The Return to Irithara (Children of the Sun Book 2)

After seeing how well the mission had been going so far, Nef had really been debating whether he should turn around and go back to Enoria or not. No matter how much he wanted to see Nira again, it was probably not worth dying over all the way out here.

He really hadn’t expected Kaleth and the others to fight through the lines of soldiers and actually get back in the air, but he was immensely glad that they did because he didn’t have to deal with his dilemma. And also because they weren’t dead, of course.

So, once they reached what looked like the entrance to some tunnel, Nef had thought it would just be a smooth ride now. Or so he thought.

He really hadn’t expected to randomly hear Kaleth’s voice in his head.

You stubborn fool.

Hearing that was disturbing enough as it was, but there was another aspect that was just as weird—Kaleth wasn’t angry, he just sounded disappointed and tired.

Nef was too shocked to get offended. All he could do was watch as Kaleth and Mel showed up right in front of him and made a circle around the car.

Land.

Nef really didn’t want to, but seeing Kaleth annoyed expression convinced him not to fly away. There wasn’t anywhere he could go anyway—just back to Enoria because there was no way he could find Nira by himself. But Kaleth would no doubt make him fly back too. There was no upside here.

Still, making Kaleth mad was probably a very bad idea, so Nef just landed and got out of the car, automatically raising his hands in defense as Kaleth narrowed his eyes at him.

They were now in front of the entrance to a dark tunnel. The other Eternals didn’t seem to care in the slightest about their drama and kept heading in, except for Rayni. Nef wasn’t sure how she’d ditched Mereria, but here she was, towering over him with a disapproving, yet somehow also impressed look.

“I-it’s my fault,” Mel blurted out from where he was cowering next to Kaleth. “I should have told you that he—”

“Yes, you should have,” Kaleth interrupted him, but his gaze softened when he looked over at the Eternal. “But what Nef does is not your responsibility.” Kaleth looked over at Nef again. “I won’t ask you to fly back to Enoria, but if you die, you will only have yourself to blame.”

With that Kaleth turned and walked away, disappearing in the tunnel, Mel following dutifully behind him. Nef swallowed, his shoulders sagging a bit. Well, as uncomfortable as that was, it had ended much better than expected.

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t stay away,” Rayni said, lying down.

Nef frowned for a bit, not sure what she was doing. “You want me to….”

“Just get on,” Rayni said, rolling her eyes. Her huge, amber eyes. Nef had had a few hours to accept Rayni’s new form—though she’d been black then—but it was still surreal to see her like this. He gingerly climbed onto her back, noting that she was noticeably bigger than Mel.

“You’re not going to lecture me, are you?”

Rayni snorted in amusement. “Me? Lecture you? Yeah, right.”

Nef yelped in surprise and clutched Rayni’s neck horns as she jumped up and into the tunnel.

What happened next was rather anticlimactic. It was so dark Nef couldn’t see anything. And that wasn’t an exaggeration—he really couldn’t see anything once they got a bit farther inside the tunnel. He was just surrounded by darkness with the sounds of the Eternals’ feet stomping on the ground as they ran through the tunnel.

“Huh,” said Rayni as she ran, and Nef continued to sulk that she could see and he couldn’t. “This is some weird architecture.”

“What architecture? Isn’t this a tunnel?” Nef said, not bothering to hide his frustration. It was just so annoying that he couldn’t see. Was this how blind people felt? Because this really sucked.

“It’s a subway tunnel, so there’s platforms and stuff. Just weird ’cause I haven’t really seen this stuff in real life.”

Subway tunnel? That didn’t explain anything about what was so fascinating about it, but since he himself hadn’t seen one either, maybe he just didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Ugh, I’m so tired of this. How long will this take?” Nef asked and Rayni snorted again.

“A few days.”

Nef choked. “Days?!”

“What d’you expect? Aleara is far away from here. And I sure as hell am not running faster than this.”

