The Return of the Lifebringer (Children of the Sun Book 3)

Nef really hadn’t expected this to turn out this freaking badly. He knew it would be pretty damned terrible, but this took the cake. Not only had he and Yorin not managed to find Nira, Rayni, and Mereria, but Yorin ended up being discovered due to the glitchiness of the invisibility bracelets, effectively ending their mission even before they could get to the halfway point.

Nef had to force himself not to kick the wall then. He was sitting in a corner somewhere, trying to formulate some kind of plan to fix this. But what the hell could he do? He was surrounded by Eternals.

Nef sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. Okay, what could he do? He was undetectable as long as he kept quiet, or as long as the invisibility didn’t bug out, which was probably going to happen sooner or later. He also had an othrin dagger, though the idea of using it to kill someone wasn’t exactly appealing.

Nef shook his head. If everything went well, he wouldn’t have to kill anyone. Which was a big if, but anyway, Nef was willing to bet that there was a floor or two where prisoners were stashed. He just needed to figure out where that was. Which given how huge this place was, he was probably more likely to die of thirst, but Nef would have to try to stay positive here.

He had to focus on what he had and knew, and he did know for a fact that this floor wasn’t the right one. He’d seen Enor’s Eternals drag Yorin to what looked like an elevator, which made sense. Why would an aircraft have stairs? But where were the elevators?

Nef got up, immediately looking at his hand in some paranoid need to make sure the bracelet wasn’t glitching just yet. Of course, it wasn’t, so he couldn’t actually see it, but Nef narrowed his eyes at the vague space it occupied, anyway. What was causing that glitch, anyway? It had been bothering him since they’d found out about it.

To add to the confusion, as far as Nef remembered, it hadn’t happened to him yet since Yorin had been captured. And he’d been hiding on and off for at least an hour. Since Yorin…. Wait….

Surely it wasn’t because he wasn’t around any Eternals, was it? It couldn’t be that simple.

Nef snorted to himself. Of course it would turn out to be that way. It was always the simplest of answers that he completely missed, wasn’t it? But how could he prove this? There wasn’t an Eternal he could test his theory on.

Nef froze. Hm…. Or was there? There had been those tubes of Eternal energy all around, maybe that would be enough? Nef sighed. He really, really wanted to go get Nira and the others, but he would have to take this detour. If he could be sure that as long as he stayed away from Eternals, he would remain undetectable, he needed to know.

He turned around, heading back where he and Yorin had seen the crates full of the tubes. Easily avoiding two Eternals on his way, Nef quickly made it to the huge, warehouse-like room. Even before he touched one of the boxes, he could easily notice the outline of his body got a bit more noticeable.

He made his way to the back of the room, hoping that would keep him from detection if he momentarily appeared. There had to be cameras here, didn’t there? But Nef couldn’t see any. Godsdammit.

Touching one of the crates, Nef looked around the lifeless room before lifting the lid. He grunted, quickly giving up on that idea when he found out how heavy the metal was. Instead he decided to just push the lid aside, which after some effort gave way. The feeling of triumph Nef felt then was quickly overshadowed by the all too bright light coming out of the box.

His hands immediately flew up to cover his face, turning away from the crate entirely. Wait, hands…. He could see his hands flickering in and out! Nef quickly took a few steps away from the open crate, and the flickering gradually stopped, settling on only the shimmer around him being more visible than it should be.

Well, that had been a more aggressive reaction than he’d seen so far. So maybe it wasn’t about Eternals in general, but the energy they were outputting whenever they did any of the physics breaking stuff they did.

Nef wished he could keep experimenting with the limitations of this, but he really needed to get going. No one else was coming to help, so it was purely on him. Nef breathed in, looking back at the crate. Even from a distance, the light was hard to look at. But given how badly the invisibility bracelet reacted to being near the energy, Nef wasn’t going to risk being discovered.

He quickly sneaked out of the room before more Eternals came through, heading for the elevator. He had no idea what he would do when he got there, but that was a problem for future Nef.

He came to a screeching halt when right in front of him two Eternals rounded the corner. And he had nowhere to hide in his immediate vicinity. As if by instinct, he quickly started backing away, incredibly glad for how noiseless the Umbra boots were, until he was forced back where he’d just been.

Grumbling internally, he quickly walked to the other side of the room and hid among the crates, only then realizing that that might have been a very dumb idea. Thankfully, or maybe unfortunately, the Eternals seemed to notice the open crate.

While Nef now had an opening to leave, they would no doubt put together that he’d been here. Grimacing and squeezing his eyes shut, he stayed crouched among the crates, waiting for their verdict.

