After Yasra had entered the scene, things happened very quickly. A couple of sunfire and earthblood healers showed up, fixing up both Callum and the bellhop who then apologised profusely for leading the attackers to their room.

Rayla hugged her and told her that nothing in there was worth her life. That had left her dumbfounded, but appreciative. Their host had then taken Callum's torn up regalia and brought them back clean and fixed, not two hours later.

It was clear, though, that they wouldn't be staying in their original quarters. With Yasra's help, they moved all their belongings - including Callum's wayward underpants - into the next suite over. It was essentially the same layout, just mirrored. From its windows, Parliament stared at them, forebodingly.

It was still much better than sharing the space with the memory of a corpse.

The moon elf woman had had no identifying information on her, whatsoever. Taking off her mask therefore didn't do much other than reveal a face that was drawn by the pain of having a few ribs broken. Yasra had told them that Civil Protection was going to be taking on the case and to focus on themselves rather than worrying about the cube. Callum had neglected to give any details of the stolen object beyond the fact of its shape.

It was the late afternoon now and neither Callum nor his fiance had voiced any need to go outside. They were snuggled up on the couch, facing away from the windows, her on top of him, giving each other nothing more and nothing less than pensive caresses.

It was Callum who eventually broke the silence.

"Wonder why they would want that thing so badly. All it does is glow. It must have some meaning or function that we haven't found yet."

Rayla nodded. "Aaravos. You gotta wonder if the story is true. Can one person pick up all six arcani?"

"I don't see why not. Give me enough downtime and I'll try", her fiance chuckled.

"You're still in a really good mood", she said, a bit surprised.

The prince shrugged limply. "I don't want this date day to be over, fawn. We had a really good time out on the town. I don't want that to go sour."

"That's a bit hard, dummy", she admitted, "I felt like we were gonna get attacked all day. Now that it actually happened? Now that you're hurt again? I just… I feel like goin' out is the last thin' I wanna do"

Callum snickered. "We were attacked in here though. Come on. Dance with me. Out there."

The target of his affection gave him a small smile. "You're so cute. Fine. We'll go dance. But I'm wearin' my blades!"

"You should, they're part of your dress", he snickered.

They got up and prepared for a night out. When Callum was done adjusting his new suit, he knocked on the bedroom door.

"I'm ready"

There was silence.

"Rayla?"

"I need a bit. Sorry", came the unsteady answer.

For a moment, Callum just stood there, wondering what to do. In truth, he was close to giving up. The news about his family were overshadowing every moment of happiness. It was always in the back of his mind, giving him a pang of guilt whenever he felt happy about something.

"Is it okay if I come in?", he asked.

"Yep."

He opened the door and found her, wrapped up in a comforter on the bed. Since she was turned away, the prince rounded the bed and knelt down in front of her. Her face was hidden by her hair and the blanket.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Her shrug was mostly obscured by the blanket. "I don't wanna stand trial. I really just want to run. But I have to. I just do. Don't I?"

Callum extended a hand to pet her hair. At his touch, her head tilted upward and he found her tearless but frowning worriedly.

"I know you", he said gently, "You're not running from this. You never run. That's more my thing."

Rayla snorted. "What are you talkin' about, dummy?"

Instead of a depressing answer, he simply said, "I love you."

Her arms escaped the blanket to pull him closer for a kiss. "You mean the world to me, dummy. Don't forget that."

"Hard to do that if you smooch me every five seconds."

"Are you honestly complainin'?"

"Nope."

He stole another kiss.

She then sighed deeply and said with some resignation in her voice, "Well. I guess we should go dance before someone else comes to stab us. I uh… need the room for a sec."

"Sure. I'll be outside."

She didn't need a lot of time to slip into her startlingly red dress with the dark gray leggings. Walking into the receiving room, she lifted it to insert her blades into the holsters on her hips, then twirled, watching herself in the somewhat distant mirror of the bedroom to check the seat of it. Satisfied, she nodded and faced Callum on the couch.

His expression made her laugh. "You look like someone clubbed you over the head!"

