Callum x Rayla-Darkness

Planning

Yalaxy sat in the audience chamber of King Ezran. They had just received word from their northern garrison that a large army was moving towards the castle. They had attacked the garrison and only a few soldiers survived. Those that did said that they saw Viren leading the army. It was confirmed that they had dark mages with them. Yalaxy smiled, "finally decided to go all in huh," he thought. It was no surprise to him. Callum and him were the two biggest obstacles in a path towards conquering the world. Ezran was extremely worried. 

"How many battalions do we have at the ready," he asked. Amaya had been at the castle and was now the head general of the Katolis Army after the previous one had died of a stroke.

'We have hundreds of thousands of troops ready to defend the castle,' she signed as Gren translated for her. 'The question is whether or not they will be enough to stop Viren. He will undoubtedly have a plan in place. He did last time and it almost succeeded." Ezran nodded.

"I trust you're discretion with this. Update me on anything that happens and evacuate the towns in his path. We to save as many lives as possible," Ezran said. His concern for his people never failed to show.

"I will fight as well. Aaravos made his most powerful weapon from my father. I won't let him tarnish his legacy any farther," Yalaxy said. "Besides, he already knows that he can't hope to face me in direct confrontation. He certainly has a plan," Yalaxy said. He wondered what it could be. Dark magic was out of the question, and that left primal magic. There were an infinite number of possibilities, but which one.

Just then the screech of a phoenix and the sound of a dragon landing could be heard in the courtyard. Yalaxy went with Ezran and Soren to the courtyard. They saw Callum and Rayla getting off of Pyrrah and three other elves dismounting a much larger dragon. A moon phoenix was there as well and it was carrying a certain illusionist. "I must say, I knew you needed help but I didn't expect such a blunt letter. 'Dear Lujanne, we need your help with a big problem at the Katolis Castle. Please help.' Who wrote this?" she Lujanne asked.

"I did," Yalaxy said, "forgive me, but I was short on time," he said.

"Well Ezran was kind enough to fill me in on the rest of the details," Lujanne said. Ezran and sent another letter which was caught by Phoe-Phoe in mid air. Ezran ran over to hug Callum and Rayla.

"It's good to see you guys again. I thought you wouldn't make it back in time," Ezran said.

"Like we'd miss the biggest fight of our lives," Callum joked. Ezran turned his attention to the three elves that were with Callum and Rayla. Ezran didn't recognize two of them, but he recognized one of them. It was the assassin on the roof of the castle that night when he had the egg. Runaan recognized him too. If awkward had a picture, this would be it. It disappeared as both hid it rather quickly. Ezran gave a genuine smile to the other two.

"Nice to meet you. Who are you again?" he asked.

"Oh right, Ezran these are my parents," she gestured to them.

"It's nice to meet you, uh?" he still didn't have their names.

"Lain," Lain shook his hand.

"Tiadrin," she shook his hand as well.

"Mom, Dad, this is Callum's brother. Ezran the King of Katolis," Rayla said. Runaan was a bit uncomfortable. Rayla didn't introduce him, but he figured introductions were not needed. They kind of already knew each other. Hopefully he could find a way to apologize to the young king. It wouldn't do to let unresolved conflicts fester. After all, he wouldn't admit his mistake if it had just been that, but Ethari had to spend years alone. That meant more to him than his pride. 

"Well now that you're here Callum, we need to go over strategy," Gren said. "The soldiers know the plan, but we decided to send you and Yalaxy in after the fight has started to give the struggling divisions a hand as needed." Callum turned to look at Yalaxy and he nodded in agreement.

"What about us?" Lain asked. He wanted to help. After all, any enemy of that foul dark mage was a friend of theirs.

"We didn't plan on any extra help other than Lujanne and her illusions, but-" Gren started to say but Yalaxy cut him off.

"You can guard King Ezran. I Have a feeling Viren will try and finish us by taking out our head. He never attacks the thing he is after directly," Yalaxy said. "He also knew that Aaravos architected this plan of theirs. So he knew it would be a confrontational fight. They would be the last line. It was a job they were familiar with although he would make sure it ended differently this time. "Rayla, you will be Lujanne's mage guard. Keep her from getting hurt while she casts," Yalaxy said. The plan was finalized. The Katolin army  would intercept the invading force with the two ghouls and Lujanne as back up. It was as sound a plan as they could hope for with such an unpredictable foe. Yalaxy expected, no, was sure something was about to go wrong. At that moment, rumbling could be heard from very far away. Callum picked up on it as well. Ghouls had better hearing. They seemed to be about 4 hours away from where the army was. The fact that they could be heard at this distance, even by ghouls, was unsettling.

"They are 4 hours out. We need to get into position. Take Ezran to the Bather lodge as planned," Callum said.

"Make sure that you're alive when I come back," Ezran said to all of them.

"Same to you Ez," Rayla told him. Ezran left with Soren. He was also leading the way for Tiadrin and Lain.

"From dragon guard to crown guard. How amusing," Yalaxy thought. Still though if they were after Ezran. Three well trained warriors would be better than one. Finally, after all of this time. Yalaxy would finally be able to let his family rest in peace. It was definitely going to be worth the wait.