Page 27

Amias

“I thought you were a fashion major?” I cock a brow as a golden light scans us. A soft glow emanates from my body. It's a protection from magic and scientific experiments to make sure we don't mess with the environment inside the lab.

Why would any of his classes require him to go into the university lab?

“Every student is required to take a dreamscreecher safety class.” Glaide explains. “Something about younger people being easily swayed by dreamscreecher propaganda.”

I scoff. “Why?”

“Because of people like you.”

I shrug. Fair point.

White doors slide open before us to the labs. Bold pink lights make everything look the same color, including me and Glaide.

As we stroll through the hall, I gape at the laboratory and rows of experiments.

A surprising smell of sweet flowers wafts into my nose as bubbles pop from vials.

Amare flowers hanging over one wall with some put in jars with other substances in them.

I even walk by jars of organs and cringe.

Those eyeballs staring back at me make me shudder.

I clench my teeth, as I silently assure myself that those organs were donated, and I'm not in a serial killer's lair.

“I was wondering when you two would show up.” Ahead of us, an older man approaches in a white lab coat.

There's a bald spot in the middle of his head, white hair making a rim around it.

“Pleasure to have you here, Prince Amias.” He bows his head with a polite grin.

“I'm Dr. Fitz, a professor in dreamscreecher studies.”

“Pleasure to be here,” I chirp, returning his expression. “My friend said you had something you needed to show me.”

“Yes. Follow me.”

I do as he says and follow him down the many rows of weird lab experiments and objects. I cross my arms, still unsettled by the lab. With all the organs, rats and other things that shouldn't be in jars, it seems so… weird.

“So I heard you're curious about dreamscreechers being evil?” Dr.Fitz asks.

I gulp, my cheeks warming. It's kind of weird to admit this out loud to someone I don't know that much. “Yeah. I had an incident about a week ago, where a dreamscreecher saved me from a potential car crash.”

“So I've heard. And you believe it was on purpose and not an accidental save.”

“Yeah. It played out in a way where it didn't make sense for it to be an accident. It had the opportunity to hurt me…” I think back to its eyes, pained but sweet and concerned. “... But it didn't.”

Finally he leads us into one of the rows, and brings us to a tube of dark liquid. “Well now I see more than ever why you need this.” He looks over the dark liquid.

I give him a side glance. “What is that?” Is he planning to use it on me? My body tenses and I plant my feet on the floor. It almost looks like the liquid they use to cleanse people.

“It's a tube of dreamscreecher blood.” He chuckles. “What? Did you think I was going to make you drink it?”

Heat rushes to my face and chest as I laugh. “Good one!” It's not hard to start thinking that way when you see… all of this…

“Indeed it would be interesting to do experiments on the grandson of Amara. Especially with you having magic and being of Cosmo’s bloodline.” He lets out a soft snort, staring off distantly, almost as if actually considering it.

I titter. “Very interesting…” I look around me to make sure there's no one else coming to capture me for experiments.

He shrugs before continuing. “Anyhow, we have been studying at the chromosomes of dreamscreechers, and examining for what makes them evil. We've found some things that's rather convincing.”

I slowly nod as Dr. Fitz mumbles something I can't understand and his fingers glow gold. A circle of sparkles appears in front of the vial, an image with in that zooms in on the object, revealing a helix with lines connecting each side.

I lean against the table to take a closer look. Since when could we just zoom in to DNA?

“Honestusans have contributed a lot to science.” He laughs under his breath. “This is an enhanced magic they discovered in the last five years. They just lent it to our university last year.”

I can't take my eyes off it. I knew the Honestus kingdom was known for geniuses but I didn't know this was what they were producing for science. “That’s pretty cool.”

“And with this, we can take a closer look at the DNA of dreamscreechers.” He whispers some words before the circle closes in on the lines connecting the helix. “This is what we call strand DS52, a gene that makes them violent.”

I furrow my brows. “How so?”

“We've been able to compare strands of DNA with humans and pumas, considering that's what their form is modeled after.

This strand doesn't match any of those in either species.

It's the only strand that doesn't match with the others.

Through many other experiments and studies, we've been able to conclude it's an anomaly that causes their violent tendencies.”

I twist my lips, attempting to wrap my head around the idea. It doesn't feel right. Couldn't it explain so many other things. “But… what if the strand is for something else? Like their fur color? Or the horns?”

“We examine the codes and where and when they activate. This DNA lines up with their part of their behavior and is very unique to them. It's the genetic code that Godusa had changed to make dreamscreechers evil.”

I squint as I take in his words. I guess this is the information I needed.

“Here's the thing, Amias.” He turns to me with a stern frown.

“You shouldn't even need evidence to show you that dreamscreechers are evil.

We already know from Amara and how they've destroyed our kingdom.” He looms over me like a parent would a child.

I'm slightly taller than him but with my body leaned towards the DNA, it makes one think otherwise.

“You shouldn't even question it. Why would you question the trauma your grandmother has gone through? Or anyone in the kingdom, for that matter?”

“I'm not questioning their trauma. I'm questioning the creatures.”

“But you're suggesting that the creatures aren't as evil as they seem, when they've all proven to be such.

You're getting yourself into delusional territory that will get you cleansed.” He narrows his eyes, taking a small step towards me.

“I suggest you refrain from thinking such thoughts and warn whoever's been giving you such ideas. Stay away from that kind of questioning.”

I glare at him though I find myself defenseless against his conclusions. He has science to back up his claims. Dreamscreechers are truly evil species.

But those eyes. They couldn't have been evil. Could they?

But science says otherwise. Our history even makes sense with this discovery - the fact that they attacked us when we tried to befriend them all those centuries ago, the attacks, what happened with Lydia.

.. Maybe I read the dreamscreecher's eyes wrong.

I mean, how much could a person know about someone through their eyes?

The professor continues. “I’ll hand you some articles. If you have any friends questioning it, hand it to them before they get cleansed.”

I nod as I glance in Glaide's way. He offers an assuring grin, while I'm oddly not excited to return the gesture.

My gut still says it's wrong.

There's an ache on my tongue when I think about calling my savior evil.

But if it's science backing this up, then it doesn’t matter how my gut feels. I'm wrong, and I've been caught up in some ridiculous challenge.