Departure: the action of leaving, especially to start a journey

-

"Non-humans have been dealt trauma and genocide for longer than our elders can remember. Based on the fact that it was the Telmarines inflicting such horrors, we Dwarves and the Talking Animals think that Narnia shouldn't have a man-King, at least not yet." Trumpkin swallows and clears his throat.

    His words are met with silence from the Lion and the Kings and Queens of Old, before he continues. "Of course, Prince, you weren't directly responsible for it. However, we, as the peoples of Narnia, wish this to be heard." He is not patronizing, and although Prince Caspian is wholly confounded he evidently understands what Trumpkin wants and his reasoning. "We'd like a council to be considered by yourself, Aslan. That way, Narnians who have been suppressed over countless generations can be in charge of their country. Perhaps in a few years, Prince Caspian can still step up to be King."

    Aslan turns his gaze to the Prince in question. Caspian blinks like a baby mouse in the moonlight and looks back. "Well, Prince? Would you deign to step down?"

    Caspian shakes himself out discreetly. "I— if that is the wish of the people, I will stand aside, of course I will." The murmurs of the Narnians around him are ones of approval, yet he can barely think through the pounding in his head. What is he going to do now? Aslan sees the boy's bewilderment, and takes mercy. "Dwarf, walk with me. We must discuss your plan." Trumpkin follows the Lion in his path towards the wood (now back in its place).

    Nobody pays any attention to the Kings of Old, who were expected to be absolutely dumbfounded. And yet, the Just King wears a thoughtful expression, remembering what he and his siblings had been told of Narnia's colonization. His brother, the High King and the Magnificent, shows no emotion, but a knowledgeable observer would know that he has already reconciled himself with the notion, and is working out the finer print in his mind's eye (as is his wont). Peter's eyes dart around, seeing the logic in the proposal, and the details that would need to be changed or worked out in order to sail smoothly without inciting hostile feelings from the surrounding countries.