“There must be another one around here,” one of them said. No duh.

“How many are there?” the second one complained. “Whatever. If you find them, bring them to—”

“Floor forty-eight,” the first one said with so much annoyance it was almost impressive. “I know the drill. I’ll go that way, you the other. And someone should tell the bosses.”

“I’ll do it. Go.”

Nef couldn’t stop himself from grinning. Oh, he couldn’t have asked for better information. Actually he could have—they could have given him a door or cell number—but whatever, this was great. He waited for both of the Eternals to leave before another attempt at making it to the elevator. But this time he was more successful.

He huffed as he waited for another, this time bigger, group of Eternals to get out of it, no doubt there to help with his capture. Nice try.

Nef could lie to himself, but he couldn’t stop his rapidly beating heart from revealing how he really felt about this—he was terrified, but he could hide it behind his usual attitude. And it was better than the alternative. He couldn’t fail here. If he did, who knew what would happen to Nira. He kinda understood why she’d done what she’d done, but he was still really annoyed with her. They would have to have a long conversation after this was all over.

Making his way around the slowly moving group of Eternals, Nef got into the elevator, the door sliding closed right after. Nef breathed out, taking a moment to look around to make sure he didn’t miss anything potentially vital before finally focusing on the floor buttons. They were in Eternal, but from watching Yorin work, Nef had managed to put together that they used the same numbering system, so he simply identified what he assumed were the buttons that included the number forty and picked the one that was logically forty-eight.

The buttons started lighting up, even though Nef could barely feel the elevator move. This futuristic technology was just as fascinating as it was frustrating. Mostly because Nef wanted to understand it, but there was never any time to stop and do that.

Focus, focus. Save Nira, and everyone else. Right.

When the floor number he’d selected lit up, Nef swore his heart stopped for a second. There were two Eternals guarding the elevator. And they were looking right at him. He was frozen there until finally one of them looked somewhere else, and only then could Nef breathe again.

They couldn’t see him, but they clearly expected him to be there. Swallowing heavily, he pushed himself up against the wall of the elevator as one of them stepped inside. He watched the Eternal start grabbing at the air in the opposite corner of the elevator, quickly making his way to where Nef was hiding.

Yeah, time to disappear.

If he had time to appreciate it, he’d be proud of the way he managed to dodge and sidestep his way out of the elevator without touching either of the Eternals or making enough noise to make them notice him escaping. However, all he really could think about then was getting far, far away from them.

And he didn’t stop, not until he was blinded by another flash of what was definitely Eternal energy. He gasped, shielding his eyes and immediately backing away, hoping that would be enough to avoid interference with the invisibility.

But as soon as he could see what had happened, staying undetected was about the last thing on his mind. Right in front of him was…Kaleth. He was breathing hard. In fact, he seemed to be barely staying on his feet.

Only when he started collecting his bearings and looking around did Nef get out of his trance. Kaleth had…teleported. Since when could Kaleth teleport? Whatever, that didn’t matter right now. What mattered was figuring out if Kaleth would help him out here. That was why he was here, right? Why else would he come here specifically? And how had he managed to come here precisely? Could he accidentally teleport into a wall? And what then?

Nef forced himself to stop. No matter how much ignoring these questions hurt him, he needed to do other things.

He walked closer to Kaleth. “Psst! Kaleth!” he whispered. It didn’t go how he’d been expecting though, because the next thing he knew, Kaleth had pinned him against a wall, his fancy sword at Nef’s throat. Nef swallowed, too disturbed to try to figure out how Kaleth could tell where his neck was.

“Kaleth, it’s me. Don’t kill me!”

The utter bewilderment on the other’s face was almost priceless. It only got more shocked when Nef’s invisibility started glitching. “Nef? What in the hell are you doing here?”

Kaleth finally let him go, so Nef turned off the invisibility, hoping that Kaleth would defend him from potential attackers. He ran a hand through his hair, wiping away the cold sweat from his forehead. He wasn’t sure if that was there from the elevator incident, or being almost killed just now.

“Well, funny story,” Nef said, laughing awkwardly as he quickly summed up how much trouble they were in. The whole time Kaleth was keeping his face neutral until Nef got to the part where Yorin got captured. That was the moment Kaleth pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

“Splendid,” he said, his voice incredibly tired. “Well, I am apparently here to rescue Relioth. I’m sure doing that with five other people won’t be difficult at all.”

The sarcasm he was putting into those words was so thick Nef was almost impressed. But then Kaleth’s irritated expression softened, turning into a bittersweet one.

“I’m glad you’re alive Nef.”

