Disclaimer: C.S. Lewis is amazing, don't you agree?
Rating: PG
(Please review; it truly means a lot to me. Thank you very much.)
It begins far before the dawn of time. Not Aslan or Jadis, then, are they. Neither is he Lion, nor she Evil Witch: no, not yet.
She calls him Principe. He replies with Hada. They are mists. Spirits. They are ever intangible, yet terribly real, like the feeling one has after jerking awake from a vivid dream with sleep still melting the shadows of one's vision. They are young, this much is certain.
He remembers. Of course, he remembers.
- --
We run down the shifting silhouettes of the mountains that have yet to be formed, fly down the rushing rivers that have yet to flow. Your laughter reverberates through the stillness, and I stand and roar down from the cliffs that have yet to grow. Under the muffling heat of day that has yet to pass, I sit by you as you blow cool rifts of air over me.
The nights (that have yet to fall) are cold, even without the contrast of a sun that has yet to rise, and we lay together in a swirl of gold and white haze. You relish the warmth that I radiate.
I am the Prince. You are my Fairy, and you are my friend.
- - -
The Emperor watches us with a shine in His wise eyes. I ask Him, when we are alone.
"My Father?"
"Yes, my son?"
"Time will begin soon, won't it? I can feel the earth start to layer. The sun is budding."
"You are right. Time shall begin soon."
I cannot help but pause. He is patient.
"What will I be, when time begins? What form am I to receive?"
"You shall be king of the creatures of the wild, my son. For you shall be wild. Is that the answer you seek?"
"Yes. But, my Father – shall… Shall Hada be wild with me?"
I ask because I must know. I must. And I ask for you, because I love you. There is silence.
"…Father?"
And all of sudden, my spirit breaks, as that is the first and last time I see the Emperor look away from my gaze. For the first and last time, I watch my Father cry for Creation, and I hope – against, truly, all hope – that what He is saying shall not come to pass. Somehow, that a miracle will break upon you and I and what His tears tell me are false, are lies. I suppress my sight as that weight of dread within me mounts and grows like a terrible, terrible, bitter fruit. It cannot be so. It cannot.
I hope for nothing else but you.
I need you.
- - -
We sit beneath the shimmer of silver that will soon, very soon, become the moon. You lean against me, as we watch the Stars prepare for their journeys into the immense blanket of sky. I watch you as you breathe, as you inhale and exhale, growing into your form that my Father will soon give a Name. You are glowing, shining almost, as if there is something inside of you that is shining, as if there is the very Moon herself growing and budding inside of you.
"The Stars are beautiful, aren't they, Principe? I would not have objected to being a Star."
"Yes, they are."
You are, too, my friend. My Hada. Could your beauty truly hide such evil?
"Principe –"
"Yes, Hada?"
"I spoke with the Emperor today."
"… And?"
"He's given me a… He called it a… responsibility. That each traitor in the Land of Narnia shall be passed on to me, that I shall have a right to kill each one. A level of power, is what he named it. "
"That's good. Do you not think it so? It shows he trusts you."
I try not to cringe at the light I see in your eyes. I try to trust you. I try not to remember the words of my Father. I hope for you.
"Yes. I suppose it is. Trust. Power."
There is dirt and filth in my eye, vestiges of a hapless Centaur whom the Wraiths and the Incubuses have gleefully overpowered. Triumph.
I can smell it. The victory of my power over your pathetic excuse of a rule. You, Aslan. Yes, even your name gives me ill. Where are you, as your precious Narnia falls? You are tied, bald and conquered on your precious Stone Table as rats eat away at your rotting skull. Your feeble attempts at attacking me, with your feeble, pathetic "loyal Narnians". I shall show them what a loyal Narnian I can be.
I have triumphed!
A shadow of darkness, then, and you, Jadis
You, my Hada
have fallen. You, who once enslaved my Narnian friends and those I love
You, who once carried me on clouds of refuge from the burning heat
You, who once showed me the secrets of the Ice Caves
You, who once were my friend
have not won your power. You have fallen, and the Righteous shall once more rule!
You have truly forgotten. I saw it in your eyes, Hada, as you looked up at me for that final leap on to the earth. The same earth we saw created, from the same cliff we once stood upon. Together. You have forgotten that eternity of time we once had. I knew you had forgotten the Deeper Magic, but I was almost certain, Hada, that you wouldn't -
That you would have remembered, even the slightest, the eternal beauty of an age that I cannot let go of, myself...
When, once upon the beginning of time, I loved you, my Fairy. Mydearest.
My Hada.