Chapter Sixteen: Hearts And Souls
Rayla's eyes widened. She bolted up from the bed and slung her arms around each of her parents' necks, finding her embrace instantly returned as they held her close. It had been so long, more than a decade. For once, she didn't care when her tears began to fall. It…it had been too long since she'd been in their arms.
Soren had arrived beside Ezran, a nurse having told him that one, now two, of the elves were awake and seemed to be okay. They were now watching the tender scene with smiles. Feeling lonely, Ezren turned to Soren. "Where's Callum?"
"Don't know." Soren shrugged, "He just said he'd –" he was cut off by the sound of an open door, followed by Callum's voice.
"I'm back." he announced, coming in. Behind him was Ethari, who all three had come to know quite well when he assisted in the construction of Novus with the other Moonshadow elves. He looked antsy as he passed them, disappearing behind the curtain leading to the last elf, Runaan.
"You guys wanna get out of here?" Callum asked, watching the reunion. His heart fluttered at Rayla's smile. "This seems like one of those private things, ya know?" After a moment, Soren and Ezren considered; it did feel intrusive, somehow, what they were doing, so they just gave him a couple of 'sures' and honestly were quite eager to just get home. Rayla would surely be bringing her parents home when they were finished here. Callum made a mental note that the Dragon Queen still wished to see them, and finally, based on Rayla's stories about him, none of them wanted to be around when Runaan awoke.
Ethari had already been on his way to Novus; he had been one of the elves to assist in the completion of the village, of course he knew the way. Callum had surprised him by flying in on a dragon and picking him up, facing him for the first time without a disguise. Fortunately, he didn't seem to mind. Along the way, he had explained everything about the coins, the dark mage Viren and The Dragon Queen's theory about how the three captives had broken free of the spell.
Judging from Callum's accounts, Ethari had expected Runaan to be hurt, but not to such an extent. The bruises, the visible bones that spoke of starvation, the broken horn. Ethari was torn; for one, Runaan, his beautiful, beloved husband, was alive and well. For the other, what torment had he gone through at the hands of the humans? In Ethari's eyes, the humans weren't to be trusted; a rule to which Callum alone seemed to be the exception, and only because of Rayla. Knowing that it was a human who had done this only served as a reminder of this, and he felt anger towards them for it, reinforcing his own beliefs. Some humans had good hearts despite everything, obviously, but most were greedy and selfish.
Ethari reached out and touched Runaan's face, his hand tingling at the familiar contact that he had been deprived of for so, so, so long. Oh, he yearned to kiss those lips again, but thought better of it as he remembered Callum's annoyed account of being dragged out of the hospital by the staff for what they had called 'funny-business', which the boy was quick, if not frantic, to make clear that all he and Rayla had done was kiss and snuggle a bit. From this, Ethari was starting to see what his foster daughter saw in Callum; the kid was just plain charming.
Runaan moaned. His beautiful blue eyes opened slowly, and he smiled warmly as his husband stroked his face. "Ethari." He spoke. His voice was a welcome sound after years of not hearing it. The smith's heart sang.
"Yes, my love." Ethari spoke, tears spilling over. "I'm here." These two words were the last spoken between them before they kissed. The feeling of this contact was intoxicating, even more so than before, and the world seemed to melt away; all there was were the two Moonshadow elves, in love, separated by a cruel twist of fate, and finally reunited. Hearing another familiar voice from a few feet away, a torrent of unwelcome thoughts invaded Runaan's mind. He would have loved to forget everything about the circumstances that led him here in favor of simply staying in the moment with Ethari, but the intrusive memories forced their way to his consciousness. Rayla. The egg. The mission. The binding. The sheer nerve of that disobedient child.
In the interest of not sullying this reunion with unhappy memories, Runaan had to pull away. Though Ethari didn't know the specifics of Runaan's last encounter with Rayla, the stoic look on his face told the smith that it was an emotional affair for the both of them. They looked over to where the sobs were coming from and saw Rayla crying in happiness, her arms in what appeared to be strange positions if Runaan and Ethari had had no clue as to what was happening. Apparently, ghosting did not transcend dark magic because Runaan had seen Lain and Tiadrin clear as day in those coins moments before his imprisonment, where Ethari just had Callum's word to go by. They both knew Lain and Tiadrin were back as well.
