A/N: TW warning: mention of blood and mutilation

"You draw?"

Jofus suddenly yelped, slamming his sketchbook shut so hard on his face, and the sound he caused almost frightened the birds in the area. He whipped his head towards her direction with startling green eyes as if she caught him red-handed stealing her Moonberry juice.

"I'm sorry," Rayla apologized as she stepped back to give the Skywing elf a space to recover his bearings. "I didn't mean to spook you. I've been calling your name several times, but you're not responding, so I went here, and then I saw you busy...doodling."

"Did you see it?"

"What?"

"My drawing," he asked evenly. "Did you see it?"

The Moonshadow shook her head. "Not even a smudge of your pencil."

"Oh. Oh, thank Nexus," he sighed, slipping his sketchbook and his pencil case inside his knapsack.

He patted the loose dirt on his trousers as he stood up. "Are we leaving now?"

"If you're ready."

The two decided to take a short break near the stream to refill their water flasks and to gather enough supplies for their journey. But when Jofus told her that his food keeper was still full, Rayla roamed around to forage for herself instead, leaving him her Moonstrider with an assumption that the Skywing mage would meditate somewhere peaceful and alone.

She didn't expect that Jofus has a hobby.

"I'm sorry if I was rude back then," the Skywing said, rubbing his nape shyly as Rayla mounted her ride. "I was surprised, that's all."

The Moonshadow shrugged him off. "You don't have to explain everything to me. Everyone is entitled to privacy."

"But still."

"You know," she gripped the reins of her Moonstrider while giving him a coolly stare. "You were lucky I found you first, and not some bounty hunters or someone who works under Viren. Don't lower your guard - I've seen some people who did that and lost their head literally the next day."

He gulped audibly. "D-Dully noted."

"Good."

Rayla didn't want to sound mean, but she had to address his carefree attitude before someone ambushed them along their way. Everyone in Xadia has been looking for the mysterious key, and for an elf like Jofus to carry such vital information, she deemed it impossible that no one caught wind of it.

Besides, she wasn't joking when she told him about the possible consequences of being complacent. And the way his face paled at her morbid implication, she knew that he was fully aware of her reputation as the Grim Reaper.

Death follows her wherever she goes.

.

.

.

Rayla wasn't sure if it was her discovery of Jofus' artistic side or their discussion about losing a head that triggered her nightmares that night.

Viren was still present as usual, but instead of facing him in the Storm Spire, they were at the Sunfire elves' relocation camp that his Dark Shadow minions attacked last year.

She knew what unfolded on that day.

She was the only survivor who witnessed the aftermath.

But her dreams somehow changed everything and morphed the Sunfire corpses into people she knew and loved - her parents, Runaan, Ethari...almost everyone in Silvergrove and Katolis. And on the other pile of dead bodies were Ezran, Soren, and Bait.

And Callum?

Callum was kneeling on the ground with both hands tied in the back, and his red scarf was used to gag his mouth. His forest green eyes went glassy when the dark mage fisted his brown hair, forcing the prince to tilt his head up and face her direction.

She knew it wasn't real yet her sleep-induced brain told her otherwise.

She was pleading to Viren to let the prince go, but the man only smirked at her cries and answered her by raising a silver blade and slashing it across Callum's jugular.

Blood spurted everywhere as the dark mage slashed his blade again to the prince's neck for a cleaner cut, then kicked his headless body from behind as it slumped to the ground like a rag doll.

Rayla couldn't hear his words anymore at the sound of her cries, and when he tossed her beloved's lifeless head straight to her shaky arms, her dam broke.

"No!" The Moonshadow sobbed, cradling Callum's head against her chest as her life depended on it. "No, no, no! No! Callum!"

"Rayla!"

"Callum!"

"Rayla, wake up!"

"Callum! Callum!"

"Rayla!"

She was still recovering from her dream haze when her assassin instinct suddenly kicked in, prompting her to pull one of her twin blades and aimed it at the person looming above her.

