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

For a moment Nira couldn’t breathe. Someone was planning to attack her country. Just days after Kaleth had basically done the same thing. But somehow Nira doubted this planned invasion would result in few casualties.

“An attack?” she finally choked out, gaping at her father. “What? Why? When? Who?”

“Calm down, sweetheart, it will be fine,” he tried, but it was obvious not even he believed it. “Only Enoria has the power to beat us, and this is not Enoria. Whoever it is….”

“I assume this mysterious attacker is Enor?” asked Kaleth, completely out of nowhere. And Nira’s eyes widened even more.

“Wha—how do you know that?” Nira’s father asked him, as confused as she was. She’d only heard snippets of the original conversation though, maybe she’d missed it.

“The people blocking our way said that was who they worked for. Eternals, naturally,” Kaleth replied, running a hand through his hair. “And no, I don’t believe it, either.”

“So this is all connected, then?” Nef spoke up, his thinking face on. Nira’s heart lurched. Oh no, he would want to get involved in this just as much as Nira. She would have to try to beat his logic.

“Possibly,” Kaleth said. “Probably.”

Mel squeezed himself closer to Kaleth’s chair. Nira wouldn’t think it odd how silent he was being if not for the fact that during the month she hadn’t seen him, he seemed to have gotten a bit less shy.

“I…I need to go talk to my generals immediately,” Nira’s father said, getting up quickly, his chair screeching as it slid across the wooden floor. “Um, Kaleth, I know you don’t have to stay and help, but—”

“I will help, of course. Starting with strategy,” Kaleth replied and also got up, careful as to not step on any of Mel’s appendages. Mel moved out of the way a bit and jumped up, nuzzling Kaleth’s side as the two and Nira’s father walked towards the door.

“So which generals are we meeting?” Kaleth asked, his voice slowly getting softer as he got farther and farther away.

“Onril and Ayis. They, uh….”

“Hate me?”

“…Don’t appreciate you invading Irithara a few days ago, yes.”

“Splendid.”

Before Nira could say anything, they were gone. She clenched her fists, angry with them and herself for not speaking up.

“Welp,” Nef said after a moment, “that was…not at all what I was expecting.”

“How can you be so calm?” Nira asked, wishing she could also react to this the way Nef did. Though she knew him well enough to know that at least partly this was just an act. No one could be calm after finding out the country they currently couldn’t leave was about to be attacked by a new, mysterious enemy.

“Oh, do I look calm? Great, the illusion is working,” Nira said, grinning at her. Any other day, Nira would find it irresistibly charming. But not today. “Maybe I should become an actor….”

“Nef,” Nira said sternly, “I know making light of a bad situation is how you cope, but we need to be serious right now.”

“Why? What will being serious achieve? It’s not like we can help fight off an invading army of supersoldiers.”

Nira’s eyes widened as she thought of the obvious solution. Suddenly she became aware of this small but loud void inside of her. A void that wanted to be filled. She pushed it away. “No, not like this, but if I get a bit more power…. ”

“What? You’re plenty strong already,” Nef argued, his smirk immediately dissolving.

“You saw how I handled Irif,” Nira said, the mere mention of the event making her feel sick. Oh, how she’d failed….

“You stood your ground pretty well, she was just stronger,” Nef argued, and then put his hands over his face. Nira couldn’t help but smile a little at that. Getting Nef to beat his own argument with logic was no easy task.

“Exactly. I need to be stronger to help. Maybe Yorin could do something.”

Nef perked up slightly at that, which wasn’t at all surprising. Nira would have to be blind not to notice that Nef had developed an appreciation for the insane technology Yorin worked with—slash—invented.

Well, maybe it wasn’t so much insane as it was confusing and complex. Nira didn’t understand half of what Yorin said when he got all science-y.

“Or Sylari.”

“Who?” Nef frowned at her.