    The Queens of Old go to Caspian, guide him away to absorb the situation at his own pace, in private.

~~~~~~~~

    Peter, Susan, Edmund, Sanya and Lucy sit in a circle. Susan, Sanya and Edmund are on a red couch, Lucy is content on an ottoman, Peter is leaning back into an armchair. This library is uncannily similar to Cair Paravel's, all those years ago. "We shall have to go back soon." This is Susan.

    "I wish we could stay as long as we did the first time," Lucy sighs. "But I suppose we needn't be here for Trufflehunter and Trumpkin to rule nicely. And whoever else they pick for the council, of course."

    Peter privately agrees. It is splendid to be back in Narnia, no matter what era. Although he does miss Aura bitterly, it might be called a soft kind of bitterness. The bitterness which comes from stolen time. "You are coming with us, Sanya?"

    "Of course, if you'll have me."

    Edmund is far from a clingy or touchy person, but he has not stopped touching Sanya since her return. Peter supposes he is overwhelmed by his wife (is she still his wife, now they are younger than they had been when they married?), and does not blame him.

    "Aslan will have us leave after the —coronation— probably. Will you crown either of them, Peter?" Susan again, always the practical one.

    "I expect so, at least to some degree. You'll remember Tumnus crowned us on his behalf, too." Aslan, after all, could not place a crown on one's head with no fear.

    "I'd never have expected anything like this," Lucy clearly pities Caspian over his lost throne. Peter doesn't exactly feel the same. Perhaps it is possessiveness, the feeling an outsider should not ever —and, if he was being honest, could not ever— rule Narnia the way he and his siblings had. He knows there had been humans ruling Narnia before the White Witch, and yet he can not stop thinking that his Age had been called the Golden Age of Narnia for a reason. He thinks Caspian wouldn't have made a terrible King, for all his skill, but he and his siblings had been the best —the Beavers had told him, though they were biased.

    The others have gone on talking amongst themselves, leaving Peter to his thoughts as they know to do, as they always had. He drifts between listening and thinking, falling back into the pattern of ruling. He'd thought up logistics for politics, trade, and recovery before he shook himself out with a stern reminder. You're not staying here. You're going back to England. It didn't feel quite real, his return to Narnia only to leave it so soon. High King Peter had returned, banishing the teenage fears and insecurities behind assured confidence. High King Peter was a warrior, strong and experienced and calm and all the things Peter Pevensie wasn't.

    "—Peter!" He pulls himself out of his thoughts, glancing at his brother in a question. "Sanya can't go to boarding school with us. Do you think Professor Kirke would take her in his home? She's a friend of Narnia after all, just like the rest of us. He has more war-children there, but..." The hope and fear in Edmund's voice as he trails off was something only Peter, and possibly Sanya, picks up on. Peter pauses before answering, he wouldn't give his brother false hope. Edmund didn't want or need it.

    "Remember, he has the room. Supposing he knew who she was, I don't see any reason for him to turn her away." That seemed to be just the right thing for Edmund, because he nods in understanding and acceptance.

    "I'm sorry to interrupt, but—" the fallen Prince cuts himself off with the reaction of the five. A flash of irritation blazes through Peter. They were all to leave, and Caspian would stay in Narnia. What could be so pressing that he has to jostle his way into their conversation right at that moment?

    Caspian continues from the doorway. "Aslan plans to induct Trumpkin and Trufflehunter's council soon. He wants all of us there."

    "Oh, poor dear," Lucy murmurs. Caspian doesn't look particularly ruffled over being asked to witness a coronation that he had prepared for all his life. Peter wonders if that was a defence mechanism, beaten into him by Miraz. "Yes, of course. We were discussing our leaving Narnia."

    Edmund glances towards Peter. He seems to make a decision and damn any consequences. Peter has seen that expression many times, both in Narnia and in England. "You could come with us."

    The room is silent.

    Edmund expands. "There's room for you at the Professor's —you might know him as Lord Digory, from the beginning of the world— and pardon me for saying this, but you don't have anything truly keeping you here." He shrugs. "You can come with us, if you want."

    Peter is floored. Caspian going with them, to England —he hasn't even considered something that world-shaking. He can't get past the shock, but Lucy and Susan and Edmund and Sanya are looking at him to make another decision. He shrugs his neutrality. Caspian in England was something that felt against some important rule. This proud, honest boy, in the hellscape that was England? It was like putting a soft parrot from the jungle with all its radiant colours, into a harsh black and white factory. They shouldn't mix, maybe couldn't without one of them breaking. Did Caspian really want to risk something like that?

    Caspian speaks up before Peter can. "Do you mean that? You aren't pitying me?" Surprise leaks past the boy's unaffected mask, though Peter is uncertain if that surprise is positive or negative.

    "Edmund is the Just, but I am the True." Sanya calms him. "I've always been exceptional at finding liars, and Ed is not lying nor twisting his words." Edmund reassures him that he is not, and that his offer is true. Lucy chimes in with encouragement and condensed versions of Earth's more peaceful history. Peter closes himself off and crafts an expression of polite disinterest, one that does not show his opinions on Edmund's suggestion. He'd become excellent at that, when he was High King. One couldn't show preferential treatment towards certain perspectives or people. His siblings and Sanya would surely see through the façade, but Caspian would not and that was what mattered.

    "You're sincere." Caspian seems to be stuck on that point. Peter finds the repetitions exasperating. But just as his camouflage is threatening to fail, Caspian makes up his mind. "I'd like to come with you, then."

    Lucy beams. "Lovely!" Susan gives a small smile in approval, Edmund nods at the boy. Sanya grins, "I'm glad I won't be the only Narnian in," she glances at Edmund, making sure of the name, "England." Caspian smiles, as much as an emotionally repressed boy can when faced with the prospect of leaving the only world he's ever known.

    Peter pulls a half-genuine smile onto his face. It would be good for Sanya to have a friend at Professor Kirke's, if nothing else. It wasn't like he had to interact too much with Caspian, dangerous beauty that he was. Peter doesn't need, doesn't particularly want the distraction. Even if Aura is gone, he still means to focus on medicine, and he knows he will have to work extremely hard in order to get a certificate.

    "It's settled, then." Susan collects everyone's thoughts, glancing at Peter's expression and reading into it his approval. "Shall one of us tell Aslan?"

    "We're going to the coronation, aren't we?" Lucy spreads her hands. "We can — or one of us can tell him afterwards." Sanya clearly appreciates the plan, as neither she nor Caspian will be put under pressure for choosing to leave Narnia with the siblings.

    Edmund stands, pulling Sanya up with him. "Speaking of, we were wanted for that. After you." He bows to his wife, and she scoffs lightly. Though, the loving smile on her face lessens the effect considerably. Peter feels a squeezing inside his chest.

