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Chapter Text

Once, there was a kingdom, a kingdom that flourished for a shorter time than it should have. The Seven Seas were ruled by a husband and a wife who were the light of the kingdom of Narnia.

The creator of their kingdom made the lands flourish and brought their closest friends to the land for the safety of the country. The families were more than happy to be a part of their new world and one of the families was the Rashid family, though they got different names later on. 

Flowers and birds spread the entire land and time was the only enemy that they had to face, till evil showed its true face and their names were buried deeper than all the shells in the ocean. But for as long as they lived, the family was happy and satisfied with what they had. 

They had one daughter, who was born with the blessing of the High King and Queen. Their Court Secretary was delighted when the baby princess was born, for he foresaw that she would one day, with the help of others, be the reason for the safety of Narnia.

One day, without the knowledge of their true lineage, the rulers of Amayah sentenced two prisoners to lifetime imprisonment for the treason that they had committed. The woman was banished to the Seven Seas while the young man was locked in the darkest cell of the dungeons. When they checked up on him the next day, the young man was found hanging in his cell with no note or reason for him to do so.

But alas, all good things must come to an end one day or the other, even if it is far too soon. The kingdom faced the rage and turmoil of a newcomer who had powers beyond what they could have imagined. When she entered the castle in the middle of the day, she cursed the rulers to a life that I wish upon no one, as she separated them from each other and tortured them to fulfill her satisfaction in her own way.

The couple fought against the Witch by siding with the High King and Queen and wanted revenge for their daughter, who was cursed by the Witch to turn into a small red-breasted robin. She was just a wee baby and that made all the stakes higher.

The High King and Queen sought out their most trusted person in their inner Council - Coriakin, the star. But he too was very new to the intruder of the kingdom and did not know her true powers or that she wasn't alone.

The newcomer stormed the Capital castle, but it wasn't the same person for this one had the exact opposite powers that the first one had but it was no less traumatising. She brought the castle down but before she could get her hands on the royals, they had escaped.

Days passed by before they could come to a final decision, one that had everyone worried and surprised but one that was known to be necessary. "We can't send her away, Frank." Queen Helen pleaded as she held her newborn baby girl in her arms.

"We have to, my love. We have to." He replied, kissing her forehead. The unnamed baby was holding her father's fingers with a very firm grip and she refused to let go, making him chuckle softly. "She looks exactly like you."

"But she has your eyes." The Queen smiled. The baby cooed as she tossed about in her sleep and seeing her do so made her mother cry silently. "Will she be safe?"

"She will, dear ones." A voice answered.

The rulers lifted their heads and saw the young star along with the someone that they never thought that they'd see again. "Aslan." King Frank knelt before the great lion himself.

"Rise, King Frank. You've done a great duty towards your country and to me. But I'm afraid that the Tree of Protection has been poisoned beyond repair and there are foreigners in this land." Aslan spoke.

"What must we do?" The Queen asked.

"Coriakin confided in me what he told you." The lion answered.

"Will it work?" The King asked, directing it to both the rightful ruler of Narnia and the star that stood beside him with his head bent low.

"I will cast the spell myself." Aslan promised. "But you must know the consequences if you go forward with this."

"What is it?" Helen asked, wanting nothing more than the safety of her daughter. They couldn't protect their goddaughter but they wouldn't make the same mistake once again with their child.

"I will be banished." Coriakin spoke up.

"Why?" Frank asked, shocked to hear those words coming out of the star who was always the happy one.

"One must not know the misdeeds that a star can commit." Aslan warned them. "We can send the baby right away."

"Right away?" Helen cried out.

"The sooner the better, my love." Frank consoled her. "We knew that this was coming."

"Bring her to me." Aslan said calmly.

The rightful husband helped his loving wife stand up as both of them held onto their daughter while walking towards the majestic ruler. They sat down on both of their knees in front of Him and were looking at their newborn. "I cast thee into the world where you will know me by another name." Aslan kept a paw on the newborn as he started to bless her. "You shall be watched over by the stars themselves and one day, when the time is right, you shall return to this world - your home." He breathed over the baby and a small lion-shaped mark appeared on the back of her neck.

"Will she be happy?" King Frank inquired.

"That is not for me to decide or for you to know." Aslan replied. "Now, it is time."

"Oh baby." Helen said as she kissed her daughter one last time, knowing that their end was near.

"She'll be safe." Frank assured her, his faith unparalleled. "We love you very much, dear."

"You'll live, baby girl."

Chapter Text

A thousand years passed by. Everything started to change, yet it remained the same. The rightful rulers and the past were forgotten as the White Witch started to rule over Narnia and terrorised the people, imposing her reign on them. In those years, evil played with its victim countless number of times. They tested several spells and slowed her aging, and after all those years, she was only twelve years old. 

The bird spent her entire time aware of what was happening to her but only let her pain out through her songs. She was punished if she sang but that never stopped her from irritating the White Witch. "Oh, shut that bloody bird up!"Jadis shouted at her servant, Ginarrbrik, the dwarf.

"Even after all this time, nothing will stop her, Your Imperial Majesty." He bowed down.

"Fine! Then let's go for a ride through the nearby town. I can't stay here any longer." She got up from her throne and marched into the room where the bird was imprisoned. She shook the cage with her magic. "I'll deal with you once I come back and do not think that I'll spare you this time. You've beat my patience in ways I never thought that anyone could."

The bird ignored all her worthless threats and minded her own business. She couldn't do much but she could continue making her plans of escape, though none had worked in the past. She just prayed to the one legend talked about and silently cried to herself.

The White Witch did not realise that by going out at that exact time, she was going to meet the one that was her doom and who would make the Prophecy come to take place. She was going to meet Edmund Pevensie.

The fallen cage was not going to stand up for a long time but all of a sudden, by miracle or by fate, a mouse entered the room. The robin found it strange because the castle was made out of ice and no living creature apart from herself lived there, apart from all the ones that were breathing before they found themselves in the path of the so-called Queen. 

The mouse headed towards the birdcage and started biting the ropes that bound the bird to the cage. The bird started to chirp and got ready to fly away from that miserable place. She was grateful to the mouse before she headed into the woods. There was one thing that she could not have known, for she hasn't met the Leader of the Talking Mice, the mouse that freed her was none other than our brave Reepicheep's ancestor.

Seeing the kingdom after a really long time made her want to cry out. Snow filled the land as far as the eyes could see, making her shiver till her bones. The world she once lived in was a hazy dream to her but she knew that it existed. All the fantasies that spread through her mind were her only hope through the years.

A few days passed by and the bird flew around the countryside near the castle. She came across an in-cave where she heard a faun used to live from the other birds. She sat down at a branch end and shook the snow from there.

The front door of the house was broken and lay on the ground, the snow on it melting slowly. Everything inside was trashed and the bird could hear voices. Voices? That was strange and made her shiver in the cold. Why wasn't it snowing?

"Don't worry, Lu. We'll think of something." She heard.

"Why?" Another voice asked. "I mean, he's a criminal."

The robin could sense an argument rising up and so, she did what she never thought she would do. She shouted at the creatures inside which came out as a psst. "Did that bird just 'psst' us?" A high-pitched voice asked, making the bird realise who they really were.

The four children that were inside Mr. Tumnus' house walked out, curious to know why the bird had called to them. The eldest one among them, who had blonde hair, looked around to make sure that they weren't surrounded. The bird on the other hand tried to not show her excitement. There were four human beings, not including her because she had been a bird for most of her life, which only made it true for the prophecy to take place! That would only mean that the White Witch would be defeated once and for all.

She flew towards another branch and looked back at the four humans. She was sure that they were siblings - two brothers and two sisters, Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve just like she was. "Does she want us to follow her?" The older girl asked.

Robin chirped in answer and hoped that they understood her. The youngest among them started walking towards the tree that she was sitting on. She cocked her head and moved onto the further tree.

"Are you sure that you want to follow it?" The second youngest spoke up. Robin looked at him and was immediately overwhelmed by a feeling that she had never experienced before.

The bird shook her head and kept flying from branch to branch, guiding them to the one place that she knew they would be safe at. In the past few days, from what she had talked with the other birds, she had heard rumours of the return of the one that she had prayed to her entire life. It only seemed right to help out the siblings into fulfilling their destiny and saving Narnia so that she could see the country that once was with her eyes.

Robin knew that the siblings were confused as to how she could understand them but she couldn't answer them in a way that they would understand her. She guided them for about half an hour before flying off to call upon the Beavers. She had heard enough chitter-chatter from the four and couldn't take in their accusations of her being on the side of the White Witch. She would rather die than follow the Ice Queen into her pretend rule.

Once Mr. Beaver saw her hurried behaviour and started following her to the place where the four were trying to come to a decision, she knew that her work was done. She could've flown away towards the South and seen the great Lion for herself, but something about the second younger lad made her feel suspicious of his actions.

So, she saw Mr. Beaver take the four siblings inside his home and waited outside, vowing to stay with the humans until they safely reached the Stone Table.

Chapter Text

The Robin's suspicions proved to be absolutely accurate when the doors of the Beaver's Dam opened up and a tousled head walked out, heading towards the cold and dark forest, ignoring the falling snow. She had two opportunities in front of her. She could either stay with the others and travel with them to meet Aslan or she could follow the strayer and maybe try to convince him to turn back.

There was no time to decide as the boy was disappearing into the shadows and so, she decided to go with the latter choice. She shook the snow that had settled on her and flew quickly towards the boy. She kept shouting at him, which only came out as chirpings to her disbelief.

The boy ignored the bird and turned up his collar, hugging himself to keep warm. He shuffled across the top of the dam and reached the far side of the river despite Robin's efforts. It started growing darker every minute and snowflakes started to swirl around them.

Edmund Pevensie had only one thought in his mind - Turkish Delight. He was starving despite what he had tried to eat at the Beavers' house. He only wanted to have Turkish Delights because he had fallen under the dark magic of the White Witch without knowing that he had done so.

The bird followed him and made sure that there were no wild animals around. She needed him alive for the prophecy to come to place, that is, if he was the one who the prophecy was talking about. He kept slipping down and skidding on frozen puddles. He overlooked fallen trees and hit himself against rocks, making her laugh in a really long time.

The clouds moved away and made way for the moon to shine its light after being hidden since morning. There was a full moon that night, which made her realise that the night sky was very beautiful indeed. She could stare at it till the end of time and not get bored at all but thinking so, she almost lost his trail.

After almost an hour passed by, he stopped and she had a small glimmer of hope that he would turn back. She chirped for him to do the same but heard him mutter, "When I'm King, I'll lay some decent roads first." There was a certain darkness in his voice and she knew very well what had caused it having seen dark magic all her life. She considered pecking on his head but by the time she could do it, Edmund found himself in front of the castle of the White Witch.

Robin's eyes widened and she knew that she should have taken an action a long time ago. She should have called out to the Beavers through the windows but there was a very slight chance that they would have heard her. There was no blaming herself because the boy was already enchanted. Nobody could have stopped him or forced him into the house.

The boy crossed the ice-covered river and walked up to the front door. There was a sudden silence that pricked the bird's feathers. He walked through the front doors and was amazed by the number of statues in the main hallway. Robin flew cautiously to not be seen by anyone because if she was....she didn't want to think about her fate.

Edmund tripped over the Chief of Police, Maugrim, thinking that he was nothing but a log that was covered with snow. The wolf tried to bite his head off when he exclaimed that he was a Son of Adam. The wolf marched his way to the hallways of his Imperial Majesty's chambers where he informed the dwarf about the arrival of the newcomer. A sly smile spread over his face as he walked towards the throne room.

Edmund, in that time, made himself at him and took a seat at the throne on the iced-podium. He looked around and grinned before Jadis entered the room, making him terrified of her all of a sudden. "Then how dare you come alone?" She shouted, her voice echoing throughout the castle and ringing in Robin's ears.

"No, Your Majesty." She heard the boy quiver. "Before I left the Beavers' house, I heard them talking about someone named Aslan."

"Aslan?" The Witch asked in a cold voice disbelief washing over her.

Now, I don't know if birds can smack their foreheads but that's exactly what Robin did. She closed her eyes with her wings and shook her head in disappointment.

The White Witch asked the dwarf, Ginnarbrik to take Edmund to the dungeons. She also informed her Police to bring the other children to her castle. "Just barely alive will do." She grinned before taking a seat on her throne.

Once again, Robin was faced with two opportunities. Oh, how she wished that she could just sleep her worries off. She needed to head back to the house of the Beavers and warn them about the White Witch or she could continue to look after the stowaway.

And so, she prepared herself for another hour of flying back to the Dam but when she started to head towards the forest, she saw five silhouettes in the distance and there was no mistake about who they were. She was certain that they knew about their brother's fate and hence, she decided that it was better to choose the former side in that situation. She couldn't leave the young boy in the hands of the White Witch, especially not after knowing what the fake Queen was capable of.

Ignoring the cold like the boy had before, she flew towards the spare window that would allow her to see into the dungeons. She sat on the sill and looked inside. Water was dripping on her from the fallen snow but she deflected it every time it fell.

The boy was pushed inside the cold room and was binded to the chains on the floor. She considered singing to help him calm down but shook her head. She couldn't let Jadis know that she was back. And that she was back for revenge.

Chapter Text

The fleeing of the Beavers and the other three siblings was brought to Jadis' notice by Maugrim because nobody else had the guts to talk to her. Jadis became even more furious after finding Robin missing. "That ruddy bird is out there somewhere and I don't have the magic to capture her once again! Oh how I wish-" She shouted. "Take out the sleigh! If we are not able to capture them here, we will slay them down before they reach the Stone Table."

Robin felt herself falling asleep because nothing had happened in the past few hours, except for Ginnabrik throwing a plate of stale bread at the boy. Edmund - that was his name, and she had learnt it. It was a fantastic one according to her. She remembered names only in the back of her mind. They were fading hazes to her, which made her keep on repeating them as and when she came across them. 

Edmund. Edmund. Edmund. Edmund. She had learnt his name and it was better to not call him "young boy" anymore. They were the same age in a way, after all.

The creaking of the frozen iron gates made her wake straight up and look directly through the bars on the sill. Ginarrbrik pulled Edmund up and put a knife to his back, making him walk out of the dungeon. Robin didn't know where they were going and was getting worried as the water continued to drip on her. She heard the bashing of the front gates and when she flew to see what was going on, she shrieked out.

The White Witch was on her sled along with the human, which only made the bird even more concerned because he was sitting on the foot of the sled with nothing to keep him warm, while Jadis wore her white fur coat comfortably.

She started to follow them at a safe distance, only as a companion and a support to Edmund. She couldn't have anything happen to him under her watch. Not that she could do much if he was in danger as a bird, but Robin could feel content if she could see that he was safe rather than worrying about it by waiting at the castle.

She sang occasionally in a low tune and though she did not know about it at that time, Edmund could listen to her. Her voice was a sound of hope to him, a vision of a better future and the dream of seeing his family once again.

Once the spell of the eternal winter broke, Jadis' powers started to slow down and Edmund was rescued by the Narnian army. Robin cried with joy when centaurs and cheetahs stormed the Witch's camp. She couldn't bear to see him push the sled from the mud just to please Jadis.

She followed the Narnians and stayed close to Aslan's Camp. She had seen him from a distance, talking to Edmund and she heard from the other birds about how He had forgiven the boy. She was a silent spectator lost to time.

On the night of Jadis' appeal, she was awoken by the rustling of Edmund's sister's tent. The two sisters walked out with their battle armour and were following someone into the woods. Robin, not wanting to do so but out of service, brushed the sleep out of her eyes and followed the sisters.

The unexpected fell upon everyone when Jadis drove the enchanted blade into Aslan, shaking the two girls and one half-human half-bird to their souls. Once the last creature in Jadis' army left the Stone Table, the two girls walked discontently towards the body of the King.

Only one thing entered Robin's mind to relieve her pain and so, she started to sing. Lucy and Susan were startled by it at first because it had been silent for hours, but the song started to be sung by other birds and that was a symbol of unity. They didn't lose hope.

Word was sent back to the camp via the naiads and everybody was ready for battle the next morning. Once Aslan was back, Robin knew that her work was done and hence, she flew towards the forest. She couldn't bear to fly to Beruna and see the brutal killings. She sat down by the river and swayed to its tune, wondering about life when something happened. She felt strange and different as she lost the ability to breathe for a second. She was growing and she was seeing straight.

"What?" She whispered, hearing her own voice for the first time.