“But how am I supposed to survive? I need food to live,” Nef protested, feeling panic rising within him. How was Rayni so fine with this?

“I’ll just keep healing you. I think I know how to do it,” Rayni said, nodding her head. Nef couldn’t actually see her do it, but he felt her neck move. He blinked at her in disbelief.

“You think?!”

“Chill out, man. This will work. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

“I would if I could see anything,” Nef snapped and sighed. He needed to focus on something else. Like the reason he was doing this, which was Nira.

It was strange, but the closer to her they got, the more he missed her. He didn’t know how to explain it, he’d just felt progressively worse the farther they ventured into Irithara. He hadn’t felt this bad since the first week after Nira had left, and Nef really didn’t like it. It was always there, this clawing emptiness, and he knew it wouldn’t leave until he saw Nira again.

“Oh, I got an idea!” Rayni announced, and suddenly Nef had to shield his eyes from the onslaught of purple light. He blinked rapidly, trying to get used to his now dimly lit surroundings. “Can you see now?”

Nef looked back at Rayni, realizing that she wasn’t just lighting their way, but she herself was glowing. That was actually really cool.

“Yeah, thanks.” Nef looked around as Rayni continued running, finally noticing how narrow the tunnel was. He’d known it had to be too narrow to fly in, but it was actually even less wide than he’d imagined. Not counting the occasional parts with a bunch of pillars between the tunnel and a large space right next to it. Nef guessed it was some kind of platform for people waiting for a subway to arrive when it had still been in use.

Nef really didn’t understand where these tunnels had come from though. He couldn’t remember anything about Irithara building anything this massive. Then again, he didn’t really care about Irithara, so maybe he’d just missed it, but he was hoping a little that it had been built by the Eternals. Or whatever they had been before they’d been transformed. He hadn’t had that much opportunity to get his hands on Eternal technology, but he sure as hell wanted to.

Nef was brought out of his thoughts as something literally flew into his lap. He flinched, almost falling off Rayni, and took the object into his hands, only then realizing it was Kaleth’s goggles. Nef frowned at them, wondering why they’d been just thrown at him, but he received an answer to that question quickly enough.

They have night vision. Use them.

Kaleth still sounded annoyed, but Nef didn’t really care. He’d wanted to get something like this for himself since he’d first seen them, so he wasted no time thinking if taking off his glasses was worth seeing in the dark and put the goggles over his eyes. He was immediately greeted by the signature green color, and he blinked a bit as he looked around while hiding his glasses in the only pocket of his Umbra uniform.

He could actually see far enough now to figure out the tunnel they were running through looked pretty much unending. A little ahead of them were Mel and Kaleth, running at about the same speed. Kaleth was looking back at him, giving Nef a look he couldn’t really identify. He soon turned away though, so Nef didn’t have to start feeling uncomfortable.

Nef wished he could say that riding on a huge winged lizard was as fun as it sounded because, after only a few hours of it, he was feeling unbearably bored. He kept chatting with Rayni, on and off, but that just wasn’t enough to balance out the total lack of anything visually interesting around them.

At least he wasn’t feeling sore or anything like that since apparently, Rayni kept healing him. That was the only explanation he could come up with because after so long, at least his legs should be totally useless and dead to the world. Although, Nef would lie if he said he wasn’t feeling a bit guilty by the fact that his mortality was tiring Rayni out.

It got very noticeable after a few hours, and Nef was really starting to wonder if she would be able to keep this up. And if so, for how long? He was afraid to bring it up because he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that question, but sooner or later, he would most likely have to ask.

When Rayni suddenly came to a halt, Nef once again almost fell off her back, and he cursed under his breath. A little warning would have been nice, but he decided he should just shut up.

“What’s happening?” Nef asked as he peered in front of them at Mel. Kaleth seemed to have disappeared, which Nef had no idea when had happened. He would have noticed if Kaleth climbed off Mel, wouldn’t he?

