Sun, moon and stars forgot
"They carried the dead Queen back to Cair Paravel and she was bitterly mourned by Rilian and by the King and by all Narnia..." (SC ch4)
Missing moment from before The Silver Chair
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A/N: I should also have marked this 'Tragedy' :'(
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It had been so before.
The Great Hall of Cair Paravel. The Narnians of every age and kind, filling the Hall and covering the castle lawns beyond. The quiet that was not silence. King Caspian. And Gwen herself, seated in the second row.
But how they were all changed. This was not a day of joy.
That day of the King's Coronation was so very, very long ago and very far away.
That day, the Queen had not been there. Today, the Queen was gone from them.
At King Caspian's request, they had robed her in blue, a blue silk gown the colour of the morning sky before the dawn, in the hour when the stars are still high. And in her blue and golden beauty, she lay upon the bier. Gone, even beyond the stars.
In the packed ranks of the Great Hall, all Narnia wept. Lady Mavramorn at the end of the second row wept so much Gwen felt a main sail would probably not suffice as a handkerchief. Gwen herself could not weep, only watch with dry and burning eyes.
Watch the King, white-haired almost overnight with shock. Watch Prince Rilian, grey-faced and racked with grief. Watch the still, white face of the Queen where she lay, a smile on her lips as though she sought to remind them from beyond the silence and division of death that all was well with her. That there was need to sorrow, but not sorrow over much. That she was gone,and yet she was not lost.
And therein lay the comfort of this day, bright as sunshine breaking through the soft spring rain which bid the Queen farewell, strong as the clasp of Rhoop's hand on her own.
Grief is great. Had not the Lion said that, on the First Day of Narnia? Had He not too, like them, wept and ached for loss and pain?
But He had also made it right, had healed this tearing of the heart. By the Lion's Grace, by the Deeper Magic from before the dawn of time, the Queen was gone – to Aslan's Country beyond the sea, and waited there for them.