He'd anticipate them coming to tend to him, ask them for the date, listen to their offenses and do their bidding. Then, tick the box.

"What day is it?", Callum asked.

"September twenty-fourth", the guard who handed him his meal said, "Shut up and eat, Abuser."

Here was the highlight of his day.

Check.

Next thought.

His mind starved for new stimuli.

He found no rest, sleeping minutes every night.

Puzzling, endlessly, over Kel.

Overanalyzing every bit of information he had on Katolis. Ezran. Amaya.

He had read the letter but it merely made him shrug.

War. Whatever.

He caught himself wondering what Soren and Claudia were doing, not because he cared but because he had exhausted himself, thinking about anything other than guessing whether they had buried or burned his Rayla.

"What day is it?", Callum asked.

"September twenty-fifth", the guard who threw a wet rag at him said, leaving a bucket full of cold water near the entrance to his cage.

He washed himself without undressing, as well as was possible.

Check.

Next thought.

Aha, that made three days of war.

Maybe Amaya was dead already, being at the front.

Kel was dead. She had to be.

Her blade had melted.

There was no way he wasn't a killer.

Azymondias - what had happened to the little guy?

Were they taking him back home, to his mother?

To whomever the Interpreter was, now?

He looked down, saw his pants.

"Don't think about it.", his mind said, pleaded, wrestled, "Please, don't think about it. Anything but that."

His clothes were still stained with Rayla's blood.

He re-lived her last moments, again.
Her pale, clammy skin.
Her halting breath as the soldiers had taken her from him.
Her midriff braced with his red scarf.

Hey, they hadn't given back his scarf.

His mother's scarf.

He wanted it back.

It was a checkbox he needed to tick.

The tarp rustled and the gate of his prison unlatched once more.

"What day is it?", Callum asked, without looking up from his hands twisting and tearing at hay.

A shaky hand reached out to him, caressing his cheek. He started at the unexpected touch.

"Callum?", a familiar, rough voice said.

He looked up.

There she was.

Breath stuck in his chest.

There she was.

Exhausted. Looking like she had been rammed into a wall. Scuff marks and abrasions all over her. A small chip of her left horn, missing. Her fine hair in a total mess.

But.

There she was.

Emotion exploded into his mind, rolling over him like a typhoon. Without another word, he burst out crying, pulling Rayla into his arms through the open cage door. She flinched but returned his tearful embrace.

He was dissolving in shaking sobs, grabbing at her, wanting to make sure that she was real, "You're alive? You're al-alive!"

She quietly cried into his shoulder. "I'm so, so sor...", she started but his kiss silenced her.

She helped him out of his prison, standing him up and hugging him tightly, cradling his head on her shoulder.

"Gosh, it's so good to see you!", he breathed happily and she nuzzled his wet face, not giving a care about how dirty he was.

He was blinking back tears that would not stop flowing. If he hadn't needed to breathe, he wouldn't have stopped kissing her. She pressed into him, never wanting to let go. He embraced her tightly, but carefully, rubbing her shoulders and back. She was wearing a green sweater, a size too large for her, made from some sort of soft, fuzzy wool and it was the best thing he had ever touched.

They both felt elation, golden and radiant.

A green figure appeared over her shoulder and Callum recoiled from Rayla.

Lessa, her mien one of abject horror. "I… I didn't believe you…", she stammered, "I… I… I..."

Rayla turned toward her, going off like a stick of dynamite. "`I-I-I`!", she mocked, "You did this to him? Locked him up? He's my wee sook prince! Look at him! I've never seen him like this!"

After her next words had rang out, Callum buckled laughing against the cart, wheezing, yet still crying.

She'd dropped a bomb he had never expected to hear from her and frankly expected to never hear again.

Rayla's voice had doubled over; "Lessa, you fuckin' knothole!"

His brain crackled with feelings he had thought lost.

