A Gift For You, My Darling (Susan only, please)(R)

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

"What is this?" She asked as they fell in her hand. It was not out of offence, but rather surprise. She had seen the ring shattered in front of her, falling like diamond dust. And now they had returned to her, as if resurected from the dead. For a moment a thought came, without her asking or wanting: If only Lucy could do the same. Her hand closed around them, the metal that should have been cold was warm against her skin. Without thinking she leapt at Caspian, her arms wrapping around his neck and her lips meeting with hers.

[King Caspian X]

Caspian smiled as he toppled over, just as he had when she lunged at him after his proposal. "Don't hurt yourself!" he warned, still smiling at her. She did still love him. Caspian wondered if they could ever be together again. He sat up from where he sat on the ground and felt her lips against his own. The man laughed and kissed her nose. "How've your thoughts been?" he asked her. He had killed the voice on the Dark Ilse, and wondered if it had taken any effect yet.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

Only when he spoke did she notice that she had torn open her skin once more. She felt no pain initionaly, whether it was from her body or her own emotions changing she could not tell, but now it struck making her entire body sore. Simply by knowing, from both pain and by the change in the placement of her skin, she could count three places where she had stretched too hard, tearing the thread and bringing fresh blood. For the moment it was not enough to be visible but she would say nothing to Caspian until he noticed himself. She knew it was likely he would and there was no need to fight a battle until he joined it himself. For now she would have only giggle childishly, like a girl half her age if not younger, as his lips touched her nose. In short, the question had confused her more than the subject he asked of. She could not unserstand it's meaning if he had meant what he said, nor could she believe there was a hidden message like the two used to arrange the meeting they were having now. But as far as her thoughts themselves, they were unchanged. But he asked and she would answer as best she could. "I don't think I get what you're asking, but everything in my head is same as always." She said. It was true that dreams of Caspian weilding his sword came often when they never came before, but she had disregarded them. those dreams did not tell of a happy, peaceful life surrounded by children, nor was it one of the dark and horrible ones where Caspian came at her with rage in his eyes and beat her. "Why would anything have changed? I still left you and you still haven't forgiven me, so I have only been hurting."

[King Caspian X]

"But the Dark Ilse hasn't bugged you in a while, has it?" Caspian responded, his face beaming proudly. The man enjoyed the sound of her laughter. It had been a long time since he had last heard it. The man frowned a bit as she told him of her hurt, but he couldn't do anything about it. He wanted to explain why he couldn't forgive her, and found a descent example in his mind. It wasn't accusing or anything, and it was pretty much perfect incase she asked. But he wouldn't say anything unless she asked why he couldn't forgive her. Caspian reached down for her hand, smiling as he saw the rings on it. But as he looked back up, he noticed a red spot on her dress. It grew darker and larger, and Caspain exclaimed, "Susan! Your stitches!" he pointed, but he knew that he didn't have to. He knew that she could probably feel it already. Now he wanted only to bring her to the Castle again, to let the nurses heal her. Surely she would recieve a better care here than with Lamont's doctors.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

"I don't want to talk about it," She said, "He comes and goes more than ever now, though he seems angry with me. Sometimes he growls something about defyince and how truth can never be destoried." She looked away for a moment, the subject making her uncomfortable. She looked to her dress where blood was just begining to sink through. It wasn't much, but it was still there and that was enough to throw Caspian into panic. "It's alright, just a little cut." She told him confidently, "Injuries healed long before stiches were invented and this one can now. Besides, I fear if you take me back, even for the sake of my wound, then I will be torn from you again. Who knows what will happen then. I may never see you agian." She pulled herself up high enough to kiss the smooth skin of his neck before speaking again. "I will trust that Aslan will not let me die here."

