Chapter Thirteen:

Brielle lifted her head, shaking her hair back from her face, equally shaking out her hands. Her fingertips burned with the pain of pinching her sewing needle so tightly between her thumb and forefingers. She hefted the large dress across her lap and let out a quiet breath, looking up when Edmund strolled into the sewing room.

She smiled when he stopped shirt, brown eyes shifting along the faces of the servants that sat around her. He gave a small smile, tipping his head when they started to giggle quietly. Brielle had to keep her own composure, seeing his discomfort practically radiate off him. It seemed to happen every time he was in the company of anyone from the opposite sex who he didn't deem to be a friend. And seemed to happen even more since the welcome ball that they'd attended.

"Yes, Edmund, can I help you?" Brielle asked. Though she had a good idea of what it was he wanted to tell her.

"Um, well," he paused, looked at the servants, and lifted his chin. "May we have the room, please?" He asked, addressing the servants that knelt around Brielle. Brielle nodded to them and they got to their feet, brushing off the skirts of their dresses before filing out the room one by one. "I just wanted to let you know that Peter's gone off to Cair Paravel."

"Oh, did he leave already?" Brielle tried not to smirk, already knowing that he'd had left. And of the rumors that were starting to spread around the castle. "He got an early start." Then she looked closely at him. "Did you come here to tell me that or did you want your tunic repaired?"

"I wanted my tunic repaired," Edmund said honestly, holding out the fabric he held tightly in his grasp. "I never did get it done after we faced against the Telmarines. And you seem to have put yourself in a pretty good position here." He sat on the floor at her feet while Brielle took his tunic and carefully draped it over the back of her chair. "It's hard to believe that I'm already starting to think of Telmar as home."

"Anvard isn't that bad," Brielle said. "It's actually quite lovely here. Then again," She tilted her head the other way, going back to the hole she was sewing on one of Susan's dresses. "I've been here longer than you lot have been in Narnia." She looked him in the eye. "The Kingdom, not the country."

"Yeah, I know," Edmund agreed. "It just…it feels weird here. It's obvious that our treaty with Archenland has passed and they're not happy that we're here. King Nain doesn't trust us, so he treats us as—"

"—His guests?"

"—His guests that he needs to keep an eye on. Does he think we're going to stage some sort of an uprising? It's not like we have any of the magical creatures or our old friends to help us out." Edmund brought his knees to his chest, wrapped his arms around his knees. "We only had what was left of Aslan's army and now they're working to rebuild Cair Paravel."

"So?"

"So, it'd be the best time for anyone to attack our home and Peter went there by himself."

That made Brielle's smile widened into a fond one. "Oh, so you're worried about your brother, then." Edmund rolled his eyes while Brielle hummed to herself. "I'm going to tell him you said that. I'm sure Peter will be touched."

"Oh, sod off." Edmund rolled his eyes, tightened his grasp around his upraised knee. "I was just thinking of when we were facing off against Miraz. We were able to even have some of the Telmarines deflect to our side. Surely, we could do the same with this. But King Nain didn't seem to be swayed, he's already had his mind made up."

"King Nain is a stubborn man," Brielle agreed. With deft fingers, she finished up the sewing on the side of Susan's dress. Then, she lifted the thread to her mouth and ripped through it with her teeth. Once that was finished, she picked up Edmund's tunic and turned it this way and that, looking at the holes that lined the front and sides. With a light sigh, she pressed her fingers into the holes and looked at Edmund meaningfully. "Hard to believe all the chainmail and armor protected you for so long."

"Well." Edmund shrugged. "Once you get stabbed the first time, you get used to it all the other times."

"I wouldn't know."

All her armory had proved to be enough in caring for her protection. And, she had listened to the others and stayed back out of the way. Until she had to get into the fight. While Susan and Lucy went off to find Aslan, Susan had ordered her lady-in-waiting to stay in the cave with the others. And so she stayed, and worried, and wondered what was going to happen to her best friends with the battle not too far away.

They all managed to survive the first time, but the battle on Miraz's castle had been costly. They lost far too many allies. Enough so that there weren't many to rebuild Cair Paravel and Narnia to the way they knew it to be but worked diligently under Aslan's spirit radiating around them.

"Jadis got me good," Edmund continued. He reached out and pointed toward a spot toward the side of his stomach, just by his bellybutton. "After I broke her wand."

"I remember," Brielle replied. She hadn't seen it, not directly. But she'd felt the surge of power after Jadis's wand had been broken. Heard Peter scream Edmund's name. She saw him laying prone on the ground before she, Susan, and Lucy scrambled down the rocky cliff-face and knelt by his side while Peter cradled his younger brother's upper body in his arms. She cried for him as the siblings had, thinking he was gone, before Lucy's cordial brought him back to life. Pushing the thought away, Brielle lifted the tunic and held it up in front of Edmund, grinning teasingly. "Hard to believe this still fits you." She wiggled it back and forth, making it appear to dance.