"I'll bat' you 'til you sprout birds o' paradise!", Rayla kept yelling, furious beyond description, and looking like she might make good on her threat, "He'd never hurt me! You only thought he did 'cause his ears are round and he's got a pinky! He probably gave you a perfectly good explanation, didn't he? You absolute weapon! He's a thinkin', feelin' person! How dare you!?"

Her complexion changed from a furious purple to a light pink and she started swaying, her fury having thoroughly discharged into the earthblood elf.

"Ah, not this again.", she stumbled on her wounded leg, falling backwards against Callum who caught her gingerly, "Well, that's just gon' be fun for the next while. Can't even flap a bit."

"Anger doesn't suit you, anyway.", Callum said, savouring her smell, her touch, her presence - even her boundless fury. He was fully aware of the irony.

Lessa knelt in front of Callum and Rayla, bowing until her forehead touched the ground. "I am so sorry for my actions. I beg your forgiveness, Prince Callum."

"Oh you know", he said cooly, "I really appreciate the time you gave me to think about how she was dead 'n all. Forms character, that!"

"I don't know what to say…"

"Well, we're all on the same branch with that.", Rayla snapped, "I didn't want to spend my life hatin' your gut and my guy here isn't one to harbor a grudge, either, but, whew, you made that hard as bark!"

Rayla kissed her boyfriend, who appreciated her flowery puns, and gingerly got out of his lap. Her mien softening, she extended a hand. "Lessa, come on, get up."

The older elf took her hand and tearfully embraced her younger friend, "I am so, so sorry!"

"I'm not the one you locked up for no reason!", Rayla barked and struggled against the embrace, "Hug him, you hag!"

Callum felt bad for Lessa, and it shocked him. She'd wronged him, terribly, and yet here he was, feeling for her. Feeling! Feeling good! Feeling sad! Wow!

"What day is it?", he heard himself ask and he was utterly terrified by the question. Rayla roughly shook off her plant covered attachment and shot her a questioning glance, "I'd like to know that, too."

Lessa choked back tears, then said "It's the twenty-sixth of September."

Rayla gave Callum a shocked glance. "I've been out for five days?! We can't stay, we need to go! Right now! Where's Zym?"

Lessa shook her head. "The dragon? We don't know. We tried to capture him, but he wouldn't have it. We didn't spend much time looking, we're moving to the front."

"What a shocker! Ugh!", Rayla yelled, once more, placing her hand bracingly on her stomach, "Add to that that you've been draggin' us in the opposite direction we wanted to go! Five days! We're probably back to Larwein!"

"We passed it this morning, yes. But, you can't leave just yet. Please. I can't let this injustice stand and you're still wounded, you need rest."

Rayla started to disagree, but Callum hugged her from behind. "You need to take care of yourself. We'll stay."

She half-frowned at him, but couldn't muster any real protest. It was true, she felt terrible. It wasn't in her to argue with him right now. He looked completely exhausted, like a shell of the person she remembered. For the first time ever, she noticed he was sprouting a patchy beard. How had he managed to keep that one a secret, especially in the crack?

"I will get you set up with a tent", Lessa said, looking relieved.

Callum looked around. They were standing next to a cart on the side of an overgrowing gravel road, two wingless Perytons harnessed to pull it. The mountain range had receded to the horizon again, the trees looked normal. And, yes, there on his left was Larwein's thin puffs of smoke. Behind him on the road marched an easy 500 people, flanked by sparse Peryton Cavalry.

Looking ahead, he saw an even more massive number of soldiers, marching in square formations. He couldn't estimate their number at all.

"How many soldiers are in this legion, Rayla?"

"I don't know for sure, it wasn't my first thought when I came to.", she smiled at him, pointedly, "But, I'd guess if its a standard size we're lookin' at about two to three thousand milites."

He gaped; no wonder he had trouble grasping the numbers!

From ahead, a loud voice shouted something muffled by distance and the clamor of the march.

"Watch, it's time.", Rayla said, somewhat amused.

Moments later, the cavalry, some of whom were pulling small carts with supplies, repeated the order from the front like an echo that grew stronger and then faded as the message passed them for the trailing cohorts.

