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

It was about half an hour after Rayni killed Ikara when everyone but Mereria agreed they needed to discuss what to do next. The dozen Umbra that had been on Ikara’s side swore their allegiance to Mereria as soon as she walked into the underground hideout they had been using as a base of operation, and Rayni was definitely glad there was no more arguing, but….

Well, it was still only twelve other Umbra. Versus who knew how many bodyguards Relioth had. And since he teleported, there was no way to ambush him, so they were screwed, basically.

“We can’t hope to defeat Tharos with twenty people,” Mereria said, stabbing one of her daggers into the metal table everyone minus the sixteen Umbra soldiers were sitting at. It made a cringe-worthy screech that made Rayni grimace.

It was a little strange how little the other Umbra had to say, which was most likely due to Mereria’s way of doing things. If they had the time, Rayni would try to help them overcome the fear of voicing their opinions, much like Mel had had—er, had started to do—but unfortunately, time was the one thing they did not have. Relioth’s informant was dead, so they had a very small window of opportunity where Relioth wouldn’t yet notice something was wrong, and they had to use it.

“Usually, I’d say we at least have the element of surprise, but nothing seems to surprise Tharos at this point.”

“You sure about that?” Nef asked from across the table, folding his arms. “A suicide run doesn’t seem like your MO, so if you go with that, I’m sure Relioth won’t see it coming.”

Hearing that, Rayni tapped her chin as an idea struck her. She ignored the others as they started bickering and developed the idea a little further before she victoriously slammed her fist into the table, bending it slightly in the process.

“Oops,” she said, staring at the dent. She would have to learn to watch her strength, but at least everyone was quiet now. “Anyway, I have a stupidly dangerous idea!”

“That’s okay, we still love you,” Nef said, grinning at her in a way that seemed to almost dare her to hit him, but Rayni just smirked back.

“Aw, that’s so sweet of you to say,” she replied, and Nef frowned, clearly disappointed that he hadn’t gotten the reaction he was hoping for.

“What kind of idea do you have in mind, Rayni?” Mereria asked, trying to sound just as emotionless as ever, but Rayni could tell she was a little apprehensive. Rayni wondered just what kind of plans she’d come up with in the past to make Mereria sound like this.

“Well, we know where we can get more Umbra, right?”

“Are you actually suggesting we break into Carcer and free the ones Luxarx had managed to capture?” Mereria asked in a slightly bored tone. Clearly, Mereria didn’t think anyone else would be willing to go along with this, but when Rayni looked at the others, they didn’t seem that opposed to the idea.

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. And it will cause a problem Relioth won’t be able to fix easily because like ninety percent of electricity comes from the captured Umbra.”

“What?” Mereria exclaimed, her eyebrows disappearing under her bangs. “He uses my soldiers to supply Enoria with electricity? How dare he? That’s…actually rather clever. I’m sure Tharos didn’t come up with it.”

“Wait, you didn’t know?” Alor asked, and Rayni had to admit it was a good question. How could Mereria not know? She’d apparently been trapped in Carcer for a century—one would think she’d catch on after so long.

“No, I didn’t,” Mereria grumbled. “He always goes on about alternative sources of energy. I just assumed he used solar and wind power.”

“Well, he doesn’t. Which means it will suck for him and the entire Federation if those Umbra get rescued,” Rayni said, feeling pretty pleased with herself that she’d come up with this on her own.

“He could just replace them with his own soldiers,” Orina argued, but then stopped as her eyebrows came together. “Although, I guess that isn’t that much of a problem.”

“Yeah, exactly, so all we need to do—”

“Is break into Carcer and survive long enough to release very weakened Umbra,” Mereria finished for Rayni. “And that’s assuming Tharos won’t be there.”

“Or, uh, you know who,” Nef added, coughing into his hand.

It actually took Rayni about a moment to realize Nef was talking about Kaleth. Her heart clenched at the mention of him. She hadn’t even realized he could theoretically be there, or that if that happened, she would have to fight him. But maybe if they did run into Kaleth, Mel would be there as well. And then they could bring both of them back here. Mereria had to know how to reprogram Kaleth into his usual, not-Relioth-helping self.

