CHAPTER 1

THE GREAT HALL

 

 

Passing through the wall of enchantment felt like slipping through eons of space without moving an inch. My body stayed still, but something ancient and powerful pulled and scanned me from the inside out.

Nothing dangerous could cross the barrier, but neither could I. And that meant going through or leaving it.

The disorientation and odd sensations released their grip as the sun beat down and a lush green field appeared. Trees flanked us on both sides, and beyond them young warriors drilled in separate units across an expanse of green.

Our arrival was silent. One moment we were outside the wall protecting the Great Hall, the next we weren't. It didn't stop the warriors from looking our way. Heads snapped toward us, some lingering longer than others. Every gaze landed with a quick, efficient assessment before returning to what it had been doing.

I wanted to ask Vixbi if he could see Roscoe among the others, but I followed him instead, my mind already drifting toward the comfort of a hot bath, something to eat, and anything that fit better than Q's boots.

My gaze found the Great Hall, a massive structure of unmistakably extraterrestrial design that made the hairs on my arms stand straight.

I squinted against the sun washing down over two large glass domes before my eyes climbed spires that stretched impossibly into the sky. The magic was everywhere, present, pulsing, humming against my skin as though the air itself was alive and quietly deciding what to make of me.

We climbed a long flight of stairs and passed through tall glass doors. A guard stepped toward us immediately, dressed in a body suit of charcoal gray that appeared matte one second and glinted iridescent the next.

I noticed the sword at his side before his hand rested on its hilt. Vixbi was not allowed to go any farther. A second guard walked over, nodded without meeting my eyes, and opened his arm toward the corridor.

Once we passed the foyer, people moved in every direction. A group of healers crossed the hall at the far end. A woman speaking with a man turned into the corridor ahead of us.

Everyone was dressed in fine silks and linen, pale shades of gray and gold with intricate designs that caught my eye. Their attire was a mixture of past and present, their jewelry a combination of decoration and technology.

Beyond the enchantment, features were more pronounced. Chiseled faces had sharper lines. The women's eyes were framed with darker, thicker lashes. I tried not to stare, but their skin was more translucent than anything I'd seen outside the Hall, the light beneath it golden and unmistakable.

I attempted to keep my eyes on the white marble walls, whose veins appeared to be slowly flowing. But every time I glanced at someone passing, their gaze slid away before mine could hold it.

When the guard turned the corner I looked back to see if Vixbi was still there. He was. Our eyes locked. His held an unspoken apology. Mine held a protest too useless to voice.

The High Priestess was certain of who I was, the Master Star Seed, a rare kind of magical being hunted because of prophecies that said we'd change the world. Noric had ordered his foot soldiers to kill every star seed until the Master was dead. She was the only one who could stop his mind stream from reaching critical mass, the only one standing between the world as it was and the world he intended to make.

I knew I wasn't her. Kalia was, the girl with the endless eyes and power that spilled from her like a rushing river. The girl I was supposed to rescue from the sandstone apartment in Olde City. Roscoe had been sent to do it instead, or at least that had been the plan. But when it came to the Master Star Seed, I was learning, facts had little to do with anyone's will, including mine.

I was taken to a room fit for royalty, grander even than the chambers where I'd stayed after Noric's foot soldiers had frozen me into ice.

I thought about the warrior who had carried me out. When he lifted me, the ice cracked and the heat from his body sank to my bones. There had been something familiar about him that neither of us could name. I felt it and I was certain he did too. Then exhaustion closed over me and I faded, too confused and too spent to hold onto anything, including the thought that the battle in the forest had been fought because of me.

The guard bowed politely and the door closed behind him. If the luxury was supposed to be reassuring, it did the opposite. The Hall felt eerie and too quiet.

I stood there staring at the door for several seconds. My body knew I was in a prison before the realization reached my mind.

Hours passed. A screen appeared at my request, offering entertainment, comfort, and distraction. I interfaced it with my AI and listened to old screenplays Echo and I had written together, then watched short fantasy films about alien worlds until I couldn't anymore.

Food arrived. A plate barely touched was removed. Someone asked if I needed anything. Someone else returned to confirm I still didn't. It felt like they were checking to see if I'd snuck out. Q wasn't around to lower me safely from chambers four levels up, and between the two of us, only she knew how to pass through the enchantment.

When the sun began to set, a nightgown was delivered along with a bowl of fruit and a bath drawn by someone who wouldn't look at me. It wasn't fear that kept her eyes averted. It was the weight of who she thought I was.

I needed to straighten things out. Kalia was probably in chambers just like mine, feeling as isolated as I was. If I could find her, everyone would see the truth.

A healer visited the next morning, soft voice, lovely face, a ray of light after a fitful night. She introduced herself as my companion and explained she would occupy the second bedroom unless I objected. Her eyes met mine briefly before veering away. At least someone looked me in the face.

"I don't," I said immediately. When the door closed behind her the depth of my hunger for another presence surprised me. I knew she was a jailor with a gentle face. The comfort of having another human being nearby was worth it anyway.

"How many chambers like this are on this level?" I asked, moving to the window and looking out.

The Hall was constructed in wings, probably one for each direction. I paced slowly, taking in the full extent of the comforts around me before turning back to study her.

She was looking up, lips quietly counting.

Like all healers she wore a long linen dress, her hair a mixture of braids and waist-length locks pulled back in a loose knot.

"I don't know. Maybe twenty. Or more."

"How many levels are there?"

"Six." Her eyes shone as she answered. "The lower level, even below the first, is where Alo and the other scribes have their rooms. The first floor is where all the social interactions occur. Sparring, eating." She sat down, hands clasped, an eager smile on her lips. "The healing chambers are—"

"And this level?" I asked. "What is this for?"

"Oh, this is where the chambers of the High Priestess and the healers are located."

I nodded slowly. That was all I needed to know. Kalia would be on this floor, probably behind one of the doors I had passed when the guard brought me here yesterday.

She stood after the silence stretched. "I have my studies to attend to." A warm smile, and she was gone.

The healer was away for several hours, returning just before sunset to ask if I'd like to walk the grounds and dine in the hall. I agreed to both, restless and curious to see more of the Hall's layout.

