No one can say he doesn't know how to be a mood maker.
He's definitely better at this than I am.
"In fact, she's King Umbra and Queen Wilhelmina Miralanthor's direct descendant, their great-something granddaughter. You all heard what Nacht, the black sìth, said in class, that she looked like her grandfather. He was talking about the late King. She apparently looks a lot like him, which also means her mom did, since she's said to look like her. Plus the fact that she has her grandmother's name. The difference is the middle one. While Hel's middle name is Rosalind, the late Queen's was Cara."
"As Hel also has their surname, and so did her mom, it's enough to assume that all of the descendants were males before them both. Hel got it because her biological father… wasn't in the picture. As it was a recessive gene, all of them came out as black dragons, while it took effect on her and she came as the black winged serpent, as it was bound to happen. We're still trying to get to the books that talk about her type with more depth."
Felix frowned, "You mentioned you two were doing some kind of study for Mia that only you too could. Is it about your people, Hel?"
"You could say so," I looked at my nails, allowing my mate to do the talking, since he loves to hear his own voice that much. And so do I.
"So, it happens that master Mia is old enough to have met and also interacted with her kind, with her grandfather. And she recorder everything about her people, from culture, architecture, politics, to all the events that happened on the Grand War of Pangea, where… all of our ancestors got together to destroy Hel's kind, because they were too powerful."
Agatta, who was the only one who had no idea about that last detail, turned ashen pale, "Shit. How did we even survive your kind?"
I clenched my fists, and Oliver held me closer, my restlessness all too obvious to him. "They had mercy on us, and that cost them everything. Her grandfather knew that if they used their indestructible army, it would end up in their victory, but at the cost of annihilating the thirty races that had gathered against them."
"Indestructible army?" Agost frowned.
"And your kind was alone against those thirty races?" Agatta asked.
["Gargoyles,"] Jack called it.
"First, do you all remember when Hel talked about gargoyles in class, and fought with Paolucci, and ended up expulsed from class?" His words made me grin, remembering how the professor in question can't even look on my face anymore. "So it happens that the Goddesses last creation together, was made to serve directly the wielders of the Crown of Chaos, with loyalty and undying determination. But when in their stone selves, they are made of medea stone."
"Medea what?" Sabrina asked confused.
Sigh, "It's the stone that the protection of the Pit is made off."
Their eyes widened at my words, "Like is actual hell?"
A nod, "Precisely like the 9th circle of hell!"
Oliver continued, "They are not unkillable, but it's absurdly hard to do that to one, imagine an army. Her grandparents were afraid of destroying the future of all the races, and so they talked with the council, they all agreed and so, they froze all the army in time. Every gargoyle you see, like the one Hel found in the underground, are alive, but their minds are all awake in millennials ago, still in the time of the Grand War of Pangea."
"There's one in here?" Agatta gasped.
"Yes. 5th hidden gallery on the underground," I shrugged.
"Back to what I was saying. They are waiting for the time where the fated heir will find the crown and bring them all back. In their mind, they are all together and training for a future war. The only person who can lead them," he pointed at me, "is Hel. But to do that, she needs to connect herself to all gargoyles at the same time, and for that she needs the crown. Without it, she can connect to the gargoyles and enter their mind, see what they are living, where they are, but one at the time, if she sees their frozen body. She can't bring them back."
"The gargoyle Lydia," Savannah exclaimed.
I nodded, "I connected with her, that's also where I was able to see my… uh… Kingdom in the sky. Felt weird. She told me about my ancestry, called me her Queen and a bunch of very overwhelming stuff. She also told me what your ancestors did to mine," I turned to Agatta. "No. They were not alone, but they only had six races with them, all with just a few people. My kind also wasn't very populous. Black winged serpents were the rarest and directly only the Royal family. The others had about half a hundred each."
My mate nodded, "We learned all this is the records Mia wrote. She is Hel's godmother, and she was one of the closest friends of her mother. She also can see the future, and she knew Hel would need all the help she could get, thus the books. However, they are in Pangean and only me and Hel can speak it. We also can only write notes in Pangean, or a spell will get active and will destroyed the book. All for protection."
"I knew she was old, but damn," Rio mumbled.
"There's too many books though," I clicked my tongue. "They are all thick and it takes time to read. Especially because every single detail on it is important. Even with my time magic helping, we each read 10 to 15 books a day each, and it's still too much. Information is good, but we cannot get overwhelmed by it."
"What she said," he bounced his pretty head. "So, they froze the army after the Crone, the Goddess, told them that it would be okay and that their surviving descendant would make a wise use of them to save the world from a future disgrace. Then, they casted a spell of blood in Emerald Sky City that protected the territory from any kind of harm, and made so magical races could see it, but they would only be able to set foot in there if a black winged-serpent invited them in. Then they descended on earth for the war, all by themselves with the seven small races that were loyal to them."
I raised seven fingers, "Phoenixes, pegasus, vulpids, eldricorns, cat sìths, nine-tailed foxes and blood stags. Nacht was the sub-leader of the his kind, and he fought the war with them, and it's probably the last cat sìth of his kind, like I am of mine. Yes, some of these kinds can't die, I know, but your ancestors locked them in a place that is impossible to get our of."
"The Pit?" Agatta asked, paler than before.
A nod, "The Pit! The 9th circle of hell, throwing them into eternal suffering, in a fate worse than death, for fighting against them in a war that they caused. They fought for my people and got this fate by yours. All because of their greed, their jealousy and hunger for power. We had never harmed them, and even tried for a peaceful relationship. However, they were unable to accept it. So, they brought war to peaceful lands, and my grandparents still had mercy on them," I scoffed. "You are lucky it wasn't me, or none of you would exist right now. I would have whipped the face of the earth with your ancestors arses after they had the audacity to threaten my people. My grandparents were too kind."
The only one who laughed was Oliver, "So sweet."
"So, where's the crown?" Agatta asked.
"If I knew I would be going after it right now," I mocked. "We still have no idea. I mean, I know that it's in my grandfather's head, and that your kind froze his dead body somewhere. Cruel bloody fuckers. When I find his body, I'll find the crown, with the crown I'll get the army. We know that we'll get the answer in the books, as Mia refuses to just hand us the info, saying it would be no fun. So, we need to read to the books, connect all the information we noted down, and trace my powers and where the crown is."
After some intense silence, Felix frowned, "Hel, there's something that's been bothering me since last night."
"The fact that you spilled the beans?" I mocked.
"No. You said Oliver was Nicolette and Agost's brother in law." Oh? Oh shite. I forgot to tell him that. "And one more thing, how did the Queen find you and your mother, when you were hidden in a mountain in freaking Everest?"
Agost and Nicolette's eyes came to me and I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Noticing that too, Oliver came behind me and massaged my shoulders softly, "Take your time, babe," he whispered. "But it's good to let it out. You've been holding this in you for a while," he kissed the top of my hair and I stared down at my hands again.
This is really uncomfortable.
"Meredith has a power that allows her to track anyone that shares her bloodline with her. No matter where you are, she can track you down," I clenched my hands in fists. "Some months after I awakened my serpent and shifted for the first time when I was 7, she felt my power and tracked me down," then I looked up to meet Felix's eyes. "And she did it because I'm Russell Frederick Bloom's oldest daughter. The one he had with his mate. My mom!"