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

Mel wasn’t happy. Kaleth being around Relioth had been bad enough, but now they were just drinking together? Mel trusted Kaleth’s judgement—usually—but he felt he was entitled to feeling upset by this.

Mel glared at the bag of sugar he was currently in the process of eating. He was just sitting in the storage room he’d found the sugar in, not bothering to move elsewhere. Not like he had anywhere else to be. He’d wanted to talk to Rayni about this, but she was somewhere busy with Mereria, and he wasn’t going to pull her away from that to complain to her about this.

Mel grimaced, putting the spoon he’d been using into the sugar bag, letting the handle stick out of it. He wasn’t being fair to Kaleth here. He’d tried to explain to Mel through telepathy, but Mel had ignored him as soon as he’d told him what was going on. He’d just been too upset to listen, and now he was really regretting it. But he was still too upset to actually contact Kaleth and apologize.

Mel sighed, putting another spoonful of sugar in his mouth. He could barely taste it now. He put the sugarbag aside and hugged himself. Eating sweet things always used to make him feel better. Or maybe it still worked, but not when it came to Kaleth.

Mel closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath. He needed to talk to Kaleth. He could tell Kaleth wasn’t happy either, even though he had closed himself off too. There was no fully hiding their emotions from each other with this bond it seemed. And while Mel wasn’t exactly okay with that, mostly because of Kaleth’s lack of privacy, it was probably for the best.

Honey? Mel tried. He didn’t want to say anything more, if only to avoid feeling embarrassed if Kaleth didn’t want to talk to him. But he hadn’t needed to worry, it seemed.

Sweetheart, Kaleth replied, his words laced with excitement and relief. Mel smiled to himself, but a second later, guilt made that go away. He hadn’t wanted to make Kaleth worry. But he couldn’t do much about that now.

Look, I’m sorry if I upset you, Kaleth continued, the guilt in his words matching Mel’s. Mel really wanted to hug him right now, but since they weren’t close to each other, he had to settle for just sending some loving feelings his way.

No, no, I’m sorry. I should have just let you explain, Mel replied, feeling worse with every word. And Kaleth seemed to be feeling the same way.

Oh, love…. There was a pause, but Mel could tell exactly what Kaleth was thinking right now. He was mirroring Mel’s feelings exactly. Regret, guilt, sadness…. And Mel hated it.

You have every right to feel the way you do, Kaleth continued, which was followed by the approximation of a sigh. I know you hate Relioth.

Well, so do you, Mel said, frowning to himself. Right?

Yes, of course, Kaleth replied immediately. But…we need him right now.

That didn’t explain why the two had gone to get a drink, or why Relioth was outside his cell in the first place, but Mel would keep that to himself. Clearly, Kaleth wasn’t very happy with this situation either.

But honestly that just made Mel more worried. Relioth wasn’t powerful enough to hurt Kaleth, but that didn’t really put Mel’s mind at ease. Relioth had already hurt him enough, and he didn’t need to be strong to do it. And Mel would be damned if he managed to do that yet again.

Where are you? Mel asked after a moment of silence. Kaleth seemed surprised by the question, but he told him immediately.

On the surface. In the…what is this? A barn?

You mean the one above the Umbra hideout?

Yes, that.

Kaleth was so cute when he stopped being so impossibly eloquent for just a moment. Not that he wasn’t cute always.

Are you planning on coming up here?

Ah, Kaleth was really quick with figuring out Mel’s motives. Yeah, if that’s okay.

Of course, Kaleth said, actually sounding pretty relieved. Mel smiled. He didn’t waste time getting to the surface, and no one seemed to be interested in stopping him. Not even Tira, who he knew had seen him, just smiled his way and walked off. Mel wasn’t sure what to think of her, but she had been—and she still was—loyal to Relioth. And so he couldn’t trust her, no matter how nice she seemed. Right?

Maybe he could ask Kaleth later. He knew her, didn’t he? But Mel supposed it didn’t really matter. What mattered was getting outside and making sure Relioth wasn’t up to anything. Which he probably was. It was Relioth, after all. Mel might have gotten most of his information about him from Mereria, but he knew Relioth’s constant scheming wasn’t just a lie.

But when he left the Umbra tunnel, he was greeted with a strangely unsuspicious sight. That didn’t mean he approved, though.

