Chapter Fifteen: Love Is Magic
"She's your friend?" Faolan asked. He, his family and the two strangers were now in a hospital, his newly discovered brother and him looking at a bed; the doctors refused such a large crowd at once and demanded they go in shifts. Laying in the bed was, to the child's amazement, a Moonshadow elf. She wasn't a dark, scary monster like the big kids at home sometimes still said to scare the younger ones, she just looked like a girl. A girl with white hair, horns and stripes, but still a girl. Still, he knew elves weren't friends. "But she's an elf."
"Yeah, that was my first thought, too." Soren said, reminiscing about his first meeting with Rayla. He quietly decided that that story wouldn't be the ideal one to tell his little brother. He remembered one of the three new elves, who he had apprehended and turned over to his father shortly after the man had killed King Harrow. Soren had thought that elf had been slain and cut up to use for parts, as his father and sister loved to do, or else had simply died of his injuries in prison. He had been surprised to see him. Hhe other two he didn't recognize at all, but Callum seemed to know who they were.
It almost didn't surprise Soren to hear that Viren had imprisoned a pair of elves and hadn't cared when they were revealed to have a child. A daughter not much younger than his own, no less. Soren just didn't think he would stoop so low as to use it to manipulate Rayla. Aside from that sharp tongue of hers, Rayla was perhaps one of the sweetest, funniest, gentlest girls he knew; heck, if not for Callum, Soren might have tried pursuing her, if he wasn't so sure that even then he'd either be hit in the head with the hilt of a butterfly sword or laughed at. And from what he heard, Viren seemed almost happy that he had taken her parents from her.
A curtain opened slowly and a nurse held some papers in her hand. "Well?" Soren pressed, "How are they?"
"The tests are complete." she said. "Your friend here is very lucky. She didn't sustain too much damage to the head and doesn't have a concussion. At the most, she's going to wake up with a very painful headache in the next hour. As for the others, two of them are exhausted and have mild cases of frost bite, but the one with the broken horn is dehydrated, malnourished and injured. The blood-flow is returning to his arm and we've rubbed a poultice on it to help it along. He'll probably be the one we keep the longest, about a week at the very most, but no permanent damage all around."
"Good." Soren said, remembering all too easily the dread he felt years ago, being told he'd never walk again. Since then, he had been wary of hospitals, but it was nice to get some good news. "Just wish we knew how they escaped."
A few feet away, Ezran was silent as he watched Runaan. Rayla had told him a couple of years ago that this one had been the leader of the mission to kill King Harrow. In all likelihood, Ezran was looking at his father's killer. He had expected to feel anger or hatred toward the elf, what he hadn't been expecting was the pity. For some reason, Ezran found himself wondering if Runaan would be alright. He looked horribly thin, sported a broken horn and his arm, though it was quickly regaining color, still looked dark. He jumped when Runaan stirred and kept still as he opened his eyes. Ezran's heart pounded in fear and he stood frozen for a few moments before seeing that the eyes watching him were glazed and unfocused, looking passed the boy. He relaxed when Runaan's eyes dropped closed and he slipped back into unconsciousness.
A small moan got his attention. The weak voice of a woman. Ezran turned and peeked around one of the other curtains, seeing who he presumed to be Rayla's mother. She was under thicker blankets than Runaan, Ezran then remembered something about frostbite. He imagined her husband was also under such a blanket. Her eyes slowly opened, and like Runaan, they stared through him, unseeing. "Rayla." she whispered, almost as if she thought her daughter was still in trouble. "Lain. Rayla." These last two things were so quiet that Ezran had to strain to hear her before she also returned to her fitful sleep.
Callum was already eager to get back to the medics the moment he entered the chamber where Queen Zubeia lay. Jinku had told him that she wished to speak with him for a moment. Zym climbed down from his shoulders and waved around the now severed binding that dangled from his mouth, flicking it from one side to the other.
"Callum, is it true?" she asked, "Have my former guards returned?"
"Yes, they have." Callum answered. "So has Runaan, the leader of the mission to kill King Harrow. He was thought to be dead, but apparently not." He looked down to Zym, who had snapped the binding in half, one half still in his mouth and the other in his paws. He continued to play obliviously.
"They had been imprisoned by dark magic all this time?" she asked, "And only broke free when Rayla was in danger?"
"Yes." Callum said, "What I don't understand is…why now? Rayla's parents were captured the same day as Zym's egg, and Runaan just four months later. So why now, after so long?"
The Dragon Queen considered this for a moment. She turned to her son, seeing him playing, and smiled. "Of course, I'm just guessing, but love is a powerful thing, in all of its forms."
