After reaching the center of Enbrant, Nira and Nef stayed behind as close to the Citadel as they could while Kara, Rayni, and Alor went with Mel to find Kaleth. Nef would have been worried about Relioth noticing him and Nira, but there were so many people here that they could easily blend in. It wasn't like Nef wanted to see what would happen that much, but both he and Nira felt like this was something they should witness. Plus, it beat waiting in the car.
Despite knowing what was about to happen, Nef still flinched when Relioth got shot and then stared in horror when he continued to live. He looked at Nira, but she didn't look back at him until Relioth teleported away. Once she did, she seemed as bewildered as he felt.
All around them, confused and scared voices overlapped each other, but Nef could barely hear them. He just stared at Nira, for once having no idea what to say or do. Fortunately, Nira took his hand and dragged him away from the scene which helped him get some clarity.
They didn't stop until they reached the car. Nef doubted Nira had any idea where to go from here, especially since neither of them had the car keys, but Nef at least felt better now that they couldn't see the Citadel anymore.
"What the hell?" he asked no one in particular, and Nira just shrugged hopelessly. "That should have worked, right? Why didn't it work?"
Nira didn't give him an answer and instead asked her own question. "What's going to happen now? He can't just go on pretending he didn't survive a headshot."
Nef opened his mouth, then closed it a second later and frowned in thought. He hadn't even thought of that, but Nira was right. Did Relioth have such control over the media that he would be able to stop all of them from saying anything, or would he just say the truth?
Nef almost laughed at that thought. Saying that their gods were real and had been controlling the government should go over well with the public. Actually, that wouldn't be funny for long because Relioth and his lackeys had superpowers and could control people through fear. And speaking of powerful people controlling others through fear....
"Nira?" he started and waited for her to look at him. She seemed to be so lost in thought that he had to tap her arm to get her to listen to him. "Remember the whole thing with you thinking about leaving Enoria?"
Nira looked a little annoyed. "Don't worry, I'm not leaving."
Nef scratched the back of his neck. He really shouldn't have tried to change her mind back then. "Yeah.... I'm starting to think that maybe you should."
Nira stayed silent for a moment, only blinking at Nef in surprise. An understandable reaction since he barely ever admitted that he was wrong, even when he knew he was. "Y-you are?"
"Yep." Saying that single word was somehow harder than suggesting she should leave. Maybe because now there was no going back on what he had said. Until now, he could have just told her something along the lines of haha, just kidding, and pretended he hadn't said anything.
"You really think it'll be safer in Irithara?" Nira asked, looking like she was questioning his intelligence. "Relioth's not dead. He'll attack the Empire as soon as he can, so maybe the safest place to be is right here."
Well, she had a point, but Nef didn't let that stop him. "Yeah, maybe, but if you stay here, he can kidnap you whenever he wants to, and I don't think he'll be happy when he finds out we escaped." Relioth probably already knew, but that didn't matter. "Plus, I dunno if you noticed, but Enorians don't seem to like Iritharians very much right now."
Nira nodded grimly. "I can understand why," she said, although she didn't seem to think so. In fact, she was glaring now. She looked like she wanted to go back to the Citadel and punch some of the people there in the face.
"Yeah, well, with how it is, I don't think they'd just deport you if they found out who you are." Nira grimaced and looked away. Nef didn't understand their backward laws when it came to this kind of thing, but he knew that they wouldn't get any better anytime soon. "And you haven't been wearing those contact lenses, and even though it looks really good on you, blue and violet aren't normal eye colors in Enoria."
Nira's hand went to her right eye as if to check if the contacts really weren't there, but she put her hand back down before she could even touch an eyelash. She looked nervous now, even though no one else was in the small alley Rayni had parked the car in. "There's been so much going on, I completely forgot about that."
"And I forgot to remind you." That wasn't the exact truth. Nef hadn't reminded her because he didn't want her to hide who she was behind colored contact lenses and probably also hair dye since Irithara's royal family was supposed to have dark blue hair, not dark brown like Nira's was right now. And Nef didn't think the eyes were that noticeable. It seemed he had been right so far because no one had called attention to it yet, but that was only a matter of time.
