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

Nef was really pissed at Nira right now. Locking him in the bathroom? Seriously? They would have to have a talk about this once everything was over and done with. Now he had different problems to deal with—like actually getting to where the others had gone.

Picking the lock had been pretty easy, which had been surprising since this train had been made by completely different civilization, but Nef was definitely glad for it. Otherwise he probably wouldn’t have gotten out in the first place.

He pretty much ran towards the exit, putting the goggles back over his eyes since it would too dark outside to see anything. He wanted to get back to the surface as soon as possible, and not just because the absolute stillness of the train along with the impenetrable darkness outside the windows was creeping him out.

He came to a halt, though, when he heard someone sniffle softly. He probably would have totally missed it had the train not been so empty, but now he had to find out who had made the sound. Who could possibly be here aside from Nef?

He heard the sound again and walked past a few compartments, peering into them. In the third one, he found the origin of the sounds. Honestly, it should have occurred to him immediately.

Mel looked so damn heartbroken, it was actually a bit hard to look at. He was just sitting there, staring at his feet, one hand in his lap, the other hanging in the air, held there by handcuffs. On further inspection, Mel didn’t seem to be crying, but he continued sniffling occasionally.

Since Mel didn’t seem to notice him, Nef opened the door and stepped inside, finally drawing the Eternal’s attention. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Nef finally broke the silence.

“Kaleth?”

Mel wordlessly nodded, looking down at his shoes again.

“Yeah, Nira had a similar idea,” Nef said, smirking slightly. Mel looked up with an expression somewhere between pity and confusion. “She forgot I can pick locks. Speaking of which….”

Nef walked over to Mel, taking a hold of the cuff around his wrist. A very odd feeling hit him suddenly along with a slight dizziness, so he quickly let it go. Right, Eternal power, blah blah. Probably had an effect on him as well.

Nef instead opted for gripping Mel’s hand so he knew the Eternal wouldn’t move and began trying to pick the lock on the cuff with his trusty bobby pins.

“Wanna go with me to yell at our significant others?” Nef asked with a note of sarcasm at the term, and Mel smiled a little. Thank the gods, if he looked like a lost, wet puppy for much longer, Nef would have been compelled to hug him or something.

“I’d rather go help them,” Mel replied with an air of amusement. Who knew Mel could understand humor?

“Yeah, sure, that first, yelling later,” Nef replied, grinning at the Eternal as the cuff finally snapped open. Mel rubbed his wrist a bit, looking unsure suddenly.

“What’s up?” Nef asked, absently as he tried remembering how the plan was supposed to go, and where they should go to find the entrance to the tunnels.

“I’m just a bit concerned Kaleth will yell at me for leaving,” Mel admitted, looking away again. Nef sighed.

“Good gods, Mel, grow a spine,” Nef told him, rolling his eyes. “C’mon, the sooner we leave, the better.”

“All right,” Mel said unhappily. “But I can’t transform right now. All of my energy is in the handcuffs, and it will take time for me to recharge.”

So that meant no dragon transportation. Unless…. “Is there a way to get the energy back into you from the cuffs?”

“Maybe,” Mel replied, shrugging. “But it could be dangerous for you.”

“What do I have to do?” Nef asked, choosing to ignore the warning. What good had ever come from listening to those, anyway?

“Just touch me and the metal at the same time,” Mel said hesitantly, clearly not on board with this idea. But it wasn’t like they had a choice, was it? There was no way they could catch up with the others if Mel couldn’t fly them there, so Nef resisted making a joke about touching the Eternal, and just did as he’d been told.

Much like last time, an incredibly odd feeling ran through him. Kind of like electricity, but it wasn’t really painful. Nef had no idea how to describe it, he just knew he didn’t like it. Thankfully, it was very quickly over, which Nef took as a sign that the energy had transferred back into Mel’s body.

“How was this dangerous?” Nef asked, and Mel grimaced.

“Well, I was afraid the power could overwhelm you, and, um, disintegrate your body.”

“Awesome.” All right, this was the last time he didn’t ask someone to clarify when they said something was dangerous. But nothing had happened, so it was all good. Now they needed to get out of here, fly northwest to Aleara, and try not to die.

They didn’t say much on the way, and they actually did manage to get inside the tunnel. Nef had no idea how. It felt almost like they were being let in rather than just being lucky and not running into Irif’s army at all, but when Nef saw the scene in front of him inside the tunnel, he was almost starting to wish he had stayed on the train.

