Dear Susan,

It has been a while since I've written anything, much less to you. I think though, that writing gives me a certain and bizarre kind of liberation, which I cannot find in anything else no matter how hard I seek; the strangest thing of all is that I do not know what it liberates me from.

This, however, is but a mere fraction of what troubles my mind right now, (and, I am afraid, quite a clumsy introduction) not the least of them being the health of Mr Tumnus, which is getting worse by the day, or the growing hostility between Calormen and Narnia; even as I write now my hand is shaking slightly with concern over the many matters that need solving (for that I will ask of you to forgive my ugly and uneven handwriting) and the words come out slowly, with much thinking. To be honest, even now I still hope sometimes, as I never grew out of my silly and naïve childishness, that Aslan will come back and fix things like he always did back then… But no, we will have to deal with the situation ourselves, with no help whatsoever. This is what we always desired when we were kids—to be adults, to be independent, to solve our own problems. Funny, but being a child is far more appealing to me now than it was back then, perhaps because I no longer am.

Moving on, I have to say that news on the condition of Mr Tumnus are bad indeed, I'm afraid. He barely eats now and I, however I try to deny it, am beginning to fear the worst… I just hope he survives. That's all I can ever want. Susan, I need him to be there for me, I need his guidance and parental love; I wouldn't be able to bear the thought of him gone forever.

I cannot speak more, so I will have to stop now. Enough of those dark thoughts! I hope I will hear from you soon, when you return to Cair Paravel.

Love,

Lucy.

Lucy,

I am no less troubled than you are over the condition of Mr Tumnus… I, too hope that he gets better soon. Unfortunately, due to the recent events here, of which you have undoubtedly already heard from the centaurs, I will not be able to come back soon. The Prince-consort of Calormen will not be so easy to persuade to sign the peace treaty, I'm afraid.

Believe me, I would've liked nothing better but to have started this letter with a more cheerful tone, and with news that would bring you delight, or at least with something more profound than the political situation at the moment, which, however important, can give you nothing new or of exceptional value; but I would certainly say that the introduction of you letter was not clumsy at all, it gave me certain food for thought. It seems indeed that even as adults we tend to put our hopes in others rather than deal with the problems ourselves and take advantage of our much desired independence. My words come out slowly and with hesitation as well, but that is not because of the many troubles that rest upon my shoulders; it is because that I have never been good at putting my thoughts on paper (after all, you had the highest marks in English when we were kids) partly because I have difficulties pulling them out of the dark corners of my mind they are lurking in at the moment, and partly because I myself maybe am unable to face them out of fear. It seems that difficult times are coming for Narnia and even when I wish with my entire heart that it were not so, the growing hostility in this world lays a heavy burden of concern upon my heart. Those things, the growing tension, tell me there is some serious change on the way; I wish my intuition and my heart would be more specific about that, but they keep silent.

You can feel it the air as well, can't you? The soft wind brings with it the tidings of something new, something unknown, something I cannot grasp entirely; for when I try to apply reason to it all, it disappears like morning fog under the sun. It is obviously one of those things that only intuition can grasp, and not entirely.

But enough is enough, I think, because too long letters are tedious and tiresome both to the reader and to the author. As soon as I get prince Kharaman to sign the treaty I will return back to Cair Paravel with the fastest horses I find. It will be a very long ride, but I will make haste and, with Aslan's blessing, I will be home in two weeks time.

Susan

Historical note:

These two letters have been found amongst the ruins of the library in Cair Paravel, and probably date back to five hundred years ago, as they are written during the rule of King Peter and King Edmond. The paper has been badly damaged in some places and a few words had to be reconstructed from the context. Also, due to the age of the letters the text had to be cleared of some archaic and unintelligible to the modern reader forms and words.