WARNING! The Last Battle spoilers ensue! DO NOT READ if you have not read The Last Battle.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
AN: Here is Susan's chapter. A very many thank yous to all of you who reviewed! I really, really appreciate it. :) There were a few who put the story on their alerts list too, but didn't review. I'm glad you want to see where this goes, but I would very muchly love to receive your comments too!
Also: the quote "Magnificence is needed just as much here as in Narnia" from Peter's chapter is from Unserious Sirius's story Magnificent. Sorry, I forgot to put that in the last one. ; Go read it! It's good. :) And good job all of you who picked it up! :)
Also, whenever I say 'Her' with a capital letter in the middle of a sentence, I am referring to Narnia.
WARNING # 2! Just in case you missed the first one – Spoilers for The Last Battle below!
Thanks again, enjoy.
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Virtues
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Gentle
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Gentle they had called her. Queen Susan the Gentle of the Radiant Southern Sun.
And in Narnia, she had lived up to her title wonderfully.
For all that their subjects had loved her siblings for their loyalty to Narnia; their brave and valiant natures; their unrivalled love for their country; and their legendary prowess in protecting all they held dear, they had loved Susan for her attentive ear; her quiet understanding; her soft guidance; and her gentle reassurance.
Queen Susan had been as highly respected by all of Narnia and Her surrounding countries as her Magnificent, Just and Valiant counterparts.
But that had been in another world – a far more bright and beautiful and happy country than the Spare Oom in which she now found herself once again.
Here, in England, the term 'Gentle' was understood differently.
Here, 'gentle' meant 'quiet;' 'quiet' meant 'obedient;' 'obedient' meant 'meek.'
But that was fine in London.
It was perfectly acceptable that a woman be meek.
Expected even.
For here in England, women and men were not on equal standing like they were in Narnia.
Here in England, the whole point of a woman's life was to look pretty, be interested only in gossip, never speak out of turn, find herself a husband who she would devote everything to, have children, and teach her daughters to be just like their mother.
And Susan wasn't used to that notion.
She had lived a whole lifetime as a Queen, and she would not bow down to these silly little customs of a place that was once her home, but was now a foreign land.
She had survived well enough the first year.
Sure, the other girls thought she was strange, but that was fine, because she thought the other girls were strange too.
She had always known they would go back. Back home. Back to Narnia.
Sure, Aslan's action of sending her and her siblings back through the wardrobe and into their old lives had hurt and confused her more than she could express, but she trusted the Lion.
She knew He knew how much she and her sister and brothers loved Narnia, and she knew He knew how much the four of them were hurting from being separated from Her.
She had known they would go back. She didn't know when, or how, but she had known they would.
And they had! They had been called back home a mere year later!
An English year at least.
She was so glad to be back – so glad that words could not even describe…but once she realised that they had not returned to their time… that their once shining, glimmering, beautiful castle was now in ruins…that everyone they had known was gone, and had been for a long, long time… her heart had nearly broken.
And then, once the Telmarines had been defeated and Prince Caspian crowned King, and she and Peter were told by the Great Lion himself that they were never to return to their home, to their beloved Narnia…her heart had broken.
The hope that had held her together and helped her to remain Queen Susan the Gentle over the past year spent in England wasn't there to sustain her this time.
Aslan had said they wouldn't return, and so she knew they wouldn't. Aslan's word was more reliable than the fact that the sun would rise tomorrow.
So what was the point of longing for something she knew she would not get?
And so, when the people of England mistook her gentle nature for meekness, she did not correct them.
She emersed herself in their culture until she was no longer considered strange by her peers, and tried not to think of the fact that Narnian dances were so much more fun and intricate than the English dances.
She stopped talking to her siblings about the land they had once ruled; the land they had twice saved. It was less painful to simply forget.
When she returned from America to find Edmund and Lucy nearly bursting out of their skins with giddiness for having been back there again, she became even more closed to the matter.
And after a while, she really did start to forget.
When boys came to her door and asked her to dances, she never said no – even when she knew the boys were only charming on the surface. Peter asked her once if she didn't think she was worth more than that, and reminded her of Rabadash. Susan blinked in confusion, too far gone by that stage to remember the name, and told Peter that she couldn't possibly turn them away – it would be cruel.
She purposely dulled her once startling wits to the point that she actually enjoyed the inane conversations of those around her.
It wasn't until years later, when she was standing next to the fresh graves of her siblings and parents, listening to the empty condolences spoken by those who called themselves her friends, that he thought she heard the distant roar of a lion.
The sound inspired her, and she tried to say something – something that would suit her family and all they had individually been.
Something loving and devoted for her parents; something noble and magnificent for Peter; something brave and just for Edmund; something musical and valiant for Lucy…but she found that the words would not come.
Could not come.
She had purposely dulled her wits and her self to the point that she could not even come up with a decent sentence to say over the freshly dug graves of her entire family.
And suddenly, Susan remembered words forgotten long ago; and she wept, for though she could remember neither who had spoken them nor why, she knew that they applied now to her.
"Get treated like a dumb animal long enough…that's what you become."
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AN: O.o Right… that one was a little more angsty than Peter's was. At least Peter's had a hope filled ending. But, as I'm basing these shots on what happens to the characters in the books – aka; Susan forgets all about Narnia – this one had to be like that.
I feel incredibly sorry for her, to be honest. I mean, really – her whole family died, and she didn't go to Aslan's Country with them. Sucks much? Yeah. I think she would have remembered in the end and made it to Aslan's Country eventually, but it would still suck for her.
And remember the quote in the first chapter? Courage isn't one of the virtues. Courage is every one of the virtues at its testing point. Susan had courage while she had other things there to support her (for example, actually being in Narnia and/or having the knowledge that she would go back there some day) but once she was back in London with the Lion's word that she wouldn't go back, she had no more posts to lean on and had to stand on her own two feet, and her courage and faith faltered, flapped feebly, and failed.
And that's the case with a lot of people here in the 'Real World' too. They go to some conference and get all pumped up and pledge themselves to The Lord and are all convinced that nothing will ever separate them and God again… but when they go back to their own lives with their atheist friends and their frowning parents and they DON'T go to church or join a Christian Youth Group or do anything like that, they DO drift, and they DO forget, and they DO go back to how they were before. Or worse.
It is hard to live in this society as a Christian, and you really do need support (such as a church community, Christian friends, etc) around you, otherwise it's just too hard, and you end up like Susan. Completely lost, confused, worse than where you started, and not in Aslan's Country.
And with that said, review. :)
Love Bundi