Chapter Four
Aslan's Young Sorcerer
When first asked by Oreius to train Elizabeth, the faun immediately refused. Learning magic was not something to take lightly and Mr. Tumnus deemed the girl incapable of learning. After the third request, and having still been turned down, Aslan had the faun brought to the Lone Island of Doorn where the camp was currently located.
Brought before Aslan, Aslan himself asked Mr. Tumnus to train Elizabeth once more. Before Mr. Tumnus could even finish his previous responses to why he did not want to train the girl, one roar from Aslan had the faun on his knees begging to train her.
Shortly after this encounter, Elizabeth and the gryphon that had first saved Elizabeth when she first arrived in Narnia, named Kael, flew out to Lantern Waste to where the faun lived to begin training. Elizabeth had built a close bond with Kael after he had saved her from the wolves and brought her to Aslan. She viewed him as not necessarily her pet but more like a protector dog with claws and a sharp beak. Hopping off the gryphon, Kael stayed flying nearby in order to keep an eye out in case the witch came around and he needed to get Elizabeth away from the cave and back to the camp.
Upon entering the house, Elizabeth was revealed a nice warm and cozy appearing house. A small staircase took her from the door to the main floor of the house. In the far side of the cave, there was a small dining room with what appeared to be a doorway beside it leading to a kitchen. In front of the fireplace across from the entrance to the cave was a comfy living room with an inviting looking armchair and small love couch as well. The lanterns throughout the cave made the light available in the darkness. On a wall in the corner there was a china cabinet and when Elizabeth looked at the artifacts inside it was filled with what looked like ancient objects that most have been passed down through the family for generations. A bookshelf beside the cabinet was filled with old folklores and history books about Narnia, including what almost looked like scrapbooks of the Tumnus family.
A small little table held two pictures with a tiny box and a little candle upon it. As Elizabeth observed the tiny table she looked at one of the picture frames and saw a faun in the picture staring up at her. She traced her fingers along the edge of the frame when Mr. Tumnus came into the room. He stopped short when he saw Elizabeth standing there. "Hello," he exclaimed to her. He noticed she had been staring at the picture and looked at her hand on the frame. "It's my father," he told her.
When she looked over at him she saw he wore a red scarf, the same one he wore when he was brought to Aslan. "Do you always wear that scarf?" She asked him.
Mr. Tumnus gave a warm smile towards her and let out a short laugh. "It must appear that way, although now that I think about it, all the scarves I own are red." Elizabeth smiled and laughed at this. She had a feeling they would become quick friends and quick friends they were.
The first few trips were filled with stories and laughter between the two. Between all the fun they had Mr. Tumnus also taught Elizabeth the basic knowledge of magic. Where it was first created and how to use magic. At first, it was all book work and studying before she was actually able to use it. Elizabeth hated this part most of all because she desired to learn how to use it instead of reading about it. Mr. Tumnus would not give in however and insisted it was for the best if she read about it first to first be able to understand the background of magic before getting into the sorcery of it. Although she was stubborn, Mr. Tumnus found that she was also very patient and a quick learner, able to pick up on things very fast and more often than not efficiently too.
Elizabeth also only went to the faun's once every other week. Since it took about a day's trip flying, she would spend one week at the faun's and the next back at the camp.
When the time came for Elizabeth to actually begin conjuring magic it didn't occur as easily as one would think. As frustrating as it was, she never even so much as produced a spark until about eight months of trying. Just sitting on the armchair focusing inside her for the raw energy to produce the spark, nothing came just like the eight months prior and Elizabeth began losing hope. "This is pointless!" She cried out in frustration. "I'm not making any progress, let alone producing anything!" She rose up from the armchair disappointed in herself and upset that she still hadn't been able to charm a single spark.
Mr. Tumnus sighed and rubbed his face. As much as he wanted to quit and say Elizabeth was right something was holding him back. But what if she really wasn't meant to produce magic as much as Aslan thought she could? Although, he couldn't quite put his finger on it but he had a feeling that this wasn't all Elizabeth was holding out to be. "Elizabeth, come back you have to keep trying."
