Chapter Text
He had never been more careful in his entire life than in this single moment. Not even daring to breathe, he made a very slow step forward, careful as not to step on anything that could give his presence away. Only three steps left - he had almost made it. His life depended on the success of this mission. Trying to determine the right angle, he made another step forward, but he was distracted by her silent nonsensical muttering, so he didn’t pay attention to where he stepped. When his foot, meeting a piece of parchment scattered across the floor, caused a soft crunching noise, making her ears instinctively arch up and her facial muscles flinch in irritation, he immediately froze in place. If Rayla woke up now, all was lost. This was the chance he had been waiting for for months and ran out of time. He needed to do this now.
After she visually relaxed again, he continued on his way around the large, red davenport she was resting on, breathing a silent gasp of relief. Slow and steady, he opened his satchel, taking out the tool necessary in one smooth, skillful motion that he had practiced for this exact moment countless times. Again holding his breath, he got closer, and he got to work. He was right next to her head; if he breathed too deeply or moved too quickly, she would feel the wind on her skin and in her hair, and she would wake up. It almost broke his heart that he couldn’t run his fingers through her beautiful white hair, or even give her a short kiss on the forehead. He couldn’t risk it, this moment was too valuable to pass up. The only part that he cared for right now were her horns. He had always been fascinated by them; their cute stubbyness, their color and their intricate texture that almost looked like someone had carved little curls and waves into the keratine of her horns - but he had already made countless sketches of those, that would be more than sufficient to work with. No, right now, the only thing he had to focus on was their measurements. Diameter, circumference, the angle in which they deviated from her head, the thickness at the base compared to the top... These were some complex measurements he had to take, so this took all the concentration he could muster.
Part of him cursed at himself for taking all of this excessive effort, but a bigger part knew that this was the only right thing to do. Rayla deserved nothing less than the best, and he was determined to deliver. He would finish these measurements and he would craft the most beautiful Horn Cuffs Xadia had ever seen.
And then he would finally ask her to marry him.
They had been together for more than six years now. They were still almost children when they fell in love, but with the war and its diplomatic aftermath going on to secure a lasting peace, they had to grow up faster than most, and they did. With a lot of uncertainties and responsibilities, they had become an even better team, and their connection and their feelings for each other turned from the simple crushes teenagers have, a more mature, maybe less hot-headed, but still exciting and wonderful, kind of love. They would give their life for one another and Callum knew that asking her was only a mere formality. He was still a little insecure about many parts of his life, starting with his looks, that, while finally getting a growth spurt so that he was just as tall as Rayla (although she would still claim to tower him by the whopping width of a finger) and a little more muscle definition, or his still only adept skills as a mage, his missing charisma and fear of public speaking; but if there was one thing he was absolutely sure about, it was that Rayla shared his feelings. Still, this was no reason to slack off. He wanted to get this perfect - and he would.
—
The thought of asking Rayla to marry him had occurred to him for the first time about a year ago, while they were on their way to Silvergrove to visit Runaan and Ethari. At first he dropped the idea, since, well, only old people got married... but the more he thought about it, the more he started to love the idea. They would finally be a family. Well, he considered them one already, but this would make it official, and it might even mean that they’d actually start a family of their own not too far into the distant future. This was a different topic, however, and one that truly could wait a little longer, unlike the idea of finally proposing to her. There was only one problem: He didn’t have the slightest idea about elven wedding rituals. Did they… have wedding rings since, well, they technically don’t even have a ring finger? Or even more problematic: Did they even allow weddings between Humans and Elves? And what would Runaan and Ethari say… or Rayla’s parents, if they ever appeared again?
He had also considered waiting with his preparations until Rayla’s parents were found. She still clung to the idea of them being alive; but it had been six years now, and they had searched most of Xadia and much of the Pentarchy for them, without finding a single clue of their whereabouts. Rayla had practically given up on the idea of finding them ever again; and as much as Callum hoped and prayed for them to appear again in time for their wedding, he knew that this would probably not work out. So, for now, he had to focus on Rayla’s family that was present in the land of the living: Runaan and Ethari. Callum and Rayla had come to Silvergrove a couple times since the war had ended for Rayla to reconnect with her home, her family and her roots.
While he was welcomed as a honored guest at first, her guardian’s attitudes towards Callum changed a little after Rayla and Callum had told them how they felt about each other. Runaan, the protective person that he was, was opposed to them dating at first (maybe some of his stereotypes against Humans played a role, too), however, Ethari quickly took a personal liking to the young Prince, and convinced his husband that Callum’s affection for Rayla was nothing but pure and true. Giving him a second chance, he too soon accepted his protégée’s relationship with Callum. Now, however, he was really pushing it. Asking for their blessing to marry her? This could go one of two ways…
After they had reached Silvergrove, Rayla immediately went to bed, completely exhausted by their long journey; Callum, however, seized to moment to get to talk to Runaan and Ethari without his beloved by his side. This was the chance he had been waiting for. Swallowing down his fear, he asked them if they wanted to join him on a walk through the grove before bed, to which they, after exchanging some meaningful gazes, agreed. After wandering through the beautiful Xadian forest, illuminated only by the moon and thousands of torchbugs, they took place at a resting spot near the top of the small waterfall above the village.
