The Just and the Wise

Chapter 14

Lucy's POV

I hesitantly enter the invisible mansion as the invisible things instructed. They sound...harmless, but they did kidnap me. My footsteps echo down the dark hallway. It may be dark, but it's a comfortable darkness. A warm, safe darkness. Thick, dark arches line the hall, and chandeliers hang above me casting eery shadows across the hall.

I see the library at the end of the hall, the library the beings insisted I find. I enter the wide open door, and I see a thick book resting on a podium in the cent off the round room. I make my way towards it, and I see letters scattered across the cover. I try to open it, but it appears locked. I see an angel engraved on the cover of the book, blowing a puff of air.

I blow on the cover, and the scattered letters float into place, forming the words The Book of Incantations. I remove the lock and open it, flipping through the different kinds of spells.

"With these words your tongue must sew," I read one aloud, "for all around there to be snow."

At first, nothing happens. Then, out of nowhere, soft flurries of snow fall from the wooden ceiling of the mansion. I look up, and the flurry thickens into a windless blizzard. Inches of snow come up from the ground, and I smile and laugh at the white glow reflecting off the snow around me.

I blow the snow off of the book, and the pages flip quickly and angrily. I slam my hand onto the book to stop the page movement, and I hear hissing and eerie overlapping voices bounce around in my ears. The green mist slips out from under the book, and I feel an odd chill trickle down my spine. I look around me, nervous that I'm being watched.

I look back down at the spell book, and see the image of a beautiful woman. She resembles someone familiar, someone safe, but I can't pinpoint who.

"An infallible spell to make you she, the beauty you've always wanted to be..."

The woman vanishes from the image, and a cold feeling fills my stomach. It turns into a mirror, and I see my reflection. I smile sadly at myself, and I realize I'm not looking at myself, but at Susan. Her facial expressions move with mine, and I touch my face. She mimics my motion.

"I'm beautiful," I whisper.

I run to a nearby framed picture and look at myself, and I see that I am still the same. I'm not beautiful in this reflection; I'm just me. I run back to the book, and my reflection vanishes. The woman returns, and I rip the spell out of the book. The pages flip angrily again, faster this time. A powerful roar emits from the raging pages.

"Lucy..." Aslan's voice echoes throughout the room, and I spin around trying to find him.

"Aslan?" I ask, "Aslan?"

I move the spell page under my blouse and make my way back to the book cautiously. I see the page before me: A Spell to Make the Unseen Seen.

"Like the 'P' in psychology," I begin, "the 'h' in psychiatry, invisible ink and the truth in theology, the spell is complete. Now all is visible."

I look around, and see a man take shape at the elegant ladder across the room. He holds a book in his hand. He walks across the room to a table, and his body turns toward me, finally taking a fully solid form. The man slowly approaches, and I stand nervously waiting for him to notice me. He looks up at me, startled at my realization of his presence.

"You...you can see me?" The man asks.

I nod.

"How? Why are you here?" He demands.

"I-I don't know. These invisible beings took me and said I-"

The man raises his hand to stop me.

"I understand completely," he shakes his head, "I'm Professor Coriakin. We should go outside. I think I know what's going on here."

The professor and I make our way outside, and I see Edmund, Caspian, Y/n, and the whole crew standing outside. They all look very confused.

"The oppressor! The oppressor!" These big-bellied, one-legged troll creatures hop around, and I realize those are what took me.

Caspian, Edmund, and Y/n turn around and see me walking towards them. Caspian's face relaxes.

"Lucy!" Edmund says relieved, putting his sword away.

Y/n runs toward me and gives me a big hug.

"Your majesty," the professor vows to Caspian.

"Guys, this is Coriakin," I say, "this is his island."

"That's what he thinks," the troll-like beasts say, "you have wronged us, magician!"

"I have not wronged you," Coriakin says, moving towards them, "I made you invisible for your own protection. I have not oppressed you."

"But you could've...if you'd wanted to," they say, bouncing away on their one legs.

"Begone," the professor sprinkled some dust at them, and they hop away panicked.

"What was that?" I ask.

"Lint," he says, moving of his eyebrow, "but don't tell them."

"What were those things?" Eustace asks, his mouth in a distinct frown.

"Dufflepuds," the professor says factually.

"Right," Eustace says stiffly, his eyebrows raised and mouth pointed down, "of course. Silly me."

"Follow me," the Coriakin says, heading back towards the mansion.