The song in this chapter is based on Ólafur Arnalds - Take My Leave Of You ft. Arnór Dan
Rayla woke with a start, realizing that the whizz she heard announced the arrival of another message outside the tent. Callum still slept, snoring quietly in her arms.
She shuffled outside, grabbing the arrow and throwing a concerned glance around while she was at it. Everything seemed quiet. Up the road, the Ranger station was lit up and a guard seemed to stand watch over the barrier, still. He had been even gruffer than the girl on the other side, essentially throwing food and medicine at them. Some of that anger had actually been out of concern for Callum's health.
"Idiots, crossing in this weather!", he had scolded them.
Rayla quietly unclasped the hawk's head. It contained a smaller note and a larger roll of paper that was sealed with the waxen imprint of a flower.
"Hey Callum", she read quietly, then sighed. She wasn't about to read his mail.
"Love", she whispered, stroking Callum's cheek to wake him gently. He opened his eyes and, as he recognized her, smiled.
"Morning already?"
"No. We got a message. You really should be readin' this one. Pretty sure it's from Claudia, for your eyes only."
He shook his head. "If she sent me mail, I'll read it to you. I know that at this point you wouldn't be able to stop wondering what she said and I don't want that between us."
Rayla flushed. There was another very personal secret shared.
"Hey Callum", the prince started, "Soren and I were really happy to hear from you, even if your message wasn't what we had hoped. The way we parted really wasn't good and it was our fault. I can't really put into words how horrible I feel about all that and hope you'll accept our apology. We're assuming you got into a lot of trouble over there, with talk of wounds and mind healers and all that other stuff. It all sounds really terrible. If you can, you should give us a bit more detail, we're worried sick."
Rayla scoffed. Callum shook his head at her, lightly, "They dropped whatever it was they were doing and came to the Breach to send us this, fawn. Give them some credit."
"That's fine and all, but even if we could, I don't think it'd be a good idea to tell them what we were doin' in more detail. Who knows what they're plannin'"
"It's okay that you're suspicious. Just… keep an open mind. Hm… ah, here; If you can't or don't want to, that's okay. We'll see you soon enough. There's a few things I need to tell you. First, like you thought, we were looking for my mom in Del Bar, so it took us a bit to get to the Breach. Sorry. Second, I'm really hoping you'll believe me when I say that I feel like a huge jerk for how our date ended."
Rayla seemed to stew slightly, but the prince gave her an encouraging smile.
"Do you need a kiss to get through this?", he asked.
She bent forward to steal it.
"I know how it must have looked to you, as though I wasn't interested in you until I could use your feelings to manipulate you. That's not true. I had a crush on you since forever and I never found the right moment or words to tell you. It really sucks that it had to end in such a bad way."
"Ugh, this is hard", Rayla said, clenching her fists, "I wish she was here so I could at least give her a piece of my mind!"
Callum wasn't sure how to respond to her and resolved to give her another kiss which she begrudgingly accepted.
"So, once you're back, maybe we can pick up where we left off? I really like you, Callum, and I think you liked me back before I made that mistake."
The prince looked up from the letter to find his girlfriend with her lips pursed and her arms crossed, tapping her indexes against her elbows furiously.
"She's making the same mistake as everyone else", he said.
"What's that?", Rayla asked, gruffly.
"She thinks you and I could never be anything more than enemies. Or, I guess, friends. Well, too bad for her, she had her chance and she blew it."
"`Blew it`?", his girlfriend asked, a little puzzled.
"It means she messed it up, for good. I'm not about to go back to crushing on her like an idiot. I mean, it's kinda nice knowing that she's not as manipulative as I thought, but… yeah. What's done is done. She'll find someone else, I'm sure. Just wish we had a hawk arrow so I could tell her right away that that ship's sailed. I feel bad, it feels like leading her on."
Rayla's demeanor didn't change much, so he decided to just get it over with.
"So please, forgive me. Give me another chance and another date. It'll be my treat this time, I already have something in mind that you're going to love. Please come back healthy. Love, Claudia."
The last sentence seemed to be written after the fact, at a slight angle and with different ink. Curious.
"Lurve, Cloodeeah", Rayla went, tugging at her linen pajamas. The elf was supremely annoyed, "She's so full of herself, augh! Sorry, I'm losin' it a bit…", her voice turned tender when she noticed his distraught expression, "What's wrong, love?"
"They didn't actually tell me anything about my family… what gives, Clauds?"
"Oh!", Rayla went, "There was another letter. Sorry, my mistake"
She passed it to him and he eyed the seal, surprised. "Duren, eh? Interesting."
He broke it, unfurling the letter. The hand that had penned this was extremely cursive and fine, exuding extravagance and intellect as well as a certain pompousness.
"To his Royal Highness…", Callum couldn't get past the greeting before dropping the letter, a dim look overtaking his tearing eyes.
Rayla was confused, but went to hug him, regardless.
"Ray-Rayla…", he gasped, close to tears, holding up the letter. His girlfriend took it from him and sat behind him to support his limping body in her lap. Reading the message over his shoulder, reality hit her with the lengthy greeting formula, as well.
"To his Royal Highness Callum, Lord Upon Twin Towers, Crown Prince and King-in-Waiting of Katolis"
Her stomach turned and she threw the letter to the ground to tend to her lover, who was bent with grief. He twisted in her arms to face her, desperately clinging to her, grabbing fistfulls of her pajamas and pressing his face into her stomach. There was such pain in his expression that it cut her like a blade.
His chest was like cast in ice, a ripping sensation threatening to tear apart his seemingly unbeating heart, he felt nothing safe for her caring hands and the warmth of her body. It was the only thing that kept him from going insane, right this moment. There was not enough purchase on her to satiate his need for comfort and his open-mouthed, voiceless cries did nothing to reduce his anguish. His tears and saliva dripped onto their clothes, there was nothing but absolute, hellish pain.
Ezran. Anything but that. Not Ezran.
The honorific contained the confirmation of his worst fears, the rest of the letter was almost pointless.
Rayla was barely holding on to herself, felt an echo of his pain and her own. Ezran had been a light in her life and his apparent passing tore at her, intensely. But, Callum needed her right now. She could grieve later.
"Shhh", she went, soothingly, petting his hair while he writhed in perfect agony.
He'd said he had liked it before, so for lack of anything else she could do, Rayla started to sing, her own grief making her voice unsteady and hoarse.
Turn upward at the stars,
Look around to find the moon,
Look to where our life was ended,
You take your leave of me.
Spurred by the mournful song, his silent torment released in a scream of horror and despair that she would remember in her darkest moments for the rest of her life.
It was beastly, surreal, raw and split her to the core.
Bright light gift to me a token,
Remind me of laughs we shared,
Rayla's voice faltered for a moment but she was determined to finish.
Callum seemed to calm a little whenever she was singing.
But now, with my embrace around you,
You take your leave of me.
Tears soaked her throat as Ezran's face swam to the forefront of her thoughts and she struggled with the last verse.
Shall we meet beneath the apex?
Speak one last time to you?
I look far into my future.
I'll never take my leave of you.
This is what murder did to people.
It made them alone.