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

“So I didn’t dream this part?” Kara asked dryly as she once again came face to face with her former boss. It was just as bizarre as it had been before, though. Even with a rested mind, Kara didn’t know what to think of it. In her mind, Elrin had died and was dead. She wasn’t even sure why she was having such problems accepting this. She’d seen so many stranger things already.

Elrin just smiled that damned smile she always used when she was amused by the ‘antics of the younger generations’. Kara guessed that was the reason she’d always used the plural because physically she looked about forty. Kara had just assumed she had been older than she’d looked.

“I’m afraid not,” she replied, still smiling. Kara wanted to tell her to wipe the look off her face but refrained. Elrin would probably laugh anyway. “Welcome back. You’ve been asleep for twenty-five hours.”

Kara narrowed her eyes. “Do you usually stalk people enough to know how long they’ve been sleeping?”

“Yes,” she replied, walking into the main circular room with her coffee in hand. Kara wondered why she even had it. Eternals didn’t need caffeine. Kara needed caffeine. She wasn’t even sure why she’d followed Elrin to the table, but she was there before she could change her mind. She just stared at Elrin for a moment. “Please, sit.”

Kara sighed, and did so with an eye roll. She had so many questions that she didn’t even want to ask any of them. But she hated the silence, so she just decided to ask the first one that came to mind.

“What’s even your real name?”

“Tira,” she replied, sipping her espresso. “There is little point in coming up with completely new cover names. Not to mention that I could never remember any name Relioth came up for me.”

Kara just stared at her blankly. “You were in charge of a secret service agency.”

“Ah, yes, well….” She didn’t continue after that, only sipped her coffee again. It was nice to know that Elrin’s—and Kara would keep calling her that—apparent mysteriousness was really just not caring.

Kara scoffed. “I’m going to get some coffee.” She was about to get up when Elrin stopped her.

“Just a moment, Miss Lyra,” she said, suddenly looking serious. “I need you to investigate something for me.”

Kara blinked. “Can’t do it yourself?”

“Oh, no, I am much too recognizable. You are not. Not to mention that you have an Umbra cloaking device, and I assume you aren’t willing to lend it to me.”

Elrin was right about that. Kara wasn’t going to give her the only thing keeping her from being found by Eternals. Not to mention that Kara didn’t trust her to give it back afterward. But the thing was, Kara had no idea why she should help Elrin with anything.

“And why should I help you?”

Elrin didn’t even seem fazed by it. “This is related to defeating Enor. I assume you don’t want him here any more than any of us do.”

Kara glared and folded her arms. “All I care about is surviving.”

“That is a lie,” Elrin replied, her face completely neutral. “You care about much more than that.”

Kara wasn’t sure what it was about the way Elrin had said that that made her pause. The sentence was vague, but the tone was anything but. Perhaps it was the sharp look in Elrin’s eyes as well. Swallowing in discomfort, Kara doubled down on her glaring.

“You don’t know me.”

“Of course I do,” Elrin said nonchalantly. “Eternals can see a person’s personality the moment they see them. It makes choosing staff easy.”

Kara blinked, suddenly feeling very violated. Had every Eternal she’d met analyzed her like this? Thankfully she hadn’t come in contact with that many, but it was still very concerning. She hoped the cloaking device protected her from this as well.

“Anyway, I wish to send you and another one or two people to the woods surrounding the Garen mansion. There was a large burst of energy there yesterday. A very familiar one,” Elrin continued, as if Kara had agreed to do this. And to add insult to injury, she was being annoyingly vague.

“What does that mean?” Kara asked, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“Teleportation, Miss Lyra. It is very easily detected when you know what you’re looking for. I had a scientist make me a device to detect this energy in Enoria.”

Kara narrowed her eyes suspiciously. There was only one Eternal she knew that could teleport. “You think it’s Relioth. Why would you even have a device like this?”

