Fanfic / Firelight

The story of a little dragoness in a big world. Art by Miss River Styxx

Firelight is a The Legend of Spyro fanfiction series by Riverstyxx.

The series follows the adventures of a young fire dragoness named Charla, whose egg survived the temple raid depicted at the start of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Taken in by and raised in secret at the Well of Souls by two apes, Jayce and Silverback, she and Jayce are eventually discovered by Gaul on the night Cynder is revealed to the Dark armies. Forced to flee for their lives, the two are eventually separated after Jayce sacrifices himself to get Charla to safety. Charla then finds herself alone.

Out on her own for a month, Charla eventually runs into an imprisoned Earth dragon named Lance, and frees him. From there, the pair set out on an adventure of a lifetime, with Charla intending to find a way to the Well of Souls to save Jayce and Silverback, although it is not clear if they are still alive or not. Along her journey, she makes many new friends and experiences and sees many things she had never seen before...

Charla's adventures take place during the time frame of A New Beginning and later The Eternal Night; the events of those two games happen in the background as she explores many parts of the dragon realms not previously seen in the games.

The series is almost entirely focused on OCs, but the author goes to great lengths to develop them and make them feel alive, as well as greatly expanding on the setting of Legend of Spyro as a whole. The main characters from the games are rarely seen, but they are mentioned at times and the effects of their actions are felt during parts of the story.

Firelight originally ran from 2012 to 2017. There is also a sequel called Balefire, which continues Charla and company's adventures to reach the Well of Souls, but has been on hiatus since 2019.

Firelight can be read here.

Balefire can be read here.

Beware of unmarked spoilers below.

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The Firelight series provides examples of:

• Adorably Precocious Child: Downplayed, but Charla embodies this. She tries really hard to be this but is still very much a child her age( twelve) and acts like it, despite her claims of being mature enough to be treated like an adult. She has demonstrated some maturity, however.
• Adults Are Useless: This fic plays with this trope a lot, often inverting, zig-zagging, or subverting it. Seeing as the main characters are mostly only children to teens (save for Nuala, who is a young adult) and are traveling on their own in the wilds for he bulk of the story, adults are not only always around to actually help the main cast. When they are around, however, results vary greatly; many of the adults they do encounter who are allied to them are helpful to the group and assist them, such as the dragons refugees who travel with the group. However, some can be a bit overbearing towards Charla and Lance, especially in Warfang.
  • Teslan plays with this trope. Teslan only wants to protect Charla and Lance and is a competent, if overbearing, leader who sees the refugee group to safety on their travels to Warfang. However, he can be dismissive of Charla's contributions or discoveries, such as when they she found a door that would have gotten them into Warfang through the old ruins. It takes much convincing to get him to go see it, and he refuses to let Charla squeeze through a hole above it to go and get help, though she defies him and does so anyways.
  • Many dragons in Warfang as well play with this trope. The council mostly dismisses Charla and Lance due to their age, but the General Galanthus hears what the kids have to say and lets them make their report about the old city ruins the children passed through. However, much of the council's dismissal of Charla and Lance is because they were in a war room at the time though, where children are typically not permitted.

