Sunlight against Callum's eyelids woke him up. He yawned, eyes still closed, snuggling closer to Rayla. In his sleepy, hazy state, he didn't want to fully wake up yet, waiting to hear Soren and Ezran get up before he bothered to. He made a tired noise in his throat, resting his forehead against Rayla's. "It's already morning," he mumbled.

Rayla gurgled.

Oh.

Not Rayla.

Callum yelped and so did Sir Sparklepuff, the two springing apart with flailing arms and butterfly wings. He suddenly remembered where he was and wheezed, rubbing his head. What a way to wake up. Sir Sparklepuff skittered over to Claudia and Terry and nudged them while making incomprehensible noises. Aaravos was already awake, blearily propped up on one elbow with his other arm still around Viren's waist.

Aaravos was remarkably cuddly, of all things. Callum had expected him to need touch, but he was even more affectionate to anyone close to him than Callum anticipated. Aaravos pressed a kiss to Viren's grey streaked temples, gaze fond. It was a number of things blended together: adoring, protective, and mildly possessive. "Cute," Aaravos murmured.

Viren was the farthest thing from cute in Callum's mind. Maybe he wasn't looking hard enough for it. Maybe Aaravos's standards were low after centuries alone.

Viren sat up, yawning as well. He'd changed out of the dirty white robe the night before and into new Earthblood Elf style clothing. The plain greens and browns looked good on him, and he seemed more refreshed than the prior day. Viren leaned close to Aaravos and kissed the glittering star markings on his cheekbone, so natural it was as if they'd been a couple for months. Then, as if sensing Callum's gaze, turned to Callum with a raised eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Oh! Uh, nothing." Callum hurriedly busied himself with digging around in his backpack.

"I think," started Claudia with a glare at Callum, "that Callum wasn't aware you had feelings."

Callum's face flushed deep red with embarrassment, but Viren only shrugged. "So? I've made a good impression of that."

"I'm sorry." Callum, still looking away into the abyss of his backpack, fought down how awkward he felt as if it was a physical entity. "Even if you hide them, of course you have feelings." Maybe he'd someday understand the Viren his father called a best friend. "I know how frustrated I am about you guys not liking Rayla, so I can't really judge Aaravos for liking you."

Viren almost laughed, huffing lowly. "If Rayla doesn't stab me the next time we meet, I'll call it amicable."

"There's nothing to judge either," commented Aaravos. "He's exactly my type." Viren coughed, face tinted warmly "And I'm everyone's type," Aaravos purred. It hid the truth of how terrified he'd been of rejection just hours before.

"You're lucky I find that insufferable confidence of yours attractive," muttered Viren.

"Of course you do. Now brush my hair."

Viren actually did laugh at that, scooting so he was sitting behind Aaravos, hairbrush in hand. Aaravos tilted his neck back and gently shook his head so his majestic, pearlescent waves of hair flowed down his back. Viren started brushing from the bottom, careful to not tug hard on Aaravos's scalp.

"Soooooo, am I making the hot brown morning potion all by myself?" Claudia stood up, hands on her hips as she looked down at Aaravos and Viren, but failed to keep a smile off her face.

"Correct," said Aaravos. "Viren's busy."

"I'll help!" Terry saluted Claudia. "Hey Callum, you want to help too? It's fun!"

Callum hesitated. "Not dark magic, right?"

"It's very, very sinister and dark—" Claudia's voice went raspy, eyes wide as she loomed. "Beans!" she chirped. "Come on, you've really never had it?"

Callum sat by them, watching Claudia grind the coffee beans as Terry built a small fire. It was peaceful, boiling water for coffee, getting their food out, and listening to Viren brush Aaravos's hair.

It was almost like being back home.

All of them were a family together. Callum felt more like a guest than a member of it, but he was still allowed to be there with them. They were feeling less like his current or prior enemies and almost like friends. Viren had always been present in the background of Callum's life since Callum lived in Katolis, but they weren't close. He didn't know how they managed to have known each other for so long and never known each other.

