Chapter Fourteen: Returned

"Sky and moon magic?" Faolan asked eagerly. The shy little boy seemed to have taken a backseat to this excited child, much to his parents' bemusement. It had been quite a while since either had seen their son this worked up. Lissa smiled at the sweet way Soren seemed to humor his newly discovered kid brother. She'd always wanted introduce her new family to her older children, but she had meant to wait until Gwyneth would have been old enough to remember. Still, she watched her eldest son in amazement. He was so different from the thin, sickly little boy she remembered. This caused her smile to drop, though, as it reminded her of the dark magic that had swiftly eroded her first marriage. She'd been heartbroken to leave her children, and relieved to get away from the man she'd once loved, only to let him go without heartache when it became clear that he was spiraling down a dark slope.

"Sky magic was his first…Uh, whatever it is." Soren explained, Ezran quickly supplying him with the word 'arcanum'. "Yeah, that, and he mastered moon magic about four months ago. I think next up on the chopping block is sun magic. He's been after the Sunfire queen to find him a willing mage in her kingdom, but I think he's been annoying her lately."

"The important thing is he's determined. Back when I was king, I used to remind myself that Callum was in Xadia, learning magic." Ezran said. "If it wasn't for that, I probably would have cracked under the pressure after a few months."

"Oh yes," Gideon said. "We heard you've disbanded your monarchy."

"Too much pressure." Ez said, "Callum inspired me, but I would have snapped eventually. What happened was sort of…the straw that broke the horses back. Opeli was – is – a lot better at this than I ever was. My kingship was what I was born into, but it's not like Callum with his magic; it's not what I'm meant to do."

Callum could have probably used his brother's encouragements right now, as he followed Aaravos. He was keenly aware that he had mastered only two of the six primal sources, and the elf before him was a master of all, never mind how he had untold decades - perhaps even centuries - worth of experience while Callum hadn't even been a mage for three years. The spot where Aaravos led him wasn't too far from the cave, thank goodness, just among a small grove of young oaks. The bright orange of the leaves was lovely; shame he was in no position to enjoy.

"A human connecting to a primal source." Aaravos started. "Tell me, Callum, how exactly did you manage it?"

"I honestly don't know." Callum told him. "It was after my first, and hopefully only, attempt at dark magic."

The elf raised an intrigued eyebrow. "Dark magic? What must those circumstances have been?" Callum looked away, feeling the shame even in this elf's presence. He knew Aaravos wasn't trustworthy, his answers had to be closely guarded.

"It was the only way." he said, his mind recalling the memory of that day as if it had happened yesterday. Perhaps that was the beginning of his deeper feelings for Rayla. Up to that point, he had acknowledged her attractiveness to himself under the assumption that nothing would come of it, so it was not worth getting overly invested in; it was just a passing fancy he felt. She'd been new and exciting, there was a lot they could learn from each other. Indeed, his very first drawing following that fateful night had been this spirited, pushy, fascinating elf who he hadn't known about twenty-four hours before. But on that day, when she went off to fight off an entire village to save an injured dragon, he'd been so scared of the possibility of never seeing her again. Scared enough to do something drastic.

"I had to protect them." These words had been chosen carefully. Rayla and the dragon Pyrrah, the ones who had been in danger. Rayla the one he had initially gone after, Rayla who meant the world to him after all this time. And Rayla who was now at the mercy of this very elf. It had been an easy decision to try and hide this relationship from Aaravos, blissfully unaware that were was nothing to hide.

"A selfless motive." Aaravos grinned. "A true rarity in learning dark magic. Mage after mage might use dark magic, or at least claim so, for others; feeding the hungry, healing the ill. Underneath the vail, however, is the allure of power and glory."

"I don't care about power, as long as my loved ones are safe." Callum told him. Aaravos shook his head, the grin still on his face.

"You have no idea how common that sentiment is to those who choose our path. Nearly all of them began with the goal of protecting someone. The weak, their friends, family."

"Your son?" Callum had no idea where that came from, but the topic had been teasing his interest since he'd learned about it. If Aaravos was caught off guard, he didn't show it.

"I suppose so." the elf said shortly. "Foolish as Aarush was, I vied for his protection."

"Mom? Dad?" Rayla gasped quietly, beholding the faces of her mother, her father and Runaan. Questions exploded in her head. How had this happened? Where were they? Were they in pain? Runaan's flower had sunk, hadn't it? The one thing she knew was that the three faces in the coins appeared startled to see her; they were definitely conscious and aware of what was happening.