Kaleth and Relioth were sitting on wooden crates in the corner of the barn, not close enough that Mel would have to worry about Kaleth’s safety, or far enough that he would worry about Relioth escaping. And on the ground between them was a half empty bottle of something alcoholic Mel couldn’t identify because he knew next to nothing about all the types of alcohol.

Kaleth looked incredibly annoyed and glared at Relioth as the other kept talking about something concerning Luxarx. At least that was what Mel thought. He wasn’t really focusing on what Relioth was saying as much as the way he was saying it. Relioth was sitting facing Kaleth, and despite the fact that his nose had a bruise and a cut on it, he seemed really, really happy. Way too happy for Mel’s taste.

Mel cautiously made his way towards Kaleth, whose face lit up when he noticed him. Relioth stopped talking for a moment then, thankfully.

“Hello, love,” Kaleth said. Despite his smile, he still sounded tired. Mel glared at Relioth harder. No doubt he was responsible for that. And Relioth actually looked away. How strange. No one this powerful had found Mel intimidating before.

Kaleth quickly distracted Mel from thinking about this further by patting the empty space next to him on the old crate. Mel blushed, smiling to himself shyly. He really hoped the crate wouldn’t break under their weight as he sat down, grinning at Kaleth.

“I see you took my advice,” Relioth commented teasingly. Mel had no idea what he was talking about, but he scowled at him anyway. A part of him kept wanting to lower his head and hope Relioth wouldn’t kill him, but rationally Mel knew Relioth couldn’t do anything to him now. Aside from saying something.

“What are you talking about?” Kaleth asked him, sounding so disinterested that Mel had to wonder just why he even bothered humoring Relioth. Maybe he would have told them what he’d meant anyway. Probably. Relioth talked a lot, after all.

“Well, ya know,” Relioth said, waving his cuffed hands. It was probably meant to look casual, but with his hands like this, it just looked incredibly strange and awkward. “I told you that you had to stick with who you’re bonded to.”

Kaleth glared at Relioth with so much intensity, it made Mel second-hand uncomfortable. “Mel not being high in stature was not the problem I had with it, you absolute—”

“It wasn’t?” Relioth stared at both of them with wide eyes. And then his eyes widened further, this time in something like understanding. “Oh. Oh. I so misread that.”

Kaleth heaved a sigh and ran both of his hands through his hair, leaving it adorably ruffled.

“Enor really did a number on your society, huh?” Relioth continued. Mel still barely understood what was going on. Was this about Kaleth liking men? Mel bit the inside of his lip. “I’ve tried undoing it, but it’s easier said than done.”

Kaleth gave him a withering look. It was kind of impressive how many ways Kaleth could express disdain with just his face. Though maybe Mel could easily read it because he could feel the disdain as well. “Are you saying homophobia is Enor’s doing?”

Relioth grimaced and shrugged apologetically. “He needed your people to have as many babies as quickly as possible. Uh, sorry.”

Kaleth shook his head. Mel couldn’t even detect any anger anymore. He wasn’t sure if that was more or less worrying.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Mel decided to take matters into his own hands. Which was just as exciting as it was terrifying. “Why…why do you look like that?”

Relioth smirked. “You like it?” He gestured to his face. If it weren’t Relioth’s, maybe Mel would have liked it. But that was hardly surprising. Relioth always chose beautiful faces.

“Maybe you should grow a beard, Kaleth,” Relioth said, grinning. Kaleth narrowed his eyes at him, but inside, he wasn’t just annoyed. He also seemed a bit doubtful.

Would you…like that? Kaleth asked Mel, rubbing his stubble. His voice was suddenly laced with insecurity as well, and Mel quickly grabbed his hand.

No, no, of course not, Mel said immediately, and then shook his head. I mean, if you wanted to, I’m sure you’d look great. But you’re perfectly fine as you are.

Kaleth smiled at him. Usually there would be some vague sadness in his eyes paired with that smile, but to Mel’s delight, there was nothing like that now. The smile was pure and genuine. It made his heart skip a beat.

Thanks, love.

“It’s not polite to chat like that when you’ve got company,” Relioth said, practically singing the last few words. Both Mel and Kaleth shot him a glare, though Kaleth’s was definitely harsher.

