The Return to Irithara (Children of the Sun Book 2)

“I’m really sorry,” Mel said for what felt like the fifth time, but it still didn’t seem enough to him.

“I told you, it’s not your fault. We’re not on a tight schedule,” Kaleth replied, studying Enor’s sword with a slightly raised eyebrow. Or Kaleth’s sword now, Mel supposed. Enor was dead after all.

They’d been trapped in a rather large cave for almost half an hour now because a sandstorm had appeared before Mel could get away from the desert, and they’d been forced to land. And as soon as the sandstorm dissipated, the regular kind of storm started.

So, really, this was all Mel’s fault. If he’d been a little more powerful, he would be able to fly in this weather, but he wasn’t, so all they could do was wait. Mel had heard that the storms here could be really terrible, both sand and regular, but he’d had no idea.

“Still, you must be really bored,” Mel said sadly, curling up on the stone floor of the cave next to Kaleth. Mel wasn’t really that familiar with boredom. When he had nothing to do—which had been very often this past century—he usually either thought about stuff, or he went to sleep. Both of those options felt very rude right now, though.

Kaleth huffed out a laugh. “I can’t get bored with you around.” Mel blinked in surprise, his heart flipping with happiness, and he grinned up at Kaleth, who was now blushing and looking everywhere but at Mel.

If anyone else had reacted this way, Mel would most likely think he’d done something wrong, but he knew Kaleth. The man had trouble saying things like this without being embarrassed. To make it easier for him, Mel decided to change the subject.

“You know, I heard Enor’s sword could split into two parts.”

Kaleth hummed thoughtfully, running his finger over the line in the middle of the blade that ran all the way to the end of the hilt. “I did notice this divide, but I haven’t really thought about it that much. Do you happen to know how this works?”

Mel watched as Kaleth tried to pull the two parts apart with no success.

“No, sorry, I’ve never actually seen it this up close before,” Mel said with a sigh, letting his head fall to the ground in defeat. He really wished he were more useful in these situations, but at this point Kaleth probably had greater knowledge when it came to these topics than Mel.

And wasn’t that depressing? If Kaleth ever learned how to switch forms, he wouldn’t need Mel for anything anymore. At least Kaleth seemed to enjoy his company, so there was that.

Mel jumped as half of the sword suddenly fell to the ground right next to his face. Apparently while Mel had been pondering his usefulness, Kaleth had figured out the mechanics of splitting the sword into two.

“Uh, excuse me,” Kaleth apologized, picking up the other half of the weapon. “There’s a button in the dragon’s right eye. It apparently separates the sword.”

Kaleth showed Mel the sword that included the upper part of the golden dragon head. There indeed was something like a button in the right eye, but Mel probably wouldn’t have figured that out if he hadn’t been told.

Studying it from this close a distance, Mel had to admit, Lothrok and Luxarx were quite nice to look at, no matter who they used to belong to. “Your people really made beautiful weapons.”

Kaleth frowned, looking away from the swords and at Mel. Since Mel was now sitting down, Kaleth actually had to look up. “You mean Enorians made these?”

“Uh-huh,” Mel confirmed. “It was a long time ago, before Mereria decided to oppose Relioth and Enor. Your people made these weapons as gifts to the three most powerful gods—Enor was given the sword and shield, Mereria got daggers, and Relioth was given his scythe.”

“Wait, so he does really have a scythe?”

Mel nodded somberly. “It’s not pretty when he uses it.”

“But it’s a scythe. Those are useless in a fight,” Kaleth argued, putting the swords together again and leaving them next to the shield which was propped up on the cave wall.

“He knows how to use it,” Mel muttered, not really comfortable with the topic. He’d seen firsthand what Relioth could do with that scythe of his. It was also kind of a spear, so Relioth could drain Eternal energy more easily.

The worst part was that sometimes Relioth didn’t bother with the prolonged contact with othrin that was required to kill an Eternal and instead was content with cutting his enemies in half and forcing them to find new hosts.