These two small words were enough to wipe the grin from Claudia's face, giving way to a look of horrified realization. There had been fear brewing in her subconscious ever since Aaravos had first spoken of this elf's parents. A discomfort, something she would rather deny was even a thing; two of those elves were…her parents? And she was their child? But…that was nonsense, her father would never do something like that. He was a good man and he loved her. Surely, he would never separate a child from their parents this way, not on purpose. Her initial solace, that he imprisoned those elves well before he knew they had a child, was quickly shot down by a nasty realization; he didn't seem to regret anything. In fact, he smiled as he took the coins and set them against a farther away wall one by one, giving each of the prisoners a nice view of what was happening.

"What are you doing?" Corvus demanded, he and Gren still ready for a fight outside of the barrier.

"Just a little reminder of the pecking order." Viren assured. All eyes save Claudia's – who was still lost in her thoughts - widened as he grabbed Rayla and dragged her to where she could clearly be seen by the coins, as well as everyone else present. They watched as, for the second time, Rayla was struck by Viren's staff, this time below her ribs. The faces in the coins contorted with rage, more completely than any of them had seen before on either elf or human. The woman - the mother - screamed something that looked like 'my baby'. This time, Rayla didn't scream. She just glared up at Viren with the same hatred that his last victim had.

Somehow, Rayla rolled onto her back and leapt to her feet, stumbling a little thanks to her binds. Her lunging at Viren was enough to wake Claudia from her internal conflict and to steel her resolve. Suddenly, it no longer mattered to her that the elf had endured something so heartbreaking at the hands of her own father, she intercepted and tackled her to the ground. They collided into a nearby wall, Rayla hitting her head. Her skull was pulsing with pain, impairing her ability to focus. She couldn't work up the energy to be worried about the knife. No one had seen where the knife came from, but Claudia apparently had one.

When Viren produced an empty coin, which finally produced a flicker of fear in Rayla. Amaya struggled to stand, a look of fury and determination in her eyes. Being neither an elf nor as young as her companion, this process was a bit longer and more clumsy. Viren rolled his eyes, turning to the general when she had at last gotten to her feet. "Not today, Amaya. We still need the elf, but once we don't, who's to –"

Viren never got to finish this sentence as a flash of white light shown from a coin, forcing everyone's eyes closed. Before the light could even settle, it pulsed back up, now twice as strong, and Viren was on the ground with the wind was knocked out of him.

"Aarush?" Callum inquired.

"My son." Aaravos said, and Callum noted the lack of…well, anything in his face or voice. No wistfulness, no affection, nothing. It didn't seem entirely right to him. "You humans are a fascinating lot, holding on with no magic for eons. Even the worms in the dirt have magic. Aarush was half-human, his mother had been especially enchanting. But such short lives your kind live. When his mother passed, I joined the Dragonguard to escape the pain. Tell me, boy; are you aware of the power that comes with being an archmage? There is one thing that only an archmage is capable of, above all other forms of magic."

Callum had to remind himself to keep his guard up, and he chided himself for feeling excitement as though he were with Ibis or Lujanne. On the one hand, this was bound to be incredible. On the other, this elf wasn't to be trusted, even by his own admission. He couldn't let himself be enthralled by pretty words.

"The power to reverse death." Time seemed to crawl to a halt. Callum stared. What? His shock must have registered on his face because Aaravos's eyes narrowed in a way that told Callum that he was in danger, somehow on a more primitive level. Every one of his senses was telling him to run. "Half-elves, rare as they were, were distrusted by both the humans and full elves. Quite hypocritical of them, I'd say. Without his mother's protection, the humans shunned Aarush. When I left the Dragonguard to become an archmage, my goal was to grant humans magic, to even out the playing field, lessen the divide between our people. Of course, humans had no magic of their own, so I devised an…alternative method."

"Dark magic?" Callum's voice was low and disapproving. Aaravos smirked at him.

"Clever boy." he praised. "Of course, you change everything, don't you? A true human mage."

"I've heard there were human mages before me." Callum protested. "Who could connect to primal sources."

"Were rumored to connect to primal sources." Aaravos corrected. "Before dark magic, human mages were so uncommon that they were thought to be the descendants of half-elves, with a bit of magic still running in their veins. This by itself wouldn't make them human, wouldn't it, but something else. A new kind of being, not elf nor human, a hybrid creature." Before Callum could truly contemplate this, a flash of light got his attention; one in the direction of the cave.

Viren was more shocked than truly fearful; standing over him was the elf woman who he had overtaken back at the spire years ago. "H-How – " Before he could even complete the thought that he could just freeze them again if he needed to, the sound of something breaking got his attention. When he had fallen, his staff had slid only a few feet away, but a few feet were all that was needed. The staff was now in the hands of the woman's husband, who had brought it down on a stone, shattering the gem. Now Viren's eyes widened in true horror just as Callum came barreling in, running past the barrier like it was nothing.

