Nira had known it wouldn’t be easy to get back to the capital of Irithara, but she hadn’t imagined the van breaking down a few miles after crossing the border would be the reason. She’d assumed she’d get arrested, but the border patrols really did seem to ignore the area Rayni had recommended to Nira, so she’d gotten to Irithara easily enough.
The problem was that she’d crashed on one of the hundreds of islands making up most of the southern part of the Empire, and since she’d had pretty much no money on her, and her credit card had stopped working, she’d had to resort to hitchhiking.
Not the most pleasant way of transportation, but it had worked. Until now, at least. Nira had been stuck in the same tiny village for four days now. There was just no one passing through willing to let her tag along. She’d been forced to sell her phone for a ridiculously low price, which she really hadn’t wanted to do, seeing as it was one of the few ways she could contact Nef, but since mobile coverage was basically nonexistent in these parts of Irithara, she doubted she’d have been able to call him, anyway. She’d sent a text to him before selling the phone, but all she could do was hope that he’d received it.
“Where are you heading, anyway?” asked the only waitress in the village as she brought Nira pancakes with so much honey on them even Nef would make a comment about the impending danger of diabetes.
Nira wasn’t completely sure, but she thought the middle-aged woman’s name was Era. They hadn’t really talked to each other that much, but since Nira was the first new person to stay here for more than a day, she’d attracted attention. No one had commented on her strange eye color, or the fact that her hair was getting a blue hue, but Nira was sure that if they hadn’t noticed yet, they would sooner or later, and she had no idea how they’d react, so she needed to leave as soon as possible.
“Uh, I’m heading…home,” Nira answered, halfheartedly stabbing a fork into the pancakes. She hadn’t even ordered them—she’d just wanted some coffee—but apparently Era liked her enough to pay for them.
It was surprisingly hard to call Aleara her home. She’d grown so accustomed to calling Enbrant home, but it hadn’t really been true. It had been naïve to think Nira could escape her responsibilities. She wondered what her father would say once they were reunited.
“Oh, I know that look,” Era said, her voice slightly teasing. “Let me guess. You had some disagreement with your family before leaving to wherever you were before.”
That wasn’t exactly right, but since Nira’s family was the exact reason she wasn’t looking forward to going back to the palace, it was accurate enough to keep Nira from denying it.
“I’m sure they’ll be too happy to see you to start yelling,” Era joked, and patted Nira on the shoulder. Nira stayed silent, but gave Era a small, slightly bitter smile. “Hey, listen…”
Nira blinked, surprised by the sudden change in mood as Era became serious.
“Normally I wouldn’t tell you this, but you seem like a sweet kid, and you’ve had such rotten luck…. Anyway, there’s a man living on the other side of this isle who might be able to help you get home. Or at least closer.”
Era was almost whispering by this point, and Nira’s eyebrows couldn’t get any higher. Was this some kind of village secret? Why would a man’s existence be secret, anyway? Was he a wanted criminal?
“His name’s Yorin.”
Nira almost choked on her pancakes. Yorin? As in the god Yorin? The one Relioth had been looking for? No, this had to be a coincidence.
“Um, that’s an interesting name,” Nira commented, and Era smirked.
“Right? Sounds really old. Anyway, he fixes our stuff sometimes, and he gave us this power generator…thing, so we have enough electricity. He just asked us not to tell any strangers passing through about him. I think someone is after him, but what do I care?”
Nira swallowed nervously, her mouth suddenly dry. Maybe not a coincidence, then. It took all of her willpower not to freak out.
Era didn’t seem to notice Nira’s reaction and continued. “Anyway, he lives in this weird metal house on the beach. You shouldn’t have a problem finding it.”
Then she strolled away, winking at Nira once before walking through the door that went to the kitchen, leaving Nira sitting there, staring at her food.
Could she really go ask an Eternal for help? It wasn’t like she had any other option, though. The people here didn’t trust her, and they definitely wouldn’t give her a ride to the mainland anytime soon, if ever.
Nira sighed. She’d only met three Eternals so far—two of them being less than friendly, and one who was a little too friendly. And Rayni, Nira supposed, but she didn’t remember who she was. That ratio wasn’t exactly great, but then again, Yorin had apparently been helping these people, so how bad could he be? If he really was an Eternal and didn’t want to be found, there wasn’t a reason for him to live on a populated island, so he must have helped the villagers because he’d wanted to.
Nodding to herself, Nira quickly finished her breakfast, if only because she didn’t want to seem rude, put on the black coat she had bought a few islands back, and walked out into the icy morning air. She immediately shivered and pushed her hands further into her pockets.
She’d grown too used to never having to worry about the cold in Enoria. There had never been a day she’d needed more than one layer, and now she wanted to have four of them. At least she was dressed enough that she wasn’t in danger of getting sick. That was the last thing she needed right now.
She walked as fast as she dared on the ice-covered pavement, heading north, which she hoped was the other side of the isle. It apparently took only about thirty minutes to get to the other side. Unfortunately, about half of the isle was covered with a thick forest, which she would most likely have to cross. At least there weren’t any predators to worry about, just a lot of snow.
