# Magnificence, Gentleness, Justice, and Valience. #

"This is home, Now I'm finally where I belong.
Where I Belong.
Yeah, this is home.
I've been searching for a place of my own Now I've found it.
Maybe this is home...
This is home." ~This is Home; Switchfoot,

"We'll go."

"We will?"

The words echo through the open air. They settle into all the Kings and Queen's minds before everyone else's, but it's still blurry. Go back? But this is their home.

"Come on. Our time's up." Peter glances at each of his siblings in turn; his eyes hold the leadership they've always held. Edmund notices that they hold a type of wisdom... wisdom Peter hadn't held since he had been an adult.

Edmund doubted that his older brother would get into any fights back home, anymore.

"After all...," Lucy looked up in time to see Peter hand his sword to Caspian. "We're not really needed here, anymore."

Lucy's heart-rate quickened. He meant it. But did they really have to go? She glanced at Aslan. The lion met her eyes. Then, she understood.

All good things must come to an end. "I will look after it till your return." Caspian said, his eyes tracing the outline of King Peter's sword. His voice carried a note of sadness in it. "I'm afraid that's just it." Peter smiled, "We're not coming back."

"Not coming back?" It wasn't just the Kings and Queen who's eyes widened, the young Lucy recalled as she remembered that fateful day. Everyone had muttered something quite similar.

Peter turned to Lucy, and Edmund. "Well, you two are." His back had been turned to Aslan, but now he faced the great King of Kings. "At least, I think he meant you two." The statemeant hung into the air.

"But... why?" Lucy's mind realed... why couldn't her older siblings-Rulers of this land she loved-come back to Narnia? "Did they do something wrong?" Edmund, always knowing when to stop prodding someone, looked at his younger sister with a warning glance.

Aslan nodded towards the most Just of the siblings, and then chuckled. "Oh, quite the opposite, my dear." So, then, why are they leaving? Lucy wondered. She was quite young and these things confused her. "But all things have their time. Your brother and sister have learned what they can from this world. Now it's time for them to live on, in their own."

Peter smiled gently, and Lucy realized; he did look older. More... mature. The young king placed a firm yet gentle hand on his sister's shoulder. "Hey, it's all right, Lu. It's not how I thought it'll be... but it's okay. One day you'll see, too. Come on."

Peter held out his hand to his younger sister. She took it, and glanced at her other brother. Edmund seemed to be focused on something. "Ed?" Lucy said. Her brother snapped his head at her.

"Hmm?"

"What is it?"

"I... I feel as if I'm forgetting something." But Edmund shook his head, and dismissed the idea.

It came to the time of good-byes. They were heartwarming but short, for good-byes tend to be much to sad and it is better if you keep them short and say what you'd like to say soon. Peter and the Centaur exchanged a few words of which only those two will know. Lucy and the dwarf Trumpkin had a hug and went their seperate ways. Edmund, who was never fond of good-byes, didn't quite say good-bye. "I'll see you soon?" He said to each friend in turn. They responded with a wave or a handshake or a nod.

Finally, there is the good-bye of the eldest Queen of the old Kings and Queens of Narnia; Queen Susan, the Gentle. In the future, some will say that King Caspian the Tenth never quite looked at any woman like he glanced at Queen Susan. And her siblings would tease their sister with nudges here and implies their and words of kisses and True Love (though she always rolled her eyes and said that this was quite stupid; then she'd blush and look away).

"I'm glad I came back." A hush fell over the crowd gathered there, and even Aslan himself watched the two royals with curiosity.

Caspian's eyes held something he would not feel for many years. "I just wish we'd had more time together."

Aslan knew Susan was a sensible girl. He knew Caspian was not a dumb Son of Adam. And so, the great Lion was not in the least surprised when Susan replied, her voice laced with thought but her eyes painted in tears, "It would have never worked, anyway."

"Why not?"

Her hand raced up to carress his cheek gently, "I'm, like, 1,300 years older than you." Their laughs filled the air. Sad laughs of things that could've been.

She began to move towards her brothers and sister... but she did not want to regret anything on this final visit to the land she ruled once long ago. Susan turned. Her eyes met Caspian's, and then, everyone understood the truth of something hidden before.