"What are you doing?" Aaravos still had his head tilted back, but Viren had set the brush aside.

"Braiding." Viren was meticulous in everything, including playing with other people's hair. The braid was neat and tidy. "Where do you think Claudia learned it from?"

"Didn't mom teach you?" asked Claudia.

"Yes, I practiced quite a bit on hers, and then on yours."

Something as simple as braiding hair or eating jelly tarts in bed could mean multitudes.

Everyone gathered around the campfire for breakfast featuring their Xadian cake and fresh fruit. Callum brought his sketchbook with him. He was used to gentle scolding in his youth about bringing books to the royal table, but it's not like they were at a table. He drew as everyone ate and conversed.

"Do you really think it's possible for humans to learn an arcanum?" asked Viren.

Aaravos nodded. "Yes."

"But… how?"

Aaravos took a bite of cake and looked to Callum expectantly. "Any insights?"

"Uhhh." Callum looked up, counting the steps on his fingers. "I had an identity crisis, tried dark magic, got really sick, passed out for a long time, had a bunch of fever dreams, and woke up knowing the sky arcanum after that." He shrugged. "It's not much."

"It wasn't accidental, though," mused Viren. "It sounds like it wasn't so much that you used dark magic, but that you needed to reflect."

"He made off with my primal stone." Claudia wasn't angry talking about it anymore, casual as she sipped hot brown morning potion. "He'd used sky magic before with it."

Callum rubbed his head. "You don't need a primal stone, exactly. The world is one big primal stone. You just have to know it. I can't explain it in any way that makes sense."

Viren sighed. "Identity crisis, falling unconscious, having knowledge of magic- I should have an arcanum by now by default."

"But have you ever believed you could?" pressed Aaravos. "Have you fully, without a doubt believed the connection is possible? Humans have been told for centuries that they cannot connect to an arcanum. They can."

"Your faith is admirable, but every young mage tries." Viren shook his head. "Of course I tried when I was young, much in the way that children dream of flying." Callum raised his eyebrows. Viren once wanted to connect to an arcanum? Callum wondered how he'd managed to succeed if someone like Viren hadn't. "All that worked was Dark Magic."

"Yeah," agreed Claudia. "I mean, if you can't teach us how to access an arcanum, there's not much we can do."

Aaravos didn't deflate or back down, enthusiastically shoving down another bite more strawberry champagne cake. It reminded Callum of when he'd gotten excited about dormant connections humans could have to the primal forces. "Arcana is not mine to teach. It has to be a connection you discover for yourself. Once you do, once you make that connection, the rest comes easily. You have the technical know-how of magic. You understand runes, language, and what it's like to cast spells. I know you can do this. It's just.. difficult." He sat back, eyes staring at nothing above Callum's head. "I connected to the other arcana millenia ago. I can't remember exactly how, but it was a deep understanding of the arcana and of myself. It doesn't make sense. It's not something that makes logical, explainable sense."

Claudia shrugged. "Not for me then."

Callum couldn't keep quiet about it. "Aaravos, didn't you say Claudia couldn't learn one?"

"See?" said Claudia. "Told you." She processed what Callum had said. "HEY! Did I just catch you in a lie, Mister Never Lies?"

Aaravos held his hand up. "Your type of mage cannot connect to an arcanum. If you think of yourself only as one thing, you cannot be another. You see yourself as a Dark Mage. It is so tied to your identity that it makes you entirely. Therefore, you cannot be another kind. Elves who only see their own arcanum cannot connect to anything else either. If there is a Claudia who can connect to a primal source, she's a little different from you."

"Alright. Thanks. Real cryptic," she muttered.

Callum hid a smile. "He's good at that."

"Tell me about it." Claudia's eyes met Callum's and she passed him a cup of hot brown morning potion.

