The Aperios (Children of the Sun Book 4)

Kaleth had been expecting Enor to do something, but not something this extreme. However, the reaction to it was incredibly divided, and Kaleth himself wasn’t sure where he stood on it. He couldn’t give himself over, but he couldn’t just let innocent people die either.

But the most frequently brought up argument was that they didn’t even know for sure that Enor had actually done anything. All the fighting over this was somehow giving him a headache.

“He’s destroying my country!” Nira snapped at Relioth. Kaleth hadn’t actually been listening to what he’d said to prompt that reaction. But then again, it wasn’t like anyone needed a proper reason to yell at Relioth.

“It’s Irithara. Is there really anything to destroy?”

Kaleth sighed, rubbing his eyes. This wasn’t the time to attack each other, yet no one seemed to have a problem with doing it over and over. Next to him, Mel gave him a look of sorrow. He hadn’t said anything, but it was clear that he was blaming himself for not getting the message to them faster. As if he could have somehow done that.

Normally this would be one of those things Kaleth would take the time to point out as ridiculous and not in any way Mel’s fault, but he didn’t have time for even that right now.

“Look, we first need to confirm that Enor actually is doing anything. He does have a tendency to bluff,” Kaleth said, raising his voice to get through the yelling. There were far too many people taking part in this discussion.

“Yeah, exactly,” Relioth backed him up, which made Kaleth sigh anyway. He could already tell this was going to turn into yet another round of arguing. “It is kinda weird that he knew to contact you guys through that base of his.”

Kaleth felt himself tense up as he frowned at Relioth. Of course Enor could have just tried to get in contact with them because he knew they’d taken the facility from him just hours prior, but Kara had assured him that she’d taken all the main cameras out for security reasons, so he wouldn’t be able to see them since he clearly still had access to the systems.

“He’s smart,” Mereria reminded them. “And he knows we aren’t stupid enough to leave the place without leaving someone behind to keep an eye on things.”

Except they had sort of done just that. Kaleth hoped this whole thing wasn’t just a scheme to get them to leave so Enor could take the place over again, but he highly doubted it, given that Enor had been prepared to destroy it.

“We need to check Irithara. See if the threat is real. Only then we can make any definitive statements.”

No one argued with him, though Nira looked very angry about this. But as long as she wasn’t directly opposing him, Kaleth didn’t care. The only question left was how they were going to get to Irithara.

Kaleth felt extra paranoid now. Something was telling him that there was more going on here than Enor just conducting an experiment. And teleporting could potentially reveal his location, so it wouldn’t hurt to be extra careful, even though it would take much longer to get to Irithara.

But then again, if Enor’s plan was to get Kaleth to Irithara, maybe he shouldn’t go there at all.

“I’ll go,” Nira said, surprising no one. Kaleth looked over at Hidarion who had been standing against the wall in the back in silence the whole time, expecting him to argue against it. But Hidarion just lowered his gaze, looking about as heartbroken as the last time Kaleth had spoken with him.

He should probably have a word with him at some point again, though Kaleth was concerned he’d just make things worse. He wasn’t exactly great at comforting people, and Hidarion had good reasons not to want to talk to him.

“I would join you, but….” Kaleth let everyone else fill in the blank as it was obvious what the problem was.

“I’ll take her there,” Relioth said, making Kaleth blink in surprise.

“You will?”

Relioth shrugged. “I’m the only other person who can teleport, right?”

Kaleth narrowed his eyes at him. “Enor can trace—”

“We’ll just blip around a bit, all right? He’ll be none the wiser.”

As if it were ever that easy. Kaleth looked back at Nira, who didn’t look at all happy about this, but she was also staying silent.

Something about this still felt very wrong and suspicious, and it wasn’t just Relioth’s odd willingness to do this, but Kaleth ignored it. What could possibly happen? Teleportation seemed to be the one thing Enor couldn’t manage to stop, so if something went wrong, Relioth could get Nira out of any situation, assuming he wouldn’t just run again at any sign of Enor.

