Iceblade Ascendant

16: ORIGINS

"Does anyone know how the grolls survived down here for over a thousand cycles?" Thalleron waved his gemmed staff in the general direction of the fallen monstrosities. "Surely they could not have been asleep and only awakened when we arrived?"

"I was thinking about that myself," Kalethe said slowly. "Did you say the Deepmoss mystics were...continuing on where the Atlantyans left off? Perhaps they created these grolls."

"Created?" Jaewyn was confused. "But..." Kalethe held up a hand.

"While it is commonly held that the grolls were hyenas that were mutated by demonic residue, it is more likely that they were captured by the Atlantyans and then exposed to the demonic residue, thus becoming grolls. These ones could've been engineered by the mystics."

"It would explain why they are here, and alive," Jaewyn agreed. "What about those scaly dogs we saw before, fighting the upgraded Grath? Do you think they were the mystics' experiments too?"

"It wouldn't surprise me," Thalleron grunted. "I can't believe they didn't tell me what they were doing down here."

"Maybe they knew their research would not be...sanctioned by the queen." Kalethe prodded at one of the groll corpses with Isaku. "If these things were...grown in a lab, they must've been subjected to accelerated growth. They're fully grown grolls."

"In all my years as a mystic I have never been kept in the dark." Thalleron looked furious. He paced back and forth, his staff tap-tapping on the stone floor. "I will certainly be informing the queen..."

"The queen's right hand is informed," Jaewyn confirmed, "so you needn't worry about that. If the grolls are the creations of the Deepmoss mystics, it begs the question: they must've known about this place, this dungeon. So they must've put the grolls down here. Why?"

"Probably wanted some sport," Zephyrle piped up. "Must be boring, doing all that research, day after day, living your life deep underground with barely any contact with the outside world..."

"They had contact," Thalleron snapped, his hackles rising.

"Obviously not enough," the thief growled, low and dangerous. Before the two could start snarling at each other like scavenging wolves fighting over meat scraps, Jaewyn stepped between them. She could tell Thalleron felt betrayed by his colleagues and was mentally exhausted, and there was no doubt Zephyrle was frustrated and worried this was turning into a repeat of her past. Trapped in an ancient, Atlantyan dungeon, deep beneath the mountains was obviously weighing more than a little on her team's psyche. And although no one had really suffered any great injury so far, the fights against the grath and grolls were wearing them down.

"We're all tired and stressed. We have to keep it together. We're gonna get out of here, soon. Thalleron, you have children right? How young are they?"

The mystic's grimace lessened and he nodded. He sighed and leaned heavily on his staff.

"Yes, a boy and a girl, ages twenty-two and fourteen cycles."

"Think about the amazing stories you'll be able to tell them when you return. They'll love it! Think about them, they need you to get back to them." Jaewyn turned to Zephyrle. "Zeph, this is not a repeat of last time. Ok? You made it out then, you can do it again, right? And this time I'm here with you. We'll beat this dungeon, together. Who knows, there may be some seriously shiny stuff in here!"

Zephyrle's purple eyes glinted and she gave a small smile. Jaewyn shifted her gaze to the warlock.

"Kalethe..."