Callum sniffed the cup of potion suspiciously. It didn't smell bad. It was a bitter, rich aroma which piqued his curiosity. It tasted as if he'd been able to physically bite into the aroma it wove into the air, lush and dark, but not like magic. It was just… "Good!"

"Told you. I cannot face the day without it." Claudia downed hers in a single gulp.

Viren poured himself a cup, holding it pensively. "So what about me makes you think I can connect to an arcanum? Is it my distance from Dark Magic?"

"Partially," admitted Aaravos. "What are you, if not a Dark Mage?"

Viren turned to drowning himself in his mug of potion. "Not much," he mumbled.

Aaravos gently elbowed him. "Don't be like that."

"There's a list, and most of it isn't good. Ask anyone on the planet about me."

"I don't think you see what I do." Aaravos observed Viren sipping his coffee, eyes fond. "Your resourcefulness, your drive for those you care about, your studious nature- you remind me a lot of Callum."

It was difficult to say who took it worse.

Callum inhaled his potion, coughing and spitting as he hit his own chest. Viren recoiled while Claudia burst out laughing. Terry shrugged, evidently not informed enough to have an opinion. Aaravos doubled down. "My students all have something in common. They are mages with strong hearts, with a deep desire to learn. They seek understanding beyond where most quit. Your personal differences aside, you are both in possession of vibrant qualities which happened to land on opposite sides. You are alike. Accept it."

Callum and Viren avoided each other's line of sight again. Awkward silence stretched on. Terry snapped his fingers. "You're awfully powerful, Aaravos."

"I am, aren't I?" The smirk was audible.

"Could you just connect someone to an arcanum?" asked Terry. "You know, you work some magic, they sneeze a fireball, all in a day's work!"

"As I said, it is not mine to give." Aaravos rested his head carefully on Viren's shoulder. Their campfire danced in his eyes. "No, it cannot be a gift. Heaven made it so. I tried, long ago, and the night sky cast me out. I was the star that fell to Xadia. I lost my home because I wanted humanity to not be left alone in the dark, defenseless to it."

Claudia leaned forward. "No way… that legend is true?"

"I knew every arcana even then. It wasn't difficult to pass on the ability to humans. I gave them fire, a portion of the sun arcanum. To the stars, even this act was punishable by eternal exile. To the elves and dragons, it was unforgivable for humans to use what they had not been born with."

Callum paused with a piece of fruit halfway to his mouth. "Is that what you meant by Xadia not even wanting humans to use primal stones?"

"Yes. To play the game their way, you should only use what magic comes naturally to you."

It seemed a harsh standard to even exclude primal stones. Of course any Dark Magic was out of the question to traditional Xadia. Apparently, Callum still reeked of death to the likes of Sol Regem.

"That's stupid," said Claudia.

Viren held out his hand, examining the back of it with a resigned, tired expression. "Show them, Aaravos." The illusion Viren wore faded, healthy skin turning corpselike not just on his hand but from every part of Viren visible. Callum had seen his true face before, but never so close, never in such detail. He barely managed to not back away. Viren's eyes had a film of black over them, his skin greyed and wrought with deep, sunken in black deposits like rivers. Around his eyes was particularly dark, as if his eye sockets were showing as a void rather than flesh. Much more of his hair faded to grey and his colorless lips pursed. "Magic without repercussions. Magic without killing other creatures or myself. Magic that is rightfully ours… it would be the ultimate boon, the solution to centuries of war and pain."

"Yes," confirmed Aaravos.

Corrupted, dejected, Viren turned to Aaravos, sorrowful. "Do you really believe I am capable of such a miracle? That every human has the potential for a miracle lurking deep inside?"

"Yes," Aaravos said again. "Yes, I have to believe that if I want this world to ever be fixed. If I choose peace, it will require many miracles." Speaking directly to Callum, he said, "This is what you ask not only of me, but of your people at large. Do you understand why you must be their teacher? Can you try, please try, to find a connection with these two?"

