A sudden noise startled Rayla awake. Her eyes widened, alert shocking into her limbs. She immediately rolled out of the way to dodge a heedless incoming stab, grabbing her blades and coming to a stand to her assailant's left. Callum jerked into a sitting position, taking in the scene.

'Noli, don't do something you'll regret!', he signed hastily.

She just screamed, tackling him, tripping over Zym who had rushed into the room. As she stumbled, the little dragon discharged himself into her leg, making her yelp.

Still in a sitting position, Callum could not move fast enough to completely evade her and her knife sliced into his left arm. "Seriously?", he yelled and shoved at his attacker, who stumbled backward before finding her balance. Then, Rayla rammed into the older elf, sending her stumbling head-first into a wooden beam.

This alone was enough to knock her out cold. She slid down on the beam, coming to rest on the floor, her butt sticking into the air.

"You guys okay?", Rayla barked flatly. Adrenaline coursed through her, her heart hammered. She was not taking her eyes off Noli's crumpled form. It felt like she was going to faint.

Zym barked.

"I'm fine, it's nothing", her Prince said, pulling at his shirt to inspect the damage, "Barely more than a scratch. Are you okay? Is she alright?"

"I'm d-dizzy, she's fine", his girlfriend said, sitting down to take their attacker's pulse, "She was not just in a bad mood, wow! She needs serious help!", Rayla groaned, "Why did Honsa have to leave?"

"I'll go get her mom."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Have a look."

She glanced quickly at the cut, then nodded for him to go, "Shallow flesh wound"

Callum walked to the farmhouse to get Anzha. The armchair still held a snoring Otark.

Ascending the steps, he found a closed door. He knocked quietly and heard the din of someone startling awake and dropping a great many items on the floor. There was scuffling, then the door opened a crack. Anzha's tired, silver eyes blinked at him.

"What?"

"`What`? Yeah! `What` is it with your family and stabbing me? Can we not make that a recurring thing, please?"

"Stab you!?", she opened the door further, a stern expression on her face. Helmond's summand was wrapped in a very smooth and silky looking purple bathrobe, her hair pulled into a strict, expertly assembled top bun.

"Noli", he scoffed, waving her along.

"I am so sorry about her", Anzha said as they arrived at the barn. She knelt next to her daughter to turn her over and tend to the abrasions on her face, "I'm glad you're alright. This will have consequences for her that she will not enjoy. Beyond a well-deserved headache, that is."

Helmond's summand sighed deeply, a sad expression spreading on her face. "I cannot excuse her actions, but will attempt to explain them, at least. She was never a social creature, my Noli, never had any friends. Hel and I couldn't make them love or even just like her. Her deafness didn't help, but it was her attitude that drove others away. You see, she's obstructed, suffering early onset of-", Anzha interrupted herself, then sighed sadly, petting her daughter's dirty hair, "I assume she was disgusted on one hand and jealous on the other."

"So she talked to you about us?", Rayla asked brashly.

"Meaning...?"

"Did she tell you that we're a couple?!"

Anzha laughed briskly, despite herself, "One would have to be blind, not deaf, to fail to see it, Miss! I, unlike most other elves, don't see a problem here."

The two adventurers lightly flushed their respective colors. Callum's still valiant makeup gave his cheeks an odd, almost black purple.

"Oh, my regent would lose his mind if he knew about you. Many a time he's had to refute claims that humans and elves could never form couples. Too different, the others whine. Well. That's very obviously wrong, is it not? You are a walking, talking political argum-"

She stopped, frowning, seemingly appalled at herself.

"We've noticed", Callum said grumpily, "Generally it goes like this. We show up. People see us holding hands. They find out I'm human. Half of them are like `woah, look, the pinko and the girl get along, we've been totally lied to!`, the rest is like `Oh no that Abuser is with that traitor! We need to stop that!` - And then they murder each other."

Anzha shook her head, sadly. "I can't imagine what you're going through."

"You didn't exactly help. Court martial and all?", Rayla barked.

"Miss, it strikes me as unhelpful to give you an incorrect picture of what lies ahead", Anzha said with reprimand, "I admit I have issues with you. I am used to soldiers following orders. It is a danger to our democracy if the military does not follow their civilian leaders. On the other hand, I would not judge you only based on this. You have followed a conviction to be less violent, not more. That alone elevates you in my eyes. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not express how happy I am to see Azymondias on the way to his mother. She will-", Anzha stopped herself again, now looking positively frustrated.

"She will what?", Callum challenged, "You can't keep these things from us, Anzha! We need to know if what we're doing is making any sense!"

The older moonshadow elf squirmed. "I will not reveal secrets of the state, Excellency. Please do not press me.", she sighed deeply, "Suffice it to say, I… I am personally in `strong support` of your mission. That's the best I can and will give you."

Callum opened his mouth, but Rayla placed a finger on his lips, "Don't be rude. The last thing we need is another Interpreter comin' after us."

As he opened his mouth again, she preempted, "Yes! Askin' her for more information would be really rude!"

He looked at her, cross, then followed an impulse to just kiss her, gruffly.

She blinked. "Good answer, dummy."

Then Noli stirred, groaning. Her eyes fluttered open and she glared at everyone in the room, unfocussed.

'Why did you do that?', Callum asked.

'Why did you do that?', she signed back, jutting her chin forward and wrinkling her nose.

"She's just mocking me", he explained to Rayla.

'Noli, answer him properly', Anzha signed, and Callum translated.