“Uh, one of the Iritharian Eternals,” Nira said in an effort to make this less complicated. Though to be honest, what did she even know about Sylari? She was probably a scientist, and that was about it. Nira wasn’t even sure if she was still around here somewhere. Maybe she’d flown off somewhere, like the Eternals that had come here with Kaleth had. But she did know where to find Yorin. Because Nef knew. Nira didn’t want to know how he came by that knowledge.

“Right, let’s try Yorin first, though,” Nef replied. Then the little excitement that had been in his eyes vanished. “Er, Nira….”

“Yeah?”

“You sure you’re…okay?” Nef asked. “I mean, you don’t know what taking more of this power could do to you, right?”

Nira’s insides clenched as he said this. She didn’t agree with him, did she? No, of course not. “Yeah, I’m fine. There haven’t been any side effects, or anything. I just feel stronger.”

Stronger, yet just as hopeless as usual. She could kill someone with her mind, so why did she still feel so weak?

“But not strong enough, huh?” asked Nef, narrowing his eyes. Nira frowned at him, expecting him to continue, but he just shrugged. “Well, if you become even more of a superhero, I see no problem with that.”

Nira’s heart melted at that a bit. Nef’s smiles usually had that effect on her. She kissed his cheek and stood up, and he did the same. “Oh, we should bring your dad along too when he has the time, right? He’s also—”

“No!” Nira immediately protested. She wasn’t even sure what the biggest reason for it was. There were so many. “I mean, he isn’t a fighter.”

“And you are?” Nef asked, an amused smile tugging on his lips. Nira sighed.

“Fine. He’ll want to keep me out of this.” Nira closed her eyes for a moment, and breathed out. She was so tired of going behind her parents’ back. Especially now. But if she just hid in some town in the northern territory, she would never forgive herself.

“Right, right. Because he doesn’t want you to get killed,” Nef continued, now definitely mocking her. “So you’re fine with him hypothetically dying, right?”

“Of course not,” Nira argued automatically, scowling at Nef. And then she groaned. Of course. Nef and his bullet-proof logic. Such a double edged sword.

For the most part, Nef just seemed amused by this, grinning widely at her, but the smile was warm. Not that Nira would expect from Nef to be cruel, but since he’d technically been brought back to life, it was hard not to pay extra attention to it. It seemed too good to be true.

Another part of her was incredibly intrigued and excited by the idea of bringing dead people back to life, though. A part Nira was a bit intimidated by. While it was incredible, it also seemed so wrong.

“Well, I guess I would have to be a hypocrite to rub this in too much,” Nef finally said once he had enough of Nira’s glare. “I mean I did come all the way here just to get killed.”

Nira flinched at that, but Nef didn’t seem to notice. “Now let’s go figure out if your dad will let us out of here again.”

It turned out her father hadn’t told the guards anything. Nira had a feeling he’d done that on purpose. And because he was gone now, having gone to wherever these meetings took place, Nira had no choice but to sneak out.

Fortunately, she and Nef could easily use the old tunnel they had used to originally get in here. Unfortunately, it would bring back some memories Nira had been doing her best to push away for days.

Irif hadn’t been her mother, but she’d looked like her, and seeing someone who looked exactly like Nira’s mother, who’d used to be here, die, wasn’t something Nira had been dealing with well.

She didn’t even really die—she’d already been dead. For years. As soon as Irif had left her body, she’d fallen down, no sign of life at all.

Nira wasn’t sure if that made things better or worse. She just made sure to walk through the particular part of the tunnel as quickly as possible, not looking back until she was outside. Fresh snow crunched underneath her boots as she took a few slow steps, breathing in the crisp, cold air. The fact that the cold wasn’t really bothering her was amazing. She still hadn’t gotten used to it—it surprised her everytime she was outside. She wondered if it worked for the other extreme as well.

“Fuck, it’s cold!” Nef exclaimed, hugging himself. He was dressed for the weather—he was wearing the coat he’d bought just a few days ago—but clearly for a southern Enorian, it wasn’t enough. Nira smiled slightly, and offered him her hand.

