Claudia's surroundings changed again, and she saw her dad attacking her friends. She wasn't sure what to do, since she couldn't really fight him.
She looked around, trying to think of something. And then her dad attacked her.
Rayla picked up Claudia carefully, and turned towards Callum, "We have to take Claudia and go. We can't fight him."
"Okay." Callum agreed, "You and Ezran can take Claudia first, I'll use my ice spell to slow him down once you're out."
Viren attacked Rayla again, though she didn't have any time to dodge and she got hit.
Claudia was starting to panic. She wasn't sure what was happening, or why her dad was being so weird.
"Hey, Claudia." Soren said. Claudia glanced at him, concerned.
"Soren? What's wrong with dad?" Claudia asked him.
"I'm not sure. But we can figure it out." Soren replied, "We usually do. You come up with solutions all the time."
"Yeah, I guess..." Claudia still wasn't sure, "But this is... different. Dad's been acting weird for awhile and I'm not sure what to do about it. Or maybe... I'm weird. I mean, I am friends with an elf. And I never thought that I would be."
"You are weird, Claudia."
"And when we went to get the princes, I never thought I'd be trying to learn primal magic instead of just using what I've used for so long. We thought that Rayla had kidnapped the princes and we were going to..."
"To fight her." Soren said, "But now, I guess you're friends with her. So that makes that a little weird. But, to be fair... The princes don't seem to find it weird that the elf was originally their enemy who was going to fight them, so I guess it's just kind of normal now."
"Yeah." Claudia smiled, "I guess it kind of is."
Rayla almost dropped Claudia, and Callum turned towards Viren. He wasn't particularly pleased.
"Viren, why are you even attacking us?" Callum asked, getting ready to use his ice spell, "You know Rayla's our friend. Why have you been acting so weird?"
"You wouldn't understand." Viren said, "But your friend is an elf. She's our enemy!"
Callum sighed, and used his ice spell. Viren quickly destroyed it, though they were able to get away while he was attempting to get past it.
They set Claudia down once they were far enough away. Callum and Ezran looked at Rayla, since she was recently attacked by Viren's attack.
"Rayla, are you okay?" Callum asked, "It looked like you might have got hit pretty bad-"
"I'm okay." Rayla interrupted, "It's not that bad."
"Are you sure?" Ezran questioned, "It looked pretty strong."
Rayla sat down, looking at Claudia to see if she was okay. She sighed.
Claudia sighed, lying down, "You know, Soren. I'm not sure if I can learn primal magic."
"What makes you say that?"
"Callum explained to me the sky arcanum, how it wasn't just one thing. It was all the things. And I've kept thinking about that, and what that one star elf said."
"And even what Callum told me that Lujanne said about the moon arcanum. And everything I've read in this primal magic book." She looked at the book, "But I still haven't been able to figure out the star arcanum."
"Well, maybe you should just think about the stars." Soren suggested, "You know, what they remind you of. The moon arcanum and the sky arcanum are going to be different, anyway."
"Yeah, maybe." Claudia smiled.
"So, what do the stars make you think of?" Soren asked.
Claudia thought about it, "Well... I guess they're sort of... bigger than us? They're out of our reach, like a lot of things, you know? They're pretty unique from the other primal sources..."
"You know, in a way they kind of seem the opposite of your magic." Soren suggested.
"Huh." She took that into consideration. In a way, they sort of were. It was a little more than just being a primal source. The star elf said that it was about things people both did and didn't understand, and in that was she supposed they were similar.
Claudia never really thought that people understood her kind of magic, but maybe she was the one that didn't. But she had her own view on it, and that view eventually changed.
She thought about her relationship with Rayla for a moment, how at first she and Soren had attacked her.
Claudia and Rayla had maybe gotten a little bit closer to being friends there. At least a little bit. And then when she and Soren betrayed them, there was a lot of distance between them since Rayla didn't trust her.
And eventually, at some point, Rayla did trust her. Claudia wasn't sure when exactly, it was hard to tell. But she did. And they sort of became friends... And then, with the dragon situation, they did become friends.
