Legacy: The Mark of Merlin. Gerald Pruett

liken incantation is one of the incantations that will only work beneath those three moons, and the liken incantation changes human into beast.

      Ellen looked up while guessing, “Oh, so wolf-likens are werewolves.”

      “No, Sweetie,” Shannon replied. “But werewolves are byproducts of wolf-likens.”

      “Explain,” Ellen quickly requested.

      “Keep reading, Sweetie. I swear that the answers are in those pages.”

      “Okay,” Ellen said before turning her attention back to the Legacy volume.

       The liken incantation is one of the incantations that will only work beneath those three moons, and the liken incantation changes human into beast.

       Several magical ingredients are required to cast the incantation to change someone into a beast. I don’t know the incantation, so I don’t know what ingredients are required. I do know though that blood of the selected animal is required.

       To change someone into a wolf-liken, wolf’s blood is required. The more wolf’s blood within the mixture means that the wolf-liken’s intelligence will be savage like, more violent, and the individual won’t remember once he or she returns to his or her human form. Being more wolf-like is the desired trait when the wolf-likens are sent to viciously attack the enemy.

       On the other hand, less blood within the mixture means that the wolf-liken will be highly intelligent and the individual will retain memories of his or her experience of being a wolf. Being more intelligent is the desired trait when the wolf-likens are on a reconnaissance mission.

       As long as too much blood wasn’t used during the incantation, the liken spell is completely broken once the moon of the night after the full moon had set.

       If too much blood was used though, the liken becomes venomous and a venomous liken will forever change into the selected animal beneath the moonlight of the three moons. (The night before the full moon, the night of the full moon and the night after the full moon.)

      “Oh, so a venomous wolf-liken is a werewolf,” Ellen uttered as she looked towards Shannon.

      Shannon grinned before saying, “Since that question isn’t directly answered in the volumes, I’ll answer it. Yes, venomous wolf-likens are werewolves, and before you ask, a person surviving a werewolf attack will also become a werewolf.”

      “Will silver harm werewolves as it shows in the movies?” Ellen asked. “Or is that explained in the book?”

      “It is explained, but not in that volume,” Shannon said.

      “So silver will harm werewolves?”

      Shannon thought of her answer before saying, “Okay, first of all, you need to know that there is an incantation known as the ‘Impervious incantation’. Impervious incantation will make wounds heal in a fraction of the time, and wounds that would normally be fatal—like gunshot wounds to the head—will no longer be fatal.”

      “Okay,” Ellen said.

      “Now if the impervious incantation was cast prior to the liken incantation then silver will be the only thing that can kill an impervious werewolf. Oh and anyone surviving an impervious werewolf attack will also become an impervious werewolf. However, if only the liken incantation was cast then the werewolf is not an impervious werewolf and anything that can kill a wolf can kill that type of a werewolf.”

      “So silver affects the impervious incantation,” Ellen guessed.

      Shannon grinned and shook her head before saying, “Tanya had warned me about your inquiring mind.”

      Ellen amusingly grinned before saying, “Inquiring mind wants to know.”

      “Mmm,” Shannon uttered with a nod. “And you’re right. And the reason why you’re right is that a precise amount of silver powder is one of the key ingredients to the impervious incantation. In fact, impervious incantation is one of the hardest spells to cast correctly. Not enough silver powder in the mix will cause the spell to fail completely, but too much silver powder will kill the person who the spell is being cast on.”

      “So shooting an impervious werewolf with a silver bullet increases the silver amount, thus killing the impervious werewolf,” Ellen guessed.

      “Exactly,” Shannon said.

      “Okay, since wizards, witches and werewolves are real, what about vampires?”

      “The answer to that is in the second chronological volume, and somehow, I don’t believe that your inquiring mind can wait that long for the answer.”

      “It can’t,” Ellen said while vigorously shaking her head. “Inquiring mind wants to know now.”

      “Yes, well, vampires are mentioned in the second chronological volume, but only as rumors to their existence.”

      “Well that was insightful information,” Ellen said disappointingly.

      “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, but you need to understand that there are wizards and witches out there who care very little for human life, and they will perform vampiric acts during certain incantations. However, during the 1300’s a large number of vampiric killings were reported in one of the Italian cities and according to the Legacy volumes there were no witches or wizards in that city during the time of those deaths.”

      “Interesting,” Ellen said before thinking of another question that she wanted to know about. “So in which volume does it speak about the shadowing-truth spell that was cast that turned truth into rumors?”

      Shannon grinned before saying, “In the third chronological volume. And since your inquiring mind will explode before you reach that volume, I’ll explain it now.” Ellen just grinned. “Merlin was the one who had shown King Arthur and the people that wizardry or witchcraft shouldn’t be feared. Throughout the generations after Merlin, the kings of England had even appointed a wizard or sorceress as a royal advisor.

      “But as the Wizard Wars progressed into their later years, the Wizard Wars’ effects were spilling over into the non-magical population, and as a result the non-magical population was fleeing the land. King Henry the Fifth couldn’t have that so he ordered the three wizard lines to end the hostilities towards each other, or he will end those wars his way. And his way would’ve been creating a decree that would exterminate the entire magical community. King Henry the Fifth even had his soldiers patrolling to make sure that his warning didn’t go ignored.

      “Anyway, on April 5, 1421 open hostilities ended between the wizard lines immediately; however, the wars actually continued in secret for eight more years. And in spite of King Henry the Fifth’s assurance to the non-magical population that the wars were over, the non-magical population continued to vacate the land.

      “In the response to the leaving population, King Henry the Fifth called before him a representative of each of the three lines, and once the three were in front of him, he ordered them to correct the damages that they had caused, and he didn’t care how. He even had the three locked in the dungeon and heavily guarded until a solution was found.

      “After quarrelling constantly for almost three days the representative of the Fire and Water line had suggested to combine the obscuring incantation with the shadowing incantation, which later became known as the shadowing-truth incantation…”

      “So the shadowing-truth incantation is actually two spells?” Ellen interrupted with.

      “It’s a tailored spell from two spells,” Shannon explained. “And tailored spells are also very difficult to create.”

      “So