Coriakin guided the Kings and Queens of Narnia through the difficulties that they would face in the journey to come. Whatever they had been through this far was simply the beginning. If they were to find the Seven Lords that had stayed with Coriakin many years ago, the Dawn Treader would have to face the difficulties of the weight of the truth that would befall on them at the end. 

"To defeat the darkness out there, you must first defeat the darkness within yourself."

The days to come were going to be filled with storms and Sophie could feel it in the air. Hearing this from her, Coriakin separated a part of his soul - a Blue Star, to guide them since he wouldn't be able to do it himself, being connected to the very land that he was walking on.

The old star and the Lost Legacy knew that the conversation that they shared was far too short. Sophie and Coriakin promised to keep in touch with each other through letters until the time would come where they could meet each other again. Until then, he would be her humble servant.

That night, Sophie confided in Caspian everything that Coriakin told her, but left out the part of the betrayal. She had forgiven Coriakin and it was time that he did so himself. "Caspian, I finally know who I am! And he told me that we could keep in touch through letters since his Island and Telmar are really far away."

"Uh...." started Caspian.

"What?"

"Nothing." He shook his head and she looked eagerly at him. "It's nothing!"

"Sure." She nodded sarcastically. "You are hiding something." He raised his hands in defeat. "What is it?"

They were sitting in their new spot and Caspian was holding onto her as the Dawn Treader fought the harsh weather. It was if someone wanted them to go back the way they came. The sea was not kind to them, nor was it friendly to the Dawn Treader.

"There is a surprise that is waiting for you back home."

Her face lifted up immediately. "A surprise?" She hated surprises in general but they did make her think a lot, which was what she loved about them.

"I cannot tell you anything about it because then, everything would be spoiled."

"But now you've got me curious!"

"Please?" He pleaded with those puppy-dog eyes of his. "I want you to see your expression when you see the surprise. I promise it will be worth it, but until then, my lips are sealed."

"Fine. Can I just have a hint though?"

"No, because that will only make you even more curious."

She raised an eyebrow at him and sighed. "True."

"How long has it been for you?" He asked, which made her look at him. "Since the battle."

She bit her inner lip in nervousness. "Six months. It feels like ages though."

"It has been the same for me," he whispered. "Sophie, promise me that you won't leave me again. I cannot imagine my life without you and I know that makes me selfish but....I cannot have you away from me."

"I promise. Never ever again. And you're not selfish if you're in love." She kissed him really quickly and rested her forehead on his shoulder.

Caspian kissed the top of her head and sighed. "Edmund threatened me today," he revealed as both of them lay worrying about their future together. "He told me that he would kill me if anything happened to you."

"Well, he is sort of my little brother now." She shrugged. "What else did he say?"

"He told me that he wanted to talk to me and when he pulled me aside, he told me that if I hurt you in any way or if I let anything happen to you, he would not spare me. He was sharpening his sword when he said it and I know that he actually meant it."

The corner of Sophie's mouth twitched into a smile at the thought of Caspian being scared because of Edmund of all people. "Don't worry, Cas. I'll be there with you."

"Save me from your brother." He went along with the joke and a comfortable silence took its place in the middle deck.

"Do you remember the day when you first revealed your feelings to me?" She asked, wondering about something that she had been meaning to ask him about. "I told you that I couldn't accept your offer because I didn't have anything to give you. Do you think that you would have still considered it if I wasn't who the Forbidden Prophecy was talking about?"

"Sophie, where is this coming from?" He asked, his voice filled with worry and concern. He had never seen her in self doubt before, at least not like this.

"I was just thinking about how my life is so complicated," she smirked. "And how I don't have an identity besides what the prophecy tells and that makes me wonder if things around me are happening because of what the words say or fate and I don't know if I have control over my own life."

"Look at me, Sophie. You." He cupped her face. "You are one of the universe's marvelous creations and I am more than grateful to know what it is to be loved by you. You are the strongest and the most compassionate person that I know and I cannot wait to live the rest of my life with you," he revealed. "And to answer your question, I would have courted you regardless of the Prophecy. I've fallen in love with you, Sophie. You. Not the Heir of Narnia or whatever else the prophecy describes you to be. Just you."

