INCIPIENT ➵ EDMUND PEVENSIE

45 | Faith Is a Conscious Choice

45 | FAITH IS A CONSCIOUS CHOICE

"Aslan!"

    Elliott has never seen the Valiant Queen quite as jubilant as she is now.
  
    Of course, as we would expect, the royal had already, very appreciatively, given the girl a warm embrace prior to this. But once that was over and done, and once Lucy was assured Elliott can do with standing alone for a moment despite her heavily bloodied state, she devoted her attention to the True King - who she's so dearly missed - instantly.

    Through her own lens, Elliott recognises the creature soon as the shell-shock from combat drains from her system. Make no mistake - before her is the lion who'd led her to Ezra in the woods, the lion who she's had visions of in her captivity, the lion who's saved her from the beastly Telmarine torture.

    She observes as Lucy nuzzles into Aslan's golden mane and as he returns the passion by touching her nose with his tongue. For a time, an intense happiness knocks the words out of Lucy's mouth.

     "I knew it was you. The whole time, I knew it!" says the queen to King of the Beasts shortly after, "But the others- they wouldn't believe me."

    "And why would that stop you from coming to me?"

    This simple query sparks a drastic silence in the queen.

    "I am so sorry, I was just- I was so terrified to come alone, afraid you wouldn't show yourself after all- and I didn't wish to upset the rest, either," confesses Lucy, her head low, volume plunging lower, "Aslan- I-If I'd come to you earlier, everyone who gave their life for us... Could we have stopped that?"

    "To know what would have happened, child? Nobody is ever told that," replies the lion, "But what will happen is another matter entirely."

    "You'll help?"

    "Of course. As will you."

    "Oh dear, I sure wish I am braver."

    In the next moment, Elliott wonders if she has misheard the lion's response; she most certainly hears him chuckle at the queen's remark:

    "Lucy, dear, you already are a lioness!" he exclaims, eliciting a humbled smile from the daughter of Eve.

    "But Aslan," says the Valiant after this little exchange of joy passes, "Why haven't you shown yourself? I thought- I thought you'd come roaring in to save us, like last time. And now everything is going to be horrid - Peter's already staking his life in exchange for our liberty."

    "Yes, it is hard for you, little one," acknowledges Aslan. "It has been hard for us all in Narnia before now. But things never happen the same way twice-"

    The lion's aureate eyes acquaints with Elliott's gaping ones now-

    "-just as Susan isn't the one with us today. Narnia isn't bracing for the First, but Second Battle of Beruna, Lucy."