"I don't want to leave," Nira said and shrugged again.
Before Nef could figure out how to reply to that, a car landing in front of them interrupted his and Nira's discussion. It was a white van—not the largest Nef had seen, but that didn't mean it was in any way small. He was worried for about two seconds before Kara's head peeked out a window.
"Get in," she told them.
Nef and Nira exchanged a look before quickly doing as they had been told, sitting in the back with Alor. Rayni was taking off again a moment later, flying gods knew where. Before Nef even asked what they were planning on doing and what exactly had happened, there was the sound of scratching behind him, followed by a pained whine.
He hadn't been prepared for what he saw when he turned around.
"Gods," Nira said, seeing the state Mel was in as well. It wouldn't be that horrible if Nef could tear his eyes away from the bone sticking out of the bleeding hole in the Eternal's right wing. The left wing looked broken too, but at least it wasn't bleeding.
Nef put a hand over his mouth and swallowed in an effort to stop his sudden urge to vomit. Mel seemed to be unconscious, but at least his heavy breathing and occasional pained noise meant that he wasn't dead.
Once Nef managed to look at something else than the wing bone, he noticed that Mel now had armor in this form as well. It looked kind of badass. Or it would if the Eternal wasn't passed out and bleeding in the back of a van, of course.
"What happened to him?" Nira asked, not sounding even half as horrified as Nef would if he had asked the same question.
"Relioth," answered Alor with a sad sigh. "Mel tried to get him away from Kaleth, and...." Alor left it at that. Nef looked back at the shaking Eternal behind them, and a question immediately occurred to him.
"And he managed to run away?"
Alor shook his head. "He said that Relioth let him live. We've got no idea why, but I guess we should just be grateful he's still alive."
Nef wondered what had happened while he and Nira were gone to make Alor change his mind about Mel, but since Alor had no problem walking after being shot yesterday, Nef's money was on getting healed by the Eternal.
"Before he passed out, he kept saying that he finally understood," Alor continued with a bemused expression. "I don't know what he meant, but he sounded pretty upset. Well, I guess his wings are broken, but I don't think it was just that. We'll find out when he wakes up."
"Shouldn't we set the bones?" Nira suggested, and Alor shrugged again.
"Mel said he'd take care of it himself, but I guess it couldn't hurt," Alor said. A moment later he frowned, looking away as he realized what he'd just said, but before Nef could make fun of him, he spoke again. "Do you know how to do it?"
"Theoretically," Nira replied, not sounding all that confident, but she also seemed like she was willing to try. "I took some first aid lessons, but I know nothing about fixing wing bones."
"Don't worry, none of us do," Alor assured her. Nira relaxed a little at that, but she was still visibly tense. Nef knew she was worried about causing Mel unnecessary pain, unlike Nef, who was tense because he was still feeling nauseous from seeing the horrific injury.
"I do," said Rayni, looking back at them from the driver's seat. "I once set a bird's wing."
"When was that, Rayni?" Kara asked, sounding unreasonably pissed off. Nef had a feeling it wasn't at all about Rayni saying something she didn't think was useful, and more about the death of their teammate. Or was Kaleth still alive? Nef would have to ask later.
"Eighteen years ago," she muttered in reply and turned her attention to the windshield. "And probably fictional." Alor ran a hand over his face and sighed tiredly before turning to Nira again.
"Let's try to fix those wings, huh?" he said and got up as much as he could in the van. He squeezed through the space between the seats and carefully walked over to the less damaged wing, holding onto anything he could find so he wouldn't fall.
Nira seemed hesitant but followed Alor and crouched down next to him as Alor tried to push the huge wing to the ground and hold it still.
"Could you stop the car, Ray?" Alor said, and she did just that, setting the van down somewhere in the middle of a field. Nef had no idea how far away from Enbrant they were, but at least no one was following them.
Nef turned his head back to his brother and Nira, who seemed to be about to straighten the bone. The plan was that Nira would hold the bone right above the fracture still, and Alor would snap the rest of it into place, but as it turned out, it didn't go so smoothly.