“I think I can fix it,” she said, and he raised an eyebrow at her. Still, he didn’t ask and just took her hand. Nira squeezed it and shut her eyes, trying to concentrate on making Nef more comfortable. She still didn’t have that much control over her powers, but she’d never managed to do something other than what she’d intended on accident, so she wasn’t too concerned about hurting him.

“Oh, wow, this is so cool,” Nef said, his voice full of excitement. Nira opened her eyes again and smiled, pleased with herself.

“I mean warm,” Nef corrected himself, snickering. Nira playfully rolled her eyes.

“We’ll have to keep holding hands for this to work,” Nira said. She actually didn’t know if that was true, but she wanted to keep doing this.

“I think my masculinity can handle it,” Nef joked and pulled Nira along as he began making his way to wherever they’d left the car Nira’s father had lent them. Nira couldn’t remember.

It was quite a long way back to Aleara from here, but that was okay. Nira couldn’t get tired now from something as simple as walking, and she enjoyed being around Nef so much. The month they’d been apart had felt like so much longer than that. And it had been so much more difficult without Nef around. Now, with possibly another war just a few days away, Nira didn’t feel nearly as hopeless and lost as she had during the previous month. Which was kind of ridiculous.

“You know, when you’re not freezing to death, it’s actually kinda pretty here,” Nef commented, smirking at Nira, who immediately looked around. Even though she missed the diverse ecosystem of Enoria, she had to admit the snow and pine trees surrounding them were nice to look at. And the fresh, crisp air with a hint of sap smelled very nice.

She didn’t really take the time to appreciate her country’s visual side at all, now that she thought about it. She saw it as mundane and uninteresting, but Nef had never been to Irithara, so he would see it differently. Snow must be as strange to him as deserts had been to Nira.

“So where is Yorin staying, anyway?” Nef asked after another moment of silence. Nira smiled to herself. She’d known this question would be coming sooner or later.

“I think he’s just been exploring Aleara,” Nira replied, trying to remember what Yorin had said when they’d seen each other last. “Supposedly he hasn’t been here for hundreds of years.”

“Wow, that must be super weird,” Nef replied, shaking his head. “But how are we gonna find him, exactly?”

“I thought we could ask around,” Nira replied, sighing. She wished there was a better way of doing this, but she couldn’t think of any. The people in Aleara might not know who she was still, but being around Nef was enough to get strange looks. “Yorin isn’t exactly inconspicuous. If someone saw him, they’ll remember.”

“That sounds pretty damn inefficient,” Nef replied, and Nira shot him a look of annoyance.

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Can’t you just, I dunno, use your powers to find him? Eternals are telepaths, right?”

Nira shook her head, glaring at nothing in particular. “I’m not strong enough right now.”

That was a lie, though. She probably was, she just had yet to master telepathy enough to find anyone. All she could do was sense creatures around her. But that was definitely just because she hadn’t had enough time to train.

“So to get the energy to find Yorin you need to find Yorin?” Nef summed up, grinning at her. Nira snorted, nudging him with her elbow. Despite her faux annoyance, this did make her smile. She’d missed his stupid humor so much.

As much as Nira enjoyed walking through the frozen wasteland of her homeland with Nef, she was dreading actually going into the city. She hoped they would find Yorin somewhere close to the center because if not, she might have to use whatever power she had left to defend Nef and herself. People around here weren’t exactly fond of Enorians, though they hadn’t run into any trouble while staying here these past couple of days. Still, Nira wouldn’t let down her guard.

The safest thing to do would probably be to just go look for Yorin on her own, but that was about the last thing Nira wanted to do, so they would just have to ignore everyone around them. At least the people here didn’t know about the new threat looming over the ocean.

Nira hung her head a little as she walked. They should have just gone back to Enoria the day Irif died. Or the day after. But Nef had wanted to see Aleara, and Nira had kind of wanted to show him around. Nira didn’t blame him, the city was beautiful, no matter how many bad memories and emotions she’d attached to it over the years, but couldn’t they have left a day earlier?

A small, bitter smile appeared on Nira’s face. The idea of leaving hurt as much as the idea of not leaving. She wanted to spend more time with her father—that was the real reason they hadn’t left yet. And Nira was pretty sure Nef knew.

