The Return to Irithara (Children of the Sun Book 2)
Chapter 6

Nef had been expecting a lot of things to happen at that moment, but Mereria walking over to Rayni and hugging her with a look of amazement and disbelief on her face wasn’t one of them. It was such an abrupt mood shift it left Nef really confused, and looking at the others, he wasn’t the only one feeling this way.

And naturally, the most puzzled of them all was Rayni, who seemed to barely manage to return the hug, patting Mereria awkwardly on the back while trying to escape her embrace. She wasn’t very successful, though, because Mereria kept holding her as if her life depended on it.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Nef heard Mereria whisper with such relief that Nef was starting to get that feeling he always did when a couple in his line of sight engaged in PDA.

“Okay, this is really awkward,” Rayni said, finally managing to separate herself from Mereria, “but I don’t remember you, or anything really, so….”

While Rayni made a series of vague gestures, clearly having no idea what else to say, Mereria went from relieved to devastated to furious to the same cold, guarded expression she’d been wearing when they’d arrived.

“Tharos made you forget me?” Mereria asked emotionlessly, however there was pain and anger just beneath the surface.

“Tharos made me forget everything,” Rayni corrected the other Eternal, who had sat down in the meantime, probably in need of a moment to take the new information in.

“I see,” Mereria said in a completely neutral tone that somehow conveyed exactly just how angry she was. Nef wondered how she did it. Kaleth could do this as well to some extent, but he was nowhere near as good at it as Mereria, in Nef’s opinion. Was that just something bitter people in charge knew how to do?

“Uh, why don’t you wait outside for a bit?” his mother said softly to all of them. While Nef didn’t want to listen to her, he also didn’t want to get killed by Mereria, so he didn’t protest and just followed the others outside into the hallway.

No one said anything until the door clicked shut.

“What the hell just happened?” Nef asked, trying to keep his voice down. He looked at Rayni, who just shrugged helplessly.

“Not a clue,” she replied. “I sure as hell didn’t like it, though.”

“Maybe Eternals don’t understand social cues,” Nef suggested, looking over at Rayni and Mel. “I mean, look at you two.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean? Just because I sometimes choose to ignore the atmosphere in the room doesn’t mean I can’t read it.” Rayni tried to sound scoffing, but her voice shook ever so slightly. The fact that she was missing something huge here must have been freaking her out.

Mel lowered his head. “I don’t even know what social cues are,” he muttered shamefully.

“It doesn’t matter,” Alor said, probably trying to steer the conversation elsewhere. “There are more important things to deal with. Like, are we really gonna ignore that Mereria possessed Kaleth’s half-sister?”

Oh, yeah, after what had just happened, it had totally slipped from Nef’s mind.

“Well, Edras is a Garen,” Mel said sadly, not looking up. “The only better choice in Enoria would be Kaleth and Edras’ father.”

Okay, Nef knew that Mel had said that Eternals technically didn’t have genders, but the thought of Mereria looking like a sixty-year-old businessman was hilarious to him, anyway. He barely managed to stop himself from sniggering.

“That doesn’t make it okay,” Kara said—or, well, growled—speaking for the first time since they’d left the room. She was taking this a little too personally. Had she been such good friends with Kaleth that she’d get angry over this? But she hadn’t reacted like this when Nef told them about who Relioth was using for a host.

“You okay there, Kara?” Alor asked, and flinched ever so slightly when Kara glared at him. A second later, she sighed and looked away.

“I’m fine.” For an ex-secret agent, her lying was terrible right now.

“Uh-huh,” Rayni said, narrowing her eyes at Kara.

“Well, if we want to get on Mereria’s good side, maybe we could use whatever connection you two have, Rayni,” Alor suggested, humming as he rubbed his chin in thought.

“Uh, hard pass,” Rayni replied, folding her arms and scoffing.

“It’s like the only thing we can use to get her to help us,” Alor continued, sounding sympathetic.

“Yeah, for once I’m with Al on this one,” Nef said, pointing at his brother with his thumb. Alor shot him a quick look that was somehow both pleased and annoyed.

“Look, I have no problem pretending I’m interested in getting to know her…or getting reacquainted, or whatever,” Rayni said, rolling her eyes and lowering her voice a bit more. “But every time I look at her, I get this urge to run away. It’s like I know her incredibly well and not at all at the same time. Do you know how unsettling that is?”

“Maybe she could help you get your memories back,” Mel said, giving Rayni that hopeful little smile Nef had grown to hate. That look almost always made Nef do whatever Mel wanted, and if it didn’t work, the kicked puppy look that came afterwards definitely did the trick. Thankfully Mel was too oblivious to abuse this power.

