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

Rayni had really been expecting this to be harder, but she wasn’t going to complain about it. Finding where the aircrafts were originating from was very easy because all they had to do was follow them, and then they simply stealthily killed the Eternal in one of the aircrafts currently on the ground and got in. The aircraft was barely big enough for two passengers, which was ridiculous since they weren’t that small.

But Rayni supposed calling the space inside them small wasn’t entirely fair because they apparently had a lot of storage space. Filled with metal crates, which contained gods knew what. And honestly, Rayni didn’t care—she just wanted to see her brother and Kaleth safe and sound and get out of Enor’s aircraft as soon as possible.

She of course didn’t think it would be that simple, but she also didn’t think that their mission was too ambitious to be impossible. Yorin had given them invisibility bracelets, which had so far helped immensely. It was one thing to sneak up on a person, and a completely different thing when that person wouldn’t be able to see you, even if they were somehow alerted to your presence. Though it had already glitched out on Rayni twice, and while she’d been warned that might happen, it was still putting Rayni on edge. A really unlucky timing of a glitch could make her presence be known, and that could be disastrous.

She sighed, trying to will her rapidly beating heart to calm down. Even though Yorin had said that the invisibility field could be stretched between more people, Rayni still wished they had two more for Mel and Kaleth. To make sure they’d stay invisible, she and Mereria were going to have to keep, if possible, both hands on them, and they would also have to be very close at all times. And that just sounded difficult if the whole place would be crawling with Eternals.

“Brace yourself,” Mereria said, finally breaking the silence after the entire trip back to Aleara. Rayni nodded, turning on the invisibility. Rayni squinted at Mereria, trying to see the small shimmer in the air making up her silhouette. Rayni really hoped this would be good enough to fool everyone.

Shadow fell over both of them as they approached Enor’s aircraft, and Rayni somehow tensed up even more. She swallowed as they headed towards one of the round holes in the aircraft’s side. She could tell Mereria wasn’t happy about this either. Rayni almost wanted to go back just then, but even though she would have rejected the thought immediately anyway, it was far too late now.

The aircraft landed in a huge hangar, full of the same crates they had brought with them, and other aircrafts, dozens of them. What was in these crates?

“Othrin,” Mereria whispered into Rayni’s ear after they sneaked out of their aircraft. Rayni had no idea how Mereria even knew where Rayni’s ear was right now. “Enor must be mining it.”

That made sense to Rayni. Wasn’t Irithara full of the stuff? Or, well, fuller than Enoria at least. Rayni wished they could grab some, but they had more important things to do now.

She looked around. There didn’t seem to be much to the huge, empty space surrounded by metal walls—it was just that, a hangar. And apparently a warehouse also. So they definitely had to go somewhere else. They wouldn’t find Mel here.

“Think this place has some kind of holding cells?” Rayni whispered towards the shimmery silhouette.

“Definitely. Enor always plans for everything,” Mereria replied. Damn, Rayni really couldn’t tell where she was most of the time. And Mereria was prone to leaving without saying anything. Deciding it would be for the best, Rayni made a grab for Mereria’s hand. She missed a little, but quickly rectified that. She was willing to bet Mereria blushed, despite barely being able to tell where she was.

Rayni looked around, trying to figure out what the best way to go was, but it really all looked the same way. So she supposed it didn’t matter, and they weren’t on a time limit anyway. Actually it would probably be better if they took their time to be subtle and sneaky, as much as Rayni didn’t like that approach.

So they picked a random direction and started walking, hand in hand. If they weren’t in enemy territory with Enor somewhere around, this might have been nice. They went from hallway to hallway, picking random doors and directions. The place wasn’t locked down, really, which was good because while they were strong enough to force open a door, it would make too much noise to break the lock.

While hiding from a pair of Eternals in a shadowy corner, Rayni was trying to figure out what they should do. She was getting impatient and it seemed like whichewer corridor they went in, it wasn’t the right one. And this place was massive, there was no way there was just one floor. They needed to find stairs or an elevator.

She was about to say as much when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Rayni whirled around, already drawing her sword, but there was no one there. Or that was what she’d thought until the nothing started talking.