Irif was literally radiating power, so much so that Nef didn’t need the goggles to see in the dark tunnel. That really wasn’t what he was thinking about at the moment, though. There seemed to have been a cave in, though Nef was fairly sure Irif herself had made it happen. There was no way to tell who was on the other side of the rubble, but on this side, there was just Kaleth, Rayni, and Nira.

Rayni was lying in the corner, still alive, but clearly too injured to continue fighting, Nira was being held against a wall by an invisible force, and Kaleth was trying to fight Irif, albeit not very successfully.

It looked very much like Irif was just playing with him, rather than actually trying to kill him, but Kaleth himself didn’t look like he was doing well, anyway. He looked exhausted and like he was in pain, though Nef couldn’t really see any injuries. They were there though, judging by how he was holding his shield too carefully and his sword too low. Also, the blood dripping from Irif’s own sword was a good indication.

Both Nef and Mel stood there frozen, watching the fight and having no idea how to help for a few seconds. And then Irif turned to look at them, her eyes glowing so brightly it was actually hard to look into them. Not that Nef had a choice.

“Oh, look, more guests,” Irif commented sarcastically, which Kaleth used as an opportunity to stab her. He never made it, though. Before he could kill her, he was thrown against the wall. Nef thought he would be sick when he heard something snap, followed by Kaleth’s agonized scream.

Then Irif turned back to Nira, who was now looking at Nef, horrified.

“Impressive,” Irif told Nira almost proudly, walking towards her, and kicking Kaleth in the stomach as she went, earning a pained grunt. This made Mel break out of his shock and run towards Kaleth before Nef could stop him. Nef had no idea what Irif had found impressive. Maybe she’d meant to kill Kaleth with that move, and Nira had saved him?

Fortunately, Irif didn’t seem to care that Mel was now trying to heal Kaleth. Unfortunately, she was way too interested in Nira for Nef’s taste. In a completely random burst of suicidal bravery, Nef decided that if he was going to die anyway, at least he could use Irif’s disinterest in him to his advantage.

He drew his dagger and ran before he could think it through, aiming the dagger at Irif’s exposed back. Almost, almost….

And then he came to a halt with a gasp. Horrible pain overwhelmed him and he sunk to his knees, staring at the sword piercing his stomach.

Nef coughed up blood as the wound started to bleed, the sword ironically limiting that, and while the pain was horrible, it wasn’t as horrible as Nef would have thought. His brain didn’t seem to be processing it, or anything else for that matter, correctly at the moment.

Nef cried out when Irif pulled out her sword with an uncaring, swift move, and he fell to the ground in front of her, coughing up blood.

“Nef…” Nira whispered, her voice choked. Not wanting old bricks to be the last thing he saw before he died, Nef forced himself to look at his girlfriend, despite how much moving hurt. He couldn’t say anything anymore, so he settled for a pained, bloody smile. This only made tears flow down the sides of Nira’s face. And Nef joined her in that.

“You know,” Irif said, forcing Nef to try to make sense of the words. Blood loss didn’t agree with him. “The funny thing is that you could actually heal him. Theoretically….”

Before Nira could react, Irif waved her hand, making Nira fly back. For a second Nef thought he would have to watch Nira die in front of him, but then Irif simply turned around and left Nira be.

Nira wasted no time crawling back to Nef and dragging him into a sitting position. Nef would have helped her, but right now he couldn’t move, much less sit up. He cried out as pain stabbed through his stomach, and Nira quickly put her hand over the wound, making it hurt even more.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, just please hold on, Nef,” she begged, pretty much sobbing. Nef tried to keep his eyes open, as if that would stop him from bleeding out. He leaned back into her as Nira wrapped her free arm over his chest to steady him. She was no doubt trying to heal him—Nef could feel her palm get warmer and warmer—but it didn’t seem to be working.

From here, Nef had a perfect view of Irif throwing Mel into a wall carelessly and picking Kaleth up by his throat. Nef expected her to kill him immediately, but she didn’t.

“Before you got here, I wished I’d killed you a long ago, but now…. I think I found another use for you,” Irif said as Kaleth choked. And then Nef’s half-lidded eyes widened as Irif’s energy started flowing into Kaleth.

That was the moment Nef started losing consciousness. The world around him started to get blurry. He could hear Nira say something, but he couldn’t make sense of the words anymore. It was all a jumbled mess. He could barely think.

The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Kaleth standing over Irif’s lifeless body with a sadistic smile on his face.

