When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone

Sits at Cair Paravel in throne,

The evil time will be over and done.

That's what I don't understand, Mr Beaver … I mean isn't the Witch herself human?

She'd like us to believe it … and it's on that that she bases her claim to be Queen. But she's no Daughter of Eve. … No, no, there isn't a drop of real human blood in the Witch … take my advice, when you meet anything that's going to be human and isn't yet, or used to be human once and isn't now, or ought to be human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.

(Exerts from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe)

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Previously in 'The King and The Statue'

Edmund found that he couldn't look away from Aria's mesmerising eyes as she brought her lips to his in a heated kiss. As her lips explored his Edmund shifted his hands to run his fingers through her hair, something he had been itching to do since he first saw it.

Aria's lips twitched slightly as is she was smiling and then, Edmund found himself on his back as she unceremoniously threw him off her onto the snowy forest floor.

A moment later and she was up and running into the woods again.

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"Aria, stop! … I'm not going to harm you!"

Aria found herself once more thrown to the ground and unceremoniously pinned. Even as she struggled Aria realised that she believed Ed, although he was holding her firmly, his grip was not unkind, and he seemed to be avoiding her wounded wrists and ankles. Not the actions she would expect of a servant of Jadis.

Abruptly she stopped her struggles. She was not going to get away from him anyway, wounded and weaponless as she was.

"Why did you run?" Ed asked as he pulled her to her feet.

Aria snorted indelicately.

"Why? … you're going to bring me to the Queen … to her castle … you and your wolf and dwarves!"

Ed's blank look cleared with dawning comprehension and his gaze darted to her bandaged wrists.

"Aria, we aren't bringing you to the White Witch's castle … she's dead … we're bringing you to Cair Paravel."

Aria's breath caught in her throat.

"She's dead?" she gasped.

"Really dead?"

"How"

"When?"

The ground suddenly felt unsteady under feet and Aria sat on a nearby tree stump rather than risk falling.

"The White Witch has been dead these past ten years" Edmund explained gently. "Aslan killed her."

Aria's ears had started ringing.

"How long … how long have I been stone?" she asked faintly.

"Aria, I'm sorry, but we think, we believe … you seem to have been stone … for over one hundred years."

Edmund's explanation turned into a soft curse as Aria, white as the snow around her, toppled from the stump in a dead faint.

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Aria sat among Edmund and his soldiers, they were on the way back to Cair Paravel and had stopped for the night.

"She's really dead."

Edmund nodded although it wasn't clear if this was a question or a statement. He looked at Aria thoughtfully.

"So … you do remember?"

Aria bit her lip.

"Yes … I'm sorry … I didn't think that I could trust you. I thought that you were working for Jadis."

She looked at him questioningly.

"Who do you work for … who is this Queen that you are taking me too?"

Edmund paused, he was still not sure that he fully trusted Aria and he was fairly certain that she still wasn't being entirely truthful with him.

"The prophecy has been fulfilled" he told her carefully. "The four thrones in Cair Paravel are filled."

"The four thrones … Adam's flesh and Adam's bone!"

"You know of the Prophecy then?" asked Oreius.

Aria nodded.

"The prophecy was given by a Centaur in my time" she told them. "It was a cause of great contention … the throne was occupied at the time by King Frank's descendant, Queen Swanwhite …"

"Can you tell us about it?" asked Edmund, and the others nodded. So little was known about the time just before the Witch, as she had taken great care to kill those who could report on it.

Aria looked around the camp as if considering how much to tell them and then she nodded, wrapping her blanket more firmly around her and settling back into the crook of the tree that she rested against.

"As I said, Queen Swanwhite was on the Throne when a centaur sage visited the court, he had had a vision … a telling."

And Aria told of how the Centaur had told that four saviours would arrive in Narnia, that they would kill a great evil, a witch, that sat on the throne of Narnia and that they, 'Adams flesh and Adam's bone' would rule Narnia from then on.

She told of unrest in the Court.

It was well known that the children of Helen and Frank had married non – humans, for Helen and Frank and their children had been the only Humans in Narnia at the beginning. They had married nymphs, river gods, dryads …

Their direct descendants, the Kings and Queens who followed had kept to this tradition, even as the other humans had married among themselves.

