Chapter 1: Quinn

Note: my first fic. getting my feet wet. criticism, both constructive and otherwise is more than welcome! Although if you are going to be mean I at least expect you to be funny. This will be relatively short, only running from the middle to the end o season 3.

Rayla's heart sank. After all these miles, almost a month of travel, trials and tribulations, her own people had abandoned her.

She stared at the people milling about, oblivious to her presence. Once familiar figures now stripped of their features, Everyone she had ever known or loved had been rendered anonymous.

She could recognize some elves by their figures, the kindly baker who would give her leftover pastries for free, a neighbor who had once scolded her for trampling her flowers, an old classmate she had feuded with years ago and hadn't spoken to since. What had that been about? She couldn't remember.

All of them had turned their backs on her without ever hearing her side of the story. She knew that they must think her a traitor, a coward; Her fifteen years in the Silvergrove cast aside on an uncorroborated assumption.

Callum was holding Zym up in some sort of strange appeal to the passersby, his eyes confused. This vain attempt to make things right lifted her spirits ever so slightly.

"It's no use," she said, trying to keep her feelings out of her voice, "they cant see me, and they cant see you or Zym because you came in with me."

Callum's face was set in a mixture of concern and confusion. At least he was here.

"I'm a ghost, it's like being magically banished. It's what happened to my parents when they abandoned the Dragon Guard, and now it's happened to me." Rayla's voice trembled ever so slightly as she told him. Her parents were banished for cowardice.

Family tradition I guess, she thought to herself.

Callum lay a hand on her shoulder, "You didn't run away from anything. They just don't know what happened."

He was right. Despite how it may have seemed. She hadn't abandoned her duty, not really. She was the only one who had stood up for the greater good. She had ferried Zym, once an egg, now a fledgling, across a continent with two human princes. She was on the precipice of bringing peace, stopping this milenia long cycle of violence.

The word hero flitted across her mind briefly before she shooed it away. Such pride was unbecoming for an assassin, even one with no kills to her name.

"There is one person who will understand," she said, "come on!"

—-

Callum was shouting at Ethari. The only thing that broke through Rayla's despondence was the sheer absurdity of the scene. She had always been humble enough to acknowledge that didn't know what the future held, but a human in a piss-poor elf disguise dressing down her surrogate father in her defense was so far beyond the pale that it provided a small comfort.

That tiny ember of happiness was extinguished the second Ethari saw her in the reflection of the sword.

When Ethari spoke, he spoke of his husband. And it broke her heart.

Rayla fled the house where she had been raised, and the last of her parents, with tears streaming down her face. Callum stood stunned, too shocked to move.

When she made it to the moon pool, Rayla saw only her flower floating. Runaan was right, she had doomed them all. She peered into the pool, through water so pure it seemed almost as air, and saw the flowers of her fellows resting at the bottom.

Just as the tears began to well in her eyes, she heard a voice.

"Little Ray?"

She froze. The voice didn't come from behind her, where she'd left Callum and Ethari, but from her right, deeper into the village. And no one had called her Little Ray for years. She had put a stop to that when she was seven.

Guess I'm going crazy too, she thought figures.

"Little Ray! That is you! I heard you got ghosted! Good for you." The voice called again, closer this time.

She turned her head right, still not sure if her mind had cracked. Across the plaza stood a lone moonshadow elf. His eyes wide and grinning. His hair was a mess of cowlicks, unadorned with jewelry or braids.

His brown tunic was torn and riddled with holes, his pants were in worse condition. He wore no shoes. The disheveled elf started across the courtyard, spreading his arms as he broke into a sprint.

After a moment's deliberation, Rayla realized that this odd elf was, in fact, real. Shefumbled for her swords, but before she could grab them the strange elf was upon her. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed, pinning her arms to her sides.

He was easily a head taller than her. He lifted her from the ground easily and shook her from side to side the same way a banther shakes its prey when hunting.

"It's so good to see you!" he said, tears welling in his eyes, "I never thought you would get ghosted, but I'm so glad to see you again Little Ray!"

Rayla was just starting to come to terms with what was happening when she heard another voice from behind her.

"LET HER GO" Callum shouted in his best attempt at a commanding tone. It was a little cute. Rayla could hear the crackle of the fulminus rune behind her.

The elf stopped shaking her and dropped her from the hug.

"You brought a friend!" he said joyfully, ignoring the threat entirely, "A human mage! Well, nobody gets ghosted for being boring."