Elrin’s face finally shifted from neutral to tired. “I was hoping I could keep an eye on him. He never tells me where he goes. I worry. Not to mention that he’s been missing since the…event in Enbrant.” She somehow sounded both annoyed and impressed when she said this. Kaleth really knew how to be polarizing, didn’t he?

“So you want me to go find Relioth, who is probably not even there anymore, and bring him here?” Kara asked, not bothering to hide her incredulous tone. Elrin was insane if she thought Kara was going to go along with this.

“I know you don’t like him—”

“Actually, I hate him,” Kara corrected, but Elrin didn’t even acknowledge it.

“—but we need him to help us stop Enor.”

“No, we don’t. He doesn’t care!” Kara snapped, not wanting to listen to her former boss in the slightest. She knew Relioth enough to know that he’d never help them. He only cared about himself. Why would he even help them? Just because they might help him out first? Relioth would associate them with Kaleth, who had ruined him not too long ago.

Elrin just gave her an annoyed look.

“You don’t know him, Miss Lyra,” she said after a moment. “But even if he doesn’t want to help us, he’s our only hope. He knows Enor better than anyone.”

Kara wanted to snap something back, but then she just sighed and shook her head. Without another word she left the room, looking for coffee. She was too tired to deal with this so early. Or maybe late, she didn’t know.

It didn’t take long to find a room that clearly served as a kitchen. The whole place was probably pretty small, but who knew with the Umbra. There might have been a hundred floors under this one and she would never know.

The room itself was rather bare—a table, some boxes, and a stove that came from gods knew where. Oh and Alor. Of course he was there, sitting at the tiny table with a cup of coffee. He looked upset, just staring blankly into the coffee, but Kara currently had no sympathy for the newly turned Eternal. She needed caffeine.

Wordlessly she grabbed the coffee pot and a mug—both of which were on the table—and poured the still steaming liquid into it.

This finally startled Alor from his brooding. “Oh. Hi.”

Kara only nodded at him as she took a sip of her coffee. She immediately grimaced at how hot it still was, but she needed caffeine more than an unburnt tongue.

“Um…. Did Tira tell you what she wants us to do?”

It took Kara an embarrassing three seconds to figure out who Tira was. She scowled. Of course she’d told Alor. Thinking about it now, Elrin had had an almost overwhelming confidence in Kara’s team’s abilities. Maybe she just trusted them to do the job well. Not that Kara was planning on doing anything other than sitting around and waiting for the collapse of civilization at the hand of a super powerful genius maniac.

“Yep,” she replied finally, completely toneless, taking another sip of her coffee—a much bigger one this time.

“And? What do you think?” Only then Kara noticed his tone was off from his usual calm, but still emotional one. It was oddly detached. Alor didn’t do detached. Alor didn’t usually let his emotions take control of him, but he felt them deeply. This was probably bad.

“I think Elrin is insane to think that we—” She interrupted herself. “That I’ll help her.”

Alor just grimaced, which made Kara wince. Damn him for making her feel guilty. This wasn’t being selfish, this was knowing when to quit.

“You don’t mind just letting things happen?” he finally asked after an unbearably long amount of silence.

Kara glared into her coffee. Of course she minded. She minded plenty. She didn’t want people to die. She didn’t want Enor to just take over the world, and do whatever it was he wanted to do. But what could finding Relioth do?

“Relioth is a selfish, self-serving bastard,” Kara replied, keeping her eyes firmly at her coffee. She couldn’t look at Alor right now. She knew he was giving her that kicked puppy face, and she hated it. It was too effective at wearing her down.

“You don’t think he’ll help us,” Alor said. Kara’s peripheral vision caught that he nodded. He seemed to agree with that. He sighed. “I know who Relioth is and what he’s like. It’s my personal life I don’t remember.”

Kara shrugged. She’d already gotten the feeling that was the case. But clearly Alor needed a reminder anyway.

“Look, I don’t like this either, and I know that you are….” Kara narrowed her eyes at him, wondering how he was going to end that sentence. “A survivor.”

What a wonderful way to say that he thought she was selfish.

“Uh-huh.”