We dined in the same room as the warriors. My eyes moved across hundreds of faces searching for Kalia. I didn't know what Roscoe looked like, but he knew my face. I watched for eyes that would give that away. They never appeared.

I settled myself, lifting my fork and pushing the green beans away from the rice and the chicken that smelled better than it had any right to. The dining hall was large, but the energy moving through it felt like restrained violence that could uncoil in a second. The warriors laughed and drank between courses. Beneath their easy demeanors, the place between life and death surrounded them like invisible armor, and even casual glances felt unnerving.

Our table was quieter. The healers exchanged minimal conversation, who had ridden with the warriors earlier, who had been assigned night duty in the healing chambers, who would go riding tomorrow.

No one mentioned the Master Star Seed. No one asked me questions. Everything was strangely neutral, except their eyes. The healers' gazes held reverence and that unnerved me more than the warriors' heavy stares. Anger followed close behind. I wasn't who they thought I was.

I pressed my fingers to my temple in slow circles, trying to ease the pressure building there.

That night the young healer paused before retiring to her room.

"There will be a blood ceremony," she said gently. "That is how they'll know if you are the Master Star Seed."

I kept my expression still, thoughts skirting past.

If they needed me to take the blood ceremony, if the question of who the Master Star Seed was remained open, then Kalia had either failed or never had the chance.

I paced toward the small dining area and grabbed the back of one of the chairs. "And the girl from Olde City, and the hunter that rescued her?" I looked over my shoulder. "Where are they?"

Her gaze dropped just long enough for the atmosphere to turn dense. "If your blood burns white—"

"My blood?" Anger and exasperation slipped out before I could contain them.

"It isn't something to fear," she said quickly. "If it burns white, it means you're the Master Star Seed. Then there would be a lineage ceremony."

My mind raced, thoughts moving too fast for recognition. I heard myself ask what that was.

"The lineage ceremony is reserved for families who have lived in the outlands and returned."

"Like X-helos." It wasn't a question. They were the sect that operated in the outlands, infiltrating governments, corporations, collecting intelligence to keep the tribe safe.

Her eyes widened before she smoothed her expression. "For those returning," she said carefully.

I didn't need knowledge meant for the Master Star Seed. I wanted training. I wanted to be on the field where the warriors were.

I waited until her light went dark beneath the door, then carefully opened the door that led to the hall.

Four doors lined the corridor. The main hall opened at one end, a window at the other. I went to each door and pressed my ear against the dark wood.

Giggling behind the one closest to my chambers. Silence behind all the others.

Kalia. I sent the name out with my mind.

Nothing.

Kalia.

Nothing, and then a vision arrived without warning. A cliff. Open sky. A black shape that lowered, then retracted, swallowed back into darkness before I could hold it.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 2

HOME AGAIN

 

 

I sat up squinting as sunlight splashed across my face and reached for my AI. It hadn't beeped in days.

My mother had sent a reply.

There were other messages, entire conversations I didn't remember writing, replies sent in my voice to questions I'd never read.

Someone had been speaking as me. Again. My life on Earth was being coordinated the same way my life in the Hall was, quietly, efficiently, without my consent.

I sat with that for a moment before the healer arrived and told me I was to return home for a few days.

It didn't feel like freedom. It felt like control.

Vixbi met me outside the Hall, his charm absent since the mission ended. I studied him as we walked, his linear profile, the sun making him look like something carved from gold and fashioned into flesh.

We entered the forest surrounding the field.

"How is Max?" I asked, my eyes moving through the trees. In a patch of shade ahead, the faint suggestion of a walking trail.

"Gaining his weight back."

I nodded. My arms folded around me as the air grew heavy with each step. We were nearing the spell.

Vixbi stopped walking without a word.

I reached out slowly, fingers spreading into the air ahead of me. The atmosphere thickened, then solidified, slippery as iron, unyielding as stone.

I pulled my hand back and watched him, trying to catch the symbol he used to pass through it.

If he used one, I didn't see it.

It felt strange to be home. Knowing how easily humans were being controlled, how quietly the strings were pulled, was a weight I hadn't learned to set down.

My mother asked about my father's mother and the accident that had supposedly happened. Someone had fabricated the entire story through my AI, and playing along with the lie tasted bitter. But there was no alternative. My parents' families despised each other. My mother would never learn the truth. There was relief in that, I supposed, a small and unsatisfying kind.

Hildy shadowed me everywhere, pawing at my calves and wanting a hug like she didn't want to be left behind again. I felt guilty. But I'd be home soon.

The three of us went to lunch. Audrey made my favorite dinner, and I sat at the table watching my mother laugh at something Rob said, carrying things inside me she would never know. The food was perfect. The evening was warm. But I felt like a stranger in a familiar house.

The next day was the same.

I was to return to the Great Hall in two days, and I had no idea how to explain it, but that was when the blood ceremony would take place. A ceremony I had been told not to worry about, despite its name.

I'd just showered and was on my way to my room when voices from the first floor carried up.

"The spa's courses function like college semesters," a woman said smoothly.

My mother and Rob murmured polite interest. Rob sounded especially attentive.

"She can take the summer and fall sessions. Though we spend our summers in the Poconos, and we hope she might join us."

My breath caught. Who was this woman, and why was she arranging my future?

"I told Julion we'd go to Arizona after her graduation," my mother said. "To visit the Langdon Technologies Complex."

"You can do that anytime," Rob replied, his voice easy and too smooth.

"And college?"

"She said she wanted to take a gap year. Remember?"

My mother stayed quiet.

"Well," the woman said, smiling audibly, "after you speak with her, let me know. I'll need to prepare a dorm and—"

"Why would she live there?" my mother interrupted. "The spa is five minutes away."

"Some classes start early. But of course, it's up to you."

"She'll want independence after graduation," Rob added softly, a loving persuasive edge to his voice.

My face burned.

The woman left. I debated going downstairs. Instead I got dressed and took Hildy out, and by the time I came back my temper had cooled enough to pass for composure.

"She's on the council," Rob said, pride gleaming in his eyes as though her visit made us special. "You know her son. It's your friend Jackson."

His face flashed through my mind. A slight tremor reached my fingers.

