[AU] to find all you seek

[the_seafarer]

It is hardly unusual that the door opens. 

It is slightly unusual, perhaps, that it opens seemingly on its own, onto a warm green land bordered by a calm, gleaming sea that smells of salt and something like lilies.

With such a view, anyone glancing out the door might be forgiven if they did not see the individual for whom it opened – not unless they glanced down.

And then down some more, where a mouse – a Mouse – stands on its back legs, studying the room before it with a soldier's practiced eye. It is about a foot high, darkly furred, and a scarlet feather nods rakishly from a golden circlet it wears about one ear. 

Apparently making up its mind, the Mouse enters, and the door closes. 

(One story ends, and another begins.)

The Mouse scurries – er, climbs – to the top of a seat at the Bar and lifts its small, impatient voice. "Hey there!" it calls. "Who is master of this alehouse?"

Comments

[sai_delgado]

"A favor?" she echoes, blankly, then shakes her head at Caspian and gives him a look that tries for stern and fails utterly in its fondness. "Thee are such a mischief for teasing him so."

Susan turns to Reepicheep and says, "Ye are charming, though, and gracious as well as kind, if ye'd not mind my saying so."

[the_seafarer]

"Some small item of yours," Reepicheep explains, after bowing deeply at her last statement. "During a tournament or if a knight must away on adventure, he might ask his lady for a token of her favor: a ribbon or a handkerchief, perhaps."

"Or a lock of hair," Caspian says, utterly unfazed by her chiding and glancing admiringly at her fall of golden hair. "It used to be sleeves, back when the fashion was for very long pieces of fabric at the cuff. You'd see the knights wearing their lady's favor tied about their arm or on their armor somewhere."

[sai_delgado]

“The rest makes more sense than a sleeve,” she says, practically. “It’s like something from a story, but then we had naught of tournaments in Hambry.”

[the_seafarer]

"Just as well," Caspian chuckles. "Enormous, expensive hassles, just to see who can get knocked into the dirt the fastest and who can do the knocking."

"I seem to recall several ladies of the Lone Islands offering your their favors, Sire," Reepicheep says, and Caspian looks faintly embarrassed.

"That was a long while ago, Reep."

[sai_delgado]

“Do’ee say so?” Susan asks, bright-eyed with sudden interest. She gives Caspian a laughing look and turns her attention back to Reepicheep.

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep, who either doesn't see or chooses to ignore Caspian's grimace, only nod, earnest.

"Yes. I cannot pretend to be any great expert on beauty as it pertains to Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, but I was assured by several members of the crew that many of the young ladies in attendance at the tournament thrown by the Duke of Galma were both uncommonly pretty and quite interested in His Majesty riding with their tokens. And his daughter certainly smiled at you a great deal, Sire."

Caspian, giving up, only shakes his head, rueful.

[sai_delgado]

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Susan observes. “What happened in the tournament?”

[the_seafarer]

"His Majesty unhorsed many knights – "

"And was unhorsed myself, Reepicheep," Caspian puts in. "With rather a few nasty falls."

But his protestations do not dissuade the Mouse, who, caught up in his story, begins leaping about and shadow-fencing as he tells of the jousting and swordplay and the final duel between two of Galma's most accomplished knights before the tournament ended.

"There was a great deal of feasting as well," Caspian tells Susan, once he's given up on halting the story. He leans back against the couch and laces her fingers a little more firmly with his, amused.

[sai_delgado]

She wrinkled her nose at him in response to his resigned amusement.

“Such a sight it all must have been,” she says. “Oh, ye’ll think me foolish, mayhap, but it’s wonderful to hear such things from those who lived them, do’ee ken?”

[the_seafarer]

"Foolish, Daughter of Eve? How could it be? Your natural curiosity does you great credit."

Finished with his reenactment, Reepicheep comes to sit once more on the edge of the chair, sipping his small goblet of wine. "Tell me: what was your Hambry like, if not like Narnia?"

