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

“Nira!” Nef yelled, horrified as he tried to wake her up by shaking her shoulder. It was useless, though. She wasn’t waking up. He’d rushed into the room as soon as he realized what Alor had done, but it was too late.

“She’s gonna be asleep for the next few hours, Nef,” Alor told him gently. “That’s kinda the point. And I think she can use the rest.”

Nef realized that his brother had said this to calm Nef down, but all it did was piss him off more. Why was he being so causal about what he’d just done? “You drugged her! Why would you do that? What the hell’s the matter with you?!”

Alor at least had the decency to look ashamed then, but Nef still wanted to punch him. That, or run away because Nef had never thought Alor would do something like this, and it was kind of scary.

“Look,” Alor began, scratching the back of his neck. “I’m not happy about this, but Nira was already suspicious of me. If we just left, she would want to know where you were, and you’re….” Alor paused and shrugged. “You’re a terrible liar, Nef.”

“That’s nice, Al. Thanks,” Nef grumbled, glaring at his brother.

“I can’t risk her knowing anything. You getting involved is risky enough.”

“Are you ever going to explain what the hell is going on?” Nef asked, feeling about ready to tear his hair out in frustration.

“Like I said, I’ll explain it on the way,” Alor replied, walking out of the room. Nef looked back at Nira again. She seemed content enough, peaceful even, but Nef couldn’t help but worry about the side effects. And the fact that she’d been drugged by his damned brother, of course.

“She’s gonna be fine, don’t worry. She’s just asleep,” said Alor. Nef glared at him. He’d just completely broken Nira’s trust, and he didn’t seem to care. Or he was pretending not to care, at least. Nef hoped that was it. “C’mon.”

Nef didn’t want to leave Nira here, but he supposed his presence wouldn’t change anything about the situation. Alor was still his big brother who Nef had known his whole life. He wouldn’t want to hurt Nira, would he? That didn’t make any sense.

Nef shook his head. No, of course, he wouldn’t want to do that. And for whatever disturbing reason, Alor seemed to know exactly what he was doing, so if there were any side effects, he would tell Nef, surely. Nef trusted his brother with that much at least.

And Nef wouldn’t lie—he really wanted to know what his brother had to say, and why exactly drugging Nira was a necessary part of this. His stomach twisted with guilt at that, but it was true. He took one last look at Nira, squeezing her hand, and sighed, walking out of the room a moment later and closing the door. He did so as quietly as possible, even though he knew that even if he slammed it shut as loudly as he could, she still wouldn’t wake up.

“Okay, amaze me,” Nef said, not bothering to hide the anger in his voice as he and Alor walked out of the apartment. It was already getting dark, which surprised Nef a little. He hadn’t thought it was this late already, but there was still enough light to make out his surroundings easily enough, so he didn’t care. The heat was gone, but he was sure that it would still be too hot for Nira. And there was also a surprising amount of people around. Namely couples.

That thought made him want to go check on Nira again, but he was already following Alor down the street and to the parking lot. And besides, he knew nothing would happen to her in the meantime. She was just sleeping, he kept reminding himself.

“In the car, all right?” said Alor, nodding his head slightly toward the people around them. Nef was pretty sure some of them were his neighbors, but how was he supposed to remember so many people?

Just before the silence between them could become awkward, they reached Alor’s car. Looking at the silver, sleek design, the four unnecessarily strong engines, and the black leather seats, Nef was starting to feel stupid for not realizing something was up earlier. He’d just assumed that Alor was paid well enough to buy a Velox.

“The Flare, floor one-fifty,” Alor told the car’s computer as they got in and a few seconds later they were flying away, heading towards the center of Enbrant.

Nef wasn’t sure what to make of that because the Flare was the tallest skyscraper in the world and there were so many firms, shops, banks, cinemas, and who knew what else that he couldn’t even begin to guess why they were going there.

Nef was about to ask again, but before he could, Alor started talking.

“Right, so, this might come as a surprise to you, but I work for a secret government agency.”

Nef blinked, trying to process that. “Okay…. Like how? As an accountant?”

Alor snorted, but he seemed more sad than amused. “No, Nef.”

Nef didn’t know what to say to that. He’d guess that this was an elaborate prank, except that wasn’t Alor’s style. Maybe Alor had gone insane. Or Nef had. Or both. Yeah, both sounded about right.

“Well, that is surprising,” Nef finally said out of the need to fill the silence with something.

“The agency I work for is called Luxarx,” Alor continued, making Nef frown at the strange name. “And we fight against a terrorist group called the Umbra. Mostly.”

“Luxarx? Umbra? What’s up with these names?” asked Nef and received a frown from Alor.

“It’s mythological. Y’know, Luxarx? The shield of the god Enor? It’s like a metaphor or something.” Nef just stared at his brother blankly. “No? Enor? As in, Enoria, the country we live in—okay, never mind. That’s not important.”

“So, you want me to help you fight terrorists?” That sounded both cool and terrifying, but Nef somehow doubted that was what Alor needed help with. If he did, Nef would have definite proof of his brother’s lack of sanity.