“But,” Alor continued, undeterred by Kara’s sarcasm, “I also know that you don’t like change.” Kara blinked at him in surprise. Well, that wasn’t what she’d thought he’d say. How did he know this? She never said anything to that extent, not even to his still normal self. Then again, they hadn’t spoken much before then. “I can see it whenever I ask something I should know, and you forget for a moment that I don’t remember. What I became doesn’t sit right with you either, huh?”

Kara looked back into her coffee. There was no point in arguing over this. “What you are isn’t your fault.”

“No, but it still bothers you.”

Kara sighed. “Is this going somewhere, Alor?”

Now it was his turn to sigh. Except his was just sad. “Look, I know you hate Relioth, but wouldn’t it be better if he was in charge again? Instead of Enor? Enoria did fine before, right?”

Kara rubbed her eyes. Gods dammit. “You’re not going to drop this until I agree to help, are you?”

Alor shook his head. “No, I’ll drop this immediately if you want to stop talking about it. But I am going to try to help Tira. With or without you.”

He didn’t sound particularly happy about it, but Kara was grateful that he was willing to drop this. Unfortunately, those last two sentences had made something protective stir within her. And that something really didn’t want Alor to go alone. And that something was also completely ridiculous—Alor was older than her.

As he got up and stalked out of the room, Kara put her face in her hands.

Dammit.

“Alor, wait,” she said before he disappeared from sight. He stopped immediately, turning around to face her. He seemed very surprised by this. Kara stared at the metal floor as she walked over to him and folded her arms. “Fine, I’ll come with.” A sudden need to come up with an excuse overwhelmed her. “Because…you’d get lost in the woods. You can’t even read a map.”

She dared to look up at him. He was way too tall for Kara’s liking, and that opinion had not changed since the moment she’d met him. There was a gentle smile on his face—a smile that made Kara want to disappear or smack him over the head for being a sentimental idiot. She wasn’t sure which was more appropriate. Thankfully, Alor just nodded in thanks and left the room a second later. Kara sighed once again. People were so annoying.

It didn’t take long to prepare for their little field trip to Imbera. There was an Umbra synthesizer in the facility—a device Kara still didn’t understand. She was starting to think that Eternal technology was just a bit too advanced and alien from theirs for her mind to fully understand it. But she still had her Umbra uniform, so she didn’t need to waste resources to make a new one.

That was a nice confirmation of her theory, however. The building material for the machine didn’t just come from nothing.

“I’m glad you decided to help with this. There is no one more qualified than you,” Elrin told Kara as she waited for Alor to catch up. Kara rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, no need to rub it in.”

Elrin laughed. She actually looked happy. Kara would never understand her. “I mean it though, thank you. I know you don’t like this, but you’ll see that it’s necessary.”

Kara said nothing. She highly doubted Elrin’s words, but at least she could tell the former Luxarx director actually believed what she was saying. Alor could be the same way too. Kara sometimes wished she could get one hundred percent behind something, and not constantly doubt everything she does.

Maybe someday, but today was definitely not that day.

“I hear you made bullets from othrin,” Elrin randomly continued when Kara didn’t say anything for a long time. “Impressive.”

“Why do you praise everything I do?” Kara asked instead of saying something about the creation of the bullets. Not that there was much to say. Othrin melted, just like all metals. Getting it was harder.

“Someone has to do it,” Elrin replied jokingly, but there was a clear sadness in her eyes. Kara winced. That was a little too close to home. “Uh, excuse me, I didn’t mean to upset you. I just want you to know your work is, and always has been, appreciated.”

Kara just scoffed quietly. Why did everyone have to discuss feelings at all times? Maybe it was good that she was leaving, otherwise she might be subjected to even more of this.

Alor finally arrived a moment later, also wearing the Umbra armor. It was nice to know the synthesizer still recognized him as a member. How did that even work?

“Ah, Mister Arithar. Are you ready to depart?” Elrin asked him, connecting her hands behind her back.

