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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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"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.

He noticed her silence, and guessing at it asked, "How is your little friend doing?"

It would be only moments before they reached the castle gates.

"Not awake yet, I'm afraid," she said. "Is this... normal, with them?"

The horse slowed as he colored his tone with uncertainty. "I'm...not sure, actually. There isn't much magic where I'm from, so this is actually the first I've really seen fairies."

"Really?" She was surprised. "I thought you said you were a native?"

"I am," he said simply, though his gut lurched at her question, in that split second between shock and understanding. Perhaps he could have phrased that better. At least it had only been a miscommunnication; he would have hated to have to kill her so soon. "But not all parts of the Drabwurld are as magical as here. Magic is actually...sort of frowned upon where I'm from."

"Really?" she said, in the tone of 'how astonishing.' Aidan need never know how close he was to being thrown from his horse. "Why is that?"

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