Eli grinned at Rose like an excited child. “I can’t believe this moment is here, really. I’ve been waiting for so long. We all have.”

“But what do you mean? Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Your choice matters, Rose. Your choice to do this. It sent you on a timeline I saw once, a long time ago. In some ways, you made this choice in a previous life. But the fact you’re here means this is the timeline; it’s on. And if it’s on, then you’re going to be a hero, Rose.” Eli paused, then changed his mind. “I’ve said too much.” He stopped. 

Another character in Luminous Rose is Eli, the wisdom-keeper. Eli is highly intuitive and spiritual, living out his life in the Outerlands. Since the Redistribution, Eli has deliberately sought an autonomous life outside of the Organized Cities. He also avoided ever taking ViVi Longevity Serum, so at age 80 he looks like an actual 80-year-old, a stark contrast to the rest of the population of Novum Mundi.

Eli spends his days attuned to the fluctuating rhythms of nature and the beating heart of the Earth. Even though the land around him has been scorched by the cellular communications grid that lines the sky, Eli is able to see evidence of new life growing. He gets most of his food and other supplies from the nearby Cashtown and is content to live in solitude, outside of the system.

Eli is a seer who years earlier saw the life he is living when Rose meets him. He believes in the ideas of parallel realities and multiple timelines and believes that no future timeline is ever certain. He believes that for a future timeline to play out, a series of choices must be in place. Eli also believes that for each timeline to become alive, one choice out of many must occur. Without that moment, that decision, that choice, the timeline dies. 

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