❛ IF IT TAKES FIGHTING A WAR FOR US TO MEET,
IT WILL HAVE BEEN WORTH IT. ❜
in which the world turns to the kings and queens of old,
but the kings and queens turn to a lonely knight.
𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙋𝙇𝙀𝙏𝙀𝘿
...
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REAL LIFE ❛ THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN ❜
Athena ached. Quite simply, she hated it. Every morning she woke with a bulging bump on her torso and every night she tossed and turned — as much as the lump would allow her — before settling into a sleep from exhaustion. Instead of carrying a sword or a shield in her arms, she carried the next Prince or Princess of Narnia inside her body. If there were only a way to skip through the hot, sweaty summer that she endured prior to the predicted birth — then she could finally relax with Peter; with her child.
And, dear Aslan, she hadn't been sparring for at least a month. How did she survive?
Waddling down the hallway (despite it not being a complete waddle, Athena still preferred to phrase it that way; at least then she could find some form of humour in the situation), the consorted royal groaned as she wove through the castle's corridors to find her own room and attempt at getting a full night's sleep. Her hands found themselves on her hips as she continued to force herself through another day of the seven months she had already experienced bearing a child within her. Athena's complete lack of motivation to even attempt climbing the mountainous stairs that lay in front of her was almost enough to push her into finding an alternate route up onto the next floor of the castle. But she had walked up the same stairs the day before, and the day before that. In fact, she had easily scaled the same set of stairs for the last seven years of her residency in Cair Paravel. What was going to stop her today of all days?
A kick at her stomach was the final confirmation that she had reached the helplessness of a person she never wanted to become. Of course, she wanted the child, but being with child? That was something Athena felt herself fully despising.
In defeat, she leant against a wall at the feet of the stairs and hummed silently. Maybe she'd wait for Peter to aid her? His council meeting — one that he and Edmund took the collective decision in pardoning Athena from during her pregnancy — surely finished soon. Unless it was the day he had said would run on a little longer than originally planned? Or perhaps she could ask a maid to help? She was running out of ideas and, to be frank, time to go to bed before the monotonous cycle began again...
"I nay'r dreamt of such a thing," the voice of Juliet rang from down the hall, the same direction Athena had travelled herself previously. It must have been the end of the servant's supper; the only conclusive answer to her fellow Queen consort walking through the entrance to the castle where the stables and servant's quarters plotted in the grand scheme of Cair Paravel. Athena sighed a breath of relief and thanks. Juliet was still a relatively mobile pregnant woman, unlike Athena. Help had, at last, arrived in the form of a friend. "Tell me, a thief? Within our own walls?"
She pivoted her head to see who the Queen and Head of Household was making conversation with and, to much surprise, she saw her brother — head to toe in his uniform, clasping a wooden box in his arms to the metallic plate on his chest where the royal lion rested upon the design. The two were deep in conversation as they grew closer to her position, nearing the base of the stairs with every step they took. Advancing slowly, arms expressively waving, discussing whatever it was with the utmost importance, Athena wondered what in Aslan's name was going on.
