The doctor came and gave Arthur a once-over. He didn't find anything unusual but told Amelia to call him if there was a change in his situation, especially if it was a turn for the worse.

Amy sat beside Arthur holding his hand, the worried expression on her face hadn't changed for the past four hours. Even Danistrae came by to check on him before going back to rest more.

Amelia looked at the leather cover, turning it over and back again. In a rare display, she released the energy to use in a spell. The leather cover glowed but it didn't reveal anything to the woman.

"Mom, where did that book come from?"

"It was in the family for a couple of generations I think. It was more your father's family than mine."

"Should we try to see if we can get in touch with Kelrick? We only need to have Arthur hold the phone."

"If you think that would work, we can attempt it. We are at a loss of what to do and maybe the long life of an elf could give us some sort of hint."

Amy placed the phone in Arthur's hand and opened the screen to turn on the program. "Master Kelrick?"

"I'm here. Where is Arthur? I can barely feel him."

"You don't feel him? You are still in his body. He is unconscious after doing something with an old book. The only thing left from the book is the leather cover but the rest of the book is gone. Mom said that it might be something that was found a couple of generations ago by the Vanderbilts. Do you know anything about the book or the symptoms?"

"Is it a dark leather or a colored leather? If it's old, you may need to attempt to clean it to see if you can discern the actual color. Is there a smell?"

Amelia brought up the book cover and smelled it, "It smells like leather with a very faint musky scent. Color wise it could be black, dark blue, or dark red. It's hard to tell."

"Even among the elves, there are stories of the more ancient and long-lived of races, two among them waged war with each other. The enmity they bore against the other race was so profound that even the sight of one would cause them to go into an all-out fight. The giants who managed to slay a dragon would use their corpses to make books, armor, weapons, and sometimes magical tools. The dragons would use the giant corpses to create golems, bone weapons, or magical tools. If the book used to be owned by a giant, then the writing would be in giantish. Even I can't translate that language, nor that of the dragons."

"So this might be dragon hide leather and the book it protected was a giant written book? What kind of books do they write?"

"I don't know. If it reacted to magic, then I would guess that it was some sort of magical book. How long has Arthur been unconscious?"

"Around four hours."

"Call me back in a day. Let's give him time to recuperate. If he doesn't return to consciousness, I will try something. You could also reach to Shane tomorrow morning, she was let go from GM and now works for Arthur." The phone clicks off.

"Shane was let go? Why would GM let her go?" pondered Valkyrie.

"We can ask your uncle when he comes over for dinner tonight," said Amelia as she sent a dinner invitation to her brother Steve.

----------------------------------------

The darkness was what greeted Arthur when he opened his eyes. He felt like he was floating in the air but no matter what he tried, he couldn't make any movement.

"Elak modur tomarej djear," echoed a voice that was both near and far.

"I'm sorry, I don't know that language. I am human. Do you happen to know English?"

"English, such tedious language with many misleading and oppositional words," it responded.

"Where am I?"

"If you do not know, then you didn't read the book. Yet I wonder how you are here."

"The book was in a language that I didn't understand but I did release mana and the book seemed to feed on it. Then I gave it more and it flashed and I woke up here."

"Itzmak, that is a shame. Your spirit is here but your body might die if you are not able to return."

"What's itchmac?"

"Itzmak is... Its English equivalent would probably be damn but a lot worse."

"So my spirit is not in my body?"

"I would guess that most of your spirit is out of your body. Something is anchoring you to your body but even you don't seem to know how to pull yourself back. It would help if you knew what the book was teaching."

"Can you teach me?"

"Boy, I'm the last person who opened the book. I didn't get far before I made the mistake you did. The difference is my body is likely dead a long time ago."

"Oh," responded Arthur disappointed and worried.

"I guess for being alone all this time, having company isn't so bad."

"Is it always dark here?"

"I've tried spells and nothing worked. The darkness seemed to consume all mana use."

"How much mana did you use?"

"Probably the equivalent of the bomb the humans used in Nagasaki."

