CHAPTER 23
POSTED 12/30/19
Caspian's coronation took place after Mary's. Once those were finished, a feast took place at the main dining hall. There were rows and stacks of food lined on a long table at the front of the room, round tables for the guests scattered around the hall, and a dance floor at the center.
Mary was now much happier and less tense as compared to the past few days. Everyone was either dancing, laughing, or eating. The newest female addition to the royals of Narnia was currently dancing with Peter who asked her for a dance first (much to Edmund's displeasure).
"I won't take long, Ed," Peter had laughed at his brother's face but the latter merely scowled at him.
Mary and Peter had always been friends, but he was possibly the least closest to her among the Pevensie siblings. Aside from the age gap, they usually got along fine, but they both couldn't deny that ever since entering Narnia, he hadn't exactly been the nicest to her.
"I don't think I've had the chance to apologize to you," Peter started.
"For what?" Mary said. She had a strong feeling of what he was referring to, but she secretly only wanted to see him be uncomfortable in admitting it. Peter was a very wise and selfless person, but he did have a lot of pride as well.
He coughed awkwardly and replied, "Well, I haven't been the... nicest to you ever since we got to Narnia. I downplayed a lot of your ideas and didn't listen to you."
"And?" she dragged on only to tease him. She was eventually going to say she was just kidding and that she accepted his apology, but he continued anyway.
"And I'd like to thank you for what you did in the battle. It was brave of you to even fight in the first place and you almost lost your life because of that. I won't forget that, and neither will the Narnians."
Mary looked up at him in mild surprise, not expecting him to say something as serious and genuine as that.
"Oh. Thank you, Peter."
He shrugged. "You're welcome. Narnia needs someone like you when we leave."
"You're really leaving?"
The High King nodded a solemnly. "I haven't explicitly said it to Edmund and Lucy, but I know they can tell something is off. Susan and I feel like we've done our job here in Narnia. It's time to pass it on."
"And you think I can handle that responsibility?" Mary said, feeling burdened with the task already.
Peter smiled softly. "Don't you?" he retorted. When Mary made a face that blatantly expressed her uncertainty, he chuckled. "Besides, Caspian is here, too. Aslan as well. You won't be alone."
Mary didn't know if she wanted to ask whether Edmund was leaving, too. She didn't want to seem dependent on him, but he was her closest friend — and more, after everything that had happened — after all. It was unnerving to think of staying in Narnia without her friends, the people who brought her there in the first place. But before she could even make the decision to ask or not, someone had cut in.
"May I?"
Caspian appeared from next to them and Peter nodded, stepping away from Mary. From his seat at one of the tables, Edmund grumbled in irritation. He had lost the opportunity once more.
"Seriously?" he groaned, slumping in his seat.
Lucy, who had come back to the table after conversing with Trumpkin and the other dwarves on the other side of the hall, giggled at her brother sitting alone and sulking at the table.
"What are you doing?" she asked. "Weren't you just speaking to some of the Telmarines?"
"They left to get food," Edmund waved her off. And, if he was being completely honest, he didn't feel very engaged in their conversation either. "Besides, they were boring."
Lucy knew that wasn't the reason for the annoyance evident on his face and followed the direction he was looking at. She found her eldest brother just finishing his dance with Mary with Caspian taking his place next.
"Ohhh." Lucy nodded knowingly, plopping down next to Edmund. "Haven't danced with Mary yet?" she guessed.
"I haven't even gotten the chance to properly speak to her since the coronation." The way her brother huffed like a little child caused Lucy to laugh again.
"Stand up and go over to them, then."
"But she's dancing with Caspian."
"He probably won't take long either. Give them a few minutes then slide in."
Edmund decided to take Lucy's advice and waited a bit longer for the two newly crowned royals to finish their dance.
"We can start rebuilding Cair Paravel soon, if you'd like," Caspian was telling Mary. "The Pevensies can give their input as well since they lived there."
Mary didn't know how to say that they might not even stay, so she simply said, "Sounds like a good idea to me."
"What else are you planning on doing as Queen?"
"Well, I want to prioritize getting the Narnians their old life back. You know, not living in hiding, having a system rather than just getting by with what they have and can do, roaming around freely — that kind of thing."
Caspian nodded thoughtfully. "Sounds like a good idea to me, too."
Finally, Edmund got to his feet and marched over to where Mary and Caspian were. However, before he could reach them, a Telmarine girl appeared before him. She was blonde and almost Edmund's height and actually looked to be a few years older than him.
"King Edmund," she said with a bright smile. "Lady Camila is the name. Daughter of Lord Valentino."
Edmund had no idea who she was or who her father was, but he smiled politely nonetheless.
"King Edmund the Just," he shook her hand.
"Well, aren't you just dashing," she said flirtatiously. Edmund had received compliments during his reign in Narnia years ago and had a few women try to get him to court them, but this one nearly made him cringe and he had to fight the urge to physically do that. "What's an attractive man like yourself doing alone?"
He laughed awkwardly, wracked his brain for an excuse, and eventually settled with, "Er, I was just about to... get a drink."
"Would you like to have a dance with me before you do that?"
