“Stay in the car,” Jihoon directed, opening the door and stepping outside onto the short-cropped grass.

Fei folded her arms over her chest and glared out through the cracked windshield. “Fine by me.”

Jihoon ignored her jibe and slammed the door before she could say anything else.

Taking a deep breath, he attempted to compose himself as he stepped toward the tall, elegant woman surrounded by the tall leafless trunks of sequoia trees.

The undergrowth rustled and one of the enormous Torc Alta appeared directly in front of the Alchemyst, its massive head level with his chest.

Jihoon stopped and bowed to the creature, greeting it in a language that had not been designed for human tongues.

Abruptly, the boars were everywhere, ten of them, eyes bright and intelligent, the coarse red hair on their backs and shoulders bristling in the late-afternoon light, long strings of roper saliva dribbling from their ornately carved tusks.

Jihoon took care to bow to each one in turn.

“I did not think there were any of  the Torc Allta clan left in the Americas,” he said to no one in particular, dropping back into English.

Gyuri smiled, the merest movement of her lips.

“Ah, Jihoon, you of all people should know that when we are gone, when the Elder Race is no more, when even the humani have gone from this earth, then the Allta clans will reclaim it for themselves. Remember, this world belonged to  the Were clans first. “

Gyuri spoke in a deep, almost masculine voice, touched with an accent that had all the hissing sibilants of of Korean and the liquid consonants of Persia.

Jihoon bowed again. “I understand that the clans are strong in Korea- the Torc Madra particularly, and I hear that there are Torc Tiogar in India again, and tow new clans of Torc Leon in Africa. All thanks to you. “

Gyuri smiled, her teeth tiny and straight in .

“The clans still worship me as a goddess. I do what I can for them. “

The unseen, unfelt wind touched her robe, swirling it around her body, so that it ran with green and gold threads.

“But I doubt you have come all this way to talk to me about my children. “

“I have not.” Jihoon glanced back at the battered and scarred SUV.

Seungho & Soyeon were staring intently at him, eyes wide in woder, while Fei’s face was just visible in the backseat.

She had her eyes closed and was pretending to be asleep.

Jihoon knew the Warrior had no need of sleep.

“I want to thank you for the Ghost Wind you sent us. “

Now it was Gyuri’s turn to bow. Her right hand moved and opened, revealing a tiny cell phone cupped in her palm.

“Such useful devices. I can remember a time when we entrusted our messages to the winds or trained birds. Seems like only yesterday,” she added. “I am glad the ruse was successful. Unfortunately, you have probably revealed your ultimate destination to the Davichi and Junhyung. They will know who sent the Ghost Wind, and I am sure they are aware that I have an enclave here. “

“I know that. And I apologize for drawing them down on you. “

Gyuri shrugged, a slight movement of her shoulders that sent a rainbow of light down her robe.

“Junhyung fears me. He will bluster and posture, threaten me, possibly even try a few minor spells and incantations, but he will not move against me. Not alone … not even with the Davichi’s assistance. He would need at least two or more of the Dark Elders to stand against me … and even then he would not be assured of success. “

“But he is arrogant. And now he has the Codex. “

“But not all of it, you said on the phone.”

“No, not all of t.” Jihoon drew the two pages from under his T-shirt and went to hand them to Gyuri.

But the woman abruptly backed away, throwing up her hand to shield her eyes, a sound like hissing steam bubbling from her lips.

In an instat the boars were around Jihoon, crowding him, mouths open, tusks huge and deadly against his skin.

Soyeon drew breath to scream and Seungho shouted and then Fei was out of the SUV, an arrow notched to her bow, leveled at Gyuri.

“Call them off,” she shouted.

The Torc Allta didn’t even glance in her direction.

Gyuri deliberately turned her back on Jihoon and folded her arms, then she glanced over her shoulder at Fei, who immediately pulled the bowstring taut.

“You think that can harm me? “ the goddess laughed.