The wing turned out to be much heavier than it looked. Alor was having problems moving it, much less straightening it correctly, and as soon as he moved the bone, Mel woke up and ended up almost mauling both Nira and Alor with his claws before he realized who he was attacking.
Mel slumped to the ground, visibly tired, and let out a quiet moan. "I'm sorry."
Nef almost told him that he should be, before catching himself. It wouldn't be fair to blame him for trying to kill Nira since the Eternal had been disoriented. Still, Nef felt like he should be next to Nira in case.... Well, he wasn't sure what good his presence would do, but at least he would be calmer.
In an attempt to be helpful, Nef walked to the Eternal as well and put a hand on Mel's head in a rather awkward manner. Mel seemed to like it, though, because he leaned into Nef's palm and closed his eyes. Nef still felt uncomfortable—mostly because he kept imagining touching Mel like this in his other form—but he wasn't going to pull his hand away if it was helping.
Nira gave Nef an encouraging look, and so he ran his hand over the small, smooth scales on Mel's forehead and repeated this several times until the Eternal's breathing slowed down.
Nef noticed that the right side of Mel's snout was turning purple, and most of the scales in that area were broken, or at least cracked. And was it just him, or was Mel glowing? Nef guessed that meant he was healing himself because it did look like he had stopped the bleeding.
"I can't move the...." Alor trailed off and watched Nira's hands with raised eyebrows. Nef wanted to ask what the hell he was looking at, but then he saw it too. Nira's hands were glowing with the same blue light as Mel, and she was staring at them with bewilderment, obviously not understanding what was happening either.
As the light spread to her arms and chest, Nef asked her if she was all right, and then when she didn't reply, he asked, much more loudly and with even more urgency, if she could even hear him. But Nira didn't seem to even notice him, as the light finally reached her eyes.
It was beautiful in a way, but it was also one of the scariest things Nef had ever seen because he didn't know what was happening to her, why it was happening, or even if Nira would survive whatever it was. And she wasn't even all there. All her attention was on the broken wing bone, which she now held in her hands tightly.
And then she forced the bone where it should be. Effortlessly. Mel shuddered but didn't make a sound. Nef looked back at Nira, who was still glowing. She got up and walked over to the second wing, looking as if she had been hypnotized.
Nef exchanged a freaked-out look with Alor, who seemed just as confused and worried as him. But what else could they do except for letting her fix the bones? It was what they had wanted to do, and with how much strength Nira had just shown, Nef somehow doubted they'd be able to stop her if they tried.
Setting the second bone was accompanied by a wet, disgusting sound, which Nef pretended very hard he hadn't heard, and then Nira was falling to her knees. Nef rushed over to her as quickly as possible, sitting down next to her.
"What...what just happened?" she asked, sounding completely exhausted as she stared at her bloodied hands. Nef looked at the wing she had straightened, expecting to see a bone through the torn skin, but there wasn't a hole in the wing anymore. The wound was completely healed, and all that remained was blood.
Nef looked back at Nira, who seemed like she was barely keeping her eyes open, and he helped her get to get back to the backseat before she passed out. Nef ended up carrying her there and checking her pulse. It was slow but steady, so Nef hoped that meant she was just sleeping.
"That's a really good question," said Kara, looking back at them, her previous anger replaced with shock. "What the hell just happened?"
Behind them, there was the sound of something scratching against metal, and once Nef turned around in alarm, he realized the sound had been made by Mel's claws. The Eternal was blinking, looking dazed and drained, but at least now he seemed like he would stay awake.
"She...she channeled my power into herself and used it and her own energy to heal me," he explained, looking in Nira's direction with amazement and gratitude, which then turned into regret. It didn't seem to bother him at all that from his point of view, all he could see was the back of the seat Nira was sleeping in.
"Is she gonna be all right?" Nef asked immediately, looking back at Nira with worry. She certainly looked okay, but she could be in a coma or something, and he wouldn't know.
Mel nodded, giving Nef a weak smile. "She just used up most of her energy, but she should be okay in a few hours."
