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

When Kaleth woke up, he actually did feel a little better. Well no, that was a lie—he felt a lot better. He was still not on board with this plan, even if he could see its necessity, but at least he didn’t feel like he couldn’t walk from one side of this base to the other without collapsing.

He was slightly concerned by seeing Mel asleep in the chair next to his bed, though. He was of course happy to see him get some rest as well, but he didn’t need to sleep. And he’d said he’d wait for Kaleth to wake up, which basically meant watching him sleep, which would still be quite disconcerting if Mel’s presence wasn’t making Kaleth feel more at peace. And Kaleth doubted it was just Mel—it was probably that bond of theirs as well.

Kaleth decided to let him nap, and he got up, yawning. He really needed to get started on trying to get to Relioth before he really, fully thought through what he was going to do. In theory it sounded so simple. No one besides Enor could truly challenge Kaleth at full power at this point, which would be great if he in fact were at full power. Which he definitely was not.

But if Elrin was to be believed, Enor supposedly had a large number of Eternal energy just stored away for Kaleth to use to get to full power. Or perhaps even increase it. He wasn’t sure how that worked, given that he’d never tried absorbing more power while drained.

Though, perhaps absorbing Irif counted as that. Damn Relioth for not explaining this to him at all. Having been pretending he was being controlled into helping Relioth, Kaleth hadn’t tried asking too many questions out of fear of Relioth becoming suspicious of him. In retrospect, he probably hadn’t needed to worry. Relioth was so arrogant that he missed completely obvious things at all times.

Kaleth gracefully ignored the fact that he’d fallen in the exact same trap more than once as well.

“Ah, Kaleth, you’re awake,” Elrin said before Kaleth could even fully realize she was in the hallway he was walking through. Good, he wouldn’t need to waste even more time looking for her.

“You said you have bottled Eternal energy,” Kaleth replied, eager to get things moving. Elrin smirked, though her eyes weren’t as amused as they should have been. Instead, there was something akin to badly masked worry.

“Yes, follow me,” she said, turning around and strolling towards a room Kaleth hadn’t been in before. Though they all looked the same anyway. This one seemed to be some kind of storage room, judging by the lack of any kind of furniture or anything at all, aside from metal crates. It seemed that wherever Eternals took up residence, these crates were there as well. “You’re always ready to get down to business.”

Kaleth shook his head. “The fate of this world isn’t something you can exactly put off.”

Elrin just hummed as she opened a smaller box on the right, revealing a glass tube filled with blue light. It was very close to Mel’s in color. Kaleth wasn’t sure if he liked that or not. On one hand it was comfortingly familiar, on the other consuming Mel’s energy was about the last thing Kaleth wanted to do.

He wondered how he was supposed to absorb it, anyway. He’d only done it before by touching the wires transferring the energy from Carcer. He doubted it would be as simple as touching the glass. If that even was glass—wouldn’t something so fragile be a terrible containment for this?

“From what Kara told me, Enor seems to have repurposed the Garen mansion to store these,” Elrin said, looking at the glass tube closely. “It really makes me wonder how many of these are there, and how many he goes through just to keep that ship of his afloat.”

“Why do you call it a ship?” Kaleth finally asked, feeling like now was a good time to ask this. Even if it didn’t really matter, it bothered him.

Elrin blinked at him, understanding quickly flashing in her eyes. “Oh, right, you don’t know. It’s a spaceship.”

If Kaleth hadn’t seen Relioth’s, he might have been shocked at that. Now it really just seemed entirely plausible and made sense. And honestly, he probably should have expected that too. That aircraft—spaceship—was a little too large, and for no reason, as far as Kaleth could figure out. These were Eternals—they didn’t need much to continue their existence, so there would be no reason to take up space with such things.

“Is he planning on leaving as well then?” Kaleth asked her as she handed Kaleth the tube.

She blinked at him again. “Who else is leaving?”

