Accidentally Falling | Narnia

46 | counsels

Cair Paravel was a restless heap for the next few weeks. Everyone couldn't find it in themselves to settle. After Peter and Susan returned from the Emperor's land, and all that they have discovered there were made known to the court, and when Caspian didn't return to Narnia after that feast when he walked out through Cair's front doors, the castle was in a constant uproar.

"So what could this mean, Su?" Edmund had asked her sister the night she returned. "Is Caspian..." he trailed off, cringing at the sad expression that blew across Susan's face at the mention of the name. "Is he our enemy now?"

"I don't know, Ed," she admitted, her eyes close to tears. "I don't know."

Susan couldn't stop thinking about how all of this was her fault. If she had stayed level-headed and didn't follow Lucy inside that bloody wardrobe, Narnia wouldn't be on this mess. If she hadn't stepped into this magical world, she wouldn't have met those two Kings that were the cause of her dilemma. She wouldn't have fallen for Caspian first and then fallen for Peter hard later and then Narnia wouldn't be on the brink of being invaded by the White Witch. She would trade anything to go back time and put a warning sign on the door of that blasted wardrobe...

But, she thought, do you really, deep down, pray for that? Would you really trade anything to unmeet Peter?

No, she admitted. Then she would burst down to tears again.

Maybe this was her punishment, she thought. With all the rebuffment she made to guys who tried to court her back in England, maybe the cosmos thought it fit to punish her. Maybe deities out there in the cosmos were laughing at her current predicament now, being the girl that would bring the downfall of the whole country because she fell inlove with two guys. Two brothers.

Preparations were constantly made during those restless weeks. New defenses were set up around the borders, for the Narnians knew that Caspian surely would've already told the Witch about Narnia's borders now that he had joined her side.

Knowing Caspian was the son of the Witch was something that no one couldn't believe. Caspian was every bit as gentle as Peter, or even gentler. It made him a very good envoy for Narnia. In all the two years of his and Peter's reign, Narnians didn't see him as someone who is violent (violent to their enemies maybe) and capable of destruction. So discovering that he was the son of the White Witch, the son that they had heard only in myths that they were afraid to even whisper much less speak aloud... shock was an understatement to what the Narnians felt.

Peter felt like he was a newly-crowned King of Narnia again. The people in court and the servants alike looked at him with admiration and awe in their eyes. For he was the Prince Sebastian, son of King Frank and Queen Helen of old, the First King and Queen of Narnia, thought dead for five hundred years and yet-- he was here, living inside the walls of the castle that was his birthright.

He thought of Caspian during his every waking second. He hated him for betraying them. He hated him so much for going over to the Witch's side just because he failed to win the affections of the girl they both loved. Was he really that dumb?

But deep inside Peter, he was praying for Caspian to return. He was still his brother. They grew up together. Fake memories or no, he knew that what he was feeling right now, that yearning to see and be with his brother again, was real.

One late night, a few weeks later after their visit to the Emperor's country, he headed to the castle's library, looking for the book that retold the history of King Frank and the downfall of Narnia. He stared hard at the portrait of the King and Queen, trying to bring back his memories of them. But, to his frustrations, he couldn't. All he could see was his father's face the night he left to hunt to feed him and Caspian when they were still seven years of age and the dwarves that raised them after they were orphaned.