Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia or any characters you may recognize from the books or the movies, I wish I did but I don't... I also don't own the Narnian Calendar. It belongs to Elecktrum who was kind enough to let me borrow it for my story. Her own stories are awesome and you should go read them too.
Summary: The sea has always been the Valiant's but when she sets out on a quest with her favored knight, Tarrin Peridanson, Lucy finds both danger and adventure. Will a quest set by Nereids bring Lucy and Tarrin together or tear them apart?
A/N: If you have not read the first eleven stories in the A Light in the Darkness main story arc (Awakened, Shadowed, Revealed, Concealed, Rekindled, Refracted, Reflected, Veiled, Unveiled, Eclipsed, and Obscured), I highly recommend you do so for the full experience. However, I have included a quick summary of the previous stories so if you want to give this one a whirl on its own, you can. Glistened takes place concurrent with the events of Brightened (post-chapter 20) so that story is not included in the summaries.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Of Oberon and Titania
Lucy's mind was racing faster than a whirlpool dropping into rapids. Oberon was the star who'd helped create the artifact. Oberon was… Oh, wait until she told Kat about this!
Then her mind bounced to the mural at the temple. Of the two stars, male and female, with a smaller child. "If Lev… I mean, Levan, if he was your son, then does that make Titania your wife?"
The old star placed a gnarled finger against his nose. "Sees the Valiant does. Sees true."
He started to shuffle away from them, easily navigating the towering stacks of books and scrolls. While the wondrous magic resumed to send the stars dancing overhead once more. It was tempting to stare at them without care for time or anything else. However, she could not help the feeling of urgency sinking over her once more. The fleeting notion of laziness at the lake shore had vanished and a small voice in the back of her mind whispered that the notion might not have been her own.
Her hand strayed to the little dagger she'd received not quite fifteen years ago, the solid feel of it a sort of comfort. She could not help remembering the tricks played on her mind as well as Edmund and Tarrin's by the sea witch, Circe. A glint of something caught her attention and she turned to see a mirror hanging from the righthand wall. Its surface was partially obscured by a tower of books. However, a step was all she needed to look into the polished silver. She looked herself, neither too perfect nor unveiling the true bedraggled state behind the veneer of perfection as had happened on Circe's island. She sent up a silent prayer of thanks to Aslan for that small comfort.
Turning back to the elder, she hurried forward to catch up with him before he could disappear entirely around a stack of scrolls. "Wait, please. Oberon, where is Titania?"
"Knows not Oberon."
His reply was a little clipped this time. Almost as though he did not wish to speak of Titania. Lucy hesitated, nibbling on her lower lip, before she plunged ahead. "Please, if she has the second half of the artifact, we must find her as well. You must know that the sea and all her denizens are in great peril! We must fix the artifact so we can use it to save them!"
"Titania found never. From Oberon hidden." The star slowed then turned around. His brown eyes studied her closely then he canted his head to one side. Stamping his staff against the floor, he huffed out a breath. "Ha, find her impossible."
"Surely you must have set up a way of contacting each other in case of emergency," Tarrin interjected.
Lucy cast him a grateful glance but Oberon merely harrumphed. He walked past her and back toward the front door, pausing only to pick up a wooden bucket. She held up a hand when Tarrin looked at her questioningly. "Let me try speaking to him alone. Perhaps he's feeling overwhelmed. I do not think he's spoken of his family in a very long time."
Tarrin hesitated then slowly nodded. "All right. Just don't leave the clearing."
She waved at the room. "See if you can find anything of interest in here. We might have to find his piece of the artifact before he'll give us more information."
"What should I look for?"
Lucy shrugged. "I have no idea. But it must be something tied to both sea and stars. Perhaps a seashell?"
Tarrin might have said something more as he looked around the cluttered room but she wasn't listening anymore. Instead, she hurried outside after Oberon. He was rounding the side of the house and she quickened her pace to just under a brisk jog. "Oberon! Oberon, please you must help us find her. We can't finish this quest without the artifact."
"Broken artifact. Broken bond."
She caught up to him, placing a hand on his arm. He stopped so suddenly she almost tripped in her effort to do the same instead of striding past him. He peered at her, eyes narrowed and fingers shifting on his staff. "Titania not found. Bond broken."