“Who is you know who?” Mereria asked, and Rayni’s eyes widened. Had they told Mereria about the whole Aperios thing? She didn’t think so, and it was mostly because of what Mel had said a month ago. The Umbra were apparently ordered to kill the Aperios if he ever came into existence. So, telling Mereria about that would definitely not help. But maybe they didn’t need to.

“Relioth brainwashed one of our teammates into working for him.”

Mereria narrowed her eyes in distrust. “Why would he do that? What good can one mortal soldier do him?”

Rayni felt a little offended at that. Kaleth was plenty useful—she’d once seen him kill an Iritharian assassin with only his car keys—but Rayni was sure that arguing about this would raise more questions, so instead she tried to come up with a reason why Relioth would want Kaleth on his side.

Fortunately, Nef did it for her. “Well, he’s a Garen.”

“Ah, I see, Tharos wants to keep a potential host in his proximity in case his current one is destroyed.”

Rayni let out a relieved breath.

“Right, so anyway, Relioth won’t be in Carcer,” Nef continued the previous conversation. “He’s got a press conference in Enbrant this evening.”

“How the hell do you—no, you know what, it doesn’t matter, that’s great!” Rayni said, feeling a little more hopeful that they might actually pull this off. Luxarx had put at least two hundred Umbra soldiers behind bars, so they had to be in Carcer, right?

“Press conference in the evening? How did that happen?” Alor wondered, but everyone ignored him.

“You actually think we’ll be able to succeed?” Mereria asked in disbelief. “Do you not realize how heavily defended Carcer is?”

“How do you know? You didn’t even know what it was for until now,” Rayni said and did her best not to flinch when Mereria narrowed her eyes again, staring right at her this time. The woman was really scary when she wanted to be.

“I know Tharos. He won’t leave such an important building unprotected.”

“Even if we’re the only ones who know where it is?” Nef said, and only then Rayni realized that Kara had yet to say something. She mostly just glared with a hint of disappointment. Rayni wished she knew what was wrong. Sure, their situation wasn’t exactly awesome, but at least they had a plan, right? Maybe it was a long shot, but it was better than nothing, so why did Kara look even angrier than usual?

Whatever we do, there’s always another problem we have to deal with. And even if we manage to free all of the Umbra, we’ll still only barely have a chance against Relioth. It would be so much easier just to let him do what he wants.

Rayni stared at Kara with shock. Had she just heard her thoughts? This wasn’t the same as when she’d contacted Mel in Aren—she hadn’t known what he’d been thinking about during that conversation. Rayni really needed to get this power under control before she invaded someone’s privacy again.

Not that she was that against invading privacy, but this was crossing the line, even by her standards.

But since now Rayni knew what Kara was thinking about, she couldn’t think about anything else. Kara, of all people, wanted to give up? How could she want to just give up? Relioth wanted to destroy Irithara, and sure, no one liked those guys, but that didn’t mean they should die.

“I still think this idea is insane, but you’re right—we don’t have much choice,” Mereria said, clearly very unhappy that she was admitting defeat, and Rayni blinked, focusing on the main conversation again. “If we are going to do this, you can’t be a part of it, though.”

“Ugh, you sound like Alor,” Nef complained, throwing his hands up into the air.

“If we are to attack Carcer, we need to do it in the most stealthy and quiet way possible. This is what my soldiers are best at. Not to mention that we are all much stronger and faster than you. I usually wouldn’t care if you want to ignore me and meet your demise at the hands of an Eternal, but I can’t afford any missteps here. The sooner someone notices we attacked, the sooner Tharos will be notified, and I’d rather avoid confronting him right now.”

“So by ‘you’ you meant all of us,” Nef said, sounding surprised. “Huh, I think I’m okay with this.”

“Good, any other arguments?” Mereria got up and continued before anyone actually could say anything. “In that case, excuse me. I need to decide on who I’ll be taking with me.”

She was gone before anyone could question why she wasn’t simply taking everyone, leaving the dagger stuck in the table.

“Kara, a word?” Rayni said, jerking her head to the side. This earned her a look of confusion from everyone sitting at the table. Kara hesitated for a few seconds but then complied, following Rayni to a corner so they could have a private conversation. For both of their sakes.

“What is it, Ray?” Kara asked, folding her arms and leaning on the wall.