“Apparently our trip just got shortened by a few days,” Rayni replied, and jerked her head to the side. Nef frowned, having no idea what any of this meant. “Kaleth said we’re taking the subway, so get off. I need to change.”

Nef frowned harder, but he did climb off and looked away as Rayni’s whole body glowed and instantly changed into what she usually looked like. It was somehow comforting to see her like this again.

“What do you mean we’re taking the subway? You mean it still works?” Nef asked as he followed Rayni, trying to keep up with her as well as not to step on the subway tracks. He wasn’t sure if stepping on them would kill him or not, but he sure wasn’t going to risk it.

“Who knows? Kaleth didn’t go into detail,” Rayni replied, shrugging. If there was one thing Nef hated more than boredom, it was a lack of answers. And if there was one thing Nef hated even more than that, it was people having no problem with it.

All of this immediately left his mind though the moment he saw Nira. He didn’t question why she was there, or what was going on. When he saw her, he felt like his body wasn’t in his control for a moment as he ran to her and kissed her, hugging tighter than he probably ever had before and then burying his nose in her hair.

It felt so good to be near Nira again, Nef wanted to just stay like this hugging her forever. Unfortunately, the moment was ruined when Nira hugged him back and practically cracked his ribs.

Nef cried out, jumping away and rubbing his sides. “Dammit, my poor bones!”

Nira looked a bit guilty but wasted no time hugging him again, now more gently. It was still tighter than Nef would have liked, but he didn’t really care right now. He was just happy to be with her again.

They stayed like that for a little bit, not saying anything, just enjoying each other’s presence, until someone behind Nef coughed. Nef begrudgingly pulled away from Nira to look at whoever had interrupted them. He came face to face with a tall, dark-haired man with a beard and an eyepatch. He looked quite amused, which didn’t make Nef like him more.

Nira cleared her throat awkwardly. “Uh, Nef, this is my father, Hidarion the Third.”

Nef blinked in surprise and realization. He was very glad his eyes were covered by the goggles.

“Oh, cool, my future father-in-law,” he blurted out before he really thought about what he was saying. Next to him, Nira covered her face with her hands.

Hidarion raised an eyebrow, but his smile hadn’t dissipated. In fact, it became even wider. He looked delighted, actually. “You didn’t tell me you were engaged, Nira.” He had the thickest Iritharian accent Nef had ever heard.

“We aren’t.”

“Oh,” Hidarion said, his shoulders slumping and smile fading. Well, it was good he was supportive, Nef supposed. Although he was way too accepting of his daughter dating an Enorian, in Nef’s opinion. Weren’t Iritharians real racists?

“So, you’re like a king, right? That’s pretty awesome,” Rayni said as she approached them, probably having noticed it was safe to come to them now that Nef and Nira had hugged. Speaking of Nira, she was currently tugging on Nef’s arm. Nef looked over at her, and she jerked her head to the side, silently telling him to go with her.

“What the hell are you doing here, Nef?” she asked when they were far enough. “You’ll get killed.”

“I’m here because I’m not just going to wait around in Enoria, hoping that you don’t get killed,” Nef replied, a bit angry that she was arguing with him about this so soon after finally seeing each other after more than a month.

“Nef…” Nira began, but then gave up with a huff and grabbed the sides of his face, kissing him with so much intensity that Nef forgot how to breathe for a second. He replied in kind, burying his fingers in her wavy hair, reveling in how much better he was feeling immediately. It was like all his loneliness from the past month had all but melted away.

“You’re an idiot,” Nira said fondly after they separated a few seconds later. “I’m…I missed you so much.” She then hugged him again before he could respond, but this time his ribs weren’t crushed in the slightest.

“I missed you too,” Nef said after a few seconds of silence. He would have told her how he’d thought about her every day, and how much he’d hated not being around her, but since he was starting to feel his eyes sting, he decided against it. The last thing they needed was Nira seeing him cry. Or maybe that was the last thing he needed.

