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

After they had gone back to the hideout, it was hours later, but Kaleth still wasn’t sure he was up to discussing what they were going to do next. But his feelings towards it didn’t matter. Enor needed to be stopped, and Kaleth had no choice but to try to help with whatever the Director—er, Elrin—was thinking of doing. And he was aware she was great at planning and strategizing, even if he hadn’t always agreed with what those plans involved. This would no doubt include some of that as well.

So far, Kaleth had managed to avoid an awkward conversation with Alor or Kara, but since they were all sitting at the same, circular table, the awkwardness was still rather present. Kara mostly just frowned at Kaleth, not revealing at all what she was thinking, and Alor looked something between guilty, angry, and confused. It was a very strange mix of emotions, but it was understandable. Kaleth himself was having a hard time accepting that Alor was an amnesiac Eternal now, but from a tactical standpoint, it was probably for the best.

Though that didn’t mean Kaleth didn’t feel terrible for even thinking that. His relationship with Alor had always been complicated, but Kaleth certainly didn’t want this to be his fate. Hopefully, he would at least regain his memories in time.

At least he had his mother here. Orina’s feelings towards Kaleth’s presence were, unlike Kara’s, very easy to read, and they were the same as ever. She was glaring at him. Kaleth mostly didn’t look in her direction, too tired to bother glaring back. She’d never liked him, mostly due to his preferences, so it wasn’t that their relationship had dramatically changed after her husband had been killed, so Kaleth was used to this. But that didn’t make it any less tiresome.

Though perhaps he did derive some sick pleasure out of her seeing him with Mel. He could almost feel her seethe. And there was no doubt in Kaleth’s mind that there would be a fight sooner or later.

Besides everyone already mentioned there were also a couple of Umbra soldiers, who really didn’t seem comfortable with the situation, but they didn’t say anything.

“I still stand by my original plan,” said Elrin after she quickly summed up the situation. Though it had been a tad bit pointless since everyone already knew what was going on, even Kaleth. “Relioth could help us.”

Kaleth almost flinched when he heard that. “What?”

Next to him, Mel seemed equally miffed at this idea.

“When you teleported, I thought you were him,” said Elrin, folding her arms on the table in front of her. “Relioth knows Enor better than anyone. And I think he doesn’t want him to be here any more than any of us. We just need to find—”

“Oh, I know where he is,” Kaleth said, scowling at Elrin. This was definitely the kind of plan she would come up with, yet this time it was unacceptable, in Kaleth’s opinion. This was Relioth. Did she forget that he’d killed thousands of people? That Kaleth knew of, anyway. If Relioth really was as old as he claimed, it could have been hundreds of thousands. Even if Relioth did agree to help them, why should they want his help in the first place? And speaking of which…. “Enor has him prisoner in that aircraft of his. So I don’t think it’s an option.”

Elrin’s eyes lit up. Dammit. “Okay, that is less than ideal. But we can work with this.”

“No, no, we can’t,” Kaleth immediately countered. “How do you expect anyone to go there and rescue him? Not to mention that I stand by the fact that this plan is insane for more than that reason.”

“You can teleport,” Kara said flatly, speaking for the first time. Before Kaleth could muster up an answer, Elrin decided to go with this.

“Yes, yes, exactly. You could go there and back with barely anyone noticing.” There was a delighted grin on her face. A grin Kaleth really didn’t like right now.

“I don’t know how to control it,” Kaleth argued, feeling ridiculously self-conscious about that. Relioth could have explained it to him while he had been telling him all the other things. Or maybe he just wanted to be the only one to know how to do it. It would fit the damned egoist. “And I’m definitely not strong enough.”

Kaleth regretted his wording immediately when he heard Orina snort. He quickly shot her a glare before turning to Elrin. “I can’t even heal myself fully right now.”

There was a moment of silence as Elrin frowned in thought. “Well, we could wait for a bit. But the longer we wait, the more damage Enor causes.”