I didn't trust the councilwoman. I didn't know her, but everything was falling into place too perfectly, too quickly, and with too little effort on anyone's part except hers.

Something tightened in my chest. The blood ceremony wasn't the only unpleasantry waiting for me.

 

CHAPTER 3

NEW ENEMIES AND NEW DESTINIES

 

Things were different when I returned to the Great Hall. Opinions about me, more resolute. There were clothes in the closet, gowns like the healers wore. I wasn't going to wear them. I didn't do dresses. I wasn't going to be here long enough to, anyway. But the clothes and opinions weren't the only thing that had changed.

"I hear your schoolmate is improving."

I spun around. My schoolmate?

If he meant Max, Max was a foot soldier hunter and the bravest person I knew, besides his best friend. They were both fierce fighters.

A tall older man with a swath of gray streaking the center of his black braided hair had cornered me in the corridor. His shoulders were so broad I couldn't see around him. It was lunchtime and the hallway was quiet. I doubted anyone else was nearby or would be anytime soon.

I didn't answer right away. Something darker than anger lived inside him, hidden, contained, and it sent a wave of goosebumps up my arm.

"Oh, come now. There's no need to be shy, Julion."

He knew my name.

"Yes. We're schoolmates." Technically. Two weeks remained but I'd already passed my classes.

"You healed him?"

My spine snapped upright.

"But that's not possible, is it?"

My chest tightened. After the skirmish with the enemy I'd thought I'd conquered my fear. I was wrong. The foot soldiers had learned my name because we'd fought. But this man, he could only know me because of my magic.

"Montana." A rough voice came from behind. "What do you think you're doing?"

The older man looked over his shoulder, then turned around. His face spread into a smile like he'd slipped on a mask. "Introducing myself to our, well. I don't want to get ahead of myself."

I recognized the man who'd spoken. He was the one who had carried me out of the library. The memory rushed back, the heat of his body melting the ice that had encased me. Tall and solid, a feather hanging from a single braid at his temple.

His eyes moved to mine and locked on them as though he were waiting for something.

The silence grew. I shifted under it, unsure what he expected from me.

His mouth opened slightly, as if he meant to speak, then closed again. His expression hardened and his gaze returned to Montana.

"Well. You're done," he said.

The older man left a shadow behind him, a silent whisper that he wasn't finished. I couldn't explain what I felt, but it was like brushing the edge of his thoughts. Almost.

"Are you okay?" the younger man asked. There was nothing kind about him now, and whatever I'd felt moments ago had vanished.

"I am," I said.

He continued on his way. No goodbye. Nothing.

"Who is Montana?" I asked the healer when she returned from whatever occupied her mornings and afternoons.

Her face told me everything before she spoke. "He's on the council."

"Then he knows the woman on the council," I said, trying to piece it together.

Her brows pinched. "How do you know a councilwoman?"

"One came to my house. She arranged classes for me at the spa. Even asked my mother if I'd spend the summer with her family in the Poconos."

Her lips pressed into a thin line. "The councilwoman's name is Aurelia. And what did you say?"

"I wasn't actually there for the conversation. But apparently I'll have a dorm at the spa and will be visiting the mountains this summer."

"No, you won't have a dorm. She was only—"

"Only what?"

"If it turns out that you're the Master Star Seed, it wouldn't be safe for you outside the enchantment." She hesitated over the words.

I sprang from the chair. "If anyone thinks I'll be living here, they have another thing coming."

I looked straight at her, but she wasn't listening. My anger slid off her and she turned abruptly.

"I'll be right back," she said, already leaving.

I paced the room, thoughts scattering. I knew this place was meant to contain me, even if no one had said it aloud. I wasn't going to sit quietly and wait to be managed.

I left the room. It felt like breaking out of an eggshell, and I reveled in each crack, every eye that turned my way, every rule I might be breaking.

A guard stood at the end of the hall. He nodded but said nothing as I took the stairs to the first floor.

I saw the tall councilman again. There was enough traffic in the corridor to follow him without drawing attention. I wanted to know if he was meeting the woman who had visited my mother and Rob.

I passed a young man pushing a silver cart, the scent of food drifting through the air. Several healers moved by in tangled conversation, laughing and oblivious to me. Montana turned down another hall. So did I. He turned again. I was about to follow when voices rose.

"The enemy handed the letter to the principal. He said it was for her."

"What's going on?" Montana demanded.

"Noric's foot soldier actually had the nerve to give the Water House High principal a letter for the girl."

"What?" he snapped. "What did it say?"

"I don't know. It's in the care of the High Priestess."

"That doesn't make any sense." Montana's voice dropped. "What do you think it said?"

Silence.

My stomach twisted as I turned away. The letter was for me, I was the only student of Water House High in the Hall, addressed to me, delivered through the principal, and now in the hands of the High Priestess before I'd even met her.

I thought of Vixbi and whether he could find out anything about it.

Before dinner, the rough-mannered fighter who had sent Montana retreating appeared at my door. My roommate disappeared into her room after letting him inside.

He stared at me until the silence became unbearable.

"There will be no courses at the spa," he said finally. "No dorm quarters arranged."

"Hold it," I snapped. "Is that it? Someone comes to my house, rearranges my life, invites herself into my summer, and that's all you have to say?"

He looked down, then to the side, before his eyes met mine. I thought he might soften it. He didn't. "We regret that your family accepted the invitation to the Poconos," he said quietly. "It is very inconvenient."

After he left, my roommate returned with a sheepish expression. "Forgive me for breaking your confidence."

"What confidence?" I asked. "That was nothing." I had bigger concerns, like either being permitted to train as a warrior or returning to my life outside the enchantment.

Relief softened her face.

"Who is he?" I asked.

"Blu-izii," she said. "A royal. Second in line after the High Priestess."

I considered that. Then, told her I didn't do dresses.

"Never?" she breathed.

"Never."

 

PREPARING FOR THE BLOOD CEREMONY

 

A blustery seamstress measured me from head to toe. "Yes, I can make a full-body suit. But I only have the motak material the fighters wear."

Fighters. Perfect.