"Why? We've been at this for hours, actually months even!" Elizabeth yelled from the far corner of the room as she sat in the corner with her knees up against her chest. "No matter what I seem to do it's not working anyways," she sighed as she placed her head on her knees looking at the ground.
She felt horrible. They had been at this for ages and she hasn't been able to show any progress. Aside from feeling like a failure, she felt like she was letting everyone down. Everyone back at the camp was counting on her, Aslan was counting on her to learn this magic, and it seemed like no matter what she did it just wasn't going to happen.
The faun felt almost as bad as she did. Unable to know if it was his teaching skills that were lacking or her skills, he felt they might be both to blame. He stood up from his chair and began walking over to her. "Elizabeth," he probed. "I understand that this might seem impossible, but you just have to trust me when I say that Aslan wouldn't want you to learn this if he didn't think you could do it."
Not looking up at him, Elizabeth continued to look at her feet. Mr. Tumnus sighed and walked right next to her and squatted beside her. "Do you really think Aslan, the most powerful being in all of Narnia, would want you to learn something that you couldn't even do?"
Elizabeth stopped in her sulking for a moment to look up at her friend for a moment before slowly shaking her head no.
Mr. Tumnus smiled at her and motioned a hand towards her. "Then why don't we try this one more time and prove him right."
Elizabeth seemed to think it over before giving the faun a smile before taking his hand and standing up. "Let's do this."
Going back to the fireplace and sitting down again in the chairs Mr. Tumnus looked at Elizabeth. "Now when you try this again, search for the energy inside you, feel the energy flowing through you. Once you find it, harness that raw energy in you and conjure it only into a spark in your hands. You don't need to focus on making a ton of sparks explode through you; all you need to do is make one single spark appear."
Before she tried to find the energy, Elizabeth sat in the chair with her eyes closed trying to calm herself and relax.
She found that the more relaxed she tended to be, the more focused or productive she would turn out to be. Then she turned her focus to feeling the energy flow through her. Once finding it, she allowed it to explore her hands and raising her hands from her lap she tried to exploit the energy from her body to a spark in her hands.
Mr. Tumnus, sitting on the edge of his seat was holding his breath waiting for something to occur. After a few moments of waiting with no result, he let out a short sigh and leaned back into his chair. At first it was hardly noticeable; in fact, he thought he was imaging it. But then again, he saw it. A spark, springing from her right hand. Shortly after a few more sparks flowed right out of her palms. Elizabeth looked at her own hands with shock and relief. She actually did it, she conjured a spark. She looked from her hands in awe up at Mr. Tumnus just to confirm she wasn't the only one who saw it. The look on his face equaled the one on her own and the two jumped out of their chairs squealing and hollering in joy. The endless months of no results weren't for nothing.
After their quick celebration, the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to conger fire, water, flowers, and even small creatures such as ants. Their success slowly turned into amazement at the power they were both starting to realize Elizabeth contained. In all his years the faun had never actually seen another sorcerer apart from the Witch, and as much as the Witch would never appreciate hearing, he knew Elizabeth would way day make a more powerful sorcerer than she.
By the end of the day, Elizabeth was exhausted and couldn't even produce a single spark again. Upon deciding to call it quits, Elizabeth left for the week with the both of them feeling satisfied in their results for the day. Of course, Aslan was just as happy with these results as Mr. Tumnus and Elizabeth were. As Aslan and Elizabeth were sitting in his tent back at the camp when she returned, Elizabeth explained all that happened that day from the single spark to everything else she had succeeded in producing. As her story came to an end, she stopped walking back-and-forth across the room and sat in front of Aslan crisscross applesauce, now curious. "Aslan?" She asked tilting her head to the side.
Aslan smiled at her, having been thoroughly entertained by the story and happy that she was beginning to finally conjure magic. "Yes, dear one?" He asked her.
"When we first meet, you said you knew even though I did not, that I would one day be able to control magic." She stated furrowing her eyebrows together. "How did you know?"
Aslan continued to smile gently at her happy to answer her question. "Why because I gave you the power to do it."
"What?" Elizabeth asked shocked, widening her eyes. "You-you gave it to me? I'm not sure I understand."
