Fic: A Harbour We Have Seen Before

[nfe-gremlin.livejournal.com]

Title: A Harbour We Have Seen Before
Author: bantha_fodder 
Recipient:  zempasuchil 
Rating: PG
Summary: Susan and Edmund, adventuring across the seas in the Golden Age

Original Prompt that we sent you:
What I want: Edmund, Susan, AU or Golden Age or England

Prompt: exploring unknown regions, dealing with legends, the land

What I don't want: Susan as an unsympathetic character

 

 

***

 

The parade of gifts from the Galmen emissary is magnificent but lengthy. Susan finds herself admiring the colours but hiding the hint of a yawn behind the edge of her gilded fan, a gift from the Prince of Calormen two moons past.

 

"And for our Queens," the emissary says, his bow deep, "These dresses from the Governor, a sign of his devotion." Susan leans forward; smiles at the emissary, and he blinks, averts his eyes.

 

Beside her, Edmund sighs quietly. "You have enough dresses of ill-fit and bright colours," he says, his caustic commentary familiar and welcome. "Perhaps you should go to Galma to pick them out yourself, instead of making me sit through this. When is it time to talk of tax reform and the new school system?"

 

Lucy laughs, and Susan hopes the emissary missed Edmund's words.

 

**

 

Later, at the feast, the emissary approaches her, his hair dark in the firelight. "And how are you finding your visit?" she asks.

 

"Narnia is fair," the emissary says, "But no place compares to the hills of Galma; to the joy that is six months away and cresting the horizon to find her glittering harbour welcoming you home. The breeze upon the cliffs and the sand between one's toes, and our banners fluttering in the wind."

 

"It sounds lovely," Susan says, struck by the elegance of his words and his love of an island far away, and the emissary fumbles his glass in surprise.

 

"My lady has never been to Galma, the jewel in Narnia's throne?"

 

"Your lady has not," Susan says, and when the emissary rests his hand on her wrist, she overlooks his insubordination and agrees that she must journey her seas.

 

**

 

Peter writes lists, things she must do and things she mustn't say, as if she's never before travelled as the Queen of Narnia. She laughs, and he pauses.

 

"This is serious, Su," he says, earnest. "In all these years, how can you have never been to Galma? We want our subjects to respect us."

 

"They already do," she replies. "But I want them to love us."

 

Edmund taps the doorframe. He's leaning like he's been there a while, shoulders slumped. "I want to come too," he says.

 

"Well, they'll never love you," Peter retorts, and Susan laughs.

 

**

 

They farewell the emissary with a feast, succulent pumpkins and fresh baked pies and Susan elbows Edmund when he's drinking. He catches his cup and grins at her. "Got to be faster if you want to catch me," he admonishes, and demonstrates. He causes her to spill wine on her dress, but it's purple and she doesn't care, and she nudges him again anyway.

 

"Su," he says.

 

"Ed," she says, mock-seriously. "Why do you want to come to Galma? You have visited it before."

 

"It interests me," he says; leans forward and kisses her cheek. "Go change your dress, Sister. You don't want it to stain."

 

She rolls her eyes, that he thinks she had not yet thought of such an outcome. She wore the purple for a reason, she always does.

 

She rises, and goes to dance with Peter.

 

He doesn't even notice the stain.

 

**

 

Susan steps out, breathes in the clear night air, and relishes the silence as the door brushes softly closed behind her. The murmur of voices causes her to tilt her head, and she leans against a tree as she watches siblings standing where no siblings should have been, what with the party and the dancing (two things to which her siblings were quite prone).

 

"I just don't like it," Lucy says, "It's so dishonest." She turns, and Edmund curls his hand about her elbow. Lucy pauses, her breath misting in the cool night air.

 

"It's what I'm for," Edmund replies.

 

"No, your Highnesses," says the Fox, "It's what I'm for."

 

Susan's tree rustles, and she steps into the open. "This is all very suspicious," she says, not quite serious. "Which of you is engaging in dishonest practices?" In the twilight, Fox's tail twitches, and Lucy frowns.

 

"Everybody is dishonest, Sister," Edmund says, and in the fading light the bruise on her brother's cheek makes his eyes look dark.

 

Susan wonders.

 

**

 

As the Lion's Pride pulls away, and the sparkle of Lucy's dress and the wave of Peter's arm are lost in the distance, Edmund leans against the railing. "Are you sure this is what you want?" Susan asks of him.

 

"It's what is needed," Edmund replies, his voice soft and serious, and he turns away and descends below decks. At dinner he is a wisp, and when the crew sings songs he does not laugh, though the tunes are as jolly as always. Even the captain notices the difference; when she warns her brother, he merely nods his head, and cracks a few jokes every night before retiring to his cabin.

 

"I miss Narnia," he says, when she asks him, and she does not ask again.

 

Two weeks later, as the ship pulls into Galma's harbour, he bumps into her, and she knows her brother, knows he would never by accident. "Susan," he says, "stay watchful." She has no opportunity to question him as he pushes past to the railing; he smiles and waves, and is as gay as ever, and Susan wonders where he has been, what he has done, trapped on the ship with little time for chess.

