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

As soon as Kaleth regained his bearings, all he wanted to do was attack Relioth. Both verbally and physically if possible, no matter how little power he had right now. But when he scanned his surroundings, all of that left his head.

All around them was dark red sand, spiraling mountains of incredible sizes, a yellow sky with two suns…. What in the hell…?

“Don’t freak out,” said Relioth. “This is my off world retreat. Pretty, right?”

Kaleth focused back on the source of all of his life’s problems, and glared at him. “Take me back. Right now.”

“No can do, Kaleth,” Relioth said, easily breaking the handcuffs. How was this possible? Those had definitely had othrin in them. Wasn’t that enough? Had they been somehow broken beforehand?

Kaleth looked down at his suppression bracelet. Fine, if Relioth wasn’t going to let him help his friends, he would do it himself. His heart made an uncomfortable lurch as he pulled on where the bracelet had clicked together just minutes prior, and it did nothing aside from hurting his wrist. Hissing, Kaleth tried again and again, ignoring Relioth telling him it wouldn’t work.

He only stopped once his wrist started bleeding and his fingers stung. Godsdammit.

“Aw, Kaleth, look what you’ve done,” Relioth chided as he walked towards him and reached out with his hand to his injured wrist. Kaleth didn’t let him get near, though, and took a few steps away immediately, wavering a tiny bit as the sand moved under his feet.

“Stay away from me,” Kaleth growled, which did seem to make Relioth stay where he was, but it also resulted in Relioth giving him a sad, pitying look. Seeing that just made Kaleth glare harder. “Take. Me. Back.”

Relioth shook his head. He was grimacing, but his scowl was resolute. “No. This is the training exercise you agreed to do. I’ll admit that bomb attack wasn’t in the plan, but it makes this much better.”

“How?!” Kaleth blew up at him. “How is it any better? This just means that if I don’t figure this out soon, someone could die.”

“Exactly,” Relioth replied with a grin. Kaleth really wanted to knock some of those perfect teeth out. “That’s what I call motivation.”

Kaleth swallowed thickly, trying to keep himself from letting his slowly building desperation take over all rational thought. “I can barely teleport at full power from Enoria to Irithara, and you expect me to travel from a different planet with barely any energy left?”

Relioth nodded, connecting his hands behind his back as if this was a completely casual conversation. “The distance doesn’t matter. You just need to really want to be there.”

“That’s not useful!” Kaleth snapped, clenching his fists.

“Of course it is,” Relioth argued, now folding his arms. Good, at least he was getting annoyed now. Kaleth could handle that much more easily than him acting like he was older and wiser. Only one of those things was true. “I know you, Kaleth. You overthink everything. You never let your heart do anything besides pump blood around. That’s not how our power works. You need to feel it.”

“That’s not useful either,” Kaleth muttered angrily, folding his arms as well and staring off at the red sand dunes in the distance. Anything was better than looking at Relioth. It really sunk in at that moment, though, that he was on an alien planet right now.

And yet he was breathing fine. Was that because of his power, or because this planet actually had breathable atmosphere? Where were they even? How far away was home?

No matter where he looked, he was reminded that unless he somehow managed to teleport or force Relioth to take him back, he was stranded here while everyone he cared about was in danger. He shut his eyes, trying to concentrate. Maybe he could get in touch with Mel, at least. Make sure he was okay.

But there was nothing. Nothing tangible, at least. There was a presence in the back of his mind, but that was as far as Kaleth could get. He couldn’t even pinpoint any clear emotions, though what he could feel was all vaguely negative.

He sighed. That wasn’t surprising at all. But at least this meant Mel was definitely still alive.

“Don’t worry. If anyone is gonna survive, it’ll be him,” Relioth said, bringing Kaleth out of his thoughts.

“What does that mean?” Kaleth asked, glaring at Relioth again, and taking a step back just as Relioth took one forward.

“Elrin is keeping an extra good eye on him,” Relioth said, shrugging as Kaleth gritted his teeth.

“It was her, wasn’t it? She let you do this,” he growled, rage and hurt filling him. Though the person he was the most angry at was he himself. He never should have trusted her, no matter how well he thought he knew her. She was clearly more loyal to Relioth than anyone else.

“Obviously,” Relioth said, chuckling. “Who else would have done it? I told her my plan and she agreed that this was for the best.”