And so, it was widely known that the blood of the rulers of Narnia was no longer fully human. No longer purely the blood of Adam and Eve.

Some therefore thought that the prophesy meant that the line of Helen and Frank was to come to an end, that their mixed blood was going to produce a witch that would need to be ended by these prophesied four, the four of pure human blood.

Some even eyed Swanwhite and her family and whispered that any one of them could be the Witch spoken of … A fair face, they said, often hid nefarious intentions.

"And then" Aria went on. "Into the midst of this confusion and conflict came Jadis."

She told how Jadis had not been recognised as the same witch who had come into Narnia on the first day. She had passed herself off as Royalty visiting from a foreign land. Royalty, she claimed of pure human blood.

"It was at this time that it became popular to refer to those of purer human blood as 'Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve'" Arai continued. "Those of mixed blood were referred to as just human. It was viewed as an insult, a slur."

The peoples of Narnia were divided, Aria told them. At first Jadis lived at court and presented herself as a friend to the crown, but she was anything but.

"She … she started a romance with the Crown Prince … told Queen Swanwhite that their union would renew the blood of the Royal line, and Swanwhite, even though she had doubts about the sincerity of Jadis's love for the prince, believed this!

… she believed it until Jadis was found standing over the prince's body with her stone knife in her hand!"

Aria paused to dash away tears that had sprung to her eyes.

"After that Jadis was known to be an enemy of the crown, but there were many who still flocked to her banner, who thought that she was the path to the 'salvation' of Narnia, that her rule would pave the way to the four who would save Narnia from the witch"
Aria laughed bitterly.

"In their blindness, they did not even realise that it was she … Jadis was the witch.

Jadis even dredged up a prophecy that told that one of the four would join with her. That he would be at her side. There were many who swore they witnessed the Centaur who had given the prophesy, that it was true."

Edmund shifted uncomfortably at this, but if Aria noticed, she gave no sign.

In the end Jadis proved that she wanted to get rid of all the humans, no matter how much or how little human blood they had.

She killed … every … single … one … of … them.

I was the last of them!

Arai looked around at the shocked faces of Edmund and the soldiers with tear filled eyes.

"She saved me until last so that I would suffer, watching the others die!"

It was Edmund who found his voice first.

"Why … why did she hate you so much?"

Aria started and her face shuttered as if she realised that she had said too much.

"I would rather not say … for now … I can see that you do not really trust me … and I am unsure of how much to trust you …"

Edmund opened his mouth as if to say something, but then nodded.

"You have told us a lot. Thank you, Aria."

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Later Edmund wandered from the sleeping camp. He himself could not sleep. When they had been told of Jadis's defeat of Narina, they had not considered the implications, the real cost to the Narnians of her deception. The cost of the conflict to all Narnians, both human and non – human.

Seeing water glinting through the trees, Edmund made his way towards it, thinking to splash his face to clear his thoughts. Coming closer he noticed a figure at the water's edge.

It was Aria. Edmund cursed himself, he had not even noticed that she was no longer in the camp when he had left – some soldier he was!

As he neared, he could see that Aria was leaning far out over the water and squinting he could just make out a figure in the pool … it was the water's naiad, Aria appeared to be speaking to it earnestly. Edmund leaned forward to see if he could catch the murmured words, but as he leaned a branch cracked beneath his foot.

Two faces, Aria's and the naiad's snapped towards him and with a startled gasp, the naiad disappeared beneath the surface.

Aria stood slowly as Edmund approached.

"Spying on me?" she asked.

"You're keeping things from me Aria" Edmund accused softly trying not to look too closely at her as he found his wits scattered when she was too near. But Aria was having none of it, she moved until she was standing directly before him, green eyes staring intently into his brown.

"You are one to talk 'Son of Adam'" she answered.

"I saw you when I spoke of the Witch's prophesy, saw how you started. Trust is earned … not given."

Edmund stood, lost for words as Aria walked back through the trees to the camp.

That's it for now - please leave a review if you're reading - even one word is encouraging.