The obvious first place to start was with Zephyr's brother. House Avis had information on him as well, but it was not as detailed. Spyro figured it was a mix of not monitoring Flare as closely and Flare had not served alongside House Avis' members like Zephyr had. Whatever the reason, Spyro knew where the two brothers were staying.
The map he had been given was… not what he expected though. It was not leading him toward the new shelters that Terrador was erecting, nor toward the hastily constructed guard post. Instead it was to the outskirts of the city and if he had not been given directions, he would have missed it. A hole hidden out of the way in the underneath of the broken aqueducts. At first he thought the directions were wrong, as the hold led to a dead-end of rock. Then he looked at the stone of the aqueduct to his side and realized something; the clever dragons had concealed their lair behind a rolling stone door. He had no idea how the brothers or presumably Nefaris had managed it, but the rounded stone fit so smoothly into the wall he would have missed it entirely. With a heave and judicious cheating of his earth element, he rolled the door open.
"We got company Flare! 'Ole king Spyro himself!" A voice called out as a black and white dragon materialized out of the floor in front of him.
"...Nice place you got here, I almost missed it." Spyro remarked as Nefaris ushered him inside and closed the door.
"Once street-rats, always street-rats eh?" The shadow dragon chuckled. "It needed some fixing up, but it held pretty well all things considered." He led Spyro further, the ground sloping downward until they arrived at an empty doorway. The crimson and cream scales of Flare were immediately obvious as was the near identical resemblance to Zephyr.
"How did you find us?" The fire dragon started off, markedly on guard.
Spyro chose his words carefully, "I made a deal with House Avis."
Flare groaned. "Oh great… Of course those bastards know where we hole up at." He sighed and turned around, gesturing with his tail for Spyro to follow. The room on the other side was far more spacious than anything Spyro had expected, less a room and more comparable in size to a two-story building. A massive ceiling and enough room for a dragon to fly comfortably. "Come in I guess, at least they chose not to come themselves."
"You don't like the House?" Spyro asked, wondering whether this was going to be far harder than he had thought. "How did you make this anyways? None of you are earth dragons."
Nefaris grinned as he sprawled out on some cushions. "We have connections… It's amazing what a life on the streets will do for you."
Flare grimaced as he sat on his own cushions. "Not pleasant at all and I wish you would stop reminding me Nef. To answer your other question though, no we don't mind House Avis, at least not usually. They did well by Zephyr during the war, but they have dropped an annoying amount of hints and I'm not sure how much longer they are willing to wait for an answer. Please, sit and make yourself comfortable, I can tell this will be one of
those conversations."
Spyro took the hint and ignored the third set of well-used cushions for a fourth, much more unused set. He doubted that taking the ones that were obviously Zephyr's would help endear him to his hosts. "I had a council with the nobility earlier today and in exchange for some much needed assistance, I promised House Avis that I would at least make an earnest request of Zephyr to join their House."
Nefaris' eyes narrowed. "What did you get out of the bastards?"
Hard feelings from the orphans, somehow Spyro was not surprised. "Open support of the 'dark' element dragons, better representation of the lesser houses, and help with Cynder's reputation." Spyro listed off. "The price was… more than I wanted to pay. I talked House Avis down from outright demanding Zephyr join then."
Nefaris outright laughed. "Hah! Like that would have gone over well!" Even Flare, a much more stoic dragon cracked a smile. "Not bad though."
Flare narrowed his eyes at Spyro. "No help with reconstruction?"
"No, the price for even more was just far more than I was willing to pay. " Spyro stated. "Let's get back to your brother though."
"Figures." Flare muttered. "Zephyr… I'm sure House Avis told you all about him, didn't they?" Without even waiting for a reply, Flare kept talking. "He's always been more connected to his element than typical. Curious, easy going, loves flying… flighty. Were it not for the two of us, I can guarantee Zephyr would just fly off one day and that might be the end of him. I don't want that for my brother."
Nefaris spoke up next, the light-hearted prankster's tone more serious than before. "Joining the war helped him. It gave him a job to do what he was going to do anyways and I think that's the key. In the war he and I flew as scouts and messengers, it kept him satisfied and there was always something new each flight. He was happy with that."
"We can keep him satisfied with all the new scouting that has to be done and he won't up and leave without telling us at the very least." Flare continued once more. "He needs to make more connections though."
Spyro shifted as he gave that some thought. "House Avis would give him that."
"They would." Flare agreed. "We can probably even negotiate a pretty good deal regarding how much freedom Zephyr has. The problem is that Zephyr is just going to see that as just chains tying him down."
"So we phrase it as a home base. A place to rest his wings between adventures." Spyro replied.
Nefaris shrugged, turning it into a yawn. "It might work." He agreed, not bothering to hide the fact that he was tired. "What else do ya got?"
The king paused, that was not the response he had expected. "They've also offered the marriage of a drake named Gale."
Flare smirked. "She better be some dragoness if she wants Zephyr's attention. Still, as a member of House Avis she would be a skilled flier, but Zephyr saw plenty of skilled fliers during the war. The only one that truly impressed him was your mate"
"Cynder isn't my mate! I uh-... Nevermind." Spyro said with a blush. "I haven't met with her yet, but they definitely talked her up. Said that they were throwing considerable resources behind training her up."
The fire dragon nodded. "Considering they're down to so few people, they would have to be doing that. …Look, we'll give our blessings and have a word with Zephyr. Come back here when you're ready to convince him and we'll get him for you. Until then, I suggest you go have a talk with this Gale and see if she's skilled enough to impress my brother."
"She better be a damn good flier and not too terrible with her element too." Nefaris put in. "If she's on the same level as Cynder on those things, bring her as well. Otherwise, don't bother."
With a groan, Spyro stood up. "Alright then."
What does Spyro do now?
[] Go to the Avis Estate and seek out Gale.
[] Talk with Zephyr (Flare and Nefaris will back you up on convincing him)