“The arrow was dipped in the blood of a Titan,” Fei said quietly, her voice carrying on the still air. “One of your parents, If I remember correctly? And one of the few ways left to slay you, I do believe.”

The twins watched as the Elder’s eyes turned cold and became, for a split second, gold mirrors, reflecting the scene before her. “Put the pages away,” Gyuri commanded the Alchemyst.

Jihoon immediately tucked the two pages back under his T-shirt.

The older woman muttered a word and the Torc Allta stepped back from the Alchemyst and trotted into the undergrowth, where they immediately disappeared, though everyone knew they were still there.

Gyuri then turned to face Jihoon again. “They would not have harmed you without a command from me. “

“I’m sure,” Jihoon said shakily.

He glanced down at his jeans and boots.

They were covered with dribbles and strings of white Torc Allta saliva, which he was sure was going to leave a stain.

“Do not produce the Codex—or any portion of it- in my presence …. nor in the presence of any being of the Elder Race. We have an … aversion to it,” she said, choosing the word carefully.

“It doesn’t affect me,” Fei said, loosening her bow.

“You are not one of the First Generation of the Elder Race,” Gyuri reminded her. “Like the Davichi, you are of the Next Generation. But I was there when Abraham the Mage set down the first words of power in the Book. I saw him trap the Magic of First Working, the oldest magic, in its sheets.”

“I apologize,” Jihoon said quickly. “I did not know. “

“There is no reason you should have known. “ Gyuri smiled, but there was noting humorous in it.

“That eldritch magic is so strong that most of my people cannot even bear to look upon the letters. Those who came after the original Elder Race, though still of our blood” –and her she gestured toward Fei—“ can look upon the Codex, though even they cannot touch it. The ape descendents—the humani—can. It was Abraham’s ultimate joke. He married one of the first humani, and I believe he wanted to ensure that only his children could handle the book. “

“We’re the ape descendents,” Seungho said, his voice unconsciously dropping to little more than a whisper.

“The humani… the human race,” Soyeon said, the nfell silent as jihoon continued talking.

“Is that why the Book was given into my keeping ?”

“You are not the first of the humani to … to care for the Codex,” Gyuri said carefully. “It should never have been created in the first place, “ she snapped, threads of red and green running like live wires on her robe.

“I advocated that every single page should be separated from the others and dropped into the nearest volcano, and Abraham along with it. “

“Why wasn’t it destroyed ?” Jihoon asked.

“Because Abraham had the gift of Sight. He could actually see the curling strands of time, and he prophesied that there would come a day when the Codex and all the knowledge it contained would be needed. “

Fei stepped away from the SUV and approached Jihoon.

She was still holding the bow loosely by her side, and she noted how Gyuri’s butter-colored eyes watched her closely.

“The Book of the Mage was always assigned a guardian,” Fei explained to Jihoon.

“Some, history recalls as the greatest heroes of myth, while others were less well known, like yourself, and a few remained completely anonymous.”

“And if I –a human—was chosen to caretake this precious Codex, because your people cannot even look upon it, much less touch it, then it is obvious that another human must have been chosen to find it,” Jihoon said. “Juhyung.”

Gyuri nodded. “A dangerous enemy, Yong Junhyung. “

Jihoon nodded. He could feel the cool, dry pages against his skin beneath his T-shirt.

Although he had possessed the Codex for more than half a millennium, he knew he had barely even begun to scratch the surface of its secrets.

He still had no real idea just how old it was.

He kept pushing the date of its creation back further and further.

When the Book first came to him in the fourteenth century, he believed it to be five hundred years old.

Later, when he started to do his research, he thought it might be eight hundred years old, then a thousand years, then two thousand years old.

A century ago, in light of the new discoveries coming out of the tombs of Egypt, he had reassessed the age of the Book at five thousand years.

And now, here was Gyuri, who was ten thousand and more years old, saying she had been around when the mysterious Abraham the Mage had composed the Book.

