Chapter 4
970 Words
The city hummed beneath Veyra’s feet as she walked down Fifth Avenue, her boots tapping a sharp rhythm on the rain-slick pavement. She wore black today—blazer, blouse, slacks—flawlessly tailored, projecting authority to anyone who crossed her path. Her eyes, once masked with a calm professionalism, now shimmered faintly with the cosmic residue of the Core Flame. She kept her head down, not out of fear, but calculation. She could feel the watchers.
Veyra had returned to her public life, at least on the surface. She resumed her role as CEO, addressed the press about the eclipse anomaly, and presented at an aerospace symposium. She spoke of gravity waves and new propulsion prototypes, all while her mind parsed galactic war strategies and ancient dialects. She smiled, shook hands, and in secret, built defenses.
Her penthouse had been rebuilt—only partially. The garden remained open to the sky, transformed into a sanctuary of crystalline pylons and resonance arrays. It was no longer just a home. It was a fortress, a beacon, a throne.
Yet amid all of this, Veyra’s greatest concern was not the return of Kael. It was the humans.
They had no idea what brewed beneath their reality. They wandered through lives crafted by fleeting concerns and shallow needs, unaware of the storm gathering above their heads. She watched them as she walked—laughing, struggling, surviving. They reminded her of Theans before the fall. Naive. Hopeful. Unprepared.
She would not let them fall. Not like before.
---
That night, in the silence of her inner sanctum, Veyra met with three cloaked figures. They were not human. Not anymore.
The first, A’liyn, had once served as the Keeper of the Moons—an archivist of Thean history, now reborn in a bio-synthetic shell. The second, Caelix, a warrior-commander who had fought beside her in the final hours of Thea’s fall. The third, Myrrin, a seer from the shattered worlds of the Outer Belt.
“You summoned us, my Queen,” Caelix said, kneeling.
“Stand,” Veyra said. “We have no time for old rituals.”
They rose, exchanging glances. It had been millennia since they’d heard her voice command like this.
“They are coming. Kael’s signature has returned. We have weeks—maybe less.”
Myrrin nodded. “The stars have begun to turn. I’ve seen the alignments. A convergence unlike any in this age.”
A’liyn’s tone was grave. “Then it begins anew.”
“No,” Veyra said. “It ends here.”
She activated a holographic display—star maps overlaid with interdimensional coordinates and encrypted military sigils. A ring of ancient gates once used by the Theans to leap between systems flickered to life.
“They’ll use the old paths,” she said. “Kael will test Earth’s defenses. Then, he’ll descend.”
“Humanity cannot stand against him,” Caelix said.
“They won’t have to,” Veyra replied. “We will.”
---
Over the following days, Veyra moved swiftly.
She secured hidden vaults beneath the oceans, reactivated orbital satellites programmed in a forgotten age, and contacted dormant Annunaki strongholds. She worked without rest, synthesizing weapons from Thean design and Earth materials—energy lances disguised as satellites, cloaking fields hidden within communication relays.
But the strain was beginning to show. Her dreams had grown darker.
Kael's presence haunted her mind—a ghost of obsidian armor and violet flame. He spoke in riddles, in promises twisted by power. He had once loved her, or claimed to. Now, his desire was domination.
In one dream, she stood on a scorched Earth. Cities in ruins. Skies choked with ash. Kael reached for her from a throne of skulls.
“You were always mine,” he whispered. “Even when you killed me.”
She awoke screaming, the Core Flame roaring beneath her skin.
---
At dawn, Enlil returned.
He stood at the edge of her rooftop sanctuary, watching the sun rise over the Hudson. Veyra joined him, wrapped in a cloak of solar-threaded silk, her features carved from light and will.
“Your radiance is awakening,” he said without turning.
“It’s consuming me,” she replied.
“No,” he said. “You were always this. You only forgot.”
She sighed. “Do you ever wonder if we should’ve left Earth alone?”
Enlil turned to her. “I’ve wondered if we deserve it. But not them. They’ve earned their chance.”
“And I’m their shield,” she said.
He nodded. “Until your last breath.”
Veyra’s gaze hardened. “Not my last. Not this time.”
---
That evening, a signal pinged her private frequency.
She answered.
The face on the screen was unexpected. Human. Male. Mid-thirties. Glasses, lab coat, nervous energy.
“Miss Enlil? My name is Dr. Evan Reyes. I’m... with the Deep Space Observation Array in Patagonia. We picked up... something.”
She leaned forward. “Define ‘something.’”
He hesitated. “A transmission from Saturn’s rings. It was... music. But encoded with fractal patterns. I ran it through harmonic analysis and it matches—well—it matches the same energy pattern as your company’s gravity engine.”
Veyra froze.
“And it called your name,” he added.
Her blood turned to ice. “What name?”
“Not your current one. It said... Selya’theara.”
The signal cut.
---
Veyra stood alone on her tower once more, wind pulling at her cloak. The Core Flame pulsed in her chest like a second heart. The stars whispered truths she didn’t want to hear.
Kael was near.
Not in body, not yet. But in reach. His voice crawled across dimensions.
And he was calling her.
She closed her eyes.
Let him come.
She was ready.
- Writer
