If you read the first book in the series, The Alchemyst, you would have read that after escaping from Hekate's Shadowrealm, Nicholas, Sophie, Josh, and Scathach fled to Ojai where Scatty's grandmother, the Witch of Endor, lives. Here, Sophie learns the magic of air from the Witch, but instead of teaching Sophie the magic in the regular way, the Witch gives all of her memories to Sophie. When Dr. John Dee tries to trap the group, they escape through a leygate. A leygate is a point where two or more leylines meet. When you go through a leygate, you can travel from one point of a globe to another along a leyline. In this case, the group went to Paris where they were given an unwanted greeting by Dee's associate, Niccolo Machiavelli. He nearly captured them, but with the spectacular firework distraction by Flamel's old student and Master of Fire, Comte de Saint-Germain, they escaped safely. Scatty, Sophie, and Josh went with Saint-Germain while Nicholas went to retrieve some objects from his old house. At Saint-Germain's safe house, they met Saint-Germain's wife, Joan d'Arc, who was the last person to have a pure silver aura like Sophie. Joan helped Sophie to shape her aura and sort the thoughts that the Witch gave her. Sophie and Josh both sleep for nearly a day and a half and when they wake up, Nicholas is back and eating breakfast. Since Josh hasn't been Awakened yet, Nicholas gives him the sword known as Clarent to protect himself. Scatty teaches Josh the basics of sword-fighting during the time that Sophie learns fire magic from Saint-Germain. In the middle of the night, Machiavelli and Dee use Disir to attack the house. The Disir unleash the Nidhogg and then start to attack the house. Scathach and Josh try to fend off the Nidhogg, but Scathach was captured by the Nidhogg so Josh had to fight it by himself. Joan and Sophie together defeat two Disir and then together with Nicholas go after Josh and the Nidhogg. To find out what happens in the end, read The Magician by Michael Scott.
