𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃 | ❝Hope is good, Hope will never disgrace, but make no mistake, Hope will hit you in the face!❞
In which the Just King becomes betrothed to a princess from a neighboring kingdom, only to fall in love with the prin...
WALKING IN THE WIND xiv. DESTROY WHAT DESTROYS YOU
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HOPE DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. She'd lived a few different lives over the course of a "few" years, so she wasn't entirely clueless. Odette always said that while she was the educated one, Hope was wiser. But in retrospect, she didn't know much, especially not about the real world.
It wasn't a terrible thing. In her opinion, intelligence didn't make anyone more or less of a person. For example, she'd met countless highly educated royals in her day, and they were all assholes. Still, sometimes she wished she knew more. Then again, there was a reason why people said too much knowledge was a curse, and she didn't want to be the one to test why this was true.
Perhaps that was why she was so entranced by Edmund's ability to rely solely on facts and logic. They called him "the Just" for a reason, after all. Paired with his wit, his sharp mind was intimidating. It was ironic, too, because Edmund was just as fascinated by how in-touch Hope was with her feelings. She didn't fear emotions; she embraced them.
She always thought she could read other peoples' feelings rather well. People were so fascinating to her, no matter who they were. She always felt like she could read Edmund well, even if he constantly surprised her. It was all in the way he moved his mouth and how his eyebrows rested on his face. Even the banter he used with her compared to others made all the difference. He simply wasn't afraid to be himself with her, and that made him easier to read.
That was how Hope could tell, as the hour drew nearer to the infiltration of the Telmar Castle, that Edmund had become rather tense.
It was the most bizarre thing. Edmund could walk and talk like he was the most confident bachelor in all the lands, flashing smiles and shaking hands all day long. He could discuss law and battle strategy and train like it was nothing. But in those few moments where he had a minute to himself, those rare times where he was left to his thoughts — that was when Edmund shriveled up and grew tense.
She hadn't even noticed it at first because of everything that was going on. More than half of the time, she was too overwhelmed with other matters to focus on finer details. But when all was calm and everyone was off on their own, when the spotlight was no longer on him, that was when she noticed it.
In the eye of the storm, there was Edmund. He was an anxious one, always grinding his teeth and tensing his shoulders. Even in his sleep, he would sweat profusely and whimper all night long. It was a sort of quiet cry, one that could barely be heard over the snores of the dreaming Narnians, but it was there, hiding. Hope tried not to think too much of it the first few times she noticed it because she knew everyone was under a lot of stress. But then she realized this wasn't an occasional occurrence for him. He was always like this.
