When she woke up, Rayla was not immediately aware of any changes. Her wrists still throbbed, but the agonising bands of pressure had somehow vanished. Slightly groggily, she looked down, and her brain momentarily projected the tight silver bands onto her wrists. Then she blinked, and they vanished, along with the purple mottled skin rising up her arms. With tears running down her face, she pulled her gloves off, revealing two bands of mottled bruising running around her wrists.
She wasn't going to lose her hands.
She felt tears begin rolling down her cheeks as she realised it.
She glanced around, noticing that Callum seemed to be stirring where he was sleeping, shifting around slightly. Ezran was more or less dead to the world, other than some slight chewing motions. As she got closer, Callum also seemed to be mumbling something. And then he snapped awake, turning bright red as he looked at her, before whipping his eyes away.
"Uh… morning." He mumbled, not looking at her, before slumping against a tree and pulling out his sketchbook and the primal stone.
"Morning, Callum." Rayla replied, shaking her head slightly at the human's strange behaviour.
"Uh, I wasn't saying anything, right?"
"Not that I heard." Rayla reassured him, before pushing a jelly tart into his hand. "Have some breakfast."
"Uh, thanks." Callum stuffed half of it straight into his mouth, needing about thirty seconds to finish the mouthful. "Your hands!"
"What about them?" Rayla asked, sitting down against the same tree, looking over at the spellbook.
"They're not…"
"No, they're not. The bindin's came off overnight."
"I thought they didn't come off. Until…"
"Well, Runaan must have been unaware that they did. Or somethin' like that. I mean, who'd make an assassin put a bindin' on themselves that'd remove limbs if they found out that the victim was a kid or something."
"Would Runaan have…?" Callum asked.
"I don't know." Rayla admitted. The words felt like ashes on her tongue, as they slipped out. Because, in her heart of hearts, she knew what Runaan would have done if he'd come across Ezran first. An assassin doesn't decide right and wrong. Only life and death. She bought her own jam tart up to her mouth, taking a small bite of it. She felt her nose tickling and brushed away what she assumed was a small amount of pollen, before noticing that Callum's sketch of the primal stone was almost complete.
"You do know what that is, right?"
"A magic stone?"
"You don't know?" Rayla shook her head for a moment. "It's a primal stone."
"A what?"
"Primal stone. It contains the essence of a primal source. You do know what the primal sources are, right?"
"If I said yes, would you make me name them?" Callum replied.
Rayla grabbed his sketchbook, and quickly sketched six symbols in it.
"All magic in the world comes from the six primal sources. They're the original and purest forms of magical energy."
She pointed to a symbol that looked like a disc surrounded by three stylised flames. "The Sun." The next symbol was a simple circle, with a semicircle drawn next to it, and two lines transecting the circle, as if obscured by it. "The Moon." After that came what was clearly a stylised star. "The Stars." Next, three mountainous peaks represented the Earth Arcanum, and a symbol that reassembled cresting waves the Ocean Arcanum. Finally, a three-lined symbol reassembling a whirlwind represented the Sky Arcanum. Rayla tapped the primal stone for emphasis as she named it.
"To cast a spell, a mage needs primal energy. To cast a spell using the Sky Arcanum, you usually need a storm, or at least a strong breeze. But with that stone, you have all the power of the sky. Anytime."
Rayla paused for a moment. "Primal stones are incredibly rare. The most powerful Archmages in history have sought them. And now..." She gave him a slightly dark look. "...Somehow, you have one."
"I've seen these symbols before. On the trinket in the Banthar lodge. There should be supplies there, and we can pick it up at the same time."
"Oh, you mean the place where you were supposed to go, that is probably crawling with armed humans who are probably looking for you, and want to throw me in a dungeon? That lodge?"
"It's the winter lodge. And Aunt Amaya came to the Castle from there. She probably didn't leave any of her soldiers behind. But there will probably be some food there. As long as Aunt Amaya didn't cook it, it should be fine."
"Your aunt is a cook as well as a general?" Rayla raised an eyebrow.
"Uh... Well... She thinks she is. And my mother never contradicted her, and my stepfather hasn't, and me and Ez haven't."
"But...?"
"She can't cook that well." Callum admitted. "But, anyway... You know what princes are supposed to be good at. Sword fighting, riding horses, leadership... You saw how bad I am with a sword, and I'm no better at the rest of it than that. But I've practiced some spells, and they didn't backfire. Much. I managed to put the curtains out before anyone noticed, and I unfroze the fruit bowl just fine. Anyway, the important thing is that when I tried the first spell, I expected it to fail, or set me on fire, or cover me with spiders. I didn't expect it to work."
"Wait? You're a mage?"
