My 2 Favorite Monarchs

 “Who are you?” Rhince asked the stranger who had shown up literally just outside his door.

“Are you Gail's father?” The King asked of Rhince, who in contrast to the rough plain clothes I'd seen him in was now dressed in brown and green with white lace at his cuff.

“Yes I am.” Rhince answered automatically. “By Aslan is she alright?”

“Yes she is, she's just fine. A friend of ours, of hers and mine sent me here to visit her world, and she to visit another's. Sasha says when everything's over we'll be...” Arthur collapsed to his left side five seconds later...from a blow to the right side of his head from the sailor, turned gentleman.

“Why'd you do that?” I asked the usually gentle soul and sailor. He looked at me. “Did you have any reason to doubt his words, or were you so repulsed by the fantastical you didn't want to hear them?”

“This stranger is either an idiot or a thief.” He responded coolly. “And I haven't seen Gail in hours. I think...I only thought...”

It's been hours since I picked her up? That is senseless.” Rhince looked more confused than ever. “I am the one who sent Arthur here. And he was telling the truth as he knew it. What confuses me is that when people return from the table of peace, no time should have passed at all. I admit it's been a long time since I sent anyone on an adventure from the wood between the worlds but still...”

“Hello father, who's this?” Gail chirped. I vanished before he raised his head.

“Gail you're safe!” Rhince exclaimed, putting his hands on her shoulders.

“I thought it was my play date with Lydia.” Gail responded, smile fading. “But she's not home.”

“I think I owe whoever this is an apology.” Rhince intoned sadly.

“And I sincerely owe you one father.” Gail responded softly.

“Never-mind that. I'm just happy you're alright.” Rhince told his daughter gently.

I disappeared so they could talk without distraction.

“My head is pounding.” Arthur moaned as he raised his head from a desk. “What hit me?”

“I did.” Rhince admitted steadily. “I honestly believed you had taken my daughter away and were making up a story to hide her whereabouts. Please forgive me.”

“I'll assume Gail doesn't recognize my face?” Arthur ventured, looking at the child.

“She's of age, nearly, why not ask her directly?” Rhince responded, apparently testing the man.

“I don't have to.” Arthur admitted. “Sasha told me we forget our memories of that white room when we leave there. Apparently you've been there yourself, and met someone who looks to your eyes like a southerner. I guess I shouldn't have expected Gail to remember the place either. I can remember it because I am being sent directly from there. Anyone who willingly wastes their time in that place, leaves it feeling like it was a good dream.” There was a look in Rhince's eyes he must not have liked too well. “Take that part of my story as a bald faced lie, we won't have problems. Say I'm any one or anything other than King Arthur of Camelot and we will have issues. As for the bit about being from another world...We'll both see about that.”

“Does he mean like Queen Lucy and King Edmund?” Gail pondered aloud.

“...Yes.” Her father answered firmly. “Yes I think he does.” Arthur looked puzzled. “There are four siblings, two brothers and two sisters, who put my liege-lord Caspian on the throne 7 years ago. Apparently they had come to Narnia a thousand years earlier. The Dawn Treader was well named, it sought the Eastern edge of the world. Edmund, Lucy and their cousin Eustace were basically dropped onto the Dawn Treader not too long into that journey. I joined them from the Lone Islands not long after. The Lone Islands was one of their first stops. I pleaded with Caspian to let me come along.”

Arthur lowered his head for a split second. Then he raised his eyes.

“From what I heard by the table of peace, we were intended to be ourselves and leave the wood between the worlds completely out of things. I did Sasha great wrong by mentioning it. Though in my defense I didn't see it at the time.”

“Sire, will you tell me your story, of your kingdom as you know it, and leave the white room completely aside?” Gail asked of Arthur, who smiled softly.

“Actually, I think I need to hear what that place was like.” Rhince countermanded. “I mean the white room. And why it seems to have so many names.”

“It was a white room.” Arthur answered at once. “The host called it the wood between the worlds. She said most of the time people were brought there for a table of peace.” In a very hushed and patient voice, King Arthur caught his host up on everything that had happened at what would have been the table of peace.

