Spoilers for season 4.

References to "Through the Moon" and "Bloodmoon Huntress" graphic novels.

Couldn't find the creator's name of the cover, please let me know if you know who it is to credit them.

Key of Aaravos

He should've destroyed it, thrown it into that pit of lava when he had the chance, but he couldn't. It had to be bad right? It was called the Key of Aaravos for a reason. Aaravos is bad so this has to be bad. Yet he couldn't let go of it, something that was once used as a simple glow toy, now in the wrong hands could unleash who knows what.

As the light from the sky faded into night the sky rune shone brighter towards the young high mage. He shivered as a cold wind from the east made its way through the clearing. Zym and Ezran went to gather some food with Soren of course for protection, leaving him with… Rayla. Not that he could see her. As soon as she found out it was them alone, she muttered something about surveillance and ran off. Guess she's good at that.

Fire, that's what was needed right now. They had already collected a pile of dry sticks, so Callum started to make his way over there when he tripped on a stone and tumbled to the ground. The key rolled out of his hands and into the paws of Rayla's cuddlemonkey, Stella

"Callum are you okay?" Rayla asked with genuine concern in her voice as Stella made her way up her arm to rest on her shoulder.

"Yeah, just trying to connect to the earth arcanum you know?" He joked as he stood and dusted his cloak.

"I'd rather not see you try connectin' to another one if it's anythin' like last time." Rayla crossed her arms. Callum looked up to see the star rune glowing in the paws of the cuddlemonkey and smiled. He hadn't really seen it light up before, besides the last time but he was a bit distracted then to pay attention. That's when his eyes drifted over to the moon rune.

"Uh, Rayla?"

"Yeah?"

"The moon rune, it's not glowing." Pointing out the rune Rayla looks over to it. With a concerned look on her face, she takes the cube in her hands and immediately the moon rune glows, and the star rune doesn't.

"That's strange. I guess it only picks up one primal source at a time?" She suggests holding the cube just under her face. In the shadow of the twilight the rune glows to illuminate her face as she offers a small smile to Callum. He smiles back and stares a bit too long at her before shyly looking away and taking a step back.

Looking to find something to quickly distract himself he turns to the dry pile of sticks. Tracing the rune in the air a spark of lightning appears in his hand.

"Fluminis." He speaks directing a small spark towards the dry kindling, lighting the pile into a warm blaze.

"You've become so good at controllin' it." Rayla says softly as Callum stands up nervously scratching the back of his head.

"Uh yeah, I've had a lot of time to practice. I needed something to distract myself from…" Realizing who he was speaking to, he coughs nervously and drifts off gazing instead back into the flames of the campfire.

Feeling her hand inch closer as though to comfort to only pull away he closes his eyes as he attempts to ground himself. Now is not the time to get upset, they've fought too much already.

Fiddling with the key Rayla decides to change the topic of conversation. "You were jokin' right? Bout tryin' to connect to the earth arcanum?"

"What?" Callum turns around to face her. "Of course, yeah, no I really just did fall on my face." With a look somewhere between concerned and relieved Rayla explained.

"Over the past two years I've been askin' around about Aaravos. Nothin' seems to be written down as though he's been erased from history, but I've heard stories passed down through the generations." She continued tossing the key from hand to hand. "Aaravos was not just known for creatin' dark magic. He spent his life in search of connectin' to all the arcanums."

"Wait, all of them? Is that even possible? To be connected to more than one?" Callum's intrigue was rising learning of this new information. More than one arcanum, could he also do that?

"I don't know. No one was able to say if he succeeded or not. But if Aaravos wanted to connect to all the primal sources it can't have been good right?" Rayla stared back down at the cube lightly running her fingers over the moon rune that was glowing.

"Yeah of course, bad." He tried to convince himself more than anything.

Realising she had swapped a dooming conversation for another, Rayla decided to try to lighten the mood.

"Hey Callum, catch!" She said as she threw the key into the air.

"Wait wh-" He was interrupted as the cube hit him straight in the head and falling to the ground. "Ouch!"

