Chapter Text
Incredible.
It was her first thought. Since she started out as a singer, Rayla would never have imagined that she would be invited to sing at the Katolis palace.
Rayla had started singing about how she felt about her feelings, specifically her romantic feelings, that had been her way of letting off steam and expressing herself, so much so that it had led her to be quite successful since she was now considered one of the most successful female singers.
But from that to going on to sing in the palace of one of the kingdoms most importants in the world, it had never crossed her mind.
It was certainly a great honor. Few people had come to sing in the palace personally invited by the royal family.
"It's a great honor," Nyx had told her after the shock of the news when they both read the letter this morning.
"I know, I had never imagined singing in the palace when I started singing about what I felt."
"None of us imagined it, but Rayla you have come very far, you should be proud of that." Nyx pointed to the invitation letter they had read before."Especially after your last album, girl, you are breaking records."
"Her last album," Rayla thought.
It's not that she didn't like the success that her last album had had, on the contrary, she was very grateful for that, but how that album had come about, what had happened for her to write the album, had not been pleasant at all and without it was certainly something she didn't like to remember.
Her ex-boyfriend Aiden, or as the press called him "the actor of the decade", with whom she had been together for 2 and a half years, had been cheating on her during the last year and a half of their relationship, with a large number of women. And by making their breakup public he had tried to make her look like a bad person in front of everyone, even though the toxicity of the relationship had never exactly come from her.
Which also made her realize that she had a horrible eye for relationships, this wasn't the first toxic relationship she'd had, a lot of the ones she'd had had been toxic actually, which made her question if she had some obsession with being in a toxic relationship. She hoped not.
It really hadn't been pleasant, that was where Dark Nights came from, her last successful album, which talked about the breakup and how she had lost part of her life in that relationship and how she had realized how toxic it had been, but especially the permanent scar that relationship would leave on her.
It had been 3 months since it came out and it was still one of the most listened to albums in the world. If she was honest with herself, she never thought she would go this far at 21 years old.
"I guess I'll have to select what I'm going to sing, wow! This is..." She was speechless when she realized again that she would sing not only for the Katolis royal family, but for many more royal families, at a charity gala that they were doing during the years.
"This is awesome, Rayla." Nyx knelt in front of her, putting a hand on her shoulder so she could look at her. "And what's coming is also going to be awesome."
Rayla smiled gratefully before hugging her friend.
. . . . . . . . . .
"Callum! Callum!" Ezran ran into his room like every time he does when he steals tarts.
"What happened Ez?"
"Have you found out yet?" He said as he leaned down to rest from his run through the castle.
"What was I supposed to have found out about?" He turned to look at his brother with a strange look.
"Have you found out yet?" Claudia burst into his room out of nowhere.
"YEAH! I was about to tell Callum."
"Uh... I repeat; What was I supposed to have found out about?"
"Rayla Moonshadow is going to sing at next week's gala." Ezran explained.
Oh, so that was responsible for so much emotion.
"And she is also going to be invited to the gala dance."
"Who is going to be at the gala dance?" Soren asked, entering his room as if nothing had happened.
"Rayla Moonshadow."
"WHAT?! Really?" Soren's eyes widened at the name of the aforementioned. "I am a big fan of her, do you think she would sign my armor?"
"Umm, I don't think anything can write well on armor" Claudia said thoughtfully.
"Hey, guys, sorry for interrupting, but... Who is Rayla Moonshadow? " Callum looked at the three of them in search of some explanation as to who was the person who was going to sing at the gala and just caused such a stir in his room with just her mention.
His friends turned to him with a "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear what you just said" look.
"Callum, how do you not know who Rayla Moonshadow is?" Claudia asked.
"Sorry but this is the first information I have about her."
"Callum, that's impossible." Ezran said.
"The most internationally known female artist? " Soren tried. "The one who wrote Together?"
"Or July."
Callum shook his head.
"I'm sorry guys, but I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Callum, it is impossible for you to be so disconnected from the world." Claudia said as she made her way to his desk to turn on Callum's laptop and began to search for something.
"Ey! How do you know my password?" Callum asked strangely as he watched her browse his laptop with complete naturalness.
"Come on Callum, you're too predictable." Ezran told him.
Callum raised an eyebrow.
"Katolis123" Callum turned to Soren realizing he had said his password.
"How...?"
"I told you: predictable."
Callum snorted, rolling his eyes.
"Look." Claudia returned the laptop, apparently she had searched for a recording of a song from a concert.
In the recording he could see a girl about his age sitting with a guitar in her hands, her hair was white, it reminded Callum of snow and he wondered if it was natural or dyed, the camera zoomed in for a moment and he could distinguish the peculiarity of her violet eyes.
"I think it's time for you, me and my guitar to sit down for a while, right?" She could be heard saying in the video."I don't know if you know, but today is a beautiful night for the beginning of July." In the recording you could hear screams from the people who were at the concert because of the words that the girl had just said, after that, the girl on the screen began to play some soft chords that were accompanied by soft lyrics.
"I've been holding my breath, I've been counting to ten, over something you said"
The song was undoubtedly very beautiful but he could not deny that it was very sad.
"So tell me to leave, I'll pack my bags, get on the road"
Callum could deduce just from the song that, that girl had not had it easy when it came to relationships, even though she was singing the song with a small smile, it was the lyrics that gave her away, whatever it was that had lived to write that song had not been easy and much less rewarding.
"You remind me every day I'm not enough, but I still stay"
When the song ended Soren spoke:
"This song always brings a tear to my eye."
Callum looked at him for a moment with his eyebrow raised.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know anything about her." His friends looked at each other in silence, until Claudia finally spoke.
"Well, there is nothing to worry about, you will meet her in a few weeks and you will be able to hear three of her songs in live."
"Yeah, it's true." Cheer up Ezran.
Callum just snorted and rolled his eyes before turning to the desk to see the singer on his computer screen looking at the audience in amazement.
He shook his head and a lopsided smile appeared on his face as he turned off his computer screen.