Thanks to all readviewers! I was trying to evoke some of the magic of the end of LB without directly quoting it, so I'm glad that worked out.
War is awful. That is all.
Prompt: One of the Friends of Narnia is called mad/insane.
There were rumors. Vague, unsubstantiated, whispered in secrecy only among those in the profession, certainly not printable in any way, and so gravely serious that those who spoke of them feared losing their livelihoods if caught at it. Rumors of a great weapon in development that would end the war.
Mary Plummer paid attention, but made no comment. Something stirred in her mind from long ago, the memory of a warning once received.
When the Allied declaration demanded surrender under threat of prompt and utter destruction, those who believed the rumors took it as confirmation. Eleven days later, they were proved horribly right.
Reactions in the newsroom ran the gamut. Opinions abounded from every side. "That'll teach the Japs!" "Was it really necessary?" "Should have been Tokyo." "Why didn't they send any warning?" "Serves them right for Pearl Harbor." "So much death..." But regardless of these differing views, all present were agreed that certainly Japan would surrender now.
All present except one.
"What, Mary! You must be mad. How could they not, after such a demonstration?"
"And after the American president's warning!"
"I pray they do. But I don't think they will, not yet."
"Why not?"
She shrugged. "Call it an intuition developed when I visited Japan in my younger years, call it a reasoned guess based on them having never yet lost a war, call it the logical conclusion of the sentiment previously expressed by the Prime Minister. I simply think it will, sadly, take more than this."
It did. As they discovered over the next week and a half, it took a betrayal, an invasion, a second appalling loss of life, and an attempted coup in rapid succession. While the world rocked in the aftermath, Mary remembered often the warning given so long ago.
It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things.
And she prayed it might never happen again.