"Greater than magic?" Callum asked.
"Well, I…" she paused. "Yes. In its way, I'd say it's the greatest force in existence. They are receiving medical care down in the village, is this correct?" Callum nodded. "When they awaken, I would love to speak with them again. I suspect you are eager to return to Rayla." Callum didn't answer, imagining that telling her the truth would sound very rude. She laughed lowly. "Calm yourself, young one, I understand quite well. She is injured, and you wish to watch over her."
"Y-yes, Queen Zubeia." Callum stuttered.
"It is only natural. Now go to her. And we shall await their visit eagerly." the queen dismissed and Zym chirped his goodbye to Callum as the boy left, waving the tattered binding in the air as if it were his idea of a hand waving goodbye.
The cave no longer being an option, they had found themselves in some open plane with a single large tree in the center. Aaravos sat and thought, easily tuning out Viren's ravings about his staff, the shards of which he was now attempting to bind together. He was going on about how his power would be lessened now, how the staff itself had been passed down from mage to mage since before the divide of the land.
Though the thing certainly was a loss, the true power was in the Scepter of Darkness, which they had managed to both hide and save. The new blue was settling nicely into the growing array of colors. Finding the ever-changing Ocean Nexus had been a real trick. They had begun searching soon after gaining the earth primal and had only found it in the last month. Only two more to go, though Aaravos did fear that one of the remaining two would be every bit as difficult to obtain as the ocean primal had been.
At least Claudia was being quiet, seeming to be lost in her own thoughts. She kept looking at her father in a way that made Aaravos uneasy. If something happened back there that would shake her allegiance, there would be trouble. Back to more urgent matters, though, his conversation with Callum had been interrupted, there was still more to say. He wondered if perhaps he could reach the boy on the unconscious plane.
The first two things Rayla registered were the pain in her head, a dull throbbing, and the far more welcome feeling of a hand on her cheek, a gentle thumb stroking below her eye. She gave a soft groan as she opened her eyes. She smiled as her vision quickly cleared, allowing her to focus on a pair of beautiful and deeply loved bright green eyes.
"Callum?" she asked groggily. "Where am I? Wha –" The memories began bombarding her head faster than her still sleepy mind could keep up with. Viren. The coins. Her parents. Runaan. Claudia. Then there was darkness. "Callum, did we do it? Did we stop Viren? Are my pa – Ugh!" Rayla had bolted up and began asking these questions quickly, frantically. The last question was cut off abruptly by the pain in her head which had gone from dull to sharp as soon as she lifted it off of the pillow.
"Easy, easy." Callum soothed, gently pushing her to lay back down. With her head back on the pillow, the pain dulled again. "They got away, but so did we. Runaan and your parents are nearby, being treated. They're sleeping now. The nurse said they just need rest. Runaan might need to stay a little longer, but he'll be okay, too. Zym got his binding off as soon as we got back."
"How long have we been here?" she asked, her mind clearing up. She brought a hand to her still sore head to rub below one of her horns.
"Twenty or thirty minutes, at most." he said. Her eyes darted around, worry on her face. Callum then remembered that his aunt, Gren and Corvus had also been there and defended her. "They went back to the cave to retrieve that body and give it a proper burial." Remembering the body, Rayla's face darkened
"How could people do that to each other?" her voice was soft and scared. Even among the assassins she'd grown up with, it was a disgusting breech of their code. Killing was a matter of business to her people, no more or less. No unnecessary deaths if it can be helped, and always strike to kill on the first blow so that it might be quick and clean. Moonshadow elves were killers, not torturers. Seeing that mangled, desecrated corps had made her thankful she hadn't eaten that morning. In fact, maybe she could convince Amaya to let her skip lunch as well. Admittedly, it was a small comfort to know that the life lost was at least receiving some courtesy.
Callum leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I don't know." he said softly, looking deeply into her eyes. "But I swear –"
"Hey, hey, hey!" a nurse came up and dragged Callum away by the shoulder. "No funny business with the patients!" Callum and Rayla responded to this by giving each other playfully sad, longing looks as he was dragged away, complete with reaching their arms out towards each other, as if they were star-crossed lovers being kept apart by forces far greater than some overly strict policy or belligerent hospital staff. The couple's façade broke at the same time, and they shared a laugh just before the curtain was pulled, separating them.
Callum walked back to the waiting room, where Soren sat. Soren looked up at him, and Callum could tell he still felt guilty over this. It's how he always seemed to get in situations involving Viren or Claudia these days.
"Where's your family?" Callum asked.