They took place at a marble table, and the silence between them quickly grew uncomfortable; all Runaan and Ethari did was look at each other with puzzled glances from time to time, patiently waiting for Callum to start. Runaan, while not dismissive, kept a straight face, while Ethari encouragingly smiled at Callum, urging him to start.
Clearing his throat, he finally started speaking. “So… you guys know how much I love Rayla, right?”
Runaan didn’t react at all, while Ethari gently nodded at him.
“I… I just… I’m thinking… I mean I really like her, and I’m kinda thinking… that I want to marry her. I definitely want to. Anytime soon.”, he finished with a slightly embarrassed smile.
Runaan’s face finally flinched, and his eyes, once again, met Ethari’s, who had received the news with raised eyebrows. “You want to marry Rayla?”, Ethari asked surprised.
Callum nodded. They weren’t… euphoric. This did not go as he had hoped, but he could still save this. “Look, guys, I… I know I’m probably not how you’d have imagined Rayla’s future husband, but… I really do love her. With all of my heart. And I know that she loves me too.”
Runaan leaned against the table, his eyes challenging Callum. “Do you know anything about Elven wedding rituals?”
“Well, no, but I…”
“The fact that you are talking to us alone, is strictly speaking disrespectful to the bride’s family - let alone, calling us ‘guys’. You know nothing about our traditions! Nothing! And yet you’re sitting here, like the… self-absorbed human you are, taking me and my husband out of our home and demanding our daughter’s hand in marriage!”
“Runaan!” Ethari tried to stop him, but he kept going, gasping annoyedly.
“Look, Callum, you are a nice kid and I don’t have anything against you personally. I think you are a good person and I can see why Rayla likes you so much. But, to be perfectly honest, because I feel like this is what makes this the least painful, I just don’t consider you husband material for Rayla. I believe that you believe that you love her, and I believe that you think that she loves you just as much. But you are still very young, and you have so much to learn about life and about love.”
He had expected a lot, but he didn’t expect such a harsh rejectment. He had to keep a straight face; an emotional outbreak wouldn’t be helpful here.
Clearing his throat again, he tried to come up with a response that wouldn't cause him to lose face completely. “Bu…”
“And the fact that you’re a prince of some fancy human kingdom doesn’t impress me at all, just in case if you were planning to bring that up.”, Runaan interrupted, making himself ready to stand up and leave.
“Runaan! Sit down and let him speak!”, Ethari interjected sternly.
“What, you’re on his side?!”, he fired back.
“I’m on nobody’s side, except Rayla’s.”, he answered. “Just as you should be. Now sit back down. Callum.”, he looked back at the young Prince. “Would you like to continue?”
Callum closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Look, Runaan. I know that you… suffered greatly from our hand, and I am terribly sorry. But I did everything in my power to, successfully, I might add, restore peace between Elves and Humans. And I could only do that, because I had Rayla by my side. I might still be young, and inexperienced, I don’t deny that. I am sorry if I have offended you - but I am willing to learn. I came here, not only to ask for your blessing - which, by human standards I’m not even forced to do, but I wanted to do it anyway because I considered anything else disrespectful. I don’t want to take her away from you, and I don’t want to strip her of her own culture. I also came here to ask for your help. I want to honor your traditions, and I am more than willing to marry her in an Elven Ceremony, if you’ll allow it…”
Now Runaan looked uncharacteristically surprised, again exchanging opinions nonverbally with his husband.
“You… you would agree to marry her according to our traditions?”, he asked surprised.
“I… I would be honored, really. I would love to learn more about your culture in general. This is Rayla’s heritage and I would never, ever, dare to try and take this away from her. Even more than that, I would like to participate in it. But I’d need someone to teach me. And you guys are all the family she has left. I would be honored if you decided to help me.”
Callum saw Runaan’s expression soften. Turning his head to his husband, they exchanged a couple words in Draconic.
“I underestimated you, Callum”, he said, lowering his head apologetically, “we can feel that you’re an honest soul, and we are honored that you’d like to go out of your way to learn about our culture.”
“You have already mentioned a very important aspect, Callum”, Ethari added, “Family is the most important part of our life. Our groups are very close, and we consider everyone in our community our family. If one of us decides to marry someone from the outside, this is certainly possible, but during the ceremony, at least half of the tribe has to agree to make you a part of our family. And as a human… you might have a difficult time.”
