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[It was a long walk to Caer Glaem. Fortunately, Susan was close enough that that the road to it was fairly safe. She would feel better about this whole thing if her brothers and sister were here, or if she had her bow, or even her horn. Instead she was wearing her school clothes, and they were none too clean at this point. Still, Susan was hoping for a better explanation, and from what the friendly fairies and townspeople had to say the castle was the place to get it.

She was hungry. Fruit trees and handouts didn't do much in the way of assuaging hunger when one was walking all day. She hoped there would at least be food in the castle; it was looming large in her vision now and she hoped to get there within the end of the day. It was a good thing, too. She'd bathed in a stream that morning, but--

"Lawkamercyme!" cried a high pitched voice, and Susan turned her head just in time to see a small, green-tinted fairy fall into a faint. A dark shadow globbed its way towards the fairy, Susan was sure it had foul intent. Dark shadows with gleam of teeth almost always did. She wished for her bow more than ever, but didn't hesitate to pick up a large stone at her feet. She was frightened - how did one fight a shadow? Oh, she hated to fight - but she wasn't about to just stand there and watch. She shouted, "You! There! Get away from that fairy!"

The shadow did not seem much impressed. And so Susan threw the stone with impressive aim, clipping the beast right in the mouth. It hissed and abandoned the fairy, heading towards her instead. She bent to pick up another rock.]

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[For a long moment, the locket shows a beautiful face with a furrowed brow, staring intently at its own reflection. Susan has never seen anything like this before. She is at the castle now, clean and clothed and fed, so her image doesn't look quite as dire as it had earlier that day, and her dark hair is swept back neatly in a braid.] Ah - so it does work! At least, I assume it does, and this is a message going out all over the lockets and not just some sort of fancy mirror.

[In either case, she's beginning to feel a little self-conscious. She reaches for easily remembered dignity.] I don't mean to intrude, but I have heard that this is something which happens often. And I wonder, is there anyone from England here? [She misses her family; two weeks of walking among strangers in a strange land was more than enough alone time for now, thanks.] Or even [marked hesitation] Narnia?

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At the mention of a castle, Susan makes a decision. If he was going to be dangerous to her, she stood a far better chance of resisting him on horseback than she did on the ground; she rode like someone who'd been taught by talking horses.

Susan carefully places the fairy in her blazer pocket and runs towards the horse, mounting behind her rescuer in armor in the same fluid motion, a trick that is much more difficult than it seems.

He only had a moment to register her decision to come with him, and duly outstretched a hand to help her up - only to find she clearly didn't need it. Having spent quite a bit of time around horses himself, he knew the difficulty of such a maneuver, and he shot an impressed look over his shoulder after she mounted.

"We don't want to be around when its friends show up," he said in a rush, urging the horse into a gallop. He shouted "Lawkamercyme!" once more at the cowering monster as they drove past it.

"They have friends?" There was a horrible thought. She shifted closer to her rescuer in order to grab more fully onto the horse with her thighs, keeping pace and grip with the gallop without needing to use her hands. She wanted her hands, just in case she needed to do something with them.

"I'd have thought horrid little things like that would prey on their friends."

He kept up the brisk pace, but didn't press the horse to speed up. These monsters weren't exactly agile, and besides - he wanted to know sooner rather than later who it was he had just picked up.

"If they find others like themselves, they morph together into a larger, stronger form. So I suppose they do prey on each other, in a sense." He didn't look back this time, but he added, inquiringly, "Have you not seen them before now?"

"No, thankfully not," Susan said. She shivered slightly at the thought of meeting a whole bunch of them in a larger, stronger form. What a horrible thing.

"They've been attacking the castle for some days now, and from what I hear, they're all over the realm," He explained. Caer Glaem wasn't too far off in the distance, but he kept his eyes peeled for any more shadows that might be in their path.

"I don't suppose...you're recently arrived in this world?"

Susan didn't see any harm in answering his question. "Yes, that's right. About two weeks ago. I've heard that's not entirely uncommon."