She touched her face and her head. Hair, she knew. She looked at her arms and at the white dress that she was wearing. She was muddy and her hands were shaking, the joints with a new feeling to them. She looked at her toes next and wondered if she could move them and when they did, she laughed for the first time. She looked at herself at the flowing water.

 "Thank....you....Aslan."

She was happy with how she sounded. She laughed heartily, knowing that no matter how much ever they told her otherwise, she was a human. She was a girl and she was alive. She stood up with great difficulty, her feet getting used to standing on their own. She stumbled several times and fell into the water but that didn't matter. She was human again.

She rushed to the forest and touched the trunks of the trees with her hands. The feeling was absolutely heart-contenting. She was seeing a beauty that she had forgotten before. Her bare feet were walking on moss and weeds. The crunching of the branches was very amusing.

Then, she remembered something from the deepest parts of her mind. Tears filled her eyes and fell down her cheeks. She touched them and sat down on her knees. She touched the bare ground and then her face. She was herself.

She remembered fading voices from when she was a baby, which was a side effect of the magic. She knew everything since her birth till that day. She remembered her mother's smile and warmth, her father's embrace and their love for each other. She could clearly listen to their voices and see them when she closed her eyes.

"Who are you?" A voice broke the silence, making her turn around in shock.

Chapter Text

Six years passed by and Narnia had never seen such a prosperous reign since King Frank and Queen Helen's reign, although nobody alive at that time remembered them apart from the stars. The Pevensies were not children or teenagers anymore. They grew taller with grace in the time that passed by and lost their baby faces. They couldn't remember their time in England as much as their time in Narnia seemed more like home. They ruled faithfully and abided by the Prophecy.

There was peace among the nations, except for the occasional battle with countries who tried to defy the Four Rulers. The initiators of such battles were pardoned most of the time, in hope that they would lead a better path.

The castle would hold the occasional balls every year, in order to let the High King choose a potential wife for himself, but that was the Council's intentions. The siblings only wanted to have a time of relaxation during those nights, not to mention the rich food that would be prepared for everyone.

Although the Pevensies thought that they were the only human beings in Narnia at that time, Robin was no longer a bird. She was back to her original form as a human and kept her distance from the Royalty. She lived with the Narnians in the Shuddering Wood. Well, she lived in a nearby town but she considered the woods her home and Narnians her family. They taught her all the scripts and languages that she needed to know and she was grateful to Oreius, the General of the Centaurs for everything that she was.

Oreius was the first person to have found her by the river bed after the Battle of Beruna. She struggled to speak with him at first but he finally understood the real reason for the joining of the stars to represent peace that he had observed the previous week. He wanted to take her to the young Kings and Queens immediately but the wordless human begged him to let her be as she was. Robin did so because she couldn't live in a castle because it would only remind her of her loss.

He taught her how to speak, read and write along with the craftsmanship of sparring, using a bow and arrow and tactics for survival. When he caught her awake very early in the morning one day, humming a very old Narnian melody lost to time, he taught her astronomy. Her fascination with the moon and the stars was very obvious to him. When he asked her about it, she confided in him about her imagination of her parents on the moon. She told them that it made it easier for her to remember certain memories that she never wanted to forget. He did keep a strict timing for her to sleep, which she had to follow from that day.

He gave her a name - Sanya. But she was so used to hearing a bird's name that she preferred being called by that. Sanya was her past. Robin was who she was.

She asked him about the alignment of the stars that he had mentioned when they first met and he revealed that it was going to be a time for love and future. "What does that mean?"

"The stars are guides of our life, princess."

"You can call me by my name, Oreius. I am no princess." She smiled, repeating herself for the thousandth time.

"It's a force of habit." He smiled. "If you had agreed to live at the castle, it wouldn't have been a problem."

"I can't..." She shook her head. "And you know why that is so."

There was one problem though. The bird was still a part of her. She turned into a bird for twelve hours, which usually was from ten in the morning. Even though Oreius set up a personal lockdown for her human self, she would stay awake till the sun rose up over the mountains overlooking the great Cair Paravel and she would sleep once she turned into a bird, away from the responsibilities of life and the noise of the world.

When twilight came upon the land, Robin would fly to the forests on the edge of Castle Cair to sit on a sturdy branch and look at the flickering lights. She went there almost every day because of the view that she got from there. 

The castle may have been facing the gorgeous beach but the backdoors faced the forests. She would stare at the gradient sky, the blue dissolving into the purple and occasionally, she would hear the voice of Edmund Pevensie. She had never dared to cross the line of the trees to see him from up close, but wondered what it would be like if they could meet each other.

In spending her time there, she would turn back into a human and would find her way back home through the thickage. Her friends would inquire of her occasional trips and were conspiring with each other on the potential of a secret admirer. "Oh please!" She rolled their eyes at them one night.

"Come on, tell us who he is." Starshine, daughter of Oreius, insisted.

"There is no one!"

"There is someone." The naiads tried to get the truth out but nothing worked.

Robin was very stubborn, but that was a good quality unlike what most people thought and in this story, stubbornness is the key to life. "Now, if you may excuse me," She got up from dinner. "I'm going to go to sleep."

"Or to dream about the secret boy." They giggled behind her back but she shook her head, too tired to argue.

Following the same routine one evening, Robin shook her head when she imagined what she would tell him if they ever met. She craned her neck to look at the moon to distract her thoughts but the outline of the trees were blocking her view all of a sudden. "How dare you?" She wanted to scold the trees.

She tried to perch from branch to branch but nothing seemed to work. She took a deep breath and walked into the clearing, but the moon was still hiding from her, like a newly engaged bride. Robin groaned at that analogy. 

She flew up until she could catch a glimpse of the moon but the castle towers came in the way eventually. Her head turned left, her eyes widening at the only possibility for that night's dosage of the heavens.

She had to take the help of the castle balcony. The vantage point was absolutely perfect. She stood there and watched the sun disappear behind the mountains and into the horizon. But having been lost in her thoughts, she did not hear the footsteps of someone climbing down the stairs or the fact that she had turned back into a human until that someone spoke.

"Who are you?"

*****

Cast

Naomi Scott as Robin

Patrick Kake as Oreius

Alexandra Shipp as Starshine

Chapter Text

"What are you doing here?"

"Um..." Robin was left speechless. It was Edmund Pevensie. Of all the people that could have caught her, it just had to be him, didn't it?

"Speak up, if you may." He tried to sound polite but he had his concerns. There was a stranger standing in the balcony of his room after all.

"I...."

"How did you get up here?" He looked towards the edge of the balcony. His room was in one of the highest towers and there was no way to enter from the castle itself. The secret passageways would not lead to his room and there was no way for someone to have climbed inside.

"Mmh?" Her eyebrows twitched in anxiety. How was she supposed to get out of that situation!

"If you don't give me an answer, how will I know if you can talk or not?" He smirked.

"Oh, right!" She touched her forehead with a smile on her face.

It was Edmund's turn to have been left speechless. The lady that was standing in front of her, whoever she may have been, was the most beautiful person he had ever had the honour of laying his eyes upon. Her smile hit him in a jolt of warmth that he had never felt in a really long time. He wondered why Susan couldn't have suggested the woman in front of him as a potential wife for him. But that was not the time to get ahead of himself. There was a complete stranger in his room and that wasn't a good sign for a King.

"I came up here by mistake and it wasn't through the castle doors, if that's what you are worrying about." She spoke, getting the words out carefully and trying not to fumble.

"Uh....what?" He was absolutely lost in her deep eyes.

Robin resisted a smile at his reaction. "Well, the security here is strong, if that's what you are wondering about." She repeated.

"It is supposed to be, but it still doesn't explain how you found yourself in my chambers."

"I wasn't trying to." She said with a straight face.

"Then how did you get up here?"

"I....can't tell you."

Edmund and Robin looked at each other, admiring the other. He had an instinct that he had met her before but he hadn't. He never forgot a face, and he would definitely not have forgotten hers. She, on the other hand, wanted to deceive him and get out as soon as possible before his suspicions of her identity increased. She wondered if he saw her turn into a human but reading into the situation, he mustn't have.

"I could order you to tell me the truth, you know?" He started. "Or I could take you to the throne room where my brother, the High King will turn this into an inquiry." He didn't want to scare her but he was stating the possibilities that he shouldn't do, which turned out to be out loud.

"You wouldn't." 

"I said that I could, not that I would." 

Though the situation was awkward, the silence between them was comfortable. "I'll take my leave then." She suggested and was about to walk towards the balcony when she realised that she couldn't fly out while he was watching. She groaned silently to herself.

"Uh..." Edmund started, finding himself at a loss of words for the first time in his life. What had the lady done to him? He wasn't the type to fumble. "If you want, I could sneak you out of the castle discreetly." 

Robin turned around with her eyebrows knitted together. "Why would you do that?" 

"Maybe I am looking for a friend?"

"I'm not buying that." She said, even though the offer was exactly what she was looking for.

"Alright, maybe I am curious about how you got in here and being your friend seems like the best option."

She frowned. "Is that the Just King speaking or the eighteen-year old?" 

"Both." He smiled, melting her heart once again. "But more of the lone teenager really." He admitted.

"I don't trust the royalty." She was getting him to talk.

"What if I am only Edmund Pevensie, a young boy who lives at the castle and you are..."

"Robin." 

"And you are Robin, a young girl who just found herself in this strange chamber."

She considered the ultimatum that he was giving her. "I would like that." She nodded.

"Is 'Robin' your real name though?" Nobody had ever had him this curious before.

"Like Edmund is yours." She smirked.

"Well then, Robin from the balcony of the Just King...." He wanted to ask her to follow him but noticed her shiver. "Aren't you feeling cold?"

"It's nothing I can't handle." It was easy to talk to him surprisingly. After all the scenarios that she had made up in her mind, this wasn't one of them. Definitely not. "I'm sorry to have bothered you but I must be heading back."

"One more question." 

"What?"

"It's more of a request really." He was uncertain of his next words. "Will you meet me here tomorrow?"

She was taken aback. "Why?"

"I wasn't lying before. It would be nice to be your friend."

"But you don't even know me."

"Let's change that."

Thunder shook the castle and Robin knew that she must be getting back at once. Oreius would be needing her help against the rain. "Fine." She agreed out of the hurry.

"Will I see you here tomorrow?"

"What, why?"

"Well, we need to get to know each other somehow. Are you a part of any family of the court?" 

It started to drizzle and she would have to make a run for it. "I'll meet you here at the same time." 

"Here? How will you get past the-"

"May I please leave? I must be getting back. It's raining!" She said quickly.

"Do you live in town then?"

"I'll answer all your questions tomorrow."

"Promise?" He asked, a small part of him thinking that she would disappear one day, leaving him alone and fascinated.

"Promise." She said, trying not to get lost in his deep dark eyes.

"Let's go then." He opened the door for her for her to leave but she suggested something else.

"Close your eyes." 

"What?"

"I can find my way out but I need you to close your eyes first." 

"But...."

"If you want me to be your friend, you'll have to trust me. That's the way this works, in case you didn't know." She smiled and he abided by her request. "I'll see you tomorrow, Edmund." She said before turning into a bird and flying out into the falling of the heavens.

Chapter Text

"Hey." Robin spoke as she stood on the balcony. She hoped to not scare Edmund, which was why she lingered there and announced her presence.

"Hey!" Edmund stood up all of a sudden, blood rushing to his brain and making him feel woozy. He was sad that his flow of reading his book on the comfortable divan was lost, but he was glad and surprised even that the mysterious girl kept her promise. "You came!"

"I told you I would." She smiled and couldn't help but notice his messy hair. It was longer than the High King's and most of the people at the castle, but it suited him.

He chuckled. "Well, the mysterious girl in my room who left without using the front door....I had my suspicions." He said. "How did you leave anyway?"

Robin hoped that her face wasn't revealing her distrust. "Magic." She shrugged.

Edmund had a feeling that she was joking but he could hear the candour in her voice. "Oh, um, please sit." He gestured to the empty space in the room. He couldn't have her standing and knew that it was bad manners to not offer a seat. Susan and Lucy would murder him if they were present in the room and he was happy that they weren't.

"Thank you." She said as she walked to an empty chair next to a study table. That seemed the best place as it was close to the balcony but still far away from him.

"Will you tell me?" He asked, sitting back on the divan and facing her.

"What do you want to know?" She rested her hands on the arms of the chair and slouched, knowing that she wouldn't have to hear Oreius' instructions about how sitting straight was good for the back.

"I'm guessing that I cannot ask how you commute." She nodded and he was one second away from frowning. "Who are you?" He asked instead.

"My name is Robin." She knew that she couldn't stop at that. "I lived in a different place since childhood before coming to Narnia." Well, it wasn't the entire reality but she wasn't lying either. "I've been living here ever since you got crowned."

"Where do you live now?"

"Just after the forest line." She had prepared all the answers to the possible questions that she knew were waiting for her and she only had to talk without her voice shaking. She had thought twice about meeting the Just King, but she was a keeper of promises.

Edmund raised his eyebrows at her. "Vague answer....but it is fine." He was glad to have the company and he understood her being reserved. He wasn't anything special and he couldn't expect anything either.

"Now, my turn." She said after a moment of silence. "Why did you ask me to come? Why didn't you report me to the guards? Does your family know about me-"

"One question at a time." He laughed, making her flush as she realised that she let her anxiety get ahead of herself. "I asked you to come because I am curious about how you came here yesterday, but I want to be your friend. It will be nice to have a friend. I haven't had one in a really long time."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "But....you're the Just King." He flinched. "Sorry." She mentally smacked her forehead for having referred to him with his title.

"No, it's fine." He shook his head. "That is exactly why I want a friend. Everyone looks at me with eagerness in their eyes. They only see the Just King and not....who I am." He said in a low voice. "I'm sure it is worse for my brother but he hides it well. I....cannot."

Robin felt sorry for him but didn't say anything in that regard. She knew how he was feeling, having been a prisoner all her life. She realised that she may look his age but she was older and he could never find out about that part of her life. He wouldn't understand. She may have broken down to Oreius but she had to keep her guard up with Edmund, no matter what.

She shuddered thinking about the White Witch but shook her shoulders to hide it. "Well, you don't have to worry anymore. I'm here now."

"Thank you." He looked like a normal teenager and they knew that they didn't have to hide anything from each other. It was the beginning of a quick friendship. "I hope I'm not forcing you-"

"Don't worry about it." She assured him. "I need a friend as well." 

She had friends in the woods but she always knew that it would be nice to have a human friend, someone who could understand her in a way that Narnians couldn't, if that makes sense. Oreius considered introducing her to the rulers but she always declined it.

"You seem like a person who has a lot of friends though."

"I could say the same about you."

Edmund looked at the floor and smiled at himself. He was wondering why he was feeling the way that he was but he wanted to trust Robin. He wanted to know more about her but he knew that she would have questions as well, and he was ready to answer them.

"About my other questions...." She reminded him a little awkwardly.

"Oh right!" He exclaimed. "What was it?" He wondered. "Yes, does my family know about you." Her heart stopped in the small pause that he gave. "No, they don't."

"Oh, thank Aslan." She breathed out in relief and brushed her fingers through her hair.

"Thanks." He scoffed jokingly.

"No, I didn't mean that!" She explained. "I....I don't want anyone to know about me."

"My instincts told me that." Somehow, the distance between themselves felt too long and short at the same time. "You have your secrets and I will respect them."

"Thank you." She pursed her lips together. "I wish I could say the same thing about you but we don't really know each other." She gave out a shaky laugh.

"Let's change that, shall we?" He repeated his words from the previous night.

The two talked their heart out before the clock on the North Tower rang twice. "Goodness gracious, it is getting late!" She exclaimed as she stood up.

Edmund got up instantly, not feeling the need to go to sleep. It was nice to talk to her and he was making a friend. He couldn't believe that it was already two in the morning. "Will you come tomorrow?"

Robin looked at him and wondered what she should reply. Oreius didn't know about her sneaking out but she wasn't exactly a follower of rules, was she? "Why, of course my friend." She walked towards him and clamped his shoulders for a dramatic effect. "I will come here as long as you want, Drida." She quoted.

"I love that book." He smiled because it was a book that only he had read. He always wanted to talk about it with someone and despite his tries of making his siblings read it, he was grateful that she had read it.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked him.

"What?"

She loved the clueless look on his face. He was one of the smartest people that she had heard about but it was like he had told her. People did forget that he was only human. "Are you sure that you want this friendship?"

