The room wasn't dark, but neither was it light. The faint glow of torchlight edged out the darkness, but not entirely.
Caspian sat among the broken shards of a mirror, held the biggest slices in his hands. The shattered pieces reflected a million tears from his few. In his grasp he held most of the mirror, only bits remained around him. Too small to recover, big enough to see inside.
How many times his fingers had been sliced in his frantic scramble to put it back together, he didn't know. At least once- but he couldn't tell what was cut and what was simply smeared around.
It didn't matter anyway; this mirror meant nothing to Caspian. It was pointless to try and fix it. But he had tried, as if trying to fix more than just the mirror. The image it reflected now was cracked and broken. The image now rang true; a picture of a boy, too young yet to be a man, broken, cracked, barely holding together, but still whole- at least to the world.
Uncle Miraz had accidentally knocked it from the wall when he angrily slammed the door. A broken, ungrateful boy- that's what Miraz had said he was. And, as he'd watched the mirror fall, so had his tears. Although unintentionally, Miraz had broken the picture Caspian held of himself, symbolically reiterating his words.
Caspian placed what remained of the mirror back where it belonged on the wall.
Broken.
Right next to the painting, still whole, still perfect. He could find a new mirror, he knew that. But this was about much more than that. This image, this memory, would stay.
His perfect parents, a painting with no fault. Never would they have one- at least not to him. His shattered reflection, a broken heart.
He thought he could only be fixed by them; maybe. But they only existed here, on this canvas. Not even in his memory, nowhere in his mind- except this. He felt so lost looking up at it. So very small and alone.
Caspian's fingers ached and he turned to leave, easing open the door carefully, attempting to protect his hurting hands. Once in the hall, eyes dry, no trace of tears remaining, Caspian tried to hide his brokeness; again appear whole.
But he wasn't.
He never would be.
Never could be.
YOU ARE READING
(Narnia) Broken Pieces -Caspian X- A One Shot Collection
Fanfic"If only he'd been a little older, then he would have his own memories. But his father and mother were gone, leaving him in a castle, surrounded by people, yet almost entirely alone. Alone without even a memory..." Short one-shots exploring Prince C...
