#i have a vision where runaan tries to have the Dad Talk and callum pulls an uno reverse on his ass

[m4rs-ex3]

do you think callum will ever say to runaan "i brought you back into this world and i can take you back out"

[arcadialedger]

Your Soul is My Treasure — a Rayllum One- Shot

Set in my vision of season 4, Callum discovers a spell to get Runaan and Rayla’s parents out of the coins. However, Callum doesn’t get the warm parental welcome he was hoping.

“Callum-- are you sure this is going to work?” 

Rayla’s words lodged a dagger in his heart, because he wasn’t. From the moment that he and Ibis had found the fallen bag of coins on the floor of the Storm Spire, Callum had tried tirelessly to find a spell to reverse Viren’s horrific incantation.

But he didn’t want to get his hopes up, and he could tell that Rayla had been hesitant to herself. Still, he owed it to her to try. Callum knew all too well what it was to lose a parent. 

“I don’t know, Rayla,” he admitted, unable to look her in the eye, “The spell was cast with dark magic, and it might require dark magic to reverse it.”

Rayla gave his hand a squeeze, and gently turned his face to look at her own. Her light, lilac eyes were filled with both hope and sympathy. 

“Listen to me, Callum,” she said sternly, “I will not be angry if the spell doesn’t work. You understand? And we will not even consider the alternative. I do not want you risking your life with dark magic for me again.”

Callum smiled, and laced his fingers through hers. He had only a few months training. He was just a boy. Something about Rayla’s presence, however, always managed to make him feel as though he could do anything. 

“Ready to try?” Rayla asked.

Callum nodded, and Rayla released her hand. With a deep breath, Callum stepped forward and outstretched his hand, and from his fingertip drew an intricate rune of delicate swirls. Rayla let out a light gasp, entranced by the beauty of the rune. She had never understood how Callum could so effortlessly draw something so graceful, so elaborate. 

Callum closed his eyes— as he always did when he tried to connect to the arcanum— and incanted.

“Your soul is my treasure. Absolvisti te ipsum.” A gentle wind blew into the corridor, and Callum repeated the words.

“Your soul is my treasure. Absolvisti te ipsum,” he shouted, his tone more forceful and determined this time.

The wind began to increase- now swirling in a giant spiral around the perimeter of the corridor. With his arm outstretched, and his scarf blowing behind him, Rayla couldn’t helped but be awed by how powerful Callum looked. In only months time, he had come so far.

“Come on— work!” Callum cried out in frustration, “Absolvisti te ipsum. Absolvisti te ipsum!”

Rayla watched as all of the color drained from Callum’s face, and suddenly all of the hope in her heart turned to worry. 

He was pushing himself too far. 

“Callum— stop!” she yelled, but Callum could not seem to hear her. Instinctively, she went to run towards him. She made it not a step before a gust of wind caught her and blew her backwards onto the cold, stone floor. 

“NO!” she screamed, her eyes now wet with the sting of tears. She got up to her knees, as Callum shouted the spell one last time.

“ABSOLVISTI TE ISPSUM!”

The coins on the ground before Callum began to glow, and the entire corridor burst with a blinding light. 

_____

Rayla awoke to three shadows standing over her.

Her vision focused slowly— the outline of three tall figures turning to color, and then clarity, and then…

By the moon…

“Mum? Dad? Runaan?” she choked, as she slowly pulled herself back up to her feet.

“Rayla,” Tiadrin cried, and only then was Rayla able to believe it was real. Unable to hold back her sobs, Rayla engulfed her parents in a hug.

“He did it,” she remarked in disbelief, “He actually—“ 

With a jolt, of realization, Rayla pulled herself out of her parents embrace.

Callum. Where was Callum? 

Ignoring her parents, and Runaan’s inquisitive looks, Rayla raced past them.

A few feet in front of the coins— which now lay dull and empty on the stone— Callum laid crumpled on the floor.

“No, no, no, CALLUM!” Rayla cried. Unconcerned about her parents watching, she ran and dropped to her knees beside him.  When she grasped his hand, it was cold, and clammy.

Tears began to roll down her cheeks, and she clasped his hand tighter, “You have to stay with me, Callum.”

Rayla rubbed her hands together, and placed them tenderly against his forehead. He was so cold…

“You know I couldn’t bear losing you, you big dummy,” she whispered, “You have to stay with me.”

Slowly, Rayla bent down to give him a kiss on his forehead. 

Then his green eyes shot open, and he sat upward with a start. 

“Rayla?” he croaked, his mouth curl into a stupid grin which she wanted to kiss a million times over, “Did it work?”

Rayla let out a sob of elatement, and tackled him in a big hug.

“You always wake up at the worst time,” she laugh, her tears dripping down onto his jacket shoulder, “Don’t scare me like that.”

Callum laughed, and hugged her tightly back, before kissing her gently on the forehead, “I’m sorry I scared you. I’m okay now.”

“Rayla,” a called said from behind her—  Lain— “What is going on? Why are you with this… human?”

Callum looked at Rayla, eyes wide.

“It worked,” she says quietly, a smile spreading across her lips, “You did it.”

Callum’s eyed widened to a beam— his happiness for her happiness so pure and clear. 

With one quick squeeze of Rayla’s hand, Callum stood up to look at Tiadrin, Lain, and Runaan. 

