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

It had been hours since Mereria had gotten into a fight with Kaleth, and Rayni couldn’t even make herself feel bad about the fact that she hadn’t shown up yet or contacted anyone. Rayni was just so angry with her after what Nef had told her. Sure, it was all assumptions, but Rayni had no problems believing that all of it was true.

And she didn’t want help from Mereria anymore anyway, especially now that there were sixty-eight Umbra willing to help her kill Relioth. It was a little fewer than Rayni had been expecting, but it would have to be enough.

For such a large number of Eternals, they had somehow managed to hide from sight until they reached the Umbra base, which turned out to be much larger than Rayni had thought. There actually were a few floors under the one they had used before, so everyone had plenty of space to rest.

It was a good thing Eternals only needed a few hours to recharge, unless they had been drained for years like she had been, because a little after they had arrived, Nef found out that Relioth had announced that he had big news to share with the whole of Enoria.

This was the perfect opportunity to take him out since Relioth was going to announce whatever he wanted in front of the Citadel. With so many people there, it should be easy to surround Relioth and attack, even if it would be during the day. They would just have to get some normal clothes instead of the Umbra armor.

Once that was decided, Nef started arguing with the two Umbra lieutenants that had just been freed about how they should actually attack, and so Rayni left using the most inconspicuous reason she knew—she had said that she needed to go to the bathroom.

Not that it mattered anyway. Rayni highly doubted they had even noticed her absence yet, and it had been half an hour. And she also didn’t care if they had noticed because she had better things to do than to argue about nothing right now. She needed to find Mel.

He had disappeared sometime after they’d gotten back to the base, and Rayni hadn’t seen him since. And since he wasn’t in the base itself, there was nothing else to do but walk around the forest that surrounded it and hope she would find him.

He hadn’t said much during the trip back, which was alarming in itself, but then disappearing entirely? Yeah, even if Mel wanted to be alone, there was no way Rayni was just going to leave him be without at least making sure he was okay.

It was pretty clear what was bothering him, which made Rayni really wonder what the hell had happened while he’d been with Kaleth. And it also made her wonder if she really wanted to know.

Suddenly, what Nef had told her even before Ikara came back to her. She’d completely forgotten about the fact that apparently she and Mel had the same surname. Should Rayni tell Mel once she found him? But she didn’t even know why they had the same name.

She stopped thinking about this as soon as she felt the familiar consciousness she’d been looking for. And she could easily follow it now, which was a relief because she didn’t particularly want to spend hours finding him.

It took another five minutes of walking, but Rayni finally found Mel. Then she stopped dead in her tracks as she tried to comprehend the sight in front of her. Mel, having changed into his normal form now, was sitting cross-legged on the ground with about a dozen rabbits running around him, eating grass, and lying next to him.

Having noticed her arrival, Mel looked up at her with a smile. It wasn’t as wide or happy as usual, but it was at least content. “Hey, Rayni.”

“Hi. Um, what’s with the rabbits?” Rayni blurted out, unable to keep herself from asking. If the animals weren’t obviously wild, it would probably be a pretty cute image. But they were wild. So why the hell were they just hanging out with Mel?

“Oh, um…” Mel looked down at the rabbits. “Well, I like being around animals. And I didn’t think you needed me right now, so….”

“No, I mean why are they here? Shouldn’t they run away as soon as you approach them?”

Mel’s expression cleared as he apparently only now understood what Rayni had been shocked by.

“You just have to show them you don’t want to hurt them, and they’ll be happy to be around you.”

Rayni wasn’t sure why, but this entire experience ranked very high in her top ten weirdest moments of her life. “Like, with telepathy?”

Mel nodded, grinning at her with encouragement. Rayni shrugged, not seeing a reason not to try since she trusted Mel. Unless he’d gone insane during the time they’d been separated, of course. She took a few steps forward, noticing that the rabbits immediately ran to Mel, pressing themselves as close to him as possible.

