Author's note: So, sorry about the long break, but I had to make sure it was perfect. Please check out my profile. I will publish the next chapter once I get 9 reviews. Until then, enjoy! This chapter is pretty much a transition from part 1 to part 2, so I promise the next chapter will be much better.

Now that you're here (now that you're here),
It's suddenly clear (it's suddenly clear),
Sun coming through,
I never knew,
Whatever I do,
It's better with you!
It's better with you!

Something about the sunshine – Anna Margaret

Part 2: The Golden Age of Narnia

Chapter 1: Surprise

I knocked on the door to Peter's study, knowing he would be in there as usual. When there was no answer, I pushed open the door and stepped inside. My feet made no noise on the thick carpet. The room was dark, with only a few candles lit. The window was open and through it I could see the moon – just a tiny sliver tonight – and the bright stars of the Narnian sky. Peter was slumped in his chair, his head on the desk cluttered with papers which he had been working at so often recently, asleep.

In the hundred years during which my mother had ruled, there had been little actual government in Narnia. The creatures had been left to fend for themselves while the Witch reveled in her ultimate power. This meant that, now that the long winter was over and my mother dead, Narnia's government had to be reestablished. Peter worked tirelessly to settle all the paper work, making sure that the newly freed kingdom was running smoothly, that is when he was not out eliminating what was left of my mother's forces with Edmund. Edmund had been put in charge of strengthening Narnia's defenses. He had quickly proved that he was a skilled strategist and military leader. While their brothers dealt with putting Narnia's government back on its feet, Lucy and Susan had taken a more personal approach to aiding Narnia into a new age. They had been riding out into every part of Narnia and helping to establish villages and bring all Narnians out of hiding, aiding them in any way possible. Many Narnians had wandered over to the court of Narnia, making it a beautiful, happy place.

I smiled fondly at the blonde king asleep in front of me. In the two weeks since his coronation, I had hardly seen him. He had always been working or off killing some black dwarves or minotaurs somewhere. Silently, my white dress rustling slightly as I walked, I came up behind him, wondering if I should wake him or not. He really shouldn't sleep here, but it seemed like a bad idea to wake him, considering the little sleep he had had. It turned out I did not need to make the decision. As if sensing a presence in the room, Peter let out a sleepy moan and raised his head, stretching slightly.

"You really shouldn't stay up here working so much. You're still only sixteen, even of you are a king. All the others still find the time to go out and have fun."

Peter turned, seemingly unsurprised to see me, "There's just so much to do!" he protested.

"You're a great king Peter, but you won't be much good to Narnia if you get sick from working too much. It's only been two weeks and you've already dealt with most of my mother's remaining forces and established a steady government in Narnia," I encouraged him. "Come, you should go to bed. There's a meeting tomorrow with the council and we can't have you falling asleep during that."

"You're probably right," Peter admitted.

The council had been Peter's idea. It was a group of Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy's advisors, generals, etc… which met with the royals once a week, so that everyone would know what problems there were in the kingdom and what everyone had to do, so nobody would be chasing each other around to make sure everything was done. It had been a brilliant idea, but then again this would only be the second council, so we couldn't be sure if it would work.

I took his hand and we walked out of the study side by side. The corridors of Cair Paravel were deserted at this hour of the night, and we didn't break the silence as we headed for the royal bedchamber that was Peter's room. It was only as we rounded the last corner before we reached the room that Peter stopped abruptly and turned to face me.

"I almost forgot, there's something I need to show you!"

I turned to him teasingly, "What kind of thing?"

"Umm… it's a surprise," Peter hesitated.

"It's late, Peter, go to bed. I'll see this surprise in the morning," I said.

I left him at the door to his room before leaving for my own room and going immediately to bed.

I woke before dawn the next morning, as I almost always did these days, not that I had ever risen much later than sunrise before in the first. I sat up and got out of bed, slipping into a dress which had become my favorite in the weeks since I had been living in Cair Paravel. It had a simple white cotton bodice with thin straps over my shoulders. There were white off the shoulder sleeves made of trailing white organza, though they were more ornamental than anything. The skirt was white cotton draped with white organza and reached just to the floor. I quickly strapped my silver sandals to my feet and left the room.

Oreius had agreed to meet me before the council to discuss all that needed to be discussed at the council this afternoon, so I went to find the centaur. However, I was intercepted by a rather annoyed Edmund.

"Rayna!" he called. "Peter says he wants to see you. He's waiting for you in the south tower. You had better go because he forced me to get up at a crazy hour and I am not going to be happy if he's grumpy all day."

I snorted in a very unladylike manner, "I doubt you'll be happy anyway, Edmund. You never are in the morning."

"Good point."

I laughed and headed off to the south tower. This probably had something to do with the surprise Peter had wanted to show me yesterday, I decided. Once I reached the tower, which took a good ten minutes considering the size of the castle, I saw Peter waiting for me, grinning.

"Edmund found you, then," he guessed.

I nodded, "He wasn't in a good mood. What did you do to him?"

"I pulled him out of bed," he laughed slightly.

"So what is this great surprise? It had better be good the way you've been playing it up."

Peter took my hand and led me up some stairs, stopping in front of a door made out of cherry wood, "Close your eyes," he instructed.

