Epilogue
Aslan and Susan walked together to the base of a steep hill. He turned to her and told her to keep walking "further up and further in" but He was going to stop. She should walk the rest of the way alone. Susan didn't question Him. The time for questions was over.
The more Susan walked the more real it all seemed. It occurred to her that she had never been in the real Narnia—that this was the real Narnia and the other was only a shadow of this one. She could not quite understand why she was aware of it, though. Perhaps these things just become clearer with time.
As Susan reached the summit of the hill, she saw that a large crowd of people and Talking Animals had gathered. Many of them wore crowns of a very old Narnian style, but three of the crowns she recognized easily—along with the heads to which they belonged. Susan saw her siblings as she had remembered them from the late Golden Years—the time right before they came back to England through the wardrobe. It was then that she understood that she, too, was a different age once again.
High King Peter absently glanced in her direction and looked away again, but quickly gave a second look. His expression was one of shock and surprise. He looked a few seconds before as if unsure if eyes were seeing his sister again. He ran toward her and she could see tears in his eyes. Edmund and Lucy looked to see where Peter was going. After a few seconds of the same shocked expression, they too ran to Susan.
All four Pevensies were caught up in a group hug—each crying and laughing simultaneously. They were all so overjoyed and filled with bliss that they didn't noticed Aslan and Tumnus approaching.
"Mr. Tumnus!" Susan cried out with glee.
"My Queen! It is so lovely that you are arrived. The High King informed us all just now that you would not join us."
Susan opened her mouth to give a response, but Aslan spoke instead.
"Let us not speak of that, none of us," he said, looking around at everyone. "What is important is that Queen Susan has indeed joined us." He smiled at Susan and she understood. Forgiveness meant forgetting the past: her past behavior was void now. Aslan's Country was a new beginning—a beginning without an end, in fact.
A faun approached carrying a crown. Susan recognized it: it was her crown. Everyone formed a circle around Susan as the faun placed it onto her head.
"Once a King or Queen of Narnia, always a King or Queen of Narnia." Aslan said.
"Long Live, Queen Susan. Long Live, Queen Susan," everyone chanted.
It was the happiest ending any story could have. (At least this storyteller thinks so.)