“It’s also not polite to kill thousands of people,” he snapped, making Relioth shrink back and stare at the ground. He almost looked…ashamed. But Mel was pretty sure that he only looked that way because Kaleth was the one yelling at him.

“You’re never gonna let that go, huh?”

Mel’s eyes widened at the fury that immediately started radiating from Kaleth. Before he could get up and probably beat Relioth to death, Mel grabbed his arm with both of his hands, trying to keep him where he was until he calmed down a bit.

“Are you kidding me?!” Kaleth yelled at him. “Do you really expect me to forget that?”

Shockingly, Kaleth was letting Mel keep him at a distance from Relioth. There was no doubt in Mel’s mind that if Kaleth wanted to, he could very easily just throw him off, so that was very encouraging.

“No, I guess not. I just forget that you aren’t numb to it yet,” Relioth shrugged. “And that you aren’t thousands of years old.”

“And that I don’t like you,” Kaleth added, folding his arms. Mel let go of him, instead rubbing his shoulder. He’d taken the armor off again, so Mel could actually touch it.

“Not even a little?” Relioth asked, looking almost heartbroken. Kaleth sighed again. And Mel was somehow feeling even more confused by all of this. Why would Relioth assume Kaleth liked him? And why wasn’t Kaleth denying it immediately?

Mel gave Kaleth a worried look, but he didn’t look back at him.

“Maybe I did at the start. But I didn’t know what you were back then,” Kaleth said quietly, clearly ashamed of even admitting this. Mel couldn’t stand to see him sad, but he wasn’t sure how much he could say, so instead he put his arms around Kaleth.

He lied to you, Mel reminded Kaleth, but he just nodded, clearly unconvinced. Mel’s shoulders slumped. He really needed to get better at cheering him up.

Relioth actually looked very upset by what he’d just been told, which was so unlike him Mel was going to just assume it was all an act. He probably just wanted them to feel sorry for him so they would let their guard down and let him escape. Well, that wasn’t going to happen.

Mel very, very begrudgingly let go of Kaleth when he felt the man nudge him gently and folded his arms instead, staring off to the side at the huge barn door. He wasn’t sure if his presence was making things better or worse, but he wasn’t going to leave Kaleth alone with Relioth, so he was staying for now.

He wished he’d brought the sugar.

“I’m really sorry, you know,” Relioth said, stunning the other two completely. Mel had never heard Relioth use that word sincerely. So of course he didn’t believe for a second that Relioth was being sincere.

Mel could have looked inside Relioth’s head—check if he truly was planning on running away as soon as he got a chance to. But he was scared of doing that. Despite rationally knowing the truth, Mel couldn’t make himself truly accept that Relioth was powerless now, and even then, what if Relioth got free and wanted revenge later? There was no way Mel could measure up to him. And besides, maybe even as powerless as he was, he could protect his mind. Kaleth had been barely there, and he’d managed to throw Mel out anyway.

“Are you?” Kaleth asked Relioth, his voice perfectly even, but Mel could tell he was incredibly angry. Swallowing thickly, Mel waited for something terrible to happen. He watched as Kaleth rose up, his eyes cold. He walked over to Relioth, staring him down as Mel’s heart did a very uncomfortable flip. And from the looks of Relioth, he wasn’t very comfortable either. He wasn’t even trying to meet Kaleth’s eyes. He just ducked his head further.

“How does it feel to know that your beloved best friend hates you?” Kaleth continued, his tone carrying a hint of maliciousness as he put on this awful, awful smirk, and Mel just had to get involved then.

“Kaleth!” he exclaimed as he sprung up, running up to Kaleth and grabbing his hand. He had no idea why Kaleth had called himself that, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was what Kaleth was doing. And Relioth wasn’t worth sinking to this level.

Kaleth looked dazed for a moment, and he blinked, looking at Mel instead. There was a flash of embarrassment from him as he took a step back. Mel was about to ask if he was okay, but before he could, Relioth did it for him. Mel studied his face closely, but he couldn’t find any lie in his expression. Relioth just looked hurt and concerned.

“You said you know how to fight Enor,” Kaleth finally said, keeping his distance from Reloth. He wasn’t even looking at him now. “Start talking.”

