Chapter Forty: The Legacy Of Darkness

Soren laughed as he wiped the ice-cold snow from his face; he had somehow gotten caught up in some of the kids' snowball fight. A couple of kids had been looking nervously at him at first, as if they were worried this would get them in trouble. They had relaxed when Soren had laughed and scattered with squeals of delight when he quickly scooped up some snow himself and threw a ball their way.

He was still smiling to himself as he walked away. Things were so simple and innocent here. That said, he wouldn't want to be in charge of these kids, if Naseem's constant running around and shouting at kids to get down from someplace or stay where he can see them was any indication of how that would be. He was currently talking to Zephyr at the edge of the pass, who had just swiped up one of the more mischievous children who had tried to run away. Zephyr had swooped down and grabbed him before he could get far.

Claudia watched Soren with scorn, her eyes narrowing as that Skywing elf fluttered over to join him. The two were talking, and it sickened Claudia to see how they beamed in one another's company. Oh, she was bitter and jealous, she admitted that much, but the thing that really bothered her was…

"Problem?" It was the Moonshadow elf, looking at her with the same distrust she gave upon their first proper introduction – if one could call a sparse series of distrusting looks an introduction, proper or otherwise – at the Moon Nexus years ago. Now, though, she looked like she expected Claudia to attack. How dare she? Claudia turned away like a child who was being forced into a conversation she didn't want to be a part of. She didn't want to talk, so she found herself surprised at her own question; "Why did you save me?"

The cold tone of her voice told Rayla that this question was more accusing than confused or guilty. Rayla was a heartless elf whose actions were based on instinct alone, but there had been no practical reason to risk her life for Claudia's. Neither payed much attention to the crunching of snow that made it clear someone was coming toward them. The sound of fabric slapping against fabric accompanied by a soft gasp from the elf had Claudia look back at her. Her stomach bubbled with distaste seeing that Callum had come up to them and was now holding the elf from behind, his chin resting on her shoulder.

"Oh, don't you start with that hero thing again, Callum." Rayla smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with affection and amusement despite her tired-sounding tone.

"Why not?" Callum teased. Claudia turned away. She supposed if Callum really was this set on the elf, it was his affair – at least for the moment, she'd have to try a different tactic – but did they really have to flaunt in like this? Oh, what in the world had possessed her to think looking back at Soren and Zephyr was a good idea? While they weren't being as shameless as Callum with his little mistake in his taste in girls, they were still close together. Too close for her liking.

"It's not your business, Claudia." she heard Callum tell her as she continued to look.

"It is my business, Callum." she returned with certainty in her voice. "He's sullying my father's legacy."

"You can't be serious." Rayla said.

"I've never been more serious." the dark mage told her, still not taking her eyes off of her brother. "It's a disgrace to him, his own son with an elf! Dad said that at least Callum sort of makes sense because Sarai was always a bleeding heart for you Xadians."

"Viren lost any right to Soren's choices when he disowned him." Callum told her coldly. "His whole life, Soren had done everything he could for Viren's approval, and Viren repaid him by abandoning him as soon as he stopped going along with his plans. He told us everything before the Battle of the Storm Spire."

"I don't get it." Zephyr said, managing along with Soren to ignore his sister's glare at them. "Dark magic saved you twice?"

"I already told you about the incident with Pyrrah, but there was something before that." Soren told her, his shoulders slumped in shame. He knew very well how elves felt about dark magic, but he didn't feel right keeping this from her. "I was…small. Maybe eight or nine. I don't even remember how I got so sick, but my father worked day and night to save me. It was back when he cared. It's not like us humans liked dark magic, but it was all we had. It was one of the reasons my mother was pretty good friends with Queen Sarai, they had the same opinion of it."

"So, some humans didn't like dark magic even before Callum could do primal magic?" Zephyr asked, such a thing never having occurred to her before, despite the months of her living among humans in Novus.

"A lot of us don't, but the dark mages who practice it will defend it to the death." Soren said. "I don't know about the four human kingdoms; I can't imagine them keeping dark mages after what Viren did, but I don't know for sure. But most of us knew dark magic winds always up being more trouble than it's worth."

"How do you feel about it?" Zephyr asked. "Owing your life to it, I mean."

Soren was quiet for a moment as if contemplating something. Something he'd never even shared with Claudia, or Rayla who had effectively taken her place as a little sister-type figure once the two had gone their separate ways. It looked at those bright, white-blue eyes and felt overcome by a rush of affection. This was Zephyr, who he'd spent so much time with over the months. Somehow, it only seemed natural to at last tell someone. "It's weird, but ever since then, I feel like there's this fog in my head that's never let up. I can remember what it was like to have a clear head, but I was never able to tell anyone about the fog. I don't really care too much about that, I care about what it did to my parents."

"Your parents?" Zephyr asked.

"Mom…didn't like that Dad wanted to save me with dark magic. They'd taken me to every hospital in not just Katolis but the other kingdoms, too. No one could do anything. Dad said it was their last shot, but Mom said it wouldn't be worth it. That it would only hurt me eventually, it wasn't worth it. He accused her of not caring about their son. I think Viren blames me for them splitting up. If I hadn't gotten that sick…"

"It wasn't your fault what happened." Zephyr told him. Soren had become a bit downcast at the memories, so she searched for something to get him mind off of it. "I can barely remember my mother. I was little when…we lost her, and dad took us in."

"Took you in?" Soren asked, breaking out of his malaise. It confused Zephyr; had she really never told him about this part of her past?

