Chapter Text
“Are you okay?” Rayla asked Callum, looking at the boy that was in his desk, giving his back to her.
It probably was one of the saddest days in Callum and Ezran’s lives.
“Yeah…” he answered in a low voice with his sight in the drawing he was doing.
That day it has been a year since the death of King Harrow.
Throughout all day the environment in the kingdom of Katolis had been melancholic: subdits, soldiers, advisors and sons had spent the day remembering the deceased king. Specially those who had been close to him.
For Rayla, who already was used to the cheerly environment of the kingdom and its citizens, it was too hard to see two of the people she most loved being silent and with reddened eyes. She understood their grief and had respected their space, so they could vent calmly.
In the evening she went with them and Soren to the statue that had been built in his honor, beside his wife’s statue.
However she remained distant for two reasons: because she never met Harrow, and because she could have been his murderer.
She knew it was difficult for Callum and Ezran to confront the death of his father, especially for Callum. He didn’t have a close relationship with him as Ezran, because the fact that he wasn’t his biological father had separated both of them, and now it was too late to amend that error. They could have done so many things together… She knew that Callum regretted not telling him that he loved him as his birth father.
And furthermore, she regretted not having been able to do something to save his life.
Finally she got up from her bed and moved closer slowly to where her partner was, putting her hand on his shoulder.
“I wish I’d have stopped them…”
Callum stopped drawing and stayed silent for a few seconds before speaking.
“It will not help to think of that. Others could have come to… you know.” A little knot in his throat blocked him from finishing the sentence.
Rayla sighed and looked to the floor, thinking what to say.
“I know… is just…”
“Rayla” Callum interrupted her, looking at her eyes. His eyes were redden again and she could appreciate a little shine. He took both hands of the elf and invited her to sit in front of him. She sat down on the prince’s bed, near his desk, and waited patiently for him to speak again.
He took a breath and let it out slowly.
“I’ve been thinking. Yes, I can deny I’m sad because of what happened a year ago.” Rayla squeezed his hand lightly, giving him her support and encouraging him to continue. “But I can’t forget that that day a moonshadow elf sneaked into this castle and ran after me with her sharp blades.”
Callum looked up, his green eyes meeting the lavenders of her, with a slight smile. She smiled slightly and waited silently, just in case he wanted to add something more.
“That day my brother and I met you, we found Zym’s egg, we united to try to avoid a war… The decisions we made that day have made a better world, and I know he would be glad to see everything we reached.”
Rayla nodded, understanding what he wanted to say. He could remember that day as a sad day and mourn the death of his father, but also there were good memories to hold on.
“He would be very proud of you”
“Of us.” He corrected “I think none of this would be possible without you.”
Finally both teenagers joined in a warm hug. They didn’t know how the world would be a year later, but they knew that as long as they were together they would do anything to fulfill the last will of King Harrow: that their actions mustn't be conditioned by the past and to build a story based in the narrative of love.