"Why? Are you having second thoughts?" He joked. "What happened to 'Robin the Brave'?"

She smirked. "I don't have a title and I don't need one."

"I'm sure." He answered.

She nodded. "See you tomorrow then."

Chapter Text

Robin continued to visit Edmund and he continued to ask her questions that she wished that she could answer with the utmost honesty. She couldn't make his life more complicated and even though it was easy to talk to him, she just couldn't.

She asked him questions as well and they knew each other's favourites. They would sneak to the library and talk about books. They had similar tastes in that and they suggested some must-reads to each other. Edmund was careful to make sure that Robin didn't get caught by the guards because he wouldn't have been able to explain it to them or to his brother. He couldn't put her life in more trouble that he already had.

She found a telescope in his room one night and taught him the different names of the stars. "The north and the west stars are supposed to be matchmakers, which I don't really understand for some reason."

"It doesn't really make sense." He agreed. "How do you know all that?"

She bit her tongue because she couldn't close her eyes in anger. "I have a good teacher." She replied in a diplomatic way. "He is the closest thing that I have to family." She smiled softly to herself. She had never admitted it because she wanted to seem tough. But the real toughness was in being vulnerable.

"I'm really sorry about your parents." He said once again.

They had talked about their family and Edmund regretted bringing the topic up after finding out that she did not have anyone in her life. But he assured her that he would treat her in the right way and would help her whenever she needed him.

"Once again, it's completely fine. I don't remember much about them but I get by." She told him. "But I do feel bad about bothering you with all this. We sneak around and though it shouldn't feel this way, I do keep looking over my shoulders for the guards to catch us."

"Don't worry, Robin." He started. "I'll just give them an order to stay silent." He shrugged.

Everytime that they met, Robin knew that Edmund wanted to ask her how she travelled to his room without using the doors. He had tried to catch her in the act but she was clever to transform in a different balcony and then walk to his room. She was careful to not reveal too much. Oreius would have been proud of her secrecy, only if he knew about it. He had taught her to never reveal the answer in a direct way and she was finally putting her lessons to use.

One night, she found Edmund packing his clothes as she entered his room. He had asked her to make herself at home, but that was the most difficult thing for her to do as she knew that she would never belong anywhere. "Hey." She said softly in order to not startle him.

"Hello." He said, closing the trunk, having gotten used to her sudden appearance.

"Are you leaving somewhere?" It was bad luck to ask somewhere where they were going as they were leaving but it was midnight and she knew that nobody would travel that late.

"Yes, in the morning. My siblings want us to visit Galma. We need their support for a trial that is coming up."

"Do you need any of our help?" Why was her guard down despite her efforts? She had just referred to her life in the woods but thank goodness, Edmund understood it as the help of the commoners.

"I wish we did. I know that you would support us."

"I would wave a banner but same thing really."

"I wish I could see that." He laughed and every time he did, it was the sound of music to her. She tried to ignore that part of her feelings but she enjoyed her time with him.

"You should rest then. You would be leaving very early in the morning." Edmund tilted his head in confusion and opened his mouth to say something. "I heard the guards talking about the speed of the horses." She revealed before he could ask her how she knew.

She had to tell him another half truth because of course, she couldn't tell on Oreius as he had been the one that told the Narnians that he would be accompanying the rulers somewhere early in the morning and that his daughter was in-charge. But after hearing that from the centaur, Robin didn't realise that Edmund would be leaving for a while until that night.

"No, it is fine."

"I keep you up every night. You should go to sleep."

Edmund knew that there was no point arguing. "Alright." He conceded but rolled his eyes at the thought of being forced to sleep early. "But you should sleep as well."

"I don't know what you are talking about. I'll see you soon." She said and tried to leave, but Edmund was looking at her. She rolled her eyes at him. "You know that I can't leave with you looking at me like that."

"Like what?" He shrugged.

She walked over to him and kissed his cheek. He was left speechless and his cheeks were turning into a nice shade of red. "Close your eyes." She said and when he obliged, she turned into a bird and flew away. Once she reached the forest covers and turned back into a human, she blushed. Her knees shook as she held onto a tree trunk for support. Why did she kiss him? "Damn it, Robin." She scolded herself.

She reached her part of the forest and as she climbed the tiny hill to reach her house, she found a dark shadow waiting for her. She groaned in exhaustion and hung her head low. "Yes, Oreius?" She called out to him to announce her presence.

"Now why aren't you following your schedule?"

"I strolled to look at the moon in the clearing." She had mastered the art of lying for the right reasons but Oreius saw right through her.

He stood straighter and spoke in a fatherly tone that Mistwhirl had warned Robin about. "I don't know who you are meeting and I wish that you would talk to me, Sanya." He started. 

"Robin." She corrected him.

He sighed. "Please sleep tonight." He left without another word, which surprised both of them.

Oreius raised her as his own and although he couldn't teach her the tricks of galloping quickly, he saw no difference between Mistwhirl and her. Robin knew that as she found a family in Narnians but she would never belong with them. They wanted her to have a normal human life in the town and she wanted to live with them. They stuck a pin on it and never talked about it, waiting for her to bring it up whenever she was comfortable with it.

She walked over to her hammock and lay looking at the silent stars and the blissful universe. She heard the flowing of the stream and the final chirps of the birds around her and without realising that she was doing so, she drifted to a peaceful sleep for the first time.

Chapter Text

"How is she alive!" A voice echoed through the abandoned caves at the edge of the border of any map that the people of Narnia possessed. The caves were the joining of three different caves - rock-cut, water and lava. The meeting of all three stood three thrones, two of which had been empty for far too long. "The princess." A woman scoffed. "How is she alive!"

The woman wore a red dress and had deep burgundy hair. Her dress stuck close to her body unlike the gowns of the other two who were missing, their absence like a void to the woman staring at her reflection in the ball.

"Oh, how I wish Jadis hadn't been such a fool!" She exclaimed. "There has been no one to exist who has dared to survive my powers." She shouted. "And yet," The Queen walked towards the crystal and touched it one hand, moving it to show a clearer picture of Robin talking in the woods with a naiad. "The girl survives. It must have been that young boy!" She shouted with poison in her voice. "Jadis told me that he escaped only after the ruddy bird escaped." She let out a voice that was between a snarl and a grunt.

She had been alone with her thoughts ever since the four children defeated the rightful ruler of their kingdom in what they considered to be a worthy battle. She walked up to the podium and brought her hands near her face. She stretched the muscles, bringing her power to her eyes and threw a ball of fire in the direction of the cave that would lead to what had been her, and only her, cave.

She fell to her knees thinking about how her parents would have been disappointed at seeing their situation. One of the three? dead, that too at the hands of a Lion! The youngest? Trapped several feet under water in an enchanted castle where she wouldn't dare to escape without risking her own dear life. And the third? All alone.

She was the eldest and had to take the burden of the world on her shoulders once again. She needed to win. She had to win! The curse of killing the girl's parents hadn't been enough and the millennia of silent torture wasn't enough either as the princess had dared to escape her hold. The Queen was going to make her home proud, even if it had been destroyed.

That was what had resulted in her despising young children. The beautiful world that had been Charn was brought to ruins and dust by two babies! Carmis tapped her index finger on the ashwood that her throne was made of and made a plan to bring the young girl down. "The time for avenging has come."

At the same time in the grounds of Cair Paravel, the two new friends were walking alongside each other while talking about things that were close to them. "If you could change one thing in your life," Robin started. "What would it be?"

Edmund stopped walking suddenly. He had hoped to hide that part of his life from her because that wasn't something that he wanted to bring to his new life, and it was definitely something that he wanted her to know about.

"Honest reply?" He asked, putting his hands behind his back to appear chivalrous. What was he doing? He wondered how his siblings would make fun of him if they could see him. But it was better that they didn't. He didn't need them to know how he really felt around the one friend that was able to tolerate him. "I wouldn't change anything."

"Really?"

"I'm sure you have heard about my....encounter with the White Witch." He shuddered just thinking about her. How could he have been so naive and stupid?

"Well, that wouldn't be your version of the course of events."

A smile crept over his face. His siblings had told him the same thing and he knew that they were right. There was no point blaming himself for actions that he had committed in his past. He wasn't the same person anymore. "Lucy would love to pull you into a bear hug right now." He chuckled.

"I...." Her voice trailed out.

"I'm kidding!" He laughed. "You should see the look on your face right now."

"Yeah, have fun with my emotions. They are all for the show."

"I am having fun."

"I'm glad." She said. "But seriously, let's get back to the topic."

He nodded. "I wouldn't change anything because I don't want to think about what could have been. I can never know what that would have been like and in reality, I'm happy the way that things are right now."

"Who wouldn't love to be a King as a teenager?" She joked.

"We do miss our family at times but as siblings, we have grown closer. And that is a bond that I am going to cherish for the rest of my life." He revealed. "I've learnt more from life and that's how it should be, isn't it? We learn more from experience than books, and that is exactly what I am able to achieve." He said. "So, no. I wouldn't change anything."

Robin looked at him with admiration in her eyes. "Well said, Drida." She said as she clamped him on the shoulder.

They turned around a corner of the grounds and almost came to face the guards when Edmund pulled her arm and she dashed against his chest. Both of them hid behind the back wall of the castle. Things were silent in the few seconds that they stood that way before Robin smirked.

"What?" He asked her.

"You are really tall." She needed something to distract her from stopping her from feeling things that she was very new to. "Maybe I should call you 'Tree' instead."

He laughed softly. "I am the King of the Western Woods after all. Besides, Robin and Tree make good partners."

Footsteps started to approach them and Edmund started to panic while trying to come up with the best solution of escape. "How do we get out?" He mumbled the way he usually did while dealing with a problem.

"Go and meet them. I'll find my way out."

After knowing each other for almost a month, he was sure that she knew her way in and out of the castle. He trusted that she could. "Are you sure?"

"One hundred percent." She assured him.

They hadn't realised how close they actually stood until the sounds of the footsteps grew louder and Edmund moved away from the corner to meet the guards. "See you tomorrow." He told her before he left.

"See you tomorrow, Tree."

He winked at her before walking in the direction of the footsteps. "Oi, Goldmark!" He shouted as he went to greet one of the guards and Robin couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Tree." She whispered before heading back to the camp.

*****

I'm hoping and assuming that no one figured
out that Jadis, Olivis and Carmis were sisters
when you were reading Act Three of
'The Lost Legacy'! It's a HUGE reveal!

Cast

Carice van Houten as Carmis

aka the Red Witch

Chapter Text

The unspoken topic in Aslan's Camp finally came up when Mistwhirl informed Robin that Oreius wanted to have a talk with her. "He is looking at maps." She revealed. "Believe me, he wants to have a serious talk with you."

Robin stopped reading that day's book and walked over to the General's favourite spot in the forest under the trees. He was using the shade of the trees to mark specific spots on the map. He was frowning, and that was never a good sign.

"You wanted to see me?" She called out as she entered the clearing, playing with a wreath of flowers that was handed to her to put in her final touches by the younger nymphs. They always needed a human's turn of the leaf to complete their works.

"Ah, Robin." He rolled up the maps and made way for her to have a seat on the table. Or lean against when it came to her. "I'm afraid that we must talk about what we have been putting a pin on for this long."

Uh oh, she thought. "Oreius-"

"You need to understand that we want the best for you, dear girl." He continued. "You are like one of my daughters and I am grateful to have had the chance to train another stubborn child." The two shared a laugh. "I know that you don't like talking about this but I want to tell you to reconsider meeting the Kings and Queens. They can help you more than we can. You need to be with your people."

"This is my home, Oreius." She stressed. "I don't want it any other way. Narnians are my people, even if you don't feel the same way."

"But-"

"Please." Tears started to form in her eyes when she realised that it was time; time to tell Oreius how she really felt. "I don't belong anywhere. The memories that I have are traumatic and painful and I am ignoring whatever has happened to me in the past. I want to look towards the future and I haven't belonged anywhere for a really long time. This is my home. You are my family. So stop trying to send me away because I am not leaving! I will not leave!"

"I don't want you to leave, silly girl." He said. "I want the best for you."

"And that best is here."

Oreius sighed. He knew that she was just as stubborn as she always said she was. "And are you sure about this?"

Robin pursed her lips as she decided to let out her emotions to him. He wanted her to talk to him? That was exactly what she was going to do. "Whatever has happened between the Witch and I," She shuddered at the thought that she was pushing away all the while. "That will stay in the past. I am not going to let it haunt me because everything that has happened to me. I'm not leaving." Persistence was the key. "Now may I leave from here?" She smiled at the word now.

Oreius thought about it for a few seconds before answering. "Yes, you may." When she turned her back to him, he started. "Be careful with the boy that you're meeting."

"How do you know it is a boy?" She challenged him, her voice stagnant the entire time. She could be with a girl too. Or a Narnian. He couldn't know it for sure.

"Remember your training." He said before opening the map once again and leaving her question unanswered.

The travel to the castle had her have a lot of questions run through her mind. Did she finally talk back to Oreius? Did she finally make a stand and talk about her true feelings? Oreius was like a father to her. He was the one person that she never doubted or lied to, although hiding the truth was not exactly lying according to her.

When she transformed into herself in Edmund's balcony, she called out for him when she found his room to be empty. Where could he have been, she wondered. "Edmund?" She peeked her head into the room and looked for the tousled head, but the room was darker than it usually was. That was strange because she knew that he liked to have a bright room until it was time to head for bed.

"Hello, Robin." She heard from behind her and turned around, startled.

"Gosh, Edmund!" She shouted at him, covering her mouth with her hand in shock. "You scared me!"

"It was my turn to startle you after all." He shrugged. He was leaning against the railings of the balcony.

"How did you get there?" She asked, pointing to the place he stood at. He wasn't there when she arrived. Uh oh. What if he had seen her transform?

"Magic." He said before he crossed his legs over.

"What are you doing!"

"Scaring you for the second time." He said before letting his grip on the railings of the balcony go to fall backwards into the dark abyss.

"Tree!" She shouted, her feet carrying her to the edge of the balcony. Her eyes searched for him in the darkness and tears were forming in her eyes as anger boiled through her veins.

"Relax." She heard him.

"Where are you?" She was relieved to hear his voice but the anger in her was overpowering.

"Look up."

Her head turned up and her eyes opened up wide when she realised what he had done. "I hate you." She whispered, composing herself to prevent Edmund from making fun of her.

"I know. I'm too good to be true."

"Yeah, right." She scoffed. "So who is this brilliant griffin?" She asked as he flew down towards the other side of the balcony to be eye to eye with her.

"Marvin." He said. "My griffin."

"Your griffin?"

"Yeah! Where's the fun in being the King if I can't go where I want to?" He put his hand forward and she raised her eyebrows at him. "Come on." He beckoned.

"No way." She shook her head. Even though she was a part-time bird, she was still afraid of heights. Oreius found it very strange but even more funny when she told him about it. He told her that it was 'one of those things'.

"Don't you trust me?" His chocolate brown eyes looked deeper than usual as she realised that he was trying to use his acceptance trick on her.

"If you let me fall," She said as she gave him her hand. "I will kill you."

"After what I just did, I may deserve it."

"Really?" She laughed. "But you won't die from my hands. Don't worry about that." He helped her sit down on the griffin, who was trying to adjust his wings for her comfortability. "This is....different."

He smirked. "You get used to it." 

Chapter Text

"Where are we going?" Robin asked.

Marvin landed in a clearing in the middle of the forests. She wasn't allowed to roam far from the territory marked by Oreius and she hadn't dared to travel further into the forests without help from Narnians. It felt strange to be breaking the rules all at once but that was a part of the forest that she was very familiar with. If Edmund was taking her where she thought he was, they were more alike than she thought.

"You'll see." He said. "Is everything okay?" He asked, noticing the sudden change in her expression.

"It is now." She smiled. Robin felt a ping of sadness when she thought about Oreius and how much he loved her to want to let her go. She was reconsidering whatever had happened but she pushed the thought away from her. She was with Edmund. The rest of the world didn't matter in the few hours.

"Right." He cleared his throat. "Come on." He beckoned his head to the thicket and walked towards it.

She followed him obediently and wanted to ask him a million questions. "You should give me a hint."

"A hint? No." He said, making her scowl. "All right. I am taking you to a special place of mine."

"In the middle of the woods?"

"I am the King of the Western Wood after all." He reminded her.

"Right. Silly me." 