“Wasn’t there supposed to be someone else going with us too?” Kara asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Yes, well, it seems not many people want to go look for Relioth,” Elrin explained vaguely, prompting Kara to look at her with annoyance and disbelief. “They are a bit concerned that he will have them killed for being with the Umbra, you see.”

“Sure,” Kara muttered. It definitely wasn’t because they hated Relioth’s guts. Elrin just seemed amused by Kara’s annoyance. “Let’s just go already.”

Elrin smiled. “Good. You know where the mansion is located. Please try to get there as soon as possible. Search the woods.”

Kara did her best to resist pointing out how useless saying this was. What else would they search? The entire city beside the woods? Actually it would make sense for Relioth to avoid cities, mostly because there would be few people there who wouldn’t recognize him immediately. The guy was a complete diva and appeared in the news at least once a week, usually more often than that.

Alor gave Kara a look, as if he was asking if she was ready. She gave him a nod in reply. She was always ready.

The trip over to the Garen mansion was quite quick, given that they already were in Imbera. It was still too long for Kara’s tastes, though. She wanted to be done with this as soon as possible. She wondered just how long it would take for them to give up on this. There was no way they could actually find Relioth. The guy was an asshole, but he wasn’t stupid—he wouldn’t stick around here for so long unless he couldn’t leave, and if he was in a state like that, he would be useless to them.

Just all around wonderful.

“Which way should we go?” Alor asked, frowning at the trees around them. They’d landed on a small clearing, a few minutes away from the mansion. Kara had been given exact coordinates of where the flare up of energy had happened. While it was super unlikely that they’d find anything there, it was probably the best place to start, so Kara pointed in that direction.

It wasn’t far from them, and they walked in silence. There was only the wind and the crunching of dead leaves and branches under their feet to fill it. But Kara didn’t mind. She liked silence, and she liked being around few people. She was kind of glad no one else came with them, in retrospect.

Suddenly she was stopped in her tracks by Alor’s hand on her shoulder. She turned around to ask what was up, but he only raised up a finger. He was clearly listening to something, so Kara tried as well, focusing only on the sounds surrounding her.

At first she couldn’t hear anything but the rustling of trees high up above her, but then, finally, a muffled grunt reached her ears. Frowning, she shook off Alor’s hand and as quietly as she could—which was actually very quiet given how the Umbra boots were made—she made her way closer to the origin of the sound.

As she got closer she could also hear some scuffling, and talking. None she could make out, but it made her heart beat even faster. There was definitely more than one person here, and most likely that would spell trouble.

Peering from behind a tree, she pulled her hood over her head and finally saw the scene. And her heart skipped a beat. There were three people in total, two of which clearly kidnapping the third one. And the third one was Mel of all people. How had he even gotten here?

Kara gritted her teeth at seeing the Eternal be carelessly thrown over the shoulder of a taller man—an incredibly tall one, actually—most likely an Eternal as well. There was also a woman, probably another Eternal, but Kara focused on Mel instead.

He seemed fine physically, but it was a bit hard to tell with the armor. His hands were cuffed, his ankles were tied together and he was gagged, which explained the muffled noises he was making. It still didn’t explain what he was doing here, but she could ask that later. Right now Kara needed to rescue him.

“Do you think he knows something?” the woman asked, her voice soft, but loud enough for Kara to make out what she was saying.

“He’s an Umbra. Do they ever know anything?” the man joked, tightening his grip on Mel. Kara could see Mel noticeably wince. The Eternal carrying him was clearly not bothering being gentle. “But I don’t think we should just kill him without making sure.”

Kara pulled out her gun. She only had one bullet left, but it would be better than nothing. Then it would be two against one—a fight Kara highly doubted they’d lose, even if Alor wasn’t all that in control of his powers.

She was about to take aim when Alor’s hand on her shoulder stopped her.

“Wait, you can’t just shoot at them,” he whispered, frowning at her. Only a little bit of his face was visible like this, wearing the hood and mask, yet she could still easily identify that he’d put on his big brother attitude. “This isn’t why we’re here, and if we call attention to ourselves, we’ll make this much worse for ourselves.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “You see the person they captured? It’s one of our friends.”

