The Return to Irithara (Children of the Sun Book 2)
Chapter 17

Mel fidgeted with the sleeves of his new, dark gray and gold uniform, which was all too similar to the Umbra uniform. It wasn’t that it was heavy or uncomfortable, more the opposite. But he hated what it represented. The crescent moon on the armor plates on his shoulders was a constant reminder that he was once again on Relioth’s side, and this time it wasn’t by choice.

And the one thing that was even worse than that was seeing Kaleth wearing the same uniform and not being at all bothered by it.

Mel looked at the surrounding trees, breathing in the fresh air as he dutifully waited for Kaleth to appear. Relioth had wanted to talk to Kaleth about something and hadn’t wanted Mel to be present, so instead, he was here. His task would probably be to fly Kaleth wherever the weapon Relioth had talked about earlier was located.

Mel wondered if right now he could fly away fast enough that he wouldn’t get caught by Relioth again, but he was sure Relioth had taken care of that somehow. He’d most likely put some tracking device in Mel’s uniform, so all Mel would manage to do was show Relioth the location of Aren, which wouldn’t help anyone.

He closed his eyes, trying to get in contact with Rayni, but he gave up after just a few seconds. He’d known it wouldn’t work even before he’d tried. Rayni was just too far away to reach. The only one Mel could reach at this distance was Kaleth.

Mel still wasn’t sure how he felt about that, though. He wasn’t mad about the bond, but he just didn’t know what to make of it. He didn’t understand why he had never heard about such a thing, as well. Even if it affected the moods of the people connected through it, wouldn’t it be great to be able to communicate over long distances?

There had to be a reason he’d never been told about it, but he just couldn’t think of one.

Mel’s musing was interrupted as he heard the door to Carcer open. He turned around, expecting to see Kaleth, but instead, he was suddenly face-to-face with Relioth who was wearing that sadistic smile that always made Mel think he was about to die.

“Hi!” he said, putting a hand on Mel’s right shoulder and squeezing it just enough to make Mel flinch. “I have a very important mission for you.”

“Y-you do?” stammered Mel, wishing more than anything that he could somehow get out of this situation.

“Yeah, don’t die.” Mel blinked at the other Eternal.

“W-what?”

“Oh, don’t worry. I couldn’t care less if you live or die,” Relioth said, gripping Mel’s shoulder even more tightly. Mel bit his lip to stop himself from whimpering at that. “But Kaleth would be sad if you died. Why do you think I let you live back on that bell tower?”

Oh. To be honest, Mel had never really started questioning that after all the other things he’d learned that day, but thinking about it now, it had been strange. It was still strange. Relioth had altered Kaleth’s way of thinking, he could have easily manipulated his memories so he wouldn’t remember Mel. Why bother keeping him alive?

“Your job is to keep Kaleth happy. So don’t get killed, and then we’ll all be happy,” Relioth continued. “Oh, and don’t tell Kaleth I just threatened you, or I’ll do much more than just that.” With that, he removed the hand from Mel’s shoulder, and a second later Relioth’s eyes started to glow. The world around Relioth blurred a little before he vanished, having teleported somewhere else.

Mel breathed out and swallowed, trying to will his hammering heart to slow down. He wasn’t given a lot of time to do that, however, because a moment later, the door to Carcer opened once more.

This time, thankfully, the person who walked out was Kaleth who first gave Mel a rather sour look that quickly changed into a small smile. That was a really strange reaction. Mel wondered what was bothering him, but before he could ask, Kaleth was standing before him, frowning at Mel.

“Are you okay?” Kaleth asked. “You look a bit, erm, spooked.”

“Uh-huh, I’m fine,” Mel replied, nodding and managing a small smile. Kaleth still looked very skeptical, so clearly it was time to change the topic. Before Mel blurted out what Relioth had just said. “Um, where are we going?”

