Chapter 17: Shaia’s Book

I am seated in the middle of a circle surrounded by nine plain white balls, I take a deep breath and say “attollo”  and the balls begin to rise. I smile, feeling proud of myself then I focus my energy on my body and I begin to rise too “Okay now you’re just showing off” I hear Nereus say. I look at him and giggle then one of the balls explodes. That makes me lose my focus a bit and I drop to the ground, however, I catch myself a few inches from the floor and stand. Nereus gives me a look “okay that one wasn’t on me, I just balanced nine balls in the air plus myself, you distracted me” I say and he chuckles “I was going to say you did good” he responds, I roll up my mat then he and I make our way back home.

We have gotten a lot closer ever since we stopped trying to kill each other and he has lessened the amount of time I spent in physical combat training, between that and Lare acting as my therapist, I have actually been able to deal with most of my emotional and mental blockage so it would appear Shaia was right, I am gonna give that woman a hug when I see her. “Did you see where the scar appeared this time?” I ask Nereus, we have a working theory that the placement of my  crescent moon scar is based on what ability I am using. Any time I explode something the scar is on my left temple around my hairline, when I healed Nereus the scar appeared on the back of my left hand. “Close to your collarbone” Nereus says and I nod making a mental note to write that down when I get back in. “Shaia gave me a book” I tell Nereus when we are almost at the entrance of the house, he has an unreadable expression on his face then he asks “what did it say?” “I don’t know, I haven’t read it yet” I respond. He immediately stops and looks at me like a third eye just appeared on my forehead, I subconciously touch my forehead to be sure I haven’t sprouted an extra eye “the only person in the world that has a better understanding of this entire situation gave you a book and you haven’t read it yet?” he says, “I was in training” my voice is really low when I respond. He wraps me in a hug and whispers my ears “that’s a terrible excuse” he says “and everything else planned for you today is cancelled you are staying in the library until you are done with that book” he adds, I put my hand to my head like a soldier and respond “Sir yes sir” then I plant a kiss on his cheek. I go to my room, take a shower, pick up the book and head into the library.

The page I open, isn’t written by Shaia, In fact I think the entire book isn’t written by Shaia, it is signed by someone named “Kairos”

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To My Grandchild, the Vessel:

My great-grandmother performed an experiment with twenty one of her peers; under the full moon, they transferred their powers to her and made a werewolf human. She was chosen because at the time she was the purest aetherius with both parents descended from the original aetherius bloodline. After that ceremony my great-grandmother was unable to transfer the powers back and all her peers who had performed the ceremony with her became powerless and human. Generations passed and no one remembered that story again except the aetheria of course, it was a warning to us never to attempt such a thing anymore but Niovi told the story to a friend that she trusted; Calix. 

At first Calix took no care for the story but when his friend Athanasios was made Alpha, Calix began to think he was called to a more glorious purpose than to be a beta. Instead of being a trusted right hand to his Alpha, Calix at every turn tried to undermine Athanasios’ authority. Athanasios came to a breaking point and demoted Calix, furious Calix vowed that he would create his own pack and it would be the strongest in the world. Of course he was laughed at, there was no way for him to achieve such a feat. 

Niovi was young and she thought Calix loved her so when he asked that she allow him into my grimoire she did. That was how Calix found out that in the right circumstance when the moon is at its peak an aetherius can channel the goddess’s power to strengthen a wolf so a half-blood would become like a pure blood and a pure blood would be even stronger. He reasoned that since a ceremony was performed to make a wolf human, surely one could be done to turn a human into a wolf. However not all aetherius can perform the ritual, most times it takes the combined effort of three and one of them has to act as the channelling vessel and they all have to be of age having had their moon ceremony, but Calix did not know this. So he manipulated Niovi to perform the ceremony to increase his power. Niovi was only sixteen, she tried but seeing as they did not do it the right way Niovi was struck and Calix ran away leaving her to die.

Niovi survived, I made sure of that; she healed and so did her broken heart. She went on to train as a warrior and excelled at it, however, after the failed moon ritual she stopped showing any of her aetherius abilities but I believed that would change after her moon ceremony. Her moon ceremony came and the worst thing happened, Niovi showed no signs of aetherius power, whatever Calix had made her do had doomed her and made her powerless. She didn’t seem to care, but I did so when the time was right I infused her with a bit of my powers and told everyone she was a time aetherius and lied to her also. My power made it possible for Niovi to predict every move an opponent was going to make on the battlefield and that’s what made her such a powerful warrior. She met Athanasios, they fell in love and were mated. 

Years later I began to hear news that a few aetheria had gone missing but I didn’t treat it as urgently as I should have because Niovi had just told me she and Athanasios were expecting a child. In that regard, I failed my duty as a sacredos. A young child named Shaia  had a vision about Niovi’s child and her mother Irene had sent word that they would be coming to see me. They arrived sooner than I had expected them; they had to flee from their home because Calix had attacked it with a band of malformed wolves and it was then I found out Calix had developed a weapon called the creation dagger. It had the ability to draw power out of an aetherius and he intended to use that to create his army of superior wolves. Calix was capturing helpless humans that were not in any way related or descended from the original seven bloodlines and trying to make them into new wolves. That required an enormous amount of power, It required the forbidden ritual to happen again a pure blood aetherius with both parents descended from the bloodline of the original aetherius; Niovi’s Child.

Unfortunately Calix has become too powerful and the only way to stop him is to perform the ceremony ourselves, but you my child would be too young. So I have devised a plan to send you to a place with a guide that would tell you what to do when the time is right. The last of us thirty aetherius left would imbue you with our powers and I would send you to a time when you can grow peacefully without Calix. When you come of age, you will have the power to save all the unfortunate humans tortured and turned by Calix.

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I pause and close the book. My grandmother wrote this, she just wanted to send me a few years into the future  when Calix would have died but somehow overshot that goal. Her sole reason for sending me forward was to help reverse the rogue curse without Calix’s interference. But it’s five hundred years after and rogues still exist so that means….