"Fuck me."

"I do not think that would be pleasurable for either of us."

"Oh, it's a figure of speech. In this case, I am using it to express that I'm in a very bad situation."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I would advise that you don't use that with someone else who does not understand the vernacular, the situation might just go from bad to awkwardly bad," chuckled the voice which indicated an attempt at brevity.

"What were you, if I may ask?"

"Since we will be companions here for the unforeseeable future. I was a giant."

"Wait, you guys exist? I know that non-humans exist but no one has seen a giant or a dragon. So we didn't think you guys existed at all."

"Yes giants and dragons existed," there was much coldness and anger when the word dragon was uttered. "I don't know how much time has passed but when I had my... accident. The giants were still at war with the dragons. The two races had created countless portals to other worlds to recruit other races to our war. "

"You could create a portal to another realm?"

"Of course, we have that ability. We have the mana potential and when we don't, we harvest large amounts of wild matrix crystals and refine them or use them as is in time of need."

"Wild matrix crystals? What do they look like? What happens when you use them unrefined?"

"To giants and dragons, it does nothing to us. To the lesser races... no offense intended... The unrefined matrix crystals would poison them just by their touch or proximity. The longer they are around the wild matrix crystals the faster their health deteriorates. I have seen the hair fall off these lesser races before they died. I have not seen any of the lesser races able to use the wild matrix crystals like giants or dragons."

"Hair fall off? That sounds a lot like radiation poisoning."

"The bomb that was used in Nagasaki used an odd version of matrix crystals. Maybe a giant help make it."

"No, as far as I understood it. A bunch of human scientists put their heads together to make the bomb."

"Interesting, so the humans would be the first to be able to utilize matrix crystals. Did they suffer the hair loss?"

"Yes, if we didn't wear adequate protection we would still get poisoned."

"What a pity. It would be interesting to see this world of yours."

"You mentioned you were there when giants and dragons were fighting. How did you know about Nagasaki and the bomb?"

"I can't explain that. It was as if someone was telling me a story and it went directly into my head."

"Have you thought of a way to get out?"

"I have tried countless ways, but with no success. Maybe with you here, we can figure something out."

"Let me see if I can access my mana," Arthur concentrated and felt something rising through him. It was a trickle but it was mana. He uttered a simple light spell. The darkness was pushed back just enough to reveal a giant's face. The face blinked a few times and smiled. Arthur was the size of one of his teeth.

"Incredible. The darkness didn't drain your mana."

"I can access a little of it. You said I was anchored to my body, so maybe I could still get out."

"You can certainly attempt it. I don't think you would be able to take me with you."

"Hey since you are a spirit, what if you hitched a ride?"

"What do you mean?"

"I already have an elf's spirit residing in my body. He's become a friend and teacher. If I could get you out in a similar way, would you like to try?"

"An interesting proposition. I do not know if it would work, but I would like to attempt it. Even if I were to get pulled into the spiritual portal of reincarnation as soon as we get out, it would still be worth it to get out of this dark prison."

"Let's put our heads together to see what we can come up with. Oh, the light is fading. Ok, so a small light spell doesn't last long. We need to conserve my mana before we attempt so we have as much mana as I can bring up. I rather not waste it to feed the dark."

"Agreed. What is your name human?"

"I am called Arthur. What's yours?"

"Vekssun."

"Vexson?"

"Close, perhaps we can shorten it to Vex so that your pronunciation won't vex me," laughed the giant.

"Ok Vex, let's get to work."

----------------------------------------

Uncle Steve didn't show up for dinner. He did call to let the family know that he was busy with a few important things and couldn't get away from work.

The next day, Shane arrived thirty minutes after Valkyrie called her. She quickly rolled a machine beside Arthur and wrapped what looked like a blood pressure checker but it had needles on the inside. When she secured it, the machine came alive with readings for heart rate, blood pressure, oxygenation, and brain activity. The machine also measured mana usage and noted that there was very little to no usage.