But if the Elder Race – the gods of mythology and legend—could neither handle nor look upon the book, then what was Abraham, its creator ?

Was he of the Elder Race, a humani or something else, one of the many other mythical races that walked the earth in those first days ?

“Why are you here ?” Gyuri asked. “I knew the Codex had been taken as soon as it left your presence, but I cannot help you recover it. “

“I have come to you for another reason, “ Jihoon continued, stepping away from the car and lowering his voice, forcing Gyuri to lean close to listen to him.

“When Junhyung attacked me, stole the Book and snatched Hyori, two humani came to our aid. A young man and his sister,” He paused and then added, “Twins. “

“Twins?” she said, her voice as flat and expressionless as her face.

“Twins. Look at them. Tell me what you see.”

Gyuri’s eyes flickered toward the car.

“A boy and a girl, dressed in the T-shirts and denim that are the shabby uniform of this age. That is all I see. “

“Look closer,” Jihoon said. “And remember the prophecy.” He added.

“I know the prophecy. Do not presume to teach me my own history !” Gyuri’s eyes flared and, for an instant, changed color, becoming dark and ugly.

“Humani  ? Impossible.” Striding past Jihoon, she peered into the interior of the car, looking first at Soyeon, and then at Seungho.

The twins noticed simultaneously that the pupils of her eyes were long and narrow, like a cat’s, and that behind the thin line of her lips, her teeth were pointed, like tiny needles.

“Silver and gold,” Gyuri whispered abruptly, glancing at the Alchemyst, her accent thickening, a small pointed tongue darting at her thin lips.

She turned back to the twins. “Step out of the vehicle.”

They looked at Jihoon, and when he nodded, both climbed out.

Soyeon went around the car to stand next to her brother.

Gyuri reached out first toward Soyeon, who hesitated momentarily before she stretched out her hand.

The goddess took Soyeon’s left palm in her right hand and turned it over, then reached for Josh’s hand.

He placed his hand in hers without hesitation, trying to act nonchalant, as if stretching out to touch a ten-thousand-year-old goddess were something he did every day.

He thought her skin felt surprisingly rough and coarse.

Gyuri spoke a single word in a language that predated the arrival of the earliest human civilization.

“Oranges,” Seungho whispered, suddenly smelling –and then tasting– the fruit.

“No, it’s ice-cream, “ Soyeon said, “freshly churned vanilla ice cream.” She turned to look at her brother … and discovered that he was staring at her in wonder.

A silver glow had appeared around Soyeon. Like a thin second skin, it hovered just above the surface of her flesh, winking in and out of existence.

When she blinked, her eyes turned to flat reflective mirrors.

The glow that covered Seungho was a warm golden hue.

It was concentrated mainly around his head and hands, throbbing and pulsing in sync with his heartbeat.

The irises of his eyes were like golden coins.

But although the twins could see the glow that hovered around each other and their own bodies, they felt no different.

There were only the smells in the air –oranges and vanilla ice cream.

Without a word, Gyuri pulled away from the twins, and immediately the glow faded.

Striding back to Jihoon, she caught him by the arm and moved him farther down the path, out of earshot of the twins and Fei.

“Do you have any idea what that was all about ?” Soyeon asked the Warrior.

There was a distinct tremble in her voice, and she could still taste vanilla ice cream in and smell it on the air.

“The goddess was checking your auras,” Fei said.

“That was the golden glow around Seungho ?” Soyeon asked, looking at her brother.

“Yours was silver,” Seungho said immediately.

Fei picked up a flat pebble and tossed it into the bushes.

It hit something solid, which immediately lumbered away through the undergrowth.

“Most auras are a mixture of colours. Very, very, very, few people have pure colours.”

“Like ours?” Soyeon asked.

“Like yours,” Fei said glumly. “Last person I knew to have a pure silver aaura was the woman you know as Joan of Arc.”

“What about the gold aura ?” Seungho said.

