The fear of being sent back to a place where she would never be accepted was a nightmare that kept Sophie awake that night. The thought of living in an ordinary world after seeing Narnia was unbearable as the minutes turned into hours and the meeting with the king was still pending. It was if the absence of the final verdict was eating her up from the inside. 

She prayed to her Saints to somehow let her stay. The price for such a selfish wish was unknown but she was ready to pay it with half her life if that's what it took to not go back. 

There were two voices inside her mind. Both of them wanted her to stay but one of them knew that it was wrong to ask of it from the King while the other wanted her to be brave. Would she want to regret not speaking up when she was old and lying in a hospital bed somewhere unknown with no one to take care of her?

When she was woken up in the morning, her decision was already made.

"Good morning!" Nina sing-songed as she entered the chambers in the east wing.

Sophie pulled the covers from her face and sat up straight. "Good morning." She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and resisted the urge to yawn. Nina did hate tardiness.

"You haven't been sleeping at all, have you?" Sophie would have lied but admitted to it. "Would you rather have milk before you go to sleep? That helps a lot. My daughter Rumira stays up all night to study and I have to practically shove a glass of water down her throat. I'm saying this because I will not hesitate to do the same with you."

Sophie smiled as she started to fold the sheets. "I would love that."

There was a package wrapped up in brown paper and tied with cotton thread that rested on the study table, which was definitely something the servants would have brought in when Sophie wasn't here.

"What is that?"

"Oh this?" Nina had a smile on her face as she walked towards it, well-knowing what it was, and opened it up to bring out a beautiful white dress with a gorgeous navy blue wrapping, making Sophie gasp at its beauty.

"You're joking. I'm not wearing that!"

"Yes, you are."

Sophie pulled her duffel bag from under the bed and showed Nina a black top and a kalamkari skirt that one of the families that she had stayed with given her as a gift, indicating that she had decided to wear it for the day.

"You're not wearing that!" Nina shouted, meeting Sophie's pitch with the similar words. She rested her head on one side and placed her right hand on her hip as she always did when she wanted to reveal something. "The king has requested you join him for breakfast."

Sophie became nervous all of a sudden, her eyes widening. She knew that she had to talk to him and get it over with as soon as possible, but the thought of having to go with that interaction scared her. Stupid anxiety, she thought.

"Now," Nina clapped her hands together. "Have a bath and wear this. I'll help you get ready."

Sophie did exactly as Nina asked, who wouldn't have let her be otherwise. "I look ridiculous," she said as she looked at herself wearing the dress in the mirror. She looked straight out of a period drama film, and that scared her because her favourite genre was 'Horror'.

"You look beautiful. Now, sit down and let me do your hair." Sophie started to protest but Nina raised a hand to stop her. Scowling, having been defeated, Sophie sat down in the chair in front of the mirror. Nina laughed. "You are worse than little children!"

For the first time in a really long while, Sophie let someone comb her hair, not regretting it in the end either. Her hair had been plaited in the traditional Narnian braid with the curls near her hair shown out proudly and the middle partition of her hair being plaited in a crown. 

"Woah!" She exclaimed after looking at the end result.

"Do you like it?" Nina asked, letting Sophie's hair free. "This is Rumira's favourite style."

"I love it! What did you do to me?"

"Just plaited your hair, dear. Now, go down for breakfast."

Sophie and Nina walked down to the kitchen, where Nina told her to enter the dinner hall through the door at the end of the corridor. Sophie looked between the door and the head of the household and took a deep breath, the former reminding her of a cage of despair. Shaking that thought away, she walked towards the maplewood door and the guards opened it open.

Cold air hit her face as she saw the king and the Professor sitting at the long dining table, talking with each other, with the King at the head the Professor on his right side. The king seemed younger than she had seen him to be at first. Maybe that was how the responsibility of running a country does to you.

As soon as she started towards the table, they turned around to see her. The Professor smiled at her but Caspian was feeling something else entirely. Seeing someone new in Narnia was enough to make him have hope about the future. He stood up, not knowing why he did so when she reached the table and managed to knock off an empty goblet from the table. He crouched down to pick it up, but so did she. 

