Chapter  321

XENOIS   "One more thing. Your mother asked me to hold onto something for her before she left. She said if you came looking, if you figured out they'd gone, I was to give it to you." He pulled out a small envelope from his jacket pocket and placed it on my desk. "She said you'd know when to open it. And that she was sorry----for everything." With that, Theodore let himself out, leaving me staring at the envelope like it might explode.   Lumina moved closer, her hand finding mine. "What do you think it is?" "I don't know," I admitted. "But knowing my mother, it's either an explanation or a warning. Maybe both." I picked up the envelope, feeling the weight of it. There was something inside----not just paper, but something solid. Carefully, I opened it. Inside was a letter, handwritten in my mother's precise script. And beneath it, wrapped in velvet cloth, was a small medallion I recognized from childhood----the Blackwood family seal, the one that had been passed down through generations