Outside the Dorms - Wednesday Afternoon
"You shouldn't be here."
The lion cub licked his paw and then set it down. "A Son of Adam telling me where I should or shouldn't be?"
"I mean no disrespect," Edmund insisted, hesitant. "What I meant to say was that I'm surprised to see you here. How are you here?"
"I go where I please," the cub replied. "Your next question will be why I'm here but I think you know the answer to that."
Edmund frowned and thought carefully about his answer. "You're here for me, though I don't know why."
"Yes, you do," the cub insisted. "What did I say the last time we spoke?"
For a cub that wasn't Aslan by his own admission, he certainly sounded like Him. Edmund had his own theories about who or what the cub might be and settled on a messenger, because thinking too much more gave him a headache. Every time. He supposed there was something to that. "You said I should focus on the good and the rest would follow, and that Aslan has been patient with me, but he wouldn't wait forever."
"You took the words to heart," the cub remarked. "And the rest followed."
Edmund tried to make sense of the cub's words. "I don't understand."
The cub didn't chuckle, for cubs don't do that sort of thing, but he did look amused. "Not everyone has the luxury of being told what lesson they have learned."
"I've been here for years now," Edmund said. He wasn't indignant, simply confused and at a loss. He tried to piece together his own lesson. "I've done as Aslan has asked. I've been away from my home and my family and I would do so again in a moment without question." That was a far stretch from when he'd first arrived, questioning Aslan's decision. "I was stubborn," he admitted, "but not forever. I have learned things I didn't really need to know, and much that I did that Narnia couldn't teach me. Yet, I still don't understand why I'm here."
The cub waited patiently for Edmund to finish. "You remember the prophecy."
He wasn't sure what the prophecy had to do with anything, but he nodded. "The four thrones at Cair Paravel, two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve to fill them."
"Not any Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve. The Narnians knew of the prophecy but not of who would come. Aslan did. You are all destined to bring greatness to Narnia," the cub explained, voice commanding more respect than you would think a cub could, "but you must be more than your crown and title to reach that goal. You have struggled to be your own man."
"Here I was just Edmund," he realised.
"More than the King of Narnia, more than the boy you were before becoming King."
"It took this long to learn that lesson?"
"Sometimes we all need the help of another."
He thought not only of Jo, but of the other people he'd met here. "Does this mean it's time to go home?"
The cub looked back at the Preserve. "You know the way." With a final look, the cub sauntered off in that direction.
Edmund stood alone for a long few moments, processing the information, before he turned back to the dorms.
[OOC: Edmund's last post in Fandom!]