• Anti-Villain: A few.
  • Jayce Bladelizard starts off as this. He is at first a greedy soldier who is part of an evil, genocidal army and was present for the massacre of a bunch of unborn dragons.( Though he couldn't really bring himself to smash any)But he only joined the army out of a genuine belief he was fighting for his people's justice against the dragons' past transgressions. Jayce at first took Charla's egg out of greed, thinking it was a gem. Twelve years later, he has become a caring adoptive father/ brother figure to Charla and has grown out of many of his worst traits. He more and less realizes how depraved his king and the army truly are and abandons them to run off with Charla.
  • Nuala . The first time she turned against her friends, it was only because the apes tricked her with an illusion spell into thinking that they were holding hostage the last remaining pups of her species(Nuala's species was genocided by the apes) She was forced against her will to fight her friends and shifts back to their side after the ape commander tricking her, Coldbone, is dealt with. Completely subverted later in Balefire, where she abuses and manipulates Charla, a child, to use her as a weapon against the apes and even tries to coerce her to attack Lance.
  • Arguabley Silverback. He is not really a villain or malice in any sense; in fact, he doesn't really have a mean bone in his body, but he was forced by Gaul to raise Cynder to be his weapon and is forced to put his knowledge to use for the Dark Army's conquests. It's very clear he hates having to do this and is sympathetic to dragons, but is given no choice at all in how Cynder was raised.
  • Captain Gunbait in Balefire. For a pirate slaver, he is pretty nice and even treats his prisoners relatively good, though mostly out of pramaticism, even letting them get fresh air on the ship's deck.
• Arc Villain: Several, befitting the adventure nature of this story.
  • Commander Pevmuffin, later Coldbone, is both this and a *Starter Villain, since he is the antagonist for the first few chapters of Firelight as well as the last few.
  • Commander Darur in Balefire after Charla and friends are captured by him. However, his attempt to trade Charla's group to the pirates backfires and ends with the pirates killing him and stealing his prisoners. Gunbait, the pirate's captain, arguably takes his place as arc villain, despite being kinder.
  • Nuala herself is a weird example. She becomes an abuser and is undeniably an antagonist to Charla during the later arc of Balfire, having abused Charla and turned her against her friends, but is technically still on their side. Her abuse drives most of the group's conflicts throughout the chapters after leaving the Whisperglade up until the group is captured by apes. After the others are captured by the apes and later pirates, she does come back to free them but its implies she still intends to use Charla as a weapon.
• Aseop Amminesa: Charla never seems to learn her lesson about not acting so impulsively and heeding the advice of others. Nuala exploits this in Balefire, using her desire to be treated like an adult to manipulate her into being a living weapon to use against the apes, likely knowing Charla was too stubborn to listen to any warnings Lance would give her.
• Asshole Victim: A few throughout both Firelight and Balefire
• * Pretty much any one of the ape soldiers killed in the story counts seeing as most are complacent in the atrocities of the Dark Army and are all too happy to murder innocent, including children like Charla.
• * Commander Darur in Balefire is a cruel ape commander like most others who is fine with capturing children, namely Charla and friends, and trading them off to pirates so that they can be used as slaves forced to fight in a death match arena for the entertainment of said pirates. He was also ok with killing said children if they are of no use to him. It's safe to say no one is sad to see him die after the pirates blast him and his crew off the cliff while they sleep and steal their prisoners right out from under him.
• * Nuala becomes this in the later stages of Balefire. Any sympathy for her past and tragic situation goes out the window after she starts abusing and manipulating Charla to use her as a weapon against the apes, even conditioning Charla to accept what is basically mind control after they've linked magic. Suffice it to say, it is hard to feel bad for her when her first attempt at mind control blows up in her face and causes Charla to burn her by accident in chapter 22 of Balefire, injuring her enough she has trouble traveling. Doubly so after she is shot by an ape's crossbow during the events of chapter 23, right after she was using Charla's magic link with her to force Charla to attack Lance when he catches up to the pair.
• Badass Adorable: Charla. She is portrayed as a cute, and often naive, young child about 12 and acts her age, but she is still a competent fighter and can very much hold her own in a fight.

• Big Bad: Gaul seems to be this for the series. Though he only shows up in some of the earlier chapters of Firelight so far, he is the one leading the main antagonistic force in the story and is set up as the primary opponent in Charla's quest, by virtue of the fact her quest involves reaching the Well of Souls. Though he personally only shows up sparingly, his actions are definitely felt throughout the series, even more so than Malefor or Cynder.

