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It was dark. It smelled damp. A rash was forming where the ropes kept rubbing against his wrists. Callum opened his eyes. He was in a cave, his wrists bound tight behind him. Rayla was leaning in the shadows against the wall next to him, whether awake or not he couldn’t tell. The pearl and their furry companions were nowhere in sight. The last thing he remembered was a familiar face that made his heart stop, then a sharp pain and blackness.
“Rayla.” He whispered.
“Shh.” She hissed back at him. She was awake.
“What happened?” He asked, ignoring her shushing.
“Shut up.” Rayla whispered. He was about to respond when he heard footsteps.
Rayla glared at the place where the footsteps were coming from.
“You.” She said when they came to a halt.
“Me.” Claudia replied, stepping out of the shadows. Her hair was chopped short and almost completely white now, except for a single black streak in the front. She was smiling at them, but it was a very different smile from the one they remembered.
“What do you want?” Callum said, his face stone cold.
“Skipping the formalities, huh?” Claudia said, her weird, twisted smile only growing.
“Answer the question.” Rayla snapped. Something unpleasant flickered in Claudia’s expression when Rayla spoke. Her smile looked more like a grimace.
“I’m not talking to you, elf.” She snarled, turning to glare at Rayla. Rayla met her gaze and held it defiantly. Claudia continued to glare, waiting for Rayla to glance away, but Rayla just glared back.
“Fine. You tell me.” Claudia said, walking towards Rayla. She leaned down. She stared at Rayla for a long moment before speaking, trying to rattle her.
“Tell me how to get Aaravos out of the pearl.” Claudia said slowly. Rayla didn’t even look remotely worried. She laughed almost mockingly.
“Are you stupid? I’m not going to tell you how to release the most evil being that ever lived.” She said. She was acting cool and unthreatened, but Callum could see her fingers twitching to where she normally had her blades. She was scared.
“You’re going to tell me.” Claudia said, ignoring Rayla’s rudeness.
“Or what?” Rayla asked. Claudia glared at her for a long moment before yanking Rayla to her feet. Claudia pushed her out of the cave and followed after.
“Wait!” Callum called after them, but they had already been swallowed in shadows.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Claudia kept a lot of nasty things in her bag. Including a pair of brass knuckles. Rayla’s instincts told her to be silent and keep her mouth shut. But she knew if Claudia didn’t get a good enough reaction, she’d attack Callum next. Rayla wouldn’t give Claudia the satisfaction of screams, but she needed to keep her attention. Between gasps of pain, she kept talking, trying to strike where it would hurt the most.
“Tell me!” Claudia yelled. Blood ran heavily from Rayla’s nose, she was bruised so badly she could barely think straight, but she smiled.
“You’ll have to hit harder than that.” She coughed, purposely spitting blood at Claudia. Claudia’s face contorted with rage, and she pulled her fist back again. She swung wildly, a hit that Rayla would have easily been able to block if she wasn’t tied up. But she was helpless to defend herself as the metal struck her over and over again.
“You ruined my life!” Claudia screamed. She looked utterly mad and unhinged now, spit flying from her mouth and Rayla’s blood staining her clothes.
“You did this to yourself.” Rayla panted. Claudia stopped hitting. Her face turned stone cold.
“Did what?” She asked. Her sudden calm scared Rayla.
“I want you to tell me.” Claudia said, her voice deathly quiet.
“I want to hear it from you. What did I do to myself?” Her voice changed to a growl, but Rayla refused to back down. She looked Claudia dead in the eye.
“You threw away everything you had. Your family, your friends, and your home. You’re alone now, with no one left to tell you how crazy you are.” Rayla said, forcing her voice to be as calm as Claudia’s. Claudia didn’t look angry. She smiled that awful, twisted smile again and knelt down.
“You’re wrong. I’m not alone. I have a family. I left behind all the people that I would hold me back.” She said. She leaned close. “I’m in control now.”
Claudia reached into her pocket and pulled out a small knife. She pressed it against Rayla’s neck. Rayla felt small, warm drops start to run, one at a time, down her neck.
“I could kill you right now, if I wanted.” Claudia snarled, her anger returning in full force. Rayla forced herself to meet Claudia’s eyes.