Now it was Kaleth’s turn to be confused. Didn’t she know? “Relioth. He told me he would leave once Irif was dealt with. I assume his plan didn’t quite work out.”

Elrin looked a little annoyed when she heard this, maybe even offended. “He told me nothing,” she complained, folding her arms. Well, that was odd. But knowing Relioth, he’d probably just forgotten to mention it to Elrin. Or just hadn’t deemed her important enough.

“I guess it makes sense that he would tell you, though,” Elrin said with a sigh.

Kaleth frowned. “What does that mean?”

Elrin patted his shoulder. “You should hear an explanation from him instead. And he does owe you one.”

“He owes me much more than that,” Kaleth grumbled, shaking her hand off. Elrin gave him a disappointed look that also somehow managed to get across pity. Kaleth looked away from her, preferring to stare at the swirling blue light in the tube.

It was mesmerizing in a way. He remembered not being able to look at Mereria in her true form, and now he was looking at a sliver of the same thing, completely unbothered by it. Though the longer he stared at it, the longer he wanted to shatter the tube and absorb it. He squeezed the glass tube harder, concluding that this was definitely not simple glass as it held on despite the brute force he was applying to it. Finally a small crack appeared, slowly making its way from where Kaleth was holding the tube to the top.

“Kaleth,” Elrin almost yelled, bringing Kaleth out of his trance. He blinked, focusing on her. For a second he’d completely forgotten she was there as well. That was…concerning.

“I’m not sure if breaking it is the right way to go about this,” she said, frowning at the tube. “But it doesn’t seem to be possible to open it another way.” She hummed. “Yeah, just go ahead. If it doesn’t work, you can always take my energy.”

Kaleth flinched. “I’m not sure I—”

“It’s fine, really,” she said, waving her hand. “I don’t need it right now, anyway. Might as well use it for something.”

“I’ve never tried this,” Kaleth protested, shaking his head. Somehow the idea of killing Elrin really, really unnerved him. They hadn’t been particularly close, but they had definitely been friends. And they still were, Kaleth supposed, even though her tendency to be a Relioth apologist and the fact that she’d lied to Kaleth about as much as he had put quite a damper on it. “What if I take too much?”

Elrin snorted. “I wouldn’t let you.” Kaleth looked down at the tube. A few more cracks had appeared on its surface. This had better work because he really didn’t want to try to take Elrin’s energy.

He sighed, and squeezing even harder, he finally shattered it. Hissing as the shards cut his hand, he let go of what remained of the tube. And then he stared at his hand. The blue light seemed to be automatically absorbed into the wounds, healing his hand in the process.

Kaleth breathed in deeply, swallowing as he could feel the power fill him. It wasn’t much, but he already felt much stronger. It was a shame Elrin didn’t have more of these. He certainly wouldn’t have minded absorbing a few more.

He stared at his fully healed hand, flexing his fingers. There was still blood on it, which he had nowhere to wipe off. Thankfully, Elrin apparently had tissues ready, so Kaleth took the one offered to him, wiping his hand. Much better.

“Feeling better?” Elrin asked teasingly.

“Marginally,” Kaleth replied. He didn’t feel anywhere strong enough to attempt something as complicated sounding as teleportation, but he somehow doubted any amount of power would make him feel ready for it.

He didn’t even truly have any way of knowing how much energy it would actually cost him, so all of this was just guesswork. That said, Relioth hadn’t really looked that tired after one of his teleportations, now that Kaleth thought about it. He generally treated it as a completely mundane thing.

“You could still take my energy too,” Elrin said completely casually, putting her hands on her hips.

Kaleth grimaced. “Definitely not.”

Elrin sighed and shrugged, as if to say ‘your loss’. Kaleth scowled and walked out of the room. He needed to find his armor, sword, and shield. But where could that be? He probably should have asked Elrin, but he could always ask Mel instead. He would have to wake him up to say goodbye anyway.

