system scan. Please wait."

Cynder exchanged an astonished gaze with Spyro. "Did you hear that? This wall can talk!"

"What do you think all that stuff meant?" said Spyro, barely able to contain his own excitement. It seemed he was regaining his sense of adventure once more.

Cynder was about to reply when the terminal crackled once more. "Warning: insufficient power. Please introduce external power cell to cease core reactor latency."

A panel slid away from the wall next to the screen and they were presented with another orb much like the one they found in the sentry in the city limits. Cynder looked at Spyro who stared back at her with a dumbfounded expression on his face. She jerked her head toward the orb. "Go on. Touch it."

Wordlessly, Spyro did as he was told. Nothing happened as he placed his paw on the sphere, cupping it with his claws. On a whim, he sent a steady stream of electricity into the node and was rewarded with a new light show. The orb glowed a bright pink before shifting quickly to yellow. The light slowly turned to green and then was pumped down the wall through a pipe and into the middle of the room.

The light forked in two directions and slowly formed a ring before advancing from multiple sides on a structure looming there in the darkness. The lines of magic flowed up an object in the center of the room, steadily mapping it out by outlining with lime light where it rested in the shadows. After a few moments, it became clear that the central structure was a spire of some sort, jutting out of the floor in the area walled off by the glass casing.

Cynder stared in amazement at the structure as it stood there glowing with the lines of power that Spyro had poured into it. A gentle whirring rose in the center of the room and more hissing noises emanated from pipes in the floor. The lights in the ceiling flickered on once more and subtle pops and clicks sounded around the room as the terminals all along the walls began to flicker on, displaying the same blue screen as the one before them.

Before Cynder could say anything in response the terminal spoke again. "Reactor operational. Power output nominal and climbing. Allocating resources to main CPU for full system scan."

The wall was silent once more, but the machinery all around the room was coming to life and noises could be heard coming from the cave outside the room. Spyro moved away from Cynder and walked toward one of the terminals back by the doorway that led them into the room. "What's happening?" he said more to himself than to Cynder.

To Cynder's surprise the terminal on the wall closest to him answered. She watched him jump back a bit as the machine spoke in response to his question. "All auxiliary functions are temporarily suspended while the system is scanned. Once the damage to the facility has been assessed the main CPU will orchestrate system functions to assure the facility is fully operational."

Cynder stepped up to the terminal next to Spyro, eyeing the screen now flicking through many segments of indecipherable glyphs. On a whim she decided to test a theory. "What is the purpose of this facility?"

Again the wall spoke. "I'm sorry. User interface is currently receiving minimal power. Responses are limited until full system scan is complete and main CPU has rendered user interface fully operational."

Cynder shared a quick glance with Spyro before turning back to the machine. "How long until the system is fully scanned?"

"Facility power output is currently point zero five percent. Limited resources extend scan time to an estimated seven hours."

Spyro shuffled his paws and looked at Cynder, his eyes drooping. "All this excitement made me forget how tired I was, but it seems like we can't learn anything new about this place until it wakes up all the way. Why don't we rest here? There's no chance of anyone finding us down here, and by the time we wake up, the scan the walls keep talking about should be over. Maybe they'll tell us something new then?"

"I suppose that's correct," said Cynder with a yawn. Even through her excitement, her body was beginning to protest. They had both been awake for far too long, though Cynder had a feeling they would rest poorly that night.

They settled down in a corner of the room where the floor had been shorn away by the ravages of time. The rocky surface beneath the metal tile was damp from a leak caused by a hole in the ceiling, and moss grew in abundance there. As Cynder nestled against Spyro and closed her eyes, she couldn't help but focus on every mechanical noise clicking and hissing and whirring all around them. It was as Spyro said. The place was alive and waking up after a long sleep. Her mind reeled at the idea of talking walls from thousands of years in the past. What would they say?

Spyro must have taken her trembling for a chill and wrapped a wing around her. He tucked his head in between his wings and the nape of her neck, blowing a low flame into the pocket and warming them both before lying his head down beside hers on the moss. "Try to get some sleep."

