Chapter 18: The Seal of Origin
—Narrated by Eli Whitmore
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The storm had passed, but something in the air still buzzed. It wasn't just magic—it was fate. Like the world had turned a page, and now we were heading deeper into the unknown.
After Seris Whitmore, my long-lost aunt, gave me the first key to the Final Gate—a gleaming shard that pulsed when I touched it—I couldn't sleep for nights. I kept turning it over in my hands, feeling it hum softly like it knew more than it could say.
One evening, as the sun dipped behind the spires of the Arcane Institute, I sat in the old greenhouse near the east wing—my secret place. That's when my mother came.
"Eli," Amara Whitmore said, her voice soft, like a warm wind in autumn. "May I sit?"
I nodded, surprised. Mom wasn't usually the one to visit like this. She had always kept her magic sealed, buried deep in the past. But now her eyes glowed faintly, her presence calm but strong.
She sat beside me, placing her hands on her lap. For a moment, we just watched the sunflowers tilt toward the dying light.
"Your father would've been proud of you," she whispered.
I didn't speak. I just waited. And then she reached into the folds of her cloak and pulled out a small, silver pendant shaped like a crescent moon. It shimmered with pale blue light.
"This," she said, placing it gently in my palm, "is the second key."
My breath caught. "You had it this whole time?"
She nodded. "I couldn't give it to you before. Not until the first found its way to you. Only then would the second awaken."
The pendant pulsed the moment it touched my skin, and it glowed with the same light as the first shard. They resonated together—two pieces of something bigger.
"Why me?" I asked. "Why are these keys tied to our family?"
Mom looked away, her fingers trembling slightly. "Because we carry the Seal of Origin, Eli."
I blinked. "The what?"
She hesitated. "It's an ancient mark… created when the very first Gate Way Keeper bound the realms together. It runs in our bloodline—through Seraphina, through me… through you."
My heart thudded. "So I was… born for this?"
"Not just you," she said, brushing hair from my forehead. "All of us. But only one bearer is chosen every few centuries. And you, my son… you are that bearer now."
I couldn't breathe. It all felt so heavy—but also… right.
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That night, I dreamed.
In the dream, Seraphina Whitmore stood in a silver garden under a sky with two moons. Her long white cloak billowed as she turned toward me, her eyes glowing with quiet sadness.
"You have two keys," she said. "But the third lies in a place forgotten by time."
"Where?" I asked.
She raised a hand, pointing to the sky.
"Not where, Eli. When."
Then the garden twisted, the sky cracked open, and I saw glimpses of a temple carved into a cliff, surrounded by golden sand and storms. And in the center—
A book.
Bound in chains.
"Only when the truth is remembered," Seraphina whispered, "can the final key be found."
I woke up with sweat on my brow and my sheets tangled around me. My chest hurt like I'd been running for hours.
The next morning, I met with Thorne and the others in the central tower.
"Another dream?" Thorne asked, reading my face.
"Yeah," I said. "And this one... showed me where the third key might be."
Felix crossed his arms. "You said 'might.' That doesn't sound very convincing."
"It's not just a place," I said. "It's time itself. Seraphina said the key is locked in something forgotten by time."
Akhira frowned. "That could mean a temporal vault or a spell anchoring a place out of the timeline."
Thorne looked thoughtful. "Either way, it's connected to you. To your legacy. And we'll find it."
I looked at them—all of them.
My friends. My family.
And I said, "We're going to uncover the Seal of Origin. We're going to find the third key. And together—we will open the Final Gate."
No more hiding. No more waiting.
The truth was calling. And I was ready to answer.
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To be continued...