She shrugged, eyes darting as thoughts raced. "It's lightweight, but healers wear—"

"But you can make it?"

"Yes. And the long chiffon jackets the girls wear?" She said it as though the idea caused her physical discomfort. "You'd like that as well?"

"Yes. Exactly."

"From behind, you'll still look like you're wearing a gown." She shook her head slowly. "But as you wish." She gathered her measuring tape and notes, her fingers reaching for the pen.

"Good day, Miss Julion."

"Good day."

I took a long breath. It was Tuesday. The ceremony was tomorrow night. By Thursday I'd be on my way home. No spa. No dorm. And absolutely no Poconos.

 

 

CHAPTER 4

THE COLOR OF FIRE

 

 

Blu, second in line of the Cheveyo dynasty, escorted me to the chamber where the ceremony was to be held.

His gaze swept over me from head to toe, the pale green motak body suit and sheer white maxi-jacket decorated in golden needlepoint noted by a fleeting grimace.

I refused to speak first or fill the silence just because he couldn't be bothered. Instead I let my thoughts drift to my friends beyond the wall. I missed them. Vixbi and I texted often. Max and Q were each dealing with their own quiet battles. I'd see them soon enough, and if I was permitted to train as a warrior, we'd all be in the barracks together.

The room pushed those thoughts aside the moment we entered.

Hundreds of candles lit the space. The fragrance that filled it reminded me of something I'd forgotten from another lifetime. A dark wooden table sat at the front, a single deep red pillow placed before it. Behind it, a row of pews lined the wall, their cushions upholstered in deep purple velvet.

Blu gestured for me to walk forward, motioning toward a seat beside the center chair, more ornate than the others, its back rising high with carved vines and peculiar-shaped leaves.

I wondered who would sit there. The door opened and a man entered bearing a striking resemblance to Blu, slightly older with hair graying prematurely. He acknowledged me with a hand to his stomach and a small nod. I returned the gesture with a tight smile, impatient for the night to begin and be over with.

Light from the hall cut through the dim chamber like a slanted blade. A woman entered, older yet youthful. Both men rose instantly. I stood as well, my attention fixed on her serene face and the power radiating from her, quiet and absolute.

She wore a blood-red dress that deepened against her bronze skin. Her hair was blacker than the darkest night. Something in her bearing announced her extraterrestrial lineage without a word.

"High Priestess," they murmured.

"This is Julion," Blu said, the first words he'd spoken in nearly twenty minutes.

Oheo stepped closer, her hand reaching out to lift my chin, the first lesson in how royalty held themselves. Vixbi had told me she believed I was the Master Star Seed, but even if he hadn't, the look in her eyes suggested she already knew the outcome of this ceremony.

I smiled nervously, my eyes dropping with something that felt uncomfortably close to reverence. None of this was supposed to be my future. But her countenance humbled me anyway.

I didn't notice the door opening. I felt it. Montana paused in the entrance, taking in the table and the pillow set before it.

Blu and the other man stiffened. Oheo barely turned her head.

Montana greeted the High Priestess, then nodded to the two royals. He turned my way with a smile that never reached his eyes.

I kept my face still. I wasn't afraid now, not with the two men at my side, their arms practically as big as I was wide. They flanked me like blades ready to run him through.

The atmosphere shifted again when Xanti entered, as though another realm had slipped over the one already present. He was the immortal chieftain, a man of many names and titles. His arrival pressed into the air and seconds stretched into something longer, like a silent lullaby slowing breath and thought without notice.

His entrance marked the beginning of the ceremony. Everyone adjusted in their pews, backs straightening and hands folding on laps.

Xanti and I had never formally met, though I knew so much about him from the visions. When our eyes locked, a timeless recognition moved between us. He approached and extended his arm, guiding me to the table. He cupped my elbow gently as I knelt, the soft pillow absorbing my weight in silence.

Only then did I notice what waited on the table. A chalice. A small box. A curved blade whose edge caught the candlelight.

My hands were trembling when I looked up at him. He blinked slowly and tranquility settled into my shoulders like a cloak.

I turned to face forward, eyes on the symbols etched along the rim of the chalice.

My thoughts began to empty. The gazes pressing in from the pews faded until there was nothing but a single, pointed stillness.

"It won't hurt," Xanti said softly.

I watched him open the small box. He applied a salve to my finger, the sensation of it sinking into my skin barely registered. Something pulsed faintly, then faded like an echo.

The blade moved across my finger. Red welled and spilled into the chalice.

White gauze wrapped gently around my finger. Xanti lifted the chalice and dipped a candle into it.

The room went still.

A yellow-blue flame danced at the surface, liquid and wild, reaching toward the ceiling.

Then it retracted.

Then it flared, violently, exploding into blinding white. Gold tore through its center, reaching toward the edges like veins of light, forcing the flame to climb higher until it singed the ceiling. Until it resembled something alive and beyond this world.

"Great God!" Montana thundered, shattering the silence.

The room returned to a stillness that smothered everything, movement, thought, breath.

"Nothing of this is spoken until I say so," the High Priestess whispered. Distant and absolute.

"But surely—" Montana started.

"Don't forget yourself." Navi's voice shut him down.

"What does it mean?" I asked Xanti as he helped me to my feet.

"It's what you've always known," he said quietly.

The mood shifted, acceptance and reverence mixing with quiet awe. The energy moved through everyone except Montana, who rose with a gaze burning through me as though he believed I'd staged the entire thing.

I stepped closer to Xanti, my thoughts still beyond reach, water filling my eyes.

Blu and Navi rose.

Montana halted mid-step. His hands clasped together, a curtain lowering behind his eyes. When he spoke again his voice was controlled. "May I welcome the Emissary to the fold." He bowed to Oheo and left the chamber without looking at me again.

Blu had me in his sights, lips parting as if to speak. No words followed. After a breath he crossed the space between us, Navi just behind him, both wearing quiet smiles.

"Emissary," they said together, each bringing a hand briefly to their heart before offering a single nod.

They turned toward Oheo, who watched from her chair, something bright and unreadable shining in her eyes.

"Come, child," she said.

As I stepped toward her, unseen traditions closed around me. Something had changed. Destiny settled over me like armor, forged for centuries and meant for me no matter how hard I'd fought against it.

