There might be a middle ground between “Callum goes after Rayla,” and “Callum stays in Katolis to train.”
Maybe he decides to venture into Xadia, both to find Viren on his own but also to learn as much magic (and perhaps some fighting from the Sunfire elves) as he can to prepare for the worst.
Oh, definitely! When I was talking about Callum staying in Katolis and being obsessive with magic (because he’d likely be somewhat obsessed no matter what), I think that focus on magic would be to help keep him sane because he presumably wouldn’t be going after Rayla - at least not right away. But magic wouldn’t be his actual purpose for staying in Katolis; he’d stay first and foremost to help his brother, or if someone managed to get through to him just how impossible tracking Rayla in Xadia really would prove.
