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

Since they were afraid that they’d be spotted and recaptured by Irif’s forces, Yorin had stayed on the ground, resorting to running. This meant that the trip would take twice as long at least and was about three times as uncomfortable.

Even with his time manipulations, he just couldn’t run as fast as he could fly. And Nira couldn’t push him to run faster—it was clear he was already pushing himself as it was with how tired he looked when they finally stopped for the night. At least the break wasn’t just for her and her father’s benefit anymore.

Nira watched Yorin as he started running around their makeshift campsite for tonight, collecting firewood with his beak. She couldn’t help but smile a little. It was good seeing him like this—energetic and determined, despite the obvious tiredness he was trying to hide.

Nira wasn’t completely sure why he was acting this way, but she was just glad he wasn’t depressed anymore. Especially after what had happened with Irif. Yorin had looked so sure he wouldn’t be alone anymore that he had been completely heartbroken when she’d turned on him.

Maybe he realized he didn’t need to hang out with other Eternals in order not to feel lonely? Nira immediately disregarded that thought, though. Yorin was millennia old, and he wasn’t an idiot—there was no way he hadn’t tried being around normal people.

When she heard a quiet hiss behind her, she turned to look and found her father stretching his arm. He stopped as soon as he noticed her watching him, though, and gave Nira a very awkward smile.

“This way of traveling doesn’t agree with me,” he explained with a soft laugh. “I’m not as young as I used to be.”

Nira narrowed her eyes. “I bet the bruises don’t help either.”

She was mostly guessing, but since it made no sense for her father’s arm to hurt after traveling with Yorin, she was pretty sure she was right. And that feeling only multiplied when he broke eye contact and stared at the dead leaves and snow on the forest floor.

“You could ask Yorin to heal you, you know,” Nira continued, and her father sighed.

“I suppose.”

That was enough for Nira to know that her father wasn’t going to tell Yorin anything. Nira would have to do it for him, then. Why did he feel such a need to punish himself?

Thankfully, a few seconds later, Yorin arrived, formed a perfect pyre with his telekinesis, and set it on fire. Even after witnessing it several times, it still amazed Nira how the wood and stones swirled through the air and set themselves down exactly where they should be.

I’ll go find a deer, Yorin announced, running away again, and Nira sighed. At least now with her father here, they would manage to eat more of it, so it wouldn’t be a complete waste. She sat down in front of the fire, having brushed some of the snow off the ground. Her hands were cold.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like meat anymore?” her father asked, sitting down next to her, albeit not without a flinch that he tried very hard to cover up.

“No, it’s not that,” Nira replied. “I’m just a little sick of eating it without any seasoning.” Nira laughed. “Sorry, that’s probably the least of our problems right now.”

“I haven’t even thought of that. Is it bland?”

“Incredibly,” replied Nira, grinning at her father, who returned it.

Ignoring the fact that they were fugitives now, this was kind of nice. It had been years since Nira had gone with her father somewhere just for the fun of it, and she was pretty sure this was the first time they went camping. Okay, technically, this wasn’t really camping, but it was close enough.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, the only sound being the crackling of the campfire and a distant beating of Yorin’s hooves against the ground.

“I don’t really want to bring this up,” said her father finally, looking over at her. “But, well, you weren’t even half as shocked as I expected you to be after you found out the truth about your mother.”

Nira frowned. That wasn’t exactly true. She had been shocked when Yorin had unintentionally told her the truth, but meeting Irif had mostly been jarring. She acted so much differently from how Nira remembered her mother, even if it had been Irif playing a role, that Nira’s mind just refused to connect the two. Maybe that was for the best.

“Yorin told me ahead of time,” Nira replied. “And Irif isn’t my mother.”

Nira’s father just nodded, probably not overly eager to continue the conversation after the unfriendly tone Nira had used. But she couldn’t help it. Irif had taken Nira’s mother away from her, pretended to be her, abused her father, tyrannized her people, apparently destroyed an entire civilization, tortured Yorin, and who knew what else. And she needed to die.

Nira blinked, staring at her clenched fists in shock. Where had that come from? Sure, if anyone deserved to die in Irithara, it was probably Irif, but Nira would never agree that this was the answer. And besides, if there was a chance her mother was still alive, they had to figure out how to get Irif out of her body. Nira needed to talk to Yorin about this.

Speaking of him, there was suddenly the sound of wings beating behind them, and both Nira and her father turned around. They watched as Yorin landed with a loud thump, holding in his beak the bloody carcass of a deer by its neck.

Out of the corner of her eye, Nira saw her father pull a face, and it almost made her laugh. She’d been aware he had a problem with seeing blood, especially when it wasn’t his own. And Yorin being white did nothing to help things. If he were darker, maybe the red splatters on his feathers wouldn’t be visible in the dark.

Yorin did the usual preparation of the meat while Nira’s father did his best to look elsewhere. Nira had to admit that it was pretty disgusting, but she’d seen Yorin butcher wildlife so many times at this point that it barely grossed her out anymore.

What wasn’t normal however was when Yorin stopped and let the deer fall to the ground.

“What’s up?” Nira asked as Yorin trotted over to them and draped his right wing over her father and her.

