Aaravos appeared again several minutes later, elegantly descending to the Evenere Library floor. He wasn't given a second of peace.
Viren marched up to Aaravos. "WHAT did you do?!"
Aaravos shrugged. "Exactly what I said."
"The Pentarchy is only for the five kings and queens of their respective kingdoms. I doubt your little stunt went over well. We're already on the run! Did you just make it worse?!" Viren got close as he shouted, fuming almost in Aaravos's face.
Aaravos laid his hands on Viren's shoulders, soothingly rubbing them as he spoke. "Relax. I told them they have nothing to fear from me."
Callum also stepped forward, face twisted with worry. For Aaravos, and not him, to have been to the Pentarchy, and inside the summit at that, felt wrong on many levels. "Is Ezran okay? If anything happened to him…"
"Don't any of you trust me yet?" Aaravos ruffled Callum's hair. "Everyone is unharmed. I healed King Ahling's injuries, in fact."
Ezran was okay. Callum sighed.
Viren's shoulders sagged, old shame in his voice. He calmed down immediately, looking away. "Oh. Well… thank you."
"You've met King Rithul now, but he'll still want to speak with you when he arrives in a few days," said Srisha. "We'll host you for as long as you need, as our honored guests."
Aaravos bowed slightly to her. "And I will repay the favor. I have a wealth of knowledge to offer. I can record some essential magics in a few tomes for you."
Srisha looked delighted, but Callum frowned, tugging Aaravos's sleeve. "Hey. You never offered me that."
"What happened to, 'we have an entire Aaravos?'" teased Aaravos. "You're welcome to watch me work, and you can always ask me questions. In fact, I'd like for you to be my assistant in demonstrating how a human can connect to an arcanum." Callum could live with that, but he made his eyes as big and round as he could. Aaravos continued, "And, I can write you some tomes someday for Katolis's library too."
"Yes!" Callum jumped in the air.
Seiki raised his hand, glancing at Srisha who rolled her eyes but nodded. "Lord Aaravos, we are grateful for your efforts but, um." He pointed behind him in the direction of outside. "I believe we may interrupt your work tonight with a huge party, if that's okay?"
Kpp'ar held up his hand, wandering off into the library shelves. "Have fun. I'd rather enjoy some quiet."
Aaravos laughed, pulling in Viren, Claudia, Callum, and Terry under his arms. "Let's not keep our admirers waiting any longer."
He guided them outside and the doors opened to a festival that had seemingly sprung up out of nowhere. Evenere had already seemed beautiful with their hanging lanterns and winding paths through richly verdant scenery, but every bit that Callum could see had been hung with whatever decorations people had in their house, as if every season needed to be celebrated at once. People had also lined up tables with food and snacks, even more running to bring their best offerings to the communal group.
Flower petals drifted down over his vision as a couple mages who had been waiting on either side of the library doors threw petals. Even his ears were full of shouts from people around them and music coming from people playing nearby.
Callum was a prince but even he had never seen a welcome like this.
The main bulk of the crowd swarmed up to them again, entire families trying to get a glimpse of Aaravos. Aaravos took it in stride, voice somehow able to carry above shouts as he greeted people, cheerful and in his element. Aaravos even sent a ball of light above them, letting it soar and then explode out in a radius of pretty lights showering down on everyone.
"Wow!" said Terry, barely audible over the crowd. "Even my entire village couldn't throw something like this on the spot."
"Evenere is my new favorite place," agreed Claudia.
Callum was trying to not get crushed by people, and Aaravos thankfully noticed.
Aaravos raised his hands. "Thank you, those who have stayed loyal to me over all the years, for this welcome. Tomorrow, I'll see to everyone I can, I promise. For now, I would like to enjoy this lovely banquet you've brought us." People let them by as everyone instead flocked to the array of food, dessert, and drinks laid out. Rice was the Evenerean staple, and it seemed like anything that lived in the ocean was served with it. Their desserts were largely fruit and flower oriented, and Callum found himself reaching for a berry custard first thing.
Among the drinks was also an impressive amount of alcohol. Aaravos poured himself and Viren glasses of wine, managing to get a toast in before they inevitably got separated by the crowd.
After most everyone had eaten, about ten people approached Aaravos, appraising him and lightly tugging on his sleeves, beckoning him to go with them.
"Evenere's got the best oils in the world? Let us give you a massage!"
"Lotions too!"
"There's natural hot springs not far from here, it's the most luxurious experience you can imagine!"
"We've invented elf horn polish treatments in the last couple years if you want to try it!"
Aaravos raised his eyebrows. "Well, well. Who am I to refuse?" He looked to Viren several paces away. He winked. "Want a spa day?"
Viren's expression was stony. "No thank you." He turned and strode away.
Claudia raised her hand. "Hey, I'm basically Aaravos's daughter, so could me and my boyfriend come?"
