How It All Goes Down
- Josh, Sophie, Flamel, and Scatty pile into the Hummer waiting outside the Shadowrealm and drive off. We guess the Shadowrealm has a great valet service.
- Sophie is lying sprawled out with her head on Scatty's lap. Josh is worried about her, but Scatty promises she'll be okay.
- Josh remembers how creepy it was to hear Sophie talk in a voice that wasn't her own. He wants to go back to his normal life before he even accepted the job at the bookshop.
- And can you blame him?
- We flashback to Josh sending in his resume to work at the bookshop, and Sophie getting a job across the street at The Coffee Cup.
- It all had been so perfect up until yesterday, Josh thinks.
- Let's face it: Josh is angry. Flamel made his sister a perfect stranger to him.
- But our boy is also torn, because he had come to genuinely like the Alchemyst when he worked at the shop.
- That's because Flamel is everything Josh's real father isn't.
- See, Josh's dad is only happy in front of a lecture hall with students, or on an archaeological dig.
- But Flamel and Josh were able to connect over pop culture, like The Simpsons, and Josh had started to look at his boss as a cool older brother.
- But now he just feels betrayed.
- Back in the present, Josh asks Flamel pointedly if he knew all this would happen—whether the Book had predicted the day's events.
- Flamel answers that there is a thing or two Josh needs to know about the Codex.
- For one thing, the book is much older than Flamel had thought. The Elder Race that had ruled the earth had more advanced science then he knew—science so developed that we'd call it magic. These Elders possessed the power to clone, to control the weather, and even to fly. They're like a combination of every superhero ever.
- When Josh seems skeptical, Flamel uses an example from present day: with the Internet and other advances of the past 10 years, we are able to achieve what "your parents would have dismissed as impossible and your grandparents as nothing short of magical."
- Flamel finally tells Josh that twins are mentioned in the prophecy. That's right, Josh and Sophie themselves, are in the prophecy.
- That seals the deal, and Josh says he believes Flamel.
- Then, they all stop for breakfast. Sure, the world might be ending, but that just means they really need their Wheaties.
- When Sophie wakes up, she remembers certain things about Perenelle in prison, but nothing about what happened on the battlefield, so Josh fills her in.
- After breakfast, they pile back in the car and use the GPS feature to head toward Ojai in southern California.
- It's time to see the Witch of Endor.
- Scatty looks unhappy, and no wonder—the Witch is her grandmother.