Rayla carefully snuggled Callum awake. Once more, the medicine had allowed him a deep, restful sleep. Unlike last time, it hadn't done much for his health otherwise.
She had spent the night too hot to sleep, taking several breaks in the freezing cold outside.
He still looked terrible, pale-faced and clammy, he eagerly emptied an entire canteen of water.
"Fawn", he whispered, almost voiceless, "You look tired"
She shrugged. "Still better than you. Come on, we've got to make some progress. We can't get stuck up here."
Her boyfriend nodded and wrestled himself to his feet.
They broke camp slowly while snow was still drifting to the ground. The main part of the pass that would take them around four days to master was obscured by icy, grey fog.
They mounted up, nonetheless, Callum wrapped in all his clothes and his untied sleeping bag. With a click of their tongues, the Perytons started moving.
Around mid-day, they reached the highest point in the pass. From here, the trek would be harder due to the snow falling mostly on the downslope.
Using Aspiro, Callum cleared a path they could comfortably follow, the inclement weather aiding his sick lungs.
They ate a neglectful lunch in the saddle, quietly advancing through the falling snow. At least the natural wind had died, bringing the perceived temperature up by quite a few degrees.
A side effect of this was, though, that the world seemed to have stopped turning. There was a sniffle or a cough from Callum here and there. The snorting, stomping and huffing of their animals.
Other than that, the voices of life were stifled in snow.
Night would come far quicker than they wished and Rayla started looking for a good place to settle down.
She eventually pointed in the direction of a dark hole in the ground.
It looked like this shelter was in frequent use. Someone had left a nice pile of firewood in a corner and there were bits and pieces of coal and ash strewn all over the place.
Being as shallow as it was, the cave was easy to scan, showing no signs of any dangerous animals.
Rayla led their Perytons inside and helped Callum off his mount.
They hadn't interacted much all day so once she had stripped off the sleeping bag, she hugged him tightly and planted a kiss on his lips.
He sniffled, petting her hair while smiling sadly at her exhausted, bloodshot eyes. All this passed without a single word. It seemed like neither of them knew what to say, anyway.
While he sat on the ground, trying to set the fire, she put together the tent. Zym seemed confused, aimless. He simply watched them from the saddle bag he'd been in all day.
Callum finally managed to get the fire going and roasted some of the lembas from their ration packs, to be eaten with some leftover cheese from Otark's farm.
When he turned to look for his girlfriend, he couldn't find her. He went to open the tent's flap and an adoring smile spread across his tired face.
Rayla was sleeping, using her plush bag as a pillow. The prince had to admit that he would've loved to let her rest, knowing that she had watched over him the night before, but he also felt it necessary to feed her and to make sure she wasn't cold tonight.
Rocking her gently, he woke her. She received the food with an exhausted frown and ate quickly.
Then, she pulled out the sunfire device.
"Don't", Callum said, placing a hand on her wrist, his hoarse, stuffy voice sounding odd after the long quiet.
"You're not cold anymore?"
He shrugged half-heartedly. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable. I know you were. You need some sleep, fawn."
It looked like she was winding up to disagree, but then she caught his gaze.
Nodding slowly, she put the device on the ground. "I guess they are not meant for this sort of thin'. If you get too cold, turn it on. Promise me."
"I promise", he lied.
She extended a hand his way, petting his face. Her expression was worried, but full of endearment.
"How are you holdin' up?"
The prince shrugged sadly.
"I'm not. Feels like I'm teetering on a knife's edge."
"What do you mean?"
"Hm, it's a bit like when I was locked in the cart. Didn't know what was going on. I thought you were gone, but couldn't really find out if it was true. I don't know. Just seems like the smallest bit of information one way or the other is going to… either smash the raw egg that is me for good or give me the power to just forge through.", his voice shook, "One moment I just want to cry, the next I feel hopeful. I hate that. It would be good to just have one feeling after another, not all at once."
His girlfriend drew him into a tight hug and he returned it, desperately.
"My little brother, Rayla! He's my baby brother!", he cried hoarsely.
"I know", she said soothingly, petting his hair. The truth was that she felt this pain herself, having gotten more and more used to this idea of eventually being part of his family. Amaya's letters had been such a source of warmth in their lives. Even given their history the idea that they could be hurt made her stomach turn.
They spent a few long minutes like this, until he sat up to blow his nose.
"I don't wanna keep you up. Get some rest", he ordered.
She nodded sadly and slipped into her sleeping bag. They kissed each other good night and Callum ducked outside, coughing. He wasn't quite done with his day, even though he would have liked nothing better than to get into his own bag. His thoughts would keep him locked in a chokehold right now. Anything was better than that.
