This is Home

Epilogue

[Note: A portion of this was taken from the Last Battle by C.S. Lewis himself. I will mark said portion as such: ()]

Peter and Edmund had gone back to get the rings. Everyone else was already on another train. Esther would have joined them, but she had university.

Once they'd gotten the rings, they arrived back at the train station and were readying to climb onto the train. Peter glanced at his brother. "They're coming way too fast." Another train rammed into the platform.

---

Esther frowned when she received a letter. She opened it and read it aloud. "We regret to inform you of an accident at a local train station. Among the casualties was your fiancé, Edmund Pevensie."

She gasped softly and held the letter to her chest as she began crying.

The years weren't always kind to her, but she managed. She couldn't bring herself to love another, so she instead remained unmarried. Though, she did keep her engagement ring and spoke of the man she loved so often, others thought he must have been off serving the country, or perhaps that he'd died in war.

She became a history professor and spoke of Narnia often, making her students wonder if the magical land was an old myth or a real land. No one was entirely certain.

Years later, she laid sick in bed and let out a breath. "Father, I'm ready. My love, it's only a matter of time. Oh, I can't wait to see you again."

Her eyes closed for the last time and she let out a final breath.

---

Esther woke up dressed in a long green Narnian dress in a field.

She noticed Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Polly, Professor Kirke, her parents, Helen and Mr. Pevensie. Odd.

(How did you get here?" Professor Kirke asked.

"There's not much to tell," said Peter. "Edmund and I were standing on the platform and we saw your train coming in. I remember thinking, and saying it was taking the bend far too fast."

"And what happened then?" said Jill.

"Well, it's not very easy to describe, is it, Edmund?" said the High King.

"Not very," said Edmund. "It wasn't at all like that other time when we were pulled out of our own world by Magic. There was a frightful roar and something hit me with a bang, but it didn't hurt. And I felt not so much scared as—well, excited. Oh—and this is one queer thing. I'd had a rather sore knee, from a hack at rugger. I noticed it had suddenly gone. And I felt very light. And then—here we were."

"It was much the same for us in the railway carriage," said the Lord Digory, wiping the last traces of the fruit from his golden beard. "Only I think you and I, Polly, chiefly felt that we'd been unstiffened. You youngsters won't understand. But we stopped feeling old."

"After the shock and the noise," said Lucy, "we found ourselves here."

"You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be."

Lucy said, "We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often."

"No fear of that," said Aslan. "Have you not guessed?"

Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them.

"There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.")

Esther glanced at Aslan and smiled before turning to the others with the same smile.

She turned to Edmund and threw her arms around him.

Edmund picked her up and spun her around before saying, "I've been waiting for you."

He set her down and she cupped his face before saying, "It's been so long."

After a tender kiss, she turned to Aslan and asked, "What of Susan?"

Aslan's gaze was sullen. "Susan is no longer a Friend of Narnia. But there is hope for her yet."

Esther nodded slowly. "I do hope she comes back to her faith."

"As do I, dear one."

Esther laced her fingers through Edmund's and said, "Friends of Narnia, let us celebrate. The long night may have ended, but the eternal dawn has just begun."

Edmund kissed Esther's temple and gently squeezed her hand.

The Friends of Narnia journeyed into Aslan's Country, not once looking back at the the world they'd left behind.