"That's what it feels like. I just feel so… lucky. Most people wish they could have someone so smart and caring and pretty by their side."

"Now, don't forget `menacin'`", she said, wagging a finger, "you'll get to know that side of me if you don't stop tryin' to flatter my ears round! Come on, let's go."

Callum frowned a little. "Flatter your ears round?! I said I like your ears!"

Rayla blinked, then laughed brightly. "It's an expression, but I guess we've been over that. I wonder why I remember that so clearly?"

When they strode out of their room, Yasra seemed to jerk a little bit.

"Excellences?"

"We're goin' out for a dance", said Rayla gruffly, "Show me your face"

Callum blinked. An interesting order.

Yasra took off their helmet. A rather beautiful, young sunfire woman appeared from below it and Rayla nodded approvingly.

"Does this satisfy the Lady?", Yasra asked with a smile, her voice now coming through undistorted.

"It does. Our attackers were both moonshadow, judgin' by the guy's hair and skin tone"

With that Rayla walked ahead while Callum threw a meaningful look at Yasra who shrugged and replaced her helmet.

A moment later, they were back in the crowd, collecting even more astounded stares thanks to their alarming colors.

Callum followed Rayla's lead to a familiar plaza. The Arrest of Aaravos sat in its center, surrounded by a band which was already busy playing a very energetic song. A few pairs were spinning in the light of many lamps while a crowd looked on.

"This… is different", Callum said, nervousness creeping into the back of his neck, "I'm used to everyone dancing. Not being the center of attention."

Rayla laughed shakily. "Hey, you're definitely better with attention than I am! Let's just get it over with. It's supposed to be fun, right? What are we dancin'?"

"Uh", Callum said, listening intently to the music for a moment, "Sounds like a swoop song. Let's start there."

She took him by his hand and led him to a free spot in the circle of dancers.

Their wrists met and they described a circle, like they had in Otark's barn.

Switching wrists, the circle changed direction.

This was actually not so bad. When in motion, the faces among the crowd all blurred, not allowing them to make out the emotions in them. There was no doubt in Rayla's mind that some of them were furious. But, there was the reassuring presence of Yasra, towering slightly over most of the crowd.

The song reached an inflection point and became even faster, so Callum decided to start the bird wings. His partner had a good sense for motion but his unfamiliarity with the elvish song and her inexperience with dancing in the rhythm of music made this a bit more difficult than their lessons.

There was also the fact that he was extremely distracted by her dress, just as she was enamoured by his dapper suit.

The song wound down a bit and their wrists met again, making Callum wince slightly at the pain in his upper arm. Rayla shot him a concerned look, but he simply smiled.

"This is a lot of fun", he breathed, "Are they jealous yet?"

"You mean the crowd?", Rayla laughed, looking around, "The ones starin' at us kinda look like someone peed in their drink, to be honest!"

The song ended and they spun to a stop. Callum lifted his hands to clap but stopped short when nobody else did.

"Don't elves give some sort of acknowledgement to the band after a song they like?", he asked, grabbing Rayla's hands and swaying them with her in the memory of the rhythm.

"Eh, sunfire elves apparently stomp with the beat when they like a song. When it's a mixed group, that just comes off as awkward though. Why?"

A slower song started and Callum let her lead him in a slow, close understep-overstep. He appreciated the slight caress her dress gave his ankles when she stepped across his leg to complete the sequence.

The crowd blurred again; the only thing in their world that was in focus was each other. Feeling her against himself set him at ease.

She was leading, so it was her job to make sure they had enough space to complete their motions. Given her inexperience, she was doing an outstanding job. It was either that or the other pairs gave them a lot of room. Whichever it was, it didn't matter too much.

The song ended and they separated. Rayla beamed at her fiance.

"I love this", she said, "It's a lot nicer with music"

"Yeah, it is!"

"Hey!", came a breathless shout from Rayla's right. A sun elf woman waved at her, and she tepidly returned the gesture, "I really love your dress and your dance! What is it?"