Edmund pushed past the falling lowly branches and helped Robin when there was a rough terrain. He put his hand out whenever they needed to cross a fallen tree and although she didn't need it, she took it anyway. Every time they touched each other, a soft electricity passed between them, which of course they tried to deny because they didn't know how the other felt.

"Are we there yet?" She asked impatiently. Although she had grown up, Robin was still a child inside. She could never let that part of her go. It was really special and she would be living it all her life.

"We're there." He said and after some time, he pushed open a final bough and her eyes fell upon the most beautiful lake that she had ever seen. She laughed and seeing her happy, Edmund laughed as well. What was she doing to him? How could he have let his guard down so many times around her? But, he knew the answer. He just couldn't tell it out or admit it. "Do you like it?"

"I love it." She found it hard to breathe and had to remind herself that she could be alive only by that basic function. She turned to look at him and caught him looking affectionately at her. "How did you find this place?" She asked as she walked forward into the opening between the trees.

"I came here one night when I wanted to get away from the castle. Peter had organised a party for me and after all the time I spent talking with people, I needed to be alone for a while."

"Did Marvin tell you about this place?"

"Yes and no."

"I absolutely adore him, just so you know."

Edmund smiled. Marvin had told him that though he was pretending to not be able to talk, he was happy to see him happy. "I like her." He had told him. 

He shook off that conversation from his mind and sat down on the ground as he faced the lake. The moon was shining so brightly that its reflection on the surface of the water looked like a million diamonds having been dropped deliberately to create a peaceful aesthetic feeling for viewers.

"If this is your secret place," Robin started as she sat down next to him, keeping a generous gap between them, of course. "Why did you bring me here?"

"Well." Ed thought about it. "It is a place that I'm willing to share with the right person."

"Glad to be one of them." She was the only one and though he wanted to tell her that, he shook his head slightly to himself as he reminded himself of why he couldn't. "Actually, this is my secret place as well."

"Really?"

"I live not too far from here. Whenever I want to get away from my life, I'll come here."

"How have I never seen you here then?"

"Coincidence." She shrugged and tried to look innocent. She couldn't have him find out her true identity. What would he think?

The two of them lay down on the ground and looked at the moon as they started talking. "Susan is coming behind me all the time!" He exclaimed.

"What's the reason?"

"She wants me to take dancing lessons from some teacher." He laughed at himself thinking about how ridiculous it sounded. He knew how ridiculous it would be if he actually had agreed to it. "Some ball is being organised soon and Lucy wants all of us to be prepared for it....hence the dancing lessons."

"I could teach you."

"What?"

"Stay silent for one second." She sat up straight and whistled softly.

Edmund slowly stood up when he realised what was happening. Small particles started to lift themselves up from the bushes surrounding the lake and once they lit up, he realised that they were the Lighting Bees that he had always read about but never got a chance to see in person. "Woah."

"Now you know that I come here often. I started singing one day and realised that they respond to musical melodies." She whispered. "Come on." She stood up and gave Edmund her hand, who promptly took it and stood up as he continued to look around in amazement.

"I can't dance."

"You will. I'm a good teacher." She revealed.

"Well, there is no music." He whispered.

She smiled at his lack of interest in dancing. "Watch this." She whistled louder that time and though Edmund feared for the bees to leave, he found himself proved wrong. The bees glowed brighter and a soft melody filled the air.

"How...."

"Come on." She put her right arm on his shoulder and he realised that there was no backing out. He looked at her excitement for the situation and decided not to disappoint her. He couldn't do it.

Edmund put his arm around her waist as gently as possible and she started to give instructions about dancing.

"See? You're a natural." 

Robin couldn't believe how close they were to each other and tried to ignore that fact as she continued to remind herself to breathe. She couldn't faint that night and definitely not in front of her friend. He would never forget to bring it into a conversation and make fun of her.

"Where did you learn this?" He asked as she taught him how to spin her around.

"My....teacher. He is more of my family really. He taught me everything that I know right now."

"Well, I don't think he taught you this." He said and dipped her quickly towards the ground for the ending step of any waltz. It was another attempt to scare her but he didn't regret it. Robin shrieked for a short time because of the impact and was breathing very quickly when Edmund became well aware of the distance between them. He looked into her eyes and realised that they had more brown in them than black. "Sorry." He helped her stand and then let her go.

"That was...." She started. "No, he didn't teach me that." All she could think about was - What just happened?

Chapter Text

"We should head back." Edmund whispered. "Marvin would be getting impatient. He gets really annoyed if I make him wait too long." He tried to change the topic because he didn't want things to get out of hand before it was too late.

"Yes, you should." Robin agreed.

"Did I offend you by any chance?"

"You didn't." She said quickly. It was hard not to smile at his concern. "It was a good dance."

"It was." He nodded and then bowed down to her. "Thank you for teaching me. Lady Robin."

"Thank you for learning, King Edmund." She curtsied and they shared a moment of silence before both of them broke out laughing. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"I'll wait for you." He turned around to walk away but stopped with one step. He walked towards her and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you." He whispered into her hair before running into the forest cover.

Robin was left confused where she stood but was glad that she was alone. The confusion on her face must have been amusing to anyone. She smiled softly to herself and turned around to look at the moon right on top of the forest cover. She touched her cheeks and realised that she was blushing! What if Edmund had kissed her? She didn't want their friendship to get ruined but she had always felt something for him? She didn't know what it was but she was sure that he was the answer to all the questions she had been asking all her life.

Ever since she started to live as a human, something always bothered her. She had nightmares and trouble sleeping but ever since she and Edmund became friends, the bad parts of her life slowly faded away. She was happier and was grateful for his friendship. He was worth it.

A rustle of leaves broke the tranquil silent woods. "That was so touching." She heard a voice that she would never forget in her life. Robin turned around immediately and brought out the knife that she always carried with her. "And here I thought that you were trying to enjoy life to the fullest. Dancing is a real pain but I remember the happiness that it gives everyone. Especially us girls that need to stick together."

"Carmis." Robin snarled.

"There's no need for weapons, dear." Carmis swiped her hand to the left and the knife flew away from the young girl's hand and clattered on the floor.

"Well, I think it poses an unfair advantage if you have your powers and I am not even allowed to be armed."

Carmis raised her eyebrows. "Well done, Sanya! You have learnt to talk back. Narnia has taught you well."

"Narnia has taught me a lot of things." She said. "How did you find me?"

"It took me some time but I was relentless. I couldn't let my prized possession get away from me, now could I? But more important things first. Who is the boy?" She asked coyly.

"Like I'm going to tell you." She scoffed. Right then, a shadow emerged over them as Marvin carried Edmund away from his secret place. Carmis brought her hand up and Robin knew what she was planning. "Stop!"

Carmis looked at her and a smile spread across her face. "That's better." She said, pulling her hand back. It was a shame that she couldn't use her powers on someone that night but the terror on Robin's face before her was more satisfying. "What's his name?"

Robin didn't want to speak but she knew that her captor had other methods to make people talk. Although she hadn't been one of the victims, she had seen enough horror to know not to cross her. "Edmund."

"The Just King?" A very explicit confusion spread across her face. "You are even more naive than I thought." A laugh escaped her. "This changes everything, darling."

"You don't know me."

"But I know him." She said as she took a step forward. "Jadis may have been the one to manipulate but she learnt from the best."

"What do you want?" Getting every syllable out was physically exhausting. She did not want to look at the Red Queen ever again.

"I wanted to have a talk with you, but clearly you aren't ready to understand the situation yet." She revealed. "You are still a child who believes that the Just King of Narnia would fall for her. Do you really think that he cares for you?" She asked in a calm voice. "From everything that I know about him, he strayed away from the righteous path a long time ago."

"He is not-"

"Once a betrayer, always a betrayer, darling." She said. "I speak from experience."

Robin's blood boiled, wanting to slice Carmis' throat but she knew that it was what she was intending to make her feel. "You don't know anything about him." She said slowly.

Carmis' mouth fell open. "You have grown to care for him!" She laughed as if she had heard the world's greatest joke and started to clap.

"You don't know what you are talking about. I don't care for him that way. He is my friend."

"Your words may be full of lies but your heart speaks the truth."

Only then did Robin realise that her breathing had increased and her heart was beating faster than usual. She was hearing her worst fear through the mouth of Carmis of all people. What if she was right? "Leave me alone." She snarled.

"I will, dear. I will." She said as she started to walk backwards. "Clearly you have more important things to worry about." She turned around but before leaving, she decided to tell him one more statement. "No one can love you after knowing who you are. No one is the same age as you. He will wither and die and so will you, but think about all the years that you have spent. He doesn't care for you." She said. "It's the curse of being a woman."

Chapter Text

Robin spent the next day pondering about what had happened the previous night. When the Narnians saw her pacing the edge of the lake downhill, they thought that she was thinking about Oreius' words, but they did not know what was really running through her mind.

What if Carmis was right? She knew that she wasn't anyone special. Edmund was a King. He didn't owe her anything. She was his subject no matter what both of them thought. Although she believed that Carmis was wrong about him, what if she was right in a way?

Maybe everything that Robin and Edmund had was just a dream and maybe, it was time to wake up. Every moment that she had spent with him was worth every minute of risking their lives. It was worth it. He was worth it. And yet, while flying towards the grounds of Cair Paravel, she knew that she had to end whatever they had before things got out of hand. She couldn't be the one to break his heart and she definitely could not have her heart broken by him. Or herself, even.

She transformed quickly and walked over towards the light drapes flying towards her in the brisk evening breeze. Robin stopped walking immediately when she heard voices inside the room. She hid herself behind the pillar outside and tried not to eavesdrop.

"Not tonight, Su." She heard Edmund say impatiently.

"Look, I know that I tried to-" It was his sister, Susan, the Gentle Queen. She was trying to talk to him and Robin smacked her forehead when she realised that she couldn't have chosen a better time for whatever she had to do.

"I don't want to talk about this!" Edmund groaned.

"I see that you don't like talking about this but I did not impose the idea of marriage on you earlier."

Robin's breathing had stopped for a second, and she scolded herself for that. What was she even thinking? Of course he was going to get married one day! She couldn't see it happening because she was still a child inside but she knew that being the ruler of Narnia, Edmund would have to face the responsibilities that came with it soon enough. She was just an outsider, a third-person and a protector. Carmis was right. She hated to admit it, but the Red Queen was right.

"Look." Edmund started. "I don't want to talk about this because I don't want to get married. Not now. Not ever."

That was a different shock for Robin. What did he mean by that? Wouldn't he want to spend his life with someone? She wondered what was running through his head, just like Susan was.

The elder Pevensie walked towards her little brother and placed a hand on his shoulder. It was a trick that she used whenever he started hyperventilating. All of them had trouble adjusting to their new life but they were sure that they weren't going to find home anywhere else. Narnia was everything for them. 

"I won't talk about this....if you tell me that you will think about it."

He looked into her blue eyes and found it hard to say what he wanted. "I'll think about it. But I do not want to get married. Please." He inhaled sharply. "I can never see myself like that. It is just not meant for me."

"Don't say that." She said softly. "I'm sure that there is someone out there who will make you turn your head." And the look on Edmund's face said it all. "Wait-"

"Alright, I need to finish this book!" He started to gently guide her out when he saw that Susan had figured it out.

"Ed!" She exclaimed as she turned out to stop him.

"We'll talk later." He promised.

She was going to argue but refrained from it. She trusted her brother but also knew that his 'later' was never. "Okay. But I want to hear everything and if you keep anything from me-"

"You will tell Lucy, who will start to eat my brain. I know." He laughed.

"Get some rest now." She said before walking towards her room.

Edmund sighed as he leaned against the wall after closing it. "You can come in now."

Robin's eyes opened wide when she realised that he had known that she was there the entire time. "Sorry." She said as she emerged from behind the pillar. "I didn't mean to...." Her voice trailed out. Edmund still had the same effect over her even after their time together.

"I know." He smiled, making her stomach do somersaults. Robin opened her mouth to say something before she was cut off by him. "I need to tell you something."

She blinked. He was speaking what she wanted to. "Okay?"

"These past few weeks have been....amazing." He laughed. "But I think that we need to look at reality here."

"Edmund-"

"Please." He said softly. "I'm very grateful for your friendship but you know what I'm talking about." She knew. "Every time I ask you a question, you give me a vague answer. I don't mind it at all because I am like that as well, but you just heard what I'm going through. They are trying to get me to admit my feelings and I cannot do that if...."

"Edmund, I-"

"I like you, Robin."

She couldn't believe her ears. "What?"

"I have feelings for you." He revealed. "I don't know how you feel. I've been trying to deny these emotions but if....if we need to continue seeing each other, I need answers. And I need the truth."

"Edmund." She moved towards him. "I want to tell you everything. Believe me." She said. "But I can't."

"Why not?"

"I have my reasons."

"That's not good enough, Robin. I wish that it was, but it isn't unfortunately."

She bit her inner cheek. She had been preparing for this the entire day but why did it prick more than she was anticipating. "What does it mean then?" She looked at the floor because she couldn't meet his eyes. She was breaking his heart without even meaning to and she couldn't even talk about it. She didn't know how to.

There was a moment of silence between them. "I don't know."

Chapter Text

"Why can't you talk to me?" Edmund asked, agitated.

"You think that I don't want to?"

"That's what it feels like though, Robin! All that I know about you is from whatever you tell me. I trust you. I want to trust you, but every information that you have told me has more to it. You give me half answers; half truths. I'm trying my best to open up to you." He crossed his arms across his chest. "I have never talked about myself with anyone like I have with you." He whispered. "But I cannot let myself get hurt if you don't feel the same way."

"Ed...." She wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to talk about whatever had happened to her, about the Witches, about being captured, her nightmares....everything. But she couldn't! How could he look at her the same way he had been after finding out who she was? "I can't tell you."

"Why, Robin? Just give me one good reason." He held her arms hesitantly and when she didn't pull back, he moved a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "I don't know what to do feeling this way." He whispered.

The space between them was very less and Robin was staring at his lips. Should she tell him? Should she not? She couldn't tell him that she didn't feel the same way because that would be the biggest lie to be told. Besides, he would figure it out and the truth would be out either way.

"I have feelings for you as well." She mumbled.

Edmund took a deep breath before placing his lips on hers. He held her face in his and was very well aware about the quicker pace that his heart took. Robin was dumbstruck but she was enjoying the moment. She couldn't believe that she was kissing Edmund. She had thought about it many times but she always pushed the thought away. And being in that situation, she had no idea what to feel.

"Please just...." He whispered after he pulled away. "Tell me the truth. I will be here for you no matter what."

Both of them had their eyes closed, letting their hearts make their decision for them for once. Their mind could rest for a while from their overthinking burden. "I...." She shook her head and then walked backwards from him. "I want you to know that I haven't been lying to you." She started. "But I am going to take the leap and show you....who I really am."

Edmund stood silent. His mind was on the kiss because it was everything that he had imagined it to be. But whatever that Robin was going to tell him, would it be possible for him to take it in? He was going to be there for her no matter what, but the way she was acting, he had so many theories in his mind. What could she possibly be keeping from him that had her so scared?

She took a deep breath. "Just know that....I am still me." 

She closed her eyes and willed for the metamorphosis to take place and once she felt her bones go hollow, she opened her eyes hesitantly. Edmund was staring at her wide-eyed. His mouth was open but he was still standing in the same place. At least he wasn't running in the opposite direction, she thought.

Robin flew around the room once and saw that he was looking keenly at her. Once she landed in the same place from where she took off, she willed for the reverse change and felt herself grow. Once again, she opened her eyes hesitantly but that time, she found herself staring into Edmund's tunic. He had pulled her into a hug. 

"How long?"

She couldn't believe her ears. He wasn't concerned that she was cursed to be a bird but he was worried about how long she had to keep that truth to herself. "Forever." She broke into tears and sobbed while he caressed her hair.

That was the first time she cried in front of anyone and though Edmund didn't know what to do, he let her cry while trying to comfort her. They sat down together by the fireplace and Robin, for the first time in her life, trusted someone that wasn't Oreius with her story - her real story. She told him about her family and how she had been captured by three Witches, one of them being Jadis. She also told him about the time she had witnessed the Pevensies in Narnia for the first time and how she had escaped the icy prison just as he had become a victim.

"You were here all along?" Edmund couldn't take in the fact that he had never crossed paths with her during his visits to the woods because if he had, he wouldn't have left her alone. They could have spent more time together and maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be facing Susan's naggings.