Well, that was about the most affectionate thing Kaleth had told him yet, so Nef would take it. “You too, man. What happened to you? Rayni has been going crazy looking for Mel and you. That’s the whole reason she’s here. She thought Enor got you guys.”

Kaleth grimaced. “Enor almost killed me. And I accidentally teleported us to Imbera.” He looked away from Nef, instead searching around as if trying to decide where to go first. “And then I was in a coma for a few days.”

Kaleth started walking down the corridor, gesturing to Nef to follow him. Or at least Nef thought that was what it meant. He was using that military hand sign language thing that Alor had tried to explain to Nef multiple times, but Nef had just never really gotten it all.

Nef’s stomach twisted at the thought of his older brother. He must have been worried sick. Nef wished he could have sent him a message to tell him he was okay, but communicating with Enoria was kinda impossible now. And not just because Nef didn’t have a phone. Yorin claimed Enor had destroyed the cellphone towers surrounding Aleara.

Just for safety’s sake, Nef made himself invisible again as they walked through the mostly empty corridor, the only thing there being a bunch of numbered doors on their right. Nef wasn’t sure how Kaleth could tell which door was the right one, but out of nowhere he stopped, giving Nef a quick look before putting his hand on the door, and pushing on it.

It broke open soon after with the very loud sound of metal snapping into pieces, and Kaleth walked into the room as if this was all completely normal. Nef just shook his head. This guy would always find a way to confuse him.

Hearing the sound of metal clashing, Nef peeked into the room, just in time to see Kaleth stab an Eternal. Nef grimaced, trying very hard not to look at the blood of either of the bodies that lay at Kaleth’s feet. It turned out to be very difficult, but not even this was distracting enough to make him miss the sniffling that was coming from inside the room.

Nef squinted at the back of the room. There were silver metal bars there, and behind them was a man with dark short hair and a beard and…. Was that Relioth? It didn’t look like him at all, but why else would have Kaleth broken in here?

There was a metal circle around his head, and his hands seemed to be chained up to the ceiling, though the chain was long enough that he was sitting curled in on himself. And he was crying.

This couldn’t be Relioth, surely.

Nef gave Kaleth a confused look, but of course the other man wasn’t paying attention to him. And Nef wasn’t even mad—the scene in front of them was so weird that it was justified. Kaleth said Relioth’s name, first with surprise, then with force.

Relioth—if it was him, and Nef was going to assume that it was given that Kaleth could probably tell this stuff—didn’t react at all, though. He just stayed as he was, shivering and quietly sobbing. This was really making Nef uncomfortable. He hadn’t even known Relioth could cry, let alone look this pathetic.

“What do you think is wrong with him?” Nef asked, half-whispering. He felt weird talking right now with Relioth there, but he needed to get some of these thoughts out of his head or he’d go insane. Kaleth turned to look at Nef, but he didn’t reply, just shrugged with a grimace. “I’m betting whatever it is, it’s the thing on his head.”

Kaleth looked back at Relioth, grabbing the cell door and pulling, breaking it out of its hinges. The very, very loud noise that action produced made Nef cover up his ears and look nervously behind himself. There was no way someone hadn’t heard that. But Kaleth could probably handle that, right? He had just killed two Eternals without breaking a sweat.

Once again, Nef had to force himself not to look at the bodies. Instead he watched Kaleth put the door away and walk into the cell. He proceeded to wave his hand in front of Relioth’s face, and when that didn’t do anything, he gripped the metal circle around his head and pulled it off.

The effect was immediate. Relioth gasped, staring wide-eyed at Kaleth, tears still streaming out of his eyes. So Nef had been right, though it hadn’t been that hard to figure out. But what even was that thing?

“K-Kaleth?” Relioth whispered, his voice breaking. He still didn’t look like Relioth at all, aside from the face change. Relioth was an arrogant, murderous, overly confident dick. This wasn’t any of that, and it was really putting Nef off.

Kaleth didn’t answer him, but he didn’t really have to. Instead he pulled on Relioth’s chains, breaking them easily and dragging him to his feet by them.

“Come on, you’re going with us,” Kaleth told him, quietly but firmly. Relioth wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his crumpled up suit, letting out a shaky laugh.

“K-knew you would miss me,” Relioth joked as he followed Kaleth outside the cell, stumbling as Kaleth clearly intentionally pulled too hard on the chains.

“You are a means to an end. Now be quiet.”

A shiver ran down Nef’s spine at how incredibly cold Kaleth’s voice was just then. Sure, Relioth had done horrible things, and rationally Nef knew he didn’t deserve gentle treatment, but he still couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy. He’d clearly been tortured, and probably for a long time. Relioth wouldn’t have cried just because, right? What did Enor even want with Relioth? Nef had been under the impression that they had been pals, but that was clearly not the case.

