Enoria is preparing for war with Irithara, and the team sans Kaleth are doing the best they can to put a stop to it before it progresses even further.
Their plan? Find Mereria, get her help with killing Relioth, and save Kaleth in the process. They...
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Seeing as Mereria and most of the Umbra were gone, Nef had seen a perfect opportunity to ask a few things. Since they'd looked into that computer in Aren, he'd been trying to figure out what he was missing. Whatever it was, it felt like it was right in front of him, something painfully obvious, but he just couldn't figure it out.
So, he'd thought the best way to figure it out was to talk to the remaining Umbra, inviting them to sit at the table. And they had been happy to talk, most likely because they weren't used to anyone taking an interest in them. Nef had started with the basic, innocent questions like how old they were—they had only given him the number of centuries—what their favorite color was, and so on.
He wasn't great at social interactions, but he knew very well that if he'd started by asking about their boss, he would get nowhere. Soon enough, Alor and their mom had joined in too, which only made the atmosphere in the room more relaxed.
"So, how did you end up working for Mereria, anyway?" Nef asked, trying to ease the five remaining Umbra into the topic of Mereria without asking about her directly. If his memory served, the Umbra were called Jol, Rena, Nerol, Kearis, and Serik. Nef didn't remember which one was which.
Two of the Umbra exchanged an uncertain look at the change of topic, but the other three seemed happy to share.
"Well," started who Nef assumed was Nerol, "I actually used to be one of Enor's soldiers, but I couldn't take the pointless slaughter of innocents anymore."
Nef's eyebrows reached his hairline at how casually those words had been said.
"Oh, really? Me too," Jol said, grinning widely. Nef blinked as they all joined in, claiming that the reason they'd joined Mereria was the same as Nerol's. This was certainly an interesting development.
Nef looked at his brother who was frowning at the Umbra with suspicion in his eyes. Alor seemed to have picked up something off here as well, then.
"You've never spoken to each other about this?" Nef's mother asked, surprise in her voice. That was a good question, but not as important as some of the other ones swirling in Nef's brain.
"Not really," another one answered, but Nef wasn't going to dare try to guess what her name was. "We usually work alone, and the less we know about each other, the better. In case we are captured, and interrogated..."
The Umbra looked down sadly, folding her arms. Why did Nef feel like that wasn't the only reason the Umbra weren't supposed to talk to each other?
"Right, so you don't know anything about each other?"
They all shook their heads, and Nef wanted to yell at them. Didn't all of this seem even a little suspicious to them?
"Well, congratulations. Now you do," Nef told them. The Umbra looked at each other, and their expressions brightened. It seemed Mereria didn't care that much about intelligence when it came to her soldiers.
