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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Not much was said during the car ride to the outskirts of Enbrant, and Rayni hated it. She was a talkative person by nature, and Kaleth had almost always had a conversation with her if she started it, but now he was just staring pensively out the window, so all Rayni could do was the exact same thing.
Rayni understood, though. She doubted Kaleth wanted to meet with Mereria anytime soon. It must have been terrible to see his younger sister be controlled by someone else the first time, and now he was about to see her like that again. Just imagining that happening to Mel filled her with dread. Not that it could actually happen, thankfully.
Rayni wondered if Kaleth would even have agreed to meet her if Rayni had managed to convince the Umbra to follow him to Irithara. He was probably desperate for any help at all at this point. That didn't mean he hadn't brought his sword, though.
It was a good thing the whole trip took only about fifteen minutes because Rayni wasn't sure how much more of the silence she could take.
Mereria was waiting for them in a park, sitting on a bench and feeding birds, which was even weirder than seeing Mel with those rabbits. To make matters even stranger, Mereria had also ditched her armor and was now dressed in a leather jacket, a purple t-shirt, and jeans, which really didn't seem like Mereria's style.
Rayni was so preoccupied with making sense of this she didn't even think to question that no one else seemed to be around.
When Mereria noticed them, she got up and beamed at them, and at that moment Rayni was sure—this wasn't Mereria.
"You came!" she said, still grinning as she walked over to Kaleth and hugged him before he could try to move away.
"Edras?" he asked, sounding like he couldn't believe it was her. Or maybe like he didn't want to believe it.
"Yeah, it's me," she said as she pulled away, apparently not at all bothered by the fact that Kaleth hadn't actually hugged her back. "Mereria decided to let me handle this since, you know...."
"Because Kal hates her?" Rayni supplied, and Edras grimaced.
"Yes, that."
"So she's not gone?" Kaleth said, keeping his voice and face completely neutral, and if Rayni hadn't known him for so long, she'd think he didn't really care. But the way he set his jaw and his eyes glinted for a second, she knew he was very upset.
"I don't want to get rid of her, Kaleth," Edras said, gripping her brother's shoulder. "I know you don't understand it, but you don't need to. Just, please, respect my decision."
Kaleth really hadn't been kidding when he'd said Edras didn't want to get rid of Mereria. Rayni still didn't get why in the slightest, but something about the sincerity of the way Edras had said this made her believe her.
"Was it your decision to become possessed by her?" Kaleth asked with a subtle note of sarcasm. Despite this, Edras nodded immediately.
