From Mons Ornatam, it had been a hard day's ride to the outskirts of Veltis-Tiram.
Callum was groomed and dressed in elven regalia, similar to the clothes that Sirta wore, except that where hers had blue accents, his were a dark, gleaming gold. Someone had gone through the effort of attaching the emblem of twin towers to some of the broad ribbons that covered his body and to the shoulders of his gray shirt. His red scarf now sat around his waist.
Rayla was sitting next to him on her Peryton, seeming shell-shocked. While Callum was taking in the busy streets and sweeping buildings, she wanted to see none of it. The crown prince would reach over ever so often to give her an encouraging caress.
The Queen's staff had given her a haircut and washed her uniform - but she hadn't gotten the royal treatment. It didn't seem like she'd enjoyed any of it, regardless.
Their Entourage attracted quite a lot of attention and Callum felt critical, confused and even hateful eyes on him. There was the odd friendly or curious look, too. Either way, the heavily armored and armed Canon Guard kept everyone at bay.
They stopped on a plaza in front of a richly decorated building that was sitting in the direct shadow of Parliament.
Sirta's caretakers lifted her from her Peryton's back and one of them cast Ratis, touching her. So supported, she floated towards Callum and his girlfriend.
Raszagal's voice spoke from her mouth. "Well. Here we are. This is where you'll be staying for the duration of the process. I'll be taking Rayla from here, but don't worry, Excellence, she'll be back for the night. We need to process her, speak to my advocate and get her court documents ready", to Rayla, she said, "Do you still have some sort of identity document?"
The moonshadow elf wordlessly rummaged in her saddle bag, pulling out a very badly kept silver booklet that bore a few black runes and the image of a stylized Precious White.
Sirta took it from her and nodded at Callum.
"A moment", Callum said, grabbing Rayla by the wrist.
She turned to him, worry and nervosity spelled clearly in her features.
"You're gonna be fine, fawn. We'll figure everything out."
They shared a long kiss that made the moonshadow elves among their entourage turn away with shame. Luckily, they were shielded from the crowd's eyes.
Sirta chuckled. "Well, Rayla?"
The two of them marched off, followed by all but two of the Canon Guard.
Callum sighed. It was hard, watching her leave, the feeling of worry in his stomach burning like a chemical fire.
When they had vanished in the crowds, Callum turned and let himself be escorted inside the regal building.
The inside featured a lobby, on the right of the door was a counter, served by a busy looking sky elf. Behind her rose a spiral staircase, out of view. There was also a round platform in the ground next to the steps. On the left was a sitting area, currently empty. Ahead were more staircases.
The elf behind the counter looked up.
"Sire, are you Callum, Crown Prince and King-in-Waiting of Katolis?"
His new title still felt like an insult, but Callum forced himself to nod.
"Excellent. Please, follow me."
Both of them and the Templars stepped toward the spiral staircase. When Callum moved to ascend it, he walked straight into one of the heavily armed guards.
They looked down at him, surprised.
"Excellence?"
Suddenly, the platform next to them lit up, generating a silver-blue aether in the air that soon took on the familiar shape of Alatus.
Callum was dumbstruck and almost lost his balance as he was guided into the stream by his guards and the attendant. They were gently carried upward.
"This sort of thing does not exist in Katolis!", he said, breathily, "It should, though!"
This prompted amused glances from the three elves and he felt a bit sheepish.
Mere minutes later, he had been shown to a room on the top floor. Rather, rooms. There was a full suite at his disposal, it was clean and incredibly cozy. Unlike most fancy places he'd stayed at in Katolis, this one was spartan, but intentionally so.
White walls that had a very light, silver floral pattern were accentuated by gleaming, dark hardwood flooring. The many windows on the left wall were tall and narrow and followed the arching ceiling, allowing a look at both the city and sky.
He currently stood in a receiving room of sorts. It contained white sofas and armchairs that all seemed rather plush, even though their design was somewhat angular. In a corner stood a dinner table with chairs, fit to seat around eight people.
Through a door in the back of that room was the bedroom, equipped with drawers, a dresser and a mirror that ran the entire height and width of the room. It looked as though half of it could be moved.
Callum pushed on the mirror and it slid aside, revealing a roomy walk-in closet which already contained their bags.
The bed itself was the same white, angular design that had also been prominent in the receiving room. He tested it with his hand and it seemed to somehow adjust to his pressure with equal force.
With an odd sense of satisfaction, he noticed that there was no other bed. It would be a repeat of Larwein, without the awkwardness.
Finally, through the second door in the receiving room, there was a washroom, equipped with a generous marble tub, wash basin and water closet. Interested, Callum pulled the handle and the flush was quickly replaced with a small bell-like tinkle he also recognized from Larwein. Elves used Magic very practically.
