Merissa yelled at me. She tried to stop me. But when we returned to the city wall with the sun almost parallel to the land, I separated from her. She wanted to bring the Veritas stone to Dawn One. Have the director check up on it. She must be kidding if she was thinking to give the tablet to the director. Vartwild wouldn't care for it. The stone was still ours. Dad either had the singular piece or both pieces before the fire. I asked her how she even knew the name of the tablet. Did dad written it for her? But she told me she had some assistance. She didn't clarify it. Was this Gideon figure a person that assisted her? My sister had been a closed book since I discovered her.

Honestly, I don't know if she wants to discuss it.

The only person who could help me with this tablet, the potential it can bring and as well the danger. Especially trying to find out what this map leads to is Emmet. Without my sister's permission, I head back to Arcane. I park the Dawning-issued cycle behind the bookstore, near the dumpster boxes. I then race to open the backdoor. Once inside, I head straight to the storage door. Using the crystal key, I walk through the storage room and downstairs to the Basement's foyer.

Looking around, I yell for Emmet and even for everyone else. And then like that, they approach me. I smile to see them again. I suddenly place the satchel bag on the top of the table. On top of the same surface The Orre's body burned to ashes. I grab the stone out of the bag and tell Emmet, Terra, and the others that I finally found the other half-stone piece.

"We united both...into this." Showing them the single slab-like tablet, I tell them. "This is the Veritas stone."

Emmet looks in wonder. I pass over the tablet to him, as he observes it with his eyes. I glare at Terra coming close to my right side. Silas and Icarus both lean their heads forward staring at the lines. Camille just stands back maybe not caring. However, I'm surprised when she's the first one to break the weird silence.

"So what it does."

Guess this is the first step in trusting her, either way I reply to her. "It's a map. I don't know why, but it will lead us to the Triadic."

Merissa and I are destined to do this. I let them know the Triadic could give me the answers I want. Staring at Terra, I thought she would be intrigued. But she looks worried.

"I'm unsure how safe this Triadic is, we don't even know what it is."

Finding this object, it can restore my sanity. Restore what's taken from me. But Terra is correct in so many levels. Even if this is our path to find the Triadic, I don't even know what it is. I see Emmet still holding on to it. He tells me something interesting.

"Naven, if you want to. Can you let me hold onto the tablet? I want to study a bit more."

He wants my permission to let him do it. Odd, this is the first time Emmet asks me of a favor. Yet the times he helped me before, taking me out of the Level 8 cell, helping me find Anita, and giving me a place to work. He's been that father-figure I didn't need. Overall I should appreciate him and not how he handled those situations. I know Merissa going to be upset, yet she's not here. She doesn't want them to help out, but I want them to.

"Yes." I answer.

Emmet smiles and lets me know, he got some tools to help him with his studying. He promises me he will give it back once he knows what this stone could bring. The more it leads us to the Triadic. So as he heads out to the hallway, Terra nods at me. She doesn't say a sound and runs to Emmet. I wonder if she wants to help with his studying. Then I see the others heading to the exercise room, probably continuing their daily training. I want to head to see Merissa, but I decide to head to the area where The Orre used to sit. Doing what he did at the corner.

With everyone gone, the entire foyer is empty besides me. I then look back at The Orre's seat. Showing only the indention in the pillow-like mat. I soon feel my left sided pocket, something I kept for this moment. Putting my hand inside, I take out the gemstone Talaus gave me.

Talaus told me The Orre wanted me to have this, for what reason. There was another thing Talaus wanted to tell me in which The Orre shared with him. However, I missed a chance to listen to what else Talaus had to say. But as I glance at the mat, it was The Orre who should be the one to tell me this stuff.

Sitting down on the floor, my legs cross, and holding the gemstone tight inside my palm, I close my eyes. I need to find out what The Orre wants me to do. I have a plan, this can work.

If you're listening to me, it's me Orre. I can't handle it anymore.

I know my destiny is to find the Triadic. Now it's time. I'm ready.

I'm ready Orre. I am the Raver.