[King Caspian X]

Caspian's face looked sad. "But I destroyed it five days ago." he said. "Has he come in the past in five days?" he asked. Caspian would not take her to the Castle if she didn't want to go. It wasn't kind. But still, he looked at blood on the cloth worriedly. Had she thought that she would be okay coming here? If she had, then she was wrong. She had lost consciousness by the rose bushes.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

"I have had dreams of you with a sword, perhaps it was me seeing you through the island's eyes. But no, about five days ago was when it started getting worse. How could you have destoried it? It's an island, a 'spirit of truth' as it calls itself. I never thought it could die." She leaned against his chest, her head close enough to feel his heart beating. Her hand she placed over her stomach, simply because it was what she had always done when she was close to him, but then there had been a child to comfort. The child was gone from inside her, but the habit remained. It seemed as though the time when Galen was inside her was the most beautiful. Every morning Caspian was beside her, every night he held her and stroked her unborn son until she slept. "Tell me what happened between you and the voice in my head."

[King Caspian X]

"You remember the black falcon that you feared?" Caspian said. "They the main birds that cover the island." told her. "They find the victims. Then there is cave in the center of the island. It is lit by ever-burning flame. An ancient fire spirit. But a weak one. He can no longer move or fight, and lives only off the fear of others. When the falcons bring him information on a new person, they write the name on the wall with his black soot. It's like chalk. And then, I guess through magic, he feeds off their fears. He was powerful, once, long ago. I think that's why he can do it." Caspian shrugged. "I washed your name away, and then tried to put him out with water. He transformed, and I ran my sword through his heart." said the man proudly. "You'd be surprised at how many names were on that list. Too many. And I thought that people didn't go to the island that much." Caspian said sadly. "But that's how he's been using you. Through your fears." The man scratched his head. "But it should have ended by now. He's dead."

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

She shook his head sadly, her pain causing her pride at his comitmitment any woman would die for to remain hidden. "Something must have been done wrong. I can still feel him inside me. Even now he says 'Listen to him as he speaks, boasting and believing he has done you great service. The fool of a boy has acomplished nothing for truth cannot be destoried. I am more than a simple fire spirit that feeds off falcons. I am fire and water, lightning and ice, wind and stone, darkness and light. I have no end and no begining. I am eternal and inescapeable. And you, ungrateful fool of a witch, I have graced you with my presence and you call me punishment. I have done naught but simply ask you questions, let you see truth for what it truly is. Is it such crime that I-' Susan stopped relaying his words as he drifted into the subject of the things he tells her rangeing from her love for Caspian to her grieving over Lucy. "I don't know what needs to be done to destory it, but if it is all that it claims to be then we still have far to long of a ways to go. But you will not do it alone. I have allowed this demon into my mind and I should help you fight it away from me. If anything it is my battle to fight and, for once, you should stay behind and care for our son. Misfortune follows the boy, as fate is a cruel beast, and he must be cared for."

[King Caspian X]

"No, I will help you." Caspian said. "The fire of him is gone. If he is what he says, then he is other elements. I'll find those too, and I'll kill him for good." vowed the King. "And if he comes at you again," Caspian looked into her eyes as if by doing so he might actually be able to look into her mind and find that voice that troubled her, "tell him to hold his tongue, because I'll cut it out just before my blade takes his heart and blood and anything else that he uses to live. Tell him, that Aslan knows about him. Tell him, that Aslan is coming, and that his days of pestering you will end."

