Mel wished he could change forms and fly to wherever Orina was leading them to. It always helped him clear his head, but there weren't many opportunities to do so. Especially now that Relioth could be looking for them.

Mel would never forgive himself if he put the others in danger just because he wanted to stretch his wings, which he didn't even have right now.

However, sitting in the car gave him too much space to think about meeting Mereria again, and the longer they flew, the more freaked out he felt.

As far as he could tell, they were heading to an island somewhere between Enoria and Irithara because after picking up Kara, they had been going north. And for long enough that there was only the ocean underneath them. Mel highly doubted that Mereria would set up a base in Irithara, especially since after being trapped in a prison made up of othrin walls for decades, Mereria couldn't be at full power, so it was highly unlikely she'd be hiding in Irif's territory.

Mel was the last to leave the car once they landed on a seemingly random island, but his trepidation quickly turned into confusion once he looked around.

There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary about this place. Just some pine trees, and grass, most at least partially covered in snow. They must have been further north than Mel had thought. Still, he supposed there could be something further, on the other side of the island, perhaps. It was kinda large, after all.

But that didn't really make sense because why would they land so far away that whatever base Mereria was using wasn't visible?

"Well, I'll give it this," said Rayni, putting her hands on her hips, "it's a nice place for a picnic. Why are we here?"

"The base is underground," Orina explained with a hint of annoyance. "You've been to at least one Umbra hideout. Everything to do with them is underground, both literally and figuratively."

Mel was almost sure he remembered a few structures above ground the Umbra had used in the past, but he really wasn't in a position to argue. For one, he couldn't be sure about anything with how many of his memories he'd been robbed of, and two—he was glad Orina wasn't paying attention to him right now, and he wanted to keep it that way.

"All right, can we go already? I'm freezing my ass off here," Nef complained, and glared at his mother when she gave him a warning look. Mel sighed quietly. It made him sad seeing a family argue so much.

Mel wondered what the relationships in his own family had been like. Or maybe he'd never had one to begin with. He often thought about just where all the Eternals had come from, but the low ranking Umbra weren't allowed to ask such questions, and by now Mel knew better than to question the rules.

"We need to hide the cars first," said Orina. "We can't risk anyone finding the base. Preferably underneath those trees," Orina said, pointing at a cluster of pine trees that looked far away from each other that the car could fit. "Then we can go to Aren."

As it turned out, the base called Aren wasn't that much of a base and more of an underground town in a huge cavern. It wasn't large enough to be called a city, but it was huge nonetheless. Mel had never seen anything like this in all his years of working for Mereria.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Or was that just him not remembering things again?

Regardless, it was a spectacle to behold. Every single building seemed to have been carved into the stone walls that surrounded the entire place, with purple crystals forming parts of the buildings, or just randomly sticking out of them. There was also a meadow in the middle complete with trees, grass, and flowers.

Looking up at the stone ceiling, there was some kind of device that was producing light—like a huge lightbulb. This must have been how the plants could grow here, but Mel couldn't understand why it was important to have plants here in the first place.

Mel liked plants, but most of his peers were completely indifferent to them, so he couldn't think of a purpose they could serve. It wasn't like they needed food to survive.

The others seemed to be just as amazed as Mel, but they got over it sooner than him.

"This is cool and all, but what's up with the jungle in the middle?" Nef asked, gesturing towards the greenery as they started walking towards it. It was difficult not walk towards it—the plants took up most of the cavern's floor.

Mel was concerned that they'd damage the plants by walking over them, but as they got closer, Mel noticed a stone path cutting through the vegetation, which branched out to every single structure around them.

"And why is everything so...weird?" added Alor, frowning at a red and yellow flower that was growing next to him.

Mel wasn't sure what Alor had meant until he looked more closely at the greenery. All the plants were indeed a bit strange—they were larger than they should be, and the shapes of the leaves and blossoms were even more extravagant than that of the plant's growing on the surface of Enoria. They were also somehow even more colorful.

"No idea. I didn't ask," said Orina carelessly as she started to lead them to where Mereria was. Or at least Mel assumed that was the destination. He swallowed thickly. He really wanted to avoid seeing Mereria again, but he had no choice. He couldn't just run away—he'd done enough of that. He just hoped that what had happened in Carcer wouldn't have an impact on them convincing Mereria to fight Relioth.

As Orina led them through the maze of trees, Mel focused on Kara. He'd noticed she hadn't been very enthusiastic this past month. In fact, she had probably been the most pessimistic of them all, but it looked like her mood was better now, probably because they were finally making progress.

She was just as intense as ever, but there was some hopefulness there as well. Mel hoped Mereria would come to some kind of agreement with them because he didn't want Kara to go back into her borderline depression.

When they entered one of the larger buildings, Mel was surprised once more because inside, it looked exactly like the Umbra hideouts, except newer somehow. And also cleaner.

There were grey, metal walls, panels shining white light from the ceiling, and storage crates everywhere, and that was pretty much all there was to it. It was all very minimalistic, but Mel supposed that was just how things were with the Umbra. Relioth preferred nice looking, complex designs instead, but that really wasn't the only thing he and Mereria did differently.

As they walked through the corridor and up a few flights of stairs, nothing had changed either. Mel didn't know if the familiarity made him feel more relaxed, or more nervous because it kept reminding him what was about to happen.

Finally, Orina stopped in front of a door that was a bit larger than some of the others. As Orina knocked and opened it, Mel steeled himself, but there was nothing he could have done to prepare for seeing Mereria in her current from.

Sitting at the metal table in the middle of the small room was none other than Edras Garen, but even if Mel couldn't see immediately that it was actually Mereria, he'd know anyway. The face might have been different than he remembered, but the angry eyes looked just the same as ever.

"Oh, Kaleth's not gonna like this," Rayni said loudly, and Mel winced. This was off to a very bad start.