They must have thought he would protect them from her, which was most likely the reason why they were hanging out around Mel in the first place. But Rayni didn’t want to ruin this for Mel, so she didn’t say that.

Instead, she tried reaching out to the tiny minds of the rabbits while broadcasting her intentions, which was a mix of ‘I come in peace’ and ‘I want to pet you’. Because they were pretty cute. It was very similar to the bird from earlier, actually. She could feel the rabbits were scared, but what she was doing seemed to be working because their fear soon dissipated, and she grinned.

The rabbits were still a little cautious when she sat down next to Mel, but they relaxed soon after and continued with their previous activities. Rayni finally had the time to count them as well—there were seven of them, and some of them were clearly not adults yet, judging by the size differences.

“Where did you find them?” Rayni asked as she gingerly stroked one of the rabbit’s head. It seemed very indifferent, so Rayni continued. The rabbit might not care one way or the other, but Rayni liked petting it.

“They came to me,” Mel replied, feeding some grass to one of the rabbits on his left. “If I concentrate, I can feel all the animals around me. Sometimes they’re curious. You could try it too if you want.”

Despite that innocent smile Mel was wearing, Rayni really didn’t want to try that. It sounded a little too much like mind control to her because she highly doubted the animals just came out of their own free will.

“Maybe later, huh? I think there’s enough company for now,” Rayni joked, a little proud of herself for coming up with a believable excuse so quickly. Mel didn’t laugh, but he did smile at her. It still wasn’t as happy as it should have been, though. “Are you, y’know, okay?”

Mel’s gaze fell to the rabbits again. “Yeah, I think so. I just…”

He didn’t continue, but Rayni understood. Sort of. In his typical fashion, Mel hadn’t wanted to ‘bother’ anyone with his feelings, so instead, he’d gone here. To hang out with rabbits. That was still so weird, but whatever worked for him.

“I’m just so worried about Kaleth,” Mel spoke again, keeping his eyes trained on the ground. “I mean, I can still feel him in the back of my mind, so I know he isn’t dead, but…”

“Right, the bond thing,” Rayni said, and a chill ran up her spine as she realized that if Kaleth really had died, Mel would sooner or later commit suicide. And Mel didn’t seem at all bothered by that possibility. Why wasn’t he a little selfish sometimes?

“H-how do you know about it?” Mel stammered, finally looking over at her with shock. Right, no one supposedly knew it existed so no one would create them. It was ironic to think that if the Umbra had known about its existence, maybe Mel’s life wouldn’t depend on Kaleth’s and vice versa.

“Mereria told me,” Rayni explained curtly, not really in the mood to discuss her. For a moment, she thought about telling him that his supposed past with Relioth was all a lie but then decided to do that later. When he wasn’t so emotionally distraught.

“Oh.” Mel didn’t say anything else and instead watched the younger rabbits chase each other.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Rayni said after a while. “I mean, Mereria stabbed a dagger into his back, and he just brushed it off.”

Rayni frowned as she thought about the confrontation with Kaleth again. It still made no sense to her. Kaleth had obviously been pretending Rayni was strong enough to beat him, but Rayni just couldn’t figure out why. And for that matter, why had he taunted her into attacking him in the first place?

“I…I guess,” Mel replied, sighing sadly. “Are you worried about Mereria?”

“Why should I be worried about her?” Rayni asked defensively and Mel lowered his eyes.

“S-sorry. You just spent a lot of time alone together recently, so I just kinda assumed….”

Rayni shuddered in distaste. Now she was extra glad that she hadn’t told anyone else about her and Mereria’s history because if even Mel could put this together…well, there would most likely be a lot of teasing from Nef.

“No,” Rayni said firmly, and Mel shrunk into himself a little more. Rayni cursed internally. This was the exact opposite of what she’d wanted to achieve here.

“Right, sorry,” Mel apologized again, not looking at her.

At that point Rayni didn’t know what else to do than hug him, so she did just that. Mel at first tensed up but soon relaxed and embraced her as well. And it was then that Rayni knew they were definitely brother and sister. She had no clue as to how she knew this, but she did, and for the first time in a while, she felt happy enough that she couldn’t stop grinning.