• Black-and-Grey Morality: Not Charla and Co themselves, but this is applicable to the war going on between dragons and apes. The apes are at a few points stated to have had legitimate grievances with the dragons in the past, such as the dragons trespassing and taking the apes' lands long ago, among other things. The modern-day dragon society is not without faults but are mostly reasonable and are mostly just trying to stop their species from being massacred by an evil army. Meanwhile, the apes have long since lost sight of any noble intentions or justifications they once had, and have subjugated much of the dragon realms and committed atrocities against countless innocents all for their own power.
  • To paint a better picture of what the morality of the war looks like, the apes are the ones who started the current war by massacring dozens of unborn dragons in the temple raid seen in A New Beginning and have been carrying out a concentrated genocide on the dragons as well as other species, such as the Vulpala. Additionally, they leave a massive trail of destruction in their armies' wake and destroy most settlements they come across, neutral or not, and even enslave other species who were not even involved in the war. They even destroyed Meredy's home city of Zeyphr, which was not involved in the war to begin with. By contrast, the dragons of Warfang, though having transgressed on the ape's lands a long time ago, are simply trying to defend their kind from a genocidal army.

• Big Brother Instinct: Lance becomes an older brother figure for Charla, and does everything in his power to keep her safe and out of trouble. Many times in the series, he steps in to defend her from threats.

• The Cameo: Aside from Cynder and Gaul playing important roles, most of the rest of the main cast of the games is related to this role.
  • In chapter 39 of Firelight, Spyro and Sparkx make a brief appearance. Charla only sees them briefly flying overhead and past her, but she does not get to interact with them directly. She is flabbergasted by this and does not believe it, since purple dragons like Spyro are believed to be a myth. Given how fast Spyro flew by, Charla does not fully believe that she actually saw him. Later, in chapter 17 of Balefire, Spyro's battle with Cynder in Convexity is depicted on a carving Charla sees while in the Sanghalin Order's vision carving room.
  • In chapter 11 of Firelight, Volteer is briefly heard being interrogated by Cynder in the ape's fortress in Dante's Freezer, while Charla is sneaking about there.
• Can't Stay Normal: During the Warfang arc, Charla and Lance get placed in an orphanage, establish a decent living there and form a routine of sorts. Despite intending not to stay long, Charla grows to enjoy having a normal life in Warfang, as does Lance. However, Charla's dislike of having rules to follow and her desire to get to the Well of Souls makes her unable to simply wait out the war in Warfang, and she eventually does go through with her plan of escaping the city.
  • Lance invokes this trope at one point during the Warfang arc. He argues, with merit, how their quest to get the Well of Souls is deadly, and almost a lost cause, seeing as Charla's adoptive family there is very likely dead. He tries to convince Charla to wait out the war in Warfang with him, until its safe to return to his home city of Jordguard. His arguments have merit, since Warfang offered them a decently comfortable life and safety from the war, something very few other places in the setting at the time could offer. Charla, however, refuses to give up on her quest and this creates friction between the two of them.
• Cereberus Syndrome: The series as whole never shied away from dealing with dark themes like loss of family, as well as showing the devasting results of war and genocide but is still typically about the fairly light-hearted adventures of Charla. However, at a few points in the Firelight and Balefire, things really start to grow more serious.
• * In Firelight, the more humor aspects of the story are toned down, especially after chapter 36, where Lance suggests Charla give up her quest and wait out the war within the safety of Warfang with him, then return to his home of Jordguard. This puts Charla on the spot, as she feels she is asked to abandon any chances of ever seeing her adoptive family again, despite the merit Lance's agreements about the quest being a dead end. This causes a huge rift between the two of them and the drama escalates from then on to the rest of the story, although things don't get particularly darker.
• * Balefire starts out with the typical lighthearted antic of Charla and Co, but the drama noticeably escalates much more in this story, with the group arguing in circles about if Meredy is better off staying or going with them, as well as Lance not wanting Nuala to come with Charla and him. After the Whisper Glade arc, the story becomes much darker, as Nuala becomes outright abusive and toxic to Charla and Charla starts drifting away from her other friends and falling into Nuala's toxic influence. There is a ton more tension and rather realistic depictions of abuse and manipulation, with far fewer moments of levity in between.
• Children Are Innocent: A complex variation with Charla. She has been through a lot and has been exposed to many cruel realities of the world and trying to survive out in the wilds, yet she still maintains a child-like sense of wonder at the various things she discovers throughout her quest and maintains an almost innocent air of optimism. Additionally, she is unable to understand why things like the war have to happen, nor does she fully comprehend the smell emitting from a pile of large bodies that Teslan shields from her eyesight. The same can be said for when Lance blocks her from witnessing an ape mercy kill his dreadwing with a knife. Despite everything she has gone through and witnessed, she is still only a kid who does not fully grasp the harsh realities of the world.
• The Determinator: Charla will stop at nothing to make it to the Well of Souls to save her adopted family. No matter how far she has to trouble, or what kind of obstacles or enemies she has to overcome, she is determined to keep on her quest no matter what. Deconstructed, however, in that her journey is perilous and has even nearly gotten her, and her friends, killed many times over. She has even sacrificed a chance at a safe and normal life in Warfang just to continue her journey. This comes to a head when her stealing the library key Chelcie was in charge of, in order to get ahold of a map she needed, ends up getting Chelcie in trouble, and her escape from Warfang worries and anger Lance, who points out to Charla how her unyielding determination to keep going on her quest has screwed over other at and calls into question if all the sacrifices and perils they face are truly worth the end result.