"Milites! Make camp!"

A breath later, the formation separated to clear the road, soldiers stacked their spears together in eights and fires flared from sun-engraved devices. Not five minutes after the order had been given, the sides of the road sported tents and the smell of food started filling the air.

"Wow.", Callum said. It had been surreal to see this many people move as one with the coordination of a single body's limbs. He also noticed that the groups sitting together wore different armor, some like the moon elven Milites he'd seen before, others dressed like Lessa. There were a few who sported wings, jutting from light, white leather armor. He also noted with some surprise that the commanding officer in most of the octurias was a sunfire elf.

"Oh yeah! They are real good at sittin' and eatin'", Rayla snarked, then pulled him along to where Lessa was calling them from.

As they passed the resting soldiers, a lot of interested, confused and stern glances followed them. While there was the odd frown and some expressions of disgust, on the whole these soldiers weren't being too standoffish, more confused. Either way, there was a lot of half-whispered chatter.

"Well. Here it is. You can hand your clothes to Quartermaster Alissa here, to have them washed.", Lessa said to Callum who was momentarily confused by their similar names, "If you want, I can find you a nicer set of armor."

Callum had the impression the older woman was being sickly sweet. She knew she'd messed up and wanted to get on their good side - Rayla's good side - as fast as possible. He did not appreciate it much.

He shrug-nodded and entered the tent. Rayla turned to Lessa.

"Why'd you lock him up?", she challenged.

"His story didn't make sense. What's more important is, what are you doing with a human, Rayla?"

Rayla stared at her until she became uncomfortable.

"Fine, fine, not more important! He told us you were taking the dragon to his mother. He told us you were attacked by a human bounty hunter. He told us that he used sky magic to kill her.", she scoffed, "I didn't believe that then and still don't believe it now. But I sent scouts, just to make sure. There was nothing there. No body. Signs of a fight, sure, but that could've been you two."

Rayla frowned. "She was a massive woman. There's no way they could've missed her. He hit her with lightin', fulminis. Felt like it was going to singe my eyebrows off and I was on the ground a good four feet away. There's no way she walked after that."

"I mean, the river really made a mess of everything, so I thought… ugh. I was just acting on what they told me. We collected all the crap he dropped and locked him up."

"Just like that, eh? What about the part where you didn't tell him how I was doin'? He pretty well must've sat in that cart thinkin' I was dead, for a week. That's nice, I'm sure. Did you see his face when he saw me? That was not a sane face."

"Rayla", Lessa said, with reprimand in her voice, "Why would I tell him about you if I thought he was the one who hurt you in the first place?"

Rayla sighed, "Sure, I can appreciate that a little, at least. But for the record, this human is not only the most amazing person...", she put a lot of emphasis on the words, causing Lessa to frown with assumption, "...in the whole world for this here moonshadow elf, he's also a sky mage."

The tent's flap opened and Callum's hand appeared, his wrecked clothes piled on top. Rayla took them and shoved them at Quartermaster Alissa who hesitantly shuffled away, unhappy to have been dismissed from a conversation this interesting.

Lessa crossed her arms, "Sky mage, huh? That's hard to believe. If I hadn't dispelled you myself and kept you under a ward, I would accuse him of using dark magic to mess with your head."

"You try that and see how well I take it. Seriously, get to know him a bit while we're here", softening, Rayla hugged her opponent. "Thank you so much for savin' my butt. It was so, so lucky that you were here."

Lessa stroked her hair, fondly remembering her as a child. It was odd, seeing people grow up. Even worse when they showed up, mostly dead, for you to fix up. With a human lover. Who was a sky mage. In the middle of a war party. Sent to kill humans.

Her head spun as she enumerated everything that had just been dumped in her lap.

Meanwhile, Callum had done the best he could at the simple washstand, shaving off the annoyingly uneven hair on his chin, as carefully as he could, then took to washing the rest of his body.

After he got dressed in the simple clothes they had laid out for him, Rayla came inside.

"Hey", she said, looking him over.

