the second occasion

[deepest_magic]

House. Wardrobe. Coats.

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[alicornucopia]

"Welcome," says Aslan, a glint in his eye, "James, Son of Eve, and Isabella, Daughter of Eve. Welcome He-Beaver and She-Beaver."

He has a deep, rich, soothing voice, like the intersection of melted chocolate and a hot bath and velvet.

[neverbeatme]

For a second she's even more confused, and then it clicks.

Elizabeth—James—grins. "Thank you," she says, with a little bow.

[deepest_magic]

"...James?" says Bella.

[neverbeatme]

"I'll - explain later," she says. "It might be kind of a long story, and I think we have more important things to talk about right now."

[deepest_magic]

"...Okay. Aslan, what are we supposed to do?"

[alicornucopia]

Aslan rests an enormous paw on her shoulder; it's heavy enough that she has to lean hard on her scepter to stay upright, but she does so. "Come, both of you, and I will show you a far-off sight of the castle where you are to be King and Queen."

He unpaws Bella and leads them both to the eastern edge of the hill and shows them, in the evening golden light from the sunset behind them under rosy clouds, miles of the most gorgeous landscape, punctuated - where a great snake of a river meets the sea - by a shining castle. The light is glinting off all the glass of its windows and it looks like a star come to rest, all glory and spectacle.

"That," says Aslan, "is Cair Paravel of the Thrones of the rightful rulers of Narnia, in which you will sit."

[neverbeatme]

James thinks of saying 'nice castle', but decides it's probably too flippant for the occasion.

[deepest_magic]

"Are - there enough of us?"

[alicornucopia]

"Two have ruled before, and two may rule again, though there is room for four," says Aslan.

[neverbeatme]

James nods—

[pythbox]

—but before she can come up with a suitable comment for the occasion, there is an abrupt cut-off scream from the far side of the pavilion. Dryads and naiads scatter in every direction, some of them also screaming.

[neverbeatme]

Oh, so that's what Father Christmas meant by the sword and shield guiding her - is what James finds herself thinking as she drops her backpack, draws her sword, and bolts for the source of the trouble all in a single uninterrupted movement.

[deepest_magic]

Bella runs towards the commotion, too, though not so swiftly as she's not really armed - backpack dropped next to James's, staff clutched tight in one hand and the other hand pressed over her pocket of cordial.

[alicornucopia]

Aslan is with them, but when the braver of the other creatures start forward to the great wolf that has treed a naiad (naiads are the ones who are not supposed to be treed), he calls, "Back! Let the Prince win his spurs."

[neverbeatme]

The Prince so named has very little time to analyze the situation before she's right behind the enormous wolf, slashing at its back with her sword. It turns on her in a blink, howling with rage; she lunges forward and stabs it in the heart with all her eleven-year-old strength.

[alicornucopia]

The wolf's neck is still long enough for it to lunge forward, fire in its eyes, and scrape its teeth against her forehead - but that's all. It dies on her sword.

The naiad creeps down, making curtseys and uttering stammered thanks.

[neverbeatme]

"You're welcome," she says shakily, attempting with moderate success to dislodge sword from wolf.

[alicornucopia]

The creatures reorganize themselves; it is eventually the consensus that another wolf has got away without attacking anyone and is most likely reporting to the Witch, but the sun is setting, everyone seems to feel quite safe in the presence of Aslan, and various nymphs pack James and Bella into piles of cushions in the pavillion to rest for the night, after James has been reminded to wipe off her sword.

"Hand it to me and kneel, Son of Eve," instructs Aslan, and when James has done that, Aslan strikes her with the flat of the blade, and says, "Rise up, Sir James Wolf's-Bane. And, whatever happens, never forget to wipe your sword."

[neverbeatme]

"I'll remember," she assures him.

And now... bedtime?

[deepest_magic]

Bella has not been knighted and is in her cushion heap when James gets to the adjacent one.

"So," says Bella, not yet irretrievably sleepy. "James?"

[neverbeatme]

"Yeah?"

[deepest_magic]

"You were going to explain?"

[neverbeatme]

"...Yeah. I think - somehow, Aslan and Father Christmas knew something about me that wasn't true yet," she says. "But it is now. It's hard to explain properly, though, because... well. If I said 'James Moriarty', would you know who I meant?"

[deepest_magic]

"He's the bad guy in a couple of Sherlock Holmes books, isn't he?"

[neverbeatme]

"Mm-hmm. He's this mysterious criminal mastermind math professor. I've always liked him, because of the math thing and because he's supposed to be incredibly smart and, I don't know, good at things? But I didn't want to be him or anything. But - I don't know, when Father Christmas called me 'son of Eve' that made sense, even though I couldn't figure out why or what it meant that it did. And then Aslan called me James... and I think what it means is that I was going to decide that I really do want to be James Moriarty. A better, smarter version with different priorities. I think that in a sense it's just as true to say that I'm a boy and my name is James, as to say that I'm a girl and my name is Elizabeth. Or - I'm not sure if one is really more true than the other between girl and boy, I haven't really figured that part out yet at all, but I think James is more true than Elizabeth. It feels more mine."