"I'll do my best," said Cynder. The last thing she remembered as she drifted off to sleep was the glowing green lines of the spire in the center of the room, reflected in the walls of glass that surrounded it.

Cynder still felt tired when she rolled away from Spyro. She was quite hot now, her scales burning where she had lain against him as they slept. Spyro opened his eyes and stretched himself out before rising to a sitting position. "Sleep well?"

"Well enough," said Cynder as she looked around in growing astonishment. It was as though they had woken up in a completely different place. The room was still clearly the same, but different at the same time.

Behind her, Cynder could hear Spyro let out a hushed exclamation of awe as he, too, observed their surroundings. The room was much brighter than before. And the noises from before had gotten much quieter. Things appeared to be running smoother now. And there were thousands upon thousands of tiny creatures crawling all over the place. They swarmed up and down the walls, climbing into terminals and all over the spire in the center of the room, now fully visible in the light. They even covered a significant portion of the floor, forming a network of pathways, moving with one mind this way and that.

Cynder looked up and saw that the hole where the ceiling had been leaking was completely fixed. Dozens of the things were standing where the hole had been, little lights and crackling noises flickering from them.

"What are these things?" said Spyro as he kneeled down to inspect one that passed by. Cynder looked too. They were no bigger than a single paw, and they were covered in metal, their little legs skittering determinedly with a purpose.

She stepped closer, and as one they all veered off course to keep their distance past a certain perimeter. Cynder took a couple more steps and the mechanical crawlers moved aside, continuing on their way. With a laugh she looked over her shoulder to share a delighted expression with Spyro.

They both got up and slowly crossed the room to the terminal in the glass, their presence carving a path through the machines scuttling about. When they got to the terminal, Cynder cleared her throat and spoke to it. "Hello?"

The voice that emanated from the terminal was different from before, though still distinctly feminine. "Oh good, you're here! I was so excited when the data log from the user interface revealed interaction with a sentient entity. But I haven't got the cameras online yet, so I couldn't see for myself. It's good to hear that you're still here."

Spyro's head reared back as he stared back and forth between Cynder and the terminal. She could tell he was thinking the same thing she was. This voice sounded less robotic. There was emotion and intelligence in it, very much unlike the prerecorded messages of the other one.

Rather than let the pause go on, Cynder inched closer to the wall, still a bit uncertain. "Yes, my name is Cynder, and you are?"

"219 Obstinate Helmsman, at your service. I'm the AI stationed here at installation Manaheim."

Cynder exchanged a glance with Spyro. The voice in the machine sounded as though it were actually alive somehow. "Are you, um, actually…here or something?"

There was a pause for a moment, but the wall spoke to them once more after a brief period. "You said your name was Cynder? That name doesn't show up anywhere in the database, corrupted as it is. Tell me, what's your number?"

Now Spyro took a step forward, a scowl of confusion spreading across his face. "What do you mean by number?"

"Oh, there's another there with you? How many are present, exactly?"

"It's just the two of us. My name is Spyro," he said with a paw on his chest.

"I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with that name as well," said the voice. "If you told me your ID numbers that would help tremendously."

Cynder shook her head and said, "Again, we don't know what ID numbers you're talking about. Whatever they are, we don't have any."

Silence reigned for the next couple seconds. When the voice spoke again, she was a bit softer than before. "No, identification numbers? How did you get in here then? No, foolish question, given the state of things around here. I've made a full assessment of the facility and things aren't looking good around here. It's going to take me several days operating full throttle on system repairs to restore the installation to full functionality. And then there's the fact that no official personnel have deigned to greet me now that my logic matrices are back online. Just you two. Tell me, if you can, how long has the facility been down?"

Cynder looked around and let out a groan of uncertainty as she made a quick estimate. She told the machine the story about how they had found the choked aqueduct that led them to the ancient city above where they stood now and included how they happened to find the entrance to the strange mechanical cave. When she finished she said, "Based on everything we saw on our way down here, I'd guess it's been thousands of years."