"Elizabeth, you did not come from your world to Narnia with the ability to conjure magic. However, you already contained the energy within you to harness the power. All I did was allow you to do so. As long as you are in Narnia, where my power resides, your power will flourish." Aslan simply stated.
"So," Elizabeth began, processing everything he just said through her mind. "When I go back home, I won't be able to conger this magic I have now?"
Aslan shook his head no at her. "Even when you leave Narnia's territory you will not be able to produce magic with the efficiency as you can here. If you were to do so you would only be able to conjure the magic for a short period of time. In other words, whatever you decide to use your magic for out of Narnia territory, you best choose wisely because it will most likely be the only one you can use until you return. But back in your world, you cannot produce any such magic because it does not exist in your world."
Elizabeth nodded in understanding. "I think I understand," she responded scooting from where she was sitting on the floor to beside the lion stroking his mane with her hands. Her fur always amazed her how surprisingly soft it was to the touch. "If I already contained the energy to wield the magic, though, why did you enable me to?"
Aslan let out a soft laugh, Elizabeth was always one for questions. "Why it was because of your personality and heart." Elizabeth looked up at him not quite understanding what he meant. "Dear one, you possess a kindness and care for others that many people lack, especially in your world. I would not allow someone to wield the kind of power I've enabled you to wield unless I knew they would use it for good."
Elizabeth smiled at this response. "So you mean to say that you know I'm not evil?"
Aslan laughed at her reply. "What would make me begin to think you are evil?"
Elizabeth looked away from him a grin forming across her face. "Oh, no reason at all. How do you know so much about my world?" She quickly asked changing the subject.
Aslan just shook his head at her. She never was going to stop asking questions tonight it seemed. "Enough questions, for now, it would seem that you need to get a good rest for your training with Oreius in the morning."
"Aw, but—"
"No buts," Aslan cut her off gently. "You'll be returning to Mr. Tumnus's by the end of the week but for now up. Go hop in bed."
Elizabeth sighed in defeat knowing Aslan would never give in. "Fine," she groaned before hopping off the floor and running into bed and under the covers.
Aslan stood up from where he was laying on the floor and walked to the door of the tent, before leaving he turned around to face Elizabeth. "Goodnight dear one."
Even far away he could still see the grin on her face as she looked at him. "Goodnight Aslan," she said before he turned, blew out the candle in the room and left the tent to go to his own.
As soon as the end of the week came, Kael flew Elizabeth to Lantern Waste as soon as the sun was up to resume training. She and the faun worked her magic from sun up to sun down and Elizabeth returned to the camp the following week as exhausted as she was a few weeks before. The next few years flew by as such and Elizabeth continued to show tremendous progress in her sorcery. She was proving to be as powerful as the others were hoping her to be. After about four years of mastering the basics, Elizabeth could now create a light and sparks without batting an eye. She was also able to create a small fire. After this Mr. Tumnus had her begin to learn how to heal someone with magic.
This certainly was a challenge for Elizabeth but after five years in this particular area, she could heal almost anything. However, the problem with certain healing was how much it would drain her energy completely for about two days. Until the two days passed, would be unable to perform magic having used it all up healing something. The specific healing that would trigger this was bringing something that just died back to life. In order to do so, she had to have a huge amount of concentration and strength and whatever died had to have done so within an hour or so. Otherwise, her healing sorcery would have been completely pointless. Whenever she would use her healing abilities, Elizabeth's eyes would turn a bright yellow. Oreius was the most impressed with her new healing abilities, considering he was the one who originally taught her how to heal without magic and now she was going around fixing cuts and bruises with a simple twitch of a few fingers.
Aslan however, was not as impressed as Oreius. He didn't approve of bringing things back to life after they died. He deemed it unnatural and going against nature. He then forbids Mr. Tumnus from teaching it to Elizabeth anymore as well as healing in general seeing as she already knew how to heal from what she learned from Oreius. Elizabeth was also forbidden from using her magic to bring things back to life, to her slight dismay.
