White Wings - Rayllum One-Shots (OLD)

Mirror-Glazed Eyes

Warnings: major character death (??), cursing

"Choose!"  Viren barked. His staff was raised high in the air as he pushed Rayla down. Scars littered over her body with more blood and bruises than actual skin as her chest heaved against the impact. 

How was she supposed to choose when she was faced with a decision such as this?

"Either you let Callum die and I take the baby dragon, or you take Aaravos's place in the mirror." 

The dark mage's words drowned out her thoughts. A searing white-hot pain met her skin as Rayla bit down on her tongue to stop herself from crying out. Her head was in more pain than she could ever describe, the room was spiraling around her until she could have sworn that she was nothing more than the point of a spinning top. Spots flooded her vision as she coughed out something metallic that only showed as a hue of black onto the stone floor of the cold, dark room. 

But when her eyes met Callum's, turned to stone next to her, Rayla realized her situation was far worse than what her boyfriend was going through.

She looked at his eyes, once a lively emerald green, but turned into something that she never could have expected could have been so empty. How, how could those eyes have been the same that had looked at her with love just yesterday?

And Zym! What was she supposed to do?

Aaravos had been the star touch elf that in which first helped a dark mage build his staff, and Queen Zubeia cursed him into the mirror. The mirror, she had heard from Ethari, was nothing but a curse worse than death. No matter the possibilities of magic in the mirror, it was always going to be quiet, quiet and so isolated.

No matter what she chose, she was always going to end up being alone.

"Choose!" Viren roared. "I'm losing my patience! If you take his place, you will get the privilege to be able to talk freely and roam around. But you will live forever. And you can never leave your suffering."

All of the words that Rayla once had were bit back deep in her throat. She couldn't make a sound even if she wanted to.

"If you won't pick, I'll destroy them on the spot!" Viren said. He took his spear out, pointed it at Callum's head. Even with the slightest knock of the statue, Callum could end up in over a thousand pieces on the floor.

"10!" 

Rayla looked around for any answer, loophole, anything.

"9!" 

Nothing.

"8!"

The spear moved closer.

"7!"

She tried to break free of her chains that were tied to the ground.

"6!"

But to no avail- she was stuck.

"5!"

The spear crackled with blue light and energy, approaching closely.

"4!" 

She was stuck.

"3!" 

In all her life, she had never felt so empty and full of pain.

"2!"

"I'll do it!"

Viren raised his eyebrows and flashed a venomous smile. "I knew you'd make the right decision, Rayla."

And even though Viren was someone who couldn't be trusted, at least he followed through with his deal, Rayla thought. She needed something, anything to distract her from the situation she was in.

Within moments, a flicker of green began to spark along statue-Callum's feet, and then grew into a flame that danced up to Callum's head, until it exploded into a firework of green flames. And slowly, but surely, Rayla's eyes met forest green.

The dark mage slowly began to leave the room.

"Rayla!" Callum exclaimed, not even giving a second of breathing time in-between figuring out what to do go about the situation. Callum, Rayla had realized, was always the first person no matter what to realize something was wrong, because Callum's face crumpled when he noticed that the look in Rayla's eyes weren't right.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

Unwelcomed tears spilled over Rayla's eyes.

"I... I'm sorry Callum," Rayla trembled, a rush of emotions passing over her. She doubled over as her entire soul, entire being, all of her memories pull and gravitate towards the mirror. The fingertips that had been bleeding began to fade away into nothing and traced down to her feet, and the next thing she knew--

--Callum was an entire world away from her, despite being no more than a mere distance apart.

It's for him. It's for him.

The expression on Callum's face at the realization was somehow more shattering than an eternity in a mirror.

"I'm sorry,"  Rayla spoke, knowing well that Callum couldn't hear it. "I love you, Callum."

Slowly, she placed her forehead against the mirror, staring at her shoes at tears fell down her face as her entire being began to crumble. She sunk down to the floor as suppressed sobs died in her throat. She had to be strong, for Callum. It was for Callum, he'd be okay. He'd always end up okay.

"No, no, nonono," Callum croaked. His voice broke as he doubled over onto his knees and placed his hands on the mirror. An agonizing, deafening silence filled the atmosphere as Callum's slow, agitated taps grew into denial, into rage, into chaos, demanding vengeance as a tore ripped through Callum's throat. "Fuck! Rayla, Rayla, you're going to get out of there, alright? I'll- I'll figure something out. I can, I can figure- I c..can, I'll figure it out, and you're going to be okay, alright? You'll be fine, it'll be okay, god, how could you be so stupid? Rayla, you should have let me die, what are you doing, I-"

Rayla couldn't hear him.

Callum's voice broke into nothing but the remains of a soft whisper-- "why?"

And Rayla could never hear him again.

And he could never hear her again.

Never again would he be able to hear her laugh when Callum said a wry joke that, actually, wasn't very wry. Never again could he hear her voice flow with words of certainty, words of comfort that they'd be okay, and god, he really wished he could hear it again. He could never feel her warm embrace ever again, the war her arms would wrap around her with a tenderness that he could never quite place. Never again could he be there for her to wipe away her tears, or to say something creative enough to make her laugh. Never again would he be able to hold her face, press her forehead against his lips and tell her that she was enough. He could never reminisce again on the times that they'd fought together, on the times they'd laughed and Rayla had taught him how to sword-fight as he failed miserably, or pick up a charcoal pencil and draw the love of his life without a sense of agony ripping through him.

Everything hurt so much to the point that it died into nothing but a bittersweet numbness. The calm after a wildfire, the smoke that traced over the burning buildings, but yet the world was quiet as if nothing had been burned down.

He pressed his forehead against the mirror too, wishing nothing more but to comfort Rayla.

And it was silent once again.