 

 

CHAPTER 5

TESTING FATE

 

 

That night, the wind howled as though the world itself knew my blood had burned white. The gold around its edges meant something too. The High Priestess wouldn't tell me what, only that when my studies with the head scribe began, he would explain it.

As bothersome as Aurelia was, her tactics gave me cover to remain at the Hall, which I now understood was the only place I might be safe. I was the Master Star Seed, even I couldn't argue that anymore. And the foot soldiers were willing to kill every star seed in their search for me.

To make things worse, when I dug the hollow in the Earth and performed the Consecration Ceremony, the Zapira tree marked me with her scent. I was a walking bullseye.

When my studies began, I would ask the head scribe about that as well, why had Zapira left her fragrance inside my blood when it made me so easy to find?

Thankfully, she had used nature more than once to protect me. Wind answered when I called. Water moved when I needed it. The Consecration Ceremony had tied me to the Earth whether I understood it or not.

Maybe I was worrying for nothing. Maybe Zapira marked me so the elements would recognize me, so the forest would know whose side I was on. That was a reasonable explanation. A comforting one.

It just didn't change the fact that I smelled like a target.

Akasa was my roommate, and she took me to meet the head scribe a few days later.

She'd told me the scribes' quarters were in the lower levels, but she hadn't described how otherworldly it was. The stillness and silence felt like being submerged underwater.

When we arrived at his office, he excused himself for a moment, asking me to wait while Akasa followed him into the corridor.

Shelves of scrolls lined the walls from floor to ceiling. An astrology chart lay open on his desk, and in the corner, cast in shadow, stood an ornate gold floor mirror.

From the corner of my eye something moved beneath its surface, subtle and almost imperceptible. I walked toward it, brows drawn, fingers curious.

When a translucent realm slid beneath the glass I stepped back. Seconds later another appeared, long enough to make out details. I closed the distance again, leaning in, eyes squinting.

Then another image appeared.

I jumped back.

Cruel weapons hung on a black stone wall. A soft gasp escaped me. I'd seen that serrated sword before.

I bent forward again, unable to stop myself. The tips of my fingers touched the surface and the image froze.

Noric's war chamber.

He was the enemy of Earth, the one whose mind stream kept humanity hungry for greed and endless wars. He'd slaughtered star seeds. The ones I was meant to protect. Just the sight of his room turned my blood to acid.

He walked into view, a scroll in his hand, his eyes focused like something on it was vital. He slammed his fist against the desk, the motion so sudden it startled me.

I recoiled and the vision slid from the mirror's surface, another taking its place.

The door opened and the head scribe entered.

I turned to the bookcase, running my fingers over the cracked spines of ancient books before meeting his gaze with a smile.

The contrast between his long white hair and youthful features was striking. But it was his warm smile that told me he hadn't noticed anything amiss.

I sat when he gestured toward the chair. We spoke of ordinary things before he began explaining my studies and what I would learn.

My mind never left the mirror.

Swearing me to secrecy, Vixbi told me that if I went to the forest on this side of the enchantment, there was a portal where we could meet. We couldn't cross it, but we could talk. He said he needed to tell me something.

I wasn't supposed to venture that far from the Hall, not without Akasa or a guardian, which I would be assigned soon. But it wasn't difficult to slip away. The woods surrounded the entire field and after I entered them, the trees would hide me from anyone looking.

"Q told me to tell you hello," he said, a smile in his voice.

Q was the rogue warrior who'd taught me how to fight. I was surprised she had made herself known to Vixbi. She'd been hidden away from the others, but maybe now she wanted to be found.

"How is she?" I said, wishing I could see his face.

"She's joining a platoon. Starting at the bottom. She has to prove herself."

Another surprise. I told him how happy I was for her. Her return to the fold meant I'd see her again. I'd see them all, Max and Vixbi too, once they began training.

"And Max?" I asked. "Why hasn't he called me?"

Vixbi was quiet. I heard him take a breath. "He feels he let you down."

The fifteenth of May was the day we were all going to meet at the Master Star Seed's apartment. Roscoe was to escort her to the Great Hall while we took the others to safe houses. It didn't work out that way because Max carried the affliction. It had killed so many before him, and nearly took him too.

"What?" I cried. "That's insane. He almost died!"

"I know," Vixbi said. "I've tried to tell him. But you know Max."

"Vixbi."

"Yeah?"

"If I ask you something, do you swear you'll answer honestly?"

He didn't respond.

"I'm your emissary, you know," I said lightly, half joking, half not.

"I know," he said, sounding suddenly younger. I smiled despite myself.

"Well?"

I heard him picking at the bark of a nearby tree, the soft tearing sound filling the silence. "Yes," he said finally. "I promise."

"The principal was given a letter," I said. "It was for me. Do you know about it?"

He inhaled sharply.

"So the answer is yes. What did it say?"

"Julion, please."

"You promised."

"Julion, don't—"

"A promise is a promise," I said. "If you don't tell me, I'll never trust you again. I swear it."

The silence became unbearable, forcing him to speak.

"The head of the foot soldiers sent it. He wanted you to know that Noric killed Roscoe and Kalia." The words came out through gritted teeth. "He sliced off their heads. Paraded them through the streets of their planet."

The sound that tore from my chest didn't feel human. I ran blindly, deeper into the forest, until the rocks bruised the soles of my feet and numbness set in. I found a hollow of stone folded inward like a cave made for one person and collapsed there.

The image of their severed heads shredded my heart until I cried myself to sleep.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 6

THE PLAN

 

 

"Sirs! I've found her, over here!"

I flinched as a beam of light cut through the darkness, stinging my eyes. Hooves thundered and boots pounded the ground. Sounds were rushing toward me. I pushed myself upright, dimly aware that I was in trouble.

Then Kalia and Roscoe surged back into my mind. Vivid and brutal. And the thought dissolved. I didn't care about trouble. I didn't care about anything at all.

"Go." Blu's voice cut through the chaos as he dismounted. He pointed sharply away from me. "All of you. Go."

The search party hesitated a second before scattering.

I heard murmurs of relief as they called out that I'd been found, that I was safe.