And then suddenly he was gasping, his lungs struggling for air as he was brought back to the waking world. Nef coughed hard, blood dripping from his mouth, but nothing was hurting anymore. He quickly checked his wound only to find out it wasn’t there anymore. There was just blood and a hole in his armor, but no injury.

Nef looked up in confusion at Kaleth who was crouched in front of him, looking quite dazed himself.

“What the hell just happened?” asked Nef, looking behind himself when he felt arms wrap themselves around him.

Nira looked happier than he’d ever seen her before, but she was still crying.

“You died,” Kaleth replied matter-of-factly, getting up again.

“What were you thinking, Nefie?” Nira asked him, tilting his head with her hand and kissing him briefly, before continuing her hugging. “Attacking Irif with a fucking dagger?”

Nef almost had a heart attack when he heard her swear. “Thought I could take her since she was underestimating me so much.”

“Are you kidding me?” Nira exclaimed, still not letting him move at all. “Kaleth couldn’t kill her, and you though….” She sighed. “You’re such a brave idiot.”

“Wait, so is she dead or not?” Nef asked, staring at the dead body on the floor just a few steps away from him. He looked back at Nira who looked about as confused by the subject as him. She seemed to be avoiding looking at Irif’s body, though. Not that Nef was surprised.

“She’s dead,” Kaleth said from where he was, helping Mel stand up. Mel seemed almost scared of looking at Kaleth for some reason. “She possessed me and I…absorbed her.”

That just sounded weird. And wrong. But whatever, as long as Irif was dead.

Rayni was standing a bit away from them, looking much better now, but she wasn’t saying anything. She was mostly just staring at Kaleth with a look of bewilderment and suspicion on her face.

“We aren’t supposed to be able to bring people back from the dead,” said Mel quietly, and Kaleth put a hand on his shoulder.

“Well, I just did,” Kaleth replied, somehow not making it sound arrogant. “We can worry about moral implications later. Right now, we need to help everyone trapped on the other side.”

Nira finally let Nef get up, but she was still holding his hand.

“And how do you propose we get past all this rubble?” Nef asked, and Kaleth gave him an amused look. His eyes glowed just a little, and the stones and bricks started shifting, flying up and reforming the ceiling again. Nef coughed as a cloud of dust covered everything and when it cleared, the path was open again.

“Oh, that works.”

The rest of the conflict was oddly easily resolved. When they caught up with the others, Kaleth told them Irif was dead, and her former soldiers just gave up. They looked almost relieved by this, in fact. Apparently, they hadn’t liked working for her. Though the more Nef thought about it, the more suspicious he became.

Kaleth’s explanation of what had happened was all well and good, but how did they know it was true? Irif could still be possessing him and they wouldn’t know. Although, maybe the Eternals could tell. Nef had no idea.

The situation got even stranger when apparently it was decided that Hidarion would be put in charge of Irithara for the time being. Nef didn’t have anything personal against Hidarion, but that was more than a little strange, given that that wasn’t how monarchies worked.

Maybe it was the fact that Kaleth had suggested it, and right now, no one wanted to argue with him. Nef didn’t need to have superpowers to feel how strong he was right now. It was frankly a little disturbing, and the way Kaleth was not at all bothered that he was now apparently twice as strong as Irif had been wasn’t helping.

Hidarion himself had accepted his new post with a lot of uncertainty, which Nef hoped meant that he wouldn’t turn into a megalomaniac anytime soon, but still. They’d just killed the monarch of Irithara. That was the closest thing to a revolution that had ever happened in Irithara, and they weren’t taking advantage of it. Wouldn’t the people want a democracy instead?

Nef wasn’t in the majority with these suspicions, however. Most of the natives in the palace were just overjoyed that their dictator had been killed, which Nef thought would be at least a little upsetting to Nira, but she seemed completely fine.

In fact, she seemed a little too fine, but when Nef had asked if she was okay with seeing her mother die, she simply replied that Irif hadn’t been her mother, so Nef had decided to drop the subject.

And then there was the whole dying-and-being-resurrected thing. Nef didn’t know how he felt about that. He wouldn’t make a big deal out of it because truthfully, he didn’t feel any different. He could almost forget it had happened.

The looks he was being given by Mel always reminded him of it, though. At least Nira seemed incredibly happy that he wasn’t dead. That was a great way to counter it.

They were currently walking through the garden behind the palace, still trying to process what had happened, but they were content for the most part. At least as long Nef forced himself to not think about the stuff that was bothering him about this whole situation.