I feel the gemstone, after waiting a few more minutes I open my eyes back up. Yet I'm saddened to see the gemstone is not doing anything. It's just a stupid blue rock. Why would The Orre give the thing to that Gremdaunt in the first place?

What I said in my mind, at least The Orre could have heard that. Most of all, I wanted to hear that.

I look to the mat seeing no one. Shucks, what a waste. A mistake. Giving up, I scrap myself back up. Both feet standing, I'm about to head to the stairs until I hear a similar voice. A voice coming from a wise old male.

"So you're ready."

I turn back and there sitting as if he was still alive is The Orre. Or at least his ghost, I think.

"Your destiny is far greater." He says.

I'm surprised to see him. I walk closer to see how almost real he is, his skin not showing any ghostly white. Don't see any burns or scratch marks caused by those bygors. He looks like his normal self. I tell him if I'm really seeing things. But he gives me the straight fact, he's really dead.

"I don't know why you had to die."

"Simply, it was my time. I knew my time here as a physical being would cease."

I wish I had control of the Veritas tablet, yet Emmet has it. There's a part of me wanting to show him the tablet while inform the others, but I think The Orre came only to see me. Eventually, I inform him about the stone. How Merissa and I put the pieces together forming the one piece. I ask him will the tablet bring us to the Triadic.

Seeing The Orre's face, he looks perturbed. I think he didn't want to talk about it and just ask me how my day went. But he explains fully about the Triadic. It's a powerful force. A dangerous power that can go either way. I question why he is feeling stressed about it, I presume it's something good. But he gives me another context.

"Wicked forces will gain control of that device. Raudan and the Acolytes will try to stop at nothing to gain possession over it."

"Why?" So Raudan wanted me and my sister to give him the pieces, but we beat him to it. What would Raudan want with the Triadic, make him stronger?

The Orre can tell me everything about the Triadic, all the information the better I know once I get my hands on it before Raudan can. Nonetheless, The Orre tells me something interesting.

It can reverse powerful magic.

I think about the Pentacle, and asks him why was he so resistant to talk about them before. What was his thing against The Gentleman? The Orre didn't want to expose his relationship with him. Though he wants me to stay assertive for the Man with the Cane. As for the Pentacle, he tells me how important they are.

"They're the force that opened magic to this part of the world."

"Wait?" I walk close to him still confused. He continues.

"Before the war, it was the Pentacle who let magic part of human lives. They wanted norms to see our existence. The Pentacle desired a future where mages and norms coexist as one. However there was one force that wouldn't accept that."

Let me guess, I place my right hand over my chin rubbing it. "Malefics." I say.

"Them and dark mages. And of all dark mages, there was one who spread his omnipotent to all dark creatures." The Orre then sighs, his lips pinched. "His name was Shallos."

I recalled the moment when I was attack by the wraith. It mentioned that name, Master Shallos, and of his return.

"Shallos wanted to end all norms. Wipe them away, giving mages and malefics the right to populate this world. A dark utopia." He stops as he then raises his chin. A few more seconds, he resumes. "Remember Magefall."

"I do."

It was the event that begun the war. But he didn't tell me what Magefall was. He was only panicking that he doesn't want it to happen again.

Yet he finally gives me the explanation. He tells me it was Shallos and his Acolytes that started Magefall. In his words, a war within a war.

He explains further, "Magefall was the very war that nearly destroyed the continent. It lasted for decades. The Pentacle realized they needed to do something. So they used an ancient spell to destroy Shallos' body. Unfournately, his essence remained. It was infused into an object, sacred to the Acolytes. An object that could be anything."

I suddenly get a flashback. On that day when Anita was murdered, I saw a couple of malefics carrying some type of cloth. I mention this to The Orre.

"I think I seen that sacred object when I was at the Acolytes nest."

"What the object looked like."

"A fabric type of cloth. Having so much details, filled with demonic symbols. Almost like it was royalty."

"What you told me. It seemed that could be a tapestry." The Orre then stands up. He walks to me. "Naven, Raudan must not get his hands on that tapestry."

"So wait, is there a possibility this Shallos can be resurrected?"

"Just stop Raudan."

"I'll make sure the Shadowhawks will be ready."