“About two hours southeast. Do you think you can manage that?” Kaleth asked kindly, playing with the goggles in his hands. They looked very similar to the ones from Luxarx, but they were thinner and the color was the same dark gray and gold as the uniform. Mel didn’t really know why the Aperios needed goggles, though.

He didn’t know what exactly the original goggles could do, but he was aware that there had been some scanners and flashlights, both of which Kaleth most likely wouldn’t need anymore. He should be able to see in the dark without any technology and sense things around him just fine, judging by how strong he was.

“Of course I can fly that far. Should be easy.” Mel smiled, still staring at the goggles.

“They’re to protect my eyes against the wind,” Kaleth explained, putting the goggles over his eyes. There also seemed to be two round parts attached to the strap that held the goggles in place that covered Kaleth’s ears, probably also to shield them against the wind. “I guess no matter how powerful I become, I won’t be able to rid myself of reflexes like blinking.”

Kaleth let out a soft laugh, and Mel smiled at him, although for a different reason. He was really relieved. The fact that Kaleth still had to act according to his reflexes meant that he would still be at least a little grounded in reality.

Mel frowned as he realized something. The fact that Kaleth had goggles to protect his eyes meant that he wasn’t going to transform. But he had to be strong enough to do that, didn’t he? But then what was Mel here for? Really just to keep Kaleth happy, like Relioth had said?

“You’re not flying yourself?” Mel asked, regretting it as soon as he saw Kaleth look away in something akin to embarrassment.

“I would, but, um, I can’t,” Kaleth replied, looking at Mel again and shrugging. As if to show that it wasn’t a big deal, even though it clearly was.

“Why not? Are you not powerful enough?” Mel realized he probably shouldn’t ask since Kaleth was clearly uncomfortable with the topic, but he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t understand what the problem was at all.

“No, no, it’s not that,” Kaleth said, shaking his head and sighing. “I know how to transform, and I have enough power to do it, but…it requires a perfect, or near perfect, visualization of what you’re turning into inside your mind, and I just….” Kaleth sighed once more. “I’m terrible at it.”

“I’m sure that’s not true—” Mel started, trying to make Kaleth feel better, but he was interrupted by a chuckle.

“It is, it really is,” Kaleth said, grinning. Well, at least he wasn’t sad about it. “Trust me, you don’t want me to try changing into anything. I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to sleep after witnessing that.”

Well, that was disconcerting. But Mel wasn’t really sure he understood what the problem was, still.

“But when I change, I don’t really visualize it. I just kinda think about wanting to transform, and then I do,” Mel explained, and Kaleth looked at him pensively.

“Hm. Well, you have been doing it for years and years,” he said after a moment. “And you are also missing a part of your memory. Maybe you just don’t remember learning how to do it, and it’s almost instinctual for you at this point.”

Mel blinked. Kaleth had probably just put more thought into this than Mel had during his entire life. He just didn’t mind not knowing how these things worked, so he’d never bothered to replace out. Why would he? He’d never had a problem transforming.

Speaking of which, he probably should do that so they could leave before Relioth appeared again. Maybe he wasn’t going to, but Mel didn’t want to take that chance.

He shut his eyes in discomfort as his bones shifted and wings grew out of his back, but as always, the transformation only took a second. It also left him a bit woozy every time. Maybe a little more than usual right now because he hadn’t fully recovered still.

Stretching his wings and back, he yawned a bit and lay down so Kaleth could climb on his back. Kaleth did so after a moment of hesitation and gripped a horn on Mel’s neck very carefully. As if he was afraid he’d hurt Mel if he applied more force.

Actually, that would be entirely possible now. Maybe Kaleth could even manage to break the horn off if he wanted to, so Mel wasn’t going to complain. He just hoped being this careful wouldn’t end with Kaleth falling off his back.

Mel waited for a little bit to give Kaleth time to settle before jumping up and flapping his wings as fast as he could to gain some altitude.

And only then he realized he had no idea where to go.

