(Untitled)

[caspianthetenth]

Now that his new house was nearly completed--or at least it would be by the end of June--Caspian felt it was time to get the Dawn Treader properly out of the dock and explore as he had been itching to do for months. Every time he almost got round to it, something would happen to prevent it, but this time Caspian was determined to get it done. He

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[lifeisnotasong]

Sansa had seen the sign in the compound and hurried a little down the path hoping to catch her betrothed. She had left Eddara with her father for she felt that her daughter did what she could not and cheered him a little from his understandable grief over the loss of her lady mother. She had finished her dress for the wedding. Now she was working on the brides cloak now - which involved much convincing the box to give her things in blue and gold to match the clothing she had made for for Caspian. She did not think he would much mind if she did not use red and gold even thought they were his colours.

In the end she did not have to hurry for she found him paused on the path examining a sword. Though she had little liking for weapons as Arya did, she saw well enough it was not the sword Caspian usually carried. The one was distinctively Narnian in that it matched the one Edmund had once carried and those she had saw in the once shared dream. This was different. Yet a well made weapon all the same - one made for a lord or a King - not

[caspianthetenth]

Caspian lowered the blade, turning to face Sansa. "It's my uncle's sword," he said quietly. He was so lost in his thoughts that just then he could not remember how much he had told Sansa of what was between him and his uncle. "My uncle Miraz, who murdered my father and stole his throne."

[lifeisnotasong]

Sansa knew the tale - though she though she had heard it long before Caspian meant as much as he did to her. But then it had been almost just another tale of Narnia and now it is something dreadfully hurtful to the man she loves. "The island choses it's gifts queerly," she said quietly. For Miraz had not just killed Caspian's father she knew but tried to murder him as well. "Perhaps it was your father's before it was his," she tried, "and meant to pass to you." As Ice would one day pass to Robb - though Sansa did not like to think on that at all.

[caspianthetenth]

"I don't know," said Caspian. He stuck the sword in the ground again and thrust his hands through his hair. "The thing is, I don't know if I wish it was my father's or not. I never knew my father. I don't know what kind of man he was like. Was he like Miraz, like the rest of the Telmarines?" He dropped his hands and looked at Sansa again. "My ancestors invaded Narnia, took it over with no care for the Narnian people. They tried to wipe out every last one of them. Even if my father was a good man--and I don't know if he was or not--he was a Telmarine king, and not a Narnian."

[theonionknight]

Davos had been waiting for the voyage with some eagerness, he felt uneasy about relying on the kindness of strangers without being able to contribute anything in return and there was nothing he could do better than sail. He felt so often nervous and out of his depth these days, that it would be a pleasure to end up with a deck beneath his feet again because he would always know boats even when he knew little else. So when he saw Caspian at the board he headed over to greet him, he could not read any message the man might have left but he could talk to him and get the information directly.

He found his Captain turning a blade over his hands when he reached him so, instead of saying anything, he stood a little distance off and waited for the man to be ready to talk to him.

[caspianthetenth]

Caspian saw the man's reflection in the shine of the blade and turned, lowering the sword. "Sir Davos," said Caspian with a little nod, distracted though it was. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were there."

[theonionknight]

"My Lord," Davos replied with an answering nod. "A new blade, is it?"

[caspianthetenth]

"It was my uncle's," said Caspian, and thrust the sword back into the soft grass at the side of the path. "It seems the island is up to its usual tricks again." When the island had seen fit to return his ship to him, he had been grateful to it (if there was such a thing as being grateful to a bit of land) but now he felt only irritation at the reminder of his usurping uncle.

[stoicsidekick]

Bush had not been surprised to see the not affixed to the bulliten board that day. The Dawn Treader had sat in port for some months, taking no journey's worthy of its size and grandeur. The strange magic of the island would restrict their travel, but something of use could be done with the ship.

He wondered how the Treader sailed, if she was a fast ship or a sturdy one, if she required a light touch or a firm hand. He would find out soon enough, or so he hoped.

He leaving the Compound to see to his own boat when he spotted the ship's captain on the path, hefting a strange sword. "Lord Caspian, hello," Bush called out, raising a hand in greeting.

[caspianthetenth]

"Lieutenant Bush," Caspian said with a nod and a distracted smile that did not quite reach his lips. He lowered the sword and stuck it in the ground again, and without thinking wiped the hand that had been holding it on his trousers.

[stoicsidekick]

It was an odd gesture, as if Caspian felt his hand needed to be cleaned after touching the fine sword. And this was something more than literal dirt, for the hilt gleamed. Bush frowned a bit. "Not from around here, is it?" he queried with a nod to the weapon.

[caspianthetenth]

"No," said Caspian. "It is my uncle's sword--or at least, it was my uncle's sword, for he is long dead." He looked at the sword with a frown, then back at Bush. "His own men turned on him to do it, which is fitting, since he was a tyrant, and it was what he deserved."

[guardiaknight]

Glenn had been interested since he first heard of Caspian taking on a crew. As it was, he had little to do sometimes and some adventure, he thought, would do him good. He had only just read the notice when he turned his head and spotted Caspian nearby. He headed over and was about to greet him when he realized something seemed amiss. His gaze fell upon the sword he held - one he did not think he had ever seen before.

"'Tis a fine blade," he noted, a curious expression on his face.

[caspianthetenth]

"It belongs to my uncle," said Caspian, with a look of distaste. "Or, I should say, it belonged to him, for he is long dead." Slain by the treachery of one of his own men, a fate which Caspian could not say he did not deserve.

[guardiaknight]

He did catch the look, and it spoke what he had not said about the man. He nodded in response, showing he understood.

"An item from thy home, then?" he asked, carefully. He did not wish to pry more than he wished to speak on it - he knew himself how hard such things could be.

[caspianthetenth]

Caspian nodded, then thrust the sword back into the soft grass at the edge of the path. "My uncle was a usurper who murdered my father and took his throne," said Caspian. "And meant to have me killed when his own son was born." He shuddered as he remembered hiding in the wardrobe with Doctor Cornelius, watching his uncle's men--who had once been his father's men--fire a torrent of quarrels into his bed from their raven-winged crossbows.

[youngestqueen]

"Of course you are Narnian. As Narnian as Aslan, or Reepicheep, or my brothers and sister and I." All different sorts of Narnians, those who were of the land, those who had come to it and made it their own. To Lucy there was little difference, for she knew what she had lived. She knew that Caspian had loved the land like she did.

She gave him a soft smile as she came up beside him; plans of going into the compound abandoned for the moment. "Is it yours, the sword?"

[caspianthetenth]

"My uncle's," said Caspian shortly, turhing the sword so that Lucy could see the Telmarine work. She had always been away from the fighting, but she would be able to see that it was not the Narnian style that she was accustomed to. Caspian himself had gone back to the old styles, the old ways of doing things, when he gave the Narnians back their kingdom, and preferred dwarf-forged steel to Telmarine finery. He had hoped that putting some distance between himself and anything that looked Telmarine would go some way towards making the Narnians feel at home again, and so the Lion had replaced the raven and scarlet and gold had replaced black and bronze.

[youngestqueen]

Lucy nodded, pursing her lips as she looked on the sword. "It's very fine." For it was, no one could say otherwise. It wasn't the sort of sword she was used to. Not the type that Peter or Edmund had carried. More fanciful, she supposed, but it was very pretty. "Was it not here before?"

[caspianthetenth]

Caspian shook his head. "No," he replied. "It was just here the way that the Dawn Treader was. If I had had it before, I would have cast it into the sea long ago." He stuck it in the ground again with a frown. "For all I know, he could have used this sword to slay my father."