Edmund bit his lip, wanting so badly to say no. But Mary was still busy talking to Caspian and he knew it wasn't good manners to reject someone's offer to dance, especially at a grand event like a coronation.
"Sure." He forced a smile and took her hand begrudgingly.
Mary and Caspian danced for a few more minutes and so did Edmund with Camila. He kept his eye out on Mary as discretely as possible, though, hoping that the Telmarine girl wouldn't notice. It was hard to keep checking on Mary when the girl before him kept inching herself closer to Edmund each time they moved, making him uneasy. When he saw Caspian finally bow to Mary, signalling the end of their dance, Edmund quickly did the same to Camila.
"Thanks for the dance," he said with a short bow before hurrying away from her. He didn't even give her a chance to say one more word to him, leaving her frustrated.
"Mary," Edmund called out once he was near enough.
She turned around and grinned upon seeing him.
"I was wondering when you were going to show up," she admitted. Edmund slipped one hand into hers and placed the other on her waist. Then, they started to dance.
"I would've gone to you earlier if it wasn't for Peter and Caspian," Edmund defended. "And that Telmarine girl."
"Telmarine girl? You didn't even bother to remember that girl's name?"
Edmund glanced over his shoulder to peek at the blonde girl who had ended up dancing with some other Telmarine instead. Mary tiptoed to look behind him and realized who he had danced with.
"Oh, her. Lady Camila."
"You know her name?"
"Her father is one of the only Telmarine lords left that Caspian trusts," Mary informed him. "Caspian introduced me to them not too long ago."
Edmund hummed in understanding and said, "Eh. Still irrelevant."
Mary laughed at his words and he twirled her around.
"Be nice, Ed. I'm going to have to help in assigning new advisors and choose who gets to stay, so I'm glad there's at least her father that I know can be trusted more or less."
Knowing it would irk her, Edmund simply said, "She tried flirting with me."
Mary gripped his hand a bit too tightly, causing him to snigger at her reaction.
"Oh, really? What did you do?"
"Well, it's a good thing you told me to be nice to her, because..." he started off teasingly. Seeing the look on her face as she tried not to let her irritation show made him laugh. "I'm kidding. I didn't do much. To answer your question, I just danced with her."
Mary relaxed a bit and said, "That's nice."
Edmund couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"You're clearly jealous," he pointed out.
"Am not."
"Really? It doesn't bother you that she tried to press herself up against me?" Edmund exaggerated.
"Not at all," Mary lied through her teeth, not wanting to come off as jealous.
"Okay, then," he said disbelievingly.
Wanting to annoy him as well, she said, "Then I suppose it doesn't bother you either that Lord Mateo offered to court me?"
"Who?" Edmund snarled, immediately looking around him as if he could spot the man Mary was talking about. She laughed at his actions and tapped him to make him face her again.
"He's currently the youngest Telmarine Lord."
"How old?"
"Twenty-seven, if I'm not mistaken."
"He's more than ten years older than you," Edmund said in disgust. "That's paedophilic."
"I don't think age gaps are much of an issue here," Mary reminded him. "Besides, I would never take up his offer. He's not even being considered to stay as a Telmarine Lord because apparently, he's also the most incompetent one. Not a very good fighter, either."
Edmund stood up straighter, proud that he was clearly above that man in terms of their ranking.
"Good. Might as well show these people to stay in their lane."
He snuck a kiss on her cheek with a shameless grin. Someone started making fake gagging noises and they both turned to find Peter dancing with Susan, and Lucy with Trumpkin. While Mary faintly heard Lucy say, "I saw it coming all along," to which the dwarf replied with, "It was quite expected," Peter had other plans.
"Get a room, you two," he joked.
Edmund smirked at his older brother. "Maybe we will."
Mary lightly pushed him at his response.
"Edmund!"
"What?"
"Good luck dealing with him," Susan said dramatically to Mary.
"I'm innocent!"
"Sure, you are," Mary rolled her eyes. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get a drink."
"I was only joking!" Edmund covered up quickly, causing his siblings to giggle at his efforts. Mary wasn't mad at all, but she continued to walk away, knowing it would get to him. She was craving a drink either way; having been talking and dancing for quite some time already made her thirsty. "Hey, wait for me!"
"Can't hear you."
"Don't ignore me, Mary!"
A/N: Sort of a short chapter, sorry! Wow two more and the epilogue left to go :( I think I've finally settled on the direction I want to go with this book (and a sequel... maybe HAHAHA... unless?) and I hope y'all will like it even if it isn't what some of you originally wanted since I've been seeing a lot of conflicting opinions in the previous chapters.
Just want to share a lil bit bc I'm really proud of myself: I made it into the honors list again this semester! College is still HELL tho bc I spend a lot of time working in my organization, too. I also have a really bad mindset that if I'm not overworking myself, I'm not productive lmao so that obviously isn't healthy. BUT I'm really glad I'm on break now tho so I can rest and do things I actually enjoy aka writing fanfics :> It's just a bad habit of mine to update so slowly but I swear, I really do enjoy writing HAHA hope you guys are doing well! Wishing you all Happy Holidays and Happy New Year in advance!