He collected some snow from outside and boiled it over the fire, then filtered it though a bit of cloth to strain out debris. It was a good way to refill their empty canteens.
Zym was just as quiet as him and Rayla, seemingly mentally absent after eating a piece of lembas. The little guy simply sat, staring wistfully into the fire.
Callum put him in his lap and pet his smooth scales. There was such chaos in his mind, now. He had to work very hard to keep his mind from falling into the destructive habits he'd gained during his time in the cage.
At least he was able to recognize them now.
Not knowing what had happened to Ezran broke his heart, but his experience with Rayla's presumed death had taught him how to control the panic that threatened to overwhelm him now.
The prince closed his eyes, thinking back to Honsa's lessons and magic. Mediation was startlingly effective when under her spell. It had felt as though he'd done it for hundreds of years. Now, his breath kept escaping his focus and he had to gently lead himself back from tumultuous thoughts.
Eventually, he resigned from the activity. It helped but the effect was muted compared to doing it with Honsa around.
His fear for his remaining family was driving spikes into his head and heart and the only thing he could really focus on was work.
He dragged his bag closer, pulling out the plants he'd collected.
Spreading them out, he took stock, quietly mouthing the song.
Ismil at advent and Askander at ascent,
Take Etwer, Telis and Banther Incents,
By your interest's eye.
Invertim and Salis Anur
Bring your pounding aching's cure
To your interest's eye.
Right.
After they had exchanged the first two flowers, he had broken protocol somewhat by asking his girlfriend about the process for making the incense. She had pulled out the thin book and translated a few passages for him which he had written down in his sketchbook.
He'd actually mostly forgotten about the book, assuming that she had used its instructions to fix the pendant. After realizing that the contents of it seemed unrelated, his curiosity had flared once more.
He started by crushing the bundle of now rather dry Banther Lilies. Their oily, flammable sap materialized reluctantly and threatened to set quickly.
Putting Rayla's mortar and pestle aside, he grabbed his own. The dried Etwer was easy to grind into a fine powder, but the few seeds he was able to extract from the Telis' seed head were less pliable.
The prince eventually poured the Etwer dust out of the mortar into the Banther Lilly mush. He realized how much the material smelled like oranges and cinnamon. Zym sneezed in his lap.
"Sorry, buddy."
Callum coughed, then used brute force to crack the Telis seeds, bits of them pelting his face. He blinked, admitting that he should have worn safety goggles for this sort of thing. Not that he had any, but it was still worth noting for the future. The seed's heavy, cedary smell was almost overpowering.
Sweating from effort and sickness, he mixed the powders into the unwieldy, resin-like substance. When it was homogenous, he formed small, rounded pyramids from it, setting them near the fire to dry. He turned them ever so often, to make sure they wouldn't get too hot and catch fire.
As reward, he burned off the residue that remained in her mortar. It smelt amazing, filling the cave with a whiff of oranges, cedar and cinnamon. He couldn't wait to burn one of the pyramids, now.
Turning his attention to the Invertim and Salis Anur, he sniffed. Rayla had told him that there was no recipe involving those two plants in the book, so he would have to be creative.
The Invertim was simply floral; sweet and heady. He knew that the tea that they'd enjoyed at Otark's place had been made from it's dried petals, so that's how he would use it, too. He picked the thick petals and pressed them into his sketchbook, folded in half.
Salis Anur on the other hand smelled very nasty, almost like pickled lilac with a drop of sweat.
Hm. What to do? He picked one of the gigantic seeds from the Salis Anur, speared it on his knife and set it alight in the fire.
It burned green and smelled quite nice, like smoked caramel drops. The smell evoked a hot, comfortable feeling he couldn't really place. Hm. Maybe Larwein - one of the bath salts?
Thinking back to the scenes there, the conversation with Helmond, the fight between templars and town guard - it all added to his anxiety. There were a few images in his mind that made him feel a bit better; Their foamy faces in the mirror, a sleepy Rayla in their shared bed.
Like her, the flower was a pleasure to look at, especially given the rough treatment it had received in his bag.
Obviously, it wouldn't stay so for long and he resolved to process it into a form that was a bit more shelf stable. He didn't feel like romance was in his range of emotion right now. Unless she decided to continue the ritual, he would hold off on it, too, until he felt better and had news of Ez.
How fortunate he'd been, having his left nostril open for sniffing. A sneeze took this sense from him while he used his knife to remove the many seeds from the flower.
After he'd squared it all away and watched the fire burn to embers, he decided it was time to face the consequences of going to bed.