Also since Relioth was clearly being tortured into compliance by Enor, he might break before Kaleth could even theoretically get to him. Kaleth berated himself. He wasn’t agreeing with this plan, not at all, dammit.

“We have that vial of Eternal energy, don’t we?” Kara muttered, clearly also not all that interested in following through with this ‘plan’. Kaleth frowned at her, wondering what she was talking about. He hadn’t been gone for that long, yet he could barely follow anything. Everything moved so quickly these days.

“Oh! Oh, yes, you’re right, Kara,” Elrin exclaimed with excitement. Kaleth sighed. “Enor apparently uses bottled Eternal energy as a power source. If you absorb it, it might be enough to get to his ship, and there will be much, much more of the energy.”

That actually sort of made sense. This was bad. “We don’t need Relioth. If there really is as much energy as you say, that should be enough.”

Now it was Elrin’s turn to sigh. “Kaleth, it isn’t just about how much energy you have. It’s about how you use it. You are much stronger than Relioth ever was, but you teleporting here sent you into a coma for days.”

“Yes, I was also dying of a stab wound at the time,” Kaleth grumbled.

“And if I remember correctly,” Elrin said, putting on that ‘wise’ tone again, “you shot Relioth in the head with an othrin bullet, and he still had more than enough power to teleport to you.”

Kaleth opened his mouth to argue, but he really had nothing to say. That was definitely all true, and he hadn’t really thought about that side of it. He’d been too busy to think about that event in general. He’d just filed it under all of his other failures and turned to the next problem.

“Well, we don’t have Relioth here to explain how teleportation works. Though I doubt he would even if he actually were here,” Kaleth countered, finally thinking of how to turn this back against her. “So how do you expect me to teleport?”

Elrin raised an amused eyebrow at him. Kaleth sighed internally. She just never ran out, did she?

“He’s told me some things about how it works. It might be enough,” she said, shrugging. Kaleth shook his head. She seemed a little too confident in his opinion. And he also couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit outraged that Relioth had told these things to Elrin, but not him. Though perhaps Relioth had thought it would be best to keep Kaleth away from learning too much as a way to control him.

“I know you don’t like him,” Elrin said, looking at all of them. “But I don’t see another way to do anything.”

“There’s Mereria,” Mel added quietly. He looked very unhappy with where this discussion was going, which was more than Kaleth could say for most of the people in this room.

“Yes,” Elrin replied, nodding. “While she hadn’t been around Enor as long as Relioth, she might be useful here as well. However, we don’t know where she is. We do know where Relioth is.”

Do you think she’s…. Mel’s voice sounded in Kaleth’s head. Kaleth gave him a sympathetic look. He really, really hoped his sister was okay. If Mereria had gotten her killed….

Yes, I don’t think they’re dead.

Mel grimaced a bit, guilt practically radiating from him. Kaleth hadn’t thought he’d react this badly to being reminded he’d forgotten about Edras.

It’s alright, love, Kaleth told him quickly, sending him some positive feelings. If he had to be positive to anyone other than Mel right now, he didn’t think he’d manage it, and even like this he was having difficulties to keep himself that way.

“Come on, Kaleth, you know this is the best option we have,” Elrin said, almost pleadingly. Kaleth glared at the table. “You can’t defeat Enor on your own.”

“Pardon my reluctance at rescuing a mass murderer.” But dammit, Elrin was probably right. Enor had seemed confident he’d break Relioth sooner or later, and if Relioth joined Enor, they would have another massive problem to deal with. Better having said problem on their side than on Enor’s. Kaleth didn’t have to like it, though. And he wouldn’t. Because it was Relioth.

“Aren’t we all mass murderers at this point?” Elrin joked, making everyone look at her. “Right, right, I forget not everyone here is hundreds of years old.” And then added with a mutter: “And has a sense of humor.” She turned to Kaleth again. “I do need to point out that you are technically dating a serial killer.”