"I was the silent spectator." She shrugged. "I am the silent spectator. And I am fine with it."

"I'm not." He shook his head. "I want to be there for you, Robin. Let me."

"I owe you a lot already, Ed and-"

He rolled his eyes. "You have been my greatest friend and hopefully, we can be more. But please. Let me in." He kept a hand on her cheek.

"Will you?" She asked. "Let me in?"

"Darling, you are already a part of all of my sleepless nights."

"Did you just call me 'darling'?" She asked, squinting her eyes.

"Would you prefer 'Birdy' instead?" He joked and she hit him playfully. "I'm joking!"

"Tree and Birdy." She smiled. "It has a nice ring to it." She admitted. "Oreius gave me the name Sanya once I got ahold of my vocal chords. But I was used to being called Robin and to be honest, I prefer it that way. I think it was a way of accepting who I really was."

He smiled at her. "Robin it is, then." He said. "I get why you didn't want me to find out how you were commuting now. I had so many bizarre theories about it and I cannot believe that this wasn't one of them."

"What were they?"

"Secret assassin who could climb walls." He started counting. "You had wings - which is close to the truth but not nearly." He told her about his other theories and was glad when she broke out laughing.

"If I was an assassin, I would kill whoever hired me and take the money either way. Win-win."

"I'm glad that you aren't." He revealed. "So, why didn't you want to approach us for help?" He asked after some time.

"Because I liked you." She revealed. 

Chapter Text

"Explaining to someone that I was cursed with this existence and having to pass on my burden on to them....it didn't feel right. It still doesn't." Robin continued. "It is bad enough that Oreius had to carry it with me and so did the other Narnians in a way, but I won't let anyone else bear the load with me."

"That doesn't make sense and you know it as well." Edmund pointed out. "I know that you were scared. I get it. But didn't you think that you owed me that much?" He asked softly and she couldn't look at his chocolate brown eyes without melting. "Ten years, Robin. Ten." He breathed out as he wrapped his arms around her.

Edmund didn't let Robin go as both of them sat down on the floor facing the entrance of the balcony. They gazed at the moon while he asked her the questions that he had already asked her but that time, he got the answers that he wanted. "I cannot believe that even Oreius has kept this from us for so long."

"It wasn't his fault. I asked him not to."

"You shouldn't have."

"I had to."

"Why?" He asked. "Why didn't you come to us? Why didn't you...." His voice trailed out as he thought about completing the sentence or not. "Why didn't you come to me?"

"Would you have?" She asked. "Helped me....if I came to the castle with Oreius as a teenager?"

"What made you think that I wouldn't? That we wouldn't?"

Sanya was asked the same question by Oreius multiple number of times but she could never give him an answer. "I'm different. I'm an outcast and-" Edmund closed her mouth with his hand and shook his head. "I...." She sighed after he took his hand away. "I didn't know. I just...."

He sighed, burying his face in her hair. "Well, now we will never know."

"Please don't say anything to Oreius. He has been my parent and that is all that matters."

"I won't." He promised. "What if I wanted to carry the burden?" He asked after a while.

"You shouldn't have to." She played with a button on his tunic as she listened to the sound of his steady heartbeat.

"But you can't make that decision for me. What if I hadn't caught you on the balcony? What if you hadn't decided to accept my friendship and what if you left right now?" Robin smiled as the memory of being embarrassed came back to her. "It hurts to think about that."

"I know." She said. "But I didn't."

Somehow, the topic changed to their favourite foods and Edmund revealed that he loved oranges more than anything. "But they are never in season and it is hard to procure them to the castle. Sometimes I sneak into weddings and other festivities just so I can be whoever I want to be."

"And nobody recognises you?"

"I can hide well. More than well actually."

She smiled at his mischievous side. "So who are you when you are with me?" She asked as she played with the protruding threads of her dress, knowing that she would blush at his reply.

He smiled before leaning forward and kissing her once again. It lasted only for a few seconds but it felt like eternity for both of them. They were grateful for each other's presence and finally understood what everyone told them about the greatness of feeling the way that they did. "Myself." He revealed as he pulled back.

Robin blushed just as she had predicted, but she didn't turn away from him. There was no point hiding her feelings anymore. "Do you think that...."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me."

Just listening to him say that, she realised that she was attracted to his voice and she knew that he could never find that out. "Do you think that....we would work?" She wondered out aloud.

"What makes you think that we won't?"

"I'm not exactly human, Edmund. I'm not royalty either."

"But you are."

"Not in this world, no." She said. "I can't think about the life that I could have had and I don't think that Carmis would reverse the curse now and-"

"Wait." He stopped her. "Carmis is alive?"

"Yes."

"And she is in Narnia?"

Robin told him about what happened after he left the lake. She told him how Carmis sneaked up on her and threatened her. "She tried to manipulate me and I was going to talk to you about this before you said that you wanted to talk."

That made Edmund think about something. His eyebrows twitched together and Robin knew that he was thinking about something very important. "Come on." He stood up and gave her his hand.

She took it reluctantly and stood up. "Where?"

"We are going to talk to my family."

"No, Ed-" She started to shake her head as fear engulfed her.

"Trust is earned, Robin. And I think that I have." He took her hand in his and curled his fingers with hers. "Come with me." He beckoned to the door and started walking towards it but she stood where she was. "Come on."

"What if they don't like me?" It felt strange to say it aloud but it was one of the reasons that she refused to meet the Pevensies in the first place. What if they thought that she was different from them? Ed burst out laughing at her bewildered expression. She scoffed at his amusement. "Thank you for the concern."

"I'm sorry but you are scared that my family won't like you?" He wondered why women were so different from men.

"Susan was talking about marriage earlier." She started hesitantly. She knew that she was jumping the train but they had to talk about the elephant in the room. "What if I'm not fit for you in their eyes and-"

"Just....come." He put out his hand and she took it without thinking twice. She was going to be with him. What could go wrong?

He shook his head slightly at her concern. She wanted to be worthy of him and how could he tell her that he was trying to be the same since the moment they started talking with each other. He knew that he told her that he wouldn't talk to Oreius but he knew that he had to. And it was a talk that was completely different from what Robin thought.

Chapter Text

Walking out of his room with another person had the guards looking at each other in concern and worry. "Klaus." Edmund addressed one of them. "Please inform my siblings to meet myself and," He turned to see Robin and a small smile crept across her face. "....my friend at the dining room. Tell them that I have something important to tell them."

The guard nodded promptly and made his way to search for the other Pevensies by inquiring with his fellow mates. He found out that the Magnificent King was in the North Tower, the Gentle Queen in the library and the Valiant Queen in her room. He informed their personal guards about the situation and hurried back to his post. He knew that gossip was a treason of a kind but he wondered how the young woman had made her way into the Just King's room without being seen by any of them.

Susan Pevensie was in the library whenever she wanted to free her mind from that day's council meetings. Arguments could get heated and out of hand and she was grateful for her younger brother's negotiation skills. If Edmund hadn't intervened Lord Highwell that afternoon, she would definitely have had trouble calming everyone down.

She was reading her favourite book when there was a knock at the door. "Come in." She said as she carefully kept the bookmark over the page and marked it.

"Your Majesty." The guard bowed down after entering hesitantly. "King Edmund has requested your presence in the dining room."

Peter Pevensie was charting the stars in the North Tower. Earlier that week, he had noticed that some of the markings had been incorrect and needed to be updated as the night skies had changed. He was having a tough time marking the star near the Major constellation because the longitudes and latitudes weren't coinciding at the correct point. When he was going to give up, he heard someone climbing up to the tower, their steps echoing.

Peter could have recognised the footsteps anywhere. "Yes, Miguel?" He called out.

Miguel, the Head of the Guards bowed down and got to the point. "King Edmund requests you to accompany him in the dining room."

Finally, Lucy Pevensie was sitting inside her room and was playing chess by herself. Edmund kept beating her every time that they played and she did not like losing. She picked up the solid gold chess elephant piece and moved it as she made her move. She had noticed his eye movements that morning and was trying to mimic them. She knew that she couldn't let him win continuously and was firm to find a way out.

There was a knock at her door and when she asked them to come in, she knew who it was because of the unmistakable red scarf that the faun always wore. "Mr. Tumnus!" Lucy exclaimed.

"I'm really sorry to disturb you, Your Majesty."

"Not at all." She waved her hand down. "Is everything alright?"

"King Edmund requests your presence in the dining room."

When the three siblings entered the room, almost at the same time, they lingered at the entrance when they saw their brother talking to a young maiden. Peter immediately turned to Susan and seemed to be asking her "Who is she?" but all she did was shake her head. It was Lucy who broke the silence in the room by calling out to the two staring out of the window. "Ed?"

Edmund turned around and the three siblings saw a change that came over him. They had noticed his strange behaviour over the past few weeks. He seemed to be more happy and cheerful. He was more participating and on that night, they were sure that all the positivity in him was because of the maiden.

"Lucy." He smiled and then turned to face the woman. "Robin, this is my family. Peter, Susan and Lucy."

"Your Majesties." Robin curtsied.

Edmund then faced the confused three. "This is my friend, Sanya. Oh, Robin, sorry."

And so, they sat down together at the dining table after making themselves a glass of milk each. Robin and Edmund briefed them about the situation and though the confusion still lingered, the three were happy to see him happy. Susan kept eyeing him as she sat opposite to him, which Lucy caught. There was something that was going on and saw that Peter was just as clueless as her. They would have to talk to Susan about it when Edmund wasn't around because they needed to be kept in the loop.

"Can we help in any way?" Edmund asked after the topic of Carmis came up.

Peter sat at the head of the table and was silent the entire conversation. He was noticing Ed's posture and his change of gestures. Maybe it was because of the newcomer but he seemed more confident. "We can help." He said.

Edmund let out a breath of relief. "We can alert the army and try to track down the Witch before she attacks us, Narnia or anywhere else for that matter."

"Thank you." Robin said. "I don't know what to say right now."

"You don't have to say anything." Susan spoke.

"We are glad to be of help." The youngest said.

Robin turned to look at Ed, he raised his eyebrows at her. "Told you."

"So how did you two meet each other?" Lucy addressed what was running through everyone's mind that night and after the two revealed the truth, Peter intervened.

"If you are who you say you are, and if Oreius has been keeping your secret, then you must accept our invitation of staying with us in the castle."

"What?" Robin forgot how to speak for a moment. "I-"

"Ed." Susan prompted, eyeing the newcomer.

"You could stay here." He said.

"But-"

"It would be fun!" Lucy said.

"I...." Oreius' words came back to her. If you had agreed to live at the castle, it wouldn't have been a problem. "I would be intruding and I don't want to-"

"You would be doing no such thing." Susan spoke.

Peter stood up calmly from the table. "It's settled then." He said. "I will speak to Oreius. You can stay with us until we figure out how to capture this Red Queen."

"We'll protect you." Edmund said, taking her hand in his. Although he said 'we', his smile said otherwise.

Chapter Text

"You could stay the night." Edmund suggested as he walked Robin out of the castle. He wanted to see her leave for once and not be kept in the dark. Besides, he liked being with her. Her presence had a positive effect on his attitude and even though that feeling was entirely new, he enjoyed it.

"I can't." She said. "I have to get my belongings together and inform Oreius about the....change of circumstances. He needs to hear it from me. After all, he was the one who wanted me to meet all of you in the first place."

They had walked silently beside each other the entire way, both not being able to believe that the Pevensies were offering her a place to stay. They trusted Oreius to know that Robin wasn't lying about her identity. They had heard rumours about the one that called herself "The Red Queen", but they never had an eye witness. Until now.

"Are you happy?"

"I am, thank you." She smiled genuinely. "And thank you for....everything else."

"You're welcome. I hope you like staying with us. We do fight a lot. Well, on occasions," He chuckled. "But I'm sure that you'll find our quarrels enjoyable."

"I can be pretty argumentative." She revealed. "So don't mind if I join your debates."

"Oh, we could always use another voice!" Robin smiled. "Can I watch you leave now?"

She couldn't believe her ears. He wanted to see her undergo metamorphosis. He wasn't disgusted by her bird self and though it was hard to believe, she could see his genuineness in his eyes. She wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him into a hug. 

"Dang, you really are tall." She said when she found it hard to rest her head on his shoulder and pulled herself back.

Edmund laughed. "It's not my fault."

"No." She laughed. "It isn't."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Birdy?" He asked, just as he did every night.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Tree." She answered her usual reply. "But promise me something." She said. "Don't try to find Carmis. She finds you usually but since she is keeping low, I think we should leave her alone."

"But what if she attacks the castle?"

"You won't be able to take her on. Jadis had a magical staff with her because her magic was taken away from her. But Carmis has hers."

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head. "I don't know the entire story but that's not the point. Don't try to find her. Promise me."

"Okay." He nodded.

Robin turned around and for the first time in the past two to three months, she wasn't scared of her other self. She embraced it with a smile and turned. She flew towards the night sky but looked around to see Edmund admiring her. She felt herself flush but she sang in a melodious tone and flew towards the forest cover.

Edmund found himself standing in the same space for a while. His smile faded and his eyes opened wide when he realised something. "She was the songbird!" He exclaimed happily.

Robin couldn't hear him but she did hear him laugh. She flew with a different feeling that lingered in her wings. Was she really going to be living in a castle? Had the Pevensies really given her a place in the world? And what about Edmund? Was he really who Robin thought him to be? Could he be the one for her?

She pushed all these questions away from her mind once she reached the Shuddering Wood. She transformed into herself and walked towards Oreius' tent. She got to point right away. "I've been lying to you." She started. "Well, not lying exactly. I just haven't told you the truth."

Oreius closed the book that he was reading and removed the glasses that he was wearing. He didn't need them normally but his vision sort of blurred during nighttime where he was forced to read by a lamp. "What is it?" He had expected that particular conversation from her a few weeks back when she stopped getting angry even when the situation should have made her bitter.

"I...." She didn't know how to start. "I....have....been....meeting with....Edmund Pevensie." She said slowly. "For the past few months."

He was surprised, yes. But he did not show it on his face. "I had a feeling that you must have come across one of them sometime. I am glad that it was the Just King."

"What?" She was taken aback. She was expecting a lecture about how she has been irresponsible and how she has been lying to everyone about her whereabouts.

Oreius sighed. "I figured that you must have found someone that you wanted to spend your time with. I just didn't know that it was one of the Pevensies. Now, I'm not complaining. But I hope that you know that you have gone back on your own words."

"Hey!" She exclaimed when she realised that he was making fun of her.

He started laughing. "So have you found your 'place in the world'?" He quoted her.

"I think so." She nodded.

"And I am guessing that the High King wants you to stay at the castle."

"How did you-" She shook her head. "Of course you know what he would have suggested."

"I am the Commander-In-Chief after all." He reminded her. "What was your answer?"

She knew that he couldn't predict her decisions, and she had taken enough advantage of it the past decade. "I agreed." She said. "You were right. I should have met them a long time ago."

"It is better this way."

She was taken aback once again. "How do you mean?"

"Look outside."

Edmund was jumpy, and he had never been jumpy before in his entire life. He had been a restless kid, always wanting to do something to keep himself occupied. His interest in books came first that way. When he returned to the dining hall, he found his family talking to each other urgently.

"You don't have to stop on my account." He said and then noticed that the head chair was missing. He looked straight ahead and saw Peter gazing at the stars. "Pete?" He called out.

The High King had his hands folded, which wasn't a good sign because that meant that he was analysing something very seriously. "Come on." He beckoned for Ed to join him looking outside.

Edmund walked towards his brother and was completely aware of Susan's confusion and Lucy's happiness. He stood beside his brother and looked at what he was seeing - the stars. He knew that Peter had a fascination for astronomy ever since he could remember. It felt good to share the same space for something that he loved. "Thank you." He said. "For hearing Sanya out."

"You seem to like her." Peter pointed out.

"I do." Edmund couldn't help but smile and admit it out loud for once.

"Yes!" Lucy squealed but closed her mouth in earnest as soon as she did so. She was hoping not to reveal her feelings about them but she couldn't help herself.

Edmund was grateful for that reaction. He had a feeling that Robin would fit in with their lives right away and he couldn't wait for her to officially be a part of his life. "I don't think I need to tell you about keeping her company." Peter stated.

"Not at all."

Edmund couldn't believe that he was blushing. Neither could Peter for that matter but he loved seeing his brother that way because of all the 'I don't need love' talk that he had been telling Susan over dinner every night constantly. He knew that something was wrong when she stopped talking about the future and Edmund stopped being sarcastic in unnecessary situations.

