She hadn't seen hell, but she imagined it was something like the Narnian war. Constant loss, constant battles. The biggest fear of failure haunted her heart. Knowing that she could mess up, send all of them into oblivion. They depended on her strength and power, and that was enough pressure on a young woman. Losing her humanity, she mentally turned herself into a weapon.
As Angelina prepared herself for the multiple wounds and scars she would see, Edmund wanted to forget his nightmare. A part of him feared the witches words and that they might come true, another knew that he was redeemed by Aslan a long time ago. For the first time in his life, Edmund wished to be back home in London thinking of simpler things and school. Oh school, how he hated education when he was younger, now he wanted nothing but to learn. Somehow the scars he received from his peers were better than the ones from the white witch.
Yes, Edmund Pevensie was in deep fear and his heart was almost close to darkness. He didn't want to admit to Caspian that he might fail, he didn't want to admit it to anyone. Edmund Pevensie stood in the corner of a room waiting for a sign of anything. Anything being a simple whisper of hope.
Caspian waited for the ship to get close to land so that the crew and everyone else could get off. Not to say that he feared the war, Caspian was used to battles, he feared that the bad side would win. That somehow they won't be strong enough and the witch's army would win. It was a horrible thought that also covered the heart of Susan Pevensie, who could not take her eyes of the land she was about to step on. Readying her bow and arrow, she sighed and took in the old familiar smell of a battle field.
When they got to shore, a general ran up to the kings and queen with a big bow. "Your majesties, we are losing to the other side!" He exclaimed after finishing his bow.
"Well, this is why we are here. You should not fear anymore." Caspian smiled and put his hand on the mans shoulder, desperately trying to hide his own worry.
"Who is this?" The man pointed to Angelina.
Caspian's smile widened, "this is our secret weapon, she has the light of Aslan in her."
"So the prophecy was true?" The man asked in amazement, not sure how this weak looking girl could save his land.
"It was." Angelina, now brave enough, spoke to the man herself.
~***~
In Cair Paravel, Peter was preparing to send a letter to the battle front. He was writing with his pen and hesitated to put it into an envelope.
"Isn't it so boring without Susan, Edmund, and Angelina here?" Lucy asked, looking outside the window.
"It's not our fault Susan and Angelina ran away Lu, besides Edmund had to go to war, it was his duty as a king." Peter responded without looking at his sister.
"Isn't it your duty too then, since you are the high king? Angelina only left because you separated them." Lucy looked at her brother with an annoyed expression.
Peter sighed, "I don't have time for silly games now Lucy."
Lucy Pevensie stood up from her chair and made her way out the door, shutting it with a loud sound to let Peter know that she was hurt. As the youngest, she got attention from her siblings enough, but now that she was older no one took her seriously. Peter, the oldest of the Pevensies, sought it to be his duty to take care of everyone.
A knock on the door distracted him from the letter he just wrote and was proof reading, "Lucy I told you I don't have any time for your fits!"
"It's me," Johanna walked in.
Peter put the letter down and turned to the young lady, "I'm sorry, I mistook you for my sister."
"It's quite alright." She smiled weakly and sat down on the chair Lucy sat at before.
"What's troubling you?" Peter asked.
She looked up at him, "what if he dies?"
"I doubt he will if we are talking about the same person." Peter tried to encourage her.
"I was supposed to marry him. Why doesn't he love me?" Johanna's eyes seemed to fill with tears. To explain to her that his brother simply didn't love her was not an option, Peter was not about to break the heart of an already broken young lady. Peter didn't know how to handle this situation. Of course his sisters cried in front of him, but never over a boy, and most certainly never over his brother.
"Let me be honest with you, I don't really know. Edmund is a peculiar soul, even I can't really understand him." He answered her, hoping that she would accept his answer without more questions.
Johanna shifted in her seat, "He didn't even know her, then she suddenly comes in and ruins everything! That's just not fair, he's not supposed to love her!"
With every word she seemed to get angrier and Peter was a bit confused as to why she came to him with her troubles, they weren't even close and he was a high king. "All I know is that when you let anger overtake your heart that's when the witch knows how to steal it."
"I'm stronger than her, I can save Narnia too!" Johanna spat out.
Peter had enough of her fit, "don't compare yourself to Aslan's warrior, above all she is that. She's not our enemy."
"You are on her side aren't you? Why is everyone on her side, why can't anyone see she is evil!" Johanna stood up and walked out of the room, shutting the door very loud behind her.
"What is it with girls and slamming doors today!" Peter shook his head and got back to reading his letter.
Johanna angrily walked down the castle halls thinking about how she was right. She realized then that Edmund had never paid needed attention to her, and it angered her even more. She figured that if she was stronger in his eyes, if she had a purpose he would love her. Johanna had forgotten that people love in very different ways than what she thought. To her love was a complete foreign language, at least that's how she treated it. Which is exactly what the white witch decided to grab.
"Johanna." She heard a whisper in the distance of the dark place of the castle.
A bit afraid of the voice Johanna asked, "hello?"
"Come child, and I will show you the future that awaits you." The white witch whispered again and now blue-green fog appeared out of nowhere.
She followed the whisper into the dark parts of the castle where everyone was afraid to go. Johanna kept following the fog until a silhouette of a woman appeared in front of her.
"I know you," she spoke, "you are the white witch."
"So, my reputation precedes me. I know your deepest hearts desires Johanna." The white witch smiled. The white witch twirled her fingers around in the air and a ghostly image of Edmund appeared, he smiled deceptively, as if he were not Edmund at all.
Johanna knew about the horrors the white witch does, "I don't believe you. I will never make a deal with you!"
"But Johanna, it's not fair, she took your place, your place as the rightful queen of Narnia!" The white witch didn't stop.
"Edmund would never marry her. She would never marry him! All I have to do is prove that I'm strong enough, all I have to do is prove it and it will all go back to normal." Johanna said it more to herself than the witch.
Jadis circled her with her fog, "wouldn't it be much easier just to make him forget-One tiny little spell."
Her offer intrigued Johanna and the heart of the young woman was open to take it. "I can't make him forget, all I've practiced, I'm not strong enough." She confessed to the white witch.
"With my magic you can be strong enough, all it takes is one drop of your blood, and I will teach you the arts of dark magic. The strongest magic." Jadis spoke with such certainty that her tone gave confidence to Johanna.
The young lady reached her hand out to the fogy which was in front of her. Strangely, the ghostly image of Edmund grabbed her hand and cut the palm of her hand, joining it with the witch. Then he disappeared, as if he weren't there to begin with.
"Good," almost instantly Johanna's hand was dripping with blood and the young woman was afraid of what came next, the allure of darkness had won and she was empty of her free will, "now child go get your books and burn them, you will not need to learn witchcraft anymore, for you already have it."
The white witch got what she needed human blood and an alliance with someone on the inside. It was only a matter of time before her army struck again. The shadows around Johanna started to turn grey until they covered her in the fog and she screamed out in pain. When she moved her hands around, nothing but darkness and chaos came to mind. She was afraid of the white witch, but stretching her hand out for Johanna to grab insured the young lady that for the time being she was safe and all of her dreams might come true. Making that decision she didn't even think twice, for darkness was already taking over every organ in her body bit by bit, in the shadow of her fears and in the places where she couldn't see, like her heart.