Rayla stepped back slightly and finally got a clear look at the strange elf. Somehow he seemed familiar. The Silvergrove was a small community and she knew everyone who lived there well, or at least she thought she did. Other than the very occasional new face, the village was as good as frozen in time.

The tall elf wasn't someone new, no one had called her "Little Ray" since she was a child. Seven year old Rayla had put a stop to that embarrassing nickname.

Wait, Rayla thought, seven, oh no. now she remembered. Last time she had seen him, she only came up to his hip. He had been leaving the Silvergrove with a cadre of assassins. He had turned around, waved and started some grandiose speech before Runaan dragged him away. A month later he was the subject of the first Ghosting Rayla had participated in.

He was older now,

"Quinn?" Rayla said, staring at the disheveled elf in disbelief "Is that you? What are you doing here?"

Quinn's grin grew even wider, despite his boisterous nature, Callum could see genuine tenderness in his eyes as they welled up with tears.

"You remember me, Little Ray?" he asked before rushing in for another hug.

Rayla was ready this time and stiff armed Quinn before he could get his arms around her. "One hug's enough!" she said while backing towards Callum. "And stop calling me 'Little Ray,' nobody has called me that since I was a child!"

She stepped back towards the befuddled Callum who still had an increasingly finicky Fulminus spell at the ready. "Get rid of that already Callum, he's not going to hurt us," she snapped, a little harsher than she had intended.

Callum opened his mouth to object, rethought, and cast the bolt into the sky.

"Callum, was it? Don't you humans have a prince named the same." Quinn asked the skittish human as he started towards him. Callum's eyes darted left and right like a Rabbit cornered by a hunter as the elf approached him.

Suddenly Quinn stopped and cocked his head to the left, a quizzical expression on his face.

"Is that a baby dragon you've got there?" He said, "I had questions before, but I certainly have more now. But those can wait. I have some people you crazy kids should meet."

Rayla circled Quinn, putting him in front of her and the princes behind her. Quinn fought back a smile, poor kids, he thought, They had to leave trust behind it seems.

"We're leaving and you're not following us." Rayla said, her right hand on a sword, her other extended towards Quinn, palm open, fingers pointing to the sky like she was warding away a predator.

"Wait wait wait!" Quinn said, backing away, "See, no weapons here, and even if I had any, you're better with those than I ever was," he said, slowly spinning.

Rayla's brow furrowed, "How would you know that? You were ghosted when I was still a kid, how would you know how good I am?"

Quinn scoffed, "your sword is sharp but your head's still a little dull," he said not unkindly, "Sure, I've been a ghost for a while, but I didn't go anywhere. I watched you grow up, Little Ray."

Rayla recoiled, "That's invasive!" she shouted, "you'd just watch us? What's wrong with you?"

Quinn shrugged, "not a lot of entertainment around here," he said, "we thought you were interesting. Never expected you to be ghosted though.

Rayla was reeling. This ghost from her past was talking to her like they were family, like his banishment hadn't sent ripples through the community, like she herself wasn't cast out. He was at least a little drunk, that much was clear, but despite everything, the vulnerability of the situation, the cowardice that got him ghosted and the uncertainty of the future, she couldn't bring herself to be afraid of this strange elf she never thought she would see again.

Callum, thoroughly befuddled though he was, had finally run out of patience.

"I'm sorry," he said, "what's going on?"

Rayla pulled herself from her emotional whiplash long enough to address Callum.

"This is Quinn, he was ghosted when I was a kid," she said, turning to face the elf, "for cowardice."

Quinn's grin faded, "no need for cruelty Little Ray," he said, "after all, they said the same thing about you."

Rayla's bravado cracked as she turned to look at her lilly, floating alone in the pool, "...they said that about me?"

"Rayla is no coward!" Callum proclaimed, sticking his chest out and moving to her side. Quinn smiled. At least Little Ray had someone looking out for her, goofy as he was.

Rayla breathed deep. "You said 'we.'" she said to Quinn, her tone neutral. Matter of fact.

"I did."

"Who is we?"

"Let me introduce you, don't worry about your princes," he said, "We ghosted have to stick together, you'll be safe."

Rayla and Callum's eyes met, coming to a silent consensus to follow this strange elf, at least for a moment.

They began to follow the strange elf through the twisting backstreets of the silvergrove. They passed many faceless figures. Quinn didn't even glance at them, being so used to his own invisibility.

—-

Ethari made his way down to the pool, hoping to see Rayla; To give her some modicum of comfort on her journey, but she was gone.