"Hi", he replied, still drying his hair, "Did you yell at Lessa some more?"

"I told her to go look for Zym. She's sending more scouts. Let's just hope they can at least find him, if not catch him."

"Probably a good idea."

He busied himself with the bed rolls on the floor. He was looking forward to a good night's rest - and not. He hadn't slept much in the cart but if the nightmares he'd had after the fight against Ithral were terrifying, the ones he'd had since killing Kel were beyond description. The nightmarish clone from his dark magic dream was a nightly occurrence now, calling him. "A killer is a killer, who cares if you learn dark magic now?" At least, he thought, he would not have to dream about Rayla's dead body swaying in his arms anymore.

A cold hand appeared on his cheek, unceremoniously interrupting his self-destructive reverie. He quickly rolled himself into a sleeping bag. "Are you made of ice?!", came his muffled voice from inside the padded bedding.

Rayla snickered, crossing her arms.

" Warm, human face! Cold elven hand-sicles! Those things don't go together!", he complained.

"What goes together is your sad face and my good humor.", she said, "But, oh well, if you think I'm so cold, how about you warm me up?"

She joined him in the sleeping bag, drawing him into a hug.

"What would Lessa say if she saw us like this?", he snickered.

"Guh! I really don't care!", Rayla shouted, then blinked at her own volume. She continued with a whisper to make up for it, "I just need to be close to you right now to make up for five days of you bein' stuck in that cart. Ugh, five days! I'm so sorry. You went through all that because of me. How are you feelin'?"

He gazed at her, not quite sure how to answer the question. He felt like crying, both for joy and sadness. He felt dirty, corrupted, and yet felt he'd done what he had to, to protect her. He settled for pressing his face into her fuzz-covered chest.

"I love you so, so much and I'm beyond relieved you're okay", he said, muffled by the poofy bulk of her sweater, pure joy in his voice. He came up for air and mumbled, "I don't really know how to unpack the rest right now."

She lifted his chin and kissed him. "I love you too. I'm sure we'll figure that all out."

For a moment, they just held each other.

"Rayla, can I see your wounds?", he asked.

She shrugged, face screwed up with some disgust. "It's not a pleasant sight. Earthblood healin's a bit... rough."

With that warning, she rolled up her sleeve and showed him her arm. At first, Callum couldn't really see what she had meant, on second glance he realized that there were tiny vines strung along and through the wound, clamping and sewing it together. Her stomach was similar. It was indeed a strange, disgusting sight, the plants acting as bandages and surgeon's twine.

"Lessa is an earthblood mage. She's also a Tribune, that's a rank below a Legate, so she has some pull here."

"She said she knew you from when you were small."

"Yea," Rayla said with some annoyance, "She's a friend of Runaan and my parents. She babysat me for a while until she got promoted and the next time I saw her was for… an extremely awkward conversation about lady stuff. Since then, nothing.", annoyance mixed into her voice, "But here she is, actin' like I need her protection - from you."

She nuzzled his chest, accidentally scratching his chin with her horn, "Sorry about that, oh!"

He touched the scratch, checking his hand. "Ah it's fine, I did way worse, shaving my stupid beard off. See, here, there… uh, here…", he pointed out all his mistakes in his face.

"What's the story there, anyway? I've never seen you with a beard."

"Yeah, well, me either. I saw myself in the water and thought I was just dirty. Lucky I still had my dad to show me how to shave. He got cut up so bad every time, but he wanted me to know how to do it. It's kinda dangerous if you don't. `Callum, one day soon you'll wake up and look like someone stuck random hair to your face.` He said your first beard never looks good - he was right, heh... It's kind of funny that I grew hair basically everywhere except where I thought it might look good.", he snickered sadly, remembering a time that had been easier, and embraced her again. "How are you feeling?"

She sighed deeply, her gaze wandering upward, as though to search her brain for the answer. "Oh, that's really difficult.", she smiled adorably, a glint of sadness in her eyes, "You're makin' me really happy right now.", the sadness overtook her expression, "But, there's just... so much guilt for lettin' you rot in that cart. More so for… for passin' off my duty to you."

