Kara didn't let just anything shake her—she couldn't afford to let it shake her. However, seeing a very dead looking Kaleth lying on the forest floor almost managed it. Mel kept insisting he was alive, and Kara believed him. When she concentrated, she could kind of see some movement of Kaleth's bandaged chest. What was that bandage even made of? His shirt?

That must have been Mel's handywork. But despite seeing evidence of him being alive, he just looked very...not that. Kaleth's skin was even paler than usual, his face and hair was covered in ash, his hair in general was messed up with some blood crusted in there. There was blood on his forehead as well, though that didn't look serious. No, whatever was making that dark red spot on the makeshift bandages was the problem.

"What happened?" Kara asked, clearing her throat when she heard her voice break ever so slightly.

"He..." Mel paused for a moment, his shoulders slumping as he sighed. Kara could almost see his currently nonexisting dragon ears drooping. He looked so small where he was kneeling next to Kaleth, so hopeless. "Kaleth and I were fighting an invasion in Irithara. And then Enor appeared. And, well, Kaleth lost."

Right, no new information there. "Yes, but what exactly happened?"

"Enor stabbed him with his sword," Mel replied, not taking his eyes off Kaleth. He put a hand over the stain on the bandages, his eyes becoming glossy. They glowed a tiny bit as he presumably tried to heal the wound better. There wasn't enough blood for a stab wound, after all—Mel must have already healed it at least a little.

"And then he just teleported out of there?" Kara continued asking, hoping that Mel would provide more detail. However, Mel clearly wasn't in the mood for a conversation because he just nodded, and stroked Kaleth's hair. Kara pinched her nose.

"Well, it's clear Relioth isn't here—that power surge must have been Kaleth—so I guess we need to bring him back to that safehouse in Imbera," Kara summed up, looking over at Alor. The man looked pensive. Or perhaps just trying to think his way out of confusion. Either way, he nodded at her.

Kara would have asked if he was okay, but right now they didn't have time for it. There was no way there weren't more Eternals around here, and she didn't feel like getting caught.

"Come on, we need to get going," Kara said. This prompted Mel to finally look up at her, and give her his puppy eyes briefly before nodding, and gently strapping Kaleth's armor back onto his chest. Kara was about to ask Alor to give Mel a hand moving Kaleth when the Eternal simply picked the comatose man up bridal style and kissed the top of his head.

Kara fought hard with herself not to roll her eyes at that. Kaleth would be fine, he always had been, even before getting all of these abilities. There was a twinge in her heart, though, as she watched Mel look down at Kaleth with raw worry and fear though—a twinge she ignored with the skill of an Imberan. Kaleth would definitely be proud of her, were he awake.

A sudden feeling of discomfort creeped into her heart. Of course he would wake up. This wasn't the first time Kaleth had been like this, and it wouldn't be the last. Or at least Kara assumed. She had no idea what Kaleth had been up to, but if he had tried to take on Enor, he must have gotten a good deal stronger.

She wondered what Elrin would tell them. Knowing her, she was probably going to be annoyingly proud like a mother whose child succeeded at the most basic of tasks. Kara was pretty sure she knew why she hated that, but she refused to think about it.

Thankfully they didn't come across anyone on their way back to the car, and not even Mel noticed anyone when Kara told him to check with his powers, so she could finally relax a little. Naturally, Mel laid Kaleth over the two seats in the back and rested his head in his lap, continuing to stroke his hair. This time Kara did roll her eyes a little.

The trip back was silent, and also very boring, so Kara busied herself with staring out the window until they landed back in the old ghost town. It looked very different during the day, and not at all at the same time. It was just as run down and dreary, but there was some color to the bricks and peeling houses.

They carefully made their way back to the safe house, with Mel still carrying Kaleth like he weighed nothing. Kara would think at this point she'd see that and just shrug at it, but apparently not.

It didn't take long to reach Elrin, as she was waiting for them right in the first room of the safehouse. Kara didn't have to turn around to tell that Mel was now uncomfortable. She should have probably told him at some point who they were meeting, but it was too late now.

"Well," she said, her eyebrows raised, "this is not what I was expecting."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Kara and Alor moved out of the way as Elrin started walking over to Kaleth. Kara almost expected Mel to bolt out of here at this point. He mostly just backed away a bit and clutched Kaleth closer to himself, as if that would protect him. Elrin was only a few steps away from Mel when Kara saw his eyes start to glow. She was about to step in when Elrin started talking.

"Mel—can I call you Mel?—I won't hurt him, I promise. I just want to make sure he's going to be alright. Will you let me do that?"

Apparently that was enough for Mel to believe her. Honestly, it had worked for Kara too, but her mind could be easily manipulated by most Eternals, even with the Umbra cloaking device. Mel's mind, however, shouldn't have been as easy to convince, so Elrin was most likely only relying on her words.

Kara scowled. The woman had always been persuasive, maybe it wasn't just her psychic powers.