"Is there nothing you can do to find her?" Lucy pleaded. "The Sea folk are ruining out of time. It has taken me so long to reach this point, to find you, that I fear any further delays will bring about the utter destruction of the isles and the Eastern Sea as we know it."
She gestured to the setting sun and added, "Surely there must be a way. Something you can do to help us find her. You may accompany us to find her!"
There was a flash of something, of longing she thought, in his eyes before he lowered his head slightly. "Oberon to Titania not go. Long agreed. Dancing never again." He tapped his staff against the ground twice in quick succession. "To Titania go."
"With your piece of the artifact?" Lucy questioned.
Now he smiled and placed a gnarled finger to his nose once more. "Valiant see. Search find, Oberon take."
"So we do have to find it first," she murmured. Hopefully Tarrin was already making strides in his search. She couldn't help the growing pressure to find the artifact and take it to the sea once more.
Taking the bucket from Oberon, she smiled at him. "Let us find the artifact and then you will show us the way to Titania. I'm certain it will go faster if you were to come with us instead of staying behind. Please. It might be the only way to convince Titania that we are friends and not foes come to harm her or the artifact piece she guards."
Oberon canted his head to the side then slowly nodded. He opened his mouth only to gasp and fall to his knees. Lucy screamed as she barely caught him in time to keep him from tumbling to the ground fully. She tried to call for Tarrin but the words stuck in her throat as she felt a prick against her neck. She raised one hand and brushed against the feathered tuft of a dart.
She tried once more to call for Tarrin. Her throat wouldn't open enough for the words to form. She slumped to the grass, barely registering Oberon's weight falling against her as well. She caught a glimpse of Fell Sea folk. Their scaled and finned appearances monstrously out of place as they emerged from the woods. Then everything went dark.
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Tarrin stood in the middle of the room. The stars danced overhead but they didn't seem to hold any clue as to what he was looking for. He scratched his head as he turned in a circle. How was he to find a seashell or anything of the like in all of this?
He walked toward what he thought might be a desk. There were books and papers strewn across it. Nothing like a seashell there. He was almost afraid to touch anything for fear of causing an avalanche of books and scrolls. Somehow the idea of angering a star, especially one that was half mad, seemed that sort of thing a wise man would strive to avoid.
Still there had to be something somewhere. He carefully worked his way around the desk and started to poke around when a glimpse of color snagged his attention. Half hidden in a shadowed space formed by three different stacks of books and a fourth shorter one in the middle, he found a branch of bright red. It looked like the coral cradle that had contained the first clue.
He pulled the smooth branch out. It was coral. He was certain. It bore holes along one side and was clearly hollow so he doubted it held any secret maps this time. However, Lucy would likely find a way to use it. Even if it wasn't the artifact, she would like it.
A sense of unease swept through him and he looked up in time to see the stars vanish. Only a plain wooden ceiling remained. The magic was gone.
He could not have said why if anyone asked him. Yet he knew something had happened to Oberon. And Lucy was with him.
Tarrin raced through the house, knocking two large stacks over when he accidentally brushed against them. However, he couldn't bring himself to worry about it. All he cared about was Lucy. He had to find her. Lion help him, why hadn't he gone with them?
He slammed out the door and looked around wildly. There was no one in the clearing in front of him. He spun on his heel and raced to the right around the side of the house. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He kept running. Around the equally empty back and then to the far side of the house.
His run came to an abrupt halt as his right foot connected with something and he almost fell flat on his face. Catching himself, he spun around and his heart sank. Oberon's staff lay on the ground. And beside it… He dropped to one knee, reaching out a shaking hand to pluck the little dagger from the grass. Lucy was gone. They'd been taken.
He started to follow the tracks then stopped and ran for the lake instead. He needed to get the horses. It was only when he reached Jinks and Lucy's mare that he realized he still held the branch of red coral. Swallowing hard against the rising guilt and recrimination, he carefully stowed the branch in his saddlebag. If it was of any use to them, he needed to have it on hand when he found Lucy. And by the Great Lion, he would find her!
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27 Fairdawn 1015
Aslan, protect Tarrin wherever he may be! Please help us find a way out of this!
The litany of prayer hadn't changed in the two days they'd been shuffled through the wilderness. Oberon had been gagged save for the few times she was able to persuade them to let him have some water. Water she'd been forced to give him by holding the water gourd to his lips while their guards moved as far away as they could while still keeping them in sight. It was almost as though they were afraid of Oberon speaking to them.