"It's a human dance, called the understep-overstep", Rayla said with a smirk.

"H-human? They dance?"

"We do! A lot!", Callum said, lifting his hand in greeting.

Aghast stares set in for everyone following the exchange. Then the band started another fast song and everyone started dancing again. This did not interrupt the yelled conversation.

"Woah, woah, what?!", the sunfire elf laughed, "Look at you guys! Dancing with a Pinko in the middle of the capital?! Girl, you have horns the size of trees!"

"So far everyone's been pretty nice!", Rayla laughed back.

"Well they're wrong!", a middle aged moonshadow man yelled from the crowd, "You should be ashamed of yourself! You're too young to have the Bloom completed! I should hope, anyhow! And with an Abuser, disgusting! Lucid get you, Scotian wench!"

"Shut it, waner! This isn't Bretain! Go back home if you can't handle livin' without yer bawdy rules!", Rayla yelled back angrily, earning an amused look from the sunfire elf.

"Did you just call him a wiener?", Callum laughed, incredulous.

"No, a waahner, with an aah", she said with a smirk, "As in the wanin' moon, dummy. What's a wiener anyhow?"

"Sausage"

"Oh"

The group around the yelling elf seemed incensed, gesturing in their direction.

Yasra made her way over and planted herself next to the complainers. She yelled something that started with the word "Citizens!", silencing them almost immediately.

Song followed after song, the band providing a good mixture of fast, exciting opportunities to throw your partner around and slow moments of snuggling in motion. The two of them traded for the leader role whenever they felt like it.

When the last song had played, the pairs all looked flushed and happy, walking off the plaza talking excitedly.

The sunfire pair walked up to Callum and Rayla and the woman said, "Show me that dance again. The slow one."

Callum and Rayla obliged her and her partner and soon both pairs were swaying in the same rhythm.

"That's a nice one, thanks!", her partner said when they had figured out all the steps. He said his goodbyes to go talk to someone else, but the woman stuck around for a moment longer.

"I'm Rasha! Hopefully we'll see you around!"

"Rayla. Good to meet you, Rasha, and thanks for the dance and friendly words. It means a lot."

"Callum, Prince of Katolis", Callum said while Rasha's mien sagged.

"Oh. You're… you two are them. Ah, that's awkward, I'm sorry, I thought it would be more likely that you were part of an entourage of the prince rather than him himself", the sunfire woman said.

"What do you mean?", Callum asked.

"My title, uh, should shed some light on this. I'm Senator Rasha, Chief Interpreter for Sol Regem, Excellence."

It was a gut punch. Here was one of the people they'd face tomorrow, but not as herself.

"Uh, please know that what I'll say to you in Parliament isn't… my own opinion. I'm really sorry, uh, goodbye!"

The Senator turned and hurried after her partner.

"Wow. That's a bit of a shock", Rayla said numbly.

"Small world, yikes", Callum added, then drew her into a kiss, "But hey, she's friendly! There's someone else who already likes us!"

"It's a fair point, but she doesn't have a say while Sol Regem's usin' her body"

"Still good to know, right?"

"Right"

The crowd dissipated slowly, a lot of angry moonshadow glances still pinned to Callum and Rayla, who took this as a clear signal to leave.

"I can't believe nothin' violent happened", Rayla said, happily swinging her fiance's healthy right back and forth as they walked through the emptying streets with Yasra in tow.

"Other than Rasha, there were a few faces in the crowd who looked like they liked us", Callum said, carefully optimistic, "I'll remember those, on purpose"

Rayla nodded, then leaned over to stop him with a kiss.

"I love you. More than anythin'", she said quietly against his lips.

"I love you, too. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me", he whispered back.

She straightened out and boxed his shoulder. "Safe for bein' born a prince, you mean?"

He snickered, "It was supposed to be romantic, but I guess you're right."

Yasra suddenly turned with a clatter. "Citizens!", came her warning voice, "You're too close. Please step back."

Worried, Rayla and Callum followed her example to find two earthblood elf teenagers and a small group of mixed tribes staring at them.

