For King and Country ⭒Caspian x Reader⭒

Chapter 8

A cold spell overtook the springtime air of Narnia. Anytime a chill hit the wind, Narnians would whisper a prayer of protection in a reminder of what the cold had brought their ancestors in millennia past, but they endured. They pushed their fear aside and still manned their markets and shops despite the anxiety that coursed through them. 

On one such cold day, Caspian made a formal announcement to his court that he was entering the process of selecting a wife. The whole court came alive at the proclamation. As each name was announced, Blair of House Rochellane, Aurielle of House Escellian, and Corinne of House Winthrope, each member of the court whispered who they wished for Caspian to take as queen. I pretended to be as shocked and surprised as everyone else, and even was able to give weak applause along with the rest of the crowd.

Servants dusted every square inch of the castle, I was half expecting that they were going to take a feather duster to me at this point, but they would have to bust down the doors to my room to access me, for it had been my safe-haven in the days following what I had overheard. No one was ever keen to disturb me there, but despite that Morgan said my absence in the halls of Cair Paravel was glaring. Somehow I had become a fixture of day-to-day life in the palace, but my consistency had run dry.

Only one group of people were brave enough to knock upon that door and retrieve me-The Board of Advisors, or at least a scant of them. The small selection of Caspian's advisors pulled me into the familiar room with ceiling-length bookcases.

"Sit," Said a young woman. She was one of Caspian's newer advisors. Naerhys was sharp and never missed an eye roll or huff of annoyance.

I sat in the rickety chair at the end of the table as the collection of advisors watched me.  In scanning the silent group, I found that not one of them seemed to have a drop of mirth or happiness to their name considering the burrows in their foreheads and the grimaces they held.

"Well?" I said straightening back in the chair. It seemed that they purposefully gave me a chair that could fall out from underneath me at any moment, while they lounged in high-back, upholstered seats made of strong oak. Everything is a message, that little I did know.

"Do you know why you're here?" Said an intelligent-looking faun wearing a checkered vest and spectacles pushed high up on the bridge of his nose. 

"I would say it's from pinching too many sweets from the kitchen, but I haven't been able to determine if your jurisdiction reaches that far," I said folding my hands in my lap. The entirety of the table groaned at my lack of meekness.

"You know," Naerhys stated, "you know, you just think we're too scared of you to say it." 

"Then by all means say it. The only person stopping you is you." I said, jaw set firm.  Certain subsets still treated me as an imposter and turned a blind eye to every bit of information I offered, and every bridge I crossed to please them. My kindness only stretched as far as theirs would.

The faun held up his hand to the fiery woman and continued for her, "We want you to be aware that in this court, things go a certain way, and you need to step aside and let them happen," 

"Still vague. This could very well be about rearranging the furniture in the foyer, and if that's it, by all means, I'll-" I had begun to say, relishing pushing every soft spot they offered me. 

"Stay away from Caspian," Naehrys said standing from her seat, "Let him do what he needs to do. You just come when called."

My throat closed up and my eyelashes fluttered, "I'm not sure what you mean," And in this moment earnestness laced my words. This wasn't a rise I loved getting out of them, but a question prodding the mystery they were keeping me in.