Chapter Forty-six: Look To The Stars Part I
The day was still cold and damp as it neared noon, and it seemed likely that it would either end with another storm or at least rainfall. Lissa stood beside Claudia at the foot of the Storm Spire, feeling empty at the way she refused to even look at her. There was a good chance she wouldn't survive the day, and she still refused to talk to her. She just stood and waited quietly until it was time to depart. At the very least, Claudia had been given a simple dagger for her battle with Amer rather than be left totally helpless; even in such dire times, her dark magic was an unwelcome element. Strangely, where she would have defended the art before, there was nothing but a simple nod of acceptance. Soren's death had broken something in his sister. She no longer cared about magic or survival, now all she lived for was revenge.
It was Lissa, Ezran, Rayla, Amaya, Gren, Janai, Mira and the two small dragons seeing Callum and Claudia off. It hurt to see Callum, in contrast to her daughter, openly accepting hugs and words of encouragement from his family. The little star dragon's scales shimmered like stars when he scratched under her chin before handing her off to his aunt. At the moment, he seemed to be lost in the elf girl as they kissed deeply. It was an odd sight to Lissa for sure, but she supposed it wasn't much of her business. She still remembered Callum's first years, and never would she have thought that she'd see this cute little boy in such an embrace and sharing a passionate kiss with and elf of all things.
As the two broke apart, Rayla brought her hand up to Callum's face and stroked his cheek with her thumb. In a way, Callum was glad that it would only be himself and Claudia going to the top of the Storm Spire on Aaravos's orders, or else risk the village and the spire. It was all the excuse he needed to keep the others down here where they would be safe. Well, safer than they'd be helping him against Aaravos.
"Callum, I don't care what Aaravos says," Rayla told him, her eyes shining with determination. "if you're not back by nightfall, I'm going up to look for you."
Callum sighed. Lain was right; Rayla was stubborn, and honestly, he couldn't imagine it any other way. He was about to give her a reply before a small figure latched itself tightly onto his leg. Mira was giving him a look of defiance as if daring him to leave. Callum and Rayla looked at each other; neither had told Mira, or anyone else, about either of the decisions they had made in private less than an hour ago. It seemed almost unfair to tell them such news now. All the same, Callum knelt down so that he was on Mira's level and held her gently by the shoulders. They didn't know it, but Janai had overheard most of their conversation, and being the only one who truly knew what this all meant, looked on this with more tenderness than the others.
"Mira, I can't lie; I don't think I can promise I'll be back." Mira scowled in disapproval and shook her head so violently that it was a wonder she didn't get dizzy. "The man I'm going to fight is very powerful. He's been a full archmage for who knows how long. I'll try to come back, I just…can't promise anything." Panic spiked in Callum when he saw Mira's still scowling eyes starting to water. Thinking quickly, he removed the scarf from around his neck, revealing the beginning of his scar. He held the fabric gently as he offered it to her. "Here. This scarf was a gift to my mother from my father before they married, and my mother gave it to me after..." Callum trailed off, quickly deciding to change what he was about to say - that it had been a gift of condolence. "when I was little. It's very important to me and I don't want anything to happen to it. Can you take care of it for me? That way even if I don't come back, I'll at least know it's in good hands."
Mira studied the scarf for a moment before taking it and clumsily attempting to put it on; Callum chuckled as he helped her fasten it loosely around her neck. Mira looked down at the oversized scarf now around her neck, then back at Callum before she tackled him in a tight hug. Returning the gesture, Callum found himself thinking of his last direct interaction with his stepfather. Now on the other end, he found himself wondering what would happen to Mira if he didn't return. Obviously, she had Rayla, Aunt Amaya and Ezran to take care of her, but she was so much younger than even Ezran had been at the time and had already lost so much more than either of them. By the way she still refused to speak, it was possible she hadn't even gotten over her parents' deaths, what would this do to her?
No, Callum couldn't think about that; he had a job to do. A Startouch elven archmage to fight. His hands suddenly feeling heavy as stones, he gently removed her hands from around his neck, lifted her up and passed her off to Rayla, who carefully took her. He needed to go. "Just…be good for Rayla and Aunt Amaya, okay?"
As Callum turned to Ezran, it was clear the older brother wasn't the only one having flashbacks of the helplessness of childhood. Callum almost didn't want to put the responsibility, even hypothetically, on Ezran's shoulders of their family or anything else at the tender age of thirteen, immediately in the wake of such a big loss. Callum chose not to verbalize this, it was the reason Ezran had abandoned his kingship and besides that, Amaya would technically be the one taking care of things until he came of age. He wanted to say so, but Ezran wasn't so naïve; he knew that if Callum didn't return, his aunt would be all he had left in terms of blood family. After all, it had already happened once.
