They were quite pretty, the rolling hills of the island. It was a shame, really, that they would not have much time to spend there. Yet, there was something unsettling about the place that sent shivers down Adeline's spine. It was secretive and far too quiet, almost lurking in a way. She trailed her gaze along the tree-line. With a shake of her head, she moved to help Gael, Rhince's stowaway daughter whose adamance Adeline admired, with preparing a place to sleep.

Sand groaned under the weight of footsteps. Whispered voices.

"Seems they've brought a pig."

"This one, it's female."

"So's this one."

"And this one."

A brief pause as they inspected their options.

"This one is too little."

"This one reads."

"So does this one."

Another moment of silence.

"This one's tangled with a male one."

"Let's take the lone one."

It was an entirely different sort of odd to be woken in the earliest hours of dawn by something one could not see. Lucy tried to fight back, tried to slither out of her captor's grip. But she was alone against an unknown foe, even if she managed to free herself she stood no chance.

She was, thankfully, dropped rather abruptly onto a remarkably well-kept lawn soon enough. As quickly as she could, Lucy scurried to her feet and drew her dagger. It was smacked from her hand in an instant, leaving her alone and unarmed in a perilous situation where she had no leverage. She'd need several more hands to count all the times Adeline had instructed them on how to not end up in such a predicament. It had been, to be entirely fair, Caspian's idea to spend the night on the shore. Lucy dove for her dagger, needing at least a small fighting chance, but was shoved to the ground.

"There is no escape."

"Well put."

"Downright terrifying it was."

Lucy's gaze flickered over the open space before her. There was nothing there to indicate how big the opposition was, whether in individual size or in numbers. All she could see was, on occasion, puffs of foggy breath. "What are you?"

"Us?"

"We're invisible!"

"Well said!"

"And terrifying!"

"Absolutely!"

"We're beasts!"

"And we're very large!"

"If you could see us, you would be very intimidated!"

Lucy had nowhere to go. Her invisible captors would stop her instantly if she tried to flee. "What do you want from me?"

"You'll do what we ask."

"And if I don't?" Standing, Lucy hoped to find courage in her defiance. It would not do to simply surrender to their demands without knowing the terms. She did not even know what they wanted her to do.

"Death."

"Death."

"Death."

Chills ran down her spine as the invisible people chanted the word over and over again. "How do you expect me to do anything if I'm dead?" It was barely a bargaining chip but hopefully, it would be enough to have them reconsider. There were concurring murmurs among her captors. A small spark of hope warmed her from the inside out.

"Then we'll just kill your friends!"

Lucy closed her eyes, only to quickly open them again when unbidden images of her friends' lifeless expressions flickered over her mind's eye. "What do you need me to do?" She would be brave for her friends. She had to be.

"You will enter the house of the Oppressor."

"What house?" A door opened in front of her, startling her. So there was magic involved. It made Lucy hesitant. Magic was no small matter, even the smallest of spells could have dire consequences. The image of her dead friends flashed again and she steeled herself. She would be brave for them.

"Upstairs, you'll find the spell that makes the unseen seen in the Book of Incantations."

"You must recite it."

Though they claimed it was a house, Lucy was familiar enough with magical ways of travel to hesitate on the doorstep. For all she knew, it was a portal. What if she stepped through and had no way of going back? Edmund would go out of his mind with worry and Adeline surely would murder her if they managed to find her. She turned in the general direction of the invisible men. "Why not just do it yourselves?"

"We can't read."

"We can't write either."

The familiar tug of sympathy that her siblings had always cursed her for made Lucy soften a little. Whoever her abductors were, they clearly did not want to be invisible. The poor things just had no way of reversing the magic themselves. "You could have just said so," she muttered, once again facing the doorway.

"Beware the Oppressor," they warned. "And remember, the spell to make the unseen seen."

Nodding resolutely to herself, Lucy stepped through the door and heard it slide shut behind her. She was alone, in a strange place, without her friends or family, which, oddly enough, sounded like a vaguely familiar predicament.

As she made her way through the house, Lucy was captivated by the many paintings lining the walls. Some were reminiscent of the artworks they had kept in Cair Paravel, depicting nymphs and fauns dancing around fires, centaurs galloping over flowery fields with their herds. Others were portraits of old nobility she could not recognize, men and women who had held power long before her own time.

One of the paintings made her pause. It had to have been an interpretation of a historical event, for there was no way one could have stood still to paint in an environment such as the one in the picture. It was a bloodbath, fauns and centaurs and satyrs and minotaurs and so many other beings fighting in the streets of a stone city. Above them all, shown standing on a balcony, were four figures. Lucy glanced at the plaque in the frame. It held no date, nor could she see the name of the artist. There was only the name of the painting. The Downfall. She shuddered and tore herself away.

The farther into the house she ventured, the sparser the decorations became. The floors and walls were as lavish as they had been from the moment she set foot inside, but there was a buildup of anticipation as they became barer and barer. What did they lead to that could be so beautiful that it needed all the attention of a visitor?

