Like always, Edmund was training in the archery room. Swords were his escape when the garden was occupied or he didn't feel like going outside. The best swordsman in Narnia tried his hardest to keep his balance as he swung his sword around the wooden doll that threatened his existence. He was experienced, clutching the sword in his right hand and throwing it back into the left. A flash of memories from the battle came to his mind, he was trying to go through some mistakes he might have made, but Edmund remembered no flaw. Finally, driving his sword into the wooden dummy, he noticed how the door cracked and Johanna stepped into the room making her way towards him.
Edmund didn't mind her at first, hoping she would leave sooner than she got there. Her red hair was tied into a bun and her smile as wide as always. Pulling out the sword from the dummy and swinging it back and forth, his attention was not on her, rather it was focused on the imaginary fight he was having in his head.
She on the other hand did care about how he looked, her eyes peeled on his sweaty body that was training since morning. Johanna had a silver cup in her hand and admired him from where she was standing. Then she moved in closer. Her eyes ran down his body and Edmund felt a bit uncomfortable upon noticing her eyes on him. From the center of the rink where he was, Edmund stopped his fighting and looked around, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
"You are an amazing swordsman," Johanna spoke.
He tried to style back his damp hair that wouldn't stay behind his ears, "thank you." He wanted to give her a small smile, but decided to go against that.
"I love looking at you train, I have to admit in the past I used to do that a lot. You probably never noticed me behind the door, but I'd watch every single second rooting for the imaginary fights in your head." She ran her fingers down the sword he was holding, the sharp edged threatening to cut her skin.
His eyes went wide and he didn't know what to say back to her, he didn't even know if he should respond. Johanna was Johanna, and from what he remembered about her, which he didn't forget, is that he had no interest in her. Once there was a time when he was compelled to be nice to her, to get to know her. What he found was a soul filled with dreams and thoughts only about herself and for her good. Johanna didn't even understand that it takes more than riches and a crown to be a princess. Edmund never liked stuck up people who thought they could get anything with a flip of their finger, Johanna was exactly that.
Still, his character and strive for justice didn't let his judgement of her cloud his behavior towards her. Instead of openly telling her at times how annoying she was, he would be kind to her. For such was the king of Justice, he saw no justice in treating Johanna anything other than a human being that she is. So, he smiled softly and took in her compliments, not letting his guard down at any time.
"I brought you some water," she handed him the cup.
Edmund took it out of her hands, "thank you very much." He drank and smiled back at her as she smiled at him shyly.
"You know, I don't know how to fight with a sword, I was never taught to do so." She innocently walked up to the stack of weapons and picked one up, "you could teach me." She swung it at him, which he kicked away with the one he was holding.
"Be careful with that, you might hurt someone." Edmund looked concerned since she didn't even know how to handle a sword.
"Like you?" Johanna smiled flirtatiously.
He didn't know how to respond, "I will bring you a wooden sword from the throne room." Edmund walked out.
~***~
Angelina was walking down the halls of Cair Paravel, the castle walls were the same as she remembered them to be. She was so close to calling this place home that her life in London was forgotten. Of course, she was reminded of it by her dream, but her wish to return perished since she had a mission, since she had Edmund. But she was losing all that, especially Edmund.
Passing the dark side of the castle where the shadows lurked Angelina heard a whisper again. Someone was calling her name, calling for her help from the shadows. Being warned about the dark side of the castle she was skeptical about following the voice, for Edmund would forbid it. Still, she knew that her duty was to help anyone. Deciding against her wishes, she put her hands down and walked on to the throne room. Lucy was supposed to meet her to have a picnic in the gardens to celebrate her return, the young queen had not seen her in a week and that was too long to be apart from someone.
As she got further and further away from the voices, Angelina closed her eyes and walked up to the door of the throne room. When she was about to pull it open, she grabbed the handle, but someone on the other side already pulled it back. She was met with a very tired and sweaty Edmund who was holding a wooden sword in his hand. He didn't smile at her, instead he nodded.
"Keeper of light," he said to her, moving out of her way and letting her enter the room.
"I have a name you know, would it be too hard for you to learn it?" Angelina turned to him, hurt by his very simple approach to her.
"Right, what was it again?" He shook his head, as if trying to remember it himself, but something was stopping him.
Crossing her arms in front of her chest, Angelina let out a breath and turned away from him, walking further into the room. Edmund leaped to her side and turned her around to look at him.
"What do you want?" She asked, annoyed by all the events that were happening.
He looked around, a bit shocked by her reaction, "I don't remember your name, alright, I keep going through these flashes of memories and my brain hurts-"
Angelina turned back around, "I don't see how that's my problem?" She was more angry at the situation than him.
"Maybe it's a good thing I don't remember a lot of things about you then, I can see you have a lot of opinions that go against mine." He grunted.
"Oh yeah, we used to see eye to eye and think the same things. Why do you even care about knowing my name after all?"
"Because you are the keeper of light, you are going to save Narnia and-" he himself was not sure why knowing her name seemed so important.
"Is that the only reason? Then let me be the keeper of light." Angelina turned her back to him and started walking away once more.
Edmund was bewildered, he didn't expect her to challenge everything he said. Usually people, especially Johanna, would plainly agree with him. However, this time he noticed how different Angelina was from Johanna, she had a mind of her own and she was not afraid to speak it. Even if he rarely noticed her before, she now occupied his mind. It quickly went jumping to Johanna and he shook his head, the pain returning from the very thought.
