The Golden Witch || Peter Pevensie x OC

25. Evenings With Family

Valera had returned to Irondale that night.

Aslan had accompanied her.

The Pevensies stayed behind at the camp to prepare for their coronation at Cair Paravel which was set to take place in just a week's time.

Seven days that Valera wished would go by in the blink of an eye.

She knew it would be a celebration that would go down in Narnian history.

The century-long winter finally over, Jadis vanquished forever, the new Kings and Queens of Narnia to be crowned.

Of course, she would have been nervous about one more detail of the celebration if not for the conversation she had with Peter earlier that day.

Her jubilation was only extended discovering that her feelings for Peter Pevensie were not unrequited.

That he loved her.

Knowing translated to feeling, and the daughter of summer had never felt so happy as she walked through the entrance to her castle.

It had been left abandoned for over a century considering it was too dangerous for Valera to return whilst Jadis was still in power.

The floors, every surface, the chandeliers, were all covered in thick coats of dust.

Everywhere she looked appeared dim, as if the castle was lonely and filled with distain.

Not to mention the mess left behind after Jadis and her followers had stormed through the gates that final summer night.

Pieces of rock and glass from smashed up walls and ornaments were littered across the floor.

Paintings had claw marks cut through them, metal candelabras crushed into nothing.

"I didn't remember it being this ... empty", Valera spoke as herself and the great lion walked through the entrance, down the vast hallway.

Valera resided in Irondale by herself.

She would host grand parties and balls, constantly having her Dryads come to visit her when the wind would cross over the palace.

But at the end of each day, and at the start of the next, Valera found herself alone.

It wasn't something that bothered her much.

But now she found it rather isolating.

"I didn't remember it being this messy", Aslan chuckled as he pushed over a large chunk of rock with his paw.

"It will take forever for me to clean this place up. Cair Paravel will have to play host for all the celebrations we have in store for at least the next few months", Valera complained as she walked down the once white marble flooring, now stained a brown shade of dirt.

As she arrived at the end of the hallway, she saw the now torn portrait of her sisters.

The four daughters of the sun and the moon arranged in a diamond shape.

Jadis at the top, towering over the other three sisters.

Lilith and Saida were beside each other on the right and left sides of the diamond respectively.

Valera was painted at the bottom, her arms and hands outstretched to the sides as small leaves grew from her palms up her arms.

Her own face had been scratched out, as had Lilith and Saida's, leaving Jadis the only one untouched in the painting.

It was a portrait that had been painted during the days of peace between the sisters.

And so Jadis was painted in a way that made her look happy as she stood at the top of her younger sisters.