She’d just assumed she could come visit him now whenever she wanted. But clearly the universe hated her. And her entire nation. Not that they wouldn’t have deserved it….

As they entered the city, Nira mostly kept her eyes trained on the ground or on Nef, and with the hood of her winter jacket over covering her hair. As usual, whoever they crossed paths with seemed to prefer to just judge them silently. Nira was very, very thankful her identity was still a secret, as long as she didn’t call attention to herself. Her father had agreed it would be for the best to keep this quiet, and while Nira wasn’t completely happy with that, she had to agree.

If word got out the Princess of Irithara was dating an Enorian, and one who was a member of the lower middle class at that…. Well, it would not end well, most likely. The tensions were high enough already. And Nira didn’t want to cause her father more trouble either. He didn’t seem all that happy about taking over the monarchy, and Nira was sure he wouldn’t have taken over the position if he hadn’t had to. dTo be honest, Nira couldn’t think of anyone better to take over, but at the same time, she didn’t want to put him through even more stress. There had been more than enough of it for five years. Probably even before then.

Even though it wasn’t as cold in the city—there were heat generators around every corner—Nef wasn’t letting go of her hand. And it definitely wasn’t because Nef hadn’t noticed the generators because she’d seen him gawking at them with that ‘this is so cool, I need to find out how it works’ look in his eyes, so it really just made her heart swell. If he actually wanted to take a closer look at the generators, the only reason Nira would drag him away was the possibility of being arrested for messing with the city’s property.

Since they were still pretty close to the palace, the street they were walking through was full of people, but not in an overwhelming sense. It just really helped them blend in more, which helped Nira relax. She knew they were supposed to be looking for Yorin, but she couldn’t help but just enjoy walking hand in hand with Nef, feeling content. As if this had been the goal of this all along.

And that was a bit ridiculous because that had been basically what they’d been doing the past few days anyway.

“The building around here look so freaking old,” Nef said, and Nira blinked. She supposed she wouldn’t get used to him speaking in Global for a while still. Or as long as they were in Irithara, at least.

Her first reaction would have been claiming that the buildings looked the same exact way they had thousands of years ago, but then she realized he had meant the age itself, not the look. She looked around her, trying to see the buildings from Nef’s point of view, though she was having trouble with it.

All the colorful facades, the randomly pointy roofs—sometimes with three or four tips—the unnecessary golden ornate framing of doors, windows, and roofs, the wild differences in height, the mythological frescos—some of them depicting hippogriffs because of course they were—the slightly uncomfortable cobbled road, the various spires….

All of that was very, very familiar to her, but she supposed she knew what Nef was saying.

“There are old buildings in Enoria too,” Nira replied, making sure to lower her voice a little. People around here were touchy about the E-word.

“Yeah, but these are, like, even older,” Nef said, staring at the statue of a six legged dragon on the top of a roof. “And kinda weird.”

“It’s not weird,” she immediately defended her native country. She almost shocked herself by that reaction. “It’s just different.”

“That is basically the same thing, isn’t it?” Nef replied, smirking at her. “I’m just not used to being in the historical part of anything.” Then his eyes widened a fraction. “Oh, so that’s why you dragged me to check out the Citadel a few years ago. You like this stuff, huh?”

Nira smiled slightly, slightly embarrassed. She remembered that very well. The entire time she had been incredibly paranoid about someone recognizing her, even though rationally she knew the chances of that had been abysmal. But she’d heard so many stories about Enoria and its capital and she had just wanted to explore it so much.

Unfortunately, Nef wasn’t exactly a history nerd so it had taken her over a year of them dating to suggest a trip to the center of Enbrant. Nef was usually all too comfortable among skyscrapers and shopping malls. Not that Nira blamed him. Aleara also had these things of course, but due to the noticeably worse economy, these things were just incomparably better in Enoria.

Suddenly, yelling brought Nira out of her thoughts.

“Come say it to my face, you damned racist!”

