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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Nef hadn't even known there were Umbra bases underwater. Though, to be fair, he didn't know a lot of things, Eternal-wise. It was annoying. He wished Yorin was around—at least he shared things. Usually related to technology. So those were two great things at once. And realizing where Yorin was right now, that was enough thinking about him. Nef sure hoped he was alright.
They were all in a meeting room that was very similar to the one in the base in Imbera, which was probably a crater now. But this one was nicer anyway. There was actually a window here, out into the ocean. It was really dark though, which made sense because the Umbra wouldn't want to call attention to themselves, and they could see without a light on. The problem was—Nef couldn't. He really just needed to get some night vision at this point. Or stop involving himself in Eternal business and just keep to himself. Alor would have probably jumped on that idea.
But Nef couldn't do that, if only because of Nira. She wanted to keep fighting, and Nef was more and more concerned about her. He couldn't deny that he'd liked seeing how badass she had been while easily taking on Enor's soldiers, but she'd also seemed to enjoy it just a little too much for his liking. And she was also paying more attention to planning counter strikes than she was to him. And sure, that sounded really selfish and kind of childish, but Nira always paid attention to him. This whole time they'd been sitting next to each other at the huge round, metal table, and Nef didn't think she'd looked at him once.
Nef sighed. Well, there was nothing he could do about anything until this was over. One way or the other. So he supposed the only thing he could do was try to be supportive of her and this whole...plan, whatever it was. He hadn't been listening.
Speaking of, he probably should do that.
"Enor just...left after you cut him?" Relioth said, clearly shocked. And so was Nef. Maybe Enor was way lamer than everyone gave him credit for. It was also kind of funny to note how no one was sitting on either side of Relioth, and that between him and Kaleth was Mel, who Nef was pretty sure hadn't said anything so far, and had just been glaring at Relioth.
"Yes," Kaleth replied, running a hand through his hair. "I think he was concerned I'd beat him."
Relioth narrowed his eyes in what was definitely suspicion. "That doesn't sound like him."
"On the contrary," Mereria joined in, as irritated as ever. "Enor wouldn't stay to fight if he wasn't confident he would win."
"I think I know him a bit better than you, Mery." Relioth was smirking at her now, a challenging kind of smirk. Mereria scoffed.
"We've both known him for fifty thousand years."
Before she could continue, Nira cut in. "What does Enor want with you?"
Nef wasn't sure why her acting like this was still surprising to him, but it was. He was used to her being intimidated by Eternals, especially the most powerful ones. And now she was acting like she was one of them. Which Nef supposed was kind of true, but he didn't have to like it. His brother already was an Eternal now, that was enough.
Kaleth gave Nira a long, blank look before replying. "I think he wants to make me like him."
"Oh? Did he ask you out?" Relioth was grinning widely now, clearly very pleased with himself for that joke. Nef felt bad for actually kind of finding it funny, but he enjoyed dumb jokes, he couldn't help it. In the meantime, Kaleth sighed tiredly and rubbed his eyes.
"We can't let that happen," Mereria said, though it was completely pointless. Nef was pretty sure everyone had added that in their heads already. One Enor was enough to deal with.
"I wasn't planning on letting him make me into a sociopath," Kaleth snarked at her. Next to him, Nef could tell Nira was getting annoyed. To be fair, it was kind of exhausting seeing these two argue all the time.
"So what is your actual plan?" Nira asked before a fight could actually start. And despite everything, Nef was actually kind of liking how she was taking charge.
"We free Enoria," Kaleth said simply. Well, Nef had a couple of notes, if Kaleth was interested in constructive criticism.
"What about Irithara?" Nira immediately argued. "What about my father?"
Kaleth raised a finger. "Enor's forces are the most spread out in Irithara, his ship is in Irithara, he is in Irithara, as far as we know. Freeing Enoria from him first will be easier."
Nira still looked like she wanted to argue, but Kaleth continued. "I care about your father too, Nira. And I wish I could go back to Enor's ship and bring him back here, but Enor can trace wherever I teleport."
Well, Kaleth was making a lot of sense, but Nef knew Nira wasn't going to happily listen to him. She didn't say anything else though, just muttered something under her breath. Nef caught the word 'care' in a very sarcastic tone, so he was pretty sure what she was grumbling about. And yeah, that was still super surreal.
"Sounds fine," said Relioth, raising an eyebrow at Kaleth. Was Nef the only one who really didn't approve of Relioth being with them? He could understand that beggars couldn't be choosers, but was this really a good idea? "Got anything specific in mind for freeing Enoria?"
Kaleth looked at him with a smirk that was oddly devoid of any kind of amusement. "We do to Enor what the Umbra did to you for centuries."
"Be a pain in his ass?" Relioth joked, which made Mereria grind her teeth. And by the looks of it, Rayni and Mel weren't all that happy either.
"Enor's soldiers come from somewhere. If we find and destroy those facilities, he won't have a way to make more Eternals in Enoria," Kaleth explained, as if Relioth hadn't said anything at all. "And while doing that, we need to find out if there is a way to break through Enor's mind control, to cripple the forces already here."
"Not bad, Kaleth," said Relioth, looking almost proud as he nodded. That was a bit weird to see, if Nef was honest. The sentiment seemed to be shared by everyone, aside from Nira, who still looked mad about Kaleth not prioritizing Irithara. Nef completely agreed with Kaleth on this, but of course he wasn't gonna say that to Nira. Ever. "Sounds like a start."
