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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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High Queen at that. Gendry's expression had changed to something more suspicious. She was doing little to object to the title. In any case, it was one thing to be an accidental son of a king. But a queen was a queen, no matter how one looked at it. She was high born. She didn't seem it now, but a little mud would do that to anyone.

He leveled a steely gaze at the servant. "I told you I ain't no prince. Call me Ser if you like, but you can bugger off about princes."

The servant exhaled loudly and did little to disguise his rolling eyes. "Yes yes, of course, Ser Gendry. I don't suppose you'll find time to want a bath drawn, hm?"

Gendry snorted derisively. "Draw one for her Grace over there. I had one last week already."

Edited 2014-08-23 03:24 (UTC)

The steward's attitude toward Gendry bothered Susan - and his attitude towards her - as if she was at fault for being late, of all the ridiculous things - wasn't doing him any favors.

But queens, if that was what she was here, were supposed to be gracious. They also didn't need to take bother from servants.

"I believe there's a bit of confusion here," Susan said, achieving a tone that was decidedly more 'older sister: annoyed' than 'regal and warm' but she'd had a long two weeks. "What is your name?"

"Reginald, Your Majesty," and he affected a bow worthy of her station. It felt starched at the corners.

"Thank you, Reginald," Susan said. "Now if you will withdraw for a moment, I believe Prince Gendry and I have something to discuss."

The reminder was just as much for the steward as it was for Gendry - if he was going to 'your Grace' her, she could very well serve that dish right back - but the steward should know better than to linger when two royals needed to converse. Stewards should also know better than to publicly inquire after someone else's bathing habits - it was rude with the potential to be humiliating, even if she agreed that bathing once a week was hardly sufficient.

The steward was nothing if not obedient. He sniffed and stepped far enough away to be out of earshot, but not so far away that he could not be called on when needed. He managed a perfect exterior of patient impatience.

Gendry instead looked unhappy and did nothing to look patient at all. Fortunately he didn't seem particularly humiliated either. He was now simply in his natural state of being where he seemed particularly displeased with the world at large. The hound, oblivious, began to sniff at Reginald's feet while the servant, unwilling to truly react, began to quietly hiss and try to shoo the dog away.

"So, High Queen of Narnia, eh? Is that in England or the other way 'round?"

"It's completely different than England, just like this place is completely different than Narnia," Susan said. She moved a hand at her side, a touch of impatience, or rather: emphasis. It was completely different, and precious, and impossible and... "Narnia is not something I talk of easily. Back home, in England, no one would believe it. They would think me quite mad."

She frowned a little, "And if you were going to tell me you were a knight, you could have told me you were a prince."

He could make no sense of what she was describing. Or at least, he could not quite grasp how she could claim to be of two worlds and now even in a third. It made no sense to him that one could go from being a queen to being a nothing. But it made just as little sense to go from nothing to being a prince.

"I'm not a prince," He muttered. "My mother was a tavern girl. My father was a king, but I never met him. He fu--" He paused and censored his language, a courtesy offered to a highborn lady. "He had his way with my mother and that was it. He never knew I existed, nor would he have been like to care. Bastards ain't princes, just bastards. The fairies here just have the wrong of it."

Meanwhile, poor Reginald was having a time of it. Apparently he had decided simply walking away from the dog Would Not Do, since Susan had only asked him to withdraw for the moment, and one did not disobey the wishes of a high queen, even if she was entirely grubby and looked as though she'd been on the road for two weeks. So he kept shuffling back and forth, ever so slightly, in hopes of avoiding dog hair on his impeccable black pants.

For Susan, however, what Gendry said did make a certain amount of horrible sense. She knew her history and her fairy stories.

"Oh. I'm sorry you didn't know your father," she said, sensing she was swimming in deep waters. "I don't know quite how royalty works in your world, but in mine - in England - well. I'm glad you're alive." Illegitimate children of royalty were often killed so they couldn't make claims on the throne - then again, so were legitimate children. She felt that things were getting tangled up. "Anyway, what I mean to say is that I'm sorry that came out as an accusation. That wasn't fair of me."

She held out her hand then paused for a moment and added awkwardly, "I don't suppose they shake hands where you're from?"

Edited 2014-08-23 04:17 (UTC)

The apology somehow made it worse, because he had never liked to be pitied. But then, he was ever stubborn about what he was and how it was so often used to define him. His uncle and Lady Lucrezia used his father as a means to elevate his station. Others pitied him for simply being born on the wrong side of the sheets. Only a few were altogether indifferent.

He grimaced as he looked at her hand. "Not with a lady. Or queen. Anyway, there ain't no need to apologize. I know what I am."

"That's not what I'm apologizing for," Susan said, leaving her hand out stubbornly. "I'm apologizing for - well, almost yelling at you. I might be a queen in Narnia, but in England I'm just a girl. And I can never go back to Narnia again."

