After defeating Irif, everyone assumes that the hardest part is over, and that they can finally relax for a moment. But while flying back to Enoria, Kaleth and the others are attacked by an ancient enemy, who they thought was long dead. And he has a...
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Nira woke up with a groan. She really hated how drained she always felt after overdoing it with Eternal energy. She swallowed as she opened her eyes, seeing a metal ceiling above her. She felt wrong. Like a part of her was missing. And she knew very well why that was.
Glaring at nothing, she rose to her feet, taking a moment to get her head to stop spinning before actually taking a look at where she was. A quick glance told her all she needed to see. An Eternal base, probably Umbra. Where else would she have been, anyway? They'd won, as far as she knew.
Except her father and Yorin were still Enor's prisoners....
Nira sighed heavily. Dammit. She hoped Enor wouldn't hurt them for her escaping. Or that he wouldn't attack the whole Empire because of it. But Nira had suspected that he had been bluffing from the very start. He hadn't done anything she would have expected once Irithara was his. It was like he didn't really care about it. Which given how Enor usually was wasn't exactly factually wrong. But still, even his usual brand of uncaring wasn't making much sense.
Nira stared at her hands, noticing that they were shaking. But physically she felt fine. She would just need to get more energy, that was all. Then she'd be fine. But first she needed to find Nef and make sure he was alright.
She wandered the seemingly endless corridors, peeking into empty rooms at random. She was sure this base wasn't actually that large, but given the lack of anything she could use to tell where she was, she couldn't tell if she was going in circles or not.
And finally, she heard distant laughter, echoing through the corridors. Frowning at how familiar it sounded, Nira set out in that direction. There were voices talking, but she couldn't make out the words. Damn her weak, mortal hearing.
The itch to get the power back got a little more annoying.
Shaking her head, Nira kept going until she reached a large, round room with a table in the middle of it. And at the table, sitting there was Relioth. Nira could also see that he wasn't alone—Nef and Alor were there too—but all she could focus on at that moment was the former president of Enoria. The man who had threatened her life at the very start of all of this. The Eternal who had killed thousands of people like it was nothing. Cuffed, with his hands bound to the table by a dagger stabbed through the chain between the cuffs. The power contained in them. She could almost taste it.
"Nira!" Nef's voice dragged her out of her thoughts. He ran to her and hugged her, and for a moment Nira completely forgot everything else. She embraced him too, ecstatic to see that he was okay, and so was his brother if the brief glance she'd gotten was anything to go by.
Though there was something off about him.
"Oh, I was wondering where she was," said Relioth as Nira and Nef separated. She glared at him, her stomach twisting in anxiety. Or maybe it was something else, she mused as her eyes fell on the cuffs again. All she would have to do was touch it and she'd have all of Relioth's power. Or close to it.