“You can’t give up, okay? You can’t think letting Relioth win is the better option.”

Kara stared at her with her mouth hanging open for a bit before her expression turned furious. “You read my mind?! How dare you?”

“I’m sorry, it was an accident,” Rayni defended herself weakly. “I didn’t mean to, but that doesn’t change anything about what I just said.”

“Oh, really? From the way Mereria treats her soldiers, I can’t tell who the worse choice is,” Kara spat, turning her head so she could glare at said Eternal. “Do you even know what their punishments entail?”

As a matter of fact, Rayni did not still. There was always just something else going on, and she hadn’t had an opportunity to ask.

“Waterboarding. Hours of it. For basically anything that could be taken as insubordination.”

Rayni put a hand over her mouth. That was even worse than what she’d imagined.

“That’s what happened to Mel,” Kara continued, still looking angry but also sad as she directed her gaze to the ground. “Do you really not get why I’m having second thoughts?”

Rayni shook her head. “Look, I get it, but what’s the alternative? We join Relioth instead?”

“No, we can just not help Mereria win.”

“And let Relioth destroy Irithara? Do you not get how many people would die if that happened?”

“And how many will die if we fight him here?”

Kara might have had a point—there was no way they could ambush Relioth so fighting him head on would be the only way. Still, Rayni was sure the number of people who would die in the fallout of a fight like this would be incomparable to the number of people who would die in Irithara.

Suddenly, Rayni realized something. Back in the car, Mereria had said that Relioth didn’t want a genocide. So why was Mel so sure that was exactly what Relioth wanted to do in Irithara? Either Relioth had changed his mind, or Mereria was lying.

Rayni filed that away for later as she continued arguing with Kara.

“Only a few compared to the people who would die in Irithara.”

Kara’s expression softened, but not by much. “That’s what you and the others really think, isn’t it? You really think you can beat him.”

Feeling hopeful that she was getting through to her, Rayni nodded. “Yeah, exactly.”

“Well, then I guess I’d better leave.”

“What? No!”

Rayni made a move to grab Kara’s cloak as the woman turned around, but she was already out of reach. She quickly went after Kara as she headed towards the exit, following her outside where she finally caught up with her.

“You can’t just leave—we need you,” Rayni said, which made Kara stop and turn around, that dismissive look Rayni had gotten used to over the years on her face.

“No, you don’t. Face it, Ray, you haven’t needed me since Nef joined you. My pessimism will just slow you down.” She said this with a sarcastic edge and started walking again, presumably to the car. “Don’t follow me.”

Rayni fought with herself for a bit, torn between stopping Kara and respecting her wishes. She hung her head, feeling all of her enthusiasm about attacking Carcer dissipate. She’d known Kara for years—she was one of her closest friends, and she hadn’t figured out Kara had felt this way, probably for a while now.

In a last attempt at convincing her to stay, Rayni called after her. “You have to stay. Kaleth appointed you as team leader, remember?”

“There is no team, and there is no Luxarx,” Kara said back. If Rayni had normal hearing, she probably wouldn’t even hear it. Rayni kind of wished she couldn’t. “Besides, you seem to have found someone else to follow already.”

Rayni just stared after her in silent shock. How could Kara imply that Rayni had accepted Mereria as her new leader? That wasn’t true. Especially now that Rayni had found out what she did to people who didn’t follow orders.

Well, fine then. If Kara wanted to leave, they’d manage without her, Rayni thought angrily. Now she really needed to go yell at Mereria before she calmed down and became sad that Kara had left them.

“You! I need to yell at you!” Rayni said as soon as she got back to the Umbra base and spotted Mereria. The Eternal in question seemed completely unfazed and cocked her head to the side.

“What seems to be the problem, Raynimara?”

Rayni wanted to grab Mereria by her sleeve and drag her somewhere more private, much like she’d done just now with Kara, but then decided against it. Maybe it would be better if the other Umbra heard this.

“Why didn’t you tell me what you do to Umbra who disobey you?” Rayni growled, which earned her the attention of every single person around her.

“Because I knew you’d react like this. If you remembered—”

“Well, I don’t!” Rayni yelled, putting her hands on her hips. “And I don’t give a damn—you can’t torture your soldiers just because they don’t follow your orders to the letter.”