“You won’t.” She said. Claudia’s eyes flickered dangerously.
“What makes you so sure?” She said. Rayla was scared out of her mind, but she had been trained for situations like this. She had gotten good at hiding emotion.
“You still need information from us. And you won’t admit it, but you don’t want to hurt Callum to get it. So you’re stuck with me.” Rayla said, forcing herself to smile again.
“Clever, aren’t you?” Claudia sneered, putting the blade under Rayla’s eye. She paused for a long moment before she slashed, cutting a gash across the already bruised and tender skin.
“You’re right, I don’t won’t kill you. But I’ll make you wish I would.” She said, pulling the knife back to strike again.
Rayla could only watch as her own blood splattered across the stone floor and walls, her only comfort being that she had victimized Callum enough so Claudia would only hurt her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
They were only gone for about twenty minutes. Callum knew. He had continued each second in each one. When he finally heard footsteps again, they were different. There was only one pair of them instead of two, and it sounded like something was being dragged. The footsteps stopped right outside of his line of vision. He could just see Claudia dragging Rayla across the floor by her shirt. Claudia threw her onto the floor and walked away without a word. Rayla was out cold. And covered in blood.
Callum inched over to her as quickly as he could. He grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her shoulders into his lap to try to protect her a little from the hard floor. Her face was bruised and had a long, bloody gash across her cheek. Her clothes were slashed, torn, and bloody. Some of the wounds were still bleeding. Thin trails of scarlet trickled from countless gashes across her pale skin. It was like one of his worst nightmares come to life. Everything that he had sworn to never let happen had happened, and he hadn’t been able to stop it.
“Rayla, why?” He whispered desperately to her, carefully wiping blood from her face. As he sat there, occasionally wiping blood away and looking at her bruised face, he got angry. Rayla was hurt because she had been protecting him. She had left because of the same reason. And he was done being angry at her for it. Now he was angry at the person she had been protecting him from. And he wasn’t going to let this go, not again. It was time to get revenge.
He focused, centering all his anger and calculating. The ropes around his wrists turned to ice, and he snapped them apart. He rubbed his wrists to get the blood flowing again and then freed Rayla. He shifted her more securely into his arms and waited.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was hours until he heard footsteps returning.
“Ready to talk?” Claudia said, stepping out of the darkness. Her eyes fell on them, and her face changed to confusion, then fear.
“Where are your ropes?” She demanded, but Callum had already drawn the rune.
“Fulminis!” He shouted. Lightning exploded out of his palm and filled the cramped cave with electric blue light. Claudia was thrown back, her head smacking against the stone. Callum carefully set Rayla down and stood up. He stepped over her and drew another rune.
“Aspiro Frigis.” He said coldly. Claudia was frozen in place before she could get up.
Callum stared coldly at her for a moment before leaving without a word, just as she had. He walked through the cave until he found the bag where Claudia had hid the pearl and their stuff. Stella jumped out and ran over to Rayla, screeching angrily at Claudia and worriedly snuggling up to Rayla. Sneezles jumped into Callum’s scarf and hid against his neck, trembling and snorting. Callum rummaged around the bag. He was going to grab the pearl, but then he saw the knife wedged under it. The knife that was still stained with Rayla’s blood. He stared at it for a long moment. The instrument that had been used to spill her blood. He picked it up with shaking hands and walked over to Claudia. His hands weren’t shaking with fear. They were shaking with rage.
Claudia watched in fear as he approached her with the blade.
“I want you to know that the only reason you will walk out of here alive is because she needs me now.” Callum said, his voice merciless. He pushed the blade against her face, on the same spot where Rayla had been cut.
“And if I ever see you again, I will kill you.” He finished. He slashed the blade over her face and turned away. Claudia screamed in pain, but the sound only made him more angry. Rayla hadn’t screamed once. She had held in her pain as her skin was torn and her blood splattered across the floor.
