"Who were Katalena and Elijah?" Noah asked. He knew his mother would never tell him, so he had to find another source.

Mr. Johnston however saw this as an interesting opportunity. "Come back with me to my place and after a little fun if you know what I mean, perhaps I'll tell you. But really your mother could always tell you better than I could."

"No way you're going to tell me without that? You should know that mother won't tell me anything! She still thinks of me as a child."

"Even if I were willing to just hand over all the information free there wouldn't be enough time before your mother returns. So to prove to you that I have something worth trading for, I'll give you a small taste of what I have to offer. Katalena was your mother's sister and she had twins, Elijah was one. However, due to people like your mother believing giving birth to more than one child at a time is the devil's work you won't find any birth or death records for him."

"So what happened to them?"

Mr. Johnston smirked, "I told you. You only get a taste."

Noah growled but before he could say anything his mother returned.

"I've talked to Ryoden and he's coming over later so we can work out more details."

Mr. Johnston smiled and said, "Then I shall take my leave."

Noah ran to him and said, "I demand you tell me more."

Hiding his face from Ivera he whispered, "Nothing's free. Everything has a price."

Ivera asked, "What is he asking?"

Mr. Johnston smiled and said, "Don't worry about it, Ivera. Just a little man to man talk."

Ivera was pleased thinking that Noah finally had a father figure to look up to and open up too.

"My offer to come back to my place and help me out still stands."

Ivera was pleased and said, "If you go, be sure to bundle up good. No telling when that blizzard might hit."

"Actually I believe it already has."

"What? How did you get here then? We should be snowed in."

"I can't explain it. But it appears that some form of a shield has been placed around the kingdom. Very little snow is coming through it."

Ivera walked out and was stunned by what she saw. "This is the devil's work."

Mr. Johnston smirked and said, "Actually I believe it is called magic. Although I don't think anyone outside the castle knows magic."

"I knew it. I was kicked out of the castle by magic, once. I suspected that the devil child was responsible. I was right. JJ is the devil's child."

"I doubt little JJ could have done this."

"Noah told me himself that he saw him. I feared it was just another of his delusions. But now I see he was telling me the truth."

Mr. Johnston rolled his eyes. He hated people like her. 'Superstitious idiot.'

Although Noah didn't know how JJ came to be there and as a spirit, he didn't believe he was a devil. "Fine, I'll go back to your place. But you'll be sorry if you don't tell me more."

Mr. Johnston smiled pleased with that.

x-x-x-x-x

Zariah, Dartz and Krystyn arrived at her beach house.

"Excuse the mess, I haven't been staying here much lately."

"Grandfather, who is she?"

"She is Princess Zariah of Evakimlo. Her people were once the rulers of this land. Before normal humans took it over and had wars to divide up the land."

"My people teamed up with your grandfather to defeat Pandora."

"Wait, the same one Yami and his friends beat?"

"Yes, But what Yami and his friends beat was simply a shell of his former self. He was in too big of a rush to get out and get revenge that he didn't want to wait till he was at least at half strength. If he had been at full strength and at the height of his power they would have been beaten before they even began. Even at half strength I believe they would have been defeated. Though not as quickly. It took the combined powers of all the men in her tribe and my great grandfather to barely defeat him when he showed up the first time at full power. We tried but couldn't kill him, he was too strong, but we were able to exiled him and his minions to a shadow realm."

Zariah had been glaring at him since he made the comment about only the men helping with the battle, "What your bigoted grandfather said was half right."

"How is what I said bigoted? I simply stated…"

"That the big strong men went to war and the little women stayed home huddled up in fear hoping that their men would come home safe. I've got news for you old man. My people have never felt like you and your family. Even in this ever changing world women are second class citizens. Well not where I'm from. Women work as hard as the men and as long as they do they are treated with respect. As for your famous battle. No, the women didn't participate on the front lines of the battle itself. They remained behind not cowering in fear as you believe. No, they provided cover in the form of shields. This way the male warriors could concentrate on the battle and their spells and not have to worry about losing focus on their shields."

Dartz didn't like being scolded, especially by a woman. So he said "How long have you been here? I was not aware of any of your people ever leaving the safety of the island."

"Long enough. Though you're right my people fear the unknown. They are powerful warriors. But after the battle with Pandora a lot our people suffered from magic exhaustion. A lot of people feared we'd be attacked before our magic returned. So magic rocks with a powerful shield to hide us was erected. However by the time their magic was restored and with vigor, superstition and fear had clouded their minds. And they chose to remain isolated. I wanted more. I'm not saying life on the island is boring but I wanted something more."

"Wait, magic exhaustion, I've never heard of that." Krystyn said.

"It's not a lot different than what your grandfather did to Mokuba's brother. What he did is no different than Pandora or this Dice woman stealing others' powers for their own gain."

"You know of that. Then you must know why…"

"Why you chose theft? Yes, you're a coward."

"You have no right to talk to my grandfather that way!"

"You are the reason he's weak. You believe he didn't train you simply because you're a woman? You're half right. He could have trained you but his belief women should serve their husbands is one reason he didn't. By now one of two things should have happened to you. One you should have been married off to a powerful magician creating a powerful heir allowing your grandfather to train a worthy successor. Perhaps that's another reason he kept insisting Mokuba's brother or his friend to stick around. He was hoping one of them would see you as a love interest and although not as powerful as he might hope the children would be powerful enough that he could hope you'd produce a male heir and hope for finding a match of a nice woman from a strong magic background to marry him off to, to produce an even stronger heir. However instead he was too busy enjoying retirement and having you wait on him hand and foot he never bothered to look for a suitable candidate. In fact I just met one. I don't know his name. I simply call him the watcher because that seems to be his hobby."

"Ah I see he hasn't changed."

"Who grandfather?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say a former pupil. His name is Mahahdo of the Star Kingdom. I did consider him as like you said he is very powerful. But even as a teenager when I was training him, his habit of spying on people for fun and consequences for any mishaps that may happen, be damned."

Krystyn looked at Zariah and asked, "What was the second thing?"

"You would be sacrificed to the volcano god who would then grant your grandfather all your magic making him younger and stronger. Then point him in the direction of a woman who would not only accept him, move to the volcano to be with him but also help to produce a powerful male heir. The volcano god would provide knowledge of special things your grandfather could do to help make sure it's a boy. With the volcano's blessing the child would be extremely powerful. Why he did neither I don't know."