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

“What do you mean you told her how to make us into Eternals? That’s possible?” Nira asked, so shocked by what Yorin had said that she’d forgotten she should be horrified by the clear signs of Iritharian interrogation techniques.

“Yes, of course,” Yorin replied, coughing. He had managed to compose himself slightly, but there were still tears in his eyes threatening to spill over. “You need to leave,” he continued, getting up with incredible difficulty and limping to the bars, which he then grabbed for balance. “If Irif doesn’t turn you into her new soldiers, she’ll use the two of you as hosts. You two, and especially Nira, were made for it.”

Yorin put his hands against the bars in such a way that the cuffs that bound his wrists together were easily accessible. “Please, go before it’s too late.”

It was clear what he was trying to do, but Nira wasn’t having it. It was her fault he was even in this mess, and she would get him out of it. She grabbed both of the cuffs at once, the familiar feeling of incredible power returning to her once again.

Ignoring Yorin’s look of relief, Nira grabbed the bars and pulled, ripping out the cell door out of its hinges with a loud creak that made her want to cover her ears.

By that point, the guards had already noticed something was going on, but before they could reach them, Nira threw the metal door at them with surprising ease. Rather not checking if she’d killed them or not and ignoring her father’s questions, she all but ripped Yorin’s cuffs apart and grabbed his hand, giving him his power back.

A terrible feeling she couldn’t identify made its way into her heart as every last trace of her newly found strength disappeared, but Yorin started talking before she could think about it too much.

That was brilliant! Yorin exclaimed, already healed and in his hippogriff form, which Nira’s father was currently gawking at. Right, he had probably never seen an Eternal turn into a dragon before, much less a hippogriff.

The three of them froze as an alarm blared and more guards were making their way to them, aiming their guns. We need to run.

Nira yelped as an invisible force lifted her up and set her down on Yorin’s feathery back. Her father followed suit, but the shocked noise he made was much louder. Yorin proceeded to make a huge hole in the wall just by glaring at it and flew through it, the guards’ bullets missing him by mere inches.

The speed at which he’d flown when they were trying to get to Aleara was nothing compared to how fast he was now, leaving the city behind them in mere minutes. He didn’t stop furiously flapping his wings until there was nothing but snowy wilderness around them, and he only landed once he found a cave to hide out in.

Is everyone okay? he asked as Nira and her father climbed off his back. Nira wondered for a bit if her father could hear Yorin talk as well, but judging by the fact that he confirmed that he was uninjured at the same time Nira did, it was fair to assume that he did.

Although, despite what she said, Nira wouldn’t classify herself as being okay. Her mind was reeling. What was going to happen now? She had her father with her so would they run back to Enoria? But with the knowledge of how to make more Eternals, Irif would come there sooner or later, and this was all Nira’s fault. She couldn’t just abandon Irithara to be transformed into these beings. But what could she do?

“Are you okay?” Nira asked Yorin who was stretching his wings, if only so she could think about something else.

He stared at her for a bit, cocking his huge head to the side. Then he blinked as he apparently only then realized what she was talking about. Oh, I’ll be fine. Enor did much worse to me to convince me to help him figure out a way to make the transformation possible for mammals in the first place.

Nira gave him a horrified look. What the hell had Enor done that was worse than cutting off fingers? Nira quickly checked Yorin’s claw and was relieved that he had all five fingers again. Or would injuries like that not translate into this form?

“So now Irif will make an army to defeat Relioth,” Nira’s father muttered, running a hand through his hair as he started pacing. The cave was very small, so he was forced to walk in circles. “There can’t be another war.”

“Uh, Dad, Irithara, and Enoria have been at war for over a month,” Nira said and received a small, sad smile from him. Gods, did she hate seeing that expression on her father’s face.

“Yes, and there’s been a cold war for the last five years. Enoria and Irithara like to threaten each other but not attack.”

Oh, he’d assumed nothing would ever happen—even with the Flare destroyed and Irithara blamed for it. Somehow, Nira didn’t think that was very realistic. Relioth seemed pretty dead set on attacking them.

“How quickly can Irif create an army of Eternals?” her father asked Yorin, rubbing his arms. Only then Nira realized just how cold it was in this cave and shivered. And she wasn’t seriously malnourished.

Yorin hummed and nodded a few times as he went into his scientist mode again. Well, the transformation is nearly instantaneous, but we need to factor in the time it takes for an Eternal to adjust to their new body, and also the fact that Irif has yet to build a machine capable of performing the transformation, so I’ll say about a month or two.