They were carried over the shoulders of the corrupted Sea folk who reeked of rotting seaweed. More than once she thought she might retch from the dual assault of having a shoulder digging into her stomach and the malodorous smell of their captors. Although she was grateful she did not for fear of how their silent captors would react to such an indignity. With her hands and ankles tied with thick strands of braided kelp, she had no leverage to even attempt to fight her way out her captor's hold. Instead, she was forced to bounce along with every step.
Tarrin. Oh Aslan, she could only pray they hadn't searched Oberon's house. Or that he hadn't been caught in an ambush. If he had… No, no she would not think that way.
Tarrin was young, yes. But he, like her brothers, had been trained by Narnia's finest swordmasters. He was a knight of good standing and he was always sharpening his own skill with blade and bow. She knew it. As General, Oreius would've ever allowed Tarrin to be her sole personal guard to the isles if he had any doubts as to Tarrin's fighting ability. She had to believe that meant he'd escaped somehow. That he was coming after them. Perhaps first by going back to the border and fetching reinforcements from the soldiers stationed there or a patrol passing through but he would come after them. She knew he would.
The bouncing finally stopped and she heard the cries of seabirds in the distance. They'd reached the rocky shores of Ettinsmoor. It had to be where they were now.
A voice that snapped with the power of a rogue wave crashed over her ears. "Oberon. You old fool. Still alive after so very many years alone. I must confess to my surprise."
She heard the sound of a body striking the ground. Oberon! Yet only half a breath passed before she too was tossed onto the rocky ground with stinging force. She grunted then yelped as a webbed hand grasped her by the hair and yanked her onto her knees.
Tears stung her eyes but she blinked them back. Opening her eyes, she couldn't restrain a gasp. The creature before her looked just as Circe did without the illusion magic. She was tall with blueish-green skin and an inhuman face far more foreign than any of the Nereids, Merfolk, or even the more Treeish Dryads. Fins jutted out where her ears should've been and from her lower arms. Her blunted nose lacked any hint of nostrils and a pattern of white dots trailed from above her eerily human eyes down the sides of her nose and across her cheeks to her neck, shoulders, and arms.
The only true difference from Circe lay in the fact that she wore her black hair in tangled chunky braids and the tattered gown of stained yellow was sleeveless. Empty eyes as black as a shark's studied her with contempt. "You. The killer of my sister, Circe. How wonderful to meet."
She waved a webbed hand and more guards arrived. They held a woman of regal bearing by her arms. Her faded red hair fell in tangles around her shoulders yet she still stood proudly. Titania. It had to be Titania.
Oberon's gagged moan seemed to confirm this theory. The sea witch turned her attention back to him, lips peeling back to reveal a mouthful of razor-sharp pointed teeth in chilling mockery of a grin. "This is all your fault. All of it. Had you surrendered the artifact to me over a century ago, I would not have had to use my magic on that son of yours. Of course, my foolish kindred who still serve that Cat intervened before I could finish drowning him. However, given the fact my spell permanently damaged his memories and hid his true nature from everyone who met him, I still count that one a victory. It is not every day you get to destroy a star, after all."
She nodded to the woman. "And then you made it all possible to find Titania. You see the pirates were under my escort, which meant we were the ones who captured her during slaving raids." She cackled, madness weaving through the sound, as she grabbed Oberon by the beard and yanked him into a sitting position. She forced him to look at Titania. "I should thank you. Had you not been so insistent on wandering around and interfering with Narnia whenever the whim took you, Titania would not have retreated back to the islands. Without you, it would have been much more difficulty to find her and the half she protected. Now, however, it is time for you to answer my questions."
"He can't tell you anything with a gag in place," Lucy protested.
The sea witch didn't even glance at her. Her whole being seemed focused on the old star. "I have waited centuries to take power over the seas. Circe was more powerful than me at first. But the pirates and the slavers, they worship me now. And with the artifact, I shall rule the seas as they were meant to be, wild and cruel with no room for the land dwelling among her isles and riches. For I am Alecto and I shall be the true goddess of the seas before sunset. Give me the other half of the artifact or I shall kill Titania and this Daughter of Eve."
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A/N: Please Read and Review!