The Aperios (Children of the Sun Book 4)

Mel couldn’t believe what had just happened. Kaleth had just killed someone without meaning to. He hadn’t said anything like that, but Mel could feel how scared he had been. How horrified he still was. He was acting like this was no big deal and that he was angry with Rayni and Edras for forcing him to talk about this, but Mel knew better. No matter how much Kaleth was trying to shield his mind from him, Mel still got enough.

“Ferim was a bastard. Why do you even care that he’s dead?”

Whenever Kaleth said something like this, it was like a dagger to Mel’s heart. Mel knew Kaleth knew what the problem here was. He was just pretending that what he’d done was nothing. And sure, Ferim clearly hadn’t been a nice person, but that didn’t make it okay.

Before Rayni yelled at him, and Mel could say she was about to, he quickly spoke. “Could you...leave us alone for a bit?”

Both Rayni and Edras looked like they wanted to argue, but then just gave a nod and left the control room.

Kaleth’s neutral mask started to crack as soon as Mel looked him right in the eye. Kaleth did his best to avoid his gaze, so Mel put his hands on Kaleth’s cheeks and made him face him. And there was just pain and fear in those eyes now. It hurt so much to see it, but Mel wouldn’t look away.

“I’m really worried about you, Kally. Please tell me what’s going on.”

Kaleth scowled, most likely about to tell him that everything was fine, and that they were all exaggerating. But then his gaze softened again into confusion and fear. “I don’t know.”

Mel swallowed. At least he didn’t try denying it. “But something is going on. Isn’t it? That wasn’t you back there.”

A flash of fear ran over his features, but he hid it almost immediately. But Mel could still feel it through their bond. Kaleth couldn’t hide that from him. Or maybe he wasn’t trying hard enough, which Mel wanted to believe more.

“I didn’t mean to kill him,” Kaleth finally said, sighing. “But I don’t regret it either. Looking into his head just made me so angry. And when I saw that he wanted to kill you….”

Mel let Kaleth pull his hands away from his face, thinking this over. Kaleth still wasn’t admitting that what had happened hadn’t scared him. “But you do see why this is really, really worrying, right?”

Kaleth’s mouth formed a bitter frown. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not!” Mel blinked in surprise at his own reaction, but he stood by it. If he had to be forceful with Kaleth to get anywhere, he would be. “You’re losing control over your powers.”

They had all been thinking it, Mel knew that much. Even Kaleth had thought it, judging by how he looked away with a huff. Mel wished he would add something to the conversation, but at least he wasn’t arguing back.

“You’re scared. I know.”

Kaleth’s eyes snapped to his as he said it. For a second he looked like he was going to deny it, but then he let his gaze drop again, as his shoulders slumped.

“I’m scared, too.” And Mel was really, really scared. Scared of what might happen to Kaleth. Scared for him. But also determined to try to help him.

“But I helped, didn’t I?”

The way he said that was so vulnerable and desperate that Mel had to pull him into a hug. He didn’t even think about it. “Of course you helped. You always do.”

Kaleth stayed silent and just hugged him back, laying his head on Mel’s shoulder. He was letting Mel feel much more of the scared confusion he was feeling, and it almost made Mel’s head spin. Not that that would stop him from embracing it.

“We probably would have died there without you,” Mel added. He knew that there was very little chance that Kaleth would have left him to go on this mission alone, but the sentiment still applied. “But that doesn’t mean we can just ignore what happened.”

Kaleth sighed again. “What do you want me to do?”

Mel didn’t like the wording, but he decided not to comment on it. “Maybe see Yorin? He knows more about Eternals than anyone, right?”

Kaleth scoffed. “What does Yorin know?”

As he felt Kaleth flinch, Mel pulled away, looking at Kaleth with confusion. Especially given that Kaleth was more than a little scared again.

“What?”

Kaleth rubbed his forehead, looking away. “I-I don’t know why I said that.”

Feeling Kaleth’s panic start to rise, Mel gripped his shoulders, trying to project as many calming feelings as he could. He could tell it worked somewhat, but Kaleth still looked terrified.

“I’m not fine, am I?”

Mel’s heart clenched and his eyes started to burn. Someone hearing Kaleth actually admit it to himself—something he had wanted this whole time—was much worse than hearing him deny it.

“It’s okay, Kally. We’ll figure this out, okay?”

Kaleth didn’t answer, but he did give a small nod while still avoiding Mel’s eyes. He still looked freaked out but was trying to hide it now, in a very unsuccessful way. Mel brushed a hand through his golden hair, hoping to distract him from how this must have been making him feel, but he wasn’t sure it worked. Kaleth was keeping his gaze lowered and was now also hugging himself. It could be seen as him just folding his arms over his chest, but Mel knew better.

If Kaleth really was having problems keeping his powers in check, it would make sense to give him a suppression bracelet, but Mel didn’t even want to suggest it. He didn’t want to accidentally upset Kaleth even more than he already was, and also they had no way to get back down on the planet from here without teleporting.

