Muse can always predict what I'm feeling or thinking. It's NEW BORN (live from H.A.A.R.P) ~~~ just listen to that riff! - GENIUS!

Link it to the world
Link it to yourself
Stretch it like a birth squeeze
The love for what you hide
For bitterness inside
Is growing like the new born
When you've seen, seen too much
Too young, young
Soulless is everywhere...

I can just picture Katriel feeling thus trapped and helpless and desperate for things that she thinks she can never have...


Edmund wasn't yet ready to go to sleep. His mind was far too active and his thoughts dark. He knew he needed to distract himself and wished he had drunk a dram or two of wine. He usually didn't drink at gatherings - he needed his wits and alcohol stymied that a little. He only drank when he was completely at ease with his siblings and friends around him. But he could have done with a little alcohol to settle his mind and numb his senses.

He rounded the corner of the corridor and banged head first into Katriel. He fell on the floor and Katriel staggered backwards holding her head.

Katriel shook her head once or twice and eventually the room stopped spinning. She staggered over to Edmund and held her hand out to him. He looked at her in shock at her gesture.

"It's okay." She said. "I'm stronger than I look."

He grasped her hand and she pulled backwards getting him to his feet.

"I'm so sorry." He said.

"Not your fault. We were both not paying attention." She said, her lips curling into a smile, the scar stretching a little at the side of her mouth.

He grinned back at her, happy to see her smiling, even if it didn't reach her eyes.

"I was going for a walk." Edmund said. "Care to join me?"

Katriel looked at him with her mouth hanging open. "What part of I can't be seen talking to a man or be alone with a man didn't you get?" She asked.

"Only the part of not getting caught." He responded. "Oh come on. Don't look so worried. I'm not going to bite and you look like you could do with some fun."

"Fun?" She said, starting to look a little angry. "That's for other people." She jabbed her finger into his chest. "Actually fun is a concept created only for men in Telmar."

Edmund crossed his arms and grinned at her. "I thought you weren't allowed to touch a guy."

"You're impossible." She said, raising her eyes in mock horror but with a big grin on her face. She didn't understand how he had managed to change her mood so quickly but she felt utter relief and peace for the first time in days. "And I'll get in trouble if anyone decides to walk down this corridor."

"You're right." Edmund grabbed her hand. "So how about following me?"

He pulled her back the way he had come and dragged her along, although she wasn't really resisting. He dragged her a partially open door and closed it behind them.

Katriel looked scared for the first time. "What are you doing? We really can't be alone."

Edmund looked at Katriel and saw the fear etched on her face and he felt terrible. He had been thinking of her just before bumping into her in the corridor. And seeing her there had made him realise just how much he wanted to help her and making her smile had seemed like the easiest and most plausible option.

"I'm sorry." He said to Katriel. "I apologise for my rash behaviour. But I did check out this room before when I saw the door open and saw that it was empty. And when you said you didn't want to be caught I just thought..."

"So you usually check out for empty rooms to molest girls in?" She said, her temper flaring again.

He looked at her utterly taken aback and she realised how nasty she had just been.

"I'm sorry." She said. He looked a little sceptical with his eyes drawn together and his lips a little puckered making him look like a little wrinkly puppy. She couldn't help it, she just burst out laughing. He couldn't help the grin spreading across his face.

"Look." She said. "I mean it. You were the only person who actually came to talk to me in the hall as well as Queen Lucy. Everyone else is too scared to talk to a kept person. Especially the one engaged to the strongest and most ferocious man in the kingdom."

Katriel tugged at the collar around her throat. "I just wish I could take this horrible thing off."

"I can take it off if you like." Edmund said reaching out to help.

She shivered and moved away from him. "I can't. Sama'el told me I can't take it off until tomorrow."

"Well he won't know if you remove it. You can always put it back on tomorrow before he notices anything."

Katriel felt downright miserable and in terrible pain. "I can't Your Highness."

"Edmund. Please. Just Edmund." He said.

She smiled sweetly at Edmund and touched her collar. "I can't take it off. It's very tight and if I take it off I won't be able to put it back on to the same notch that Sama'el stretched it to." She looked down at the floor in shame and whispered. "It would hurt too much."

Edmund strode over to her and gently placed his hand on her chin and raised her head. She wouldn't meet his eyes but it was the collar he was looking at. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed before but the skin above and below the collar was practically raw and very swollen.

"Katriel. Please keep still. I am taking this monstrosity off."

