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The Alchemyst Chapter 25 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Meanwhile, Dee waits until the last of the cats and birds go into the Shadowrealm before he enters. 
  • He has been careful all these years not to be the first into battle, and is convinced that this has helped him stay alive. (It's also a bit cowardly, if we may say so.)
  • When he steps into the opening to the Shadowrealm, he emerges onto a battlefield. 
  • Taking out his sword, once called Excalibur, he sets off to find the World Tree.
  • Then we jump back to our heroes. 
  • Scatty, we learn, is allergic to cats and birds and hates them both. So we're guessing that the whole herd of cats and birds headed for the Shadowrealm can't mean anything good.
  • In any case, Scatty finds Flamel and gives him an update about the battle. 
  • She says she'll hold down the fort to allow the twins to get as close as possible to finishing the Awakening process. 
  • But she wants to know when Flamel will tell the twins the whole truth—that he and Perenelle will age a year for every day they go without the formula for immortality. 
  • Soon he says. And then he takes the short staff Hekate has given him made from a branch on the World Tree. 
  • If Bastet and the Morrigan's forces manage to get past Scatty, Flamel knows he is ready to take them on, staff in hand. 
  • But, still, he's hoping he won't have to, because using his powers might weaken him, causing him to age even faster.
  • Back inside the hollow, Hekate chooses to Awaken Sophie, the elder twin (although older only by a few seconds) first. 
  • She states her parents' names—Sarah and Richard Newman. She feels strange calling them anything other than Mom and Dad.
  • Hekate proceeds to Awaken Sophie's powers, having her "see with acuity... taste with purity... touch with sensitivity... and smell with intensity" until Sophie's aura glows. 
  • She levitates off the floor. Awesome.
  • What's not so awesome is that Sophie actually passes out cold from the intensity of her Awakened powers. 
  • This makes Josh both angry and worried. 
  • He snaps at Hekate, furious that his sister might be in the danger they heard about. 
  • Suddenly, Hekate's nostrils flare and she screams that the World Tree is burning. 
  • Josh feels powerless to help the girl floating off the floor.
  • She was once his sister, but now she's so different in ways he cannot understand.