"They only had this morning here." Soren explained. "Gideon is one of their king's chief advisers, they're needed back in Del Bar. And anyway, they only came to make sure Claudia and I were alive. Mom made me promise to write at least once a month." He smirked up at Callum. "I think you made a real impression on my brother. As soon as he saw your mage wings, he went all misty-eyed." His smirk disappeared, replaced with concern. "How's Rayla?"
"She's awake." Callum said. "Her head hurts, though, and she's still shaken up about that body. I'm only out here because the doctors don't believe in true love." Soren snorted in amusement at Callum's playful display of mock-annoyance.
"So, the one with the messed-up arm." Soren started.
"Runaan." Callum told him.
"Right, him." Soren said, again becoming melancholy. "I-I was the one who captured him and turned him in to Viren. I thought he just died in prison or something, I swear I didn't know about any of this."
"I'm sure Rayla knows you didn't mean any harm." Callum said in a comforting voice. "I'm really more worried about how Runaan will react to us. He hates humans, and there's no way his time with Viren would have been any help to that. And from what I hear, he and Rayla didn't part on the best terms, either."
"He's the one who raised her, isn't he?" Soren asked.
"Yeah, him and –" Callum stopped. He'd forgotten about Ethari, and after the day he'd been through, he didn't think it fair that the poor guy be put through something like this any longer. He needed to know. Callum was already on his way out the door when he told a now confused Soren he'd be back in a few minutes.
Having watched both Rayla's mother and Runaan, Ezran figured he might as well check in on her father to complete the sequence. His face twitched and, like his wife and friend before him, his eyes opened, unfocused and not seeing him. Ezran was expecting him to fall back asleep as the others had, but it didn't happen. Instead, his eyes shut tightly, and his arms moved to hoist himself up with a long groan, freeing himself from the thick blanket. He brought his hands to his face to rub his eyes and took another look. His odd, orange eyes began to clear and focus. With a small shake of his head, he looked at Ezran again. Sensing the man was now able to see him, he gave him a weary smile and raised a hand in greeting.
"Wha…" the man asked, his voice groggy. "Where am…" He stopped short, suddenly remembering. He got out of bed, stumbling to his knees.
"This is Novus." Ezran told him, sounding quite proud. The elf regarded him oddly, wondering what in the world a young and apparently non-threatening human was doing here…wherever here was. Ezran realized that this hospital was mostly humans, with only the other three elves in care who he probably couldn't see. He quickly tried to explain, "Don't worry, we're in Xadia. We built a village here a –"
The elf's eyes widened in what Ezran thought was astonishment at the story. This was proven false, as his eyes narrowed at the boy in anger. Ezran shrank, now feeling threatened. "Where are they?" the elf demanded.
"Who?" Ezran asked. At the moment, he was panicking, and would be embarrassed later; of course, his first thought would be of his wife and child.
"Tiadrin, Rayla and Runaan." The elf growled. Ezran pointed to a curtain which the elf roughly pulled back, revealing his still sleeping wife. The ruckus was now gaining the attention of the staff, with doctors telling the man he needed to be resting and to take it easy. Rayla's father ignored them all, reaching a hand out to touch his wife's face. She awoke at his touch, her eyes slowly coming to focus on him. She smiled and leaned into his hand. The cautions of the doctors and nurses all fell on deaf ears as she sat up; many of them were now used to the quicker recovery speeds of sick or injured elves compared to humans, but nothing like this had been seen so far; they hadn't even been here for an hour and were already getting up, seeming perfectly fine. For the moment, the two just stared into each other's eyes and engaged in a few small, light kisses, blocking out the world around them. It was the same little love bubble that Ezran had seen plenty of times with Callum and Rayla.
"Rayla." Ezran spoke, this achieving the goal of breaking their love bubble. He saw them look at him just as he turned around and opened the curtain to reveal their sleeping daughter. Her brows were knit in a way that suggested bad dreams. Her face relaxed when a four-fingered hand reached forward and buried itself in her hair, giving her small, slow strokes that she hadn't felt since she was a small child. Ezran hadn't noticed Rayla's parents' approach, but here they were; her father sending him a still suspicious look and her mother too focused on her to care. Her blue eyes reflected a warmth that Ezran himself had never known but had seen it too often to be unfamiliar with it, a mother's love. Rayla's eyes opened.
Author's Notes: The phrase 'Love is Magic' shows up twice in Callum's Spellbook. I think it's sweet. Speaking of sweet things, it also has a recipe for jelly tarts, which really are delicious. Yummy little things. I would also like to give a big shout-out to Pyrogaming and his/her fic 'Anger and Retribution', an alternate look at chapter 11! Go check it out! I am super flattered and so happy my fic is inspiring others! Review.