Well, that was a relief. Since it was so easy to tell when Mel tried to lie, Nef didn't have to be worried that he was just saying this to make him feel better.
"But why did it happen?" Alor asked. The Eternal shifted a bit, folding his wings carefully and wrapping his tail around himself before speaking.
"When we take control of a host, we need to attune to the body and adjust it, and that can take months sometimes to do properly. If we don't do that, our hosts tend to...disintegrate if we use too much of our energy." He paused and looked in Nira's direction again. "But if someone took Nira as their host, they wouldn't have this problem, and she would even make them more powerful. Channeling our power comes naturally to her because of her family. If anyone else tried absorbing as much energy as she did just now, they'd die."
Mel lowered his gaze and partially covered himself up with his wings.
"So it's something genetic?" Nef said, looking at Nira thoughtfully.
Mel blinked at him. "I don't really know what that means," he admitted, sounding ashamed. Someone should give the guy a phone, so he could look these things up.
"Do Garens also have this...ability?" Kara asked Mel, nodding. So, did that mean that only royal families were perfect hosts? But why? This couldn't be a coincidence, could it?
"That's why Relioth is interested in Kaleth? He wants to possess him?" asked Rayni, her voice disgusted, but also kind of doubtful. Nef didn't think this was true either because if Relioth wanted to use Kaleth as his host, Nef was sure he could have done that already.
Mel's eyes became sad. "N-no, that's not why. Relioth already has a powerful host. Kaleth's...something completely different." Whatever the Eternal was talking about, he looked heartbroken over it.
"What does that mean?" Kara narrowed her eyes.
"He's the Aperios," Mel replied, which didn't really explain anything. The only one who understood what that meant seemed to be Rayni who gasped.
"That exists?"
"It didn't until now," Mel replied miserably and kept looking at the floor. "It was something Enor thought of. He thought that the physical bodies we take limit our potential power. The Aperios was supposed to be an immortal being that still had a physical form, so they wouldn't be limited by anything but themself. But Enor never managed to create one. I thought it was a legend, but then I heard Relioth tell Kaleth that he'd figured it out and that he'd made him."
Okay, that sounded more than a little creepy. Still, this Aperios thing seemed kind of cool to Nef. Although it also kind of scared him, too. If the Eternals truly were limited by the bodies they used, would the Aperios just not have any limits when it came to power? No wonder Enor had tried to research this.
"I mean, I always felt like there was something different about Kaleth," Mel continued, "but I thought it was just because of his family."
"So what, Kaleth's immortal even though he's not an Eternal? Is that why he barely has any wrinkles at his age?" Rayni joked, but her heart didn't seem to be in it. This didn't lighten the atmosphere at all, either.
"That's not all of it, is it?" Alor said, looking at Mel grimly. The Eternal shook his head sadly and sighed.
"Mereria told us that if we ever came across it, we had to...." He stopped and swallowed "Kill it. I...I should be trying to kill Kaleth right now, or at least I should be contacting the other Umbra to tell them about him."
The Eternal looked dejected, but he also didn't seem to completely reject the thought of doing what his boss wanted him to.
"Okay, you won't be doing that," Kara told him firmly. "If Kaleth's still alive, he'll stay that way, you hear me?"
Mel agreed glumly. It was kind of weird seeing him get ordered around by someone he could kill with a thought, especially since it meant ignoring his prior orders, but Mel obviously didn't want to hurt Kaleth, so it made sense.
"Good," Kara said, nodding. "Why is Mereria so interested in destroying this Aperios, anyway?"
"A being like that isn't supposed to exist. It's an abomination," Mel said, his voice breaking, and shrugged helplessly. "That's what she told us. I don't know why she thinks so, but she generally hates everything connected to Enor." Mel's eyes suddenly widened, and he shut his mouth immediately. "I-I shouldn't talk about her like that."
"Dude," said Rayni, holding up a hand. "No one's gonna be mad at you for saying something negative about your—or our, I guess—boss. Especially since she's not here." She frowned. "And this was barely negative."
