May the Stars Align -- Viravos & Rayllum

chapter 5

Aaravos paced up and down his prison, thoughts running rampant through his head. That was when he had an idea. He sat down and closed his eyes shut. He focused and focused until...he did it. 

Aaravos recalled when he possessed Callum's body and shattered the identical mirror in Xadia. Zubeia disposed of those shards. However, Callum's jacket still contained dust and detritus from that occurence. And Callum left that jacket back at the castle, sporting a new coat for his current mission. Why was this of importance? Right now, in the castle, there were small pieces of the mirror through which Aaravos could send messages and objects. Viren was in the castle. Aaravos' heart pumped with excitement. 

Aaravos no longer had any way of communicating to Viren since Sparklepuff was now dead. At first, Aaravos was entirely content with the idea of never being able to speak to Viren again, that is, at least he had convinced himself of this. As time progressed, as he watched Viren, as he began to understand and wrap his mind around what exactly he had been feeling, this continued to irk him. He needed to reach out to Viren. He didn't exactly know what he should say but he knew he needed to reach out to Viren. 

Aaravos propelled a small pebble through the looking glass and surely it appeared in Callum's room. He enchanted the pebble to travel to Viren. It was fortunate that the glass shard was in the castle because if he were to use the shards in Xadia, someone would have noticed or intercepted the message with no issue. Aaravos watched as the pebble arrived in front of Viren inside of his cell. 

Viren sat. He wore light brown rags and his leg was chained to the ground. Despite the situation, Viren was exactly where he wanted to be. His eyes held determination, depite the dark circles that loomed beneath them: sleeping on the cold, dusty, hard dungeon floor was not optimal. Plus, there was the added anxiety of the fact that Viren did not know how Claudia was doing and had not received any sort of update since he had been placed there. He watched quietly as a small pebble levitated towards him. He held the pebble in his hand, his senses heightening. Someone was watching him. 

"Who is there?" 

A small crumpled up piece of paper rolled in beside the pebble. Inside the paper, there seemed to be some writing. Look to your left. There is a green caterpillar on the wall. You could use that caterpillar to turn the chains to snakes and escape. 

"Aaravos, is that you," Viren said, his breath caught in his throat. 

Another note followed: Yes. And an astral projection of Aaravos materialized in front of him. 

"I have sworn off dark magic. Not that I have to explain myself to you." 

I know you have sworn off dark magic, but is it so bad to use it this once just to escape. 

"I deserve this fate for the evils I have done." 

So what. Once your daughter wakes, she will live without you? While you remain confined? I understand why you feel you must torture yourself, but I thought you cared for your family. Your daughter would be devastated. 

Viren pinched the tip of his nose in frustration. "Aaravos, I am doing this for my daughter. So that she can see that the deeds I have done were unacceptable. So she doesn't end up like me. I need to take some form of accountability." 

And you would forsake your own happiness for this? 

"When I chose to use dark magic, I had forsaken the happiness of many. I deserve this." 

From one imprisoned man to another, it gets boring fast. My prison has books and a fireplace and a magical mirror that lets me keep tabs on your world, yet I am still rife with ennui.