[[WMG: The carving in the monk's vision room depicts Charla being mind controlled by apes in a sort of ritual for the Night of Eternal Darkness. The ritual likely relates to Malefor's resurrection and involves exploiting Charla's magic as a conduit for that.I mean, they already introduced the idea of mind control with Nuala nearly forcing Charla to attack Lance and two apes with theri magic bond and the apes have been shown to be able to brainwash dragons with magic in canon, given what they did too Cynder. Charla has no motivation to join them otherwise, given how staunchly against the apes she is for their various atrocities and what they did to her friends and adoptive family. Her hatred of them has only increased as the story goes along. Plus the apes would likely prefer to kill or capture her outright and would not let her partake in whatever ritual with them unless they were manipulating or controlling her.
Given the fact that Gaul mentions Silverback being in the dungeon, says he wanted to capture Jayce and Jayce was directly seen being killed despite his injuries, they probably are alive. However, its very likely that both would have been tortured and abused in the dungeons of the Well of Souls, given Gaul's cruelty and want to make them suffer. How their deaths, if they are alive, play out may vary, but its highly likely both or at least Jayce would pull a *Heroic Sacrifice to ensure Charla and her friends escape during a chase sequence, likely reasoning that they (Jayce or Silverback) are too injured to go on. Alternatively, if Jayce or Silverback (or both, if alive) do escape the well, Malefor's curse that turned the apes into skeletons by Dawn of The Dragon will likely kill the survivor. At least by being alive by the time she actually gets to the well, Charla and her adoptive family can have a proper reunion and find closure. It would be pretty unsatisfying that, after all the hardships she faced in the story and her long journey, both were already dead by the time Charla got to the well.
Given how dedicated he has been to protecting and caring for Charla over the course of the story, and everything he has done for her (including going to Warfang when he did not want to for personal reasons, putting his life on the line at several points in battles, and seeing her quest through despite how futile it seem) it would only be fitting that he complete his character arc by finally breaking his vow not to use his element again in order to save Charla. The *Chekov'sGun of him being stated to be a prodigy with his element would serve to justify him being useful in their escape. Additionally, although he has clung to this vow to the point he did not use his element to easily free himself from the apes at the start of the story nor to save his and Charla's lives from earth golems, he has become increasingly devoted to Charla as the story goes on, staying with her like a brother even after she abandoned him at least twice. He even calls her his little sister and states how he sees her as family. Charla is more or less the only thing keeping him going for much of the story.
Lance has brought up both possibilities a few points in the story. He outright wanted to wait out the war in the safety of Warfang with Charla adn then return home. He even brought up the possibility of simply living with Meredy up in Mistral so they can live normal lives up and ride out the war safely during chapter 6 of Balefire. Although Charla did not want to do either at the time due to her desire to complete her quest and save her adoptive family from the Well of Souls. Depending what goes down in the story's endgame, Charla might either save her adoptive family or, going off the above theory about Jayce and Silverback, if she managed to reunite with them before they died or at least get confirmation of their deaths, she will find the closure she needs to move on and start living a normal life. Its been pointed out she does not have much of an idea what to do after saving them, as apes are hated across the realms for what the Dark Army is doing. Whether her adoptive family is dead or alive, Charla has no plan afterward and both of these options being brought up could potentially Chekov's guns that offer both foreshadowings of hte potential ending as well as offering a plausible way to end the story on. The fact of the matter is that Meredy will almost definitely want to return to confirm whether her species and especially her father survived in Mistral or not at some point, especially since her being on the quest is more or less a way to prolong learning a harsh truth if her father is not in Mistral. Going up there with her friends would be in character for her and would resolve the lingering question of her father's fate.
In chapter 7 of Balefire, she puts off going up to that city because she is too terrified of facing the possible reality that her father is not alive and having to face that cruel reality alone, as her friends would still be going on Charla's quest and would thus have nowhere to go( she noted that, though her species could be alive there even if her father is not, it would still pretty much be a city full of strangers) She keeps going on Charla's quest to effectively prolong the possibly having to face such as harsh reality and to be with her friends. However, its unlikely that she would delay trying to reunite with her father forever, as she still direly wishes to reunite with him. Additionally, once Charla's quest is fulfilled, Charla and co will likely have nowhere else to go (whether or not Charla's adoptive family is alive) and it's likely that they would encourage her to return to Mistral, knowing how important it is she at least try to reunite with family. However, this time she would find the confidence to go to Mistral since she has her friend to comfort her if she is unable to find her father there. On a meta-level, it would be unsatisfying to leave such a massive mystery in Meredy's character arc unanswered.
He is like the perfect *Deus Ex Machinia and would fit right into the scene, seeing as the story follows the canon events of the gaming pretty rigidly, other than greatly expanding on the background of the setting. Going off the games, he rampages into the Well of Souls and single-handedly beats Gaul and many of the apes. Given that Charla's arrival at the Well of Souls is heavily implied to be aligning with the Night of Eternal Darkness, which is exactly when Spyro arrives there in The Eternal Night, his assault on the well would make for the perfect excuse for Charla and friends to escape from the well.
