The sun had not risen, yet a strange red hue bathed the forest—neither dawn nor dusk, but something unnatural, like the breath of a wound in the sky. Jason stood at the edge of the broken shrine in Myren Hollow, his hands still trembling from the dream that had not yet fully faded. The Archivist's words echoed in his skull.
"You are not the first to awaken the Gate. You are merely the last."
The village behind him had fallen into a sleep so deep, it bordered on death. Only Nyra was awake, her silver eyes wide with unease as she watched the sky darken with streaks of crimson and gold lightning. The forest around them pulsed—alive, aware.
Jason's fingers brushed over the stone tablet Elias had entrusted to him. It contained fragments of a forgotten prophecy, one that spoke not just of the Gate but of an Oracle, one shattered by betrayal. According to Elias, this Oracle—once a living embodiment of fate—had been broken into seven consciousness shards and scattered through time and space.
"We have to find her," Jason murmured.
"Her?" Nyra tilted her head. "You mean the Oracle?"
Jason nodded. "If even a part of her survives, she might know how to stop the full opening of the Gate."
But they were not alone. In the shadows of the trees, something stirred.
The Watcher's Remnant
Deep within the whispering woods, an ancient entity—neither alive nor dead—began to awaken. The last remnant of the Watcher known as Caelestis stirred in his stone prison beneath the roots of the oldest tree in Myren Hollow. His senses, long dulled, sharpened.
He could feel Jason's blood calling.
He could feel the Gate crying.
The world had forgotten the Watchers. But the Gate had not.
Journey to the Shattered Oracle
Jason, Nyra, and Seren—a flame-bound warrior who had returned from scouting—began their journey eastward, toward the Obsidian Tundra. That was where Elias had last encountered the Oracle before her soul fractured in the Watcher War.
As they walked, visions plagued Jason. In each, he was both himself and someone else—a man in battle armor, a boy on fire, a ghost with silver hair. They blended and collided until Jason was no longer sure if the dreams were past, future, or parallel fragments.
In the night, the sky rained ash instead of stars.
They reached the ruins of the Skybone Cliffs on the third day. There, embedded in the cliffside, they found the first shard—glowing faintly with soft blue light, it pulsed like a heart.
As Jason touched it, a voice flooded his mind.
"Child of the last Anchor… why have you come?"
"I need to stop the Gate," Jason whispered. "But I don't know how."
"Then you must find all seven pieces of me. Only united can I weave time back into form."
Village in Peril
Back in Myren Hollow, something had begun to rot the soil.
A sickness spread in silence. The Hollowborn—once scattered—now reformed with purpose. A new leader among them emerged. Cloaked in living smoke, he wore Jason's face twisted in rage and grief.
He called himself Jadyn—a time-born echo of what Jason could have been.
And he was gathering souls.
Return of the Elder Flame
While Jason chased the Oracle's pieces, Elias returned to the Dead Library. He had felt the sky shift, had heard the cries of the broken flame.
There, he stood before the Elder Flame—a living consciousness in the form of an eternal fire, now growing dim.
"Jason is nearing the choice," Elias said.
The fire hissed. "Too soon. The Gate is cracking."
"What must he do?"
The flame flickered into the shape of the Gate. "Die… or forget. There is no third path."
The Sky Breaks
In the Obsidian Tundra, Jason and his group found the second and third fragments in the Cave of Tears and the Frozen Vein.
Each shard unveiled truths: Jason's father had chosen exile not to hide, but to protect the world from Jason.
Jason wasn't just the last Anchor. He was the Gate's living key.
The realization broke something inside him.
"I'm not just a weapon," he said, trembling. "I… I'm a person."
Nyra stepped beside him, placing her hand over his.
"You are both. You must choose which part leads."
A Rift in Time
As the fourth shard was retrieved, reality buckled.
The group fell through a rift into a fractured time, where Watchers still lived and the Gate had not yet been sealed.
There, they met a younger version of Elias and Jason's father—Ardyn Deynar. But they were different—harder, crueller, desperate.
Jason confronted Ardyn.
"You knew what I'd become," Jason said.
Ardyn didn't deny it. "You are the only one who can kill me."
Jason raised his hand. "Then why did you let me live?"
"Because I hoped you'd choose better."
Back to the Present
Time snapped like a whip, hurling Jason and his friends back into the waking world. They had retrieved five of the seven shards. But Myren Hollow was under siege.
Jadyn had arrived with a hollow army.
In the burning village, Jason saw his people falling—spirits devoured, time unraveling, anchors shattered.
And at the center of it all was a rift glowing with blood-red light.
Jason screamed.
The Final Shards and the Last Decision
With fury and grief as his fire, Jason located the sixth and seventh shards.
He placed them into the Oracle's ancient heart hidden beneath the shrine.
The Oracle was reborn—an ethereal woman with light for hair and stars for eyes.
She looked at Jason and wept.
"You must seal the Gate."
"But I'm the key," Jason replied.
"And you must seal yourself with it."
Jason turned to Nyra, Seren, Elias, and even the echoes of his father's memories.
"I don't want to forget. I don't want to fade."
"You don't have to," Nyra said. "Write your name into the story. And we'll never let it be lost."
The Gate Awakens
The Bloodline Gate opened.
Not with noise, but with silence.
Reality bent in half.
Time paused.
And Jason stepped forward, not as a boy, not as a weapon, but as both.
He spoke the words from the Book of Whispers and raised the pendant his father once wore.
The Gate howled.
But Jason smiled.
He remembered who he was.
He remembered love, loss, and legacy.
And then—he sealed the Gate.
Epilogue: Under the Watcher Tree
Years later, a child plays beneath a silver-leafed tree in a quiet village once called Myren Hollow.
Nyra watches from afar, holding a faded pendant.
The stars shimmer.
And a whisper is heard.
"Guard the Gate, Jason… Anchor the world."