Here's another story I wanted to get out before I leave for my vacation :) Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. If I did... oh ho ho.
it's the principle of the matter; compromise.
King Edmund the Just was a fair king, and all in Narnia knew it. No matter what petitions came his way, no matter what requests landed on his royal desk, King Edmund always set to work with a balanced goal in mind, willing to make fair trade and compromise with the other side in order to reach those justifiable goals. Admittedly, sometimes he cut corners and took risks, but Narnia knew that he did it for their own good, like the time he ordered the Narnian crew to set sail from Calormen despite having to negotiate with Rabadash.
King Edmund the Just, revered through the land.
It was a shock to Edmund, Peter, Susan and Lucy, when they were rudely awakened to the boring, dull life of London in the throes of war. They went from tall, mature kings and queens to small children, trapped in stunted bodies and, in the case of Peter and Susan, tall, gangly forms. They were relieved when Aslan called them back to aid Caspian, but that adventure ended as well, and back they went to being younglings in a hungry world.
Edmund noticed everything. How could he not? Even in Narnia, his observations were keen and insightful. It was how he was known as fair and politically adept. It was how he knew every single step to counter the other party's proposals in order to gain what Narnia needed. And most of all, his observations drove his good judgment, something he wished he had had before the whole White Witch incident.
But that was another story, left for another day.
What Edmund noticed now was how his sister Susan changed. It was a warm day in America, and Edmund was tugging uncomfortably at his shirt and tie. Lucy and Peter looked just as ill at ease with their gelled hair and stiff dress; but Susan lounged in her chair, dressed in a white chiffon dress that seemed to emphasize her tiny waist. Tiny, Edmund observed, his eyes narrowing, what did that mean? Susan had better not be starving herself again.
"Cool down, you guys," Susan drawled, and Edmund wanted to scream. Cool down? he wanted to demand. Who says 'cool down'? You're not American, Susan!
Susan continued in that lazy tone of hers, fingering her curls. "You guys act as though I'm about to eat you. All you're doing is meeting my fiancée, John. You'll like him, Peter. He served in the military!"
Edmund noticed how she appealed to Peter first, as though she was appealing to the High King. He saw that she seemed to notice this, because she flinched slightly before turning to Lucy. "Lucy dear, your skirt is crooked. Do try to behave like a lady?"
And then she turned to her younger brother, whose face was dark with indignation on Lucy's behalf, because for crying out loud, where on earth was Queen Susan the Gentle? Susan reached over to tweak Edmund's nose. "Try to smile, Edmund," she admonished, and Edmund noticed how she even said his name differently, Edmond instead of the usual Edmund. Susan continued on blithely, unaware that she was being given a thorough screening by her younger brother. "You look as though," and here she began to giggle, "you look as though somebody flashed their petticoats in your face!"
Edmund cast Peter a bewildered look; his older brother shrugged, obviously not understanding the joke either. Susan stopped laughing once she realized nobody else got the joke; she sighed and took another drink of her apple-orange juice. "A girl would expect her family to be a little more fun," she grumbled.
The doorbell rang, and Susan jumped up to get it. "That must be John," she announced gaily. "I'm positive you will love him!"
…
They didn't love him.
…
"Peter, what on earth will we do?" Edmund paced the room, agitated by the afternoon's undertakings.
His older brother, the High King of Narnia, shrugged again, a specter of utter defeat. "I don't know, Ed. I have tried talking her out of it, but she simply won't listen to me. She won't listen to a single thing I have to say. Nor will she acknowledge Lucy." He paused and glanced at Edmund's pacing form in front of the bay window. "I don't suppose you've tried…"
"No, I have not, but there has to be other ways," Edmund mutters, half-occupied by the thoughts. "We've done this before, Pete. We've told the suitors to never come back, given them some sort of compensation, at times banished or exiled them-"
"We only exiled one suitor, and that was because Susan found him peeping in through her window," Peter said patiently, "and at any rate, Ed, we were kings then. We could do what we wanted. But now…look at us. I'm barely twenty, and you're only seventeen. We're…we're still kids." He flopped over onto his back. "And it's not like we can bribe him to go away."
Edmund stood in front of the bay window, barely flinching at the sun that bathed his lanky form. "I shall talk to her," he said finally, and with an air of firmness that had surrounded him when he had been king. "Now."
"Now?" Peter sat upright. "I daresay, Ed, she's not going to listen to you in that euphoric mood she's in."
But his younger brother paid no attention, instead stalking out of the room and down the hall. Peter sighed and flopped back down onto the bed. "Oh, Aslan," he murmured into the heavy silence, "Give us all strength."
…
"Su?" Edmund rapped neatly on the door. "Su? Can I come in?"
There was a pattering of feet, and then Susan yanked open the door. "Edmund!" she said brightly. "Come in, come in!"
