Chapter 10: Love's Death

Moments before/ Lillian's POV:

The roar of fighting seemed to have dulled Lillian when she was internally fighting herself. Her mind was there, but it seemed that her body did not obey her. Although Lillian was sane and herself the entire time (since before the battle), she had intended to fool the Sorceress in order to prevent more collateral damage.

With deep-seeded sadness, she could not control her movements as she felt the hilt of her sword go up and slash down onto Narnia soldiers. The sensation tore her apart, but she kept on going. The only thing that she could do was use the minimal amount of her own powers as to not only fooling the Sorceress until Lillian could give Caspian enough time, but to also not cause harm to many soldiers on both sides.

She saw her people and the Narnians fight each other, the very people that had fought together to gain peace and security within all lands. It had been torn apart. But soon enough, she felt herself losing consciousness overall, as she felt her mind slipping control and blackness entering her as she felt weak. Not from the battle itself, but from fighting against the Sorceress's influence so much.

"NO" her mind emphasized as she continued to push back on the oppressive force of darkness.

But even then, she was unable to stand up straight as she felt the body lose strength.

However, something immediately caught her eyes and ears despite her weakened state: Caspian and the Sorceress were sharing blows.

That was the moment when the dull fighting seemed to no longer matter to her. As if it had never happened. Then she saw the Sorceress successfully cut Caspian so that his side started to bleed. But that was the moment when she heard the Sorceress in her mind,

"Come closer and watch what happens to the King of Narnia."

Following the command, the body started to trudge towards both King and Sorceress. Then she felt herself stop. And her mind screamed, "Caspian, please just kill her!"

"You poor King, do you recognize her? Princess Lillian as you Narnians call her?" The Sorceress mocked Caspian as she saw the way how he looked at Lillian.

Caspian's brown eyes were filled with hurt, worry and sadness. Lillian looked back at him with blank eyes, but inside her mind, she thrashed about, wanting full control of her body. That was when she noticed that her fingers finally twitched.

With surprise and great urgency, she continued to thrash about and started to see if she could control her body. It wasn't much use. She still saw that Caspian was struggling with all that bleeding and felt trepidation as Caspian continued to fight the Sorceress.

Then as if something took grip in his mind, he finally injured the Sorceress. The moment the Sorceress was injured, Lillian felt the oppression lifting ever so lightly. She quickly took more control over herself and found that she was now able to control her body just a bit more. Her entire arms were free for her to control, her legs were still not completely free.

Even then, the Sorceress was so distracted and infuriated by the injury that she did not notice Lillian gaining control of herself bit by bit.

"No more shall you ever cause pain, anguish, and death of hundreds of people of this world!" Caspian coldly stated to the woman who was struggling to stay upright with her bleeding leg.

Lillian looked up to see Caspian raise his sword as if to finally end this battle. However, she saw him stop bringing his sword down with a look of hesitation. She knew that look. He was considering mercy and severe punishment instead of death. But she also noticed the Sorceress pick up her spear slowly as to not attract Caspian's attention.

"Lillian, observe what happens to your King that you so fought and resisted me for," she said, and threw her spear towards the king.

"No!" Lillian screamed internally and she struggled. She quickly ran in front of Caspian and felt something sharp pierce her chest.

"Ugh!" She sputtered. The pain overwhelmed her, but she also felt a different kind of oppression looming over her as she toppled backwards. Blackness then immediately overwhelmed her. Her last sensation was someone holding her and hearing her name,

"Lillian…"

…

(current):

Lillian lay limp in his arms. Caspian felt the warmth leave her as he had been sitting and mourning the death of his dear friend in the middle of the battlefield.

The Captain looked toward his King and saw emptiness over his King's features. He had never seen that expression before, just pure loss which shifted to emptiness. It was as if the King no longer felt anything. Meanwhile, the Captain was busy helping out the soldiers who were now free from the Sorceress's control. Whilst searching for Lillian's father, he found out that many of the tribe rulers were tortured into the oppression just as the Princess. He sighed heavily. After a long time had passed, he recognized one of the men who lay face up on the battlefield, lifeless. It was Princess Lillian's father. He had passed away in the battle.

The Darkness seemed to bring a new bout of death and the Captain suddenly felt exhausted. He was ready to head back to King Caspian when he noticed a silhouette behind some trees.

"Who's there?" The Captain asked. The figure then slowly sauntered towards the Captain.

Disbelief came over the aged man as he hurriedly went down on his knees towards the figure.

Caspian's POV:

Caspian looked at Lillian's pale face and slowly stroked it. He could no longer feel his tears falling out of his eyes.

"Lillian, I- " He couldn't bring out the rest of the sentence as he felt a sob escape his throat.

The one person he never wanted to lose. The one person he wished to live a long life with, and she was dead. She had died protecting him. He continued to blame himself as he realized that Lillian was struggling the entire time with herself in order to regain control, only to lose her life when she finally escaped the Sorceress's grasp.

He held onto Lillian's limp figure tightly against his chest. Her face was buried in his chest as he couldn't bear to let go.

Every memory of their battles, their friendship, and the moments before she left Narnia entirely flashed through his mind and anguished him. Especially how Lillian looked at him. It began to haunt him. Only if he could see the warmth and the light dance in her eyes once more. All these thoughts ran through his mind when he heard a horn blow as an indicator. He quickly looked up in shock. That signal was only to be played when a certain individual had arrived: Aslan.

Then he saw him, the great lion approaching as his soldiers bowed down in awe and respect. The lion looked at Caspian's face, whose features were dark and full of despair.

"Aslan," was all Caspian could mutter.

"Son of Adam, why do you cry?" Aslan asked slowly. His presence seemed to warm Caspian immediately. But it was not enough to make him feel peaceful or any bit less sad. Wordlessly, he stroked Lillian's face and looked at her.

Aslan knew enough about that look. The look a person in love would do when he or she loses a lover unjustly. He approached Lillian's corpse and looked for a moment before turning back to Caspian.

"She fought bravely. She, nor you, deserved to die in this Battlefield." Aslan stated quietly. He pondered for a moment, then backed up a few steps and roared the loudest roar the army of Narnia and Caspian himself have ever heard.

Then Caspian felt something shift in his arms and looked down in shock. Lillian began to move!

Then ever so slightly, Lillian opened her eyes and found herself looking straight up at Caspian. The two silently looked at each other in surprise as they slowly realized what had just happened. Then Lillian looked over at Aslan in shock. She had never met the great lion before and she was surprised at how big he was and how he had brought her back to life. Lillian was having some difficulty adjusting to what had happened when Caspian muttered,

"Lillian," and kissed her deeply.

Lillian just stared up at the sky in shock at first. She didn't know what was going on!

She shook Caspian off and just stared at him. Eventually she found the ability to manage a whisper,

"Caspian, what?" She was confused at the entirety of that happened. Did she not die? Then, she followed Caspian's gaze.

Caspian smiled, looked up, and nodded, thanking the lion. In return, Aslan gave a slight nod of his head and turned around, heading back to the forest. Narnia was safe again, and Lillian was alive. Caspian could not have asked for anything more at that moment. And in place of his former despair was tremendous amount of relief and joy. With that, Caspian hugged Lillian closer to him silently, resting his head on hers, enjoying the moment and silence that hung around the battlefield peacefully.