“Um, where’s southeast?” he asked, hoping that Kaleth could hear him over the sound of his wings and the wind. It wasn’t that bad where he was hovering just yet, but the wind was noticeable.

Kaleth chuckled and wordlessly pointed to his right. Mel quickly turned and started heading in that direction at full speed. It was strangely easy, even easier than usual when he was at full power.

Then Mel noticed that Kaleth was keeping a hand on the side of his neck.

What are you doing? Mel asked when he noticed Kaleth wasn’t blocking him anymore. Well, that wasn’t completely true. He was still blocking him, but he was at least letting Mel talk to him telepathically.

Just giving you a slight power boost, Kaleth replied, not removing his hand. Mel almost forgot to flap his wings just then. Did that mean Kaleth was giving Mel his own power? That was possible? It seemed Mel hadn’t been informed about his own existence as much as he’d thought.

Oh. Um, thank you, Mel said in a very unsure tone, and Kaleth ran his hand over the length of Mel’s neck.

You’re very welcome. I wish I could give you more, but I’ve been told that could destroy your host.

No, it’s okay, it’s definitely enough. I don’t want to lose this body.

Kaleth sent him a smile, or what counted as a smile via telepathy, and removed his hand, closing it around the horn he was already holding onto with his other hand. For a few minutes, they flew in a comfortable silence. Though it did make Mel wish he could still hear what Kaleth was thinking about. But he wouldn’t ask. It was none of his business, anyway.

I missed this, Kaleth said suddenly. Traveling in a car or a jet is just nothing in comparison.

Oh. For a second, Mel had thought that Kaleth had missed going somewhere with him, but, well, this was good too, he supposed.

They didn’t talk much over the next hour, but it definitely wasn’t unwelcome. It was actually kind of nice. It let Mel pretend that everything was fine for a moment. Though, unfortunately, all of their problems were always present in the back of his mind somewhere, not letting him accept the lie completely.

Still, it was nice to just focus on flying and looking at Enorian landscapes. There was quite a lot of variety in those two hours. Lakes, forests, fields, savannas, and finally, the desert, which was in fact where Enor’s lab seemed to be located.

The scorching heat couldn’t really be felt as far up in the air as Mel currently was, but it was still clear the air had changed a lot. Mel hadn’t actually been to a desert—there weren’t many cities this far in, and since all he did was assassinate Relioth’s people, he hadn’t really gotten much opportunity to visit this part of the Federation.

Even though the desert was a poor place for anything to live, it was beautiful to look at. The sea of glistening golden sand underneath them was such a vast contrast to what Mel was used to seeing that he just couldn’t tear his eyes away from it.

As Mel flew farther, red mountains also started to appear in the distance. There seemed to be quite a lot of them.

The lab’s in one of those mountains, Kaleth said, interrupting the long silence they’d shared. He didn’t seem at all amazed by the beautiful scenery. Mel wasn’t sure what to make of that. And those mountains seemed to stretch so unbelievably far. How was he supposed to figure out where to fly to get to the lab?

As if Kaleth could feel Mel’s doubtfulness, he added: I have the coordinates in the goggles, don’t worry. I’ll tell you where to go.

Oh, that was a relief. And it seemed Kaleth hadn’t been completely honest when he’d said that he would wear the goggles only to protect his eyes. Not that it mattered.

Never been to a desert?

Mel wondered how Kaleth had put that together, but maybe he could feel Mel’s excitement. That, or he’d just looked into Mel’s mind, but Mel refused to believe Kaleth would do that without permission.

No, but I really like it, Mel replied. Only then he noticed that he’d been steadily losing altitude because he’d wanted to see the sand in more detail. He was about to fix it when he realized that Kaleth hadn’t told him to do it or even commented on it. So Mel just stayed where he was, still quite a bit far up above the dunes.

From this height, it was much easier to see the small shrubs that dotted the landscape, as well as cacti, which hadn’t appeared until now.

