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❝Better late than never.❞
"Would you like to join me?" Caspian asked, sitting down next to Isabelle on the ground after he noticed her sitting alone while humming a song. He poured himself a glass of wine while glancing at the witch who looked quite lonely.
The weather was clearer than the day before, but it was still chilly. Isabelle was aware that it would get much worse within a day as it was really bad in the movies, she just didn't exactly know when the horrible storm would begin. They were all out on the shipboard, the Narnians were mostly drinking wine and having a little fun.
"Sure," Isabelle shrugged. "As it's known, in vino veritas," she declared with her index finger up. She had tried to keep throwing her little proverbs and quotations in a very low amount, but sometimes they just slipped out of her mouth naturally.
"What?" Caspian raised his brow and gave the girl a glass.
"Latin. There's truth in wine," she explained as he poured wine into her glass too.
"You know Latin?" His eyes widened. "I know it is a hard and quite scientific language in your world too."
"Well, yeah, you could say that. I don't really know the language. I know a little because of school but not much. And I only know prayers in Latin because of my religion," she told him, and they began to drink their glasses of wine. Caspian stated at her for seconds with slightly narrowed eyes, which, of course, was not unnoticed. "Yes?" Isabelle sighed.
"Is something wrong?" he asked so softly that no one else could hear besides them. The sudden mood change and the concern hiding in his eyes surprised Isabelle.
"Why would it be?" She shook her head uncomprehendingly.
"You have been exhausted for days, and nearly nothing has happened. We have not even stepped on a terrestrial. Okay, there's a lot of work on the ship, and you are an active helper, but I just don't understand. You still have great energy as before, but your fatigue is obvious," he explained with a worried facial expression.
"What makes you think I'm exhausted?" Isabelle stared at the glass in her hand, with a lump in her throat. She tried so hard to keep the thing she didn't want anyone to know invisible.
"Your eyes. They are glossy almost all the time, sometimes puffy and red, and not the crying kind of puffy and red. Also, you are trying to hide it, but you yawn a lot. Why don't you sleep more?" he asked.
Isabelle looked around them and noticed that everyone was busy laughing and talking to each other and didn't pay attention to their conversation. "I have insomnia." She sighed.
His eyes were the size of plates. "I have never heard of that. Is that a disease?"
"Sleep disorder. I have difficulty with falling asleep, I wake up during the night and can't go back to sleep, I wake up too early in the morning, and I feel tired while I'm awake," she told him.
Caspian was thinking for a minute. He thought that something must have developed the disorder. "Why do you have it?"
Isabelle swallowed her tears as she thought about its reason. "A trauma caused it in my childhood. I've had this disorder since I was ten. I have medication for it, but my pills are enough only for four months. My mum sends me new ones while I'm in school, but she can't exactly send them here, can she?" she chuckled weakly.
Caspian shook his head disapprovingly. It was definitely not a subject to joke about. "How long have you been without your pills?" he asked worriedly.
"Well, I started taking the new pack when I got here, so about two months."
"If you need anything, please tell me. I don't want your condition to get worse," he said seriously, looking deeply into her eyes. She slowly nodded and smiled at him gratefully. He patted her shoulder and stood up to join the others.
She sat there with the glass still in her hand and drank the last sip of wine, thinking how much sweeter was the taste of it than firewhiskey's. If you go to Hogwarts, you can't escape firewhiskey. Although probably nobody would want to.
Isabelle stood up, still humming, and saw Edmund standing at the edge of the ship, his hands on the wood as he stared into the ocean with a barely noticeable frown on his face like he was thinking about very serious things.
"Why so tense, Daddy?" She walked up to him after she put the glass down.
The boy froze for a moment before he realised it was only the tall girl, but he didn't look at her. "Did you just call me that?" he grimaced.
"Hey, I'm slowly running out of ideas," she put her hands up in defence. "So, what's wrong with you?" she asked, copying his position.
"Why do you think I have a problem?"
"Do you think I'm blind? I am not. You haven't drunk enough to stand here and think about the hard things in your life. You've drunk only a glass of wine, no more."
"Are you stalking me?" he raised a brow, and Isabelle was more than surprised that he didn't drove her away instantly.
"No." She giggled, imagining herself hiding behind a keg, with sunglasses and spy-glasses. "I just observe everything around me," she told him with a shrug. "So, tell me what bothers you."
"Nothing special," he mumbled, looking down at his hands.
"Is it the mist? The White Witch haunts you, right?" Isabelle asked softly, trying not to upset him with her questions.
It had been only two days since they left the mansion, but somehow she had the feeling that the mist caused nightmares didn't only start after weeks like in the movie but right after they left the second island. It hadn't had any effect on her. Yet. But she wasn't sure everyone was as lucky as she was.
"How do you know?" Edmund raised his brow.
"I-"
"Oh yes, you are from the future, and we don't exist," he spoke before she could, following with an eye roll.
"Let me tell you something. Not every part of the journey is in the movie. There are gaps. So many gaps, to be honest. For example, this night wasn't a part of the movie."
"Then what's your source if not the movie?" he asked curiously.
"You," Isabelle stated with a faint smile.
"Me?"
"I know how you feel about the witch. I know how she- seduced you. The mist, the dark power inside the mist brings out our most hatred relic. I'm aware that it's the White Witch for you."
He clenched his jaws edgily. "I betrayed my family for her. For God's sake, I betrayed whole Narnia for her!" he said wrathfully. "It's my fault Aslan was murdered. It's my fault so many Narnian died. The whole battle happened because of me. I'll never forgive myself," he whispered the last sentence, and it seemed like he was saying that to himself.