After taking a second to contemplate his options, he just shrugged with his shoulders. “I guess I’ll have to work twice as hard to convince them then. But if the majority supports me…?”
“...you will become an honorary member of the moonshadow elves, yes.”, Runaan said, “although I cannot remember this ever happening to a human in Silvergrove.”
Ethari grinned at the young human. “I think he might become the first.”
“Does… does this mean that I have your blessing?”
Runaan let out a sigh. “I’m sorry I got so hung up on stereotypes. I’m not used to humans actually caring for our customs. Usually they just take, and destroy, and hurt…”
Ethari looked at him sternly. “...but I know that you are different, Callum. You are a good person and I can see it in your eyes, the love you have for Rayla. I will give you my blessing, and I will be here to answer any questions you might have about our rituals.”
Ethari reached across the table to take his husband’s hand, squeezing it in support and gratefulness. “That makes two of us.”
–
That day, Callum had learned a lot about the details of wedding rituals of Moonshadow Elves; especially about how proposals worked. The proposing party crafts a pair of beautiful, individualized cuffs for the proposee’s horns and presents them at a place of immense arcane power, in the best case at a nexus. However, they are not to be worn at that stage; the groom puts them onto the bride’s horns and vice versa during the wedding ceremony. They had all agreed that this, however, was not an option for Callum (they were NOT amused by Callum’s joking suggestion to bring Elf Callum into the equation), as he simply had no horns. He would just wear the human equivalent - a ring. It was not ideal for an elven ceremony, but he had an idea how to make it special. It would take a little bit of effort, but he was not afraid of some hard work.
Having finished his measurements - this would be so much better now that he didn’t have to rely on rough estimates - he put away the instruments and crouched in front of the Davenport she was softly snoozing on; she looked so beautiful that Callum, grinning at her lovingly, now couldn’t resist stroking a rogue strand of her pretty snow white hair out of her face and behind her ear, and giving her a kiss on her forehead to which she only reacted with a soft grunt - at least that’s what he thought. He was about to stand up again to leave his chamber, but suddenly he realized that her lid had opened, the glowing purple of her eye cutting through the relative darkness in the room. “Hey sleepyhead”, he teased, “hope I didn’t wake you up.”
“Hey handsome”, she just answered with a smirk that was interrupted by a yawn, slowly returning to an upright position. Tapping on the now empty spot where her feet had been positioned right until this moment, she urged him to sit with her. Taking a seat next to her, she immediately rested her head on his shoulder.
“I can’t believe you’re leavin’ again tomorrow.”, she muttered. “I feel like we barely spend any time together anymore.”
“Hey now”, he tried to comfort her, his hands looking for one of hers to squeeze it gently. Lost in thought, he ran his thumb over the back of her hand. “It sucks just as much for me as it does for you. I mean, what diplomatic business is so important that they have to send me there? And even worse, without you?”
He hated to lie to her face, but he had no other choice. Of course there was no important diplomatic business with Duren he had to attend to. But telling her the truth, that he would go there to learn from the best goldsmith in the Pentarchy, who also happened to be an Elf, how to craft the perfect Horn Cuffs to propose to her, was not an option for obvious reasons.
“I just don’t understand why it’s so important for Ezran to have me as his personal bodyguard durin' the Spring Festival. I mean, it’s not like we’re in some grave danger right now…”
“Cheer up, sweetie”, he said with a joy that might’ve come off as a little forced, “it’s only for a couple of days. I’ll meet you in Neolandia before you know it, and we’ll have a great vacation together.”, he said with a comforting smile.
“Yeah, for three days. But that is kinda my point, Callum…”, she sighed, “we’ve been on the move for… well, basically for as long as we know each other! And you know me, I don’t mind a little adventure and I certainly don’t mind travellin’... but I’d also like to call a place a home for longer than a couple days!” Disappointed, she dug her head deeper into the crook of his neck and her free hand took his. “Tell me I’m not the only one who feels like this.”
It took all his mental strength not to start grinning like a Cheshire cat. What she described was his absolute dream, and he was working hard to make it happen. She just needed a little more patience.
“I know, Rayla. I know it’s been hard, and I’ve been busy for the last… weeks…”
“Months…”
“Months…”, he corrected himself, “but I know that things will get better soon. We just have to hang in there. I promise you, this will be over sooner than you realize. And then”, he gave her an affectionate kiss on her temple, “and then we will have all the time in the world to be together. Screw Ez, screw Katolis, screw them all. Okay?”
Pulling her head out of the crook of his neck to face him on eye level, she smiled at him weakly, before going in for a loving kiss. “Okay. I’ll take you up on that.”