Elsewhere in the giant estate Gabriel had just entered the great liquor room when he spotted his eldest uncle standing by a large chest. Elijah August was a man of few words and little machinations unlike his daughter.
Smiling gently to his nephew, Elijah hauled the large chest towards his nephew. Gabriel who assumed correctly the chest was what he was looking for, smiled happily.
Rarely did Gabriel need to speak words with this uncle of his. Maybe it was because of the fact that Marcel and Elijah were the closest of the August siblings. But Elijah paid extra attention to Gabriel especially when it came to his safety.
"Thanks a lot uncle Eli!" Gabriel laughed as he swept towards the large chest in his uncle's hands. Surprisingly however Elijah shook his head and proceeded to lead Gaberiel towards an isolated part of the estate. A part that Gabriel had never been to. Though that could have been because of the numerous magical wards placed around it. Elijah held a token which granted the two passage through the gauntlet of arrays.
Gabriel held back all the questions that were popping up within his mind as he followed his stoic uncle. Ever since he could remember Elijah was the closest one to a father figure he could ask for. Despite rarely ever talking, Elijah's actions just spoke volumes of his own love towards Gabriel. A true bond had formed between the two that allowed Gabriel to trust in his uncle unconditionally.
After walking for about a minute past the gauntlet of arrays the pair came to a small courtyard with a great arch in the middle of it.
"Cut your finger." Elijah spoke as he himself did the same after shifting the chest over his left shoulder. Finished biting into his finger, Elijah placed it on the right pillar of the arch. Following which he walked into the seemingly normal arch. What Gabriel was not expecting was the fact his uncle disappeared! Reacting quickly, he did the same as his uncle and rushed inside of the mystical archway.
A dimly lit room was what greeted Gabriel as his eyes adjusted to the change in environment rather quickly.
"Guess this is your second time here. You were actually born here." Elijah spoke a surprising amount, "this is also where your mother named you and your parents sealed you."
Gabriel was too startled by the news that he had received at that moment to even catch what his uncle said last. But his own shock would not bring pause to Elijah's rare moment of speech.
"To open the chest, all that is needed is your blood and a little bit magic. Though seeing as you're able to Overdraft it should be inconsequential to you. Here this is the spell matrix you'll need." Elijah then proceeded to demonstrate the intricacies of the spell needed for Gabriel to unlock the chest. After a couple minutes of practice the man of few words took his leave from the magically isolated room.
Countless thoughts ran through the young Gabriel's mind as he began to unlock the chest with the blood ritual. Biting into his two thumbs he instantly tasted the iron of his blood. With half inch long incisions the blood began to pour out fast and without missing a beat, he began to form the matrix of the spell.
Using his blood as the mold and the spell as the metal, he forged a figurative key for the chest. And that it did as soon as the spell was complete and brought into contact with the chest. As soon as the chest was unlocked, a dark golden radiance burst from the depths of the chest as it swallowed Gabriel inside of it!
Outside the magical room stood Anika, Derrick, Gregory and the most recent addition of Elijah joining them. They all looked exceptionally serious as they let their auras run rampant and used everything in them to keep supplying the arrays with energy to contain whatever was locked inside of that chest. Each one of them felt the moment Gabriel unlocked the chest, they also felt the spatial distortion as it sucked Gabriel inside of it. But they could do nothing but guard the vault; the room which hosted Gabriel before he entered the chest, the spells their second brother could unleash were far beyond what they could do and even Seamus would be at a loss in front of such complex spatial and temporal magic.
Before Marcel August made a name for himself he had always been an extremely gifted arcanist, a creator of magic. He developed countless arrays, many of which were now being used to help keep the vault so secure. Among his many talents Marcel dealt the most with spatial manipulation before he began to dabble in other areas.
Gabriel on the other hand seemed much more like a typical August, warrior blood flowed especially strong within him. This fact was made all the more apparent in his declaration to Seamus on his sixth birthday.
While worry was present in the rest of the family the only one unaffected by all of these happenings would of course be Gabriel. Currently he was immersing in an overwhelming sense of comfort and warmth. And although he couldn't see anything besides a blinding light, he was enveloped in what could only be described as a loving embrace.
No sound came from this warm light filled dimension. Not that any was needed for Gabriel to feel and understand what was happening. Maybe understanding is too much of a word for his current mind state. Because all the young Gabriel felt right now was the overwhelming and unadulterated love of his parents.
Magic is a strange thing, it fuels itself on mana but yet mana is within everything. Thus everything can be said to be magic, even emotions such as love. This single complex thought has never truly been proven by anyone in this entire world of Avalon. But right here in this locked dimension, there exists a magic that could express just that emotion. Love. A love Gabriel never knew growing up till now, something he once thought was not permitted to him. It's a completely different thing to be raised like a son to someone, than to be raised by your parents. The pain and hurt he felt every day he woke up without a loving mother's warm embrace, without the strong back of a father to lean on. That pain was banished from the depths of his heart by this one endlessly complicated spell filled with all of his parents love and affection for him.
While this spell surrounded his conscience, Gabriel's body experienced subtle changes to his body that were gently administered without him being any wiser. His muscles were torn and then gently stitched back together repeatedly at a speed so fast that his mind couldn't even register it happening. His bone marrow was drained and then replaced by a golden ichor that gradually turned crimson as it filled out his bones. As his internal body was being remodeled; including all of his organs, his skin and nails where being shed at a terrifying rate. While completely logical seeing as how all the tissue underneath his skin was being refined and overhauled, if anyone could see Gabriel at the moment they would see a writhing hunk of flesh moving at incredible speeds. It took the span of a breath for each layer of skin and nail to be shed and have the fresh layer takes it place. It took eight entire breaths for completely new and freshly created skin to appear around Gabriel, skin that was made under the combined efforts of his entirely new body.
While the new Gabriel had no real idea on what had happened to him over those eight breaths of pure bliss for him, he knew that something miraculous had happened to him. His body was completely different yet not at all unfamiliar to him even though he technically had no real muscle memory of this body.