I’m sorry, love, I don’t know what came over me, Kaleth told Mel as Relioth started talking about Eternal power usage in an unsteady voice.

Mel squeezed Kaleth’s hand tighter. Why did you call yourself that?

Kaleth paused for a moment. I’ll tell you later.

Mel couldn’t help but feel disappointed, but he understood. There were more important things to focus on.

“Basically to sum up the problem—you’re being super wasteful with your energy usage,” Relioth said, which made both Mel and Kaleth glare at him yet again. It probably hadn’t been meant as an insult, but it had sure come across that way.

“And you are incredibly wasteful with your words,” Kaleth grumbled. Why was he so cute when he was grumpy? Under better circumstance, Mel would definitely find it very difficult to resist at least kissing Kaleth’s cheek.

“Also,” Relioth continued without reacting to Kaleth’s jab, “there is a way to help you at least give yourself wings.”

Mel winced. He was of course happy about that, truly, but he couldn’t help but be a little conflicted about it too. If Kaleth learned to transform, what would Mel use as an excuse to come with him to dangerous situations? Mel really doubted Kaleth would let him tag along if it weren’t completely necessary.

“You mean like yours?” Kaleth asked, sounding intrigued. Mel was both glad and upset that Kaleth hadn’t noticed his sad pondering.

Reloth nodded. He was still very listless, though. Mel hadn’t thought he’d be that affected by Kaleth, or anyone else for that matter, telling him he hated him. Mel wanted to pretend he prefered Relioth this way, but he couldn’t. Seeing anyone this sad never made him feel good.

“Yeah. I wanted to show you how to do that, but then I got the idea to, um….”

“Kidnap Mel?” Kaleth finished for him drily. Relioth scratched his neck. “Well done.”

“Oh, don’t pretend you didn’t like him being around,” Relioth said, snorting. His eyes were still dull and empty though, no matter how wide he grinned. Mel looked away. It had always been difficult to look at him, but now it was somehow worse. Or maybe not worse, but a different brand of bad.

“Be that as it may,” Kaleth growled at him, “I wouldn’t have minded knowing how to fly. That seems like it could be useful when, perhaps, fighting Enor.”

Mel cringed, despite all the resentment Kaleth was expressing not being aimed at him. In fact Kaleth had started gently rubbing Mel’s hand with his thumb. It would have been nicer if Relioth hadn’t been here, though.

“I don’t think you’d beat him either way, Kaleth,” Relioth said, grimacing. “No offense.”

Kaleth scoffed, looking at the wall instead. “That would still be your fault.”

There was a tense moment of a very uncomfortable silence, and just as Mel was about to try and say something again, Relioth cleared his throat.

“Well, yeah, I guess,” he said, shrugging. He wasn’t looking at either of them, instead preferring to stare at his hands. “But I could help now. Let me, um, make it up to you?”

Kaleth shook his head. “There is nothing you can do to make up anything to anyone.”

Relioth continued staring at his hands, his shoulders visibly sagging.

He really looks like he wants to help, Mel told Kaleth hesitantly. Kaleth huffed out a humorless laugh.

I think in his head, everything he does is try to help, he replied and rose up again, folding his arms as he made his way to Relioth again. “You want to help? Fine. Tell me how I can give myself wings, and I might be willing to listen.”

That was an odd use of logic, in Mel’s opinion. Didn’t they want Relioth to tell them things? Why would Kaleth make him do something so he would tell them even though he apparently already wanted to tell them? But Mel held his tongue. Kaleth knew what he was doing, and he understood these things better than Mel.

“Yeah, of course,” said Relioth, looking up at Kaleth. His eyes had lit up somewhat, some of the usual manic—scary—energy returning, but he was still keeping his head somewhat lowered. “It’s just….”

“Well?” Kaleth asked, frowning. Somehow he seemed to find a way to fold his arms even more tightly.

“You’ll, um….” Relioth paused again. “You’ll have to let me touch your forehead.”

Mel immediately felt a need to get Kaleth away from Relioth, but he resisted the urge. Kaleth was more than capable of doing that himself, and he would of course do it, right? He wouldn’t trust Relioth to mess with his mind, even if Relioth was too powerless to manage much.

And Kaleth seemed to have the same reaction. He took a step back, scowling at Relioth angrily. “Do you think I’m that much of an idiot?”