Rayni smirked to herself as she noticed the other Umbra look at each other with uncertainty. It was a shame they needed Mereria because of how powerful she was—a rebellion might be fun, otherwise.

“For your information,” Mereria said, folding her arms and raising her chin, “the punishments are necessary to ensure obedience, and they leave no injuries.”

“And that makes it okay?!”

“We aren’t here to argue about ethics, Raynimara,” Mereria snapped, returning Rayni’s glare. Would it be totally wrong to punch her right now? It probably would be, which was a shame because Rayni really wanted to do it.

“We’re not going to support someone who treats her soldiers like slaves!”

“Now you’re being a little dramatic,” Mereria scoffed, but it was clear that no matter how much she tried to look like she didn’t care, she was very uncomfortable with the situation. Rayni’s glare deepened as she felt her chance—she couldn’t give up now.

“I’m not and you know it. And I still don’t know you that well, but I don’t think you’re the kind of person who doesn’t care about this stuff. You just pretend you don’t.”

Mereria glared at the ground and stayed silent. Rayni pushed on.

“And I don’t think I want to help you now that I know what you do to your soldiers.”

“Fine then, I don’t need you!” Mereria snapped, but the way her voice broke towards the end begged to differ.

“Yeah, right. You just keep saying that,” Rayni said sarcastically, folding her arms. Mereria narrowed her eyes so much that they were practically closed, and Rayni followed suit. They stared at each other for a little before Mereria looked away again. Rayni resisted the urge to celebrate her victory and continued glaring at the other Eternal who sighed sadly.

“Maledi, Raynimari,” she muttered, her shoulders sagging. Rayni raised her eyebrows at the Eternal curse because it took her brain a few seconds to translate it, but she stayed her ground.

“Treat your soldiers like actual people or we’re leaving.”

Mereria shot her a death glare, then gave the same look to the Umbra who all flinched. Clearly, the fact that Rayni was now giving Mereria an ultimatum did nothing to make them less afraid of her.

“Ugh, fine, if it means that much to you,” Mereria said, rolling her eyes. Rayni wondered why she felt a need to pretend she didn’t care about things. Probably to give Relioth less to use against her. “You come up with a different way to keep them in line.”

Mereria stalked away, grumbling something under her breath while Rayni punched the air. Noticing the uncertain looks the Umbra were giving her, Rayni gave them a thumbs up. That seemed to confuse them even more.

“Well, that was fun,” Nef commented as he, his brother, and their mother came over to her. They all looked a little taken aback by what had just transpired, Orina especially. She probably hadn’t seen anyone talk to her boss this way before. “Where’s Kara?”

Rayni’s enthusiasm disappeared immediately. “She left.”

“What?” Nef and Alor asked at the same time.

“She thinks we don’t stand a chance, and she’s not exactly a fan of Mereria’s methods—hence the arguing just now.”

“Yes, that was…something,” Orina said, shaking her head. “I’ve never seen her actually let someone talk her out of her way of doing things.”

“Yeah, way to go, Ray!” said Nef with almost no sarcastic tone whatsoever. “Fighting for equal rights, one minority at a time.”

“You’re an idiot, Nef,” Alor said fondly, and Nef jabbed his elbow in his brother’s ribs in reply.

Rayni expected Orina to say something about that—maybe scold the two despite them being adults. Orina was their mother, after all. But nothing happened. Orina mostly looked uncomfortable and guilty.

Maybe she felt bad about treating Mel, and the other Umbra—at least Rayni assumed—the way she had. If that was the case, that was awesome! Although, Rayni still didn’t understand why Orina had treated them the way she had in the first place.

Rayni shook her head. Right now it didn’t matter. They had more important things to do, such as attacking Carcer. And Rayni didn’t care if Mereria didn’t want her to come—she was coming, anyway. If Mel or Kaleth were in Carcer, she wanted to be there to save them. Whether they wanted to be saved or not, in Kaleth’s case.

As Rayni thought about this more, she realized she should probably grab something to restrain Kaleth in case they run into him and defeat him because there was no way he was going to go with them. She went to search for something once she noticed the closet-looking thing all the way in the back.

