Disclaimer: I am not C.S. Lewis and nothing in the Narnian world belongs to me.

"In that knowledge, despair… and DIE!" Jadis stabbed her spear straight down into Aslan's heart. The lion gasped, and slowly the life faded from his eyes.

Miles away, Airies awoke suddenly and sharply, gasping for air. A sharp pain stabbed her chest each time she tried to get oxygen into her lungs. She shut her eyes against the darkness of her tent, breathing heavily. Sobs wracked through her body as the realization of what had happened overcame her. She had lost another loved one. She pulled her blankets around herself as tight as she could, and then sat up, pulling her knees even tighter to her chest, as if it could refill the hole which had just been punctured through her.

Aslan was gone. She would never see him again. "Oh, Aslan," she moaned.

After a while, she composed herself, remembering her promise to Aslan. It was now her duty to make sure that Peter was ready for this battle. Slowly and sadly, she made her way to Aslan's tent. As she arrived so did Oreius and a faun known as Taper. Oreius nodded at her and lifted his fist towards the sky. "Hail Aslan," he said, his deep voice piercing her heart. Airies and Taper copied him. "Hail Aslan," she whispered.

Together they walked into the tent, getting straight to work. Taper and Oreius immediately walked over to a little table where the layouts of the battle field waited for them. Airies, however, strayed away from them to another table. She needed to focus on her magic, and how to call the elements forward.

Fire was easy enough. She lit a ball of fire in her hand as she thought this and tossed it up and down. But how did she control the other elements? She had done wind and water at least once. Had she even worked out earth yet?

At that moment, Peter came into the tent and looked around. "So it's true then, about Aslan?" "Yes, we are planning your battle, sire," Oreius told him.

"If it's alright, I'd like to speak with Airies," he said, and she followed him out of the tent. He stood across from her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "How are you?" he asked, studying her face for emotion, and Airies found that she could not look at him.

"Fine," she answered shortly.

"You don't have to lie, Airies, not to me. Trust your heart with me. Let me in," he whispered.

"I'm fine!" Airies insisted, but her voice cracked and the tears came once again. She sank to the ground and put her head in her arms. "I'm not fine," she whispered. She could not bring herself to look at him, but he did not seem to mind. He kneeled down next to her and wrapped an arm around her, holding her close. She rested her head against his shoulder and she felt him press his lips against her hair. Soon, he put his hand under her chin and gently turned her face to his. He then placed both his hands on either side of her face and wiped the tears away from her cheeks with his thumbs.

Airies could feel how awkward he felt, not knowing what to say for fear of hurting her deeper. She told him that he did not have to say anything, and she meant it. His presence was enough. Airies had never felt so close to another person before. Peter was special, though, and it scared her to think that she could care for someone as much as she did for him, and that someone else could care for her just as much. She had never put her heart on the line like this until now.

Gently, Peter stroked her hair and allowed her to cry on his shoulder. Soon, Edmund joined them, and the three of them sat there hugging each other for what seemed like hours. Airies appreciated that they did not push her to talk, or to stop crying. They just let her be, and it actually made her smile a little. Peter got up and helped her to her feet as Edmund rubbed her back.

"It will be okay," he said before Peter walked into the tent to call Oreius and Taper outside. They quickly started making their battle plans. Airies went right back to tossing a flame ball up and down as she tried to figure out her struggles with the elements. She needed to be strong now, more than ever. She was done crying. There was too much work to do for her to be weak now. Aslan had trusted her. She would not let him down.

"So I wasn't imaging things when I stumbled upon you in your room that first night," Edmund speculated, coming over to her.

"No one's told you what I can do?" she questioned, to which he shook his head. With a mischievous grin, Airies took his hand and led him a little ways way from the tent.

"Watch."

Airies held out her hand and watched Edmund's jaw drop open as flames lit from her fingertips, and then traveled up her arm until she was engulfed entirely in flames. "Wow," Edmund breathed out once she let the flames go.

"That's not all I can do. Well, actually that's not true. That is all I can do right now, but that's not all that I'm capable of. I've been told that I also have control over wind, water and earth. I just have not quite figured them out yet. I have controlled wind and water at least once, but not earth."

"I think you have," Edmund interrupted.

"What do you mean?"

"At Tumnus' when we first got here, when the four of us went outside to follow the bird, you stayed in the house. The ground started shaking something awful. There was no explanation for it. We all thought it was an earthquake, but now I think it may have been you," he explained. "What were you doing then?"

"Reading Maugrim's letter," she told him after thinking back on it.

"And how did you feel?"

"Angry. I was so angry that I was seeing red," she said.

"And at the pond yesterday, when you made that water wall, what were you feeling then?" he questioned.

Airies thought about it. It seemed so long ago, but she had not forgotten it yet. "Despair."

"Maybe the control has something to do with your emotions," he suggested. "When did you first control wind?"

Airies thought hard before answering him. "It was just after you four came to the professor's. The day after you and Lucy came into my room, Peter came in to apologize. I wasn't even trying then. It just sort of happened."

"What do you think you were feeling then?"

She shook her head. "I'm not sure. Happy maybe? I was feeling light." She looked over at Peter and that same lightness washed over her. It felt strangely familiar.

"We should try accessing those emotions again," Edmund said.

"We?" Airies asked.

"You helped me learn the skills I need to fight. Maybe I can help you learn yours," he said with a shrug.

They decided to start with earth, since Airies did not remember actually having controlled that. Edmund nodded, and told her to try and move a boulder towards them. Airies focused on all of the anger that she had inside her, which needless to say was a lot of pent up emotion, but after several failed attempts Airies groaned and wiped the sweat off of her forehead.

"Can I make a suggestion?" Edmund asked, but he did not wait for an answer from her. "I think you need to try focusing less on the anger itself, and more on something calming."

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said!" Edmund snapped. "But I've changed my mind. I think the emotions are what unlocked the power, but I think to have full control over them you need to be in a more serene state of mind. Like a sort of medium between all the extremes."

"How?"

"Memories. Use good memories."

Airies decided to give what he was suggesting a thought. She tried to think of good memories, but the only thoughts that seemed to swim to the forefront of her mind were those that reminded her of all the destruction going on around them. It was not until Edmund took her hand in his that she was able to see clearly. She thought of her early training with Oreius, and the fun that she had as a child running around Cair Paravel with Giselle. She thought of jumping on Aslan and rolling around the grass with him as if he were her own large pet cat. She thought of how she felt when she returned to Narnia, when she saved Edmund, and when she first met Peter. After that, it was in no time at all that she was stretching out her hand and the boulder was moving towards them. It pushed its way through the ground, parting the earth as if the grass and dirt were mere waves of water. It then quivered, and broke into hundreds of tiny pieces, and then Airies was crying and Edmund was laughing.

They continued to practice that strategy. She was able to make water jump out of a basin, and even created a windstorm, which Oreius scolded her for afterwards because she had caused their battle plans to blow all around them. Feeling satisfied with herself finally, Airies and Edmund joined the centaur and the king-to-be, with Airies feeling like things were actually starting to look up for them.