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

When he spoke she dropped her head and her body curled, her knees tucking under her chin as best she could without distirbing her wound. Her head began to burn like fire and her body ached as though she had run for days. Her mouth instantly went dry and the cound under the stitches felt as though lightning coursed through it. Her hands pressed against her ears as if to block out the screaming madness inside her, but to no avail. The voice tore through her mind, hurting it just as an enraged dragon would tear apart a forest with it's thrashing tail and flashing fangs and claws. TO DESTORY THE OTHER ELEMENTS IS TO DEATORY LIFE AND PURPOSE OF EXISTANCE! NO, ASLAN WILL NOT COME, HE HAS STOOD BESIDE US FOR MANY CENTURIES AND YOU SEEK TO TURN OUR LORD AGAINST US! BETRAY YOUR OWN KIND USING THE VERY LEADER WE BOTH SERVE! TRAITOR! TRAITOR BE THE KING! DEATH TO A TRAITOR! WE OFFER PEACE, HE GIVES US THE COLD STEEL OF HIS BLADE! WE SEEK ONLY THE ETERNAL CALM OF NARNIA, A TASK ONLY DONE WITH TRUTH, AND HE WANTS IT DESTORIED! HE SEEKS TO DESTORY ALL TRUTH, ALL MERCY, ALL JUSTICE, ALL PEACE, ALL GOODNESS, ALL COURAGE, ALL JOY, AND ALL LOVE! BROTHERS, SISTERS, BRETHERN OF THE ELEMENTS, COME FORTH AND LET US STAND AGAINST THE TRAITOR! The roaring continued as other voices joined him in his rage, voices she didn't reconize and assumed them to be the spirits of the other elements he called brother and sister. Susan's body did not contract as tightly now, but it did shake hard enough that it could be noticed from far away. She burried her face in his clothes trying to make it stop, but it continued on. "They want you dead," She told him with a voice that trembled just as much as she did, "They want you dead for what you did. They want revenge for their lost brother, and for the fact that you claim Aslan is against them. Apparently they do all they have done in Aslan's name. They're coming for you."

[King Caspian X]

Caspian kissed her. "They are in the wrong. Not I. Let them come. Let them come." he said. The way she shook concerned him. Every bad thing that ever happened to her concerned him. He wanted only to fix all of her problems. "Ask them, if they seek peace and joy, then why do they bring you misery and unrest? You said yourself that the voice growled Aslan's name like an enemy in the cave. It lies. It's lies are within its words, it just said it itself." Caspian said. "How can there be misery in joy? It's simple. There isn't. How, when Aslan is on your side, can they fight against you and claim to be on Aslan's side also? They can't. They're liars." Caspian said.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

She didn't need to ask, they had heard him themselves through her ears. All of them roared their arguments, a blurr of sound she could hardly understand. Again her body tenced as the pain in her body came again, more intensly than before. This time the pain that tore through her was so great she could no longer hold back her cries. Perhaps she had given to much credit to the pain of labor, this came close enough to it to possibly surpass it solely because it tormented her mind as well as her body, where as in childbirth only her body is strained. After long moments she believed would end unconscious she could manage to tell Caspian most of what she had managed to understand. "They ask you questions," She said knowing they were more of enraged shouts not unlike that of an angry bear, " 'Who are you to claim to seek peace and joy when you seek the blood of your cousin, the blood of your past lover the wand-wielder? Tell me how you can believe that truth is not always painless? Tell me how you can stand and think that the unity of all things good is guided by one other than Aslan himself? And if you can answer these then asnwer how we can know of the things we speak of if it is not suplied by Aslan?' They shout alot of insults, but mostly that's all they say."

[King Caspian X]

Caspian held her, not wanting to say anything more for fear of hurting her. "Should I answer them?" he whispered. Oh, boy, did he have something to say to them. But he didn't want Susan to get hurt in the process, so he kept his mouth shut. Caspian picked her up, deciding that it was best if she came to the Castle now. He took the first step in that direction and paused, half expecting her to object. It didn't feel right to be taking her somewhere that she didn't want to go.

[Queen Susan the Gentle]

She would have said something, if she was herself enough to notice. She didn't want to go back yet. This was their special place and she was relunctant to turn away from it. When she was hurting this was where she wanted to be, it kept her warm when she was cold, kept her calm when she was angry, but when she was happy the emotions grew stronger. Almost as if because of the absence of the tree itself the voices intensified in their screaming and her pain increased yet again. She could feel her mind pulling away, no longer wanting to be a part of this. Her fever, which had lessened in Caspian's presence, had begun to return as the agony sperad over her. Her head fell back, dangeling in his arms as though she were dead. But she could not die yet, the voices needed a host to speak through. They would make her survive only to argue with Caspian until they had divised a way to come and kill him. Her body was entirely limp for a long while, disturbed only by the twitch in her pained muscles. Though she could no longer voluntarily move her limbs the pain was still there. "Do what you must," She forced herself to cry desperatly as tears streamed from her eyes and into her hair, "Just make them leave!"