"W-What..." her voice croaked when she finally registered her surroundings. Her unsteady right hand was holding her weapon in a protective stance while her left was supporting her upper body's weight as she sat to the ground. "What in the fresh hell are you doing?"

"You were trashing in your sleep," Jofus explained, his green eyes flickered nervously from hers to the silver blade that was inches away from his throat. "I tried to wake you up, but all of a sudden you, well, you tried to decapitate me."

Guilt flooded her as she withdrew her blade away from the Skywing and sheathed it on her back. "I-I'm sorry. For attacking you. I usually sleep alone so I'm not used to having someone rousing me up when I have an episode."

"It's okay, no harm was done." Jofus sat on the ground so he could assess her at eye level. "Has this happened before? Attacking people after waking up from a nightmare?"

She mulled over whether to tell him about the innkeeper incident but opted not to instead. "Let's just say that this is the main reason why I prefer camping outdoors."

He frowned. "That doesn't sound good. Here, let me help you."

Rayla tried not to resist when the Skywing took her water flask from her clammy hands and uncapped it for her.

"T-Thanks," she uttered blankly.

"No problem."

She couldn't believe how thirsty she was until she emptied her container in one down.

"When I was trying to snap you out from your nightmares, you screamed someone's name...someone named Callum," she jolted at the mention of her boyfriend's name, and when she looked at him, his face remained unreadable.

"Is he..." Jofus wetted his lips. "Is he tormenting you in your sleep?"

"No," the Moonshadow murmured, her calloused fingers toying the leather strap of her water flask with downcast eyes. "It's the opposite, actually. He's the one being tormented in my dreams. Callum. It's always him."

"Callum...he's Prince Callum, right? The prince of Katolis?"

Rayla did not answer him.

"And this kind of dream...how long have you been having it?"

"Two years."

She didn't know why she was telling him about it, but there was something in Jofus' presence that made her feel secure and safe to reveal her innermost thoughts.

"You know how dreams are the manifestation of our subconsciousness, right?" She went on when he gave her a nod. "Whenever I recall a bad event in the past, my brain will twist it and replace the offended parties with people I care the most. Despite knowing that it wasn't real, my nightmares will still make me react horribly. It seems...it seems that you can't simply beat your inner demons with logic and reasoning."

"Have you tried seeking professional help?"

"And what, force me to take some medicines and attend therapy sessions that will consume so much time, time that I could have used to find Viren?" she scoffed at his suggestion. "My nightmares will only end once Viren is captured or dead."

"But - "

"Drop it, Jofus," she warned with a beady glare. "Your mission is to lead me to where the key is, not to be my shrink."

The Skywing was about to retort when something caught his attention instead.

"Erm, Rayla?"

"What?"

"What happened to your neck?"

"Just an old wound," she muttered when she noticed that her scarf was a bit loose, exposing a purplish band just above her collar. She immediately fixed the red fabric around her neck, then looped it more securely to hide the nasty mark from his privy eyes. "It's nothing."

"That's not nothing," he gave her an incredulous look. "That wound looks infected! Let me -"

Rayla slapped his wrist before he could reach her scarf out of reflex, and the action shocked them both.

"I'm sorry!" Jofus withdrew automatically then raised both of his hands above his head as if surrendering. "I should have respected your boundaries but my curiosity got ahead of me and I know some healing spells that can - "

"You can't," she cut off his blabbering, then curled her body slightly inward. "Primal spells can't do anything to wounds inflicted by Dark Magic."

"Wha-what do you mean by Dark - "

Before he could finish his sentence, Rayla slid back to her sleeping mat with her back facing him. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. Good night, Jofus. See you in the morning."

A few minutes had passed before she heard his exasperated sigh behind her, muttering 'Good night, Rayla' then shuffled away.

.

.

.

Jofus was giving her a silent treatment the next day.

While she appreciated that he wasn't nagging her for details during breakfast, his brooding attitude was very much unwelcome. And the way he flew just above her, his mage wings casting a shadow that shielded her from direct sunlight, it made her feel like he was a predator and she was his prey.