"Trust me, they know what this malefic is capable of. Way before they met you."

Strange, I'm was under the assumption the Shadowhawks wanted to help me get Anita during that time while finding that gold tattooed freak.

But The Orre tells me, they been hunting down Raudan way before my situation. He tells me that Raudan killed one of their own. I pause stunned.

So there was a fifth member. And I bet his name was Lance. I told him this before. The Orre ignored me once. Now he's opening up about this guy.

"His name was Lance Pierce."

"Were the others scared to say anything, why would they shut away their lost teammate?" I have been wondering all this time.

"Terra found out Lance was dealing with the malefics. He wanted to help Raudan. I didn't want to believe it. But I was blinded. We all were." The Orre then sits back down, telling more. "I felt a bit of evil in him. I wished I was making a mistake, but my magic never faulted. The others though were skeptical to think their teammate was a traitor. But before you, they were on a mission. Lance led the Shadowhawks to Raudan. They honestly believed they would surprise him. But Raudan tricked Lance and killed him in front of them."

So Lance, the guy I saw set on fire the first time I came down here, the same thing that happened to The Orre's body. Lance betrayed his friends. Why would he do that? Did Raudan do something to him? Yet the way The Orre explained, I think Lance was never good. Though I hadn't met the guy; knowing him now, I'm thankful I didn't.

I want to focus back on the Triadic. And then I start to dwell back on what Talaus said, the stuff about the faux fable. I tell The Orre I seen his Gremdaunt friend. I wonder why he wouldn't let Talaus speak about what he saw. The Orre looks to be in denial. It's like he's not going to say anything. I refute that.

"I'm ready. What was taken from me?"

I tell him, yet he remains hesitant. His lips closed. My mouth flattened with my chin jutting. I feel anger pressuring me. "I demand to know!"

The Orre stays silent for another few minutes. What is he holding back from me? What is this? Before I can scream at him again, he opens his lips.

"Your family from your father side, the Blackvales. They were once a powerful kin. They were part of a rare group of mage families called the Echelons. They were viewed as royalty. Their magic seemed inseparable."

As he keeps talking, I think about what my sister said. How our father, grandfather, and other Blackvale ancestors were adventurers, collecting mystique minerals.

But that was a lie.

The Orre says, "Not until sixteen years ago. The family magic that once dominated them suddenly weren't diminished. They were stripped."

"What you mean stripped?"

"For your father, your sister, and the rest of your father's side, their powers were taken away. Your powers were stripped before you were even born. You weren't even in your mother's womb. Your birth was different."

Impossible? I should've had a normal birth. If not, how did I come into this world? Maybe Merissa remembers, but her memories are a bit reluctant to trust right now. Whoever or whatever did this to me and my family, they didn't start the fire. I glare back at The Orre's pure white eyes.

"Why the fire six years later?"

"I don't think you shouldn't hear this, you heard enough."

"No!" I rush towards him. "Tell me!"

The Orre frowns, "Your birth should've never happened." He states.

My eyes widen in shock. As I back away, my head lowers in befuddlement. I hear him.

"It's perceived a long time ago of your arrival. A boy birthed unknown, masked as a norm. But unmasked, he is something else. He holds extraordinary powers. Yet within holds a shadow. The boy who brings danger. The Harbinger of the Reckoning." The Orre still frowning says it so fluently, yet cryptically.

Not saying anything, I stand back still shocked to what I learn. The truth I longed for is out. But could there be more. Whatever forces led to my powers removed, explains a lot of my mental problems. I can sense a nervous breakdown about to come. My heart rising. My chest tightens up. I breathe heavily. The Orre mentions that my father did what he could to try to restore the family magic, but the fire changed things.

I guessed dad wanted sister and I to have the Veritas tablet. Head on to find the Triadic. Dad wanted to use this superior power, to reverse the magic; the curse that was set upon us.

Then I hear The Orre saying something that baffles me.

"There are so much more I can't answer. The only way to answer them is to find it yourself. Take upon the personal journey, once you're truly ready."

