A/n: Ciao! Thank you EC, GoldenAgeNarnia, Narniafan, Emily, CairParavel, Daphne, Connors, LOVEM, PeterCaspianRlz, QueenElenaofnarnia, Emma, Bella, Aslanmane, QueenLucyfan, and all the other guests. :DD

(Cair Paravel, Narnia)

~Susan's POV~

I couldn't believe I had forgotten about Lucy's betrothal to Tomas, the new Tisroc. And now Lu was inclined to go to Calormen. I knew that Edmund approved of Tomas even when they were, in a sense, rivals for G's hand in marriage, and that Peter even called Tomas 'the humblest person I know' (as opposed to 'the humblest Calormene I know because it's not like Calormenes are by default arrogant although it's a pity to see that a lot of them are like that). Caspian, too, found it laudable, what Tomas was willing to do to ensure Carissa's safety. But I still needed to have a word with Lucy after granting His Imperial Majesty the audience that he was requesting. Once we had him settled down, I sought Lu out in her room when Tyrone was taking a bath in our quarters.

"I've been through this with the others, Su. No objections," Lucy stated right away.

"I'm not trying to argue with you, sister. It's just that I have...concerns. Yes, I'm concerned," I said drawly. My concerns were queenly but I had the feeling that I did not sound like a Queen right now.

"Concerned…about what?" She frowned slightly. "About me, I bet."

"No, it's not really you…it's me."

"Oh, that sounds like a lousy excuse for an unimpressive breakup," she folded her arms.

"Look, I just wish you didn't have to go to Calormen to be courted by Tomas."

"But you know why I'm doing this."

"Yes, I do. For Narnia's sake. An alliance with Calormen should be politically and economically and militarily beneficial to us. But it shouldn't have to be you who has to marry someone you don't love," I tried to explain.

She shrugged. "I love Narnia. If I marry someone politically valuable and worthy, then I'm happy."

"Is it really that simple?" I said skeptically. "You literally just told us at lunch that you like the young marquess. Xavier, that's his name, right?. Weren't you planning on courting him instead? And yet here you are, betrothed to Tomas and fully intending to follow through with it."

She bit her lip. "I'm the only remaining sovereign of Narnia who is single. It's gotta be me."

"It shouldn't have been like that. If I hadn't married Tyrone – a marriage that bore no political value, to be honest – then I could have been the one to marry Tomas instead and you'd have your chance with Xavier Ridgeway," I blurted.

She gasped. "Don't you dare say that! Are you telling me you're regretting it? Marrying Tyrone and all that?! You're wrong, you know. Your union with Tyrone was a symbol of unification between the Narnian and the Telmarine races. Tyrone would help make Narnia even greater. Tomas might not even have the time to think about Narnia's prosperity. It's not as if he doesn't have enough to be concerned about in Calormen and in Gard already."

"It's not that I regret it. I don't regret marrying for love, but somehow I just wish that it could have been the ideal combination, like Ed and G, you know? They married out of love but their union also serves a dynastic purpose," I replied.

"Su, your happiness should be just as valuable! It's not at all your fault that I'm going to Calormen. In fact, it shouldn't even be a bad thing. Nobody's making me do anything; I am betrothed to Tomas of my own accord. I was the one who orchestrated this betrothal in the first place, and it's not even because you weren't about to give up your partner for a marital alliance, and same goes for our brothers with their consorts. I do like Xavier, but not enough for me to forgo a valuable international alliance. I believe I owe it to Narnia to see how it plays out with Tomas."

"So Xavier is just your second choice?" I asked hesitantly.

"Well, I don't like to put it that way, but since you've asked, yes, unfortunately for him. But I will always put my country first. My country and I are one and the same, so it's the same as putting myself first, and for a person who's not involved in any exclusive romantic commitment, I think there's nothing wrong," she said firmly. She sounded as if she was even more resolved to go to Calormen now than she did before we talked about it. In fact, now I didn't even know why I wanted to have this talk with her. It was probably to absolve myself of some unwarranted guilt I felt at prioritizing my own happiness over Narnia's best interests. I should have been the one to initiate a betrothal to Tomas before Lucy had the chance to, before I even had the chance to meet Tyrone. If Lucy could do it why couldn't I?