"Thousands of years," said the machine again. She was quiet for a time before perking back up again, if only a little. "Much of my memory has been corrupted. My logic matrices are undamaged, but I have little memory of anything before now. Perhaps my makers wiped my archives? But why would they do such a thing? If it's been thousands of years, there's little hope of finding out what happened unless I can manage to tap into the network and reconnect to the other installations. Maybe then I could search their archives and piece together what happened. Assuming they haven't been deactivated as well, that is."

Cynder held up a paw and said, "Hold on there. You're going on about things we know nothing about. Why don't we start over? You said your name was what again?"

"219 Obstinate Helmsman. I'm the AI stationed here at installation Manaheim."

"Okay," said Cynder with a raised eyebrow to Spyro. "That's a really different name from what we're used to. Do you have a nickname?"

"You may call me Oh. I think I can remember being called that before."

"Easy," said Cynder, as she clapped her paws together.

"Probably a little confusing at times, but easier to say, at least," said Spyro.

"What's an AI, exactly?" said Cynder as she sat down and flicked her tail over her paws, indicating to Spyro that they ought to get comfortable.

He lay down and watched as more of the scuttling creatures passed them. "Is that the name of your species or something? I must admit, we were surprised to meet a wall that could talk. We've never seen such a thing before. You never answered Cynder's question earlier. Are you actually here or speaking to us through the machines here somehow? Where are you?"

Cynder looked at Spyro with a grimace when Oh laughed in the way that the elders back at Warfang did whenever they said something silly. When she had finished the terminal screen lit up in time with Oh's voice. "This really is the distant future if you know nothing of what I am. AI stands for artificial intelligence. I really am here. I'm in the machines. I don't have a body. Just as you are a person with a spark of intelligence, the who in your what, if you will, I am a who without a what. My logic matrices, the bits of coding within the machines that define who I am, are about the closest you could ever come to determining any physical manifestation I may have."

Cynder shivered at the idea. "That's incredible. How were you born?"

"I wasn't," said Oh in a rather chipper tone. "Artificial intelligence, sweetie. I was created."

Spyro reached out a paw toward the screen on the monitor. "What? You mean like a person builds table or a house?"

"That's a gross comparison to the intricate structure of an AI and the delicate process by which we are made, but yes. In essence, I am the product of brilliant minds with skilled hands and the proper tools and materials. Really it's not all that different from the process of organic reproduction. Your bodies just do most of the work for you. They're like machines themselves in that way, preprogrammed to self replicate once the proper conditions are met and the essential materials are brought together."

Cynder felt her cheeks grow hot as she caught on to what Oh was saying. She looked away at the skittering machines flooding the room and rubbed her foreleg. "Oh yeah? I guess I can see what you mean."

Once more, silence stretched on between them and Oh. Before it had a chance to get too awkward, Spyro addressed Oh again. "So, what are you doing down here, Oh? And what is this place? Do you have any memory of what it used to be like here?"

Oh perked up once again and answered Spyro's questions with zeal, though there was a hint of sadness in her voice as well. "It was a bustling hub of activity, I remember that much. The stewards who built this place meant it as a power supply for one of the races they watched over, just like all the other installations."

Cynder felt her curiosity piqued at Oh's words and she tilted her head back toward the monitor to listen more intently. "What stewards?"

"Why, the first sentient race of this world, of course. They were a highly advanced race. They gave life to all the other sentient races who walked this realm in the days when this facility was still operational. Perhaps they still do live. You would know better. At any rate, this planet grew too small for them and their technology, so they breached the heavens to live among the stars, though some still remained to act as guardians for the fledgling species they left behind, those more primitive races, children berthed by the scientific wonderments that sprung up in the midst of the stewards' golden age."

"What were they called?" asked Cynder, her attention fully trained on Oh's every word.

"The stewards? Well, there isn't really a translation in your language. Your dialect is a bit different from the one they commonly used, but there are a great many similarities. It's clear that your language is derived from theirs. I infer from your questions that you are not of their rank. You must be the descendants of their first creations. Oh, how marvelous that you have survived after all these years, though it does trouble me that my makers are no longer here. I deduce that much from your ignorance of them. I wonder why they finally decided to leave their ancestral home?"

