The Return of the Lifebringer (Children of the Sun Book 3)

“This seems like a bad idea,” Alor whispered as he followed Kara into the supermarket’s storage room. Kara sighed, rolling her eyes for what felt like the tenth time over the last hour.

“I never said it was good. Now be quiet. You might not need to eat anymore, but I do.”

Kara still had trouble believing they were both still alive. She could count defeating the three Eternals in the base as pure luck, given that they had been too shocked by her attacking them to react in time. It had also helped that they had clearly been in the same situation as Alor, given that they hadn’t used any of the powers they should have possessed.

But for the next few days, they had managed to avoid capture completely. And Kara very highly doubted that no one was looking for them. It was just impossible. These people—Enor—they wanted to make her serve him. And Alor too of course.

She hadn’t wanted to accept it, but yesterday, Enor had basically taken over Enoria, in a very uncaring manner. He’d appeared on TV, telling everyone that their creator had returned, and offered eternal life to whoever he deemed worthy. Naturally, most of the government had been deemed worthy. As was the army. And despite hearing many people worry, despair, and grumble, unsurprisingly no one wanted to rise up against another change of management.

Many were even happy about the promise of immortality. As if it were something a person should want.

But the most bizarre of all—most things were business as usual. Kara would think the coming of a dictator would change something, but for the regular person, it mostly just meant asking existential questions.

Despite this, Kara had felt so hopeless when she’d seen all of this happen, and she felt hopeless still. But she wasn’t done living yet, so for now she’d focus on surviving until she could figure something out. She wished she could find out somehow if Kaleth and the others were still alive. But given what she’d seen was happening in Irithara, she was having doubts.

It hurt her to think about it, but she had to stay realistic.

She sighed again as she grabbed a couple of cans of soup from the shelves of the dim storage room. Tomato with rice. Her stomach gurgled. Stupid bodily needs.

“Is this enough?” Alor whispered, making Kara turn her head to him. He was holding at least ten cans of meat. The kind you didn’t know what animal it was made of and you didn’t care.

Despite herself, Kara smiled slightly. She’d never been alone with Alor for so long, and it was kind of nice. He was an idiot, but he was always trying to look at things from a more positive point of view.

That was incredible, actually, given what he was going through. He’d remembered some things, but most of his past was still a mess. Kara was convinced he just needed some visual help, but everyone Alor knew was either dead, or out of reach for now.

“Yeah, this is good. For a couple of days at least,” Kara replied, grabbing some more soup. Chicken this time. Good, she liked chicken soup.

She hadn’t stolen food since she was a teenager. It was incredibly odd to do it now, but it was either this or hunt something, and she didn’t feel like doing all that work for a little meat. Or too much of it. Either one was bad.

“Alright, let’s go.”

They were almost out the door when Alor stopped. Kara looked back, clutching the soups tighter to her chest. “What is it?”

“I think I like this,” staring into a freezer. “No, I know I like this.” He took all the meat cans into one hand and reached into the freezer, pulling out a frozen package of hotdogs. “Mm, Telis.”

“You remember that?” Kara asked, almost shocked as she turned around fully. She’d assumed he had just meant hot dogs in general, not a specific brand.

“Oh yeah, I remember these. I used to eat these with my brother when we were kids.”

Then he froze, and Kara did too. Her eyes went wide as she realized she’d never actually told him what she had been intending.

“Oh, I have a little brother,” Alor said, a bit more loudly than Kara would have liked.

“Come on,” she said, grabbing his elbow. “We can talk about this after we are no longer trespassing.”

As they sneaked into the warm darkness outside, Kara took a deep breath. They were in a larger city, Kara deciding that the anonymity it brought was safer than the alternative, despite the many, many cameras everywhere. But she knew her way around cameras, and outside of city centers, it was usually not that dangerous anyway.

She closed the back door of the supermarket, flinching as a man appeared a second later, walking past them. Some people had the worst timing ever. He didn’t seem to notice anything suspicious though, possibly due to his tipsy state, which Kara deduced from the slight wobble in his walk.

“Back to the tent, then?” Alor asked, grinning at the hotdogs. Though that grin quickly faded. As did Kara’s hopes for avoiding this conversation.

“Kara, um, where is my brother?”

Kara squeezed her eyes shut. There was no good answer to this, and she didn’t even have enough information to objectively answer that question, but she would have to. Alor deserved to know this.

“He’s—”

“Oh thank the gods you’re alive,” suddenly a voice interrupted her, saving her from the no doubt awkward conversation that would have followed. Kara turned towards it, almost reaching for her gun, but she recognized the voice immediately.

Orina Arithar. That was actually very surprising. Not only that she’d found them, but also that she was still alive and hadn’t been turned into an Eternal and made to serve Enor.