“Even rarer,” Fei said. “The last person I can recall having that colour was ..” she frowned, remembering. “the boy king, Tutankhamen. “

“Was that why he was buried with so much gold ?”

“One of the reasons,” Fei agreed.

“Don’t tell me you knew King Tut, “ Seungho teased.

“Never met him,” Fei said, “though I did train dear Joan and fought by her side at Orleans. I told her not to go to Paris,” she added very softly, pain in her eyes.

“My aura is rarer than yours,” Seungho deliberately teased his sister to break the somber mood.

He looked at the Warrior Maid.

“But what exactly does it mean to have pure-coloured auras ?”

When Fei turned to look at him, her face was expressionless.

“It means you have extraordinary powers. All of the great magicians and sorcerers of the past, the heroic leaders, the inspired artists, have had pure-colour or single-coloured auras. “

The twins looked at one another, suddenly uncertain.

This was just a little too weird, and there was something in Fei’s lack of expression that was frightening.

Soyeon’s eyes suddenly widened in shock.

“I just realized that both of those people, Joan of Arc and Tutankhamen, died young. “

“Very young.” Seungho said, sobering, recalling his history.

“They both died when they were nineteen. “

“Yes, they did, didn’t they ?” Fei agreed, turning away to look at Jihoon and the Goddess with Three Faces.

“Humani,” Gyuri snarled.

“Humani with silver and gold auras,” She sounded both puzzled and angry.

“It hash happened before,” Jihoon said mildly.

“You think I don’t know that ?”

They were standing at the edge of a bubbling brook that cut through the trees and fed into an octagonal pond dappled with white water lilies.

Huge red and albino koi moved through the perfectly clear water.

“I’ve never come across the two auras together, and never in twins. They possess enormous untapped power,” Jihoon said urgently.

“Do I have to remind you of the Codex ? ‘The two that are one and the one that is all’ –the very first prophecy Abraham speaks of. “

“I know the prophecy,” Gyuri snapped, her dress now shot through with red and black beins. “I was there when the old fool made it. “

Jihoon was about to ask a question, but kept his mouth shut.

“He was never wrong either,” Gyuri muttered.

“He knew that Danu Talis would sink beneath the waves and that our world would end. “

“he also predicted it would come again “ Jihoon reminded her.

“When ‘the two that are one and the one that is all’ have arrived, when the sun and moon are united.”

Gyuri tilted her head and pupiled eyes flickered toward Seungho & Soyeon.

“Gold and silver, sun and moon.” She turned back to Jihoon.

“Do you believe them to be the basis of the prophecy ?”

“Yes,” he said simply, “I do. I have to. “

“Why?”

“Because with the Codex now gone, Junhyung can begin to bring back the Dark Elders. If the twins are those mentioned in the prophecy, then, with proper training, I might be able to use to prevent that … and to help me rescue Hyori.”

“And if you’re mistaken ?” Gyuri wondered aloud.

“then I have lost the love of my life, and this world and all the humani on it are lost. But if we are to have any chance of success, I need your help. “

Gyuri sighed. “It’s been a long time … a very long time since I took a student. “ She turned to look at Fei. “And that didn’t turn out too well.”

“This is different. This time you would be working with raw talent, pure, untainted power. And we don’t have a lot of time.” Jihoon drew in a deep breath and spoke formally. “Daughter of Perses and Asteria, you are the Goddess of Magic and Spells, I ask you to Awaken the twins’ magical powers.”

“And if I do it – what then ?” Gyuri demanded.

“Then I will teach them the Five Magics. Together we will retrieve the Codex and save Hyori. “

The Goddess with Three faces laughed, the sound bitter and angry.

“Have care, Jihoon, Alchemyst, lest you create something that will destroy us all.”

“Will you do it?”

“I will have to think upon it. I will give you my answer later.”

Sitting in the car on the other side of the clearing, Soyeon and Seungho suddenly became aware that Jihoon and Gyuri turned to stare at them.

The twins shivered simultaneously