An Eternal is here somewhere, Yorin explained, turning his head this way and that as he tried to find the Eternal he could apparently sense. Although that wasn’t really strange since they had telepathic powers, Nira supposed. What was strange was that an Eternal was here because supposedly there were few of them in Irithara. Probably one of Relioth’s then.

Nothing seemed to happen in the following seconds, but they dragged on impossibly. Nira flinched when she heard a bush rustle somewhere behind them, but she couldn’t see over Yorin’s wing. Yorin himself kept watching the trees in front of him, his eyes glowing fiercely. With all the blood on his beak and face, it made him look pretty intimidating if Nira was honest.

And then it all just stopped. Nira blinked as Yorin took his wing away and tilted his head to the side as a tall man appeared from behind the trees Yorin had been staring at previously.

“Yorin!” the man said, grinning and coming towards the Eternal. Nira covered her eyes as Yorin switched forms, and the next thing she saw was the two of them hugging.

“Yris,” Yorin greeted the man, looking and sounding stunned. “I thought you were dead.”

They let go of each other, and Yris laughed. “I thought you were dead. Where were you hiding out all this time?”

“On the southern islands,” Yorin replied, apparently unable to keep a grin off his face. Nira relaxed a little, seeing as Yorin didn’t seem to think the other Eternal was a threat. Still, Nira knew Yorin had a problem judging these situations well, so she would stay suspicious of Yris until he proved he could be trusted.

Now that he was close to the campfire, Nira could see Yris’ face. Nira’s eyebrows rose up at how young his host looked. Sure, most Eternals she’d met didn’t have hosts that were over thirty years old, but Yris’ looked about eighteen, maybe even less. Although she supposed it didn’t matter to beings who were thousands of years old—no host would accurately represent their age, after all.

Other than the young look, though, Yris looked incredibly ordinary, just like Yorin. He had the same light hair and blue eyes of most Iritharians, but maybe that was the idea. If they looked ordinary, they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves.

Although, the clothes Yris was wearing kind of ruined that image. He would have frozen to death in that sweatshirt were he mortal.

Nira cleared her throat, drawing the attention of both of the Eternals. Yorin gave her an apologetic look, but he was still smiling. It was nice seeing him happy. Nira just hoped this reunion would go better than the previous one.

“Sorry. Um, this is—”

“The princess and the king. Yes, I know,” Yris said, smirking at Yorin. Then he turned to Nira and her father again. “I forgot to introduce myself, didn’t I? My name is Yris. I’m the only surviving childhood friend of Yorin.”

“That’s a little morbid,” Yorin protested weakly, his shoulders sagging. “But accurate, unfortunately.”

“And I’m also a member of the Resistance against Irif.”

“That exists?” Yorin exclaimed. Nira raised her eyebrows, surprised as well. From how Yorin had talked about the Iritharian Eternals, she’d assumed there were too few of them to attempt something like this.

“Like an Iritharian version of the Umbra?” Nira asked, and Yris’ face soured.

“Please don’t compare us to them.” He sounded pretty offended, so Nira let it slide. It was a little weird though. Weren’t the Umbra the good guys? Kind of? “We’ve been trying to amass a force big enough to attack the palace and kill Irif over the last hundred years.”

“And you want me to join you?” Yorin asked, his tone already making it quite clear that he would join if Yris asked.

“Yes. And the two of you as well,” Yris said, turning to look at Nira and her father.

“How can we possibly help?” asked Nira’s father. He didn’t seem against the idea, just generally confused. Nira just hoped Yris didn’t mean to turn them into hosts.

“That power your daughter used to get Yorin out of Aleara, you have access to it as well, Hidarion,” Yris explained. Nira looked over at her father, who seemed strangely fascinated with the idea. She would have expected him to be shocked, but he wasn’t. Maybe he had already thought about it before now.

Which was all well and good, but Nira was pretty sure Yris couldn’t know what she’d done, so he must have looked inside of their heads. That definitely wasn’t making Nira like him more.

“There are very few Eternals left in Irithara, and even fewer that would join us, so we’ve been looking for mortals able to harness our power instead. Most of them your very distant relatives. Illegitimate children, usually.”

“I don’t have any of those,” Nira’s father defended himself, sounding offended by the mere notion. Nira was definitely happy with that reaction, though. She wasn’t sure she could deal with the idea that she had a half-sibling or two somewhere in Irithara just now.

“You certainly didn’t make our job easy, that’s true,” Yris joked, and cleared his throat when no one found it funny. “Right, so, interested?”

Nira looked at her father, who seemed pretty unsure. Nira was less so, especially after Yris mentioned her ability to harness Eternal power and using it to defeat Irif. If Nira’s mother really was dead, then Nira wanted to be the one to kill the Eternal who had done it. And besides, they didn’t have many options here and doing something sounded much better than just hiding or running.

“Of course we’re interested,” Yorin replied for everyone with enthusiasm. Then his smile ebbed as he looked over at Nira and her father. “Er, we are, right?”

“Yes, we are,” Nira said, which her father echoed a few seconds later. It was clear he was still wasn’t completely on board, though. But Nira supposed she wasn’t either. She didn’t know Yris enough to trust him fully, after all.

“Great!” Yris said happily. “Let’s go, then.”