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“What about snowius? Or icemus? Snowflakio! Frostablast!”
Rayla props herself up on one shoulder and squints at the boys. They’ve stopped for the day, gathered in a cave under a rock face that juts out from the curve of the mountain. The sun is sinking slowly in the sky, and the valley below them is all shadows and golden speckles.
Rayla looks over curiously from atop her slab of granite. “What are you doing?”
“Magic,” Ezran pipes up, bushy hair peeking over Callum’s shoulder.
“Really.” She raises an eyebrow.
“We’re… experimenting!” Callum blurts out brightly. “Yep, we are practicing magic, super fancy magic, I mean, I doubt you would even understand the complex process of, uh…”
“—drawing little doodles in the air and yelling?” Rayla teases, smirking.
Callum coughs. Next to him, Ezran’s innocent gaze is way too gleeful to be convincing. Rayla looks at their matching expressions disbelievingly and wonders why in the name of Xadia she’s attached to these dorks.
“Well, have fun with your magic,” she says, turning back around to enjoy her sunny rock. “I’m sure snowflakio is the word you’re looking for. ”
She can practically see Callum’s scowl. “Cue the curiosity, in three, two, one…”
“Do you know the Draconic word for ice?”
Rayla rolls over, and adopts a tone that she would use when explaining something to a small child. “Elf.” She points to herself and raises her eyebrows meaningfully.
“Dragon.” She gestures to Zym, who’s piled in Ezran’s arms, licking his face. “Go ask him, for god's sake.”
Callum eyes at Zym skeptically, and gives Rayla a suspicious look. She shoots him a cheery grin and turns back over, rolling her eyes.
“Fool.”
She can hear them muttering in the background, and Zym scrambling over a few loose rocks. Bait belches from somewhere behind her, and a light breeze blows free hairs into her mouth. Rayla closes her eyes and sighs peacefully.
“I don’t know,” Ezran is saying, “Zym said something like that.”
“Let’s try it.” There’s an undeniable element of excitement in Callum’s voice. “Glacies!”
Rayla feels the temperature change right away and her eyebrows furrow worriedly, but she doesn’t get up. It’s only a little bit colder, and her rock is still comfortable and sunny.
“Rayla?”
Ezran.
“Rayla, I think Callum needs help.”
She gets up, and her mouth parts in surprise when she sees the pair of them. Ezran is guiltily holding Zym, and beside him, Callum is drawing random symbols in the air, his hair gathering frost.
“It worked?” Callum winces at her, and she folds her arms.
“You actually asked the dragon?”
“It was your idea!” he sputters.
“I was joking!” Rayla cries, throwing her arms out. She’s never been good at concealing her concern. “I didn’t think he would know!”
“I’m sorry,” Ezran says mournfully, looking up at her. “I was the one who asked Zym for the magic word.”
“It’s not your fault,” Rayla responds gently, bending down and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Or Zym’s.”
She stands up. “Callum, why would you try a spell without knowing the other half of it? Remember the last time we did that?” Rayla has a distinct and unappreciative recollection of puffy hair and electricity buzzing in her ears.
“At least this one doesn’t seem to do much damage. What were you trying to do, anyway? It’s sunny out!” She shakes her head, moving to swat at him playfully.
“Don’t touch me!”
“What?” Her hand is inches from his arm.
“I don’t want to give you the spell,” Callum says, somewhat desperately.
“Callum, what’s wrong?” When he doesn’t respond, she narrows her eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s cold,” he says quietly.
“Yeah, it’s cold,” she replies obviously. “You used glacies.”
“It’s cold.” He holds up his hands, shivering slightly. The pallor of them is striking, drained of color and tinging on blue. “Do you know the rune to release the spell?”
“Rune, a rune, the rune for glacies,” Rayla rambles, staring at his hands, lips pursed worriedly. When she flicks her eyes up to his face, she’s close enough to see icy crystals piling on his eyelashes. Her face twists in distress. “I’m not a mage, Callum!”
“I am open to suggestions,” he grins nervously, fidgeting. “I mean, you’re magic.”
“Not that kind!”
Ezran appears between them, his eyebrows drawn in concentration. “Zym says that the rune looked kind of squiggly.”
“Great. It’s squiggly.” Ralya throws her hands up in defeat. “We’re saved.”
“Any-anything else?” Callum asks hopefully.
Ezran listens closely as Zym chatters around his shoulders. “Maybe a plus sign?”
“A plus sign,” Callum muses, sketching it out in the air. He sighs. “Nothing.”
“Callum.” Rayla holds a hand out, thinking. “Try drawing a snowflake. A swirly one.”
“Yes! Rayla, you’re brilliant!” he shouts.
She hummed in response, watching anxiously as Callum traces a symbol seemingly from memory. He’s strange that way. Humans shouldn’t have that instinctual connection with magic.
The rune glows before him, illuminating their faces for a second before it fades. “Snowflakio has been deactivated,” Callum sighs, relieved.
“It’s glacies,” she mutters under her breath, and Callum glances up at her, smiling.
“I’m thawing,” he protests at her disapproving look. “Hey, do you know any fire magic?”
“NO, Callum, absolutely not, no—”
He raises his hands in surrender. “Rayla, I didn’t mean—I’m just cold.”
“Still?” She looks around, taking in the warm weather.
“Yeah, he is cold,” Ezran nods, matter of fact. He’s holding Callum’s hand between his own, sitting against his brother’s side.
Rayla folds to the ground next to them and lets out a small gasp when she takes his other hand. “You’re freezing.”
“I thought I was Callum,” he mumbles, letting his head fall on her shoulder.
“You’re an idiot, that’s what,” Rayla responds fondly.
Callum pulls his hand away and deftly slips it behind her neck, giggling when Rayla shrieks in surprise. She blows warm air into her hands, dancing in place. “Too cold, too cold, too cold—”
Ezran has the audacity to laugh at her peril, and she fixes him with a weak glare. “It’s not funny,” she grumbles. “Is this human humor?”
“No,” Callum says simply, smiling. He pulls Ezran between them. “Here, Ez is like a human radiator. He’ll keep us both warm.”
“You did look pretty funny though,” Ezran tells her, and she doesn’t complain because he really is warm and she doesn’t want him to move. She doesn’t want Callum to move either. This feels safe.
Rayla doesn’t remember falling asleep, but she wakes up with Ezran curled against her leg and Callum’s head on her chest. Zym chirps at her curiously from a nearby rock, and she squints up at him.
“I don’t know why they’re like this,” she says, looking down at them. She pats Callum’s hair, unrealistically soft after weeks of adventuring. “I mean, I’m not human, or whatever a radiator is.”
_____
Callum walks up to her several months later when she’s enjoying a nice view and a drink of moonberry juice. He leans over her shoulder, smirking, and snaps his fingers. “Glacies.”
An ice cube materializes and drops into her glass with a quiet plop, and Callum slides out her line of vision smoothly. She can hear him celebrating not so quietly as he leaves her, and she rolls her eyes.
“I can hear you, you idiot,” Rayla calls over her shoulder. “What was that supposed to prove, anyway?”
“Hey!”
She sips her drink, smiling.