She remembered when she and Rayla were on that cliff, fighting that dragon. It almost seemed like it had been longer than it was, with how dangerous that was.
Claudia didn't say anything for awhile, until eventually, "Some things... seem smaller than other things. I guess maybe things always seem smaller to me than they should."
"Maybe that's why you almost walk into trees so much?"
"Yeah, maybe." Claudia smiled, "Maybe I've been too focused on learning this immediately. It'd be a lot more helpful if I did. But, I mean... We've already almost returned Zym, anyway. Maybe I should take my time."
"Maybe." Soren agreed, "These things do tend to take time. Like handstands."
"Yeah." Claudia replied, "I guess."
She smiled, and her surroundings started to change.
She woke up, though she was a little confused at her surroundings. They were... different. Rayla was beside her again, lying next to her.
Claudia sat up, confused. It seemed to be late at night, since Callum and Ezran seemed to be asleep.
"Claudia?" Rayla sat up a little bit as well, "You're awake."
"Yeah." Claudia said quietly, "And I think I understand the star arcanum."
"Really?" Rayla asked, and then made a noise in pain.
"Are you okay?" Claudia questioned, looking at her friend. Rayla nodded, though she started lying down again, so Claudia did the same.
"Your dad showed up again." Rayla told her.
"Did he attack any of you?" Claudia asked, though she kind of assumed he did.
"Well, sort of. He was trying to." She replied, "He did manage to hit me one time when we were trying to get away."
Claudia had a lot of feelings about that, and she wasn't sure which ones to focus on. She was worried about Rayla, who her dad had recently attacked. And her dad was acting so weird lately...
Like attacking her friends, or the conversation she and Soren had. It was just weird, and she wasn't really sure what to say to Rayla about it.
"Sorry about that."
Rayla looked a little bit confused at that. She moved closer towards Claudia, and she blushed, "You know, we were kinda worried about you."
"Hmm?"
"You were just kind of sleeping, but Ezran tried to wake you up." Rayla explained, "But we thought you might just be tired or something."
Claudia smiled, though she didn't reply. So Rayla added, "So, uh, the star arcanum?"
"Yeah." Claudia said, "I mean, I'm not sure about it. I don't actually know any star magic yet, but I feel like... Maybe I understand it now. It's kind of like that star elf said, you know? It just makes more sense to me now. A lot of things make more sense to me now."
"I'm kind of... glad I decided to start learning primal magic." Claudia smiled at Rayla, and she appeared to be blushing, "I mean, I didn't think I would... Even if I didn't actually unlock the star arcanum, I still tried."
"And you really, kind of encouraged me to do it. I guess you helped me with a different perspective. I don't think I've ever really thought about it like that..." Claudia continued, "I guess I just wasn't friends with an elf before."
Rayla took Claudia's hand, smiling back at her. They really had become a lot closer, and it was starting to seem like it was a lot longer than it was that they had been enemies. It was weird to think there was a point where they were.
"I'm glad we're friends, Claudia." Her voice was soft, and she held onto Claudia's hand, "I'm sorry I took so long to trust you. I should've given you a chance sooner."
"Well, I did kind of betray you." Claudia mentioned, "So, I mean... You were kind of right not to. I probably wouldn't have."
Rayla smiled at her, and she and Claudia sat up. Rayla let go of her hand briefly, and was quick to hug Claudia. When they stopped hugging, Rayla looked into her eyes for a moment before they eventually returned to lying down.
"You know, it is pretty late." Claudia pointed out, and Rayla moved closer towards her.
"It is." Rayla agreed, "You should try and get some more sleep, or you might be tired when we head out."
Claudia nodded, though she really wasn't particularly tired. She didn't think she'd be able to fall asleep for awhile, but Rayla quickly fell asleep next to her.
She smiled, thinking about the distance she and Rayla originally had. In the moment, they were close in multiple ways.
A/N: so uh... We really don't know a lot about primal sources, especially the stars. So I'm not sure if this really seems accurate or anything. Probably not.
And since we don't know a lot about the stars, anyone have an idea for some kind of spell for Claudia to do with her primal source? Because I really can't seem to think of any right now.