"Skywing elves don't usually stay together after…doing that." she explained. "Pairs do bond, but we're usually only raised by our mothers. A lot of us never know our fathers, but for a lucky few, like Wendell and I, our fathers came around all the time to see us, teach us and spend time with our mothers. It was seen as strange when our father took us home and raised us himself, but he loved us as much as Wendell says our mother had. Wendell got used to having a father, so he chose to stay with his wife to raise my nephew. Personally, I like what humans do, too, where they usually stay together."

Soren and Zephyr locked eyes and their faces went red with a shared blush. In each of their chests, their hearts were pounding away. Unable to stand this anymore, Soren took Zephyr's face in his hands and kiss her. Surprised at first, she melted into it, wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him back and his hands found their way to her back and waist.

Ezran watched this scene in the company of several younger kids. Claudia had slunk off by herself and Callum wisely didn't trust her around these children, so he had pursued to keep an eye on her. Meanwhile, Rayla had gone back inside the cliffside to report Callum's success in connecting to his last arcanum to Amaya, as well as letting her know the plan to be home within the next two months.

Ezran turned away, doing what he could to shoo the kids away and give the couple some privacy. He was happy for Soren and Zephyr, and he also liked the idea of Wendell and his family dropping into Novus for a wedding some time in the future. Maybe Kara could make some of her delicious cloud cakes for the occasion. For that to happen, though, they needed privacy now.

"Have you ever seen a human and an elf kissing before?" one of the children asked another. None of the kids looked disgusted or upset, simply confused. Ezran supposed that was the preferable option.

"No," said the one being spoken to. "Before yesterday, I never saw a human before."

"You think the grown ups are going to freak out when we tell them?" another child asked.

"I get to tell my parents first!" squealed one of the smallest, raising her hands excitedly.

"I get to tell mine earlier than first!" said another small one. The rest of this conversation was lost to Ezran as they had gotten far enough away from the couple to be comfortable, and he managed to free himself of the small crowd to go to Callum and Claudia, who were at the western edge of the pass. By their standoffish postures alone, they seemed to be arguing about something. Ezran was only stopped in his tracks for a moment when he saw Claudia practically pounce on Callum in a kiss, which spurred him into a run.

Claudia felt euphoria running through her for the instant before she was shoved away. She stumbled away, Callum increasing the distance between them by backing away. He looked furious. "What are you doing?"

Claudia ignored the ping of fear; she'd never known Callum to yell before, especially at her. "I know how you felt about me when we were kids Callum. You don't need to pretend with that elf anymore."

"There's no pretend here, I love her." Callum told her, spacing out the last trio of words.

"Callum!" Their attention was captured when Ezran came running up to them, followed at a distance by Soren, Zephyr and Rayla – who was looking absolutely murderous. "What's happening?"

Callum's response as the others reached them was to fix Claudia with a harsh glare. "Nothing. Nothing's happening and nothing will."

"Oh, I get it." Claudia said, returning the glare defiantly. Her eyes flitted over to the Moonshadow elf who looked like she was seconds away from shredding Claudia with her swords. "You were in love with me and got your feelings hurt, so you ran to her to get back at me." She said, gesturing to Rayla. Claudia knew that, once again, she was taking stabs in the dark, but something in her refused to let the issue rest, refused to admit defeat.

Callum didn't even blink, but he did begin to approach her. Had she not been so wrapped up in her own ideas of what this meant, she would have noticed the rigid posture and cold expression that said, plainly, that he wasn't happy. He stopped less than a foot from here – bright and dark green eyes looked into each other – and he spoke clearly and slowly; "I could never love with the person you are now."

Somehow, this statement above the others seemed to get though the Claudia because her eyes widened in shock. She felt herself being roughly yanked away and thrown back into the snow as if she were a piece of trash. When she pulled herself back up, she looked around.

The Moonshadow elf seemed to have been the one who threw her back, because she was now in Callum's arms, the sight making Claudia want to vomit. He was looking at her with worry and apology, and she was giving his face comforting strokes; it was alright, she knew he didn't mean for this to happen. To the side, Zephyr, hand-in-hand with Soren, was looking at the couple worriedly. Soren and Ezran were wearing similar reproachful looks as they stared at her. Besides those three, there was a sparse gathering of young Earthblood elves looking between her and Callum in confusion. A lot of them were probably too young to understand what was happening.

"Ezran, go find a dragon." Callum said, looking at his brother, his voice to calm and yet angry, that it produced the first true fear that Claudia had felt for quite some time. "Take Claudia home. I'm done dealing with her." And with that, he turned and walked away.

"If your going home anyway, take this with you." Rayla added, walking over to Ezran and producing a letter from her pocket. "It's the report your aunt wanted."

"Right." Ezran nodded, taking the letter, and took off to find a dragon, leaving Claudia under the keen eyes or Soren and Rayla in the meantime.

Before nightfall, Claudia would find herself back in her prison cell in Novus, this time with her wrists in chains, the cell cleaned of even the tiniest critters, and most hauntingly, her spell book being burnt to ashes right in front of her eyes.

Author's Notes: Hopefully, this will help to patch up whatever issues there are; focusing on developing character motivations and relationships, mostly because I've been racking my brain over what I wanted to when the time came and I finally put my ideas down pat, at least with these three. In order for us to care, we need to see how the characters react to each other, so I delayed the time-skip one chapter to put some focus were focus is sorely needed, Soren and Zephyr, and Claudia. Review.