Kara watched Orina hug her son tightly, not letting go despite Alor’s obvious confusion and awkwardness. There was no way she hadn’t noticed—she must have been ignoring it. Though seeing people express parental love had always made Kara uncomfortable, so after a few seconds she chose to stare at the asphalt underneath her feet instead. It was wet. It must have rained for the moment they’d gone to steal food.

When her peripheral vision showed her Orina had finally let go, Kara looked up again. Alor was scratching the back of his neck.

“Uh, and you are?”

An unbearably uncomfortable moment followed, during which Orina just gaped at her son with disbelief. “You…. Oh no.”

She clearly knew what had happened—somehow—but Kara thought it would be best to explain it anyway, just to make sure they were on the same page.

“Yes, he is an Eternal now, and he is suffering from some kind of amnesia,” Kara said, swallowing down her discomfort at having to say this. And at the look of sorrow Orina was giving her. “I thought his memory had been wiped, but he just remembered his brother. I think it just needs a kick start of some kind.”

“I…I see,” Orina said, looking back at her son.

Alor just looked kind of lost and frustrated, but he was staying silent. He only gave Kara a pleading look when their eyes met. Kara sighed, deciding to take pity on him.

“This is your mother, Orina Arithar. Also a Luxarx agent.”

“A former one, yes,” Orina corrected, staring at the ground. She was clearly very disappointed, not that that was surprising.

“My…mother,” Alor repeated, his frown quickly changing into a grin. “Oh, yeah, I think I remember you. And my father’s name is, uh….” He paused for a moment. “Nelar.”

Orina was smiling now, though her smile was definitely sad. “Yes, that’s right.”

“Where is he?” Alor asked, which made Orina look away again.

“He’s…dead.”

“Oh.” Alor looked away, badly hidden sorrow on his face.

There was another moment of uncomfortable silence before Orina cleared her throat.

“How did this even happen?”

Alor shrugged. “Sorry, I don’t remember anything.”

“I assume he was captured, transformed, and brainwashed into joining Enor’s army,” Kara summed up, sighing. “I was on my way to the same fate, but I managed to convince Alor to help me.”

That was all Kara wanted her to know. She didn’t trust Orina, not after how she’d been acting with the Umbra. Where were the Umbra anyway? Orina was wearing a jacket and jeans, clearly not their usual getup. Maybe she just wanted to blend in, though.

“I see. Well, I’ve been looking for you for a while now,” Orina said, absently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Myself and the Umbra have used one of their larger bases as a shelter of sorts, to escape Enor’s forces. And I want you to come there too.”

Kara narrowed her eyes.

“Oh, that’s great. Are you planning on fighting back?” Alor asked, still clearly in a great mood. Kara supposed that made sense given that he’d just met his mother for the second time. She tried not to feel too jealous.

“Well, our forces are very minimal for now, but yeah, that is the eventual intention,” Orina replied. “We could take down Relioth, and Irif. We can take down Enor.”

“You didn’t take down either of them. Kaleth did, if I’m not mistaken,” Kara said, glaring. She couldn’t help but enjoy the wince that had produced.

“What Garen did is irrelevant,” Orina hissed. It was incredible how much Orina hated Kaleth, Kara had to admit. Many people loved to hate him of course, but Orina was just even more into it than most. “It proves that they can be beaten, and they will.”

“Garen…” Alor repeated softly, scowling. Kara grimaced. She wasn’t looking forward to Alor finding out what Kaleth was responsible for. Though actually, Kara didn’t even know. She’d never cared enough to find out, and it was none of her business. “I don’t like that name for some reason.”

“They’re a horrible family,” Orina very incorrectly summed up, leaving Kara was fuming. She wasn’t even sure why she was taking this so personally, but she was.

“Could we keep the gossip for when we’re not out in the open? If you didn’t notice, we’re carrying a suspicious amount of canned food,” Kara interrupted what was definitely going to be a rant about how the Garen family are the worst people on the planet.

Judging by the glare she was giving her, Orina definitely caught onto what Kara was trying to do, but she didn’t argue.

“Yes, of course. This way.”

They walked to her car, which was actually a different car from the one she’d had back when they’d first met her. Kara wondered why. Maybe she’d had to get rid of it.

On the way they stopped by the tent to fold it and take care of any evidence they might have left behind. After that, there was nothing but more uncomfortable silence. Usually Kara would be annoyed by sitting in the back of a car, but this time she was glad. It let her stare out the window without feeling pressured to make a conversation. Not that she would either way, but she’d feel even more awkward about it.

She could tell that Alor had a million questions he wanted to ask his mother, but the atmosphere was keeping him from it. And Kara wished he would fight past it because she knew sooner or later, Orina would ask where Nef was.

Kara sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. She really didn’t like being in the middle of this. Or any family drama. That was one of the few good things about not having a family, and yet she had to suffer through it anyway.