He then cautions me about the tablet. That it will only lead me to a thing I didn't expect. But something that will bring me value to my life. Discovering what was taking from me is my family magic, yet something I need... the powers I have no idea I had. I understand what The Orre said. But I need to find the Triadic. I let him know, I'll take his heed to heart.

"Naven, when you find the object. Destroy it."

"I can't destroy it. I need to use it."

"You still have a lot to learn my boy. Keep in mind, those around you. You may want to trust and protect them, but one or more of them will ultimately betray you."

"Wait, someone I know is going to be a traitor?"

"Like I said, be mindful. And be careful." He then stands up. "Remember this, once you see the Triadic. Take no chances. Trust in yourself. And that only the Triadic can destroy itself."

Not again. Why he has to end it with a riddle. But as I can sense the tether I have over him fading away, the gemstone still in my grip. I ask The Orre one more thing.

"So I'm a special mage."

"You're not a mage, Naven. You're something of the unknown. The unknown that will bring hope, but as well death."

And then as I wonder what this unknown could be, I see The Orre fading away into the afterlife. I wish he could've said more. As I lay the gemstone on top of his mat, I don't expect to see him again.

However, The Orre knew it before and after he was deceased.

From this point on, the remaining answers of my miserable life is now my undertaking.

***

Emmet and Terra are still searching whatever way to get inside that tablet. I told them what I found about the Triadic, and that The Orre warned me about it in my dreams. I didn't tell them I saw his ghost. I kept that with me. The others felt weird why would The Orre said that in my dreams. But they wouldn't mind. I even confessed to Merissa about the stuff The Orre said, especially about our family magic being stripped. Merissa already knew the Triadic could be dangerous. She pushed me the next several days about ignoring what The Orre said about destroying the Triadic the first time we see it.

She still wants to find the Triadic, so it can save our family. Bring back what was taken from us. She urges me to get the tablet whenever my magihunter friends are done studying it. I don't know exactly what else Emmet wants with it. I didn't disturb before, so I shouldn't now. I want to let him finish, and wait until he says it's done.

Today is September 1st. As we deal with the Veritas stone, the quads around Dawning are prepping harder than ever. Forging Day is close. I begin to see more of Vartwild's promo vids continuing to spread across the city. She keeps ending her mini-speeches with the city's motto.

Keep Dawning Strong

I decide to check up with sis, see if she wants to go to the park. But she's not in the apartment. I call Aunt Verdi with my telen. My aunt said Merissa didn't come to her place. She could be searching for a job. I want to have faith that's true. Before I can call her, even though she finds it still tough using the telen, I suddenly get a call from Pratt. He wants to meet me at the Southwest Border Café.

***

Sitting on the hard cushioned chair, my hands steadily holds onto the cheeseburger. I take a couple of big chunks. Pratt, on the opposite side, is eating his cheeseburger. After I sip on my Sweetnade shake, I then pause after a few minutes of silence.

Before then, we talked about Addie. Pratt still hasn't found him yet, but promised he will find Addie. And then we spent a few minutes gossiping about a crew of M.A.D.O.O supporters standing outside the café. Still protesting the repeal of the AMA and invoking their right not to participate on September 2nd.

"What're your plans for Forging Day?" He asks while finishing up his burger.

"Probably hanging in the apartment to chill. My sister would be with my aunt, celebrating the parades."

Pratt nods. "Good, I might skip too." He then looks unhappy.

"What's up?"

"It's Zip. I have no reason why, but I feel something isn't right about him."

I can't tell what he's talking about, Zip is Zip. I mention that to him. Zip is the nicest, wildly guy I know since sixth grade. There's nothing bad with him. Yet Pratt doesn't want to trust him. I want to punch his arm. And inform him he's going nuts. However, before I can lift my hand. The Orre told me something similar, someone close will betray me.

Could it be, the quirky and funny Zip? One of my best pals is a traitor. I fight to accept that idea slowly crawling into my head, but then I check back with Pratt. He smiles deciding he may want to kick Zip out of the Gliders. But like an undetected motion, there's something odd with Pratt. Something I didn't notice until now. He may not see it.

I know I see it.

His neck begins to twitch.