She rummaged through the assortment of weapons that were not made of othrin and armor pieces before she came across handcuffs. Only the part that went around the wrist seemed to be made of othrin, which was good because she didn’t want the cuffs to drain her powers before she even got to Carcer.

“Uh, Ma’am?” said a fragile female voice behind her, and Rayni whipped around. She’d never been called ‘ma’am’ before, so that was really strange, but when she saw that the person who’d spoken was one of the Umbra, it made sense. They thought she was a lieutenant or something, which made her their superior.

“I’m sorry for bothering you,” said the curly-haired Umbra. “I just wanted to thank you for standing up for us.”

Rayni smiled at her. “You bet!”

“But I’m not sure it’s worth making the Commander angry with you,” she continued, looking at Rayni sadly.

Rayni waved her hand dismissively, looping the handcuffs around her sword’s sheath because Umbra uniforms had only one pocket and she’d already put her phone there. “Eh, she’ll get over it.”

Rayni was clearly Mereria’s weak spot, so it begged the question just how far she could go with threatening to leave before Mereria actually deemed her leaving the better option. She’d never been that good with emotional blackmail, but she was willing to try.

“You going to Carcer?” Rayni asked, and the Umbra nodded, now looking a little afraid. Right, no surprises there.

“Yes, I’m very good at stealth,” she explained, fidgeting with her hands. The certainty when she said that was a little surprising, but also refreshing. After hanging out with Mel who couldn’t even say that he could draw well even though he could probably give most artists a run for their money, Rayni had kind of started to assume all Umbra had very little confidence.

“What’s your name?” Rayni felt a little bad about asking that only now, but the Umbra didn’t seem to take it as rude. In fact, she seemed incredibly excited by the fact that Rayni had bothered to ask at all.

“Gara, ma’am,” she said, smiling slightly. At least it was simple. Rayni was terrible at remembering complicated names.

“Don’t call me that,” Rayni said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “Just Rayni will do, ’kay?”

“Okay, sorry,” Gara looked down. “It’s just…well, you’re kind of legendary around here.”

“Seriously?” What was she legendary for? Making bad puns? Actually, that would be pretty cool, but unfortunately, she’d met people who were better than her at that particular skill.

“Yeah!” Gara said excitedly, clearly not realizing Rayni had been sarcastic. “You’ve come up with some of our most successful plans. Granted, most of them were kind of…suicidal, but they usually worked. I think that’s why the Commander is going along with this one. She always acts like she doesn’t want to take the risk, but she usually does anyway when it comes to you. She really likes you.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Rayni muttered sarcastically, which once again went over Gara’s head completely. “So, since you’re going to Carcer, mind giving me a lift? I haven’t figured out the whole ‘turn yourself into a fire-breathing war machine’ thing yet.”

Gara’s smile fell a little. “I-I would, but won’t the Commander mind that—”

“Don’t worry. I’ll clear it with her first.”

Gara smiled again. “Oh, okay then, sure thing!”

It apparently took surprisingly very little effort to explain to Mereria that Rayni was going to Carcer as well. She just rolled her eyes, and that was that. So Rayni hitched a ride with Gara, who seemed both terrified and super excited, and they reached their destination soon enough.

The weird thing was that Mereria herself hadn’t actually changed into something with wings. She just used one of the other Umbra for transport, and no one seemed to question it. However, after mulling it over for a bit, Rayni decided Mereria was either too lazy to fly herself or was trying to save her power.

Since they all split up in an effort to stay as inconspicuous as possible, Rayni and Gara were the last to land, and by that point, most of the other Umbra had switched back to their normal forms and had their weapons drawn. Gara followed suit as soon as Rayni climbed off her back.

Rayni didn’t look at her or the others, though. She kept checking the trees surrounding them, expecting an attack to happen at any time. It was a little too reminiscent of the moment Mel had gotten captured.

“Split up, quietly make your way to the building’s entrance, kill anyone you encounter before they notice you,” Mereria ordered and was already walking deeper into the forest. Rayni and Gara exchanged a look, and Rayni drew her sword, suddenly feeling a need to use it.

She usually wasn’t into senseless, unnecessary killing, but her enemies were Relioth’s Eternals, the people responsible for kidnapping Mel, so she wasn’t feeling very merciful. And, besides, they couldn’t let anyone discover them or this whole mission would go to hell.