Nira finally passed the last house in the village and stepped into the shadows of the trees on the edge of the forest. At least there was a path, so she wouldn’t have to wade through the snow, which would be a really bad idea in jeans and shoes that could barely hold up in the rain.
As she started walking through the forest, she thought about what she was about to do. She wondered if Yorin would just kill her once she told him she knew what he was. Then again, if he really spent his time helping the locals, maybe he wasn’t as murderous as some of his peers.
Nira wondered if she could blackmail him into helping her get to Aleara in case he didn’t want to. She would have to figure out how willing he was to kill her to keep his identity secret before she tried though. She didn’t want to die just yet.
It took her almost twenty minutes to walk to the other side of the forest, and just before she thought she’d freeze to death, she finally arrived at the beach. The cold air blowing from the direction of the sea hit her as soon as she left the protective barrier the trees formed.
She shuddered, but continued walking, not stopping until she noticed what she assumed was Yorin’s house in the distance.
Era had described it as weird, but that didn’t really cover it. The structure made up of metal rectangles and cylinders covered in solar panels, and honestly it looked like it was about to fall apart at any moment. Nira wasn’t a physics expert, but the thing seemed to defy the laws of gravity.
Probably some kind of Eternal technology.
Nira frowned in thought. Just why did the Eternals have more advanced technology? Sure, they were apparently thousands of years old, but they could do a lot of things normal people needed machines for just with their mind.
Come to think of it, why did Yorin even have a house? It’s not like he needed to sleep.
Nira supposed thinking about it didn’t get her any closer to answers, so she just walked faster, trying to stop herself from shivering.
The house looked even worse up close, but Nira didn’t focus on that and instead looked for a door. She didn’t care if Yorin was as much of a murderer as Relioth as long as she could get somewhere warm.
Once she found something that vaguely resembled an entrance, she hesitated for a second and then knocked. A moment later she stood face to face with a tall, bearded, thirty-something-year-old man. At first he looked confused, but that quickly changed into shock.
Nira was surprised as well—Yorin looked incredibly…ordinary.
Nira had been expecting him to have the same hair and eye color as she did, but that wasn’t the case. His hair was light brown, and his eyes light blue, suggesting that he wasn’t possessing a member of her family. Did they not have to do that? Nira really wished she knew the rules.
“Come inside before you freeze to death,” said Yorin, sounding alarmed. Nira didn’t argue.
There was not a whole lot of room inside the house. Not only because it was small, but because most of the space was taken up by random machines. Or at least they were random to Nira. She couldn’t even identify most of them, but she was pretty sure she’d seen a blender, and a hairdryer somewhere among the mess. The fact that most of the devices had been taken apart didn’t help with identifying them, either.
There was heat, though, so Nira didn’t care at all. She wondered just why an Eternal needed heat, but then she noticed some plants growing in the back. That just created more questions, though.
“Sorry about the mess, I usually don’t get many visitors, especially not visitors, um, like you,” Yorin said slightly awkwardly, scratching his head as he offered Nira a chair. She took it gratefully, feeling tired after walking in the freezing cold for over half an hour.
Yorin pulled up another chair opposite Nira, sitting down, and giving her a confused look.
“Uh, not that I mind you visiting me, but why are you back in Irithara? And here, of all places?” His confused changed into controlled fear. “Did you come looking for me?”
“N-no,” Nira said, still shivering and hating it. “I need to get to Aleara and warn my mother. Relioth created the Aperios.”
Yorin’s jaw dropped at first, but then he just sighed in resignation, and rubbed his eyes. “Then we’ve truly lost.” Nira wanted to protest, but Yorin continued. “I mean, I knew we would eventually, but…. I’ve always thought Tharos—excuse me, Relioth—was less adamant about destroying us than Enor. But I suppose I was wrong.”
“We haven’t lost yet,” Nira said, and Yorin smiled at her sadly.
“Of course you haven’t. It’s the few Eternals left in Irithara and I who have lost.” Nira frowned in confusion. “Relioth wants to kill us for what we did to him, to his children, to his people…. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Relioth had kids?”
“Of course that’s the part you focus on,” Yorin commented, but without the sarcastic tone that usually accompanied such a sentence.
“What…what did you do?” Nira asked, unsure if she wanted to know the answer.
“We…” Yorin huffed out a humorless laugh, “we killed them all.” Nira gasped in shock. “Well, not me personally, but I didn’t do much to stop it, either.”
“What the hell did they do to make you kill them all?” Despite all the new information Nira had found out over the last month, she still felt like she knew next to nothing, and she was really, really tired of that feeling.
“I’d prefer not to talk about this, if you don’t mind,” Yorin said. Nira did in fact mind not talking about it, but she needed to ask for a favor, so maybe it wasn’t the best idea to get into an argument with him. “You said you need to get to Aleara.”
Nira nodded, glad that she didn’t have to bring it up again. Yorin chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. “Okay, I’ll take you there. But under one condition.”
Nira sighed inwardly. Of course.
“When we get there, you need to tell the queen that I helped you.”
Nira scowled. Was that all? She most likely would have told her mother about that, anyway. “Okay, sure.”
“Wonderful. Let’s go.”
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