Callum grabbed the bag with the pearl and their weapons and walked over to Rayla. He scooped her and Stella up off the floor and carried them out without sparing Claudia a second glance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Callum walked deep into the forest before cooling off and setting up camp. He leaned Rayla against a fallen log and started trying to patch her up. He got fed up trying to work around her torn and bloody shirt, so he cut off her sleeves before covering her arms in thick bandages. He wrapped another around her neck and carefully put medical tape over the cut on her face. He rubbed ointment over the bruises and stitched up her shirt. He liked having something to do. A distraction. He meant to something productive after he finished, but he ended up just hugging her close and fighting back tears. He had said he’d do anything for her. That meant she wasn’t supposed to get hurt anymore. It meant that she wouldn’t have to carry his burdens for him anymore. But that’s what was happening. She was in pain, and there was barely anything he could do to help.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rayla felt like her head was splitting open. She had never had a hangover, but from what she had heard about them that’s what it felt like. She was dazed and confused. Everything still ached horribly. Something about her surroundings had changed, but she couldn’t figure out what. She remembered the hilt of the dagger slamming into her head and everything going black. All that she had been conscious of in the past few hours was a ringing in her ears. She was awake now, she could tell that much. Her eyes were still shut. She was sitting on grass with her back against something hard. She felt warm arms wrapped around her and a shoulder against her cheek. She dimly registered that she wasn’t in the cave anymore. She finally opened her eyes and got hit with the blinding orange sun. She shut her eyes tightly again and opened them more cautiously, blinking and letting them adjust to the light.
They were in a forest. It was evening, with the setting sun casting golden light through the green leaves. It was breathtaking. Callum was hugging her, one arm supporting her shoulders and the other hand cupping the back of her head. She looked over his shoulder at her arms hanging limply at his sides. Her sleeves had been replaced with clumsily wrapped but comfortable bandages. She could feel more bandages on her neck and something covering the cut on her face. Other than the bruises and confusion, she was comfortable. Despite having been unconscious most of the day, she was tired. She’d like nothing more than to snuggle up to him and fall asleep.
She sighed and tucked her face into his neck. Callum froze.
“Rayla? Are you awake?” He whispered softly. Rayla nodded into his shoulder, inwardly cursing herself for not telling him. He must have been worried sick.
“Yeah. How’d you get us out?” She mumbled. He didn’t answer at first. He pulled back, putting his hands on her shoulders to keep her steady.
“Are you feeling alright?” He asked. Rayla nodded.
“Just tired.” She murmured.
“You got us out?” She asked.
“Yeah. I got all of our stuff and treated your injuries. Claudia isn’t coming back.” He said quietly, as if he was afraid that even speaking to loud would hurt her more. Rayla nodded.
“Rayla, we need to talk.” He said after a few silent moments. Rayla looked at him questioningly.
“Not a bad talk, just… a necessary one?” Callum said quickly.
“Ok. What’s up?” Rayla said. Callum looked like he didn’t know what to say for a few seconds.
“I forgive you.” He finally said.
“What?” Rayla asked.
“For leaving. I’m not angry anymore.” He said. She still looked confused. He was talking quickly, like he couldn’t stand to keep all of this inside him any longer.
“I saw what you were scared of today. And you protected me again. And I’m thankful for that, but we can’t keep doing this. We protect each other. I don’t want to see you get hurt, especially not for me. Even now, after it happened -“ His voice faltered. He gently brushed his fingers over the tape on her face.
“I hate seeing you in pain. I just want you to promise me that if something like this ever happens again, I want you to try to talk to me. Let me help. Let me take some of the pain.” He said. Rayla was nearly in tears by the time he finished. She didn’t trust herself to speak, so she just nodded.
Callum hugged her again, and she relaxed against him and managed to hug him back. He pulled back again, looking more nervous this time.
“And…” He cleared his throat and put his hand behind his neck again, looking away from her. Was he blushing?
“I think you already know this, but I still love you.” He said.
“And, if you’re ready…” He faltered nervously again. Did he mean what she thought he meant?
“Whenever you’re ready, I -“ She grabbed the front of his shirt and pressed her lips to his before he could finish. He froze for a second but quickly responded, sliding one arm around her waist and putting his other hand in the side of her face. The golden sun warmed their (very red) faces, and they both momentarily forget what had happened early.
The past pain didn’t seem to matter anymore, not when everything had worked out regardless.