A/N: As promised, a rather dramatic chapter!

Chapter 12: Heightened Matters

Susan's POV

"Are you out of your mind?"

I winced at the harshness in Peter's voice, it was no secret that he was currently fuming and all of us were at least a bit scared to say the least.

He always had an awful temper.

Edmund stood beside him with his arms folded, and the look on his face was somewhere between smug and angry. We were in the Great Hall, with Peter and Ella standing facing each other and the rest of us around them. The moment Caspian broke the news to us, Pete demanded for Ella and Ed to be summoned.

"As a queen of Narnia, I have a right to cancel orders if I see a legitimate reason to."

Ella stood firmly with her hands clasped behind her back and her chin slightly raised. She was clearly trying to maintain a composed demeanor, but I knew her well enough to tell she was actually rather anxious standing in front of a livid Peter.

"Legitimate reason? Are you kidding me? What legitimate reason could you possibly come up with once Lucy's attacked or something terrible happens to her?"

"How are you so sure something bad is going to happen to her?"

"How are you so sure it won't?"

Ella clenched her jaw, glaring up at Peter. It was no match for his glare though, the veins in his neck and forehead were visible and he was getting redder by the moment.

"As High King, I am overruling your command and sending out a search party. I am also stripping all your authenticity and responsibilities as a royal until this situation is resolved, which means you will not be able to partake in any court or political matters."

I bit my lip, watching an expression of pure shock come over Ella's face as her jaw dropped.

This has never happened before.

Occasionally of course we would have our disagreements, but we would always somehow work it out and come to some compromise. Never had Peter used his authority as High King to rule out the legitimacy of another royal.

"You…you can't do that! We are all equal, you can't just-"

"No we aren't."

Peter took a step closer to Ella and glared intensely down at her, causing her to shrink back a little.

"Don't forget, we have been ruling Narnia way before you came around. And as High King, I do not only protect Narnia, I protect my family as well. And I will do so by any means possible, even if it means putting certain people in their place."

I glanced at Edmund to see his reaction, but he just continued to stand firmly with his arms folded, though his jaw was clenched.

He was actually letting Peter talk to her like that.

Ella's jaw hung, and slowly her firm and composed stature began to disappear. She looked around at all of us, tears stinging her eyes.

"You all, you all aren't saying anything? Please don't tell me all of you agree with him?"

Seeing Ella like this tore my heart apart, but I would be lying if I said I was not upset with her as well. No matter how much I believed in Lucy to be able to take care of herself, I could not just accept the fact that she was out there, alone and in trouble.

I wanted to find my little sister, as Peter mentioned, by any means possible.

If that meant going against Ella, so be it.

Ella looked at Caspian, then at me, then at Serena, desperation clear in her eyes. I looked away, hating being in this position. I noticed Serena looking pitifully at her, but she too did not speak a word. Caspian on the other hand looked more conflicted, but also remained silent.

"Ed?"

Her voice cracked as she took a step forward and placed her hand on Edmund's arm. But as he moved away, causing her hand to drop, her tears fell and I too felt a tear slide down my cheek.

"How could you be like this Ella? I thought you loved Lucy? How could you compromise the safety of my little sister?"

"Ed I, what are you saying? Of course I love Lucy. I would never-"

"Of all people, I really didn't expect this of you."

Ella seemed to be at a loss of words. But I could see the sorrow in Edmunds' eyes as well though he maintained his tough exterior. Choosing between his wife and sister must have been horrible for him.

Then again, why did he have to choose in the first place?

Why was Ella making this so hard?

"Trumpkin."

The little dwarf, who was all the while standing a little distance from us together with Lorenzo and watching us quietly with a frown, slowly walked forward towards Peter. He glanced at Ella, who was still in tears and staring at Edmund in disbelief, and looked down briefly for a moment before looking back at Peter regally.

"Please inform the members of the court of my decision regarding Ella's current status. Explain the circumstances and make sure it is known that my word is final."

Trumpkin nodded and bowed before swiftly leaving the hall, all the while the frown still present on his face.

"Lorenzo."

I turned to Lorenzo for the first time since we gathered, only to find him with his hands clasped behind his back and his head lowered, glaring at the ground. Once Peter called his name, he looked up with his expression still furious and walked towards Peter.

He did not even bother hiding his anger.

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

I knew Peter would have been irked by Lorenzo's demeanor, but thankfully he seemed to let it pass.

"Unfortunately we have to stay here as we have a lot of diplomatic matters and meetings to settle. If it were up to me of course we would head the search parties ourselves. But you're our next in command, so I need you to lead the search parties."

Lorenzo nodded immediately, but he lowered his gaze and continued frowning, a state that was so rare for us to see.

"And don't even think of sabotaging this operation. Finding Lucy is an order, not a request. Understood?"

"Yes, Sire."

With that, he turned and exited the Hall as well, but not before offering Ella a sympathetic look, though she was just staring at the ground and letting her tears flow freely.

Peter looked back at her and while he still looked upset, his expression softened for a moment and he sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry I had to go to these lengths, but you did this to yourself Ella. You should know by now that we are a fiercely protective family and we can't let anyone sabotage the safety of any of our loved ones."

Once Peter finished speaking, he shook his head slightly at her before walking past her to leave the Hall, meaning that the meeting was over. Ella still remained frozen and staring at the ground, and Edmund seemed to be unable to look at her as he soon followed after Peter. One by one, we all walked past her to leave.

I felt awful.

Caspian and I were the last of the line, but after we took a few steps, Ella's voice caused us all to stop.

"I'm a part of this family too."

We all turned back to find her turn around and face us, her eyes and nose now red but her tears had stopped.

"You find it shocking that I believe in Lucy enough to respect her desire for us to leave her alone to do what she needs to do. But do you know what's even more shocking? The fact that you believe I don't actually care about her."