• Child Soldiers: Jayce and his brother were let into the Dark Army when they were teenagers and not fully grown. Although given the fact the age of being considered an adult in medieval times was different than the present, it could be they were considered adults by their species' standards at that point.

• Defector from Decadence: Jayce was starting to get cold feet about the Dark Armies' genocide and conquest to begin with, but what really drives him to leave fully is when he and Charla were discovered by Cynder. He mostly just left to ensure Charla's safety and that she remains alive.

• Doorstopper: Firelight clocks in at over 300,000 words. Its sequel, Balefire, clocks in at over 200,000 words, for a combined total of over 500,000 words in counting. And yet, by the time Balefire went on ndefinite hiatus, the story was still not over yet.

• The Dragon: A literal example. Cynder, likewise, when she was the Terror of the Skies, to Malefor. Charla was spotted by her the night she was revealed to the Apes at the Well of Souls and has to flee with Jayce. Charla later encounters her at Dante's Freezer, and is even captured by her for a time before Jayce frees Charla.

• Face–Heel Turn: Nuala, arguably, in the later stages of Balefire.Though she has always had her vices and is still technically still on Charla's side, she shifts from being a friend to more of a flat-out manipulator and toxic influence on Charla ; manipulating her so that she can use Charla as a weapon against the apes. She even goes as far to mind-control her into murdering a pair of apes against Charla's will and even doing so again and making Charla attack Lance when she is called out. She does still return to free the others from being captured by the pirates, however.
• Greater-Scope Villain: This is only touched upon a handful of times throughout the series, but Malefor still fits this trope. Few characters, even most of the main characters, are even aware of his existence and he is rarely even discussed, but he is still ultimately the force responsible for much of the setting in the story. He was the one who empowered the apes with magic, corrupted Cynder, and ordered the raid that wiped out most of Spyro and Charla's generation, which lead to Charla's life being what it was. In a roundabout sort of way, Malefor could be argued to be the true villain of the series, despite Charla barely even knowing of him and not even intending to confront him. His actions, though carried out by his minions, made the lives of the main characters what they are to begin with, directly or not.

• Honor Before Reason: Lance's vow to not use his earth element. While he does it to honor his late brother who could not use his element and died to the apes, it is shown throughout the story how this is an unnecessary handicap for Lance and he is not really proving anything to any other dragon by using it. He does it to prove element-less dragons can fight as well, but most just dismiss him as stupid for doing this( and have reason to do so). There are many fights in the story where his powers would have come in handy, such as against rock golems he could have otherwise dispatched with ease, but he still stubbornly refuses to use them. Additionally, he has been out on his own for four years(it's been as long since he last used his element) and he has not even been really around anyone to prove his point to in that time anyway. Even gets lampshaded by different characters in the story.

