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

Nira woke up with a groan. She really hated how drained she always felt after overdoing it with Eternal energy. She swallowed as she opened her eyes, seeing a metal ceiling above her. She felt wrong. Like a part of her was missing. And she knew very well why that was.

Glaring at nothing, she rose to her feet, taking a moment to get her head to stop spinning before actually taking a look at where she was. A quick glance told her all she needed to see. An Eternal base, probably Umbra. Where else would she have been, anyway? They’d won, as far as she knew.

Except her father and Yorin were still Enor’s prisoners….

Nira sighed heavily. Dammit. She hoped Enor wouldn’t hurt them for her escaping. Or that he wouldn’t attack the whole Empire because of it. But Nira had suspected that he had been bluffing from the very start. He hadn’t done anything she would have expected once Irithara was his. It was like he didn’t really care about it. Which given how Enor usually was wasn’t exactly factually wrong. But still, even his usual brand of uncaring wasn’t making much sense.

Nira stared at her hands, noticing that they were shaking. But physically she felt fine. She would just need to get more energy, that was all. Then she’d be fine. But first she needed to find Nef and make sure he was alright.

She wandered the seemingly endless corridors, peeking into empty rooms at random. She was sure this base wasn’t actually that large, but given the lack of anything she could use to tell where she was, she couldn’t tell if she was going in circles or not.

And finally, she heard distant laughter, echoing through the corridors. Frowning at how familiar it sounded, Nira set out in that direction. There were voices talking, but she couldn’t make out the words. Damn her weak, mortal hearing.

The itch to get the power back got a little more annoying.

Shaking her head, Nira kept going until she reached a large, round room with a table in the middle of it. And at the table, sitting there was Relioth. Nira could also see that he wasn’t alone—Nef and Alor were there too—but all she could focus on at that moment was the former president of Enoria. The man who had threatened her life at the very start of all of this. The Eternal who had killed thousands of people like it was nothing. Cuffed, with his hands bound to the table by a dagger stabbed through the chain between the cuffs. The power contained in them. She could almost taste it.

“Nira!” Nef’s voice dragged her out of her thoughts. He ran to her and hugged her, and for a moment Nira completely forgot everything else. She embraced him too, ecstatic to see that he was okay, and so was his brother if the brief glance she’d gotten was anything to go by.

Though there was something off about him.

“Oh, I was wondering where she was,” said Relioth as Nira and Nef separated. She glared at him, her stomach twisting in anxiety. Or maybe it was something else, she mused as her eyes fell on the cuffs again. All she would have to do was touch it and she’d have all of Relioth’s power. Or close to it.

“You stay away from her,” Alor said darkly, glaring across the table. Relioth seemed unbothered though. He just rolled his eyes.

“I can’t get close to her in the first place,” he replied, rattling his cuffs. And before Nira could stop herself, she had closed the distance between them and gripped the cuffs. She sighed as stark, white light flowed into her hands, filling her with a wonderful, incredible feeling of power.

“Hey! That’s mine,” Relioth complained, actually trying to shrink away from her. Was he afraid of her like this? Nira noticed a smirk had formed on her face and she quickly schooled it into a neutral mask.

“Not anymore,” Nef joked, though his voice was surprised. He probably hadn’t been expecting Nira to be this direct about this. And honestly, Nira hadn’t expected it either. But she felt so much better immediately. So much more powerful. And the fact that she’d taken the power from Relioth just made it better.

“Why is he here?’ Nira asked as she turned around to look at Nef and Alor. Nira blinked as suddenly the pieces slid into place. Alor was an Eternal now? Or was he possessed? She looked at him more closely. She couldn’t really explain it, but it was definitely him, just…different.

“Apparently, Kaleth doesn’t approve of my methods when it comes to teaching,” Relioth replied, making Nira turn back around. It was incredible how unafraid of him Nira was now. Last time she’d been in the same room she could hardly breathe. And looking at Relioth, he didn’t seem happy with this change.

Good.

“Dude, no one approves of any of your methods,” Nef said, taking a seat next to his brother again. Nira sat down next to him, impressed by his fearlessness. Though Nira supposed it made sense. Even when Relioth had had power, Nef had been oddly casual with him.

“How is that my fault?” Relioth grumbled, leaning back into his seat.

Alor rubbed his temples. Nira was really starting to wonder how long they’d been talking to Relioth at this point.

“That didn’t answer my question,” Nira prodded again, genuinely curious as to why Relioth wasn’t in a cell. There had to be something like that around here, right?

“Kaleth asked us to watch him while he talks with Elrin,” Alor answered, exasperation clear in his voice. “Er, Elrin is our former boss,” he added immediately, probably realizing Nira had no way of knowing that.

“Ah, good ol’ Tira,” Relioth said, grinning. “Though she could learn to let some things go. How was I supposed to tell her to get out of the Flare before I blew it up when she wasn’t picking up her phone?”

Nira stared at him in disbelief for a moment. She quickly got over it though. Why was she even surprised by things like this at this point? Relioth was insane, after all. Or way outside of what a normal person would consider acceptable behavior.