Walking up to the library as quietly as possible, Lucy found her answer. It was a marvellous place, the walls covered with beautifully made art, every last piece of wood ornately carved to form gorgeous images. In the middle of all of it, stood a lectern, upon which she found the Book of Incantations. The letters were all jumbled, but it was without a doubt the book she had been tasked with finding.

Her attempt to undo the clasp keeping the ancient tome closed proved fruitless and Lucy looked around impatiently for anything to help. Along the corners of the lectern, angels were carved blowing onto something. Deciding that there was no harm in trying, given that there was no one around to see her, Lucy mimicked them. The letters moved immediately, fitting into place to show the title and allowing her to open the book. She smiled as she turned the pages, coming across spells to cure toothache and to help you remember or to make you forget and there was a healing spell involving a silver basin and the moon. It was old magics, she realised, magics born from nature.

Lucy stopped on a spell to make snow, brows furrowing curiously at the dark pages. "With these words, your tongue must sew, for all around there to be snow." She looked up, gasping with delight as delicate snowflakes floated around her, covering the floor in white. Her brother had not been one to enjoy snow much since their first time in Narnia, but Lucy had never been quite able to forget all the happy memories she associated with winter and the cold. Playing in the snow with her family, hot chocolate or tea afterwards, meeting Mister Tumnus in the snow. She refused to let the Witch taint that.

Blowing against the pages again to rid them of the light layer of snow, she took a surprised step back when the pages sprung to life, flickering rapidly of their own accord. Worried that she may have alerted the Oppressor to her presence, she slammed a hand down on the pages to stop them. The spell in front of her made her breath hitch. She looked around quickly to see if she had been discovered before turning back to the gilded words. An infallible spell to make you she, the beauty you've always wanted to be.

Lucy's cheeks burned as she read the words over and over. She thought of her sister, so busy with her suitors, so often praised as the most beautiful and graceful sibling. The sister every boy they had ever met paid so much attention to that Lucy herself seemed to turn as invisible to them. She thought of Caspian's infatuation with Susan, remembered Edmund telling her of Rabadash of the Calormene Empire who had threatened to imprison the Narnians who accompanied Susan there had she refused his proposal. No one had ever paid even the slightest attention to her, the younger sister. Lucy sighed, tracing her fingers over the gold ink.

Unbidden, her thoughts turned to Adeline. Adeline, who had garnered admiring looks from both Peter and Edmund, who Caspian claimed was the only one to measure up to Susan in his eyes, who Caspian's council had attempted to form an alliance by marriage with behind their own king's back. Adeline with her golden hair and beautiful eyes and warm smile, who was so graceful and talented.

Lucy wanted to be like them. She wanted to be beautiful. Looking over at the mirror on the next page, she was beautiful, looking precisely like Susan. She looked how she had always longed to look. Running over to see herself in the reflection of a class cabinet, Lucy was disappointed by what she saw. She looked like herself again. Hurrying back to the book, she was just in time to see the image of her beauty disappear. Without a second thought, she tore the page out.

A mighty roar made her take several frightened steps back as the pages started turning on their own accord again. She heard His voice, speaking her name. But even in her guilt and embarrassment, she folded the page and tucked it beneath her shirt.

The pages stopped, the spell now in front of her very faded. She had to squint to properly distinguish the words as she started reading. "Like the 'p' in psychology, the 'h' in psychiatry…"

Not too long after the sun started rising, Caspian stirred in his sleep. His dreams were filled with odd voices he did not recognise. He shot up, wide awake. Something was wrong. Frantically glancing around, he found Adeline and Edmund not too far away, closely wrapped around one another in their sleep. He could hear his men snoring slightly, could see Gael and her father nearby. Where was Lucy? Caspian stood, hoping to see her from a better vantage point. Her blanket was empty. "Edmund!" He hurried over to his friends, shaking both of them awake. "Come on, you must wake up!"

Of the two, Adeline was far easier to wake. She extracted herself from Edmund's arms and allowed Caspian to help her up. "What's the matter?"

"Lucy's missing."

Adeline's gaze trailed over the crew members that had come to shore with them. She ran a hand nervously through her hair, giving Edmund a hand as he stood. "Why is it always Lucy?" He fastened his belt, giving her an exasperated look in return. She was not wrong, after all. Lucy always ended up going off on her own, whether out of curiosity or out of necessity did not matter.

Caspian roused his men as quickly and quietly as he could. "There's footsteps in the sand," he said, pointing to where he had seen the massive prints. "They'll probably fade in the woods, but you can track them, can't you?" He met Adeline and Edmund's gazes imploringly.

"Something this size is bound to have left a trail," Edmund agreed. "Let's go."

"…invisible ink and the truth in theology."

"Well, this looks far too maintained to be natural," Adeline remarked as they stepped into what appeared to be a lavish garden. "If she's anywhere, it has to be around here."

Edmund nodded in agreement as he knelt on the ground and picked up a sharp blade. "Lucy's dagger," he whispered. "We should spread out and—"

A dull thud interrupted him as a spear suddenly landed within inches of his knee. Adeline dragged him to his feet, drawing a sword of her own.

"Stop right there or perish."

The incorporeal voice was quickly followed by several men, Caspian included, being flung around and disarmed. Adeline felt something move beside her and went to defend herself, only to be shoved into Edmund, who steadied her for a mere moment before they were both pushed to the ground.