Even more shockingly, though, Kaleth’s words seemed to work a little too well because Relioth did shut up and kept his head down. Which was just…uncomfortable. It didn’t last long though, and Nef wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing. The awkward silence was really bad, but a pissed off Kaleth was honestly a bit too scary for Nef to be comfortable being around him.

“Um, could you undo the shackles?” Relioth asked Kaleth who instead of just saying ‘no’ slammed Relioth against the metal wall of the corridor, making more noise that made Nef cringe. Wasn’t this guy a secret agent? He would think Kaleth should know what stealth was.

They stared at each other for a while, Kaleth’s eyes narrowed and glowing, Relioth’s full of controlled fear. Nef really hated that he kept focusing on this, but it was just so, so bizzare to see him this way. And even though he looked entirely different, Nef’s brain had apparently already started to associate Relioth’s new look with the Relioth he remembered.

“Why should I?” Kaleth growled at Relioth, somehow making him shrink even more into the wall. “So you can run away, and I get to deal with your mess?”

“Hey, this one is on both of us,” Relioth protested. Nef expected Kaleth to punch him, but nothing happened. He just took a step back, frowning at Relioth.

“What?”

Relioth grimaced, looking away. “Well, ya see, um, remember how I told you where to find Enor’s sword and shield?”

Kaleth’s eyes widened, pretty much gaping at Relioth in horror.

“What?” he repeated, this time a breathed out whisper.

“Yeah,” Relioth said, sighing. “I think that’s why. I don’t know how exactly he is here because Mery killed him right before my eyes. But that’s the only reason I can think of.”

Oh, so whatever Kaleth had done to get his fancy sword and shield had woken up Enor? Well, that was just great, wasn’t it? Kaleth hadn’t even needed it to kill Irif, had he? Nef almost wanted to start laughing hysterically then. To think that this entire conflict could have ended with Irif’s death, and now because of that damned sword and shield, it wouldn’t.

“You sent me there,” Kaleth muttered, his voice even once again. “It’s entirely your fault.”

What Nef hadn’t seen coming, however, was Kaleth ripping the chains off, leaving Relioth with only the shackles around his wrists.

“One wrong move, and I will make sure you don’t make another one,” Kaleth snarled at him, making Relioth flinch.

“Um, thanks,” he replied, rubbing his eyes. Kaleth continued walking down the corridor, and that was when Nef realized he was a little too close to a mass murderer. Who only noticed him just then.

“Oh, hey, didn’t I kidnap you at some point?” he asked, his uncaring smirk incredibly unconvincing. It was uncanny how similar it was to the one Nef remembered though, even if it was clearly an act. Though now Nef had to wonder if it had all been an act in the first place.

“Yeah. Yeah, you did,” Nef replied, feeling increasingly uncomfortable. Relioth probably had no power right now, but that didn’t mean Nef would win a fight with him. He might have had some fighting skills now, but Relioth was thousands of years old—how could Nef ever reach that level, even if he did train every day?

“You’re also kinda the reason I’m here,” Nef added, frowning as he thought a bit harder about it. “And why most of this is happening.”

Relioth looked offended at that. “Hey, it’s not all my fault.”

“Shut up and get moving,” Kaleth spat at him from a distance. Relioth apparently didn’t feel like arguing and followed. Nef sighed, shaking his head and attempting to catch up as well. The sooner they got out of here the better. He really, really didn’t like long periods of time during which his life was threatened, and lately there had been to many.

As they passed door after door, Nef had to resist the urge to open them all and check if Nira wasn’t being held behind one of them. How did Kaleth even know where he was going, anyway? Could he somehow feel other Eternals? That was probably it. How else would he have found Relioth in the first place?

Kaleth didn’t really tell them anything before he once again broke the door and after a scuffle that Nef rather left to his imagination Kaleth walked out of the room again, Mereria in tow. Nef’s face fell. Why couldn’t it have been Nira?

“Mery?” said Relioth, already reaching out to apparently hug her. Mereria pushed him away quickly with a look of utter disgust.

“Do not call me that, Tharos,” she snarled. Relioth for the most part looked miserable, and still kind of pathetic too, but he stayed silent. Either way, Mereria ignored him and turned to Kaleth instead. “We need to find Rayni and Nira.”

“Yes, of course,” Kaleth replied. Even though his voice was neutral for the most part, Nef could tell he was harboring some hostile feelings towards her. Probably because Mereria was possessing his sister and all. “Do you have any idea where they might be?”

