Retribution || Narnia OCxOC - thecallofnarnia & NaturallyNarnian

Chapter 5: Before the Battle

The moment the thunder was heard, Dawn raced to the window, just in time to see strikes of lightning beat down into the woodlands around them.

Leah lunged forward and pulled her daughter away from the glass, for fear of it shattering from the unearthly crashes that shook the ground beneath them and rattled the glass vials around them.

But then, there they both stood for a moment, frozen in a dreaded anticipation, watching flames arise from somewhere further ahead in the woodlands, surely caused by the lightning.

The Queen held the curious, feart Princess close to her side as her mind was torn to wherever her husband might be- with Her- in the middle of what could very quickly become the fall of their Kingdom.

If it hadn't already fallen, that is.

Not yet, something told Leah, with a certainty she'd never had before David had given her the extra power. The certainty was comforting in every way that it could have been.

She reached a hand towards the darkened fireplace, flicked her wrist and- flames.

Her heart jumped, but then she almost did, too, as she heard a familiar, confused voice behind her.

"Leah?"

A relieved laugh escaped her. She could have hugged him, and very almost did. "Edmund?"

But Edmund wasn't laughing, or smiling.
She couldn't seem to register the others as he strode past her and Dawn to the window before looking back, eyes understandably very concerned, "What's going on?"

Leah hadn't thought this far.
Dawn had, however, and curtsied politely before telling the Just and his siblings, "Thank you for coming to help us. I'm Princess Dawn, and I think that this is my fault."

"I-it's not." Leah spoke quickly, but more to Edmund than Dawn. "There's another Witch, we didn't know about her but she lured Dawn to the woods, took David, she just absorbs power and-" she held her hand up to the window, "and here we are. It's been a long night, and we could really, really do with your help."

"What kind of power does she absorb?" Edmund asked. "She can't just absorb everything, even if she thinks she can, something has to be either out of her range or something we can exploit," he replied.

Leah took a breath. It'd be okay, now. The Four had always made it okay. She'd written down every instance that they had.

"She... well, she's taken David's- she's got the connection with Aphrodite, now. She took mine, too but I'm pretty sure we restored it so... emotional magick? Energies of the Living? I..." She seemed to forget all the books she'd ever read at that moment.
"Emotional magic." She repeated, "But she's only been about a single night, I haven't a clue what she's up to now other than whatever that-" she glanced at the window again. Oh, it hurt to see the Woodland burning, "is."

Edmund's face was serious, but more than that, it was calculating, as if the strategic mind that operated so well in battles past and crafted so many plans in years past was back in action effortlessly.

"So, magick from people. Do you still have the potion I commissioned-" he glanced around the cabin, most things of which it contained were not things that he remembered her having, "what I can assume years ago?"

"Almost twenty." Leah replied, "I should also add that this is Her cabin. I'll make that potion, it turned out to be pretty simple-" she turned to a table.
Despite the unfamiliar things abourd her, this was familiar. She grabbed various pockets and jars of all sorts. "Arthur burnt my cabin down- I never rebuilt it until She did, apparently.. I'd just made space in the Southern Tower... Dawn, the Mugwort? I suppose there's a lot that's happened since you... left?"