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

[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."

[bedlamsbard]

"Mmmm."

*

"They're my children," Peter says mildly.

*

"Oh, Aslan," Jack says faintly.

[aella_irene]

"Graynor?"

*

Eustace splutters. "Your child-- how?"

"The usual way," says Helen. "At least, so I was always told, and I think they would have said if we'd turned up under a strawberry plant. Not that I would have objected to the strawberry plant method of obtaining children during some of my pregnancies--"

*

Edmund strokes his hair. "Why did you think you were dead?"

[bedlamsbard]

"I doubt she killed them herself."

*

"I'm not entirely sure," Peter says. "How did you get here?"

*

"Because I killed myself," Jack says dully.

[aella_irene]

"She's strong enough--"

*

"I woke up," Helen says. "In Cair Paravel. And I fell in with Elizar--"

*

Edmund's stomach twists. "A challenging argument."

[bedlamsbard]

"They would have fought back."

*

"Confesor?" Peter says, blinking.

"Yes. Him."

*

"So I should be dead. Only I'm not," Jack says.

[aella_irene]

"And a lot of them, against one woman--"

*

He gives her a thoughtful look. Helen tosses her hair.

*

"I should be in England," Edmund says, "But I'm not, and the others aren't either. It's a family reunion."

[bedlamsbard]

"Mmmm."

*

"His sister's here," Peter says finally. "And his second. They'll probably want news."

*

"That's impossible," Jack says.

Edmund takes the dagger from his hand, carefully. "Well, this is Narnia. Lots of impossible things happen every day."