When I remained silent, Lucy spoke again. "Your happiness means a lot to me, sister. It should to you too. I hope you're not having second thoughts about Ty, you know," she said seriously, once again easily sounding more mature than me.

"I can't help but think of your happiness too. But since you do really want this, fine, I'll accept your betrothal to Tomas, but only will I accept your prospective marriage to His Majesty if and only if you are in love with him. Marriage is for life. You still have more than a year's time to consider if Tomas is truly who you want to spend the rest of your life with. Really think about how committed you are to a relationship and to your partner. I need you to promise me that if you fall in love with someone else or you change your mind about Xavier and would rather be with him instead…follow your heart. Listen to its wishes," I said didactically. It wasn't just sisterly advice I was giving; I just didn't feel comfortable if I weren't mothering her.

"I believe Aslan would not condemn me to a life of unhappiness," she replied with a smile. "But I promise."

~Caspian's POV~

A couple of days had passed since the big wedding. The bad thing was that it was time for work to resume, but the good thing was that I had a new colleague: Tyrone. In fact, I was supposed to have two new colleagues, since Gilda was now married to Edmund and therefore a Queen of Narnia.

This morning, Tyrone and I were going to hold the council meeting. He had attended these meetings every day for about a year now. But every time, he was only the Chief Treasurer, and never the King. I asked him if this was daunting to him. He admitted that it was a little daunting at first, but the work environment was something he was familiar with, so he wasn't as tense.

Frankly speaking, though, I was a bit surprised, at first, to find out that Miraz the Usurper had allowed Tyrone to be part of the council. I had rather thought that my uncle had only wanted those with exceptional fealty to him to have a place in the Privy Council, and mostly, those loyal to him were army officials, and Tyrone was not one of them, although his father, Drinian Harrington, 9th Viscount of Newport, was one, just not one that was working for Miraz, in particular.

I knew that many years ago, when his mother, Viscountess Beryl, served my royal mother as a lady in waiting, she was on the list of my uncle's 'targets', women that he had wanted to have an affair with, in spite of my aunt Prunaprismia's many futile protests. Lady Newport rejected Miraz's advances, but when it got too much for her, she resigned from her post as a lady in waiting instead, and had to be a lot more careful with what sort of parties or galas she attended, so that she would hardly ever have to see Miraz again. She was friends with Prunaprismia, I knew, and so perhaps taking into consideration the two women's friendship and solidarity — Tyrone's mother had shown much respect toward Prunaprismia by not sleeping with Miraz, while my aunt had had some former 'friends' of hers betray her by bedding my uncle — Aunt Pruna had managed to arrange for Tyrone to be a council member at such a young age. So, I supposed what really surprised me was that my uncle had listened to my aunt when she commended Tyrone to her husband for employment in the council, since more often than not, she was ignored by Miraz. Perhaps he was just willing to grant her that wish, as at that time she had just given birth to their son Juan, my cousin.

So, that was the story of how Tyrone had ended up as the Treasurer in the council, and now that he was King, he had appointed Lady Yvette Castleroy, his former assistant, an outstanding and bright young woman, to take his place, so now, Her Ladyship was the Chief Treasurer, while her father was also a council member. Specifically, His Lordship was in charge of receiving and organizing proposals submitted to the council by the people. Anybody could write a proposal and submit it to the council, and we'd be going through these proposals during our (sometimes tedious) meetings.

Today's meeting was fruitful, and much more fascinating than I could ever have anticipated. Lord Castleroy had read aloud to us the details of a proposal which could be outlined as the following: since our Privy Council consisted of humans only, someone had suggested the establishment of a new senate, consisting of Talking Beasts only, where each species will have proportional representation, so the centaurs and minotaurs and satyrs and mice etc. will all be represented equally in the senate. It should operate just like the council did, and the senators would assemble every day for meetings. This panel of Talking Animals would be working closely with the Privy Council; the former would answer to the latter, and the two committees would schedule weekly get-together sessions to exchange ideas.

