[au] Narnia and the North

[the_seafarer]

There's a chill bite to the air, these days. The horses have been growing out their winter coats, and they look shaggy and plump as Caspian turns them out into the paddocks. Behind the stables, in the makeshift woodshop he'd cobbled together, the sleigh from his drawings is starting to come together. 

He hopes he'll have it finished by Christmas. With a little luck, and maybe some assistance, he thinks it should be possible. The tack, he's largely left up to Susan's devices, though he'd commission Gimli the dwarf for the various buckles and other metal pieces they'll need.

Once the horses are turned out, he gets to his other morning chores with a will, whistling cheerfully as he does. The stable stays strangely quiet around him. It takes him the better part of an hour to realize the strangeness is because he's become accustomed to Susan's cheerful presence working alongside him, talking or humming or simply working in companionable silence. 

Caspian pauses in his task – refilling the grain chest – and looks around. Susan's nowhere to be seen, and when he later wanders through the stables, checking each stall and outside, he can't find her there, either.

Comments

[sai_delgado]

"Thee very dear." She squeezes his hand, then looks ahead with clear fascination. "Look how it shines! What did'ee build it with, to make it so?"

[the_seafarer]

"There's a quarry to the northwest where the stone comes from," he tells her, as they leave the trailing edges of the orchard behind and come toward the archway of the North Gate. "As for the type of stone, I'm afraid you'd have to ask the royal masons. It's harder than marble, but shines like it, doesn't it?"

A wide, graceful path leads them through the gate and into an airy courtyard, neatly manicured and vibrant with flower beds and shrubbery.

[sai_delgado]

She tugs at his hand and coaxes him to stop just inside the gate as she looks around for a place to leave the horses.

"Over there, mayhap?" she asks, nodding toward a grassy section. "Like as not they won't be a trouble to anyone there."

[the_seafarer]

"That will do nicely," he agrees, and leads Destrier over to the patch of grass. Ahead of them, the inner courtyard gives way to a graceful, shaded entryway, leading into the cool interior of the castle. Caspian takes a deep breath of the familiar salt-laced air and smiles at her.

"Let me show you the inside."

[sai_delgado]

She leaves the cloud-dappled mare with Destrier and joins Caspian. He’s happy, she thinks, truly happy and lighter than he was this morn when worry for her weighed on him, and she’s so glad she hasn’t the words for it.

“I’d love it if thee would,” she says, softly. “It’s yer home.”

[the_seafarer]

His smile shines out, and he reaches for her hand to lead her into the castle. Inside, the floors are set with beautifully cut stone, repeating patterns that lead them through high-ceilinged corridors with airy, open windows.

They step into the coolness of the Great Hall, where light plays over the colored marble floor, sturdy white walls warmed by intricate tapestries. And at the end of the Hall, four thrones stand on a dais, lit by the slanting light through windows.

[sai_delgado]

Her eyes are wide with wonder as they move through the castle’s hallways, and when they step into the throne room, Susan loses her breath entirely at how grand and glorious it is.

She’d speak, if she could, but for the moment all she’s able to manage is a sigh of amazement and delight as she takes in the sight.

[the_seafarer]

He watches her more than looks around the room, which is familiar to him from many, many days and months and years spent here. "We used the Great Hall for our most formal occasions," he murmurs, his voice clear in the enormous, airy room. "But also opened it to any who needed shelter during cold snaps in the winter, or when storms hit. This was a place of wonderful balls and grand audiences with visiting dignitaries, but also one of joy and comfort and warmth and community."

[sai_delgado]

"I've never seen anything like," Susan tells him, "save only what Alain showed me with the touch." She drifts to the wall and runs her fingers lightly over stone and woven tapestry, then moves slowly to stand in one of the beams of light that falls from the windows above. Susan looks up, turning in a slow circle to take it all in.

"Don't thee ever tell them I said it, but this is prettier."

[the_seafarer]

"I shan't," he promises, chuckling. The sunlight slants down over her, illuminating her hair into a glowing crown. Even in her jeans and simple rose-colored blouse, she looks at home here in the lovely halls of Cair Paravel.

He looks up, pointing to alcoves tucked into the walls and the chandeliers overhead. "In the evenings, we'd light candles all through the hall, until it seemed like it glowed with their light."

[sai_delgado]

"Spark-a-dark," she murmurs, her gaze tracing the arched and vaulted heights where he indicates. "A blessing true, as it's meant to be."