Rayni blinked as everyone scattered, realizing that this might not have been the best idea after all. She quickly hid behind a tree, wishing she could remember some of her Umbra training that she’d most likely received, but then she remembered that she didn’t have to.

Luxarx had taught her stealth, so she’d just go with the tactic she’d been taught there and ignore how the others were doing it.

She pulled her hood over her head and her mask over her mouth and then started going from one tree to another, trying to use her powers to figure out if there were any guards around. This was something she could do even with the suppression bracelet, so it came naturally to her, but all she managed to pick up was a random bird’s alarm when she approached it.

It was actually kinda surprising and fascinating because she hadn’t been able to feel animal emotions before. It was also getting her nowhere, so she continued making her way towards the entrance. At least she hoped that was what she was doing as she tried not to make a sound.

She was almost starting to wonder if she’d been going the wrong way when she finally saw the entrance to Carcer. The incredibly simplistic, concrete building was about as subtle as a fist to the face, which really made Rayni wonder how Relioth was keeping this place hidden. Mind alteration probably. A lot of it.

Noticing that there were no guards anywhere near the entrance, Rayni decided it was safe to go in, but before she could step out from behind the tree she was currently hiding behind, she heard the now unmistakable sound of a dragon landing. There was no reason for any of the Umbra to fly right now, which meant this wasn’t anyone friendly.

Rayni walked back the way she came, trying to get a good look at whoever had just arrived. And she almost gasped when she found out.

Both Kaleth and Mel were there, next to each other, inspecting the corpse of one of Carcer’s guards. Rayni looked Mel over, noting that he seemed to be doing okay—as much as she could tell when he was in his dragon form, at least. Although she couldn’t help but scoff at the armor he was wearing.

If only she could just drag him away from here, but she had a feeling Kaleth wouldn’t let her do that. And she also had a feeling Kaleth would beat her in a fight, especially with those cool swords and that shield. Why did everyone get cool weapons but her?

Rayni shook her head. The important thing was her two friends, one a prisoner and one brainwashed. Rayni studied the terrain, her lips forming a thin line. She didn’t really believe she would be able to ambush Kaleth and surprise him enough to use the handcuffs around here. This close to Carcer, there weren’t as many trees, so her hiding options were limited.

But at least they couldn’t find her through telepathy since she had the hood on.

Rayni frowned in thought as Mel and Kaleth started heading towards Carcer. As far as she knew, there were a lot of corridors in Carcer, and most of them were pretty wide, so the chances of successfully ambushing Kaleth there were even smaller.

Finally, just as the two were passing Rayni’s hiding place, she decided it was now or never. Jumping out from behind the tree, she quickly put her sword against Kaleth’s neck, which made him freeze.

“Rayni!” said Mel, switching forms. Somehow, he managed to recognize her immediately, even though she was wearing a mask. He’d sounded ecstatic when he’d said her name, but now he seemed apprehensive. Probably because there was a freaking sword at Kaleth’s throat.

“Rayni,” Kaleth greeted her as well, letting his swords fall to the ground and raising his hands. It let Rayni relax a little, but she didn’t lessen the push of her blade against Kaleth’s throat. In fact, she increased the pressure, creating a shallow cut that made Kaleth flinch. There was a stab of pain in Rayni’s heart—she hated causing him pain, but she knew better than to let down her guard around Kaleth.

“Please, don’t hurt him!” Mel exclaimed in alarm, looking at Rayni with such desperation that she couldn’t even look at him. Instead, she threw the handcuffs at him, which Mel caught, looking completely lost.

“I promise I won’t hurt him. Just put those on him, and we’ll get out of here,” Rayni said, and, of course, Kaleth immediately used Rayni’s change of focus to slam the back of his head into her face.

Dazed, Rayni stumbled back a few steps and put a hand over her aching nose as she blinked and tried to collect herself. Unfortunately, that couple of seconds it took her to do that were enough for Kaleth to retrieve the swords again. And Rayni was probably going to die soon.

Swallowing, she raised her sword to defend herself, but Kaleth hadn’t done anything just yet, aside from taking off his goggles. Instead, he just watched her with his eyes narrowed.