She kissed him. It wasn't big or magickal or at all like those kissed you see in the movies. It was simply there. The two simply acknowledged the spark they had created. Maybe Susan had nibbled Caspian's lip just a little, she remembered later on. Maybe he had ran a hand through her hair and carressed her cheek.

But her memories are fading.

Behind them, Lucy smiled and sighed. "I'm sure when I'm older I'll unferstand."

Edmund glanced at his sister before meeting Peter's gaze. Amusement traced his eyes. The younger boy ran a hand through his raven hair. "I'm older and I don't think I WANT to understand." A small chuckle escaped the Pevensie group.

Maybe, if it were a hundred years ago, more words would've been exchanged. Maybe the woman would've cried. Or the Fauns have played a farewell tune. But the Pevensie's knew how to say good-bye, and so did Aslan. Everyone united there, that day, did. And so no more words were exchanged.

Susan walked away, Peter close behind. Edmund (who'd changed quite a bit since their first visit to the fair land they were once again leaving), waited for his younger sister. Lucy seemed more hesitant than the others. She moved with grace, and her eyes held sadness. Her heart ached. The world was much too beautiful for one to leave WITHOUT feeling the slightest bit sad. She turned, her face holding the eyes of a Queen who had more wisdom than she ought.

Aslan nodded slightly. Reepicheep's sword was held outward, a sign of respect. Trumpkin was holding a handkerchief. The youngest Queen's gaze landed on Caspian. Her eyes held a firm message and Caspian knew he would honour her command.

Take care of my Land. Of my People. Do everything for Narnia. And not yourself. Lucy hoped he understood. Caspian did.

She stepped through the Tree of Memories, and all at once her mind was thrown into a turmoil. Where her siblings, and her school things? She found her brothers and sister. Edmund's eyes were troubled; Susan had a light blush upon her cheeks; Peter was trying to get a grip on the harsh reality of London.

"Aren't you going to get on, Phillis?" Susan heard that boy from last week-or, early that morning, actually, and her mind snapped to attention. She grapsed her belongings, and Edmund placed a firm hand on her and Lucy's shoulder. Peter led them into the subway.

Edmund finally sighed deeply, his face creased with worry lines. "You don't suppose there's any way of getting back, do you?" His siblings stared at him. "I-I've left my new torch in Narnia!"

A laugh errupted among the four. Soldiers stared. Passengers shook their heads.

"Children...," an elderly woman muttered.

And, maybe, they were. To most people, they where nothing but kids in London, tired of the city life. They weren't the least important. But, let me ask you something; look closer. Look into young Lucy's eyes. You'll find wisdom hidden there. Wisdom placed there by adventures. By lessons learned in a land far away. Wisdom placed there by a heartbreak at the age of sixteen (Edmund gave that stupid boy a black eye), and many more things. Look at Susan. She holds the kindness earned only by a life of long and hard choices. Peter holds leadersip that really is too young for his eyes. And Edmund? Why, perhaps he holds the strangest thing of all. He has that fiery force of someone who knows justice, who's suffered much more than all three of his siblings put together; the eyes of a man who knows when to push and prod and when to stop and be gentle. It doesn't suit him.

It's in all of them. Peter's set jaw and the way he walks, with such force, like he'd once had even bears bow to him (and he had). Susan's grace and the way her eyes sparkled when she spoke of wine or of fairytales and the way she danced, the way she always won at chess (only lost to Edmund), and knew how to ride a horse and shoot an arrow though her mother SWEARS the girl's never layed a hand on either on till earlier this year. Edmund's way with speaking, how he's never lost a fight in his school. The way he can walk away when it's time. And he knows how to talk. When he went to that camp for young soldiers, he won all the battle games and ALWAYS stood his ground when they spoke of battle strategies and deemed him crazy for his (though the teachers lost everytime they tried to counter. He really was that good). The way his eyes were firm and old and how his shoulders were always straight showed of his royalty as well. And Lucy's tender way of stating the obvious and her passion for everything and everyone. Her thinking; so high and so true. And the way she carried herself. A ten-year-old does NOT carry herself with such gracefullness and swiftness.

Maybe they seemed like children, maybe they acted like such. But when the time arranged for it, they truly had the looks of Kings and Queens. One just needed to observe to realize so.

Can I just say I've no idea why I wrote this? Um... I like it, though. Did you?