HIDDEN CURSE
Edmund: 16
Peter: 19
Susan: 18
Lucy: 14
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Chapter 2: Revealed
The next day if Edmund wasn't feeling well, he wasn't showing it while presiding over the hearing. As always, he managed to quickly and eloquently resolve the matter, and the session was ended before lunch.
Peter had sat in the back, as his presence wasn't really required for simple civil hearings, but he'd wanted to keep an eye on Edmund. When everyone else left the room, and Peter had made the appropriate small talk with the other counsel members, he looked up to see Edmund sitting with his head in his hands.
"That was really well done, Ed".
Edmund jumped. "Thanks…but I didn't even know you were in the room."
Peter laughed, "Of course, I was in the room. I had to make sure you didn't collapse, didn't I?"
Edmund scowled. "I'm not going to collapse Peter. Stop being so melodramatic."
"Alright, fine. Let's go for a walk before lunch."
Edmund sighed. What did Peter take him for, a blundering idiot? He knew what Peter was going to try and do at this walk. Grudgingly he followed out to the gardens that would be beautiful when it was spring time in Cair Paravel.
"So," Peter started. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, Peter," Edmund said stiffly. "Thanks for asking."
"You don't have to hide anything from me you know," Peter said with an eye brow raised.
Edmund snapped, he'd had enough of Peter's interrogations for the week. Plus his head was pounding, and he couldn't deal with Peter's voice echoing in and out of it. "Peter, please just…shut…up. Stop being a mother hen, and hop off already!" Edmund stormed away.
When the bell rang for lunch Edmund was debating on whether or not to go. In the end, he decided that he better go, otherwise Peter would interrogate him more, and he wouldn't take no for an answer this time. Edmund figured he could hold down his lunch until he could be in the privacy of his quarters again.
Susan and Peter were looking at each other worriedly, it'd been five minutes since the bell had sounded, and they were scared that Edmund wasn't going to show up again. They sighed with relief when Edmund appeared, and grumpily sat down. He was all too aware of his older sibling's eyes on him, as he pushed his food around on his plate.
That's not going to get you anywhere, you're going to have to eat it. Edmund speared his potatoes, looked pointedly at Peter, and put it in his mouth. He did this until his entire plate was clean. Peter look confused but nodded with a small smile.
This smile faded quickly as Edmund put his hand over his mouth, and bolted out of the room. He was quickly followed by Peter, who ran at top speed, to find Edmund hunched over his wash basin, sick dripping from the side of his chin. Edmund didn't seem to be aware of Peter's hand on his shoulders, as his stomach heaved again, and his eyes slid out of focus.
"I knew you were-"
But halfway through Peter's accusation, Edmund slumped to the floor, and blacked out.
Peter scooped Edmund up, and placed him gently on the bed. "Susan! Susan!"
Susan and Lucy came running, their eyes growing wide as they took stock of the situation. "Susan! I need you to go get a Healer!" "Lucy! I need you to help me get Edmund out of his soiled clothing!"
Susan ran off, without a word. Lucy quickly ran to Edmund's wardrobe, and pulled out his night clothes. Lucy pulled his night shirt over his head, while Peter removed his boots, and leggings. Then Peter lifted Edmund up, while Lucy pulled back the covers. Just as Peter was placing Edmund in the bed, and Lucy covering him up, the Healer rushed in.
He poked, prodded, injected things, and muttered for a half an hour. With each passing moment Peter was getting more and more anxious, a simple fever was not that hard to diagnose. This had to just be a simple fever. Peter repeated the phrase "simple fever", over and over in his head to try and reassure himself.
At last the Healer straightened up, and looked at Peter gravely. Peter gulped. "It seems your Majesty, that King Edmund does not have a simple fever. After much deliberation, I suspect that this isn't the work of an illness, but rather the work of a curse. I do not know much more than that. Perhaps Edmund will know more, and we can ask him when he wakes up. In the mean time would you like me to call a well known Healer that specializes in curses?"
Peter's head was swimming. "Yes, yes call him…"
The Healer nodded sadly, and hurried out to get the message to the specialist.
8
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Peter sat by Edmund's bedside long into the night, hoping that Edmund would wake up soon. His mind was swimming with questions, and no answers. It was infuriating. Peter began pacing back, and forth when Susan came in.
She sighed at Peter, walked up behind him, and enveloped him into a hug. Peter turned around, and buried his head in her shoulder. "It's going to be okay, Peter," she crooned comfortingly into his ear. Peter didn't say anything, but they stood like that for a few moments. When Peter pulled back, he gave Susan a weak, grateful smile, and went back to sitting at Edmund's side.
A few hours later, Edmund began to stir. Peter lept up, and sat on the edge of Edmund's bed, waiting breathlessly. When Edmund's eyes peeled open, and took in his surroundings, Peter smiled wryly at him.
"Oh you weren't going to collapse, huh?"
"Is that what I did," Edmund said pleasantly, almost conversationally. He shot Peter a smirk.
Peter rolled his eyes half heartedly. "You really scared me there, Ed…"
Edmund didn't say anything, he could tell that Peter was going to tell him more. More that he already knew years ago.
"We called in a Healer, and he said you aren't ill. You are cursed. He doesn't know much more though, so he's bringing in a curse specialist Healer, but in the mean time he seems to be under the impression that you'd be able to explain."
Edmunds eyes squeezed shut, and small tears trickled out of them. Peter grasped Edmunds hand. "I know you don't want to talk about it, you've been telling me that all week, but you must Edmund. I need to know so I can help you, so the Healers can help you. Please, I'll be patient, you can take five minutes or five hours to explain it, just explain it. I know you know, Ed."
Edmund took a deep shuddering breath, and squeezed Peter's hand back. "She did it. Before Orieus and the other warriors rescued me from her, and brought me back to Aslan's camp, she cast the curse on me when she heard them coming. She did it so I could never truly get away. Or at least that's what she said…and she's going to be right…"
There was no need to establish who She was. Peter sat quietly for a minute, and decided that the best way to go about this was calmly and diplomatically. No matter what Edmund told him, he was going to remain calm.
"I'm going to need to know what it is," he said gently.
Edmund nodded, squeezing his eyes shut again. He wouldn't be able to handle the look on Peter's face when he told him. "It's a curse that on my sixth winter in Narnia, now, will begin to slowly…slowly rob me of my…life. It portrays itself as an illness, but an illness is less painful." Edmund choked. "It's already started, Pete. I can't eat anything without throwing it up, nor do I sleep well. Then there's the headaches because my body isn't getting food or sleep. Do you see? It will slowly whither, agonizingly down, until my body will have no choice but to shut down. I don't know what else will happen before it gets to that point, but that is the basic principle of it. She also said it was practically irreversible, that nothing but powerful, rare magic can cure it."
-cliffhanger-