Rayni opened her mouth to reply when the door to Mereria’s office swung open once more, and Nef’s mother appeared, closing the door behind her.

“Okay, Mereria is only willing to talk to Raynimara right now,” she said, rendering their entire previous discussion pointless. “But she has nothing against you joining her ranks,” she continued, addressing Kara, who protested immediately.

“Whoa, we need her help, not the other way around.”

“First Mereria needs to take control of the Umbra again, then she will help you kill Relioth,” Orina answered, sounding a little impatient.

“Well, what about me and Al?” Nef asked, and his mother narrowed her eyes at him.

“This is one of the safest places in the entire Federation, so you will stay here, and Alor will keep an eye on you.”

Nef’s first instinct was to start an argument with her, but then he decided against it. This place was ancient, and maybe it was worth snooping around to replace some dirt on the Umbra to better understand the situation they would get themselves in by allying themselves with the Eternal faction. It was clear the Umbra were at least a little morally ambiguous, so it wouldn’t hurt to replace out just how much.

“Sure, whatever,” said Nef in his best uncaring tone and tried not to laugh when he saw Alor’s eyebrows reach his hairline.

Their mother seemed a bit taken aback as well but quickly recovered, turning her gaze to Mel. “You are to report downstairs for a two-hour long punishment session. Room 244.”

“Two hours?” Mel gasped, staring at her in horror. Sure, Mel wasn’t the bravest person and didn’t exactly hide his emotions, but Nef had never seen him this scared. What the hell did a punishment entail in this organization?

“It will be three if you don’t go there right now,” Orina growled, and Mel’s eyes filled with resignation. He was still terrified of course, but he also seemed to have accepted his fate as he started walking away, presumably heading downstairs.

“What the hell is he getting punished for?” Rayni asked darkly, looking at Mel as if she was debating whether or not she should physically stop him from going wherever he was heading.

“Insubordination,” Orina replied simply. “I’m told he has a habit of doing that, although he doesn’t really seem like the rebellious kind to me.”

“Appearances can be deceiving,” Rayni growled, clearly annoyed by Orina’s uncaring tone. Nef honestly didn’t get this. Why was his mother treating Mel like someone so far beneath her? Couldn’t he kill her with the snap of his fingers? Okay, maybe Mel wasn’t that powerful, but he definitely was strong enough to kill Orina with no problems.

He really needed to do some digging once he was out of his mother’s overbearing gaze.

In an obvious effort to avoid an endless cycle of yelling, Alor shook his head at Rayni, and then pointed at the door to Mereria’s office. In reply Rayni sighed, relaxing her previously clenched fists, but she didn’t leave without one last glare aimed at Orina.

Nef cleared his throat to get his mother’s attention. “Me and Al will go exploring, if you don’t mind, Mom. I’m sure you and Kara have a lot to talk about if you want her to join,” saying this, he was already walking away, if only because he knew that it would piss his mother off.

“Watch him,” Orina told Alor, sounding wary. Alor quickly caught up with Nef, but neither of them said a word until they reached the end of the hallway and walked into another one, finally getting out of their mother’s sight.

“What are you up to?” asked Alor quietly, but unlike most of the time, he didn’t sound disapproving or disappointed. In fact, he seemed intrigued almost. So weird.

“This organization seems fishy, so I thought we could go replace their servers, or databases, or whatever, and see what they’re hiding.”

Alor looked a bit unsure, so Nef continued.

“You’re doing what Mom wants because you feel guilty about dragging me into this mess, right?”

Alor’s expression became pained. “Nef…”

“Well, look at it this way—Mom herself said this place is totally safe, so I’m not in any danger.” Alor stayed silent. “C’mon, you know there’s something going on here. I mean, Rayni said the Umbra don’t take living people as hosts, so what’s up with Mereria possessing Edras? That’s pretty suspicious, if you ask me.”

Alor sighed, his shoulders slacking in defeat. “Okay, we should know who we’re allying ourselves with.”

“That’s the spirit. Now, let’s go see what we can replace,” Nef said, as he picked a random direction to walk in because he had no idea where he could replace a computer.

“We should probably check if Mel is okay, too. You know, after….” Alor trailed off, but Nef understood perfectly what he was trying to say. Angry with himself that he’d totally forgotten about the Eternal, Nef quickly changed direction and started heading towards the stairs.

He realized that Alor hadn’t meant to put a stop to whatever punishment Mel would undergo, but Nef didn’t care. If the punishment was as terrible as Mel’s terrified expression suggested, he didn’t deserve it.