[ AU ] to break a curse

[the_seafarer]

Reap is past, and Susan is looking brighter and happier by the day, and now true winter is beginning to settle over this strange bar at the end of the universe. Caspian hauls the Hope up into the stables to be wintered and works long hours at the sleigh he'd designed, losing himself in the simple pleasures of working with the wood, sanding and carving in turn.

It's after one such day spent in labor that he comes to the bar proper, freshly showered and comfortably attired in a loose linen shirt and breeches, to join Susan by her spot at the fireside. He's chatting amiably with her about the horses, about how Corella is coming with her harness-training, and has just begun pouring her a glass of wine with the door opens and Caspian freezes. In the next moment, the glass overflows with the rich red liquid, but he doesn't notice; his eyes are locked on the tall, fair young man who has come in, dressed all in black.

Even to those who have never seen him, there may be something familiarly of Caspian about his face... but Susan has seen him, and she'll know as soon as she looks that Rilian, Prince of Narnia and Caspian's son, has returned.

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[sai_delgado]

She exclaims softly in startled concern as Caspian goes still and pale. Susan hastily takes both glass and decanter and sets them aside, then takes his hand between hers. “Caspian, what has thee so fashed?”

Even as she asks it, she’s turning to follow his gaze, searching for what he’s seen. It only takes an instant. Rilian is tall and fair and familiar, and she can see both his parents reflected in him, now that she kens his mother as well as his dear father.

“Oh,” she breathes, barely a whisper. “Oh, Caspian.”

[the_seafarer]

He doesn't notice as she takes the glass and carafe away, nor does he feel her touch or hear her voice. His mouth opens, but he can't say the name; it chokes him even to think it.

The Knight, meanwhile, has wandered his way to the bar and seems to be peering with interest at the items behind. Now and then, he glances at the mantel clock, and it's this motion that finally pushes Caspian back into animation. "Susan," he says, low and a little distant. "I'm so terribly sorry. I must ask you... will you do something for me, I... it may be difficult, but I, I cannot – "

[sai_delgado]

“Anything.” She squeezes his fingers tight and takes a guess. “Would’ee have me go to him? Find out what I can?”

[the_seafarer]

"Go to him, aye, but just... "

He squeezes her fingers back, but the look in his eyes is distant, focused on some thought she can't see. "Keep him here. As long as you can. Until I join you. Will you do that, Su?"

[sai_delgado]

“I will,” she vows. “I’ll distract him and keep him here, say true, until thee come.”

The look in his eyes frightens her a little, but it’s no surprise he’d need time with a shock as great as this. Susan squeezes his fingers again, trying to comfort as much as anyone can. “It’ll all come right somehow. It will. I’ll go to him now,” she murmurs.

[the_seafarer]

"I won't be long," he promises, and finally meets her eyes, flashing her a small smile that fades almost instantly. Lifting her hand, he presses a kiss to her knuckles, then stands. "Watch for me."

With that, he makes his way with swift strides to the hall which leads to the staff quarters, and is gone.

[sai_delgado]

She looks after him for a moment, biting her lip, then sets herself with determination to doing what she’s promised.

Susan leaves her seat and crosses the room to join the tall, fair young man whose presence is more of an ache in his father’s heart than mayhap he’ll ever ken, smiling brightly at him as she draws near.

“Give ye good even,” she starts. “Are ye new-come here?”

[the_seafarer]

The Knight – morose, pale, dressed all in black – turns to her with a soft smile. "Nay, madam," he tells her, with an accent she might find familiar. "I have come to this strange place once or twice before. I believed I'd dreamed it then, and in truth I do not yet know that what I see truly exists."

[sai_delgado]

“Aye, it can be odd indeed if ye’ve not known such before,” she agrees, while his soft voice pulls at her heart. “But I promise ye it’s real, real as roses or rain.”

She gives him a slight curtsey and keeps her smile warm. “I’m Susan Delgado, sai. I keep the stables for sai Bernard, he who runs this place. Is there aught I can do or answer for ye, mayhap?”