Still, Ezran hugged Callum with everything he had. He didn't cry, there wasn't time for it, and he knew it. "Take care of them." Callum said, and Ezran nodded as they pulled apart. He looked up, seeing that the sun was climbing higher in the sky, visible even through the blanket of thick clouds. Callum inhaled deeply, gave Claudia a 'let's go' gesture, and started up the mountain. Claudia, not skipping a beat or making a sound, followed. The group stood watching Callum and Claudia climbing until the pair made it up to a curve in the spire and were gone from sight. Once they could no longer be seen, the group of well-wishers reluctantly moved to return to the house; there was no use waiting here.
Callum was glad he had made the decision to forgo his wings for this trip, leaving him open to not just jump into whatever he needed to do at a moment's notice, which would no doubt be needed, but also a few more time to himself. Back home, he had a lover, a semi-adopted child, a younger brother and an aunt to protect. Beyond that, Queen Zubeia, Zym and Kimaare, possibly all of Xadia. Callum had no idea what, if anything, would befall the humans in the four kingdoms. He supposed with Aaravos's professed fondness of humans, the ruins of Xadia would be left for them to rule, trampling on the bones of elves, dragons and, in the case of this one patch of land that Novus sat on, their fellow humans. As a child, he hadn't known what to think of Xadia or it's inhabitance, and now he strived to protect it. Protect his home and family.
Claudia's thinking wasn't so liberated. Gone were her thoughts of dark magic, desire for freedom or drive to carry on her father's work. Her eyes, mind and broken heart were set only on Amer. Amer, that filthy elf, would pay for what he'd done. He'd taken her last true family, her brother, from her. True, down there were both her mother and that brother's unborn child, but she'd spent years separating the woman down there from the word 'mother', and the child was an unnatural and unlovable thing. She would rather not come down from the spire at all than allow that murderer to continue breathing.
The only break in their silent journey up the Storm Spire was a pause when the air was becoming thinner, causing Callum to stop and cast the breathing spell on Claudia. After this and a brief explanation of what the spell did, they got going again.
Ezran ignored the knock at first. It scared him to think that he might lose his brother again. He'd already been through that before, and this time there wouldn't be much room for error. Zym's presence in his room, sitting on his bed with him, was a small comfort to him, even if he couldn't shake the images of the coffins from less than an hour ago away. Ibis had mostly been Callum's friend, with Ezran being closer to his daughter and grandson, but Soren had practically been another brother to him in these last years, protecting him even after he no longer needed to. It was going to feel weird as it was, not having him around all the time. If he lost Callum as well…
"Ezran?" Ezran's heart lept into his throat. He turned toward the door to see Ellis, this time without Ava.
"Hey." he said, seeming far calmer than he felt as she walked over to his bed and sat on the other side of Zym, who was happy to greet her with a request to be petted. Ellis smiled as she obliged.
"Hi, Zym." she gave him a few strokes before her face turned solemn and she turned back to Ezran. "You okay?"
"No." he confessed, "I was so happy when we found him alive months ago. If he doesn't come back this time…" Ezran trailed off, silently returning his eyes to the window.
"I'm worried, too." she told him, her voice sweet and filled with sympathy. This started up the now familiar mixture of fondness for this girl and jealousy toward his brother, who she seemed to prefer to him. The irritation this arose in him immediately gave way to guilt and fear, all of which together earned him a worried look from her.
"What's up?" Ellis asked, expecting Ezran to confide in her something about how his brother was marching off to his death or how after Soren's funeral that, together with Callum's suicidal departure, left him to take care of the remains of their family. What she wasn't expecting was the calm, almost quiet question.
"You like him, don't you?" Ezran was silent after this question, waiting and still looking back out the window to the Storm Spire miles away outside. Ellis blushed, somehow finding this completely mortifying. She knew it wouldn't happen even without the age difference; as the other girls said, he was far too smitten with Rayla to so much as look at another woman. She sighed, knowing this wouldn't end until she spoke, she was just thankful Ezran had always been so easy to talk to.
"Yeah." she said. "But I know nothing's going to happen. He's too old for me and besides, he's in love with Rayla. Honestly, I'm happy for them, but also…sad? Does that make sense?"
"I think it does." he told her, an uncomfortable pang stabbing his heart at her hurt tone. Finally, he tore his gaze away from the window to look at her, and immediately found himself trying not to get lost in those big brown eyes. He swallowed his discomfort and plucked up his courage. "Ellis, can you keep talking? With everything that's happened just today, I…I kind of need the distraction right now."
His heart gave a funny lurch at the understanding smile she gave him. "Sure."
"Great!" he said with a little too much enthusiasm, complete with his voice breaking on the one word. Oh, he prayed to whatever deity would make it so that this awkward phase was temporary. How he now regretted the days when he would tease Callum over his own pubescent awkwardness, for which he supposed this was just karma. Clearing his throat, he asked: "So, how have things been with you?"