Kaleth bristled while Mel flinched and looked away. No one was going to talk about him this way. “Hardly. Mel doesn’t enjoy murderer. At worst he is—was—an assassin.”

“Does the definition of a serial killer include enjoyment?” Elrin asked, raising an eyebrow while Kaleth narrowed his eyes.

“I think we got off topic,” Orina cut in. “Do you have a better plan, Garen?”

Kaleth glared at her with all his might. She just never missed an opportunity to call him that, did she? She didn’t even use a mocking tone with it anymore. She just said it as if it was still his actual name. There was a glint of sadistic enjoyment in her eyes though, and that never left her when she called him this.

Kaleth really didn’t want to admit that he couldn’t think of anything better. Maybe if every Eternal they could get on their side attacked Enor at once, that might get them somewhere. But when he thought back to the fight he’d had with him, how Enor had only been toying with him instead of actually fighting him….

A shiver ran down Kaleth’s spine. He actually felt sick from thinking about this. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d reacted this way to a defeat, though he had vague memories of it having happened at some point.

“If Relioth truly knows how to defeat Enor,” Kaleth began, giving Elrin a pointed look. She just nodded and shrugged as if this wasn’t a big deal. It was, in fact, a huge one. “Then yes, I agree that we should get him away from the enemy. However, I don’t agree with him fighting beside us. If I do manage to rescue him, he will stay here and powerless.”

Are you sure about this? Mel asked, though the concerned look he was giving Kaleth really got those words across well enough.

No, of course not, Kaleth replied with a mental equivalent of a sigh. But I don’t see another way. Elrin might be right about that.

Mel stayed silent after that, but it was clear he disapproved.

“That sounds fair,” said Elrin, nodding slowly. “I do think you would be enough to kill Enor, but not as you are right now.”

That sounded like a backhanded compliment, but Kaleth kept that to himself. He was still quite unhappy with how things were progressing, but all he really could do was grumble about it internally, much like what Mel was doing right now. Kaleth couldn’t actually hear his thoughts, but he could tell just by looking at him.

“Good. Does anyone else have anything to add?” Elrin asked, and when no one said anything, she told everyone they could leave. Everyone except for Kaleth, that is. And Mel stayed with him on general principle, it seemed.

“Were you planning on doing anything else or can we begin immediately?” Elrin asked, which naturally made Mel physically shield Kaleth from her as much as possible while still sitting down. Kaleth would have loved to go outside and fly for a bit around the countryside, but he knew they couldn’t. At best it would be a colossal waste of time, which they didn’t have, and at worst it would betray their location, or at the very least the fact that Kaleth was alive.

“I suppose we can begin immediately,” Kaleth said, which made Mel whirl around in his chair. He was giving Kaleth such a disapproving look that it made Kaleth want to take what he’d said back immediately. But he couldn’t. This needed to be done as soon as possible.

“You need rest,” Mel pleaded, now his face turning to one of a sad puppy. Which was objectively much worse.

“We don’t have time, Mel. I don’t know what Enor’s plan is, but at the very least he’s turning people into Eternals, and brainwashing them. The longer we wait, the more civilians become that.” Kaleth couldn’t keep up eye contact while saying this. The pleading of Mel’s eyes was just too much for him to handle.

Mel just sighed for the most part. Kaleth hated how defeated he looked with his shoulders slouched like that, but he couldn’t do anything about that. Neither of them was happy about this situation, but they also couldn’t figure out a way out of it.

“I know you’re worried about Kaleth, Mel,” said Elrin, her eyes full of understanding. Kaleth really didn’t know what she was faking and what was real, and at this point, he didn’t even care. “But he’s right. There is no avoiding this if we want innocent lives to be spared.”

Mel’s shoulders just sagged lower as he nodded, not looking at either of them. Kaleth sighed, putting an arm around Mel’s waist. It didn’t really do much, but Mel did seem a little comforted by the gesture at least.