Mereria sighed. “Rayni is supposedly being used to power this ship. And Nira is locked in the same room as her father. Assuming Enor hasn’t moved them. But I don’t think he did.”

“What? Why wouldn’t he?” Nef said before he could even think about it. That just didn’t make sense, right? If Mereria knew where they were being held, wouldn’t it make sense to move them to avoid potential rescue attempts?

Mereria gave him a hard look. “Her father doesn’t seem to want to leave.”

And somehow Nef was even more confused now. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. We need to get moving,” Mereria replied, very much annoyed now. “I suggest we split up.”

“Agreed. You can watch Relioth,” Kaleth said, scowling at her. Mereria glared back, but didn’t argue with him. Probably because it made sense from a tactical standpoint. But he was clearly forgetting one important thing.

“Uh, I can make myself invisible. I might get to Nira easier.” Nef gestured towards the bracelet on his wrist. If it still worked. He had no idea how long the battery could hold. Mereria and Kaleth exchanged a skeptical look.

“Are you sure about this?” Kaleth asked him, very, very seriously. Nef nodded, even though his confidence was diminishing with every passing second.

“Yep, yeah, I can do it. You can go get Rayni,” Nef said, really hoping that what he was saying would turn out to be true.

Neither Kaleth nor Mereria seemed to be overly convinced, but they didn’t argue. And Relioth was keeping his head down, not saying anything. Not that Nef wanted him to.

“Okay,” said Kaleth finally, giving Nef a nod. “When you find her, go to floor twenty-two, to the hangar.”

Well, that was weirdly specific. But fine, twenty-two, hangar—he could remember that.

“Nira was at the very top, at the end of the corridor the elevator is opposite to,” Mereria told him. If Nef didn’t know any better, he’d think she was worried. Either about Nef, Nira, or just in general. Maybe that was all Kaleth’s sister, though.

“Alright, see ya later,” Nef said, feeling incredibly nervous as he turned on the invisibility. Thankfully he disappeared immediately, so at least that wasn’t a problem.

“Whoa,” Relioth said, clearly impressed by this. As he should be. “Why couldn’t my scientists ever come up with something this cool?”

“Shut up, Tharos,” said Mereria, Kaleth echoing her, but using Relioth’s other name instead. “Aren’t you worried that he’ll run away? Or attack you? Why is he here, anyway? And what happened to you?”

Hearing Kaleth sigh due to all the questions, Nef politely decided to take his leave, as quietly as possible heading towards where the elevator had been. But how would he sneak in there without alerting the guards to his presence? Though they had most likely already been alerted due to Kaleth’s pretty careless murdering.

Thankfully, it turned out to be very simple because just as Nef arrived at the elevator, its door opened, revealing five Eternals, which were there most likely there as reinforcements. Nef grimaced as he waited for them to get out of the elevator and dashed inside of it before the door closed again, breathing heavily once it did.

Kaleth and the others could handle this, right? Of course they could. Nef had a mission to complete, and he couldn’t afford to worry about this. He was already worried halfway out of his mind. He really hoped Nira was alright, at least. Enor wouldn’t hurt her, right? Unless she was scientifically interesting, which she probably would be given that she could absorb Eternal power into herself and use it as she saw fit.

But her dad could do that too! Yeah, that was a good enough reason to assume Enor wouldn’t be interested in experimenting on Nira at all. Good one, Nef.

He breathed out and pressed the top button, practically shaking with anxiousness as it took him to the very top of the aircraft. And when the door opened, he just ran out, not really looking where he was going, just running and running in the direction Mereria had told him to go.

He stopped only after reaching the end, standing before a door like all the others he’d seen. Large, metal, silver, imposing, with a number on it. Nef looked behind himself, noticing that while there were Eternals walking past the corridor, there were way fewer of them than Nef had been expecting. Either Enor didn’t have enough people, or more likely he didn’t think they were necessary. Who would be insane enough to attack this place from the inside, right?

Though it was a bit weird that he hadn’t beefed up security a lot more after what had happened. Then again, they’d all gotten captured except for Nef, and it hadn’t taken very long, so maybe he was right to underestimate them.

Right, the door. Focus.

Nef wasn’t exactly an expert in Eternal technology, but the time he’d spent working with Yorin had helped understand it somewhat. And he had noticed that a lot of it was very similar to what he was used to—it was just different enough to seem alien, but the main idea stayed the same. Wires, electricity, control panels, motherboards….

Nef grabbed his dagger, and jammed it under the control panel next to the door. Freezing, he waited for an alarm to start, but nothing happened. Letting out a breath, Nef continued what he was doing, prying the tiny screen away from the wall.

