“And there it was. Since the dawn of civilisation.”

- A memory of the Old Ones.

***Carinthia***

***Sely***

I strap the little dagger to my arm and pull the glove over it. Everyone will see that I am hiding a weapon, but at least I am not showing it off like some sort of trophy. “I should have thought about weapons before I chose this dress. It's really hard to hide any sort of weapon.”

Magnus growls. “Are you sure that you have to go with us? I can go alone and challenge Emil Baucheaux. There is no need for you to be there.”

I place my hands on my hips and glare at him until he avoids my eyes. Which simply means that his attention wanders to my boobs, instead of my face. A very convenient way for him to look at me while maintaining the silence. I snap my fingers to remind him that I am very aware that he is checking me out. “You ran off alone once. It won't happen twice. We are a team from now on. Forever!”

He sighs and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a set of dice and playing cards. “Take this. I've enchanted the cards with disruption magic. They will counter most magical effects they come in contact with. The dice will generate an inhibition field if you scatter them around you. If you charge them with energy before you throw them, they'll explode like a grenade.”

I take the items and do a quick count. “It must've taken months to place that many enchantments!” Enchanting something permanently doesn't take a lot of energy, but it's time consuming and tedious if the enchanter wants his work to last for more than a few days. Otherwise the energy would unravel and disperse, losing its effect.

He nods. “Yes, so don't waste them. Use them only in situations when you are outnumbered or out of magic.”

“Why are you using cards and dice?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I've a lot of them since I love to play the game. Over the years, I have collected several boxes of cards which I never use and which have no particular worth. At least the cards don't gather dust this way.”

Rolling his shoulders, he corrects his black suit and offers me his arm. “Let's do this.”

I hook arms with him and we leave the quarters which somehow turned into our private area. It's just a short walk to the entrance hall where Tina is already waiting. She'll accompany us to the congregation. My mother will stay behind with Fiacre to watch Kath and Annia. “Are you ready, Tina?”

She nods and hugs her sister. “We won't see each other for a while, since I'll head back to Spain once the congregation is over. There are some affairs that can't be left unattended forever. And Gavin is still on the run. I'll have to pull a few strings to find him.”

Cecilia squeezes her sister. “Don't worry. I'll hold the position here. And once this reality marble is connected to ours, you'll be able to visit any time.”

Magnus growls. “I never said that I would allow such a thing. It's a security risk.”

I huff. “Then restrict the access to Tina alone. They behaved themselves. We can hardly forbid Cecilia from seeing Annia or me. On the same account, we can't shut out Tina.”

He rolls his eyes. “My estate is going down the gutter.” He turns to face Fiacre, Annia, Cecilia and Kath. “Have fun while we fight for our lives.” He turns his attention to Kath who steps behind Fiacre. “And don't forget that you are still grounded.”

Fiacre gestures for us to get going. “Don't worry. This time I've put a tracking spell on Kath. She won't escape a second time.”

I wish them my own goodbyes and whisper into Magnus’s ear, “Can't you be nice to her for once? The child has it hard enough.”

“I am nice. She is a former human and I took her in as if she shares family ties with me,” he mumbles. “And besides. As long as I am strict, she listens to me.”

I give up and manoeuvre him towards the door. Magnus isn't a person who goes easy on children. We approach the doorway and Magnus sets the golden ring back to the zero position in order to open the doorway.

Most clans who have a reality marble, link it to Atlantis. It's a symbol of status and power to entertain such a connection. Like owning a strong Veil, it takes a lot of power. Which makes me wonder how Magnus and Fiacre can maintain such powerful spells within their territory. That's a secret he still has to share with me.

He opens the door and we step through. The ground is covered with the dust of several decades. I quickly lift my skirt to avoid getting it dirty. Tina curses behind us and does the same with her green dress.

“Sorry. Seems like Oilell didn't bother to look after an empty house.” He guides us through the small room and opens the door to the outside. We find ourselves in a forest of bushes and large trees. Just a narrow, paved walkway leads through the thicket.

Following Magnus, I take a look back at a small ghost house. Nobody has looked after the place in years. The architecture looks ancient. It's a sized up version of a prehistoric villa.

Magnus is already disappearing into the thicket, so I hurry to catch up with him. The sky is pitch black, yet we get light from somewhere. After a few metres, the thicket parts and the three of us step onto a well maintained street. It feels as if I was taken back in time. The houses look like they are straight from the ancient Greek, yet the people are all dressed in modern clothes. All of them Old Ones.

“So that's the first city,” I whisper.

Magnus turns around to study me. “Have you never been here?”

“You have?” Tina asks.

He shrugs. “A few times while my father was still alive. I always listened in on those tedious meetings with other clan-heads.”

