(A/N: Here's Chapter 21! It took me a long time to write, and it wasn't until I was about to upload that I noticed how short it was. O.o So I apologize…but it is rather word-dense, don't you think?

Anyway, if I don't find time to update before then, Merry Christmas, everyone! :D)

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Enna obeyed Aslan's command and went off on her own to ponder his words. Standing in the frigid air at the top of the highest tower in Cair Paravel, she wept softly into her cloak as soft snow collected on her shoulders. The sun was setting bloodily over the rippling sea sprawling out before her, tinting the freshly fallen snow a strange pinkish color, and there was no sound but the whisper of the guidon behind her as it fluttered in the gentle breeze.

She liked to think of herself as a sensible girl, but the weight bearing down on her heart was simply too much. Had Aramir, a simple sailor, been right all along? Did this beast, this…lion really have the unearthly power to mold men's lives? It seemed impossible, and yet…Peter and his three siblings, not to mention Aramir and seemingly the rest of Narnia, obeyed his word without a second thought. While it seemed unthinkable that a mere creature could wield such immense power, it was almost as nonviable that an entire kingdom and its rulers could be so completely fooled.

And thus she found herself exactly where she had been before—faced with two equally sensible, and yet at the same time preposterous, options. Either a million creatures had been gulled and made to believe the ludicrous, or a talking lion really could control men's destinies.

She heaved a sigh, abandoning this train of thought for another, less complex, one. The secret that she'd been hiding, trying to convince herself of the opposite, had been revealed. Now both she and Aslan were aware of the fact that she was deceiving Peter Pevensie, his royal siblings, the court, and the kingdom of Narnia into thinking that she loved him. There was no use in her trying to force a passion that just wasn't there, not now that Aslan knew. She'd have to tell the poor boy…have to face the look of betrayal on his lightly bearded cheeks, have to watch the soft light in his eyes flicker and go out. Though she'd only known the lion for a day, she could already imagine the look of disapproval in his eyes if she tried to hide the deception.

Resting her elbows in the fluffy white snow that covered the stone wall, Enna leaned out over the edge of the tower and gazed across the castle at the snowy, white-capped waves. It hurt her to hurt Peter, but her soul had been silently suffocating for the past two months. It was bad enough that winter ice and snow had blocked the channels and made sea passage nearly impossible. She was forced to stay in a foreign land, and though she had free rein to wander wherever she pleased, all her ramblings were tainted with the unhappy knowledge that she had to return to the castle ere nightfall. It was the old wanderlust, the irrepressible longing for freedom that she had managed to muffle slightly for a bit. Her relationship with Peter only made it worse.

The sun dipped below the horizon, and the only light came from the distant bloody reflections on the cloudy sky. A hush fell over the land, and Enna wrapped her arms around herself, breathing in the biting air, searching for something in it to brace herself with.

The soft sigh of the door opening behind her brought Enna back to the present, and the next moment Peter's warm arms were slipped around her, pulling her close and holding fast. Enna waited for him to speak into her ear, but he remained silent, breathing into her hair. She couldn't bring herself to break away, her distaste at being pinned against him finding itself overshadowed by her desire to delay his unhappiness as long as possible.

After a few long moments spent in this manner, she felt rather than heard him sigh against her hair, and he gently turned her to face him. Her heart sank when she saw his bittersweet smile. He looked so forlorn—had something terrible happened?

"Enna Stalresin." He simply said her name, in a manner so tender that Enna, for a fleeting moment, felt a sympathetic throb in her heart. But she could only watch him a bit pityingly, even as his hand drifted up to stroke the curve of her jaw.

She let her eyes slip shut briefly as she gathered her courage. "Peter…I—I…"

"You what?" he asked gently.

I can't go through with it…I can't do this to him…But I must. It's best for him, and me, that I do. This is a lie, it's wrong…

But before she could get her wits about her, Peter slipped his hand up into her tangled hair and lowered his lips to hers. There was nothing she could do but feel terrible while the sweetest boy in Narnia kissed her, for what she was determined to have be the last time.

He pulled away rather abruptly, leaving his fingers entwined with hers but taking a few steps back. "I know what you are going to say, Enna," he said as soon as she'd opened her mouth to speak.

"You do?" Impossible…

Sighing, he nodded and shook his cloak free from the icy flakes of snow falling from the sky. "Aslan…he told me everything…about you, about your doubt…about your true feelings for me…"

His remark hung in the air for a long time before Enna could find the words with which to reply. "Peter…I'm so sorry—"

"Don't be," he answered. "Really, Enna. I…I won't lie and tell you I'm not disappointed, or hurt, but…I want you to be happy, more than anything else. I've come to the realization that I don't make you happy. And yes, before you ask, Aslan did counsel me to separate myself from you, but I do do this willingly."

"I see," said Enna, still a bit confused.

"I won't try to convince you to change your mind or anything of that matter," Peter went on. "I would never go against Aslan's word."

Enna's heart gave a little throb at Aslan's name.

"Is it your wish that I make it so our romance never existed?" he asked. "Cair Paravel is sizeable enough that if you wished to never see me again but from afar, it would not be difficult to manage."

"Oh, Peter," Enna said fretfully. "This is hard. I've grown quite fond of you, dear Peter, though I could not love you. I wouldn't want every connection to be severed between us."

Peter smiled understandingly. "If you wish it. I will think of our adoration for each other as a season, soon to pass into the next."

Enna closed her eyes, sorry for hurting him but thanking her lucky stars he was taking it so well. "Thank you, Peter…thank you so much."

He squeezed her hand briefly before dropping it and going slowly back inside. Enna turned fresh eyes to the moon hovering silently over the parapets—the air seemed a bit fresher, and the snow falling mutely from the heavens felt somehow less treacherous and more like a soft blanket on her damp hair.

Thank you, Gale…thank you, Aslan.