 

She does not ask. Edmund keeps his own counsel, and he will tell her in his own time.

 

**

 

She stays watchful, keeps her own counsel.

 

**

 

The people of Galma give delightful parties, and the Governor welcomes Susan and Edmund with a parade through the town. Edmund hangs back; is fashionably late to the gala and declines to join the tournament. "Brother, why did you come if not to enjoy yourself?" she asks, poking for the truth, and he looks up at her, his brush in his hand and his smile rogueish.

 

"There are many reasons we leave Narnia, Beloved Sister," Edmund replies, and Susan frowns.

 

**

 

Later, she finds him entangled with a short red-headed Galmen, and in the moonlight her laugh sounds familiar, though Susan has never before met her.

 

Susan rolls her eyes. She never thought Edmund would be so sloppy.

 

**

 

She picnics with the Governor's sister, a delightful girl of one and twenty, her black braids thick down her back. They speak of adventures across the sea and the scent of the islands after a year away, and Karina laughs. "I could not leave the islands to another's care," she says. "A daughter of Galma is for life." She smiles, and her smile is coy. Susan brushes a lock of hair behind her ear; returns the smile.

 

"My love for Narnia is the same," Susan says, and feels they understand one another: Queen to subject; friend to friend; woman to woman.

 

In the sunlight, Karina's smile is bright. "And how is Narnia?" Karina asks. "Will she always protect you?"

 

Susan laughs, for it can not be a real question.

 

Still, Susan is slow to kiss her cheek goodbye, and slow to agree to a leisurely breakfast of buttery pastries and potatoes.

 

**

 

She tours the castle; watches the soldiers from the balconies and learns their stories from the walls. There are no lions in their paintings, only the rivers running red, and the flags running high.

 

Their armour reflects brown in the sunlight.

 

**

 

She shoots arrows into the target fifteen and one hundred feet away, and the Governor's brother eyes her arrows. "Are all Narnians such as you?" he asks.

 

"I train them well," she replies, and he frowns.

 

Her bow is smooth beneath her hands, and she retrieves her arrows, shoots again.

 

**

 

The Governor rests his hand beside hers; brushes the skin of his regent. The Kings and Queens of Narnia enjoy an easy relationship with their subjects, though, and do not mind if all are casual with them, and Susan again over looks this slight.

 

"Have you sent a letter yet to your brother, telling him all is well?" he asks, and Susan wonders, draws her hand away.

 

**

 

Susan stands at the parapets in the early dawn light, calculates the shortest path between their rooms and the Lion's Pride.

 

**

 

She knocks on Edmund's door, but there is no answer. Pummelmuff stands to attention, will not relax even when she indicates he should. "Must be alert when we're beyond Narnia's shores," he says. Edmund is a lump in his bed, asleep despite the height of the sun, and she shakes her head, another day making excuses for her brother's antisocial tendencies.

 

**

 

She waves her hand, says, "Edmund had a late night."

 

"I bet he did," says the Governor's brother with a lewd gesture, and everyone laughs.

 

Later, Edmund sprawls on the rug as Susan outlines portraits and images of the city below them. "I thought the courts of Galma were chivalrous," she says, a dissection of the day's events.

 

"Galma is many things we thought they were not," Edmund says, and Susan continues to draw, sketches escape routes on her parchment.

 

**

 

Edmund is a lump in his bed, but when she pokes him, it is as expected; he is a lump made of pillows and wishes.

 

**

 

The Governor spears a carrot. "King Edmund," he says, "I have heard you enjoy hunting. Perhaps you would care to join me on the morrow?"

 

"Of course," Edmund says, and Susan leans back as they make enthusiastic arrangements for horses and spears, and they fail to ask for her presence.

 

Edmund lies, and Susan makes sure to keep a smile on her face.

 

**

 

The halls echo, and Susan wanders the streets of the town, smiles at babies and purchases a sweet fruit with soft spikes. From an alcove hung with bright fabrics, she watches. As she wanders, she hears the murmurs as she passes, looks about for the dryads and nymphs she wishes were near. Edmund is not so Just, hates the old ways, and heathen queen and demon worship, and she bites her tongue, wonders how she has been so blind.

 

**

 

"Edmund." Susan tilts her head. "The people of Galma hate us."

 

"Yes," Edmund says, meets her eyes.

 

"We should leave, no consolidation of power will help us here."

 

"No," Edmund says, and she remembers the Fox's tail in the twilight; remembers the bruise on Edmund's nose and the frown on Lucy's face.

 

"You're a fool, Ed," she says, "Sometimes there is no in point staying."

 

"My word is not enough, Su. Our armies are not enough." Edmund meets her eyes, but Susan looks away.

 

He never did know when to run, when to guide from above.

 

Susan is not so misguided.

 

**

 

She rests her hand on the Governor's neck. "My lord Governor," she says, her breath warm against his ear. "Your island is truly the jewel in my crown."

 

He flinches at my, and she knows where his loyalties lie.

 

She kisses him anyway. His skin is as soft as any traitor's, and his sleep just as deep, as she rifles through his papers and wraps them in her silks.