Both Nira and Nef automatically turned around to see…. Rayni? She was glaring at the crowd separating them and her, but it wasn’t entirely obvious who exactly she had yelled at. It could have been anyone, Nira supposed. Not everyone around here held their tongue when it came to their prejudices.

“Please, Raynimara, calm down,” said another voice, much more softly, but due to the awkward silence that was currently filling the area, it was very easy to hear. Only then did Nira notice that Mereria was also there, a hand on Rayni’s shoulder, but it didn’t look comforting—Mereria was probably only keeping her hand there to make sure Rayni wouldn’t run after whoever she’d just yelled at.

And that was when it hit Nira. Mereria had spoken in Global, but Rayni hadn’t. Rayni could speak Iritharian? Well, Kaleth could so maybe it wasn’t that out of the question, but it was very odd.

A minute or so later everyone staring at the scene had sooner or later walked away, the awkward atmosphere slowly dissipating, though it was definitely still there.

“And you say I don’t blend in,” Nef whispered in Nira’s ear, which prompted an eye roll, if only to cover up the sniggering Nira could tell she was close to.

Before she could say something back, Nef waved at the two women and started walking towards them. Nira shrugged. Even though she didn’t know Rayni all that well, and Mereria sort of scared her, they could ask if they’d seen Yorin.

“So what was that about?” Nef asked when he and Nira reached them. Apparently they were at a café, but as to why Mereria would be interested in that Nira had no clue. To pile on the odd, the two Eternals had apparently been savoring their coffee outside, at a small glass and metal table. Had the staff been too afraid to tell them to go inside and instead just given them a table and chairs here?

Rayni rolled her eyes and sat down again, grabbed a sugar packet, ripped it open, and poured the whole thing into her coffee. Which was probably a latte, not coffee. Nira couldn’t tell. Nef sat down without being invited, so Nira internally shrugged and did as well. It would be less awkward than standing around, most likely.

“Oh, some guy called me a smot.” Nira’s eyes widened. That was about the worst thing an Iritharian could call a dark-skinned Enorian. “Whatever.” Then she took a sip of her no doubt sickeningly sweet beverage.

“What?” Nef asked, apparently not familiar with the word.

Nira leaned in to whisper in his ear. “It basically means dirty in archaic Iritharian.”

“What?!” he repeated, this time in outrage.

“He did not actually say it, Rayni,” Mereria cut in, sighing where she was sitting next to her. “You need to get a handle on your telepathy.”

“He thought it hard enough that I heard it without meaning to,” Rayni shot back. “Same difference.”

“It is a shame that this country is almost as bad as I remember,” Mereria said, her shoulders slumping a bit. “I’m sure that was Irif’s influence, however. With a competent ruler, perhaps things will change in a few generations.”

Nira smiled a bit at that. She was glad someone as old as Mereria agreed that her father could fix this country.

“Now exactly how to get that competent ruler is another problem entirely. I would prefer a democratic system, but unfortunately you can’t force these things.”

Nira scowled. “My father is doing the best he can.” Then her face went red when she realized she’d said that very loudly. Hopefully no one around had put anything together.

Mereria looked at her, entirely unimpressed. “I’m sure he is, but all it takes is one look at him, and it becomes glaringly obvious he is not fit to lead a country this large. And even if he was, he clearly doesn’t want to.” She snorted a little. “The only thing he seems to want is to stare at Edras’ brother and—”

“Admire him,” Nef interrupted, finishing the sentence for Mereria. “Yeah, see, he looks up to him. That’s what I heard anyway.”

Nira wasn’t sure what she should be confused by anymore. Something was clearly going on here, but Nira had no idea what. And it felt obvious too.

“Anyway, you two haven’t bumped into Yorin, have you?”

“You need to get a handle on your man crush, Nef,” Rayni teased, grinning widely. Nira wondered how she always managed to make her teasing so friendly and light hearted.