“A month?” both Nira and her father exclaimed.

Or two, Yorin repeated. And she’ll also need to choose who she turns because she doesn’t know how to wipe memories effectively, and I don’t think even Irif would risk giving such power to someone she doesn’t trust to obey her. Not to mention, the transformation needs an incredible amount of power, so she’ll be limited by Iritharian power plants.

Now that Nira could believe. Most of their power plants were ticking time bombs, so no one was crazy enough to push them to produce as much energy as they should be able to. Except, Irif was clearly not completely sane, so there was that.

“What the hell do we do?” Nira asked, meaning it more as a rhetorical question because she didn’t expect Yorin or her father to have a plan already. She’d acted completely without any thought about the consequences, and now they would freeze to death in a cave because she’d decided to run.

She didn’t regret breaking Yorin out of prison since that had been her fault to begin with anyway, but she didn’t know what to do now.

“We can’t stay in Irithara, and I doubt we can leave, at least for the time being,” her father said, stopping his pacing for the moment. “But if we managed to somehow leave the country, we’d have to hide in Artex.”

Nira hung her head. He was probably right. They couldn’t go to Enoria because Relioth would capture and kill them, and they couldn’t go to Caelor because they were allied with Irithara. That changed nothing about the fact that she really wanted to go back to Enoria, though.

Nira walked over to the cave’s entrance, looking up at the sky. There didn’t seem to be anyone looking for them. All she could see was a couple of cars in the distance, clearly not searching for anyone, but that didn’t mean it was safe to go outside.

“What are you doing?” Nira heard her father ask and turned around, wondering what he was referring to. She quickly figured out he was talking to Yorin, who now had a glowing aura around him.

I noticed you were cold, so I’m increasing the temperature in this cave, Yorin explained, but Nira barely heard him. All she could pay attention to at the moment was the glowing energy emanating from Yorin’s body. It was just like that time she’d healed Mel’s wings. If she wanted to have that power again, all she would have to do was reach out and touch him.

“Nira? Are you all right?” Nira blinked as she was brought out of her trance by her father’s voice. He was looking at her with worry, but he’d been doing that ever since Nira had been reunited with him. Yorin, on the other hand, was giving her a rather strange look, like he knew what she’d been thinking about.

Why had she even been thinking about it?

“Yeah, of course. I mean, as much as I can be,” Nira said, sighing and folding her arms. At least she wasn’t cold anymore. Whatever Yorin was doing was very effective. He was still glowing, though, so Nira rather avoided looking at him.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay, sweetheart,” her father said, hugging her. Nira gratefully returned it, pressing her face into his shoulder, although she didn’t have much choice there either way. Her father was much taller than her. “We’ll figure something out.”

“I’m sorry I got us into this mess. Again.”

“What?” he half yelled, pulling away from Nira and staring down at her with all the intensity of a…well, a disapproving parent. He even put his hands on her shoulders. “What you did in that prison was amazing. And it was the right thing to do.”

Then he looked away, focusing on Yorin with guilt clearly plastered on his face. “I’m sorry.”

Apology accepted, even though you played no part in was Irif did, and therefore have nothing to apologize for, Yorin replied, smiling with his eyes. He was truly a strange person, but yes, the fact that her father was blaming himself for being forced to arrest Yorin was ridiculous.

“Seriously, Dad, this isn’t your fault. If anything, it’s mine. I led Yorin to Irif.”

Is that a family trait? asked Yorin, coming closer to them. Blaming yourselves for things like this?

If it were anyone else, Nira would have no doubt that they were just trying to make her mad, but with Yorin she knew better. For him, everything was a research subject. However, just because Nira knew this, it didn’t mean her father did, and the unamused look he gave Yorin reflected that.

Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to anger you, Yorin said, lowering his head. It was a bit funny that with how large Yorin was right now, her father’s scowl had such an effect on him. Maybe you could stay at my home for the time being.

Nira frowned. “I don’t think your, uh, home is big enough for three people.”

Not a problem, I can make it bigger.

Nira just stared at him, speechless. She would have thought she’d been around him long enough to be unfazed by stuff like this, but clearly not yet.

“Well, um, thank you for offering. It’s certainly a start,” her father said, clearly just as weirded out as Nira. “First, we should probably get farther away from Aleara, though, if we want to avoid being discovered.”

Nira looked nervously outside again, almost expecting someone to show up and point a gun at them. She couldn’t agree with her father more—the sooner they got away from here, the better.