Callum could practically hear Aaravos and Viren's relationship status fizzling, but Aaravos grinned and guided Terry and Claudia to him, the jubilant group leaving for the hot springs.
Again, Callum jogged after Viren, wondering if it was just Viren or the people Viren knew that led to such constant dramatic relationships.
"Viren!"
Viren glanced back to Callum and sighed. "I'm too old to have a conversation like this."
He could leave Viren to wallow, listlessly staring at the water, but he didn't have much else to do since he was full and the others had left.
"I actually needed to talk to you about something else. I made you something."
Callum held out his sketch of Soren, carefully folded. Viren opened it and stared, silently. He realized that if Viren was already in an emotional mood that he'd picked a bad time for showing him Soren. Viren surprised him by quietly wiping at his eyes. "I appreciate it."
"I'm sorry."
"For what, my mistakes? I'm proud of Soren, mostly because he refused to please me and became a better man instead."
Soren had been Callum's bully for years, and he still wouldn't consider them close. However, he'd grown to care for Soren over the past few years. Everyone in the castle could agree Soren's heart was in the right place. "I think he needs time, and proof. Like I did. But I don't think it's broken beyond repair."
The Soren Viren was gazing at was one Viren hadn't gotten to know except from the edge of a sword, being pushed away for reasons even Viren agreed with. To be allowed to take in how Soren was to his friends and fellow guards must've been difficult.
"I'm sorry I wasn't more attentive to how he treated you," said Viren. "As an adult, it's easy to brush off the way children behave. Smaller lives, smaller problems. You assume it's their age, or that they'll have to grow out of it someday, but I didn't ever bother addressing it how I should have. In a sense, I was perpetuating it. Soren was upset with me, and you paid for it."
Callum hadn't been ready for such a heart to heart. He'd mostly let go of how Soren used to be, but he realized he'd never had reason to forgive Viren for his part in it either.
Going back to the times before finding Zym's egg felt like they were from another lifetime.
"Yeah, when he apologized to me, he said he was jealous." Callum's mouth twitched. "Also, that I was smaller and weaker, so. There it is."
"It's no excuse." Viren looked into Soren's eyes, and Callum wasn't sure if he was necessarily addressing the drawing or him anymore. "I never hid that Claudia had become my favorite when she took up magic. Yes, she stuck furniture to the walls and ceilings, and every member of the castle housekeeping staff had words with me, but it got her my attention. I'd always assumed both of them would be mages, both would be like me in some way. The idea of a legacy has a way of poisoning you against your own children's reality. Soren had no reason to follow my invisible lines laid out for him. I've been able to see my mistakes clearly, but not the way to mend them, if such a thing is even possible."
Callum didn't know either.
Viren continued. "You know? I'd rather talk about Aaravos than Soren." Callum laughed and Viren joined in, folding the drawing into his inside pocket, next to his heart. Viren let his hand linger over the drawing in his pocket, eyes not seeing the water in front of him. He heaved another deep sigh of the day. "Aaravos hasn't done anything wrong. Sometimes, we feel things we don't want to feel in relationships. It's my problem, not his."
"I guess so. But you feel what you do for a reason." Callum had his own moments. Even if he went back in time, knowing what he did, he doubted he could've made himself forgive Rayla faster. "Aaravos once showed me a memory of his very first students, all the way back in Elarion."
"Is that how you could recognize Seiki?"
Callum nodded. "Even then, some students of his kind of had a fan club."
Viren snorted, shaking his head. "Of course. I'm the last one to blame them."
To be honest, though, "I don't get it. I've never seen it."
"You and Villads have been gifted with a certain kind of immunity. That," Viren was already walking away, off to find their assigned living quarters, "-or Rayla has captured you the way only lovers in myths do."
Callum was left alone with that statement, suspecting it was both.
Rayla. Two syllables which owned his heart and probably always would.
He looked up at the moon again, trying to grasp the missing piece.
Over the past weeks, Callum would have asserted that he knew Aaravos. Their souls had touched, their lives had become intertwined. He knew some of his fears, his secrets, his love of sweets, how it felt to be pulled into his arms and have all of his anxieties soothed with a few words of his baritone voice.
Yet his new guise as a god chafed against everything Callum thought he knew. Aaravos was powerful, charismatic, and cunning, but it felt off to see him throwing himself into crowds of adorers like this was the life he'd been planning for all along.
Perhaps Callum understood some of Viren's jealousy.
He'd gotten so used to having all the time he wanted- and even time he hadn't wanted- one on one with Aaravos. Seeing this new side of him, the crowd pleaser, the dramatic spectacle, the promiser of great gifts for all of humanity- he had a hard time accepting it. It was a good thing that Aaravos would be helpful and kind to humans, but part of Callum still wished their life had been the two of them seeing Xadia alone.
Which one was who Aaravos truly was? The one he knew alone, or the one who observed every person in sight bowing to him with a self satisfied smile? Did he have to believe both were true, that they coexisted simultaneously?