Blu turned on me. "You reckless—" He reached me in two strides and hauled me up into his arms. "Reckless," he repeated, halting as if he had no more words. "Selfish. Reckless. Do you have any idea what you—" His voice cracked.

The images vanished. The sound of his voice, raw and unguarded, cut through the blood and the screaming in my head.

Then the horror rushed back.

He set me down, mounting in one swift motion before reaching to pull me up behind him.

"Hold on," he said roughly. "And don't let go."

The horse lunged forward, the motion knocking the breath from me. Images of Kalia returned, tearing a cry from my chest. I pressed my face to Blu's back, wrapping my arms around him as tightly as I could.

My sobs tore from me, but the wind and snapping branches drowned them out.

I don't remember the ride back, only sliding from the saddle with wet eyes and a burning face as I rushed past the healers waiting in the corridor.

I ignored their calls and everything else. All I wanted was to be alone.

I stayed in my bedroom, ignoring the knocks at my door and the quiet requests to bring food. I had no appetite. Not for food. But something else was growing inside me, dark and consuming. I wanted to avenge their deaths.

I thought of the mirror in Alo's room. I knew how to reach Noric. There was another knock, this one coming with a guard's announcement. I opened the door because I had no choice.

Oheo stood there, elegant, her power overwhelming and fathomless.

I lowered my eyes. They were swollen and raw. I didn't need a mirror to know how bad I looked, only that it couldn't compare to how I felt.

"What is it, child?" she asked.

We sat on the edge of my bed. Her hand lifted my face, cupping my cheek for only a moment before falling away.

I couldn't answer. I shook my head, telling her it was nothing. The world felt as hollow as I did inside.

"Is this all too much for you?" she wondered aloud, already turning away as though she'd decided. She sighed. "I haven't taken as good care of you as I should have. I thought Akasa's company—"

"I like Akasa," I said quickly. "And it's not you."

Oheo studied me. "Then what is it? Tell me."

"I can't," I said, my voice shredding. I dragged in a breath, my nose burning. "I can't break a confidence. But it isn't anything you've done. And it isn't my destiny." I swallowed hard. "I've accepted that."

She searched my face. "Is there anything I can do?"

I shook my head.

"Will you at least eat something?" she asked gently. "Fruit. Cake."

"I promise I'll eat tomorrow."

She nodded, accepting the promise. She pulled me into a tight embrace before leaving as quietly as she'd come.

I had everything planned.

Weapons lined the barracks walls. I took a quarterstaff, its tip ending in a sharp, heart-shaped spear, and hid it beneath my bed. I had no mask, though it hardly mattered. I found a shawl in my closet and ripped it to create a makeshift bandana.

Alo and the scribes meditated every morning at seven, and again just before dinner at four. That was when I'd slip away to Noric's chamber. If the warlord wasn't there, I'd wait. As long as it took. I would kill him and then I would return.

I closed off my mind to Das. I knew this wasn't my destiny, and I realized that meant I was no longer under its protection.

Kalia died because they thought she was the Master Star Seed. And Roscoe volunteered to bring her here. It was my job. He took it on, and his death should have been mine.

I had survived because of mistaken identity, and that felt heavier than anything I could live with.

I was doing this for Roscoe. And for Kalia. Sweet, innocent Kalia.

Q taught me many things. One was knowing when to stop thinking and survive the battle.

That was what I was doing now, watching the images in the mirror without thought. Or rather, thinking of only one thing: when to leap through the surface and into Noric's war room.

It took a long time before the war chamber appeared. When it finally did, I reached out and touched the mirror, freezing the image in place.

Thoughts of Kalia and Roscoe collided inside my head as I stared, anger boiling as tension readied itself to explode.

I summoned heat before I jumped.

I hadn't expected the pull, the violent force that ripped me into another world. Gravity seized my body for only a second, but it felt like hours.

I landed on my feet, the quarterstaff still firmly in my hands.

The cold hit me first. It sank into my bones when I dragged it into my lungs. The gravity was heavier, the air thick with ice crystals that stung my nose like sharp spices.

Noric wasn't at his desk. For a heartbeat, I thought he wasn't there at all.

Then I saw him, standing at the window.

He looked back. Moving too fast.

The dagger flashed from his belt before I could duck. It sliced past my ear, warm blood running down my neck.

Steel rang as his sword left its scabbard. His body was already moving, already positioned.

His blue skin darkened as power surged beneath it. He was huge, his stance flawless, the posture of someone who had survived a thousand battles.

"Who are you, girl?" he snarled, his voice layered like he had too many vocal cords.

This was nothing like my astral visit here.

"The Star Seed you should have killed." I formed the symbol to slow time. The world elongated like taffy.

His laughter dragged, an octave deeper. "The gall of you."

He came at me. His movements slowed just enough for me to track them, every strike, every shift of balance. Crystals shattered beneath his boots with each step.

I saw every opening. Blocking him was effortless.

Shock widened his eyes as realization dawned.

I struck. The quarterstaff shot toward his throat just as his dark magic snapped time back into place.

My magic didn't work the same here. Time lurched forward and my aim slipped.

He slammed into me. The impact drove me to the floor. His hands clamped around my throat, claws digging into my back as his fingers closed.

"You came all this way to die." His grip tightened.

My vision blurred, something scraping against the stone beneath my elbow.

I twisted, gasping for air. His nails were too long to close fully around my neck, leaving just enough space for me to wheeze the cold into my lungs.

From the corner of my eye, I saw something glint. The dagger he'd thrown.

I shoved it closer with my elbow, my arm twisted oddly as fingers strained toward it.

Claws tore deeper into the back of my neck, only bone stopping them from piercing straight through.

We locked eyes. My fingers closed around the hilt. I grimaced before driving the blade into his neck.

His eyes widened. He fell away from me, one hand clamping over the wound.

Black blood spilled across the floor, thick, cold, creeping toward me.

For one breath, I thought it was over. One more strike and he would be dead.

Then the blood touched my boots. The cold hit. It spread through my body faster than heat could fight it. My joints locked. Ice crawled across my skin, sealing me where I lay.

This cold was different. It sank past muscle and organs, reaching my bones, finding my marrow. Something inside it stung. Something poisonous.