Runaan stood, forcing his shaky legs to steady even in this state. His dignity was truly admirable as the thin, bruised elf still managed to hold himself high. He stoically looked at Rayla. "You defied me."
The words were soft, but firm, and got Rayla's attention. Unseen by Runaan or Ethari, Lain and Tiadrin pulled away from their daughter, releasing her and watching keenly, not knowing what was going on. Lain, for one, had to fight the urge to walk right up to his old buddy and squeeze the life out of him, as this clearly wasn't the appropriate time. Rayla stood up on shakier legs than her old mentor, but succeeded in steadying herself. She flattened her left hand and covered the left side of her face completely with it before lowering her head in a shallow bow. It was one of two bows that assassins gave their leaders, their equivalent to the bow of the Sunfire elves which resembled the setting sun. The right side was a sign of respect and obedience to the leader, and the left was a plea for forgiveness. Being head-strong as she was, Rayla had seldom in her life given this bow. Runaan did not seem moved.
"Helped the humans." Runaan carried on shortly before stopping again. Rayla didn't protest or try to defend herself, she knew very well this was warranted. Between her plea to cease the attack, the egg, those two humans and the fact that his bind had not come off until he had awoken, it certainly didn't take a genius to piece everything together regardless how however long Runaan had spent in his prison. Scowling lightly, the older elf took the hand Rayla was bowing with, pulled her to him and hugged her. She had defied, lied and consorted with humans, but more than anything, she had had him worried sick. Rayla stood in confusion for a couple of seconds before she returned the embrace.
When the boys returned to the house, they found Amaya home, Gren faithfully at her side. She rose to her feet upon seeing the boys return, finally. She began signing, looking a little troubled.
"How's Rayla?" Gren translated.
"She'll be fine. She's awake now and probably spending time with her parents. Can't blame her." Callum told her. She continued.
"I suppose not. Poor kid deserves it after the day she's had." Gren again translated.
"Is the body buried?" Ezran asked. Amaya nodded and began signing again.
"We picked a spot a little way away from the cave." Gren said, "If Viren or the others come back looking for the remains, they won't find them. It's headed by an unmarked stone." The boys seemed satisfied with this.
"She's probably going to be a while, and I'm pretty sure she's bringing them back here." Callum said, signing to his aunt as he spoke. "I just want to warn you, I don't know how her parents will be, but I know that her mentor hates humans, so be prepared for that." Amaya nodded.
"Her dad was a bit intense with me, but I think he was just scared." Ezran put in, recalling how quickly and seamlessly that had changed the moment he had found his wife.
Claudia remembered this feeling. The fear that she had felt as a small child on the occasions in which she needed her father's attention. Would she be yelled at or punished for interrupting his stewing? Thankfully, she supposed, she had begun to show his talent for magic by age ten, at which point they grew closer and closer until finally, she no longer feared him in those moments because she knew there was no way she'd get in trouble. She was ashamed even now to admit it, but Claudia had been relieved when she had clearly become her father's favorite, leaving none-magical, dimwitted, plain Soren to be a rod for his temper or aggravation. So long as she towed the line flawlessly, her father would keep her in his good graces and not give her the same disappointed looks and eye rolls he gave her former brother.
She hated Soren now, she realized. He was willing to kill their father; it was an illusion, but he didn't know that, and he'd still done it. But now, with him gone, she wasn't so sure she was safe. Still, she plucked up her courage.
"Dad?" she asked. A grunt was the only sign that he had heard her. His jaw was clinched as he continued to fiddle with his staff, which wasn't any closer to being fixed after the last couple of hours. There was no turning back now. "That elf. Do you regret what you did to her parents?"
Viren stopped and took a breath. He didn't look at her. "No. They were in the way of the egg. If they had their way, the Dragon Prince would have hatched and been raised to kill us all."
This didn't sound odd to Claudia. She could believe that it was intentional on the elves part to raise the baby as a human-killing machine, especially after what had happened to the Dragon King, but what if…"What if it was me?" she asked.
