The Return of the Gods (Children of the Sun Book 1)

It had been an ordinary summer day, which Nira had spent flipping through the pages of her new astronomy textbook. Usually, she would read the whole thing within a single day, but summers in Enoria were difficult for her. The heat was currently making her head hurt enough that all she could do was look at the pictures of galaxies and black holes.

Looking at her boyfriend Nef, Nira felt kind of jealous that he didn’t seem to be bothered by the temperature. He was lying on the couch, sleeping with an open book on his face so that all Nira could see was his dark hair. Even though the book seemed to have something to do with engineering, Nira doubted Nef had been reading it because doing anything related to school during the summer wasn’t his style.

Nira supposed it made sense that the heat didn’t bother Nef because he was from the south of Enoria, and the weather was even worse there, but it didn’t explain how he could fall asleep so easily in the afternoon. Nira sighed and rubbed her eyes. They needed to move somewhere with air-conditioning or at least a ceiling fan as soon as they could.

There was a sudden knock on the door, startling Nira and for a moment distracting her from her woes. The person at the door had to be either Nef’s brother or…well, Nira actually didn’t know who else it could be. No one else visited them. Since Nef hadn’t woken up at the knocking, with a shrug, Nira got up, walked over to the door, and opened it.

“Oh, hi, Nira,” said Alor when he saw her and smiled. “I hope this isn’t a bad time.”

It was always interesting to her how Alor tended to speak more softly and say less compared to his brother, who often talked too much and didn’t really care about being polite at all. When she had met Alor for the first time, it had surprised her how different the brothers were because physically they looked very similar—the same curly, dark hair, light brown eyes…. Even their fashion sense was pretty much the same. Nira couldn’t remember a time she had seen Nef wear something other than a t-shirt, shorts or jeans, and sneakers. Not that Nira cared—she often put on the same things.

Actually, the most noticeable difference was that Alor was taller and had a bit too much muscle mass for an office worker. Nira had always found this rather strange because Alor didn’t seem like a person who would want to work out just to work out.

“No, we’re not really doing anything, come on in,” Nira replied, returning the smile, and closed the door behind him. “What’s up?”

“Nothing really,” he said, looking at Nef with a rather odd expression. Nira couldn’t place it, but before she could ask if something was wrong Alor smiled at her again. “I haven’t seen you two in a while and got some time off from work, so I just thought I’d stop by.”

Nira pushed her suspicions away. Maybe she’d just imagined it. She was a bit out of it from the heat, after all. “Right. Good. Well, we can watch a movie or something.”

Nira walked over to the couch and lifted the book off Nef’s face, which made him wake up with a start. He blinked rapidly, looking at Nira with mock annoyance. But then he noticed Alor and smiled at his older brother, his irritation forgotten.

“Oh, hey, bro,” he said cheerfully. It must have been a long time since they had seen Alor last because Nef usually wasn’t this happy to see him. Or at least he rarely showed it. Nira put the book on the table and sat down on the couch next to Nef, who grinned at her and put his arm around her shoulders. “So, what are we gonna do?”

“Pick a movie,” Nira replied, yawning. Even talking was exhausting right now. “I’m too tired to do anything else.”

“All right,” Nef said, nodding pensively as he thought about the choices. Then he grinned again. “Oh, I know. The Dark One.”

“Isn’t that terrible?” Nira asked. She had heard about this film before, mostly because of how bad it was and that it had come out recently, but she had never seen it or looked it up.

“It’s so terrible, it’s actually incredible,” Nef told her. “Or that’s what the reviews say, anyway.”

“Oh yeah, it’s hilarious,” Alor said, handing Nef and Nira beers and sitting down. Nira hadn’t even noticed he’d gone to the fridge. “I watched it with a co-worker of mine a while ago.”

Nira was still skeptical because The Dark One was a horror movie, and she hated those, but after the first ten minutes, it became clear that it was a very entertaining unintentional comedy instead. They spent the next hour laughing at the terrible acting and even worse storyline, while Nef also pointed out any plot hole he noticed. He did this with most movies, but here it was funny, unlike all the times when he’d ruined movies Nira liked.

After the movie was over, they talked for a bit about anything that came to mind. It would have been pleasant, except for the fact that Alor kept dodging questions, and he was doing it in a way that somehow went completely over Nef’s head.

Nira could ignore this about as much as she could ignore her heat-induced headache. That strange look that Alor had given Nef earlier was back as well, though now it was partially directed at Nira as well. And she still had no idea how to define it. It almost seemed like sadness, regret? She wasn’t sure, but she knew something was up. She wasn’t sure how to approach the issue, though.

“Still got the same job? What is it you do, again?” Nef asked Alor, which immediately made Nira’s focus on the conversation sharpen further. She really wanted to hear the answer to that second question. She was pretty sure Alor was an accountant, but other than that, she knew next to nothing.