He looked excitedly back her then, features lit as if someone had just offered him an exceptional gift.

"Really? That must mean...milady, are you one of the esteemed shardholders of the Seelie court?"

"...maybe. I'm not quite sure I've got all that clear yet." She was heading toward the castle for a greater explanation, really. She'd agreed to help the fairies in that split second they'd come for her, but learning more about the type of help they wanted had left Susan uneasy. She hated war. And no one had seemed to be able to give her a satisfactory explanation for why they were fighting yet. "My name is Susan Pevensie. What's yours?"

"Aidan," he said, as if that were an answer he had been giving since he could speak. "I'm a knight-in-training at Caer Glaem. I'm so glad I came across you, Lady Pevensie."

The latter statement, on the other hand, was rather true.

"You must have a lot of questions. I can try to answer them, if you wish."

A knight-in-training. That certainly explained his fancy armor and courtly manner. Susan further tested the waters. "Are you from Caer Glaem, then? I mean, have you always been here?"

She was doing rather well, actually, in terms of catching her breath. The fairy hadn't quite recovered yet, but Susan was watching out for it with high hopes.

"I grew up south of here, but I'm not from another realm like the Shardholders are. This world is the only one I know." This was where his carefully fabricated story came into play. At least, he had been as careful as he could be. There was only so much he could learn during his journey to make himself believable. He had to hope it was enough.

Caer Glaem itself grew ever closer as they converged upon the main road, buildings peppering the land ahead of them.

Oh, now that was very interesting - and potentially useful. Susan had a hundred questions, but she forced herself to be both practical and polite.

"Really? How interesting! Who was your sponsor? Or - is that not something they have here."

In Narnia, knights were often fostered outside of their own castle or lands, but they did need to be put forward by someone. Aidan's sponsor would tell her whether or not he had family connections in the royal court or if it was something else, or if the rules were even at all the same.

Seamlessly, he answered, though he had no idea what she meant by a sponsor. "Sponsors? No, I came to train of my own accord, though I..." He trailed off, casting a glance towards the castle.

A moment later, he continued, "The Seelie are genteel and noble, Lady Pevensie. If you are allied with their court, you will be in good company."

"Susan, please." She had never been 'Lady Pevensie.' It was a strange mixing of worlds that made her uncomfortable.

"Have you been at court long?"

"Alright. Susan, then." Informal worked for him. First names were more personal, anyway. "I've only been at court for a few days. In fact, I arrived on the same day these shadows started attacking."

She had meant 'Lady Susan,' truthfully, but this was just as good. She hoped she hadn't intimated something far different than her intentions, but it was too late to worry about that now.

"That must not have been the kind of welcome you were anticipating," Susan said. Frowning a little, she glanced around with keen eyes for any other sign of attack. The fairy stirred slightly in her hand, but did not wake.

"Not in the least," he said wryly, though he had been able to turn the pesky monsters into an advantage for him. "But I am glad I arrived in time to help stop them."

"And how did you do that?" That was more than idle curiosity speaking. She was sure that she'd beaned the creature straight in the head, twice, and it hadn't even batted a creepy eye. "Nothing seemed to be able to stop it for long."

Even shouting its name had only seemed to slow it down.

"With enough voices, 'lawkamercyme' is enough to do the trick. But short of a chorus, hounds will hunt them down. You might to borrow a hound from the Master of the Hunt for awhile."

The shadows did prefer to hunt women, after all.

"I will certainly look into it," Susan said, and she very much intended to do just that. "I am surprised, however, that such precautions are necessary. Are they attacking everywhere? What is being done about it?"

"That's what I've heard. The Seelie have been tirelessly fending them off, but they show no signs of slowing down soon."

"What are they?" Susan asked, glancing down at the still fairy. "And what do they want?"

"That I'm not sure of," he said, going out on a limb. "I've never seen creatures like them before, though the Drabwurld is home to all sorts of unpleasant beasts."

"I see," Susan said, frowning softly. She needed a moment or two to assimilate that information, and her attention was also captured by the fact that the fairy still had not woken.

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