Alor’s eyes widened, and he frowned in suspicion a second later. “Are you just saying that to get me to go along with it?”

Kara snorted, making her way closer to the group of Eternals. They were heading north, maybe towards the mansion. If Ramien Garen was currently possessed by Enor, no one would be staying there. Maybe Enor was using it as a base of operation.

“Does the name Mel ring a bell?” Kara hissed at Alor, continuing to walk as softly as she could. She could still hear the Eternals walking, but she couldn’t see them between all the trees. Why were Enorian forests always so dense?

“Uh, yeah, maybe,” Alor replied, also following her. At least he wasn’t fighting her anymore. Kara didn’t have enough mental strength to keep arguing with him. Maybe he remembered he liked Mel. Or did he even like him? Kara hadn’t paid that much attention to their interactions. But again, at least he wasn’t fighting her.

They kept following the sounds of the Eternals’ footsteps until they reached the edge of the forest. And finally they saw the walls of the Garen mansion. Kara looked around, trying to find the Eternals, but unfortunately, she only spotted them as they entered the house through the side entrance, struggling Mel in tow.

“Dammit,” Kara cursed under her breath. She sighed. Great, because of Alor, now this would be much more complicated. At least there didn’t seem to be anyone else around. Just a lot of metal crates.

Kara hid the gun and pulled out her dagger instead. She looked back at Alor. “Alright, we’ll need to go inside.” He opened his mouth to argue, but Kara silenced him with a glare. “I’m not leaving Mel here to be tortured and killed. Not to mention that he might know something we don’t want Enor to know, and it might also be something we might want to know ourselves. Mel isn’t supposed to be here, it’s impossible to return from Irithara. Except by teleporting.”

“You think he might know something about Relioth,” Alor summed up and Kara nodded. This was all just wild speculation, but she really needed Alor to get off her back about this. Either way, she wasn’t lying. There was no way Mel could have gotten here on his own. And it was a weird coincidence that he’d also be here, specifically.

Checking their surroundings one more time, Kara started walking towards the house as quickly and quietly as possible. She knew Eternals had better sight and hearing, but it wasn’t that superior. She’d tested this on Mel before they’d met Mereria. Without his knowledge of course. She needed accurate results.

As she approached the back door, she looked back at Alor, who nodded at her, raising up his dagger. As if reassuring her that he hadn’t lost it. Kara just nodded back, not letting her feelings appear on her face at all and turned back. Pulling the hood down as much as it would go, she took a hold of the gold, ornate door handle, and carefully opened the door with a click.

A familiar looking hallway was right behind it, also filled with crates. Kara frowned. What was up with these? Kara walked over to one, running her hand over the dark metal casing. It didn’t seem to be locked or anything, and so she raised up the lid.

Immediately, she threw a hand over her eyes as light assaulted them. Thankfully, it wasn’t that intense after a couple of seconds, so she could take a closer look, but it still wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t even the light, though—it didn’t feel that way. It was as if her brain didn’t want her to look.

Kara gritted her teeth, and took out one of the glowing glass tubes out of the box. The blue light danced in the tube, swirling and swirling. It actually made Kara a bit light headed watching it. But it was clear what this was—Eternal energy. Probably to be used as a power source. That was what Relioth had done.

Kara closed the box again and hid the glass tube into the satchel hanging from her belt, which she’d added after she’d gotten tired of the Umbra uniform having one pocket.

Waving her hand at Alor to tell him to follow her, she started creeping down the hallway, hoping that if there were trouble, or an audible clue as to where to go, Alor’s now better ears would pick it up. Until that happened, she would just keep walking aimlessly. The Garen mansion wasn’t exactly huge, but it was still too large to hope to randomly stumble upon Mel and his captors. Or maybe just Mel, captors excluded. Kara didn’t want to face any Eternal in combat.

