Gator Gabe reached for his sidearm but Monty Tiberius Beauregard-Hayes placed a firm hand on his shoulder. Monty had read the reports of a certain investigator from Wales. He knew that brute force was a blunt tool when dealing with antiquity. Stheno, the Gorgon Queen of the Everglades, was hissing angrily, the snakes on her head darting left and right.
Monty stepped forward and flipped up his protective visor. He looked her directly in the eyes while the meter in his pocket screamed a warning.
“My apologies, Lady Stheno,” Monty said with a slight bow. “I was expecting the legendary Gorgon Queen to be a weathered and ancient hag. But looking at you now, I must ask a question. Are you even thirty? You are quite possibly the most beautiful entity I have ever encountered in the Glades.”
The snakes on her head stopped their aggressive swaying. They began to loop and coil in a rhythmic and almost shy dance. Stheno blinked and the amber glow in her eyes dimmed to a warm honey color. She actually blushed.
“You flatter a heart that time has hardened,” she crooned. Her hiss was now more like the purr of a well fed panther. “Your silver tongue has awoken the gold within. For a brief time I shall shine among these shadows.”
Monty leaned in. “We seek your wisdom, Fair Queen. We are tracking a digital blight. This is an AI virus that seeks to categorize and hollow out the magic of this world. We were told you might know of its origin.”
Stheno’s expression sharpened. “I have pledged myself to ending such tawdry and gaudy nonsense. The gods you serve now are made of silicon and light. They seek to replace the twilight where myth and reality meet. They are a sickness. The source you seek lies not in the swamp. You must look to the land named after the beast that swallowed the prophet. You must go to Wales, Utah.”
As a gesture of goodwill, Stheno waved her hand toward the surveyor statue. The marble softened and turned back into flesh and blood. The man gasped and stumbled back while blinking in the harsh Florida sun.
“Go now,” Stheno commanded while melting back into the mangroves. “And tell the world that the Gorgons are not merely things of stone and shadow. We are the guardians of the unseen.”
Monty gathered his equipment and looked at the shivering surveyor. “Pack your bags, Gabe. We are going to Utah.”