When they pulled away from each other, Mel smiled at her with such genuine happiness that it made Rayni’s heart swell.

“You’re my sister?” he asked, having apparently figured it out as well. “That’s amazing!”

“It sure is,” Rayni replied because that was pretty much the only thing she could say right now. She was a little overwhelmed because it really only now came crashing down on her that she had a little brother. And she didn’t care which one of them was actually older. She was the one with more knowledge about how the world worked, so she was the older sibling. Which meant she was supposed to protect Mel from everyone, take his side from time to time, and tease and embarrass him as much as possible.

Rayni quickly gave up on the last two things when she saw the warm smile Mel was giving her. How could she ever tease the guy? He probably didn’t even understand the concept, and the last thing Rayni wanted was to unintentionally hurt him. She supposed there was always Nef for this kind of thing.

Looking at Mel closely now, Rayni only then realized that they should have probably figured out they were related sooner. Ignoring the obvious fact that they both had amber eyes, which only about one percent of the population had, their hair was the same shade of dark brown, and their noses were almost identical.

Although, before now, Rayni had assumed she was possessing someone’s dead body—a fact she preferred not to think about—so maybe it wasn’t that surprising they hadn’t put it all together.

It was so random that the two of them had run into each other, though. The chance of that happening must have been incredibly low. And who knew where they all would be if Rayni and Kaleth hadn’t met Mel. That was the event that had started all of this, after all.

“What are you thinking about?” asked Mel, and Rayni realized she’d been frowning.

“Eh, nothing important,” Rayni said dismissively while wondering where those thoughts had come from. She was getting dangerously close to philosophy, and that was unacceptable. She flinched when one of the rabbits sniffed her hand. It was time to get up. “I hate to say it, but we should probably head back.”

Rayni proceeded to quickly tell Mel the plan and why they had so little time. She left out most of the details, but Mel didn’t seem to mind. He just looked really determined. That was a strange but awesome look for Mel.

“Okay,” Mel said and then smiled shyly. “Sister.”

Rayni gave him a toothy smile. “Brother.”

The next thirty minutes went by in a flash as they all got ready for what was to come. A few of the Umbra had brought enough inconspicuous clothes for everyone, which made them all look remarkably unremarkable.

Well, mostly. The othrin weapons they were holding kind of ruined the illusion.

That was actually something Rayni hadn’t thought about before—if there had really been a few hundred Umbra in Carcer, they wouldn’t be able to help them because they wouldn’t have enough weapons. As it was, there were still four Umbra that would have to stay behind with Alor, Nef, and their mother because confronting Relioth without a weapon was suicide. And confronting him and not being an Eternal was also suicide. Even Nef seemed to agree because he hadn’t put up much of a fight when it had been decided he wouldn’t be going.

Rayni sighed as she put the Umbra cloaking device into her hair behind the ear. It apparently didn’t matter where it was as long as it was somewhere close to her brain, so this seemed like the ideal place to put it. All this time, it had been hidden inside the hood of her armor, and Rayni had never found it.

The cloaking device was a small metal circle with a clip attached to, so Rayni was mostly confident it wouldn’t fall off. If it did, Relioth or his lackeys would recognize her immediately, and they would be totally screwed.

While Rayni truly believed they would manage to pull this off, she wished Mel didn’t go with them. She’d been pretty protective of him before, but now, knowing he was her brother, the need to keep him safe had multiplied almost as soon as she’d known it for sure.

But unfortunately, no matter what Rayni could possibly say, she knew he would be going, anyway. It was pretty clear he wanted to be near Kaleth again, and the best way to do that was to go after Relioth. And there was no doubt Kaleth was going to be there. Maybe not next to Relioth, but he would definitely be somewhere close.

Since they had no time to spare, Rayni said goodbye to her friends and soon enough, she was being flown to Enbrant on Mel’s back. He was flying even faster than usual, but he had to slow down soon enough because he couldn’t keep up the pace.