"It's not the same, Claudia." Viren said, still not looking at her. "Elves and dragons are…different from us. They don't feel as deeply as we do. Callum and Ezran have been fooled. The Dragon Prince and the Moonshadow elf might mimic the appearance of empathy and emotions to insure their survival among humans, but they're not capable of real love. Their actions are based on instinct, not desire. Her parents fought not because they loved her, but because their offspring was being threatened. It was a biological behavior, like with animals." As she reflected on her father's lecture, she felt better. Her father wasn't a bad person for tearing the family apart if they were essentially unable to feel love. Still, that meant that she had to work even harder to get Callum away from that elf, if he was so blindly enamored with her while she was still capable of killing him.
The next time the front door opened, it was Rayla, ushering in four adult elves. Not to stay, of course, they didn't have the room, but just to see where she lived and the people she lived with. Lain and Tiadrin had taken to the idea that they had returned to a changed world after almost three years remarkably well, though Rayla suspected that this came second in their minds when they realized that they had been made ghosts by Runaan and Ethari. Indeed, Ethari could no longer see or hear Rayla, though he knew she was there through Runaan. At least the spell removal had worked, something she was immensely thankful for. Her parents were already on their feet, but Runaan now needed Ethari's assistance and had his now fully recovered arm slung around his shoulder.
"So, this is my new home." she said, wrapping up the story of how she and the former princes of a now destroyed kingdom had saved the Dragon Prince. She had managed to omit the more romantic aspect of her relationship with Callum, somehow, and Ethari had also gotten the message to keep that piece of information private; it was something for the two of them to reveal in their own time.
The door opened up directly to the sitting room, where Callum and Ezran were. Ezran was stretched out on the couch, scratching Bait's head; the old thing was getting more reclusive these days and rarely left an old dog bed in the corner of Ezran's room unless he was moved. Callum was going over the book of moon spells, a gift from Lujanne. The boys looked keenly at the group of elves, Callum straightening himself in a last-minute attempt at a good impression. Runaan looked at them disapprovingly, Lain and Tiadrin looking unsure of the humans, and Ethari simply looked around the place, having met Callum a couple of times already. When Soren came into the room, a half-eaten sandwich in one hand, he and Runaan locked eyes. He swallowed, whether food or nervousness, no one was sure, but after a moment, the elf narrowed his eyes. He remembered Soren.
The would-be attack – Rayla looked poised to swoop in and place herself in between them – was interrupted by a rapid drumming of beats coming from upstairs. The upstairs hallway was visible by a balcony overlooking the sitting room, and Amaya and Gren were there. She had drummed her fingernails on the railing at the top of the stairway for both attention and to distract from the coming fiasco. She and Gren came down that stairs and she began signing, looking at Rayla with slight worry.
"Rayla," Gren said, "Are you all okay?"
"We're okay." Rayla replied before turning back to their visitors. "Runaan, that's Soren, he's a friend. These are Callum, Ez –"
"Friend?" Runaan was outraged. Thank the stars above no one noticed the fleeting look between Callum and Rayla. There seemed to be an understanding between them; to keep 'them' under wraps for now. If a platonic friendship yielded this kind of response, Runaan would probably murder Callum in his sleep.
"A very close friend who I'm sure she'd be heartbroken to lose." Soren put in, sounding far more nervous than he had been in their last meeting. He was ignored as Runaan went on.
"Rayla, you know this is unnatural. This place is unnatural. Just because they haven't attacked in a while doesn't mean they want peace." He said. All the while, Lain and Tiadrin were silent, their eyes sweeping over the humans one by one, as if they were gauging whether these humans were really a threat.
Feeling uncomfortable, Callum cleared his throat. Seeing the eyes of an aggressive elf and Rayla's parents on him for the first time made him nervous, but he forced himself to keep steady as he looked at Lain and Tiadrin. "The Dragon Queen knows you two are back. She wanted to talk to you." The pair seemed to transform, becoming formal and regal as they quickly thanked the human, apologized for their quick leave, and showed themselves out of the door.
