01_-_The_Alchemyst

Book. I saw him trap the Magic of First Working, the oldest magic, in its
sheets.”
“I apologize,” Flamel said quickly. “I did not know.”
“There is no reason you should have known.” Hekate smiled, but there
was nothing humorous in it. “That eldritch magic is so strong that most of my
people cannot even bear to look upon the letters. Those who came after the
original Elder Race, though still of our blood”—and here she gestured
toward Scathach—“can look upon the Codex, though even they cannot touch
it. The ape descendents—the humani—can. It was Abraham’s ultimate joke.
He married one of the first humani, and I believe he wanted to ensure that
only his children could handle the book.”
“We’re the ape descendents,” Josh said, his voice unconsciously
dropping to little more than a whisper.
“The humani…the human race,” Sophie said, then fell silent as Flamel
continued talking.
“Is that why the Book was given into my keeping?”
“You are not the first of the humani to…to care for the Codex,” Hekate
said carefully. “It should never have been created in the first place,” she
snapped, threads of red and green running like live wires on her robe. “I
advocated that every single page should be separated from the others and
dropped into the nearest volcano, and Abraham along with it.”
“Why wasn’t it destroyed?” Nicholas asked.
“Because Abraham had the gift of Sight. He could actually see the
curling strands of time, and he prophesied that there would come a day when
the Codex and all the knowledge it contained would be needed.”
Scatty stepped away from the SUV and approached Flamel. She was
still holding the bow loosely by her side, and she noted how Hekate’s buttercolored
eyes watched her closely.
“The Book of the Mage was always assigned a guardian,” Scathach
explained to Flamel. “Some, history recalls as the greatest heroes of myth,