There was a moment of silence that soon enough became uncomfortable. Thankfully, Rayni spoke again just before Nef wouldn't be able to take it anymore. "So what now?"
That was a good question.
"Let's fly back to the mansion," Kara told him. "We have nowhere else to go right now."
"We'll figure something out," Alor told her in a not-very-successful attempt at comforting her. Rayni set the destination into the car's computer, and soon they were high above the field once again, flying towards Imbera.
It took almost three hours to get back, and Nef was starting to get worried about Nira. Mel assured him that if she didn't wake up in an hour, he'd fix it, though. Nef had no idea how the Eternal was planning to do that, but thankfully it didn't have to come to that in the end.
Just as they were about to land, the van decided to die on them a bit above the ground and the resulting crash was enough to wake Nira up with a start. Nef quickly explained to her what had happened before she could start panicking, but once he got to the part about the Aperios, she almost flinched.
"It's Aperios, not Apenimos," she corrected him, which made Nef frown because he didn't remember saying it wrong. "And it doesn't exist." She left the car without another word, heading towards the door that led to the mansion's kitchen. Nef immediately went after her, wondering what had upset her so much. She usually wasn't one to use denial to deal with problems—that was Nef's tactic. He hoped he hadn't had this kind of influence on her.
He found Nira drinking a glass of water, looking exhausted. She looked up at Nef when he entered the kitchen and put the glass down, covering her eyes with her hand for a moment.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his brow furrowed with worry. She sighed and looked at him again.
"Kaleth will destroy my country," she replied, sounding so sad Nef had to at least put an arm around her shoulders.
"Oh, come on, I know he doesn't like the monarchy, but that's not the same as destroying the place, right?" he tried to comfort her, but Nira just shook her head and clenched her fists.
"There's not that much written about the Aperios, but the little that exists...." She paused and ran a hand through her hair. "There's supposed to be an unending war between your gods and mine—between Irif and Enor. Or Relioth now, I guess. And it won't end until the Aperios shows up. He'll join a side and end the conflict by destroying the opposing side." She swallowed. "The war will continue until this being of limitless power is born, and the side it chooses will become the ultimate victor, casting the universe into eternal darkness, or light," she quoted and let out a shuddering sigh.
"Okay, that sounds like a prophecy," Nef commented doubtfully, "and those generally don't come true. Also, Kaleth doesn't seem like a being of limitless power to me." He felt the need to add air quotes to this. Nira huffed and folded her arms.
"Maybe he just doesn't realize it," she said. "Just like I didn't realize I could absorb Mel's power. And if that's the case, Relioth will tell him how to use it." Nira shook her head once more. "I-I have to warn my mother."
"You mean...?"
"Yeah. I have to go back," Nira said, avoiding Nef's eyes. Surprisingly, he didn't feel relieved that she was planning on doing what he thought was the best way to keep her safe. Mostly, he felt crushed, but that was just because the selfish part of him didn't want her to leave, so he ignored the feeling as much as he could. "I wish I could just send a message, but it would never reach her."
"Do you think she'll take this seriously?" Nef asked her. He didn't know much about the queen, but to him, this all sounded a little insane. But then again, just last week he hadn't thought that gods were real, so maybe everything about their religion was real. Who could tell?
"She made me learn all of these myths I used to think were useless, but now I'm glad I know about them. So maybe that was the whole point."
"You think she knows it's all real?" Nira didn't answer, but the silence was enough of an answer. She wrapped her arms around Nef and put her head on his shoulder. Nef hugged her back and blinked quickly when he felt his eyes start to burn.
"Hey, maybe I could go with you and pretend I saved you from the evil Enorians or something," he joked, although he was also half-serious and was already trying to figure out how to pull it off. Nira laughed and pulled away a bit while still having her arms around Nef.
"They probably wouldn't even thank you before shooting you." Her face turned sad again, and she leaned in, kissing him slowly. When she pulled away, there were tears in her eyes, but she turned away to hide them.
"Hey, we-we'll see each other again, right? This isn't a goodbye." Nef didn't fully believe what he was saying himself, but lying to himself was better than the alternative. Nira seemed to agree.