[the_seafarer]

"My dreams are often strange," he murmurs. "Tinted by the curse under which I labor. Even now, my time grows short... but there are still some moments left of clarity."

He glances again at the mantel clock, ticking closer and closer to the top of the hour, then smiles at her again. "And I would fain spend them with such sweet company, ere I return to my lady's hearth."

[sai_delgado]

“Fair words, sai,” she smiles back, even as everything in her focuses on what he’s suggested with that glance at the clock.

Keep him here, Caspian had said, but it’s clear to her now that may be difficult in a while, oh aye. Still, she’ll do all she can to keep her promise - and more, mayhap.

“I’d not wish to trouble ye, but ye mentioned a curse? Mayhap ye can find aid here, say true. One of my dearest friends is here, and it were he who freed me of a witch’s evil spell.”

[the_seafarer]

“It lightens my heart to know you have escaped such a fate,” the Knight tells her, sincerely. “Alas, there is but one way to release me from mine own, but my lady works tirelessly, day and night, to bring what is needed to pass.”

[sai_delgado]

“Yer lady sounds kind,” she says, in all honesty. “How is it that ye can be freed? For I’d not wish to see ye under such awful enchantment, say true.”

[the_seafarer]

"My Lady has learned, by her art, that I shall be saved from this foul sorcery when I am become King of a land in the Overworld," the Knight explains. He seems unconcerned that his enchantment may only be broken by conquering and warfare.

"The land is already chosen, as is the very place of breaking out."

[sai_delgado]

But ye're already to be a king by right, why would ye need--

The words tremble dangerously on the tip of her tongue. Susan bites down hard to keep them from spilling out, even as fog-gray eyes go wide.

"I'll hope ye'll not mind my poor manners in yer presence then," she teases, as lightly as she can, and ignores the ache in her heart at the echo of teasing Caspian about just the same thing. "Since ye're to be royalty, and all. Say sorry, I do, but I don't ken this Overworld ye speak of - does the land have a name?"

Although if he's lost under the ground somewhere, in a cave or some such, some 'underworld' instead of what he calls an 'overworld', mayhap that explains why Liliandil couldn't see him.

[the_seafarer]

"Your mannerisms may be a bit rough, but therein lies some of their charm," the Knight tells her, blithely ignorant of being insulting or patronizing. "And I mean to be a good King, over all sorts of peoples."

To her question, he waves a hand. "It matters not; after we have conquered and claimed it, I will give it some new name. Perhaps one to glorify my good Lady, without whom none of this would be possible."

[sai_delgado]

Embarrassed color stains her cheeks, but it's not as though he's wrong, now is it? Rough indeed she and her ways are, when compared to the court of Narnia, or Gilead, or aught else such.

"Then I'll hope ye shall," she says, simply. "For the sake of the people who'll love and serve ye, in time."

The more she hears of this Lady of his, although kind-seeming she may be, the less Susan likes it. "Possible by her - her art, ye said before? Is she a - "

(witch)

"-- does she have power of some kind, then?"

[the_seafarer]

She flushes, and the Knight does not seem to notice, but someone else does. In the next moment, a warm hand comes to her back and a familiar voice speaks, outwardly easy but with a core of steel for those most familiar, as Caspian comes to her side. "An excellent question."

Newly returned from his errand, Caspian stands now in the same linen shirt and light breeches, but he has laced a boiled leather surcoat over his torso, and at his hip hangs the long leather scabbard of the Dwarf-made blade forged for him here by Gimli's hand. His hand rests easily on the pommel and his gaze is clear and steady – anyone unfamiliar with him might expect him to dress so and arm himself thus on any evening at the bar. "I would fain hear of your Lady's powers, as well."

The Knight casts a disinterested glance upon him, but seems willing and eager enough to speak of his Lady. "She is wise beyond the ways of all Men and lesser Beasts," he speaks, confident. "But her power is not enough to lift my enchantment, to her great sorrow."

