Hey, so this is my second story and this is goanna be centered on Edmund.
I'm goanna add a lot of stuff into this story, so just follow along and if you have any questions PM me and I'll be happy to answer them.
Oh, by the way here are the ages they should be,
Peter -21
Susan -20
Edmund -18
Lucy -16
THANKS, ENJOY XD
Edmund walked down the halls of Cair Paravel, it had been seven years since they were crowned kings and queens of Narnia, and Edmund never forgot what his title meant.
He was the Just, the only one in his family that forgave the fell creatures and had even added them within his guard.
Although Peter and Susan had been against it from the very begging, but over the years they had gotten used to the idea but were still on edge when one of his guard would raise his voice to their dear brother.
"Edmund!"
In hindsight, he should have seen it coming, the moment his little and dearest sister called his name. He was in for a long and tedious talk.
When he saw his sister was not alone, but rather his whole family behind her, Peter with a rather distant and somewhat disgusted look in his eyes.
Ever since he allowed the fell creatures become a rather large part of his guard, his brother had been mad and disappointed. And Susan, oh aslan, she had been the worst. She had not tried to hide her discomfort or her hatred; she would voice it as much as she could when in the presence of her little brother (which was almost never now a days). Hoping that he would listen to reason and have all of the creatures executed but he would hear none of it.
Lucy, Aslan bless her, had been the only one who had not yelled at him about his stupidity or his lack of judgment.
As they grew nearer he was becoming rather disappointed, and dare he say sad, that his brother and sister who long ago promised to trust his judgment of others to be true and good, now thought him stupid and crazy for forgiving the fell creatures.
As soon this thought passed his head his siblings were in front of him, Lucy with her everlasting smile. Peter avoiding eye contact no matter how hard he tried to look at him and Susan, staring into his eyes with anger and disappointment.
"Oh Edmund we have been searching for you all over cair paravel!" Lucy cried on joy and, running forward, seized his hands in hers, smiling brightly up at him.
Edmund favored her with a warm smile, squeezing her hands in return, looking up at his older siblings to see them both ignoring his very existence. With a sigh he looked back at his sister and once more smiled at her before saying, "Lu, sorry I know that you want to talk but I have things to do and I can't really waste time."
At this Susan looked at him and spat, "Oh, so spending time with your family is a waste of time!"
Edmund looked up at her, not the least bit surprised at her tone with him, "No Susan, that's not what I meant," he sighted one more time before continuing, "I simply said that I have a lot to do and not nearly the time. And trying to explain this to you is doing nothing for me but wasting the little time I have left."
He knew that it wasn't a very nice thing to say, and looking back on it he might not have said it at all but he was really in a rush, he was already late for a meeting with envoys form talmar, and he shouldn't make them wait any longer.
But he no sooner finished his sentence when he was slapped across the face by a rather large hand, "you will not speak to Susan that way!" peter spat at his direction.
To say he was surprised was an understatement, he never expected for his brother and best friend to slap him for a simple comment.
"PETER!" Lucy screamed at him, not quite believing what her oldest sibling had just done.
"It's ok Lu," he said in her direction before looking at peter and Susan, and giving a small bow he spoke words that would haunt peter and Susan, "Forgive me, High king peter, Queen Susan, I will hold my tongue and will accept any punishment you deem fit to give me, but for now I must get going for I am late for a meeting." And with that he turned without giving a second glance at his siblings and walked away.
"How could you peter!" screamed Lucy before running the way they came from.
"Peter…"
"I know, I'll ask for his forgiveness the next time I see him."
"I will to, we have been nothing but beastly towards him" said Susan with a sad look in her eyes.
Edmund knew that he couldn't afford to show any emotions when he entered his preferred room when any envoy was sent to Narnia.
You see as the just king and the lesser of the two, he took care of foreign affairs and any type of strategy based assignment.
So that's how he found himself staring at three envoys from talmar, one of the most hatted places and most hatted people Edmund had ever the displeasure of meeting.
"King Edmund" said the middle envoy who called himself Lord Ivan, "I do hope that we would have come to an understanding by the end of today, but as it seems," he paused to give a rather long and tired sigh, "That you are rather...Um... Unwilling to accept our demands."
"Lord Ivan, you must understand that, while you see this as a win for both sides. I however do not; you are asking something that I cannot give you. The forests are sacred and are not to be touched." Edmund said; voice as cold as ice.