"Look," Isabelle automatically touched his hand for comfort, but after she realised what she had done, she removed her hand from his and noticed his cheeks heat up a little bit after her action because it was really unexpected. She cleared her throat. "You can't blame yourself forever. You were a child. You craved attention, and she was the only one who showed interest towards you, even though it was fake. You were blinded by that. And I heard here and there that she even put a spell on you, that the Turkish delight was enchanted. But I don't know if that's true or not. I haven't read the books."
"Was all of that said in the movie?" he asked after he slowly gulped. It seemed like he would cry in any second, and Isabelle felt guilty, for bringing the issue up. She noticed how badly it affected him.
"No," she revealed, which made him look at her, for the first time since they began to talk. His eyes stared at her unbelievably. "I figured it out. I didn't need it to be said out loud, it was crystal clear to me. I don't know anything about your years during your reign before you went back to the professor's house, but I know you must've spent days moping because you felt responsible for all the bad things that happened. I'm sure of it because you still do it."
Edmund stayed in silence for a long time before finally speaking up. "How are you doing it?"
"Doing what?"
"I think- you seem to know everything about everyone. And accordingly, not because you have seen the movies of us," he said unsurely, looking like he had just told the girl his biggest secret.
"I love studying people. Their expressions, actions, their way of thinking, how they deem about the world. Everything. It tells a lot about one person," Isabelle explained.
"You're strange," he said after a few seconds of pause.
Isabelle simply smiled. She knew he wasn't being mean that time. After that, they stood there for a couple minutes, looking at the ocean and enjoying the kisses of the wind. No words needed to be spoken, for the first time, they actually took delight in each other's company.
"What is the reason you started reading?" Isabelle wondered, referring to the boy's love for books.
Edmund didn't expect her to try to talk again, so the question surprised him. "What?"
"Everyone starts reading because of something," she responded.
The boy fell into his thoughts for a minute before speaking. "Well, I didn't use to read. After we went back from Narnia for the first time, I didn't want to stay in England. I didn't want to stay in the real world. It was too," he paused for a second, finding the correct expression, "realistic. So-"
"So you chose to flee to the fictional world," Isabelle finished.
"Well, yes," he admitted. "What about you?"
"My mother is a librarian. When I was young, I used to stay with her in the library, and I found myself wandering around the bookshelves, admiring all the books. Thus I started reading. And I still read a lot as you have noticed."
"It was hard not to. Caspian recently warned us that we should not disturb you while you are reading, because when you read, your mind is elsewhere," Edmund replied. He didn't say it out loud, but he was happy that the two of them finally had a conversation without wanting to choke each other. Moreover, he actually enjoyed the conversation very much.
Isabelle smiled gleefully. "That's true. When I read, I enter a whole another universe. If I read about fairies, I am in their world, or if I read about World War II, I live through the horror with a gripping heart. I don't think you need an explanation for that," she puckered up her lips.
"I just want it to end. I want peace," Edmund muttered sorrowfully. The war separated his family. War was naturally a horrible thing, but it was the reason why he hated it the most. He just wanted to be with his family again.
Isabelle fell into silence before she decided to break the mopish mood. "It's still so weird that I'm actually talking to you."
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, just imagine, who was little Isabelle's role model?" she asked with a faint smile. The boy shook his head, signing that he had no idea. "Lucy."
Edmund's eyes slightly widened. "Really? Why?"
"Can you blame me? She's a cutie," she giggled. "No, actually, I like her for her bravery, her hidden wisdom, the endless positivity within, and that she never seems to give up anything or stop believing in something. She is a very admirable character."
Edmund didn't notice, but a small smile crept on his face. He knew his sister was a true wonder, but hearing it from someone else made him smile. He had seen how well the two girls got on, and he was actually happy, even before his listlessness towards her, because he hadn't seen Lucy act so easy and natural around anyone apart from her family.
"I would say, she is really a Mary-Sue character."
Edmund frowned, he didn't understand Isabelle's expression. "And what is that exactly?"
"You know what? It's not important. But do you know what else the story taught me?" Isabelle added. Edmund shook his head once again. A playful grin appeared on her face. "That you should never leave the house without a torch."
Edmund rolled his eyes but ended up smiling wider. A moment later, the smile disappeared. "Why are you nice to me? After I have been-"
"A complete arse?" Isabelle finished Edmund's question. He nodded. "I don't know," she shrugged. "Maybe I shouldn't be nice. But that's not me. Treat people the way you want them to treat you," she said and began to walk off.
"Wait!" Edmund grabbed her arm to stop her from walking away. She turned back to his direction and looked at him with a raised brow. He seemed to say something but struggled to speak. "Thank you," he eventually spoke with a tiny smile, which Isabelle had to admit looked absolutely amazing on him and suited him perfectly.
"Holy mother of dragons! Edmund Pevensie smiled at me!" Isabelle fake gasped. "I've never thought I'd live this day. I gotta write this into the calendar," she exclaimed dramatically.
He rolled his eyes, but the smile was still on his face. "So, peace?" he asked sheepishly, which was totally unusual from him. The smile on Isabelle's face grew wider as she nodded.
"Peace."
A/N
I'm not the person who writes at the end of chapters, but I just wanted to thank you all for reading my book, voting and commenting. It brings a smile to my face every time I get a notification. So thank you for the support, I hope I will not disappoint any of you! ❤