“Should I even point out the lack of logic in that senten—” Nef started, looking at his brother, but Alor cut in.

“No,” he said, his voice very, very tired. “No. Just…leave it.”

“I really wonder what Kaleth and Tira have been talking about for so long,” Relioth said, looking over at a wall. It was bare, silver, and metal, just like all of the others Nira had seen so far, so she would assume Kaleth was somewhere that way.

“For an immortal, you’re really impatient,” Nef told him, clearly also tired of the conversation. His hair stuck out more than usual. Nira wondered if he had been pulling on it. She wouldn’t blame him if he had. And it looked adorable.

“Can you blame me?” Relioth said, leaning his head back and letting out a long breath. “Enor is out there, doing the universe knows what, and Kaleth isn’t letting me show him how to beat him. At this point I’d be up for asking Irif for help if I weren’t stuck here.”

Nira frowned over at Nef and Alor. Had they not told him?

“Irif’s dead,” Alor informed Relioth, basically answering Nira’s question. Relioth blinked, a grin forming on his face.

“Oh, so Kaleth killed her,” he said, sounding so proud. Nira tried to ignore how that made her insides twist. She didn’t care about Irif, dammit. And her mother had been dead for years.

“Hey, it could have been one of us,” Nef argued, clearly offended by the implication that Kaleth was the only one capable of doing something like this. It made Nira smile.

“Yeah. Of course it could have been,” Relioth replied in a serious tone that he couldn’t keep up as he snorted at the end.

“Kaleth, like, absorbed her,” Nef argued back, apparently not willing to give up yet. And Alor buried his face in his hands. Nira would have patted his shoulder were he in reach. “It’s not like he actually killed her. She possessed him.”

Relioth smile had disappeared by now, replaced by a look of concern. “Oh, she did?” He sighed, this time sadly. “If he hadn’t been so stubborn, I could have helped him.”

Nira somehow doubted it was Kaleth’s stubbornness that had prevented him from taking Relioth with him to Irithara. Why did that feel so long ago? And what other crisis would they have to face if they got rid of Enor?

Nira clenched her fist under the table. She felt ready for it, even if her brain was telling her the opposite.

“Ah well, she’s gone,” Relioth continued. “That’s good. Though I’ll miss pranking her.”

“Pranking her?” Nira repeated, the words making their way out of her mouth before she could think about it. “Is that what all this was to you?”

Nira shouldn’t be surprised by this. Relioth killed people for fun. But somehow, she still was.

“I mean…yeah?” he said, laughing. “Oh, oh, but you don’t know the best part of that whole thing. Lemme show you.”

Nira exchanged a look with Nef. He seemed just as confused as her. Alor, who had looked completely disinterested just a second ago was now frowning at Relioth, apparently curious about whatever the Eternal was talking about.

“Work, damn you,” Nira heard Relioth mutter as he hit the metal table with his fist. She was about to ask what he thought he was doing, but she got her answer as soon as glowing text appeared on the surface of the table. It was definitely Eternal writing, but Nira almost felt like she could read it. Almost. But it was upside down from her point of view, so Nira didn’t really try to decipher it.

“Now, Enor broke my phone, but I saved this photo everywhere,” Relioth said as he started touching what was apparently a keyboard. Nira wondered if they should stop him. And from the looks of it, it seemed Alor was thinking the same thing. Nef on the other hand….

“How does this work? Is it a computer? And why isn’t the dagger stabbed through it a problem?” he asked, his eyes wide. Relioth just winked at him, which Nira knew would drive Nef insane.

“This internet connection is terrible. How do the Umbra live?” Relioth complained, continuing to tap the table. After a few more seconds, he clapped once victoriously. “Ah, here we go.”

And with a flick of his hand, he brought up a projection of the photo, letting it hang huge above the table, and making Nira’s heart seize for a moment. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. All she could focus on at that moment was the image of her father and Kaleth. Kissing. Kaleth had kissed her father, and Relioth had a picture of it.

She felt anger rise within her as her shock slowly dissipated. How could Kaleth have made advances on her father like this? How dare he?

“Oh, I remember this like it was yesterday. I didn’t even plan it,” Relioth said, chuckling and pretending to wipe away a tear of laughter. Nira swallowed, trying to will her hands to stop shaking. “You should have seen what Irif had to do to keep the tabloids from printing this.”

“Uh, Nira?” Nef said, his voice soft. It helped her calm down a fraction. But the desire to go find Kaleth and yell at him didn’t lessen. “Stay calm.”

Nira shot him a look of rage. The way he winced at it actually did manage to help Nira get a hold of herself before she exploded, though. She didn’t want to take out her anger on people who didn’t deserve it.

“How could he have done that?” she said, her voice shaking. “My father isn’t…like that.” Nira gritted her teeth. “Put it away.”

“Wait, wait,” said Nef, putting a hand on Nira’s shoulder. He did it so gingerly, like he was expecting her to punch him. Nira winced. “Look at it properly.”

Nira gave him an incredulous look. “Are you serious?”

