Lila tugged at the ring, gritting her teeth as she tried to free it from her finger.
“Don’t bother,” Leopold said. “Once activated, it bonds to its owner. It can’t be removed, except by your death.”
“So I’m going to be a monster forever?” Lila looked on the verge of tears.
“No, not a monster. When you will it, you will have a great power.” Leopold rose and paced the room, packing an ornate pipe with tobacco. “The gargoyles looked like monsters, but they were very wise and devoted to protecting humans from evil, especially unnatural evils like the undead.” He paused and lit the pipe, then took a puff.
“Which is why I changed when I fought the vampire,” Lila whispered.
“Correct,” Leopold smiled, exhaling a smoke ring that hovered in the air longer than should have been possible. “Their kind was thought to have died out a century ago. Legends had them placing their spirits into rings, which would allow the wearer to take on their forms and powers at will. Of course,” he said, winking at Lila, ”this is simply a legend. No basis in truth, you understand.”
She smiled, for the first time in a long while. “There’s a lot more to this, isn’t there?”
“Quite. So far, you have discovered only their form. Their powers and knowledge should come to you with time and study, along with an open mind and willing heart. But those exercises will wait until you’re more rested.”
Lila started to protest, but Leopold shushed her. “No arguments, young lady. We will discuss more when you awaken.” He motioned to Monica that he would return, and escorted Lila to a cot in the back. She was asleep before she hit the pillow, dreaming of life as a gargoyle.
When Leopold returned, Monica raised an eyebrow. “You called her “young lady.” Are you related?”
The wizard gave her an odd look. “I raised her from age six, at the final request of her father.” He went to work fixing another pot of tea. “You were in the crypts of Sebastian Cade, were you not?”
Monica’s eyes shot open. “Yes…how…how did you know that?”
“You were meant to become Queen of the Undead. A Soultaker, unless I am mistaken. And you remained human by employing the powers of Cade’s Crystal Skull.”
“Yes.”
Leopold nodded. “Tell me everything. Omit no detail.”
Monica relayed everything, from the fall out of the helicopter in her home plane, to the wings, to the curse and its seeming destruction. She knew it was pointless to hide anything from the wizard, and so she spoke the truth without restraint.
Leopold sighed. “By opening your mind to its workings and manipulating its energies, you absorbed the power of the Crystal Skull into your soul. Only when an artifact is drained of all its magic can it be shattered. Even now, its evil is within you.”
Cold shivers played down Monica’s spine. “What’s…what’s going to happen to me?”
Tue Jun 11 08:04:25 2002