She dragged him into her room and sat him down on the bed. "Isn't John the most wonderful person ever?" she gushed as she ran to the mirror and began to undo the pins that held her ringlets up. "Didn't I tell you?"
Edmund watched his sister, watched how her lips moved but her eyes said something else. "Su," he began as his sister paused to take a breath. "I'm not sure I like John."
She shut down. He could see it. Her dark brown eyes, so similar to his, went blank, her smile dropped, and her muscles tightened involuntarily. "Why, whatever do you mean?" she asked, and Edmund, observant as always, could hear the edge in her voice.
"I mean…come now, Su! He's not deserving of an elegant Queen like you!" The words tumbled out without Edmund meaning them to.
She really stiffened then, and she put the pins down on the desk with more force than was necessary. "Edmund," she said with some finality, "I thought we were done talking about foolish children's games."
"Foolish-" Edmund leaped off the bed. "Susan! How could you ever call Narnia foolish?"
"All a game, Ed, all a game! It was fun when we were younger, but come now, it's time to grow up!" Susan went back to picking apart her hairstyle, her hair falling down around her shoulders. "I do wish you stopped letting your imagination get away with you."
Edmund stared at her, observing how she wouldn't meet his gaze in the mirror. "It's not a game," he said helplessly, as though by saying that it would hammer home to her what she was doing. He scrabbled vainly for his rhetorical skills, for his swaying, for his influential persona that had won Narnia many treaties and diplomatic pacts, but found no trace of King Edmund the Just. This was Edmund Pevensie, young and inexperienced, trying to convince his sister of a reality that never truly existed to her.
"So, Ed, what say you to a party tonight?" Susan changed the topic, and Edmund sensed that she was trying to keep the peace, compromise and salvage the conversation. "I know some girls that would be interested in a handsome young man like you-"
"It's not a game," Edmund repeated dazedly, and now the words seemed to affect the haze that clouded his brain. "Su, believe me, it's not a game, don't you remember how you used to rule over Narnia with us? How they used to call you Queen Susan the Gentle and-"
"Shut up, Ed!" Susan whirled on her younger brother, anger flashing in her eyes now. "Will you please cut it out? Narnia doesn't exist. You were never a king, I was never a queen, and Aslan is just a lion who exists only in your mind! Will you please come back to reality, to now?" Her voice rose in pitch, reaching a crescendo on the last word and then breaking into tiny shattered pieces.
Edmund stared at her, feeling his heart throb in his ears. Ordinarily, if this had happened in Narnia, he would calmly be working out a compromise. Reach the midpoint of an issue, he had once told the wise moles, and often enough both parties will be happy. But there was no compromise to this problem. Compromise meant that both parties were willing to give up something on either side.
Edmund wasn't willing to give up Narnia. It was all he really had.
"Su…" he began again, but Susan let out an exasperated curse and spun back around to her mirror, slamming the dresser before collapsing into her chair. Edmund sat down on the bed, feeling dizzy and light-headed. "Su," he began, "what about Caspian?"
The once-Gentle Queen, who had lowered her head into her arms, stiffened again. "Who's Caspian?" she finally mumbled, but Edmund knew enough of human behavior to know that she remembered. "Ed, if you mention Narnia or kings or queens or ridiculous names again, I will never speak to you again."
That was it. Edmund felt something snap inside of him. "Very well." He stood up and walked to the door, holding his head high as he went. He stopped at the door, his hand resting on the doorknob, and turned to look at his sister one last time. "I guess this is the last time we'll see each other, then," he said coolly. His anger turned to sadness as he waited for a response, but Susan kept on powdering her nose. Edmund dropped his eyes to the floor and pulled the door open, whispering a quiet, "May Aslan still be with you."
…
Susan only got married three years later.
Edmund did not attend her wedding, and neither did Lucy. The only sibling present was Peter, and he barely smiled. That day, he flew off to England to be with Edmund and Lucy and their parents.
The next week, Susan read the papers, and read to her shock about the deaths of several people, including her entire family and several family friends.
She hadn't spoken to Edmund since that fateful day.
…
Yes, King Edmund was a fair king. He knew how to compromise, how to give a little bit to receive much. But there was only one time that he refused to give in, refused to compromise away his beliefs and faith.
It was, he thought to himself later, the principle of the matter. But it didn't matter; his heart still ached every time he thought about Susan and her rightful place beside him and Peter on one of the four thrones of Cair Paravel. The irony, he thought bitterly, that it was Susan who ended up being the true traitor to Narnia rather than he, who had plunged Narnia into war.
Edmund noticed everything. He saw change, he saw patterns, he saw solutions. Sometimes, though, he wished that he didn't notice anything.
Maybe then, he allowed himself to think, he would still have two sisters.
Whadya think? Huh? Huh? :) Reviews are very welcome! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!