It was just good being near Nira again without some impending doom hanging over their heads. Although, after the last month and a half, Nef had trouble accepting it was all over. It was almost too easy frankly. It sure hadn’t felt that way while they were trying to fix this mess, but now, looking back at it, it seemed a little too good to be true.

“Are you feeling okay?” Nira asked him for what had to be the tenth time at least. Nef got why she was doing it, but it got a little tiring after a while.

“Yeah, still perfectly fine,” Nef replied with a sigh, and Nira huffed.

“Well, sorry that I’m concerned about you. It took a few minutes before Kaleth brought you back and I’m worried about brain damage,” Nira replied, rolling her eyes. Nef gave her a slightly disturbed look, making a mental note to go to a hospital and scan his brain as soon as possible.

“Well, I don’t feel different,” Nef said, trying to make her feel better. He was really glad he was wearing the Umbra armor because it was really cold outside right now. Although, that was probably why Nira had dragged him out here. No sane person would be here at night.

Nira nodded, looking at a plant next to her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” Nira replied, smiling at him a bit. “We won, and we’re still alive.”

“And the bit about your mother dying?”

“My mother’s been dead for almost two decades,” Nira said curtly, looking away again. Nef really wanted to accept this, but he just couldn’t. His father had been dead for almost just as long, but that didn’t mean he was okay with it. And this was a much more screwed up situation. Nira’s mother had had her body stolen by Irif.

“So, what now?” Nef asked, changing the subject to avoid an argument with her.

“I dunno,” Nira said, shrugging. “Go back home?”

“You are home right now,” Nef reminded her, frowning. Nira laughed quietly, giving him a look of fond amusement.

“I mean Enoria.”

“You wanna go back there?”

“’Course I do. Need to finish school, right?”

Nef snorted. “Yeah, about that, I’m pretty sure they kicked us out after not showing up for two months.”

“Well, I’m sure we can figure something out,” Nira said, squeezing Nef’s hand. “Or just start over again.”

“Start over? Yeah, no thanks, I’ve been scarred by Enoria’s school system enough,” Nef teased, knowing it would make Nira laugh.

“You keep complaining. Just try one of Irithara’s universities,” Nira replied, grinning at him.

“Sounds like a challenge.”

“No, seriously, don’t try it,” Nira said, suddenly serious again, shaking her head. Nef raised an eyebrow, wondering what that meant. He would have to look that up later.

“It feels really weird thinking about normal life things after all of that,” Nef said after a moment of silence and sighed. To be honest, he was fine with being a college dropout. What he really wanted to do right now was study all that Eternal technology. If he could get paid for that, that would be pretty awesome.

“I get it,” Nira replied, smiling at him. “I don’t feel the same, but I get it.”

“So, you don’t mind leaving your dad here?”

“We can always come visit him now that we managed to stop a war from happening,” Nira said, and Nef nodded. That was a pretty good point. It would take him a while to get this through his head though. Enoria and Irithara had had their borders closed off from each other for years, so it would be hard to not factor that in for a while.

“I’m just glad it’s all over,” Nira said, wrapping her arms around Nef and putting her head on his shoulder. Nef hugged her back, realizing that this one wasn’t really meant for him, but rather for Nira.

Nef sighed a bit. He had kind of liked the excitement, but the constant threat of death had been a bit stressful to handle.

“Yeah, me too,” he agreed, hugging her tighter.

Epilogue

Suddenly being brought back to consciousness was not a familiar thing to him, but it did immediately confirm his suspicions. Tharos had truly betrayed him. If he hadn’t he—this copy of him—wouldn’t have awoken. Disappointing, but rather predictable. No matter, he would make sure Tharos was punished for his transgression.

Or perhaps it was time to get rid of him. He’d served him well in the past, but Tharos hadn’t been fully loyal since the moment he’d stopped keeping a close eye on him. He could decide that later, however. First he needed to find a new host.

Before he left his laboratory, he did notice something amiss, however. His sword and shield were not in their usual place. In fact, they weren’t in the lab at all. How could someone have come and stolen them if only he could enter?

It seemed he had more than just Tharos to deal with, assuming this wasn’t his doing. It was a bit cumbersome that he couldn’t remember how Tharos had managed to murder him—it could have shined some light on the situation. He supposed Tharos would have to tell him himself.

To do that, he needed a Garen, and to find one he needed to visit Imbera. And once he had a body, he would finally put his plan into motion.

He would save the universe, and no one was going to stop him from doing so.