"While I understand that you would not want to give us access to your woods, I implore you to reconsider." Said the talmaranian at the far right, with a beard that would put Father Christmas to sham.
"I will not, it is not under my law to give good grace to this." Edmunds voice never wavering, and never backing down.
"King Edmund," Ivan once again spoke, "We are running out of time, my king wanted us to be back by tomorrow and I feel that we will not find a suitable compromise within the given time."
"I fear you might be right," sighed Edmund, "Your king wants you back by tomorrow and we will not reach a compromise by then. Even if we were to debate this until sunrise," Edmund rested his head on his hand with a rather pensive look on his face.
"Is there something troubling you king Edmund?" spoke up Ivan once more.
"I fear that, even with your great skills Lord Ivan. I will not reach a good decision with the three of you. I must speak with your king in person. But to do that I will have to go with you, back to Talmar." Edmund said with a sigh.
To say Lord Ivan was surprised was an understatement, he had not expected that the legendary King Edmund The Just would ever consider to step foot in Telmar, do not get him wrong he loves Telmar but he holds respect for the legendary king of Narnia, the only one of the royal siblings that would ever spend his time to debate with envoys form one of their worst enemies.
"If that is what you want king Edmund, but I must tell you that your guard will not be able to accompany you."
"I had a feeling that it would be the case, do not worry Lord Ivan I can take care of myself." Said Edmund sitting up on his chair.
"King Edmund You must understand that if we are to make it there by tomorrow morning, we must leave now." Spoke the envoy from the far left for the first time since the meeting started.
"Yes I understand we should get our things settled and ready to go." Said Edmund while standing up and motioning towards the door.
After they left, Edmund could only think of one thing….
"How am I going to explain this to peter?!"
He had already got into a fight with his older siblings not long ago, and he really didn't have the energy to get into another yelling session with his siblings. (Peter and Susan doing most of the yelling) he feared what they might say once they would find out that his guard would not allow his guard to accompany him. He was also nulling over what he would say to Maximus about the arrangements. (Maximus was a Minotaur and very overprotective of Edmund. In fact most of the fell creatures he had rescued we rather loyal and over protective.)
He had little time to think on the matter for not long after he left the council room he was ambushed by a Leopard from his guard.
"Forgive me my King but there are urgent matters that require your imitate assistance." The rather young looking leopard said.
"Thank you Sasha, can you please tell general Maximus that I require his presences within my personal study." He said while walking towards his preferred study.
"Right away my liege"
Upon entering his study Edmund let his weariness show, after everything that had happed in the last week was finally showing on his face.
The first day he had spent separating a fight between the squirrels and the ravens over a particular tree that had caught their eyes. The second day was spent getting ready for the impending appearance of the envoys that Telmar would be sending along with dealing with his brother and sister pestering him about how one of his 'creatures' had harmed a Narnian soldier while they were training. And the third day was spent with Lucy in the throne room holding court.
Now he had to deal with signing more and more laws and overlooking plans for buildings that needed remodeling. With a sigh he sat down and started reading another document when he heard a knock at his door. With a sigh he called for the person to come in.
"Lord Edmund you called for me?" asked Maximus.
"Yes Maximus do come in, and shut the door would you?" said a rather exhausted looking Edmund.
"My Lord, have you not been getting enough sleep? Or is it perhaps that you have are far to busy to be bothered to rest?" said a rather sarcastic Minotaur.
"It is not that dear friend; it is simply that I have not the time. There is much work to be done and sadly little time to do it in. the squirrels still pester me with the claiming of the tree, and peter and Susan still complain about the training accident that happened not long ago."
"Oh, so now were complaining about our soldiers safety are we?" came the voice of someone Edmund could not deal in seeing right now, Susan.
"No kind sister, it is simply that while in training there are many things that could go wrong and I feel that you are letting the fact that it was a former fell creature that did the harm cloud your judgment."
"We are only looking after our subjects and your Monsters have caused quite a bit of grief for our loyal soldiers." Said peter with a annoyed look in his face after finally seeing who his dear baby brother was talking to before they interrupted.
Peter really couldn't see how Edmund could allow monsters like those to walk the palace walls, that and he couldn't bear thinking what those demons would do to his baby brother if he was not careful, he and Susan had pointed out on more than one occasion that their brother was too eager to too had out his trust to anyone that presented himself to him.
