soldier, poet, king || e. pevensie | slow updates

the king • 26

there will come a ruler, whose brow is laid in thorn, smeared with oil like david's boy, oh lei-oh lai-oh lord.

King Edmund already had a day and a half alone to reflect on what happened in the library, but he feared that he would need one hundred more.

He hadn't the faintest idea what had come over him. Coralia was attractive, but Edmund had been holding himself back. He didn't want to overstep professional boundaries. He flirted, but he would never kiss her. But he did. A lot.

The nervous energy from running away from the librarian mixed with her hushed voice in the middle of the night did something to him. And he needed to put a stop to it. They'd avoided contact as much as possible for the last day, but he missed Coralia. He didn't want to avoid her. He wanted to talk to her again. To kiss her again. But he couldn't let himself think about that.

He ran a hand through his dark curls, groaning in frustration. If he couldn't control himself, he couldn't be a good king. Narnia came first, every time.

He laid under his bed, ignoring the dust that had collected there. If he stayed there, he could be hidden from the world forever. Hidden from his shame. But not the shame for kissing Coralia. No, there were no regrets there. He was ashamed of the fact that he wasn't embarrassed, and that he would like to do it again. If Coralia had any care for her job, she'd show up in about forty-seven seconds. If she had any care for either of their feelings, she would not come at all.

Light footsteps. A knock at his door.

He took in a shaky breath. Here goes nothing. He crawled out from under his bed and opened the door.

"Good afternoon, Sire." Coralia bowed. She never bowed, though she should've been doing it this whole time. "I'd like to apologize for the other night, and I hope we can move past it."

Edmund didn't want to move past it. He wanted to take her hands in his and look deep into her eyes. But he couldn't. "Yes, I think that is best. Now, we have training in two hours, after dinner."

Coralia dressed him in his royal clothes for dinner. They were silent the whole time. Aslan, this was going to be awful. Edmund did everything he could not to show how disappointed he was about the entire situation.

He dismissed his bodyguard to go to the servants dinner and prepare herself for training and headed to the dining hall alone.

He spent the whole meal in his own head, only grunting in response to questions and comments made towards him. Finally the meal ended, and he hurried up to his room to find Coralia waiting to dress him for training.

Many knights were already there, practicing with each other and laughing about something or other.

Coralia followed Edmund down, immediately starting to practice on a dummy. She didn't need the practice. She never had. Edmund saw her as his best knight. Rarely had she lost a duel against anyone but himself. Even all those months ago, she won his competition.

As usual, they went over techniques. Edmund had recently began finishing off the training with a small tournament competition. Edmund wouldn't participate until there was a winner, only watching and refereeing. Peodum against Zamier. Ruzan against Coralia. Selkath against Otmin. And so on and so on.

With his luck, Coralia ended up winning the tournament. She seemed to have moved past their night in the library much easier than he had. Of course, she had been the one who approached him about moving on. And he stupidly agreed.

Now he had to fight her when all he could think of was how beautiful she looked while dueling. She readied herself, getting into her combat stance. Peodum called for it to begin, and Coralia immediately attacked. She was far more aggressive than Edmund had ever seen her. Perhaps it was her magic, or perhaps some combination of anger and regret. He hoped it was the former.

She lunged, and he had hardly any time to parry her attack. He advanced, swinging his sword down over his head. She blocked it easily pushing his sword away. She retreated for a quick moment, catching her breath. He moved forward slightly, beginning to thrust forward. She pushed his sword to the side and swept her blade at his head. He ducked, kicking his leg out to catch her knees. She retreated back quick enough to dodge it.

"Is that the best you can do, Your Majesty?" She taunted. He rolled his eyes, beginning to smile. He lunged forward, landing blow after blow onto her blade.

"Now, we're talking," She grinned, taking the offensive back. She caught her sword in a lock, each of them gripping the other's wrist. Coralia looked him in the eyes, lightly running her fingers along his arm. He paused. And let down his guard.

She pushed him away, using his moment of distraction against him before easily disarming him. He gaped at her, standing weaponless a few yards away. All the knights were silent, unsure of how to react. They were waiting for what the king was going to do. It felt like hours before he broke the silence.

"Men, I name Sir Coralia our new dueling champion!" Edmund grabbed her arm and held it up. "Tomorrow, we see who can beat her!"

The knights cheered, running over to Coralia and shaking her shoulders, leading her away. She turned over her shoulder to look at the young king. He nodded, letting her leave with the other men.

•

really short edmund moment but do i care? no bc it's a tavern moment next #drunkcoralia and bear with me because i KNOW cair paravel is just the capital and literally only the castle and there's no city but it's MY fic so i get to change anything i want :)

that also goes for literally anything bc if u see something that is so ridiculously out of canon i will simply not change it and i request that you don't comment on it <3