“Alright,” Elrin said, sitting down next to Kaleth. “Relioth didn’t tell me that much about teleportation, but I think what I know might be enough to get some general idea of how it works.” She immediately grimaced. “Well, what works for him, at least. There is no way of knowing if this is general, or person specific.”

“Let’s assume it’s general,” Kaleth stated flatly, squeezing Mel’s hand when it found his.

Elrin breathed in deeply, brushing hair away from her face. “Right, so, Relioth said that teleportation is apparently controlled by emotions a lot. A bit of a ‘you have to really want to be somewhere to get there’ kind of thing.”

Huh. Interesting.

“Oh, is that why we ended up next to your family home?” Mel asked. Kaleth scowled at that idea, already about to deny the logic, but he couldn’t manage it. He supposed in a way Mel was right. Kaleth might hate his father, but he’d spent a lot of time in that mansion. During his youth he may have even felt safe there, something he hadn’t really felt in a very long time. Perhaps it had been his subconsciousness that had picked the destination.

“Might be, yeah,” Elrin said, looking delighted to have this theory possibly confirmed. “Relioth actually told me on several occasions that when he was upset, he had to teleport multiple times because he kept ending up somewhere else.” Elrin let out a laugh.

“Do you truly expect me to make myself want to go back to that frozen hellscape of a country, and not just that, but also the flying base of the person who almost killed me a few days ago?” Kaleth asked, trying to both point out the hole in this logic, and to complain a bit. He felt like he hadn’t gotten it out of his system quite yet.

“Well, yes, that might be tricky,” Elrin said, putting a hand up to her chin. Kaleth almost snorted. Tricky. Quite the understatement. “But maybe you could focus on your desire to stop Enor instead. You have a lot of that, don’t you?”

Kaleth gave an unamused look at her slightly teasing tone and said nothing. Her idea did sound potentially all right in theory, after all. He did have a lot of that. And also a lot of anger. Though that might throw off his desired location. Or had Relioth been upset about something unrelated to where he was trying to go in what Elrin had mentioned?

“You said that negative emotions can make it difficult,” Kaleth said, to which Elrin nodded. “But what if they are solely negative towards the person you are trying to get to?”

Elrin smirked and laughed. “I don’t know, unfortunately. But I don’t see why that should interfere.”

Kaleth would take that as a yes. Though he wasn’t sure he would try that. He couldn’t imagine managing to teleport multiple times if he ended up somewhere else, not without a significant power boost.

“And another thing,” Elrin said, her eyes wide as if she had only now remembered it. “It apparently really helps if you focus on the image of a person or place, whatever you are trying to get to, while teleporting. It might help with getting to the right part of Enor’s ship.”

Kaleth didn’t know which part of that he should deconstruct first. He was mostly wondering why Elrin called Enor’s huge aircraft a ship, but that was very much a secondary concern. “You think I can think about Relioth without getting upset?”

Elrin opened her mouth, and then closed it again, looking down. She looked sort of embarrassed even. “Well, yes, I can see why that could happen. But I thought you two were friends before the, well, the incident.”

“Is that what we are calling the murder of thousands of people?” Kaleth couldn’t help but get snippy at this point. The way Elrin kept disregarding that was equal parts frustrating and disturbing, given that this didn’t seem to faze her at all. How many people had Relioth killed with Elrin around for her to just wave that away?

“Yes, exactly, so we understand each other,” Elrin said, her generally pleasant voice giving way to annoyance. She closed her eyes, letting out a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Kaleth. Of course, you’re right. But my point still stands. Didn’t you like hanging out with him? I hear you went drinking quite often.”

Next to Kaleth, Mel seemed to straighten his posture a little bit and squeezed Kaleth’s hand more to the point that it almost hurt. Almost. Was Mel jealous of Relioth? As if he could hear exactly what Kaleth was thinking—which was actually very likely—Mel grumbled in his mind. I just hate that he used you like this. You deserve much better friends.

