Rayla stared out the window. It was the first time she had really come inside after Tinker had told her. Claudia was sitting next to her, still, and she wasn't sure were Callum and Tinker were.
She didn't really want to talk to either of them about this. Well, mostly she didn't want to tell Tinker about the guard or how she was the reason his fiancé was probably captured in the first place.
And talking about it to Callum just didn't seem like it'd go well, since Runaan was an assassin and was probably even the one that, well... And even if he wasn't, one of the others probably was...
Strangely enough, that kinda made Claudia the best option. She never really thought Claudia would be the best option.
But here they were, inside. Just Rayla and the girl she didn't trust. And everything was just so... strange. Or something along the lines of that.
It really made her want to talk to Tinker, and that was frustrating.
A few days passed since they had arrived, though it didn't seem like they would be leaving anytime soon.
Tinker was almost done with the disguises, apparently. He had already finished the actual thing they would wear and was mostly working on what the disguises would look like.
Callum said it reminded him of what Lujanne had done for that wolf, which required some explaining since Claudia hadn't actually seen that.
Rayla was still pretty distant, though she occasionally talked to Claudia. Claudia was pretty sure Rayla wanted to be talking to Tinker more than she was, and sometimes she attempted to convince her to.
She started talking to Callum, too, though it was just a little bit at first. Callum seemed to understand, eveni f the situation was pretty weird for all of them. He started to help Claudia convince Rayla to talk to Tinker, even if they didn't really succeed.
Eventually, though, Rayla did tell them why she didn't want to.
"I messed up." Rayla said, "If I hadn't let that human go, they wouldn't have known we were coming."
"Isn't it a good thing?" Claudia asked, "I mean, you did find Zym."
Claudia didn't know if that would have happened if Rayla hadn't, judging by the explanations Rayla had given her about the mission and her failing and all that.
"To a human." Rayla answered, "But Runaan was his fiancé, obviously he'd be more important to him than a human he never met. And because of me, because I let that human go-"
"No." Callum cut her off, "You gave him a chance, Rayla. We showed him the egg, but he was the one who chose not to call it off. He could've come with us if he wanted to, but he chose not to."
"But I don't think Tinker's going to see it that way. He loved Runaan. He didn't love that human."
That wasn't even including the other assassins, who also didn't love that human. Definitely didn't, actually. They were pretty mad at Rayla about it...
"Yeah, well, he might not love that human, but he probably loves you." Callum argued, "And he would probably want you to talk to him."
"Before you leave." Claudia added.
As the time passed, Rayla did start talking to Tinker more, though it wasn't about Runaan or anything. She wasn't quite that far yet, or perhaps that close.
Tinker had finished with their disguises, but he also wanted to give them a few 'just in case' items, other than all the supplies he had already given them, like real food.
"Here." He said to Rayla, as he handed her a knife, "Just in case."
"Thanks." She replied quietly, looking at the knife and attempting to decide where to put it. This knife would probably be great for if she lost her swords, or couldn't get to them. Tinker then turned to Callum.
"You do primal magic, right?" He asked, though he already knew that Callum did.
"Yeah... Why?"
Tinker handed Callum a book, "Perhaps you should look at some of these, then."
It seemed to be some kind of book about primal magic, probably one with some primal magic spells for Callum to learn.
Claudia expected some sort of comment from Rayla, especially something along the lines of 'great, now we don't need claudia', but she didn't say anything. Callum opened the book in curiosity.
"Wow, uh, thanks." Callum read a few words in the book and turned a few of the pages, seeing many different spells.
Tinker also handed Claudia some kind of strange... thingy. She wasn't sure what it was. She turned it around, and jumped a little because it seemed to create shadows. Claudia looked at him, confused.
Tinker shrugged, "If you need to distract anyone."
This would be great for pranking Soren, Claudia thought almost immediately, as about a hundred different ways to use it suddenly occurred to her, "Thanks."
"And here are your disguises." Tinker handed them the disguises, which they put on, "As long as you're wearing those, you should look like an elf."
Claudia turned towards Callum and gasped. He blinked at her as well, surprised at how she looked. Which was like an elf. Similarly, Callum looked like an elf. It was strange seeing someone she had known so long look so different.
"Well, uh, great. Now we just have to work on our impressions. Let's go do that, right Claudia?" Callum said, though it wasn't subtle what he was trying to do.
"Right. Let's go over there." Claudia pointed to an area away from Rayla and Tinker, "And practice our elf impressions so that no one thinks these are disguises."
They walked away, still very unsubtle. Rayla sighed and Tinker looked at them, confused. It was inevitable, but she really didn't want to do it, at least not yet.
"Tinker?"
A/N: you know, I think season 2 confirmed that rayla is the only one that returned from the mission and somehow, I don't think she's going to be taking any of this well.