Disclaimer: In the Name of the Lion, and with Aslan as my judge, I, AJ, do hereby swear that all properties recognized as from the Chronicles of Narnia do not belong to me, rather are to be attributed to C. S. Lewis.
Note: This story is part of The Real Sovereigns Series, and is better understood if the first part "The Real Sovereigns" is read first. This is a companion piece to "The Real Redeemers" and I tried to write it so that they can be read in any order.
Caspian spent a few moments in contemplation. With so much information dumped on him, trying to pick just one question to have answered was hard. But there was one thing he had wondered for a long time, even before he had suddenly learned there were so many more titles for the Four Sovereigns.
"How did you all get your primary titles?" he asked. "I mean, I can guess that the Valiant was a renowned battle commander, and the Gentle, though weak, is still praised for her grace and beauty even nowadays, and you said yourself that you were the Imperial Judge, and..."
"Caspian," Edmund cut in, a small smile adorning his face, "You're rambling."
The prince felt himself blush, and he said, "Sorry. I suppose what I'm really curious about are the actual stories, and specifically the High King's. I mean, he must have been unbelievably incredible to be called Magnificent."
Edmund snorted and started to chuckle, which devolved into deep laughter. Caspian waited, getting more confused by the moment at the king's amusement. Finally, Edmund pulled himself together enough to say, "I'll tell you the stories, Caspian, but I should correct a few misconceptions before I do. First, of the Four of us, only one has never lead the army. That one is Lucy."
Caspian gaped. He couldn't help it. That didn't make any sense.
Edmund held up a hand to forestall his questions. "If we counted, she has probably been to more battles than either Peter or myself, certainly more than Susan. However, she never led. Her self-appointed place was always as support. She followed the rest of us into battle in whatever capacity she deemed best: healer, archer, cavalry, foot-soldier, whatever.
"Second, Susan was not weak. If I had to say, she was the strongest of us all. Yes, she had a distaste for battle, so she only led in the most extreme of circumstances. However, she took the far more difficult task on her small shoulders. She personally visited the families of the soldiers who fell in battle; she would accept their anger, their hurt, their desperation, and mourn with them. Though not a healer, she visited and ministered to the injured soldiers in place of their families. During and after every war, every campaign, she was always there to tend to the spiritual, emotional, and mental wounds that the healers could not fix. And through it all, she never faltered, even when many others would have broken down from the weight of carrying the burdens of an entire nation."1
Caspian bowed his head, feeling properly chastised. He should have known better than to fall back onto the Telmarine way of thinking that said those who were weak in battle were inherently weak as people. Hadn't the very diverse Narnian army showed him otherwise?
A hand landed on his shoulder. "Don't be too hard on yourself," Edmund said. "It's not easy to change your thought pattern, especially when you have grown up your whole life being told only one thing.
"Back to what I was saying. Third, my title of Just and title of Imperial Judge are two separate and mutually exclusive titles. I actually earned the position of Imperial Judge at the age of 14, four years after our coronation. In order to hold that position I had to know every facet of the Law, and prove myself as a fair and objective judge in court, and then go through the process of being appointed by the advisers. This is because the primary purpose of an Imperial Judge is to act as the judge in any case that the king – or for us Four the High King – was accused of breaking the law.
"If I was accused, then Peter would be my judge, as is his right as the highest authority under Aslan in Narnia. But if Peter was accused, someone had to, in that instance, have authority even over the highest authority; once I learned that, I dedicated myself to earning that position. As his brother and fellow king I have the responsibility to follow him if he is in the right, and to check him if he is in the wrong; as Imperial Judge I have the power to do that.2
"And finally, about Peter. Truthfully, he wasn't all that great," Edmund said.
"Not great!" Caspian cut in. "How can you say that? He is the High King! He was named Magnificent. How can he not be great?"
"Quite easily to be honest," the king said. "He was not the Child Queen, to whom was given authority over life and death before her tenth year.3 He was not the Redeemed King, for who Aslan Himself laid down His life to save. He was not the Gentle, whose grace and beauty were sung in ballads across the lands, who had suitors flocking from every nation, and was responsible for more peace treaties than any other diplomat. He was only Peter, albeit High King Peter, but just Peter nonetheless.
"But that is the whole point. He was just Peter, but through him was seen Aslan. He was good, because Aslan was good. He was strong, because Aslan was strong. He was magnificent, because through him we saw Aslan's Magnificence. Because he was nothing, Aslan could make him everything. He was a reflection of Aslan, as though the Lion Himself was present and acting through Peter.
"Oh, he wasn't perfect, he still made mistakes. But he ever strived to correct and learn from those mistakes so that he might be more like the Highest of all High Kings."
Caspian sat quietly for several moments, and Edmund remained silent at his side. How strange to think of a king as a nobody. Or conversely, to think of a nobody as a king. And yet… how right it was, too. Who else could be the perfect ruler for Narnia than Aslan Himself? And if He could not be present, then would not the next best thing be one who was molded in His image? The very embodiment of Aslan in Narnia while the Lion was not physically present. Is that not what the High King was? And was not a King to be themselves the representation of the High King while he was not present? Truly, if one looked at it the right way, Caspian, as a prince, was in training to be a reflection of Aslan, using Peter as an example to follow.
"Tell me about him. How he became known as Magnificent. Please," he asked.
Edmund smiled. "Of course."
Ending Notes:
1. I have always considered Susan to be very Emotionally Intelligent, meaning she is able to understand her own emotions, other people's emotions, and to empathize. Of course this has the risk of overwhelming her (as seen when she expresses fear and doubt, especially in PC while traveling through a wilder Narnia), but I imagine that as a mature adult who has grown up with love and support she would be the perfect nurturer, able to continue giving of herself, and feeling fulfilled from that.
2. All Monarchies run a high risk of becoming Dictatorships if the ruler decides at any point that they are above the law. I imagine that in such a picturesque world as Narnia there would be several safeguards (even if they were never needed) to ensure that the King and/or Queen stayed within the law. My solution for this was the position of Imperial Judge; I don't know whether or not there was/is a real world equivalent because I was thinking of this strictly in the Narnian sense.
3. I don't mean this literally in the sense that people lived or died at Lucy's command, but she was Gifted with the cordial (life) and a dagger (death) as a child between the ages of 8-10.