I obliged and soon, I heard a lock click. Peter took my hand again and led me forward into the room. I had never been to this room, so I wondered what was so special about this room that Peter had to make me close my eyes.

"You can open them now."

The room was circular and made entirely out of marble, with a vaulted ceiling and windows all around so that I could see in every direction. There was a small alcove on the north side of the tower, with a vanity table and a small stool, and it was also surrounded by windows. A large cherry wood bed was pushed against one wall, with a large carving of Aslan on the headboard. Two small tables stood on either side of the bed, with beautiful gold candelabras on each one. Two large comfy arm chairs stood in a corner of the room, though not too close to the wall, with a cherry wood coffee table between the two. Gold scrollwork decorated the ceiling of the room. A wardrobe was built into one of the walls.

"Why did you bring me here?" I wondered.

"This is your new room," Peter explained, "Susan, Lucy and I have been working on it ever since we found out you were staying. Edmund thought it was a good idea, but he isn't really good at these kinds of things."

"It's perfect! I couldn't think of anything that would make it better," I smiled.

Peter led me to the double doors which were the doors to the large wardrobe already full of all my dresses. He cleared aside the dresses to reveal a full length mirror in the back wall of the wardrobe. He pushed the mirror forward and I realized that there was a secret door in the back of the wardrobe. Behind it, I could see a steep, narrow stone staircase.

"You put the secret door in the wardrobe? That isn't really original, is it?" I said teasingly.

"Just come on," Peter rolled his eyes.

I followed him up the steps, summoning light to stop let me see up the dark stairs. I supposed Peter had guessed that I would do this, as there were no torches on the wall. The staircase wound steeply up for a while, coming out into a room which was immediately recognizable as a library.

The walls were marble, just like the ones in my room, but these were much less visible, as rows and rows of cherry wood bookshelves covered most of the space, all filled with beautiful old books. The door from which we had entered was covered with a large tapestry depicting Narnia and its surrounding countries. The floor was covered in beautiful rugs and, in a small space where there were no books, stood a wide chimney and in front of it a large armchair. Looking up, I saw that there was a second floor to the library. Bookshelves were put into the wall and there was a balcony that I could get up to reach all of these. All in all, this room was cozy and warm. It felt like home.

Strangely, there was something strangely familiar about the books in this library. I took one off the shelves at random and studied it. The book had a dark green silk cover with swirls embroidered in gold on the cover. The title, also embroidered in gold, was The Arte of Hypnosis. Suddenly I realized where I had seen this book. Glancing at the other titles: Names, Symbols and Objects of Power, Breaking Enchantments of the Mind and Soul and One thousand Healing Potions, I saw that I had seen all of these too.

"These are all from my mother's library!" I gasped.

Peter nodded, "Lucy mentioned that you would miss the books, so we had them brought over. Susan organized them all, she's good at that sort of thing, but I'm not exactly sure how they're sorted, so you might want to ask her. I don't know if you'll want to keep them all but they're all here."

"It's perfect Peter, thank you."

I turned and kissed him. He was right, I had missed being able to curl up with one of these books. When I had lived with my mother in the ice castle, I had spent hours reading, when I was not off flying with Storm or chasing the Witch's enemies. With all of the work I had been doing lately, I felt that I would need this library.

"I'll leave you to read a little while," Peter suggested.

"You know me so well," I laughed.

Once he had gone, I ran my hands along the bookshelves until I found the book I was looking for. It was the oldest book in the library, as well as the biggest and the thickest. The cover was made of leather with a raised leather border done over with gold leaf designs. In each of the corners was a small round moonstone. Two large locks closed the book. The title was painted in gold leaf on the on the cover: The History of Narnia. This was my favorite book. It had been gifted to the first king and queen of Narnia, King Frank and Queen Helen, by the enchantress who had served the two rulers. It was magical, expanding to record every event in Narnia's history.

I sat down in one of the armchairs and opened the book. I glanced at the unlit fireplace and it lit on fire, lighting the room. The book had considerably expanded since I had last read it, and so I immersed myself in reading the events of the last two months. Reading about the recent war felt strange. When Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy and I had lived through these events, it had felt scary and not at all brave or glorious or heroic, but the story made all of these events seem like the tale of great heroes in a war, not like the adventures of four children and someone that looked like a child but wasn't.

And through the eastern door, which was wide

open, came the voices of the mermen and the mermaids

swimming close to the shore and singing in honor of

their new Kings and Queens.

So the children sat on their thrones and crowns

were placed on their heads. And that night there was a

great feast in Cair Paravel, and revelry and dancing, and

gold flashed and wine flowed, and answering to the music

inside, but stranger, sweeter, and more piercing came the

music of the sea people.

But amid all these rejoicings Aslan himself quietly

slipped away …

"Rayna!" My head snapped up from the book. Lucy ran towards the corner where I sat. She seemed out of breath. "I've been looking for you everywhere. The council meeting starts in about five minutes."

I jumped up, "I'm so sorry, Lucy! I completely lost track of time. Let's go."

And together we raced down the stairs and through the hallways. Luckily, the room where the meeting was to take place was not too far away from the south tower and we reached it in just under five minutes.