Surprisingly it took most of the trip for Orina to ask. And of course she delivered the question with an accusatory glare aimed in Kara’s direction. As if Nef had been her responsibility. They were almost the same age, for the gods’ sake.

“I assume he’s in Irithara,” she replied bluntly, not bothering to look at Orina.

“What?!” both Orina and Alor exclaimed.

“I wouldn’t know. I left halfway through. You were there,” Kara snarled, still staring stubbornly out the window. She had been expecting a huge fight to break out, but instead Orina just sighed. That was enough to make Kara look at her finally.

The older woman seemed…defeated. That was just very odd to see in someone this determined. Kara looked over at Alor, who was now looking at his mother, very lost.

Kara understood. It must have been incredibly confusing in his head right now. What was it even like having vague memories of having a sibling, only to find out they are either dead or in serious danger?

Kara scowled as her heart gave a lurch. She’d never had this much sympathy for most people. Where was this even coming from? It was annoying. “I haven’t heard from any of them. That doesn’t have to mean anything, though.”

She wasn’t even sure why she said that. It added nothing, and optimism was never her forte.

Somehow, the silence got even worse after that. Kara wasn’t sure that was possible, but it was definitely happening. Thankfully the rest of the trip was short.

What was surprising was where they found themselves. Kara hadn’t really been paying attention when they’d landed, so getting up only to have her feet meet with cobblestone was odd. Another odd thing was the heavy snow that had come out of nowhere.

Kara frowned as she scanned their surroundings as best as she could in the dark.

The old, red brick buildings with leaky gutters and rusty roofs were pretty unfamiliar, though Kara of course knew Enoria had places like this. They were just mostly in Imbera and—

Oh, that was where they were. That explained the snow as well, then. Kara wondered if Orina found it uncomfortable to be here, given that Imbera was where Kaleth was from, but she decided not to say that just yet. She’d save it for if Orina decided to badmouth him again. Which she would inevitably do, knowing her.

“So where is the base?” Kara asked, making Orina look at her. She was back in her usual business mode, but clearly she was still shaken.

“A few blocks away. I wouldn’t park right in front of it,” she replied, overly quietly.

That made sense. It still seemed a bit risky to just leave the car next to a random house in a dark, dreary alley, though. But Kara would just have to assume Orina had figured this stuff out by now. She had been a Luxarx agent after all, something that was a little too easy to forget. It was a bit surprising they had even let her quit, to be honest, but given that Kara hadn’t known Relioth was running the whole organization the whole time, it was entirely possible she just didn’t know anything about it for sure.

Orina led them through at least six dark alleys, the state of which was enough to make Kara check her gun was still in her jacket pocket. But the town seemed to be completely devoid of life, not counting the rats that sometimes ran past their feet. It was sad that this was still not even in the top five worst places Kara had ever been.

“Does nobody live here?” Alor asked, almost whispering, as he briefly tried to look into a boarded up window. Even with how quiet he was being, it was still almost loud in the stillness, only muffled slightly by the wind.

“A few people do, but most live farther in the town,” Orina replied, also keeping her voice down. “There used to be more people when the Umbra built the base. But since this town isn’t abandoned completely, it’s enough to hide us.”

Well, there were still quite a lot of cars around, but they looked pretty beat up or rusted. There were even some of the old ones with wheels. Kara sort of assumed they didn’t work anymore, but maybe she was wrong. Also, this was Imbera, and a lot of the time, they had roof parking because a lot of the cities were old, and the streets didn’t really offer much space for any kind of car. Obviously she couldn’t look at the roof.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to hide somewhere completely out of the way, though?” Kara asked. “What if Enor knows about this?”

“He doesn’t, according to Mereria,” Orina replied, her tone changing dramatically when she said the Eternal’s name. Were they not best pals anymore? “And the Umbra safehouses are built to hide us, even from telepaths. It doesn’t matter where we hide, it matters how we hide.”

Kara rolled her eyes at the motherly tone Orina had used. She really hated when older people assumed they knew better just because they were older. Or because they had kids the same age. Or even older, Kara realized, looking over at Alor. His hair was now covered in snow. And so was Kara’s, she angrily realized, brushing it off.

When they reached the end of yet another alley, Orina raised her hand in the classic ‘wait’ signal, and she looked around thoroughly before ushering them towards the huge gate of what looked like an old warehouse.

It was so weird to see naked brick walls still. And Kara imagined it would be even more jarring during the day time. The lighting in this particular street was close to nonexistent, so most of the light came from the half-covered up moon.

Kara and Alor followed Orina inside the tall building when she pushed open the gate, and she closed it immediately after they entered. For a moment they found themselves in almost complete darkness, except for the slivers of starlight that were peaking through the holes in the roof.

She didn’t wait for Orina to do something before taking out her flashlight and switching it on. Kara shone the bright light at the walls, finding nothing aside from more bricks, webs, and old, rotting crates.

