Disclaimer: I don't own the Chronicles of Narnia or any of the characters contained therein. They belong to C. S. Lewis and I am making no money off this so please do not sue.
Summary: No one is born Evil, so what made the Witch that way. My theory on what happened.
Chapter Three
No. Not here.
Anywhere but this place.
The Wood between Worlds.
There was a Tapestry of this terrible place in my Sorcha's rooms.
Sorcha loved to paint or weave her dreams.
How well I Remember.
Flashback
I entered our rooms in the palace, looking for my Sorcha.
She is sitting on the floor, tracing an outline on a large piece of cloth. Another tapestry for our rooms or for the gallery, I suppose.
I look at the cloth. It is an exquisite drawing of a woodland scene, calm and quiet. Almost too quiet.
Sometimes I think my Sorcha is a mind reader. She is far too perceptive for an eighteen year old.
But then, I had looked into Sorcha's family tree once, and discovered that her family had been very gifted in the mind arts. Perhaps my suspicion of a 'Mind Reader' is closer than I think.
"A place I saw in my dreams lately. But I do not like it. It is too quiet, almost lifeless."
I smile down at her. "Then add something to give it life. It was your dream; perhaps you should be in it."
The smile on her face is worryingly reminiscent of when Sorcha is about to do something that will knock someone for a loop.
She adds a few more details; birds, people who I recognize from the city and court laughing, herself dancing as music swirls around like an invisible wind; drifting to all corners, filling the scene with light and joy.
Sorcha had that effect on people
I look at the finished drawing, and I freeze. Sorcha is dancing, and a tiny child, but already so much like me in appearence, is dancing with her. My first daughter, the same as the day she died. I struggle to keep my voice steady. "Who is the child dancing with you? I know the others, but what of her?"
Sorcha blinks, and tilts her head. "I'm not sure. She just seems to fit there, like a forgotten memory waiting to be re-discovered. Are you alright, Mother? You look unwell."
I manage to regain my composture. "Nothing, child. I am fine."
End Flashback
I could look at that Tapestry and sense my Sorcha in every embroidered stitch.
But this is the Reality of her dreams.
No life. No laughter. No sound.
No music to accompany my Sorcha dancing.
As a living statue I felt nothing, no joy, no pain, only a faint whisper of what was happening outside.
Now the fresh knowledge of my Sorcha's absence hits me like a glancing physical blow.
The girl, Polly, sees the effect this wretched place is having on me, and wants to leave me here.
Oh, no, you most certainly will not!
I still have to find Aslan. I wish to have several very long and very painful words with him and if I have to search every damned pool in these horrible woods then so be it.
I am still trying to decide whether to glare at the confrontation, or to follow Sorcha's example, and smile. She could convey an incredible range of things with just a twitch of her lips.
Flashback
We were walking in the Gardens after a hellish day in court. I asked how she managed to put up with all the court intrigues.
My Sorcha looked up at me, wearing a devious smirk as she replies, "Just keep smiling. A well planned smile can be more terrifying than a lethal glare. Even if it is the 'Princess-of-Charn-Do-Not-Mess-With-Me' look, wielded by you in a bad mood."
How she manages to say such things with a straight face is beyond me. It is one of the many things that I love about her.
End Flashback
They try to leave without me. I grab hold of the girl's hair and am drawn into their world.
I am forced to meet the boy's uncle. He is an insufferable pain in the backside, but I will need his assistance if I am to survive in this strange place. It is obvious that the two children would be only too glad to be rid of me.
Indeed, they make their way back to the Wood between Worlds, probably trying to get me back to Charn.
Good Luck to them. Charn was destroyed mere hours after we left.
They chose a pool at random and pulled us into another world. It was not Charn, obviously.
This was an empty world. This was Nothing. Well, then, I will have to find out how to get in and out of the different worlds. I have places to go, people to find, Aslan to speak to.
I open my mouth to say something to that effect when I hear a voice that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. The voice is singing, a melody filled with life and creation and hope.
It is a very nice melody, yet it is also dreadful. Dreadful because it brings with it the vision of a blonde young girl, eyes half closed as she lifts her face to the sky, the notes of a joyous tune spilling forth in a silvery cascade.
The sky in the East is starting to change colour, from black, to grey, to pink, to red, to gold.
The sun is rising on the first day for a new World.
The singer comes into view for the first time. It is a lion.
Most find such creatures terrifying, but it is they Lion's eyes that draw me in. I cannot tell how I know, but in than instant, I know that I have found Aslan.
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A/N - This was going to be one chapter but this is a good stopping point so I'll split it into two smaller chapters.