In the end, the bill got passed with enough votes; of course more than half of the council members gave their yeses. I could find no reason for opposition or objection to this suggestion. This was a breakthrough.

So now we had to discuss how it was going to be implemented. Before we could get to it, though, I had a question that I needed to ask. And it was the council's rule that this question must not be asked before everybody had voted for or against the bill. I had wanted to know which loyal subject it was who proposed this ordinance to our council. Even as King, I was only allowed to ask this question after it was decided that the bill was either carried or defeated, in order to avoid bias.

"Please tell us, my Lord Castleroy, who had submitted this proposal? I intend to give out a substantial reward to them; this was an ingenious idea, and frankly well thought-out," I commented. Perhaps they could even join us as part of the council. They definitely had what it took.

"Your Majesty, it was your lady courter, the Lady Katrina Farmington of Chippingford, who submitted this proposal," revealed Lord Castleroy.

As soon as the council meeting was adjourned, I left the room in a hurry, and sprinted back to the tower where my bedchambers were. I was not a slow runner, but I was exceedingly impatient. I needed to find Kat; she had better be in her room. I skipped up the stairs and although the guards looked puzzled and were wondering why their King was in such a rush, I ignored them for now, for I simply could not wait another moment to tell Kat of the wonderful news.

I knocked on her door urgently, and thank goodness she was quick to get the door. Before she could say a word, I had stepped inside and picked her up, lifting her feet of the ground, and spun her around as my arms held her tight in an embrace. I put her down before explaining my zeal to her.

She squealed in delight when I told her the good news. But her exhilaration could not possibly beat mine, as I could not be prouder of her for being the one to come up with such a brilliant idea.

"Just…how, Katrina?" I just had to inquire. "You did it, you wrote a 32-page proposal without my knowledge until an hour ago. How did you manage to do that while keeping it a secret from me?"

She smiled. "I got the idea when I visited the Dancing Lawn the other day, and I've just been planning it ever since. I did it in my spare time – of course not while I was supposed to be attending Queen Lucy – usually while you're in your own office busy with work. I didn't want to disturb you, so I put my mind and time to perfecting and polishing and proofreading the proposal I submitted. I wanted it to be flawless, for you," she explained in thrill. "And, you know, last month, when we had a rift because I couldn't get over myself, about forgiving and accepting Carissa, you were disappointed in me, and it was literally the worst feeling in the world," she shook her head, and her tone was serious. "I kid you not. I never wanted to feel this way again, and so I had made up my mind that I had really wanted to do something to make up for my impolite and indecorous behavior. It was churlish of me and I regretted acting that way. As compensation, I thought of this. And determination got me a long way, ultimately leading me to success."

I was grinning from ear to ear by now. I was so proud of her. The fact that she had reflected on her past mistake and wanted to rectify them and make it up to me had me surer that she was the one for me, and frankly I could not ask for better.

"Kat, you are so intelligent and brilliant," I said wholeheartedly before kissing her deeply. She kissed me back and we had no desire to stop. But I only pulled away because I had something to say to her. "I plan to give you a reward. And it will be a substantial one. I hope you are prepared."

She opened her mouth to protest but I was quicker. "I've already quite made up my mind that I will," I said insistently. It was only fair to reward her for doing something good for Narnia. I'd do it for any subject of mine, not because she was my courter.

"Well then," she just beamed instead of arguing with me. She knew it would be a bit pointless, knowing how stubborn and incorrigible I could be. "May I ask, then, what reward do you have in mind?"

"You'll see, soon enough," I said mysteriously, with a wink. I bet she was thinking of jewelry and accessories, but that was not what I had in mind. Rather, it was something of a completely different nature.

A/n:

So what do you guys think of:
- the sisterly bonding scene at the beginning?
- the little bit of backstory about Beryl and Prunaprismia and Miraz?
- Kat's suggestion?

And what do you think Caspian has in mind for Kat? :DD