Callum stares at his mother, pale and translucent.
"What can I do?" he asks.
Her form shimmers briefly before sharpening into focus. "Right now, I'm your father's anchor. But I'm only one person. I alone cannot hold him here."
Aaravos's breathing is a wet, raspy sound that makes Callum's heart shudder.
"Ask him to stay," Sarai says quietly, and her voice is edged with tears.
Callum reaches for his father's hand, gripping it tight, his other hand holding the Heart, "Alab," he whispers, willing all of his power to act as a lifeline, holding his father to this world. "Please stay with us, I don't want you to go."
His mother settles her hands against Aaravos's throat, where a silver torc shimmers into view, the metal seeming to warp beneath her touch.
"I gave him that torc," his mother says, smiling, "A promise that we would carry each other's hearts with one another, always. I am glad that I can still save him, even now."
She looks at Callum, and her gaze is as warm and loving as it has always been, even with tears falling down her cheeks. She looks behind him, towards where the Archmages and Rayla stand, tilting her head in acknowledgment, every inch of the Queen she had been in life.
Ladwyr steps forwards, coming to kneel beside Sarai, light gathering at her hands as she presses them to Aaravos's chest.
"Love is the most powerful magic that exists," Ladwyr says quietly, "and ours is not fragile. Together we will anchor him."
Sarai smiles. "Thank you, Archmage. He spoke of you, how you were kind and wise beyond your years."
Ladwyr flushes, a pale blush creeping across her face.
Sarai grins, "He also said you were quite pretty, nice to know he didn't exaggerate."
Ladwyr blushes redder.
The pulse beneath Callum's fingers is growing stronger, a reassurance he sorely needs.
It's then that he becomes aware of a sound, somewhere in the recesses of the study.
The soft, drip-drip of water.
A shiver runs down his spine, as he turns, still grasping his father's hand.
The mirror is dripping water, a puddle forming beneath it.
He's seen this before, he realizes, remembering the image that had formed unwillingly beneath his hand, a mirror dripping water as if it held back an ocean...
"That's never happened before..."Rayla murmurs, stepping forwards, unsheathing her blades.
In Callum's free hand, the Heart trembles.
"Rayla, be careful," Callum calls.
"I got it," she says, hands tightening around the hilts of her swords, her knuckles going briefly bone-white. "Nemrii's grace, guide me," she mutters, reaching out to tap the edge of the mirror with one blade.
The surface shimmers, but then stills.
Samos crosses to Rayla's side, pushing back their sleeves, sigils glowing on their arms.
"I don't like this," they say, a blue barrier springing to life around the mirror, "Nothing should be able to cross through."
"I did," Sarai chirps. "Though I found another mirror to do it."
Samos sighs, "Of course you did. Why is everyone who is remotely involved with Aaravos capable of doing things they really shouldn't be?"
"Because the universe likes to prove you wrong," Ladwyr says.
Samos snorts, "I'm starting to agree with you, my dear."
In Callum's hand, the Heart trembles again, before it drifts forwards, briefly orbiting Sarai and Ladwyr before it soars off to vanish into the mirror in the corner of the study.
"What the hell?" Rayla hisses.
The mirror's surface ripples, almost like a pool that has been disturbed by a stone.
There is a shiver of foreboding down Callum's spine.
"Why did it-?" Sarai asks, then stops, for a hand has reached out from the depths of the mirror, twisted and warped.
It grasps the edge of the frame and with a superhuman effort, hauls its body through.
The creature that shudders upright, can hardly be called human, dark hair hiding its face as it stumbles forwards.
But as it does, Callum sees it begin to change, limbs straightening, bent back no longer bowed. Instead, a young woman with amber eyes and dark hair stands before them, carrying the Heart in her hands, dressed in robes of rich greens and blues. She walks through the barrier around the mirror, seeming to not notice it and comes to stand beside Callum, kneeling down.
Aaravos, she says, and her voice is soft and rasping, Teacher, I am sorry, for the pain I caused you. I return now what was stolen in desperation and lost for my folly.
She presses her hands to the black star upon Aaravos's chest, and Aaravos's eyes blink open as the Heart sinks in and vanishes.
"Elari-?" he murmurs.
Peace, teacher, Elarion says, smiling.
"I..." Aaravos seems to struggle for the words. "I...forgive you, little flower."
Elarion's eyes well with tears.
You should not, she says, I caused you great harm, and have deserved the punishment wrought upon me.
"You have...returned…?" Aaravos rasps.
No, I am long dead, teacher. Elarion says, standing and offering him a bow. Be well, Aaravos. May the Stars grant that we meet again, one day, beneath the wide starry skies.
She vanishes in a flash of golden light.
Aaravos sighs, eyes half-fluttering shut.
"Alab?" Callum whispers.
"Not dead yet, my son," Aaravos replies, though his voice is faint.
"The only one who is dead around here, is me," Sarai says cheerfully.
"And yet, you are still talking," Aaravos murmurs dryly. "I am glad to see you, Sarai."
Sarai beams at him, her fingers still touching the torc about his neck. "I am always with you, Aaravos, you know this."
Aaravos reaches up to touch her face, and surprisingly, his fingers make contact.
"How-?" he asks.
Sarai taps the torc, "Magic."
Aaravos manages a wan half-smile. "You are incorrigible as ever."
"Of course," Sarai says, grinning.
Aaravos takes another rasping breath, tries to speak again, and instead coughs, blood oozing out the corner of his mouth.
"We must leave," Ladwyr says, and Callum can feel the warmth of her magic, attempting to heal Aaravos's grievous injuries.
Callum adds his magic to hers, but feels it pushed away, unable to heal anything.
"Why isn't it working?!" Callum hisses, trying again.