Kaleth didn’t say anything, but he still looked like he didn’t completely believe what he had been told. He would see Relioth’s fighting skills soon enough, Mel thought glumly. Then he frowned as he remembered something he’d been meaning to ask.

“Why hasn’t Relioth invaded Irithara yet?”

Kaleth raised his eyebrows in surprise at the sudden question.

“Well, originally, he meant to attack almost immediately, but I talked him out of it,” Kaleth explained in a completely casual way, as if he weren’t talking about war and the billions of people it would affect. “We’ve been planning out how to attack Aleara and kill Irif with minimal casualties. That’s why it’s taking so long.”

Oh, that was probably the best possible reason for it. Mel had started to think it was just to give Kaleth enough time to become powerful enough to handle the attack himself. “And he let you do that?”

Kaleth’s content expression turned into an annoyed one at that, and Mel cringed. “He’s not in charge of me, Mel. He can’t win without me, so he’s more than willing to compromise.”

Mel wanted to scream at Kaleth that Relioth obviously was in charge of him. Why else would Kaleth be on the war god’s side? But he stayed silent.

Kaleth gave him an answer to the unasked question a few seconds later.

“I don’t like helping a mass murderer,” Kaleth said, his previous irritation dissipating. “But it’s the best way to end this conflict. Once Irif is dead, Relioth will leave. That will only leave Mereria who I’ll hopefully be able to handle by then if she decides to start something again.”

“But…what about the other, less powerful Eternals? Won’t they try to do something once the old leaders are gone?” Mel asked, a little surprised at how much Kaleth had this planned out everything. When it was put like this, it really did seem like helping Relioth was the best option, but Mel knew better—Kaleth had been brainwashed, so his opinion wasn’t objective.

“Yes, that could be quite a problem,” Kaleth said, nodding. “But there is only a few thousand of them, and they are much less powerful. I think I will be able to handle them as well if the need arises.”

Mel was about to argue that Kaleth was overestimating his abilities when he froze. Had Kaleth really just said there were thousands of Eternals?

“A f-few thousand?” he stammered. “Y-you mean in total?”

“No. Well, yes, but most Eternals are in Enoria, anyway,” Kaleth replied, nodding. “The information the Umbra have about Relioth’s army is a little outdated.”

A little? If they had known that Relioth’s army was thousands of Eternals rather than a few hundred, they’d have given up by now. No matter what the others were planning on doing now, assassinating Relioth didn’t seem very possible if he was surrounded by other Eternals all the time.

Once again, Mel wished he could send them a message somehow. He stared at the ground in defeat. If Kaleth was right, this would be the last war he would fight in, and a really unpleasant fact suddenly came crashing down on him.

“Are you okay?” Kaleth asked when Mel continued staring at the ground.

“Yeah, I just…I feel like my life has been completely meaningless,” Mel said with a heavy sigh. He’d thought he’d feel better after saying it, but it had the opposite effect. Still, he knew that if he didn’t explain what he meant, Kaleth would just ask anyway, so he continued. “I chose to fight Relioth and Enor, I wanted the fighting between them and Irif to end, but all of it amounts to nothing.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Kaleth said, patting Mel’s back. The gesture was a little awkward, but Mel knew Kaleth was trying his best. “I agree with Mereria’s ideology, and I understand why you chose to follow it, but unfortunately, it only prolongs the conflict rather than ends it.”

Mel flinched as a particularly loud boom of thunder invaded his ears. He hated loud noises, especially in this form because his ears were much better, so storms really weren’t his favorite kind of weather.

Kaleth kept stroking his back, which helped him relax a bit, even though the storm only got worse and worse with every minute. At least it let Mel calm down enough to think. Although, right now, all he could ponder was what he would do once this war was over. Sure, he’d technically spent a century away from it, but then he’d known he would join the fight again sooner or later. But once Relioth and Irif were gone?

Maybe this wasn’t the time to think about such things. Who knew what would happen before Irif died. If Kaleth could beat her. Mel looked over at the man with worry. Kaleth seemed confident he could kill Irif, but that didn’t mean he would actually be able to do it.

