21.3

Carter flew up and landed on the table. “Old lady. I still don’t know what you expect me to do?” he asked looking at aunt Penelope weirdly.

Aunt Penelope took a black box out from the drawer and placed it on the table. Carters eyes glittered.

“Logan this here is a relic from times long gone” she said running her fingers across the top of the box.

“A relic? You mean there is a spirit ware inside this box?” I asked pointing to the black box.

Aunt Penelope nodded her head. She placed a talisman over the box, with a click, it opened. Inside a clear colored pearl laid in the middle. It resembled the Phoenix tear. After examining it closely, I could see a small claw like item floating inside the pearl. My heart started to skip, this was unbelievable, why were spirit wares showing up like they were lax weed. Weren't they supposed to be super rare?

Carter howled in excitement. “It's…it’s a dragon calm.” He stuttered.

“A what" I asked. Isn't a dragon calm the source of a dragon's power? Did this mean this used to be a dragon's source of power?

“You are right, this is an ancient dragon calm. It is one of the 5 ancient pearls. This one belonged to the dragon race. This dragon calm was once called the Talon's calm.” Aunt Penelope said.

Carter edged next to the pearl and reached out his claw touching the pearl. “This…this really is Talon's calm. I have not seen this pearl since the great war. How did you get this?” he asked, his eyes glittering with joy.

“I found it by chance when I was exploring an ancient tomb when I was younger.” She replied

“Okay, this is great and all. I'm very happy to see it, but what does this spirit ware have to do with the divine arts?” I asked confused, not understanding the connection between this spirit ware and the divine arts.

“Everything.” Aunt Penelope said smiling.

I looked over at her then to Carter. Carter looked as confused as I was.

Aunt Penelope turned her gaze at Carter. “Carter did you know that the Saris Magicae was split into 9 pieces after the time of great magic?” she asked.

“I know, everyone knows that." Carter answered rolling his eyes. "But no one knows what the nine pieces are?” he added.

“This is one of the pieces along with four other pearls.” Aunt Penelope said surprising us.

I stared at the pearl. This pearl is one of those original nine pieces of the Sacris Magicae? Was this even possible? She's not joking, is she?

“You’re kidding me!" Shouted Carter, disbelief in his voice. "But my race has had this item for a very long time. No one told me about this? He questioned, not sure if he could believe Aunt Penelope's words.

Aunt Penelope sighed. “This was a secret that not even the races that protected it knows of. I only found out when I stumbled on an old ancient almanac of the witches. It explained that the god Allio who was the creator of the Sacris Magicae gave these relics to the ancestors of the four races as tokens of his gratitude after the four great God’s used all their powers to seal away the darkness.” She explained.

“Allio, so that’s the Divine Arts creators name. If he is a god how come no one knows his name? We often hear of the gods being spoken of, but no one knows the names of the gods. And how many gods are there really?”

"The almanac mentions that in the beginning there were nine gods. But at the end of the God wars only three remained. Four stood standing on the seal to the darkness. The God of the seal died in battle. But I do not know what happened to the others. Although it is mentioned that the three gods that remained were not part of the original nine. So technically all 9 vanished or perished.” Aunt Penelope said.

“Wow," I breathed out loudly. "All the original gods vanished. This god war must have been one hell of a battle. Then Allio is not one of the original gods.”

“Of course not, he was a human just like you and me. He attained his god-hood because he created the Sacris Magicae. Legend has it whoever can master all of the Sacris Magicae will also be able to attain God hood. That is also one of the reasons I believe the Divine Arts you hold is not right. Because there is no way that casting the cycle of reincarnation would cost the caster its life." She said her eyes full of sorrow. "It just doesn’t make sense.” She said.

“But master mentioned that it was because he did it under the wrong circumstances." I tried to argue, but I remembered masters doubts in the letter. I wasn't so sure anymore either.

"None sense. No matter what the last set should not have such an affect. Logan bring out the book.” Aunt Penelope ordered.

I did as she asked. I summoned the book from within the cauldron.

“Carter, the only way to have Talon's calm reveal the Sacris Magicae is for you to form a brotherhood with a human.” Aunt Penelope said facing Carter.