"Ow!" The two of them exclaimed when their foreheads hit against each other, huge smiles across their faces.

"I've got it, thank you." He picked it up and placed it far inside the table.

"I'm sorry," said Sophie as she sat down. She wanted to smack her forehead for having embarrassed herself in the beginning itself. First, the whole curtsy and now this, she thought.

Caspian did not know why she apologised. "You don't have to apologise. It was my fault really," he said as he sat back down. His hands shook for a second there because from what the Professor had mentioned after meeting her, she hadn't the faintest idea what she had walked into. 

The Professor looked at the two of them exchanging their silent pleas and cleared his throat, wanting to clear up the tension. "How was your day, my dear? I suppose now is the perfect time to open this delicate topic." 

"I love it here. Your castle is really beautiful," she told Caspian. "But I did get lost a lot. It took me some time to walk in the right direction."

The Professor started laughing. "I found it hard on my first day as well. His pranks didn't help either."

"Professor." started Caspian.

"I'm not complaining, Caspian. All I'm saying is that you were a prankster and that I had some tough times with you."

Right then, Evelyn and Sahil walked out with plates filled with toast and a cauldron filled with porridge. Sophie had an immediate urge to help them out but Nina had warned her not to. She did thank them when they set it down at the same time that the king did, which made them smile at each other.

"How did you find yourself in Narnia, Miss Adams?" The Professor asked her as they started eating.

"Please, call me Sophie."

Sophie told them everything from running away from school to meeting the two warriors at Beruna. Caspian and Professor were surprised when she referred to Reepicheep as 'Sir' because from then on, the mouse was never going to let it go.

"And would you like to go back to the bridge to see if you can go back?" The king asked her, curious to know her answer. "I'm not sure that it would work though. Things don't happen the same way twice."

There it was, she thought. "If I may confess something...."

"Yes?" The Professor asked, eager to hear her point of view. Both he and Caspian were hoping that she would stay, because if she did, it would give them time to explore their theory even more.

"I....don't wish to go back." Sophie looked at the table cloth, not being able to meet their eyes in embarrassment, feeling childish making such a proclamation.

"You don't want to go back?" Caspian asked, feeling the same delight that the Professor was.

"Why is that, dear?" The Professor asked and Sophie told him exactly why in the least depressing way possible. He kept his cutlery down and rested his elbows on the table. "Well, then I guess there is only one option left."

"I can move into town and find a job. I've always been a quick learner. I really don't want to cause any more problem than I already have...."

"But that's not what I was going to say, dear," said the Professor, making her look up at him. "Since your schooling is incomplete, I was going to ask if you would like to become my apprentice?"

Sophie's eyebrows knitted together, disbelief washing over her at what she had heard. "What?"

"Apprentice, dear. I've taught Caspian here all his life in this castle. I'm sure I can help you finish your studies. There won't be an official graduation ceremony, I'm afraid, but I can assure you that I will try my best if you cooperate too."

"I....can stay in Narnia?"

"You can stay in the castle if you take up on the offer," stated Caspian. The safety of people was in his hands, and he had to keep the newcomer safe somehow.

"I....don't know what to say." Sophie leant back in her chair, the night's worries draining her energy as they muddled her thoughts together. "Are you sure that it's okay if I stay in Narnia? I know that it is too much of me to ask that but-"

"I'm really sure." Caspian smiled, knowing exactly what she was going through. "Narnia is spacious enough for one more Daughter of Eve to live happily. Don't you think?"

Sophie thought about that for a moment. "Sophie?" The Professor put his hand forward, making her shake it with a smile on her face. "Welcome to Narnia, Sophie Adams."

"Welcome to Narnia, Miss Sophie," Caspian said.

Sophie felt content.

She was going to live.

*****

My baby Sophie is going to go through a lot. Act One is such a comfort for me because this is literally the beginning

Also if you are here after reading the bonus series, Mr. Henry is Mr. Zahair and Malcolm is Sahil. I've also removed Mark's character and replaced him with Sahil. I'm just changing the names to fit their ethnicity more! If I've missed it in editing somewhere, do let me know!