Callum got the distinct feeling that his guard was annoyed with him. He couldn't blame them, given the stares he was collecting in the streets of the Xadian capital. The odd, half-whispered "Go home, Abuser!" didn't help. At least his dress and the Canon Guard bought him physical safety.
The crown prince was looking for two very specific items and had loaded his pockets with chips of primal gems they had collected in the plains.
First on the list were hawk arrows. It was high time to be a bit more in-touch with home.
His guard led him to a storefront that showed all kinds of elemental weapons. There were sunforge blades, ocean shields and sky bows. In a rack on the left wall sat quivers upon quivers of hawk arrows.
"How can I h-", the shopkeeper said, looking up from his reading. His eyes wandered confusedly between the human and the soldier, "Respectfully, this isn't the stockade."
"He isn't a prisoner", the earthblood guard said. Callum had learned their name was Yasra. Beyond that, the armor they wore left only guesses as to their identity.
"I'm Callum of Katolis. Good to meet you", the human lifted his hand in greeting like he'd seen other elves do and the shopkeeper confusedly did the same, "I'd like to trade for some hawk arrows."
"Shadow hawks", the keeper corrected lamely, his gaze still pinned to the crown prince's face, "I won't trade with you"
"I know this is really strange. Please, I just want to let my people know I'm alright. One or two arrows. I'll trade with gem shards."
"No."
"Why not?"
"You killed my nephew. At the Breach. So, no, I won't trade with you, Abuser."
Callum's shoulders sagged. "I know how it is, I'm very sorry for your loss. Have a good night."
The shopkeeper seemed confused, now more than ever. As Callum stepped back over the threshold of the shop, he called out, "Uh, hold on!"
The crown prince turned to face him, again, "Yes?"
"You… you're not going to challenge me? I thought… humans… hm. You also lost people violently?"
Callum's throat tightened. "Yes. To Xadia and to other humans. To be honest, I've recently lost the last bit of family I had. My aunt and...my little brother."
The keeper's mien lightened a little. He threw a look at Yasra, who nodded, "He has the Queen's attention. I'm told to allow him access to, uh, some restricted technology."
"The Queen? She's still alive? Well, fine. I'll sell you a few arrows. Show me what you have, Pinko", the shop keeper said, gruffly.
Callum dropped a handful of gems on the counter and the keeper inspected them.
"They're not bad, not bad. For this amount I'll give you… four arrows."
Yasra coughed pointedly. Callum looked at them and noticed their gloved hand jutting upward with an extended index.
"I think they're worth a bit more than that", Callum said confidently.
"Ah, I see humans know to haggle. Well, good!", the elf seemed honestly - if gruffly - amused, "How many do you want, then?"
"Uh…"
Yasra held up three fingers.
"Seven", Callum said.
The shopkeeper hummed and hawed, then said, "I'll do five."
"Six"
"Deal. Just take em off the racks. Fair warning, I have enough fingers to count them!"
Callum walked over to remove the arrows from the racks and laid them out on the counter for the keeper.
"You really didn't have to, I was mostly joking", the elf said, earnestly.
Callum nodded and collected his arrows. "I just wanted to make sure, that's all."
"Yeah well. Queen's orders and all that. Uh, I'll admit… I didn't expect humans to be so… cordial. Are your people all like you?"
"Nope. There's nice ones and misguided ones, loud ones and quiet ones… you get the idea."
"Just like el-", the keeper said with a dissipating smile.
"Yeah, no, you're right. A lot like elves", Callum chuckled, "All shapes and sizes. Thank you for these. Good night"
The keeper waved timidly as he left, a confused look on his face. Once more the crown prince had to remind himself of the fact that most elves probably had a similar image of humans as he had of elves before meeting Rayla. He was wondering what sort of horror stories these people were telling about him.
Outside, night was now falling in earnest and most shops were closing up.
"Yasra, do you think there's a jewelry store still open?"
"Moonshadow elves love to shop at night, so yes, Sire, on the other side of the river", came the somewhat muffled answer, "Follow me"
After crossing the Ibalin, they passed through a large plaza with a fountain depicting a dramatic scene. An extremely gracious looking elf was poised to face two soldiers, one of which was pointing her pilum at his chest. Somehow, the scene seemed to not be visually balanced, as though there had been another statue at some point. But, the pedestal was smooth and showed no sign of having been modified. On second glance, the other soldiers' arms and weapon seemed to be made of a slightly different material.
Food for thought.
Just walking didn't keep Callum's mind very busy and he had started to feel lonely again, wishing himself back to where Rayla was.