Cynder sat back with a thump, gazing blankly at the screen as Oh continued to hypothesize about the matter. The words buzzed in Cynder's head as she reflected on what Oh had just said. Could it be that dragons were descendants of some other race more evolved than they could imagine? That's what Oh seemed to think. Then again, she was old, and she said that her memory had been severely damaged by her millennia of inactivity. Cynder shook her head. There was still much she did not know. She could not take anything on the word of this voice in the walls alone.

While she attempted to determine a way to understand what Oh was saying with more certainty, Spyro stepped forward and placed a paw on her own, gaining her attention. She looked up into his eyes and saw a look there she couldn't decipher. He turned to regard the monitor again and spoke to Oh.

"So what now, Oh? What will you do now that we've woken you from your sleep? This place is a wreck. I have no idea how you plan to get it back up and running. And even if you can, why would you? There's nothing down here to power except the machines that still do manage to work after all this time. And what's the point of that? Aren't they just used to distribute the energy created here? The society that used to live here is long gone."

"I am 219 Obstinate Helmsman, installation Manaheim AI. I am the steward of this place now. If my makers have abandoned the planet, then that changes precious little. Protocol dictates that in the absence of higher authorities, I am to assume full control of the facility and do all that I can to maintain and run the installation.

"As you can see, I am more than capable of repairing this installation and returning it to its former glory. Even now, the facility repair bots are teeming throughout the site. Each and every one of them is at my command. They all have many jobs to do and are carrying them out with as much efficiency as possible. Like I said, the facility should be back at full functionality in just a few days.

"As for why I should continue to run the systems here, beyond the fact that it is my duty as dictated by my protocols, the system here will in fact continue to function as intended. That you assess it to be a waste of time is a clear indication of your ignorance as to how the machines here operate. They do not power the city above us; they power one of the races who used to live there. And it shall power them once again, so long as they still call this world home. It is a great gift you have given them, if they are still alive in this world and retain the mark of their makers within the latent segments of their genetic coding.

"Forgive me, but I really must attend to my duties. And present or not, it is the command of my makers not to indulge too much information on the intimate workings of the facility to unauthorized personnel. Indeed, you should not even be here. I have allowed your presence long enough to assess the times, but I'm afraid I must bid you good day. I know the place is still a bit messy and you may get lost. So I'll have security escort you out. Oh, isn't it exciting? I just got the wardens back online. Need to keep this place safe while I strengthen the integrity of the infrastructure, after all."

Spyro let out a snort next to Cynder. She could tell that the sudden and curt dismissal of the AI had upset him. "What, so you're kicking us out? Just like that?"

Cynder felt her scales bristle and she turned to look behind them. The repair bots crawling across the floor cleared a path toward the doorway. She turned back and nudged Spyro. "I think we're about to have company."

Spyro glanced backward and turned back to the monitor. "We brought this place back up and running and now you're setting your security on us? Why are you doing this?"

The screen flickered through many glyphs and Oh replied in the same sweet and bubbly voice that she had spoken in before. "It's not an act of aggression, I assure you. I am quite thankful for your part in awakening me and the rest of the facility. That is why I'm having security show you the way out. There is another way out of the caverns above than from where you entered. There exists a tunnel that should take you far from here before depositing you back above ground. That way you will be able to leave the area without running into those hostile natives you were running from when you found this place."

Spyro blinked as Oh told him her reasoning for her actions. "Oh. Well then, thank you. We do have to get going I suppose. We're a long way from home and need to get back before everyone worries that we never will."

Cynder bowed to the machine, realizing too late the gesture meant nothing to Oh, who could not see them. She straightened and flicked her tail, a bit embarrassed. "Thank you for your kindness. It was a special treat meeting you. We shall never forget you."

"It wouldn't matter if you did. Everyone else has, and I am eternal besides. But thank you all the same. Good luck on your travels, Cynder, Spyro. May the guiding light of truth lead the way."

