The New King

Chapter 2: Years Later

It had been a few years since Callum last went to the tower, 4 years in fact. He had gotten slightly better at his sword-fighting skills and had gotten more involved in political meetings.

He's more respected and will be quite a good prince in the noble's words. He may be older than Ezran, but he's not the king's biological son, so Ezran is the first choice for king.

Today, he just felt bored, he had no classes today, no meetings to go to, it was just a calm day in the castle, Callum hated calm days.

He gets bored very easily, along with being a fast learner. At first, he had started reading, hoping to pass the time, then he finished all his books about magic in record time.

Then, he went to look around the castle, trying to find new places in the palace he hasn't seen yet. Of course, he kept getting drawn back to the idea of going to the tower again, so he gave in eventually and went to the tower.

The place was covered in dust, no one had been in here in years, and the mirror still sat with the tarp covering it, just how Callum left it. Walking over, he pulled out his sketchbook from his bag to finally draw that library from all those years ago, maybe even see that Startouched elf.

So that's how he ended up here, sitting on an old chair in the middle of an overly dusty room in complete darkness, save for the mirror, drawing out the base of the library.

He first drew the basic outline of the room, blobs for bookshelves, the window, and the door. Then a few more blobs for the newer desk. He also noticed a fireplace, another blob.

Then he got into the finer details, the design on the ground, the swirls on the window and door, and actually drawing in the table and chair for the desk.

Next, he drew even more detail, he drew in the books, the fire in the fireplace, the gardens outside the window, and the stuff on the desk.

Finally, he shaded in the books, the door, the window, and the giant blob of a shadow next to the fireplace. Wait, what?

Looking up, he saw the elf once more by the fireplace, just sitting there wrapped in a blanket. By now Callum had deduced both sides needed to be in complete non-magical darkness for both sides to see each other. It was annoying, but why would he care, the elf would probably freak out if they saw him just staring at them from the other side of whatever they have, presumably another mirror.

Yes, if you think about it, staring at a person in a pocket dimension mirror for an hour while adding them to your drawing was probably creepy, but who cares, no one can see him do this plus they seem too relaxed for him to think they really are aware of their surroundings. Of course, a servant would be sent by the king soon to find him after he spent 2 hours somewhere he didn't tell anyone he was going.

So when he heard a knock on the door, he threw over the tarp once more, packed up his things, and raced to the door to see who it was. Opening the door, he saw Opali was the one knocking, the regent surprised by his quick answer. She informed him his father went on a trip to another kingdom and wouldn't be back for a month or two and left her in charge.

He thanked Opali with a bow and exited the room to head back to his chambers.

(Time skip 2 months)

When the King arrived once more, he looked tired and immediately went back to his chambers, not giving anyone the time of day and ordering the guards to not let anyone in for the rest of the night.

Over the next few days, Ezran and Callum threw around theory's about what made the king upset, he hadn't come out of his room once in those few days. Eventually, he did exit his room and the boys were overjoyed. They didn't try to directly ask what made him upset at first, asking how his time was and if anything important happened, which the king shrugged off with short answers, nothing the boys were looking for.

Next, Ezran went up and asked what made the king so upset, and he replied "Oh not much, just a long trip." no one believed him though. Eventually, the king broke, saying how the kingdom he went to visit was Duren and it reminded him of the battle where he lost their mother.

Eventually, he got drawn back to the mirror, telling his father and brother to not worry because he just needed to be alone for a few hours. A new thing was happening with the mirror he noticed when he walked in, he had forgotten to turn back on the lights and the tarp had fallen off, revealing the elf looking through the mirror it seemed. 

This was disproven when Callum walked in front of the mirror and the elf had no reaction, continuing to fix their cloak. It seemed to occur to them though that someone was watching them though, as they looked around them before turning back to the mirror. They seemed spooked, like they knew someone had been there watching them for who knows how long.

When they went to douse the fire, Callum jumped out of the range of sight for the mirror and went to the door, acting as though he had just entered. Walking in front of the mirror once more, he too jumped back as though he wasn't aware the mirror had a person in it, backing away and heading for the door. Thats something to deal with another time.

He lit a candle on his way out and the mirror went blank, most likely confusing the person on the otherside as to why he turned on the candle.