• Hypocrite: Throughout the story, Charla complains about being treated like a kid and proclaims to herself she is much more mature than people give her credit for. Despite some maturity, she constantly acts every bit as childish, naive, and impulsive as she claims others see her. Again, she is only twelve during the story, so acting like this is not out of the ordinary for children her age.

• Jerk Ass Has A Point: "Jerk" is pushing it, depending on the character, but certain stern or grumpy characters raise valid points many times. Lance is perhaps the best example of this in the story, constantly bringing up valid points to Charla, even if she disagrees. What he tells her in Warfang and the later stages of Balefire are great examples.
  • In Warfang, Lance argues to Charla that they should wait out the war within the safety of the city and Charla needs to accept her family is likely gone, or at least they are impossible to rescue. While this may put Charla on the spot and more or less force her to abandon her family, Lance's argument has plenty of merit. The journey to the Well of Souls is extremely dangerous and full of dangers, Infiltrating the Well itself and freeing too prisoners is likely impossible, and there is a very good chance Jayce and Silverback would have been dead anyways. That and Warfang offered them a good life and relative safety from the war; two things that few other places in the setting at can offer due to the war ravaging most settlements. Not even a city in the sky like Zephyr was safe.
  • In Balefire, after they get out of the Whisper Glade forest, Lance reminds Charla she is only a child and has a ton of learning to do, and her relationship with Nuala is unhealthy (after Lance notices the two spend a lot of time together and acting a bit suspicious). Though Charla is frustrated by this, Lance is shown to completely be right, considering how young Charla is (she is twelve) and how naive, impulsive, and childish Charla acts; factors that Nuala is indeed using to take advantage of her and use her as a weapon. Charla's refusal to acknowledge any of this only further proves Lance's point, and makes her more vulnerable to Nuala's abuse and manipulation.
  • Teslan maybe be overbearing and somewhat controlling of Charla, Lance, and even Chelice(his niece) it makes sense when you consider the fact he is trying to lead a bunch of refugees who lost their homes through the perilous wilderness of a war-torn country/continent, all while a genocidal army is subjugating much of the land and carrying out an active hunt for dragons like him and those in his group. His overbearing and hot-headed attitude likely stems from the stress of his situation and may be about the only way he can seem to keep the group together and alive. Additionally, though he treats Charla and Lance like kids, Charla herself is still very young and indeed acts as childish as Teslan more or less considers her, so it could be warranted in an attempt to keep her safe during their travels.

• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Several characters, but Lance and Nuala stand out. Lance is grumpy and cynical, even a bit abrasive and stubborn to most he meets, but he cares about Charla like a little sister and does everything he can to protect, guide, and aid her in her quest. Most of the decisions he makes for her are ultimately for her well-being. Nuala could be described as this as well. Though she has many vices, she has shown a few times she does care about her friends; even doing stuff like nursing Meredy back to health once she found her, as well as selling one of her feathers to a shopkeeper just so Charla can buy a book she wants.

• Just a Kid: Discussed, justified, and possibly invoked. Charla is worried about not being treated like an adult and wants to be, despite only being twelve during the story. Interestingly, while many do treat her like a child of her age, it is usually not done in a degrading way. Barring some characters, most still treat her with respect but taken into account her age, realistically speaking. Justified, as though she is a decent fighter and smart, she still acts realistic for her age; often acting naively, impulsively, and immaturely. Additionally, Charla has a habit of overestimating herself. Lance even discussed this at one point in Balefire, pointing how despite everything, Charla is still only a child and overestimates herself. He notes that it might be wrong and unfair to treat her like a full adult, stating she still has much to learn.
  • Lance touches upon this at other points as well. He correctly points out that, despite all their progress on the quest, he, Charla, and Meredy are still only children and have nearly died many times on their journey.(Lance is in his late teens, and Meredy is apparently a teenager per her species standards, while Charla is twelve. Nuala, though only ten, is considered a young adult by her species' standards) He uses this to make a point that they are in over their heads going on this quest, and probably should not even be out on their own like this to begin with, given the danger. He reasons that they should all just be looking to live normal lives, but he goes on the quest anyways just to keep Charla safe, knowing she will not stop until she saves Jayce and Silverback.
  • Elaborating on a point above, during the later chapters of Balefire, Lance talks to Charla about this and makes it a point that it would be unfair to treat her like an adult, given the natural immaturity and naivete that comes with her young age. He personally has treated her well, but notes Nuala is likely exploiting Charla by treating her as more mature than she truly is.