Relioth sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t want to hurt you. I never did. And I won’t.”

“Then what do you want to do?”

Kaleth was staying where he was, in safe distance, which was good, but Mel could tell he wasn’t entirely opposed to whatever Relioth wanted to do. And Mel wasn’t happy about that at all.

“You’ve shown that you aren’t exactly, uh, gifted when it comes to mental visualization,” Relioth said, looking down again. Mel wondered if he was afraid Kaleth would hit him for saying that. Mel didn’t agree with the assessment—Kaleth was fine—but it didn’t make him overly mad either. “I can give you mine. For something as simple as wings, it should work.”

Huh? That could be done?

“It’s that simple?” Kaleth said, his voice full of suspicion and doubt. And yeah, Mel agreed. This was odd, to say the least. But he also couldn’t help but trust Relioth a little. He didn’t seem to be lying at all, and as far as Mel knew how their powers worked, Relioth shouldn’t be strong enough to hurt Kaleth much. But he still didn’t want to go along with any of this.

“Well, yeah, but it isn’t all that simple for me,” Relioth replied to Kaleth’s question, grinning up at him weakly. “I gotta put all my mental images into something comprehensible for you.”

Kaleth rolled his eyes so hard Mel was sure it must have hurt. “Oh, how difficult life must be for you.”

Relioth raised up his cuffed hands a little. “Well….”

“Just shut up and do it,” Kaleth grumbled, making Mel’s eyebrows shoot up. But before he could ask if Kaleth was sure about this, he got a serious nod from him. Mel grimaced. This felt like a bad idea, but he’d stay silent. Clearly, Kaleth wasn’t happy about this either.

Relioth seemed just as surprised as Mel. “R-really?” His eyes lit up. “All right!”

Kaleth stared at Relioth blankly as the Eternal practically jumped up from the crate and took a few steps towards Kaleth. “Um, you might want to take off your shirt.”

Kaleth wrinkled his nose, and unless it were a trick of the dim light in the bar, he was blushing a bit. “Why?”

He sounded very defensive, and rightly so. What did that have to do with this?

“Well, once I show you the wings you might automatically form them,” Relioth said, raising up his hands in surrender. “And given the fact that you’re only wearing a shirt, I’m assuming you don’t exactly have spare clothes.”

That…was actually reasonable. It made Mel more annoyed that he would have expected, though. He remembered a time when he’d be too scared to express a feeling like that to someone as powerful as Relioth. And it had been relatively recently, too. It was really exciting to think about.

Kaleth let out an unimpressed sound, but begrudgingly started undoing the shirt’s buttons. And now he was definitely blushing. And so was Mel. He looked away, giving Kaleth as much privacy as he could, even though he’d already seen what he looked like without his shirt on. Though Kaleth hadn’t been conscious at that time, and Mel had been desperate to keep him from bleeding out, so maybe it didn’t count.

It’s alright, Mel, Kaleth told him, sounding much more flustered in his head than he probably would have out loud. You can look. It’s not a big deal.

Kaleth wasn’t fooling anyone like this. It was very clear it was a very big deal to him, and he was just trying to hide it. Mel shook his head and just smiled at him, trying not to stare at anything but his face. Kaleth gave him a rather pained smile back, and then focused on Relioth, his scowl returning.

“Get on with it, then,” Kaleth told him, and Relioth nodded, reaching out with both of his hands to Kaleth’s forehead. Mel bit his lip, ready to get up and run to Kaleth to help him if Relioth even thought about betraying them.

And he did as soon as he heard Kaleth cry out in pain. Mel was between the two immediately, dragging Kaleth away to safety, but that was about as much as he’d managed before he noticed it.

There were huge, gray, feathery wings spreading out behind and around Kaleth, sprouting from his shoulder blades. Where sunlight hit them, the feathers got a gold tint, almost sparkling as Kaleth moved his new apandages. The wings themselves looked strong and durable, much like Mel’s own. Except his were nowhere near as beautiful as these.

Kaleth groaned, rubbing his head, only apparently then noticing the wings. He stared at them for a moment, his eyes wide, before moving them a little, stretching them out and making the feathers rustle softly. Some of them were longer than Kaleth’s arm.