That brought back bad memories. Mel had had a cactus in his apartment once—one of his neighbors had given it to him because she didn’t want it—and Mel had loved it, especially how it bloomed. He’d ended up killing it, though, due to watering it too much.

That had been a very sad moment.

Is something wrong? Kaleth asked, most likely noticing Mel’s shift in emotions.

N-no… Mel wasn’t sure why he lied—Kaleth probably wouldn’t make fun of him for this—but he did know that lying through telepathy wasn’t something he knew how to do well, so he quickly changed the subject.

Have you been to the desert before?

Uh, yes, once. But not under circumstances you’d like.

What does that mean?

I had to chase an Umbra group from Enbrant all the way to the Red Desert once.

Oh. Still, it hadn’t been Kaleth’s fault—he hadn’t known better at the time, and the way Ikara lead the Umbra didn’t paint them in a more positive light either.

I’ve never been partial to deserts, to be honest, but now that the heat doesn’t really bother me, I guess they’re nice to look at.

What’s this one called? Mel had next to no knowledge when it came to geography. He did know a few city names, but if he were asked to replace them on a map, he probably wouldn’t be able to. And to make things more complicated, sometimes the Umbra used different names for places. It was really confusing.

The Great Desert. Enorians are very creative with their names, as you can see, Kaleth joked, but Mel liked it. At least it was easy to remember.

Did your goggles tell you that?

Kaleth laughed. They could, but I actually knew this. I did graduate high school.

Oh, right. Mel had never been to one of those, so he had no frame of reference as to what was seen as general knowledge and what wasn’t. And what was that like?

Going to high school? I don’t think I can answer that without sounding overly cynical.

Mel’s ears dropped a bit. You didn’t like it?

Oh, I did, Kaleth replied sarcastically, until I figured out that my schoolmates liked my father’s money much more than they liked me.

That sounded awful. Being all alone was something Mel had really hated, but he would prefer it to a fake friendship. And how could someone not like Kaleth, anyway?

I’m so sor—

It’s been more than two decades, Mel. It’s fine, I don’t care. I haven’t thought about it in years, Kaleth assured him with a slightly amused tone. I have more important things to deal with.

Mel frowned. I guess.

The conversation ended with that, and they continued traveling to the mountain range in silence, albeit this one was much less pleasant. Mel watched the mountains now that they were much closer, studying the dark rocky surface. Some of them had trees and shrubs growing out of them, but that seemed to be very rare, as most of the mountains had no flora at all.

The mountain range wasn’t the highest in Enoria as far as he knew, but it still forced Mel to fly up so as to not crash into it. As he flew between the individual peaks, Mel was starting to wonder if Kaleth was going to give him some information about where exactly he was supposed to fly to. Thankfully, just a moment later, Kaleth did just that.

Okay, it should be the large mountain on the right.

Mel looked up at it, taking in its massive size compared to the other mountains. This one was tall enough that it had traces of snow at the top, which seemed a little ridiculous to Mel given that just below was a scorching desert.

Mel began heading to it, and using Kaleth’s directions, he soon enough managed to spot what looked like a small cave in the east side of the mountain. He landed in front of it, wondering if this was it. There didn’t seem to be much to the cave. It was just that—a cave. A very shallow one at that.

Mel let Kaleth climb off him and wondered if he should change forms. He decided to wait since this so far looked like it wasn’t where they had been supposed to go.

“Relioth said there would a scanner of some sort that is supposed to let only Enor open the door,” Kaleth explained, looking closely at the far wall inside the small cave. Mel poked his head into the small space of the cave, studying the wall as well.

If Kaleth was sure they were in the right place, he would help in any way he could. However, that didn’t mean he wasn’t confused about what Kaleth had just said.

“If the door will only open for Enor, how are you planning on opening it?”

“I have the same energy signature as him,” Kaleth replied, sounding a little distracted as he removed one of his fingerless gloves and ran his hand over the wall. Mel stayed silent and let Kaleth work, only watching him.