“Did you just try to involve Mel in kidnapping me?” Kaleth asked, wiping blood off his chin. It seemed Rayni’s sword had cut him when he’d hit her. He sounded a little amused, almost. Rayni glared at him. “Whose idea was it to attack Carcer?”

“Mine,” Rayni replied, raising her chin. Given the surrounding stillness, she was pretty sure the plan was going well, so it clearly hadn’t been a bad idea.

“Sounds about right,” Kaleth said, and Rayni glared harder. This kind of teasing would be completely normal between them, but this time it didn’t feel harmless. It was like he was actually taunting her. “It’s things like this why I chose Kara to lead instead of you.”

“Excuse me?” Rayni snarled. She usually wasn’t that affected by jabs like this, except when it came to her friends. Kaleth had never spoken to her like this, and it felt so much more personal. Out of the corner of her eye, Rayni could see Mel put a hand over his mouth, but he didn’t say anything.

“I’m trying to say that you’re not fit to lead,” he explained, talking more slowly than before in an obvious effort to make her feel stupid. Rayni gritted her teeth and tightened the grip on the sword. Kaleth was clearly not himself, that had to be why he was saying this stuff. That didn’t explain why he hadn’t tried to kill her yet though.

“In fact, I never thought you were fit to be in Luxarx,” Kaleth continued in a perfectly neutral tone that only made Rayni want to hit him even more. “Relioth probably just chose you because you were an Umbra lieutenant. I wonder how you got that position. Maybe Mereria is just terrible at deciding these things.”

He would have definitely continued, but Rayni didn’t let him. With an angry cry, she swung her sword towards, which he parried at the last moment, looking surprised. Good, maybe she was stronger than he’d realized, which gave her a chance.

“You can’t fight each other!” Mel protested. Rayni couldn’t really spare a glance at him, worried that she’d give Kaleth an opportunity to overpower her. She could tell from just Mel’s voice that he was incredibly conflicted, though. He probably didn’t know whose side to take.

“Stay out of this, Mel,” Kaleth said, pushing on Rayni’s sword with both of his as much as he could. Rayni did the same, though, which resulted in their swords staying more or less in the same position.

However, Rayni could tell that she wouldn’t be able to keep this up—it was a little unfair since Kaleth had two swords, and he also seemed to be a little stronger than her.

Feeling her strength waning, Rayni jumped to the side, Kaleth’s blades missing her only by a hair, and she delivered a blow to his shoulder before jumping back.

She’d aimed for his shoulder because it would make him unable to fight well and wouldn’t cause him a serious injury, but she’d forgotten to factor in that Kaleth was wearing armor, so all she’d managed to do was make a gash in his right pauldron.

Rayni frowned in displeasure. She would have to hit the pauldron in the same place again at least one more time, and that didn’t seem likely to happen. She needed to level the playing field which meant somehow getting rid of one of Kaleth’s swords.

Kaleth swung his swords again, meeting Rayni’s with a loud clang, and then they were sword fighting. It felt more like Kaleth was playing with her rather than trying to defeat her, but Rayni wasn’t complaining. She parried his attack effortlessly, as if she’d been doing it every day since she’d been born, and then she realized—she had been doing this for centuries.

Maybe she didn’t remember, but she clearly knew how to do this, and she’d definitely been doing it longer than Kaleth, which meant that she had a clear advantage Kaleth most likely didn’t know about.

Rayni forced herself to stop thinking about what she was doing with the sword and just let her instincts take over as she delivered blow upon blow, forcing Kaleth mostly just parry and take steps back until finally, finally, Rayni managed to hit Kaleth’s wrist.

He cried out and let go of the sword he’d been holding in his left hand. Rayni bit her lip, trying to focus her anger before she became overwhelmed with guilt, and continued her assault, not giving Kaleth even a moment to check his wound.

Rayni forced him further back, away from his sword as he tried to defend himself against her attacks. It was clear that her sword gave her even more of an advantage now that Kaleth only had one of his. It had more weight behind it, which made her swings more powerful. With his wrist injured, Kaleth couldn’t grip the sword with both of his hands, and soon enough, he and Rayni ended up in front of Carcer’s entrance.