And with that decided, Relioth and Nira left, soon followed by everyone else, so that the only ones in the room were Kaleth, Mel, and Mereria, who, judging by the intense glare she was giving the table, was having a conversation with Edras.

“Um, Kaleth, can I talk to you for a second?” Mel whispered to him, eyeing the doorway nervously. Kaleth nodded, frowning in concern at the sadness Mel was radiating. Had something else happened back in that facility?

It didn’t take long to find a mostly empty supply room, and Mel immediately pulled him into a tight hug as soon as Kaleth closed the door. He had definitely not been expecting that, but he went along with it, hugging Mel back.

“What’s wrong, love?”

Mel took a step back, hugging himself. “Sorry. It’s just….” He sighed, his shoulders sinking. “The whole way back, I just couldn’t help but think about….”

Kaleth put his hand on Mel’s cheek, feeling his worry multiply, especially after Mel looked him in the eye again.

“What if Enor really is bombing Irithara?”

Kaleth sighed, taking his hand away and looking off at the wall. “Well, then I suppose he’ll force our hand, and we’ll have to attack him.”

“Without you?”

Kaleth frowned, trying to figure out Mel’s angle. “No. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I don’t think there is any chance of success without me.”

Mel nodded sadly, sighing again. “Well, it’s just...won’t Enor see that coming?”

“What’s your point, Mel?” Kaleth hadn’t meant to sound so impatient, but Mel didn’t seem to take any offense.

“The Umbra had this thing,” Mel said, staring down at his boots. “Well, not me, but the lieutenants did. They would have this device that would let them...end their lives if they got captured, so Relioth wouldn’t get any information.”

Oh. So that was what Mel had been implying the whole time. “Are you...suggesting I commit suicide rather than let Enor transform me?”

The idea wouldn’t even disturb Kaleth all that much, to be honest—he certainly didn’t value his life over the lives of everyone else in the world. But if he died, so did Mel. He couldn’t do that. And the puppy eyes Mel was giving him for once only worked to reaffirm that.

“No.”

“Kally—”

“No,” he repeated, pointing his index finger at Mel. “If I die, so do you. Horribly, I might add.”

“Well, I was thinking I’d do it too.”

Kaleth gaped at him. He should have seen that coming, but the idea of Mel taking his own life hadn’t occurred to him at all. And now that it had, he couldn’t help but feel horrified. How could Mel just say that? And so casually too.

He threw his hands out. “That doesn’t make it better!”

Mel ducked his head, only to look up again a second later, now with a glare, made only more impactful by the unshed tears gathering in his eyes. “I don’t like this either.”

He sniffed, rubbing his eyes. Kaleth swallowed, putting his arms around Mel again. Mel was letting him feel the full extent of his grief, pain, and sadness, and it was horrible. Had Mel been hiding his feelings this whole time, or had Kaleth just been unintentionally ignoring him?

Kaleth wasn’t sure which possibility he liked less.

“I’m sorry, love.”

“It’s not your fault,” Mel mumbled into Kaleth’s shoulder, which made him let out a huff of laughter.

“I suppose not, but the people responsible are never going to apologize.” He pulled away, keeping his hands on Mel’s shoulders. The other man was now smiling at him, but he still looked like he was going to cry at any moment. And Kaleth’s eyes were starting to sting too. Dammit. “And technically, the bond is my fault.”

“That’s not how it works,” Mel was sort of scary when he got angry, and the way he was narrowing his eyes at Kaleth as if challenging him to argue was getting that across nicely. “It wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t want it.”

Kaleth wanted to break the silence, but he had no idea what to say. But then Mel continued. “Besides, even if we weren’t bonded, do you really think I could keep on going with you...gone?”

Kaleth snorted. “Oh, come now, Mel, you’re hundreds of years old. You of all people should know how to move on.”