 

**

 

She is an archer. Of course she knows the lay of the land.

 

**

 

The soldiers come for them in the night; they find empty wardrobes and unmade beds and in the distance, the flags of the Lion's Pride remain furled, their exit unnoticed.

 

**

 

"Edmund," Susan begins, and pauses.

 

"Susan," Edmund interrupts. "One of us had to take this role."

 

"All of us must take this role," she says, and Edmund frowns.

 

"No," he says, the Governor's papers tucked safely in amongst correspondence from Lucy, "we do not."

 

They watch the port recede in the distance, and when her brother traipses below decks, Susan does not stop him.

 

He knows where to find her.

 

**

 

She waits for Narnia, her bow in her hand.

 

 

 

 

END

.

Comments

[liminalliz.livejournal.com]

Really, one fic a day? REALLY?

--

Oh Pen, this is one of your best. Oh man, the plot is riveting and the characters delightfully explored. OH GALMA, NAUGHTY GALMA. <333

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

HAVE YOU SUBMITTED YOURS YET, LIZZEN?





Lizzen, you were indispensable as always, and your delight is <33333 THOSE GALMEN

[venilia.livejournal.com]

This is so rich, I can almost see it.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

:o) Thanks!

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

oooh, this is *beautiful*. I love all the things not said. Your characterizations seem spot-on but more realistic, grown up, than their young selves we see in the books and movies - how Edmund is not just sneaky but secretive - but they're still playful - Peter's comment to Edmund, "They'll never love you" made me laugh! :D - and how the Galmans aren't just adoring - it makes complete sense, really. your details! drawing escape routes, wrapping in silks, spiky fruit, black braids! so rich, so pretty. I imagine this whole piece in different shades of gold. thank you!

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I'm glad you like it!

I love writing in this period of Narnia, as they reach their tentacles across the lands in Aslan's name and later, I assume, for their own ambitions. They love Narnia that they want it to grow, want it to thrive and succeed, and sometimes they forget that.

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

I am actually kind of weirded out by how similar the fic I'm writing is, with that reaching-out-of-Narnia idea, except in mine I take it in the opposite direction. cool! :D

I am so curious to know the ambition of the Pevensies, how they were perceived by the people outside Narnia - to be ursurpers and frivolous or hard and isolated or conquerors or what? It's fascinating. Golden Age fic can go so many directions.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of how the Pevensies were viewed outside of Narnia, usurpers or saviours or the rest of it. They cannot have been loved across the board, even within Narnia's borders, and their island states could hardly have been ecstatic. I am excited to read what it is that you are writing!

[turkeyish.livejournal.com]

Your writing is so elegantly simple...and it always hits home. I liked this very much. :)

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :o)

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I love these characters so much, I am glad to do them justice.

[westingturtle.livejournal.com]

This is just perfect. I love all of the illusions Susan holds about Galma, and how they are slowly pulled away by the evidence of her eyes.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Galma could be great - all the lands beyond Narnia's shores could be great, but it would be naive to assume that they all WERE great. Some of them would not have been happy with the coming of the Queens and Kings, and their subsequent outward sprawl.

[caramelsilver.livejournal.com]

It's a little embarrassing, but I don't remember... Galma was under the Narnian crown before the Pevensie's came, right?

This was absolutely stunning. Beautiful and rich of colour. Susan is so great in this. And Edmund was kinda awesome too! Great piece of Narnia fanfiction. Thank you for writing such a good fic=)

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but before the Pevensies came there was the Winter of a hundred years and Jadis, and we don't know how Galmen society was under the witch. Perhaps, separated by water, her reign was gentle; perhaps it was brutal, and they resent being rescued by people not their own. The gaps in our knowledge of the Golden Age is what makes writing in it so rich and enjoyable.

thanks for hosting! I love a good challenge.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Hot damn, Susan! And Galman treachery. And Edmund. And awesomeness.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Edmund and Susan are awesome. And Susan, coming in to her own awesome queenliness. I love this period of Pevensie history.

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

Susan! Eee, Susan! I love your Susan to pieces, she's brilliant and amazing and though she's sort of naive at the start she isn't blind and she isn't stupid, and I love that she can do this stuff--lots of times authors sort of ignore her and that makes me sad.

The soldiers come for them in the night; they find empty wardrobes LOVE OMGOMG.

She rolls her eyes, that he thinks she had not yet thought of such an outcome. She wore the purple for a reason, she always does. and "All of us must take this role," she says, and Edmund frowns. and She waits for Narnia, her bow in her hand. --This is my Susan, yes! (Your Edmund is also wonderful, of course, he is so sneaky and brave and wonderful.)

I love, also, the little bits of humor in this, and I love that this world is so rich and full.

[thedorkygirl.livejournal.com]

Wow! Wow! Wow! This was TOTALLY excellent. I can't get over my glee! You took Susan and Edmund and explored their characters in such a way. Loved it, seriously.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think that the Susan-Edmund relationship is always very under utilised, which is funny given they are totally the hardcore Queen and King. Also I love them.