Unsurprisingly there was a mess of wires of all matters of colors. But he already had experience with something eerily similar—that door in Aren. Using the same combination of colors, Nef connected and disconnected what he thought he’d need, and just like that, the door opened, revealing a very, very luxurious apartment-like room.

Nef stared at all the rugs, paintings, antique furniture, and crystal chandelier for a moment before realizing he really should get in before someone noticed he’d opened the door.

Quickly jamming the control panel back in its place, Nef sneaked inside the room and closed the door behind him after making sure there was another panel on the other side, so he could actually open it again.

Nef kept himself invisible for now, just in case there was a hostile here. Better safe than sorry, right? But that also meant that when he randomly came across Nira’s father and Yorin talking, his curiosity kept him there, eavesdropping. Why the hell was Yorin here? That didn’t make any sense.

They were sitting at a table in what had to be the coziest living room in the history of living rooms. It was all couches, pillows, moody lighting, and an amazing, and definitely way too big TV. There was even a fireplace. A freaking fireplace. Nef knew it couldn’t be real—he wasn’t an expert, but even he knew that fireplaces needed chimney access. But it looked real, it sounded real, and even more impressively—it smelled real. Enor had really gone all out.

But why? That was still a very major question in Nef’s mind.

“I could make you a robotic eye, if you wanted me to,” Yorin said, sitting suspiciously close to Nira’s father on the couch in the corner, right next to the fireplace. He was really awkward about it too. Kept fidgeting with his hands. Next to him, Hidarion seemed touched, delighted, and equally as awkward.

“Um, yes, I think I would like that, assuming I could see out of it. Do you, uh, have experience with this kind of thing?”

Nef narrowed his eyes. Was he just imagining this, or not? Either way, if this was an attempt at flirting, they really needed to find a better time and place for it. Especially since Nira was probably somewhere around here. And since he didn’t want to be a part of whatever this was, Nef would go find her first.

“Oh yes, I’ve had quite a few augmentations when I still had a corporeal body,” Yorin said, grinning ear to ear, and Nef froze. Augmentations…? Yorin had been a cyborg?! Why hadn’t he mentioned that? That was so freaking cool!

“Augmentations?” Hidarion asked, sounding both interested and confused. Was that how Nira always felt when Nef went on and on about something he was excited about? No, probably not. Nef doubted she was interested in it as much as she humored him because she loved him and wanted to encourage him. She was so great.

“Yes, before my abandonment of the physical plane, I’ve replaced both my arms and my legs with robotic ones.”

Hidarion seemed disturbed by that, but Nef would be damned if he knew why. This all sounded awesome. “I don’t know if I want to go quite that far.”

Yorin shook his head quickly, his eyes wide. “No, of course not. I just wanted to confirm that I do have experience with this.”

As fascinating as this conversation was, Nef really needed to go find Nira, so he forced himself to stop listening in and went the opposite direction. There were a couple of doors there, most likely bedrooms and bathroom, and Nef couldn’t tell which could be which so he had to guess.

It turned out he was right the first time. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened, but he didn’t have time to celebrate the tiny victory. Nira was looking right at him, very much alarmed, and only then Nef remembered he was still invisible. Quickly getting rid of that, he waved at Nira, a bit awkwardly.

Instead of alarm, there was now surprise on her face, and a second later she was running towards him, pulling him into a hug. Nef braced himself for the no doubt bruising force she would use, but it turned out to be completely within the norm. Did she have no power anymore?

“Oh gods, what are you doing here?” Nira said as she pulled away, still keeping her hands on him. She sounded both happy and like she wanted him to be as far away from here as possible. Fair, Nef supposed. But he had a right to be annoyed with her too.

“Me? What are you doing here?” Nef countered, laughing. He couldn’t manage to be angry with her right now since he was just so glad she was okay. Enor could have just killed her, and Nef wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it, after all. “Do you know how worried I was?”

Nira sighed, looking away from him. She pulled away completely now, but Nef immediately grabbed her hand, which she didn’t mind judging by how she wrapped her fingers around it. “Sorry. I just needed to know if my dad was okay. And if he…. You know.”

Nef stared blankly for a moment.

“Actually surrendered,” Nira added, raising her eyebrows at Nef.

“Ooh.” Yeah, Nef had definitely not put that together. “I’m guessing he did?”

Nira scowled. “Yeah. He did.”

Nef grimaced. Well, Nef couldn’t say he hadn’t seen that coming. And it made sense too. Clearly Irithara couldn’t stop Enor by itself. And even if it could, how many people would die? Though there was also the question of how many people would die with Enor hanging over Irithara like a black cloud of evilness.

