A/N: After three attempts to write a story for this prompt, I think I've got one. Thanks to my cousin. All kudos to her, for my attempt four.
Something old.
Aravis hadn't wanted a traditional Calormene wedding, but the Archenland wedding ceremonies seemed…a bit simplistic. So she'd asked Queen Susan and Queen Lucy about Narnian ones.
Narnian weddings sounded overwhelming. So much joy, seven days of feasting, it sounded…overwhelming. She'd much rather have Cor to herself after a few hours, whether to fight or do other things, she didn't care. Just not seven days with the court.
Cor agreed, which made it easier. When they were united, not many stood against them. Also, King Lune usually understood when something from her past slapped her gently in the face with a subtle, shameful sting. He'd advised her to go to the Narnian Queens, saying they were much better with such things than he was.
When she'd fumblingly expressed what she wanted to Queen Susan, how she wanted ritual, small, but rituals that meant something, just not in an irritating abundance, the Gentle Queen had looked at her sister. "Dost thou remember much about weddings in that other place?"
"I have not thought of it in years. But vaguely do I remember a saying—old and new, something…something…
"Oh!" Queen Susan exclaimed, her face lighting up with the beauty that had captured Rabadash so easily. "Something old, something new, something borrowed…"
"Something blue!"
Both Queens looked at Aravis in question. "A ritual like that? Dost it suit thee?" Queen Susan asked, voice gentle.
"What—what does it mean?"
Again the two queens looked at each other, communicating with a head tilt or slight hand gesture.
"We do not remember, sorry though we are to disappoint thee," and Queen Lucy put a hand on Aravis' shoulder.
"But perhaps we may guess at their hidden meanings," Queen Susan added, gentle voice thoughtful. "For something old—surely that be clear enough. Something from thy past, for it is from thy past that thou continues to the future."
A grimace distorted Aravis' face before she could stop it.
"Thy past is a part of thee." Queen's Lucy's gaze held Aravis', direct and truthful. "To set it aside would be to set aside all that Aslan planned for thy childhood. Though my sister's and my past has, to a measure, been set aside by memory, it is yet a part of us. Often I act from it. Thy own past wilt be the same."
"Is there nothing thee would keep? No memory of family?" Queen Susan interposed gently. "For often I have seen thee with a dagger on thy belt that is not of Archeland make."
"Oh," Aravis whispered. "My brother's dagger." The feel of it, hard and smooth beneath her fingers, steadied her. "I could carry that," she added firmly.
Something new.
There were a few other Calormene traditions she kept—a sash, tied on her left wrist and on Cor's right, to symbolise their bond for life.
Corin was soundly ignored when he suggested it have a rents and tears in it, to symbolise their arguments.
But there were new things, too, for Queen Susan had guessed that something new meant hope for the future, a looking forward as one walked from the past to the future. Aravis did not wear her shoes, white, with small white flowers embroidered all over, tiny pearls at the centre of each, till the day of her wedding, after she had slipped into her wedding dress. If something new meant going from the past to the future, she thought it fitting her shoes would be the thing that carried her.
Cor's shoes were new as well, and he did not wear them before the wedding because they pinched his feet in ways he did not like. Having gone barefoot all his former life, he still did not like wearing shoes.
Something borrowed.
The meaning of the third phrase had been more unclear. A sign that thou cannot go through life alone, Queen Susan had suggested. Perhaps it is a reminder of the relationships you already have, had suggested Queen Lucy. But the Queens had been quick to bring the something borrowed: a set of pearl bracelets (from Queen Lucy) and a pearl necklace (from Queen Susan), given by the Merfolk to the Queens on their nineteenth birthdays, the same age Aravis was now. Privately, though she would never have said so, Aravis wore them in hope that the joy and wisdom that graced both Queens would grace her marriage also.
She'd need it, if she were to be a Queen or Cor's wife, much more when she would be both.
Something blue.
This phrase had stumped Aravis. Why something blue?
Perhaps because it rhymes? Queen Lucy suggested, but Queen Susan had shaken her head. She'd remembered that, in that old place, it had meant love, purity, and fidelity, the blessings of marriage.
So Aravis had lined the clearing in blue, tying it in swoops between each of the outer trees, high enough the Centaurs did not have to duck to come under it, and from the outer trees to the two trees she and Cor would be married between. She'd also tied a blue ribbon in her hair to keep the top half out of her face, light blue against the black strands, and the sash between her and Cor had been coloured the exact same shade.
What she hadn't known was that, on Queen Susan's advice, he'd dressed himself in a light blue tunic and a navy blue overvest with golden buttons, each shaped like the head of a lion.
Something blue, Aravis thought, squeezing the hand he reached out to her as they turned to face each other. I think blue may be my favourite colour from this day on. The sash of her past, tied to her husband and her future, the ribbon in her hair that let her see clearly, the sky above them, the flowers all the audience held, and the cloth among the trees—all of it reminded her of the solemn promises she was making, and the hope they gave her for the future. I really like the colour blue.
A/N: Not sure anyone else wanted the three attempts I made - hints at stories that won't be written - but if you were curious, you have my sympathy, it's a lifelong affliction and blessing, and to reward it, here's what I wrote.
The world ran blue for mermaids, blue in the water, blue in the sky. Blue, blue-green, white on the blue, light in the blue, clear and dark, all the shades of blue from the black of the caverns in the floor to the translucent water on the surface.
It had always contented Hetherra before. But now her sister, married to Narnia's King, didn't spend much time in it, and it didn't seem quite as pretty. (Piram comforting Hetherra as they look at all the different shades of blue in the water and sky.)
It was Susan's favourite colour. Water at its gentlest, still and calm.
It was Peter's favourite colour. A sky on a clear day, burning blue, the colour of freedom.
It was Susan's strongest memory, when her brothers were gone, and only the things they loved remained.
Each of the four had a favourite colour.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say each of the four had a secondary favourite colour. A certain shade of gold held the centre of their hearts in an unbreakable love, but after that colour—they had a second.
Peter loved the rich crimson of Narnia's scarlet lion on the banners, the colour of berries before harvest, and the colour of the flag that flew above Cair Paravel. Courage, prosperity, and home, for the land and people he loved.
A light, rich brown stayed Edmund's stated favourite, though if anyone asked him why, he just smiled. But he could never forget the eyes of Aslan, the morning he'd been brought back from death and been given a forgiveness he'd never deserved nor could repay.
Susan's favourite covered a spectrum, for she loved purple in all shades, from the pale of a newly blossomed lilac to the deep royal purple of her favourite dress. Her brothers made her a bracelet twisted from light and deep purple silk strings, and she wore it every day there was not an event.
The colour of grass and green leaves, of life and spring and the remembrance of Aslan's coming lived right behind gold in Lucy's heart.
But there was a time when blue became the colour of promise for all four. (Locked in a prison away from the sun and sky for a week, trying to get out, and breathing a deep sigh of relief when they see the sun again.)
Prompt 14: Blue
