VIDEO | SEELIE + HERMIONE-NET (backdated to the 25th)

[aslandish]

[ The video opens to the woodlands surrounding Caer Glaem. Aslan rests not to far away from a shrine to the White Hart, which is visible in the distance.

His expression is grave, indeed, but his address is made with poise. ]

To those of you to whom I have never spoken, greetings. My name is Aslan, and I arrived in the drabwurld approximately a year and a half ago by this world's reckoning.

I speak to you now, to those who may be unaware, of events that may be coming in the near future.

Earlier this month, I dreamed a dream like unto the visions that came to a number of individuals at the turn of last year. In my dream, I saw great beasts made of metal ravaging the lands with fire. They destroyed everything in their path, and the light of their eyes glowed like unto the very Shards we bear.

I cannot say when, but I believe this vision will come to pass.

I give this warning so that you might not fear, but prepare.

The End comes, and we must be ready to meet it.

[ He lets his words sink in a moment, then- ]

Be well, all of you.

[ With that, he ends the feed. ]

---

[ ooc: Please check out Aslan's permissions post if you would like him to know your character, and make a note in your tag so I know to look! c: ]

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[aslandish]

[ A talking lion, indeed, but so very much more than that. Aslan considers her with fathomless golden eyes, and of course -- being a Seelie, they are bound to disagree. ]

It is the fate of all living things to perish at least once. [ He should know; he already has. ] We do not choose that time, anymore than we choose the time that we are born.

You may forestall the End, even delay it for a season, but the drabwurld itself is dying as we speak.

Fight to preserve your life and theirs as you will, but should the Void be stopped, a far greater condemnation lies in store for those who remain.

All life is precious, but it is not meant to last forever.

[skjalf]

( To those words, Elizabeth raises her head high, and then shakes it in the negative. )

It is precisely our choices which determine when it will be our time, is it not? One of my uncles committed treason, and another went into battle. They both perished shortly thereafter.

Yet my father ever swore that he would die in bed next to my mother, and lo, that is precisely what happened. To say that our actions are pre-determined or solely the will of God is not an accurate statement.

( And thus, she must surely have been symbolically excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by now. )

The glass is only half-full, and the land is only dying if one has seen it that way. But where is the hope there? There is nothing but darkness and death and suffering for any unfortunate enough to be left behind. While it is true that everything is dying, ( Except for Dorian Gray. ) it is at once thriving.

It is not necessarily meant to end now. Have you not thought that perhaps there may be other paths to follow, other ways to restore balance than more death? I have seen enough death, my lord.

( She smiles, though it be a sad thing. ) It seems a terribly sorrowful thing to resign oneself to death when there is still hope.

[aslandish]

Elizabeth of York.

[ The answer comes a low rumble. He is firm in this and will not be dissuaded. ]

You speak of circumstances very different from what this world is facing now. A soldier may choose to fight, but he does not know the exact moment his life may be taken.

A man may be the author of his own destruction, but these are natural consequences, as is death of old age.

You speak of a glass being half full, but even the very gods, the powers that make all life to flourish in these lands will tell you that life goes out of the world. It is being spent, as we speak, and there is no miracle that can be wrought by human hands that will restore everything that has been lost.

It is only by the power of a fully formed Uaine Cridhe that life might be restored, and that will only occur when the Void has consumed everything and spark the rebirth of this world and every other in existence.

There is no other way I would choose, no other route that appeals to me, because where you see only the End, I see the glorious thereafter when all things, great and small, shall be made new.

Pushing back the Void will only delay the rebirth that must occur, and if it is destroyed, everything that was consumed will be lost for an eternity, never to come again.

Whether you believe it to be true or not, that is the reality that we face.

[skjalf]

How is it that you know my name, my lord? ( Lions are the image of royalty. Such a title is not at all undeserved. ) Do I? Our choices, you must agree, always have some manner of bearing in the direction our lives take.

Had my Uncle not taken my brother hostage, had he not usurped him, had my mother been willing to co-operate with him, half of my family might not now be dead and buried. Fortune's wheel may play a part, but it up to each to do with what they are given as they choose, is it not? One does not know inherently what the best course might be to take.

What you speak of, with respect, is an incredibly sad state of things. I cannot lose hope. Perhaps that is why I am Unseelie, despite all. In that viewpoint, each of us is already dying from the moment of our birth, and so why would life be worth living? To that, I counter: because even if our time is brief, it is no less in worth, no less precious or beautiful. In fact, there is a quote from The Iliad to that effect:

“Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”

Life is still worth living, and fighting for. It is human nature to do just that. ( Softly, she sighs, and takes a gentler approach: ) Do you see yourself there, exploring that glorious hereafter?

