Disclaimer: The Chronicles of Narnia belong to C.S. Lewis, not me or am I making any profit with this story. I only own Alexandra and her friends/family or any other character you don't recognize.

"Alexandra?"

"Your majesty." She nodded her head in recognition of his title.

To Knight Rossendal the room seemed frozen for a few moments. The King looked at the newcomer with such a strong mix of emotions written in his eyes that he had never witnessed before. He had never seen the Just King show that much emotion, period. He was also recognized for being a quick thinker and a fine diplomat, it was very rare, some would say impossible, to see him speechless. Nothing ever caught him off guard...that was until that strange woman had showed up that afternoon. And focusing his attention on her, he managed to notice that she looked at him intently too, as if wanting to give him the most important message ever without words.

The Knight couldn't help himself but wonder how they knew each other, because as far as he knew, King Edmund had had many women after him for years, hoping to become the next Queen of Narnia, but none of them had succeeded. He didn't even glance in their direction. But they were so desperate for power that many had decided to simply ignore the fact that the king was already married, even if she was not around anymore, it was obvious she still held the heart of the king. That's why he believed it was prohibited to speak about the sixth ruler of the narnian land.

It was a wound that was still fresh.

Edmund was finally able to speak again, even if he hadn't found the strength to stand up from his chair yet.

"Is it really you?" He asked the dumbest question (in accordance to Alex) that he could have thought of, and he was a smart man.

"I don't know. You tell me?" She said finally breaking his stare and looking around the tent, moving slightly to the right, her back facing the king. There was ink, quills and papers scattered all around. 'Typical Ed.' Alex thought, a small smile slipping from her lips.

Something drove the king to close the distance between the two of them and finally get those answers he had spent several sleepless nights trying to guess. But as soon as he started to move towards the girl, someone jumped in the empty space between them two.

Ninarika wagged her tail slowly and looked at Edmund as if daring him to keep moving.

"Your majesty." She bowed slightly and kept her protective position in front of Alex, who had turned around by now and looked at the scene with amusement in her eyes as she lay one hand on the tigress soft fur.

"Of course it's you then. Hello Ninarika." Edmund rolled his eyes but nodded towards the tigress, acknowledging her role as Alexandra's personal guard.

The fact that King Edmund knew the name of the tigress before he had time to introduce her confirmed Knight Rossendal's suspicion that they all knew each other. But apparently Edmund wasn't the only slow thinker that day, because until now he hadn't given much thought to the fact that the King called the woman a different name than the one she had given him before.

"Ed" She called him and even though it doesn't sound very manly, he could have fainted right there and then. He was starting to believe that he'd never hear her say his name again.

"Y-yes?" He stuttered. All the King's followers were astonished. It was the first time he stuttered like that for a woman.

"The audience makes me kind of uncomfortable...All the practice of discussing my personal affairs in front of other people seems to be lost. I'm sorry." She looked around apologetically to all who had been their escorts.

"Oh...Right. Please, return to your duties." He commanded with a short nod of his head, only looking away from her for a couple seconds.

"Your majesty." Knight Rossendal caught his attention.

"You can leave too Ben. Send someone to the palace to inform that we're coming home this evening." He tried to dismiss him, but the rules said that at least one guard was to stay by the King at all times.

"But sir...They're strangers, It's uncertain if they represent a threat. I cannot leave you alone." He said nobly, making the tigress almost roll her eyes. She had always thought that human guards were many times overdramatic.

Alexandra just smiled softly at him.

"Believe me Ben, there is no-" He was interrupted mid sentence.

"I can assure you I don't want to harm King Edmund, and even if I did have those intentions, he is an unbelievably talented swordsman, I would know."

'But how?' He thought and Edmund could easily read in his eyes the confusion. Benjamin was one of his best men, humans at least. But sometimes he didn't catch the details fast enough, or he focused too much on them and too little in the bigger picture.

"Ben, I would like to introduce you to Queen Alexandra, the Light of Narnia and her guardian, Ninarika...Alexandra, this is Knight Benjamin Rossendal."

It took Ben about a minute to really understand who was standing before him. He finally got why she looked so familiar. She was the sixth and missing queen of Narnia.

"Your majesty." He bowed respectfully and she recognized him with a slight bow of her head too.

"Well met, Knight Rossendal." She said naturally.

But if the beautiful woman who had mysteriously appeared in the woods was truly the Light Queen, then that meant that...

"She's your wife too." He said without thinking and then paled when he saw the solemn face of the Just King and the slight grimace from the Queen, even though she never lost the small smile that graced her features.

"Well well, it looks like someone did his homework!" She said jokingly, dismissing the statement, or at least trying to.

"Excuse me." The embarrassed knight said and after bowing to both of them, he left the tent, red as a tomato.

"He's nice." The Queen commented, not really wanting to discuss anything serious yet. She had yet to get used to the presence of the King near her, his stare could melt her if he looked at her for too long and she didn't even want to think about his voice, his soft but firm and velvety voice.

"I don't think it's fair." He ignored her comment by making a statement of his own.

"What don't you see as fair?" She asked quite confused by his outburst.

"All my guard is gone." He simply said and her mouth opened in a tiny 'o', that before she turned down to look at Ninarika, who had her teeth exposed now.

"Nice try." She said and Alexandra sighed, knowing that as much as she hated to admit it, he was right. It wasn't fair.

"Nina, it's okay." Alex said laying a hand on her upper back and stroking it softly. 'You'll know if I need you.' She spoke mentally to the tigress, who left the tent a couple of seconds later, the Just King not being one of her favorite people at the moment.

Finally, it was only the two of them.