~~~

    Aslan, Trumpkin, Trufflehunter, Glenstorm, and a few other Talking Animals and Dwarves are gathered in the chapel when Peter and his siblings arrive. Aslan merely looks at them in that all-seeing manner of his before beginning. "You are all here now to officiate the idea that, in place of a human King, a council of Talking Animals and non-human Narnians govern Narnia and its vassals, those being the Lone Islands and Rihaaya. The intent is for the council to last at least until Alden, son of Miraz, is considered old enough to rule." Glances at Sanya come from everyone present at the mention of her country.

    The Lion continues. "Glenstorm, Trufflehunter, and Trumpkin plan to be the beginnings of this council. Prince Caspian." Caspian straightens. "Do you cede your throne?"

    "I do." His voice is immediate and unfaltering. Peter doesn't dare look away from Aslan.

    "High King. Do you acknowledge that by this, Caspian the Tenth, son of the Ninth by that name, or Alden, son of Miraz, will not be crowned by yourself or yours as would have been custom?" Aslan had added Alden! Peter wonders if he could have known what Caspian meant to do.

    He echoes Caspian. "I do."

    "Then as all parties are in agreement, let it be so. The Council of Narnia shall take charge of Narnia's government and needs, as warranted." He goes on to have Glenstorm, Trufflehunter, and Trumpkin swear vows, much like the ones Peter and Susan had taken as the eldest siblings. Do no harm to Narnians, practice balance in political relations both internal and external, and the like.

    Peter respects this vow with all his being, it was the basis of the moral code he was developing for himself in England. To be polite without simpering, to be proud while being humble, to know one's worth without decimating others'. He knows it was only common sense to hold himself to this standard, all the more so as Peter the Magnificent.

    Glenstorm is the last to swear himself to the vow, though he does so with the silent strength and steadfastness of any centaur. With this, Peter steals a glance for Caspian. He looks on, expressionless, though Peter knows he must mourn the life he'd been groomed for. Anyone would, if they'd lost the future they spent their entire life looking towards as a relief. It was only human, and yet Caspian seems to not let himself feel that humanity.

    As the Narnians take their leave, so do Susan and Lucy. The latter gives Edmund a whisper, glances towards Caspian and Peter. Caspian notices, shifts just barely on his feet, the only discomfort Peter has detected since Trumpkin's suggestion. Whether that is a result of Peter's own failure or Caspian's excellence in hiding humanity, Peter isn't certain.

    Aslan watches the three boys. Peter knows now that he must suspect what they are there for. They glance among themselves before Caspian steps up. "Aslan, if it's alright, I'd like to go with — with the Kings and Queens back to England." He can't seem to get anything else out, and instead all three watch Aslan for his reaction. There is none.

    "You are certain this is what you want?" Peter is in awe all over again of how Aslan can show no reaction but remain encouraging.

    Peter and Edmund watch Caspian. "Yes, sir."

    He turns to the brothers. "And Caspian would be welcome and protected in England?"

    They nod as one. "Always, sir."

    "Then I see no reason to keep you. If you were looking for my blessing, you have it. Caspian, stay a while. We must discuss something."

With that clear dismissal, Peter leads Edmund out. They'd left Caspian in good hands, he knows. Some small kernel of him wants Caspian to stay in Narnia, but he squelches it fiercely. For once, that is not a decision he can make.

A/N:

Wow! Hi, thanks for reading. I think I'll keep these after-chapter notes short. I realize that the ending of this part might seem abrupt, but that's purposeful. So, as we plunge into this adventure, like and comm--- no wrong platform. Vote and comment though, please!