If that is not simply what the Seelie Queen has told you, then it may be worth at least contemplating. But again, with respect, I have come to surmise that we are not being dealt with honestly, on either side by our monarchs.

[aslandish]

I have seen many worlds, Elizabeth of York. Their rise and fall, their lives and inevitable destruction.

I know your name because it has been given to me to see the hearts of men, the power to see other worlds, faraway places that are not my own.

You speak of choice, and that is true. I hold great esteem for the concept of Free Will and those who have the power to exercise it.

However, you must also understand that just as mortal beings are allotted a potion of life and time, to do with it as they will, it is much the same with worlds. Your choice is not taken from you simply because the world is coming to an end.

Life is still worth living and fighting for, but on the same token, life must be allowed to continue, to be renewed as the end of the present cycle.

I have spoken with the Seelie King, and he told me nothing I did not already understand because I have seen for myself a glorious hereafter. A time when the world fell, a world I crafted with a song the likes of which few have ever heard or will ever hear again. The time for its end also came, and even as Narnia returned to the cold darkness from whence it came, those who crossed over to the other side beheld a great wonder.

Everything that was good and just and beautiful was preserved and renewed, and those who had fought to the last to keep it, who gave their all to save it, were allowed to see the glory of an everlasting day.

I would not presume to tell you what you may or may not choose, or any what they may or may not fight for. I can speak only for myself -- that I have lived, that I have died, and I have also been reborn.

The concept is not new to me, and so I am not afraid.

[skjalf]

( ...oh. She is speaking to another deity, isn't she? That like as not explains a great deal. ) Please, you have leave to call me Elizabeth, my lord.

I think I begin to see, a little. You are a God in your realm, or several—yes? Then, it would follow that an immortal such as yourself would have a much different view on the matters of life and death than one such as myself. There are many creation stories among the various cultures of my realm, and many end just like this. With a world reborn, after a period of great strife. With perhaps one or two humans left behind.

What I grew up with, and perhaps you know it—contains a great deal of death. The world will be reborn, yes, but at great cost. And death frightens me.

( She shakes her head. ) This world does not have to come to an end! Is this cycle just, that the Seelie have won, repeatedly, and this ghastly war has continued, drawing souls such as you and I into its midst? I would not perpetuate a cycle of violence, corruption and senseless torment. Nothing is ever resolved, and the Seelie and Unseelie will ever kill one-another. It was not my choice to be part of it, nor that of many others here.

We should be able to choose the fate of our own worlds. My youngest sister is but five years old. ( Here, she becomes emotional, and must turn away. ) I would have happily given my life for hers, but her choice has been removed from her.

( She takes in a shuddering breath, obviously the true source of her fright being for the lives of her sisters far more than her own. Poor children, who already have lost a father and many siblings. They deserve better. The people of England deserve better. )

Do you think we will all be here, should the end be allowed to come? That our souls will not cease to exist forever? What you have told me is a beautiful story, my lord. I do not doubt that it happened, nor that you lived through a miracle to tell the tale thereafter. But your world, beautiful as it must surely be, is not this one.

Is the risk still worth the permanent loss of so many souls? None of this is right. And I envy you very much, if I may say so.

For the lives of my siblings, I am very, very afraid.

[aslandish]

[ Aslan is quiet for a moment before he gives his answer, and when he does, his voice is softer -- resonant with calm and warmth. ]

Elizabeth.

[ He says it with more familiarity this time -- as a father might he own daughter. ]

Do you believe because I am a being of great power that I have never known what it is to fear?

I am a World Maker, and that is true. The First and the Last of my universe, the One which was in the Beginning who made all things and ushered the world towards its proper end.

In your world, you would know me by another name, for just as all things find their origin in the drabwurld, so too do the Gods and Concepts which make all the processes of life work as they should.

I do know the world of which you speak, for on the very first day of Narnia's creation, there were visitors who arrived by magic from a land by the name of Britain -- a time many years hence from the wars you speak of -- and two of them became the first King and Queen of Narnia.

I know what you have seen and witnessed, for I have also seen and witnessed it many times, in many places, across many worlds.

I have heard the cries of my people, and I have felt their pain in times of darkness and strife. I have felt the fear of death as any other, and I have bled to preserve the future of those I held dear.

You speak of the repetition of this war across many cycles as something grotesque and abominable. I will agree with you in that battles are ugly affairs, and this one is that much more terrible in that the stakes are so much higher.

