𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄, caspian x ✓

ten.

10

MUSIC TO MY EARS

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Carver had stayed at her side until she nodded at him to go, he sat beside Mo who ruffled his hair and continued to play the banjo cheerfully. Mo searched her face to see if she was okay, waiting for her smile and nod before he smiled back. 

Lucy was the first at her side, something in hand. "I know that you probably do not want to speak about it, which is completely fine. However, it might help if you drink this. It's my healing cordial, one drop and you'll be healed completely. But you don't have to if you don't want to."

Kathryn accepted the offer, a single drop falling to her tongue. Almost instantly, a warm rush enveloped her entire body. Kathryn touched the side of her head, expecting at least a small sting, but there wasn't. She felt fine. 

"Thank you," Kathryn smiled down at the young Queen. "Maybe one day I'll tell you stories; the good and the bad. But not tonight, tonight we celebrate."

Lucy nodded, Edmund appearing behind her with three chalices of ale balanced in his hands and offered one each to the girls. "I couldn't have said it better myself. If the cordial failed, at least this will make you hazy enough."

Kathryn accepted the drink, letting the bitter drink fill her stomach as she emptied it. Edmund offered her the other drink, taking the empty chalice for himself. He seemed content enough knowing that she would have a good night.

Kathryn accepted the extra drink. Usually, even on the rare occasion that she joined in with celebrations, Kathryn never drank anything beyond cold boiled water or tea. She learned her lesson once, spending two weeks in a damp dungeon below a Telmarine jail for pirates. But tonight, she needed the ale as much as she needed the cordial. The cordial for her wounds, the ale for her soul.

Edmund coughed, gaining her attention once more. He, wordlessly, nodded his head to the left and towards Caspian who had perched himself at the end of the ship, his skin illuminated by the setting sun and pink skies. Kathryn understood, making her way over to him.

"Did you know," she began, startling the King as she perched herself next to him, "that Verena has visited Narnia in her physical form? Legends say that, in the two times that she has graced out lands, she fell in love. The first time, she fell in love with a sailor. Just your average man, he had nothing to his name, hell, he didn't even have a family name. Yet, the Mother of the Sea, a Creator of Narnia, fell in love. The second time, she fell in love with her creations. She had never been able to truly walk among them before, but the moment that she did, she fell in love. She didn't just love their beauty, she loved their very essence."

Where Carver had a way with his words, Caspian had a way with his eyes. He always managed to converse just with a glance. His eyes said everything that his mouth didn't. And right now, she couldn't read what they were saying.

"What happened to her lover? The pirate?" he asked, his voice was low and soft as he spoke.

"He died in a terrible storm the year before she returned, or so the legends say. And, before you can ask why, as the Mother of the Sea, she allowed it to happen..." she sipped from her chalice, "We'll never know. Just like we'll never know why Aslan willed the past."

They both stopped talking, just enjoying the music and the company. 

"Sometimes, I pray to her," Kathryn whispered as she spoke, yet she didn't know why she was whispering. She hadn't told anyone about her prayers before. She didn't think that she ever would either, yet here she was. Telling one of her biggest secrets to the man who had believed she was murderous pirate for most of her life. "When I feel hurt, scared or weak, I pray to Verena. I've never met my birth parents, but my whole life, the man and woman who raised me, my mother and father, would pray to Verena in times of need. I learned to do the same."