Now that his exploration was complete, he felt a little lost. Not being with Rayla felt strange.
He decided to sit in one of the white armchairs to look out at the city.
"We're gonna be okay. Right, Zym?"
Silence predictably followed.
Right. He was completely alone. The little dragon had always provided some kind of entertainment. Whether it had been through shenanigans or cuddles or even just the sort of adorable noises that he used to make.
Soon, his waiting turned into pacing, his thoughts trying violently to make him anxious and depressed, showing him pictures of his blood-soaked scarf around Rayla's cleaved stomach and Ezran's face and Amaya and Kel and… and… and…
She'd only been gone for about three hours but safe for the time he'd spent in the cage, this was literally the longest they'd been separated since they had entered Xadia.
Mercifully, a knock at the door made him jump and he ran for it, opening it without question.
"Callum!"
"Rayla!"
They embraced each other and he dragged her inside by the waist to get out of the line of sight of their guards. She closed the door with her foot because her arms were still around him and their kiss would suffer no interruption.
"I am so glad to see you!", she said, breathlessly, "I know I wasn't gone for long but whew. It's strange bein' alone. Without you. It feels… wrong."
"Yeah. Especially without Zym around. So, what did you do?"
"Sirta brought me to… ohhh, wow! Nice place!", she twirled to take it in, then stumbled over one of the sofas. Before Callum knew it, she fell into his arms and they both landed on the opposing sofa, her on top of him.
They gave each other a puzzled, flushed look, then burst into laughter.
"Well, uh, you missed the soft parts, so that's good", Callum remarked, with a worried look at her knee between his legs.
She looked down to follow his glance, then at his face. Her prince couldn't help but laugh again at her confused expression.
"What?!", she demanded, "I don't get it!"
In place of a semi-awkward explanation, he simply kissed her and felt her go limp over his body. Rayla as a blanket? An outlandishly good idea.
They didn't stop petting and kissing each other for a long while.
It was a perfect moment, almost feeling suspended in time.
Callum felt his breath quicken when they separated. They both were flushed to the tips of their ears, hearts booming.
"I missed you!", he said heatedly, running his hand through her hair, "I love you, so, so much"
She was just so perfect for him.
"I love you, too, dummy", Rayla said with far too much breath.
The crown prince's eyes darted between her flushed face to the ceiling, "Uh, d-do you… do you wanna, uh…"
He shook his head and laughed, stupidly.
"What is it?", she asked, very obviously confused, "Do I want to…?"
"Uh…", he went, "s…", he flushed to a glowing red, surprising her with the discovery that there was such a color, "uh… do you w-want to...", he just couldn't seem to get it out.
His meaning became clear to her by context, now, and her eyes widened.
"Yeahbutuhhhh", she blubbered, not looking at him, "Uh, but, we don't… uh, we don't have any… you kno-"
There was a knock at the door and they shot apart, looking like they had just finished a hundred yard dash.
"Wow! Timing!", Rayla mouthed at him, with an incredulous, scared smile.
He straightened out his elaborate gold and white dress and gave her another moment to sort herself out, then opened the door.
Sirta hovered inside, one of her caretakers by her side. Preamble was apparently not Raszagal's strong suit. "Your documents were filed and an accelerated trial has been granted. I'll say again; This might not work in your favour. It doesn't allow us much… I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"
They both shook their heads, wildly.
"Oh, please do try to become better liars", the dragon snickered with reprimand.
"You were saying `it doesn't allow us much…`?", Callum prompted, hoping to move on from the uncomfortable topic.
"Oh. Sorry, yes. The accelerated trial doesn't allow us much opportunity to present evidence and witnesses. Commencement is on the 15th. Since you've chosen to self-report, that'll give you a bit of time tomorrow to… explore or abscond, if you wish. Your choice."
Rayla shook her head, firmly, "I won't back down. I've had it with people callin' me out for what my parents did and then goin' straight on to givin' me business about what I did or didn't do in Katolis. They weren't there!"
"Noble, but ultimately, this will be politics, not justice. And it's actually better that way."
Callum blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Sirta floated over to the bathroom and got herself a cup of water. When she had emptied it, she answered, "My advocate told me that Rayla does not have a single wing in the air as far as justice is concerned. She broke her oath and failed to execute two mission-critical commands, leading to the death of her comrades and technically the failure of the mission. That alone is enough to convict her. She then presumably went on to share secrets of the state with you, otherwise you would not be here."
Callum shrugged his gruff agreement and Sirta continued, "However, with you, Crown Prince Callum, in play, we can spin this as politics, so expect to be facing the Assembly rather than a panel of Arbiters. If we play the angle of her as your mate, you can intervene on her behalf as a betitled stakeholder. She goes from a `soldier not following orders` to a diplomatically charged hot dippling that nobody wants to have on their plate."