“Holy hell,” Kaleth muttered. He sounded like he didn’t even believe his eyes. Mel wouldn’t blame him. His wings were glorious.

“Are you okay?” Mel asked, and Kaleth nodded absently.

“Yeah, yes, of course,” he replied, still sounding dazed. He then drew his wings in, folding them close to his back. They were so huge, however, that they stuck out way above Kaleth’s head.

“Sorry,” Relioth said. Mel had almost forgotten he was there still. As Mel focused back on the Eternal, he was shocked to find out that Relioth was now sitting on the ground, breathing heavily. “I didn’t expect a transfer like this would hurt. I guess I’m too low on power to do it well.”

Mel scowled, looking back at Kaleth with worry. Kaleth seemed fine though, he just kept moving his wings and watching it happen. Mel had never really tried only giving himself wings, but then again, he didn’t really know how any of this worked. He just knew he could turn into a dragon, so that was what he turned into.

“I find it hard to believe that these will allow me to fly,” Kaleth said, practically poking at one of the wing bones. Mel found himself reaching out to the flight feathers of the same wing and running a finger over it. It was incredibly soft and silky, but the hard center of the feather felt as strong as steel.

“They will. We don’t really follow the rules of physics,” Relioth joked, cutting his laughter short when no one else joined in. “Uh, Enor would probably explain why this makes sense. I don’t really care. I just like flying.”

He rose up, looking at Kaleth’s wings more closely, and Mel had to force himself not to push Relioth away from him. Kaleth basically did it for him though, by folding the wing again. “I don’t get why they’re so dull, though. They were supposed to be gold.”

Kaleth scowled, narrowing his eyes, but Mel could feel that on the inside, Relioth had, probably unintentionally, hurt Kaleth with those words.

“They’re not dull. They’re beautiful,” Mel said angrily enough that he surprised even himself. But it was true. He had no idea what Relioth was saying. Kaleth’s wings were stunning. Unfortunately, he seemed to have made the situation even worse because now Kaleth was blushing in embarrassment under the hand he was covering his face with.

“This isn’t about how they look,” he forced out, taking a few steps away from both of them, practically pushing them away with the wings. Mel watched him go sadly, angry with himself now. “I need to know if they work.”

“Oh, they do,” Relioth said, shrugging casually. “I gave you the user’s manual too, so to speak.”

Kaleth narrowed his eyes at him. “I’ll be the judge of that, thank you.”

Mel frowned, about to point out that it might not be safe to fly around outside when Enor was no doubt looking for them. His heart sank when Mel realized that when Kaleth had teleported, Enor could have traced it, but then he breathed out, calming himself. If Enor knew where they were, he would have already come for them. And since the Umbra hideout hid everyone’s presence, it wasn’t out of the question to assume that it hid the energy traces left by teleportation too.

“You shouldn’t fly outside,” Relioth said, voicing Mel’s thoughts. Except his concern was more panicked than Mel’s would have been. There was something like barely controlled horror in his eyes, no doubt worried what Enor might do to him if he came here.

“I’ll be quick,” Kaleth muttered, walking towards Mel, who couldn’t help but stare at his wings. Kaleth didn’t seem to have any trouble with balance and them getting in his way, so Mel would assume this was what Relioth had meant by ‘user’s manual’. Mel doubted that he would be quite this graceful if he’d given himself wings as huge as that.

“May I borrow your dagger, Mel?” Kaleth asked, reaching out with his hand to him. Mel gave it to him, feeling more than a little confused. And also mildly concerned Kaleth would kill Relioth after all. But as it turned out, all Kaleth really needed it for was to make two long slits in the back of his shirt.

He gave Mel the dagger back and proceeded to put the shirt on again.

“This is a really bad idea,” Relioth muttered, probably meaning to say that to himself, but it drew Mel and Kaleth’s attention anyway. Upon noticing that Kaleth’s wings had puffed up in what was definitely irritation, Mel had to force himself not to pet them.

“It’s not cute,” Kaleth grumbled, his feathers puffing up further as his face went red. Mel blushed too, folding his arms and looking away. He hadn’t meant to embarrass Kaleth even more than he already had, but he couldn’t help it. He wondered if the wings had been showing Kaleth’s emotions this entire time, and Mel just hadn’t noticed.

