COMMENTFIC!

[metonomia]

Guys guys guys, so ilysia_039   wrote epic amazingness re: the Duke of Galma's daughter (Isamene), the one who squints and has freckles, and then rthstewart  started shipping Edmund/Isamene because WHO WOULDN'T, and then she wrote AU fan fic for fan fic, and then she said I could put it here and continue it!!!

So, go read this:  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5450216/14/Singing_Paeans_to_the_Stars

And then...muahahhahaha!



"Really, Caspian, must you be such a complete Telmarine about it?" It was only over fifteen years of self control and that they were in full view of the assembled Galmans on the Great Hall’s dais, that kept Edmund from cuffing the Narnian King on the side of the head.

"What?" Caspian mumbled as bits of stew slid off his trencher to the immaculately scrubbed floor.

With practiced ease, the stiletto slid out of his wrist sheath and into Edmund’s hand. Under the cover of the rough cloth on which they dined, he aimed its point at Caspian’s thigh.

"Our host's daughter has obviously cleansed this Hall and changed the rushes herself. You dishonor her and Narnia eating as a common, dumb swine." He gave Caspian a little jab so the King knew that he too was a King, and rather better at it. "Pick that food up from the floor!"

"Rushes?" Caspian asked stupidly, jerking away and looking about. “Who? Do you mean that creature with the squints and freckles?"

On Caspian's other side, Lucy hissed with anger. Edmund had hoped to keep his sister out of it; in matters such as this, Lucy was even less forgiving than he.

"Caspian, you are such a boor," Lucy huffed and Edmund saw a flash of silver in her hands. “You will cease to embarrass us and our country this instant or I shall teach you better manners at knifepoint.”

A polite cough caught his attention and Edmund looked up to see that the whole of their whispered lesson had been observed by one other. Squints indeed. There was a shrewd intelligence in Isamene’s eyes. With a knowing quirk of her eyebrow, she raised her cup and behind its rim, Edmund caught a whispered “thank you.”

He subtly tilted his head to the other end of the table. “And listen to what happens next,” he told Isamene silently.

Lucy begin in her sweet seeming way that was always a shade too blunt for strict Court politeness. “My Lord Galma, my brother, the Just King, and I are so pleased to see that you have held to the sound laws We enacted so long ago that recognize inheritance by lineal primogeniture regardless of gender. Our fair cousin Caspian told me but today how Narnia most heartily approves of Galma in this and intends to hold her as a model of equity for all her territorial Crown possessions.”

Isamene flushed at Lucy’s words; and it was too bad because those very attractive freckles smattered across her high cheekbones disappeared.

Edmund raised his glass in salute, echoing Lucy with a hearty “To Princess Isamene.” He wondered how he might coerce Drinian into keeping their on Galma a full month.

Comments

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

"And just who might that person be who better understand the needs of the land?" she snapped

He seemed quite unperturbed by her ire, which only made her angrier. She was fully prepared to retire to her office in a rage and leave him standing there alone, king or not, when he said, "Why, the land itself, of course. Narnian land has always had the strange and wondrous characteristic of being quite able to care for itself."

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

"As I mentioned," he continued, "it is not the land herself that needs a master. It is that I find irksome those things that prevent my entrance into access to enjoyment of Narnian lands." Edmund gently smoothed the dry corn stalk and set it to stand alongside its fellows against the rough store room wall. "And what is your pleasure, Isamene? For what should I account next?"

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

"Grapes, I think," she said with supreme, frosty dignity. "You ruined my count of that harvest as well."

"I love grapes!" he replied enthusiastically, striding over to the barrels and coming back with a large bunch.

"Your Majesty." He popped a few in his mouth and held one out to her.

"Grape?"

"King Edmund." He shrugged and ate that one, too, obviously enjoying himself and obviously aware of her annoyance.

"Edmund! You are eating my harvest."

"I'll repay you?" he offered, and as she gaped in disbelief, he threw a grape with perfect aim into her mouth.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

A disturbingly maniacal gleam rose in his eye. He held up the bunch of grapes and in the light they glinted, richly purple. "Brilliant," he murmured.

Isamene flushed a little at the praise. "Thank you, King..."

"Edmund," he interrupted, gently manipulating the stem of lush, sweet fruit in the dusky light of the store room.

"Thank you, King Edmund," she repeated firmly. "I appreciate your admiration of my fruit."

"Oh, the grapes are lovely and all that -- delicious, and leaving a person wanting rather more than just a taste. I, however, meant that I have had brilliant idea."

Her anger rose again. "So it is you you who is ever so brilliant, your Majesty," Isamene bit out.

"As gorgeous as your fruit and grains are, it is their stunted outputs that trouble me."

"And your access to them?"

Really, he was completely, and probably deliberately, missing her own acidic responses in contemplation of his own brilliance. Impertinent did not begin to cover the full of it.

Edmund tossed another grape into the air and easily caught it in his mouth. Chewing with smug satisfaction, he concluded mysteriously, "Where stunted fields, impeding fences, and other restraints upon old Narnia are concerned, I know just the chap to help."

[lady_songsmith]

Oh dear. The longer this goes on, the more I feel like I'm not old enough to be reading it. I can't remember the last time I felt like that. And if Bacchus is going to turn up, I may spontaneously combust.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

MAHAHAHAHA. You have discerned our maniacal plot! Bacchus makes everything better.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I mentioned this to Ilysia last night and I think this may actually be a, dare I say it, coherent end to this AU fic of fan fic. A sort of deux ex machina as it where. However, I still like the idea of the two of them rediscovering Narnian fertility rituals while Lucy sails off on her Love Boat cruise to World's End with Caspian.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

I love it. I really do. And then Bacchus shows up and Caspian falls over in shock and Eustace starts stuttering about "nutters dressing up like old myths".

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

Love it so much. I think at this point Isamene might be half expecting Aslan to show up, btw. And she fears that Bacchus will be more akin to her father, all frivolity and gaiety, but of course she ends up seeing how awesome he is. Yes?

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

"And who might that be?" she asked, cursing herself for how easily she let him pique her interest.

"Ah..he'll come in his own time, I think," Edmund said, grabbing more grapes from the barrel behind him. "Now, would you care to show me more of your lands?"

(and then they go to the well)