Rayla wasn't in a mood to deal with his childish behavior.

She heard a yowl, followed by a gust of wind caused by a very annoyed elf who landed unceremoniously in front of her and blocked her way.

"Did you just fucking throw me a walnut?!"

"You were giving me a look like I insulted your mother!" the Moonshadow spat as she unmounted her ride. "So let's get straight to the point, Birdman."

He sputtered. "B-Birdman?"

It was almost their lunchtime so she used it as an opportunity to make him stop beating around the bush.

"Are you really that desperate to know my neck wound?"

Jofus blinked at her with disbelief, and when it dawned to him that she wasn't joking, he flashed her a toothy grin. "If you can tell me the story behind it that would be great."

"You're not even trying to deny it." she deadpanned.

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "You offered so who am I to become choosy? Besides, I don't gossip."

"Swear to your arcanum."

"Swear to my what?"

"Your arcanum," Rayla gave him a narrow stare. "Are Skywing kids not making promise swears or their dead ancestors will smite them?"

The Skywing broke a sweat as he fiddled the edge of his overcoat with his fingers nervously. "I'm, ah, homeschooled?"

She jerked a brow. "Is that a question?"

"No?" he squeaked at her inquisitive gaze, then raised his right hand and recited, "I, Jofus, solemnly swear over my ancestors' dead body that I will never, ever tell Rayla's secrets to anyone."

She gave him another long, hard look before she shrugged it off. "That's not how you swear to your arcanum, but I'll take it anyway. Besides, I can easily chop off your tongue before you can spill my secret."

She heard him gulped audibly.

The Moonshadow walked towards the clearing where a large log was in the middle. She patted a space on her right, then scooted a little when the Skywing mage took her hint and sat beside her.

"A year ago, a group of Dark Shadows attacked a Sunfire relocation camp near the Shiverglades," she began. "Several families who were looking for a better place after the collapse of Lux Aurea were slaughtered mercilessly by the same creature who destroyed their hometown. Nobody survived," her jaw clenched at the memory. "Men, women, children...all of them were butchered like animals. Garlath knows what happened to their missing body parts, or what kind of dark spells were created out of it."

"And you were there."

"I was late," the Moonshadow clenched her fists on her lap. "If I didn't make a little detour, I could have saved that boy's life. He was the last survivor, or supposed to be one if they didn't capture him. You have no idea how intense my rage was when they beheaded him in front of his family's corpses. He was barely ten, Jofus, ten fucking years old, and was crying for his mom."

"I don't think I can sit back and watch there without doing anything." the Skywing murmured with controlled anger.

"See, that was my biggest mistake," she nudged him lightly with her elbow. "I was blindsided by my extreme emotions to notice that the dark mage's daughter was behind me all along."

"Claudia?"

"You know her?" The Moonshadow asked when her companion lashed his head towards her with bewilderment.

"Uh, no?"

Rayla didn't buy it but decided not to pry further.

"I don't know why you know her or even care as to how, but at least you have an idea of her magical capabilities, especially with dozens of undead army as her back-up, and anti-elven 'ingredients' lying on the ground literally at her disposal," she made an air-quote on the ingredients to emphasize. "Claudia...she was powerful, way more powerful than our last encounter with the dragon. But I was faster."

"I didn't kill her if that's what you want to know next," she added when the Skywing opened his mouth to ask, only to shut it closed at her answer. "Not that I can't kill her, but I am obligated not to for the sake of my friends - and one of them is her brother. She's pretty much untouchable in my books, even though she holds a deep-seated grudge against me. That's why she gave me this."

She pulled her scarf a bit to reveal a sliver of her neck mark, then covered it again. "Several healers told me that it was a severing mark. It's like our assassin's binding where it will grow tighter as the days progress until one of your body parts falls off - in my case, my head."

"And you're okay with it?"

Jofus' voice hitched a little, but she waved it dismissively with a chuckle. "My head is perfectly well-intact, as you can see, so the spell didn't work, or as many mages believed, wasn't executed properly. I don't know why Claudia failed back then. Maybe she needed something to complete the spell, like my spit or my toenails, or maybe one of my horns. Or maybe I was lucky enough to escape before she could finish her incantations. Anyw - Jofus?"