He mostly didn’t really get why Nira had such problems accepting that her father didn’t like needless fighting. Nef hadn’t known him for that long, but he felt like it was pretty obvious.

“He said it didn’t matter if he didn’t do it since Enor would win anyway,” Nira continued, now definitely pissed off. Though her ‘pissed off’ was always much more controlled than Nef’s. “He can’t know that.”

Nef almost rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to have this conversation again since he already knew it would go nowhere. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m super happy you’re alright, but why are you alive?”

Nira snorted. “No idea. Enor was really vague about…everything. I also have no idea why Yorin is here, but my dad seems to like him.”

Nef cringed. It was amazing that she wasn’t picking up on anything with those two. His girlfriend was so observant yet so selectively blind, it was almost incredible. But that was probably for the best.

“That’s good, right?” Nef asked, hoping that wouldn’t be a risky thing to prod at.

“Yeah, yeah, it is,” Nira said, sighing heavily. “I just don’t understand. What is Enor hoping to achieve? It has to be something, right?”

Nef was honestly wondering that in general. What in the hell was Enor’s plan here? He didn’t seem to be doing much aside from mining othrin. That was what the smaller aircrafts were doing right? Bringing othrin here. Why that was happening was probably a pointless thing to ask since othrin was kind of needed to fight other Eternals effectively, but there seemed to be a lot of it.

“I dunno what to tell you. I’m just here to spring you guys.”

Whatever Nira had been planning on saying then was completely interrupted by the door swinging open. Without a second thought, Nef pressed the button on his bracelet, grabbing Nira’s wrist to make her invisible as well.

And it turned out to be the right thing to do because in front of them was a very angry looking Eternal. Nef didn’t dare even breathe when she glared right at him and Nira, as if she could see them. And, oh damn, she probably could given that Nira didn’t have the Umbra cloaking device, did she?

“Enough with the hiding. It’s been giving everyone here a headache,” the Eternal said, rolling her eyes. “And we can’t get headaches.”

Obviously, Nef and Nira couldn’t verbally communicate right now, but feeling her squeeze his hand was enough for him. They wouldn’t surrender. The only problem with that was what else they could do.

Apparently, Nira knew exactly because the next thing Nef knew was that he was being dragged towards the Eternal. He couldn’t see what Nira was doing, obviously, but there was a flash of green light that made him close his eyes for a moment, followed by a crash and a yell.

“Come on!” Nira cried, and Nef followed. Nira was running for where her father and Yorin were, but there were three more Eternals guarding that door. They couldn’t go that way. Which meant that they would have to leave them behind.

Nira seemed to agree, though she clearly didn’t want to judging by how she hesitated. But then the two Eternals guarding the door to the corridor were thrown into the walls as the invisibility flickered, and she continued running. Nef took the lead at that point running towards the elevator as fast as possible.

Had she taken that Eternal’s power and used it against them? Because that would be cool and all, but Nef couldn’t help but worry when he noticed Nira lagging behind him. Clearly doing that had been taxing. And Nef probably couldn’t expect her to do this again, so when he saw more Eternals coming their way, he quickly changed direction, turning right and continuing to run. There had to be more elevators than this, right?

Nef only stopped when he could tell that no one was following them. Both he and Nira were breathing heavily, standing in the middle of a corridor. They were both definitely lost, but at least they were still alive.

“We…left them behind,” Nira gasped out. Nef grimaced, looking back from where they came.

“We had to,” he replied, wiping sweat off his forehead. He knew this was the rational way of looking at it. They couldn’t have taken Hidarion and Yorin with them because there had been too many Eternals blocking their path. And even if there hadn’t been, one invisibility bracelet was barely enough for the two of them. And Nira’s use of Eternal energy hadn’t helped it at all. There was just no way for all of them to get out of here, but that didn’t mean Nef had to like it.

Nira didn’t say anything for a while, just continued to breathe heavily for a moment, regaining some strength. It sucked that Hidarion and Yorin would have to stay here, but clearly they weren’t being treated badly, at least. “I wish we could go back, but….”

“Yeah, no, I agree. We need to leave. Right now. Or none of us might get out of here.” Nira really didn’t sound happy about any of this, but as bad as this situation was, Nef was glad they didn’t have to waste time arguing about it.

They started running again, finding another elevator after about ten minutes of choosing corridors at random. This place was such a maze. Nef had been expecting the elevator to not work, but as soon as he pressed the right button, it started moving, quickly getting them two floor twenty-two.