“No, we got that covered,” Alor said with a smile. “We need a hacker.”

That was…less exciting, but at least way less dangerous. Nef hoped. At least it was something he knew how to do, but he still didn’t understand why it had to be him. “A government agency doesn’t have enough hackers?”

“It does, but this isn’t something we can tell the others about. You don’t know anyone at Luxarx, they don’t know you, and I can trust you.” Alor gave him a regretful look. “I didn’t want to drag you into this, but involving you is the best option we have.”

Alor went silent as the car flew into the 300-story skyscraper and landed at the first available parking spot. “Okay, we’re about to meet a co-worker of mine who’s way better at explaining stuff than me. To be honest, I’m not even sure what I can tell you and what I can’t.”

He got out of the car, Nef doing the same a second later. The garage on this floor was almost entirely empty, except for about another ten cars beside theirs. There was something slightly unnerving about seeing a place that was supposed to be insanely busy devoid of life like this.

Nef was also starting to get a little nervous. Who was he about to meet exactly?

Alor began walking toward the elevators, so Nef joined him, swallowing nervously. He had no idea where they would go because he had never been in this part of the Flare before. After the fiftieth floor, it was just a bunch of companies slapped together and stacked on top of each other, so he’d not had much of a reason to come here.

Nef watched as Alor pulled a card from one of his pockets and pressed it onto a metal circle that was right next to the elevator doors. The elevator closed as soon as they got in and began its ascent.

Noticing Nef’s curious stare, Alor showed him the card. It looked like a credit card. In fact, it didn’t just look like it, he wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from one.

“Not many people know this, but this building has five extra floors that are inaccessible unless you have this card,” Alor explained and hid said card again. Nef looked at his older brother with skepticism.

“What?” he asked with a disbelieving laugh. “How the hell has nobody noticed that?”

“This skyscraper’s too tall, Nef,” Alor replied with a smile, “There are over three hundred floors. It’s hard to tell if some of them are hidden.”

Nef blinked and decided to just accept it, despite his skepticism.

“Um, so, who are we meeting again?”

“A superior of mine, I guess.”

Nef blinked once again. “The hell does that mean?”

“Well, the agents of Luxarx are divided into teams of four, and he’s the leader of the one I’m in. But he can only order me around on missions.”

Nef wondered if there were someone in charge of Luxarx as a whole. He didn’t get the chance to ask, though, because then the elevator dinged, and the door opened. The next thing he could see was a floor that looked much like all the others under it—filled with offices, dark and empty.

Surprisingly disappointing.

It was so quiet that it almost made Nef afraid to even breathe. Their footsteps made way too much noise, but fortunately, it seemed the place was completely abandoned, so Nef supposed there was nothing to worry about. Or, well, he hoped, anyway.

Alor led Nef through the labyrinth of a workplace, going past a large number of cubicles and doors until he stopped in front of a seemingly random door and opened it. On the door, there was a metal plate with the name ‘Kaleth Areon’, and underneath was another one that said ‘L-64’. The office was dark, only one lamp on the desk illuminating it and there was an angry accented voice coming from somewhere towards the back of the room.

“He won’t listen to a word I say,” the owner of the voice said, clearly exasperated by whoever he was talking to on the phone. He sounded northern, maybe Imberan, and not just that but also posh. This had to be Alor’s superior, otherwise Nef wouldn’t be standing here.

It seemed the man, who was apparently called Kaleth Areon, hadn’t noticed them. Instead, he kept looking out the window at the skyline of the illuminated megacity below.

Alor cleared his throat then, making Kaleth turn around. For a second Nef thought he saw him almost reach for something inside of his suit jacket, but the man relaxed as soon as he saw who it was. Even with limited lighting, Nef could tell the man was tired. And surprisingly pale. And blond.

This was not something often seen in Enoria. Well, the paleness wasn’t that uncommon—Nira was even paler. But the hair color definitely was.

Oddly enough, despite looking about thirty, the man was wearing an expensive-looking three-piece suit, which Nef couldn’t recall seeing anyone this old wearing that in real life before. That had been out of style for like fifty years.

The man nodded at the two brothers and held up a finger before motioning to the two chairs in front of his desk. Alor and Nef sat down and waited for Kaleth to finish the call.

“When is the meeting?” Kaleth asked whoever he was on the phone with. “Yes, okay, I’ll be there.” He pocketed the phone and sat down as well.

“I apologize for that,” he said, sounding a little unfocused as he ran a hand through his hair, messing up the way it was combed back. “I see you brought your brother. Good.”

“I do have a name,” Nef said before he could stop himself, but thankfully the older man didn’t seem insulted or annoyed by it.

“Yes, indeed you do, Nefiros,” he said, and Nef grimaced. No one called him by his full name.

“It’s Nef.”

“Right, excuse me.”

“Uh, Kaleth, what’s going on?” Alor asked, and the man shifted his gaze to him instead, sighing.

“Oh, nothing new,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “The defense minister wants to cut our funding again. I’m supposed to talk some sense into him tomorrow.”