Ladwyr frowns, and Callum can feel how her magic is also rebuffed, rebounding into its caster.
"I do not know," Ladwyr says. "His heart is returned, why do his wounds not heal?"
Behind him, Samos is murmuring words that make the air shiver, and instinctively, Callum knows they are examining the wards.
"We might be able to bring the wards down from in here," Samos says, and Callum shoots a quick glance over his shoulder, confirming that Samos is studying the ward structure.
"We have to," Ladwyr says, "We need to get Aaravos out of here."
"But where to?" Sarai asks, "There are none who would help him."
"Maybe the Lady Altumanina?" Samos asks, still eyeing the wards.
"We have no other choice," Ladywr says, her voice iron. She is still concentrating on Aaravos, but her eyes glance towards Callum. "Sihr, would you be able to bring down the wards with our help?"
"I'll give it a shot," Callum says, squeezing his father's hand before letting go and standing, "Last time, stuff kinda...broke when I tried last time."
"Sweetie," Sarai says, and Callum looks at her, drinking in the sight of his mother.
"You know that we are here with you," she says, "Both of us, even if your father isn't well right now."
Callum's throat is tight, the words caught there, but he forces them free. "It's the first time I've seen both of you together."
"Oh, honey," his mom says, voice soft as he's ever heard. "You've grown up so much."
"You should see Ez," Callum says, sniffling, tears spilling down. "He's getting to be my height, and he's always getting into trouble with his glow-toad, Bait. And he's a menace to the cooks, stealing jelly tarts from the kitchens, and he avoids his tutors like a rabbit squirrel avoids a fox-hawk—Gods, I missed you, Mom."
"I know," his mom says, standing and pulling him into a hug.
She smells like lavender and sunlight, her arms as comforting as they've always been.
For a moment, it's almost as if they're back home, and everything is alright, and no one is hurt, it's just him and his mom, held in a warm embrace that soothes his soul, healing the crack that has been there ever since that awful day when Dad had come back alone, and told him that Mom wasn't coming home.
"I miss you so much, Callum," his mom whispers, "I miss you and Ezran, and Harrow, so very, very much. I didn't ever want to leave you, but I had to. I never wanted to leave you without a mother in this world, you know that?"
"I know, Mom," Callum says, his voice thick with tears. "I know. I just...missed you-"
"Oh my little star," his mom whispers, pressing a kiss to his hair. "It's okay. I am so proud of how far you've come. Of you and Ezran both."
"Thanks mom," Callum says, and he somehow manages a smile as she draws back, brushing the tears from his eyes.
She presses another kiss to his forehead. "Come on, let's get your father out of here."
"Yes," Callum agrees.
He reaches out to the wards again, and they flare to life, bright strands that hold his father captive. Callum has done this before, slowly, but now, he needs every second he can grasp from the hands of Omma, Lady of Fate.
Samos comes to his side, setting one hand on his shoulder, the other rising to face the wards.
"We should shatter them at once, instead of trying to to pull them down one at a time," Samos says, "normally it would be wiser to do the latter, but we do not have the time."
"Ladwyr and I will anchor Aaravos," Sarai says, "Callum, honey, take this."
Then there is a spear in her hands, familiar and sharp.
Callum takes his mother's spear and the weight of it is surprisingly comforting. Something solid to concentrate on.
"Ready?" Samos asks, as Sarai settles back at Aaravos's head, pressing her hands to his hair.
"Nemrii, Lady of Moonlight, gift this child with power, with strength to see us through to the world that has been left so long apart," Ladwyr calls, and the weight of her power as Archmage seems to wrap about the spearblade, the weapon shaking in Callum's hands.
Rayla nudges his shoulder, offering him an impish grin.
"Ready to leave?"
"You know it," Callum says, looking up at the wards, raising the spearblade.
It glows with a radiant light, white as moonlight, imbued with both Archmages' power now.
"Here goes," Callum calls, and brings the spearblade down, commanding the wards to shatter beneath the power of the son of the Morning Star and the Archmages of Moonshadow and Skywing.
The air trembles, the ground beneath their feet shaking.
And the wards shatter into tiny specks of light, the tower shaking from the force of it.
Samos calls something out in Skywing Elvish, the hair on the back of Callum's neck standing up, though the shaking does ease.
"What now?" Callum asks.
"Now," Samos says, a sharp grin on their face, "now we plane-shift."
"Doesn't sound easy," Callum says.
"It's not," Samos says cheerfully, "Particularly when we need our physical bodies, which are currently in the Spires, asleep."
Callum closes his eyes, and pulls. It's more a blind casting of a spell he has no words for than anything. But he needs, and he asks, and magic responds.
A moment later, he feels suddenly weighted, like he's added a few heavy stones to his pockets, and looking down, Zym is prowling around his feet, confusion clear on his little face..
Samos gapes at him. "How...you know what, I'm not even going to question it right now. I'm just...no, no way in Akaara's High Sky-blessed name am I asking questions right now."
Rayla snickers.
"Okay," Samos says, taking a deep breath, "I know where the Lady's tower is, I can show you."
There comes to Callum's mind, the image of a tall, massive white tree, with glittering stained glass windows woven into its sides, a door of white birch, painted with the symbol of the Stars at its foot, and a garden of lilies surrounding a small pool before its entrance.
"There," Callum breathes.
The world around them shifts, pressure building, an almost crushing weight and any sound is drowned out in the wail of a rising tempest.
The side of the far wall, that leads to the garden crumbles, and sunlight, warm and golden streams in, birdsong drifting through on a gentle breeze.
"Oh," Sarai sighs, "Look, Aaravos, we've made it out."
Callum turns to find his father's eyes are open, a soft smile of joy on his face, "We're home," Aaravos breathes.
"Yes," Sarai says, and she is crying again, "We are."