Because I enjoy foiling Andrew Adamson. Been in the works for while.

Psarnia belongs to Walden etc, Narnia to Lewis.

"I will look after it until you return," Caspian vowed, gripping the sword.

I took a deep breath. "I'm afraid that's just it," I said quietly. Caspian's head turned to me, and I looked him straight in the eyes. "We're not coming back."

His eyes widened in shock and horror.

Oh dear. I was afraid of this. This may be a—

A small gasp at my side reminded me that Caspian was not the only one who had heard my words.

"We're not?" Lucy asked, looking up at me with the beginnings of tears in her eyes. However hard it was for me to leave Narnia, it would be doubly so for her—she had lived half again as long here as she had in England.

Nay, good my sister, I thought, slipping into the speech we had all been taught as adults to use on important occasions. What was more important than this? Indeed, thou and thy young brother shall return.

"You two are," Peter said to Edmund and Lucy as he walked over to join us. "At least..." Peter glanced back at Aslan. "I think he means you to."

Lucy looked at Aslan with a slightly desperate look. "But why? Did they do something wrong?"

"No indeed," said Aslan. "Your brother and sister have learned much in this world, but they have grown older, and it is time that they begin coming closer to their own."

"It's all right, Lu," Peter said as he walked the few paces to Lucy. He bent down a bit and took her hands. "It's not how I thought it would be, but it's all right." He smiled, and Lucy gave a small wavering smile of her own. "One day you'll see too. Come on." He led her over to the small line of Narnians across from us, and Edmund followed them.

I watched as they made their goodbyes to Trufflehunter, Reepicheep, Glenstorm, Trumpkin, and Doctor Cornelius. Lucy seemed to find it particularly difficult to say farewell to the dwarf. I made to follow them, but—

"Queen Susan..."

I turned to look at the new young king. "Yes, King Caspian?"

"I...I wish we had more time together," he murmured quietly. Bless him, he looked terribly nervous and embarrassed. I smiled, but I couldn't help sighing on the inside. I shouldn't have let it—or him—go this far. I knew we were going to leave, and it seems he may have misunderstood the situation. I am sorry he had to learn like this that sometimes a flirtation is only a flirtation.

"It would never have worked, Caspian," I said, still smiling.

"Why not?" he asked, confused.

Well, I do not reciprocate your starry-eyed infatuation. That is one reason. And there are at least a dozen other valid reasons. But humor seems the best way to go right now.

"I am thirteen hundred years older than you," I gently reminded him.

He smiled slightly.

I smiled back at him and turned to walk away. Then I paused. Thoughts flew through my head in an instant.

I can't just leave him like this. I don't want him pining after his "lost love." He needs to fall in real love with someone and marry. This has to end with something definitive, something he can remember as a real end, something that can become a memory. I have to let him down nicely.

I swallowed hard.

Aslan help me, I'm going to have to kiss him.