"Enough, Ella."

"No Ed. You married me. I became a member of this family the day you married me. You of all people know how much I love Lucy. You of all people know I would never, ever, wish harm upon her or purposely compromise her safety. You can strip me of my authority Peter, but you can't take away my bond to this family. You've already made your decision, and I pray to Aslan you did not just make a huge mistake."

Peter, Edmund and Serena were behind me so I was not sure what their reaction was, but after a few moments I could hear their retreating footsteps. I sighed, still not understanding why Ella was acting this way, and also decided to turn around and leave.

From behind me, I heard Caspian speak after I took a few steps.

"I'm sorry El."

With that, I heard his footsteps as well, and we both exited the hall where now only Ella stood, fists clenched and cheeks tear-stained.

Lucy's POV

We had been walking for quite a while now, at least an hour or so, in complete silence. Keladry walked in front and I quietly followed, still deciphering what exactly he was up to or whether he was actually telling the truth.

At some points I considered just asking him more about his siblings and whatever back story he had, as well as about the curse, but for some reason I just could not bring myself to break the silence.

He too did not turn back even once to say anything, and it was a bit frustrating not being able to see his face, just because I wanted to see his expression.

Then again, he was too good at masking his emotions.

Finally, we reached a short bridge which crossed over a very steep gorge with a lot of rocks and boulders at the bottom. As no one usually resided in this part of the woods, the bridge was rather old-fashioned and not very well-maintained. As he began to cross it, an idea popped into my head and I smirked.

I unsheathed my own sword and swung it at one of the posts that held the rope of the bridge.

Immediately, the rope bridge swayed and rotated to its side, causing Keladry to lose his balance and frantically grab onto the thick rope. His weight and the sudden force caused the other side of the rope post to snap, making him swing towards my side of the valley and slam against the side of the gorge.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing!"

I squatted and peered over the edge of the ground to find him desperately clinging onto the rope and looking up frantically at me.

It was not the strongest rope and I glanced beside me to the post which was barely holding it.

Just a nudge from my foot against the post would send him to his death.

"Now's your chance. Reveal your true motive, whatever plan it is you have with those 2. Does Jadis still have supporters, is Jadin still alive, what your side is plotting. Tell me everything."

"What?!"

"If you spill the beans, I'll pull you up and you and I will have a fair duel. But if you continue to stick to your old story I'm kicking over this post. Choice is yours."

Keladry looked at me as if I had grown two heads, and I had to admit if I was watching myself right now I too would think I had gone mad.

I would normally never do something like this.

But for some reason, it felt exhilarating playing with his life this way. Perhaps it was because I still held such strong negative sentiments about how he betrayed us, so I did not feel as bad threatening him like this.

Though there was something in me that felt that was probably not the real reason…

"How do I know once I reveal everything you're not just going to let me fall anyway?"

"Unlike you, I am actually a person of honour. I stay true to my word."

Keladry seemed to be considering my proposition, which bothered me quite a bit because that meant he really did lie before.

"Fine, I'll tell you the truth."

I took in a deep breath, internally berating myself for making the mistake of trusting him once again. Part of me was mad at myself, but part of me was also mad at him and at that moment, in all honesty, I considered throwing away my honour and kicking over that post.

But I needed to find out the truth first.

"I was captured by Jadis and forced to do whatever she asked of me as she held my siblings in hostage. I knew she was going to curse you, but I did not know she was planning to die. I don't know where she has kept my siblings and I need the help of the royal family to find them."

I pursed my lips and squinted my eyes suspiciously at him. I was pretty sure I made it clear to him that if he repeated the same story I would let him fall.

What was he playing at?

"What, you wanted the truth didn't you? Now let me up, you promised a fair duel."

He was struggling more and more to speak, and I could see his arms trembling. The rope as also getting more and more stretched, which meant he really did not have much longer left to dangle off the gorge.

I looked into his eyes, and just like before, his guard was down. Fear was very clearly written on his face, but I could also see vulnerability and sincerity.

He seemed too afraid of heights to be willing to risk his life like this.

Finally, I huffed and reached down, letting him grab onto my arm with his other hand. He let go of the rope which was really flimsy by now and used the side of the gorge wall to help himself as I pulled him up.

Finally, he swung his legs over onto the ground and rolled flat onto his back, his face the picture of trauma.

I rolled my shoulder from the strain of lifting his weight before getting up onto my feet. As he lay panting on the ground, I just watched him, wondering why he was such a mysterious puzzle to solve.

"Right, now that that's over, we'll need to walk further down and cross over a fallen tree trunk I spotted some time ago, since someone decided to cut down our very convenient bridge like the genius that she is."

I looked at him in bewilderment as he spoke in pants and pushed himself off the ground to stand.

"What about our fair duel? I promised-"

"Yeah well, not much is going to come out of it anyway. Either I'll win and I'll pull you up and we'll continue on, or you'll win and either let me live or impale me, in which case you won't be able to find Coriarkin. Might as well save the time."

At that point all I could do was blink at him.

"Well come on then, it's going to get dark soon, we should try to reach the badger village before sunset so that we can ask for a place to sleep."

Keladry then dusted off his hands and walked past me nonchalantly, as if he was not inches away from death just a few moments ago.

I still remained frozen, my mouth ajar and my eyes still blinking in disbelief.

Either Keladry was actually telling the truth, or he was a deranged minion of Jadis and Jadin who was really good at fooling me and luring me to whatever trap they had.

Whatever the case was, I breathed deeply and turned around, following him and clenching my marked hand, cursing Jadis for being the reason why I was in this situation in the first place.

A/N: Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, and the speedy updates! It feels good to update this fast haha. Anyway, reviews are appreciated and to all those who have been supporting me, thank you :)