[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ONd4lpK.png[/img][/center]
[color=00F8FE]Time: Night
Location: Edge of Lover’s Lake-Roman Ceremony
Interactions: Ari[@Tpartywithzombi][/color][hr]

[color=9FA1A4]
Ari’s question caught him off guard, [i]would he be free?[/i]. Too many answers flooded his mind, an overwhelming barrage of thoughts that needed time to sift through. So Callum shrugged, [color=00F8FE]“Maybe, won’t know until I try I guess.”[/color] But even that answer was heavy with doubt. Thinking about it filled him with unease and he was thankful Ari kept talking, now about her mother forbidding her from seeing him. 

[color=00F8FE]“I am very unpopular with parents.”[/color] Cal admitted with pride in that statement. He took the bottle from Ari as she asked him to hold it and his eyes lingered on its contents as she walked away. Roman and Mina sang a lovely song, their voices stretched upwards, lifted others upwards, as they sang. He looked toward them, watched the ending of a joyous dance, and felt the comfort in their song even as it faded for a new song to begin. 

The rhythm slowed, a somber song rose, and Roman spoke of reflection and remembrance. Cal had no ancestors he wished to remember, none he knew who deserved to be honored. 

[color=f26522]“You and I are the culmination of all our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. What they worked lived and died for.”[/color]

Callum shut his eyes and wished for the antithesis; to be the culmination of his ancestor's worst fears, the thing that would undo all they worked, lived, and died for. He wished to be like fire, destruction in its purest form save for Claedo himself.  

Callum watched the fire, transfixed as flowing warm colors took on shapes only he could see. For a brief and beautiful moment, he saw a twisted face within the flames, it’s smug expression slowly transformed to one of agony, flickers of yellow evoking a crown. He didn’t want to blink, knowing that when he did, it would be gone. 

And gone it was, the fire still danced and flickered, shapes and imagery as easily picked out as a child watching the clouds. But to see Edin’s face burning, that was gone. Only the hope that it was a sign of things to come, remained. 

[i]What about you, will you be free?[/i] Cal relented to the bottle he held, a long gulp as if it were only water. Did he even want freedom when shackles brought comfort like a weighted blanket and a cage was just a safe place to hide?

Was that all he wanted; things to hold him back, something to blame his failures on, excuses for why everything he did resulted in nothing.  

Dread bubbled up from the foul pit in his core, leaking out of him. Deep frightened breaths, but without an audible sound. He didn’t realize he was crying. Cal only stared into the fire, unaware of time or his surroundings, unaware of anything but the thoughts in his head. 

Until the jarring sound of Ana shouting startled him enough to make him wonder if jumping out of his skin was possible. He looked around for his sister but saw Ari returning instead. From beneath her hooded cloak waves of ginger hair escaped, framing her face in familiar warm hues. 

[color=00F8FE]“Ari, your hair looks like fire.”[/color] He whispered.[/color]