However, there can be no life without death. There must be balance in all things, and just as we were required to aid the banshees in order to balance Death in the drabwurld, so too is the Void required as a mechanism of balance.

If it is a future completely free of war and strife and death that you seek, I tell you now, that world will not come. So long as there is life and Free Will, so long as people are allowed to choose, these things will never disappear.

You speak of this cycle as though it determines all our fates, when in truth, it is the cycle that allows for life and the freedom for mortals to have their lives and free will.

It is this structure, this order in the universe that allows life to flourish. Just as a house will crumble if its foundation is unstable, so too will all of Existence crumble and eventually cease to exist without the forces of both creation and destruction in play.

There is little I can say or do that will dissuade you of your fear. However, it has been told to me -- and I believe it to be true -- that when the End comes, when all is brought to ruin, that in the fires of rebirth, all worlds that have died and been consumed, all worlds that currently hang in the balance now, will be restored to their rightful place.

[skjalf]

Not at all. ( She speaks quietly now, swallowing once against a tide of emotion before daring to behold him again. ) I—what? ( Oh, no. Nononono. This cannot be God. All the blood runs from her face, leaving her wide-eyed, starkly pale and on the verge of tears. )

I have prayed to you. My brothers and sisters and people have prayed to you—nay, all the people of the world, for centuries. They met but silence.

( She glances away sharply, and whispers: ) My people. So many losses suffered in my own country alone. You say that you know this, and yet find it necessary? With the utmost respect, Lord, I am neither of those people. No extraordinary deed of mine save for a fortune in whom I was born to makes me a princess. But my duty is first and foremost to my people, or what good am I to them? If I stand by and let them, let my sisters, and future souls, innocents all perish for this—will anyone one day look upon such inaction and say it was good or right?

If you heard our prayers, of our suffering for centuries, I cannot fathom— ( How he might turn a deaf ear to such suffering. But she speaks not those words, and regards him in stunned silence, instead. Is he God, then, or Jesus Christ? ) Hold a moment, I beg you.

Yes, the cycle is grotesque. It is wrong. It is wrong that a handful of us decide the fates of all. You, perhaps, are used to shouldering such a mighty burden as a mantle, and I commend you for it. But I am only human. I cannot, and will not sacrifice what is left of my family and all the innocents I will never meet present and future to perpetuate a cycle which never ends, is never resolved. Consider: what are we Unseelie here for, if our presence is not required in your perspective? I must wonder, if we are merely meant to be the lamb brought to slaughter.

And should that be true, that, too, is not right. The Unseelie balance nothing if we are never meant to have so much as a chance at victory. ( Oh, he's said it. The one thing which can bring her back to herself. She raises her chin, and a hint of her headstrong nature shines forth in her blue eyes. ) No. I do not believe a world free of death nor strife might ever exist. If you have seen into the depths of my heart, then you know how well-acquainted I am with death and suffering both. I can weather those things.

What I want is a world in which our choices might shape our own fates. Free Will, as you call it, should reign. There is no balance to be found in a never-ending cycle of blood like this. Even the Plague ebbed away when it was spent. My point of view is coloured by that, and my own troubles at home. Nearly the whole of my family is gone. I cannot lose my sisters; I have a duty to protect them, and am not removed from that duty simply because I am here and they are not.

( The doubt is there in her eyes, which are bright with unshed tears. ) The worlds may exist again, but my sisters will not. Their choices will never matter. They, and countless other children will never grow, know love, sadness and loss, grow to do extraordinary things. You ask such a mighty sacrifice. And I fear that were I to consent to that, there would be naught left of my heart thereafter to make my own life worth living.

Would that I might speak to you at length of these things. I know I cannot dissuade you from your course no more than you might me from mine, but I would not wish for there to be any enmity between us. There is no hatred in my heart for the Seelie.

[aslandish]

[ Aslan is quiet.

He lets her speak, lets her pour out her heart, her fears, and in the end, he has only a little to say.

His countenance is grave, and again, he is reminded of so many that have rejected his word and shut him out. It hurts him every time, his heart breaks every time, but that is and will always be a burden he alone must bear.

He has never forced himself upon anyone, and he will not start now.

His answer is soft. ]

I am He, and I am not He, Elizabeth.

We are manifestations of the same Idea, and there must always be someone who stands outside the cycle.

We always hear, but there are laws and precepts that govern even the actions of gods.

I cannot explain it to you, and it grieves me that in these last days, you are consumed with an overwhelming fear.

I wish you well, and I hope you will find peace in whatever way is available to you before this war is over.

[ He ends the feed. There is nothing more to say. ]