The Pevensies had decided to continue exploring.
What they needed was answers.
Answers about just why their old castle was now reduced to ruins.
Answers that they came across fairly soon.
Answers that were not exactly positive in nature.
"Catapults", said Edmund as he crouched down onto the grassy floor beside a large stone boulder.
"What?" Peter asked as he and their two sisters approached their brother.
"This didn't just happen. Cair Paravel was attacked", Edmund answered.
Each of the Pevensie siblings all took a moment to let it sink in.
Attacked.
By who?
When?
Why?
What was the current outcome they had arrived into?
Peter was the first to move as he caught sight of the remains of a familiar looking wall.
One which, if he recalled correctly, housed a hidden door behind it.
Both he and Edmund managed to push aside the stone wall, revealing an ancient wooden door.
It crumbled underneath Peter's hand with ease as he pushed a chunk of it inwards to reach the lock on the other side.
It swung open, revealing a pitch-black tunnel.
Peter used a small pocketknife Edmund had packed in his satchel to tear the end of his shirt apart.
He tied the material around the end of a small branch before looking up to his brother.
"I don't suppose you have any matches, do you?" he asked, needing one to complete his makeshift lamp.
"Um ... no, but ...", Edmund started as he opened his satchel, digging around for something.
"Would this help?" he added, taking out a silver flashlight, holding it up with a smirk.
"You might have mentioned that a bit sooner", Peter scolded, looking down to the state of his torn shirt.
Susan and Lucy both shared an amused glance as Edmund flicked on the flashlight and headed into the tunnel.
Peter discarded the branch to the side, gesturing for his sisters to go before him.
The four made their way inside, walking down some very dirty stone steps.
Eventually, they reached a room lit up with warm golden light.
Inside were four stone statues, depicting two Kings and two Queens.
In front of each was a large golden chest.
Peter remembered that room being created.
Valera had one of her own in Irondale which she had used to house her old belongings when Jadis attacked, and she was forced to leave her castle.
He had quite liked the idea, and thus the statues had been carved.
But when they left, the chests were empty. There was no need for them to be filled as there was no threat of a future in which they would be forced out of Cair Paravel.
However, he could only hope that the chests would now play host to their old items.
Peter pushed through the black gates, walking through into the room first, taking in the sight in front of him.
"I can't believe it. It's all still here", he thought out loud with slight disbelief in his tone.
The rest of their castle was in ruins, but this room (whilst a complete mess, covered in dust and dirt), was intact.
Lucy ran past him over to the statue that looked just like her past, older self which was placed on the furthest right side.
Susan walked over to her own statue which was to Lucy's left.
Edmund approached his, all the way on the left side of the room.
Each of them pushed open their individual chests, the dust that had accumulated on the tops of them tumbling down onto the floor.
Peter took a step forward towards his own chest in between Edmund and Susan, but stopped short when something caught his eye.
It was a portrait.
One that he hadn't seen for a year, but one that was engraved into his mind.
Picking it up, Peter carefully brushed the dust away from its surface.
The small golden plaque on the bottom had an engraving.
THE DAUGHTERS OF THE SUN AND THE MOON
The four sisters were arranged in a diamond shape.
Jadis was painted at the top.
Lilith and Saida beside each other in the centre.
But Peter's eyes immediately fell to the youngest of them just as they had done when he first saw the portrait in the house of the professor.
The Daughter of Summer.
The Golden Witch.
Valera was painted there with her eyes of the earth, her golden hair, her hands outstretched with small leaves painted to entwine around her fingers.
It didn't even come close to capturing her true beauty.
A beauty Peter had missed witnessing every day for the past year.
"I was so tall", Lucy's voice snapped him out of his trance.
Peter glanced up away from the portrait to see his youngest sister holding up one of her old dresses in front of her.
"Well, you were older then", Susan pointed out.
"As opposed to hundreds of years later ... when you're younger", Edmund joked from beside his own chest, now having an oversized silver helmet placed over his head.
Lucy and Susan both giggled before returning their focus to their chests.
Peter also chuckled slightly as he glanced over to his own statue.
The carved face of his older self was looking straight at him.