"Whoops, sorry I forget you're not as fast as me." Rayla apologised as she picked up the cube, at the same time the wee cuddlemonkey leaped off her shoulder to warm by the fire. As she handed the key back to Callum, she could have sworn she felt literal sparks as their fingers lightly brushed up against each other. They weren't the bad kind of sparks like when a primal stone gets thrown at you, they made her heart feel warm. She felt the heat rising to her checks and all the way down her neck before he pulled his hand away.

"Um, Rayla. I've… I've been meaning to talk about what happened at Umber Tor's lair." Oh no, did they have to talk about this now? She understands that she left him to go after Viren, again. And when she returned, he actually hugged her. It felt so right to have his arms around her for the first time in two years. But it didn't last, and ever since that moment he's avoided touching her in any way.

But before she could form a reply she looked down at the key in Callum's hands. "Callum…"

"I know you don't want to talk about it, and to be honest I don't want to either, but I was talking to Ezran and…"

"No Callum, the cube!" She pointed to the cube, all six runes were glowing at once. Callum looked down with curiosity when all Rayla was feeling was alarm.

"Whoa." Rayla watched as Callum turned the cube in his hands, the different runes reflecting different coloured lights off his curious face.

"Callum I don't think-" A blinding light cut her off as she tried to shelter her eyes from the blast. When the light faded fear rose up in her chest as she tried to find Callum. "Callum? Callum?!" Once her eyes adjusted back to the twilight her heart dropped. "No, Callum!" She ran over to hold his shoulders. His eyes were pitch black with his expression blank. "No, no, no, no. Not again. Callum please-"

At that moment his eyes shone that familiar glow, and in an instant a blank expression turned into a gut-wrenching smirk. Her hands retreated as she took some steps back, only to have Callum follow each one.

"Ah, the moonshadow assassin. I see you're still here then." Aaravo's voice came out from behind Callum's lips. On full alert with her face full of anger she starred down Aaravos. "I wasn't sure if you would be considering your… past." Instinctively reaching for her butterfly blades behind her back she stopped. "Uh, uh, uh. Don't want you hurting poor Callum any more than you already have, now do we?" She felt a stab in her chest at his words. He was right, she couldn't cut her way out of this one.

Hands returning to her sides she watched as Aaravos circled her with slow steps. It was unnerving watching Callum's body being used in this way. He didn't walk the same or talk the same, there was this confidence and grace about him. Callum was many things but even at his best he wasn't very graceful.

"Let go of Callum Aaravos." She demanded, not letting her shoulders fall. He might be circling her as though he was predator and she was prey, but he did not have the advantage over her. He laughed.

"But why when I'm having oh so much fun with him?" He stopped circling, keeping his hands held behind his back. "I watched him."

"What?"

"Through that mirror I watched poor heartbroken Callum, trying to get over his love that had abandoned him." He turned to face her and although her body did not show any weakness, she feared her eyes would, so she looked away.

"He tried oh very hard to find any news of you… he almost turned to dark magic one night in the hopes of finding answers, but he was too weak."

"You're lyin'."

"How would you know? You weren't there." At those words she pulled herself away, eyes watering. "But I was." Aaravos followed her so that she would be able to see him out of the corner of her eye. "You should've seen him, he was crushed. And then you came back, and he was crushed all over again."

"I left him to protect him from you and Viren, I left him because I love him-" She defended with determination in her eyes - she would not let Aaravos break her.

"Protect him? Look at him!" He stepped back to gesture wide with his arms. "I am using him as my puppet!" He takes an elegant stride closer to hold Rayla's chin in his fingers so that their eyes meet. "The moment you stepped back into his life he was put back into danger."

Tears were threatening to fall out of Rayla's eyes despite her efforts to hold them back. Aaravos couldn't hurt her with magic, so he was hurting her with words, and it was working.

"He was safer when you were gone," he chuckled, letting go of her chin. "Think about that, will you?" At that moment Aaravos released Callum and he started to fall to the ground. Rayla's instincts kicked in as she caught him before his head hit the ground.

"Oh Callum." She held him with tears spilling down her cheeks as she was finally able to drop the act. She continued to hold him as she heard footsteps approaching.

Stay tuned for part 2 :)