Kaleth almost regretted saying that, given that Mel had lost most of his memory. Just because he was old didn’t mean he actually knew how to let go of the past. But before he could say any of that, Mel smiled again as his eyes filled with tears.

“Exactly. That’s how I know I wouldn’t.”

Once again Kaleth was rendered speechless. What was he supposed to say to that? Tell Mel that he was wrong and invalidate his feelings? Respect that he truly feels this way and therefore indirectly agree with Mel’s plan to kill himself? Neither of those were right, let alone good, but there was no other option.

But Kaleth didn’t get to think about this further because a second later, an explosion went off above them, shaking the ground so much that Kaleth had to grab onto the wall to avoid being thrown to the ground.

He wasn’t given even the time to check if Mel was all right before another explosion went off, this time even more directly above, and then it finally dawned on him.

This had been Enor’s plan. And they’d fallen for it without even thinking of this.

“Did someone follow you on the way back?” Kaleth quickly asked Mel, helping him up off the floor where he’d been thrown by the second explosion. Mel shook his head, his eyes wide.

“I didn’t see anyone.”

Mel must have missed it during his mad dash to get back here, then, because Kaleth doubted Enor had managed to find out where this base was by himself.

“Come on!”

Holding onto Mel’s hand Kaleth swung the door open with more force than necessary, making the hinges squeal in protest as the door hit the metal wall next to it. They needed to get to the surface and either fight off Enor’s forces or run away as soon as possible. Whatever they were going to do, they needed to leave as soon as possible and lose Enor’s people.

If his invasion of Irithara had shown Kaleth anything, it was that Enor would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, and there was no way for Kaleth to fight off everyone he sent to them.

But Enor knowing where they were had one upside—nothing was stopping him from teleporting now.

“I’ll check what we’re up against, okay, love?” he asked Mel, but the Eternal gripped his hand, giving Kaleth a serious look.

“I’m coming with you.”

Kaleth wanted to argue, but he knew it was pointless ahead of time, so he gave in without as much as a word. “All right.”

He was about to teleport when Mereria ran up to him. “We need to—”

“Leave, yes,” Kaleth finished, pulling his goggles over his eyes. “Get everyone in one room so I can make a portal.”

For once Mereria had no comments and just nodded, running past them to find the others. Kaleth shut his eyes and sighed, letting his energy tear a hole in space and throw them onto the surface.

They weren’t given any time to collect their bearing once they arrived. Almost immediately another explosion shook the ground right next to them, forcing Kaleth to shield Mel with his own body.

The explosion still ringing in his ears, Kaleth pulled Mel up by his hand and raised his hand, gritting his teeth as he ripped the engines off the first aircraft he saw. He could barely see it falling through all the smoke and dust in the air, however.

But the more he squinted through it, the more bombers he saw. He didn’t let dread stop him from destroying three more with the same exact maneuver, but more just kept coming. And there were what looked like dozens in the distance, coming right for them.

He couldn’t fight this off, even if Mereria came to help him. Especially since Relioth wasn’t here.

Kaleth couldn’t believe he was wishing Relioth were here.

He whirled around as he heard more aircraft engines behind them, only to see one of them start shooting at them. Kaleth automatically threw his hand out, clenching it into a fist as he crushed the aircraft without thinking, making it explode.

He hadn’t actually meant to do that, but it worked well enough to hinder Enor’s forces. He proceeded to destroy four more before Mel stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

“We need to go back!”

Kaleth glared at the twenty new aircrafts coming their way from all sides. Of course he knew that. There was no way he could win here, but somehow he found it hard to back down. He didn’t want to just run away from this. Enor was definitely watching.

Stretching out both of his arms towards them, he pulled the engines off five more, gritting his teeth in effort as he did it all at once. He didn’t get to watch them fall though, because Mel, with his hand still on his shoulder, forced Kaleth to turn towards him.