Mel didn't reply exactly, just ducked his head, and nodded so slightly Kara almost couldn't tell. Elrin then put a hand on Kaleth's forehead, kept it there for a few seconds, and then withdrew it again.

"There are some beds through the right door, most of them are empty," Elrin told Mel gently. Mel just nodded again, and clutching Kaleth's limp body even more tightly somehow, he went to look for said bed.

When he was gone, Elrin heaved a sigh and turned around. "It's almost like he's brain dead."

Kara's heart did an uncomfortable wiggle at that.

"I assume he was the one who teleported?"

Both Alor and Kara nodded. Kara looked over at Alor. His face was pained, which was honestly odd at this point. He didn't remember Kaleth, but he apparently had some negative feelings towards the Garen family left over, so why would he care about one of them? Maybe he was just uncomfortable with the situation.

Elrin chewed on her lip. "I'm not sure what to think about that, honestly. As far as I know, Relioth didn't teach him that, and he's the only one who knows how to do this." She paused once again, deep in thought.

"Will he be okay?" Kara asked.

"Well, his psyche is still in there, but it's all a jumble of nothing. Just a confused shadow of what it should be," Elrin sort of explained. "If he gets out of this state, then yes. If not, then no."

"Right, so we know nothing," Kara summed up.

"Exactly," Elrin confirmed gravely. "Why is that boy always getting in trouble?"

Kara couldn't help but snort at that. Wasn't Kaleth almost twice Kara's age? She was pretty sure that disqualified him from being called a 'boy'. Though Elrin was thousands of years old, maybe everyone was a child to her.

But that was the only thing Kara disagreed with. Kaleth had gotten himself in a lot of problems, at least he had in the years they'd known each other. Granted, Kara hadn't worked for Luxarx for that long, but she doubted it had been different beforehand.

"Hey, I worry about him," Elrin said, almost scolding as she folded her arms. "He's kind of like a son to me."

Kara scowled. "What are you talking about?"

"I've kept an eye on him his whole life. Unfortunately, Relioth didn't let me interfere often." She sighed looking away. "Nevermind, I'll go see if I can help him heal faster."

She then promptly left the room, walking through the door Mel had disappeared through a moment ago. Kara shook her head. Well, this new information didn't even really surprise her. Elrin apparently had a tendency to adopt everyone, given how motherly she acted. Back when she had been the Director of Luxarx, she hadn't really been this way though—at least not this much.

"I'll go get something to eat," Kara muttered to Alor, mostly because she knew he'd ask where she was going. As she walked into the kitchen for the second time that day, and started rummaging through drawers in search of something edible, it finally really dawned on her what had just happened.

Kaleth could have died. He still could die. And dammit, no matter how much Kara tried to ignore it, it bothered her. She hadn't even let him get close to her—not that he'd tried—but Kara had grown attached to him anyway.

Finally finding a box of cereal, Kara grabbed a bowl and poured some in. Usually, she actually cared about eating time appropriate meals, but not today, apparently. She thought about getting some milk to pour on top of the cereal, but then she shrugged and just started eating it dry. There probably wasn't any milk around anyway—the only normal person around here, as far as Kara knew, was Alor's mother, so it was a miracle there was any food at all.

When Alor walked into the small room, Kara wasn't surprised at all, but she was annoyed nonetheless. She didn't turn around when he greeted her, only mumbled a greeting through a mouthful of cereal. She couldn't even taste it.

Alor sat down opposite her and just stared down at his hands in his lap for a while. Kara just ignored him. She didn't mind him being there, but she also didn't really want to talk. And the incoming conversation was definitely going to be about Kaleth.

"Do you know why...um, what's my relationship with Garen like?" Alor asked finally, staring at the table as he rubbed his neck.

Kara sighed. "Areon. His name's Areon."

"But—"

"And he's your boss. Or he was at least," Kara replied, not giving Alor space to question Kaleth's surname choices.

"But...why do I...not like him?"

Kara looked up at Alor again. He immediately ducked his gaze at that and fidgeted in his chair. He was awfully nervous for such a basic question. And Kara wasn't even sure if saying Alor didn't like Kaleth was accurate. From what she'd seen, they were neutral towards each other. Maybe 'professional' was the word.

"I'm not clear on that. Something about your father. Ask your mother," Kara brushed him off. She knew more than that, but she didn't want to talk about this.

"She's not here right now."

Alor was actually pouting now. Kara rolled her eyes, not dignifying that with a reply. Clearly she didn't have to, though, because Alor himself didn't seem to want to talk all that much either anymore.

They sat in silence for a bit, only sound in the room being crunching cereal.

"I hope...I hope he doesn't die," said Alor finally, incredibly softly.

"Yeah, me too," Kara replied. She was actually really worried about Kaleth now. Well, if he insisted on forcing Kara to care, the damned bastard had better wake up and help them, or Kara would get really mad.