"Well, it's the smaller of the ones I had," Edmund reminded her. "When we were older, I had an all new set of clothes I wore into battle." He shook his head, moving his mop of floppy hair out of his eyes. "I reckon I was a better negotiator then as well."

Brielle looked carefully at Edmund. Could see the confusion, frustration, and trepidation in his eyes, no knowing what was going to happen with Archenland and Narnia if they weren't able to come to an agreement soon. They'd seen how badly treaties could go and didn't want to become another one of them.

In the Golden Age, Edmund was the negotiator for everything that needed negotiating. It started off as little squabbles between some of the species of talking animals in Narnia, all trying to figure out what was theirs and what wasn't while not under Jadis's rule anymore. And Edmund took it all in stride, with a very whimsical and childlike fashion to it. And that was how he grew to be known as King Edmund the Just. With his fair rules. He became an ambassador to all those within his rule.

It was evident, even when he was talking to Miraz, telling him how Peter demanded a fair fight to prove who was going to rule over Narnia. He took control of the deal. And Brielle had stood by him while he did so, impressed with the way he dealt with Miraz's air of power. It reminded Brielle that Edmund was smart. Everyone heralded Susan's logic and common sense, but Edmund was the one who used his intelligence and wisdom in ways no one had ever seen.

She stood by while Edmund read off the decree, calm, clear, and powerful. "I Peter, by the gift of Aslan, by the election of my conquest, High Kind of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands, in order to prevent the abominable effusion of blood do hereby challenge to usurp Miraz, to single combat upon the field of battle," Edmund had read aloud from the scroll, head held high. He only paused once, swallowing hard when he read, "The fight shall be to the death. The reward shall be total surrender."

And Miraz had simply chuckled at him, stroking his bead when he said, "Tell me Prince Edmund-" only to blink rapidly and in confusion when Edmund, King Edmund, dared to interrupt him and correct him with the word "King." It threw Miraz so off-kilter that he paused, and practically whispered, "Pardon me?" in response.

But Edmund was calm, cool, and collected when he packed up the scroll and explained, "It's King Edmund, actually. Just King, though. Peter's the High King." And he finished it off with a shrug and a flippant, "I know it's confusing."

Miraz had smiled at that. Waved his hand for Edmund to continue. He wasn't going to kill him then, and even if he did, it would have been for the worst reasons and with nothing more than a vendetta that'd bring the Narnians after him even further than they already were. "Why would you risk such a proposal when our armies can wipe you out by nightfall?" Miraz had asked him.

Edmund had scoffed lightly, unable to keep the tiniest of smiles from his face when he said, "Haven't you already underestimated our numbers?" In response. "I mean, only a week ago, Narnians were extinct."

"And so you will be again."

"Then you should have little to fear."

"This is not a question of bravely."

"So you're bravely refusing to fight a Kingsman half you age?"

That was the part that made Brielle almost burst out laughing, seeing the way Miraz's neck bulged as he clenched his teeth, did his best to keep his anger in check. It amazed her to see how easily he took control of the situation. He manipulated Miraz, triggered him with the scathing statement that he couldn't take on someone who was younger than him. But that was the interesting part, because Edmund and Miraz were on the same level. And the explanation of Peter's being the High King was the reminder that Miraz was beneath him.

But the funniest point of it all was that, technically, in his thirties, having grown to be well into his adult year when living in the Golden Age before being sent back to Narnia. But that older man had never left Peter, or the rest of the Pevensies as it were,

Edmund just reminded Miraz of that, egged him on a little.

And it was, truly, Edmund who started Miraz's downfall by exploiting that little fact.

"If it weren't for you, Edmund, no one would be here today," Brielle reminded him gently. "It may take a while before it's evident in the history of Narnia. Things may not be the same as the Golden Age was once more. But I can assure you it will be marked down in history." She threaded the needle and started to sew once more, using deft movements that Edmund worked to track, eyes bouncing around but unable to stick with her movement. "It'll be a story for the ages."

Edmund hummed to himself. "Has anyone else told you that, maybe, you should be the negotiator?"

Brielle laughed to herself. "What makes you think that?"

"Because you always seem to know what to say."

"Oh. That." Now it was Brielle's turn to roll her eyes. She waved her hand. "That's just because I talk a lot, I reckon I'm bound to stumble on something interesting." Her upper lip curled into a sneer. "Secret is, I hate the sound of my own voice."

Edmund look at her and started laughing.

Brielle aimed a kick at him. "You try being a girl and having such a low and raspy voice and tell me how you feel."

"Well, I quite like being a guy so…" Edmund ran a hand through his hair. He looked at her curiously, in worry when Brielle flashed him an evil smile, teeth and all. "What?"

"I'm sure there are many here that are glad that you're a bloke as well," Brielle agreed. She tipped her head toward the door to the room. Now she wasn't even looking at the sewing in her hand. As if it were moving by itself. "I could talk to any of the servants if you'd like." She laughed when Edmund groaned. "The older you get, again, the more it's going to happen."

"I know."