Looking around the throne room and hearing him shut the door loudly, she saw no Lucy in sight. Instead there was a note on the young queens throne that informed Angelina of an important matter that she had to attend to and couldn't make the picnic. Angelina wasn't too upset, after what happened with Edmund she couldn't imagine enjoying a picnic. She strolled out of the room, dragging her long dress behind her, a dress she was practically forced to wear that day. Shutting the door to the throne room, she leaned back on it and looked to the long hallway, which she continued to venture down.
Hearing laughter coming from one of the rooms, Angelina peeked through the cracked door. It was the training room and Johanna was trying to get Edmund with her wooden sword. He struck her back with his real one, making sure he wasn't actually hurting her. They both laughed out loud and continued chasing each other. She felt a strange sense of distress, it was completely unfair seeing the whole scene play out. Johanna was not supposed to be there. Even if Angelina ever thought that Johanna was her friend, she clearly knew now that she turned out to be a foe.
"Pitiful sight isn't it?" Angelina heard a voice next to her and turned her eyes to Caspian who was leaning on the door looking through the crack next to her.
She sighed, "yeah."
Caspian looked over at her and smiled widely, "come on!" He grabbed her hand and dragged her in, "the keeper of light has to master a sword if she doesn't know how to." He threw one of the real swords her way.
"Aslan taught me some things," She caught the silver sword and placed it in the air in front of her, ready to fight.
"Ah, but can you defend yourself? on guard!" Caspian charged at her and she tried to defend herself. Johanna and Edmund's eyes were turned to them, distracted from their fight. Edmund crossed his arms in front of his chest and watched Angelina fight Caspian with a smirk on his face.
"Oi you can't even hold a sword right!" Caspian laughed out and struck the silver sword out of her hand, "Ed, come here an help the keeper of light."
Edmund, with a proud smirk on his face, walked up to her. He looked her over and then took her hand which was holding the sword. "I see the problem here. Girls are too gentle, you need to hold the sword firmly."
"Girls are too gentle because men never let them do their work," Angelina looked at him, holding the sword tighter.
Again, she stood up to him instead of agreeing, "women are not supposed to do men's work."
"Women can do anything. Women give life to men, literally." She stared him down, and he did the same to her. His chest rising and falling with furry as he stood behind her, trying to help her hold the sword.
"Okay you old married couple, let's fight with swords not words." Caspian stopped them.
Edmund was in charge of her hand, helping her defend herself from Caspian's hits. With him, she succeeded without a doubt, blocking, and dodging Caspian's attacks.
"What do ya say Ed, a round between us two?" Caspian asked when Angelina finally hit the sword out of his hand.
"You are on," Edmund was the attacker this time and Caspian dodged his hit.
Angelina smiled and turned to Johanna, "I think we should leave the boys to their toys don't you think miss Johanna?"
"Of course, miss Angelina." Johanna smiled at her and her hand grabbed Angelina's arm leading them both out of the room. As she clenched to her, Angelina felt a chill in her arm the way she did in her dream. She was freezing and she hoped that the white witch was nowhere near her. They were already away from the guys who she could cry out for help, but then again, she did have Johanna who showed no sign of being cold. Angelina almost fainted until Lucy Pevensie ran up to her pulling her to the side, "I have something to show you! It's wonderful, let's go!"
Leaving the young woman who was staring at Angelina, they both walked down the castle stairs. Lucy took her to the garden where the roses bloomed. The young Pevensie girl's brown hair flew to different places because of the wind and she smiled widely. Picking up one of the roses she looked into the flower as if trying to search for its source of life.
"It reminded me of you, roses are so beautiful yet they can hurt anyone. They protect themselves." She handed Angelina the flower.
"I never really liked roses, they were such simple flowers, everyone got them for valenties day and birthdays." Angelina looked the flower over.
"Oh but isn't that the special part about roses? They are so different, everyone has them but never notices how unique they truly are. You never appreciate a rose until you lose one." Lucy took another one from the ground and looked it over.
Angelina never noticed how deeply Lucy Pevensie saw things till that day. She was the first one to find Narnia, and it was her childish faith that saved everyone. The world is a bit more colorful through the eyes of a child, and Angelina prayed that Lucy would not forget her childhood wisdom. For it is through the eyes of children that things can truly be seen in ways that are true, not the eyes of those filled with the worlds lies. The young Pevensie girl apologized for not being there for the picnic, and they decided to replace the lost time with a lovely walk along the grounds of Cair Paravel. Lucy expressed her concern with Edmund forgetting Angelina and offered some ideas for help, but Angelina was afraid that she would never be able to bring him back.
After their walk, Lucy has to attend another meeting with her sibling and the new Telmarine prince who had arrived before. Angelina lead her to the throne room, talking about the many wonders of Narnia. When Lucy walked in, Angelina started making her way down the hall when she saw Edmund approaching. She looked down at the ground and knew he wasn't going to acknowledge her presence. But, Edmund stopped her.
"Still, I believe you owe me the pleasure of reminding me of your name, any young woman who challenges me and my sword knowledge has my attention. My name is Edmund the Just king of Narnia, but you can call me Ed." He smiled and bowed down to her.
She smiled back, laughing at how official his name sounded, "my name is Angelina the simple girl of nowhere, but you can call me Angie."
He thought to himself and furrowed his eyebrows looking up at the ceiling and putting his index finger to his chin, "Angie, that sounds quite different from any name I have ever heard. Nice to finally meet you."
As much as his jokes amused her, she was hurt. He did know her, he had met her before and they had become close friends. But as she watched him walk away from her and slip into the throne room, she couldn't help but be reminded of how he forgot everything he knew about her.