They would have had plenty of time to get to Enbrant if they flew in a straight line from the base, but they couldn’t do that. The risk of being discovered would be too great, even at night, and if they were spotted, they might as well give up immediately. So instead, Mel stayed above the clouds and avoided all cities and towns they came across. Rayni wasn’t completely sure how he was doing it, but it was impressive.

Only now, halfway through the trip to Enbrant, did Rayni fully realize what they were about to do and how insane it was. And how much she’d been taking for granted that the Umbra they’d released from prison would just help them try to assassinate the man who had imprisoned them mere hours after they’d regained their freedom. She hadn’t even thought about this.

Wasn’t this how Mereria did things? Rayni didn’t like comparing herself to the other Eternal, but it fit a little too well. It was too late to do anything about it now, but if they succeeded in assassinating Relioth, Rayni would definitely make sure to at least thank them. It probably didn’t happen much.

What would they even do once Relioth was out of the picture? That was the Umbra’s whole mission, wasn’t it? Maybe go on a vacation. Yeah, they should do that.

Rayni spent most of the rest of the flight staring at the rising sun, which was pretty much the only thing she could look at. It was very cloudy in this part of the Federation, which meant that she couldn’t see anything beneath them. The closer they got to Enbrant, the faster her heart was beating, and no matter what Rayni did to try to calm herself down, it didn’t slow down.

She could tell Mel was nervous as well. His previous determination was almost gone, but he didn’t say anything. It was a little odd seeing him without his armor, now that Rayni thought about it. It was also odd that the armor transformed with him, but regular clothes did not. And where did he put his dagger, anyway?

Finally, they reached the outskirts of Enbrant, and Mel landed in a nearby forest. Never before had Rayni been so glad Enoria had so many of those. As Mel changed forms, she redid her ponytail because the wind had messed her hair up beyond belief.

Rayni blinked when she saw he was wearing the same hoodie as ever but said nothing. She really needed to take him out to buy another set of clothes sometimes. Not that she cared that much about fashion, but this was extreme even for her.

“Ready?”

Mel nodded seriously, hiding his dagger in his hoodie in a slightly clumsy way. Rayni looked down at the sword hanging from its sheath on her hip and wanted to smack her forehead. She hadn’t thought about hiding it at all.

Thankfully, it wasn’t that long, so with some difficulty, she managed to hide it in her jacket, which she then zipped up. It seemed to be holding, but the end of the handle was sticking out still. Rayni sighed and undid her ponytail again. It would suck to fight with her hair like this, but at least the sword wasn’t that visible anymore.

With that done, they began heading into the city. By Rayni’s estimate, it would still take about an hour to get to the Citadel, but they didn’t have that much time, so they had to take the bus. Mel, like when it came to most things, was amazed by public transportation. But not as much as he probably would have been under normal circumstances.

When they reached the Citadel, it was still half an hour before Relioth was supposed to start talking, but the area was full of people. Rayni hadn’t expected such a turnout, but she probably should have. Relioth was a celebrity, after all, so he had a lot of fans. Even people who paid no attention to politics liked him, for whatever reason. Probably mind control. No, scratch that—definitely mind control.

It took a while, but Rayni and Mel managed to make their way behind the podium where Relioth was going to stand. It was one of the worst places to stand because the view was very limited, but that also meant that few people were here. From here, it would only take a few seconds to get to the podium, so Rayni decided they would stay here.

Now she needed to find out if the other Umbra were around already. At first, she thought it would be nearly impossible to find them among so many people, but the opposite was true. They usually looked a little off. They either held themselves in an awkward way or looked incredibly nervous, so when Rayni spotted someone like that, she tried reaching their mind.

The deafening silence was a dead giveaway.

Rayni managed to find about forty Umbra before Relioth arrived, which she took as a good sign. The others must have been on the other side of the podium which Rayni couldn’t see. She frowned in displeasure at how happy most of the people around her seemed to be at seeing Relioth. If only they knew the truth.