"Don't you want what Peter and Queen Diane had." Brielle ducked her head, working to keep her face from taking on the emotion that flashed through her stomach. May she rest in peace," she added in a low murmur. She peered at Edmund through her bangs, while he let out a long breath, shaking his head.

Instead of responding, however, he simply said, "May she rest in peace," in agreement to Brielle's earlier statement. Then he lifted his chin and said, "If you forget, I was courting then. But you know the rule under marriage wasn't the most important thing to me. Narnia was."

"Yes, and marrying for love and all of that." Brielle lifted her chin, worked to keep her face pleasant and not sneer—this time the sneer would've been for and entirely different reason. "That was always on the bottom of your list."

"My friends were just as fulfilling." Edmund blew out a long breath. "And after what Pete went through…"

Brielle quickly lifted her head, holding up her hand. All at once, Edmund fell silent. The two regarded each other for a moment before the clued in on the sound that had caught her attention. Shouting. Distant shouting. And it took them a little bit to realize that it was Susan's shouting they were hearing.

Edmund scrambled to his feet and hurried from the room while Brielle chasing after him. They burst out through the doors of Anvard and out into the courtyard, seeing Susan standing in the center of the yard. Her face was screwed up in an expression of fury as she glared at two knights in front of her, mounted on two horses that held a man tied between them.

Queen Aria standing not too far away, watching.

Susan's hands equally shook with fury while she regarded the Archenland guards, who slowly started to move, the man tied in the middle wiggling pitifully. The horses continued to separate, the ropes tightening around the man, making him scream in pain.

"Riders stop!" Susan shouted, holding up her hand. "Dismount and reign in your horses! Now!"

The head knight cast a dismissive glance toward her.

"Even a queen needs grounds," he growled.

"Unbind him," Susan continued to declare. "An execution in this manner shall not happen. No matter what the crime has been committed." She looked to Queen Aria. "This is not just."

"You're calling the way we handle our prisoners accused of treason unjust?" Queen Aria asked, lifting an eyebrow. She turned toward her once more. "You dare to disrespect the way we work when you are guests in our kingdom."

"Whether this man has been accused of treason or not, this is not a just form of execution," Susan continued. She swallowed hard. "As it is, execution is the lowest form of punishment, it never justifies the crime."

"And what if the crime was the murder of your dear brother," Queen Aria continued. "Of the High King of Narnia?"

"Just leave it, Su," Edmund called. But Susan didn't take her attention away from the spectacle before her. He exchanged a glance with Brielle, tightened his hands into fists. "This isn't something that is under our rule."

"Listen to the boy," Queen Aria agreed.

Edmund's eyes darkened. He stepped down to Susan's side. "But if we're to have a treaty with Archenland as we have before, there are common laws that have to be followed," he reminded them. We're all under Aslan's rule, and this is not what Aslan would want."

Queen Aria lifted her hand, taking the attention of the knights her way. She made a gesture with her hand and the main knight dropped from his horse and went to the man tied to the back of it, releasing him. The other knight grabbed the man under the arms and hoisted him to his feet, then walked him around the side of the castle.

Brielle watched; her eyebrows knitted together. She gently chewed her lower lip, watching the exchange.

Queen Aria's lips stretched at the corners as she walked towards Susan and Edmund. "We invite you here as our guests," she said slowly. "And are working to make this alliance something that both of our kingdoms can profit from. And you're going to question our way of life." She shook her head. "It must be hard for you to understand how much things have changed since your absence and the long since passing of the Golden Age. Your disappearance has hurt us badly and we're only doing the best we can to ensure that we're not caught off-guard as we have been before." She shook her head, looking the two in the eye. "I can't imagine waking up to find that my husband had been assassinated because of I provided mercy on someone who wouldn't have provided him any."

"I understand that," Susan said firmly, blue eyes flashing. "There have been many that have tried to hurt us as the years have gone on and we haven't gone to such inhumane extremes. There are better ways to handle these sorts of situations."

Queen Aria nodded. She stepped toward Susan and reached out, placing her hand on the young woman's cheek. Gently patted it. "I'm sure there are, your highness," Queen Aria agreed. "And I hope you can help us figure it out better than we already have." With that, she swished away from the group and slipped back into the castle, making Brielle step aside from the door as she did so.

"This isn't going to do well for our treaty," Edmund said after a moment of silence that stretched between them. "But I think I can turn them around."

"I hope you can," Susan agreed, her eyes flashing with determination.

Brielle folded her arms across her chest and smiled a smile so faint that if anyone looked at her, they would think she was just as disturbed by what they'd seen in front of her.

A/N: Ooh, tensions are mounting now. Archenland has worked on their own while not in alliance with Narnia, and they've turned jaded since other factions have risen to power. It's not going to be easy for things to work out between them, but I'm sure they will…right?

Thank you all for the reviews and the support you've bene showing me so far. It's been very motivating as I keep writing and telling the story. I'm sure you're curious as to how the romance aspect is supposed to come in with Brielle actively trying to kill him, but you'll see! It'll be good!

Cheers,

-Riles