The face of a man who Peter resented now that he thought about it.
It was that man who waited too long to wed the women he loved.
It was that man who abandoned her.
And he had left it to Peter now to figure out just what had happened to her since then.
Peter held onto the portrait as he walked across the room to his chest.
"What is it?" Lucy asked.
"My horn ... I must've left it on my saddle the day we went back", Susan replied in a disappointed tone, holding onto her old bow and arrows.
Peter took in a deep breath and lifted the lid of his chest open.
Inside was a collection of all manner of things.
Armour being the first one to catch his eye.
Old satchels and scrolls being the second.
The third being the first item he chose to touch.
His old sword.
The hilt of it housing a small golden lion on the pummel.
It was sheathed in its red leather scabbard.
Peter lifted it from the chest, drawing forth the shining silver blade.
Each of his siblings had paused to watch as he analysed it up and down, looking at the familiar inscriptions.
His mind wandered back to the days he would use his sword.
Specifically when he demanded Valera had sword practice during some of the days they spent together.
It always amused him to watch her train with a sword, knowing she was a weapon in her own right.
It was also a lot more hilarious when he had practiced for years and became more skilled in combat than she was.
Witnessing her try to best him, only to use a surrounding vine to bring him to the floor.
That was when she would laugh, and the angelic sound would bring unto him a calmness and a joy like no other.
But those memories bought forth the thought he had been trying to avoid.
That he may never hear her laugh again.
If Edmund was right, and hundreds of years had passed ... Valera was gone.
And if she were gone, the prophecy hadn't been completed.
Narnia hadn't been united with a ring.
Because Peter had left her.
"When Aslan bares his teeth, winter meets its death", Peter began to recite the age-old prophecy with a solemn tone.
"When he shakes his mane ... we shall have spring again", Lucy continued, snapping his gaze up to his sister away from the sword.
Her tone matched his.
Saddened by the realization.
"Everyone we knew ... Mr Tumnus and the Beavers and ...", her voice trailed off before she could list the final name on each of their minds.
"Valera", Susan was the one to say it.
"They're all gone", Lucy finished.
Peter felt a pain in his chest by his heart.
It had snapped in two.
Valera was gone.
No.
Impossible, she can't be gone.
He refused to believe that she spent her final moments believing he had abandoned her.
The thought of her waiting for his arrival, just like she had done with her sisters, only made the pain in his chest worsen.
Valera had to still be here in Narnia.
He had seen her.
She was young again.
He had to explain, to apologise, to kiss her again, to finally give her the ring that was currently lying in his trouser pocket.
As he remembered the ring, Peter quickly placed his sword back into its scabbard and turned back to his chest.
His three siblings all watched on in silence and confusion as Peter desperately dig through his belongings.
He let out a sigh of relief as he saw a small black leather box placed at the very bottom of the chest.
Taking it out, he saw the familiar family crest that belonged to the girl he loved engraved into the lid.
There was a sun and a moon overlapping. In the centre stood four small symbols. A snowflake, a leaf, a bud, and a flower painted in gold.
It had been the box that was gifted to Valera when they each received their respective presents in winter.
Inside had initially been rings belonging to Lilith and Saida. Rings that reunited the Daughter of Summer with those of Autumn and Spring.
Peter had planned to give her the wedding ring he had chosen in that very box.
And so, he removed the golden ring from his pocket and placed it inside before sealing it shut.
"What are you planning on doing with that?" Edmund asked him.
"What I planned on doing a year ago", Peter answered honestly.
Each of his three siblings all shared a sympathetic look, not quite knowing how to comfort their brother whilst pulling him out of the denial he was dangerously in.
"Peter, she's not around anymore", Susan was the one to begin.
"I saw her. We all saw her", Peter argued sternly, refusing to look them in the eye.
"We've all seen a lot of things ...", Susan started in a gentle voice.
"Exactly! So is it so hard to believe she could still be here?" Peter snapped, turning to face her.
"It makes sense, Peter. Valera would never have let Cair Paravel fall to ruin", Edmund backed up his older sister.
"We don't know anything about what might have happened", Peter quickly said as he turned around to his brother.
