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I awoke to hear birds chirping and the wind lightly whistling. By the look of the slight sunshine, I guessed it was five in the morning. I was sleeping on a thick tree branch, as the others were as well. "You awake?" I heard Emma say to me as she polished her sword, Cortana. "Yeah." I replied. Emma pointed to the two boys, who were still sleeping, "Do we wake them...or...?"

"Nah. Let them sleep. They're gonna need all they can get." I said, jumping from the tree.

"So. I know, I might not seem like the most...kind type of people. But...I guess that's who I am, and I'm getting the feeling that you kinda are like that, too."

"Yeah. I...don't trust very easily. Not after..." I trailed off in thought.

"Uh, do you want to say it? Or...I'm not forcing you to say. I respect your privacy." She said.

"I-I should tell someone. And there's no one else that could understand. This...this version of the truth is one that is most accurate, out of all that I've told to anyone else. Three years ago, I had a friend. Two actually. Really close. But, one day, there was an attack on the Institute. One of those two friends, his name was Antonius. We were closer than just friends, you could say. The other was Elsie. I was gonna be Parabatai with her. Though I never did. We went into a miniature battle with demons, but we were badly out numbered. Antonius, he was a warrior. And...I was preoccupied with a demon, when I saw a demon creep up behind Antonius. Elsie, she was there too. She could have saved Antonius. If she had just even yelled out to him. But she didn't. She just stood there, blank faced. I ran up to him, but it was already too late. I'd had applied as many iratzes as possible. But...again, it was too late. Elsie blamed it on the fact that she was far away. But really, she was selfish. She was always boasting that she could fight well, but to an actual fight...she couldn't even pick up a sword swiftly. After that, she moved to Idris, and I never saw Elsie again."

"Wow...I'm sorry about that. I had no idea." Emma said, staring at the ground.

"It's nothing I can do about now. It was hard to get up in the morning at first. I was so used to seeing Antonius by my side. I just want one last time to speak to him. Just one more time..." We both stared at the muddy ground, in silence. I grabbed a stele and drew a strength rune, along with a speed, agility, stamina, equilibrium, fearless, flexibility, knowledge, and precision rune. I glared at the angelic power rune that was marked at both of my wrists. All up my arms, were iratzes from the twenty foot jump out of the window. I still had some silvery scars that marked my scraped knees. I closed my eyes and tried to feel, for just this once, peace. "Celeste?" I heard Caius whisper. "What?" I replied. Then, Caius pulled my arm. "Here," he said, suddenly loudly. "Emma and Julian are still sleeping. Don't want to wake them up. Anyway, I remember this place, as a kid. There's this beach...and it's normally extremely vacant in the morning. Let's go; we have time. Precisely an hour. Before it gets crowded. And try drawing a glamour rune. Just in case."

We walked to the beach, though I was silent the whole time. I saw my pendant shine, as it swung around on my neck. I also two metal bracelets. One was iron, if we ever crossed roads with an unwilling faerie, and one silver, for a rogue werewolf.

I sat on the sand. I took a look around. The water reflected my face as I bent over it. I saw some fish, speeding away. I looked up to the sky. The sun, though it was barely in sight, still shine, lighting up the sea. I smiled. Of course, we will be needing to travel by sea one point, to get to Cadair Idris. Which I'm sure Sebastian will be, perhaps– "Do you see that?" Caius interrupted. "What?" I asked. "That." He pointed, and then I saw. A girl. She looked human. But there was something off about her. Another thing—she could see us. Of course, there are some mundanes that can see the Shadow World, but that's super rare. And why would a teenage girl be out here at five thirty in the morning? All alone? But as she stood, twenty feet from me, I realized that she seemed very different. Not only does she look like an insane goth, but she acted different. Then something inside me clicked—she was a demon. "Eidolon Demon. Can take form if any human being. Let's run." I turned and ran, dragging Caius after me. I saw an abandoned building, and I ran in. "Where are you? Don't hide, I'll catch you soon!" The demon hissed, it's raspy voice ringing through the room. We hid behind a stack of boxes, but the demon seemed to be able to smell our scent. "You will not essssscape me. I am sent by Ssssebastian Morgenssstern. To ssssend you a messssage and to take Celessstine back with me. The messsssage issss...Sebasssstian will find your hiding ssspot. And there is no way to sstop him. Unlesssss you give yourself up. And you," the demon pointed at Caius, "you, will deliver the messsssge." Then, the stack of boxes was crushed, revealing the demon in front of us. "No, you will not take Celestine. I'd die before you could do that." Caius said, firmly. "Then sssso be it!" The demon lashed out, it's talons digging into Caius's arm. "Caius! Oh my gosh..." I grabbed his arm, and drew three iratzes. "Thanks..." He said.

"PERISH!" The demon yelled. I pulled an arrow out of the quiver and shot it. Unfortunately, it wasn't strong enough. So I grabbed my seraph blade.

I ran in the opposite direction that Caius was, hoping that it would give him enough time to escape. The demon wanted me, not Caius.

"Sssebassstian sssaid I couldn't kill you. But he never sssaid I couldn't hurt you." I tripped on some rope on the floor. My arm was crushed under a piece of wood. I saw Caius in the corner of my eye. The demon turned around and saw Caius. "Run!" I yelled to him, but he only ignored me. "Not without you." He charged at the demon, and before I could say 'no', the demon dissolved. "Thanks, so much. Why didn't you run?"

"Because I couldn't leave you here. I would never forgive myself. And nor would anyone else."

"Thanks. Ouch." I winced in pain, looking down to my arm that was crushed. It seemed fine, thanks to the strength rune I applied earlier. Then, my knees buckled. I almost screamed out in pain, and I told myself to push the pain aside. "I'm fine." I said, and grabbed hold of the corner of a dusty table. I winced in pain again.

"No, you are not." He lifted me up in my arms, though I was losing consciousness. "Demon poison. We need to get you to the nearest institute immediately." And all went dark.

"Here." Someone handed me a cup of tea. I looked around, and saw that I was in an infirmary. Of an institute. "Where...?" I asked.

"I'm Jia Penhallow. And you are in Idris, Alicante." She said, perching on a chair next to the bed I was lying on. "So...you are...the consul?" I asked. She nodded.

"Okay, Celestine, get some rest. I've called a warlock to help you with your injuries. She will be here shortly."

"Your injuries are okay for now, but you will need rest. The demon poison is taken care of." The warlock said. She mentioned that her name was Tessa. "Thank you." I said. She nodded, then requested that she speak to me alone, for a few minutes. Caius, Jia, and Emma left the room. "Celestine. I see, you are important to this quest. And so I have a gift for you." She grabbed something from the corner of the room. "Here," she laid a bracelet onto my hands. "this, is something similar to Isabelle's whip. It works the same, except this one doesn't just work as a whip or a bracelet. But it will glow, when a demon is near." I stared at the beautiful piece of jewellery. It was a serpentine bracelet, though as a whip, it had runes etched into the hilt, and it shined every time I moved it. "Thank you." I whispered, and saw Tessa'a lips curve into a smile.