Once again Nef had expected something to go wrong—perhaps a hundred Eternals waiting right in front of the elevator—but the corridor was entirely empty. Nef narrowed his eyes as he and Nira stepped outside the elevator, heading towards what Nef assumed would be the hangar. Nira seemed to be sure of it, given that she was in the lead again, forcing Nef to run to keep up with her.

And then they came across a body. And another one. And another. Nef did his best to force his stomach to keep its contents to itself as he stepped around the dead Eternals carefully. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened. The odd thing was how little this seemed to bother Nira. She just kept going, not saying a thing.

And she didn’t stop until they reached the hangar. Everyone was apparently already there, but so were Enor’s Eternals. Kaleth didn’t seem to have much of a problem handling them, but more and more just kept coming. And when Nef heard multiple footsteps behind them, he knew they were coming from this side as well.

Running even faster, he and Nira made it to the others, and Nef finally turned off the invisibility, mostly because it was pointless now, given that there was Eternal energy everywhere around, ready to make the bracelet useless.

“Yo, Nef, Nira,” Rayni greeted them, looking completely exhausted from where she was sitting on one of the many, many crates. “Good to see ya.”

“You too,” Nef replied, looking quickly at everyone else. They seemed okay for the most part, though Relioth still looked like a kicked puppy. He hadn’t been given a weapon, which was probably smart. Nef turned around again, seeing at least five more Eternals closing in on them. And Kaleth had his hands full as it was, given that he was the only one with any kind of power right now.

Mereria seemed to be trying to help him, but she was being only semi successful, her strikes much slower and less graceful than the last time Nef had seen her fight.

Rayni got up with a groan, drawing a dagger she must have gotten off one of the many, many bodies. Oh gods, the blood.

“We’ve got a problem here, Kal,” Rayni called behind her.

“We have a problem here as well,” he replied, more annoyed than anything. “I need to absorb some of the energy in these crates to teleport, but I can’t do that while I’m fighting.”

“Use the sword,” Relioth spoke up, his voice almost desperate. “There’s energy in that.”

Kaleth huffed as he stabbed another Eternal, and look back at Relioth. It was both kind of amazing—in the worst sense of the word—and disturbing how little thought Kaleth seemed to give that. But hell, right now Nef was glad he wasn’t the one being stabbed. Again…. “Even if that works, I still won’t have the time to try to open a portal, anyway.”

Something crashing onto the floor made Nef turn around. He gaped as he watched Nira stab an othrin dagger into one of the energy tubes she had apparently thrown to the ground. He squeezed his eyes shut as light exploded from it, and had to keep doing it as it kept going. How many had Nira broken already? Was she absorbing them?

Keeping his eyes closed was a nightmare because all around him were the sounds of fighting, metal clashing against metal, and grunts of pain and exhaustion. But he had no choice. And when the light finally went away, and he looked at the scene again, it took him a moment to take it in.

Nira had her arms outstretched, apparently keeping all of the five Eternals pinned against the walls of the hangar. And she was shaking. Nef had no idea how much energy she had taken inside of her, but it was clearly not enough to keep this up for long.

Kaleth didn’t need to be told what to do as he quickly got rid of the last Eternal on his side and quickly made his way to where everyone was, Mereria following right behind him.

“Remember what I said,” Relioth said, his voice still much weaker than usual. “It’s like teleporting, you just have to focus on opening a portal instead.”

“I know,” Kaleth growled, squeezing his eyes shut. Nef shot a worried look Nira’s way. She was shaking really hard now. How long could she keep this up? But Nef managed to silence his need to tell Kaleth to go faster. It wouldn’t help anything.

And then, finally, just as Nef couldn’t take it anymore, the air before Kaleth cracked, widening with a deafening, ripping sound. It was something between tearing fabric and thunder, and it made Nef feel like he had to check if his ears were bleeding.

The image of a metal, round room with a table and chairs showed up within the crack, and Nef decided this was probably as good as it could be. He rushed over to Nira, practically yelling for her to stop, which she did, but not in a way Nef had been expecting. She collapsed, clearly too exhausted to keep going.

Almost feeling like his heart would implode, Nef quickly picked Nira up and ran with her to the portal, jumping through before he thought much about it. He grunted as he fell down, but he had managed to keep a hold on the back of Nira’s head, cradling it to keep her from getting a concussion. Or worse.

Behind him, Mereria fell through the portal as well, followed by Kaleth, which was when the portal closed. Nef looked around, finding Rayni, and Relioth both a bit away, sitting on the ground.

Nef breathed out heavily, finally, finally feeling like he could relax for a minute. He was alive, Nira was alive. They were both alive, and they were safe. They were safe….