"We will make her feel welcomed. Don't worry." Peter promised as he clamped a hand on his brother's shoulder.

But Edmund pulled him into a hug. "Thank you."

Chapter Text

Robin stared at the night sky. It was strange that she hadn't noticed it before because she never went by a night without thanking the moon for giving her her human life back. She believed one of the legends where the moon was a guide for anyone who lost their path and she definitely wanted to be in his or her good graces.

"The stars." She mumbled.

"Yes." She heard Oreius beside her but she hadn't heard him trot outside to stand next to her.

"Does it mean what I-"

"Yes, it does." He replied. "Love is back together." He pointed the stars out by their names and traced its shape with his hand. "You don't have to take its meaning literally." He said when he realised that she had started overthinking. "It is a symbol of union and friendship. Your meeting with the royals has happened at the right time. In a way, I am glad that I didn't forcefully take you to castle Cair Paravel earlier." Both of them smiled. "I would have done it but....I am glad I didn't because the time now is ripe."

"But what about the one next to Love?" She pointed out the other constellation which was inferior to the first. That was the one that they had to talk about.

"Ah." He said. "You were able to point it out."

"I can point War out even when I'm asleep." She bit her inner cheek. It was the one constellation that she had seen her entire life, just lingering over her head and mocking her. "Does that mean that....today's events are going to cause a fight in the universe?"

"The universe is a difficult place. We shouldn't take every sign that it shows up in the literal sense. Love is dominating War. Your union could be a sign of prevention and caution."

Robin nodded. "I hope so." But deep down, she knew that it wasn't. She had been expecting this for some time now. She grew tired of looking back and Carmis' little 'visit' proved it. She could never be safe. But why did it feel so when she was with him?

Back at Cair Paravel, the brothers broke their hug as Susan Pevensie cleared her throat. Peter and Edmund looked at her and took their seats when she began asking Edmund the questions that had been running in her head ever since he pushed her out of his room. "So that's what you meant by talking about proposals later on."

"Yes."

"Do you like her?"

"I do." He felt like he was facing an inquiry but that was just Susan.

"What happened to 'I'm never going to fall for someone'?" Lucy imitated the time he had teased her for reading love poems written by soldiers that were sent away to war. He had some of his favourites in that book and was grateful to her for making him read it. He did apologise later on, of course.

"Uh...."

"Obviously Captain Speechless here cannot answer your question, Lu." Peter also joined in to make fun of Edmund, who didn't seem to mind it really.

"'Never' is a strong word."

"Hey! That's what I told you!" Susan exclaimed and threw her napkin at him. That had been her response when he had told her that he would never like anyone more than Turkish Delight.

"I know!"

Everyone laughed. It was nice to spend a night where they didn't have to worry about politics. They were with their siblings and nothing else seemed to matter. After they finished their dinner and dismissed everyone for the night, there was a soft knock at Lucy's door. She wasn't surprised when Ed walked inside and lay on the bed next to her.

She turned to give him a stare when he shrugged, clearly confused by her reaction. He liked having conversations with her but he knew that she was staring at him because of the time. "Oh, come on. Stay up for once, will you?"

"And be tired the next day? No, thank you."

"You are such a follower."

"You're not tough enough to be a breaker, Ed." He didn't mind that she made fun of him. She was his little sister after all. And everything that she said could never be offensive to him. "Will Robin like me?" Lucy asked slowly.

It was clear to Edmund that she had been meaning to ask that for a while and was waiting for the right time. "She will love you! Why wouldn't she?"

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know. None of us have ever liked another person before and now that she is going to be a part of our lives....curiosity got the better of me, that's all."

He didn't know what to answer to that but he made a mental note to tell Robin to talk to Lucy first. "She will love you." He repeated. "Only a really mad person could hate you, Lu."

"Aww, thank you, Ed!" She threw a pillow at his face for implying that she was soft.

"Thanks." He scoffed and hugged the pillow.

"I'm sleepy."

"Nice to meet you, Sleepy. I'm Edmund Pevensie. Long time no see!"

"Ed!" She exclaimed. "I'm serious."

"But I thought you were sleepy." Lucy shoved him playfully. "Alright alright! I give up."

"We'll talk in the morning and I better not find you tired."

"You can't stop me."

She was going to say something but stopped midway. "I'm too tired to argue. Go sleep!"

"Goodnight, Lu."

"Goodnight, Ed." She said, pulling the covers over her face. "And shut the door behind you!" She shouted when he started to walk away from the room. It was a habit of his. He rushed back and closed the door.

Meanwhile, the eldest Pevensie was back in the tower as he tried to complete his work. He adjusted the telescope in its place and looked around the clouds that passed the night sky. There really was something about them that fascinated him. He couldn't believe that they were just bodies made of mass and gases as he was taught. They couldn't be. They just couldn't.

"What?" He whispered when his eyes came across the two new constellations in the sky. "That's not possible." He looked closely and even though he thought that it was the sleep getting in the way, it was in fact the constellation of Havoc. He took his gaze away from the telescope and looked at the sky with his own eyes. It was faint but it was glowing like it always did when it appeared. "Not possible...."

Chapter Text

Stars are more honest than man - that was the words of the Centaurs.

Robin had her bags packed and ready to be taken to Castle Cair Paravel in the carriage that was sent for her. She would have preferred to fly but of course, the Pevensies thought about her comfort. While she was on her way, Edmund suddenly found dust everywhere. "Please keep it as perfect as possible."

Lucy stopped walking down the staircase exactly as he said those words. "Wait what?"

He looked up to see her. "Morning, Lu." He wished as he crossed off something from the checklist that he held in his hands.

"Susan?" She called out.

Edmund frowned. "What?"

"Have you become Susan all of a sudden?" She reached the bottom of the stairs and immediately checked his temperature.

"I'm fine!" He exclaimed, pulling back.

"You don't have a fever. Since when did you want your surroundings cleaned up?"

Edmund wasn't the type to care about anything messy. He liked things the way they were. It was usually Susan who wanted everything to be in perfect condition and order. "No, Lu." He laughed. "I just want things to be....right."

"Someone really likes someone." She punched his arm playfully.

"If you mean food, then yes. I do love food, thank you."

Lucy's eyebrows furrowed but she didn't argue. From everything that she had seen all her life, Edmund always kept a distance with people. He couldn't open up the way everyone could. He wasn't the type to. But somehow, he was different when it came to Robin because he was more....himself.

The three of the Pevensies talked with each other about him when he wasn't around as they discussed their concerns. All they could conclude was that they wanted him to be happy. They had seen that he was cheerful and more himself in the past few months. They missed that part of him. He always used sarcasm to hide his exact feelings but that had become a part of him eventually, and even though they didn't know anything about Robin, they were ready to let her into their lives if it meant their brother's happiness.

When Robin's arrival was announced, the Pevensies gathered together at the front lawn to greet her. Edmund was awfully jumpy, which made Susan and Peter share a look with a smile. 

Lucy, on the other hand, was twiddling her thumbs for some reason and her shoulders were dropped. Susan kept a hand on her shoulder and gave her a little hug. "Come on, Lu."

The royal announcers trumpeted as the carriage stopped outside. Robin felt surreal being at the castle through the front doors. She preferred flying her way in because it was so much easier, but she knew that the people of Narnia would have to know about the new guest at the castle. The castle seemed bigger than usual as she realised that she could hear her heartbeat in her ear.

"Stay away, Birdy." She scolded her other self.

"Welcome to Cair Paravel." Peter said.

"We are very happy to have you here." Susan said.

And after all the awkward greetings took place, Edmund pulled her aside. "Welcome to the castle, I guess."

"Officially." She added.

"Officially." He sighed. "I need to ask you for a favour."

"Sure. What is it?"

"Lucy....was actually worried about something. Now, I don't know how you might take this but," He inhaled deeply. "She is somehow worried that you may not like her."

Robin broke out laughing but when she saw the seriousness on his face, she composed herself. "She thinks that I won't like her? Why?"

"Beats me."

"Can I talk to her about it?"

"That's exactly what I wanted to request."

"I'm on it, Tree."

"Thank you, Birdy." Before they could talk further, one of the guards standing in that corridor approached Edmund and informed him that his presence was required in the living room. "I'll talk to you tonight?"

"Definitely." She smiled.

Robin started to roam the castle when she realised that everyone was busy. It felt strange to walk around without having to be cautious and worried about getting caught. Whenever a guard appeared, instincts took over her to hide but she always shook her head. She didn't have to hide anymore.

Somehow, she heard from one of the guards that the Valiant Queen was in the library and she started walking to her favourite room in the entire castle. "Queen Lucy?" She called out after knocking.

"Come in!" She heard the youngest Pevensie's voice.

Robin peeked inside, halfway in and halfway out. "Hey." She waved at the girl only a few years younger than her sitting at the table by the sunlight. "Can we talk?"

"Oh." She said. "Of course." Lucy closed her book with the bookmark she held in her hand.

Robin took the seat next to her and took a deep breath before she started conversing. "Edmund told me something about-"

"Oh no!" She buried her face in her hands as she was filled with embarrassment.

"Did I do something to let you know that I didn't like you? Because if I had-"

"No no not at all!" She shook her head. "This isn't your fault at all."

"Thank goodness." She breathed out in relief. "But there is a problem, isn't it?" She asked after sensing the tension on Lucy's face. "What is it?"

Lucy bit her lower lip but decided to answer that question. It did concern Robin after all. "I fear that things are going to change from now." She started. "My family....we've been through so much together. It is a little strange that someone else is going to be staying with us. We are glad to have you, that's not the point! But...." For the first time in her life, she did not know how to express her concern. She became emotional when things came to her family.

"You don't want anyone to change what you have with your family." Robin completed it for her.

"Yes."

"Lucy." She took her hand in hers. "I hope it is okay if I call you Lucy. Edmund mentioned that you don't like anyone addressing you."

"That was considerate of him but he thinks I'm too soft." She chuckled.

"Can I call you the Soft Queen then?" Robin joked to lighten the mood.

"I like how that sounds. Thank you." She said. "But I am....scared." She revealed.

"Okay." She nodded. "I promise you that I have no intention of getting in between the four of you. I am grateful that you would give me a place to stay and I hope....that we can be friends."

"Of course we can be friends." She pulled the newcomer into a hug. "Thank you for understanding."

"Of course, Soft Queen."

Chapter Text

Robin fit right in with the lifestyle of living in a castle. She had to follow certain rules and regulations, which Oreius had warned her about. She was certain that she would never stop feeling grateful towards him as she was taught the correct method of addressing people and the right way of using cutlery. Oreius had also warned her to not wander or leave anywhere unannounced.

All his instructions rained down on her as a month passed by and a letter from Edmund came for her, requesting her to attend the next day's training lessons at the front courtyard. Robin equipped herself with her set of bow and arrows and woke up very early in the morning; not that she went to sleep in the first place.

She talked with Susan and Lucy about the things that they had in common as all of them practiced together. It was strange to see them as themselves because she had always heard their royal self more than their mischievous side.

"How are you finding the castle?" Lucy asked, her dagger hitting the spot on the target right in the middle.

"The castle is huge!" Robin exclaimed. "But it is beautiful in its own way." She threw her dagger towards the target. It hit right outside the middle red portion.

"We got lost many times ourselves during our first few weeks here." Susan revealed. "I had a hard time trying to find the correct passageways that would lead me to the right rooms."

"The only path I knew was from my room to the stables." Lucy chuckled.

"Thank you for everything." Robin said. "I don't think that I have been this happy in a very long time."

"Of course." Lucy said as she wrapped her hands around Robin's arm.

Susan noted how comfortable everyone was around the newcomer. She never tried to interfere in situations but always took part in the debates in the courtroom. Her arguments were always to the point and her side almost always won. 

She also noticed the secret glances that Robin was sending Edmund. Although she had thought about the future of all the four of them, since she couldn't help being the mother of the group, she was glad that Edmund had found someone good.

Meanwhile, Peter and Edmund sparred with each other and tried new methods of disarming and escaping in that time. Peter swung his sword directly at Edmund, who then blocked it quite cleverly. When Edmund swung his sword at Peter's legs, he jumped up and defended himself quite well. They tried to use the 360 technique of swinging the sword away by rotating theirs in a full circle like Oreius had taught them, but they somehow couldn't hold it together.

"Why are we gathered here so early anyway?" Lucy asked her brothers. "We get enough practice in our own time."

"We should be prepared for any attack that might come our way." Peter said in between the sounds of the clashing of swords. He disarmed Edmund swiftly, picking up the new technique but fell to the ground with him when Edmund tripped him on purpose by jotting out his leg. "Ow! Not fair, Ed!"

Edmund stood up first and gave Peter a hand, who accepted it and pulled himself up gracefully. "I had to do it sometime." He answered with a silent smile on his face. "Besides, you need to learn to look down while walking."

"Oh, is that so?" Peter laughed.

"If you two wanted to spar on your own," Susan started as the brothers shared a laugh. "Why are we here?"

The brothers knew that their sisters preferred to train in the evenings right before dinner. But there was a reason that Peter had suggested that all of them train early in the morning.

"We need to learn each of our defense moves." Edmund said.

"If Carmis can go anywhere without anyone knowing, we need to be on alert at all times." Peter continued.

"There was a fresh batch of complaints that arrived from the town yesterday. One of them talked about sounds of explosion from the edge of the town border." Edmund revealed. "And we believe that it could be where Carmis is right now." His eyes fell on Robin's.

"We don't know the exact location yet." Peter said. "And that's why we are gathered here. I have sent Callahan and Eddard to search for any usual activities in that area. They're our best knights." He informed Robin. "Hopefully, we should receive an answer soon."

"We will." Susan replied. It seemed like she could always support her brother in need but there were situations where the Pevensies felt that she was withdrawn. They never dared to talk to her about it because they didn't want her to pull back entirely.

"We need to be able to fight back." Lucy said. "We are in no match to someone who has magical powers. Or so people think." She smirked as she turned her first Christmas gift in her hand - her dagger.

"I'm sure we can take down Carmis." Susan said. "I believe that we can."

"We won't strike first but we will be on our best defense." Peter said.

"I informed the navy yesterday to look out for anyone suspicious near the harbours." Edmund said.

"I don't assume that she will try to leave." Robin said. "Carmis loves a fight. She is more lethal than Jadis and yet, she is very calculated. She won't make a move unless there is a bigger picture to it."

"She may be older than all of us put together and control fire," Lucy started. "But we will be the ones to light the fireworks for celebration."

"I like that plan." Peter said.

"But I want to be the one to light." Edmund said.

"No!" The other three said at the same time. "You always light the fireworks. We should get a chance sometime." Lucy said.

"What are the fireworks about?" Robin asked, curious to know how the topic went to a literal sense from a metaphorical one.

"Every year," Susan started to explain. "We have a fireworks show down from the lower grounds of the castle and Edmund...."

"Edmund is always the one to play with fire." Lucy said.

"He gets to the fireworks before any of us can, taking them all to himself." Peter groaned. "Well, this year, he is banished from the new location of the show."

"Banished?"

"Yes."

"But-"

Edmund had been right about the Pevensies' quarrels because they were really fun to watch. Whenever they started to have a fight, they would ask Robin to take a side, which she would profoundly refuse to do. "I will intervene when I need to." She would tell them.

As they headed back into the castle, Robin turned around once and looked at the swaying trees in the distance. She started to miss her home. There was something that bothered her, and she knew that she had to get some advice.

Chapter Text

Starshine was unbelievably happy to see Robin again when she entered the courtyard of the Dancing Lawn. Robin had decided to go there immediately as the sun rose but she was held by Edmund at the castle. Both of them took a walk around the castle grounds, which she was still getting used to. He had also been perplexed about how time was moving very quickly.

"Ah it feels like several ages have passed by since we met each other!" Starshine exclaimed.

Robin knew that she made a deliberate reference and was happy that it cheered her up. Starshine could always say something negative in a positive way, which always ended up as a humorous event. She was known around the camps for being the sarcastically funny one.

"I feel the same way!"

"We should spend some time together. You look like you could use some time away from all the glamour of court."

"I agree!"

"Sanya." Oreius said, breaking the conversation between the two friends. He trotted towards the two friends and placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"Oreius." Robin pursed her lips.

"How are you?"

"I'm good. Thank you." She couldn't believe the formalities that they were forced to face. "How are you?"

"I keep by. One less stubbornness to govern." He joked, receiving a soft punch from his daughter.

