The Queen

Chapter 3

The sky above Manhattan threatened rain, a dense gray curtain pressing against the skyline, veiling the city in a soft metallic glow. High above the restless streets, in the glass crown of Enlil Tower, Veyra Enlil stood in quiet defiance of the storm. Barefoot on cool marble, her silhouette framed by floor-to-ceiling windows, she held a glass of wine loosely in one hand while her other rested against the glass, fingers splayed against the trembling city.

To the world, she was Veyra Enlil—thirty-four, CEO of an aerospace research firm at the bleeding edge of gravitational technology, heiress to the vast Enlil Conglomerate, and one of the most influential women on the planet. Her name graced magazine covers, her innovations reshaped industries, and her presence commanded boardrooms and scientific panels alike.

But Veyra was more than her reputation, more than her achievements. To the ancient watchers and the hidden races of the Earth, she was something far older, far more terrifying. She was the last queen of Thea—the lost world beyond the stars. And tonight, the mask she had worn for millennia began to crack.

Thea had once been a jewel among worlds, a bastion of light and knowledge, where consciousness shaped reality and kings ruled by the resonance of their souls. Veyra had been born from that light—crowned not just by tradition, but by a sacred energy known as the Core Flame. As Queen Selya’theara, she had wielded a power capable of shaping stars, guiding civilizations, and healing the very fabric of space.

But her reign ended in fire and betrayal. Thea was consumed, torn apart by those who coveted its power. The queen fell, her essence scattered across dimensions. She was not reincarnated in the traditional sense—she persisted, adrift in time, anchored to Earth by forces even the Annunaki struggled to understand.

When the Annunaki arrived on Earth eons ago, she emerged again—her essence stabilized, her mind reshaped by time’s crucible. Enlil, the leader of the Annunaki, knew what she was. He called her daughter, not because she was born of his flesh, but because he recognized her fire. He protected her from those who would seek her power, even as she lived life after life, age after age.

In this latest identity, Veyra had gone further than ever before. She immersed herself in the world, built a name from the ground up, refused her father’s protection, and dared to blend fully with humanity. It had been a deliberate choice—to live as they lived, love as they loved, ache as they ached.

Until now.

Tonight, everything had changed.

It started with a signal—a vibration in her bones, a hum behind her eyes. At first, she thought it was a stress reaction, the byproduct of weeks of pushing her body and mind too hard. But it wasn’t.

In her private lab beneath the Tower, the gravity field had spiked unnaturally. The Core Flame—the metaphysical construct that powered Thea's throne—had stirred. A pulse echoed through the subquantum space of the facility, shorting out delicate instruments and causing a full lockdown. No one else understood what had happened. But Veyra did.

She’d felt the awakening before the data confirmed it.

The Flame was calling her.

---

Later that evening, she sat in the quiet of her office, the city’s lights flickering far below. Her long dark hair was tied back, face bare of makeup, her tailored suit half-unbuttoned from the day’s demands. She looked less like a queen and more like a woman carrying the weight of entire worlds on her shoulders.

She activated the security fields—layers of anti-surveillance, electromagnetic damping, and psychic shielding. A shimmering ripple crossed the air as the final layer settled. Only then did she speak aloud.

“Father.”

Enlil appeared in the room without theatrics, stepping out of the shadows as though he’d always been there. In his human guise, he looked younger than her—sharp features, silver-streaked hair, dressed in charcoal and midnight blue. But his eyes betrayed the age and power within him—an old god walking among mortals.

“You felt it,” he said without preamble.

Veyra nodded. “It’s no longer dormant. I think... it remembers me.”

“The Core Flame does not forget,” Enlil said. “It waits.”

“For what?” she asked.

“For you to stop pretending to be human.”

She turned away. “I *chose* this life. I built something real here. People rely on me.”

“They rely on a mask,” he said softly. “You know this can’t last. Not anymore.”

Her jaw tightened. “Then what would you have me do? Raise a flag and declare myself queen of a dead world?”

“You are more than Thea’s queen,” Enlil said. “You are the bridge between what was and what will be.”

Veyra paced the length of the office. “Someone activated a gate near Saturn. A fragment of Kael’s fleet, perhaps. They’re scanning for relics. Looking for me.”

“Then it has begun,” he said. “The hunt. The awakening. The reckoning.”

She stopped. “They won’t stop. Not until they’ve consumed everything. They’ll turn Earth into another Thea.”

“Unless you stop them.”

She met his gaze, and for a long moment, the silence between them was heavier than gravity. Then she turned to the window.

“Then I’ll need to remember who I am,” she whispered. “All of it.”

---

The days that followed were filled with sleepless nights and long hours in isolation. Veyra withdrew from her company, citing a need for rest. Her assistants ran the day-to-day, and the world hardly noticed.

In the sub-basement below the tower—a sealed vault known only to her and Enlil—she reawakened relics of her past. A crystalline gauntlet encoded with memory patterns. A star-forged mirror that reflected true essence. A data-construct that contained echoes of Thean philosophy, language, and battle strategies.

Her body changed. Slowly, imperceptibly. Her cells hummed with energy not seen since Thea’s golden age. Her mind cleared, focusing with a precision that transcended logic. Her dreams became gateways.

Each night, she relived a different piece of her former life.

The coronation beneath twin suns.

The betrayal in the crystal court.

The war of shadows and light.

Kael.

His name lingered like ash on her tongue. He had been her greatest love—and her greatest betrayer. Once a prince of allied realms, he had seduced her with words of unity, only to corrupt the Flame and unleash forces that tore Thea apart.

She had killed him. Or thought she had.

But nothing in the universe stays buried forever.

---

Weeks passed.

The eclipse came.

A blood moon rose over Manhattan. And with it came the first of the enemy.

They arrived not in ships, but as shadows. Energy forms wrapped in cloaking fields, walking through walls, flickering like broken holograms. They tore through her tower’s defenses with ease—Annunaki tech corrupted by Kael’s followers.

Veyra didn’t hesitate.

In the chamber of stars, she stepped into the center of the seal. Her eyes closed. Her power returned.

The gauntlet hummed. The mirror ignited. Her body surged with starlight.

When the attackers burst in, they found not a woman, but a queen reborn. Her voice echoed like thunder:

**“I am Veyra Selya’theara, Core Flame-bearer, Daughter of Enlil, Queen of the Lost Light.”**

And with a flick of her hand, she unleashed the energy of a dying star.

Reality twisted. The invaders were unmade. Not destroyed—*erased.*

But one escaped.

It sent a signal.

A beacon across the cosmos.

And in the cold dark beyond Saturn, something ancient stirred.

Kael.

He had survived. Changed, perhaps. Corrupted fully. But alive.

And he knew she lived.

---

The next morning, Veyra stood atop the ruins of the penthouse garden. The sun rose over a city unaware that it had nearly become a battlefield. Enlil appeared beside her, silent.

“You were right,” she said.

“You remember,” he replied.

“Enough,” she said. “And more is coming back.”

She turned to face him, her eyes no longer merely human.

“I can’t pretend anymore. Not to myself. Not to the world.”

Enlil placed a hand on her shoulder. “Then what will you do?”

She looked up at the sky, toward the stars that had once been home.

“I will prepare,” she said. “Because this world is mine now. And I will not let Thea’s fate become Earth’s.”

Lightning cracked in the distance. The storm had finally arrived.

But so had the Queen.