Thirteen years ago, thirty years after the return of Azymondias, the dragon king.
In a stone room, a fat man sighed. What is wrong with these two? No intelligent being, elf, human, or dragon had any business being this stupid. Now he had to reassure the elven woman sitting across from him.
"He doesn't hate you, he thinks that you hate him. So, try again, what happened with you two? Yes, that night was tragic, but you both we good together beforehand, and so loving. Lo-"
"I don't know what happened." She snapped at him, "After that night, everything just…" she continued, before trailing off.
"Fell apart?" answered Soren.
"At the seams. Then this whole business started up again, and I… I couldn't forget that night. I am certain of who perpetrated it! I couldn't let them go unpunished! I know tha' Callum blames someone else, and we never could agree. It was just easier to do this, for both of us." Explained the elf. The years had been good to her, she had only managed to pack on a few pounds, and several wrinkles. But he was not one to judge, especially about weight, his damned spine saw to that.
"Rayla, Claudia thought that night was fishy. She spent the last decade trying to find out the truth. Last year, she followed a lead here, and she didn't come back. I asked Ellis to come with me, and I found out why she never returned." Soren said, reaching into his cloak, procuring a leather-bound book. "She discovered a conspiracy on both sides of the border to bring back the war. Considering how well this was hidden, the nearby trashed camp, and the femur we found; she's not coming back. She thought that they were onto her, and they her." He said extending the journal toward her.
Taking the journal from Soren, Rayla began to read. Over the next 15 minutes her face gradually twisted in anger and sadness. The very idea that their people, people she and Callum had called friends would conspire to do this. To be part of that night, all for what? To potentially die in battle? To push for genocide?
Despite her doubts, the evidence in this was not only damning, but made everything all so clear. After the night that ruined her life, and claimed others, the names in this journal had been whispering in the ears of survivors. The few surviving names were the biggest war hawks on both sides.
"Does… Does he know?" Rayla quietly asked.
"Ellis and I made a copy, she took it back to Katolis. We want you two to meet at the Breach. You two are legends of the battlefield, and you can hunt down these killers and put them down." Soren quietly added, "Maybe then you two can put this behind you and things can return to their rightful-"
"No. Things canna be fixed, Soren!" Rayla interrupted, with venom in her voice. "You don't get the right to lecture me about closure! Where were you that night?! Hmm?! You cost us the most precious thing we had! You let your eyes wander, you didn't pay attention! You cost Callum and I everything! You killed us! YOU. COST. US…"
Soren was spared from the fury and hatred on Rayla's face as she turned away to try and control the tears in her eyes. The silence of the room was only marred by the sound of the elf's tears hitting the cold stone floors. The fat man could nothing but stare at the ground.
It took some time for him to gain the courage to look up at Rayla and break the silence. "I understand if you don't-"
"I will meet with Callum. For the sake of the family we lost, for the sake of Selerai. I'll have a guard show you out." Rayla interrupted as she quickly stood up and left the room. Left alone with his thoughts, Soren wondered if he did the right thing. Were he and Ellis right to tell them about this? Despite all the pain it must cause to resurface? He could only hope so, knowing that Ellis wouldn't have it any easier with Callum.
In Katolis…
Ellis breathed a sigh of relief. Callum had taken it calmly, until she suggested that he work with Rayla.
He had been furious. His scarred and half visage had been twisted with rage. "ABSOLUTELY NOT! I will not subject her to any further suffering! I will deal with the monsters on my own!" He snarled.
"Callum, Rayla has suffered just as much you! She needs this just as-" Ellis reasoned.
"What you have just told me, was that not only did these war mongering hawks kill my family, but also managed to chase me and Rayla away from each other?!" He angrily interrupted, "Even more so, they got her to hate me?! I will not make her work with me! I should be the one to take the burden. Besides, it's my fault, if I had just paid attention, I would have seen it." Callum finished, burying his head in his hands, adding the last so quietly that Ellis struggled to hear it.
"Callum, she doesn't hate you! How could you think that of her! She adored you! You were all she had left." She admonished.
"Ellis, I know Rayla better than she knows herself. I hate myself, and so does she." He whispered, again barely audible.
"Look… Callum. The problem you two have is that you two are incapable of communicating anything! Remember how you two started dating? Ezran had to enlist me, Soren and Claudia to trap you two in a room for a week!" Ellis commented.
"Callum… Come on! The two of you are just… AAAARRRGGHHH!" Ellis screamed in exasperation. She sat with the King in silence for nearly an hour, only permeated by a handful of strangled sobs.
"How did you get here Callum? What happened between the two of you to split you apart?" She quietly asked. Causing Callum to look up from his hands, red eyes and all.
"Just… Just… You know?" He weakly offered.
"No, Callum, I don't know. Both you pushed everyone away. Between Claudia, Soren and myself, we only 124 words out of the both of you, combined! In. Two. Years." Ellis explained. "What. Happened."
"Everyone said that she just needed space, and Ezran made me Crown Prince before he left, and I became King. Everything. Everything is what happened." Callum paused to take a few deep breaths. Ellis motioned for him to continue. "Every time we saw each other, it was just painful. We reminded each too much of what we lost, we made love only twice, after she died. We couldn't stand being in proximity after three months, within twelve, we couldn't share a bed. Our last kiss was eighteen months after, then everything else was just too painful."
At this point Ellis had her head in he hands and was muttering about idiots. She was wondering how these two lovely people were this dumb. Just part of who they were, she figured. The whispering conspirators didn't help, but she was frankly shocked at how terrified the two most fearless people she had ever known were. Callum was the most powerful magic user in the world, and Rayla was the deadliest being in the world when wielding anything with a blade.
They were so paralyzed by fear that they never did anything, everything that they did had to be motivated by others, and rather than adapting and overcoming that fear, that allowed themselves to be paralyzed by it. So, paralyzed that they each thought the worst of themselves, and believed that the other thought that. Lifting her head and rubbing her temples, Ellis thought carefully about her next words.
"Callum, the Rayla doesn't hate you, she thinks that you hate her. You both assume the worst about yourselves, and then assume that the other believes it to. It's what you have always done." Ellis paused before continuing, "Okay, this is what's going to happen. You are going to go to the Breach in two months' time; then you and Rayla are going to talk. Alright?" She added in her most authoritarian tone.
"Okay." Was his resignedly whimpered reply.