"Peter, we have been through this before and I will hold out on what I said back then, I will not turn my back on my subjects, even those who may or may not have caused harm to us previously. They have come to me and begged for forgiveness, and who would I be if I did not give them the second chance they deserve, for if you do not remember I too had in a time caused harm to Narnia. And I was forgiven."
Susan now looking uncomfortable with the conversation tried to get it back on track, "Edmund, we simply wished to talk to you about this evening in the corridor."
"No, it is alright dear sister. I spoke out of turn and I was punished for it, there is nothing to speck about. Now I do hope you excuse me but I have something rather urgent that I need to talk to my general about." Said Edmund with an expression that left no room for argument.
Bitterly Susan looked at her younger brother and spoke, "But of course, we intruded on a conversation that did not concern us. Please forgive our earlier intrusion."
"But of course my dear sister, please go safely." Edmund said.
Not long after the high king and the gentle queen had left that Edmund redirected his attention to the lone figure standing before him.
"Now general I am about to say something that will anger you."
Maximus said nothing but gave him a look that told him to continue.
"I am sure you are aware that this afternoon I went to speak with the envoys of Talmar, and I am afraid that we have yet to reach an agreement. So I have chosen to venture back to Talmar with them. And unfortunately you or any other member of my guard or the narnian army are unable to join me."
Maximus looked at him for a long time and finally said, "Your brother will not allow it."
"I know, but I can handle peter, I must do this. If we can get a stable trade system going between Narnia and talmar our funds would increase tremendously. And I know Peter cannot argue with that."
"You are asking me to let you go to a land we know little about with a group of men we do not trust."
"No, I am asking you to trust me when I say I can take care of myself max." he knew that by using the general's nickname he would get what he wanted, and while he hatted using that tactic. He really needed him to understand.
"I trust you pup, it's those men I don't trust." Oh how he hated when Maximus used his own tactics against him. Using the nickname his guard gave him to make him back down. However he would have none of it.
"Just let me do it, trust in my skills friend." Edmund said with a long sigh.
"Alright, but I will not be responsible for Sasha and BrightSpark and Philip tearing you out when they discover your plan." The general said with a look of familiar fondness in his eyes.
"Haha, don't worry. I will deal with the consequences later."
"Very well my king, I will take my leave," he was half way out the door when he looked back at Edmund and said, "and do try to get some rest some time during the night."
But before Edmund had time to respond the general was gone and he still had a mountain of documents that required his signature, and then he knew that another sleepless night awaited him.
It was in the early morning that found Susan within the pavilion her family used for their meals; it was a nice area that was connected to the gardens that she herself looked after. She was not surprised to see that she was the first to arrive. It was like that almost every morning, she would arrive and then in a few minutes of waiting her sister would come down those steps and take a seat next to her. They would talk about the day's news when their brother Edmund would arrive and sit down and engage himself in there talk while they waited for their bother who was normally the last to enter and sit.
However it seemed that there was an end to everything when it was peter that entered first and not there brother, at first they thought that he must still be upset with them about yesterday. But no matter how angry any of them where with one another they would always sit down to the meals that were laid out before them. They immediately lost their appetite and set out to find their brother.
It wasn't long after the beginning of their search that they found him in the place they left him the night before, in his study looking over documents.
It was Lucy the spoke first, "Edmund, are you not hungry today. Or is it that we have upset you in some way?"
Edmund looked up from the document he was signing and after seeing his siblings did he realize that he had spent the night and most of the morning in the study signing document among document.
"Oh, no dear sister it appears that I merely lost track of time and forgot about the morning meal."
"Have you spent the whole night here?" asked a bewildered Susan.
"I'm afraid so Susan, there is much to be signed and far little time to do it."
"It appears the all we have is time while you seem to be lacking in it." Commented peter.
"I know," said Edmund while standing up, "but there is no excuse as to my missing breakfast."
"Oh, Edmund perhaps we should have breakfast inside this time. Maybe in your courters, I'm sure that a nice nap after eating will do you some good."
"I thank you for your concern Susan. Yes I do think that rest will do me well."
And with that comment Susan went and arranged that breakfast be served in Edmunds room while Lucy no more that dragged him to his room, a smirking peter not far behind.
But all on Edmunds mind was the impending talk that he and his siblings would be having sortly and the fight he will have to face one his brother find out about his leave.