Kaleth made a grab for the shield on his back but only ended up hissing in pain as he moved his injured wrist. It must have been worse than Rayni had thought if it was causing him so much trouble.

Rayni studied him for a second. He was panting and clearly in pain, gingerly holding his injured hand close to his chest. Yet this did nothing to change the determination in his brightly glowing eyes. He still looked like he was ready to defeat an army by himself.

“Just give up, already,” Rayni yelled as she charged once more, forcing Kaleth to jump back. Even he seemed to know that he was going to lose this fight. “The sooner you do that, the sooner Mereria will fix whatever Relioth did to you.”

“He did nothing except give me more power,” Kaleth snapped, but he was still keeping his distance. “I’m not on his side because he made me. I’m on his side because it’s the best option there is.”

The conversation with Kara Rayni had had just a few hours ago repeated itself in Rayni’s head at those words, and her anger multiplied. Relioth had really done a number on Kaleth if he really thought this.

Just as she was about to yell at him something back, he gasped and fell to his knees, revealing Mereria behind him, as well as an amazingly large number of exhausted-looking Umbra. The plan had actually worked.

“Go back to the base,” Mereria ordered the others who did as they were told immediately. Mereria then put a dagger under Kaleth’s chin and dragged his head up by his hair. Only then Rayni realized that Mereria’s second dagger was currently buried in Kaleth’s back. “We meet again, Garen.”

Kaleth only coughed up blood in reply.

“Gods, Mereria, we’re not trying to kill him!” Rayni exclaimed as she saw Kaleth’s eyes become glazed over.

“This won’t kill him, just weaken him. That is what you want, is it not?” Mereria let go of Kaleth’s hair and took a hold of the dagger in Kaleth’s back, forcing a groan out of him. She didn’t take it out, instead, she just twisted it, which made Kaleth scream and make weak attempts at trying to get away from the Eternal. He was easily held in place by Mereria’s daggers, though.

Rayni felt her eyes start to burn. She could have gone her whole life without hearing that sound again.

“Stop hurting him!” yelled Mel from behind Rayni, sounding like he was near tears. Rayni didn’t blame him—on the inside, she wasn’t that far from that either.

“Feeling insubordinate again already?” Mereria growled at him.

“D-don’t…t-touch him,” Kaleth forced out, even though it was obviously painful.

Mereria scoffed and rolled her eyes. She leaned in to whisper to Kaleth’s ear, but Rayni could hear every word, anyway. “I already have. I made you precious Melwynar cry.”

And then Mereria was flying into a wall, and Kaleth got up and pulled the dagger from his back, looking angrier than that time Alor and Kara got captured by the Umbra. It was actually pretty terrifying. The way his eyes were glowing so much that not a part of them was visible anymore didn’t help.

“Take him and leave. Now,” he told Rayni, catching his swords as they flew towards him. He turned around, clearly intent on murdering Mereria, and Rayni would have to agree that running away was probably a good idea.

She grabbed Mel’s hand, but he didn’t seem to want to go. “W-what if something happens to him? What if Mereria kills him? We can’t just abandon him.”

“Honestly, I’m starting to think Mereria is the one who won’t survive this,” Rayni remarked as she watched how the Umbra Commander could barely keep up with deflecting Kaleth’s blows. “C’mon, we need to go before Relioth shows up.”

Mel swallowed heavily, looking back at Kaleth as Rayni started to drag him away.

“He’ll be fine,” Rayni said, trying to assure Mel, but honestly even she wasn’t sure. He must have been pretending this whole time that Rayni had a chance at beating him if he could stand against Mereria, but why had he even done that to begin with? Why had he taunted her into attacking him? It just made no sense. “He wants you to be safe, which you will be in that Umbra base.”

Mel just nodded unhappily, and turned into a dragon, letting Rayni climb onto his back. He looked behind himself one more time, but neither Kaleth nor Mereria were visible anymore. The sound of their weapons clashing was still very much present, though.

With a sigh, he spread out his wings and started flying in the direction Rayni told him to go, even though she herself wasn’t entirely positive it was the right one. She just wanted Mel to be away from here and safe.

Rayni let out a breath. The mission had been a success. They now had enough firepower to take on Relioth, and she’d managed to rescue Mel. So why didn’t Rayni feel any sense of accomplishment?