Nameless: 3

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The gargoyle dog was sniffing the edge of the castle wall. Of course, this gargoyle was not actually a dog, but he resembled one enough to have been treated that way by castle Wyvern's former inhabitants. It was them, the humans who had occasionally thrown him scraps of food and the children who from time to time, when their parents were distracted, had played with him that he was searching for now. He was smart enough to know that things had changed massively. He also understood that the castle had knew inhabitants and new enemies. But his instinct told him to search anyway.

In the past, the castle had been rich with scents. The smell of humans—their sweat, their hair, occasionally their blood—the scent of animals, the scent of dirt and mud tracked from outside the walls. Now, everything was sterile. All he could smell was stone and the occasional bit of moss or mold. He didn't like this new, lifeless version of their home, especially since he was routinely left alone in it.

With a slight whine, he trotted over to the staircase along the far wall that lead to the top of the battlements. Once there, he perched his front legs on on one of the lookout ports and stared out over the city. It was confusing. All the lights, the vague sounds, the slight, odd scent of something that was reminiscent of smoke but which had a slightly different quality to it. If this was to be their new world, he was unsettled by it. He was still looking out when he heard Goliath and Demona's voices atop the keep. They had re-emerged from their meeting with Xanatos.

— —

Goliath stopped at the stone wall and looked out over the city. Demona walked up behind him.

"I will not lead the clan into battle again without further explanation," he said. " There is too much you have not told me. Too much you have been keeping from me." The last he said with a tone of reproach that, prepared as she was, cut Demona.

"Please, Goliath, understand. So much has happened."

"So you have said. So you continue to say. Your words no longer have any meaning," he retorted.

Demona knew she would have to give him something now. She'd been preparing for it, and she had her story straight in her mind. "After you were frozen in stone, I was left on my own for several years. The castle was abandoned and I was without a home. But I never gave up on you. I searched for a sorcerer to break the spell. I failed." Her eyes drifted toward the ground. Then she continued. "I did find another option. The spell could not be broken, but another could be cast upon me." Tears welled up in her eyes and bitterness spread across her face. Instinctively, Goliath reached out and held her shoulders. She looked away, but then went on. "My aging was slowed. It was to allow me time to find a way to wake you. I didn't know how long it would be."

They both stood in silence for a while. When she seemed to have composed herself, Goliath spoke.

"So you have lived all these years, waiting for a way to awaken us?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Why did you not tell me sooner?"

Demona looked at him. "Oh Goliath, you still think of things in black and white, don't you." She put her hand on his chest. It was the first thing she had said to him that felt like it came from a place of warmth. He liked it. "What was I to say? Welcome back, my love. I have been living for a thousand years, struggling, suffering, fighting, but now you are finally back—how would that have sounded to you?"

Goliath's face signaled his understanding. "Incomprehensible," he conceded.

"I was hoping to make this transition easier for you, and for the others. But, I can see now that may have been unnecessary."

Goliath's eyebrows narrowed. "What do you mean?" He asked.

Demona lowered her voice, not quite to a whisper. "I have not been entirely forthcoming with Xanatos," she said. "The Phoenix Gate is not the kind of weapon he thinks it is." She hesitated, only for a moment, but it was enough to raise Goliath's concern.

"What have you done?" He asked.

"It's not what I've done, it is what we will do. Xanatos, with his one-dimensional human mind believes that the Gate is some kind of weapon in the way that he understands weapons. It is much more than that. It is a way to travel through time. Whoever wields it and knows the correct incantation can travel to any point in history they choose!" Her voice was rising, ever so slightly, and her speech was quickening. "Goliath, we will use it to go back. We will go back and stop you from being frozen in stone. We will erase these thousand years of suffering. We will reclaim the life that the humans stole from us!" Her eyes flashed red.

Goliath was taken aback. Could it be true? A way to change history, to reclaim the lives they had lost? The magnitude of it was not allowing him to think clearly, and Demona could see it.

"My love, I have been cold to you. That is because I am not the gargoyle you knew. Too much has transpired. We have been too long apart." Manipulation was something Demona knew well—as well as Xanatos. "I still love you, but I love you from then, from when I was her, and not what you see before you today. I want that back. I want you back." She stroked his face, like she used to, and she knew it would push him where she wanted him to go.

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