It was such a pure, innocent idealism that Kaleth almost started laughing. But he managed to keep it together because Mel would no doubt assume Kaleth was laughing at him, specifically.

I have you—that’s much better.

Mel just blushed, and frankly, Kaleth was having a hard time not doing that as well. Somehow it was much harder to keep these words to himself in telepathy, which he supposed made sense. It was harder to filter out random thoughts, which was both good and terrible.

“Kaleth?” Elrin tried getting his attention. Kaleth blinked and focused on her again. Right, conversation about his relationship with Relioth before he’d found out what a monster he was. Though he’d always suspected his moral code wasn’t entirely on the straight and narrow. Perhaps that was a part of the reason why Kaleth had liked him, originally. Relioth seemed to understand how to walk the path of doing bad things for the greater good very well, which Kaleth couldn’t help but admire at the time. He just hadn’t known just how twisted the Eternal’s idea of what counted as the greater good was.

“I suppose I did like him originally,” Kaleth forced out through his teeth. It felt like a betrayal to even say this, and he certainly felt a lot of shame for it as well.

“Great, try to focus on that, then,” Elrin said, grinning widely. “I know you can do this Kaleth. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but I think you’re much more talented at this than Relioth ever was.”

“Are you trying to fool me into having confidence?” Kaleth asked, narrowing his eyes at her. Elrin remained undeterred, however.

“I do actually think this. Personally, I think the reason Relioth hadn’t told you most of what he knows is that you scared him.”

Kaleth tried to suppress a smirk at that. Any negative feelings he could instil in Relioth, particularly fear, was bound to do that. “I had a feeling.”

Elrin smiled at him proudly. Kaleth really didn’t like how giddy that made him feel. Well, the part of him that was constantly looking for validation was giddy. He really should have gone to the job-mandated psychologist regularly. Or at least once or twice.

I think you should do that, still, Mel’s voice sounded in Kaleth’s mind once again. Maybe once this is over?

It was so adorable how encouraging he was. Kaleth really wanted to kiss his cheek for that, but not with Elrin in the room.

Alright, love, I will.

If this even concluded with them alive by the end of it.

“Is there more to teleportation than this?” Kaleth asked, hoping to find out more before he got completely distracted once again.

Elrin frowned pensively for a moment before shaking her head. “Not that I can remember. Relioth said he just focuses on where he wants to go, and then he appears there. And that the more he did it, the more automatic it became.”

Kaleth scowled. Well, it was better than nothing, he supposed. Though he still had no idea if he could do it again at all. He certainly didn’t even remember teleporting, so there couldn’t have been much thought put into it. It truly must have only been an emotional reaction to his and Mel’s nearing demise.

Desperation had gotten him out of Irithara, but it most likely wouldn’t get him back in. And he certainly wasn’t going to try putting Mel in danger just to see if that would work well as an incentive.

“If you don’t have any further questions, we can try immediately, if you want,” Elrin said, making it very clear through her tone that she didn’t mind him saying no. “Or you could rest for a bit longer. It is almost night-time, after all.”

Kaleth would have found the idea of leaving something as important as this for the next day only because it was getting late ridiculous even back in Luxarx, but the constant stabbing in his chest wound and his general tiredness made refusing that offer very difficult.

And Mel’s puppy eyes were the last nail in the coffin.

“I…suppose I could use a little more rest.”

Elrin smiled at him, gave a nod, and walked out of the room wishing him a good night. Kaleth watched her leave before looking over at Mel, whose hand he’d been holding this entire time. He still looked worried, but at least now he wasn’t being disapproving anymore. Those looks were a little too effective at making Kaleth question his decision making.

Kaleth really hoped he could fall asleep at all, if only to avoid Mel worrying too much.