Coriakin and I walk out of the now visible, massive mansion.
'The Oppressor!' - 'The Oppressor!' the creatures Coriakin had identified as Dufflepuds cried out.
'Alexa', Peter sighed relieved.
'Your Majesty', Coriakin bowed before Caspian and Peter.
'Caspian and peter. This is Coriakin', I told them, 'It's his island.' They both bow respectfully
'That's what he thinks', the dufflepuds objected, 'You have wronged us, magician.'
Coriakin starts walking towards them, causing the puds to jump and run backwards, 'I have not wronged you. I made you invisible for your own protection.'
'Protection? That's oppressive! Oppressor!'
'I have not oppressed you', he says calmly.
'But you could've', they insisted, 'if you'd wanted to.'
'Be gone', Coriakin says as he throws something.
'It's a spell!' the creatures cry out as they run away.
'What was that?' I ask the Professor.
'Lint', he laughs, 'But don't tell them.'
'What were those things?' Eustace asks confused.
'Dufflepuds', he looks back at him while walking to the mansion.
'Right, of course', Eustace states sarcastically, 'Silly me.'
We all walk through the hall, following the professor.
'What did you mean when you said you made them invisible for their own good?' I ask Coriakin.
'It seemed the easiest way to protect them... from the evil.' he explains.
'You mean the mist?' Peter questions.
'I mean what lies behind the mist.' Coriakin clarifies
We walk into the library, it looks different than it first did, the ceiling now looks like the night sky, and books flew and circled through it. Coriakin throws out a long map,
'That's quite beautiful', Eustace breathes, 'I mean, for a make-believe map of a make-believe world.'
A centaur on the map puts a war horn to his lips and blows it. We see armies rush towards each other on the map. I see it shows the battle we had fought against the White Witch the first time we had entered Narnia.
'There is the source of your troubles', Coriakin told us. The map moves itself to show an island wrapped in darkness, green and dark mist surrounds it. 'Dark Island. A place where evil lurks. It can take any form. It can make your darkest dreams come true. It seeks to corrupt all goodness... to steal the light from this world.'
The thought about such evil made me subconsciously put my hand over my stomach as if that would for a barrier to protect it, even though I knew it couldn't.
'How do we stop it?' I ask him.
'You must break its spell.', he tells us before turning to Peter, 'That sword you carry, there are six others.'
'Have you seen them?' Peter questions.
'Yes', The professor answers.
'The six lords', Caspian asks, 'they passed through here?'
'Indeed.'
'Where were they headed?' Caspian continues.
'Where I sent them', the professor tells us, 'To break the spell... you must follow the Blue Star... to Ramandu's Island.'
The images of the map move and turn to show another island.
'There, the seven swords must be laid at Aslan's table', Coriakin told us, 'Only then can their true magical power be released. But beware... you are all about to be tested.'
'Tested?' I ask surprised.
'Until you lay down the seventh sword, evil has the upper hand', Coriakin explained, 'It will do everything... in its power... to tempt you. Be strong. Don't fall to temptation.'
Coriakin walks towards me,
his gaze went from my eyes to my stomach insinuating that he knew. I quickly dropped my hand, looking a little startled at first but then quickly changed it back to a regular expression and hoping Peter hadn't seen it.
'To defeat the darkness out there... you must defeat the darkness inside yourself.'
We all looked down, avoiding coriakins hard gaze, before looking up to the blue start floating high above the map.
Back on the boat, there is a really bad storm going on, the ship sways left to right roughly.
Peter asks me to stay inside my cabin just to be safe as he goes to help Caspian in the maproom along with Drinian. I can hear some commands being shouted on deck.
'Hold!' - 'Three spokes to starboard.' - 'Aye-aye, sir.' - 'More pails here.' - 'Pass it down!' - 'Heave!'
The night has already fallen, but Peter still hasn't come to wish me goodnight yet, like he usually did since we couldn't share a cabin due to ship rules. He is probably still in conference with Caspian, I thought. I was laying in bed, I take the paper from under my blankets.
''Transform my reflection
Cast into perfection
Lashes, lips and complexion
Make me she
Whom I'd agree
Holds more beauty over me.'
I get up and walk towards the full length mirror. My reflection looks like a combination of Susan and myself. My nightgown changes to a blue dress with a black bow. Some impulse causes me to push the mirror open like a door. Music plays and I arrive at something that looks like a dinner party.
'Ladies and gentlemen...' a man announced, 'Mrs Pevensie.'
Soft applause filled the air.
'She's quite a looker', I hear a man in army uniform say.
I feel someone loop an arm around mine, it's Peter.
'You look beautiful, my darling.' Peter tells me sweetly, 'As always.'
'Peter!' I say surprised.
'Excuse me, miss,' a man with a camera comes up to us, 'can I get a photo?'
In the corner of my eye I can see a young woman passing by, holding a baby on her arm and a toddler by the hand, seeming to struggle a bit to control the toddler.
'Smile.' the cameraman instructed cheerfully.
'ow what a poor girl', Peter said as he looks towards the young mother, 'Her husband left her after their second child was born, so I heard. Good thing I'm not leaving you any time soon, my love.'
I smiles at him, thinking I could tell him now. I put my hand on my stomach, but don't feel the same warm feeling as I did before.
'Alexa, what's wrong?'
'Come on now, miss', the cameraman insisted, 'Nice big smile.'
'Peter, I'm not sure about all this. I think I want to go back.'
'Go back where?' Peter questioned confused.
'To Narnia.'
'What on earth is Narnia?'
The flashes from the camera get more and more intense.
'What's going on? Stop this!'
