The communication crystal flared to life at dawn, three days before we were scheduled to leave for the mountains. I was in the middle of morning exercises, testing my ribs, when Damian burst through the door with the device already crackling with Uncle Victor's voice.

"Hadeon, emergency. Drop everything and respond now."

I grabbed the crystal from Damian's hands. "What happened?"

"Something appeared at the estate, it seems serious. Something." Uncle Victor's voice was tightly controlled, the tone he used when managing panic. "It's gone now, but it left a message. You need to hear this."

"Start from the beginning."

He did.

According to Uncle Victor, he'd been in his study reviewing supply reports when reality simply bent with no warning and no buildup. The air folded in on itself like paper being creased, and then there was someone standing in the middle of the room. They hadn't walked through the door. They hadn't teleported in any conventional sense. They'd just become present, as if they'd always been there and everyone had somehow failed to notice until that moment.

"Describe them," I said, already knowing I wouldn't like the answer.

"Tall. Taller than human. Maybe seven feet. Androgynous features, impossible to determine gender or age. Skin like polished marble. Eyes..." He paused. "Their eyes looked like stars. Not metaphorically. Actual points of light embedded in their face, burning with cold fire. When they spoke, it sounded like music and grinding stone at the same time. Beautiful and terrible."

The description sent ice through my veins. I'd never seen an Emissary before, but Victoria had described them during one of our research sessions. Council agents that existed partly outside normal reality. SSS-plus rank minimum. Entities that made The Huntress look like a training dummy.

"What did they say?"

Uncle Victor's voice went flat, reciting from memory. "The Council of Fates has observed recent events with concern. Hadeon Ravana has deviated significantly from his assigned role. This disruption cannot continue."

The words hung in the air like a death sentence.

"They gave three options," Uncle Victor continued. "First, you surrender to Council custody for what they called re-education. Second, you accept your villain role and die to Adrian as originally scripted. Third, the Ravana family line ends. All of us....dead."

My hand tightened on the crystal hard enough that the edges bit into my palm. "They threatened the entire family."

"Not threatened. Stated it as fact. As if it was already decided and they were simply informing me of the schedule." Uncle Victor's voice cracked slightly. "They gave us thirty days to choose."

Thirty days. The same timeline we'd anticipated. The Council moved with predictable efficiency once they decided to act.

"What was your response?"

"I told them you saved eight thousand lives. Exposed a terrorist organization. Fought beside the hero. I asked if those were villain actions." A pause. "They said they were deviations. That the narrative requires correction. That the Council has been patient but patience expires in thirty days."

"And then?"

"They vanished. Same way they appeared. Reality folded and they were gone. Left no trace and no residual mana with nothing." Uncle Victor's breath was audible through the crystal. "Hadeon, what have you gotten us into?"

"A war we can't afford to lose." I looked at Damian, who was standing by the door with his hand on his sword hilt. "Uncle, I need you to evacuate non-essential family members. Anyone who can't fight, get them to safe houses. Spread them across different locations. If the Council makes good on their threat, we don't keep all our eggs in one basket."

"You're not going to surrender."

"Would you want me to?"

Silence on the other end. Then, quietly, "No. Your father wouldn't have. Neither will you. But Hadeon, this is the Council of Fates. Reality-controlling entities. How do we fight something like that?"

"By becoming something they can't control. That's what the training is for." I forced confidence into my voice I didn't entirely feel. "Thirty days. We have time. The Council gave us a deadline, which means they're not planning to act before then. That's information we can use."

"Or it's a trap."

"Probably both. But we work with what we have."

Uncle Victor was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was steadier. "I'll begin evacuations today quietly. We don't want to start a panic, the family guard will remain, along with anyone rated B-rank or higher. We'll fortify the estate and prepare for the worst."

"Good. Keep me updated on everything unusual. If another Emissary appears, if anyone approaches claiming to be from the Council, if reality starts acting strange, I need to know immediately."

"Understood, Hadeon..." He hesitated. "Your parents died fighting people who wanted to control them. I won't let the same happen to you if I can prevent it."

The crystal went dark before I could respond.

I stood there holding the dead communication device, mind racing through implications. The Council had made their first direct move. Not an attack. A warning. They were giving us one last chance to fall in line before they brought the hammer down.

Which meant they still thought we might surrender. That we'd fold under pressure and accept our narrative roles rather than face annihilation.

They didn't understand us at all.

"Young Master," Damian said carefully. "What do we do?"

"We accelerate the things. I'm contacting Adrian. If the Council visited my family, they probably visited his too."

I grabbed a different communication crystal, this one attuned to Adrian's personal frequency. It connected after two rings.

"Hadeon." Adrian's voice was tight. "Tell me you got a visit from something that looked like a walking cosmic horror."

"Early this morning. You too?"

"Ten minutes ago in a different location, same message." He laughed without humor. "Well, similar message and my options were slightly different."

"What did they offer you?"

"Return to my hero role and defeat you publicly. Join the Council as an agent and betray the resistance. Or get replaced by a new hero and have my power transferred to someone more obedient." His voice hardened. "They said they'd kill me and find someone else. Like I'm a broken tool to be discarded."

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