And there was a sadness in her tone at that last sentence, despite how business-like she was trying to be. She realized suddenly that she liked Gendry. He had been informative and kind, and she didn't want the stupid steward to separate her from the most consistently friendly(ish) face she'd seen since she'd arrived.

Few were ever as stubborn as Gendry, but it did not take much to make him relent on this matter. He grasped her hand, but only briefly and only lightly. His were working hands that were thick and calloused from a lifetime of labor and dirty from a few day's hard work. Just as quickly, he pulled his hand back and buried it as he crossed his arms.

"Why not? Were you exiled?" His father was a usurper who had done just that to the Targaryen. He'd known a Targaryen queen who could not return to Westeros because of his father's deeds.

Susan might have bathed briefly in the stream that morning, but that didn't mean she was exactly clean from being on the road. Her hand would feel soft in comparison to Gendry's - soft, but strong. There were thick callouses on her fingertips that might have come from a harp but were from nothing so gentle.

She was glad he'd taken her hand; she felt indescribably lighter and that made the word 'exile' strike more deeply - her defenses were down. She paled in a way that meant 'yes' even as she qualified it.

"In a manner of speaking," Susan said. "Only, it wasn't meant to be quite so harsh as that. I think in closing that door he meant to open another one, but - it was when I was between worlds, you see, that the fairies came to me. I thought I was ready to say goodbye and just go - be in England, and go to boarding school. When the fairies asked for my help, I wanted to help them, but... maybe I wasn't as ready to go back to England as I thought."

Edited 2014-08-23 04:43 (UTC)

"Not meaning it to be harsh don't change what it is." Things like going between worlds or even boarding schools wasn't within his experience. But having your home taken from you was only too familiar. Just because it had been for his own good, it hadn't made it any easier to forgive his old master and teacher for sending him off to the Watch and be an exile to everything he ever knew. "But how is it you can be a queen in one world and not in another?"

Once a king or queen of Narnia...

Susan smiled, her heart singing with the sting of it. There was some truth here that she felt she didn't wholly understand, didn't completely remember. Maybe she would, if she was Lucy. Maybe she would be able to look at Gendry's face and say 'But I am a queen. I'm just not royalty in England, but I will always be a queen of Narnia.'

But she wasn't Lucy, and Susan said, "That's a long story. I'll tell you if you like, I think you deserve that. But is there a place we can sit down first? And maybe get something to eat?"

If Reginald was still near enough to hear, no doubt he'd offer to take Susan up to her rooms where she would have a quite nice audience chamber... if, of course, he approved of the company she was keeping. All shardholders were to be honored, and those of royal blood most certainly, but Susan was a high queen, and whether or not his insistence had merit, in all the ways that mattered most to Reginald Gendry certainly acted like a bastard.

Edited 2014-08-23 04:52 (UTC)

Gendry did not make his business to find out other people's stories, especially the ones that seemed especially complicated. More than that, he felt no particular reason to get to know this stranger more than he needed to. He weighed going back to patrol or simply going back to his forge. But he was hungry.

"I'll take you to the dining hall. It's not like to be full at this hour." It would not be private, but he preferred to be in a more familiar setting. In a queen's chamber, he would eat cake and drink wine, but in a dining hall he could have a tankard of ale and a plate of sausages instead. He'd much prefer the latter.

"All right," Susan said. Her stomach growled and she blushed faintly. "Oh - excuse me."

She hadn't had much beside what she could glean on the road and what she could occasionally earn or ask for along the way.

She glanced back at Reginald and noticed his predicament with the dog and sighed a little. "Just a minute, let me take care of him." She called out, "Reginald!"

The servant seemed relieved to finally have an excuse to walk away from Gendry's dog. He headed toward them.

Gendry nodded and waited as he watched with a frown. When the hound bounded back to him, he crouched to scratch behind its ears and watch Susan's exchange with the servant.

"Queen Susan," Reginald announced deferentially. He intently did all he could to ignore the hound and its master. "How may I be of service?"

"Ser Gendry and I are going to the dining hall." She inclined her head slightly in Gendry's direction. "Am I to understand that you are the one I should see about living arrangements here when we are finished?"

As a matter of fact, there were any number of other servants that Susan could probably see about this, and Reginald knew this very well. But it didn't have to be a particularly subtle attempt at flattery to get him to puff out his chest. "I believe that would be best, Your Majesty."

"Then where shall I find you?"

"If you like, I will wait outside the dining hall," he gave her another short bow, intending to put out that he was entirely at her service. Susan was a shardholder and such a high royal as well, he certainly was at her service. He still did not glance at Gendry.

Susan found the idea of him waiting outside rather intrusive, to say the least. "No, that won't be necessary. I wouldn't want to keep you from your other duties."

"Then perhaps Your Majesty would be so kind as to come to the courtyard when you are finished? Although of course, if Your Majesty would prefer to dine in your royal chambers, arrangements could easily be made."