“Shh, it’s me,” said what was now clearly Nira, but until then Rayni hadn’t noticed the shimmer betraying her presence. And also Rayni didn’t care right now, she just wanted to yell at her.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Rayni exclaimed, cringing as her voice bounced off the metal walls. Then she quietly repeated the same question. Mereria seemed to just silently glower. Rayni couldn’t actually see that, of course, but she could feel her glowering.

“I’m here to save my dad, with or without your help,” she said adamantly. “But I’d rather do it with you.”

Rayni turned to the empty space of Mereria with indignation the other couldn’t possibly see. “That’s ridiculous. You’re going back right—”

“I knew you were here,” Mereria said, making Rayni even more shocked. “Your shoes aren’t ideal for silent walking. If you must follow along, take them off.”

There was a moment of silence before Nira spoke again. Rayni had a bunch to say too, but she just scoffed for now. “You want me to walk around an alien hovercraft in my socks?”

“It isn’t alien,” Mereria argued with that tone she always used when she was annoyed but didn’t want to sound that way. “It is more terrestrial than anything of yours.”

“Whatever,” Rayni exclaimed as much as she could without actually being loud. It turned into a harsh whisper mostly, but it seemed to do the trick. “How can you be okay with this? She’ll get killed.”

“If we don’t move soon, we all will,” Mereria shot back. “It is far too late to send you back, but if you get killed, Nira, it’s your own fault. Provided you don’t make much noise or slow us down, you are welcome to tag along on this insane mission.”

Rayni would have to agree that the hangar was way too far to feel comfortable sending Nira back alone, and they couldn’t go with her or they’d waste even more time. Not to mention that if they didn’t go with her and told her to go back, she wouldn’t listen because she had to be insanely stubborn.

And so they continued their journey, still having no idea where they were going. Rayni wondered if they would even manage to find the hangar again after all those turns and doors.

“How’d you even manage to follow us?” Rayni asked, turning her head towards the space behind her. She really hoped Nira was there, otherwise she’d look like an idiot.

“I followed shadows,” Nira replied, which Rayni had completely forgotten. Oh so that’s why Mereria had wanted to hide in that corner. “And the doors opening on their own.”

Right, that made sense. Rayni stared at her own shadow on the wall as she walked by. It wasn’t all that visible, but it still could betray her location. Dammit, how had she not noticed that before? There weren’t many opportunities to hide in shadows either, given that the rooms were lit up by lights above them. Fortunately there weren’t many Eternals around, but it still made Rayni nervous. She shook her head. They wouldn’t get caught here.

Rayni was about to complain about them being lost again when finally they spotted two Eternals walking through a metal door that turned out to be an elevator. Rayni, Mereria, and Nira waited behind a corner for the Eternals to disappear before venturing towards the elevator as well.

It looked completely standard, so Rayni pressed the silver button next to the door. She was immediately reprimanded for it by Mereria, but Rayni just rolled her eyes. It was an elevator, not a bomb, what could go wrong?

She drew her sword just in case as the door opened, but it was empty. There were no doubt cameras here, but given that they were invisible, hopefully if someone noticed the door opening, they would think it was a glitch. That could happen, right?

They all got in, and Rayni pushed the button she assumed was the one to close the door. Then she glared at the numbers next to the row of buttons representing floors. There were like two hundred. This wasn’t good.

“Which one do we choose?” Rayni whispered, and Mereria hummed.

“I’d say what we are looking for will be either at the top or at the bottom. Enor always liked things neat and tidy. And by the looks of this aircraft from the outside, quite a lot of the middle is for Othrin storage.”

“How can you tell?”

“Didn’t you see all of the entrances before we went into one?”

Rayni huffed. She had been really distracted because her little brother was in danger. She was entitled to being distracted. Not really thinking about it she pressed the top button, bringing the elevator up immediately.

“Dammit, Raynimara,” muttered Mereria. “We should have discussed this first.”

“What’s to discuss?” Rayni whispered back, keeping her sword drawn. They had no idea what could be on the other side. “We can’t guess which floor’s the right one.”

Mereria stayed quiet after that, which Rayni took as victory. If only she could enjoy it. It took about a minute to get to the very top, and with every passing second, Rayni got more and more nervous. She wasn’t even sure how it was possible she kept finding new levels of that, but she was. She suspected that if the sword hadn’t been made of othrin, it would have bent by now with how hard she was clutching the hilt.