Callum understood it was bigger than all of them.

Aaravos seemed to silently be saying, for me, do it for me.

"Alright." Callum steeled himself. "I will." As much as he wanted to flinch away, he held his hand out to Viren, grasping his cool one. "I'll try." Viren returned the squeeze, cautiously, as if he thought he'd get burned, but the handshake didn't harm either of them, lasting a moment before they parted.

"That's really sweet, guys," said Claudia. "But I don't see why I have to do this. I'm just fine!" She toyed with her braid, the half white and half brown tip waving in the air.

Viren gave her a look that was so charged with pity that Claudia practically wilted. "You never want to feel like this, Claudia. I've long wished that you'd never know what it was like." Guilt almost seemed to made the shadows engraved in his face deeper.

Aaravos stood up. "Even you don't know the half of it." He placed a hand over his chest marking, the darkness concentrated like ink so deep no starlight could manage to survive it. He grimaced and he changed, moon magic flowing over him. His body glowed, hair shining brightly as if he was in moonlight, his stars all over him bursting with light. Even his blues and purples brightened to softer, more vibrant saturations. The dark sclera of his eyes gleamed, his entire body radiating majesty out from the most luminous spot of all on his chest. Callum recognized it from his old look back in the memory of Elarion. "This is what I was before I was punished, before I lashed out." He faded back to his usual self, clearly pained. "Callum, bring me the cube."

Callum almost jolted from surprise. He'd managed to forget about it. "What?"

"I know you have it. I've always known you had it." Gentle, Aaravos held his hand out, expectant, but not demanding. "I have one last mystery to show you."

Callum dug the cube out of his backpack, heart racing. The Key of Aaravos glowed with the sky in his hands, everyone's gaze fixed on the little box. He tossed it over and Aaravos caught it.

Every arcana lit up.

The cube fell open, sides folding down flat. There was only one object within it.

A diamond.

The most gorgeous, incredible diamond in the world.

It shone like Aaravos had before, nearly blinding in its brilliance, illuminating the entire cave like the sun. It was so beautiful Callum almost forgot to breathe while looking at it. It thrummed with as much power as it did beauty, captivating, enthralling, a piece of a galaxy in the palm of Aaravos's hand.

Aaravos's expression was blank as he stared at it.

"It's my heart."

…

"What?" asked Callum.

Viren's eyebrows shot up. "That little cube has been kept around with keys or game pieces for decades. We all thought it was just a trinket."

Claudia looked ill, face drained. "Yeah, I uh. Played with it as a kid. That has had your heart inside of it?"

Aaravos nodded. He still stared at the diamond. His body twitched, trembling. "I am a fallen star, after all. Watch." He slowly raised his palm to his sternum, diamond pressed to the dark spot it belonged in.

Nothing.

Nothing happened.

"I've been warped too much." Aaravos's head bent, bowed as if grieving. "By Dark Magic, by pain, by wrath, by grief, by agony, by hatred, by every horror of this world and my solutions to them. The wound healed wrong, jagged, clogged, and unable to fit perfection back inside. I am unable to be myself ever again. I am unable to have my own heart."

He stood there, frozen as he spoke, as if in shock. Aaravos seemed lost once again. He convulsed, still trying to press the diamond in.

A sob forced its way from Aaravos's throat. His hand trembled as he broke down, hunched over, desperate to ram the piece of his chest back inside but unable to, uncontrolled tears rolling down his face as his shoulders shook, the tip of the diamond futilely digging into his flesh.

He collapsed onto his knees with an anguished scream, ripped out of his lungs with all the air he had to give.

Callum remembered his glimpse of the despair Aaravos carried. Holding his own light, the piece of himself missing, the piece that could drive away the rest of the pain inside, while unable to accept it back had to be torture.

