Freedom

Companion to 'Release'

Buckle in, it's a long one!

When Runaan's lotus sank, Ethari felt as though a dragon had ripped out his heart, torn it to shreds, and stood on it. Runaan was his everything. His heart, his soul, his life.

His one consolation was that Rayla lived. Yet, in an impulsiveness born of grief and rage, he'd ghosted her with the rest of the clan. He regretted it an hour later, but by then it was too late.

When she returned to the village, when he saw her in the sword, he knew he had to do anything he could to make it up to her. So he did. He breathed deeply, and he draped a cloth over his grief. So long as his daughter was here, he would be strong. He would love her and be strong for her now, and when she left, he could grieve again. But Runaan would be strong for Rayla, if their places were switched. He'd expect Ethari to do no less.

So Ethari smiled. He joked with the human boy. And he was surprised at how easy it was to put his grief away.

He wrote that in his letter to Zubeia: My Queen. I know it may be presumptuous of me to say so, but you must put your grief over your husband aside and be strong for your son. Azymondias lives! Please, do not allow your grief to consume you to the point of no return– as I almost did. Do not forget you still have something, someone to live for.

"Regina Draconis!" And good speed, my daughter.

Every waking hour after that, Ethari wondered what happened. Had Zubeia given in to her grief before Rayla and Callum arrived with Prince Zym? Or did she leap up in joy to see her baby? Did she kill the human for trespassing before noticing her tiny son?

When Ethari heard whispers of a Dark mage riding towards the Storm Spire with his army, he feared the worst. He asked his village to fight, but he was not the queen. Ethari set off for the Spire alone.

He arrived well after the battle. Either it had been relatively bloodless, or the dragons clustered around the Spire had already burned the corpses to ash. Ethari shuddered as he passed the beasts that could end his life with little more than a thought. They only watched him.

A little more than halfway up the Spire, he grew dizzy. He knew the rune for this, he was sure of that, but it was Sky magic. He couldn't do it.

Ethari drew in a huge gasp an instant before Rayla tackled him in a hug. "Ethari! You're here!"

"Hello, love." Ethari hugged her back, then set his hands on her shoulders and held her at arm's length to examine her. "Are you hurt? You didn't fight, did you?"

"We all did," the human boy, Callum said. A look passed between him and Rayla. "But, um, from a distance! Rayla was in no danger at all. None!"

"...riiiiight." Rayla was just like Runaan, Tiadrin, and Lain. She'd never be content to fight from a distance.

"Okay," Callum admitted. "Rayla didn't fight from a distance."

Rayla shot him a 'what are you saying?' look that Callum barely acknowledged.

"She stayed up here, protecting Zym!"

Rayla relaxed.

That wasn't all there was to the story, Ethari knew, but he'd let it go for now. Rayla wasn't hurt, and that was the important part.

"Oh!" Rayla cried. "Ethari! You'll never guess what we found!"

"The supposedly dead egg of the Dragon Prince?" Ethari guessed.

"After that," said Callum.

"The Dragon Queen?"

"No!" Rayla made an annoyed face. "Well, yes, but that's not it!"

"What is it?" Ethari asked.

"We found Runaan and my parents!" Rayla cried excitedly.

For the third time in his life, Ethari's entire world shifted.

"Don't get your hopes up," Callum cautioned. "We didn't exactly… find them all the way."

"What?" Ethari shook his head. "How can you not find them all the way? How can you find them at all? Lain and Tiadrin ran away, and Runaan–" His throat closed up. He couldn't say the word.

But Rayla was shaking her head, a silly grin plastered over her face. "No! Ethari, my parents didn't run away! They were magically imprisoned by a Dark mage because they were protecting the egg!"

"Viren," Callum put in helpfully.

Rayla, oblivious, continued, "And Runaan, he was imprisoned too!"

"Also Viren."

"As far as we can tell, they're sort of half-alive– but Callum thinks maybe he can bring them back!"

Ethari's vision blurred. Runaan….back? His husband, his soulmate returned to him alongside his best friends?

"I'd probably have to use Dark magic, though," Callum said when Ethari was silent. "They were imprisoned by Dark magic, and I've been using Queen Zubeia's library– Ibis taught me a translation spell– and it doesn't look like I can undo it with Primal magic."

"Let me see him," Ethari said.

Rayla exchanged a look with Callum. "Ethari, I don't think that's a very good–"

"Rayla. Please. I need to see him. I need to know he's…" okay. safe. not dead.

Rayla sighed and held out her hand to Callum. Callum passed her a pouch that clinked when it moved. "All right, but don't say I didn't warn you." She reached into the bag and pulled out a single gold disc. She winced, put it back, and took out another. This one she passed to Ethari.

Ethari brought the coin to his face. "Runaan!" His husband's face was in the coin, frozen in a terrified scream.

Rayla snatched the coin from him, slipping it back into the bag, which she passed to Callum. "It's all right, Ethari. We're working on getting him out. We're doing our best."

Ethari stayed at the Storm Spire, doing his best to assist the rapidly-growing Dragon Prince and the less-rapidly growing King of Katolis. Between the two of them, and the studies of Dark and Primal magic Callum left in his room, he stayed busy for a year. Not too busy to miss Runaan every lonely night. Busy enough to not let his grief consume him.