“I hate seeing you in that uniform, you know,” Kaleth muttered, loudly enough that Mel could still hear over the rain and thunder, but just barely. “You can take off those moons, if you want. If Relioth has a problem with it, I’ll explain to him why he shouldn’t.”

Kaleth gripped the handle of his new sword as he said this, and Mel was once again rudely reminded that Kaleth was much more willing to stab first and ask questions later now.

“Oh,” was all Mel said because he really didn’t know what to say. He was very surprised that the fact that Mel was wearing a uniform declaring his allegiance to Relioth bothered Kaleth as much as it bothered Mel to see it on Kaleth. “Why?”

Kaleth seemed surprised by the question. “Because you’ve been forced to follow Relioth, of course. And, let’s face it, this is purely my fault.”

“What? No, it’s not!”

“Yes, it is. Relioth brought you to Carcer as some sick attempt at a birthday gift.”

“Then it’s Relioth’s fault.”

Kaleth shook his head at that, but he also grinned at him and laughed. Mel hoped that meant he wasn’t annoyed.

“Happy birthday, by the way. I’m sorry I don’t have anything to give you,” Mel added as he was reminded that he’d completely forgotten about it. He couldn’t help but feel guilty because of it.

Kaleth smiled, albeit a little wryly. “Well, thank you, Mel, but I don’t really celebrate birthdays.”

“What? Why?” Mel asked, completely bewildered. How could anyone willingly not celebrate birthdays? To be fair, Mel had never been to anyone’s birthday party, but they looked really fun on TV. And besides, Mel really liked the idea—one day a year that was about celebrating one’s existence with the people who liked you and were glad you were born? That was so neat.

It was a shame Mel didn’t remember his own birthday. Not that anyone would want to celebrate it with him, but still….

Kaleth shrugged. “I never celebrated them, honestly. Besides, there’s nothing to celebrate.”

How could Kaleth just say things like this? “You don’t mean that.”

Kaleth heaved a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, I do. Should I really be celebrating the fact that Relioth managed to create something that shouldn’t be allowed to exist?”

Mel stared at Kaleth in horror. He hadn’t thought Kaleth had this low a sense of self-worth, and he hadn’t thought he’d talk so openly about it either, but here they were. And Mel had no idea what to do with it.

“Ugh, I’m sorry, Mel, I didn’t mean to say that. Let’s pretend it didn’t happen, all right?”

Kaleth was looking at him almost pleadingly, but Mel couldn’t just ignore this. How could he? If Kaleth really thought this, he might not care if he lived or died, and Mel wasn’t having that.

Back in the lab, Kaleth had acted in a much more reckless way than he should have. Was this the reason? But Mel rejected the thought just as fast as he’d come up with it. He had been in that lab as well, and Kaleth wouldn’t risk Mel’s life unnecessarily. He was certain of that.

“Maybe you didn’t mean to say it, but you did mean it, didn’t you?”

Kaleth avoided Mel’s eyes, staring down at the ground as if it were the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. “Please, just…don’t.”

That was incredibly ineloquent by Kaleth’s standards, but he sounded imploring enough that Mel didn’t have the heart to pursue the subject.

“Okay,” Mel said, his ears drooping. “But you know you’re important to me, right?”

Kaleth didn’t turn his head towards him, but he did shift his eyes enough to see the Eternal. He gave Mel another wry smile. “You need more friends, Mel.”

Mel’s scowled in anger at those words. Kaleth just insisted on fueling the fire, it seemed. The sudden shift in emotions seemed to surprise the other enough to turn to face Mel, and Kaleth now looked a little concerned. He hadn’t really seen Mel glare at him before, Mel realized just then.

“No, I don’t,” Mel said firmly, flaring out his wings a bit, and sinking his claws into the small layer of sand and dirt underneath them. “I mean, I don’t think you can ever have too many friends, but I don’t need more. And I’d like to keep the ones I have.”

Kaleth opened his mouth, but Mel didn’t let him speak just yet.