Downstairs, Rayla was restless. She would occasionally leave the window, to which she was otherwise practically glued, but these were just small intermissions of sitting down, pacing around or looking around for something. It got to be annoying before too long.
For Amaya, this was an easy thing to brush off, because she wasn't subjected to the constant nervous footsteps or aggravated sighs, though no one else would be spared. Finally, Janai had had enough and intercepted the younger elf.
"Rayla, you need to calm down." she demanded, grabbing Rayla by the shoulder and stopping her in her tracks mid-pace. "Working yourself up like this won't make him come back any faster."
"I just –" Rayla started, cutting herself off. "I can't stand being this helpless, I need to do something."
Janai sighed and looked away, her eyes falling on the two scepters of the sun and moon. In all the commotion of the morning, they had been forgotten to stand propped up against a wall. For the first time, Janai looked closely at them, taking in the auras around the two stones.
"Maybe we can." she said before she turned back to Rayla. "You said before you know a moon mage?"
Neither Callum nor Claudia were surprised to see the two elves waiting for them when they at last made it to the pinnacle. The sun, now visible from above the clouds, was directly overhead, offering warmth that hadn't been present to the world below all day.
There was no stare down, no talking, no subtle rituals of battle, just a spring into action. Amer and Claudia charged at each other with daggers in hand. The sight of Amer's dagger, still red with her brother's blood, infuriated Claudia all the more and pushed her to give her all into this fight, battling with a reckless abandon she had never known before.
The sound of blades clashing rang in the ears of all four as Callum saw Aaravos draw a sun rune that he recognized. He just lept out of the way of the fiery blaze that threatened to burn him. Callum cursed his own inability to perform non-verbal spells and why he hadn't thought of it before as Aaravos lept from the pinnacle to dodge a Fulminous blast. Callum wasn't fooled and resisted the urge to summon his own mage wings when Aaravos shot up with the quickness of a dart, flying on pure white wings. Those wings then disintegrated with a speed Callum had never seen before, with the elf now supported on another vortex of wind, this one getting wisps of gray cloud caught in it.
Back in Novus, Amaya, Gren, Janai and the others were only a few of the many who were looking out their windows to the clouds above, hiding the peak of the Storm Spire. The clouds were now circling in a way that typically meant a serious storm was brewing, and indeed the motion seemed to trigger bursts of thunder and lightning.
"What a time to have sent Rayla out to find that moon mage of hers." Gren told Janai, translating for Amaya. He switched to none-verbal translation with the Queen's reply.
"All we can do is hope that she's far enough away from the storm to escape it." Janai said. "Hopefully, this will be over before she returns."
The two took a moment to look at each other before taking one another's hands and holding them securely. It was one of those days when both women needed assurance, strong as they were, and, as often, they found it in each other.
Back at the pinnacle, the knife fight raged on, having escalated to slashes and stabs. Both blades were nearly soaked in blood and their wielders were now each riddled with gashes and cuts, with chunks of clothes and hair sliced. This went ignored by the mages, who's eyes were locked onto each other. When Callum sent a second Fulminous blast his way, Aaravos dodged like it was nothing.
"Daring today, aren't we, Aarush?" Aaravos asked, grinning.
"Why do you keep calling me Aarush?" Callum asked, narrowing his eyes. "It's Callum."
The elf's smile dropped and for a moment. A look of drowsy confusion came over his face as though he'd awoken from a deep sleep and was still half-dreaming. Callum didn't have much time to contemplate this, though, because this dream-like trance was suddenly replaced with a fury that the boy had never seen before. Before Callum could do more than wonder why, a jolt of pain seemed to race through him, overtaking his mind. His world became one of pain as he screamed.
Kimaare sat up, giving a startled yelp and looking alert. A brief jolt of pain pulsed through her body and she suddenly saw the pinnacle, where two separate battles were underway. A knife fight between the human lady from the big water and the Sunfire elf she'd seen only a few times, but what really got her attention was Callum laying on the ground and breathing heavily.
Somehow, she knew that he was losing consciousness. She didn't even have time to be scared of the Startouch elf approaching him. She could only watch, her little heart pounding in terror, as the elf calmly bent down, picked Callum up with one hand and drew a rune with the other. It was afternoon now, so the shadows were lengthening. Kimaare was both amazed and horrified when Aaravos carried Callum into the shadow of one of the stones that lined the edge of the plateau. They vanished.
Author's Notes: As you've probably gathered from the title of the chapter, there's a part two coming up, and maybe a part three depending on how things go. In other news, I created a TV Tropes page for the story, mostly to ensure that my hard work doesn't fall into obscurity with the end closing in. Go check it out and add to the page because I forgot it existed after chapter twenty and can't figure out the indexes to save my life. C'est la vie, I guess. Review.