“Do you have any idea where Yorin is, then?” Kaleth sounded very resigned to this, which made Mel sad to hear, but it was better than him refusing to go along with this.

“Well, no. But we can figure that out too.”

Kaleth let out an amused huff. He was still hugging himself, though, and now that Mel looked closer, his hands were shaking slightly. He offered him a hand, which Kaleth looked miserably at. Heaving a sigh he took it, and Mel smiled at him. Kaleth didn’t return it, but at least he let himself be led out of the room.

Mel could hear him breathe out deeply a few times, which seemed to calm him down a little at least, which was good because Mel was sort of concerned that he’d get in a fight with Rayni again.

But once they turned the corner and found both her and Edras, Kaleth just stayed silent, keeping his head down. Somehow it was harder to look at than when he’d been angry.

Mel quickly filled them in on the plan, and thankfully Mereria apparently did know where Yorin was staying. Though Mel couldn’t miss the looks she and Rayni exchanged as he’d explained what was happening. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but he didn’t like it.

“He’s in Enoria.”

“What, really? Finally ditching Irithara?” Rayni sounded much more surprised than Mel felt. Yorin had been practically trapped in Irithara, hadn’t he? It would make sense to want to get away from that.

“I don’t know where exactly, so we’ll have to contact him. I believe he is somewhere near Enbrant, though.”

Mel lowered his gaze. Mentioning the Capital’s name made him feel wistful for yesterday, when their biggest worry was just dealing with the fallout of Enor’s brief rule.

He felt disappointed in himself, in hindsight. He’d known that Kaleth had been upset, but he’d thought it was simply due to the protests and nothing else. But the way he’d acted towards Relioth had been odd when Mel thought about it in this new context.

Kaleth had seemed almost confused as to why Mel was trying to get him away from Relioth, as if he hadn’t realized what tone he’d used, and that he’d looked like he had been going to attack Relioth with much more than just words. But Mel had just foolishly ignored it.

“Great.” Kaleth sighed and raised his hand a bit, clearly about to teleport them back to Enoria. But he stopped right then, his eyes flickering with his golden light a few times. He frowned, looking down at his hand. It too was glowing a tiny bit, as Mel was only now realizing.

Kaleth shook his head, putting a hand on his forehead as if he had a headache. Not knowing what to do, Mel took Kaleth’s hand, looking at him desperately.

“Are you okay?”

Kaleth squeezed his eyes shut tight as the metal walls around them began to creak. They weren’t visibly bending, but something clearly was. As if by instinct, Mel grabbed Kaleth by his shoulders and almost forcefully connected their minds, sending him as many calming feelings as he could without completely overwhelming Kaleth’s mind.

It worked almost immediately as the horrible noise of bending metal stopped, but Kaleth looked even more like he was going to panic.

He pulled away from Mel, which hurt much more than Mel would have expected, and cleared his throat.

“Erm, apologies.”

And suddenly they were on top of a tall building. But Mel could quickly recognize that this was Enbrant because of the skyscrapers in the distance. He had definitely seen those. But he didn’t pay more attention to their surroundings than that before focusing on Kaleth.

“It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”

Kaleth refused to meet his gaze and said nothing, but Mel didn’t really need an answer. He just put an arm around Kaleth’s shoulders, continuing to send positive feelings to Kaleth. He wasn’t sure they were getting through to Kaleth fully given that he’d started to put up mental barriers again, but Mel had to do something.

“I’ll find Yorin,” Mereria said, her tone surprisingly gentle, to which Kaleth just nodded. Mel kept his eyes on him while Mereria tried to get in contact with Yorin, which turned out to be much faster than Mel had been expecting.

“Okay. He made one of those structures of his south of here,” Mereria said as she opened her eyes again, the white glow from them disappearing. “Can you teleport us there?”

Kaleth scowled at her, despite her tone clearly not implying any kind of challenge or criticism. But thankfully he didn’t react beyond that. “Yes, of course I can.”

Rayni looked freaked out at this point, and Mel agreed with her on that. He just hoped Yorin could fix this. Or that he knew someone who could because this was breaking his heart. He could tell Kaleth was suffering from whatever was happening to him, and he was really, really scared. He hadn’t been this scared even when facing Enor.

After Mereria had presumably shown Kaleth where to go with her mind, they found themselves in front of the metal building. It just looked like a box with solar panels all over it. There weren’t even any windows, but there was a door, which was the important part.

But wait, where were Mereria and Rayni?

“They don’t need to be here,” Kaleth said, his voice flat. Mel supposed that was true, but he doubted this was a practical decision. Kaleth probably didn’t want them around, which just added further worry. But if them being alone here meant that Kaleth was less likely to get more upset, then it was probably for the best.

Giving Kaleth one more worried look, Mel swallowed and knocked on the door, only for Yorin to open the door immediately. He looked concerned, which quickly turned into badly hidden fear as he saw Kaleth.

“Uh, please, come in.”

