"So, how did it go?" Hayley asked. 

"Unsurprisingly, she hates me," James said, sinking into the couch.

"You must be exaggerating a bit," Hayley said, calmly sitting beside him, wishing to know what had transpired between the volatile twins.

"No no, she explicitly said I hate you James. Right after saying that I am a usurper, that I sit on a throne of lies and treason, and that I am a... well, she used very colourful adjectives to describe me, let's just leave it at that," James explained.

"So what is she going to do about it?" Hayley asked, worried his sister might take action against them.

"I don't know, I... I'm fucked. Shit, we're fucked. We are royally fucked," he said, burying his face in his hands. Congratulations, you married a usurper," He muttered sarcastically, standing up and walking towards the window. "Shit, if your father finds out... shit! I'm done," James said angrily banging his fist against the wall.

"Maybe not," Hayley said, standing up.

"What do you mean? I'm not the rightful ruler. When this gets out and she comes for my crown everyone's gonna side with her. They all love her, she's filthy rich, she just married the High King who was a huge army to support him. All my relatives adore her, even my closest advisor does! Who do you think they'd side with? Hell, she even has a dragon on her side. We are so screwed," he said, feeling everything he had slip away.

"We would be if you had told her yesterday. But she's now Queen of Narnia. She can't raise a single sword against you," Hayley said.

"What do you mean?" James asked uncertainly. 

"Imira, you're talking about going to war against your own brother," Peter said as calmly as he could manage to not exalt her. He had listened to her retell the encounter she had had with his brother and he could see how upset she felt, but fighting her own sibling... that was madness!

"He betrayed me!" Imira said, slamming her hand on the desk.

"But it wasn't his fault," Edmund said, for he too was told what had happened. Only them though.

"Are you taking his side?!" Imira said, pointing a finger accusingly at Edmund.

"I'm simply saying, he did not know," Edmund replied calmly.

"What he did is wrong. I want what is mine," Imira said.

It would be hard to calm her down. And even harder still to get her to drop it. "Wrong or not, there is nothing we can do about it," Peter said.

"The hell there is! We're marching to Datram and we're claiming my throne back," Imira stated, having already come up with a plan.

"We can't do that," Edmund said. "Even if it rightfully belongs to you,"

"Why the hell not?" Imira asked, angrily, crossing her arms and glaring at Edmund.

"You remember that treaty we signed with your brother? The coalition? Well, we can't raise arms against Datram," Peter explained.

"But it's mine," Imira said through gritted teeth.

"We can't intervene in how it's run. Not unless an evil witch takes over or something like such," Edmund said.

"But it's mine," Imira just repeated herself. "The throne rightfully belongs to ME,"

"The problem is, you are now a Queen of Narnia. And Datram already has a King. So unless your brother dies without an heir, you cannot take the throne," Peter summed up the part of the agreement which applied to her situation.

"That bastard, he screwed me over!" Imira said. "He could have told me yesterday after dinner, but he didn't. Nooo, he smiled and congratulated me," she said, raising her hands in exasperation. "Of course he did, he was taking out of the run his only adversary," she said through gritted teeth. And then it hit her. She started to laugh. "Oh, he never should have told me, I've got him! Oh, have I got him,"

Peter and Edmund exchanged a worried look. "Care to explain?" Peter asked.

"If I can't have the throne, neither can he," Imira said, looking out the window into the darkness of the night. "There is another heir. The RIGHTFUL heir of Datram. All I have to do is tell everyone that The Black Prince's heir is alive and half the country will rally behind him. James will pay for what he did," 

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold it there!" Peter said, rising at once. "You're not meddling in Datram's affairs,"

"The coalition, remember?" Edmund added.

"Then I'll get someone else to do it for me. Nick's loyal, he'll do what I ask," Imira said, starting to head towards the door, but Edmund and Peter stopped her.

"Let's just think about this for a moment," Peter said, forcing her to sit down. Edmund locked the door.

"What you're talking about, it's treasonous," Peter said.

"What HE did was treasonous!" Imira replied.

"Just think about it logically for a second," Peter said. "You can't plan a coup to overthrow your brother. Either it fails and Datram and Narnia become enemies forever, or it succeeds and your brother ends up dead," Peter said.

"I don't want him dead, I just..." Imira trailed off, uncertain of what she wanted to accomplish.

"Think about it. Even if you had been brought up to be Queen of Datram, that wouldn't have happened because you came here and the White Witch killed you. Either way, James would have ended up on the throne," Edmund said.

"But I came back," Imira argued.

"Yes, but you died. That made James the rightful heir. And you wouldn't have been Queen anyway unless your parents had died. Which they did after you died. So if you think about it, your brother came to the throne lawfully. After your death. You die, you lose the throne. You died, therefore, you lost the throne," Edmund explained.

Imira thought about this. There was no arguing with Edmund's logic. "So you think I should just drop it?" she asked Edmund.

"Uhm, yes," Edmund said. "Don't get me wrong, you are in your right to be upset, absolutely. But your brother didn't technically break any law so..."

"So I should drop it," Imira said.

"And it wasn't even his idea to begin with," Peter added. "Think about it, if he had told you about it before, wouldn't you have had to go through with everything ruling Datram entails? Including that arranged marriage. You brother broke that up on the grounds that your death nullified everything,"

"You were engaged before Peter?!" Edmund asked, completely surprised by this bit of information.

"Betrothed, big difference," Imira said dismissively before turning back to Peter. "So you're saying me dying made me ineligible for the throne and that if James had told me yesterday and if I had intended to take the throne I would have been obligated to marry him?" Imira asked Peter.

"Your brother?!" Edmund asked in alarm.

"No, my cousin," Imira said, not paying Edmund much attention as she was processing Peter's words.

"That's disgusting!" Edmund said, making a face.

"Yeah, we know," Peter said.

"So you're saying my choice would have been to become Queen of Datram and marry Arnas..." Imira thought out loud. "That's simply gross," Edmund said. "...or marrying you and becoming Queen of Narnia?"

She sat down with her head between her hands and sighed heavily, thinking about that. After a moment she looked up and opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out so she just went back to thinking until at last, she spoke.

"I suppose it's better this way," she said quietly.

"You don't sound very convinced," Peter said.

"It's just a lot to process at this hour," she said. "Uh, I need to clear my head. Don't wait up for me," she said before hurrying out of the room, not waiting to give Peter a chance to say anything else.

"Her cousin?!" Edmund asked, still perturbed by the thought.

"Yeah, apparently things are run differently in other parts of the world," Peter said, watching the door close.