"Yeah yeah." Robin rolled her eyes.

"Weren't you supposed to meet someone?" Starshine asked him.

"No, there is still time."

A silence filled them, which was broken by Robin. "Can we talk?"

Oreius gestured to the empty spot in the meadow and everyone knew that they were going to have a serious talk as they started to move away from there. Robin felt awkward all of a sudden. Why did everything feel different? She was used to everyone giving Oreius his privacy whenever someone wanted to talk with him. What was happening to her?

"How is the new life at the castle?" He asked her.

"It's...." She was going to say 'fine' but she knew that she couldn't lie, especially not then. "It's strange." He raised his eyebrows at her, indicating her to elaborate. "Everyone is worried about an attack but are pretending that everything is fine." She kicked a stone while trying to form the words in her brain. "I have two guards at my side no matter where I go. I don't know, it's just...."

"Strange."

"Yeah." She sighed. "I do still wish that I was here with all of you. I was free to do whatever I wanted. I would gladly follow your sleep schedule now." She smirked.

"But that would mean that you would still have to hide your sneaking out to meet King Edmund." He said. "He had a word with me."

Her eyes opened wide. "What!"

"You don't have to sound so surprised."

"What did he say?"

"Now that is something you must ask him yourself."

"Oh, come on!"

He laughed at her annoyance. "It is not something that I should be telling you about. Besides, that conversation is between us. I cannot possibly let someone else into it, now could I?"

Robin scowled. "I get it." She said. "Anything new since I've gone?"

Back in the castle, Peter started to pace his room as he awaited the reply letter from the centaurs. There was a knock on the window, which he opened to take a note from the beak of Mr. Oliver, the owl. "Good day, Your Majesty."

"Good day, Mr. Oliver."

"I hope the letter says what you want."

"I hope so too. Thank you very much."

Once the owl flew away and was out of earshots, Peter fumbled to open the letter. His eyes were doing their best to not read at the speed that they usually did because he couldn't afford to misread something. 

"Oh no." He whispered. His suspicions had been written. War had been predicted and was nearing.

He took a seat as he thought about the possible decisions that he would have to make. They weren't anything new to him. He had to make tough decisions all the time; courtesy of being the High King of Narnia. But every time that he was in that situation, he hated the idea of war. It was strange enough that he had to see the world change from what it was to what it had been when the Pevensies left England. He was brought into the war - it was inevitable.

Sometimes he wondered if his siblings would look up to him the way they did if the circumstances had been different. He did not like thinking about what could have been if they had never found Narnia or if he couldn't have brought everyone back together. He was the eldest. He had a responsibility over them.

There was a knock at the door, which he answered trying to look as calm as possible. He didn't let his emotions get the best of him. "Susan!" He exclaimed, surprised to see her there when she would have usually been busy.

"May I come on?" She asked and once he let her in, she paced the room while he kept the letter on the study table beside his bed.

"What is it?"

"I am worried that the preparations won't be enough."

"Are you really worried about that?" He smirked.

"Don't enjoy this, Peter. We have to put our best."

"I know that we do. But you have been planning this for ages!" He succeeded in making her smile. "Why don't you sit down?" He guided her to a chair and made her sit down. "Breathe." He reminded her.

Susan took one deep breath and felt better. It was her brother's magical golden attitude. "You're right."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" He asked, opening his right ear.

She hit his arm playfully. "I was stressed. Thank you for helping me."

"I wouldn't be your big brother if I didn't." He kissed her forehead. "How close are you to perfection?" He quoted her from her worries a few months back.

"Very. The date is nearing and I only have to double confirm the orders."

"I hope we don't have to make small talk again." He rolled his eyes at the thought of another night of celebrations.

"You enjoy them."

"Only because of the food." He reminded her.

"Then come and help me." She said, her beady eyes looking at him eagerly.

He was going to refuse but her excitement had him shake his head at himself. "Alright."

"Great!" She clapped her hands together. "I'll get everyone else." She dragged him by his hand out of his room, knowing that he was worried about something, and he was grateful for it.

Chapter Text

Robin walked towards the castle stables with the reins of her horse in her hand. She was thinking about what it could have been that Oreius and Edmund talked to each other about. She let both the worlds collide and was now facing the consequences. When she entered the stables, she found a familiar tousled head brushing the mane of his horse, Philip. 

"Good afternoon." She greeted him with a smile.

A huge smile spread across his face. "Good afternoon." He walked over to where she stood and kissed her. "How was the ride out?"

"It was wonderful. Just what I needed." She whispered. "Good afternoon, Philip." She waved at him.

"Afternoon, Robin." He bowed his head at her in reply.

"Here." She threw something at him, which he caught promptly.

"How...." 

"You told me that they were your favourites. How could I leave them behind?" Robin had brought him his favourite type of oranges from the woods. She had to request a dryad to help her out but it was all worth it.

"Edmund!" A voice interrupted them. It was none other than the Soft Queen herself. She was gasping for air. "Susan....party....run.....save you....leave."

"Lu, are you alright?" He asked, moving towards her. But it was too late.

"Ah, there you are!" The three heard the voice of Susan Pevensie, who marched down the hill to meet them. "Okay, so all three of you are here. Thank you for making my life easier."

"What's happening?" Robin asked.

"I need all of your help."

"With what?" He asked. His sister was asking for help? Something was definitely up.

"With the Annual Ball, of course!"

Edmund turned to look at his younger sister and realised that she had been trying to warn them to leave just as they were. "And I came to tell you about that." Lucy told him.

"I think I'll spend some time with Oreius' daughters on that night then. They've been wanting me to visit them." Robin suggested.

"Aren't you going to attend?" Susan asked. "The orders I've sent include you as well."

"Me? No no no no way." Robin knew that she was a part of a bigger joke.

"I've already placed orders for our dresses." There was no denying Susan anything.

"But-"

"Come on, Robin." Edmund nudged her left arm with his elbow. "It would be fun." He couldn't lose another opportunity to dance with her, now could he? He had to put that teaching to some use and he was hoping that Robin would be his partner.

"But-"

"We could steal the cake just like you suggested." Lucy suggested.

"You will do no such thing!" Susan gasped. "I'm not even two sentences in and you are already talking about how to-"

"Shall we start with the helping then?" He interrupted her, receiving 'the stare' from his sister.

"Fine." She shook her head at her sibling's and handed them a couple of receipts. "I need all of you to try out your dresses, which you will find at Masha and Rhae's. If there are any alterations - there shouldn't be - but if there are, you have the receipt with you. Get it done."

"We'll go in the eveni-"

"Now, Ed."

"Dress?" Robin asked, scared of the possibility that she would definitely trip. She had seen Lucy and Susan's traditional ball gowns, which were entirely different from the ones that she was used to wearing. 

"Why, yes of course!" Susan exclaimed. "I have made it just to everyone's preferences. The Ball has to make everyone have the best time. We cannot let any Witch take away what it is to be in Narnia."

"I do get that but," Robin started. "I'm not used to wearing them. What if I fall?"

"Oh, you'll be fine! You will love it. Trust me." She assured her. "There are people coming into the castle with the royal arrangements, so I suggest that you use these exits to move about. You won't be disturbed and the guardsmen will provide you with company and protection. And for your love of Turkish Delight," She pointed to Ed. "Do not try to find the fireworks."

His eyes lit up. "There are fireworks?"

"Go!"

The entire day was spent in the celebrations. The castle was brightly lit and the floors were polished and repolished for Susan's satisfaction. The chandeliers were wiped clean and the dust-gathered paintings were replaced with new ones from the treasury. She had the help of a planner from town; the best one in all of Narnia, who guided her in certain flower arrangements and the placements for the dinner. She was forever grateful to him as things had gotten out of hand the previous year.

Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Robin made their way into town to meet the Royal Tailors. Lucy and Robin tried their dresses on in the shop across the street from the brothers. The two shops were run by a husband and a wife and they had their shops in such a manner so that they could work and yet make time for each other. The two found the story very heartwarming.

The brothers on the other side of the street were worried about Susan's anxiety. They knew that she could work too hard sometimes and let herself get the better of her health. They decided to check up on her before they went to bed. 

Peter remembered a time before Narnia where Susan was scared for a test and she had an anxiety attack. He had found her in tears and helped her to calm down. They never talked about it again because she didn't let anything else get to her. But that was one point in their lives that they were always grateful to each other for.

It must be true when people say that the greatest gift that a parent could give a child was a sibling, for they are the biggest part of their lives.

The four did not realise that they were given the easy part of the plan for the Ball because when they returned to the castle in the evening, they found a strange sight waiting for them. Everything was different from what it was when they left. 

They found Susan in the dining room, drinking tea while reading a book. She greeted them with a smile. "How were the outfits?"

"Absolutely beautiful!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Thank you for the details on mine." Robin said. "The dress is gorgeous!"

"Of course." Susan nodded. "I had seen a painting from the Platinum Age and I thought you might like one for yourself. It was my pleasure."

"What do you mean?" Edmund asked and immediately regretted it, for his siblings turned to look at him, amused by his sudden interest.

"You'll see." Lucy teased him, making Robin blush.

"How about you join us for a cuppa?" Susan beckoned to the table and everyone sat down without having to be told twice. It was going to be a magical time, for circumstances were going to change soon.

Chapter Text

The day of the ball arrived to Robin's displeasure. She had only known the Pevensies for two months or so and she couldn't be a part of anything official without thinking about the consequences. Edmund was the only one who kept her calm throughout.

Evening fell over the land of Narnia, indicating that everyone had to start getting ready for the event. Robin was staring at her dress the entire day as it was laid out by one of the handmaidens. But once she wore it, she felt happy. Oreius had told her about the culture that her parents had followed from scriptures and she tried to do the same. Wearing the dress made her one step closer to them.

She walked out of her room and towards the throne room when Edmund's eyes caught hers. His mouth fell open when he saw her, which Peter noticed of course. He looked at Lucy, who understood his reference. But while this was happening, Edmund was just grateful to have met Robin, for his life had changed in many ways and they were for the better.

"Oh, the dresses are perfect!" Susan exclaimed as they stood in the middle of the empty room, waiting for the front doors to be opened up by the guards.

"We will have to greet everyone at the dias." Edmund informed Robin. "I will meet you once the dance starts." She simply nodded because she was trying to remember how to speak. Edmund was wearing a rich blue tunic, which somehow brought out his eyes. And that was the first time she was seeing him wear his crown.

The gates opened up and guests from all over the country arrived. Robin stuck to leaning against a pillar and observing everyone's happiness. A couple of centaurs that she knew had come to represent the Narnians, but unfortunately, neither Starshine or Mistwhirl accompanied the party.

"Birdy?" She heard a voice next to her and an immediate smile spread across her face.

"Tree." She breathed out in relief.

"Would you like to dance?" He gave her his hand.

For a second, she thought about how everyone would be watching her because she would be dancing with the King, and was worried because she knew that whispers would spread through the room. But she was there for him, not for anyone else.

"I would love to." She put her hand in hers and he led her to the dance floor.

Their dance brought them back to the lake. They were silent the entire dance but made funny faces at each other to make the other lose their serious face. "Are you hungry?" He asked her.

"Starving."

"How about we raid the food?" He pointed to the back door which would lead to the kitchen.

"I think Susan said something about sticking to ourselves?" She reminded him.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Are you going to listen to her?"

"Yes." She answered sarcastically.

"Oh, come on!" He exclaimed, making her laugh. "A-ha! Got you."

Her eyes widened at what he was trying to do. "Not counted."

"It's so counted!"

"Nope!"

They danced silently for a while before he told her something that potentially did change their lives. "I met Oreius the other day."

Robin would have stopped dancing but she looked scared. "You promised."

"Not for that." He smiled. "I went to ask him for his opinion."

"On what?" He raised his eyebrows at her. "Oh. Oh!"

"I'm sure you've talked to each other, but I needed to as well."

"What did he say?" He smiled once again. "Of course he did." She groaned. "Why did you need his blessing?"

"Because he is your family."

The song ended and the two of them stared at each other for a few seconds. "Now I want to raid the snack bar." She said.

"There she is." He teased.

The two of them sneaked out of the room discreetly. Edmund headed for the door first after making sure that no one was searching for him through the crowd and Robin followed him after a few minutes. They sneaked into the kitchen but were caught by the guards.

"Susan." Edmund hissed.

They started running through the passage, excited about the little adventure that they were on. The guard did not follow them but they thought that he was. They stopped to take a breath after reaching the other side of the castle, leaning against pillars for support. Edmund caught Robin looking at him. "What?"

She moved her gaze away, a coy smile spreading across her face. "Nothing."

The silence between them was everything. Both of them leaned against the sill and looked at the castle grounds. Suddenly, there were loud cracks from the left of where they were looking at. The guards were lighting up fireworks. "They were with Oberman!" Edmund exclaimed. "I should have known that he would have it."

The guard lit up the rockets and the explosions in the sky were large yet beautiful. Both Edmund and Robin's hearts melted as they saw the spread of colours among the dark sky, the sound reminding them of the truth of life.

"Robin?"

She turned to look at him but before he could say anything, she spoke. "I love you."

Edmund smiled. He was about to say the same thing. "I love you too." He put his left arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him, his eyes not leaving hers the entire time. They were devouring each other like the fireworks outside.

"I've loved you," She started. "Ever since we met."

"The bird you or the human you?" He chuckled, making her blush.

She chuckled. "I don't know." She said softly. "But I did fall. Very much."

He let out a sigh. "It would have been more romantic if it came from me." He teased. "I wish I could say the same." He whispered, slowly leaning forward with every word.

"You don't have to." She kissed him, the space between them too much to bear. When she broke it, both of them were smiling, unaware of what was going to happen in the next week.

It was the perfect night that they would never forget.

Chapter Text

The Red Queen sat staring at the flames burning over the surface of the water trickling in the sea cave that was adjacent to her part of the caves. "Carmis." She heard a voice that she never thought that she would.

She turned around and almost broke into tears when she saw the raven-haired beauty standing with a smile on her face. She hadn't changed one bit and the green tinge of her skin was healthier than it should have been. "Olivis!" She exclaimed as she rushed to embrace her sister into her arms. "But, how-"

"I may have used a little spell." She said, cocking her head to the right. "All it matters that I've found you."

"Oh, I'm so glad that you are here!" The Abandoned Caves heard the laugh from the lone sister for the first time in ages. "Momma taught us well, didn't she?" Olivis had their mother's spell book with her and only she could have written such a spell that would beat

any powerful warlock's tricks.

"The spell is one-time, I'm afraid. I gathered time to meet you once." She revealed. "To be honest, I wasn't expecting you to be here....but I wanted to look around one more time."

"How long?" She didn't want to have to spend very less time with her sister. The caves were lonely for almost a decade with the absence of Jadis. Carmis wasn't the same after the Battle of Beruna.

"Two more days."

It had taken her two days to travel from the Seven Seas to Narnia. Olivis felt alone in her prisoner's castle. She only wanted to meet her family once again. She found her mother's spellbook in the ashwood wardrobe in one of the rooms and started collecting the ingredients that she would need to cast a spell that would fool the warlock's magic. 

She knew that Jadis was no more when her eyes witnessed greenery everywhere, and although it was her colour, she preferred the thought of Narnia covered in snow under the rule of her sister. It didn't matter if one of them was on the throne.

One for all - that was their oath.

"Then we mustn't waste any time!"

Olivis' eyebrows furrowed together. "Sounds like you have a plan then."

"The bird survived."

Her eyes filled with rage. "How?" She shouted.

"Don't worry, little sister." Carmis said, hugging her sister once more. "I have just the plan for her."

"I wish we could be doing this to sweet Helen's daughter." She scoffed, pulling back. "What's the plan?"

Carmis led her to the throne room because the answer lay in the middle of the room. The crystal ball shone brightly as Olivis caught a glimpse at what her sister was planning to do. "I need your help." Carmis said.

"Oh!" She sounded impressed. "I've missed this." She missed Jadis terribly. The chance for all three sisters to have one last adventure was taken away from them by a bunch of children. "What's the first step?"

"It's been done." The two of them smiled at each other after which, Carmis told Olivis the plan.

Back at Cair Paravel, Robin paced the corridor outside the library as she thought about how she wanted to tell Edmund her news. She knocked on the door and went inside when he let her in. "Robin." He said.

"I need to tell you something."

"Please, sit."

She sat down and took a deep breath. "I may have done something stupid."