Kaleth sighed when he imagined that conversation. But surely Mel had to know already that Kaleth wasn’t planning on taking him with him. Kaleth almost laughed at the very thought. Mel definitely knew, but that didn’t mean he would follow through with it without an argument. And just then, Kaleth almost, almost thought that this would have been easier two months ago when Mel would do as he was told, and even though Kaleth had managed to banish the thought before he could fully form it, he hated himself anyway.

Kaleth blinked as he found himself back in the room where Mel was sleeping. He was snoring ever so slightly and it was adorable, but Kaleth really did need to wake him. With another sigh, he gently touched Mel’s shoulder. Immediately, Mel sprung up, grabbing Kaleth’s shirt collar and holding up a fist, clearly preparing to punch him.

They both stared at each other with wide eyes, not saying anything for a second, before Mel quickly let go. “Oh, I’m so, so sorry.” He proceeded to stammer a few more apologies, pulling on the sleeves of his uniform while looking at anything other than Kaleth.

“It’s okay, Mel. It’s alright,” Kaleth said, smiling and trying to calm him down by grabbing his shoulders. Mel finally looked up at him, grimacing guiltily.

“I’m sorry. You just startled me,” he said, looking incredibly disappointed with himself.

“Really, it’s alright, love,” Kaleth said, squeezing Mel’s hands instead of his shoulders. “I once almost shot Rayni like this when she woke me up after I fell asleep at my desk.”

Mel raised an eyebrow at him, clearly disapproving again. Kaleth cleared his throat.

“Anyway, it’s perfectly alright. I’m sorry for waking you like this.”

Mel’s expression softened as a soft smile appeared on his face. “No problem. I don’t know why I fell asleep in the first place. I mean, I like sleep, but I can’t get tired.”

Kaleth smiled. A thing they certainly didn’t share then, because he didn’t particularly enjoy sleep in general. It was a huge waste of time, in his opinion. Unless he had someone to sleep next to, of course….

“Maybe you were tired mentally?” Kaleth suggested, unable to not feel a bit guilty because of it. He was the cause after all, if this were the case.

Mel shrugged, still staying more on the peppy side. “Maybe. But I feel much better now.”

“I’m glad to hear that, sweetheart.” Kaleth sighed, letting go of his hands. “Erm, I do have a question, though.”

Mel frowned, clearly expecting the worst. Kaleth really shouldn’t have built it up this much. “Yes?”

“Do you know where my armor and weapon are?” Kaleth asked, deciding to just be blunt about it, while also leaving the implication unsaid. Mel seemed to catch on immediately though, his expression turning from surprised to grim.

“Er, yeah,” he said, sighing heavily. Kaleth did his best to ignore how much he wanted to call this all off after seeing that. He didn’t have a choice if he wanted to keep this planet safe, and he really needed to get that through his head. There was no way to avoid this, and since he was apparently the only one besides Relioth who could teleport, he was also the only one who could do this part.

Mel started walking out of the room, motioning to Kaleth to follow him. They went through the corridor connecting them to the room the meeting had taken place in in silence, the only thing audible being the sound of their footsteps against the metal floor, and humming of what was probably some kind of power generator.

Just as Kaleth was about to break the unbearably awkward silence, Mel did it for him. “You’re not planning on letting me go with you, are you?”

Kaleth was almost surprised by the question. He’d been expecting something more related to the general fact that he was going to Enor’s spaceship, but he would take it. Maybe Mel wouldn’t try to convince him not to do it.

“I’m sorry, Mel,” Kaleth replied, running a hand over his face. “But this is more suited as a one-person mission anyway. The fewer people there are, the less likely they are to be discovered.”

Mel sighed again but nodded. He didn’t look back at Kaleth at all though. Kaleth couldn’t blame him—he didn’t think he’d be able to look Mel in the eye right now either. Not without feeling like he needed to either bring Mel with him, or not go at all.