After a few seconds, Kaleth’s hand stopped suddenly. There was a small burst of golden light that came out of Kaleth’s hand and flowed into the wall, and then the stone wall was sliding up into the ceiling with a loud grinding noise.

As Kaleth walked into the dark room that had been revealed, Mel was frozen in place in shock. That bright golden light was unmistakable. He hadn’t seen Enor use his power that much before his death, but Mel had never forgotten the light. So bright and warm, like sunlight. Enor’s symbol was the sun for that very reason, while Relioth’s and Mereria’s were the moon and the stars respectively because of their brilliant white light.

Kaleth’s energy was definitely the same as Enor’s, no doubt about that. But did that mean he would become the same in personality as well? He definitely hadn’t yet, so that was a good sign, but what if Kaleth changed more and more over time?

Mel heaved a heavy, sad sigh. He supposed only time would tell. And he had no power over what happened to Kaleth, anyway. He would just be forced to watch it happen.

“Oh my gods…” Mel heard Kaleth mutter. He shook his head and squeezed through the narrow cave and into the spacious room. It was still dark, but that didn’t bother Mel. He could easily see what Kaleth was staring at.

“That’s….”

“Luxarx,” Kaleth finished for him.

Enor’s shield, as well as his sword, were hanging suspended in the middle of the room, seemingly levitating. Or maybe it wasn’t seemingly at all. Mel had heard Enor had invented more things than anyone could count.

Mel stared at both the shield and the weapon in awe. He wasn’t a fan of Enor, but being close to something so iconic and legendary filled him with amazement as much as dread.

The shield had a round shape and on it was the bladed cross, symbolizing the three most powerful Eternals in Enoria. The cross itself was golden and shinier than anything Mel had seen before. There was also a layer of black metal underneath it, which was most likely othrin, so it wouldn’t break easily when coming in contact with an othrin weapon.

The sword wasn’t any simpler in design. Much like the shield, the weapon was black and golden. The golden part was the metal surrounding the handle, forming a dragon’s head with its jaws open in a roar, and out of its mouth stuck the black othrin blade, at least as long as an arm and looking incredibly sharp. The handle itself was wrapped up in black leather, and the blade seemed to be covered in golden lettering which Mel couldn’t read.

“And Lothrok,” Mel added the name of the sword.

“Is that what it’s called?” Kaleth said thoughtfully, reaching his hand out to touch the sword.

“Should you really be doing that?” Mel asked in alarm. He didn’t like being here. The place made his skin crawl for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that it used to be one of Enor’s labs, and it felt like disturbing a tomb. No one but Enor should have been able to enter, yet here they were, about to steal his sword and shield.

“It’s what we came here for,” Kaleth replied, turning around to frown at Mel. “Don’t worry, I’m sure nothing will happen. I’ll just take this, and we can leave.”

He smiled slightly, and Mel tried to force himself to relax, but he couldn’t. He watched, drawing his wings closer to his body, as Kaleth gripped the handle of the sword and pulled it out of whatever force was holding it hovering in the middle of the room.

Immediately, an alarm blared and the wall hiding the entrance started to come down. Mel was about to run to it and try to hold it open for long enough to let them escape, but it seemed Kaleth was far ahead of him.

“Run, hurry!” he said through gritted teeth, his eyes glowing with the same bright golden light as his hand had just a few minutes ago. Mel did as he was told, all but jumping out of the lab and to the edge of the cave, so Kaleth had enough room to escape as well.

He appeared a few seconds later, the shield slung over his back and the sword in hand. As soon he was outside the wall slid shut with a loud thud behind him, and Kaleth proceeded to pant for a bit, shaking his head.

“That was more difficult than it should have been,” Kaleth muttered and then smiled at Mel. “Next time I’ll definitely listen to you.”

Mel smiled back, but it was very weak compared to his usual grins. With those glowing eyes, Kaleth had looked even more like Enor, and Mel couldn’t unsee it.