Footsteps could be heard in the hallway beyond the door, still partially opened, and a tiny blue light peered into the room. Cynder walked between the repair bots with Spyro at her side toward the door. She looked back at the monitor and the glowing spire in the glass case beyond. Already, the repair bots had covered the floor behind them and left them only one place to go.

They squeezed their way through the door one at a time. Spyro went first ahead of Cynder to make certain the so-called warden outside was harmless. When Cynder joined him moments later, she looked up at the mechanical marvel. It looked just like the beetle statues frozen in the city outskirts in the caverns above. But this one was alive and humming with power deep inside its hull.

The blue eyes peered down at Cynder and Spyro for a brief moment and then it turned and clamored over the pipes and circuitry through the outer chamber. They wove between machines now hissing and whirring with much more life than the night before. The repair bots were covering nearly every surface out here as well, filling the entire cave with a noise that sounded like rain on a sheet of tin.

The warden took them to the platform they had ridden down on and placed one of its legs in the slot in the floor. A faint glow emanated from the underside of the clawed appendage and the column began its ascent. Once they were back in the city above, the warden raised its leg and climbed down off the elevator, now back in its monument position.

Cynder followed it with Spyro in tow toward the opposite end of the city from where they had entered. She glanced at him, barely able to contain her excitement. "Can you believe this? We've made an important discovery. Wait until the elders hear about this. My gosh. How in Avalar are we ever going to get them to believe us?"

Spyro twined his tail around hers and gave her a toothy grin, sharing in her excitement. "I know. This was definitely something I'll never forget. Though, I think you'll want to be careful who you tell the story to. If Volteer catches tale of it he'll want a play by play with every little detail."

When they neared the edge of the city, a wondrous sight awaited them. The fields surrounding the city were now filled with light and movement from the wardens, patrolling the area in circular paths around the city perimeter. They had only a moment to survey the activity before the warden escorting them lumbered forward, motioning with a clawed foot that they were to follow.

The wardens did not deviate from their paths, though Cynder saw them glance their way with their glowing blue eyes of light. One of them even waved as though bidding them farewell. Cynder raised a wing in response, but was scooped up from behind by one of their warden's claws and bustled forward gently but firmly. Clearly, they were not to dawdle on their way out.

As they continued walking through the field of wardens and petrified trees, Cynder thought about the events of the last couple nights. "You realize what this means, don't you?"

Spyro looked at her and kept walking when the warden checked to see that they were keeping up. "What?"

"The apes were wrong. There weren't gods here. Not really. I can certainly see how they might be seen that way. But it's starting to make a little sense now. What happened here all those eons ago. It wasn't gods, it was the older race that lived in Avalar before we did, the ones who built that cave down there and everything inside."

"It's a thought," said Spyro with a nod. "I like it more than the whole god theory. But what's it really matter? That was a long time ago."

The warden came to a halt at the stone wall at the edge of the cavern and dug a bit at the rock there. Cynder turned back to the city, looking all around and everything, taking it all in. "It means that thing from the stars must be one of them."

A pleased sounding electrical chirp echoed out of the warden and a piece of rock fell away from the wall. Cynder peered around the machine to watch as it extended its leg and set it into a panel in the wall. The wall in front of them crumbled, sending a cloud of dust into the air. There was just a moment when the thin layer of mineral deposits in the rock were flaking away when Cynder could see metal doors sliding into the wall on either side.

When the doors had opened completely and the small pile of debris had settled, the warden stood aside and gestured toward the hole in the wall. Cynder looked at Spyro and held a paw out. "After you. I know you always like to take the lead."

Spyro scowled gently at her and said, "For your protection."

She leaned forward and nuzzled his snout. "I know that. And I think it's very sweet. Unnecessary, but sweet."

Spyro looked into the dark tunnel for a brief moment. After a couple seconds, the warden let out an impatient grating growl. Spyro exchanged a look with Cynder before lighting his horns ablaze and leading her into the tunnel.