"Sure we will," she said and smiled sadly. She looked out the window where Rayni was checking the van's engines, while Alor and Kara were talking with Mel. Nira gave Nef a look over her shoulder and went back outside, heading to the car.
Nef followed her, staying as close to her as possible. He was almost surprised by how much he hated the idea of her leaving, and how much it was making his heart ache, and beat much faster than it should. Even being kidnapped by a super-powerful psychopath hadn't made him feel this terrible.
"Can I borrow the van?" Nira asked, surprising everyone with the question.
"Uh, sure, I guess," said Rayni with a shrug, walking away from the vehicle. "I think it's okay. The parachutes work in case the engines die again."
Kara shot Rayni a disbelieving look and turned to Nira. "Why do you need it?"
"I'm going back to Irithara. I need to find out if my mother or father know something that could help stop Relioth." Nef agreed that it was probably for the best not to mention anything about telling the queen about the Aperios, seeing as most of the people around here liked Kaleth, and Nira seemed to think the exact same thing.
There was a moment of silence that felt about ten times longer than it actually was. Nef exchanged a look with Alor to tell him to stay out of it because it was obvious he wanted to protest, but the others didn't look too opposed to the idea.
"You think your mom knows something?" Rayni asked. "How will you let us know if she does?"
"I'll figure something out," Nira replied with determination in her voice. Rayni looked at her teammates, and when she saw them nod, she threw Nira the car keys. Nira caught them, and then turned to Nef, hugging him once more.
"I love you," she whispered to him, and Nef swallowed heavily.
"I love you, too."
Nef heard Nira sniffle, and she let go, offering him one last smile before turning around and walking to the van. He watched her go, rubbing his eye to wipe away a tear that managed to fall despite his best attempts at making sure that wouldn't happen.
"The best place to cross the border is near a little town called Nyres," Rayni told Nira, earning odd looks from everyone. "What? I looked into it in case I ever needed to go there. Anyway, getting in should be easier than getting out since Enorian border patrols won't even bother trying to stop you. Once you get to Irithara though.... Well, with any luck, no one will even notice you entered the country if you do cross near Nyres, but if they do notice, just land, and, I dunno, tell them who you are."
Nira gave her a curt nod, thanking her, and climbed into the driver's seat. The engines rumbled to life, and then she was flying away, the van turning into a small dot in the distance in a matter of seconds. Nef watched it until it was gone completely. He hung his head and sighed and almost jumped when he felt a hand settle on his shoulder.
Alor gave him a sympathetic look, which Nef was grateful for. What he was even more grateful for was that his brother didn't want him to talk about it. Nef just couldn't do that right now.
"Whatever it is you guys wanna do now," Nef said, his voice shaking slightly, as he looked at the rest of them. "I wanna help."
"You don't have any training, Nef," Alor reminded him as gently as he could. He probably thought Nef was upset right now, and he didn't want to make it worse.
Technically, he wasn't wrong.
"Well, I meant, like, I could try to build some of those high-tech goggles for you or something," Nef said, but after hearing Alor say that he got another idea. "But you could give me that training, right? I already know how to shoot a gun, at least."
Alor, of course, was immediately against the idea and looked at his teammates, probably expecting support, but all he got were uncertain shrugs. Mel was watching the whole exchange with interest from where he was sitting next to Kara and smiled at Nef.
Was it weird that something so simple from someone he barely knew made him feel better?
"I mean, we could try, right?" suggested Rayni, and Kara nodded and shrugged.
Alor looked up at the sky for a moment, sighing heavily. "Mom is gonna kill me." Nef wondered how their mother was handling what had happened to Luxarx. He hoped she was okay. And they should also probably tell her what they'd been up to.
Alor looked back at his brother. "Okay, let's try it."
Nef grinned slightly. Maybe it would keep him busy enough that he wouldn't have to think about Nira and how much he missed her. From the corner of his eye, he could see Mel grinning widely at him, and Nef laughed quietly.
This was gonna be interesting.