"I love you, Caspian. You are my family. I see that now."

"And you are mine," he revealed as he hugged her softly.

"I still need to get crowned, don't I?" She asked after a while.

"Yes, you do. And this, let's make sure that the doors of the castle are locked." He joked.

"Lets." She agreed. "Caspian, I need to tell you something else. Remember when I told you about the different identities that human beings have in the other world?" She asked, praying that he knew what she was referring to.

"Of course. You called them LGBTQ+ identities."

"Yes." She nodded. "I....I need you to know.....that I'm an Ace." She stammered, not knowing how he would take the information. "Well, technically, I'm Bi-AroAce but I need you to know this....before we get back to the mainland."

"Sophie, I will not make you do anything that you're not comfortable with and you can trust me with anything."

"Thank you, Caspian." She breathed out in relief. "Honestly, thank you. I didn't know how to tell you about it since Narnians don't have that concept and we have a future to think about and-"

"We'll face it one at a time," he assured her. "And I meant what I said. I will not make you do anything that you don't want to do, whether it is regarding the legal formalities, the relations, the coronation or our....." he stopped before he went too far. "Anything."

Sophie knew what he wanted to say - wedding. The word was lingering all around them. "And I promise the same to you. I will not force my opinions on you and I promise to love you for the rest of my life."

After the moonlight started to fade away slowly, the two of them knew that it was time to head back to their cabins. "Goodnight, Sophie Adams." Caspian kissed her forehead.

"Good night, Caspian the Tenth." She wished him before sneaking back into her cabin, but stole one glance at him as he walked away in the direction of his chambers.

"Faster, Frank!"

A baby's cry broke the rush of the winds. "Don't worry, baby girl. We'll get you to safety."

The winds were faster than they had ever been and the country was dying in the cold. The trees gave a pathway for the two riders as they hurried to get to the river at the end of the pier. Then, everything changed. She stood in an empty castle. The ground beneath her was filled with grass and other shrubs along with weeds. The castle was brought down by something and she was standing among the ruins. There was a staircase that was intact as she turned to face it, covered with ivy and bright red flowers.

"Sophie." A voice called out her name.

"Caspian," she whispered, turning around to face him in his armour. "Where are we?"

"I'm here to say goodbye, Sophie."

Her eyebrows furrowed together. What was he saying? "What?"

"You don't have a place in Narnia anymore." He looked at the ground. "I was wrong. You don't have a place in this world ."

Sophie shook her head. "This is not real."

"Oh, it is as real as it can be."

"You would never say that." That was when she realised that she had her dagger in her hand and she looked up at Caspian.

"What are you doing?" He asked as she held it firmly, his eyes going dark for a second.

Sophie smiled, realising that she was the one who had the advantage in hand. "Waking up." She plunged the blade into her stomach.

"No!" She heard a voice, which was herself at the same time. She woke up with a fright that she had never felt before. She was feeling terribly cold even though the fireplace was burning. She jumped off the bed and saw that there was residue of burnt paper near the logs. Lucy was sitting on the floor and her shoulders were shaking. "Lucy?"

The youngest Pevensie turned to look at Sophie, her eyes red and puffy. Sophie ran over to her, ignoring the fact that her leg got stuck in the sheets in the hurry. "What happened?" She put an arm around Lucy. "Saints, you're freezing!"

"I made a mistake, Sophie. I made a terrible mistake. When the Dufflepuds asked me to reverse the spell of invisibility, I came across a page that had this spell. A spell to make me into someone that I wanted to be." She started shaking again. "I tore out that page and I read it out today. I went into an alternate reality where I was Susan and....I didn't exist."

"Lucy....it's okay. You're safe now."

She sniffed, still not convinced. "Can I meet Edmund?" 

"Let's go." Sophie helped her get up. On the way to the middle deck, she spoke again. "It wasn't your fault, Lu. Don't beat yourself up over it. I might have done the same thing if I was in your situation. Insecurities are a cruel sin, one that affects even the purest of hearts."