“It’s just over there,” said Orina, pointing at the corner on the right. Kara shone her light at it, and her immediate reaction was to argue. Because nothing was there. But then she remembered that these were the Umbra, and she could never be sure with them.

Kara watched through narrowed eyes as Orina fished something out of her pocket and aimed it at the spot. Almost immediately the ground in the corner moved and slid out of the way, revealing a narrow staircase lit by a few dim lights above it.

Kara shut off her flashlight.

“That’s, um, secret,” Alor commented, sounding impressed. Not surprising since he couldn’t remember, but it was a bit disappointing that this didn’t seem familiar to him.

As they descended down the stairs into what Kara assumed was the base, she wondered who else would be there and if there were beds. She hadn’t realized it before, but now that they were relatively safe, it really hit her just how tired she was because now she actually had space to let her guard down. At least a little.

She stifled a yawn as they finally reached a large, metal door, with no features except a divide in the middle. On the right side was a touchscreen panel, which Orina touched and stayed still for a moment. Kara frowned at it.

She’d assumed it would a fingerprint scanner, or that Orina would input a security number, but she did nothing. However, a moment later the screen glowed green and the door slid away into the walls, showing them all what was inside.

Unsurprisingly, it all looked very familiar. Metal, silver, and barebones was the Umbra style. There was some furniture in the room though, none of it matching in style or color. There were a couple of chairs with four tables that were around the large circular room, and some couches in the back. Seeing those Kara’s tiredness intensified. They looked pretty comfortable.

In the middle of the room was a large, round table, probably with a computer in there somewhere. Kara assumed that was a command center of sorts.

And there were a couple of people in the room as well, though they only greeted them with polite nods and that was about it. Kara would almost not even notice them if the room hadn’t been so bare. They’d just blend into the background.

Some of the faces Kara recognized—the Umbra Mereria had won back by killing Ikara. That whole thing had never made sense to her though—Rayni had killed Ikara, not Mereria. The rest she had no clue, but she assumed they were also Umbra. She’d know if they were Luxarx agents—there hadn’t been that many of them, and Kara had studied the files on most of them.

And then another door opened, this time revealing a very familiar face.

“Director Elrin?” Kara exclaimed, completely bewildered. She hadn’t seen the woman since Relioth had blown up the Flare. Everyone had assumed she was dead. Kara had just written her off as dead in her head, so seeing her now was sort of like seeing a ghost. And it was very unnerving.

Elrin looked just like she usually did—dark skin, wrinkles, her wavy hair in a ponytail, slowly graying at the temples…. Though she wasn’t wearing her usual blouse and skirt combo, just a white shirt and slacks. That really wasn’t helping Kara feel more at ease.

“Hello, Miss Lira,” she replied calmly.

“How are you alive?” Okay, that wasn’t the best way to ask this, but Kara needed to know. Though thinking back, Elrin was one of the people who had powers, which meant she was an Eternal. So her surviving actually wasn’t that impossible.

Orina and Alor excused themselves, probably to talk about their possibly dead brother/son. Kara didn’t pay them any attention at the moment. Elrin gestured to an unoccupied table and sat down before she explained.

“I was the only one at Luxarx who knew the truth,” she said as Kara sat down opposite her. “It was my job to know. Because aside from running it, my assignment was to keep anyone from finding out and to keep an eye on Kaleth.”

“So you work for Relioth,” Kara deduced, too tired to try to figure out most of what she’d just been told.

“Worked, yes,” Elrin corrected her with a sigh. “The bastard didn’t even tell me when he’d blown up the Flare. I flew away before I could damage this body beyond repair, but it was still majorly jerk-y of him.”

Kara rubbed her eyes. Apparently Relioth wasn’t a good employer. Go figure.

“A thousand years I worked for him, and he does this,” Elrin continued with her rant, clenching her fists. “I mean, he apologized later, but I don’t forgive him.”

“Why are you here, then?”

Elrin’s gaze softened. “I’ve grown to care about all of you over the last four decades. I want to help, especially now that Relioth has been otherwise detained. Enor is trouble.”

Understatement of the month at least. But Kara supposed this was good. The more Eternals, the merrier. “So you’re still loyal to him?”

Elrin sighed again. “I know you think he and his methods are awful, but he’s really just very, very broken.”

Or maybe a psychopath, but who was Kara to diagnose that? Oh yeah, one of his victims. “Sure. Is there a bed around here somewhere?”

This time Kara couldn’t stifle her yawn. Elrin just looked mildly amused by Kara’s attitude, which made Kara even more annoyed.

“Through that door,” she said, pointing at the door opposite the one she’d come from originally.

“Thanks,” Kara said, yawning again as she quickly made her way where she’d been told to go, her eyes almost closing.

She would deal with all of this tomorrow. She really didn’t envy her future self.