A/N: I know this is supposed to be day 28, but apparently it's night 29 through whenever the chapter decides to end itself. I wasn't aware this conversation was going to happen.

Narnia belongs to someone else, and beta'd by trustingHim17!


When Rilian, Drinian, and Ileana returned to Cair Paravel, his guards gently reminded him that he had a Calormene to deal with. Rilian grimaced.

"Have the Calormene Ambassador meet me tomorrow for breakfast, so I can hear about him. Let the witnesses and the—he was demanding of a maid?—have them meet me in a breakfast tea room tomorrow, not the royal throne room. I'm going to see if we can uphold justice without bringing the whole of Narnia into it." He looked over to Drinian raising an eyebrow.

"You disagree?"

"It is not my place to publicly contradict the King."

Rilian sighed and strode forward, opening the door to the nearest gathering chamber. He poked his head inside, and, seeing no one inside, held the door open for his advisor to follow him.

Ileana followed as well, and Rilian hesitated.

But she was one of the King's people, and if she took tales of Narnian justice back beneath the waters, that would be all to the good. And if she understood some of the risks women faced above the ground, it would keep her safe.

That would be her reason for coming in, right? Just to hear more of the human world?

Rilian closed the door and turned to look at Drinian.

Drinian stood looking at Ileana, his hands on his hips, every inch a captain glaring at a recalcitrant sailor.

Ileana backed up, away from him, till Rilian put out a hand to stop her from backing into the door. She looked at him and moved both hands up and down, as if she was making waves. "I think I did something wrong again," she whispered. Rilian patted her shoulder.

"Drinian is just being careful. He doesn't like to set me straight in front of other people."

"I can leave—"

"This is part of the human world," Rilian interrupted, though gently. "I do not know if such men exist under the sea, but on the land, there are men who treat women as if women exist only to please men. That is what this man acted like, and I do not allow it in Narnia. But if you meet such a man, you must be prepared to fight him."

Ileana nodded. "To do such under the sea is to give the mermaid's family permission to chase the merman into the deepest, strongest currents; and he may not come out again. It does not happen often."

Rilian nodded. "This man from Calormen grabbed a maid's wrist too firmly and hurt her. She slapped him, and he was affronted. I must hear this case tomorrow."

"And you want to hear it in a small cove, not before the currents that would take the tale to all the ocean, and—" Ileana looked over at Drinian—"the man of the ships does not agree?"

"No." Drinian crossed his arms. He let his stare linger on Ileana for a moment, weighing her, before looking at the King. "Narnian women can defend themselves, the Lion be praised, but Your Majesty would scarcely want a place where they had to. If you keep this private—if you let him get away with anything less than public reprimand—then he'll do it again. Or those like him will. And if you make his trial private and his punishment public, he'll have room to say things happened that didn't happen. Clear horizons make for a safer ship, Your Majesty."

Rilian could feel a headache coming on. "And if Calormen decides to start a war because we punished one of their citizens?"

Drinian shrugged. "We've the desert and the sea, Your Majesty. I don't think they'd be so foolish." Then, to Rilian's surprise, Drinian looked at Ileana. "What do you think?"

Ileana hesitated. "I think you should do with him what we do with our merfolk."

"Dump him in the sea?" Both Drinian's eyebrows went up. "That's a death sentence, young mermaid."

"No, no, not like that! But—put him out. Out of Narnia."

"And tell the Tisroc one of his citizens caused a problem, and we're sending the problem back," Rilian murmured. "A public banishment—"

"After a public trial," Drinian put in, and Rilian nodded.

"And he can't trade in Narnia anymore." But Rilian stopped, thinking it over, trying to make sure it was just. "It's a large punishment for grabbing someone's wrist."

"It's an example as much as a punishment."

Rilian smiled. His old friend had no patience with those who did not respect life; but the King must be sometimes slower. Rilian had not enjoyed learning that lesson; it did not come naturally to him.

"I'll meet with the Ambassador tomorrow and find out how much he has to lose, and then hear the case. But I appreciate your wisdom, old friend."

"Even if it's only in semi-private," the old captain growled. "But you're the King. Good night, Your Majesty. Mermaid." He bowed, a deep bow to Rilian and normal one to Ileana, and went out. Rilian glanced at his guest. She looked back, waiting.

"Thank you," he said. "I appreciate your advice."

"I am glad to offer what knowledge I have." She smiled, but Rilian felt…wary about returning it. He liked it better when he was teaching her things, for he felt more in control then.* Yet she'd given good advice.

He moved back to his world, to the things to be handled for the night. "I think, lady of the sea, both of us should rest, for you have done much today, and I have a headache to rule tomorrow. But I would like to ask a maid to show you how humans sleep—and how to open your window, that you may hear the stars, if you wish."

"Oh, may I—that is, thank you."

Rilian paused at her hesitation. "Yes?"

