Susan Pevensie (
gentlearcher) wrote in
eachdraidh2014-08-15 06:28 pm
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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?
[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.]
[ VIDEO ]
[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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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."
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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.
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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?"
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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."
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"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."
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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?"
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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."
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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.
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"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.
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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."
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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.
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"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.
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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.
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"Queen Susan," Reginald announced deferentially. He intently did all he could to ignore the hound and its master. "How may I be of service?"
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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.
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"You got rid of him in a hurry," he said with a grudging hint of praise.
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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.
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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?"
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"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.
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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."
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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."
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"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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his eyes look really freaky in that icon >>
wow that's just rude!
excuse the vagueness; Su would be more specific but I haven't done all the research yet
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