Susan Was Always First

Appearance

Lucy felt woozy as she sat up, the world a blur. What had they done to her? Where was she? What had she been doing...? Caspian! She had to tell him where to find... Wait... Peter? And Susan?

Lucy's eyes widened as she saw her eldest siblings sitting on a small bed, watching her with tears in their eyes. Her own eyes filled with tears as she ran to them and held them close. 

"You're alive! Oh thank Aslan!" Lucy could hardly believe it. She had hoped to see them again, but to actually see them after all this time... Letting them go, she stepped back, taking in their appearances more clearly. 

Peter looked rough, to put it nicely. He had grown pale and thin, and his face-where it was not covered in facial hair- was marred with scars, likely the wounds Elda had told them she had given him. The clothing he wore looked ill-fitting, loose around the waist and baggy. However, he still appeared to have some muscle, as if he had continued to work out to keep up his strength. His hair looked long enough Lucy could tie it back if she so wished, longer than she had ever seen it. 

Susan... her sister looked relatively healthy, and still very much so pregnant which was a relief to her. Lucy was thankful to see that her future niece-or-nephew was still growing and that the stress had not caused her sister to miscarry. Susan's hair was cut shorter, the length closer to her shoulders. Her skin looked pale, nearly translucent, but her eyes still held a bit of the hopeful spark that Lucy was so used to seeing. 

"How is Narnia? Is everyone okay? Are you okay? Caspian, is he...?" Susan asked, tears still streaming down her face. 

Lucy placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Narnia is still thriving. The people's morale is low but it is not revolt that is on their lips but prayers to Aslan for the safety of our family. I... I will be okay now that I am with you. I was drugged and brought here before I could tell Caspian that I discovered where you were being held-"

"You know where we are?" Peter interrupted quickly, cutting off Lucy before she could speak of Caspian.

Lucy nodded, glancing at her sister before switching the subject. She would tell Susan of Caspian's well-being after letting her brother know what he wanted. "Doesn't this look familiar to you at all? From our first trip to Narnia, when we cleared out the underground passages of the White Witch's castle? These are the remains of those rooms. I didn't think it would be possible to access these rooms anymore, but they must have found a way..."

"That must be why the place feels foul. Traces of her magic must still linger here." Peter crossed his arms. "If only we could reach him, Edmund would... he would..."

Lucy felt her heart sink at the mention of her deceased brother, and she could tell they too had heard of his murder. 

"Did you... know?" Susan asked quietly. 

Lucy nodded. "I saw the body myself... Caspian confirmed it..." A silence fell over the room as the three Pevensie's thought of their brother. 

"And... my husband. Is he...?" Susan's voice was quiet as her question from earlier was repeated.

Lucy shook her head. "He was alive as of last night. Caspian refuses to give up hope ever since Elda told us of the fact she knew your were alive. He's searching furiously for you, and I can only hope he saw the note I left that told him where to find us." 

"Elda?"

"Oh! You don't know about that?" Lucy raised her brow. "The one they called Wrath was left in the courtyard covered in blood. The group she worked with was trying to have her killed for disobeying a direct order, and since Caspian was... not handling things well at that time, they must have figured he would execute her on sight once he learned of her role in torturing you. He was close to doing just that, but Edmund stopped him. Instead, she told us information and in exchange for her continued work for us, she was allowed to live. Edmund was supposed to check in with her..." 

Lucy tailed off, her eyes growing wide. The figure in her dream beside Edmund had been Elda! But... could it be? Was her brother actually alive? If the rest of her dream was true, could that also be real?

Was Edmund declared dead on purpose?

----

"Why are we doing this again?" Elda raised her brow at the action of the Just King. 

Edmund had found dyes that he thought would work to lighten their hair. In that moment, he was dipping his head into a basin of the dye. 

"To better disguise ourselves." Edmund winced slightly as he stood up with dripping hair, back still sore from the fatal injury he had received. "You did say we'd need to change our appearances to lay low." 

Elda wrinkled her noise at the stinging smell of the dye. Shaking her head, the teen crossed her arms. "When I said that, I meant change clothing, maybe smear some dirt in our hair and on our faces. I refuse to dye my hair."

"Oh?" Edmund crossed his arms as well. The teen was nearly ten years younger than him, yet Elda still seemed to believe herself the leader. He knew she held no respect for his title as King, but the fact she disregarded his seniority annoyed him slightly. Her refusal to let him contact his family was also still not forgiven, as he knew that Caspian and Lucy needed him. He had been in a bad mood from that, and the pain from his wound only brought his mood more foul. 

Elda narrowed her eyes. "Listen, I'm sure you've always longed to have pale hair like your brother but-"

The girl let out a shriek as Edmund spilled the dye, it splashing onto her clothes with drops of it getting into her hair. 

"Okay, now that we've taken care of the dye, shall we continue?" Edmund set off, throwing up the hood of the cloak she had found for him to hide his hair until the dye could take full affect. 

 Elda could tell the king was cross with her, and she likely shouldn't have brought up his brother, but to splash her with hair dye? If he was going to act like a child, then she was going to continue to treat him like one.  Shaking her head, the teenager set out behind the king, loudly mumbling about how someone was going to have to replace her clothes. 

A deep, rumbling laugh froze both Edmund and Elda in their tracks. Elda moved her hand to her dagger and prepared to turn and attack but Edmund stopped her. Turning around quickly, the king's eyes widened.

"Aslan?" 

"Hello, dear one."