A young woman walked down the stairs of her home and through the long, ornately adorned halls until she came to a beautiful double door. Murmuring a word under her breath and placing her hand on the handle of the door she pushed slightly and the door soundlessly opened into a study full of shelves. Books and scrolls and boxes of files covered almost every square inch of the study and a large wooden desk dominated the center.

Candles, pentagrams and various other occult material were arranged around the room next to various mysterious devices and it would have looked like something right out of Harry Potter if not for the giant flat screen that took up an entire wall.

"Ah, Morgana. Come in." A tall thin man with aristocratic features was sitting on the edge of the desk staring at the large screen. Looking around when the door opened he waved her over and went back to looking at the pictures of a strange door on the screen.

"You called for me, father?" Morgana took after her mother more than her father but there was still something inexplicably similar between them. Maybe it was the raven colored hair or the distinct slant of their eyebrows that gave them an almost devilish look.

"Yes. I want to get your opinion on these pictures that Brock and his boys brought back. I sent them to track down a piece of the Serifi Scriptures that we located in Indonesia and while they were there they found something strange."

"Oh, is Brock back already?"

"No, they are still on the field. Actually, Brock is holding while we examine the pictures. Now tell me what you think."

Morgana looked over the pictures of a carved door on the screen, a frown forming on her face. Seeing his daughter concentrating so hard Alexander Bartimaeus couldn't help but be pleased. Since her mother's injury ten years ago she had withdrawn and her outgoing and bubbly personality had been largely stifled. Determined to bring her out of her shell he had begun to pass on the family secrets to her, granting her knowledge and understanding far beyond that of anyone else her age.

"It is beautiful. Father, I've never seen anything like it before. It seems at first glance that the symbols make up a reinforcement spell but it makes no sense unless it is part of a much larger whole."

"You are getting better." Alexander grinned, "What have you noticed that is peculiar about it?"

Morgana fell silent again, her eyes tracing over the symbols in the picture. Aided by the high definition photographs that the team had taken, the symbols on the door had been pulled out and arranged along the bottom of the screen in the order that they appeared. Three of the symbols were quite familiar to her, making up part of the reinforcement spell that she recognized from the lessons that her father had given her. The rest, however, were completely foriegn. Morgana turned to her father, a intrigued passion burning in her eyes.

"These symbols are totally unfamiliar to me though I can sense similarities to ancient Egyptian and Sumerian magics. I want to go study it!"

From ages past her family had compiled the knowledge of sorcerers and magicians so finding new magic symbols was a thrilling prospect. Ancient knowledge especially intrigued her as there was much that had been lost to the mists of time.

"I know you are excited to prove yourself, Morgana, but the wise magician is one who does not allow their emotions to cloud their decisions. Yes, these could be previously undiscovered runes, but they could also be nothing more than decoration used to confuse those who attempt to replicate the spell."

Alexander's tone was firm, but Morgana had heard these words so many times it was hard for her to keep herself from rolling her eyes. She managed to put on a solemn expression as she recited the family motto.

"Power is built on truth."

"Heh, exactly." Alexander's face creased with a smirk at his daughter's feeble attempts to make him believe she took his lessons seriously. "Morgana, the title of Solomon has passed through 99 generations. You will be the 100th, and a new beginning for our family."

"Not if the old geezers in the council have anything to say about it."

"If they do they can talk to me about it." Even thinking about the staunch traditionalist who had tried to tell him that his daughter could not inherit his title because of her gender got Alexander's blood boiling.

Realizing that she was about to set him off, Morgana stepped closer to her father, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and rested her head on his shoulder. Truthfully, she had little desire to follow in her father's footsteps as the 100 generation Solomon but she did not want to disappoint his dream.

The title had traditionally been passed through the men in the family, with each generation being more powerful than the last. Yet, for the first time in the history of the family, the current generation's Solomon had only a single daughter. When the family discovered this they had pressured him to try for another child, but being a faithful and loving husband whose wife had nearly died in childbirth, Alexander refused and used his significant power to silence anyone who called for his daughter to be put aside.

Since she had begun to learn magic, just short of her sixth birthday, Morgana had displayed that far from being weak, she was actually quite the match for her male peers. Problems that stumped middle aged magicians for years took her only days to unravel and her ability to cast spells was only second to her father. Even then, she only fell behind him because she lacked the deeper mana reserve that would come with age.

Ten years later, Morgana was the undisputed heir to the title of Solomon and almost everyone in the family threw their support behind her wholeheartedly. Seeing her so absorbed in the study of magic, Alexander couldn't help but feel gratified. A small sigh escaped Morgana's lips and brought her father back to the present.

"Father, this is a chance. I have a strong feeling that these symbols are somehow tied to another enchantment beyond simple reinforcement. Look at the first and last symbols. Don't they look similar to the gravity rune you've been studying?"

"They do. Which is why I've called you here. I can't get away since the council is meeting this week, so I need you to run an errand for me."

"You mean I can go?!"

Laughing at her unbridled excitement, Alexander nodded and passed her a file from his desk. "I have your ticket here. Brock will meet you on the ground, this file contains everything we have that is related to the temple. While you are flying over I'll research what I can about the symbols and I'll send it over to you when you land. Be careful and let me know if you need anything else."

"Thanks. Please let my school know I will not be in."

Giving him a quick kiss on the cheek Morgana was about to run upstairs when she paused, her eyes drifting to a simple wooden door half hidden by an overflowing bookshelf. The sight of Morgana's pause sent a spike of pain through Alexander's heart. Standing, he took his daughter's hand in his and squeezed it gently.