"Can it be Galaxah?" She rushed to explain. "I have never met an Owl before, and listening to the way an Owl speaks is new. I would like to hear it again, and to make a better friend."

Rilian chuckled, reaching over to open the door. "Galaxah would likely be thrilled. But you will get comments about how nonsensical humans are, for lying flat," he warned, leading the way into the hall. "Yet we still find it more comfortable than sleeping with our heads buried under our arms while standing!"

"So I must listen to what humans do and not what Owls think humans should do," and laughter rippled in her voice.

"Indeed." Rilian walked into the central courtyard. "Galaxah!"


The next morning there were no more reports of Ileana wandering the halls, and Galaxah brought her to breakfast. Rilian nodded at them politely, but he wondered if Ileana should be there.

The Ambassador would be arriving shortly, or so Rilian hoped. The King's stomach rumbled. And his mind kept playing with what-if's, as ceaseless as waves hitting the shore. He thought to give the Ambassador a chance to confess before he took Drinian's advice about a public trial. But the King did not know if it would be the right decision.

He heard the chair next to him creak, and the next moment gentle fingers covered his own. Startled, he looked at Ileana.

"When—when the dark sang to me, it sang—it kept singing of all the things it wanted to do, all the different ways it could hurt me. I would dream of those things at night, though none of them ever happened, till my mother told me once that to dwell on what might have hurt me was foolish. It did not hurt me, it did not happen to me, and to think about what the Lion did not allow was to create shadows in my heart."

Her words stirred Rilian's memory, of the words the Lion had spoken to the Four, words his father had also heard. "Aslan said that we are not told what would have happened." He smiled, sliding his fingers out from under Ileana's and picking up a fork. If the Ambassador was late, the Ambassador could eat on his own. "From which we may know that we are not to deal with all the things that may happen, but what the Lion is allowing to happen to us now." He stabbed the fish on his plate.

"You heard His voice?"

Rilian left the fork halfway to his mouth. The mermaid's face nearly glowed, so strongly was it lit by curiosity. Rilian shook his head, regretful. "I have not seen Him face to face, lady. But—I have seen His paw at work."

"When?"

Rilian thought back to the darkness below the earth, the chambers lit by torches, and the moment when he'd gone to go get his armour. He told Ileana of finding his shield no longer bare and dark, but silver and red, with the figure of a Lion rampant on it—the promise that Aslan would be his guide, and the guides of the ones Rilian would now lead.

Telling her this memory brought hope back to his heart, and settled his fears. Aslan had guided him once, and the King knew he could continue to trust the Lion to guide him again.

At that moment Ileana picked up her fork and stabbed it into the fish on Rilian's plate. Rilian blinked. "Lady of the sea?" he asked, his eyes falling from her face to the food she was stealing off his plate.

"Isn't—isn't this what you did?" He looked back at her face, flushing slightly red. "I thought I wouldn't have to ask because I had seen you do it."

"Ah, yes, but this is my plate. See this in front of you," and he gently took her hand and moved it over her own plate, letting it go a moment later and continuing, "this is where you put the food you want to eat. Not from my plate!" he added hastily as she began reaching for the stack of grapes he'd put on the side, he was rather fond of those. "Nor from any other dish that looks like yours. You take food from the middle—these are called serving platters…"

By the time he had taught the mermaid what cups, forks, spoons, knives, and plates were (as well as trying to describe a bowl), people had begun arriving. He nodded to the first witness, old pine-tree Dryad who'd also been in the Ambassador's room, having escorted him there. The knotted old man nodded back. The guards who had been stationed outside the Ambassador's door arrived next, a Wolf and a Marshwiggle, and both helped themselves to the food immediately—though not without a muttered gloomy prediction about upset stomachs from the Marshwiggle that made Rilian smile.

How he missed Puddleglum! It had been months since he'd seen the valiant old grump.

"What makes you smile?" Ileana whispered beside him, and he turned his head to whisper back about an old friend, but at that moment the maid walked in.

She was human, fair-haired and brown-eyed, who had just started working at the Cair half a year before. She stood twisting her apron string in her hands and looking at the floor.

"Here," Ileana called before Rilian could say a word. "Sit by me." She patted the chair next to her.

The maid flushed, looking up, but obediently came and sat.

"Would you like some food? I haven't tasted much of it, though we used to eat this under the sea, only, of course, we did not cook it with fire. We'd wrap it in seaweed and leave it on floating pieces of wood we'd carved, letting the sun soften it. But this white circle…"

Rilian tuned out her prattle, watching the maid instead. Ileana's actions turned the attention of the entire room to the maid, who blushed further. Rilian caught the shaking of the Marshwiggle's head in sympathy, and the way the Wolf glared at the door.

He could not silence the voice inside his head that said if a woman wanted to enchant a king, the first thing she had to do was give him an enemy to fight. A serpent to endlessly hunt, a nation to break out and rule against—something. Something like Calormen, already cruel and threatening.

