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

When Kaleth woke up, the first thing he noticed was someone’s fingers touching his temple. He blinked a few times to get used to the lighting, and then immediately flinched away when he found out who it was.

Right in front of him was Relioth, looking regretful, and maybe even ashamed, which was shocking in itself because Kaleth hadn’t known Relioth was capable of feeling either of those emotions.

Kaleth quickly scanned his surroundings. He seemed to be in a small, grey room with nothing in it except for the metal chair he was currently handcuffed to. He automatically pulled on the cuffs a little to find out if there was at least a chance he could get out of them, but he gave up on that idea a second later. What would be the point, anyway? Relioth wouldn’t let him get away.

Relioth coughed awkwardly. “Um, sorry about the whole…” he said, gesturing to Kaleth’s face. Kaleth glared at the man, but then he realized that he didn’t feel any pain, which was impossible since his nose had been broken. “I healed you.”

Right, that would explain that. “Do you want me to thank you after you almost killed me?”

“Hey, you shot me!” Relioth said, scowling and folding his arms. He might have had a point, but it was also Relioth’s actions that made Kaleth feel like he had to stop him in the first place, so it was still his own fault.

Relioth sighed and scratched the back of his neck. “Look, I thought you ruined all of my hard work at the time. You’d be mad too if someone came and put a stop to everything you’ve been trying to accomplish for a hundred years.”

That may have been true, but Kaleth would never tell Relioth this. Besides, that wasn’t even the part he was focusing on right now. “Are you saying I haven’t ruined your hard work?”

“Nope!” Relioth replied with a grin. “Well, maybe a bit, but you mostly just helped me.” Kaleth just stared at him, unable to process what was being said to him. How could exposing Relioth for what he was not put a stop to his political career? “After explaining what I was, and why I was here, most of Enoria just kind of accepted it.”

“What?” Kaleth asked after he tried to make sense of this for several seconds and failed. “How many years has it been?”

Relioth chuckled. “You were out for just three days. I would have woken you up sooner, but I’ve been so busy with press conferences, journalists, and stuff.”

Kaleth just shook his head in denial. This couldn’t be real. How could Relioth have managed to get Enorians to accept the existence of the Eternals so easily, and how could he make them think having him in charge was a good idea? Just how much had Relioth lied to make himself look good?

“I know. I was surprised too,” Relioth continued. “I thought I would have to motivate your people with some threats, which never lasts for long enough. But once I explained why I and the other Eternals were suddenly making a comeback, no one seemed all that opposed to me running the show. I didn’t even have to do much to convince them. I just gave myself wings for a bit. I would have transformed fully, but there wasn’t enough room for that.”

Kaleth was now somehow even more bewildered. Why was Relioth claiming the Eternals were making a comeback? Relioth himself had said that he had been trying to make the world think his people were fictional for centuries, so obviously he had been involved in Enoria’s history to some extent. How was it a comeback if they had been here all this time?

“I think Enorians aren’t protesting too much because they see my people as saviors in this conflict with Irithara. It’s funny that they don’t realize that they don’t need me to win, but I need them.” Relioth laughed quietly and winked at Kaleth. “Better not mention that to anyone.”

“What are you talking about?” Couldn’t Relioth just kill everyone in Irithara with only the help of the other Eternals? Come to think of it, why had he even gone through so much trouble just to start a war in the first place? Kaleth hadn’t thought to question that until now.

“There’s a lot of Eternals who’ll be on my side in this war, but we’d never stand a chance against the whole Empire. They have othrin bullets, ya know? Kinda unfair if you ask me.”

“I put one of those in your brain, and you seem to be doing okay,” Kaleth reminded him angrily.

“It’s not that easy to kill me, but it’s a way to weaken me. Anyway, I meant it was a problem for the other Eternals, not me,” he explained, and for the first time, Kaleth wondered just why Relioth was telling him all of this. The man snorted at that, and Kaleth glared. Stupid mind reading.

“Well, that’s because you’re going to help me end this stupid, drawn-out war once and for all, and to do that you’ll need to know how to kill Irif and her band of douchebags.”

Kaleth just raised an eyebrow at this insane idea. Not only did Relioth assume that Kaleth wanted to help him kill innocent people, but he also seemed to think he could somehow kill the most powerful Iritharian god.

“Oh, come on, Kaleth, you know this. According to your myths, who is going to decide which side wins the last battle between light and darkness?”

Kaleth thought for a moment, trying to remember. “The Aperios,” he replied, although he was unsure if he had said it right or not.

“That’s right,” Relioth said happily and gestured to Kaleth. “And that’s you.”

Kaleth froze, staring at Relioth incredulously. He was too taken aback by this to make a sarcastic comment, even though the statement deserved one. The Aperios was supposed to be an unkillable being with incredible power. Unless that translated to being able to survive on just coffee and four hours of sleep a week, he highly doubted that was what he was.

“It was pretty easy to create you, too,” Relioth continued, sounding very proud of himself, despite what he had just said. “All I had to do was get two members of the oldest Enorian families to have a baby, infuse it with Enor’s power, and that was that. Granted, I didn’t think it would work at the time, but I really don’t understand why Enor had such trouble figuring this out.”

Even though he’d already known why he’d been born, it was still too disturbing to think about it for too long, so Kaleth instead focused on the second part. “Enor’s power?”

“Oh, well, I was going to use mine,” Relioth said, shrugging. “But then I found out Enor cut a bit of himself off so he could study it, so I thought it would be better since Enor was always the most powerful of us.”

Was that like a person cutting off their finger just so they could put it under a microscope? Because if so, that was disturbing. Kaleth was starting to think Enor had been just a mad scientist.

“You are the only reason I’m starting another war,” Relioth said, putting his hands in his pockets. “If you didn’t exist, I’d just sit back and laugh as Irif’s government falls apart around her. But you’ll give me enough of an advantage to put an end to all of this.”

Kaleth glared once more at him. “Even if I had this power, why would I help you win a war I never wanted to happen?”

“Because of this,” Relioth said and put a hand to Kaleth’s forehead so quickly Kaleth could barely manage to flinch before his mind was flooded with images of strange, scaly, humanoid creatures dying in fire and explosions, being shot, and even being killed by what Kaleth guessed was radiation poisoning. The images came and went so quickly that Kaleth couldn’t take any of them in, but all of them were horrible to witness.

It wasn’t only looking at them either—he could feel their fear and pain, which made it unbearable. He couldn’t even shut his eyes to block it out because he was seeing it in his mind, and it just got worse and worse, and it felt like it would never end.

As he watched atomic bombs destroy entire cities, Kaleth realized what he was seeing had to be what Relioth had talked about earlier. That his people had almost been wiped out.

Then suddenly the images stopped, and Kaleth found himself breathing heavily, shaking, and he had tears in his eyes. His mind was fogged and his thoughts sluggish as if he were drunk. When he looked at Relioth, who was standing before him looking weirdly dejected, all he could feel was pity. Kaleth couldn’t even really remember just why he had been so against the idea of ridding the world of the Eternals in Irithara.

“Did that change your mind?” asked Relioth, clearing his throat.

“I….” Kaleth didn’t know what to say. What he had been shown did change his view on Relioth, but did he want to help him? He wasn’t sure what he should say, but then a moment later his mind cleared. He actually couldn’t remember why he had been so against this in the first place anymore. He blinked a few times and looked up at Relioth again. What had been his problem with this again? “Yes, I’ll help you.”

“Great,” Relioth said with excitement, the white glow in his eyes dissipating. “Let’s get to it, then.”