The Lost Legacy

Chapter 5: A Conversation With the King

The fear of being sent back to a place where she would never be accepted was a nightmare that kept Sophie awake that night. The thought of living in an ordinary world after seeing Narnia was unbearable as the minutes turned into hours and the meeting with the king was still pending. It was if the absence of the final verdict was eating her up from the inside. 

She prayed to her Saints to somehow let her stay. The price for such a selfish wish was unknown but she was ready to pay it with half her life if that's what it took to not go back. 

There were two voices inside her mind. Both of them wanted her to stay but one of them knew that it was wrong to ask of it from the King while the other wanted her to be brave. Would she want to regret not speaking up when she was old and lying in a hospital bed somewhere unknown with no one to take care of her?

When she was woken up in the morning, her decision was already made.

"Good morning!" Nina sing-songed as she entered the chambers in the east wing.

Sophie pulled the covers from her face and sat up straight. "Good morning." She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and resisted the urge to yawn. Nina did hate tardiness.

"You haven't been sleeping at all, have you?" Sophie would have lied but admitted to it. "Would you rather have milk before you go to sleep? That helps a lot. My daughter Rumira stays up all night to study and I have to practically shove a glass of water down her throat. I'm saying this because I will not hesitate to do the same with you."

Sophie smiled as she started to fold the sheets. "I would love that."

There was a package wrapped up in brown paper and tied with cotton thread that rested on the study table, which was definitely something the servants would have brought in when Sophie wasn't here.

"What is that?"

"Oh this?" Nina had a smile on her face as she walked towards it, well-knowing what it was, and opened it up to bring out a beautiful white dress with a gorgeous navy blue wrapping, making Sophie gasp at its beauty.

"You're joking. I'm not wearing that!"

"Yes, you are."

Sophie pulled her duffel bag from under the bed and showed Nina a black top and a kalamkari skirt that one of the families that she had stayed with given her as a gift, indicating that she had decided to wear it for the day.

"You're not wearing that!" Nina shouted, meeting Sophie's pitch with the similar words. She rested her head on one side and placed her right hand on her hip as she always did when she wanted to reveal something. "The king has requested you join him for breakfast."

Sophie became nervous all of a sudden, her eyes widening. She knew that she had to talk to him and get it over with as soon as possible, but the thought of having to go with that interaction scared her. Stupid anxiety, she thought.

"Now," Nina clapped her hands together. "Have a bath and wear this. I'll help you get ready."

Sophie did exactly as Nina asked, who wouldn't have let her be otherwise. "I look ridiculous," she said as she looked at herself wearing the dress in the mirror. She looked straight out of a period drama film, and that scared her because her favourite genre was 'Horror'.

"You look beautiful. Now, sit down and let me do your hair." Sophie started to protest but Nina raised a hand to stop her. Scowling, having been defeated, Sophie sat down in the chair in front of the mirror. Nina laughed. "You are worse than little children!"

For the first time in a really long while, Sophie let someone comb her hair, not regretting it in the end either. Her hair had been plaited in the traditional Narnian braid with the curls near her hair shown out proudly and the middle partition of her hair being plaited in a crown.