“Oh, shut up, Rayni. I do not have a man crush. I barely know the guy,” Nef grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. “We just want to ask him to—”

“Help with the new threat,” Nira jumped in. She wasn’t even sure why she did it because she didn’t think Rayni or Mereria would try to talk her out of getting more power. Probably. She just didn’t really want them to know.

Mereria raised an eyebrow. “And why is it that you two are looking for him?”

Nira opened her mouth, quickly realizing she actually didn’t know how to answer that. Thankfully, Rayni took over.

“Who cares? It’s a good idea. The guy seems pretty smart. I bet he could invent something to help us.”

“‘Pretty smart’ is a vast understatement,” Mereria replied, and Nira let out a breath. “Without him, Enor may have never figured out how to create Eternals in the first place. But nevermind that. I suppose you want my help finding him?”

“We sure do,” Nef replied, a lopsided smile on his face. Then he lowered his voice. “I don’t even know how to get back to the palace from here.”

Nira rolled her eyes, trying to mask her amusement. She knew he was being hyperbolic, given that the roof of the palace was clearly visible from where they were sitting, but she couldn’t help but find it charming.

“Fine, give me a moment,” Mereria said, breathing out and shutting her eyes. “Hm. He seems to be staring at buildings not too far from here, west. I’ll tell him to come here.”

“No, no, we can go find him,” Nira said quickly, once again surprising herself. Something in her was just telling her not to explain anything to them, and yeah, it was probably a pointless risk. They didn’t need to know, and if they did, they might try to stop her, and Nira was sick of nobody believing she could help.

Nira blinked, a little shocked by her own thoughts, but got up, her chair screeching as its legs dragged over the cobblestones. “Thank you for your help.”

And then Nira was dragging Nef away. He thankfully waited for them to turn a corner to ask what the hell she was doing.

“They’ll just…complicate things,” Nira replied, cursing that she didn’t have a phone so she could use the compass app. At least the sun could guide her a bit until they found a map.

“Uh-huh,” Nef said, his sarcasm so pronounced people on the other side of the city could feel it. But he didn’t follow that with anything, so Nira decided to just ignore it. Starting an argument would help no one.

As they walked in silence, dread started to fill Nira’s heart. A dread that slowly manifested into a sentence.

Maybe you don’t want anyone else to know what you’re up to because you know this is a bad idea.

Nira swallowed and did her best to ignore it. She had better things to do than to listen to doubt. And this doubt was pointless too. Even if this were a bad idea, which it was not, what else was she supposed to do? If she wanted to help, she needed those energy injections.

There was no other way.

With that out of the way, she sped up, hoping that she was going the right way. Nef jogged behind her, apparently having trouble keeping up with her, though Nira was sure that was only because he had been staring at something and stopped walking for a moment.

After a few more minutes, finally, Nira spotted Yorin. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t have seen him if there were more people around, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. She swiftly walked over to him, only then noticing what he was looking up at.

A tall, bronze hippogriff statue, long since turned green with rain and snow, stood in the middle of the street, with a plate under it. ‘Yorin, God of Medicine’ was carved into it.

Nira frowned at it. There was a statue of Yorin in Irithara? Has she never noticed, or has she never seen it at all? She had spent most of her time in the palace, or away from Irithara, so it was entirely possible she’d just never been to this part of the city. It sure didn’t look very familiar.

The hippogriff didn’t look exactly like Yorin did now either—it had two tails, four ears, and its beak looked even sharper. Also it was bigger, about twice as big in fact. But a lot of this could just be artistic interpretation or symbolism.

“Um, hi,” Nira said awkwardly as she approached him. She’d expected him to flinch, but he just turned his head with completely unsurprised expression.

“Ah, hello, your m—I mean, Nira.” He cleared his throat. Nira almost sighed then. Thankfully there was no one close enough to hear this. “And Mister Arithar.”

“Come on, man, it’s Nef,” Nef corrected, his voice low as he scratched the back of his neck. Nira almost snickered.

“Ah, sorry,” Yorin said, shrugging. “I assume there is a problem of some kind.”