Kaleth waved his hand, making the barn door open with a loud screech and the sound of the door dragging against the ground. Mel blinked as sunlight hit his eyes and grimaced. He really hoped that no one else was around here. Kaleth turned around to look at Mel again, his eyes flicking to Relioth momentarily.

Would you keep an eye on him for a minute, love?

Mel swallowed nervously, trying to remind himself that Relioth wouldn’t be able to hurt him now. Yeah, of course. He sighed. Please, be careful.

Kaleth nodded and walked out of the barn. Mel watched him spread out his wings fully, the feathers practically glowing in the direct light. Like this, each of the wings was probably about twice as long as Kaleth was tall. His wingspan must have been longer than Mel’s.

With a single, powerful flap of the wings Kaleth was airborne, disappearing from sight almost immediately. Mel rushed to the door, looking up and trying to spot him in the sky somewhere. But he couldn’t find him anymore. He must have flown in the direction behind the barn.

Mel’s shoulders slumped. Not being able to see Kaleth was making him antsy, no matter how quickly he would return. Hopefully.

“He really does what he wants, doesn’t he?” Relioth said right next to him, making Mel jump and immediately put some distance between them. “He used to actually listen sometimes.”

Mel glared at him, drawing himself to his full height even though on the inside, he was definitely not feeling even half as brave as he would need to be to confront Relioth like this. “He just doesn’t listen to you.”

Relioth smirked. “Oh, so he listens to you? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

Mel looked away, still glaring. Yes, Kaleth did listen to him. Maybe not always, but in a lot of things he knew better than Mel, so it made sense. Besides, Mel agreed with most of the things Kaleth did. Like what had happened just now. Mel knew that Kaleth learning how to fly was a necessary thing, he just wished it weren’t so dangerous right now.

And he’d also love nothing more than to fly around with him. Flying was a lot of fun, and from the faint feelings of joy he was picking up from Kaleth, he agreed with Mel on this. Mel smiled to himself. He was glad Kaleth was at least having a little fun, even though there were so many things to worry about right now. He deserved a little self-indulgence.

Completely out of nowhere, Kaleth landed in front of Mel, making him step back as a huge gust of wind hit his face and messed up his hair.

“Ah, sorry, love,” Kaleth apologized, folding his wings behind him. “That was…interesting.”

Mel grinned at him. There was a sparkle in Kaleth’s eyes that he wasn’t used to seeing. For once Kaleth actually looked a little less worried, as if the fate of the world weren’t resting on his shoulders.

Mel’s smile quickly vanished at that thought. Sure, this wasn’t all on Kaleth, of course not, but everyone was expecting him to beat Enor, to fix this…. It made sense, but it wasn’t fair either.

“Flying is fun, right?” Relioth said, smirking at Kaleth, receiving an irritated look in return.

“I was talking to Mel,” Kaleth said, his voice just as emotionless as always when he got annoyed. Which seemed to be every time Relioth opened his mouth. Mel didn’t blame him, it annoyed him too. “But yes.”

Relioth didn’t seem put off by this at all. “Ah, we should have flown somewhere random while you were still…. Well, you know.”

This was met with more silence.

“Tell me everything you know about the energy usage,” Kaleth ordered Relioth after a moment, completely disregarding the original subject. Or that was what Mel thought until Kaleth spoke in his head again.

What does Relioth turn into?

Mel shuddered. He had seen Relioth turn into something only once, and it hadn’t been pretty. Well, the form itself had, but what Relioth had done hadn’t been.

A golden, winged lion.

There was a second of silence, only filled with Kaleth’s exasperation.

Of course.

Mel almost laughed at how utterly done Kaleth sounded just then.

“All right,” Relioth replied, tilting his head to the side as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “But you won’t like my plan of going about teaching you this stuff.”

Kaleth narrowed his eyes. “How so? Can’t you simply give me the manual for this?”

“It’s not that simple,” Relioth said, gesturing with his cuffed hands to emphasize it. “Moving wing muscles is easy. This stuff is, like, metaphysical. And much more complicated. I can’t just give you this.” Then he shrugged. “Though that would be a lot easier.”

Kaleth folded his arms, his feathers puffing up again. “Well? What is your plan, then?”

“Uh, well,” Relioth said, clearing his throat, “we’ll need to use these cuffs on you.”