The night after her grueling but invigorating combat session with Lukas and Zois, Eila slept like a stone.
When the next morning came, Her muscles groaned in protest at her attempts to get out of the bed. She needed to practice every day. With some difficulty, she reminded herself to be ready on time or she will be late for her healer training.
She dressed quickly and rushed out after having a quick breakfast with family. When she reached the infirmary the sun was still low, casting pale gold across the misty village paths.
As soon as she entered the doors she heard someone calling her. It was one of the junior healers at the infirmary.
"There's something… strange, Lady Eila," he whispered, eyes darting. "Left outside the infirmary door. No one knows who placed it."
She was surprised because she just came across that way and there was nothing, but, as it turned out that he was talking about the other door that goes towards the pack house.
Outside the infirmary's front steps, set with eerie precision, was a small obsidian box sealed with a crimson sigil she didn't recognize—a crescent moon curved over an inverted flame, bound in a ring of thorns.
No scent. No trace of aura. It was like it had appeared from thin air.
She knelt beside it cautiously. The sigil seemed to hum when she reached for it, a quiet vibration in her bones. Her wolf, Sera, stirred inside her with unease.
"It's not from our realm," Sera whispered.
"But it was meant for you."
Just as Eila extended her hand to touch it, Nina's voice rang out.
"Don't!"
Nina stepped forward, robes flaring like wings. Her eyes were sharp behind her gold-framed glasses, and her lips were set in a line of worry.
"I was just on my way to find you. And now I see the box…" Nina eyed the sigil with concern. "It confirms my suspicions."
Eila stood, heart hammering. "What do you mean?"
Nina didn't speak right away. She looked around, murmured a few words in the old tongue, and created a privacy veil of shimmering energy around them. The world outside seemed to fade into muffled silence.
Then, Nina reached into her satchel and pulled out a scroll—ancient, brittle, the edges singed as though rescued from fire. A similar sigil was faintly etched on the broken seal.
"This scroll," she began, "was found in the ruins of the Temple of Ashwind—destroyed centuries ago during the fall of the Last Summoner."
Eila's breath caught. "The Summoner… Jeremy? And where is the Temple of Ashwind?"
"No," Nina said. "Not him. But one who came before. A woman named…. Chanera. Temple of Ashwind is an ancient temple of witchcraft. We worship the elements of nature there."
She handed Eila the scroll. The name burned across the parchment in bold, smudged script.
VENERA.
"Chanera and Venera were sisters, they together were the first to open the Veil, but after realising her sister's evil intentions Venera pushed her whole existence in closing it back." Nina explained. "Or so legend says. They say some prophecies about her and her evil sister was not discussed much. The prophecy goes… "A witch born of fire and darkness." The High Seers of old believed she wasn't fully of this world. That she was… chosen. Or cursed. Much like you."
Eila's hand tightened around the scroll. "What happened to her?"
"She disappeared while trying to close the Veil, unlike you she didn't have trusted allies. She lived long life something close to mine only to lose it in the Veil." Nina said. "But she left traces—sigils like the one on that box. Prophecies. Knowledge. A secret child and warnings."
Eila looked back down at the obsidian box. "So this is connected to her?"
"I believe so," Nina said softly. "And now someone has given it to you."
Eila slowly turned back to the box. "I have to open it."
"No," Nina said firmly. "Not yet. We'll study the scroll first. Venera's magic is… unstable. If this object came from her legacy, it could be laced with unpredictable power."
A chill passed through Eila's body—but not of fear. Of familiarity.
Like a long-forgotten voice had whispered her name from inside that box.
Back inside the infirmary's warded study room, Nina began to carefully unroll the scroll. The ink was smudged in places, faded in others. Yet Eila's eyes instantly locked onto one phrase:
"The Triad's Flame will awaken when the blood of Venera stirs again."
And below that, another chilling line:
"The last of her line carries both the key and the curse. The Seal will call to her. And the Veil will answer."
Eila's pulse pounded.
"The Seal…" she murmured, looking out toward the box.
"It's calling me."