Susan turns back to him, beaming. "Caspian, it's so lovely."

[the_seafarer]

"I think so, too," he agrees, but his gaze is warm on her, and not the hall in which they stand. He offers out his hand to her, smiling. "Come here?"

[sai_delgado]

She goes to him willingly, without even the slightest hesitation, and places her hand in his.

"What would'ee have of me?"

[the_seafarer]

"A dance," he says, and shifts her hand to his other, then puts his free hand at her waist as he grins down at her.

"Try and imagine it, Su – music playing, filling this great room. Sunset light giving way to candleglow. And Narnians of all kinds, swirling and dancing and laughing and singing."

As he describes it, the room itself seems to take on the quality of a dream. The light shifts and glows, and impossible music seems to play just out of hearing.

[sai_delgado]

The first thing that tries to come to mind when he asks her to imagine is the first of the parties that Mayor Thorin had hosted and she'd attended after the agreement'd been made, the one where three young men from In-World had been guests, too.

Susan pushes it away with determination as she curls her fingers around Caspian's, and finds it's easy, so easy, as another memory fills her mind instead, of a place she'd never seen in life, with the court in all its finery... a court that transmutes itself as Caspian speaks into shades of those she's met from Narnia and those she's only heard tales of --

(the stories are true)

--and as the light shifts around them and soft music seems to float on the air, she dips into a graceful curtsey before rising again to give him a bright, warm smile.

"Aye, and I'd be glad and more than to dance with thee."

[the_seafarer]

It's easy to forget while he's here, but this is not Narnia-as-was or even Narnia-as-is , but Narnia as it should be, as it could be. So perhaps it's not strange that, as he thinks back to a ball held in honor of their departure across the sea to the East, that same ball should slowly come into form around them. Centaurs hold a solemn conversation off to one side of the great room, fauns leap and frolic as the music surges, and Caspian whirls Susan into the dance, light-footed and sure, while dream-light glints off his brow and touches the outline of a crown.

[sai_delgado]

Oh, and it's a sweet and kind power, this is, whether it's the Dream-lord's or the Lion's or some quirk of His country itself, and Susan gives herself over to it and to the joy of the dance.

She's enough of grace in her steps and her bearing to follow Caspian's lead easily as they move among the misty figures, and delighted pleasure is in every line of her as she dances with him.

[the_seafarer]

He guides her smoothly through the steps, now laughing, now humming along with the music. The ball fades away behind them as he leads them gradually toward one of the doors leading to a hall, but the sense of joy and delight stays fresh.

Finally, he spins her a last time, then drops a kiss on her knuckles and bows, a sparkle in his eyes. "Shall we continue our tour?"

[sai_delgado]

"An'ye would, aye." She curtseys again in response to his bow, then impulsively trails her fingers lightly across his forehead. "I'd not seen thee with a crown before."

[the_seafarer]

"Well, it's not very practical for working in a stable," he teases, though he ducks his head to let her trace the line the dream-crown had drawn across his brow. "And some of them are damnably heavy."

[sai_delgado]

"It might keep Kiseki off yer hair," she teases back. "Did'ee think of that?"

[the_seafarer]

"That's as good a reason to wear one as any, and better than most," he laughs. "The traditional crown, the most official one, gave me a frightful headache if I wore it too long, though I gather it was still lighter than most. I had something simpler for most days when one was needed."

[sai_delgado]

She can't help but giggle at the very thought of a 'simpler' crown, and leans up to kiss him on the cheek.

"Thee very dear," Susan tells him. "I like it, I do, seeing thee like this as well as how I've always known thee. Both suit, do'ee ken?"

[the_seafarer]

He accepts her kiss with a smile and lets go of her hand to slip his arm around her waist. "I glad to hear it," he says, amused but sincere. "For they're both part of who I am, after all."

[sai_delgado]

She leans into the curve of his arm and rests her head against his shoulder for a moment. "I kennit," she murmurs.

Deep waters, Sue, she thinks, and wonders what her da' would have thought of Caspian. He'd have liked him, she's certain sure, just as he'd thought well of Cuthbert - but she'd seen how surprised he was to see his daughter in the company of gunslingers, and can imagine he'd be more so now, although not displeased.

Ka like a wind, she supposes, and hers was different than she'd ever imagined, as her father's had been.

"But I like who thee are."