Chapter 31: *"Tomes carry power within their pages..."*
“To train your abilities, we will need a place of power. Your Uncle Brock already has a spot for us to use.” Lissanna told Matt.
Matt cocked his head to the side a little, a look of confusion on his face. “Why does Uncle Brock already have a spot for training?” He asked.
Lissanna paused for a second. ‘I hope he reacts well to this…’ she prayed internally. “Your Uncle Brock is one of the rare beings not directly related to our mother Clan who has been given the privilege of reading this training tome…and the others our family has.”
Matt looked at his mother silently with an expressionless face. He was not sure how he should feel about his Uncle Brock being a part of this. “You just got done telling me only those of our mother Clan’s bloodline can read those giant ancient text books you call tomes.”
Lissanna nodded. “Generally speaking, because he is not of our mother Clan’s bloodline, he should not have been able to see the words or read them even if he could see them. They are written in the original language of the Fae. However, your Uncle Brock’s family is made up of generations of trainers blessed by the Moon Goddess. Whatever is in their bloodline allows them to read ours and other otherwise unreadable training tomes. There is a Clan of Ice Dragon Masters, as fellow occupiers of the Antarctic, who can also read our mother Clans tomes.”
Matt was stunned again and had to take a minute to process what his mother had just told him. Jumping up from his chair, Matt started to pace around. “Why would the Dragon Masters need to read our mother Clans training tomes, do they have the same kind of power?” he asked as he continued to pace.
Lissanna followed Matt’s movements with her eyes as he went back and forth behind his chair. “No, their power is different from ours. Dragon Masters just like to collect knowledge and information. As our mother Clan was also an occupier of the Antarctic, they became curious about us and wanted to learn more. As they were able to see and read the words of the tomes, our mother Clan’s Alpha let them study the books.”
Matt frowned. “The Clan Alpha allowed it because they could read the words on the pages?”
“Yes. In the millions of years our mother Clan has occupied the Antarctic, your Uncle Brock’s family, and that Clan of Dragon Masters has been the only outsiders granted access to our family tomes.” Lissanna explained.
Matt, now that he had calmed down, sat in his chair. “Why are the Dragon Masters able to see the words on the pages of our tomes?” he asked, curious.
Lissanna smiled at Matt, now that he had calmed down, he was once more her curious little pup…well…he wasn’t all that little anymore. “The Dragon Masters were born of this earth about the same time the Sidhe and Fae Folk came into being. It is said, this Clan of Dragon Masters, were close to the same Ice Fae as our mother Clan was. Before all the Sidhe and Fae Folk retreated to Underhill.”
Matt nodded then got lost in thought, the amount of history all the Supernatural races had was headache inducing. There were literal millions and even billions of years of history. The Dragon’s have documents that went back to the times the Earth was at its wildest. It explained why their historians were so valued, there was just so much history to know about, and learn. It was endless.
Lissanna watched the expressions that chased themselves across Matt's face while he silently got lost in thought. When Matt frowned and started to rub his temples, Lissanna became concerned. “Matt?”
Matt jerked upright in his chair, his gaze snapping to his mothers. “Yes?”
With a worried frown Lissanna asked, “Does your head hurt?”
Matt gave his mom a wry half grin, “I was giving myself a headache thinking about all the history of the supernatural races.”
Lissanna grimaced in sympathetic pain. “Oh, son, you really should not torment yourself this way. You’ll have enough to deal with learning about your family's own millions of years of history.”
Matt looked at his mother with a funny expression on his face. He did not know whether he should be laughing or crying at this moment. “Was that supposed to make me feel better or worse?”
Lissanna blinked, at a loss for a moment. Her intention had been to make her pup feel better, but now that she thought about her words. Lissanna cringed, she could see why Matt had asked the question he had. “Well…not worse.”
Matt let out a sigh, giving his mother a hard time would only make him and her both feel bad. “It’s all right, I know you meant well.”
Lissanna smiled brightly. “Really?”
Matt looked into his mother’s hopeful expression and could only nod. “Yes, really.”
Lissanna, smiling, placed the tome on the coffee table between them. “Go ahead and open it up.”
Matt looked down at the ancient book, the cover was a dark charcoal, and printed on the cover in a shiny silver blue color, was a wolf. The wolf was sitting, howling at the crescent moon above him. Inside the mouth of the crescent moon was a snowflake, shaped into an eight point nautical star. Surrounding the wolf and moon, was a circle of intricate knots.
It had him looking up at his mother and the mating mark on her neck. Circling the mark, was an ice blue ring made of intricate knots with a star shaped snowflake placed along at regular intervals. In the middle were wolves facing each other and howling. Above and to the left of the pair, was the same crescent moon with the star shaped snowflake that was on the tome. Behind the other wolf was a mountain. The mark’s colors were all various shades of ice blues and purples.
Matt, looking at his mother’s mating mark, started to wonder what his and Rain’s would look like. “The mark on the book, is it our family crest?”
Lissanna nodded, she had noticed Matt’s attention on her mating mark after seeing the crest on the tome and explained. “It is the crest of our mother clan, and is very prominent in our bloodline’s mating marks.”
Matt liked that his mating mark would incorporate some of this crest into it. Matt read the Clan name on the front of the tome ‘Permafrost’ before running a hand over the cover. Matt felt a jolt of surprise when he felt the energy inside the tome reach out to him.
“Feel the power?” Lissanna asked Matt in a low voice.
Matt nodded, his gaze focused on the tome. “I feel it, what is it?”
“That energy is what makes this a tome, and not ‘some ancient textbook’. Tomes carry power within their pages, and are not to be taken lightly. They are made up of powerful and ancient magics that are dangerous if handled incorrectly. “Lissanna explained.
Matt froze, feeling a bit of guilt run through him at how he dismissed the importance of the tome earlier as just some ancient text book. “Sorry mom.”
Lissanna, understanding why Matt apologized, waved a hand. “As long as you know. Now, open the tome.”
Matt opened the book, and at once, silver blue calligraphy flowed and looped across the first page. At first, Matt was unable to understand the words written on the page, then suddenly he was. Lissanna was watching Matt’s expression when it lit up in wonder as he read the first page of the tome, this brought her memories of her own wonder at being able to read the tome.
What Matt did not know yet, but soon would, was that once you read the tome, you were gifted with the ability to understand the Sidhe and Fae languages in it. Once given, this gift would allow you to read everything that had been written in those same languages.
Lissanna watched as Matt flipped through page after page of the tome and suddenly wished she had a cup of hot tea. Pulling out her phone Lissanna sent a message to Didi, requesting she send a pot of tea to her and Matt.
Didi responded quickly and asked her if she wanted any snacks. Lissanna glanced up from her phone to Matt, he had just woken up so he would need to eat something, glancing back down she told Didi that they would appreciate the snacks.
Matt was so focused on the tome, he didn’t even look up when Didi knocked on his bedroom door a dozen or so minutes later. Lissanna got up from her chair and answered the door with a finger to her lips.
Didi nodded when she saw this and quietly helped her roll the tea cart into the sitting room next to the coffee table. Didi quietly set up the table, going unnoticed by Matt. Lissanna walked Didi back to the door, and with a smile whispered a ‘thank you’. Didi smiled in return and mouthed out a ‘no problem before making her way down the hallway.
Lissanna returned to her chair and made up a cup of tea for Matt, setting it next to him, along with a small plate of shortbread cookies. Sitting back with her own hot cup of tea and plate of cookies, Lissanna smiled as Matt absentmindedly drank his tea and ate his cookies while reading.