Rayla welled up, immediately palming at her eyes to make it stop, she wanted to be his rock, not help sweep him away, "I should've killed her. Rather'n tryin' to keep her alive. It was stupid and almost cost my life and risked Zym's and yours."

For a moment, she wrestled with herself, then continued, more calmly, "Plus, my body just feels so… floppy. I've not ever felt like this.", she smirked weakly, "Feels like I'm a wet blanket, like you, dummy"

Callum held her a little too tightly, making her squeak.

"I'm sorry", he said loosening his grip, "You didn't put me in the cart, Lessa did. You also didn't `pass off` anything. I made the call. It's not your fault. I actually admire you for trying to spare her. I'm not sure she deserved it."

"That's just it though. Who are we to decide that?", she still fought back tears, "It's a horrible question to have to answer!"

"I didn't say I knew what the right answer was.", he said hoarsely, "I saw you drop and everything else just... kind of happened. I mean, I used the same spell on her husband, he was fine… I thought it was going to be the same here… but..."

His expression froze over as he relived the scene. She noticed and ran her hands over his face, annoying him on purpose.

"Stop it!", he laughed, tapping her horns, which drove her equally nuts. They bothered each other for a moment but eventually fell back into a comfortable embrace, running their hands all over each other, their eyes locked while they weren't busy kissing.

Life was a series of hardships interrupted by odd moments of utter joy - moments like this one, making it possible to forge ahead, through whichever pile of trash was next.

"Ow!", Rayla suddenly jerked a little and Callum stopped petting her. Her face was screwed up.

"What's wrong?"

"My stomach hurts", she tilted her head to yell at it, "Shut it! I just wanna be happy about us being together right now! I don't wanna be sad and in pain and scared and… stuff! Ugh, what is going on?"

She palmed at her eyes, laughing with audible confusion.

He snickered, "Yeah. That's relatable.", saddening once more, he said, "Lessa told me they didn't find anything at the river, but I know what I saw. What I did."

Rayla felt conflicted about what to say. Giving him hope that Kel had survived seemed like a cop-out that would hurt him for much longer than the truth. She sighed deeply. "She was dead, I saw it, too. There's just no way she survived that. How they missed her, I don't know."

Callum nodded. "I know. Maybe the river washed her away? It was so quick though."

"I doubt it was that. No flooding since."

He sat up, remembering something. Helmonds letter was finally going to the actual addressee.

"This dropped into the cage the first day I was locked up."

She took the letter, glanced at the first few lines and frowned.

"Well. This is just the crownin' achievement of a bad week."

"Yeah. War. Poor Torlan."

Rayla's expression changed to startled discomfort.

"This was addressed to me… they'll think I'm dead, too. Lessa had me warded. The arrow couldn't have reached me."

"We'll have to send them a message."

Rayla nodded slowly, putting the letter to the side.

"First thing tomorrow mornin'", she said, caressing his damp hair, "Do you want to talk more about… everythin'?"

Callum nuzzled her, yawned and said drowsily, "To be honest, I'm falling asleep. I've gotten what feels like maybe an hour of sleep over the past five days. I can't figure this out right now. Or feel much of anything, other than how much I love you. Don't go away?"

"I'll be right here when you wake up.", she embraced him, hoping it would give him comfort.

He almost immediately passed out.

"A killer is a killer", the shape said, again.

"You took Ithral!", Kel screamed, a loud, bright 'WHAP' ending her life.

She got up and charged at him, regardless.

As he collided with her, he started awake, hitting Rayla in the face in the process.

"Ouch!", she cried, rubbing her mouth, "What'd I do?"

"I'm really sorry. Just... dreaming really badly."

"No! What did I do? What did I do to you to deserve what you did to me?!", her face turned lifeless, blank, cold.

"I don't know! Please tell me!"

"No."

There was darkness, and silence, broken only by a demonic sentence.

"What day is it?"