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Claudia has made a lot of mistakes in her life. A lot of mistakes that she can’t make up for how much she tries. So it’s only valid that she does everything she is told to do and is given to do no matter how tiring it was.
At least on the bright side, Terry is getting better. It’s a slow and gruesome progress but actual sunlight and nature is helping him a lot. Some of the healers that they visited wondered how he survived this long without any contact from his arcanum. Claudia vaguely remembers a certain human flowing in his own magic into the Earthblood elf while they were trapped in that horrible place. She can’t remember a lot from her time trapped there, her memories clouded by worry, guilt, and anger. She can’t recall the details, but she knows who the human mage was. After all, there was only one true human mage in history.
When she talks about the human mage, Terry listens to her with this weird, unrecognizable face. It’s as if he knows something, something bad, that she doesn’t. She wonders what that is. She remembers the mage and his interaction with her boyfriend, but she can’t remember anything about her interaction with the human mage. She wonders if they were friends like they used to long ago.
When the Moonshadow elf, Rayla, and the king visits her cell, she tries to work through the fog, looking for information on the human mage or the Startouched elf that she had freed. She tells them everything she knows and remembers about the elf, but seems to be not able to remember anything about the human mage.
Claudia feels frustrated.
One day, Rayla came marching in. She looked angry, angry towards her and herself. She screams at her. She screams and asks why she did it. Claudia doesn’t know what she’s talking about. The other yells what she had learned. The fog slowly clears and memories come flooding in.
Callum… She was hitting Callum. Bruises, cuts, and broken bones were the only things left after she stumped out of the room, getting dragged by pale looking Terry. Terry tried to stop her, but she didn’t. She refused to. A part of him knew that it was wrong, that her anger shouldn’t be directed to the boy that was equally trapped. Actually, even more trapped than her. But she couldn’t stop, her anger blinded her while a certain voice whispered in her mind.
‘It’s his fault that you’re trapped in here. It’s his fault that Terry is dying. Revenge him. Make him pay. Make him feel the pain you’re feeling as Terry falls apart.’
Claudia knew that voice. It was the voice that led to her many mistakes. It was the voice that belonged to a certain elf that was obsessed over a certain human mage. It was like a spell. But a spell for what?
Rayla was talking about how broken the human looked. How the hope had been drained out of his eyes. And everything clicked together as if the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle was found.
Aaravos had put a spell on her that pulled her slowly to direct her anger towards his obsession. But it was still her choice as the spell only encouraged her, not forced her. And this prevented any others from noticing the spell put on her. The boy saved Terry and Claudia repaid him by gifting him with pain, suffering, and injuries.
This was just the high mage’s plan all along. A plan to break the boy he desperately wanted. To break the boy so that he could gather the pieces in his arms all to himself. It was cruel. And she played a part by falling for the spell. Then there was the ritual that she had found. The ritual to bring someone back to life in another body. She knew what Aaravos wanted.
Shiver ran through her body.
“I know what Aaravos wanted. I know what he did to Callum.”
She made mistakes that she would and shouldn’t be forgiven for. But she could try to help fix it. No, she will help to fix it.