"Before we jump to conclusions, I think it's time we found out what's going on."
Edmund glanced over to Susan, the two sharing a look before sighing and nodding along.
Lucy had wiped her tears and also nodded to agree with the eldest of them.
That was when Peter himself turned back to his chest, preparing himself for the answers that they would set out to acquire.
The only thing holding him together being hope.
Hope that he would see Valera again.
__________<>__________
Valera had awoken very abruptly.
It was something she wasn't thankful for initially, her entire body demanded rest as a break from her constant pain.
But when she lifted her head up from the ground to see Caspian lying unconscious beside her, a dwarf standing over him and another dwarf ruthlessly attacking a number of Telmarine guards, Valera was grateful she had been woken.
Just by what, she couldn't be sure.
All she knew is that she had a strange dream.
Valera didn't dream often, as her dreams would mostly be repeated memories which, whether good or bad, would bring her misery.
But this time it hadn't been a memory at all.
There had been a strange sort of object that was quickly moving past her, creating a wild breeze which surrounded her.
Everything was moving so fast, she felt as though she was in a daze.
But something caught her attention.
"Valera."
Her name was spoken in a voice she hadn't heard in centuries but would recognise anywhere.
Valera had turned around immediately towards where his voice had come from, and what she saw made the girl become overwhelmed with emotion.
The object rushing past her contained windows of some kind, and through them stood four individuals.
Individuals that she believed she would never see again.
The Pevensies.
Each of them had returned back to their younger ages.
Older than when Valera had first met each of them, but certainly younger than when she had last seen them.
Each of them appeared to be looking directly at her.
And that was when she had met his eyes.
Peter.
Valera didn't know what to feel in that moment.
Everything was moving so rapidly; she was so overwhelmed.
But her mind hadn't forgotten the past centuries.
The pain she and her people had suffered.
The fact that she had been alone and weakened.
The Narnia they all once knew reduced to nothing and their very existence reduced to myth.
Valera had escaped and had a chance to set everything right.
But she was still severed from nature and couldn't do it alone.
She was no longer a witch, but a girl.
And she would need help.
She would need him.
The vision from the seer still remained in the back of her mind after all those years. A young King by the side of the ethereal queen of old to return their land back to its original glory.
Valera had tried to reach out to Peter, trying to push herself through the wind towards the fast-paced object separating them.
She couldn't help but be afraid.
She hadn't seen the Kings and Queens for so long, and Narnia needed them now more than ever.
Because Narnia no longer had even her to help them.
They needed to come back.
Valera needed them to come back.
But before she could even speak a word, she was pulled out of her dream and into the present reality.
There was no time for her to process whatever she had just seen.
"Get the girl! Kill the prince!" she heard Telmarine soldiers yell behind her.
Valera had adrenaline rushing through her body in an instant, allowing for natural pain relief vanishing the searing burns on her back and aches in her chest.
"Quick. Help me get him inside!" the dwarf with dark hair and a dark beard commanded to her.
Valera quickly stood, grabbing one of Caspian's arms as the dwarf grabbed the other, and they worked together to drag him across the ground towards a lit opening between some large tree roots.
As they moved backwards, they placed themselves out of sight of the Telmarine soldiers, the only sounds being from the battle between them and the heroic blond dwarf.
Valera took but a single second to glance up around her, focusing on the trees around her.
There was nothing there.
No communication or bond as she once had.
They were still and silent.
Valera knew now was not the time to try and fix her severance issue, and so continued to drag Caspian into the tree roots.
Once safely inside, the dwarf turned to her.
"Stay here. Trufflehunter!" he addressed Valera and then yelled out into the small house with a very low ceiling.
Behind her, a badger walked around the corner.
"What on earth is going on, Nikabrik? Where's Trumpkin? And who are these two?!"
Nikabrik didn't bother to reply with words. He stepped forward, placing down a horn onto the small wooden table in the centre of the room before turning to rush back out with his dagger raised, closing the door behind him.
Valera's eyes went wide as she looked at the ivory horn.
It was Susan's horn.
How was it here?
Why was it here?