[sai_delgado]

Relief at Caspian’s presence shifts to pure alarm at the sight of him armed and armored so. Susan doesn’t ken what he intends - does he mean to return with Rilian? She’d not thought such a thing were possible - mayhap if he has her rose?

She forces her words past the panicked whirl of her thoughts. “I’d well imagine it’d distress anyone who cares for ye, sai,” she says. “I beg of ye, let me call for my friend, he who helped me before. Even if he can’t do the same for he, mayhap there’s something he could suggest that yer Lady’d want to hear of.”

And Caspian would have aid, too, she thinks, more than her own self.

[the_seafarer]

"There are none who care for me so but my Lady," the Knight tells Susan, kindly. "Do not trouble your friend; I am amenable to waiting until the time is ripe for our conquest. Until then, a life with her, though one in which I must be bound each night, is better than a life without."

"I wonder, sir Knight, if you remember enough of your life without her to say," Caspian says, dry.

The Knight turns a cool glance on him. "I remember nothing of my life before her. But my life with her has been but marred with my curse, little else."

[sai_delgado]

There are none--

She can't keep herself from casting a quick glance at Caspian's expression, at that, her heart aching for the pain he must be feeling, before she turns back to his son.

"Nothing at all?" she tries. "Not even in the dreams ye spoke of before?"

[the_seafarer]

"My Lady believes there is little to gain from studying my dreams too heavily," the Knight says, dismissive. "Your soft heart does you credit, miss, but even these dreams are but the slightest flaw in the happiness I share with her."

"Such a small flaw in the light of your lady's grace, is it?" Caspian says, easily. The line of his shoulders is achingly hard with tension, but he keeps going, intent on pushing the Knight past the point of polite disagreement. "I wonder, then, that you leave her at all. Will she not miss you, there at her knee?"

The Knight's eyes narrow, cold. "My Lady does all she can for me, sir," he warns, "and I am not so churlish as to discount her care for me. I would not speak thus of her, were I you."

[sai_delgado]

Her breath catches in her throat at the rising strain between them. Jake hadn't remembered Roland while under Walter's spell, and Rilian's forgotten

(his father's face)

Caspian and everything else besides under his own, whatever it is. It can't go on this way, it can't.

Susan draws a quick breath and sends a silent plea to her own father. Help me, Da - help me to be strong enough to help them both. Determination firms the set of her mouth, though her tone remains gentle with concern when she speaks.

"If she cares for ye as ye say," she begins, "then surely she'd be glad were ye to find aid here. Let us help ye, sai. It's no weakness nor shame to accept such, and there's naught of reason not to, unless..."

Carefully, carefully now, she thinks.

"... unless there's something in ye driving ye to refuse." Soft, but clear. "It were that way for me, do'ee ken? I did what I'd never have done elsewise, and struggled against those who tried to stop me."

[the_seafarer]

"If that were indeed the case, would I not also reject my Lady's aid, fair one?" the Knight say, calming a little.

But Caspian does not want him calm. "Good sir Knight, we would be remiss in our own hospitality if we attempted to aid you not," he says, and looks to Susan. "Go and fetch Alain, Su. I think it might be best after all if he were here. 'Bert, too, mayhap."

As Cuthbert has no ability to assist in lifting curses, this may be an odd request, but he looks at her very carefully, hoping she'll realize he has some other plan.

[sai_delgado]

She doesn't want to leave him - either of them, for that matter - but oh, it's clear as anything from the direct way in which he looks at her that he wishes her to do this. Susan nods, golden hair shifting like silk against her shoulders as she does, and doesn't argue.

"I'll find them both as quickly as may be, say true," she promises, and shifts her own glance from Caspian to Rilian. "And I'll take it as a kindness given for ye to allow it, sai."

Susan doesn't give him the chance to disagree, but heads across the room to the staff quarters at a quick pace that's saved from being a dash solely to avoid raising alarm in any who might see her pass.