Kaleth scoffed, shaking his head and turning around. He needed to get away. He had no idea where he was going to go, but he just needed to be far away from Relioth. Unfortunately, sand was very hard to walk on, and Relioth could fly. Kaleth could barely take ten steps before Relioth stopped him by landing right in front of him, his huge golden wings gleaming in the alien sunlight.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, the wings flaring out in what was definitely irritation. That made Kaleth feel a little better, at least.

“Away from you,” Kaleth growled at him, clenching his fists. Was he strong enough to hurt Relioth by punching him still? Because he really wanted to.

“I’m much faster than you right now,” Relioth said, raising an eyebrow as if challenging Kaleth to prove him wrong. “You aren’t getting rid of me unless you teleport back home.”

The unmistakable flash of pain suddenly appeared in Relioth’s eyes. The sight of it made Kaleth feel strange. He decided to ignore it.

“I wouldn’t be able to get rid of you even back home,” Kaleth said flatly, turning around yet again and picking a random direction in which to walk. The damned sand kept shifting under his feet, but he was getting the hang of walking on it. It would have been much easier if he had the boots that Relioth had given him with the rest of the armor, though—those were designed to help him traverse all kinds of terrain. The black trainers he had been given and would never have put on out of his own free will weren’t helping in the slightest.

“Come on, Kaleth,” Relioth called after him. Kaleth didn’t have to turn around to know he would catch up to him by flying yet again in a moment. The sound of beating, feathery wings did that job on its own very well.

“Wasting time?” Relioth said as he appeared right next to Kaleth. He was smirking, but there was no hint of humor in his eyes. A disturbing sight on its own. “That’s not like you. That’s actually very me.”

“Reverse psychology?” Kaleth mocked him, even as his heart lurched with guilt. He knew he should be focusing on getting back, but he found his self-doubt utterly crippling right now. He didn’t need to have a breakdown in front of Relioth of all people.

“It sometimes works on you.” Relioth shrugged, staring off into the distance in front of him. And finally, that gave Kaleth pause. Not because what Relioth said was technically true, but because of the deep sadness currently on full display in Relioth’s eyes.

Kaleth hadn’t even realized he’d stopped walking. Not until Relioth pointed it out.

“Ready to hear me out?”

Kaleth didn’t answer, he just kept watching the dunes. He knew he didn’t need to reply in any way. Relioth took almost anything as agreement, including death threats. Kaleth should know—he’d made many towards him.

“Look, Kaleth, you just gotta try. That’s all there is to it,” Relioth said, his voice uncharacteristically soft and sincere. “Just try.”

Kaleth sighed, dragging his eyes up to meet Relioth’s. He felt so tired all of a sudden. Though he knew this had been there all along, he’d just been pushing it away. But he would have to keep it up. There was no time to stop, and there was no time to rest, not while Enor was still alive. And maybe not even after Kaleth stabbed his sword through his heart.

“Think about it. You teleported while on the verge of death,” Relioth continued, leaning in. “You’ve done this before. Just do it again.”

Kaleth’s eyes widened as he blinked in shock. Of course. He’d…done it already. How could he have forgotten? The two times he’d tried teleporting afterward, he’d always felt so drained, as if he had used up most of his energy on it. But before then, he’d done it while barely being able to keep his eyes open.

And as far as he knew, the only reason that happened was because of his desperation. Desperation to…keep Mel safe. The same kind of desperation that was currently making his heart hurt.

Kaleth shook his head. There had to be more to this than that.

“So this is all tied to emotions?”

Relioth immediately started shaking his head, folding his wings closer to his body. “No, no, definitely not. You’ve fought Enor. Though teleportation itself does seem to be controlled by your desire to go places. I’m hoping that means Enor won’t be able to figure it out.”

Right, of course. Enor had seemed so perfectly in control of his power back in Irithara.

“It’s not about feeling too much or not at all. You have to be in sync with that power. You, as a whole person, not just what you are feeling.” Relioth sighed and looked to the side, staring off into the distance. “I think your problem is that you don’t believe you can do this with so little energy. Right?”

Kaleth huffed. “Of course I don’t.”

“And why is that?” Relioth asked as he turned back to face him.

Kaleth narrowed his eyes at him. He didn’t sound like he was mocking him, but it definitely felt that way. “I never have been able to do much like this.”

He was pretty sure he was only a little stronger than when he had been working for Luxarx. He felt like he could barely use telepathy like this.

“Fine,” Relioth said, sighing dramatically. “Be in denial about your self-worth all you want. But you’re a great actor.” Relioth winked at him. “Pretend you’re confident in your power.”

