CHAPTER #3: SHROUDED TRUTHS APLENTY
After Nathaniel had left for the day, Koga and Mallory sat at the dining room table, sipping on hot tea. At his uncle’s request, the boy explained everything that had happened on Ursamoor.
“What does this all mean?” he asked the older martial artist. Then his eyes opened wide as he came to a realization. “When I mentioned the dream, you knew something was up. Is the snake woman I saw the same person as this Orochihana?”
“I’m sorry I kept so much from you, but it was necessary,” Koga replied after a heavy sigh. “To answer your question - yes, Orochihana is indeed the woman from your dream, and it is no coincidence you saw her when you did. She showed herself to you because she knew sooner or later you’d tell me.”
“But why would she want you to know I had a dream about her?” Mallory wondered.
“Because she anticipated that it would spook me enough to go seek out answers, and she was right,” he explained. “It seems she had the Prowlers on stand-by waiting for me to shift my focus so they could grab you when I wasn’t looking. I never imagined they’d attempt something so bold, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you, Mal.”
“I know they wanted to use my blood to resurrect Orochihana, but if she’s dead, how can she even be in my dreams or anything?” the teen asked.
“She’s only half-dead,” Koga continued. “Her corpse is sealed away in that tomb, but a shard of her soul is attached to a magical amulet that keeps her anchored in the Mortal Plane. The amulet had been locked away as well in a separate location, but someone managed to bypass the detection spells and retrieved it without anyone knowing about it. They must have begun communicating with the shard of Orochihana’s soul and then hired the Prowlers to find her tomb and then bring you there.”
“So that’s why you looked so worried when I told you about my dream,” Mallory realized. “You thought the amulet was still locked up since none of the detection spells or whatever had alerted you to it being stolen.”
“Exactly,” he confirmed. “I rushed to the vault it had been stored in to see if it had indeed been taken and to investigate the area for any clues. I had no idea that the Prowlers were waiting for me to leave Portland so they could kidnap you. They must have had scanners in the area that alerted them of my departure and of your exact location so they knew where to send that droid.”
“Jasper said Mom had been the one to kill Orochihana, but what does that have to do with my blood? Why did they need me?”
“Because Hikari was the one who created the runes on the sarcophagus,” Koga explained. He paused for a moment before continuing. “And she did it with the power that now resides within you.”
“Is that…” the boy suddenly remembered the explosion of blue fire and lightning he had commanded for a brief moment against the monsters. “The power I felt before passing out?”
“Hikari was known as a powerful Faedra, but unbeknownst to most, she was also the Avatar of the Cobalt Dragon, and when she died, that mantle passed on to you,” he revealed.
“How did… How did it pass to me?” Mallory asked.
“Each Avatar hosts within them a Spectral Shard of the ancient Elder Dragons, and they are passed along from generation to generation. Your Mom inherited it from our father, and you inherited it from her. But we knew there was a risk that someone might attempt to use the Cobalt Dragon powers to reverse the enchantments in Orochihana’s tomb, so we decided to seal your Soul Gate to block the flow of Mana to your Spectral Shard.”
“Who’s we?” the boy demanded. “Is my Dad in on the secret too?”
“No, he’s a Faeless and has no knowledge of anything magical. That’s why I waited until he left to discuss all of this,” Koga explained. “By ‘we,’ I meant the House of Spiders. It’s a guild of intelligence operatives sworn to combat corruption and injustice, and the threat Orochihana presents is currently at the top of our watchlist.”
“I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about being lied to all my life…” Mallory admitted, and they both sat in silence for a moment. He then continued. “But I understand you did what you thought was best to prevent Orochihana’s return. What exactly makes her so dangerous, though?”
“She didn’t used to be,” the martial artist revealed. “Once upon a time, she was just a normal Faedra like the rest of us. But she started messing around with forbidden dark arts and gained semi-immortality by attaching a shard of her soul to that amulet I mentioned earlier. That alone wouldn’t have been as bad, but she also discovered how to use Necromancy to absorb obscene amounts of Life Energy from others. At the height of her power, her strength rivaled even that of the combined Avatars.”
“She really does seem like a monster…” the teen sighed. “So let me make sure I am grasping the whole picture here… Mom was the one to land the final blow and then sealed her body away in a hidden tomb; you guys suppressed my magical potential in the hopes it would prevent anyone from using the Cobalt Dragon powers to free Orochihana, but then they tricked you into letting your guard down and took me anyway… I guess they were hoping my blood would have traces of the Cobalt Dragon power and release the seal on the coffin. And then I guess my exposure to it weakened your seal on my Soul Gate enough that the Mana could flow through when I was on the verge of death?”
“That would be my guess,” Koga agreed. “There was probably a build-up of Mana behind the seal, like a dam. Once it cracked enough, all that energy came raging through. Now that you’ve depleted those reserves, it will be a while before you can use power on that scale again.”
“But I will be able to use it again?” Mallory inquired.
“Yes, but you’ll need to be instructed on how to properly wield your new capabilities,” he confirmed. “We’ll go to see Broodmother Oyewa tomorrow - she’s the leader of the House of Spiders - to determine the next steps. Though I imagine she’ll recommend you attend Qrowdell Academy of Arcane Arts, the premiere magic school here in North America.”
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