He lay bleeding on the floor, struggling to rise.

I was a frozen statue, on one knee, sealed in place, fit to topple at any moment.

To my left, the sound of air split open. The mirror portal tore through the chamber.

Something hit the floor with a metallic clang. Blu. He sprang up between us, sword already drawn, his expression so lethal it stopped my breath.

Heat slammed into me as his hand seized my arm and dragged me backward. Ice shattered on contact, steam bursting into the air.

"Julion," he growled, fury flashing across his face.

Boots thundered down the hall. Alarms screamed.

Noric's lips curved. Blood streaked down his mouth. "It's not over," he rasped. "No one survives my blood."

Blu didn't answer. He lifted me against his chest with one arm like I was weightless. The portal yanked us backward and the chamber tore away in a rush of light and sound.

The last thing I saw was Noric smiling through blood while guards surrounded him, shouting for help.

Blu's arms held me tight as he raced toward the healing chambers. Gasps and horrified faces blurred past. Oheo appeared. Then Navi.

I had crossed a line, and the entire Hall knew it.

I had my reasons. But Blu had crossed the portal too. And if I needed a defense, that's what I would use.

 

 

CHAPTER 7

NORIC COLD

 

Kaisha shook her head, her lips pursed as she explained why the foot soldiers' magic was different from Noric's.

"She was on Coriston, not Earth. I've never seen anything like this." She hesitated. "I can ask Asgaya. Maybe there's a spell, a ritual inside the Book of Life that we don't know about."

Blu's fist slammed into the stone wall. "I don't," he muttered. "I don't accept that."

The ice had melted, but Noric's poison had weakened her. She could barely sit up. Earth, wind, and Shavii healers had worked on her, all of them uttering prayers and spells and laying their hands on her body.

None of it changed her condition.

Navi wasn't sure what to think. She was alive, and for now, that was enough.

No one liked involving gods and goddesses in human affairs. They had a habit of leaving behind gifts no one wanted, things that could linger for a lifetime.

But the Lineage Ceremony was only two weeks away. For the first time since the last emissary, the entire tribe would cross through the wall of enchantment to attend.

This was special.

Maybe not as big as the Consecration of the Emissary, but the expectation and the joy surrounding it ran high. If Julion couldn't attend, it would mean she wasn't the Emissary. No one could carry her into the room. The message it would send would be devastating.

There were eyes already measuring her, waiting for weakness, and the opposition on the council would move in to pounce.

"Communicate with Asgaya," Oheo said.

She turned from the shadows. The darkness hid her face, but the authority in her voice didn't need light to be felt.

Every time I opened my eyes, Akasa was there.

She was sleeping now, but one hand rested on the edge of my bed, close to mine, as though the grasp had only slipped away when her consciousness did.

The sun was rising, the fragile blue of the sky reminding me of the magic I no longer possessed.

I tried to sit up.

My arms shook under the effort. Even lifting my hand to my forehead in frustration took more strength than I had. "Das. Raseka," I whispered, a sharp feeling falling inside my stomach. "Anyehi?"

There was a time when a call to these otherworldly beings was answered in a heartbeat.

Now they were all silent.

The Great God of the Skies.

Ocasta? I cried.

The ethers were quiet. I knew there would be punishment for straying from my destiny, but I never expected this.

Akasa stirred, waking as though tethered to me by something invisible. She knelt beside the bed, bringing her face close to mine.

She was beautiful, her heart-shaped face and eyes slightly too large. But this morning they were swollen red.

"How are you?" Her voice, a little hoarse.

"I'm not in any pain," I lied.

She knew better. I could see it in her face.

"I want to sit up," I said. "I want to be in the sitting room. Not here."

She glanced toward the doorway, measuring the distance.

We both knew it was too far for her to carry me, and Noric's poison had left me helpless, practically paralyzed.

"I'll fetch Blu," she said, rising.

"Blu?" I frowned. "You can just ask the guard at the end of the hall."

Her gaze dropped briefly. "Blu said the only ones who could touch you were him, Navi, or Xanti. The only men who could—" Her words dropped away.

Max and Vixbi flickered through my mind. When their training began, they'd live in the warriors' quarters. I'd see them every day, at least I'd imagined I would. "Why would he say that?" I asked.

"You're a nakola," she said softly. "And with the gold in the flame, even more so."

I understood. The realization sank into my shoulders and rested heavy inside my chest. Raseka and I shared the same divine line, which meant, I couldn't finish the thought. My divine family forsaking me.

Without their help I had no one above me and no one beside me, only people whose loyalty I hadn't earned yet and rules I didn't understand. "Can he tell me what to do?" I asked instead. "What is the command structure?"

"For now," Akasa said carefully, "he remains second in command. After the Consecration of the Emissary, he will be third. Only Oheo will stand above you."

I let out a slow breath.

Rules. There were already too many of them.

"Okay," I said at last. "Then fetch Blu. I'm sick of being in this bed." My tone was sharper than I meant. I regretted it immediately.

But words were the only power I had left.

 

                                          THE CHOICE OF A GUARDIAN

 

Akasa heard the knock and quietly excused herself.

I tried to straighten the fold of the comforter resting against my chest. My arms were weaker than they'd been even last night. They trembled as I brushed loose strands of hair away from my face just before Blu entered.

He stopped inside the doorway, his eyes finding mine immediately.

I knew not to expect a greeting, but the absence of one still bruised.

He took a step forward. I cut in before he could speak.

"Alo told me I needed a guardian," I said. "A guard to—"

"Escort and protect," he finished, as though it should be a normal concept to me. It wasn't.

"Escort and—" I repeated, holding back the sarcasm. As for the word protect, I'd skip that one. I didn't need protection. What I needed was to be able to lift my own arms. "Escort me everywhere I go." I drew in a breath. "How is Max supposed to do that if he can't touch me? And why is that, anyway? Why is it only you, Navi, and Xanti who can?"

My voice had risen. I forced it back down.

"Until Noric's poison subsides." His voice was deep like he hadn't slept. But his words weren't an answer. Not to everything I'd asked.

"So Max can't be my guardian," I said slowly, "until the poison subsides."