"Do you know the story behind this fountain?", he asked.
Yasra nodded. "It's a well-known legend here. The fountain is called 'Arrest of Aaravos', Sire. The elf on the left was a prolific startouch archmage who furthered the understanding of the craft by leaps and bounds. He grew a bit power crazy, after connecting to all six sources, though, and the dragons put a stop to his machinations."
The crown prince nodded slowly. Aaravos. The key. A mystery that he'd keep quiet for now.
After a few more steps, they entered another store. Gleaming stones and reflecting chains glittered in its displays.
The shopkeeper here was a tiny earthblood whose face immediately drained of color when Callum stepped into the shops' light.
"Uh… what?", she said, haltingly, in place of a greeting.
Callum introduced himself and posed his request.
"Yes, uh, sure, uh", the keeper said, scuttling around her counter to retrieve the requested item.
Here, the crown prince actually felt bad for how little the artisan wanted for her craft and added a few more of the gem shards to the pile on the counter. This earned him an approving nod from both Yasra and the shopkeeper.
"I can have a look at your syphon for you, in exchange. It looks a bit rough", she said, pointing at Rayla's pendant around his neck.
Callum shook his head. "No thanks. It's perfect the way it is."
"I suppose a human wouldn't appreciate the difference between a working and a broken syphon", the keeper said and immediately clasped a hand to her mouth, "I'm so sorry, that was really rude, wasn't it?"
The crown prince chuckled. "It was, but I can actually tell", he said.
Before the disbelieving stares of the shopkeeper and two hand-holding moon elf men outside the store, he drew Ratis and sent one of the gems slowly flying around the shop. When he grabbed it out of the air, the spell subsided.
Then he showed his empty hands and wiggled his eyebrows. The earthblood laughed. "Well, that's a deep dig! First human I've ever met is a mage with a sense of humor! I'll tell my summand about this, she's gonna think I'm sprouting rocks!"
Yasra and Callum said their goodbyes and made their way back to the guest house.
The guard took their place next to the door again while their colleague settled down for the night.
Callum was about to open the door outright when he thought better of it and knocked.
"Yes?", came Rayla's worried voice through the door.
"It's just me"
"Come on in, then!"
He dropped the arrows next to the door and took out the small paper-wrapped package he'd gotten from the jeweler, spinning it between his hands.
Rayla walked out of the bedroom, dressed in her new uniform. She was patting it down and adjusting the seams to sit more comfortably. Her hair was still a bit wet.
"Really nice fabric! Silk or somethin'!", she said appreciatively, testing the stretch of it by doing a double cartwheel that ended in a forward flip, "Love it! Not very stealthy though"
Callum snickered, mesmerized. "I guess it's supposed to do the opposite, and boy does it do that! You look amazing. Hey, fawn?"
"Yeah?"
"I went out to grab some arrows, so we can let the others know what's going on"
"Oh, good thinkin'!"
"I also, uh… got… something else."
Rayla couldn't help but follow his example when she noticed him blush. Was it something to satisfy her nervous protest from earlier?
He tore apart the package in his hands and picked something out of it.
"Under the arch, you… you made the first step. I t-think it's… fair that I'll make it, now."
He knelt in front of her. There was nothing but startled confusion in her mien.
"Rayla", he said solemnly, "Would you like to, uh, marry me and become a princess of Katolis?"
His girlfriend blinked at the simple gold ring he was holding up, dumbstruck.
"Uh?", she went, then nothing more.
"UH!?", she repeated, louder, turning a lovely shade of glowing purple.
Callum snorted, not able to keep up his serious face.
Then the mood in her face flipped from excitement to utter worry, suddenly, and Callum choked on his laughter.
"Are you sure about this? Like, really sure?", his girlfriend said, intensely, "Fifteen or more years! That's a long time to be waitin' for someone you might not even know by then! What if… what if you find someone who loves you just as much as I do?"
Callum's chest pulled. It was so hard to hear her say it, but obviously he'd thought of it. What if he went back to Katolis, waited for her for a decade and then met someone else?
What if Claudia wouldn't give him up so easily? He hadn't seen her for over a month and hadn't felt his crush just as long. Was it still there?
As the last royal of his house, could he reasonably stay on his own for that long? Duty, love, regret, guilt, fear, sadness - it was a mess of feeling that pelted him right then.
The hand with the ring dropped into his lap. "I don't feel like that right now. I don't… I just need to be with you, you know? I don't know if that's ever gonna change. What about you? What if you find someone inside?"