Mel looked at Kaleth, only met with a forced neutral look. But unlike before, Mel couldn’t actually tell what Kaleth was feeling right now. Frowning, he followed behind Kaleth inside of Yorin’s house.

It was shockingly empty, but Mel supposed that made sense since at most Yorin had had a few days to build it, let alone get a lot of furniture. But there were a couple of machines already, most of which completely beyond Mel’s understanding. He at least could recognize the telepathy amplifier on a metal table in the back, though it looked a bit different from the one he’d been given to battle Enor’s forces.

There were also a lot of broken machine parts in the corner, but the room was still too large for that to make it look full.

Yorin grimaced at them, scratching the back of his neck as he awkwardly stood in the middle of the room. “Okay, please don’t get angry. But I’ve been sort of maybe expecting something to happen.”

Mel stared at him, completely speechless. Why hadn’t Yorin said anything? They could have stopped this before it started.

“What is happening?” Kaleth asked, clearly already impatient. Mel flinched as some of the machine parts on the table shook by themselves. He stroked a hand down Kaleth’s back, glad at least Kaleth wasn’t pushing him away.

“I’m not sure yet,” Yorin admitted, looking even more nervous. “I was hoping nothing would happen.”

In an effort to avoid a potential fight, Mel spoke up. “Can you help?”

“I will try,” Yorin replied. He was still giving Kaleth an odd look. Like he was almost afraid of him. “How did you kill Enor exactly?”

Kaleth raised his chin, looking like he had taken that as Yorin doubting him. It was really concerning how much he took unassuming things as personal attacks. Kaleth had always been a bit sensitive, but he never got aggressive over it.

“I took most of his power, and then I killed him with my sword.”

As Mel was still keeping his hand on Kaleth’s back, he could feel him shudder as he said this. Mel resisted the urge to hug him, though he really wanted to. But he selfishly didn’t want to risk Kaleth pushing him away, and right now he looked like he might do just that.

“I know what you’re thinking, Kaleth,” Yorin said, taking a few steps towards him, but still keeping some distance. “But Enor is dead. And you’re not becoming him, either.”

Was that what Kaleth was afraid was happening? Mel hadn’t thought of that, though he supposed that would be where Kaleth’s mind would go. No wonder he was so scared, despite how much he was trying to pretend he wasn’t right now.

“How can you be so sure?” Kaleth’s voice shook ever so slightly.

“Because I know how Eternal energies work.” Yorin now had a spark of fascination in his eye. “You might act a bit more like the person whose power you take, you might have some of their memories, but you will never be substantially like them.”

Kaleth folded his arms, but he didn’t say anything. Mel could tell his mind was hard at work, though. Unfortunately, Kaleth wasn’t letting him get close enough to figure out what he was thinking.

“Now, of course, what you are is unprecedented, so I can’t have all the answers,” Yorin continued, studying Kaleth closely as if he were a test subject. Mel didn’t like it, but he didn’t comment. “However, I do think that the first step we should take is looking inside of your mind to try to find out what the problem is.”

Kaleth immediately shook his head, his wide, fearful eyes flashing with light again. Then he turned to Mel, the same look still in his eyes. And suddenly Mel heard a snipped of Kaleth’s thoughts, his eyes widening with sadness.

He thought Mel would be afraid of him after Yorin looked in his mind and saw whatever Kaleth thought he would see. Mel started shaking his head, his hands finding Kaleth’s temples. “Kaleth, listen to me. I love you. This, whatever it is, won’t change anything.”

Kaleth shut his eyes, looking like he was about to cry. And Mel felt the same way. A moment later Kaleth took in a deep breath, nodding and turning to Yorin again as Mel took his hands off.

Yorin hesitated for a moment before touching Kaleth’s forehead with his index and middle finger. For a few seconds, Mel held his breath as the other two kept their eyes shut, complete silence filling the room.

And suddenly there was a burst of golden light, which sent both Mel and Yorin to the ground. Mel gasped, a hand over his head as the room started to shake. He only caught a glimpse of Kaleth before he disappeared with a loud crackling that echoed through the small space of Yorin’s house. But the horrified, guilty look on Kaleth’s face stayed burned into Mel’s memory.

Mel turned his shocked eyes to Yorin, who looked even more panicked than when they’d arrived. What had he done?

“We need to find him and take away his powers immediately.” Yorin got up and started to pace and mutter to himself. “Why didn’t I suggest giving him a suppression bracelet as soon as he got here?”

“What just happened?”

Yorin stopped, turning around to face him as he sighed. “As I somewhat suspected, his mind can’t control this much power long term. Enor could because he was essentially completely detached from everything, but Kaleth isn’t Enor, no matter how much everyone seems to think so.”

Mel swallowed thickly, his heart clenching in his chest. He could feel Kaleth in his mind, but when he tried to reach him, he only hit a wall.

“What will happen to him if we don’t fix this in time?”

Yorin gave him a pitying look. “His mind will break.”