Finally the door opened. To a hallway full of doors, and Eternals. Rayni willed herself not to breathe for a moment. They all turned their eyes towards them—there were five of them—but thankfully they really did seem to think it was just some glitch.

“Is this normal?” one of them, a man holding a mop asked. It was almost hilarious to see Eternals do housework, but when Rayni finally calmed down enough to look at them properly, that was definitely what they were doing. In fact, they looked like ordinary people, with shirts and jeans, but Rayni could very easily see their power.

They seemed to be of average strength if Rayni could tell these things well enough, maybe even below average, but there were five of them.

“I’ve not seen this happen,” another one commented, “but I haven’t been here long.”

We need to sneak out. Quietly, Mereria told Rayni in her head, and Rayni nodded despite knowing Mereria couldn’t see it. Assuming that Mereria had also told this to Nira, Rayni took a careful step outside the elevator, being super super glad for how silent the Umbra boots were. She couldn’t tell if the others followed her or not, but she didn’t focus on that. She just kept walking, one step after another, until she was far away enough from the Eternals to relax the tiniest bit.

Naturally, that was the moment her invisibility glitched out, revealing her for a split second. Rayni froze as she once again became invisible, but the damage had been done. She didn’t stick around to listen to the Eternals trying to figure out what that had been, and instead ran down the incredibly long corridor.

At this speed, her footsteps were audible, which was a problem, but the more turns she took, the more confident she got that she’d lost them. Stopping when she found a slightly shady corner, she took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm down.

Are you okay? came Mereria’s voice a second later. Rayni wondered where she was.

Yeah, I’m fine, Rayni replied, sighing. She listened for a moment, trying to figure out where the Eternals were, but she couldn’t hear anything. Dammit, that was close.

Indeed. But I fear they may have sent out some kind of alarm already.

Rayni sighed quietly. Yeah, that would make sense. If not an alarm, they could have notified someone at least, and Rayni would have no way of knowing. But still, they had the advantage of being invisible. Most of the time.

Where are you? Rayni asked.

We went the other way. I believe Hidarion is somewhere close.

Rayni decided not to tell her that they were here for Mel and Kaleth, and instead just sighed again. A lot of this floor seemed to just be metal hallways and doors, so she guessed it was possible these were holding cells. But when Rayni stretched out her mind, she couldn’t find anyone. She supposed that either meant that something was blocking her, or that there actually was no one.

She would have tried breaking open one of the doors to check, but it wasn’t worth the risk. Instead she just headed back towards where she’d run from, which turned out to be more difficult than expected. Mereria’s voice did help Rayni find her way a little at least.

That is until Rayni almost reached them. That was the moment Mereria stopped saying anything, despite Rayni saying her name several times. And then, finally, as Rayni walked ever faster to reach them, Mereria spoke.

Run, Rayni. Now.

And then Rayni finally saw it. In front of a door at the end of the corridor, there was a silver-haired man in a suit, holding one of Kaleth’s swords in hand. The sword was drawn towards Mereria, who had apparently given up on invisibility. Oh no.

Dammit, Rayni, just leave!

Rayni gritted her teeth. Like hell, she thought as she ran towards Enor, intent on burying her sword in his back. But she never made it. An invisible force stopped her halfway through, and the man turned towards her.

“Of course you are here as well,” Enor commented passively, looking like holding Rayni in place wasn’t taxing at all despite her struggles. Then he turned back to Mereria, who seemed to clutch her daggers even more tightly. “How many more are there?”

“It’s just us,” Mereria spat out, glaring at him. Rayni knew that trying to stab Enor would probably not work, but she still wanted Mereria to do it.

Enor hummed. “Interesting. Because a few minutes ago, I was notified about the capture of Yorin.”

“Yorin is here?” Rayni exclaimed before she could stop herself. What had he been thinking going here? Enor just gave her a blank look and turned back towards Mereria.

“I’ll decide what to do with you soon,” he said, still as toneless as possible. “I will use your mate to power my engines in the meantime.”

“You bastard! I’m not a battery,” Rayni protested, but Enor completely ignored her. He just walked away nonchalantly, only to be replaced by Eternal guards just as the force holding Rayni place started to ebb. She sighed and glared at the silver floor. Godsdammit.

You should have listened to me, Mereria told her, but Rayni didn’t even dignify that with an answer. Mereria would have done the same if the situations were reversed, she was sure of that.