• Last of His Kind: Nuala. Her species, the Vulpala, were all killed by the apes, and she seeks revenge on them for that.
• Lower-Deck Episode: More like "lower deck fanfic." In this case, it's a whole series about "normal" dragons and intervals from the dragon's realms on an adventure, technically in the background of the games while Spyro's quest is still happening. Meta-wise, the story focuses on and fleshes out many parts of the setting that were only glimpsed at or touched on briefly during the course of the main trilogy, such as what Warfang and dragon society as a whole are like.
• My Beloved Smother: Well, uncle, but Teslan is this to his niece, Chelcie. He is overbearing and nearly considers her a child. Granted, this is likely an attempt to keep her in line and ensure her safety during their travels. As detailed in *Jerk Ass Has A Point above, Teslan's group was in the middle of a very perilous situation during the time.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Charla gets this from many adult dragons in Warfang, especially when she and Lance are in the war room. This is part of what frustrated her most about Warfang, especially with all the new rules she had to follow, such as requiring adult permission to do things.
• Orphanage of Love: The orphanage Charla and Lance are put into in Warfang is run by a kind dragoness named Madame Orinthe. They are given decent accommodation there and all children present within it are treated rather well.

• Papa Wolf: Downplayed with Teslan, one of the dragons amongst the refugees heading to Warfang Charla's group joins, be he has shades of this. During his time with Charla and Lance, he does what he can to keep them safe and out of trouble, though he is rather overbearing and controlling. Of note, he shielded Charla from seeing a pile of mole bodies to spare her the trauma and had Charla and Lance stay back when the group was attacked near the Warfang dam.
• Uncertain Doom: Jayce's fate at the end of the prologue chapters, and one of the biggest mysteries in the story. While escaping from Dante's freezer with Charla on a raft, they are intercepted by Gaul's ship. Jayce leaps onto the ship, undoes the hooks the crew had thrown onto the raft so that Charla can escape. Though Gaul's keeps yelling that he wants Jayce alive so that he can be thrown into the dungeon with Silverback, Jayce keeps fighting and suffers numerous wounds from the crew. He pisses off Gaul to the point Gaul himself attacks Jayce, and is last seen bringing his trademark giant scimitars down onto Jayce after Jayce was injured, but the exact point of impact is not seen by Charla nor the audience. Given Gaul's prior insistence of taking Jayce alive, it is possible Jayce is still alive but Gaul could have abounded that notion too. Charla, optimistically thinks he is still alive since she never saw his body, and getting to the Well of Souls to free him is her primary motivation.
  • Silverback too. He stays behind when Jayce and Charla flee the Well of Souls, and Gaul even mentions that he is locked in the dungeon when he is intercepting Charla and Jayce in Dantes Freezer.However, it is noted later in the story that it is very much possible Silverback could have passed away in the Well of Soul's dungeon from cruel treatment or old age. The same is noted to be applicable to Jayce, if he is still alive.
• Police State: Downplayed, if not outright subverted. When Charla and Lance get to Warfang, they find the guards to be rather overbearing and apprehend any school children out on the streets during class times, though that could be normaly. It's implied no one is allowed to leave once they are in, or at least children are not, and that much of the city population is kept in the dark about a potential siege going on outside the city walls. However, many of the above-mentioned rules can be chalked up to the fact Charla and Lance are children and are thus would not typically be allowed to leave the city walls or wander the streets alone, at least without permission from adults(the guard who apprehended them thought they were school kids skirting classes). The city is very far from being outright oppressive and life in the city seems to be going fairly normally for its citizens, especially in spite of the war.
  • Arguably life in the city is actually pretty normal, in spite of the war. Charla just sees it as overbearing because she has to follow more rules than she is normally used to and do things like get permission to go places from an adult, which is pretty normal for most children her age. The city does seem to be keeping the siege going on outside the city's walls and at the damn quiet, though. However, they are still accepting refugees, so knowledge of the war is hardly a secret overall.
