Page 71 of Queen's Griffon

“I’d like to be a giant,” Frisk declared. “Can you imagine these muscles supersized?” He flexed.

Basil shook his head. “The serum doesn’t work on every living thing. Humans, for example, show no effect, neither do squirrels or mice. Which I found odd, seeing what it did to the rats.”

“Take us. Now.” Lenno, seeming to grow tired of the conversation, pressed his sword to Basil’s neck drawing a pinprick of blood.

Avera’s father—such a strange concept—sighed. “Very well. But don’t say you weren’t warned.”

Basil took the lead as they went through a doorway and entered a tunnel. Avera kept pace with him. Who knew how long they might have to speak. She had so many questions, not necessarily about her mother and their relationship.

“Why did you seek out the stones?” Avera queried.

“When I did my research on them, there was mention of them being special. I wanted to study them. To understand what they were and what they could do. It’s what scientists do, you know.”

“How did you know of their existence?”

Basil tucked his hands in his sleeves. “I found out about them by accident when we cleared a blockage passage. Mount Etna is riddled with tunnels, most left behind from the last time thevolcano erupted. We began using them as a way to keep our experiments contained and for climate control.”

“Climate control?” Avera didn’t recognize the term.

“Once you get deep into the mountain, the thick rock ensures temperature remains constant. Ideal for experiments.” Basil cleared his throat. “I digress. Anyhow, during our mapping and excavation, we found a chamber that had been untouched for centuries, maybe longer. Within there were scrolls, dozens of them, talking about a past that seemed impossible. A time when dragons roamed the skies and yet also lived in harmony with humanity.”

“What happened to them? Why did they disappear?”

“You mentioned its name earlier. Zhos.”

“You’ve heard of it,” she breathed.

“Yes, and by all accounts it was a nasty being. Not originally from this world, it somehow found a way to cross over and began laying waste to the land. The dragons gave their lives to save humanity, using their magic and very life force as a sacrifice to subdue the alien entity, burying it deep, sealing off all exits, leaving it to die.”

“Fraegus Spire,” she muttered. “Only Zhos didn’t die.”

Her claim startled Basil. “Of course it did. Nothing could survive that long, especially buried as it was.”

“It’s not dead. I’ve spoken to it,” was her grim reply. “Ever since you took the stones away, it’s been growing stronger. Strong enough that once my mother died it managed to mesmerize an entire town into coming to the spire and lighting fires to melt the ice keeping it prisoner.”

“No, that can’t be true,” Basil murmured. “The accounts I read claimed it was gone forever.”

“Not gone, merely impotent until you removed the seals keeping it from influencing our world.”

“Who told you they were seals?” he asked.

“The guardian in the spire claimed the stones contained magic that prevented Zhos from returning.”

“What guardian?” He frowned.

“The one my mother spoke to while you were down by Damnation Lake, removing them.”

“There was no one in the mountain,” he claimed. “Your mother and I went alone. It was the strangest thing. We were lost in a snowstorm with me ready to turn around, but she knew where to go even though she’d only been there once before, just after her coronation. She guided us into that ancient place and showed me the rocks embedded in the ice. Told me how on her last visit, she’d given them each a few drops of her blood.”

“Why would she do that?” And why hadn’t her mother told her? She’d been so mysterious about the whole thing, insisting Avera discover it all herself.

“When I asked, she shrugged and claimed the first time she visited it was like she knew what had to be done.”

“Magic,” Avera stated.

“Most likely, which I found fascinating. You see, Verlora didn’t have such a thing. We were a place of science, where everything followed set rules. But the scrolls plus some artifacts I found, followed by your mother’s experience, spoke to another power, one I didn’t understand.”

“But wanted to know more about.” Avera understood, at least now, where her curiosity came from. “How could you just take them and leave her?” She kept pace with him as he navigated them through tunnels, some smoothed by human tools and hands, others rough as if naturally formed.

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