Carter jumped. He did not look happy with what Aunt Penelope said. “No way! That is not possible! I can’t do such a thing! No way! That is impossible!" he shouted flying into the air.

Aunt Penelope frowned. “If you do not perform brotherhood there is no way to access it then. I thought because you already formed an equal partnership contract with Logan you would be willing to form a brotherhood. I guess I am wrong. Only through the strongest bond can we hope to access the Sacris Magicae. Only if we can compare the two will we be truly able to tell if the divine arts are truly a fake or not." She said sighing.

“Old witch this is no joke. A brotherhood is never formed with a human. There has only ever been one exception and look where that led us. It was a complete mistake. We dragons are forbidden to form a brotherhood with humans" he said harshly circling the room.

Aunt Penelope shook her head in disappointment. "That’s very unfortunate, this was the only way. I guess I can't prove it at all. Logan let me see the book anyways." She held out her hand.

I passed the book over to her. She flipped through the book until she reached the section with the divine arts. "This is the section. I see its been sealed. This is the work of Kohl alright. Logan did you know that this was not sealed the last time I saw it." she said.

"I did not know that. I thought this was always the case. " I said looking at the book.

Aunt Penelope shook her head. "There is two ways to unseal the binding on this section. One is for you to learn the spells and advance. But I would not advise you to follow that path. I believe there is something fundamentally wrong with the spells in this book. Some may be the true arts. But those later spells are not. That has been my theory for a very long time now. I do not believe that even those mages of the five kingdoms could have had the complete version. If the complete Sacris Magicae was truly pieced together, there would have only been one way. Those parts that the five kingdoms had were ancient, but I can say for a fact that those were not the original parts. For starters this pearl has never been unsealed before. So, the dragons breath part would never have been shown to the world. Of course, Allio does have the complete set to. But I don't believe he would have passed it on. He is a god. He has pride that would not allow him to pass on the Sacris Magicae that easily. " She said.

"But the complete Arts is written here though." I said still trying to defend the arts, if this was truly a fake what good was masters sacrifice.

"Those are recreations. That means some of them is real and some are human made. They might be good fabrications, but in the end, they are still fakes. That is why I believe the last set is deadly wrong. The one who fabricated it knew it and they allowed it to be used." She sighed.

"Unfortunately, Carter here does not agree to do brotherhood. I can't do anymore" she shook her head in disappointment slumping back on her chair.

"Wait, you said there were other pearls." I said remembering her words. The phoenix tear popped into my head. Could that be one of them? "Is the phoenix tear one of them?" I asked.

She looked at me shocked. "How do you know about the phoenix tear?" she asked perplexed. "Yes, it is. That is the one that contains the phoenix inferno. But it along with the other 3 has been lost long ago. I've only ever come across this one here." She said pointing at the Talon's calm.

I took in a deep breath. So, the phoenix tear was really one of them. It seems I had some luck in this department. "Actually, we have the phoenix tear" I said telling her all about how we came across the spirt ware.

Her face lit up, "You… you mean Riley already performed alliance with you" she said excitedly.

I nodded my head.

"Hurry and bring the boy here!" she commanded.

I swallowed. "Actually, Riley is a girl." I said.

Aunt Penelope looked at me weirdly. "I see, then bring her here." she said.

She did not look as surprised as I thought she would be. I got up from the chair and was about to move. Aunt Penelope jumped off her chair suddenly. "Forget it, I'll go get her myself." She said running out of the room. I could not believe she could move so fast. Before I even knew it, Riley was in the room. She looked as shock as I was. Aunt Penelope went back to her seat and ordered us to sit.

Carter perched himself on the globe across the room and just watched us.

"Riley, this is Aunt Penelope" I introduced smiling weirdly.

"Yeah, I know" Riley said awkwardly glancing at aunt Penelope.

"Both of you, forget formalities." Aunt Penelope said waving her hands. She turned her gaze toward Riley. "Is it true you and Logan performed alliance?" she asked her eyes glittering.