"No. I'm just someone who has been practicing a few spells."
"That's a mage, dummy."
"Oh. Ok, then. Yep, definitely a mage. And I want to find out if that thing covered with all the magical symbols can help me somehow. To become a better mage."
"Oh. Right... So, other than the magic thing, what else is there? Clean clothes? Food? A whole barrel of moonberry juice?" The last question was almost wistful.
"All the clothes will have been put away in the roof. In locked chests. Which I'm sure wouldn't be a problem for you. And there should be some food. Cheese, preserved vegetables, flour... Stuff that will keep if you don't leave it out."
"Well... I suppose we could go and have a look."
"It's to the east, as well. Just like Xadia, so it's on our route as well."
"Ok, you've convinced me, Callum." Rayla said. "We'll call in at the nice empty lodge, gather up anything worth eating and this magical cube of yours, and then keep going."
From across the small clearing, there was a muffled "Callum?" From Ezran. "I had a weird dream." The boy continued as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.
"It wasn't a dream, Ez. All of it was real." Callum said, thinking back over the last few days and how they might have felt like a dream.
"Are you sure? There was this giant pink hippopotamus, and I pulled its ear off because it was made of taffy."
"Uh, no, that was a dream." Callum clarified. "But the befriending an elven assassin who tried to kill us, stealing a dragon egg and running away from the castle... That was all real."
"Oh. Right." Ezran said, as he stood up and stretched, while Rayla and Callum collected up their little camp, and got ready to travel.
Once they were moving through the forest, Callum quickly started to spot some familiar landmarks from sledding expeditions and began guiding the group to the Banthar lodge.
When they reached the edge of the woods, Rayla gave him a slightly skeptical look. "So, the plan is, you two start gathering whatever barely edible stuff is in the kitchen, while I grab this cube from upstairs."
Callum nodded, glancing around. "I can't see any of my father's guards, so hopefully they haven't gotten this far yet."
"If I get thrown in a dungeon over this cube, I swear I'm goin' tae bind meself to kill you." Rayla muttered, as they crossed the small clearing to the lodge. Callum tried the door. It was open.
"Well, that's helpful."
Rayla gave him a sceptical glance, before slipping inside. "I'll grab the cube. You hear fighting, just run. I'll join you afterwards."
Callum nodded, not trusting himself to speak as he and Ezran headed for the kitchen. Most of the supplies stored there were either dried meats, or too old, but he and Ezran were quickly able to load a pack with a few jars of preserved vegetables, some jam, a bag of flour, several almost edible loaves of bread, and other sundries. Hearing Rayla still rattling around upstairs, they headed out of the front door. Callum was already imagining dangling his feet in the stream, when a familiar figure stepped out of the underbrush.
"Hi Callum. Where's your elven friend?"
"Erm… Hi, Clauds." Callum said, playing it casual as his hand slid inside his knapsack. "What's up?"
"I was just wandering if she'd killed you yet."
"She's not a murderer!"
"My father's body says differently!"
"Your father was trying to kill the king."
"So she says!"
"I was there too! I saw him casting a spell, and he was looking at my father when he did."
"He wouldn't have!"
"I saw him, Clauds. He wanted my father dead."
"You must have been mistaken. Or one of the elves cast an illusion that made it look like that."
"In the middle of a fight?"
"My father could have."
"Why are you here, Claudia?"
"I wanted to offer you my help. For when she turns on you."
"She wouldn't!"
"Have you left her alone with Ez since you left the castle? Or let her carry the egg?"
Callum shuffled his feet.
"I thought not."
"Rayla's my friend!"
"And yet you don't trust her with your brother or a dragon egg. Remind me how you two met again?"
"She was trying to kill Ez. But she didn't want to. Otherwise, I'd be dead."
"And yet she was willing to kill my father and the man who raised her."
There was an uncomfortable silence.
"You know you can't really trust her."
"She's on our side."
"For all you know, she's run off on you. Grabbed that artefact you came here for and is halfway to Xadia by now."
"She's not that sort of person."
"So where is she?"
"Still inside the lodge."
"She's taking a rather long time to find one little cube, isn't she?"
Callum recognised the slightly sing-song tone in Claudia's voice.
"Soren isn't going to beat her."
"He might."
"Not if she believes she has to win for someone else's sake."
"Even if he's been… boosted?"
"Even then." Callum's voice was firm with conviction.
"Still… I have something for you." Claudia held out a small glass vial, containing a murky looking gas. "To help keep you safe."
"How is dark magic going it keep me safe?" Callum demanded.
"Because, deep down, you know she'll turn on you, sooner or later. Or you think she might. This is for when she does."
"What will it do?"