“But isn’t that a complete waste of time?” Alor asked Kaleth, frowning.

“Yes, well, try saying that to Jeseon.” He turned to Nef again. “Now, to explain to you why you are here.”

Nef immediately became even more alert. “My name is Kaleth Areon, and you are in the headquarters of Luxarx. I assume your brother told you as much.” Nef wasn’t sure if he should answer that or not. Before he could even decide, however, Kaleth continued. “We protect the Enorian Federation against the Umbra—a terrorist organization that’s almost as old as Enoria itself.”

Nef’s eyebrows shot up. He hadn’t thought these people had been around for so long. Did that mean Luxarx was just as old? In that case, maybe they shouldn’t call themselves a government agency—ancient order would fit better, in Nef’s opinion.

“About a month ago, we ran into an Umbra that was a deserter.”

“I take it that’s not normal,” Nef said, and next to him, Alor shook his head.

“The Umbra brainwash their soldiers, so something like desertion doesn’t happen. If it does despite this, then the former member is hunted down and killed for their betrayal immediately,” Kaleth explained further. “Or at least that’s what we’ve been told all this time. However, I have been talking to Mel—the deserter—and he told me they aren’t killed for desertion. As long as they stay out of the way, they are left alone, and apparently, it’s happened many times, so someone has to be lying.”

“And you don’t think it’s the deserter,” Nef said, starting to understand what the problem here was.

Kaleth gave a nod. “He doesn’t have a reason to lie.”

“I think you trust him a little too much,” Alor said, sounding disapproving, and then mumbled: “Just like Morthan.”

Kaleth’s face turned from neutral but pleasant to irritated in about half a second, and even though the look wasn’t aimed at him, Nef felt very uncomfortable at the sudden change of mood. Also, the fact that the only person Nef knew named Morthan was the President of Enoria made this very weird.

“Relioth isn’t involved in this,” Kaleth told Alor, a dangerous sharpness to his tone. So, they were definitely talking about the president. And Kaleth referred to him by his first name. That was so much weirder. “Don’t drag him into it.”

Nef expected the two to start fighting, but Alor just settled on a glare. Maybe he wanted to keep his cool around Nef, but either way, Nef was grateful because the atmosphere was uncomfortable enough as it was. He made a mental note to ask Alor later about what the hell that had been about.

“So,” Nef finally broke the awkward silence and cleared his throat, “what do you need me to help you with, exactly?”

“After we found out we’ve been…misinformed, we started looking for other things that weren’t quite true, and we came to the conclusion that the answers as to why these inconsistencies exist have to be somewhere in the databases only the Management of Luxarx may access.”

“And you want me to hack into that,” Nef said, and Kaleth nodded.

“Correct. Unfortunately, the database cannot be accessed from anywhere but here, and it’s too vast for just one person to go through it all before someone gets suspicious.”

“Wait, so you already have a hacker?”

“Yes, I forgot to mention that, didn’t I?” Kaleth said, rubbing his eyes. “Of course, you don’t have to agree to this, but if you do, you’ll receive a large sum of money.”

Alor shot Kaleth a dirty look for saying that. Nef almost signed. It wasn’t hard to figure out that Alor wished Nef would say no. Despite dragging him here, and drugging his girlfriend to do it. Nef tried to swallow down the mix of unpleasant feelings running through him at the reminder of that. He knew she was okay, but he still wanted to fly back to her immediately.

But even without the promise of a lot of money, Nef would want to help these people. Beyond it probably being the ethical thing to do, it would give him an opportunity to find out more about just how his brother had managed to become a government agent and what exactly he did on a daily basis if drugging someone was something he didn’t find problematic.

And besides, Nef also wanted to know what was going on here, just as much as they did. He could never resist a conspiracy theory, but the idea of doing something this illegal terrified him as much as it excited him. And how the hell was he supposed to not tell about any of this to Nira?

“If anything goes wrong,” continued Kaleth, “I’ll take full responsibility for all of your actions. As long as you never return here, everyone will pretend nothing happened.”

Well, that didn’t sound too bad. Nef thought about all of this for a few seconds, nodding to himself. This would help his country, right? That sounded like something he should do.

“Okay, I guess. I’ll help you.”

Kaleth didn’t smile, but he did seem pleased by Nef’s decision, while Alor just looked a little disappointed, but unsurprised.

“Splendid,” Kaleth said. “Your brother will bring you back here tomorrow, and since we most likely won’t see each other ever again, it was nice meeting you, Mr. Arithar.”

“Nef,” Nef corrected him, annoyed as he shook Kaleth’s hand. “Wait, what about Nira? How do I explain leaving for no reason tomorrow?”

Kaleth looked thoughtful for a moment, apparently already aware of who Nira was. Well, that was kind of creepy. “You needn’t worry about that. I’ll think of something.”

Then Kaleth’s phone started vibrating, and since there wasn’t anything left to say, Alor and Nef left the office, closing the door behind them.

Getting involved in a government conspiracy was not how Nef had imagined this day would go, but he wasn’t exactly complaining about it. Not just yet, anyway.