“You…you have an accent now,” he said in an effort to change the subject. It was true though. Nira wasn’t using the accent she’d had back in Enoria. Being back in Irithara must have brought it back out again. Not that Nef minded that much. The way she pronounced s and r sounds was kind of cute.

“Oh…yeah,” Nira said as if she’d only now realized this. She pulled away from Nef, brushing her hair behind her right ear. “I guess it’s because this is the first time I’m using Global in a month.”

Nira had now used an Enorian accent so forced Nef had an urge to check if his ears weren’t bleeding.

“You guys really don’t like it, huh?” Nef joked, fighting the urge to wrap Nira up in his arms again. Nira just shook her head and shrugged, so Nef tried a different topic. “Um, I hear you’ve got superpowers now.”

Nira sighed angrily, which made Nef cringe a bit, thinking he’d just picked a much worse topic to talk about.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you,” Nira apologized, gesturing awkwardly to Nef’s ribs, which immediately started to ache at the mention of them. She then proceeded to hide her hands behind her back and looking away, which was enough for Nef to do something about this.

“Hey, it’s fine. I have this armor, remember?”

“Why do you have that armor?” Nira asked, her mouth forming a worried frown. Nef looked down at himself, even though he very well knew what the uniform looked like.

“I kinda joined the Umbra? Or maybe I haven’t. I honestly don’t know,” Nef replied. He supposed he didn’t have to be worried about this anymore though. Now that Mereria wasn’t in charge anymore, and since there were plenty of Umbra members now, they were nowhere near desperate enough to use him in a fight.

He couldn’t even say he was bothered by this. He was glad he wasn’t one of them. They were too sneaky and undercover for his taste.

Even with night vision, Nef could perfectly understand the look Nira was giving him. It was that one that was both disbelieving and done at the same time. He knew that one well. Nira had used it quite a lot since the time he’d met her, usually because of him.

“What happened while I was gone?” Nira asked, shaking her head slightly. Nef wanted to ask her the same question, but since she’d asked first, he decided to fill her in and ask afterward. So he told her about their search for Mereria, their experiences with the Umbra, basically anything that came to mind.

Throughout the whole thing, Nira looked like she didn’t quite want to believe what he was saying, but she was left with no choice but to accept it. Then, once it was Nira’s time to fill Nef in, they switched sides because what Nira had told him wasn’t exactly easily digestible either.

Nef honestly wasn’t sure what he found weirdest about her story. The hippogriff, the thing about her mother/not mother, the energy injections…. No, the weirdest part was how okay Nira was with all of this. Well, it was really cool that she had powers now, but it was a tiny bit concerning.

“It’s okay. It isn’t dangerous,” Nira assured him when Nef asked if there were any side effects. “I’m just very strong right now.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Nef said, rubbing his side. “So, you can do all the cool stuff Eternals do?”

Nira hesitated for a second before giving a firm nod. “Yes, telekinesis, telepathy, everything. Except for shapeshifting, that is. I don’t think I can do that.”

Nef frowned at her tone. She didn’t sound too assured about what she’d just said. “You okay?”

“Yeah, of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Nira asked, a bit defensively, which made Nef more suspicious. Unfortunately, he never got to ask what that had been about because Mel interrupted their conversation then.

“Sorry, but Kaleth told me to find you,” Mel said, clearly uncomfortable that he was intruding. “We’re leaving, so….”

Oh, yeah, they were still doing that. Nef had almost forgotten about that since the reason he’d come with them was very different. Nira smiled at Mel and nodded, taking Nef’s hand into her own and walking towards where the subway train was. Probably. Nef had no idea.

He wouldn’t lie—he really didn’t want to go. But he had to if he wanted to keep an eye on Nira. And besides, he kind of wanted to see that subway train. What other chance would he get to see as large a piece of Eternal technology as this one?