Riley nodded her head. She took a sneak peak at me. I gave her a smile. She twitched and turned back to face aunt Penelope.

"Good good," aunt Penelope said, her smile so bright that it almost fell off her face.

"Riley I also heard you have the phoenix tear?" she asked again.

"Yes" Riley replied.

"Take it out I want to see it." she ordered her voice super excited.

Riley took the phoenix tear out. Aunt Penelope snatched it from her hands. She laughed, then jumped from her chair. She paced around the room in a circle spinning and examining the pearl at the same time.

"Yes, yes. This is the long-lost phoenix tear. Boy you are so lucky. I can't believe this legendary spirit ware just popped into your hands. This has to be the most peculiar thing I've heard of in my entire life. Yet, it actually happened. " she chuckled. Her laugh sounded so odd. "Alright, now Let me unseal this book" she said calming herself down and finally sitting back on the chair.

"You can unseal the book?" I asked stupefied. I didn't think it was possible.

"Yes, I can boy. I did say there is two methods didn't I. One was you reaching the requirements. Two is me unsealing it. This was done by Kohl. Kohl may have lost his witchcraft but there are ways for him to temporarily use witchcraft again. That’s what he used to seal the contents of the book. " she said.

I stared at her, could this be true? If it was witchcraft, then it really would be possible for her to unseal it.

She placed her hand over the book and suddenly, ten talismans appeared in her hands. She placed them into a circle. The talismans glowed red, then yellow, then blue, then green. It shifted through countless colors until finally a bright light broke through the book. Finally, words appeared on the sealed pages.

I could not believe my eyes. She really did it. She had done it. The book was unsealed. I took it into my hands and started reading. It really contained all 99 spells. At the end of the list was the set for the cycle of reincarnation. It was exactly like what master had performed, word for word.

My eyes fogged. Aunt Penelope really did it. Aunt Penelope took the book from me. "Riley look at this part" she pointed at the section with the 6th set the phoenix inferno.

Riley leaned her head over and gasped. "This looks like an inheritance from my clan" she said studying the spells. Then she furrowed her brow. "These spells in the beginning does seem to cater to the fires of a phoenix but the later spells look weird some how" she said.

Aunt Penelope grinned. "Yes, so you can tell the difference. Carter" she waved for him to come over."

Carter zoomed over in an instance. Aunt Penelope flipped to the page with the dragons breath and allowed Carter to look at them. "Carter read on and let me know if it looks odd" she said grinning.

Carter looked at the later spells. He had already seen the first two. "This looks wrong. But the beginning spells are real. Logan this really isn't the correct spells. I can feel it. the 5th set is supposed to be an infusion of a dragon's full power. But the later spells seem strong, but it only has powers a human can use. This is a fake" he yelled out.

"You're not all playing a joke with me, are you?" I asked, this can't be true. Master had protected this his entire life. He even died for it. This can't be a fake. It can't. I could not believe it.

"Its okay Logan. I know you need real proof." She held out the phoenix tear. "Have you both even attempted to look inside the pearl?" she asked.

"Look inside?" I said perplexed.

"Yes, look inside" aunt Penelope said holding up the phoenix tear.

"How?" I asked,

"You two are linked. So just hold the phoenix tear in your hands and push phoenix fire into the pearl" she said.

"Phoenix fire, I don’t have that" I said confused.

"You have it." aunt Penelope stated as if that was a fact. "Stupid boy you have a phoenix pearl inside your magic core, right?" she asked.

I nodded my head. "Yes, it appeared after the alliance." I replied.

"Use the magic inside. That is phoenix fire" she explained

"Oh, " I said finally understanding.

"Riley, take his hand" ordered aunt Penelope

Riley nodded her head and took my hands. Her hands were soft. My heart started to beat fast the moment she touched my hands. I wanted to take my hands back, but I forced myself to calm down. This was no time to be having weird thoughts. Aunt Penelope dropped the phoenix tear in our hands.

Aunt Penelope gestured for us to begin. We both started pushing fire magic into the pearl. The fire magic that came from my new orb felt so different than the other magic. It felt so much stronger. So, this was phoenix fire. It was so vibrant.