So in the final part of Chasing Shadows, we see a very interesting moment regarding Rayla's moral framework and understanding. Generally we discuss that in terms of, y'know, assassinating people, since that's the major factor of what's going on with her—she believes she is supposed to be able to kill people, and it is a failure on her part to not do so.
But in Chasing Shadows, we have something we see pretty rarely: her interacting with dark magic and the way her views on it (and humanity as a result) are shaped... and how, in some ways, they haven't changed from s1.
Rayla spares Marcos because she—against her training—sees him as a person, and a person who hasn't done her any harm. Later, she sees the inside of Viren's dark magic workshop and is horrified by the shelves of ingredients, and declares that there is "nothing in humans worth sparing." So early on, she's essentially equating humanity and dark magic, and then has this cognitive dissonance where she swings back and forth between seeing humans as sympathetic or as monstrous. When she does settle on sympathetic, it's to the point that she offers to go with Callum to confront her entire squad (immediately after Runaan refused to listen to her) and potentially fight for Harrow's life. Even though, sure, the egg is still alive... but Harrow did still kill Avizandum.
Basically, Rayla has this ongoing conflict between her own nuanced moral compass and a very black-and-white framework she has been trained to use, and really struggles to land anywhere other than an extreme. In Chasing Shadows, we see her have the same experience she had early on with Marcos, but with Tressal, a dark mage.
Now, Rayla's overall experience with dark magic is mostly Claudia using it to attack her and what she has been taught regarding its history and poaching of Xadian inhabitants for materials, so we can't respect a particularly nuanced view... but it's very interesting that what gives her pause in this situation is this:
“Blood coral,” spat the dark mage, tide frothing over his mouth. “For—” “For dark magic,” Rayla said. “For many things, elf!” he snarled, defiant. “To warm a cold hearth. To draw plague from poisoned water. To heal the sick and bleeding—”
She hesitates, deliberately comparing him to Viren and literally trying to see Viren in him to condemn him, but then:
But what if it was true? A plague, an illness, a wound—
She apparently literally didn't know that dark magic can be used for purposes that she would consider noble? And then, similar to her rapid oscillating early in s1, she's immediately discarding that thought when Tressal defends himself. (It's unclear whether the coral growth would have hurt Rayla, appearing to have been primarily a defensive spell to armor himself and potentially disarm her.) He then escapes with the coral, which Rayla considers a failure comparable to her failure to kill Marcos:
Rayla looked at the driftwood floor. “Because I messed up. He got away with the rest.” Redfeather sighed. “You hesitated. Like in the Bone Pit.” It stung. She was right, of course. Rayla caught a glimpse of her own reflection in a glass bottle and scowled at herself: the face glowering back at her was not the face of an assassin, and it never would be.
So... she was supposed to, what, kill him? Even though he's not the target she thought she was hunting? Then return to Redfeather with the coral, which she has openly admitted she'll probably just sell to another dark mage? Okay, then... there's some pretty wild moral gymnastics going on, there.
Like, is she justified in feeling tricked by Tressal? Sure. I'd be pissed, if I were her. But I don't think he was lying. Whatever he is personally planning to use the blood coral for, what he listed are almost definitely legitimate uses for it—but it definitely feels implied that Rayla assumes it was all a trick that she was naive to fall for, in that she'd... apparently prefer to bring this coral that could surely only ever be used for evil purposes back to Redfeather and the black market, rather than let it go with this kid who rattled off a list of uses that made her genuinely pause in concern that she was taking something from someone who desperately needed it to save lives, and then defended himself without harming her.
So basically what's going on here is that, even though Rayla is now on team cool-with-humans (and was before it was... cool), she's still heavily affected by the toxic morality framework she was at the beginning of s1, in ways beyond just always feeling shitty about herself when she shouldn't.