“A-and I hate that you think I like being around you just because you think I don’t know any better. Well, I do know better! And I care about you. I…” Mel trailed off as he felt his eyes fill with tears. He hadn’t even known he was able to cry in this form, and right now he really wished he couldn’t. He didn’t want to cry in front of Kaleth. And cry for no good reason, too.

“I’m…sorry,” Kaleth said slowly, clearly taken aback by Mel’s words. Mel turned away, rapidly blinking as he desperately tried to get his eyes to stop tearing up. “I didn’t realize you felt so strongly about this. But…how did you know I think that?”

Mel sniffled as he thought about that. He couldn’t have known that just by looking into Kaleth’s mind during their first meeting, and he hadn’t invaded Kaleth’s privacy since then. He wasn’t good at reading people, so how did he know this with so much clarity?

“I don’t know,” he replied, shrugging helplessly and sniffling again. “I didn’t look into your mind, I swear.”

“I know. You can’t,” Kaleth said simply, but also halfheartedly. Like this wasn’t really what he was thinking about right now. “Please don’t cry.”

“S-sorry.”

“No, that’s not what I—” Kaleth cut himself off, letting out an annoyed groan. “You shouldn’t cry because of me.”

“I-If this is another way of saying you’re not worth it, I swear I will leave you in this cave,” Mel snapped, glaring at Kaleth, even though it probably looked pathetic. His voice was shaking a little and he could feel a tear making its way down his scaly cheek.

Kaleth grinned at him, even though he looked like he was doing everything he could to stop it.

Mel’s adorable when he’s trying to be threatening. It’s like seeing Kara when she’s angry. They try, but you don’t take it seriously until they put a knife to your neck.

“H-hey, I’m not adorable!” Mel said, turning around to look at Kaleth who now seemed completely bewildered. And also embarrassed.

“I-I didn’t say anything,” Kaleth protested weakly.

“Did you think it?”

“…Yes.” Kaleth’s shoulders slumped. “But you can’t hear my thoughts, so it has to be that damned bond.”

Mel wished he knew what the rules were, so they could understand why this had happened. It was probably also the reason why Mel had known Kaleth thought Mel was friends with him just because he didn’t know other people.

“Well, I like it. Maybe I’ll finally know what you think about because half the time, I can’t tell,” Mel joked.

However, Kaleth had a rather surprising reaction. He looked almost horrified suddenly as if the things he thought about were something he would never want Mel to know. Mel had really just meant it as a joke—he wouldn’t invade Kaleth’s privacy if the man didn’t want to allow him to. Kaleth must have missed that.

“I assure you, most of my thoughts are rather boring,” Kaleth finally said, smiling, but it didn’t really hide the fact that he was still clearly unsettled.

“That’s impossible. You’re super interesting,” Mel argued and walked over to Kaleth, lying down and wrapping his tail around him. In this form, his hugging options were severely limited, so he had to make do with what he had, and lying down in a circle around Kaleth was one of the better options.

Kaleth seemed a little surprised by it, but he didn’t say anything and just moved away from the wall a little so Mel had more room to lie down.

“What was that about Kara and a knife?”

Kaleth chuckled. “You heard that as well? Well, let’s just say my relationship with my team wasn’t exactly great the first few years. Except for Rayni, I suppose, but she’s friends with everyone.”

“Why? They didn’t like you?”

“Well, Kara barely likes anyone, so there’s that, and Alor has a personal reason as to why he hates me.”

“Alor doesn’t hate you,” Mel said immediately. He would have noticed if Alor really hated Kaleth, wouldn’t he? And besides, the way he’d seen the two interact didn’t suggest anything negative. Maybe they didn’t exactly have a super positive relationship, but definitely not negative.

“Maybe not anymore, but I know he’ll never forgive me.”

Mel looked up at Kaleth with sympathy even though he still had no idea what Alor’s problem with Kaleth was. And it seemed he wouldn’t find out because Kaleth was staying silent. Mel opened his mouth to ask just what was so terrible that Alor wouldn’t forgive Kaleth for it but then decided against it. He had made Kaleth uncomfortable enough with all the talking for now.