Callum stared at the moon again. A full moon, if he wasn't mistaken.
It shone down on him, all of its truth exposed to him.
But even when he thought he was seeing the complete truth, it wasn't complete, was it? Callum gripped the railing of the walkway, heart skipping a beat.
They all had different sides, cast in the light or not, and the moon was never fully in the light. It wasn't about half or full or new moons. Those didn't matter, those changed nothing.
The moon wasn't a circle—
—the next breath he took was enlightened, euphoric.
It was a sphere.
He broke into a run, pushing past people on the way to the hot springs.
"Give me a moon spell!" he blurted out the second Aaravos came into sight.
He did not immediately get his moon spell, because Aaravos was fully invested in doing nothing so hard he only drowsily blinked at Callum.
Claudia and Terry were sitting side by side, feet in a pool of hot water while a couple of attendants chatted with them and painted their fingernails, the two evidently having a nice date. Aaravos also had someone painting his fingernails, but he was surrounded by six people. He was laying down on his stomach, hair damp from what Callum assumed was a recent venture into a hot spring, a towel draped around him. He was certain not everyone working around him was a mage, but there was still an impressive amount of reverence and excitement given to Aaravos from nonmages. One person painted his nails, another combed his hair, another rubbed his shoulders, another massaged his back, another was scrubbing his feet, and the final person was dabbing dots of some sort of cream on Aaravos's face. The spa area smelled like flowers and richly scented oil.
An upgrade from the avocado treatment, surely.
Callum made a mental note to not tell Viren details about this.
"A moon spell," repeated Callum. "I connected to the arcanum, I can feel it!"
Claudia's head whipped around. "Huh? How?"
Aaravos hmmed, looking like a purring cat, eyes lidded. "I see. I wanted to talk to you later, but this can't wait, can it?"
"No!"
Aaravos chuckled, closing his eyes as a girl gently worked the cream into his face. "Alright then. Partum Mysterium- it will let you weave moonlight into illusions." He drew a sigil in the air for Callum to copy, looking more like water than moonlight.
Callum mimicked it, memorizing the rune on the spot. "Partum Mysterium."
Using a second arcanum was easier than the first. The magic he drew upon felt different, the source coming from something beyond his first bond, the Sky. It came from above, it came like a tug on his spirit, the same energy that pulled on the tides filling his mind.
He'd been so taken with casting a moon spell at all that he didn't know what he wanted to create as an illusion.
The spell fizzled and he repeated it, focusing on a subject.
A shaft of moonlight in front of them seemed to waver, but nothing solid formed.
"It takes practice, like anything else," said Aaravos. "Being able to use a rune so quickly is impressive in and of itself."
"Did you just use moon magic, for real?" asked a nearby mage, a dolphin on the back of their cloak.
"Well- I'm trying," said Callum.
Claudia tapped her nose and then pointed to Callum, eyes bright with excitement. "Wait, if you figured it out just now, you can tell us! Aren't you going to be Aaravos's little teaching assistant?"
Callum pointed up at the moon. "You see how the moon looks full? Well, it doesn't matter. We keep thinking about the moon shifting and changing, being half truth and half lies when it's divided, and then sometimes being all dark or all light. Really, the moon never changes, and really, when it seems all light, it's actually still not showing all of its truth because of the part still dark on the other side of the moon. It's not just a flat circle, it's a sphere! It's a sphere we can't see all of at once, just like we can't understand all we see of reality at once. Moon magic understands this and lets us just play with the surface, even though the surface has more beyond our understanding too."
Terry blinked, glancing at Claudia. "Um. I'm not sure I followed that."
Claudia was focused, eyes narrowed as she stared at the moon. "I- I- I-! …Don't get it."
"Magic can't just be explained," said Aaravos, resting his head, still blissfully letting himself be fussed over from head to toe. "It's a process to understand an arcanum fully. Callum and I can assist, but it will still be difficult." Claudia was crestfallen. Aaravos smiled at her. "Not impossible."
Terry looked around. "Where's Kpp'ar and your dad? I thought they'd be with Callum."
"Since we have reached the Royal Library, I doubt you'll catch Kpp'ar out of there for a long time," said Aaravos. "As for Viren, I assume he's gone to scope out our living arrangements. We have work to do starting tomorrow, but for tonight I'd advise you to take a break."
Callum couldn't believe Aaravos was so casual about Viren. Viren hadn't exactly hidden how upset he was earlier.
"Do you want to join us?" A couple of Evenereans stood on either side of Callum, gesturing him to go forward. "The water's nice."
"Loaded with minerals for your health and all that," chimed in the other.
He'd just forged a connection to another arcanum. He could relax a little.
"Okay."
For a moment, he wished Rayla was there, but as he descended into a pool and sat down, submerged in soothing heat up to his collarbone, head tilted back, he had to be honest.
She'd hate it.
He still gazed at the moon, smiling as if it was a friend.