And finally, one day, Rayla came to him. "We're going to try," she said. "It might not work, but Callum thinks it will."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Rayla smiled at him, gestured at the notebooks full of what Ethari had learned about Dark magic. "You already have." She turned to leave, and Ethari followed. "What is it?"

"I want to be there when you get him out."

Rayla sighed. "Ethari, even if Callum does manage to free him, he'll probably need to sleep for some time."

"I still want to be there." Ethari had already waited too long to reunite with Runaan. He didn't want to wait a second longer than he had to.

Now, Ethari waits outside the room Rayla and Callum are in. He helped set up beds for Runaan, for Lain and Tiadrin, and for the three other Dragonguard Viren had captured. Then he left.

He can hear Callum's chanting, and even Rayla's nervous breaths, but those are the only sounds from the other side of the door.

Until he hears the tail end of a scream started long ago, followed by sharp, gasping breaths. A quick word from Callum, and the gasps turn into regular, deep breaths.

It may seem silly, or unrealistic to recognize breathing, of all things, but Ethari fell asleep with that breathing only inches away for over fifteen years. Although it's been over a year, he knows who that is.

"We did it," he hears Callum say from the other side of the door. "We did it!"

"We've only got Runaan out," Rayla says. "Think you can manage five more?"

"Whoo. Probably? Yeah. Yeah, I can do it." Callum takes a deep breath, and begins chanting again.

Quietly, Ethari opens the did a crack. Callum is chanting, his eyes pure black and his skin turning the same ashy color as Viren's. Rayla lifts her mother, carrying her toward a bed.

Runaan is already on one of those beds. He looks so peaceful there, asleep, or he would if not for the bruises on his body, his painfully thin torso, and the white binding squeezing his left arm purple.

Ethari's heart hurts to see Runaan in pain. But at least– at least he's back. Everything else, Ethari can fix.

He closes the door gently and steps away, sitting in the chair Rayla left for him. Runaan is safe. He won't wake up in the next few minutes. Ethari could use some time to clear his head so he doesn't just start sobbing when he finally gets to embrace Runaan.

He doesn't mean to, but he dozes off.

He wakes to an argument on the other side of the door. Runaan's and Rayla's voices, shouting at each other.

"He's a Dark mage!" Runaan yells.

Moon above, Ethari can't believe those are the first words he hears his love say after a year. He was hoping for something more along the lines of 'I promise you, Ethari, I will never, ever get trapped in a coin by a Dark mage again.' Because something romantic but unrealistic like 'I will never leave your side again' would be impossible for Runaan to say.

"I said he's a Sky mage!" Rayla shouts back.

A couple moments of indistinct grumbling follow before Runaan yells, "You took scales from the Dragon Queen!?"

Ethari should have warned them not to discuss their methods with Runaan. Perhaps he should have expected it of Callum– the boy enjoyed telling people about what he'd learned perhaps too much– but Rayla at least should know how Runaan would react.

Ethari stands, going to put his ear by the door. "...no one expected you to wake up quite so soon."

That takes a moment to sink in, but as soon as it does, Ethari steps back quickly, dusting himself off and adjusting his clothing.

The door swings open. Callum grins hugely at Ethari, a strange look in the ashen face of a Dark mage. Rayla's eyes are bright, her smile almost as big.

But Ethari only has eyes for the skinny, bruised, purple-armed, broken-horned, still-scowling elf behind Rayla.

Runaan looks up, and his scowl drops away. "Et-Ethari?"

Tears well in Ethari's eyes. "I'm here, my heart." He doesn't think either of them moves, but suddenly they're only inches apart, and Runaan's good hand is on his scarf. Runaan tugs, much more weakly than usual, and Ethari obliges him with one kiss. Okay, two. He catches Runaan's hand before he can try for a third. "Runaan, my heart, you need to eat something."

Runaan smiles up at him. "How did I know you were going to say that?"

"Because you clearly need it?" Ethari suggests.

Hand twined with Runaan's, Ethari begins leading his husband to the smallest kitchen, where he's had a pot of soup simmering the whole day.

Not a few kisses are exchanged along the way.

Ruthari reunion! *does happy dance* precious beans! must protecc (do people still say that or am I getting outdated internet slang? I need to know).

Ooo, think what Ethari would say if he knew Rayla'd flung herself off the Storm Spire! "Rayla! How dare you scare me like that? Never, never do that again! Ever!" "Ethari, you didn't even know about it until I was safe." "Rayla, love, that only means my heart attack happens later."

Also I have a Spotify playlist for a ship in my novel (one of the few MC ships that's established before the novel starts. also my OTP like forever). So many of their songs make me think of Ruthari. I think I accidentally made the hetero werewolf/halfunicorn wizards version of Ruthari a couple years before I ever heard of TDP. Also I think I'm going to go post my sketch of them on my DA now, so if anyone wants to look at that I'm TamaraADuncan there, the ship is the unsinkable Starawn, and you can probably find my art by searching 'dedananart' as well (if I didn't overthink my username it would probably be dedananart. I did, and I can't change it, so it's the tagline). If you want to support me, it would make my day if you'd check it out and maybe comment!