"He's human, right?", the taller one of them said.

"Yeah I am. The name's Callum."

"Uh. What?", the other said with a cocky smirk.

"It's called a greetin', leaflet", Rayla said gruffly, annoyed at having their quiet stroll interrupted.

"But you're an elf. That's just strange", came the shorter one's reply.

"Did you follow us all this way to tell us that you don't like us?", Callum asked with a small smirk.

"Uh, no, just curious. It's weird. I've never seen a Pinko up close. At first I didn't even know you weren't an elf", said the taller kid.

His friend elbowed him, "You've gotta be rooty, bro! Abusers shouldn't be allowed to mess with our women!"

Rayla fumed. "Look, `bro`, I'm decidin' who `messes` with me, personally. I don't make choices for everyone and neither do you. So get to walkin'"

"Or what?", the shorter kid laughed, crossing his arms.

The assassin shrugged, then her blades came flipping from under her dress and the teens blanched.

"Woah! Crazy broad!", the shorter one said, a strange mix of admiration and fear in his mien.

"Shut up, dude, don't be a thorner! Sorry about him", the taller one said, pushing his friend away. Behind them, their friends started booing and cajoling, laughing and heckling. Rayla wasn't quite sure whether Callum and her were the targets of the somewhat unfriendly ribbing or the two boys, the voices mixed too much.

When they had moved out of earshot, Callum started laughing. "He didn't know what was happening in his own head there, did you see his face?!"

Rayla nodded, smirking worriedly.

They made it back to their room without any further issues.

"Even with everythin' that's happened today, I think this was an amazing date day. Thanks, dummy", she said while pulling off the dress.

He yawned, stepping out of his pants. "There's more where that came from, just you wait. Next time we dance it'll be humans being weirded out."

Turning towards each other, a bit of a flush shot into both their faces.

"That's new. We normally give each other a bit more room than that", he said sheepishly.

"Yeah I guess. But it's fine. Nothing we haven't seen before, right? Hot springs 'n all", Rayla snickered and walked into the bathroom.

Brushing together evoked the same sort of line of imagination as when they had done it in Larwein.

When Callum spat into the sink, he smirked over at his fiance. "Please don't use the toilet while I'm bathing, though."

She laughed into the foam in her mouth, spraying some over the bathroom mirror, and nodded.

They then took turns in the bathtub, savoring the luxurious bathing liquids.

While Rayla was soaking it occurred to her that was a little strange that she didn't yet feel comfortable with the idea of sharing a bath with him. Even though they had spent their time in the hot spring being rather close, she had been too worried to feel much else.

In the safety of a tub, though? She felt like a nervous wreck even thinking about what that sort of thing might lead to. There was enough craziness in the next few days without adding any of that.

There had already been a few moments in the past two weeks in which things had gotten a bit too hot for her liking and she had to acknowledge that it was getting very difficult, even awkward, to not talk about them.

The weirdest part was that in the moment, it had all seemed reasonable and fine, she had wanted to do those things with him. When she took the time to reflect though, it all seemed a bit… out of control. All that would have to wait till after the trial. She didn't want to rush into anything.

With her bath draining, she dried off and put on her trusty linen pajamas.

Callum was already in his own, snoozing on the sofa, but became a bit more alert when she stepped out of the bathroom.

"Faaaaawwwwwnnn", he went, sleepily, extending his arms her way. She snickered and walked over to join his implied embrace. Then, on an impulse, she picked him up and carried him to bed. He was very surprised, blinking at her from the sheets, wordlessly.

They snuggled close, both of them thinking that maybe this was the last time they'd sleep next to each other for a long time.

A few moments after they had settled in, a strange noise emanated from the receiving room and Rayla shot up and lunged for her blades.

Callum also rolled out of bed, only to step on something pointy, hard and metallic.

"Ow!", he yelped, prompting his fiance to yank him back over the bed by the collar of his pajamas.

"I'm okay", he said hoarsely after examining his toes and neck.

Rayla carefully snuck around the bed to look at what had attacked him this time and found a shadow hawk.

