"What?" Jia whispered.
"The last one to show any sign of having the lightning Gene was your mother, that was probably why she…" Rose trailed off as Jia sighed heavily answered, "Why she was taken from me."
"Your great grandmother had shown signs of the magic too, right?" Rose asked.
"She died when my mother was pregnant with me," Jia answered with a nod as she turned and hugged her knees against her chest. She then tuned to Rose," But why wasn`t I taken out earlier?"
Rose tapped her chin thoughtfully, "My guess is that you were well protected."
The lighting sorceress shook her head, "But why only my mama? Why didn`t they kill me as well? I was right there with her that day."
"Well, was something – "Rose paused as she studied her making her friend feel self-conscious.
"What?" Jia demanded.
Rose shuffled close to her, "Did you show signs of your powers when you were born?"
"No, I was born powerless, it was only later, my magic manifested," Jia admitted.
"That`s why!" Rose snapped her fingers," You didn`t show any signs of magic! That`s why you weren`t taken out like your mother!"
"So they thought I was powerless and they left me alone only now they know I have magic and they want me gone." Jia deduced.
"It must have been hard to take you out when you were growing up, right?"
Jia nodded, "Yes, I was well protected."
"Okay, then it all comes full circle. You`re the last of the Honor Guard, Rowena was probably your great ancestor, she probably had the magic of lightning."
"So me, the time sorcerer's son, a witch`s daughter and a knight`s son, four of us," Jia concluded before a thought popped up in her head, "Or maybe not?"
"What do you mean?" Rose asked as she gathered the papers and put them back into the folder.
"Weren`t there six people in the Honor Guard?"
"We`ll, yes, but these families are the only ones who`ve been wiped up, I double checked."
"What if they weren`t here to be wiped out, what if they were in another dimension?"
"Jia, what are you talking about? There`s only four lands, the land of life, that`s where we are now, the Land of the Dead or the Afterlife, the Ether and the Aster." Rose reminded her." There`s no way anyone could go to the other lands."
"No, there`s one more!" Jia insisted. She then told Rose of the legend of Cybil. However, she had to twist it a bit to not mention the Fair Folk, their location or of her time with Tristan. She made it seem like it was her grandmother who had told her the story when she asked her about the legend of Cybil.
"The other member of the Honor guard was a Dragon Rider?" Rose asked before squealing," That is so cool. Dragons are all but extinct here in our world. Wow, I`m actually saying our world!"
"So the Dragon Rider is another dimension. We need a Dragon Rider, that should be easy," Jia said sarcastically. "Okay, what about the sixth member?"
"I don`t know. Like I said, there isn`t anything in the records," Rose replied. Jia ran a hand over her mouth and sighed. Rose put down the folder and then pulled out her PDA," What if I did a research on family lines that disappeared? Not after the Battle but a little further ahead in time."
"Would such a record even exist?"
Rose nodded, "Yes, but mysteries concerning families of noble blood would be kept within the City Records."
"So we`ll have to go to the National Library?"Jia questioned her.
Rose nodded.
"Hey, you two? Dinner time!" Clary yelled while running into the room with her camera open and filming. She then paused as she took in their solemn faces," Okay. Tension in the atmosphere. What happened?"
"We need to go to the National Library tomorrow, are you free to come with us?"
Clary nodded," Why?"
"Major Research," Rose said as she stood from the bed and jumped down with her folder and PDA in hand. Clary gave her thumbs up when she stuck her landing and the red haired chuckled.
"Great plan you two. We`ll use the time tomorrow to study for the Potions Exam next week!" Clary said excitedly as she turned to Jia who suddenly went pale.
"Potions Exam? What Potions Exam?" Jia asked, looking very anxious. It wasn`t enough that her past was revealing but now they needed to study for an exam early before the Christmas break?!
"The Midterm one that Professor Pangborn reminded us of this morning," Clary reminded them and both girls groaned.
"There goes our weekend plans," Jia muttered. "Now we have to study, that test is the only one that we`ll be doing besides the Final Exam."
"Yeah, after that, we have two more potions and then Internal Assessment is complete." Clary pointed out.
Jia grabbed her pillow from behind her and screamed into it while Clary chuckled and switched off her camera. Rose then coaxed her out and both girls dragged the sorceress out where Kyra and Fiona were waiting. Fiona announced that Cole was taking all the girls with Zoey for a late dinner.
"So that`s why we`re going to dinner now?"Jia asked as Rose made her put on a neck warmer, though it was completely unnecessary. The girl never got cold.
