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

Mel wouldn’t lie. He had been a little concerned about traveling with the ancient subway train, but it all worked out quite well. The train—or at least the part he had spent the majority of the trip in—was unbelievably well preserved. Sure, it was noticeable that the subway train wasn’t new, but not fifty thousand years old. Or was it newer? Mel had no idea, but either way, the train looked better than some of the buses he’d see on TV.

The interior was very similar to the Umbra’s hideaways and pretty much any other place built by the Eternals. With one big difference, though. The subway train had very comfortable seats. Usually, there were no seats in general because Eternals didn’t need to sit down usually because they didn’t get tired.

Mel wasn’t complaining though. They made the unending hours of waiting to reach Aleara much easier to deal with. Especially when Kaleth took a break from discussing things with Lanyr or Hidarion to talk to Mel for a while. And sometimes hold his hand too. It was a bit odd because Mel was fairly sure Kaleth was still upset with him about not waiting for the others earlier and letting Nef go with them, but he wasn’t complaining.

Mel couldn’t help but notice, though, that Kaleth seemed regretful after every time he talked to Hidarion. Mel couldn’t figure out why, though. Kaleth had only told him that he and Hidarion used to talk to each other when Kaleth had been visiting Irithara, pretending to be a diplomat from Enoria. Mel really didn’t like that part—it seemed almost cruel to give Kaleth such a role given that he’d wanted to be one originally—but nevertheless, it didn’t explain why Kaleth always looked so sad after talking to Hidarion.

Mel didn’t want to ask, though. If Kaleth wanted to tell him, he would. Mel really wanted to ignore the thought that it was entirely possible that Kaleth just hadn’t told him because he assumed Mel didn’t care.

He wished their communication was better. Which was kind of ridiculous since they could sometimes hear each other’s thoughts.

“How long before we get there?” Mel asked, fidgeting with his hands. Both he and Kaleth had been silent for about ten minutes, and though Mel didn’t mind the silence—in fact, it was pretty nice—he just wanted to make sure Kaleth was all right. But he knew that if he asked directly, he’d receive a generic ‘I’m fine’.

Kaleth brushed a hand through his hair as he frowned in thought. “Um, about half an hour, I believe. I would be more exact, but I didn’t bring my watch.”

Mel hadn’t even known Kaleth had a watch, but he supposed it made sense. Usually, rich men in the TV shows he’d watched owned one. Mel frowned in worry as Kaleth yawned and rubbed his eyes.

“You should sleep if you’re tired,” Mel suggested, which had the exact opposite effect than he’d intended. Kaleth’s eyes snapped open, and he gave Mel a rather unconvincing smile. It made Mel even more wary. Kaleth was usually an excellent liar and actor. He’d proved as much this past month.

“I don’t need sleep,” Kaleth replied, and Mel remained unconvinced. Particularly because Kaleth hadn’t argued against being tired itself.

Kaleth sighed out in exasperation and repeated: “I don’t.”

“Well, if you’re sure,” Mel sighed, giving up. Mostly because he didn’t want Kaleth to get angry with him again. It was a miracle he hadn’t yelled at him after he’d noticed Nef. Kaleth had been oddly distant when it came to that subject. Mel couldn’t figure out if he liked that or not.

Mel heard Kaleth sigh as well, but he didn’t look over at him. Not until Kaleth spoke again, that is.

“I really am fine, love.” Mel didn’t believe him, but the use of the pet name did make him feel a bit better. Kaleth hadn’t referred to him this way since they’d crossed the border. “I’m just worried.” Then he chuckled softly. “I’m always worried.”

Mel wanted to scold him a little about making light of his emotions, but since that would help no one, he just stayed silent. It was true that Kaleth worried a lot, but he had a lot to worry about. All Mel had to worry about were his sister, Kaleth, and now also Nef and Nira, and even so he felt like he had enough on his plate.

“I…” Kaleth began, but then he cut himself off with an annoyed groan. “I’m not mad at you if you’re still worried about that.”

“Y-you aren’t?” Mel asked, his mood immediately significantly improving. “But I didn’t listen to you.”

“Yes, you should have waited,” Kaleth replied, grimacing. “But I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I handled the situation horribly. I’m sorry.”

Kaleth sighed and sank into his seat as if it had taken all of his strength to say those words. Mel had no idea what to do to make him feel better, so he wrapped his arms around Kaleth and put his head on his shoulder.

