yeah

[bedlamsbard]

Seriously, after a year, Golden Age Narnia suddenly returns and says HI HI HI I DO IN FACT HAVE MORE STORIES TO TELL. I mean, it's lovely, don't get me wrong, I now want to write Peter/Osumare after this and Jaisen Ettore's origin story and fortunately that is all I know of right now, but this is on top of other parts of my brain going, "TWO MORE RILIAN STORIES" and also, "Aha, the third Jill story!" and also, "Now would be a great time to write that DVD commentary on The Land of Silent Seas!"

Look, brain, I appreciate the effort, but now is not actually a good time. I'm willing to reschedule for next week, though, and also, please let me know what's happening in the next chapter of Dust, as that appears to be the one thing you aren't plotbunnying wildly. Unless you count that JP thing, but I have no idea where that's going.

Comments

[aella_irene]

"How do I know? How do I know this isn't all a dream? I used to dream that the others were alive. I used to dream that I would wake, and Helen and Jack would be having breakfast, and Dicky would be down in the harbour, and Ala and Iulius would be arguing, and they'd all be alive, but that didn't make it real."

[bedlamsbard]

"Well, if it's any help," Susan says, "you weren't born yet when I was twenty-two. None of you were."

[aella_irene]

"No," Victoria says dreamily. "It's not. Who's she?"

"Jill. Jill Pole."

[bedlamsbard]

"What a funny name," Victoria says, and Jill bristles.

"It's a perfectly normal name! Unlike --" Well, actually, Victoria Pevensie is one of the most normal names she's heard since she arrived in Narnia, at least to her English ears. Although the Archenlander names aren't too far off.

[aella_irene]

"Oh," Victoria says. "Mine's strange as well. And the others'. The cousins got normal names, though, and Helen made sure the children did. Alambil and Eddard and Cottia and Piotr--" Her mouth twists. "And they're all dead. A thousand years, and they're all dead. Cottia was a Queen, in Archenland."

[bedlamsbard]

Susan sighs wearily. "Children complaining about their names," she sighs. "The same in every world. Jill is from England like I am, Victoria."

[aella_irene]

"Oh," Victoria says softly, as if she's about to fall asleep. "Oh, I want Papa."

Susan leans down to kiss her forehead, maternal.

*

I suspect that the Helen-Peter reunion involves Helen going down on one knee and reaffirming rather a lot of complex oaths. And Peter going "...oh, FFS, just get up so I can hug you."

[bedlamsbard]

Jill watches in something akin to stupefied horror. This -- no. This can't be happening. Her life is already too strange for words, she refuses to allow anything even stranger like Peter and Susan Pevensie having a child -- together -- that's returned from the dead a fully-grown woman.

*

Heh. She would.

[aella_irene]

"Go to sleep," Susan says. "I'll send word to your Papa."

*

"But I haven't reaffirmed all my oaths of loyalty!" Helen says, looking up at him.

"Helen, should you decide to betray me, I shall assume I needed betraying. Get up?"

*

Edmund finds Jack wandering in the woods. He doesn't recognise him, at first.

[bedlamsbard]

"Yes, Mama," Victoria says obediently, and closes her eyes. Susan strokes her hair, bent over her until her breathing evens out.

"We haven't found out what happened here yet," Jill says softly.

*

She does, and Peter pulls her into a hug.

*

His first instinct is to ride in the opposite direction; there are a lot of strange things in Narnia right now.

[aella_irene]

"I don't say," Susan responds, "That Victoria didn't kill them. But if she had, she would have had a reason. She's calculating. Helen was the one who was more like Peter."

"Kill them all," murmurs Graynor, "And their Gods can sort it out."

*

Eustace is bewildered. Helen hugs Peter tightly, and Peter presses a kiss to her hair.

*

But-- there's something familiar, distantly, about the way the man stands, and his eyes--

[bedlamsbard]

"Something of an over-simplification, though essentially true under a certain series of conditions," Susan says mildly.

*

"I missed you, Papa," Helen manages to say, a lump in her throat. "So much --"

*

Edmund rides towards him instead, cautious.

[aella_irene]

"It's from a ballad. The Vengeance of Narnia."

*

"I missed you too, dearest," Peter says, and breathes in. Beneath the sweat and the dirt is the smell that hasn't changed since she was a baby.

*

The man turns, a knife suddenly in his hand-- and then gapes.

[bedlamsbard]

"I shudder to think what that might refer to," Susan says. "Nothing good, I'm sure. Jill, will you take the others and have a look around? I want to find out what happened here."

*

"Papa --" Richard says, stepping forward.

*

"Uncle Edmund?" he says disbelievingly.

[aella_irene]

"Yes," Jill says, and slips out, with a last look at Victoria, sleeping.

*

Peter grabs him as well.

*

"--Jack?"

[bedlamsbard]

The village looks the same. Death, everywhere.

*

Richard hugs him, hard.

*

"What are you doing here?" Jack says, bewildered.

[aella_irene]

Jill feels sick.

*

Peter kisses his hair as well, and shuts his ears to Eustace's splutterings.

*

"We were called back," Edmund says. "What are you doing here, Jackie-boy?"

[bedlamsbard]

It's a mess. A horrible, horrible mess. She's seen worse, but that doesn't make it any easier.

"What do you smell?" she asks Graynor. "Calormenes?"

*

"Mama," Richard manages to say eventually. "Is she here --"

*

"Dying," Jack says dully. "Slowly."

[aella_irene]

"Yes," he says shortly.

*

"In Archenland. What about Jack and Vicky, where--"

*

Edmund dismounts. Jack's taller than him, here. "What do you mean?"

[bedlamsbard]

"How long ago?"

"Not long. A few days, maybe."

*

Helen shakes her head. "We don't know --"

"Jack's here," Richard says. "Somewhere, he's here, I don't know --"

*

Jack blinks at him.

[aella_irene]

"Why?" Jill asks, though she knows Graynor can't answer.

*

"We'll find him," Peter says, and breathes in.

*

Edmund holds out a hand. "Jack? Come here, and tell me what's wrong."

[bedlamsbard]

He shakes his head. "There shouldn't een be Calormenes here."

*

Helen hugs him again.

*

Jack comes towards him, still holding the dagger, like he's forgotten it's there.

[aella_irene]

"Maybe they were looking for her. Victoria."

*

He presses a kiss to her hair. "Who are they?" demands Eustace.

*

Edmund embraces him, avoiding the dagger.

[bedlamsbard]

"What for?"

*

"Family," Peter says, raising an eyebrow at him. "Helen, Richard -- my cousin Eustace. Scrubb," he adds helpfully. "Not Pevensie. My mother's sister's son."

*

"You're real," Jack says, blinking at him.

[aella_irene]

"If she's their child. Maybe they thought she could--" Jill shakes her head. "She said that she killed them."

*

"Cousin," Helen says, nodding, and Richard does the same.

"Family how?" asks Eustace, looking dubious.

*

"I'm real," Edmund says. "To everyone's surprise, I assure you."