Chapter Text
When Aslan looked at Lady Elena Argoz, she felt hope for the very first time since her father disappeared.
Beruna had been home. And as all homes should be to children, it had been magical. It harboured Elena's most precious years and so it was the landscape of most of her comforting memories. Her people had come east from the arid lands of Telmar to find a better way of life. They conquered a kingless kingdom called Narnia and that is where they settled down. Beruna, Elena's birthplace, was considered the main town of her kingdom since it harboured the King's castle. Some lords, like her father, lived in Beruna, while others were scattered northwest, having their own small villages surrounding their castles and manours.
Elena was told once, by her grandfather, that the Telmarines used to be sailors, explorers, pirates. Which made sense to her since Telmar had been located by the sea, the complete opposite of Beruna, which was surrounded by trees anywhere you'd look. The story had always intrigued her though, for Telmarines had feared the sea since long before she was born. She wondered that, perhaps, it was not actual fear, but a sense of superstition passed down from generations. Telmarines learned to be wary of the sea, the cold salty winds and their promise of the coming of a God and his spirits. Her best guess was that, for a while, Telmarines feared the Narnian God and warned their descendants to stay away from the sea. As time passed and no God visited, they simply kept up with old traditions. Elena supposed that it was that superstition that led to her ancestors conquering all of Narnia, eradicating its people, and yet only inhabiting a small part of the territory. Far away from the sea, little towns hidden in the midst of dense, dark forests.
Elena was sure that if her people had ever had any ability to work the sea to their advantage it had long been gone, forgotten. Yet, she believed in her grandfather's story for she knew the sea had called for him. Every waking hour. Her grandfather was the only person she ever knew to have gone into the sea. He told her he liked to swim when he was younger and the weather allowed it. He would walk miles from the town to the sea, past the forest and their spirits, just to feel the cold water hug him. She knew that if he was allowed, he would have sailed the seas for as long as he lived. The old pirate blood had certainly run in his veins, but it did not run in hers. The sea never called for Elena.
The girl's heart was more drawn to their current surroundings. Mysterious forbidden woods that stretched for miles just beyond the river. She used to believe they called for her when the wind was strong. If she listened closely enough, she could hear it breath. Whisper. Maybe that is why all the children were thought to never go in; even the adults were too scared of the spirits. So, for generations the children resigned to making up stories. The older children told them to the younger. The younger added something new. And so, the stories grew until they became only myth to them. Bedtime stories. That's what Elena thought they were, stories.
Those are some of the memories she treasured most. Memories of a simpler time, when they were all together and happy. But time moves swiftly and before you notice you rgrandparents are gone forever, your father has left and the house you have called home all these years is empty.
Elena's father had been sent east by Lord Miraz to explore the seas beyond the Lone Islands. According to Miraz, it was time for the Telmarine people to face their silly fears. It never sat right with her though; her grandfather's dream being finally executed, but not by him. She prayed that her father had something of his father in him. A gift to handle the sea, a calling that would awaken when he stepped onto the boat. Something to make him less helpless. If the blood of the pirates in her grandfather's stories still roamed in a Telmarin body, Elena prayed to every star it was in her father's.
Before Lord Argoz left, he made sure his daughter knew the true reason why he had been assigned such an outlandish task. That day Elena learned that her father and six of the other lords suspected that Lord Miraz had murdered his own brother, King Caspian IX. The wife of Caspian IX died suddenly a few years after and so the only heirs to the throne left on this earth were him and little prince Caspian X. Since Caspian X was merely a child, Lord Miraz ruled the kingdom in his name, appointing himself Lord Protector.
It was explained to her that Miraz appointed the Lords with the task of exploring the seas to remove them from court. Apparently, he did not appreciate their concerns about the legitimacy of his reign. She could see in her father's eyes that he was leaving with a heavy heart. She suspected he feared for his life if he refused to follow orders, maybe even hers. It was not difficult to believe Miraz capable of such. If you are capable of killing your own brother you can kill a girl, too. And so, the last piece of her family left and she stayed.
The months passed and then the years. Caspian was nearing his 18th birthday as Elena neared her 17th. After her father left, she was pushed out of court life by Lord Miraz. She was allowed to keep her house and the money left to her by her mother's side of the family, but the servants and her father's money were reallocated to the castle. It was clear Miraz did not expect the seven Lords to return. Being away from court meant that she saw her friends less with each passing day. Growing up, there were not many people her age in court, so she spent her childhood with the prince and a couple other noblemen's children, running around the castle grounds or sneaking out of balls and other royal celebrations. Elena missed them terribly, but she also understood they had other priorities.