Of all the reactions that she could imagine for Jofus to express, crying wasn't one of them.

"Why," the Skywing gripped her shoulders firmly as tears welled on his forest green eyes. "Why are you acting like it's nothing?! Why are you devaluing your life like that?!"

"We are not immortal, Jofus," she told him with a straight-laced face. "And we are in the midst of war. Half of our bodies are already buried six feet below the ground, and it will only hurt you more if you don't admit that you will eventually die. The sooner you accept the truth, the freer you become."

"But that doesn't mean you can throw your life away like that!" he retorted hotly. "I know death is inevitable, but the way you see yourself in a dangerous situation concerns me. Scares me. Don't you have people whom you care about the most? What about them? What do you think they will feel about it? What about Callum?"

Her body went stiff as she flashed him a warning look. "Callum has nothing to do with this."

"Of course, he does! He loves you!"

"And he shouldn't!" she yelled back. "I left him Jofus, on the night before his birthday, even though I promised him that we're going to find Viren together. Do you know how shit that action was? Lying on your beloved's face without batting an eye? Strong relationships need honesty, the full truth, and I gave him none of that!"

She stood up with her back facing him, then wiped a stray tear on her cheek harshly with her palm. "I'm a mess, Jofus, a walking disaster, a living bomb that can explode anytime soon. I have demons in my head that I can't kill for years. I'm a ghost, a banished elf that's severely broken beyond repair."

"Callum deserves someone better," she went on as she kept her emotions at bay. "He's royalty, a prince, with a brother who loves him so dearly. He's wise and noble, and pure. He has a bright future ahead of him. Me, on the other hand... I have nothing. I don't have a title or any riches to share. My parents were labeled as traitors, my foster father murdered his father, and I was ghosted by my kind. I am nothing but a problem, one with mental baggage, and I don't want to subject him to that. Not to mention the fact that I'm an elf, and he's a human."

"Callum doesn't care about any of those."

"No, he doesn't," she turned around and noted how blotchy his cheeks were from crying. "But I don't want to put him in a position where he had to choose between Katolis and me. And he has a track record of almost killing himself for following me, so I want him to stop that."

"You know why everyone calls me Grim Reaper, right?" she continued with a leveled tone. "The mass killing on the Sunfire's relocation camp wasn't the only slaughtering that I've stumbled in the past. Hell, I couldn't count how many dead people I've seen this year alone. And the worst thing was that none of these had any survivors left. That's why people are scared of me. It's a fucking irony, really. I, a Moonshadow assassin turned Ghost, became a harbinger of death."

"If only Callum accompanied you..." Jofus stared to the ground solemnly, "If he was with you all along, maybe...maybe you'll never suffer this way. Alone."

"I'd rather choose to die than to see him killed, mutilated or tortured," was her stern reply. "He's the reason why I'm still alive in this world, Jofus. He keeps me grounded. And knowing that he's alive and safe somewhere and away from this bloody war zone washes away all of my pain and suffering because I'm doing all of these for him. It's always for him. He's the only one that's left for me, and I'm willing to sacrifice myself to give him the world he deserves to live."

"But what if you're his world, Rayla?" he asked. "What if he's out there looking for you?"

"He will only see me once Viren is dead," she responded as she walked back to her Moonstrider, her lunch left forgotten.

Her steps faltered as she glanced back. "You probably know Callum by association, or met him personally due to your shared passion, but whatever revelations I shared with you today, you have to keep it as a secret."

"You made me swore to my arcanum, remember?" Jofus replied with a forced smile. "Besides, I don't gossip."

She smiled back. "Thank you."

A rumble of thunder roared from afar caught her attention.

"We have to move faster before a storm hits us," she suggested, but the Skywing mage shook his head.

"I don't think we will make it on time," he said, with green eyes fixated on the dark clouds looming above them. "We need to find shelter. Now."