Finally they walked into what seemed to be another storage room, but unlike the tube with the Eternal energy, the sword and shield were propped up against crates, out in the open. Mel lifted the lid off one of them and started pulling Kaleth’s armor while Kaleth went to the sword and picked it up.

He grimaced. This sword had been used to stab him just a few days prior, and now he would have to use it again. And there was only half of it. It didn’t take much to figure out where the other half probably was. Kaleth gritted his teeth, gripping the handle of the sword tightly. He would get the other half back.

He would have to try to keep his anger towards Enor at bay, though. If teleportation really worked the way Elrin had described it, it might very well get him to teleport to Enor, and that was about the last thing he wanted to happen. Especially not as weakened as he was right now.

His free hand found his wound, and he grimaced as he touched it. It wasn’t as bad as before, however. The power boost he had gotten must have helped with healing it somewhat. Kaleth experimentally stretched out his arm, feeling only very slight pain compared to how it had been yesterday.

Kaleth was at least happy about that. It meant he would be able to sword fight without being majorly limited in his range of movements. He would have tried swinging the sword a little, but with such a small space, and Mel right next to him, it wasn’t worth it.

Mel in the meantime had managed to put together everything, and unhappily helped Kaleth put on the the part fabric, part incredibly strong synthetic fiber armor. Kaleth did his best to ignore the hole in the front of it, though he was only semi successful. There was no blood anywhere near it, but he could still very easily visualize it, and that was making Kaleth feel more than a little sick.

Finally done with this, Kaleth slung the shield onto his back, and put the sword in its holster, though it didn’t really seem to fit given that it was meant for the whole sword, not just half of it. Kaleth supposed he would just have to tolerate it moving around.

“Are you sure you’re ready for something this dangerous?” Mel asked Kaleth glumly as he handed him his goggles. Kaleth took them, staring into his reflection in the lenses. He really didn’t look all that great. He could quite easily fix the mess his hair was, but there was nothing he could do about the dark circles under his eyes.

“It doesn’t matter, love,” Kaleth finally replied as he put on the goggles, leaving them on his forehead for now. “I’m well enough. We don’t have time for more than that.”

Mel bit his lip, somehow radiating even more misery. Kaleth put a hand on his cheek and kissed him softly. “I’ll be okay. And I should be back quite soon, as well.”

Now some bitterness was also mixed in with the misery. That just means I’ll know that something went wrong when you don’t return quickly.

Kaleth sighed, stroking Mel’s hair. “It will be okay.”

Mel didn’t reply, just basically pounced at him, hugging him tightly, and burying his face in Kaleth’s shoulder. He seemed to have closed his mind off from Kaleth now, which made Kaleth all the more concerned. Mel hadn’t done that before. But since he himself had done it to him countless times, Kaleth let it be. Mel was entitled to privacy.

“Here,” Mel said as he separated himself from Kaleth, though he was still keeping a hand on Kaleth’s shoulder. He reached into the hood of his uniform and took out a black pin. Of course.

Kaleth smiled at him, letting Mel put the cloaking device in the hair behind his ear. That would probably help quite a bit if he couldn’t be detected unless he was seen. He really needed to get back into the mentality of not being much stronger than everyone else right now.

“Thank you.”

Mel hugged him again, somehow even more tightly before letting go a moment later, sniffing a little. Kaleth did his best to push aside how much that made his heart ache. For a second he wondered if he should try to find Elrin, or perhaps Kara or Alor before he attempted to teleport, but then decided against it. The sooner he did this, the better. And he was already much too emotional at this point.

Mel nodded at Kaleth before he could even tell him he was going to attempt teleporting. The corner of his mouth turned up a bit as he nodded back, breathing in and closing his eyes.

He tried to visualize the ship, Relioth, his mixed feelings towards him, Aleara, where the ship was currently hovering, just about anything related to where he wanted to go. And he focused on his need to get there.

And when nothing happened, he just tried harder. Harder and harder until he finally felt his energy flowing out of him. He could feel space bending around him. And just like that, he was gone.