“Kaleth. Stop.”

Kaleth blinked. The shockingly commanding tone Mel had used had managed to snap him out of this immediately.

“Right.” Of course, they needed to go back. Kaleth couldn’t do this indefinitely, and he was already feeling a little spent. If he kept going, he wouldn’t manage to open that portal, even with Relioth showing him how to limit his energy usage.

Gripping Mel’s hand, he transported them back to the meeting room, where everyone seemed to have managed to gather, letting out a breath upon arrival. Dammit, he really shouldn’t have wasted so much energy.

“We’re ready,” said Mereria, completely unfazed by Kaleth’s sudden appearance. Kaleth nodded at her, hoping that he was too.

“Where shall we go?” he asked, just as yet another bomb exploded above them, making the ceiling shake. Looking up, Kaleth could actually see small cracks in the metal. They really needed to leave before the ceiling fell on top of them.

“Anywhere. The Umbra have a base in all corners of Enoria.” Mereria never failed to express her disdain at saying the name, did she?

“Yeah, and presumably fast?” Nef said from somewhere in back. Kaleth resisted the urge to get annoyed.

“Maybe a forest?” Mel suggested, looking up with worry as more explosions went off. “You know, to hide better?”

“There is one in Imbera, south of Gatro, quite close to it. Do you know where that city is?”

Kaleth sighed, resisting the urge to get sarcastic. They didn’t have the time to argue right now, but there were hundreds of these hideouts. Why did Mereria think that Imbera was a good choice?

But all right, forest south of Gatro. He’d been there before, he could picture that. Kaleth wondered what was going to happen without a specific location in mind. Where they would end up. But Mel was right. Enor’s primary force were aircrafts. In a thick enough forest, those would prove very impractical in finding them, so it didn’t really matter where the portal would lead. It didn’t even have to be that close to the hideout, after all.

He nodded, mostly to himself, closing his eyes and focusing his mind on images of trees and the city. Apparently that was enough for his subconsciousness—or whatever it was that controlled this—because as he opened his eyes a second later, feeling his remaining energy draining from him, there it was. A portal with a dense forest of pine trees.

The first to enter the portal were the Umbra, quickly followed by everyone else just as another bomb exploded above them. Kaleth flinched back as one of the supporting girders on the ceiling broke off and fell right where he had been standing a second prior, shaking the ground.

Kaleth stared up at it as the cracks spread out and in a split second the ceiling gave way, huge pieces of concrete falling. Practically on instinct he managed to stop them with his mind, pushing the concrete back to the ceiling where it belonged. He gasped in effort of trying to keep the room together and keeping the portal open, noticing that the only one left was Mel.

“Go! I have to go last.”

Mel looked dubious but nodded and jumped through the portal just as Kaleth’s control started slipping. He ran in after him, finally letting the portal close as his knees hit wet grass. Breathing heavily, he dragged himself to his feet again, only to flinch when he heard several aircrafts fly above the forest, making the trees move as they went.

“How...how are they here already?” Kaleth gasped out, running a hand through his hair. Everyone seemed to already be running deeper into the forest, and so he and Mel followed. Kaleth tried to catch his breath. Creating portals was so much harder than simply teleporting.

Above them, aircrafts kept going past them, apparently not noticing them. But it was only a matter of time before they did. But it begged the question why they were here if they didn’t know where Kaleth and the others were.

Unfortunately, this didn’t last long before the aircrafts started circling the area and dropping bombs between the trees. Kaleth pushed himself to run faster, looking back at Mel who had also sped up, flinching when an explosion went off behind them, spraying dirt everywhere.

And then there was another one right next to them. His eyes widening, Kaleth quickly grabbed Mel’s hand and pulled him to the ground, shielding him with his own body as the bomb went off, making his ears ring.

Thankfully it had been too far to cause any real injuries, and Kaleth could heal those easily enough anyway, but it had made his ears ring so much he could barely hear for a moment.