"If you smash it on the ground, it'll expand. And if she takes so much as a breath of that gas, she won't be able to so much as raise her head after a few seconds. She'll be awake, but she won't be able to do anything to hurt you or Ez."
"And what about us?"
"You'll be fine, Callum. I know what I'm doing."
"The last time you said that, my hair ended up bright pink for a month."
"I miscalculated. But I didn't invent this spell."
"I trust Rayla."
"How much?"
Callum turned his back, and walked away, refusing to look at Claudia, even though she was one of his oldest friends. But Prince Callum of Katolis reached out, gingerly, and took the vial, tucking it away in his bag.
And then there was the sound of breaking glass from behind them, and he span to look."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
"Why do stupid humans insist on havin' so many bleedin' rooms?" Rayla muttered. "This place is for three humans to holiday in, and it's got more rooms than most houses in the Silvergrove."
Rummaging around, she wished she'd asked Callum for a better description of where this cube was. Or any other details than that it had magical symbols on it. Or that she'd been able to have some baked porridge before they left the castle.
She kept turning out drawers, focusing on simply finding the damn cube, before anything happened.
Finally, she found it in a box full of keys, in a large room. She grinned, before stuffing it into her belt pouch.
And then she froze. She wasn't sure what she'd heard, but she suddenly dove to one side, hearing the whisper of steel passing through the air. Drawing her own blades even as she landed, she found herself confronting an armoured human with a sword, but no shield.
She grinned, before lunging at him. Their blades flashed through a series of exchanges, but she found herself, initially, unable to break down his guard. Taking a runup, she jumped at him, bringing down both her blades on his head, but his blade was there to block. The two-handed parry managed to resist the strike, before she bounced away, carrying her momentum through and gaining distance again.
He was better than she'd initially thought he was, from his stance. He was moving more swiftly than she'd seen another human move, even Amaya or Callum's father. And his strikes were more powerful than Amaya's had been during their training sessions.
But he wasn't faster than Runaan had been. He wasn't stronger than her mentor. And he was uncoordinated. His follow-throughs were taking a moment too long to recover, and his footwork kept nearly tripping him.
He's been boosted recently. She realised. And he hasn't trained at these levels yet.
She allowed herself a grin as she began to take advantage of his weaknesses and shortcomings, most of them because of his new abilities. An exchange of blows took them out of the room, and to the windows overlooking the porch. Although Soren was pressing her hard, Rayla was, even if he didn't realise it, in complete control of the fight.
And, at the optimal moment, her right leg snapped into a kick, slamming into the armoured human's gut just as his balance was slightly off from a narrowly avoided strike. He was hurled backwards, unable to recover prior to smashing clean through the window, as Rayla followed him through, blades ready to nail him to the ground.
"NO!" She heard Callum shout, just before she landed. It gave her just long enough to adjust her grip and avoid nailing the blond human to the ground, and then she was rolling away on her feet. She could see Callum and Ezran, with a bulging pack she presumed contained food, sprinting away from a very familiar dark-haired human mage. The girl who'd force-fed Rayla a dark magic potion looked back with a predatory grin, before lunging for her bag.
Rayla set off in the direction the two humans were sprinting in without thought. She didn't want to find out what spell was about to be cast. They were signalling her to come over, and she headed straight for them, before stopping short.
"I am so not getting' in that!"
A ball of green and black fire the approximate size of a shadowpaw whistled past her and punched into the forest.
"On second thoughts…" She dived into the small rowing boat, lashing out with a sword at the rope keeping it in place. "Time to go."
The boat began to follow the current down-river, and she sat as close to the exact middle as she could, trying to get as far away from the water as possible. She could still feel it filling her lungs, dragging her down in spite of her efforts to fight it…
And then a hand landed on her shoulder, and she turned to look Callum in the face, as he suddenly whipped his hand away as if it had been burnt.
"Are you ok?"
"I'm just peachy. I mean, I wouldn't I be, out in the middle of all this wet stuff…"
Callum just placed a hand on her shoulder, again, gingerly.
"What was it like, growing up with an assassin as a step-parent?"
As Rayla began to describe life in the Silvergrove, the boat drifted on down the stream. With her attention on Callum, suddenly, being on a boat didn't seem so scary.
AN: I'd like to thank TheFranninator, PrinceDanial19, Jctherebel and an unnamed guest for their feedback to the last chapter, and apologise for it being delayed. Covid sucks. Regarding the spell at the end of the chapter, the latin translates as (roughly) "Bindings of death, you were applied unjustly. The deaths you call for are of those who should not die. Release your grip". The gaelic, on the other hand, is simply a wish for Rayla to be well and have sweet dreams.