Taking the distraction as an opening, Amaya began signing to the remaining elves. She had already become acquainted with Ethari during the construction of the village, but his husband was a new face. Gren translated: "So, Runaan, I presume? Rayla's told us a lot about you." The elf looked insulted at her and demanded she speak to him directly. When Amaya rolled her eyes, Runaan reached a hand out to strike her. Her wards watched in alarm as, like lightening, Amaya grabbed his wrist. Blue and dark brown eyes bore into each other with anger. Runaan was thinking that Rayla was insane to trust humans and she'd get herself killed like this. Amaya, seeing the blind anger that she and others had overcome, silently quipped to herself about the definition of irony and that knowing this guy would be fun.
The sun was low in the sky as Lain and Tiadrin got to the top of the Storm Spire. They had elected to take the long way up so they could have time to talk about this strange new world, their daughter and everything she had told them and the depressing fact that everyone at home thought them cowards who had abandoned their posts. That last topic had proved a sore spot for Lain in particular, unleashing a rant; they were the only ones on the old guard who weren't cowards.
They walked through the familiar halls. After the village, seeing elves and humans interacting civilly and becoming acquainted with their nearly grown child, it was surreal to suddenly be in an environment that seemed to have been stuck in time, everything was the same as it had been in their days on the guard. The only thing that spoke of a passage of time were the new Dragonguard, who all regarded them with respect and allowed them to go their way. Lain and Tiadrin were still in their old Dragonguard garbs; clearly, they knew who the couple were.
Queen Zubeia was as magnificent as ever, and they bowed lowly before her. If dragons could shed tears due to emotion, the queen would have wept with joy to see the two elves, the most faithful and loyal of her husband's former guard, alive and well again.
"So, it's true." Queen Zubeia said happily. "Lain and Tiadrin of the Moonshadow elves. I will never be able to repay you for what you've done." The couple rose and before either could ask what she meant, the answer came bounding up to them happily. Their hearts swelled with joy and pride and before the baby dragon could leap into Lain's arms – their scents were like Rayla's – they realized it; they had succeeded in their duty. They had saved the Dragon Prince. Of course, they knew from Rayla's story, but seeing the dragonling in person…he looked so much like his father. Lain was the first to rise to his feet.
"Queen Zubeia, we are ready to resume our lives here on the guard." he said, taking on the air of a proud soldier. Tiadrin followed this action, despite the twang of discomfort in her heart at the prospect. It was strange, but she wasn't terribly eager to continue in their former duties. She didn't know why, the Dragonguard was the highest honor an elf could hope for outside of becoming royalty themselves, and it had been an offer they couldn't turn down the first time. This conflict must have been reflected in her eyes because the queen clearly saw it.
"As wonderful as that sounds, it won't be necessary." she said. "You two have gone beyond your call of duty and ensured my son's survival. You raised the brave young woman who helped to rescue my egg and return him to me." Despite the encouraging nature of this speech, this last part had Tiadrin feeling uncomfortable again. "And without all of that, the war would still be raging on. No, my friends, you have done so much already. You have more than earned your retirement from the guard. My current guard is quite capable of their jobs. You two just go one back down and enjoy being free of those coins."
"You knew about the coins, Your Greatness?" Tiadrin asked.
"Jinku and Callum filled me in before you awoke in the village."
"Callum?" Lain asked, recognizing the name from Rayla's story. He figured it was the green-eyed boy back at the house, he seemed to be around her age. His eyes hardened when he recalled that he was a mage. Their last experience with a human mage was…
"Peace, Lain." the queen soothed. "Callum is one of the most pure-hearted humans I've met. He is not like the dark mage. In fact, he's quite literally made s name for himself. They call him the White Mage."
After some more gentle prodding from the queen to go spend time with their daughter and enjoy their freedom in this new world, the pair gave their best wishes and left, again taking the long way down. Lain watched his wife with concern, finally noticing that something was wrong in her eyes, whatever it was.
Author's Notes: I feel horrible that I've forgotten poor Bait all this time! Also, I'd like to apologize in case anyone is wondering why my updates haven't sped up like everyone else's has. I have ADD, so I can't spend my whole day at the computer writing. Can't promise the schedule will even be predictable, but I'll be shilling out the chapters as fast as I can. Also-also, sorry about two bottle-neck chapters in a row. Review.