Chapter Text
"Father," Aslan stepped into the Emperor's enormous quarters, the quarters he had been confined in for almost half a millennia. "You have summoned me?"
Standing at the centre of the room, eyes fixed unwavering at the glistening pool in front of him, hands interlocked firmly at his back, the Emperor turned around and gave Aslan a smile. "Yes, my son."
Even by that distance, Aslan could clearly see that the smile did not quite reach his father's eyes.
He had been expecting this, from the moment he received the summons. If his father - the ever powerful Emperor Beyond The Sea - sends his trusted messenger in the middle of the night (or what passes as night in the world Aslan was then visiting), it could only be that there is something troubling him. And, as Aslan knew from history, what bodes ill for his father, bodes ill for all the worlds. Perhaps, an imminent danger? For what else could his father summon him so urgently?
"There is something..." the Emperor hesitated, weighing carefully the next word. "Important that you must know."
His father was in his human form, an aged man with a heavily wrinkled face and blue eyes. The Emperor favoured this form above all his other forms, Aslan observed.
Aslan padded forward, to the Emperor's side. His huge cat paws made no noise against the polished marble floor.
The Emperor waved a hand over the pool. The pool glowed brighter, enveloping the enormous room with a blinding, bluish light. Then, a reflection of a face appeared in the water. A face of a woman. Her eyes were glowing blue and her lips were moving, as if she was speaking in a trance.
"Zhalif," Aslan said, recognising the woman. "She spoke a prophecy."
Zhalif was the Emperor's Seer. She and her sister Zeya, another Seer, reside in his country, serving the Emperor as one of his trusted confidantes. The two sisters were equally skilled in Divination but Zhalif seemed to foretell prophecies that are more dangerous in nature. Prophecies that begin, alter, and end worlds. Prophecies that come to pass in ways neither Aslan nor his father expects it to be. This made her the most powerful Seer in all the Emperor's realms.
Aslan remembered the last prophecy she spoke thousands of years ago. The prophecy about two brothers that would defeat the White Witch of Narnia and restore peace and prosperity to the land and its people.
It was fulfilled two years ago. The two brothers - now the two Kings of Narnia - vanquished the Witch, leaving her powerless and with no form. They ended her tyrannical rule of Narnia, and drove her army of dark forces out of the land, planting the Tree of Protection in the heart of the land's capital, Cair Paravel. They restored Narnia to what it was before the Witch's five hundred year reign of winter.
"Yes, she did." the Emperor answered, his eyes never leaving the glowing pool.
Aslan took a deep breath. "What did the prophecy speak about?"
The Emperor didn't answer. He merely stared at the pool as if it completely mesmerised him. Then he waved his hand again and Zhalif's face disappeared, along with the bluish light. The room seemed darker than when Aslan entered it earlier.
"The prophecy spoke about three humans that will come to Narnia from another world."
He stopped for a moment, looking at the Aslan.
"A Son of Adam and two Daughters of Eve. One of these two Daughters of Eve will be offered a choice, and her decision will either be Narnia's salvation or Narnia's destruction."
Aslan didn't respond for a few heartbeats, looking away from his father to stare out the balcony and into the night sky.
Three days ago, Narnia's Tree of Protection was poisoned. The Tree served as the barrier of the land against evil forces, particularly against the Witch and her lackeys. The culprit behind the poisoning was caught and discovered to be a palace staff of Cair Paravel who was under some sort of dark spell. When asked whether the Witch has returned and planned to take revenge on the Kings and to take back Narnia, he had no clue. But when Zeya tried to take a glimpse of the Witch, to locate what was left of her, she saw nothing but the Witch's faint silhouette, indicating that she was still powerless and with no physical form.
Narnia's nature spirits were doing all they can to mend the Tree, to draw the poison out and heal it. Aslan was keeping watch over it all, but he had not yet seen an end in sight. It took all of his might not to interfere; he was not meant to do so.
This new prophecy -- Aslan didn't need another Seer to tell him this was all connected.
And by the troubled look on the Emperor's face, Aslan was sure his father had arrived at the same conclusion.
Aslan couldn't help but be fearful for the Narnians. They had only gotten their land back. They had only started rebuilding all that they had lost to the Witch. And now, barely three years of freedom, another prophecy is foretelling that their land is on the verge of possible destruction?
But then, the Lion thought, there was hope. There was the Daughter of Eve. She will be Narnia's hope and light. And in his thousands of years of existence watching over thousands of worlds, Aslan always saw the light prevailing over darkness. Always.