Nira scowled. “We could have just wanted to say goodbye before leaving.” But they hadn’t done that, had they? Now she felt like a jerk. She saw Yorin as a friend—she should have looked for him to say goodbye. Of course, she’d thought she could go back to Irithara whenever she wanted to, but still….

“Oh, well, yes, I suppose,” Yorin replied, his tone clearly getting across his skepticism. Nira’s heart clenched. “But Mereria alluded to something a moment ago.”

Oh, of course she had….

“Unsurprising really,” Yorin went on. “What was done was not a simple, unimportant change, and the world does not deal well with those most of the time.”

He looked solemn for a moment, before focusing on Nira again. “We shouldn’t talk here. Come.”

And so they did. Though now Nira was on edge. She understood why Yorin wanted privacy, but there were very few people in the surrounding alleys—they could easily get that here. Yorin was most likely being overly cautious, but it still made Nira a bit uncomfortable.

“So…” Nef started as they made their way wherever they were going. “Was that a statue of you, or are there other Eternal hippogriffs?”

Yorin actually quietly chuckled at that. “I’m not actually a hippogriff. Though I wouldn’t mind. But yes. I’m quite surprised, actually—I didn’t expect Irif to leave that standing, much less spend money on upkeep. Though perhaps she just didn’t care enough, or more likely, she didn’t want to call attention to herself. Did you know she managed to use her position as queen to hide herself from almost everyone for thousands of years?”

Nira put on an annoyed grimace. “Yeah, I know.”

“Oh, is that why she bothered with the constant body switching?” Nef asked, clearly not realizing Nira didn’t want this topic elaborated upon.

“Indeed,” Yorin confirmed, also ignoring Nira. She huffed, folding her arms. She didn’t want to hear this, no matter how much her curiosity was piqued. “It worked until Tharos—excuse me, Relioth—managed to get spies inside the palace. I suppose he’d had a suspicion Irif was hiding in plain sight. I still wonder how he’d managed to keep their identities secret, but Enor had created many wonderful inventions, perhaps one of them was a mind protection device of some kind. The Umbra have something like that, don’t they? And I doubt Mereria made that on her own.”

That actually was something Nira hadn’t thought to question until now, but it was true. Kaleth had apparently been here for over a month, and no one executed him for doing the opposite of what an ambassador was supposed to do.

“Ah, there we are.” Nira frowned at Yorin’s back. They were standing in the middle of an empty street—and sure, that could be the location—but Yorin was looking down. At a…round manhole cover.

“You want us to climb into a sewer?” Nef asked, his disgust immediately apparent.

“Oh, no, no,” Yorin assured them—or tried to anyway—as he stepped over the silver plate and turned around. “But I’m glad to hear the illusion is perfect.”

“Illusion? You mean that’s not actually real, or something?” Nef said, crouching down and peering at the manhole cover as if he no longer believed it was actually there.

“Oh, no, that is real, but it doesn’t lead into a sewer. That’s what I meant,” Yorin explained. In his usual way of not really explaining anything. Nira expected him to go on, like he usually did, but instead he just lifted the metal lid, revealing a dark hole in the ground with dim lights hinting at something inside.

Nira wrinkled her nose, expecting the terrible smell that usually came from doing this, but there was nothing except the rich scent of soil.

Without saying anything, Yorin climbed into the hole in the ground and quickly disappeared inside. Nira and Nef exchanged a look. Nef just shrugged at her and followed Yorin in the hole, and Nira sighed. Well, she trusted Yorin not to put them in danger—well, not intentionally at least—so what did she have to lose? She started climbing down the ladder, expecting it to go for a while, but it turned out to be remarkably short.

She stepped off and turned around, almost gasping when she saw it. This really wasn’t a sewer, it was a relatively large room with stone walls filled with devices she couldn’t identify. Half of it was blinking, and there were wires everywhere. It was just the same kind of chaos that Nira believed Yorin, and only Yorin, could make sense of, just like his house in the southwest.

“You made a lab,” she finally said, and he beamed at her.

“Yes, I did. You see—”

“Wait,” Nef interrupted, “you can see in the dark? That’s so unfair.”