“Hello,” Callum announced, as he raised his hand to a dorkish wave, “I’m Callum, the, er, human. Nice to meet y—“

Before Callum could finish his sentence, Runaan lunged forward in a blur of motion. Callum found himself pressed up against the stone wall, his lifted up so he was eye to eye with Runaan. The cold steel of Runaan’s blade pressed his throat. 

“Runaan, don’t!” Rayla yelped, “Don’t hurt him!”

“He’s the crown prince!” Runaan snarled, “Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because he’s my friend,” Rayla explained, thinking back to her conversation with Sol Regem, “Runaan, he and King Ezran helped return Zym to his mother. They’re good! Runaan, Callum risked everything to save you and my parents. For me.”

Runaan’s eyes dawned with realization. Slowly, his grip of Callum loosened as he let him gently back onto the floor. 

“He did dark magic,” Tiadrin remarked, her eyes narrowed with skepticism, “To release us. He’s a human!”

“I practice primal magic,” Callum clarified, his voice raspy from Runaan’s hold on his throat, “the sky primal, specifically, although Rayla has been teaching me some moon magic as well.”

“That’s… impossible,” Tiadrin gasped, “A human can’t learn a primal!”

“It’s not impossible. Callum’s just the first” Rayla explained.

“You look just how I remember from when I casted historia viventum,” Callum remarked, as he looked at Tiadrin and Lain, “You look so much like your mother, Rayla!”

“Rayla,” I will not ask again, sneered Lain, his eyes cast at Callum in disgust, “We are gone for years, and we wake to find you with a filthy, disgusting human. They hate us, Rayla!”

Rayla’s brows furrow in anger, 

“How dare you, dad? How dare you insult Callum after he saved you. Everything we knew about humans is wrong, father. Yes, some are bad, but no more than us. Callum and the people of Katolis put aside the prejudices they learned about us when he met me— can you please do the same? Callum is not a filthy human, dad. He’s smart, brave, talented, funny, caring, and meeting him has been the best thing that ever happened to me. So please, give him a chance because I love him and I know you can grow to love him too.”

Out of breathe by the end of her passionate speech, Rayla gasped, as the full reality of everything she just said truly processed. Lain and Tiadrin stared at her in shocked silence.

“It’s true,” Callum added, “Elves and humans— we don’t have to hate each other. Things are changing.”

Tiadrin and Lain slowly turned to each other. After a moment of silence conversation and a nod, they stepped forward to their daughter.

“My Rayla,” remarked Tiadrin, “You have grown a lot. Haven’t you?”

Rayla’s heart sobbed with relief, and she nodded. 

“Yes, I have,” she agreed.

“And you were never one to follow convention,” Lain adds, “You couldn’t have just found a nice Moonshadow boy and joined the Dragonguard together, could you?”

“I was banished,” Rayla stated flatly, to which Runaan lowered his head in shame, “This is my home now. Callum, Ezran, and Zym— they’re my home now.”

Callum, who had quietly walked up to stand beside Rayla, put a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

“We visited Ethari,” he mentioned. Runaan’s downcast eyes moved upward to meet Callum’s at the sound of his husband’s name, “He misses you, Runaan. He… he thinks you’re dead.”

“My flower,” realized Runaan, “When Viren cast his spell, it…”

Rayla nodded, “It sank. Mine was the only one left.”

Callum could see the glimmer of tears in Runaan’s eyes. Stoic as ever, however, the elf held them back.

“Runaan, he’s going to be so happy to see you again,” Callum insisted, and “And I’m so happy to meet you, Tiadrin and Lain. Your daughter is the most incredible person I’ve ever met. I can already see how much you she has in her.”

Lain gulped, and turned to speak to Rayla.

“You understand, Rayla, that this is going to take some… getting used to,” he stated. 

“I understand,” Rayla assured, “It’s just… I have my old family back, and Callum has lost all of his parents— his father, his mother, and his step father.”

Runaan flinched, yet Rayla continued, “But we’re all here now, and I was hoping we could form a new one. Together.”

Tiadrin smiled, and took Lain’s hand in her own. 

“We should all get some rest, and talk more in the morning. We’ve much to discuss.”

“You may rest,” declared Runaan, “I am leaving for the Silvergrove. My husband has waited long enough for me.”

“And you,” said Rayla, as she turned to Callum. Sensing that Rayla wanted to address him privately, Tiadrin and Lain walked off to find a place to sleep. “Should also get some rest. You’re still cold, and pale.”

“Maybe I could do mage wings?” Callum thought out loud, “The feathers could help.”

“No. No more magic for you today,” Rayla decided, “I’ll make you a fire. And here— take my cloak.”

Rayla unclasped the long, green cloak she had taken to wearing at the Storm Spire due to the cold temperatures, and draped it over Callum’s shoulders. 

“You shouldn’t have done that,” she said softly, “I almost lost you again.”

Callum gazed downward, “I know. I just— I could feel that I was so close. And my parents are gone for good, so I thought, if I could do this for you, this one thing, it would be worth it. And…”

Rayla’s brow arched quizzically, “And what.”

“Did you really mean everything you said back there?” Callum asked, “I mean, what you said to your parents. About me.”

Rayla rolled her eyes in amusement, and slung her arm over Callum’s shoulder.

“Of course I did, you dummy. Don’t you know that your soul is my treasure?”