Kaleth flinched a little at first but then wrapped his arm around Mel’s shoulders a few seconds later. Mel would really have thought that meant what he was doing was making Kaleth feel better, but he could feel Kaleth’s sadness. In fact, it got worse when Mel hugged him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, feeling at a loss as to what he’d done, and automatically distancing himself from Kaleth a little. He was still hugging him, but not nearly as tightly.

Kaleth shut his eyes for a moment and frowned. “It’s Hidarion.” And then he let out a sardonic laugh. “I can’t believe we are about to attack Irithara’s seat of government, and I’m focusing on this.”

“What about Hidarion?” Mel asked, not following this at all.

“Oh, it’s nothing you should be worrying about, Mel. Just, maybe limit physical contact with me when he’s around.”

Mel just stared at Kaleth with a frown, feeling even more lost than before. Somehow. What did physical contact between Kaleth and Mel have to do with Hidarion?

Then his eyes widened in realization.

“Oh. I see,” he said, letting go of Kaleth and putting his hands in his lap, which he then proceeded to stare at. He should have realized sooner. As conservative as Enoria could be, it was nothing compared to Irithara. It made sense that Hidarion didn’t want to see this kind of thing. It was a little strange that he and Kaleth were friends, though, if Hidarion really felt like this about people like him.

“Oh, no, no, that is so not the problem,” Kaleth said, shaking his head with a very strange expression. It was like he wanted to laugh, but he was still sad at the same time. And Mel felt completely lost once again. “Hidarion doesn’t have a problem with, um, this. He just….”

Kaleth ran a hand over his face, sighing. “It’s inconsequential. Just please keep a normal distance from me when we are around him.”

Mel desperately wanted to know what all of this meant, but his long life had taught him he didn’t need to understand everything, so he nodded seriously, earning a small but genuine smile from Kaleth.

“Excuse me, love. I need to go make sure Lanyr hasn’t eaten anyone yet.”

Mel was very thankful that he usually could tell if Kaleth was joking or not, otherwise, he’d become even more scared of Lanyr than he already was. As Mel watched Kaleth leave, he wondered what he should do with the time they had left.

Even though he couldn’t really think of anything, he still got up, feeling too nervous to keep sitting. He aimlessly strolled through the subway train, trying not to make eye contact with the other Eternals. It was obvious that they didn’t like him, and for good reason. They’d been enemies just a few days ago. Maybe he would feel a bit braver if he wasn’t alone, but right now, he wouldn’t give the others a reason to start a fight with him.

He finally stopped when he noticed Nira sitting alone in one of the compartments, a sad frown on her face. She seemed to be deep in thought, and Mel would have left her be, but she just looked so miserable he felt like needed to do something.

Nira looked up with wide eyes as Mel entered the compartment, shutting the door behind him and stopping for a bit.

“Oh,” Nira said, her sadness completely forgotten. Well, it probably wasn’t, but Nira was pretending nothing was bothering her. Mel wanted to sigh. Kaleth did the same thing. Maybe this was just something people from royal families did? Or people from the north?

“Hi, Mel,” she greeted him, which he responded to by waving and smiling at her before taking a seat opposite her.

“How are you?” Mel asked, raising his eyebrows in worry when Nira looked away. “I know we don’t know each other that well, so I can understand if you don’t want to tell me. You don’t have to.”

Nira’s eyes snapped back to Mel’s at that, and she quickly shook her head. “No, I don’t mind telling you. I guess I just…. I dunno, don’t feel like talking about this, I guess.”

Mel smiled at her. “All right, well, is there anything you’d like to talk about, then? Where’s Nef?”

Nira let out a quiet laugh and her eyes sparkled. “He’s with Yorin, geeking out over this train, no doubt. I have no idea why he finds it so fascinating, but he sure does.”

Mel would have asked if she was okay with Nef not being with her and instead studying the subway train, but she clearly was, otherwise she wouldn’t be smiling. Unfortunately, her smile soon disappeared.

“I really missed him, but I still wish he never came here,” Nira admitted, her shoulders sagging. Mel chose to stare at the ground as he tried not to let his guilt overwhelm him as Nira continued. He was slowly regretting starting this conversation.

“If something happens to him, I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said, running a hand through her hair. “Whose great idea was it to let him come here, anyway?”

Mel curled in on himself a bit more as he chewed on his lower lip. Nira didn’t seem to notice though as she glared at the table instead. Mel so wished right now he could at least lie well. How was he supposed to not make Nira suspicious?

“I’ll admit, I’m really impressed that he actually works out now, but…. What good is that against an Eternal?” Nira looked up at Mel again. Mel did his best to look supportive. Not that he wasn’t—he definitely agreed with Nira, but he just felt so guilty right now that he wasn’t sure how long it would take before he couldn’t take it anymore and run out of the compartment.