"You can't. He'll know."

Edmund saw the tremors running through her body and realised that he was way out of his depth at the emotional scarring this poor girl had been inflicted with.

"Katriel. I will try not to hurt you but you can't wear this all night. I have to take it off. I will count the notches and early tomorrow morning I will come to your room and put it back on. He will never find out."

Katriel knew she was taking a tremendous risk. But the pain was getting worse the more she thought of each slow minute ticking by. She nodded.

Edmund nodded too and he apologised as he gently but firmly grasped the collar. He tightened the collar around her neck momentarily and she screamed from pain. He felt terrible but a second later he had removed it. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes in rapture. She felt absolute relief. Edmund looked at the raw and bloody skin under her collar and wanted to kill Sama'el – the second time he had thought this tonight.

Katriel noticed him staring at her and didn't feel any embarrassment which was strange as she hated her disfigurement on her face. But the look of tenderness on Edmund's face was beautiful and she watched him watching her. His lips were partially open and they were almost feminine in their appearance, a perfect shape and hue. His eyes were a lovely chocolate brown and his hair was as black as the darkest night. He also had the most adorable smattering of freckles over the bridge of his nose. He was handsome; a part of her mind realised. But she wasn't drawn to his looks - it was his soul that had captivated her.

She touched him briefly on the shoulder.

"I think now you can begin to understand why I loathe Sama'el with every fibre of my being. It's also why I loathe the colour red he makes me wear. He embodies blood and giving pain and the thought of marrying him..." Katriel growled at the back of her throat. "I would rather die."

"When's the wedding?" Edmund whispered, laying his hand gently over hers.

"Four days hence."

"Four days?" Edmund blurted out before he could stop himself.

She looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"I told you I would be marrying him when I turned eighteen Edmund." Katriel said. "I turn eighteen in four days time and all the people of Telmar will be celebrating the union. I am the King's ward and niece and my husband will be heir to the thrown unless Caspian's wife produces an heir. That is why I must marry a trusted and respected servant of the king and Sama'el is all those things." She shrugged briefly. "It doesn't matter if he is a cold blooded murdered and a torturer. He would follow my uncle to the gates of hell and back and King Caspian knows it. And so I must marry him."

"Is there any way out?" Edmund asked desperately.

"Death." Katriel said matter-of-factly.

Edmund looked at her in horror. She was devoid of emotion as she said that one word and Edmund felt his heart grow cold from her detachment. He walked over to her and put his arms around her.

Katriel stiffened against him and then yielded. A hug was so precious to her and so rare in her life. And she took the comfort he offered and rested her head on his chest, feeling his heart beat. She shivered, but not from cold. She couldn't understand why her whole being responded to this man who had come but briefly into her life. He was so good and kind to her and so different from any man she had met before. She wrapped her arms around him and held tight, never wanting to let go.

Edmund couldn't believe how perfectly she fit in his arms. He felt so much for this sweet young person who had suffered so much in her life and he just wanted to protect her from the evils that were waiting around the corner.

"There must be another way." Edmund whispered against the top of her head. Her breathing hitched and she shivered again. Edmund sensed this and felt his body responding to the closeness of such a beautiful and sweet person. Katriel noticed his heart beat accelerate and snuggled closer.

"There is." Katriel said, pushing herself away from him and missing the contact instantly. "I kill him first."

Her voice held passion and reason in equal measures. Her expressive eyes had narrowed into slits and the deep green of her eyes seemed bottomless.

"If I kill him in public I will be killed by Telmarine Law. I need to be alone with him in order to get close enough to kill him, and that scares me more than anything, as I will only truly be alone on our wedding night." Katriel said grimacing. "But it could be done. And then I could be free. And if I don't manage..." she shrugged her shoulders, "then he'll kill me."

At that moment Edmund believed that nothing could scare her, she looked so fearless. Though her words troubled him more than he cared to admit.

Edmund reached out and took her hand. He needed to distract her from her terrible thoughts.

"When was the last time you danced with a man other than your fiancé?"

"Years. And I never dance with Sama'el." She responded. "He has me. Why would he need to woo me?"

Edmund smiled. "We're alone. There's no one here but you and me."

Whilst still holding onto her hand he bowed low.

"May I have the honour of this dance, Milady?"

Katriel burst out laughing.

"It would be my pleasure." She said.

It would be mine too if Skandar/Edmund asked me to dance - ah well, nice to dream ;)