『ACE OF HEARTS』 peter pevensie

vii

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As he let out a light sigh, the old man closed the door to Artemis' room behind him and continued leading the two, now even more confused, teenagers to his study. Only moments later, they had arrived and the professor took a seat in his big chair, as he started preparing his pipe, occasionally glancing up at the siblings awkwardly standing before his bureau. "You seem to have upset the extremely delicate internal balance of my housekeeper." His voice was deep and stern, yet very calm and kind.

Finally, Peter decided to speak up in the quiet room, trying to get him and his sister back to their chambers and back to sleep as soon as possible. "We're very sorry, sir. I-it won't happen again." As much as Peter wanted –and tried– to do that, his sister wanted to know what they could do to help their youngest sibling. "It's our sister, sir. Lucy." The dark haired girl stepped forward, immediately taking ahold of the conversation. The professor knitted his eyebrows together for only a moment, as he nodded sideways, a small scoff leaving his mouth. "The weeping girl." The man clarified, before his gaze rested on the eldest siblings once again. "Yes, sir. She's upset." Susan sighed, she wanted– and needed an explanation for her sister's odd behavior. She knew it was normal for children to have great imagination, but she knew it should never be like this. The situation was getting completely out of hand, she felt.

"Hence the weeping."

Th eldest of the two, Peter, reacted before his sister even had the chance to, "It's nothing. We can handle it." He nodded, he wanted to believe that more than anything and he even thought he believed his own words, but something, somewhere deep inside in his subconscious, the blond boy knew they couldn't. "Oh, I can see that." Kirke mentioned sarcastically, never resting his hands from the dark pipe he was preparing. "She thinks she's found a magical land." Susan sighed, she was getting sick of playing pretend to please Lucy constantly, so she was glad she could finally talk to an adult about the issue, as their mother would always just tell Peter and her to let Lucy play, she's just a young girl and she has a very big imagination. Time would make her see what was real and what not. "In the upstairs wardrobe."

Those four words leaving the dark haired girl's lips triggered something inside the professor's mind. His eyes widened as he finally set down the pipe in front of him, firmly placing his hands on his bureau. "What did you say?" Susan frowned lightly, she was confused as to why the professor was suddenly so interested in the subject. A wardrobe, for goodness' sake! Why would an old professor like him be interested in a wardrobe– especially one he already owns. "Um, the wardrobe, upstairs." The girl hesitated for a moment, but then continuing her message anyway. "Lucy thinks she's found a forest inside. She won't stop going on about it."

The tired man couldn't scramble up the right words from his brain, as he was still comprehending the fact that the youngest Pevensie had finally found a way back to Narnia. "What was it like?" It had been decades since he had been in the magical land and he missed it dearly, although, he didn't miss the danger of the evil lying around, waiting, he did miss the great adventures he had been on when he was so much younger and full of life and energy.

"Like talking to a lunatic." Susan was glad there was finally a sane person listening to her, constantly it would either be Lucy with her endless imagination, Edmund with his negativity, or Peter trying to be the smarter, bigger person. "No, no, no, not her. The forest." Suddenly, everything linked together inside his brain: Artemis not in her room at this time of night; her armor and weaponry missing; the uneasy feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. The old man's eyes were open wide, and a clear hint of worry sparked inside both. "Oh, my dearest Artemis. What have you gotten yourself into, this time?" He had no idea what to expect

The girl stammered at first, her mind not wanting to accept the fact that the professor, too, was going mad! She couldn't possibly believe that such a wise man believed such fairytales. "You're not saying you believe her?" A light scoff escaped her lips as she held her gaze on the man. "You don't?" The man shrugged the issue off as if it was nothing.

He, on the other hand, couldn't cope with knowing there were people who didn't have a single spark of belief in– let's say, abnormal things. He just wouldn't want to live in a world where mankind doesn't live on belief anymore, but on logic. "But of course not. I mean, logically, it's impossible." Professor Kirke let out a sound of cringe as he heard the word logically. He hated that word, it made him feel like the person talking so logically were trying to invalidate him; his words; or his beliefs. "What do they teach in schools these days?"

Eventually, the older sibling decided to take part in the conversation once again, his mind had been wandering off to the red head they now shared a home with. He was thinking about the professor's reaction, when Artemis' room was found to be empty. About how weird it was for her to be outside her room at this time of night. "Edmund said they were only pretending." Peter reassured, he– like his sister– strongly believed there was no such thing as a magical world in the back of a wardrobe.

"He's usually the more truthful one, is he?" The professor questioned the boy, testing him and his knowledge about his own family. "No. This would be the first time." Peter seemed to realize how wrong he and his sister could be, as they believed Edmund over Lucy, in the beginning.

"Well, if she's not mad and she's not lying, then logically we must assume she's telling the truth."

The girl's eyes widened slowly, as she muttered out some words, before the professor could actually put those mutters into actual words– and then into a sentence. "You're saying that we should just believe her?" Susan scoffed evidently, not believing their temporary guardian was telling them all that.

"She's your sister, isn't she? You're her family. You might just try acting like one." Professor Kirke scoffed lightly, he wasn't very fond of the way the teenagers spoke to him- about Narnia. He was there when it was first created, heck, he even helped creating- and saving it! If he had never gone through that specific puddle with Polly and Uncle Andrew, there would be no Narnia today.

But little did they know,– why, except for Edmund– that Artemis was almost home. She was almost back home, where she belonged, where she could let herself be, not contain her true nature, where she could see Oreius and her father again.

Or so she thought.