“Are you okay?” Kaleth asked, already helping Mel get up. They needed to keep moving or they’d lose the others. Mel nodded and without a word turned into his dragon form. Right, they could get around this forest faster like this. That made sense.

Good thinking, love, Kaleth told him through telepathy because he could still barely hear and this made communication easier. Mel sent him what felt like a smile before leaping forward, just barely avoiding another explosion as he tried to catch up with the others.

Kaleth could see through the smoke that their group had gotten scattered a bit, but it was still staying mostly together as far as he could tell, which was a small miracle. And he could already see Mereria standing by a large, perfectly shaped hole in the ground, which was definitely the entrance to a hideout. Kaleth just hoped this one wouldn’t be as small as the first one he’d been in because they would never fit.

They were almost at the entrance when Kaleth heard the sound of branches breaking above his head. There were two bombs about to fall on top of them. It was like watching them in slow motion, but almost immediately Kaleth realized that this wasn’t just his brain reacting to imminent extreme injuries. He’d slowed down time.

While it was nice to see that his abilities were becoming second nature to him, he was also almost immediately hit with the strain this particular one had on him.

Breathing hard, he squeezed his eyes shut, only focusing on the flow of time as Mel carried him the rest of the way to the hideout. Kaleth gasped as Mel jumped down inside it, letting go of his control over time, followed by two incredibly loud explosions.

Oh gods, he was exhausted. Mel was giving him a worried look over his shoulder, his now huge amber eyes impossible not to stare into. Kaleth didn’t bother trying to climb off his back, though. He just petted the side of his neck in thanks.

“We can’t stay here,” Mereria said, not giving them a second to breathe. Kaleth looked around. While this room was big enough to hide all of the fifteen people they had in this group, there wasn’t much left for personal space. At least they all fit, Kaleth supposed, even with Mel taking up much more space than if he hadn’t changed.

“Agreed. Enor clearly knows we’re here,” Yorin added, giving the ceiling a worried look as an explosion went off directly above them.

“How, though?” Rayni threw her arms out as she said this, sounding irritated to say the least. That was a good question Kaleth had been pondering himself.

He cleared his throat, finally feeling a little less light headed. “Either those aircrafts were here to help control the city, or Enor’s put his soldiers around the entire Federation because he knew we’d get away using a portal.”

Kaleth hoped he wasn’t right about the latter option, but it was entirely possible. Enor must have had thousands of soldiers at this point. Hell, he’d had thousands back when he’d attacked Irithara. It could be tens of thousands by now. Which meant tens of thousands of these aircrafts following them wherever they went.

“That’s insane,” Nef argued, though he also sounded sort of intrigued by it, and yes, Kaleth definitely agreed that it was crazy. But if there was one thing he’d learned about Enor, it was that he was capable of anything.

“He would do it, though,” Yorin added, looking down. “You would not believe how many people died before we managed to get the technology to create Eternals right.”

Kaleth would believe it, definitely. He shook his head as more explosions shook the ground. “I think I can open one more portal before I become completely useless.”

Mel shot him an almost angry look, but he said nothing.

“Where, though?” Hidarion asked, putting a hand on Yorin’s shoulder. Kaleth frowned. This was the worst time to pay any attention to this, but he couldn’t help but notice. “He can track teleportation, correct? And if he has forces everywhere….”

Hidarion had a point. Where could they go? They needed to be left alone for long enough to get far away enough for Enor’s soldiers not to find them, but if Enor was waiting for them to do this, they might not be given enough time to disappear. And if they didn’t fly, they would definitely never make it, but flying would make them easy targets, and—

Kaleth let out a frustrated sight. They couldn’t know where Enor’s forces were exactly, but he wasn’t strong enough to take the chance that they had just been unlucky. And something told Kaleth that that wasn’t the case.

“Then we’ll go where he would never expect us to,” Kaleth finally said. “Irithara.”