On second thought, Rayni was pretty sure some of them would still be his fans even if they knew what Relioth had done. People were idiots.

Rayni tried to keep herself from glaring, but it was difficult because the clapping and whistling was so loud, even though it shouldn’t be. Her hearing really must have gotten an upgrade. Gods.

“Yes, yes, thank you,” Relioth said into the microphone, which at least made the majority of the people around shut up. Rayni couldn’t believe she was actually happy to hear Relioth talk for once.

She glared up at the podium. From where she and Mel were standing, she could see the backs of two men. The one on the left was obviously Relioth. The one on the right, though, had a very recognizable shield and sword on his back.

Of course Kaleth just had to be here. But then again, it was only the two of them, that meant their chances were much higher than she’d dared hope.

“As you know, I’m not into long speeches, so let me just get to the point,” Relioth continued. He sounded uncharacteristically serious. Which was just disturbing. “Because of recent events I can’t tell you about, I—by which I mean, we—decided to start our attack on Irithara immediately.”

Rayni’s eyes widened. Attacking Carcer made Relioth attack Irithara sooner? She hadn’t even thought of that as a possibility. The surrounding crowd, however, was definitely pleased with this development, judging by the cries of delight and approval Rayni was hearing. Rolling her eyes slightly, she started to unzip her jacket, so she could pull out the sword.

“Yep, we’re finally gonna do it,” Relioth said, slipping back into his usual arrogant tone. “We’re finally…” Rayni craned her neck, wondering why he’d stopped talking, noticing that he was looking over at Kaleth. “Are you checking your Phopo account right now, or something?”

“You of all people should know how much I hate that platform,” Kaleth replied in that calm tone of voice he used when he wanted to piss someone off. He must have had a microphone on him as well, although Rayni had no idea why. What was even happening right now? Was Kaleth on his phone? Why?

Just then something flew over Rayni’s head. She and pretty much everyone else set their sights on the object. It looked like a drone, but those weren’t allowed near historical buildings. It should have been shot down before it made its way into the city center. What the hell was going on?

She watched as the drone stopped a bit away from the Citadel, and a moment later it started projecting a video onto the Citadel’s walls. A video showing Relioth from the first person view of someone else.

“Look, I hated seeing the Flare go, but it had to. Can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs, or however you people say it. I needed an incentive to get the public to support me. I blew it up during the night because I never kill more people than I need to.”

Rayni stared with amazement at the video as the crowd around her went insane. She didn’t even question where the sound was coming from, she just wanted to see Relioth’s face right now.

“You really shouldn’t have given me goggles with cameras in them,” Kaleth told Relioth, and Rayni gasped.

Kaleth had just betrayed Relioth. Which meant Relioth hadn’t been in control of him for a while, and just like that, the entire incident in front of Carcer suddenly made perfect sense to her.

Kaleth had wanted them to succeed, but in order not to raise suspicion, he made Rayni mad enough to attack him and then injure him, which would have given him an explanation for why he hadn’t tried to stop them from freeing the captive Umbra.

There was a crash as the drone fell to the ground. Relioth’s eyes were glowing, so it was fair to assume he’d destroyed it. The damage had already been done, though.

Relioth let out a sound Rayni had never thought she’d hear from him—a broken laugh.

Deciding now was the best time to strike, Rayni jumped up at the podium and most of the Umbra followed her, some changing forms as they surrounded Relioth and Kaleth. The majority of the audience had run away at that point, which was great because Rayni couldn’t concentrate with so many people around.

“You collaborated with the Umbra on this one?” Relioth asked, sounding almost impressed. Relioth didn’t even try to defend himself though. He just looked kind of lost. Probably because he knew he had lost.

Kaleth nodded at Rayni while also frowning at her.

“No, this is completely accidental,” he replied.

“How long have you been pretending?”

“Since the first time you gave me power.”

Relioth actually looked defeated at that. He gave a short, sad laugh. “Well played.”

And then, with a flash of white light, he was gone.