Chapter 4: The Departure
After talking with Lillian, Caspian rushed back to his office, unable to hold his frustration to his helpless self. At these moments, when he truly wished to help his friend, she forbade him from doing so. And it was for a valid reason. Caspian continued to pace around the room, unable to calm down in his own anxiety.
She was departing tonight.
Of course he knew the dire consequences of her absence from her people when they needed her most. She had sacrificed almost everything just for Narnia. However, he did not wish for her to leave. It was almost as if she would never come back if she left. His fingers automatically reached for his mother's necklace.
That's when he realized what to do.
Lillian had almost finished packing when she heard a knocking on the door.
"Lillian, it's me, Caspian." Caspian's voice came from the other side.
She cautiously opened the door slightly. She was dumbfounded that he came to her room this late at night.
"Caspian? What are you doing here?"
With a sad smile on his face, Caspian closed the door behind him and said,
"I came to say goodbye."
"Caspian…" Lillian had nothing to say to that. She truly wished that she would come back, that they would meet again, but even she did not know the outcome of this war.
"Lillian, I know you. You will never change your mind about this. I know that. That's why I came here to give you something."
With that, Caspian took his mother's necklace from his own neck and put it around Lillian's. At that moment, Lillian, who knew the significance of the necklace, was speechless.
"Caspian, I-"
"Don't. Please keep it. I want you to bring that back safely. That way, I will know if you are safe or not. Alright?"
The emotions that ran through Lillian made her almost cry. However, she withheld her own emotions. Eventually, all she could say was
"Thank you Caspian. I will bring it back safe and sound."
Both awkwardly stood by, unable to say anything or do anything. For both, they might as well have been wishing to hug each other, but refrained from doing so.
After a while, Caspian asked Lillian if she were leaving, and all she could say was
"Yes. Goodbye Caspian."
With that, Lillian gave a small kiss on Caspian's cheek as a farewell and departed into the darkness alone, with nobody else to help her. As he watched her ride into the night by herself, all he could feel was sorry and loneliness. He never knew when he would see her again or if he will see her alive at all. And for a while, far after she had disappeared from his line of sight, he continued to look at the place where he last saw her. He would do anything to see her, even if it meant breaking her promise to not follow her to the battlefield,
Lillian continued to ride into the night. There was much ground to cover and almost no time to do so. She worried about her own father and her tribe, whether they were safe or if they had fallen under the influence of the sorceress.
For many days, she continued to ride her horse with various breaks in the night for sleep and for nutrition. But once she entered the region nearby her tribe, she decided to approach cautiously as something seemed amiss.
Never did she expect the events that were to follow.
Her tribe had fallen.
Her father was the person the sorceress had been aiming to seduce beforehand. And now, as she had witnessed beforehand, the sorceress was in charge of most of the tribes and that Lillian, herself, was the only one unaffected by the charms.
She continued to spy on the sorceress and her father from afar using her magic and requested some of the woodland animals to deliver the messages to Caspian. One day, however, when she was concentrating on the sorceress's plans, one of her soldiers from the tribe rendered Lillian unconscious and took her to the sorceress.
At this moment, Caspian was preparing to travel to the tribe with a small army to meet with Lillian. He could not risk losing his dear friend. What he did not know was that he would arrive too late once he neared the tribe.