"It was my fault, Soph. I shouldn't have been tempted to do whatever it was that I did."

"Have you noticed a certain eeriness that has been following us since the Lone Islands?"

"Are you talking about the Green Mist?"

"You've seen it as well. I think that the Mist is causing us to do things that we wouldn't do. It's just a feeling that I have. So you were compelled."

"I was still tempted, Sophie. Nothing would change that."

"You would. You have to defeat the darkness in you." Sophie realised it herself as Coriakin's words started to make sense.

The two girls entered the hallway where the other two were sleeping on hammocks. Sophie heard Caspian having a troubled sleep and wondered how he slept off so quickly. She heard him muttering in his sleep and walked over to him just as Edmund got his sword out. "Edmund," Lucy whispered next to him. He had a breath of relief but his sword was still pointed at the empty room.

"Are you okay?" Sophie asked him when Caspian got up the same way with his sword out.

There was a loud thunder that scared everyone on the deck. "I can't sleep." Lucy remarked and asked if Caspian was okay as well.

"Bad dreams?" Edmund asked. "Either all of us are going mad, or something is playing with our heads."

Sophie noticed a sudden raise in the temperature of the room. The hair on the back of her neck was getting pricked by something. "Are you guys feeling cold?"

"It's the storm, isn't it?" 

"No, there is...." She flinched. "There is something here."

"Sophie," Caspian whispered, noticing the way she was looking around her, trying to find an enemy in the thin air. It was how she had reacted when Jadis started to change the weather when they would spend time together and the temperature would drop. She was connected to water in a way that could never be figured out, but if she found it cold, something was going on.

"Shall we all talk it out?" Lucy suggested. "I don't think we'll be going to sleep for a while."

Caspian and Sophie looked at each other. They had been awake only for some time and even after getting about an hour of sleep, they were scared of whatever waited for them in the dark. "Coriakin was speaking the truth. We must defeat the darkness within ourselves," Sophie said. "Mine was the fear of not belonging anywhere."

"You had a nightmare as well?" Caspian asked.

She nodded. "But I came out of it faster and much easier than I should have."

"How?" Lucy asked.

"There was a dagger in my hand and...."

"No!" Eustace shouted as he got up.

"Eustace!" Lucy exclaimed as she went to her cousin's side for aid.

The five of them went to Caspian's cabin to get some warmth by sitting in front of the fireplace. It was bad enough that Edmund, Eustace and Caspian were sleeping in the middle of a storm while Sophie and Lucy enjoyed the comfort of the room. They sat around the fireplace and talked about their nightmare.

Edmund was a little jumpy at first but he got to talking about Jadis and how he feared losing someone that he loved. "I wasn't really sleeping but when I closed my eyes, I could only see...." He stopped talking right there and we moved to the next person. He had seen Robin in his dreams after what seemed like centuries. He wished he knew what had happened to her but some questions were better left unanswered because the answer could be something he didn't wish to hear.

Lucy talked about her nightmare and how real it felt. She had been Susan while she had never been born at all. Her family did not know about Narnia because she had been the one to find the magical land inside the wardrobe. Without her, none of them would have went through the adventures that they did. "Aslan was the one who got me out of it."

Eustace revealed that his fear was getting succumbed to the bullies at his school and there was another fear that he had but didn't talk about - losing the people that he loved. He had a nightmare where his parents did not remember him and hence cast him out. It had been scary because he had been rude to almost everyone that knew him, which decided his fate of not having a place to live in. But a low roar had gotten him out of the nightmare.

"Caspian?" Sophie called out his name as it was his turn.

Caspian was hesitant as well. He did not know what Sophie would think of him but revealed that his fear was of not being a good man and of disappointing his parents. "I know that it has only been three years since I've started ruling but I...." He shook his head. He was trying to prove himself so much to the world that he feared losing himself in the process.

"I think that we know what we need to defeat within ourselves," Sophie said.

Edmund smiled. "Seems like you already have." 

Lucy looked into the embers of the fire, watching it flicker and shiver in the climate. "Now it's our turn."