Once Gren and Corvus saw this, they bolted forward. Callum must have either not noticed the knife in Claudia's hand or was confidant in his ability to overpower her because he went right for her, getting her away from Rayla, who had since gone unconscious. Amaya could feel her face going red with effort until, at last, the twine binding her hands was broken and she quickly picked Rayla up and tried to run to get her out of the crossfire. She was intercepted by the third elf, who Callum recognized as Runaan. The sight of the elf's now useless arm made him queasy. Runaan was looking furiously at Amaya and aunt and nephew looked at each other. How could they have forgotten; these elves had no idea the war was over. They must have thought these humans meant to harm Rayla.

Everyone was aware when time seemed to stop. Or was it just that everyone was frozen in place? Aaravos stood behind Runaan and calmly walked past him to the center of the fray. All eyes, including the elves, watched with suspicion as this mysterious figure surveyed the scene. The Moonshadow elf with the binding was staring down the human general and Callum, with the youngest elf in the woman's arms. Past that, the unbound male elf was slowly being overtaken by the two human guards. Lastly, Claudia was backed against a wall, clutching her father's staff at knifepoint; the elf woman had turned her own knife back on her. Viren, in the center of everything, was clutching his chest; he was beginning to wither once more.

Aaravos sighed in disappointment. This was not how this encounter was supposed to go. And that precious stone, it had taken quite a while, even by Startouch elf standards, to create such a stone. He believed it was time to go, and so he repeated his Minimo spell, making quick work of the three elves along the way. When the light lifted, the elves were unconscious, and Aaravos, Claudia, Viren and his staff were gone.

The sun was high in the sky when they finally emerged. The two male elves were loaded onto the horses Gren and Corvus had arrived with. The female was to be carried by Amaya on her back, and Rayla was now in Callum's arms. Amaya set her charge down for a moment to sign to Corvus. Gren translated.

"Corvus, go on ahead. Tell a Skywing elf everything that's happened here. Have them relay this to the Dragon Queen, she'll want to know about this. And alert the medics, too, they all seem injured."

"Before the medics, get the Dragon Prince down here for this one." Callum suddenly added, looking at Runaan. His blackened arm was hidden from view, but they had all seen it. Callum was the only one among them who knew what a blood bind was and what failure meant to it. "I've seen that binding before. If it doesn't come off soon, he'll lose that arm. Zym is the only one who can free him of it."

The elders all looked surprised. As confident as Callum was now, it was unlike him to be so commanding, even Amaya admitted he had never seemed to be a natural leader, however that had happened. Still, Corvus regained his composure and ran on ahead. Gren took the reins of both horses in hand and the small band started for home at a slower, safer pace.

At the same time, in the Silvergrove, Ethari had been having a relaxing day. A few hours of uninterrupted work and he was able to complete his final weapon for the day. He stood up and gave himself a comfortable stretch. Looking out of a window, he saw it was a lovely autumn day outside and he had been working hard. Perhaps Ethari had earned himself a little break. Maybe he'd take his lunch out to the meadow, in which he and Runaan used to watch Rayla play with the adoraburrs at dusk when she was little. Oh, for those wonderful times back.

Ethari was on his way out, his lunch of various fruits in hand, just reaching for the door when it burst open on him, sending him to the floor. Standing above him was another elf, the same one who had once asked him why he continued to stand up for Rayla after all she'd done.

"Koko, what on Earth?" Ethari asked, trying to calm himself down from the start he had been given.

"Ethari, it –" Koko gasped, and it was only then that the smith realized how frazzled she looked. She was breathing heavily, and her eyes were stretched wide. Koko was one of the more level-headed elves in the village; whatever had her this riled up must have been big.

"What is it?" he asked, getting to his feet. "Have we been found again?"

"It's the Moon Pool." Koko said and grabbed Ethari's hand, pulling him out the door.

As they ran, Ethari wondered what could be wrong. The pond seemed to have healed itself from the taint it had received from that staff, so what else could be wrong? His heart sank as he saw the whole village gathered around the pool, whispering that this had never happened before and what did it mean. Thankfully, Ethari didn't have to shove his way to the Moon Pool, his fellow elves seemed to part for him as soon as he appeared. This was confusing to him, but said confusion lifted when he finally made it and saw what everyone was so entranced by. Ethari's heart swelled and his wide eyes filled with tears.

Runaan's flower, floating on the surface again, the crystal beaming with light.

Author's Notes: I realize this is a bit disappointing and maybe a little rushed in people's eyes, they didn't follow the typical formula of finding the coins, angsting about it and going to the ends of the earth for a cure, but trust me, the next chapter will semi-explain how the elves were able to bust out of the coins on their own. Until then, how about some theories on how they might have done it? Review.