"There has been no change, my dear. But no change is not a bad thing. At least her body is still holding on."

"Yeah, at least she is not in pain." Morgana's voice trembled and she quickly turned her gaze away to hide the wetness of her eyes. "Who knows, maybe we'll find something behind that door that can help wake mom up."

"I sincerely hope we will, Morgana, but her coma is not a simple matter." Taking a deep breath, Alexander tried to reassure his daughter. "We will find a solution eventually, my dear. Just have patience, and do your best to look forward. That is what your mom would have wanted."

Squeezing her father's hand tightly, Morgana let go and ran upstairs to pack the few things she needed for her sudden trip. A few hours later, as their private plane took off, Morgana reviewed the file detailing the discovery that the butler handed her when she left the house.

After reading the account, she flipped to the last page which was blank apart from a simple magic circle. Arcane symbols filled a circle with four crooked lines coming off of it. Murmuring the activation method under her breath, Morgana touched the center of the circle and guided her mana into. She could feel the warmth of her mana as it seeped from the tips of her fingers, filling the circle and lighting up the symbols one by one.

Her vision flickered and she found herself in a dark tunnel as she began to relive the experience of the group who made the discovery. The dark stone corridor was strangely dry considering its location. Roots from the jungle above had broken in through the walls and ceiling and caused long strange shadows as the light from the flashlights hit them. The team had just finished exploring the rest of the tunnels in the old temple when they discovered this well hidden off-shoot.

The discovery was caused by a malfunctioning flashlight. It had been giving Brock trouble all day and when it spluttered out again he angrily hit it against the wall in a misguided attempt to fix it. Hearing an odd knocking sound when the end of the light hit the wall the group had cleared some rubble and then carefully removed a portion of the wall, revealing a tunnel that had been bricked over.

The group made their way carefully down the hall that seemed to stretch on forever. It ran at a slight downward angle and according to their instruments they had gone almost a mile underground before they noticed any change. Slowly but surely the tunnel widened out, eventually becoming large enough for all of them to stand side by side. After another 1000 feet their lights revealed a large door set in the tunnel, preventing them from moving forward.

Brock walked up to the door and examined it closely. Made of wood, it had large wrought iron symbols that emblazoned it and thick handles. There did not seem to be any locking mechanism but no matter how much pressure Brock put on it the door wouldn't budge.

"Charlie, come give me a hand with this."

Stepping up to the door Charlie put his muscular shoulder against the door and pushed to no avail. Even at 6' 5', Charlie was dwarfed by the door, which remained fast shut. Charlie rubbed his big hands across his close cropped hair after trying for a few minutes and shrugged.

"I dunno boss. Must be locked. Or maybe there is a cave in blocking the other side?"

"I just want to know what this thing is made of?" At the interruption all eyes turned to the third member of the group. Zeb, short for Zebediah, was a regular sized, nondescript scientist, probably the most normal of the group. Until he got absorbed in his work of course.

"Seriously, this is insane." At the moment he was trying to shave a piece of the wood off of the large door but nothing he was doing was even leaving a scratch. Sliding his knife back into his sheath, Zeb looked at the others. "Putting aside the fact that it is much harder than any wood I've ever encountered, it has been down in this tunnel since who knows when. Not only is the wood not rotten in any way, even the metal is not rusting. You can't leave metal outside in this jungle for more than a day without it rusting yet this thing looks brand spankin' new. Like it was just installed yesterday."

"Maybe it was in a sealed environment? We did have to break down the wall to get in."

"Nah," Zeb waved his hand dismissively at Charlie's comment. "There are roots breaking through the walls all over. If this thing is even close to as old as the rest of the ruins then it should be in the same shape as that coffin we found."

The team paused for a moment as they recalled the old coffin they had discovered hidden in a little room at the base of the temple. Everything else in the temple had long since been stripped by looters but they were after a small stone tablet that had been hidden with the corpse that was in the coffin.

Their client had given them detailed instructions on how to get to the temple as well as how to find the small room which had proved invaluable as they would not have found it otherwise. They all remembered how when Brock had touched the coffin it simply disintegrated into a pile of dust along with the corpse inside. Just then Brock's radio crackled to life.

"Oi, what is taking you guys so long? I thought you found the slab already."

"Cool it Max. We're on our way out, we just took a small detour to look at something." Zeb snapped back, not liking to feel rushed when he found something interesting.

"Well get a move on. We've had three flybys in the last ten minutes and they're bound to spot us sooner or later. I for one don't fancy being chased by machine gun wielding soldiers mad because you desecrated their history."

"Yeah, we got it. You just worry about being ready to go."

"That is enough, cut the chatter." Brock's firm voice cut in over the two bickering voices. "Zeb, you have a minute to get some pictures. Make sure that the astral recording is working properly, the boss will want to see this. Max, we'll be out in fifteen, be ready to go. We have what we came for so let's get a move on."

Less than twenty minutes later they were on their way out of the area and toward the border, the stone slab packed securely in a hidden compartment. As the recorded memory faded, Morgana blinked and rubbed her head. In many ways, the spell resembled watching a movie, but no matter how many times she used it, she could not shake the disorientation of coming back to the real world.

Glancing out the window at the world of clouds passing under the plane's wings, Morgana's thoughts drifted back to the dark wooden door and her father's pained expression. She had watched him try to carry the burden of his wife's injury for the last ten years and though he tried to hide it, Morgana could tell that it was slowly destroying him. Determined to share his burden, she clenched her teeth and renewed her vow to bring her family back together.