"Hey." Terry knelt by Aaravos, soft but steady as he spoke. "You may not have healed the way you needed to before, but it's like you said: everyone has some miracle inside of them, right? I think that it isn't too late for you." Aaravos wordlessly raised his head, so distraught and tearstained that he was almost unrecognizable. "You'll be able to have your heart again someday. Let me help how I can." Terry moved in close for a hug, letting Aaravos wrap his arms around Terry and hide his face in Terry's shoulder.

It was natural to follow suit. Callum hugged Aaravos from the other side, shoulders bumping with Terry. "That's right."

Claudia added herself to Terry's other side, hugging Aaravos too. "I'm sorry I didn't understand. Of course I'm here for you too."

Even Viren brought himself into the hug, holding Aaravos at an angle from behind, hands on both Claudia and Callum's shoulders. If anything, Aaravos seemed to cry harder with all of the physical support. Aaravos heaved with emotion, trying to breathe. Viren put his cheek on Aaravos's upper back, able to speak right into his ear. "It might not be okay, but we're here."

It felt like it lasted forever. Callum relaxed with Aaravos as Aaravos calmed down, sniffling and trembling. It was an absurd group of people to all wind up hugging together, but it felt like what not only Aaravos, but all of them, needed. Aaravos took Callum's hand and laid the diamond in Callum's palm. "Would you continue to keep it in the cube until I can have it back?" he rasped.

And to think Callum had nearly cast it into a volcano, fearing its power and connection to Aaravos.

"I promise." He set it back into the cube, the magic sealing it back together into its six sided usual state. "I promise I'll return it to you when you're ready."

No one doubted that Aaravos would someday be ready. No one wanted to make the wound worse than it was.

Claudia pulled back first, hand still rubbing Aaravos's shoulder. "So you need us to try and learn primal magic, huh? I mean, I'm still using Dark Magic, but I don't see why I can't try."

"Well, that's not all." Aaravos managed a hint of a knowing smirk, always a step ahead. "There are a few projects I have in mind to work on simultaneously, if this world is to heal. I hope you all didn't think living with me would be a boring, isolated, monastery experience. I have plans."

That was a little worrying, but he hoped their goals were still aligned. Callum unwound himself from the hug, grabbing his drawing and writing on the back of it. He had a lot to say, but tried to keep it all just to a page. Aaravos raised his head warily. "What's that?"

"A letter, telling Ez and everyone that I'm alright." Callum was defensive, daring anyone to deny him his right to send it. "I'm here of my own free will. My friends should know that. Even if they can't know where we are, I don't want them panicking over me if I can help it."

Aaravos didn't look happy about it but he nodded. He wiped off his messy face, recovering while leaning against Viren. "You still have a family. Of course you'd keep them close." As if just noticing the hot brown morning potion, Aaravos poured himself a small cup of it. "I need this, whatever it is." He took a swig, eyes going wide at the taste. He nearly slammed the cup down. Spluttering, with his mouth hung slightly open, he shuddered. He was already slightly vibrating. "You drink that every DAY?"

Viren watched Aaravos buzz from the potion's effects with amusement. "I'm far more used to the potion than group familial clasps."

"Familial clasps?" Aaravos repeated, voice wavering with mirth. It was such an odd phrase it shocked him out of his grieved mood.

Claudia folded her arms and tilted her head up, giving her own Viren impression. "We operate on a strict rationing system for familial clasps."

"Not me!" Terry launched himself at Claudia from behind her, cuddling her as she shouted with laughter.

"Perhaps I should be freer with my affection," mumbled Viren. He kept Aaravos close, letting him fully stabilize.

Callum kept writing, hunched over his letter. It was frustrating to know it would probably take days to reach Ezran, but it was his best shot. Touching up the drawing and making sure the letter was legible only took a few minutes. He folded it, letter side out, and went to the front of the cave, whistling for a bird to come and deliver it for him, eye out for a non-descript carrier that wouldn't give their location away.

He sent the letter to Katolis, but he didn't know that was the wrong address at the moment.

Ezran and the others were heading to the Silvergrove.