“Wait,” Alor suddenly whispered behind her, and she stopped, still crouched. She waited for a few seconds before Alor continued. “I hear them. To the right.”

Kara nodded without turning around, gripping her dagger more tightly. Alor hadn’t said if Mel was with them, but his grave tone implied enough. Sneaking through two more hallways, Kara started to hear voices as well. And a lot of pained noises. That made her much angrier than she would have thought, but that was good—anger was a good fuel for beating powerful, immortal beings.

Finally she and Alor came across a door at the end of a corridor, slightly ajar. And clearly, that was where the voices were coming from.

“Where’s Kaleth Garen?” Kara heard the male Eternal ask, and she rolled her eyes. Of course that was what they wanted to know. Though Kara would like to know that too. She hoped he wasn’t dead.

The question was followed by silence, and then a scream. Kara reined in her anger as she peered through the space between the door and the wall. First thing she saw was the backs of the two Eternals. Then she saw Mel, chained to the ceiling by his wrists, his eyes shut. Kara dragged her eyes away from him to survey the room.

It wasn’t clear what this was originally. A study, maybe? It was quite a small room, filled with odd, rectangular machines that were definitely Eternal in origin. Kara wasn’t even sure what she meant by that—she just always knew, when looking at the tech, that it was Eternal. Maybe because it looked decades ahead of the usual level of technology, maybe more. Maybe this was where the Eternal power was extracted?

Kara shook her head. That didn’t matter, they needed to free Mel, get him out of here, and then figure out what to do next. Putting her dagger in her left hand, Kara pulled out her gun. She would shoot the woman first—she seemed to be holding something that looked like a cattle prod. Judging by Mel’s cries of pain, Kara was almost certain she was right with her guess.

She aimed the gun, pushing it in the space she was given. She couldn’t afford to risk opening it further. It could creak. She breathed in, giving Alor a few seconds to stop her. He didn’t. And so she squeezed the trigger, hitting her target directly in the head.

As the woman fell to the ground, the man twirled around. And the man did something Kara hadn’t been expecting. He’d pulled a knife out of his pocket, but he didn’t attack her or Alor, he immediately went to stab Mel in the heart.

At least he was going to, before a dagger pierced his back and sent him to the ground as well. Kara whirled around, staring at Alor who was now standing up, having pushed the door wide open and was still holding up a hand. He blinked, and then looked at Kara.

“I guess my aim got better,” he commented, sounding a little breathless. Kara nodded at him gratefully and got up as well, making her way towards Mel, who was blinking at them. Kara took off the hood and mask to let him recognize her, and looking back, Alor had done the same.

“K-Kara?” he stuttered, his eyes wet. “Alor? Y-You saved me?” He gave them a pained smile that disappeared quite quickly, replaced by a frown. “W-Wait, what are you d-doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Kara replied as she searched the two dead Eternals for a key to the cuffs. Findinging it almost immediately in the man’s pocket, Kara freed Mel, studying the metal of the cuffs. There was othrin in these, but not in the chains. Since Kara needed to make more bullets, she used her dagger to cut through the chains, and hung the cuffs from her belt.

“You’re an Eternal?” Mel asked Alor, completely bewildered.

“We can talk about this later,” Kara said, interrupting whatever Alor had been about to say. “We need to get to safety first.”

Mel nodded, shutting up and keeping his eyes on the floor. Kara looked him over. Physically he looked fine, so Kara wouldn’t have to slow down for him. They made their way out of the mansion and into the relative safety of the forest with no complications, which was honestly very surprising, but Kara wouldn’t complain. However, before she could ask Mel anything, he started talking frantically.

“Is this a good place to talk? Because I really need to go check on Kaleth. He’s hurt and—”

“Wait, what?” Kara blurted out. “Kaleth is here?”

“Yeah, yeah, and he’s hurt so I need to—”

“How?!” Kara exclaimed, trying to understand.

Mel sighed before looking her right in the eye. And she’d never seen him more serious and determined. “He teleported us here. And I need to get him somewhere safe.”