Blu looked away. His lids closing for a moment before he turned to face me again. "Max declined the offer," he said. "It was presented to him."

My mouth parted. Heat stung behind my eyes. "Oh," I said carefully, the word somehow holding me together. "So then it's you," I said after a moment. "You'll be my guardian?"

That look returned, except this time his eyes briefly lowered to the floor. My fingers tried to curl into a fist, but it was like they couldn't hear the command.

"It would be an honor," he said quietly.

He hesitated.

"Just not for someone like me."

The words struck harder than I expected.

Whatever strength I had left drained away, slowly, like a stomach wound. "Oh," I said again, my voice on the verge of trembling.

He crossed the room. "May I?" he asked, already reaching for me.

I nodded.

When he lifted me, the sun inside his blood spread through me, familiar and grounding. My head tipped briefly against his chest, more from fatigue than comfort. His breath caught when my fingers tried to bunch the material at his shoulder for support.

He set me down on the sofa and returned with the comforter, placing it over me with careful precision. Still unused to such small tasks, it fell unevenly. One foot slipped free into the cool air.

I told my leg to move. It wouldn't listen.

Akasa moved instinctively to fix it, then stopped.

Blu had already turned away. The door closed behind him with a soft, final sound.

 

 

CHAPTER 8

THE FIRST BRIEFING

 

 

"You don't have to stay with me," I said. Akasa had been at my side all day. She hadn't left since the Noric event, which no one ever mentioned. I supposed they felt too much pity to reprimand me. Or maybe the universe was doing the reprimanding for them.

"I want to stay," she said. "Unless you need your space. Do you need space?" Her eyes were wide with hope that I didn't want her to go.

I smiled. I liked her company and having her around was comforting. "I don't want you to go. But if you ever do—"

"I've been wanting to finish a novel," she said, lifting her wrist to show her AI band.

"I love to read," I said. "Who's the author? What genre?"

Her eyes brightened. "She's Cheveyan. Chantzii Orlo. As for the genre, that's harder to explain."

"Try," I said. "I'm not going anywhere."

Her lips curved with warmth. "On our home world, we use telepathy instead of words. But there's a sect that doesn't want their thoughts fully known. They want boundaries."

"Guardrails?"

"Yes," she laughed softly. "Guardrails. And then there are those who reject all of it. The genre is called ferlezo. They live in a pure state of release. No obedience. No fixed forms. No expectation of beauty or outcome. Total freedom."

"Ferlezo," I said, tasting the word.

"It's very popular," she said. "I wish I could explain more, but Cheveyo is different."

Life surged through me, bright and sudden. "I'd love to read a ferlezo novel."

The screen on the wall activated on its own. We both turned. An article I'd read before moving from the city to the Valley began playing aloud.

The canoe capsized, throwing everyone into the churning water, everyone except the duke. He was revived by Cheveyans who carried him to the waters near their sacred caves. His account spread through Europe. Stories followed.

I dismissed it without thinking, ordering the silent mode. The screen went dark. Akasa and I talked a while longer before she returned to her book.

Just before an afternoon nap took hold, an image flashed inside my mind. I caught part of it as the stream that cut through the Valley appeared and disappeared in one breath.

Blu came by later, brief and unannounced. He asked if I needed him to move me. I did. The back of the sofa was soft but not as comfortable as my bed. He lifted me, the silence between us like a held breath. He left without a goodbye but paused at the door to look back before disappearing.

I thought he'd turn to say he'd changed his mind about being my guardian, but he didn't. His decision confused me. But maybe he was like Montana, one of the council members who didn't believe I was the Emissary. When I noticed my thoughts, I wondered why I cared what he thought anyway.

With a week left before the Lineage Ceremony, Oheo called a meeting in my quarters. Staff served fruits and colorful hors d'oeuvres, an attempt to lighten the mood. I pretended not to be hungry, but the reality was that I could no longer lift my arms. I just stared at the food, my stomach cramping from hunger.

Oheo spoke carefully, but nothing could soften what needed to be decided. The ceremony had to be postponed.

"I need you to understand that the fallout could be something we can never recover from," Oheo said, taking my hand.

"You mean me, something I can never recover from." If only they knew, I thought, my chest tightening with every breath. I'd be dead by then. I could feel it, the poison spreading.

Blu's eyes felt like warm dew on my face. They fell to my fingers, which hadn't moved since the meeting began. And Navi crossed his arms over his chest like nothing about what was going on sat right with him.

Only Oheo seemed to accept the inevitable, and to my response she nodded after taking a deep breath.

Just as they were leaving, I saw the vision of the stream again, and this time a light went on inside me. I understood what it meant, what the messages had been trying to tell me for the last few days. I called out to Blu, asking for a moment before he left.

"Are you, no!" He managed only three words.

"I know I'm right."

"The cold did this to you," he said. "If it gets any worse—"

"I'm not getting any better," I said softly, thinking that even if he didn't believe in me, passing through the portal had forged something between us. I knew it had, for me, at least. "I haven't told anyone, but—"

He waited.

"My breathing," I said. "I'm starting to lose the ability to—" I stopped, fighting for air. "To breathe right."

Blu went very still. His jaw tightened first. Then his shoulders. For a moment it looked as though he might reach for me, but his hand stopped halfway, curling slowly into a fist.

Whatever composure he usually carried cracked wide open.

We told no one. They would think it was madness. Maybe it was. But I knew I was being led to the healing waters near the caves, and if it didn't work, sneaking out wouldn't matter.

Getting out wasn't easy. A platoon had just returned from war, and celebration had blurred into excess. Drink flowed freely. Though the barracks were packed, the noise covered us.

A stableman waited with a horse. Cloaked, I could have been anyone, or no one at all. All he knew was that Blu was carrying someone out of the Hall in the dead of night.

After we passed through the wall of enchantment, the fullness of not being able to defend myself sliced through me almost as cold as Noric's blood. Blu's arms tightened when he felt me tremble.

"I've got you," he said, his posture sharpening as his eyes scanned between the trees and boulders rising from the terrain.

We reached the stream safely. No outlanders. No kotes. Just a narrow strip of pebbled beach.