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𝑺𝑷𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝑼𝑵𝑺𝑬𝑻𝑺
𝑨𝑵𝑫
𝑺𝑯𝑨𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝑼𝑵𝑹𝑰𝑺𝑬𝑺
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𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐔𝐏𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋 back at Cair Paravel, but to be first forcefully pulled out of his horse's saddle, his hands then cuffed behind his back, and next thrown in front of the High King wasn't one of the things he had imagined.

A pained grunt escaped Seren's throat when his knees collided harshly with the marble floor of the throne room as he was forced into a kneeling position, and his hazel coloured eyes deepened to a burning brown as he focussed upon Peter who towered far above him.

The High King stood on the platform of the four thrones, his own blue eyes blazing like a winter storm and a muscle in his jaw tightened as he observed the Archenlander sitting on his knees below him.

'Where are they?' Peter demanded to know, his voice thundering through the throne room, but Seren frowned in confusion.

'What do you mean? Why am I put in chains?' Seren countered back and he glanced over his shoulder at Alexander who had overpowered him at the castle's gates, but the expression of the Guardian of Narnia was unreadable to Seren ─ even though they had been friends for years.

'Don't play dumb,' Peter sneered and he clenched and unclenched his hands at his side to try and stay collected. 'Where is your King keeping Lucy and Rosaleen imprisoned?'

'What?' Seren redirected his gaze back at Peter, an anxious feeling washing over him when he realised that although Peter was flanked by Edmund and Susan, Lucy and Rosaleen weren't in the room. Even Estrella stood in the shadows of one of the massive columns that supported the glass dome and a handful of fauns and centaurs guarded the door, but the presence of the other two young women was nowhere to be found.

'What happened while I was away?'

Peter let out a humourless laugh and his balled hands shook with the fury that rushed through his veins. 'This playing clueless by all of Archenland is getting annoying. Tell me how much I have to pay, what I have to do, but I want them back. Right now.'

Seren tried to climb back on his feet, desperately shaking his head in denial and disbelief, but Alexander shoved him to the floor once again and the Archenlander lost his balance. Seren's breath was knocked out of him as his chest collided with the marble stones that were veined with black and silver lines, and he tried looking up at the High King.

'Please, Peter, your Highness, I have no idea what you're talking about. I escorted the Tisroc to Tashbaan and came back as fast as I could, just like I had promised Rosaleen.' Seren managed to roll on his side and eventually back into a kneeling position, but he didn't try to get up on his feet again.

Peter's nostrils flared in anger and he shook off Edmund's hand that he had laid on his older brother's shoulder.

'Peter, I see no lie in his eyes,' Edmund began but Peter cut him off.

'No,' he snapped, descending the seven steps of the platform in a bolting manner, and the dark red cloak whirled around his posture as he halted in front of Seren who flinched but refused to cast down his eyes. 'If Lune thinks I still trust you, he's gravely mistaken.'

'I wasn't sent here by anyone. I came back to see Rosaleen.'

Susan descended one step as well, her dark brown hair shimmering in the light of the sun that fell through the stained glass window rising up behind the thrones. 'Peter, be reasonable about this. King Lune keeps insisting he didn't abduct them and now Seren too claims he knows nothing about such plans. Perhaps there's someone else behind it.'

Peter took a few deep breaths, letting his sister's word sink in and his eyebrows arched into a frown. 'Perhaps you're right, but my knights have been guarding the border between Narnia and Archenland for days now. It raises the question of how you managed to sneak past them unnoticed.'

'I'm not a spy,' Seren said between gritted teeth. 'I didn't cross the border in secrecy, there was no one guarding it.'

'Impossible. My knights keep an eye at Anvard as close as they can without trespassing.'

'I didn't travel via Anvard. After I left the desert behind me, I followed the Winding Arrow and set course to Cair Paravel with the ocean at my right. It's faster,' Seren explained. 'Please, you have to believe me. I have nothing to do with their abduction, nor do I think King Lune knows anything of it. He wouldn't jeopardise the allegiance.'