“I just don’t know. I want him here as much as I don’t want him here,” Nira continued, and Mel’s heart clenched. But this time not because of guilt. It was because this was exactly how he felt about Kaleth being here. Even though Kaleth was much more powerful than Mel, which wasn’t true with Nef and Nira.

When he concentrated, he could feel how powerful Nira was. Quite close to him, in fact. But it looked wrong. Like the energy didn’t completely fit. Not that it was surprising. Nira wasn’t supposed to have this power, so it had to have come from someone else. Mel really hoped it wasn’t doing anything bad to her. He’d never heard of this being possible, so he was automatically cautious.

“It’s so weird looking at you like this,” Nira suddenly remarked, raising an eyebrow at him. Mel blinked, unsure as to what she was talking about. “Before you always looked so harmless. Now I can see how strong you are.”

Mel blushed a bit. It felt odd to be analyzed by her like this. And he knew he wasn’t strong. He was one of the weakest Eternals in existence. Definitely not the weakest, but he was definitely not strong. It was obvious from just his transformations. The sizes of the forms Eternals changed into were tied to their power—the more powerful Eternal, the bigger the form.

It made Mel wonder just how large Kaleth would be if he switched forms, but then he immediately decided he was glad Kaleth didn’t know how to do it. Mel felt unneeded as it was. At least like this, he could protect the other man with his much bigger body, claws, and fire. And transport him, of course.

“Um, thank you?” Mel said hesitantly, unsure how to respond to this. “But I think you’re stronger than me now.”

“How can you tell?” asked Nira, frowning, which in turn made Mel frown.

“I can see it, just like you can.”

“I can see you’re strong, not how much stronger or weaker than me you are. I could only see a difference with the Iritharian Eternals, but they’re…not like you,” Nira said, shrugging a bit. That was interesting, though. Maybe Nira just hadn’t been in contact with enough Eternals to be able to tell yet.

“What do you mean by ‘not like me’?” Nef asked, deciding to focus on that rather than making her explain to him how it was possible she couldn’t tell the difference between energy levels.

“They’re made from a different species, I think,” Nira replied, and Mel blinked at her in shock. “Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but that’s what Yorin told me. Apparently, there was another civilization before ours, that’s why Relioth is so old.”

Well, that made a lot of sense, Mel supposed. It was still really unbelievable though. He didn’t understand biology, so he had no idea if fifty thousand years was enough for a new species to evolve, but he immediately began to wonder what the other species must have looked like. And why they were gone.

Mel had a feeling it had something to do with Irif.

“I don’t know how I can tell they’re different, but they are,” Nira continued. “It’s like their light is the same, but different at the same time.”

Well, Mel didn’t understand that one bit, but he wasn’t going to tell Nira that. He’d never noticed a difference between Eternals like Mereria and himself, just that Mereria was much more powerful. Maybe that was what Nira meant but didn’t express it well?

He wanted to change the subject, perhaps ask how she was handling the fact that she would have to fight her own mother, but then the subway train stopped, and Nira, with a look of utter resolve on her face, got up and with a nod to him left the compartment.

Mel sighed to himself, his heart hammering away in his chest as nausea hit him. This was it, they were going to attack Irif’s palace, most likely very outnumbered.

Mel shook his head. No, he had to stay optimistic. Pessimism had never helped anyone. Just as he was about to do the same as Nira, Kaleth appeared in the door and slid it shut behind him.

“Kaleth? Is something wrong? I thought we were supposed to go—” His question was interrupted by Kaleth leaning in and gently making their lips meet. Mel’s heart increased its speed, but this time Mel didn’t mind it as he melted into the kiss, his eyes closing.

They quickly flew open again, though, when he felt something cold encircle his wrist. He stared in disbelief at the handcuffs binding him to one of the thin pipes on the wall. He could already feel his strength being sapped away by them as he tried pulled on them to free himself.

It didn’t work, though, so Mel looked over at Kaleth for help, only then realizing that it had been Kaleth himself who’d done this. Any questions immediately left Mel’s head when he saw the pure look of shame and regret Kaleth was wearing.

“I’m sorry,” Kaleth said softly, unable to look Mel in the eye anymore. Only when he turned around did Mel finally find the strength to say something.

“Y-you can’t. You said I could go with you!”

Kaleth hesitated, but just for a second.

“No, you can’t!” Mel yelled, his eyes starting to sting as he pulled at the cuffs with all his remaining strength. They didn’t budge. “Please, don’t leave me here!”

But Kaleth was already gone.