The Halfing

Chapter 4: Terror

Claudia knew full well she'd missed her chance.

That chance had come when she was sixteen at the Moon Nexus, when she'd chosen to pull away from Callum and instead inform him of the king's death. Or maybe she'd ruined her chances when she'd chosen to try and bring him and Ezran back to Katolis by force. No. It had been ruined when she chose dark magic over the lives of people she'd known as long as she could remember. She'd never forget the look of disgust on Callum's face the one time she saw him between the battle at the Storm Spire and capturing him a month and a half earlier.

It's not fair.

Somewhere in all the mess that was her life at the moment, she had fallen for Callum and fallen hard. But despite his massive and obvious crush on her in their youth, he'd clearly moved on from her. He'd married that Moonshadow elf and had a daughter he loved more than anything in the world. And Claudia could understand why he hated her now. She'd barged in with a small elven army and ripped his already-broken family to even smaller shreds. In her head she'd justified it by making up some lie to herself about Rayla casting some kind of charm on Callum to trick him, but she knew Moonshadow elves didn't do that kind of magic.

She needed answers. And since talking to Callum didn't do any good, she only had one option for those answers.

The elf who'd stolen Callum's heart.

As she approached Rayla's cell, she noticed that the former assassin was sitting, waiting for something. Their eyes met. Rayla narrowed hers and looked away.

"What do you want, Dark Mage?" she snapped.

"I... I wanted to ask you some things."

"Like my daughter's whereabouts? Sorry, no idea."

"No. About Callum."

"What about Callum?"

"How... how did you get him to fall for you?" Rayla raised an eyebrow.

"Are you asking me for advice on how to seduce my husband?"

"NO! I just—he had a crush on me for the longest time and then suddenly, he's with you. Like I didn't even matter to him."

"Well, let's see. I spent time with him. We went through hell and back to get Zym back to his mum. We got to know each other... yeah, that's about it."

"That's it?!"

"Yep. All that's required to have any kinda relationship."

"I knew him before you did. And I spent time with him. I knew him."

"No, ya didn't. He hated dark magic and ya did it thinkin' he would like it. Or didn't ya see how he spat out yer pancakes at the Moon Nexus?"

"That's—"

"How about the fact that I comforted him when he was dealin' with Harrow's death, after you told him and then ran away to cry to Soren? I was keepin' it from him because I didn't know how to tell him and I didn't want him to get hurt. And when ya tried to kill a dragon, after he did dark magic for the only time in his life, ya know what happened? He became extremely ill and I had to take care of him. I was more terrified of losin' him than I was angry at him for usin' dark magic. We depend on each other and support each other. That's why we love each other."

Claudia felt a lump in her throat.

"I... I had no idea..."

"Of course ya didn't. Ya didn't stick around ta see the fallout of anythin'."

She was right. Claudia had always avoided those confrontations because she didn't want anyone to get hurt, but sometimes that hurt more than the confrontations themselves. Rayla was still by Callum's side even though much of her kind regarded her as a traitor of the highest order because of her relationship with him. She was the one raising a child with him and creating a life that Claudia could have had if things were much different.