[sai_delgado]

“Less grand,” she says, smiling, untroubled. “All I’ve heard tell of Narnia - it sounds more like Gilead.”

Susan spreads out her skirts with one hand and draws a makeshift map with her finger. “If ye think of this as Mid-World, Gilead were here, in the heart of New Canaan. Hambry were here,” she explains, moving her hand far to the side. “Hard by the Clean Sea, and the seat o’Barony for Mejis, but more a town at most than any sort of city. Fishermen on the water, and herds on the grasslands of the Drop - horses and cattle and some sheep, even. A quiet place at the end of everything, until it weren’t.”

[the_seafarer]

Reepicheep listens attentively and watches her draw the map with a campaigner's eye for locations, as if he might need to memorize the places she speaks of.

"It sounds peaceful," he says. "A fine place to call home."

"It does," Caspian agrees. "And, you know, Su, not all of Narnia was so very grand. Cair Paravel was only the capital; there were a great many small villages and open lands far from the castle."

[sai_delgado]

“It were, for the most part,” she agrees. “Oh, the world were moving on even then, but it were easy not to notice. And I loved it there, for many a year. Especially on the Drop.”

She shakes her head at Caspian. “Mayhap so, I’d not doubt thee, but…” She trails off there and shakes her head, her smile rueful for a moment. “I’m not sure how to explain.”

[the_seafarer]

His smile is a little rueful. "That's what comes of having the only Narnians here be me and the Pevensies," he says, and Reepicheep brightens.

"Their Majesties are here? All four?"

"Queen Susan only sometimes," Caspian tells him. "But yes, all four. And I'm afraid our recollections are a bit biased."

[sai_delgado]

“How do thee mean?” Susan asks. “Thee have seen so much of Narnia and beyond, with yer sailing, not just yer Cair Paravel.”

[the_seafarer]

"Yes," Caspian admits, "but so much of what I've told you has been the grand adventures or voyages or life in the castle rather than the day to day reality of it all. Of course I believe there's a kind of magic wherever one goes in Narnia, but it is still first and always simply our home."

[sai_delgado]

“Aye, and thee have the right of that, I wot,” Susan insists.

“Especially in a land the Lion watches over. For all I loved Hambry before, Caspian, it’s not the same, and well I kennit.”

[the_seafarer]

"I would fain argue with the lady, Sire," says Reepicheep, "especially as she is in the right. You know there is something special about Narnia. If you hadn't known it, we never would have accepted you as our king."

Caspian squeezes Susan's hand and nods. "Aye, I suppose you're right, Reep," he says. "And you, Su, as usual."

[sai_delgado]

She sets her empty mug aside and covers their linked hands with her free one, wanting to reassure him.

“It’s a good thing,” she insists, softly. “It is. And thee have every right and reason to be fond and glad of it.”

[the_seafarer]

He smiles at her, warm and soft.

"I wish you could see it," he says. "I wish that with all my heart."

[sai_delgado]

She squeezes his hand. “I’ll see it through the stories thee tell.” Susan smiles first at Caspian, then at Reepicheep. “Both of ye.”

Almost as an afterthought, she adds, “Alain showed me Gilead once. After I saw a little of it when Cort left through the door.”

[the_seafarer]

"Showed you?" Caspian asks.

"How?"

[sai_delgado]

“With the touch.” She looks back and forth between them, taking in their expressions.

“Do’ee ken the touch?”

[the_seafarer]

From their identical blank expressions, it's clear they have no idea what she's talking about.

"No," Caspian says. "What is it?"

[sai_delgado]

“It’s a - a sort of gift,” she starts. “Not everyone can do it. But Alain can. Not magic, though, not really - not a spell or anything like that.”

Susan raises a hand and rests it lightly against her temple for a moment. “It’s a way of knowing another’s thoughts, and sending your own, if ye wish. Of clearing a mazed mind, and other such things. He shared a memory of Gilead, so I could see what it were like.”