Edmund looked down at the blonde in his arms, asking if she was all right only to receive several muttered curses in her odd language in return. Shaken but mostly irritated then. He helped her to her feet, keeping her behind him in a valiant effort at preventing her from taking on an invisible enemy. "What sort of creatures are you?"

"Big ones, with the head of a tiger and the body of a…"

"Different tiger!"

"Yeah!"

"You don't wanna mess with us!"

Adeline, in a terrible mood already, sneered at the voices. "That doesn't sound real."

"How dare you—"

"Oh, what could you possibly do, stab me?"

"I'll show ya—"

"The spell is complete."

Edmund wrapped an arm around Adeline's waist, holding her back. "Is now really the time to argue with them?" Feeling her go slack in his grip, he took in her horrified expression. He frowned at her. "Adeline?"

"All is visible."

"I'm never going to live this down."

Bemused, Edmund turned around. The invisible enemy was not quite as invisible any longer. One-footed men, all shorter than Adeline, were stacked on top of each other in pairs. They were possibly the least threatening creatures Edmund had ever come across. "What in the world are you?"

Their surprise upon finding that they were indeed visible shocked them into falling off one another. Caspian grinned, amusement replacing his fear as he saw that he was in no danger. "What were you going to do to Adeline," he wondered. "Squash her with your bellies or tickle her with your toes?"

Sword resting under the leader's chin, Edmund glared down at the creature. "What have you done with my sister, you little pip-squeak?"

"All right, calm down now," the leader replied. "She's in the mansion."

"What mansion?" He looked up as the building in question came into view as the magic lifted. Behind him, Adeline ceased her humiliated mutterings to step just a little closer to him. He reached his free hand back to take hers, well aware that unfamiliar magic made her uncomfortable.

"I'm really getting tired of you all leaving me behi—"

Everyone turned as Eustace came bursting through the bushes. Edmund rolled his eyes, quickly ensuring that Adeline was fine before turning his gaze back to the mansion in hopes of finding any traces of his sister.

"It's the pig!"

"The pig's here!"

Caspian looked at the strange little creatures again. "What are you, exactly?"

"They're Dufflepuds," Adeline replied, eyeing them with distaste. "Horrid little people that have next to no means of surviving on their own."

"Your sister quite liked them."

Again, everyone turned around. Adeline straightened her posture by pure habit as she laid eyes on the man in Lucy's company. "Coriakin," she greeted. "I see you've moved on from your old parlour tricks to grander things."

"It's the Oppressor!"

"Beware the Oppressor!"

Coriakin shook his head at the Dufflepuds. "I never oppressed you."

"You have wronged us, magician!"

"I made you invisible for your own protection."

"That's oppressive!"

Lucy looked on as the Dufflepuds moved farther and farther away from Coriakin, bouncing away as quick as they could when he threw something at them. "What was that?"

"Lint."

"As I said," Adeline muttered. "Horrid little people that have next to no means of surviving on their own."

"Used to tear up the fields during your rule, did they not?"

"Indeed."

Caspian stared between the two. "Now wait just one minute," he said, drawing all attention to himself. "How do you know each other?"

Coriakin bowed. "Forgive me, Your Majesty, but we best move this conversation inside."

He nodded. "Rhince, take the others back to the ship, we'll be with you soon." He waited until only Adeline, Edmund, Lucy, Drinian, and Eustace remained. Then he turned to Coriakin. "Shall we?"

"I was an entertainer in the days of the Four," Coriakin regaled as he led his visitors through his halls. "When the day of the Downfall arrived, Aslan approached me with a task."

Edmund's gaze flicked to Adeline. Her gaze was downcast, thumb tracing over the hilt of her dagger. He nudged her gently, holding out his hand for her to take. The feeling of her fingers slipping between his was so familiar that he had to smile.

"He told me that I was to wait here for travellers seeking my guidance and granted me the power I needed to protect this island and its inhabitants until my purpose had been fulfilled," Coriakin continued. "Until today, I did not think there was anyone left from the Age of Lion's Children." He paused briefly by the painting of the Downfall, bowing his head. Then he moved on, leading his guests towards the library.

Lucy followed eagerly. "What was the Downfall?"

"A dark day in Narnian history," Adeline cut in before Coriakin could reply. She gave him a warning glance, to which he nodded in acknowledgement. "Following the Downfall, the Hundred-Year Winter began."

Edmund, eager to steer them away from the subject at hand, frowned. "What is it you're meant to protect all of this from?"

"The evil, of course."

"You mean the mist?"

"Not the mist, so much as what lies behind the mist." Coriakin rolled out a map, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips when he took in the awestruck expressions on their faces. "When was the last time you laid eyes on a map like this, Your Majesty?"

"We haven't—"

"I don't think—"

"Fourteen hundred years, give or take," Adeline replied, fondly watching the First Battle of Beruna play out along the edges of the map. "And it's Adeline, I don't carry a title any longer."

"Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia."

Fingers clutching tightly at her dagger, she shook her head resolutely. "It doesn't work like that for me."