This Daughter of Eve will be on their side, Aslan knew it without a wave of doubt. Humans have the purest of heart and intentions. Of course, Aslan knew that there are also other humans who have dark and stone cold hearts that could rival even those of the Witch. But Frank, the first King of Narnia that came to the land from another world had the purest of heart. And there's the Deep Magic that governs the lives of everything. It brought King Frank to this world because It knew that he would change Narnia, and he did. Surely, It wouldn't allow this Daughter of Eve to step foot to Narnia if It knew that she would destroy her?
But why was his father acting like he already knew there wasn't any hope? Like he knew Narnia was already doomed? Was there more of the prophecy that the Emperor wasn't telling him?
"We don't know who of the two Daughters of Eve will be given the choice," the Emperor said. "But we know that Jadis is still alive, however powerless and formless she may be. What remains of her dark forces are still at large. If she catches word of this prophecy..." the Emperor trailed off.
"She and her Black Magic knows no bounds." The Emperor continued. "She will do everything in her power to get her hands on these humans if she knows of this prophecy. We must not let that happen."
Why did Aslan got the feeling that that wasn't really what troubled the Emperor the most? And why did the look on the Emperor's face said that the Witch already knew of this prophecy and that he knows it?
"I will spread word to my nature spirits," Aslan said. "Do not worry, Father. We will find these humans before our enemies do."
Although he worried that the Emperor might be hiding something from him.
***
"Susan, you're on my foot!"
"Edmund, move over!"
"Lucy, stop shoving!"
"My toe!"
"I'm not on your toe!"
"Ow!"
"Mmph!"
Susan Pevensie fell on her back on a forest floor.
Edmund Pevensie fell facefirst into solid ground.
Lucy Pevensie simply looked on, beaming, as her two elder siblings scrambled from the ground to get up and gaped around them with their mouths hanging half open.
"Impossible," Susan muttered under her breath.
They were in a forest.
A forest inside a wardrobe.
"It's alright," Lucy said, trying very hard to hide her grin. "I'm sure it's just your imagination."
Edmund, an awestruck expression on his face, turned his gaze to his younger sister. Then he went over to her and pulled her against his side in a one arm hug. "I never doubted you for a second, Lu." He rustled her short, brown hair lightly.
"You didn't believe me at first, Edmund." the twelve year old girl rolled her eyes.
"Well, it wasn't there when you first showed us! What did you expect me to think?"
"That's doubt, brother mine."
"Fine, maybe I did doubt you for a second there," Edmund said, sheepishly, looking down at Lucy. "I'm sorry."
Lucy smiled at her elder brother in answer, nodding her head lighly in acceptance of his apology.
They both turned their attention to their raven haired elder sister.
Susan was still gaping at their surroundings, her mind in overdrive and stuck in repeat on how bloody impossible their current location is. She kept pinching herself to make sure it wasn't just a bizarre dream. She touched a nearby leaf to make sure that she wasn't just imagining all these. That she wasn't just in Professor Kirke's huge library immersed in a fantasy novel.
But no.
It was all utterly, without a doubt, very real.
Susan looked at both of her younger siblings. At her younger sister, who was smiling up at her, and at her younger brother, who had an arm slung around Lucy, looking like he had already come to terms that they were now in another world they found inside a wooden wardrobe.
Susan walked over to them and pulled Lucy in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry I didn't believe you." she muttered.
"It's alright, Su." Lucy replied, smiling against Susan's arms. "I understand. I felt the same way when I first got in."
"What is that?" Edmund asked, pointing at a lamppost standing in the middle of a clearing a few feet from them.
"It's a lamppost, brother dear," Susan answered, raising an eyebrow at the black haired Pevensie boy.
"I know what it is." Edmund responded, throwing Susan a look. "But -- what's it doing here? Didn't Lucy said that this world is like the ancient times of our world?"
"Yes," Lucy said, nodding enthusiastically, as if finding the fact of being in a world before electricity and technology incredibly exciting and fascinating. "But my friend, Mr. Tumnus, said that this lamppost has been here ever since this world existed."
"Huh," Edmund murmured, staring up again at the lamppost, at the bright and yellow light inside the lantern on top of the post. "That's strange."
Susan nodded her agreement. This place was indeed strange. She felt different somehow. But good different. It was as if the magic in the air, the same magic that brought her and her siblings in that world, was seeping through her veins and coursing through her body. It made her feel... alive.
"Lucy, where are we?" she turned to her sister. "What is this place?"
Edmund tore his eyes away from the lamppost, too, and looked at Lucy.
Lucy simply beamed at them.
"We're in Narnia, of course."