“It's my first time here. We weren't allowed to leave the territory.” I survey the scenery and realize that I look like a tourist. I step closer to Magnus and hook arms with him. “Atlantis was the first attempt at living together with the humans. We imitated their small villages and built this city. Back then we didn't hide our nature and allowed humans to live among us unrestricted.

“But it failed. Mingling with the humans led to the existence of the elementals and the fae. A few years later, it became clear that the experiment was a huge mistake and the fae got out of control. The war was fought and the city was moved by several clans. Now it is in the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. It's a monument to our foolishness and the clan which was responsible for the experiment swore to maintain the city forever.”

Tina gestures for us to get going. “Yes. The Utluk are allowing this place to be used as a neutral meeting ground for all the other clans. It requires a lot of power to maintain this place, so they are tapping directly into one of Earth's ley-lines. It's a magnificent feat of spellcraft. One not even the fae managed to copy from us. They are maintaining Fairy with their own power.”

We walk down the street and are soon joined by a few of Tina's clan members. They found us soon after we started heading down the road, so I assume that Tina informed them of our arrival beforehand. I also realize that most of the other Old Ones are headed in the same direction as us. It's a silent procession.

At last, we arrive at a huge coliseum. It rivals the one in Rome. We follow the flow of people. Once inside the structure, I realize that it was built quite differently from the one in Rome. I only saw pictures, but the humans chose to use many huge stairs to accommodate the audience.

This version doesn't allow for such kinship. Each clan has its respective pulpit, separating them from the others.

Magnus guides us to one that's at the front, where we are stopped by a clerk. “I am sorry. This one is reserved for the Bathomeus. They haven't shown their faces in a few hundred years, but reserved is reserved.” The clerk's eyes wander to me, checking me out.

Magnus raises his voice. “Eyes to me, or I'll make you eat them! I am Magnus Bathomeus and I paid a hefty sum for these seats.”

The clerk squints his eyes at Magnus, clearly intent on making trouble. His eyes return to me. “I am afraid tha-blergh!”

Faster than I could have stopped him, Magnus jabs his fingers into the man's throat. The man didn’t see it coming since his eyes were glued to me. He drops the board with his notes, mouth wide open and gasping for air. Magnus performs two more quick jabs and the man’s eyes disappear from their sockets.

Magnus walks forward, shoving the eyes into the man's mouth, muffling the scream. While doing so, Magnus pushes him towards the balustrade. Then he performs a perfect uppercut straight to the chin. A sickening 'crunch' tells me that something broke… or popped. The clerk topples backwards and over the balustrade, into the coliseum.

“Wha- wha-” I don't get the words out. Why did he do that? The idiot was just looking at me.

Tina seems unconcerned and strolls into the pulpit, taking the seat with the best view. She pats the seat next to her. “Come, Sely. Take a seat.”

I hurry to sit down next to her.

Magnus pulls out a white handkerchief and starts cleaning his hands. He takes a look over the balustrade, checking out how the clerk is doing. Then he turns around and surveys the other spectators in their pulpits. Judging that they got the message, he joins us and takes the seat next to me.

“Why did you do that!?” I whisper.

He doesn't bother to lower his voice. “He was looking at you and I told him not to. Now he won't check you out any longer and most of the others who were ogling you have stopped doing so.”

Tina leans over to me. “I think you underestimate how beautiful you are. You are an eye-catcher. If Magnus doesn't make it clear that you are his, he'll have to answer dozens of challenges for your goodwill before the day is over.”

I scowl, realizing that Tina isn't bothered by this at all. Apparently my isolation at the compound did me no favours when it comes to social interactions with other clans. “As if I would be tempted to leave him just because someone manages to defeat Magnus.”

She sighs. “You have no idea how many women just have eyes for the most powerful man.”

I turn around to quickly check the nearby spectators. Most of them are indeed avoiding eye contact with me, so all that's left to do, is to study the big crest above our pulpit. It's a big, black eagle. The wings are spread wide and it's holding a lance in one claw, and an orb in the other. Rays of energy are showing that the orb is supposed to be an item of power. “What's that?”

“Our family crest. You already know the lance, but the orb was the true secret behind the Bathomeus’s rise to power. It's an enchanted power stone, but not a normal one. It doesn't need to be charged and gives off a constant flow of energy. It's the secret of my strong Veil,” Magnus explains casually.

I look at him with my forehead furrowed.

He smiles and tugs me closer, reaching around my waist. “That's public knowledge. Haven't you studied your new home's history?”

Huffing, I cross my arms in front of my chest. “It's not exactly as if I had a lot of free time recently.”

Tina gestures for us to be silent. “I think the first elder is about to start his opening speech.”