"I find that hard to believe but please explain."

"You told me that you asked for Oreius for my hand," She started. "And I talked to your siblings."

Edmund smirked. He had been expecting that. "And what did they say?"

Robin wasn't expecting that reaction as she wanted him to freak out like she had. "They told me that they wanted to see you happy and that they wouldn't mind it if I was a part of your family."

"That's good!"

She scowled. "That's good? That's all you have to say?"

But before he could answer, there was a knock at the door which he had to answer first. "Come in!"

"Your Majesty." It was the Kingsguard.

"Yes, Sir Rufus?"

"High King Peter requests both of your presence in the conference room." He bowed down and left.

When the two of them entered the room at the opposite end of the castle, they heard Peter and Susan arguing and Lucy trying to talk some sense into them. "But we have to take this chance if we can!"

"We don't have a plan, Lucy!"

"I'm with Lucy. We can always create a plan but time is of the essence."

That was the time that Edmund knew that he had to intervene. "What's going on?"

The three turned to look at him. "We've got the location." Peter said.

Robin looked at Edmund as instincts took over. Whatever Peter said didn't sound right to her. "What does that mean?"

Edmund turned to face her. "I requested Peter to send out troops."

"To?" She knew the answer but asked him anyway. "Carmis." She whispered. "I asked you to leave her alone."

"I couldn't. Not when she has been keeping you prisoner even after you escaped." She realised what he meant and chose not to argue.

"We can attack tomorrow." Peter stated.

"Tomorrow?" Robin asked.

"Time is of the essence." Edmund quoted his brother and nodded at him.

"What are you planning to do with her?" Robin asked. "She has powers, which you already know. You won't be able to capture her because she can burn anything in her path." She knew that she was being pessimistic but she was only stating the cold hard facts. "You cannot kill her."

"We've killed Jadis." Peter said.

"Aslan did it, Peter." Lucy reminded him.

"And where is He now?" Susan asked, clearly upset about talking about Him. "We've tried to find him so many times and now that we have another Witch to kill, why isn't he helping us?"

"He cannot always be here, Su." Lucy reminded her. "And we are the makers of our life."

"Let's not argue." Edmund stated. "We will attack tomorrow. We will kill her and if we aren't able to, we will figure out a way. We have before."

"What?" Robin and Susan asked at the same time.

"I'll gather the troops." Peter said and there was no arguing with him.

Chapter Text

"Do you really have to go?" Robin asked as she walked with Edmund towards the stables.

"I know that we won't be able to fight with her powers, but we can fight her."

"That doesn't make any sense and you know it." She quoted him.

"You don't have to worry about us. We've gathered the best of the best for this."

"I know that but....what if something happens to you? To any of you."

He stopped walking and kissed her. "Are you still worried?" He asked after breaking it just for a bit.

"Yes." She whispered.

But before he could say anything else, the guards blew a trumpet to announce the time for the departure. "I have to go."

"Then take me with you."

"Robin, we've been over this. You cannot come because Carmis will use you to distract us. To get to me."

She bit her lower lip and wanted to say something. Her lips were trembling. She settled on kissing him again. "Tree."

He sighed while smiling. "Birdy." He held his gaze on her eyes for a few seconds before running off towards the troupe that was waiting for him at the edge of the valley.

Robin walked back to the castle while kicking the stones in her way. She hated being the damsel in distress but everyone knew that she could fight. She only couldn't fight Carmis because of their history. How she wished that she was only a young girl who just found herself in the strange chamber at Cair Paravel!

"Ed, are your eyes red?" Lucy teased him as he came running down the hill to meet the King's troop.

He smiled humbly. "Is everyone ready? We have a long journey ahead."

"Nice way of changing the topic, brother," Peter clamped him on the shoulder. "But that isn't going to stop the teasing along the way."

"All of you like Robin. There is no denying it."

The journey to the outskirts of Narnia began with the young rulers and the Guards of the Order on their horses. They were sure to dress as commoners and carry only the weapons that they would need. Their stops on the way only had Edmund in agony because of the wait to sleep in his own bed.

Lucy and Peter did not lose an opportunity to tease him but it was Susan who actually talked seriously with him. He couldn't hide anything from her, let alone trying to lie. The journey took them four days and once they reached the boulder that identified the edge of Narnia, they turned the directions that were given by the spies and reached the Abandoned Caves.

"There is something...." Peter started.

"Eerie." Lucy completed.

"Do you feel cold?" Susan asked.

"Something's not right." Edmund remarked.

Walking into the caves armed gave them the confidence that they needed. But it was like Edmund had said outside. Something definitely wasn't right. The caves were brighter than they should have been. The trickling of water and the whooshing of volcanic solids was heard everywhere. The siblings were scared to breathe, afraid that even a small sigh would echo through the walls of the cave.

The guards noticed that there was no one to stop them in their path like they had expected. They were moving about way too easily and that made the hair on their arms stand up. They were told that they would be facing a very old but strong Witch who had powers that were more than anything that they had experienced with the White Witch with her facade.

The Pevensies walked out of the passageway to an empty opening, where the three empty thrones stood that were once mighty, the caves filled with joy. The silence was getting to everyone and started to drive them mad. All the speculations that they had made went for a toss. 

"There is no one here." Susan said.

Peter noticed the three openings with new passageways. Two groups of guards went through two passageways while the siblings started making their way through the one in the middle. The temperature was rising all of a sudden and the hissing of steam grew louder. They looked at each other whenever a stone rolled over, scared for the other and not themselves.

Finally, they came out of the rubbles and into a chamber. "But that's impossible." Lucy was the first to speak when she saw that it was a chamber nonetheless.

"Finest craftsmanship. Whoever that poor lad was." Peter joked.

"Peter." Susan beckoned to the centre of the room. The Pevensies followed her gaze and walked towards the coffin that was being illuminated by the sunlight coming through one of the holes on the ceiling of the cave. "I'm guessing this is-"

"Carmis." Edmund snarled. "But this is not possible."

The Red Queen lay on the glass covered coffin with her eyes closed. She had her hands joined together. She was wearing a black coat over her deep burgundy dress. She looked very peaceful. Her pale skin had some colour. She was definitely one of the most beautiful people that they had laid their eyes upon. Her red curls were complimenting everything about her.

Carmis was under a spell. Everyone knew that. But why would a powerful witch put herself under a spell? There was a rapid aurora that seemed to protect the coffin because when Peter tried to strike it softly, it backlashed with a much higher force.

"I'm not going to be the one kissing her." Edmund said. "Stating this beforehand."

"You won't need to." Lucy replied, holding a note in her hand. "Ed..." Her voice was hesitant and her eyes revealed that something was wrong. Peter and Susan immediately looked at each other.

"What is it?" He walked towards her and took the letter from her hand. His eyes were betraying him. He kept telling himself that.

Peter read the letter over his brother's shoulder and ordered everyone to fall back. "Ed." He placed a hand on his shoulder and took the letter from his hands.

Edmund was staring at one point in the cave. "I am such an idiot!"

"Let's go back. We might still have time."

"What if she is-"

"Shut up and come with!" Susan shouted.

"How did we fall for her trick?" Edmund asked, scolding himself for his carelessness. How could he have left Robin all alone back at the castle? He knew that he should have stayed with her.

Chapter Text

Agitated. That was what Robin was feeling.

The days seemed to stretch out as the castle continued to stand in the silence of the absence of the Four rulers. Everything reminded her of him. The library was eager for someone to walk through the door and flip through the pages of the books that it held. The throne room couldn't wait for another ball to be held so that the floors could shine once again. The gardens were awaiting Lucy's lovely hands to take care of the exotic flowers. The telescope in the north tower that only Peter used stood by as it waited for him to come back and look at the night sky. Overall, the castle waited in silence.

Robin tried to hold back her boredom when she decided to take a walk in the grounds of the castle. She thought of leaving for the Shuddering Woods because she knew that Oreius could give her some work to keep her mind occupied. But Edmund had warned her from leaving the castle. "It wouldn't be safe for you to be all alone out there now that we are searching for Carmis."

"But there is no reason for anyone to harm me."

"You live with me. You will always be in harm's way."

That was the exact reason that she hadn't approached the royalty whenever Oreius suggested it. She knew that she would be living a restricted life where she would have to follow rules and be someone that she was sure that she wasn't. She was a free thinker and couldn't be bound by the ideologies that came with someone being a part of nobility.

She had told Edmund that one day and he could relate to what she meant. "Sometimes I think about how different our lives are ever since the coronation."

"You are doing a great job so far." She assured him.

Now, all those words were echoing in her ears. She could feel his presence in the castle even though the only living beings in the castle were the guards, who were definitely given orders to keep an eye on her to make sure that she wouldn't leave the castle.

There was always someone to tail her to monitor her actions. She considered telling them to back off but she would only be taking out her annoyance at how easily she got bored at them. It wasn't their fault that her life was however she was. She thought about leaving the castle after metamorphosis but she couldn't betray the trust that the Pevensies had left with her to stay at the castle till they returned.

She groaned when she couldn't concentrate on reading. She slammed the book shut and paced the library instead. She looked through the titles of every book that stood out to her and made up a story for them in her mind.

She realised that there was a sudden chill that filled the castle which also filled the entire land. There was a sudden eeriness as a heavy cloud blocked the sunlight. Was it going to rain? She hoped that it did.

Robin started making her way towards her room. The cold was making her skin itch and she needed a shawl or a blanket to wrap around herself. She didn't know if it was only her but the chill was definitely leaving a mark. She opened the door to her room and walked towards the wardrobe in search of her coat when the door closed behind her. She had left it wide open and it couldn't have been because of a wind for she felt the presence of someone else in the room with her.

"Hello, Sanya."

The voice was unmistakable. Her time had come. What she had been hoping to happen every moment of her life in the past few years happened right when she was least expecting it. "Olivis."

"Are you ready to leave all this behind?"

The leaves were rustling in a haphazard manner. The weather seemed to deteriorate quickly. Edmund was the first one through the door into Robin's room when she didn't open it after several knocks. "Robin?" He called out for her, his eyes searching for the dark hair in the empty room. "Robin!"

The guards were being questioned for her location and the other Pevensies were searching other rooms that she could be in. But Edmund had a feeling that he couldn't shake ever since he read Carmis' letter for him. "Say goodbye to her, Just King."

He knew she was gone. "No." He whispered. His eyes caught a sheet of parchment at the study table at the end of the room. His feet took him towards it but he wanted to run the other way. He was expecting a letter, but one look at her handwriting had him fall to his knees.

Goodbye.

One word. That's all it took to destroy his heart and shatter it into pieces. Carmis had planned it well. She must have given out her location on purpose, knowing that he would come for her to save Robin. How could he have been so stupid? Why did he let love blind him? He was angry and scared and dejected. Carmis had made her write her final words to him.

"Ed?" Lucy called out as she entered the room.

"She's gone." The letter fell out of his hand.

"Can't be." She whispered.

"I was a fool."

"Ed-"

"This is all my fault. I shouldn't have left her side. I shouldn't have left her alone. I-"

"Ed, stop."

"Why?" His voice was raised. "This is my fault! I never should have let her in, Lu! I knew something was going to happen. I knew that...." His feelings towards marriage and love would always remain unchanged. How could he have thought any different?

"We will find her."

"No, you won't." He said. "After everything that she has told me about her past, trust me. You won't find her."

But that didn't stop him from searching for her an entire year. He was relentless and pessimistic at the same time. He would have given anything to see her once more. But the years passed by and he decided to not let his mindlessness get to him. He had to let her go. But how could he? The magic of a first love can never be broken.

Chapter Text

The sun glistened brightly over the timeless land. He rose up every single morning and then gave way for his friend to take his place while he rested his eyes for a while. Autumn had taken over beautifully as every flower on every tree turned yellow and orange, giving a warm hue to anyone who looked at it. The trees were drooping, waiting for the season of birth to uplift them once again.

The day was beautiful with a gorgeous stillness to it. Right then, four horses broke through the thick boughs, chasing a heavenly sent White Stag to fulfil the wish of peace between every country in Narnia. The stag's antlers were unmistakably the most beautiful ever. It was one of a kind and the stag was the last of its family. It had been hunted everywhere it stepped its foot into. And the Four Rulers of Narnia were no different.

Peter the Magnificent, Susan the Gentle, Edmund the Just and Lucy the Valiant chased the stag through the deepest parts of Shuddering Wood. They were laughing along the way, enjoying their little adventure after a really long time. They had left the guards behind for they wanted to be the ones to catch the stag, and probably because everyone else seemed to slow them down, which they were too polite to voice that out.

The Just King's horse, Philip slowed down and stayed behind from his friends as he tried to catch his breath. Edmund did not worry that his siblings were getting ahead of him as he laid his hand on the mane of his oldest friend. "Are you all right, Philip?"

"I'm not as young as I once was." He said with a voice of sorrow. He missed the days when he was young and free to run in the wild.

Edmund saw his family returning and he was expecting their mockings. "Come on, Ed!" Susan said, being the first one to notice that Edmund wasn't behind them.

"Just catching my breath." He replied, not wanting to let his friend down in front of the others.

"Well, that's all we'll catch at this rate."

"What did he say again, Susan?" Lucy asked, not wanting to lose that opportunity to mock what he had told them back at the castle when the Beavers shouted the sighting of the Stag at the Pevensies in the room where all of them sat together, trying to spend some time with each other.

"'You girls wait at the castle. I'll get the stag myself.'" She imitated him and all Ed did was smile. She was the best at imitation after him, although it was strange at how the tables were turned at that situation.

The Four did not realise the very familiar part of the forest that they had entered until the oldest Pevensie's eyes caught the fire that was burning slowly in the lamppost that stood in the middle of nowhere. The place was called Lantern's Waste but they hadn't stood in that exact place in a very long time. "What's this?" He asked, getting off of his horse and his feet crunching the forest soil.

Everyone got off as they got enchanted by the beauty of Narnia just like they had the first time. They stood next to each other, staring into the burning embers. "Spare Oom." Lucy whispered, a faint memory of a middle-aged faun making her laugh.

Edmund was the next to remember the memory, for he was the second one to come to Narnia after his baby sister. Could it be, he thought. "Lu?"

Lucy started to walk in the direction that her memory and instincts took her to. She walked right into the leaves of a fir tree and though Susan and Peter tried to stop her, Edmund was curious to see if she could be leading them to the one place they found home at. "Oh, come on!"

"You're standing on my toes!"

"I'm not on your toes!"

The Four fell out of the wardrobe where their journey of finding themselves and each other, saving a world from turmoil and magic ended. The youngest Pevensie had taken them to a new unfamiliar world once again. Their adventure was over.

The castle under the surface of the Seven Seas heard the laughter of its mistress which echoed for miles. A school of fish got scared by it and started swimming in the other direction. "Oh, I cannot take this." Olivis said as she tried to control her laughter. "The four of them are such fools! How could anyone allow children to rule over them? What do they know about being royals?"

The robin inside the cage started to rattle. "Oh shut up already!" The Witch wiggled her fingers and sent a rush of mist in the bird's direction to blind her sight. "This is absolutely wonderful news! There is no one to take care of the chaos. Sure, the faun is the acting regent but how long will that last for?"

"Soon, all the kingdoms will fight each other for the throne. There are four seats to be filled." She giggled. "Four people standing over the bodies of hundreds. Isn't that a wonderful sight to imagine?" She moved a knife in her hand. "Four out of millions. I love the odds." The smile left her face immediately. "When three can survive out of thousands, four can outlive millions." She threw the knife at a window, which did not shatter because of the powerful magic that she could not beat.

The knife clattered on the ground. "They've left Narnia to invaders and there is nothing that you can do about it." She could hear the bird telling her that she just called herself the invader. "Oh, I'm not going to do anything, darling. I will leave that to the invaders that will come here soon."

The robin looked confused. She started squeaking as to ask, "What invaders?"

The Witch chuckled again. She had used her magic to find the location of pirates that lived in the Other World. They were ruthless, always having the need to win. They would take down anything in their path. She had whispered into the ears of their leader about the location for a passageway between that world and Narnia. If he decided to take it and followed her commands, the ruthless pirates would find themselves in a confused land....and taking the castle would be as easy as drinking down wine.

"You'll find out soon." 

Chapter Text

Hope you enjoyed this story! Now you can continue

with Act Five of 'The Lost Legacy'

This is a prequel to the story but it had to be read

after reading the first three Acts. Hope you liked it!

If you have any theories, I would love to read them in the comments!