• Starter Villain: Commander Pevmuffin, who is renaming himself Coldbone, is the first villain Charla faces and is teh one who captured Lance and held him captive in the opening chapters of the story. He becomes a bonafide *Arc Villain when he shows up in the final chapters of Firelight, being the commander of the ape forces who took over Pyreflight and the one who is forcing Nuala to fight her friends. He is killed after his fight with Charla this time, however.
• Third Act Stupidity: Downplayed in Firelight, after Charla steals the map to the Well of Souls from the library and runs away from Warfang to continue her quest. It had been established this was her goal in Warfang from the get go. However, she refused to consider Lance's admittably understandable urging to simply enjoy the decent life they got in the safety of the city and wait out the remainder of the war instead of continuing the deadly quest. When the two reunite afterward, there is still tension between them, though its understated Charla does not want to accept her adoptive family was likely dead nor her quest near impossible to accomplish.
  • Played straiter in Balefire. For the sake of having drama in the third act, Charla, despite seeing Lance as her older brother and having had things go poorly for her after ignoring the advice of older and wiser people several times before, refuses to heed Lance's warnings about Nuala's abuse and toxic influence on her. This is despite Lance having given good advice and looking out for her the entire story. Worse, she goes as far as to abandon him and Meredy and run off into the dangerous wilds alone with a mentally unstable Nuala, and does not even raise much of a fuss or reconsider what Lance warned her about even after Nuala more or less attempts to mind controls her into nearly killing two apes and even Lance himself. Even more egregious is that, after all of this, she still does not listen to Lance and caves back to Nuala when she shows up later. All this in spite of Charla's prior relationship with Lance, her shrewdness for her age, being explicitly warned before and after the aforementioned events by Lance, and even fighting off Nuala's mind control twice. Part of it, though, is because Nuala made Charla feel like an adult, something she desperately craves despite her young age.
• Tomato in the Mirror:Played with. Charla thinks herself very mature and more or less thinks her capable of taking on super strong foes due to her surprisingly strong element( or at least a powerful fighter). Except she acts every bit as impulsive, naive, immature, stubborn, and otherwise childish as a child her age normally would. And while she is a decent fighter and has an unusually strong elemental magic for her age , she is nowhere near the level she thinks herself at and only barely manages to survive or win many of the fights she gets into during the story, often having to be saved by other characters. Her ego is brought down greatly early on as well.
  • This becomes a plot point in the later chapters of Balefire, where Lance notes to her, that despite everything she has been through and what she thinks, she is still only a child who has a lot of learning and maturing to do. She is less than thrilled to be reminded of this.
• Wham Episode: In Balefire, a few of these happen within the Whisper Glade Forest. When Meredy seeks aid from Pema about her bad traumas wearing her down and is taken to a pool of visions to help her relieve and accept them so that she can make peace and move on. She sees her memories of her escape from Zeyphr and the subsequent destruction of her home, as well as the traumatizing incident where she activated her wind magic and tore several dreadwings apart. Charla sneaks in and see's the vision in full. Shortly after this, Charla sees a carving foretelling her taking part in some kind of ritual with the apes.
• Wham Shot: In Balefire Charla sees a carving of herself dancing with, or rather taking part in a ritual, with the apes, seemingly at the Well of Souls. Given that this carving is left by the Sanghalin Order, who can glimpse visions of the future through dreams, it would seem to be a foreshadowing of a future event to come. Seeing as she would not willingly do so, Charla and Meredy are both confused and distressed. The actual context of this event is not clear, though it seems to be some kind of ritual during the Night of Enteral Darkness.

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