“Hear me out,” Nef said, his eyes pleading. Nira sighed, swallowing down some of her anger but keeping her eyes down. She didn’t want to look at that photo again. She really didn’t. “Come on, Nira, look at it. Please.”

Nira shut her eyes, letting out a breath. She had no idea what he was trying to do here, but she relented. The second she saw the photo again, her stomach twisted.

“Look, see? It doesn’t look like he’s the one…initiating,” Nef explained, pointing at a part of the photo Nira couldn’t identify for sure. She frowned, about to argue that Nef was wrong, that there was no way her father would have done something like this. But as she looked at their faces closer, her eyes widened.

Kaleth’s eyes were open, shocked, and he wasn’t the one leaning over what looked like a bar table. Her father was.

Oh gods, her head was spinning. Finally the photo was gone, at least. Nira could breathe more freely now. She put her face in her hands, breathing in and out, trying to calm down and process.

“Oof, I didn’t expect that reaction,” Relioth said.

“What did you expect?” Alor asked, exasperated. “It’s her father.”

Nira could barely understand them though. She heard their words, but they weren’t making sense. Without another word, she got up, cringing at the loud noise the chair being moved produced and walked out of the room. She didn’t stop when she heard Nef call after her, she just kept going until she couldn’t anymore.

Stopping in a random hallway, she leaned onto the wall, closing her eyes. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling, but she knew it wasn’t good. The way her heart hammered in her chest, the way her insides twisted…. She just didn’t know what to do with this information. It felt like her entire view of her father had fallen apart, and even though rationally she knew—hoped—that this wasn’t the case, she couldn’t push that aside.

“Nira!” she heard Nef call, running towards her. She only looked at him after he put his hands on her shoulders. “You okay?”

Nira shrugged. She really didn’t know how to answer that. “I guess this explains why my father talked about Kaleth so fondly.”

“Yeah, and why they’ve been awkward-flirting whenever they were in a room together,” Nef muttered, rolling his eyes. Nira stared at him, baffled yet again.

“W-what?”

“You really didn’t notice, huh?” Nef said, raising an eyebrow. His eyes were full of sympathy though as Nira continued to gape at him.

“You knew and you didn’t say anything?” Even as the words left her mouth, though, she knew what his retort to this would be.

“Well, I was kinda concerned you, uh, wouldn’t react all that well,” Nef admitted, scratching the back of his neck. Then he waved his hands around, probably trying to imply that his concern had been well founded. Nira huffed. That didn’t make not telling her right.

“And also, it’s not my business who your dad’s into. Honestly, I feel like I’ve already thought about that far too much in one lifetime,” Nef added, pretending to shudder.

Nira’s automatic reaction was to get offended, but yeah, he was justified to feel that way. It was odd to think about her father being with anyone else but Nira’s mother, but…. Nira’s mother was dead. And if anyone deserved some happiness, it was her father.

But the image of him being with another man just made Nira incredibly uncomfortable. But that was her problem, not his. And she wanted him to be happy first and foremost.

“Um, so you like Yorin, right?” Nef asked out of nowhere, and Nira blinked at him. What did that have to do with it? Was he trying to distract her from—

Wait, surely Nef wasn’t implying what Nira thought he was implying….

“Are you saying…?” she let the question trail off, finding herself unable to finish it. But Nef seemed to understand perfectly anyway as he nodded, raising his eyebrows at her.

“Pretty sure.” Nef shrugged. “From what I’ve seen, they were really friendly with each other.”

Nira ran a hand through her hair, breathing out. She still felt kind of sick, but at least her breathing had gotten easier. She really should have put that together. She’d noticed her father and Yorin had been talking a lot, and her father really seemed to have hit it off with Yorin, despite his lack of understanding of whatever scientific topic Yorin talked about. Of course, it was entirely possible that her father actually did understand, but whenever Yorin had said something Nira had no clue about, her father had made a very neutral face that Nira imagined was similar to her own when faced with topics like this.

“I…. I really should have seen that,” Nira said, letting out a humorless laugh. “I guess I just never thought of that as a possibility.”

Nef grimaced a bit. “Feeling better?”

Nira nodded, though she wasn’t all that sure. She’d felt so powerful, so in control just moments ago, and now…. She still felt the power coursing through her veins, but it was like it had no real effect on her mental state. She didn’t like how much of an effect her emotions had on her.

“I just need to…process this,” she said, smiling at Nef weakly. He gave her another hug, this one much longer. Nira gladly returned it.

“I’m really glad you’re okay,” he said, still holding onto her. “I forgot to say it back there. It always freaks me out when something happens to you.”

“I know. I feel the same way,” she said back. She decided not to reveal how terrible she felt during those several minutes Nef had been dead for. Even thinking about it was upsetting her yet again.

“Oh, good, I was getting concerned you didn’t worry about me anymore,” Nef joked, pulling away from her a little and instead putting his hands around Nira’s waist. She couldn’t help but chuckle. Leave it to Nef to make her laugh right now.

She kissed him, incapable of not giving him a smile. And then she sighed. “We should probably go back. I don’t think Alor can handle Relioth alone for long.”

She doubted anyone could.