A sympathetic king could very easily make a judgement that would bring a war, and therefore an enemy. Calormen would likely attack by sea, and if the mermaids helped to fight…the war could be prolonged just enough to ensnare a king, to urge a political alliance through marriage.

The rest of Rilian's head told that voice to be silent, it would not be the first time someone made a mistake through compassion.

Of course, right at that moment, the Ambassador entered.

The Marshwiggle plopped himself into the chair on the other side of the girl, muttering about how she'd likely catch a draft from the open door, but Rilian noted how the maid relaxed, shoulders going down.

Whatever had happened, it had left her afraid. Though—things in her demeanour suggested more fear rebuke than of a particular person; at least so far.

"Please be seated." Rilian gestured at the chair closest to himself, so he could be between the accused and the one he hurt. "Did you bring anyone with you, our Calormen friend? I thought perhaps you might want witnesses."

The beardless desert traveller bowed deeply, showing the top of his white turban. "No, great barbarian king whose mercy is widely known, I thought no other of my kind should be witness of my shame. I came to offer you my most humble apologies."

Rilian paused, taking a moment to think. He had not expected it to be this easy. But still—he had hoped for justice. "It is not me you owe an apology to." He did not fail to notice the Calormene had not once looked towards the maid he'd injured.

The Ambassador turned in the maid's direction, giving a perfunctory bow."My apologies, my apologies, please forgive this worthless servant. I had but expressed a little displeasure; but the poets speak of harming what we do not know, and—"

"I accept your apology," the maid said stiffly. She glanced at King Rilian. "But I still don't want to serve him."

"Noted," the King said absently. He stared at the Calormene. "I would have you take this word back to your people, to all those who reach Narnian shores. We have no social rules that put one life above another. For any visitor, Calormene or otherwise, any harm they do to those who serve them, the same harm will be done to them. If you grab one of my people roughly again, Ambassador, I will ask one of my guards to do the same to you. Do you comprehend this?"

Agreement poured forth from the Calormene, flowing phrases Rilian did not trust in the least. He raised his hand. "Then we are understood. Go back to your work, and may the Lion teach you what is truly of worth."

He waited till the door closed behind their guest, then looked back at the maid. "What is your name?"

"Peri, Your Majesty."

"What are you trained for, Peri? You haven't been here long, if I remember aright?"

"Just waiting on guests, Your Majesty. Old Feathers took me on when all the Archenlanders came over at Christmastime, since there weren't enough hands. It's all I've been trained for yet."

"Well, since you have no desire to serve our unpleasant guest, how about a pleasant one?" Rilian picked up his fork and waved at Ileana with his other hand. "This is Ileana, a mermaid from the sea. She requires someone to teach her about the world on land. Would you be interested in that, Peri?"

The girl's eyes grew bigger and bigger, looking at Ileana in wonder. "A mermaid?" she squeaked.

Ileana put both her hands together, one laid flat over the other, and bent from the waist, nearly smacking the arm of the chair. "I am Ileana of the Landshore clan, come to the human world for another twenty-eight days. I do not know what kind of help I need, but—" she glanced at Rilian, "it has become evident I need quite a bit of instruction."

"She learns quickly," Rilian reassured them around a mouthful of fish. "But perhaps you could start by telling her what the different kinds of foods are?"


Rilian did not see Ileana for the rest of the day. A part of him had wanted to teach her about breakfast foods himself, for he enjoyed his time with the lady of the sea. But it had felt very good, to have her hand over his when she reassured him, and he had wanted to hold her hand longer when he guided it back to the plate.

It made him uneasy. So when he got up from breakfast, and watched her begin to do the same, he'd shook his head, and gone quickly down the hallway.

He'd spent the rest of the day meeting with Ambassadors, using all the tact he'd had to learn to spread the word of his decision. There would be no more bruised servants in Cair Paravel.

He told himself that Ileana would not have liked it anyway. It was drudgery, long and tedious conversations filled with polite phrases no one meant, bowing, laughing at things that weren't truly funny…after he finished, Rilian felt a bit of the dark clinging to his spirit again. Dwelling on the meaninglessness of living things often did that to him.

He found himself walking towards Ileana's room, only to change his mind and walk into the armoury, the library, even the guard tower at one point. But anytime he left the place he'd found and began walking again, he felt like going to her door.

It alarmed him, how strongly he was drawn to her, to the comfort and light she offered. She seemed able to chase away all the shadows.

Except, of course, for the shadow she cast. For if Ileana did, indeed, come to cause harm—and Rilian did not trust himself enough to disregard that possibility —then the pain would be another shadow haunting him.

And he didn't know how to banish that lingering fear.


*Not a sign of a healthy relationship, just want to make sure that's clear. But a relationship with fears shadowing it can have unhealthy tendencies, like the fearful person wanting to remain in control at all times.