what is a legacy?

In the days after Tashbaan -- for what had transpired seemed to have split her memories into a before Tashbaan and after Tashbaan -- Susan had just wanted to be left alone. She wanted time to gather her thoughts, gather herself, and let herself put some distance between her and what had happened. Susan needed to put walls around the events so she could process it, and so she could stop feeling so raw inside, all pink and weak and unprotected.

But it seemed like she could never steal some time for herself. Every time she finished her duties, every time she thought she could get away to sort out her thoughts, one of her siblings, or dear Mr. Tumnus, or someone was there at every turn. Susan understood it, knew they were trying to help. But all the same, it was frustrating, and it was starting to wear on her.

Which was why, once she glanced up and saw Peter silently shadowed in the doorframe of her room, her words were a little sharper than usual. “I am not going to disappear if no one is watching me,” she said, and while she regretted her tone as soon as the words left her mouth, she really did wish he would go away.

Peter heard the rustle of leaves in the silence, and footsteps as soft as spring. When he turned, he bowed slightly to the figure that had come up behind him, removing his hand from the trunk he had been resting it upon.

“Good morning,” he said politely, feeling a bit self-conscious, to be so easily snuck up on. “I beg your forgiveness if that was your tree I was disturbing.”

@darksoulslovethemoon

Peter knew he shouldn’t be laughing. But it had been a very long day -- full of councils, requests, and traveling from Cair to Beaversdam and back again -- and the flurry of skirts and the loud yelp that sent him over the edge. 

Peter stood atop the hill of Beruna, the stars of the night sky bright above him. Below him, the silver ribbon of the Great River snaked its way through the hills, and he knew that Aslan’s How -- or what was left of it -- was not far off, although it had probably fallen into even further obscurity since Caspian X’s time.

They walked back through the dark halls of Cair Paravel, arm-in arm, until they reached Peter’s suite. He knelt and lit the fire, nodding over his shoulder at the desk and its various piles of parchment. “They’re on there, on the left side.”

“Can’t sleep either,” Peter said with a small smile that quickly faded as he took a deep breath of the night air, shoulders rising and falling. He looked back out the window, them back at Susan. “I need to review them, too. We can do it together, if you want.”

You still get my heart racing.