“You’d know if I got fired,” Alor replied with a somewhat bittersweet smile. “What about you? How’s school?”

Nira wanted to flip the table at that moment, especially since Nef somehow managed to miss how his brother avoided the question yet again, but she stayed calm and decided it was about time she said something, just as Nef spoke.

“Oh, y’know, the same. They haven’t kicked me out yet, though I think some of the professors would love it if that happened,” Nef took a swig of his second beer, smiling almost proudly.

“You still piss them off, huh?”

“They’re just jealous.”

“Uh-huh.”

Seeing that the conversation wasn’t likely to pause, Nira had to interrupt it. “Is there something wrong, Alor?”

For a split second, Alor’s eyes widened, but a second later the shocked expression was gone, replaced by a deeply confused one. “No. Why would you think that?”

Nira couldn’t tell if he was lying or not, which didn’t happen often to her. She was usually pretty good at reading people, especially when they lied. But she was still convinced she was right, anyway.

“You’re acting kind of…weird,” Nira said, making a vague gesture with her hand. She wasn’t willing to give up just yet.

“That’s ’cause he is weird,” joked Nef. Nira wanted to point out that Alor was probably the most normal person either of them knew, but the conversation continued before she could.

“You’re the one who likes sweet popcorn,” Alor shot back, grinning at Nef’s annoyance.

“You just don’t want to admit that sweet is way better than salty.”

Despite her being suspicious of Alor, Nira would have laughed at both of them at that moment if not for her headache spiking sharply. All she could do was grimace while holding a hand to her head, waiting for the pain to pass. Gods, her head hurt.

“You okay?” Nef asked her, a worried frown on his face.

“Uh, yeah,” Nira replied, huffing in annoyance. “Just a headache. I think I’m gonna go lie down for a bit.”

Nef nodded. He still looked concerned but said nothing else, so Nira got up, heading to the bedroom. She shut the door and leaned back on it for a moment, breathing slowly in and out while keeping her eyes shut. It made her head hurt a little less, but the pain was still present and incredibly annoying.

She wished the damned headache hadn’t stopped her from figuring out what Alor was up to, but like this, she couldn’t concentrate enough.

Nira sighed. She was probably overreacting anyway. What could be going on that would be so bad? Maybe it had something to do with Nef and Alor’s mother. Not that Nira knew all that much about what the problem was there, but Nef loved to talk, so the fact that he didn’t like talking about his mother spoke volumes.

She was about to walk away from the door and finally lie down when she noticed something. Alor and Nef were suddenly much quieter than before. Nira could still hear them talking, but she couldn’t make out the words. She didn’t want to eavesdrop, but couldn’t help herself, not after the conversation they’d just had, and so she put her ear against the door, despite feeling guilty about it.

“Why?” Nira heard Nef’s muffled voice say, sounding both confused and wary.

“The less she knows, the better. I’m not supposed to tell you any of this, either, but we don’t have a choice, unfortunately.”

Was the first part about her? What was Alor not supposed to tell them? And who were we?

“I’m…not following you at all,” Nef told his brother. Nira agreed completely.

“I’ll answer all of your—well, most of your—questions on the way. If you come with me, that is.”

“Come with you where?” Nef asked, sounding frustrated now. Nira clenched her fists. Nef couldn’t resist a mystery, so of course, he would agree to this. Whatever it was.

Dammit, Alor.

“Just trust me. Please. We—I need your help.”

There was a moment of silence before Nef sighed. “Okay, fine. I’ll help. But—”

“Hold that thought,” Alor interrupted him, and Nira frowned. She could hear footsteps, then the sound of running water, and then more footsteps. Except these were getting closer to the door she was leaning against. As quickly and silently as she could, she ran to the bed and lay down on top of it, feigning exhaustion. Though that was very easy because she was exhausted. That mysterious conversation had made almost her forget about that as well as about her headache, which was now back, just as maddening as ever.

A second later, there was a knock on the door.

“Yeah?” she called, and the door swung open, revealing Alor, a grimace of sympathy on his face.

“Hey, I thought you might want some water. To help with the headache,” said Alor as he walked over to her and offered her a glass. She tried not to act weird, which wasn’t exactly easy with what she had just heard and accepted the water from Alor with a nod of thanks.

With a sigh, she downed the whole glass of water, surprised at how refreshing it was. She must have been really thirsty without realizing it. With a small, grateful smile, she gave Alor back the glass, yawning again.

“I hope you feel better soon. I’ll let you rest.”

Nira didn’t dare move until after she heard the door click shut. Once it finally happened though, she started to become sluggish, and her eyelids felt so heavy. Nira tried to fight the feeling and get up anyway, but the thought of just closing her eyes and not moving a muscle sounded so much better. She fell asleep a second later, thinking she heard Nef say something but was unable to make out the words.