For a moment, Seren thought the High King believed him but Peter's eyes flared up the instant he mentioned King Lune.

'What would you know of it? Why would you know what Lune would or wouldn't do?' Peter snarled at him.

'I─,' Seren began, but apart from Rosaleen, no one knew he was the half-brother of King Lune and he had worked so hard to keep a secret; to search for his missing nephew in Calormen without anyone breathing down his neck.

Peter huffed. 'That's what I thought. You wouldn't know. Archenland hates the Calormene Empire and just when Narnia is about to make peace with those kingdoms, Lune turns against me. It cannot be a coincidence.' He stepped away from Seren and started pacing slowly over the small length of the room, his hands clasped behind his back as he thought about what to do with the Archenlander.

His contemplations were interrupted however, when the doors swung open and Tumnus ran inside. Peter whirled around to face the faun whose chest heaved up and down and the hasted sound of his hooves clattering on the floor echoed between the walls.

'Your Highnesses,' Tumnus began between heavy breaths and his eyes wide and unblinking, 'a messenger falcon arrived mere minutes ago. A scouting group found the Valiant Queen near the border. They're on their way here, but she's unconscious and badly injured.'

The faces of the Kings and Queen drained of colour but Alexander stepped closer to the faun.

'What about my sister? Did they find Rose?' The fear caused his voice to tremble and he closed his eyes for a second, fighting back the anguish when Tumnus shook his head.

'How long until they're here?' Peter asked the faun, although he too didn't like the fact that Rosaleen was still missing.

'Not long, your Majesty. Could be an hour, maybe less.'

Susan gathered the skirts of her deep blue dress and hurried off the remaining steps of the platform. 'I'll inform the court physician,' she said since Lucy's healing cordial had been missing since the day of the abduction; the youngest Queen never travelled without it, just like Susan rarely went anywhere without her horn.

Tumnus bowed as the Queen shot past him and Peter gestured for Edmund to come down the platform as well.

'Ed, prepare the horses. We'll meet them halfway. Alex, take Seren to his chambers and keep him there. I'll decide what to do with him later.'

'Wait, what should I do?' Estrella asked before everyone could leave the area but she froze in her step when Peter shot her an annoyed look as she walked away from her spot near the column.

'I don't know. What do you usually do? Go embroider something with your ladies, I don't care.'

Estrella's shoulders slumped by his hostile words and in silence she watched him, his brother and the faun disappearing through the door opening before focussing on Alexander who hauled up Seren.

'I guess I'll go embroider something then,' she muttered, straightening the sleeves of her dress and walking away with the grace that those born in royalty effortlessly possessed.

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𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍 𝐁𝐎𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐄𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 as he was forced to stay in his sleeping chamber that served like a prison cell. Every door and window was locked, but if he had wanted, he could have easily broken out. Especially during the nights, the thought of escaping via the balcony had crossed Seren's mind many times but he didn't want Peter or the others to think he was guilty.

On the third morning, Seren sat with his back against the door, his head resting against the oaken wood while his ears registered every sound that rose up in a muted manner at the other side of it. He pushed himself away from the door over the floor though, when heavy footsteps approached and he could hear Alexander shifting into a more alert stance. The High King finally came to see him.

Seren hurried to stand up as the door swung open inwards and the two young men met each others' gaze stubbornly and proudly.

'My sister had a few moments of consciousness,' Peter said. 'Just long enough to tell me that Lune's right hand held her captive. I'm moving you to the dungeons, you're my war prisoner now.'

Alexander walked a bit hesitant inside the room as well, the iron handcuffs for Seren jingling between his hands but the Archenlander still tried to make sense of his homeland's betrayal towards Narnia.

'I don't understand,' Seren mumbled, a deep frown edged on his forehead as he stared at his leather boots. 'Lune would never do such a thing.'

'You don't know your King as well as you thought then,' Peter said while Alexander clasped the handcuffs around Seren's wrists, but before he could lock them, Seren squared his shoulders and bumped with brute force against Alexander's chest who stumbled backwards by the impact.