Thunder boomed once again, a little too close for Mel’s liking. He shut his eyes, trying to ignore the weather as much as he could. He suddenly felt rather sleepy, too. Arguing with Kaleth must have tired him out.

But he couldn’t fall asleep, could he? That would be rude.

“You can sleep if you’re tired,” Kaleth said after Mel yawned. “The storm doesn’t seem to be letting up, anyway.”

“But what about you?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Kaleth replied, smiling gently. Mel shook his head. That was all he ever did, but he refrained from saying it. He yawned again and shut his eyes, hoping that he would be able to sleep through the storm.

As it turned out, he hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep until he woke up. He almost got up when he remembered he was wrapped around Kaleth. Only then did he think to question how strange it was that the man hadn’t moved in what Mel presumed were hours of nothing to do. He hadn’t even said anything now that Mel had moved.

Mel looked up, and to his surprise, it turned out that Kaleth was actually sleeping. Mel watched him for a little bit, noting how peaceful and how much younger he looked while asleep, before remembering that watching people sleep was seen as creepy.

He turned his head away, listening for thunder and rain instead, and when nothing happened in over a minute, he took that as a sign that they could go back. The only problem was that he didn’t know if he should wake Kaleth up or not.

Kaleth was currently propped up against Mel’s side and was using one of his wings as a blanket. If Mel moved, Kaleth would most likely wake up immediately, so it certainly wouldn’t be hard to do, but at the same time, he couldn’t go look outside the cave to confirm it was safe to fly once more, and waking Kaleth up needlessly wasn’t something he wanted to do.

After a few minutes, he decided to just move the wing and hope that if Kaleth got angry, he would forgive Mel soon. Kaleth grumbled as his makeshift blanket was taken away, but Mel couldn’t make out the words.

“Is it morning already?” Kaleth asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes. He stopped when his eyes fell on Mel, and he blinked blearily. “Wait, I fell asleep?”

It was hard keeping a grin off his face, but somehow Mel managed. Kaleth was just so cute when he was sleepy—it was a shame Mel probably wouldn’t get to see it often. Kaleth didn’t seem to like sleeping very much—a fact Mel didn’t understand at all—so now that Kaleth could skip the process completely, why would he bother?

“I’m not sure what time it is, but I think we can fly back to Carcer,” Mel replied, getting up and stretching his wings and back. He didn’t feel particularly sore, but it couldn’t hurt.

He walked over to the cave’s entrance and jumped out of it, flying in a circle around the mountain before landing in the cave again. The sky was a perfect blue, not a cloud in sight, which was great, but he did notice that the sun was close to setting as well. They must have slept for a long time.

“I can’t believe it’s almost seven,” Kaleth muttered to himself as Mel trotted over to him. He quickly grabbed the sword and hung the shield over his shoulder by its leather strap before pretty much jumping on Mel’s back, apparently expecting him to leave immediately. Not that Mel had a problem with that.

Even though Mel flew as fast as he could, it still took an hour and a half to get back, so the sun had set by the time they landed in the forest surrounding Carcer, just a bit away from the entrance.

Mel was about to run the rest of the way when Kaleth told him to wait.

“Something’s wrong,” he added quietly, climbing off. Mel had no idea how Kaleth could tell, but he decided to stay silent for now and followed suit when Kaleth started to slowly make his way to Carcer.

It didn’t take long to confirm that Kaleth had been right. Just as they approached the entrance, they found one of the guards dead, her body half hidden by a bush. Mel shuddered and looked away as Kaleth put away the sword and inspected the corpse as if it was a completely mundane activity for him.

“There’s a hole in the back of her skull made by a sharp weapon,” Kaleth commented, getting up again and looking around as he split the sword in two.

“You don’t think…?” Mel couldn’t even say it. It was completely unthinkable to him. There was a sudden rustling somewhere on the right, and they both looked that way, almost immediately spotting a figure with a cloak and a hood over their head. It was unmistakable.

“The Umbra attacked Carcer.”