"Huh. Where did that come from?", asked Callum.

"There's a tube in the window wall to let them inside", Rayla answered.

"Might be from Katolis. Let's have a look"

They went into the receiving room and turned on the lamp on the table.

Callum nervously unrolled the first letter. It was a very short message from Claudia.

"Hey. Congratulations. I'm happy for you two. I'm okay with playing messenger. Thought I'd send you back this one cause it sounds timely. Elves are okay with sharing some arrows but don't ask for too many. They're grumpy people. Soren's going after Viren. I'm trying to figure out a magical coin Opeli sent, apparently Viren left it for her, has something to do with the Moonshadow assassin leader, maybe, according to Gren's report. Good luck and see you soon. Claudia"

Rayla frowned. "Hum. Moonshadow assassin leader? Could she be talkin' about Runaan? She sounds super annoyed."

"Yeah. I can't blame her. It'll take a bit, I guess. Interesting that Soren's tracking their dad."

"Though, she's not callin' him that, anymore. `Dad`. Sounds like she's upset with him, too", Rayla said, "So, uh, what about that coin thin'?"

Her fiance shrugged. "Yeah, I've got nothing. I never had the chance to really study dark magic. She's gonna figure it out, though, I'm sure."

The mention of her foster-dad in this fashion really upset Rayla but she wasn't about to ruin the evening by showing it. Had Viren killed him, personally?

"I thought this one was two letters, but it's really just Opeli being long-winded", Callum said, confused. He read the letter out.

"Wow. So she doesn't seem to think you're coming home just yet, either", the crown prince said, dejected.

His chosen shrugged. "Home's a weird word for Katolis, dummy. But, she's right, and it sucks. Wish it was next week already so I could at least stop feelin' like a ball of nerves."

"Fawn, you can't already give up. We haven't even started yet."

"I'm not givin' up. I'm just not gettin' my hopes up, either."

Callum studied her defiant expression, then nodded. "What about your title?"

Rayla tapped her chin. "I see what she's sayin' but I really don't like any of the ones she suggested. There is one though that I sorta remember thinkin' was neat from when they briefed us on our history of engagement with Katolis, uh… I think the Queen's name was Xadia, as weird as that sounds."

"Wait what!?", Callum gaped, the air punched from his lungs, "Rayla, Xena was a brutal warrior queen who had a deep hatred for moon elves! To the point where she chose to change her title to mock you! Lady of the Crescent Reflection! If I remember correctly - which, I'm sorry, I do - her explanation was; `When I'm done with them, the moon will never rise a full circle again`"

His fiance laughed defiantly. "Well sucks for her! I'm takin' it! Lady Rayla of the Crescent Reflection! Put it down, my prince!"

Callum stared for a moment, then snorted with disbelief. "Are you sure about this? You might upset your own people."

"Oh, I am totally sure. I just love the idea of takin' that title from her! And `my people` better cheer for it, too, because I'm going through the ringer for their approval tomorrow", furious, she added, "If those partridges can't appreciate that, I'll come for them, like Xena! I'm puttin' everythin' I care for on the line for them! They need to cut me some slack already!"

Her inflection changed a little, as memory stoked the flame of her indignation, "Shoutin' at me about bein' too young for a completed bloom, can you believe that old coot?! I'm supposed to kill people for a livin' and he's worried about who I'm… uh, who… uh…"

She trailed off into an awkward quiet that lasted without a direct look between them.

Callum broke the silence by clearing his throat. "Uh, I'll just put together a quick answer."

The crown prince penned a letter agreeing with Opeli's plans and noting Rayla's changed title. He then walked outside with a bow and arrow, to loosen it from their balcony.

Rayla sighed her confused relief. He apparently wasn't ready for that sort of thing, either, when not in the moment.

When he came back, she threw herself at him to ward off the nervosity that now crept into her heart again. He barely caught her, laughing with surprise.

"You're so cute", he said, planting a kiss on her lips, "But we really need to go to bed now. Early morning"

"Yeah. It will be."