Book 3: Chapter 89 (1/2)

“Do you know what spell that thing”—Sera glared at Zyocuh and resisted the urge to set what remained of him on fire—“cast on Vur?” The sky-blue dragon turned back towards Grimmy and blinked at him with an expression that wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Grimmy didn’t respond as he flipped Vur over with the tip of his claw. He traced the symbols that Zyocuh had drawn and nodded. “I see, I see. This is simple, really.”

“Can you cure him?” Tafel asked.

Grimmy tilted his head. “Don’t you want to know what it is first?”

Tafel pursed her lips. “That doesn’t really matter as long as he gets better,” she said and shook her head. “So, can you fix him?”

“I would like to know what it is,” Sera said and nudged Tafel aside. Then she glared at Zyocuh again. “I have to choose a punishment befitting the crime. Whether I should crush it, chew it up, or tear it apart depends on what it did.”

Tafel tilted her head. “Is there a difference between the three? I mean, I get that they’re supposed to be getting progressively worse, but which one is the worst one to get?”

“Torn apart,” Alora said. “Definitely torn apart. Things scream the most when you tear them apart.” Tafel stared at Alora with an unreadable expression. The polymorphed dragon scratched her neck and looked away. “I’m just saying. And you’re the one who asked.”

“This spell,” Grimmy said, ignoring Tafel and Alora, “is something unoriginal folks use to achieve pseudo-immortality. Since they don’t know how to preserve their own bodies, they figure they’ll just take someone else’s before they die. Currently, Vur’s in the process of having his soul eroded away.”

Sera’s eyes widened, and she thumped Zyocuh with her tail, sweeping him back and forth along the ground. “Can you cure him?” she asked, ignoring Mary’s attempts at retrieving her uncle.

Grimmy cleared his throat. “Maybe?”

“Maybe? What do you mean maybe?” Tafel asked. “Can you do it or not?”

Grimmy lowered his head and puffed smoke out of his nostrils at Tafel, causing her hair to fly parallel to the ground. “When did you get so brave, squirt?”

“I noticed that too,” Sera said and nodded. “Whenever it comes to Vur, she stops trembling and grows a spine. I approve.”

Tafel placed her hands on her hips. “I’m brave all the time, okay?” Her knees shook, but she tensed her leg muscles to force them to stay still. “Can you stop Vur’s soul from being eroded? I really like him with his soul intact. That’s not to say I would leave him if he lost his soul, but it’d be really, really nice if he didn’t.”

Sera turned towards Grimmy. “Can you?”

Grimmy shrugged. “You know the phrases fight poison with poison, and fight fire with fire? This is the same concept,” he said. “To stop this foreign soul from invading, we’ll send in our own foreign souls.”

A wrinkle appeared on Tafel’s forehead. “And how do you know that soul is going to stop the invaders and not erode Vur’s soul further?”

“Oh, that’s simple,” Grimmy said. “We send in a soul familiar with Vur or antagonistic with the invaders.”

“A familiar soul?” Tafel raised an eyebrow.