The girl interpreter beamed mischievously, "The ocean fraction will flip to our side. They are generally in favour of peace and stability and Triton has preached from their pulpit about the potential of mixed couples. Elves don't live long enough to remember when they were not so impossible. The rest of the Assembly has been, uh, `resistant` to such ideas, to put it mildly. Ocean will jump on the chance to be smug."
"Wait. You're using her trial as a stage for the whole peace negotiation thing?!", Callum asked, "Won't that really mess with our chances?"
Sirta shrugged. "As I said, it's for the best. Even better is the fact that under this guise, some delegates might not become aware of the bigger picture until we've successfully changed their attitudes towards humans. I know my own fraction will be extremely happy to hear of my son's return, assuring their elevated status for another hundred years, at least."
"Huh", Rayla went, "Don't the dragons sorta kinda just tell their fraction what to do?"
"We are not supposed to. My brethren seem to have forgotten this part of our covenant. I shall remind them in the course of this."
The crown prince tapped his index against his temples for a moment, then said, "Ugh, I hate that tactic. It doesn't sit well with me, to have all of this stuff ride on Rayla."
Sirta laughed. "Sire, you and your mate's relationship has caused pandemonium among the elves whenever it has come up. I am betting on this being the case here, too."
"One problem though; We're not really `mates` yet, we've just started the bloom and by human standards we haven't even done that", Rayla said, doubtful, an odd, frog like quality creeping into her voice towards the end of the statement. She coughed, clearing her throat.
"The Bloom should be enough to set and bolster your claim. However, it would behoove you to really understand the ritual, you might be asked questions by the silver fraction. This as well can earn us points."
After a moment of pensive quiet, Rayla asked, "My Queen… how long of a sentence do you think we're lookin' at?"
Sirta shrugged. "It is very difficult to say. Our Advocate estimated fifteen years for perjury and desertion as well as betrayal of secrets."
A hammer fell on both the teens, forcing them both to sit. Fifteen years! Just as long as they'd already lived!
Rayla turned to her boyfriend, a painful expression in her mien. "Callum"
"No", he said firmly, "Don't. I told you up there, I'll tell you again. I will fight for you. We'll get you out. Trust me."
Sirta gave them both a sad look, then said, "You two ought to have this conversation, later. I do not want to intrude. As for the fifteen years, it's an estimate. The true sentence might be longer, or shorter. Since we're cheating the legal system a bit, we can assume it to be much longer at first. Don't be shocked to hear numbers beyond one-hundred. It's all tactic. We shall haggle"
Turning to Callum, Raszagal added, "Should Lady Rayla not be able to escort you home after her trial, I will happily give you an Octuria of Templar Canon Guard. I don't want you going into this thinking you are somehow dependent on her for your safety."
Before Callum could say anything, the dragon sighed and said, "For now, I will keep contacting my interpreters across the federation. Some of them will be tired of my absence by now. I have much to repair. Obviously, I'll focus on the border, try to find evidence and witnesses that could help our cases. I suggest you rest and enjoy your time together. Beyond learning what you can about moonshadow rituals, there's not much you can do. You chose this difficult path, and I am impressed with you. But, it might be a path you won't be allowed to leave until much time has passed. I'll return in the morning of the day after tomorrow, to escort you both. Good evening."
The dragon departed. Sirta shook her head and rolled in mid-air for a moment, then caught herself. "Oh! Hey! Uh, do you want me to show you around town a bit?"
"No, thanks", Rayla said, downtrodden, "I think I'll just take a bath and go to bed. I feel exhausted."
Sirta nodded slowly, then annoyed realization washed across her youthful face. "Look at her, making me hold this stuff all this time!"
She had indeed held on to a white and gold package this entire time and now offered it to Rayla. "For you! It took a bit longer than the simple changes we made for his."
Rayla took it, confused, thanked her and she made her departure.
When the door had closed, she hugged him tightly, then separated from him to unpack Sirta's gift.
It was an assassin's uniform, just like the one she was wearing - safe for the fact that it matched Callum's dress in its dark gold and white color and had the twin towers imprinted on its shoulders.
"Wow. They're goin' all out."
"Speaking of", Callum said, softly, "I'll take a bit of a walk while you're bathing, if that's okay with you? And I really mean that. If you need me right now, I'll stay. I just want to stroll a little bit. Get the ants out of my butt."
She snorted sadly, "Butt-ants, eh? I guess. Don't be too long, dummy. I already miss you."
They kissed and Callum walked out, leaving her behind.
"And we need to talk", she said to the door after making sure he wouldn't hear.