Seren bolted around him and halted only inches away from Peter, almost as headstrong as he was while he threw the handcuffs with a loud clatter on the floor, as if in protest. 'You don't get it,' Seren said, making the decision he hopefully wouldn't regret. 'I know my brother's mind. I'll vouch for Lune, he's not behind this. Perhaps Silas acted on his own. Let me travel to Castle Anvard and I'll find out for you what's going on. You have my word.'

A shocked expression fell over Peter's face, his blue eyes growing wide while he tried to regain his posture. 'You're Lune's brother? You're a Prince of Archenland?'

Seren shifted in his stance. 'Half-brother and bastard-prince, to be honest, but I have just as strong a bond with Lune as you have with your siblings, or as Alexander has with Rosaleen. Let me find out what's going on, do not throw away this alliance between our lands for something that might be a conspiracy against us both.'

Alexander rubbed over the sore spot on his chest, taking a few deep breaths to get the oxygen back in his lungs that was so rudely knocked out of them. 'Perhaps we should listen to him, Peter. He could help us.'

Peter however, clenched his jaw, a short warning to Seren as to what he was about to do, and Seren was too late to act when the King grabbed his wrist in a strong grip and twisted it painfully behind his back.

Seren let out a cry as the strained and aching twinge shot up through the muscle of his arm and he tried hitting Peter with his other elbow but he easily dodged it by leaning backwards and then he grabbed Seren's other wrist as well. Peter kicked him against the back of his knees and Seren's legs buckled away from underneath him as he was forced to the ground.

'I know how Seren can help us. We'll trade him for Rose. A Prince for a Guardian. Inform my generals, Alex. We're marching to Castle Anvard with Seren as leverage in our midst.'

'Damn it, you thick headed king, you're not listening at all,' Seren cursed while the tears of his physical pain pricked in the corners of his eyes. 'I told you who I am so that you'd believe me. Lune cannot trade her for me, I swear to you he has nothing to do with it.'

'Perhaps,' Peter said, twisting one of Seren's arms a bit more while he tried to let the insult slide off him. 'But according to Lucy, Silas is behind it and Lune better get that information out of him or he'll have a war at his hands.'

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𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐕𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒 would snap like a too tightly strung piano-string. Her cries bounced off against the stone walls, echoing like an eerie choir of voices but no one could hear her this far under the ground. It felt as if her back stood ablaze while the iron cuffs carved fiery-red scars into the skin of her wrists and ankles.

The hot blood trickled out of the deep gashes on her back, drenching the torn fabric of her dress until it stuck like crimson leaves against her skin. Her tears streamed endlessly over her cheeks, usually leaving a burning trail on their way down but now they felt cold as ice compared with her back.

The whip crackled behind her as it broke through the sound barrier and like the dozens of times before, Rosaleen tried writhing out of the way. All in vain though, since she was held tightly into place by chains and her scream broke halfway when the burning pain flared up in her back only a split second after the crackling sound.

The whip tore another gash through her skin and her muscles tightened, causing her back to arch for a moment but then the energy left her body and she hung limply in the chains.

'Please stop,' she whispered with a croaky voice, her tears still flowing while her breathing was shallow as every time she moved, the imaginary flames burned away her skin, muscles and bones. Her wet hair stuck against the sides of her pale face and her whole body trembled from pain and exhaustion as the cold sweat mixed with her blood and wounds.

Rosaleen had pleaded for it many times already but her torturers only stopped when she passed out from the pain and blood loss, and even then it was temporary. As soon as she had regained a little bit of strength, the whipping would start again.

She had no idea how long she had been chained up, how long it had been since she had helped Lucy escape, but with every crackling sound of the whip, she felt the hope flowing out of her; fused within the droplets of blood trickling out of the gashes on her back.

Rosaleen tried to not let the cold ground soak up her hope like it swallowed her blood, but with every droplet that splashed onto the stones, the fear increased that she was going to die in this darkness. She was locked away from the sun, everyone she loved, and it was only a matter of time before her mind splintered along with her shattering body. . .

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