“Oh, excuse me, Mist—Nef, I forgot,” Yorin apologized, and a second later, light flooded the room. Nira blinked a bit. She hadn’t even realized she probably wouldn’t have seen a thing in this room without her powers.

She flinched as a loud thud sounded above them, but she relaxed when she realized that was only the manhole cover hiding the entrance again. She wondered if Yorin had done that with his mind, or if there was some kind of system involved. She wouldn’t put the latter past him.

“Holy shit!” Nef exclaimed. With the way he was staring at the masses of wires, Nira expected him to start drooling. “You’ve been busy.”

“Yes, well, I wanted to return to my house, but I thought having a base in Aleara as well might be beneficial,” Yorin replied, leaning from one foot on the other as he stood in the middle of the room and watched as Nef began trying to figure out everything in the room. Nira frowned at the Eternal, a bit amused. Was he nervous? Because of Nef?

“So, um, what is it you wanted to tell me?” Yorin asked only Nira, clearly realizing that Nef wasn’t available.

“Right,” Nira said, forcing herself to get serious again. “There’s a large number of some kind of aircrafts blocking off access to Enoria.”

“I see,” Yorin said, tapping his chin. “I suppose that explains why you are still here. Do you want me to study them? I’m sure I can find some kind of a weak spot. Or if necessary, construct a few EMP generators.”

Nef’s head sprung up at that. “Ooh, could I help?”

Yorin’s eyes widened. “You want to…help me? Um, yes, definitely. I assume you know something about the subject?”

“I know a little something about most subjects,” Nef replied, grinning, and Nira had to smile. It was kind of adorable how much Nef wanted to impress Yorin. She could almost hear what he’d say to that in his annoyed, whiny tone in her head: I’m not trying to impress him, I am already impressive enough.

Nira shook her head. “Okay, that’s great, but I was wondering if you could give me more power.”

Yorin turned back to Nira, his expression grim. “Oh. You want to fight them as well?”

“Yes, exactly,” Nira started, but Yorin didn’t let her get further.

“I was hoping that after Irif, you would give up on this, but I see I was wrong.”

Nira glared at him. “You don’t think I’m capable of fighting?”

“What? No. Well, not entirely,” Yorin said, scratching the back of his head. “I’m sorry, Nira, but I don’t like the idea. Eternal energy isn’t a gift—and even though in your case you can easily get rid of it at any time, I still don’t want you to have it. You have shown you have a difficult time controlling the power. It could kill you, if left unchecked. I don’t want that.”

So he really didn’t believe she could do this. She didn’t believe his excuse at all. She’d had the power for days and she felt very much alive—she felt great. But not great enough—she needed more of it, and if Yorin wouldn’t help her, Sylari would.

“Fine. Where’s Sylari?” Nira asked, and Yorin sighed.

“Nira…. Deep down you know this is not a good idea,” he tried, but Nira wasn’t having it.

“Where is Sylari?” she asked again, this time more forcefully.

Yorin sighed, his shoulders slumping as he gave in. “She has been drinking with Iris at a pub called The Gods’ Tankard. I suppose they found it funny.”

“Thank you,” Nira said, nodding at Yorin gratefully. She turned around and almost began climbing the ladder when Nef reminded her of his presence.

“Are you…gonna be okay?”

Nira turned her head to look at him and smiled slightly. She was sure he was truly concerned for her, but there was no doubt in her mind that the reason he asked was because he didn’t want to leave Yorin’s lab. And Nira wouldn’t argue—as much as she didn’t want to leave his side, he might try to talk her out of this, especially now that he saw that Yorin wasn’t on board.

“Of course,” Nira replied. “I’ll see you soon.”

Nef didn’t look particularly happy, but he nodded and didn’t say anything else. Nira could feel his eyes on her back as she turned around again, and quickly climbed up. Before she could even begin wondering how she would move the manhole cover, it slid away by itself before she reached it, and then dragged itself back into place when she looked at it, now standing on the cobbled street again.

Now to find Sylari….