Did it have something to do with her dream?
Valera stayed sat on the dirt floor of the house, Caspian's head laid gently in her lap, as she watched Trufflehunter slowly approach the horn.
He raised his paws to touch it, but then decided against it and lowered them.
"How did you get this?" the badger asked her.
Valera had so much she wanted to say.
Before her were Narnians.
Her people.
They weren't all dead.
They had survived.
But they didn't recognize her.
How could they?
Any Narnia who could remember what she looked like would have died hundreds of years ago.
Before she could even begin to explain anything to Trufflehunter, Nikabrik came barging back into the house, quickly closing the door behind him.
Valera flinched slightly, pulling Caspian closer to her at the sudden noise.
The dwarf wasted no time in running over to her, holding out his dagger to her throat.
"Nikabrik! Stop!" Trufflehunter yelled.
"Tell me why you're here, Telmarine", Nikabrik spat, ignoring his companion.
Valera was taking in deep breaths, remembering well that she was currently defenceless.
Her severance still held true.
"I-I'm not a Telmarine", she managed to stutter out.
"I don't believe you", Nikabrik sneered as he glanced down to Caspian.
"He most certainly is. And here you are, together. Being chased by Telmarine soldiers who very much seemed to know who you were."
"They don't know who I am any more than you do", Valera responded calmly.
Once upon a time, Valera housed the ability to provide a sense of comfort in others by merely speaking.
The way her nature worked not only to make the land feel the warmness of summer, but people too.
But that had also been taken from her.
"Search his bag", Nikabrik commanded the badger without moving his dagger from Valera's throat.
Trufflehunter stepped forward and tipped the satchel upside down.
The contents spilled out across the floor, the one thing that stuck out as different being the black leather pouch given to Caspian by his professor before they departed.
"What's in that?" Nikabrik demanded to know.
"I'm uncertain", Valera answered honestly.
She had been in a slight daze when the professor had spoken to Caspian.
All she was thinking of was the Narnia she was about to see again.
And the future she would be tasked with bringing to fruition.
A future which was seeming more and more possible.
Trufflehunter picked up the leather pouch, approached the table, and emptied its contents out onto the wooden surface.
Inside had been four rings.
Four rings which made each of the conscious individuals in the house gasp.
Valera let out a small breath as a small smile of relief fell upon her lips.
They were her rings.
Three belonging to her sisters and one belonging to her.
The ones they were each given at birth.
The ones which she wore to connect to their souls and bring balance to the seasons.
The ones which amplified her power to keep the peace in Narnia.
The ones that had been taken from her the moment she was captured by the Telmarines.
Valera thought they were lost.
And yet, here they are.
"Those rings are ... they belonged to ...", Trufflehunter started.
"Valera", Nikabrik finished his sentence for him before snapping out of his awe and turning back to the very girl he had just named sat in front of him.
"How do you have those?" he demanded to know.
"They're –", Valera started to reply before the dwarf cut her off.
"Did you pry them from her corpse? After you Telmarines killed her? Is that how you have them in your possession?!" he yelled, inching the dagger closer to her neck.
Valera swallowed as she raised her chin, feeling the sharp blade uncomfortable scraping against her skin.
"Let the girl speak, Nikabrik", Trufflehunter chimed in.
The dwarf snarled as he lowered his dagger, quickly pointing it down to Caspian, still fast asleep in Valera's lap.
"Those rings belong to me", Valera managed to give her answer.
"Telmarine scum! They aren't yours! They belong to the Golden Witch whose blood is on your hands!" Nikabrik yelled in anger as he raised his dagger, aiming for her heart.
"She isn't dead!" Valera found herself yelling before the dagger could strike her.
Nikabrik froze for a second, Valera using it to save both herself and Caspian.
"Valera isn't dead", she continued gently.
"How do you know?" Trufflehunter asked.
"Because I am Valera."
======\_(._.)_/======
Splitting it up here for you guysssss <3
Also I've been super motivated for writing this fic recently so expect a period of more frequent updates ... idk how long it will last but hey ho x
I also wanna say the continued support into part 2 so far has been mind-blowing and heartwarming ... I love u all