52

As you hold the stone aloft, it starts to shake and to scream, scattering blinding green light across the chamber. And the green light engulfs you, and it engulfs Zhu, and you can feel its energy coursing through your veins and your body. At the same time, you are the energy, entering yourself and filling your own body with warmth and love. You can feel the stone's miraculous work: your battered, bruised, and frozen body comes alive as its energy irradiates you. The signs of incipient frostbite you had noticed in your extremities are purged completely, and your bruises and cuts disappear. You feel stronger and healthier than you have ever felt before, and you know Zhu feels the same.

The green light dies. The stone stops screaming. It lies inert, silent and dead in your hands.

You and Zhu stand in awestruck silence for a few moments. Then Zhu, voice thick with amazement, speaks. "What on earth just happened?"