"Yep, thank you Zoey!" Clary exclaimed as Kyra shook her head at her roommate.
They all had dinner at a diner near the sea and the girls sat in a booth in order with Cole at one end and Fiona on the other.
After their food arrived and they were eating, Cole questioned why Jia as to why she left yesterday in a hurry.
Jia bit into her chicken and chewed before asking, "How did you know?"
Cole shrugged, his other arm was around Zoey`s shoulder, "Thomas saw you. Said he wanted to stop you but you looked like you were running away from something, "Cole revealed.
Jia blinked as the other girls stared at her before Kyra spoke up, "You were running away from something?"
"I was trying get back in time for dinner," the lightning sorceress explained.
"But you missed dinner, "Fiona pointed out.
"I got tried when I was flying back and crashed before I could eat."
"You flew back?" Rose put down her soda. "Wow, you must have been really hungry."
Jia slummed down, "Can we pleases just change the subject?"
"Why? Is there something you want to talk about?" Kyra said as she stole some fries form Clary`s plate which made her roommate pout and pull her fries closer to her.
Zoey giggled at them before feeding Cole some fries as Jia huffed, "No, I just think we have better things to talk about then my hurried retreat from yesterday."
Cole made sure to chew before pointing out," I was just asking. No need to get paranoid."
Jia made a noise at the back of her throat before Zoey asked Rose how her interview went. Fiona, however, watched her friend suspiciously as she focused on her chicken meal.
The next day was a flurry of studying and training before Rose could leave for the library with the girls. Fiona convinced everyone that if they could do their school work in the morning then the entire afternoon could be spent at the library. Unfortunately, the library was open from 1:00 PM till 4:30 PM so they didn`t have much time.
Armed with their note books and water bottles, they left for the library. Jia was happy to note that the National Library was next to the National Museum, that way when she was done, she and the girls could go there next for clues on the Final Battle. The librarian at the front desk told them that there was a search podium in the section that they wanted to look at. Clary however pouted when the Librarian said that her camera wasn't allowed inside the library.
Jia rubbed her shoulders as petrifying sorceress watched her precious camera be put into the pocket shelf behind the librarian. They walked through the rows of books with Rose in the lead and Kyra in the rear.
When they finally reached the City Records Section of the Library, Jia was happy to find that there were at least two tables for the girls to sit at and a search podium behind them.
The other girls took their seats while Kyra went to the Podium and stood as the books in that section glowed silver.
"So what am I searching for?" Kyra asked.
"Any book with the phrase,' Missing Family Lines?" Rose answered. Zoey tied her hair into a pony tail as she stood in front of a shelf. The other girls following suite. Once Kyra uttered the Search words, a handful of book shot out form the shelves and moved to levitate in front of the girls. They each grabbed all that they could carry or in Kyra`s case, manipulate to carry seeing as her shadow was doing all the heavy lifting.
They were all well into the reading material when an hour had passed by with Fiona complaining of the smell of old books to which all the girls just rolled their eyes at her.
A loud explosion suddenly rocked the building.
All the girls gasped and watched as the lights above them flicker.
"What in the Goddess name?" Zoey muttered. Rose stood up and held a finger to silence them, "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Jia asked only for all the lights to go off and the girl were plunged into darkness.
Kyra cursed and a smack was heard.
"What was that for?" Kyra whined.
"Language!" Zoey chided her.
Jia squinted her eyes trying to make out her friends' shadow but she couldn`t see them.
"My phone`s not working," Fiona spoke up.
"That`s because all the technology in this building has been fried, "Rose informed them. Jia stood and reached to her left to grab Fiona`s shoulder.
"How do you know that?"
Rose snorted, "Techno sorceress here, remember?"
"Oh, wait, I think I have a Zeo crystal in my bag pack!" Zoey exclaimed. Jia recalled how Zoey was obsessed with how the white Zeo crystals looked like after the lights went out in their room. They were like night lights that can be used for a lot of things. Zoey had a habit of collecting them.
"Why do you carry a Zeo crystal in your bag?" Clary asked and Jia could tell that she was frowning by the sound of her voice.
"You have your hobbies." Zoey pointed out.
After a second of silence, Jia watched as a small light beam brightly from Zoey`s palm as she stood next to Kyra. On other side of their table, Rose and Clary stood with their phones in hand.
Suddenly a shriek was heard and the girls turned sharply towards the sound.
"What was that?" Fiona whispered.