Valkyrie was curious and placed the phone in Arthur's hand. There was a small spike in usage but not a lot.

"Master Kelrick, Arthur is not awake yet. Shane is here and she brought a machine that checks his vitals and mana use."

"That's good, I was trying to figure out what happened to him from the inside. Everything I tried seemed to indicate that his spirit was not within the body, however, I did feel a small drawing of mana sometime in the middle of the night. He might still be able to access a little bit of his mana. There is hope."

John walked in with a cart with breakfast items, coffee, and tea. He pushed it to the side away from the machine.

Shane took out a compass and pricked Arthur's finger. She put a drop on the needle and watched it spin in circles and it didn't stop. "Well, there goes that idea. The Compass is supposed to show in which direction his spirit was. When it is spinning like that, it's not within Earth so it means it was shunted off elsewhere."

Valkyrie forced herself to eat something and sat back down to hold her king's hand. "Come back to me, love. Please come back."

The machine started to beep and the mana usage spiked up to what Valkyrie thought was around the output that Arthur used for the healing spell. It kept beeping for three minutes as the meter climbed further reaching double the power. It didn't stop and kept climbing until the machine made a crackle sound and smoke started to come out of it.

Shane quickly removed the needle-filled wrapping on Arthur's arm. John unloaded a fire extinguisher at the machine when he saw flames erupt.

Valkyrie pushed the bed away from the machine.

"I think Arthur is back," said Kelrick through the phone.

"Yeah, I am. Vex you here? Vex?"

"Who is Vex?" asked Valkyrie.

"I am Vex," came a booming voice through the speaker

"I can hear you but I can't sense you," voiced the elf also from the speaker of the phone.

"Arthur, your arm has a tattoo. It's black from where your arm meets your shoulder to your elbow and there's an eye on it. OMG the eye moved!" shrieked the girl.

"Yeah, that should be Vex's eye. I had him hitch a ride on my way back. He was stuck in a dark place and couldn't get out."

"Introductions Arthur?" asked the giant through the phone, he had modulated his voice so that he wasn't as loud as his first words.

"The elf speaking through the phone is Kelrick. He is my friend who is also hitching a ride with me. The beautiful girl that just shrieked is my girlfriend Valkyrie. The purple-haired woman is Shane. The confused human with a red cylindrical thing is John. Everyone this is Vex, a giant."

Everyone became quiet as they digested what they heard.

"Giant?" posed Kelrick.

"Well, the spirit of a giant that got trapped when he used the same book. We are unsure if we can regain the contents of the book, but at least we are back."

"Arthur, love, more tattoos are showing up on your forearm. They look like tiny rectangles."

"Valkyrie, I think those are pages."

"How are you feeling?" she asked worriedly, holding the hand that didn't have any tattoos.

"Vex, May I ask for you to sleep? I think when you are active you are also draining either my mana or my vitality."

"That can be arranged. We can talk later to determine a fair arrangement for when I can be active."

"I would like to attempt to connect you to the Doll's Heart where Kelrick is residing. If you both are in the same place, you two might be able to converse and keep each other company."

"That is acceptable, good night my human friend," said the giant as the eye closed.

"Before I go back to sleep, can you tell me what happened with your excursion with Iluria?"

Valkyrie nodded pulling a seat close and filled Arthur in on the preparation of the Morlock migration, the people they encountered, and what the Morlocks did to them.

"I didn't like them but it seems they had gotten worse or gotten in with a worse crowd. Have Shane look up that symbol. We need to know if it means anything."

"Yes my king, I will describe it to her once you are asleep. I love you."

"I love you too Amy."

Shane frowned and asked John to help her load it back into her car. Once out of earshot of the others, she yelled at John for using a fire extinguisher. She doesn't even know if she could repair it. John held his own and explained his job was to protect the people and property of the Vanderbilts. The machine was on fire and needed to be put out.

Amelie peeked into the room to look in on her daughter and boyfriend, "The book was a giant's book. And he brought back a giant from a dark prison. What can't you do Arthur?"