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"Do you remember our mother?" Edmund asks hesitantly on the first anniversary of their coronation. Narnia is everything, but he misses home sometimes.
"What is a mother?" Lucy's head cocks and her eyes glint mischeviously.
"A mother..." Edmund pauses, gathering his thoughts. "A mother is one who calls you home, and cares for you at the end of the day."
Lucy's reply is swift and sure. "Then, dear brother, my mother is the waves that crash on the rocks below Cair, and the mermaids' singing. My mother is your hands dressing my wounds after a battle."
He raises his eyebrows in silent surprise, but then his sister's teeth are bared in a wild grin as she skips away to join the dancing and festivities.
"Do you remember our mother?" Susan asks gently, after Lucy gets her first blood. Narnia holds much, but they had all been children on their arrival. Now they are men and women. (They are still children.)
"What is a mother?" Lucy's chin tilts up so her eyes can meet her sister's.
"A mother..." Susan says, running a hand over Lucy's hair. "A mother is one who teaches you all the things you think you already know, and guides you through those things you don't yet understand."
Lucy nestles her head into Susan's shoulder. "Then, dear sister, my mother is the Beavers and Mr Tumnus and the centaurs. My mother is Aslan, and you."
Susan blinks, but then her sister is pushing her shoulders down onto the bed and curling up beside her, eyes tight shut, and a small hand is clutching her own.
"Do you remember our mother?" Peter asks curiously, the night of her eighteenth birthday. Narnia is their country, but England was once their home.
"What is a mother?" Lucy's head remains still, eyes flashing from the reflections of the fireworks.
"A mother..." Peter ponders, settling back to take in the view of the stars. "A mother is one who creates home and hearth, and loves her children unconditionally."
Lucy matches Peter, laying back on the damp grass. "Then, dear brother, my mother is our people. My mother is you, and Narnia herself.
Peter laughs, rumbling, but then his sister is springing to her bare feet and running off to dance in the rainstorm brewing over the forest.
"Do you remember me?" Helen Pevensie asks jokingly, arms wide and tears in her eyes.
"Mother?" Lucy whispers, unheard.
"Oh, my darlings, come here."
Lucy still isn't used to how short her stride is, would trip, but for Edmund's hand on her arm. The woman before her is their mother - there's no mistaking Peter's chin, Susan's smile, Edmund's nose, and her own eyes. This woman must be their mother, but she did not raise them.
(Lucy returns home when her siblings call, they are the ones she goes to when the White Witch visits her nightmares.)
(The lessons she's taught at school are boring compared to those of kingship. Lucy consults her siblings for guidance, and intellectual stimulation. She goes to Susan for help when she gets her second first period.)
(She cries most nights. The pang for their real home is too much, too strong to ignore. Their mother attempts to restrain the wildness that Lucy refuses to grow out of, but gives up before long.)
(Helen Pevensie loves her children, but these are not the same four she left at the railway station. She cannot help but feel lonely, useless, as they turn to each other instead of her. She cannot contain her fear when they remain in the park for all hours possible and only come home when they must - soaked to the bone, and with eyes that gleam until they spot her. She does her best to make them feel at home again in a broken world, and cannot comprehend the fleeting, sympathetic, pitying looks she recieves from her children - from her eldest son, who gets into fights; her eldest daughter, who talks about politics; her young son, who returns from the library with musty old books no child should be reading; and her youngest daughter, who talks to the trees and sobs like her heart is breaking when they won't answer. They don't fit in with the other children. War is hard, she justifies. She tries her best to love them, to help them, but it's impossible when they won't let her in. Even when her husband finally returns, he too is a changed man. He too doesn't recognise their children and the ages held in their eyes.)
Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter have many mothers. Helen Pevensie is no longer one of them.