“I’m not….” Kaleth trailed off and huffed in annoyance, gritting his teeth. “I’m not in denial.”

“Don’t worry, Kaleth. I’m sure your boyfriend finds it charming.”

Kaleth was about to snap at him to shut up, but he couldn’t get a word out before Relioth started talking again.

“You wanna know how I figured all of this out?” Kaleth decided to not be immature and say ‘no’. “I just believed I could do it hard enough.”

Kaleth scoffed. “Right, sure. That doesn’t sound at all like a—”

“I know what it sounds like. But it’s true. That was all I needed,” Relioth insisted, looking at Kaleth pleadingly. “Just try.”

Kaleth looked away, sighing heavily. Well, there was no harm in it, he supposed, even if he didn’t believe a word coming out of Relioth’s mouth. Just believing he could do it? What was this—a children’s TV show?

He closed his eyes, focusing on the Eternal energy inside of him, and on his desire—no, desperate need—to get back to Imbera, to help fight Enor before anyone died. He swallowed thickly as even thinking about it made it hard to breathe.

The more he focused on his power, the more he could feel it being wrong, though. He could feel it being drained away by the metal band around his wrist, every few seconds. However much his body managed to recharge was taken away over and over again. It was really unsettling to experience.

“Focus on what you have, not on what you’re losing,” said Relioth. Kaleth opened his eyes briefly to shoot him a glare.

“Stop looking inside of my head,” Kaleth grumbled, squeezing his eyes closed again.

“I’m not. What else would you be disturbed by?” Relioth replied, and Kaleth let out a humorless laugh. What else could possibly disturb him? The fact that lives depended on him? The fact that he was apparently on a different planet? The fact that—

“Focus, Kaleth.”

Kaleth listened, even though he wasn’t happy about it. Relioth was right. There were lives at stake, and he needed to get back. If Relioth didn’t insist on this and just took him back himself, that would have been more helpful, but like this, Kaleth wasn’t strong enough to convince him. Because Relioth clearly wasn’t going to reconsider.

So he focused on what little energy he had, trying to open a portal just like he had back in Irithara, trying to use that as enough evidence to convince himself he could do this. He could teleport, even like this. He could.

He gasped as he felt power flow out of him, just like all the times before, pouring into a rift in space he could only feel with his mind. He reached out to it, trying to make the rift wider and usable oh so carefully and slowly.

And then suddenly it was all gone. Including the little energy Kaleth had had.

He fell to his knees, bracing himself on his hands to avoid falling to the ground completely and panting. His head was spinning, and it was really difficult keeping his eyes open the whole way right now. Gritting his teeth, Kaleth clenched his fist around the sand underneath his palms. He couldn’t even manage to curse, though by the gods he wanted to.

“Try again,” Relioth said, his voice neutral.

“I can’t,” Kaleth snarled at him, looking up at the Eternal. He couldn’t stop his voice from breaking just a little though. He just didn’t have any energy left to express himself. He swallowed thickly. He hadn’t managed to open the portal with what little he had had, and now he didn’t even have that. What the hell was he supposed to do now? He’d blown his one shot at getting back. He tried to slow his breathing as tears of frustration stung at his eyes.

“Try again,” Relioth repeated, pulling Kaleth up to his feet by his wrists.

“I can’t,” Kaleth gasped out, weakly trying to get out of Relioth’s grasp.

“Try again.”

“Let go of me!” Kaleth yelled, using all the strength he had left to push Relioth off. And then stared in shock as Relioth was practically thrown far away from him. Still feeling woozy, but not nearly as much as before, Kaleth stared at his hands as Relioth groaned in pain.

“Yep. Just like that,” he said, grimacing as he pulled himself up and started brushing sand off his suit.

“How the hell did I….” Kaleth let that sentence at that, looking at Relioth with confusion. He knew what must have happened, but it was just hard for him to believe.

“I told you,” Relioth said, rolling his shoulder as he closed the distance between them. “Conservation of power. That’s all this is about. I guess some part of you believes what I’m saying after all.”

He winked as he said that, which made Kaleth want to throw him away again. Then Relioth grinned. “Try again.”

Kaleth clenched his fists, actually about to hit him when he realized something. Anger had helped him get Relioth away just a moment ago. Well, anger and desperation, but he had both right now. Maybe that would help here.

And so he tried opening a portal back home again. And despite truly feeling exhausted at this point, this time, the way back opened.