Chapter 30 - Envoy**
Tuesday, September 14, 2027 – 7:03 a.m.**
The envoy is already waiting when I walk out my front door.
He's leaning against a matte-black motorcycle that definitely wasn't there last night, wearing a perfectly tailored charcoal suit, mirrored sunglasses, and the kind of stillness that makes the air around him feel heavier.
Tall.
Mid-twenties, maybe.
Skin the color of desert sand at midnight.
Hair shaved on the sides, long on top, tied back with a thin silver chain.
A single obsidian ring on his right hand.
He looks up when I step onto the porch.
**Envoy (voice smooth, accented—somewhere between Cairo and nowhere):**
"Celeste Valentina Morua.
The Monastery of Shambhala sends its regards."
Remy's dirt bike growls at the curb. He takes one look at the stranger and his eyes go full coyote gold.
Seras pulls up on her bike beside him, flames already licking her knuckles.
Kayo materializes out of literal thin air, tails flicking.
The envoy doesn't even blink.
**Envoy:**
"Relax.
I'm not here to fight.
I'm here to deliver."
He reaches into his jacket—slow, deliberate—and pulls out a small cedar box identical to the one Rowan gave me.
Only this one is sealed with forty-seven wax sigils.
One of them is already cracked.
**Envoy:**
"My name is Kael.
I speak for the Thirteen Candles.
Yesterday you bled the Forty-Eighth in front of witnesses.
That changed the terms of a very old treaty."
He flips the box open.
Inside: a single drop of liquid starlight suspended in midair, spinning slowly.
And a note written in perfect Vinča.
I don't need to read it to know what it says.
Kael does anyway.
**Kael:**
"'The heir has chosen.
The reflection bleeds.
Offer alliance or stand aside.
There will be no third option.'"
He closes the box.
**Kael (to me directly):**
"Shambhala offers formal alliance.
Resources. Sanctuary. Training.
Whatever you need to finish the crown on your terms, not hers."
Remy growls low.
**Remy:**
"And the catch?"
Kael finally smiles—small, sharp, tired.
**Kael:**
"The catch is when you reach forty-seven pieces, the Monastery will ask you to surrender the completed crown.
Peacefully.
To be locked away forever."
Seras snorts fire.
**Seras:**
"So same song, different verse.
Lock the queen up with it or without her."
Kael's gaze doesn't leave mine.
**Kael:**
"No.
We lock the crown.
Not the queen.
We learned that lesson the hard way eight thousand years ago."
He steps forward and offers me the box.
**Kael:**
"Take it or don't.
But know this:
The Forty-Eighth felt you yesterday.
She's not playing subtle anymore.
Next time she won't ask you to choose.
She'll just start taking."
I look at the box.
At my crew ready to burn the world down for me.
At the cracked wax seal that matches the scar on my bloodstone.
Then I take it.
The second my fingers close around the cedar, the suspended starlight drop rushes into the scar on my forehead.
The HUD flares white.
```
12 → 13 / 47
Piece acquired: ALLIANCE
The Monastery kneels.
For now.
```
Kael mounts his bike.
**Kael:**
"Rowan will bring you to Shambhala when you're ready for the next Treasure.
Until then… try not to break the world before graduation."
He revs the engine once, salutes with two fingers, and is gone—like he was never there.
Remy stares at the empty street.
**Remy:**
"So that's the good someone?"
**Celeste (quiet):**
"For now."
Kayo's tails curl thoughtfully.
**Kayo:**
"Interesting.
They're scared of you now."
Seras grins, all teeth.
**Seras:**
"Good."
I tuck the cedar box into my pocket next to the copper coin from Rowan.
Thirteen pieces.
One drop of starlight burning warm under my skin.
The war just gained a new army.
And for the first time, I'm the one they're afraid of.
Junior year is about to get biblical.
Let's go to school.
Twenty-Five Percent**
Tuesday, September 14, 2027**
**Morning – Lakeside High**
School is a circus.
Phones are blowing up with grainy videos of "the library earthquake" and "did anyone else see the redhead fox girl?"
Half the student body thinks it was a senior prank.
The other half is quietly terrified.
Principal Hargrove announces a "gas leak assembly" and cancels last period.
Rowan Vale just smirks from the faculty table and sips his coffee like he's watching the best show in town.
I spend every class feeling the cedar box in my pocket and the starlight drop pulsing under the scar like a second heartbeat.
Remy keeps one hand on my knee under every desk.
Seras keeps a tiny flame dancing across her knuckles so only we can see.
Kayo sits behind me in every class she can, tails invisible but brushing my ankle whenever the Forty-Eighth's presence tries to creep too close.
Nobody tries to talk to us today.
We're officially the kids you don't mess with.
**After school – The Mist-Space Orchard**
Rowan doesn't waste time.
The second the final bell rings, he's waiting by my locker.
**Rowan (quiet):**
"Orchard. Now. Bring the fox if you want. The rest stay topside."
Kayo follows without asking.
The world folds.
We step out under the cedar tree in the mist-space.
Dacia is already there, arms crossed, looking exactly like me at sixteen except for the weight of eight thousand years in her eyes.
Rowan bows—actually bows—to her.
**Rowan:**
"First Queen."
**Dacia (dry):**
"Still not my title, monk.
But I'll take the respect."
She turns to me.
**Dacia:**
"Twenty percent got you through the first test.
Twenty-five will keep you breathing through the next one.
Ready?"
I nod.
Rowan and Kayo take positions at the edge of the orchard, wards flaring gold and black.
Dacia steps forward until our foreheads touch.
**Dacia:**
"Close your eyes.
Let me in."
The world drops away.
Five thousand new syllables flood my skull at once—older than mountains, sharper than glass.
I scream.
I bleed from the nose.
I don't let go.
Hours collapse into minutes.
When I open my eyes again, I'm on my knees in the dirt, gasping.
The HUD burns bright.
```
Language mastery: 20% → 25%
New symbols unlocked: 5,217
Active ability gained: REFUSAL WARD
(The Forty-Eighth cannot manifest within 47 meters of an oath you have spoken aloud)
```
Dacia crouches in front of me, smiling like a proud older sister.
**Dacia:**
"Twenty-five percent, little storm.
You just drew a line in the sand even she can't cross without bleeding."
Kayo's tails are fully fanned, eyes wide with something that might be respect.
Rowan just nods once.
**Rowan:**
"Shambhala is officially terrified of you now.
Good."
I wipe the blood from my lip and stand.
My voice doesn't shake anymore.
**Celeste:**
"Tell the Monastery the next time they send an envoy,
they can kneel."
Dacia laughs—bright, ancient, delighted.
**Dacia:**
"That's my girl."
The orchard fades.
I'm back in the school parking lot at sunset.
Remy, Seras, Aki, and Riku are waiting exactly where I left them.
Remy takes one look at my face and knows.
**Remy:**
"How much?"
**Celeste:**
"Twenty-five."
Seras whistles fire.
**Seras:**
"Damn. Quarter of the way to goddess."
I smile, slow and sharp.
**Celeste:**
"Not goddess.
Queen."
I look up at the sky—clear, gold, ours.
Somewhere beyond every reflection, the Forty-Eighth is licking her wounds.
Let her.
I just moved the finish line.
And I'm not running anymore.
I'm coming for her.