After learning the light and healing, two years later Elizabeth was able to produce what Mr. Tumnus liked to call a force field. At first it tended to come out in a small puff of purple and blue but over time Elizabeth could make her force field large enough to protect at least two people and use a smaller one to act as a shield for her. This would cause her eyes to change with bright white circles in her irises when using this magic.
The next six years were filled with practicing and then mastering telekinesis. Elizabeth was the most fascinated by learning this type of magic. The first three years went by in a flash as she learned how to re-shape objects with her mind such as bending a spoon or key just by holding it in one palm and focusing. After much success in this area of telekinesis, the next obstacle to mastering it was moving objects from one place to another without using physical contact. Whenever Elizabeth tended to use telekinesis her eyes would change color with a red circle shining beside her irises. She couldn't lift significantly large objects like big boulders or trees but some objects such as people or furniture were no problems to her after all the training spent on it.
Even though the next subject she was taught was not typically the most enjoyable, she proved to be the best at it. Mr. Tumnus had Elizabeth learn how to get into others minds and pull certain memories from them. In doing so, Elizabeth would always be able to tell when others were lying or not. Elizabeth however, was not typically fond of the idea of entering someone's mind and going through their personal memories just to see if someone was telling the truth. She believed it was up to the person to reveal this information. After a few weeks of arguing over this Mr. Tumnus finally won the argument after convincing Elizabeth how much it would benefit not just others but her as well.
"Elizabeth, what if you were able to read the witch's mind that day your brother brought your family to her castle? You would have known she was lying and going to kill your family and could have gotten away." This short but simple explanation was enough to convince Elizabeth to give in to learn it.
It took eight long years to master this simple form of telepathy. For Elizabeth to bring recent memories to the surface, like what someone was currently thinking, was no problem for her. The problem came when she had to dig through the memories to find the one she needed. It didn't become a problem if the person didn't care that she go through them, like if someone was trying to prove their innocence and Elizabeth could see they are innocent, was really easy considering they were allowing her to enter her mind. When someone didn't want her to see their memories it became extremely difficult to get to them. Not only did she have to shift through numerous memories to find the one she was looking for but it was also extremely painful for the person to have Elizabeth going through their mind.
This simple problem was enough to get Elizabeth off track for months. She hated the idea of inflicting pain knowing she was the cause of it upon the person. Mr. Tumnus refused to let this stop her though and continued to push her past that. Others could always tell when she was going through someone's memories like such because her eyes would change with a purple rim around her irises, but it would only happen when she had to take more time and effort going through numerous memories to get to the one she needed.
However long it took Elizabeth to master this telepathy proved its purpose in the end because Elizabeth was surprisingly excellent at it. After countless practice, she could go through someone's mind in a mere couple of seconds. Unless it was one they were hiding, that one took much more time and effort.
One day when they were practicing going through Mr. Tumnus' memories to find the one memory when his father first taught him to play the duduk. As Elizabeth's eyes turned purple and she was going through his memories, Kael burst through the door into the cave, breaking off Elizabeth's concentration and Mr. Tumnus in a livid state with the gryphon.
"What do you think you're doing?" the faun yelled at Kael. "We're in the middle of practicing and that door is way older than the both of you combined!"
Elizabeth, however, frowned at this sudden intrusion. In all the twenty-five years or so of training with Mr. Tumnus, Kael had never burst in on them while they were practicing. Something was wrong, she could feel it.
Kael, who was breathing very heavy and his eyes were bouncing back-in-forth throughout the room in panic stopped when he found the two in front of the fireplace. "Kael?" Elizabeth asked with a worried look on her face. "Is everything okay?"
Once Kael got his breath back he looked up at Elizabeth and Mr. Tumnus with a panicked look in his eyes. "The witch," he gulped. "I think she's headed here!"
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A/N:
Good gracious this chapter is long! 3681 words of pure plot line.
Well, I hope you liked every word in this chapter!
AND THE WHITE WITCH IS AFTER TUMNUS!!! I'd ask what y'all think is going to happen, but then again you've already seen the movie. I guess I can't suspense everything. *sigh*
Let me know what y'all thought by commenting and giving this chapter a vote!!! :)