Disclaimer: I own Isala, her sisters, Petra, Calliope, and Carlota.

Chapter 6

I wasn't sure if I should take that as just a compliment or something more. But I basked in it just the same. It had been years, nay, a century and a half since someone had sincerely paid me a compliment.

I didn't notice that I was strangely quiet until Edmund asked, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that you're the first."

"The first?"

"In a long time."

"The first what?"

"The first person in a hundred and fifty years to pay me a compliment."

"What? Now THAT'S something that I would have never imagined."

"Why not? It's true."

"But a girl like you? Isala, I – "

"Don't finish that sentence, Edmund. I understand completely."

"Are you sure you do?" I didn't answer him.

We sat in silence for a while longer, and then he said, "You're coming to the coronation, right?"

"What coronation?"

"Uh…this might be a sore spot for you, but my siblings and I are going to become the kings and queens of Narnia."

"No, that's a good thing! No, better than a good thing."

"Why?"

"It means that my sisters no longer have any control over Narnia. I've lived for roughly 250 years. At our coronation, Aslan gave us these vials of a liquid that inhibits our age. But we're supposed to stop using it as soon as four rulers arise to take our place. That's probably you."

"But have you thought of the fact that Laerana is trying to get Peter to marry her so that she can get a throne?"

"Not going to happen. Aslan will stop them."

"But what if he leaves?"

"Then I guess it'll be up to us: you, me, Lucy, and Susan."

"I'm not sure if Susan will help us. She's about as infatuated with Sabina as a girl can get with another girl."

"But Lucy will, right?"

"Well, obviously. Like I said before, she absolutely adores you."

I said nothing to this. It was still slightly hard to digest the fact that I was well liked, at least since my best friends were killed by HER armies. My sisters' influence reached everywhere, even into Archenland and Calormen. Back before SHE came, I had no friends except for Petra, Carlota, and Calliope. The four of us were pretty much the only resisters against their regime, but we were warriors, all four of us. Petra was a archer, Carlota was a warrior like me, and Calliope was a spear-and-lance fighter. So maybe that was why we didn't get killed in our beds in the middle of the night like everybody else who had opposed Laerana and Sabina.

"What's wrong?" Edmund startled me out of my revierie.

"What?" I asked, not sure what he asked me.

"You've been quiet for the past five minutes. And you've got a somewhat sad look."

I paused for a while, not sure if I should tell Edmund everything or not. But he was so understanding, and so like me. Anyways, what I was thinking of couldn't hurt me, if he did go and blab it all to Laerana or Sabina.

"I was thinking about my friends. Petra, Carlota, and Calliope."

"Callio-what?"

EVERYBODY got her name wrong. It always pissed her off. "Call-ie-oh-pee."

"That doesn't sound Narnian…at least, not like all the Narnians I've met. Though I can't say I've met many Narnians."

"Well, yes. It isn't a Narnian name. Nobody's exactly sure where it's from. She just appeared as a baby at the palace gates one day, with a note that was pinned to her shirt. All it said was, 'Baby Calliope. Born on 4 Eagle. Please take care of her.'"

"So why were you thinking about them?"

"I remember seeing Petra and Calliope fighting during the battle at the beginning of her reign. But then I got turned to stone, and I don't know what's happened to them."

"But you do realize that if they survived the battle, they would still be dead by now, right?"

"But if they survived up until the point when I got turned into stone, that would mean that they were turned into stone too. Back then, she never used any weapons but her wand."

"So you think they're still alive somewhere?"

"Yes. Aslan must have turned them back to life."

"But wouldn't they have found you by now?"

"I don't know. But what I do know is that I need to either find them, or find proof that they died."

"What do you mean, 'find proof'?"

"A grave marker or somebody who'll swear on the Great Lion that they saw one of them die."

He fell silent for a while, then he spoke. "So this means that you'll be leaving me–us soon?"

"Yes. Now I have no other purpose in life. My sisters are now out of the throne and no longer under the crown."

"How soon will you be leaving?"

"Not too soon. I think I'll stay here for a while."

"Why?"

"What do you think? To get to know you and Lucy better, and maybe do some research too."

Any further converstation was cut off when Peter yelled up to us, "Ed! Isala! It's dinnertime!"

Edmund gave me a rueful smile. "I guess that cuts short our converstation, though I'd love to talk to you about your quest."