She knelt, too, to be on a level with him. "I… I'm not sure I'd even go lookin' in a place like that. After, maybe. Callum, right now, if we do this… Will you at least promise me that if the sentence is more than five years, you'll allow yourself to move on? I know you said you'd be there, and I still expect to find an old, crusty friend to pick me up. But… but if you say that you won't ever move on, I'll run away with you, from this, right now. I can't deal with the thought of you just… pinin'. Bein' unhappy and unfulfilled, because of me."
He looked at her violet eyes and saw the same tears of frustration there that he felt well up inside him. It was obvious that he wanted to run. But she hadn't chosen to before. Who was he to tell her to leave her dream of being cleared? It was important enough to her to come all this way, to stand trial. If he asked her to go, it would come up again and haunt them for the rest of their lives. She'd be an outcast, for good.
Against his better judgement and with a tightening knot in his chest he nodded. "I promise, even though it feels like I'm betraying you."
She kissed him, passionately, then said, "Don't you dare break that promise. That would really be betrayal. There's another thing that Raszagal brought up while we were out. What if… what if this is just a crush? What if all we're feelin' is… uh, `deep friendship and dependency`?"
Callum snorted a little at her obvious quote, "I'm sorry, fawn but… I had your blood on my hands. I don't feel like I totally depend on you. Not anymore. You taught me a lot. Of course I think we're good friends. The best, actually. And, yes, we've been each other's support this entire time. But that doesn't mean I can't love you. When you held me in our tent after… after the letter? That? Rayla, that was not just friendship. Without you? I think I wouldn't have wanted to go on."
The admission struck her heart and she felt tears in her eyes, again. Palming at them, she nodded. "Up in the cabin. When you said you'd be stickin' with me through all this? You argued with me, even though I was pushing you away so hard? That was… shockin'. You actually fought to be with me. Clawed. Nobody else's ever done that, dummy", getting up, she gave him an intense, adoring look, "Give me a second."
Rayla then walked into the bedroom, rummaged for a moment and then returned. "I meant what I said, when we snuggled in your saddle. You were just a bit quicker."
She extended her hand. Between her index and thumb sat a gold ring, not unlike the one Callum had offered her.
It was now Callum's turn to be dumbstruck. "You were going to propose to me?"
"Sirta… or uh, Raszagal, I 'spose, helped me pick it out, after talkin' to me about… well, life and love", she sniffled, palming her eyes, then chortled, "So, uh, make sure you thank her for this little sobfest of a talk, ha!"
She knelt again, to be on a level with him. "So, uh, Do you still wanna marry me, once this is all over?"
The complicated emotional ball in Callum's stomach rolled, twisting his insides. It was so completely confusing. The reason why he was hurrying his proposal was to bring it up during the proceedings. It had been a political decision on his part, as much as a romantic one. Given the choice, he would've held off on the whole thing.
But after this talk, the answer was clearer to him than ever.
"Yes. I'll do it."
"Me too, dummy"
They embraced, sniffling and tearful. She kissed her prince and he slipped his ring on her finger, not quite looking.
The ring was slightly too small.
"No way!", Callum laughed hysterically, the absurdity of the situation shorting out his brain.
Looking down at her hand, he breathed an aghast sigh of relief and gestured at her hand, "After all that I got the wrong finger! Gosh! It's supposed to go on the third one from the thumb!"
They laughed and corrected his mistake, then Rayla pushed her ring over his left hand's ring finger, paying close attention to his hand.
The pressure was strange, unfamiliar. At the same time it was somehow reassuring.
Rayla spread her hand out in front of her, twiddling her fingers.
"D-does that mean we're `f-feianzes` now?", she said, nervously excited.
"Yeah, uh, `fiancees`. The word's actually Eveneran. It also means you're now technically a royal, and your title is… actually, what do you want your title to be?"
"Wait, this changes my name!?", she said, confused.
"Well, not your name, but I have to give you a royal title because you need to be a royal to be promised to a…", he sighed heavily, the noise turning into a groan, "...a king. Fawn, I'm sorry. This is supposed to be one of the most romantic, beautiful moments of our lives and here I am just… bringing up depressing stuff."
"No, dummy. This fits perfectly. It's always been our thin', goin' from sap to sob in the snap of a finger"
She pinched his wet cheek and pecked his lips.
"I just… wonder what he'd say if he knew, you know?", Callum's voice shook, "Uh, I just realized that I need to tell you who I mean, now. My dad. I was talking about my dad. But, I guess Ez, too."
His fiance hugged him tightly.
"I can tell you one thin' for sure. My dad would be out of his mind."
After a second she snickered sadly.
"Uh, both of 'em"