Susan's stomach growled again. Reginald attempted not to look scandalized and pulled it off rather well.

"The dining hall will be quite sufficient," Susan said. Chambers? Goodness. She wanted to walk right toward the dining hall, but she didn't know where it was. She gave Reginald a kind smile, "Don't let me detain you further."

And Reginald knew a dismissal when he heard one.

Gendry was relieved when they were left alone. Through the exchange, he had watched with a keen interest. It had become clear that Susan, in spite of her ragged appearance, was no stranger to dealing with people of this sort. Whilst Gendry had no issue handling people like this either, he did so gruffly and with insult. She had dealt with the servant just as swiftly, but without insult. There was perhaps something to this method, though he had no keen interest in learning it.

"You got rid of him in a hurry," he said with a grudging hint of praise.

"I'm hungry," she said, gesturing slightly in an invitation for Gendry to lead the way. "I didn't want him hanging about and watching us eat."

People of Reginald's sort, Susan had found, were genuine in their desire to serve, as long as it was for the right person and they received the appreciation they thought they deserved. You had to carefully guard your boundaries with such people, or else they would end up being the ones running you. None of the Narnian servants had really been like that, but all courts had their side of politics and personal agenda. While Peter had been off securing the borders, she and Edmund had often dealt with interior squabbles. Sometimes Edmund would join Peter, if the battle was particularly fierce, and Lucy would go as well, and she would remain in Cair Paravel, confident that her brothers and sister would be well but also needing to deal with the lords and ladies, the supply chain, and general governance. It worked out quite well, since she hated the wars.

"Suits me." Still relieved to be freed of extra company, he took to leading them again. The dog followed, even though it probably had no business being at the dining hall. It was just as well, because Reginald probably thought the same of Gendry. But his thoughts of food was mingled with this notion of how he should be treating her. Which meant, unfortunately, an apology. "I should have minded my tongue before, with me going on saying all those words I did."

"Yes, I gathered you two didn't have the most - congenial - of relationships," Susan said wryly, moving to follow along. That had been another factor in her wanting to be rid of Reginald.

Then he continued and her brow furrowed slightly. At first she wasn't sure what he meant, but since he was already apologizing she tried to puzzle it out - and then it dawned on her. "It was a little awkward," Susan said, still in good cheer. After all, she was about to eat, and soon she would sit, and then hopefully there would be a bath and new clothes and sleep on a real bed. "I'm not used to hearing words like that. But... am I to understand you're thinking you need to talk differently around me now?"

"You're a queen, your grace. I'm not so stupid that I can't change the words I use." It was an effort, certainly, because he lacked any real courtly graces. But he knew what was appropriate and what wasn't, regardless of spending a lifetime living one other way. But highborn ladies always expected men to be better than they really were. And so Gendry intended to do just that.

Prickly indeed. Susan wasn't sure exactly what she'd done to turn the conversation from easy and open to 'I'm only walking with you because we're going in the same direction,' but even if she felt a lonely pang at it, she wasn't in the habit of going where she wasn't wanted.

"Well, I can't say I won't appreciate it," Susan said, her tone light and easy, as if she hadn't noticed the sudden drop in temperature. Maybe they could breeze through it, or maybe not. She'd see. "I can't imagine changing the way one speaks would be an easy thing to do, so it's considerate of you. Mind, if you slip up and I faint, I hope you'll be good enough to splash some water on my face."

She gave him a cheeky smile.

He snorted and made a valiant effort to not grin. A sense of humor changed nothing. His uncle seemed to have an endless supply of clever quips and easy smiles. But it did not change his uncle being a king as well. Even if Gendry did regularly tell his uncle exactly what he thought of him.

But they were inside the castle now and out of the sun and all the usual bustle of castle life carried on around them as he took them down the corridor to the dining hall. "I'd expect you'd want something finer than water. Some red wine, mayhaps."

Ah-ha, an almost smile. She'd seen that out of her periphery vision. So it was the title, then? Goodness.

She'd probably feel empathetic or try to later. After all, he was an illegitimate child of royalty, and that couldn't be easy for him. She little doubted that there was a severe class divide where he was from. Right now, however, she was hungry and footsore and just empathetic enough not to feel annoyed.

Something finer, pah.

"I'd rather have a good cup of tea," Susan said. "Oooh, and a sandwich, though I should probably start with a soup."

The dining hall was vast as they entered it and meant to hold a great number of people in audience. But for now, it was largely empty and only one of the long tables was presently set up to be sat at for eating. A group of natives occupied one end of it, so Gendry chose the opposite end for the both of them. He steadied his scabbard as he sat, then gave the dog a pat along the head as it came up beside him. He paid no mind as it licked at his fingers.

"It'll be ale and sausage for me. But they'll make whatever it is you like. There's no end to what sort of foods they make."

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