A dark red maple leaf floated down next to Lucy, caressing the bench she sat on as it fell. Lucy stared at it for a few minutes, seeing the deep red and marvelling at the intricate network of veins. It was incredible how so much beauty could be found in something so small and delicate. Looking up at the tree that it had come from, she wondered whether it was painful for the tree to shed its leaves like this. The maple was fairly sleepy at this time of year and wasn't a great conversation partner, so Lucy had been sitting in silence watching the gentle breeze in the tops of the trees and soaking in the warm afternoon sun. She never got bored of sitting alone. Not when she was in Narnia.

It would not be proper to describe a queen as slouching, but she was certainly sitting in a very unqueenlike manner as she waited for her brother to finish in the courthouse. In her defence, she had been waiting for several hours and the sitting posture appropriate for royalty is very difficult to sustain. And there was nobody to see except the maple tree.

Eventually the courthouse finished for the day, and the occupants began to leave. Lucy recovered to a regal sitting position with practiced speed and ease and sat watching for her brother, smiling at everybody who came past her bench. Edmund came out last looking rather haggard with a young faun following him, talking earnestly and agitatedly.

"I apologise your majesty," the faun was saying, "I am so ashamed of my performance today. I promise I will do better next time…"

"You have nothing to be ashamed of," Edmund interrupted firmly and the faun calmed down, "You are still learning and I have confidence that you will become a great lawyer."

The faun looked like he was about to burst into tears. He got out a large embroidered hankie in preparation for sobs. Edmund pretended not to notice and continued.

"Don't be ashamed of bad days; Aslan never shames anyone into maturity. Indeed for my siblings and me, he put crowns on our heads and watched us grow into them. Never once did he shame us for what we hadn't learnt yet. I meant what I said - you are making progress and you will be a great lawyer."

The faun sniffled his thanks and went on his way as Edmund sat next to Lucy. They were silent for a minute as Edmund visibly relaxed. Lucy looked at her brother in much the same way that she had looked at the maple leaf. She had a gift for seeing beyond the surface with things, particularly so with people and she had been watching her brother change.

It had been two years since he had started lessons with Oakwit, and although he was still the same brother she had always known, he had changed almost beyond recognition. His quiet wisdom was now something to be relied upon and his steadiness and confidence in the face of any problem lent strength to all of his siblings. But more than this, there was a quality about him that Lucy could not define – it combined fearlessness with trustworthiness, compassion with wisdom and justice with kindness. It was…. exactly the same as Oakwit! She hadn't realised just how like Oakwit Edmund had become. Lucy suddenly started smiling. Yet he was still himself.

"You seem happy about something," Edmund remarked.

"I was thinking about your lessons with Oakwit," she replied, "What have you learned the last years with him?"

"Many things - he is a wise creature and has much to teach," Edmund paused, reflecting, "Most of all he taught me to believe in myself, because Aslan believes in me. He taught me that Aslan when Aslan saved me it was because he saw something worth saving."

"But wasn't that obvious?" asked Lucy uncomprehendingly.

"Not to me," replied Edmund, "I was still so caught up in what I used to be that I didn't realise that I have the strength to change. I never realised that if I am fearful of ogres, then I don't always have to be fearful, with Aslan's help I can conquer that. My redemption didn't just buy me an escape from the Witch, it gave me the opportunity to use my life to create something beautiful; both in my own life and in Narnia as a whole."

Lucy sat and pondered for a long time, and Edmund let her think without interruption. She saw at once the truth of Edmund's words and also saw how he had been working towards bettering himself with Oakwit, with weapons training, with reading; the list went on. Then she thought about her life. She wasn't spending as much time doing all these things as Edmund. Where many people would have shamed themselves in this moment, Lucy didn't. She came to the realisation that if it was true for Edmund then it was true for her. Ideas of how Narnia could be even more beautiful came into her mind, how she could help this to be accomplished.

"I can use my life to create something beautiful too, can't I?" Lucy's face was flushed with excitement.

"Yes, you can," smiled Edmund as Lucy jumped up and started waltzing back to the castle in excitement, not even waiting for him. As Edmund walked after her, a touch of sadness entered him. He remembered asking Oakwit jokingly whether he would ever graduate from his classes. Oakwit had replied in all seriousness that one day Edmund would begin to teach other people the life lessons that Oakwit was teaching him, not so much with his words, but by how he lived. That would be the time when Oakwit was no longer needed.

A month later a report of an ogre in the Lantern Waste came to Cair Paravel. Edmund made a special request to his brother to go into the cave and despatch the ogre himself. The next day Edmund was briefing a cavalcade of soldiers at the front of the castle just before they set out, when Oakwit approached him. Only Oakwit knew how afraid he was of ogres and thus only Oakwit knew how much the request he had made had cost him. He was still terrified to go and face the dark creature, but he knew that he could go and overcome it nonetheless. He had learned that lesson of courage that cannot be taught by words.

After a perfunctory greeting, Oakwit announced that his lessons were no longer needed. He could always be found in his home in the forests, he told Edmund, and Edmund need no invitation to come as a friend or as a king in need of counsel. Edmund felt sorrow, but not surprise to see that Oakwit's saddlebags were already at his sides, filled to the brim with his few possessions. With a short embrace (hugs are awkward between humans and centaurs), and a short farewell Oakwit left Cair Paravel.

Tears streamed down Edmund's face as he watched his best friend canter away from the castle. With an ache in his heart for his friend whom he would never be able to repay, he set his face to the west and rode towards the evil he once would have fled from with more resolve than ever.