'I hate them both. They should just die. Dad would kill them. They lie all the time. Torlan's fine. Dad didn't get beat up by her. Why trust them? They didn't tell us she was a blood traitor. They didn't even want to tell us about him being an Abuser. They probably rolled around in the hay tonight like rowdy skags! Look how dirty they are!', her movements were so fast and imprecise that Callum had trouble following and keeping Rayla up to date on her tirade.

Anzha shook her head. 'What they do when they're alone is not our business. Do you see the little dragon, Noli? They brought him back from the human side. That's a long, dangerous journey.'

'So? If I steal a cookie, smash the jar and keep it for a year, then bring back the cookie, walking over the jar shards, wouldn't you still be upset?'

The simple argument was surprisingly apt and Anzha had to think for a moment, weighing her response.

'You didn't eat the cookie, and because it's magical, it's still good to eat. Sure, you ruined all the other cookies, but this is the only cookie we have now and… the jar is probably happy…'

She frowned. The metaphor was failing.

'See I'm right', Noli signed, a tiny, gruff smirk on her face, 'Fine, so they bring him back. Even if that's good, the Abuser is still an Abuser and she is doing weird stuff with him. All that's wrong.'

'Why?', Callum asked, 'Why is it wrong?'

'Because you're not supposed to mix different colors of blood. It makes sludge. Bad people. I tried it myself, mixing them in a bowl. It's true.'

'You what?', Anzha gaped at her, 'Explain that!'

'No', her daughter replied, defiantly, 'It's a secret between me and dad. He said I don't have to tell you anything.'

'You haven't seen your father for more than half your life, child. What makes you think you understand him or his wishes?'

This made the deaf woman think. 'I just know', she finally signed, crossing her arms.

Anzha looked at Callum, helplessly.

'Noli, we don't mean you any harm. I'm sorry we hurt you', he tried.

'Sure you are. You need my crazy mom to think you're on our side. Go do your weird Abuser things with your weird Abuser loving traitor and leave us alone.'

'All we did is dance!'

'Sure!'

Anzha grabbed her daughter by her sleeve and pulled her into a stand. "We are going now.", she said curtly, "I will lock her in her room for tonight. Tomorrow we will move on. I have to find Helmond soon, before I-", she cleared her throat with an expression of utter annoyance, "If only we hadn't had to take the long way around the mountains we might already be at the Breach."

"Why did you have to?", Rayla asked, alarmed at possibly having her plans derailed.

"Snow. The pass rangers have closed the path for traffic. I can't know what the situation is now, but we passed the station on this side two days ago and it was still closed."

Rayla started biting her thumbnail.

Callum saw Noli and her mother out, then roughly shoved the handle of a pitchfork through the door handles to lock them down.

Without giving Rayla another look, he fell into the hay.

"This day just didn't want me to have the last word", he grumbled.

After a while, he felt her sit down next to him.

"Do you wanna talk about anythin' right now? I don't want you to go to sleep angry."

He scoffed. "What does talking fix at this point? It's not like you can speak some magic words to give us both invincibility!"

She spooned him and hugged him tightly. He felt soothed by this, but for some reason, he didn't want to feel better. Anger felt right, at the moment.

"How come you're so calm? Doesn't this make you mad?"

He felt her shrug. "Not like I can change it.", she groaned and her hug got tighter, "Feels like since we've crossed the border all I've been doin' is sobbin'. One thin' after another. Bang, bang, bang!"

Katolis had been easy, familiar. His face counted for passage there. The only people who had come after them had been Soren, Claudia and Corvus. They had all been dangerous - but somewhat hesitant. Compared to Kel, Corvus was a muzzled kitten. Rayla might have a different perspective on this, but he wasn't about to ask.

A thought shook itself lose at this. If he hadn't avoided talking about her coming to Katolis - would they have had a better evening? Was he doing the same thing as everyone else, avoiding hard conversations until they became problematic?

His mien sagged. Fine.

"Rayla?", he said.

"Mhm?", she went.

Here goes. Augh.

He turned to face her, then said "I want you to come live with me at court, after this is over. I don't wanna live in Xadia. People here hate us both."

She frowned. "Well that's nice and dandy for you, Prince Callum, but your girl's an elf! Katolins hate elves, if you hadn't noticed!"

"So what? You're a nobody here, you can't protect us if an entire Scotian village comes after us. I'm a Prince! You're gonna be a Princess! Nobody is going to touch you!"

She was now clearly angry. "I happen to like my home, even if the people there have issues with me right now. I wanna see my friends again! I wanna clear my name! I wanna stop bein' a `nobody`! Thanks for that, by the way."

"Sorry. Didn't say the `nobody` to hurt you", he extended a careful hand to pet her cheek, which she reluctantly allowed, "You mean the world to me, Rayla. I'll stand by you through this, through your trial, through everything after that. But I can't just stay away from Ezran's side, forever. Once he's all grown up and I've passed on all my parents' lessons, we can go wherever you want."

She sighed. "You feel really bad about him, hm?"

"I had a mom and a dad. He barely knew either of them. I don't feel bad, I feel… responsible. For him."

Rayla rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling.

After a moment, she harrumphed dramatically, extended her hands and signed `I love you` into the air, over and over while she spoke, "Fine, dummy. Katolis first. You're right, Ez deserves some more family. Who knows, maybe they'll even like me by then, your people."

Callum grabbed her and pulled her close. "Thank you, so, so much!"

She pet him gruffly, not happy about her own choice.

She'd need some time to get used to the idea.