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

Rayni had been trying to figure out just what kind of relationship Mereria thought they had for a good half an hour at this point, but so far she hadn’t come up with a definite answer. Rayni had ideas though, and she didn’t like any of them. Mereria unnerved her, in more ways than one. Her complete lack of compassion towards the people who served her was one of them, for example.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Mereria asked as they walked through the greenery in the middle of Aren. The weird, massive, colorful greenery. Honestly, ‘greenery’ wasn’t the right word—there wasn’t that much green here. A lot of the plants were purple, so ‘purplery’. Yeah, that wasn’t a word, but she didn’t care—it fit much better.

“Uh, yeah, sure. I’m not that much into plants, honestly,” Rayni replied, and Mereria actually let out a small laugh. Rayni blinked. She hadn’t known the other Eternal was even capable of producing that sound.

“Oh, I know. You used to mock me for it often,” she replied, a tiny fond smile on her face, and that was really disconcerting—why would Mereria be happy about being mocked? As if that wasn’t enough, Rayni was once again reminded that Mereria was possessing Edras. She would have mentioned that by now, but since Rayni’s mission right now was to get Mereria to like her—not that it was that difficult—Rayni hadn’t approached the subject yet.

“Uh, is there a reason you’re growing this super-sized herb garden?”

Mereria chuckled as she stepped away from the flower she’d been inspecting. “Oh, I’ve missed you.”

Rayni pulled a face at the sweet tone. Even though it had mostly been genuine. It still sounded fake to her. And she was getting more and more sure she knew just what kind of relationship she used to have with Mereria, which was making her feel…not good.

“These plants are all that’s left of the original flora of my homeland,” Mereria explained, spreading her arms to gesture to the plant life around them.

“Are you from space?” Rayni asked, not following any of this, but very glad Mereria stopped talking about how much she’d missed her.

“No,” Mereria replied dryly, “I’m from here, the continent you call,” she scoffed, “Enoria. It used to be called Asharia before Irif decided to kill us all.” Mereria’s tone darkened considerably, as did her expression, but a few seconds later, her face became neutral once more. “Anyway, it’s been fifty thousand years, the climate has changed, and so did the flora and fauna.” The Eternal sighed sadly. “But I like to keep a part of my home here. It’s nice to have something tangible to hold on to.”

“You’re really sentimental,” Rayni commented as she tried to piece together the bits and pieces of information Mereria had given her. It seemed the other Eternal was just as old as Relioth, which Rayni supposed made sense, but it also made her wonder if she was also this old. Because, damn, that’s a lot of memories to delete.

“It’s about all I have left,” Mereria replied quietly, looking away for a moment before looking at Rayni again. “Well, not just this, I now have you back as well.”

Mereria made a move to hug Rayni again, but former agent took a step back and raised her index finger.

“Okay, I don’t know what kinda relationship you think we have, but to me you’re a complete stranger. And you kinda creep me out, to be honest, so no hugging! Or any physical contact at all, all right?”

Pain flashed through Mereria’s eyes, but she quickly schooled her expression into the cold mask she’d been wearing for most of the time so far. “I see. You don’t trust me.”

“Well, no duh,” Rayni exclaimed. “We’ve known each other for, like, an hour, during which you sent my friend to get a punishment he doesn’t deserve—”

“He deserves it, and much worse,” Mereria snapped, glaring at Rayni, who mirrored it. “He broke one of our most sacred laws and forged a soul bond with someone.”

“A what?” Rayni asked, her anger completely forgotten and replaced by confusion.

Mereria opened her mouth to reply when something seemed to surprise her. She scanned Rayni with her eyes, tilting her head to the side. “Doesn’t it bother you that you are so low on power?”

“What? This is how I normally am,” Rayni said, although she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t wondered why she was still so much less powerful than Mel. She’d thought it would fix itself over time since now she knew she was supposed to be much more powerful than just some empathic abilities and increased strength.

“Take off the watch,” Mereria suddenly said.

“What, why?”

“It’s a suppression bracelet.”

“That’s ridiculous! My father gave it to me when—” Rayni stopped herself, remembering that her mother and father had never been real, so her father couldn’t have given her that watch. Uncertain but curious, she removed the watch and almost gasped at how much lighter she suddenly felt. As if a great weight had been lifted off of her.

“As I said, a suppression bracelet. Tharos most likely gave you those memories to give the watch sentimental value.” Mereria was glaring again. She really wasn’t a fan of Relioth, was she? Well, neither was Rayni, but honestly, she’d rather hang out with him than with Mereria. Relioth may have been a psychopath, but at least he was fun. “Your true power should return in a few days, hopefully.”

“Okay, cool,” said Rayni, stroking her wrist where the watch had been. She already missed it. She would have to get a new one later. “So, I’ll be able to shapeshift?”

Mereria smiled slightly. “Yes. Your favorite form was a giant eagle.”

“Whoa, we can shift into something other than a dragon?” Mereria let silence answer for her as Rayni thought about it for a bit longer. Then Rayni scoffed and shook her head. “Well, clearly I changed ’cause I’d totally shapeshift into a dragon instead. There’s nothing cooler than that.”

To be fair, a giant eagle sounded really cool as well, but Rayni wanted to use this opportunity to give Mereria a subtle clue that she wasn’t the person Mereria had known. She couldn’t be, right? Why would Rayni have gotten involved with Mereria, otherwise? The Eternal was way too cold and harsh for Rayni to ever like her.

She swore, if there was a way to travel back in time, Rayni would go say a few things to her younger self immediately.

Mereria seemed to get what Rayni was trying to say because she now looked really displeased and maybe a little disappointed. “Maybe you’ll change your mind once you try.”

Ah, so Mereria was also using this tactic. Rayni wasn’t sure how long she could keep this conversation up, though. Not speaking about things directly always tired her out.

“I’m pretty sure I won’t. In fact, I know I won’t,” Rayni said forcefully, and with that Mereria’s cold demeanor crumbled. And Rayni would lie if she said that causing Mereria to look as devastated as she did right now didn’t make her want to take what she’d just said back, if only a little. Saying it had been necessary, though, so Rayni didn’t let it get to her and stood her ground.

“Oh,” Mereria said, her tone becoming cold and unfeeling once more. “I understand now why Tharos hadn’t just killed you when he had the chance. Why simply kill you when he could take away your desire to be with me instead. When he could make sure that every time I looked at you, I’d know what I lost and what I could never regain, even though the person I love more than anything and miss so dearly is right in front of me.”

It took Rayni a moment to digest all of that. She hadn’t expected something this emotional from someone like Mereria, of all people. But Rayni’s eyes were stinging a little bit right now.

“You want my help killing Tharos?” Mereria asked, a single tear running down her face, even though her face was perfectly calm. “I will do so, gladly. I only ask that once it’s done, we never see each other again.”

Rayni only nodded, and with that Mereria left, leaving the other Eternal standing in the middle of the meadow.