“So, how were you supposed to get me to trust you?” Rhince pondered aloud.

“I don't think trusting me about where I'm from or what I've done was supposed to enter into it. I think I was supposed to tell you my life story as a story and you do the same so we could each learn another point of view. When the four of us were there, Gail didn't seem to recognize our host any more than the others did. Which tells me that you, Rhince must only have met Sasha in that world and at that table. And she hasn't met you in your world at all. Which I think is odd, but understandable. Imad was the name of the man you would see as a Southerner. Aside from being a man of peace who sees everything with a tender heart and open eyes...Okay I'm cracking up now.”

“I think the question should move from what you were supposed to do, and become one of what you intend to do.” Rhince responded slowly.

“I thought it was up to whomsoever we would meet on the other side what to do from here.”

Gail smiled softly. “If you were here because of anything but providence, you would be right.”

“I'm sorry I don't understand.” Arthur admitted gently.

Now it was Rhince's turn to smile. “Either through Aslan or some magician who happens to trust me, you are here by something other than walking through the woods. If you were given no instructions or advice on what to do...I'd say it's up to you to choose and decide that for yourself.”

At which point Arthur sat down on the windowsill of Rhince's house and began a detailed explanation of the knights of the round table and the loyalty of his friend Merlin. He very wisely decided to leave his hatred of magic completely out of it. Rhince hadn't seemed offended with the thought that he was here by magic. And when he got to the issue of Gaius supposed treason and capture, Rhince stared him in the face, intently.

“Is that why you have such a very preoccupied look on you face?” Rhince inquired coolly.

“I've had my mind caught up in a newly uncovered thought of incomplete my perception is.”

“Well, that I understand.” Rhince reasoned gently. “I mean how you could look distant as you look into your memories. I still get the impression that the dazed look on your face is from more than just me hitting you with my fist.” Someone knocked on the door and Arthur jumped off the window.

“Rhince, are you home?” A slightly louder than needful voice called out.

“Come on in and welcome.” Rhince replied to the voice. Accordingly Caspian the Tenth of Narnia walked through the thick wooden door of Rhince's house. He took one glance at Arthur and turned to Gail and her father with a perplexed look.

“King Arthur of Camelot. He's from another world, like Lucy and Ed.”

“Not the same one; unless someone tried to make sure he blended in.” Caspian replied with a smile.

“King Arthur, I'm pleased to meet you. But for the sake of courtly manners and public welfare, I must ask you what is your business is here.”

Arthur took in the pressed crimson shirt jacket the Narnian king wore, along with the growing beard and kind eyes. In a moment he looked down at his own clothes. He was in a simple blue tunic with gold bands at the shoulders. “As far as in Narnia, a young friend of mine decided I could do with seeing a life outside my own eyes and didn't want me going to a world all that different from my own. As far as here specifically rather than wherever your castle is, where I as a King would be expected to go? That's a bit easier, and more uncertain. My reading of it is that Sasha wanted me to see people who themselves are more like Merlin, who's the most loyal friend I've ever known. More than any of my knights or even Guinevere...my queen. His status as my servant...I came to admire him and eventually acknowledged we'd been friends for a long time. Also the host wanted this to be less like a state occasion...concealed smiles and empty affirmatives.”

“The salt of the earth.” Rhince mused. Caspian instantly asked for clarification.“You were sent to those who were gentle in their hearts rather than what are called gentle...men of rank. Ed explained it.” He looked from his daughter's face, to Caspian's to Arthur's and asked a singular question. “How do you know my daughter and not me?”

Arthur replied. “Assuming you ask for your liege's sake?” Rhince nodded. “Gail met me in the room between the worlds. Sasha expected you would come and not her, because you had been there before. I gather I'm just following her back as it were. No one has memory of that place once they leave it...I mean no one here, as far as I can see, has kept anything from each other.”

“Are you always this plainspoken and direct?” Caspian inquired of the other royal.

“No one can accuse me of being anything but direct. If you mean my unadorned speech and apparently not caring how my words are received, that is the influence of Merlin's friend Sasha who visits our kingdom every now and again. I'm trying to sound like her.”

I had to blush at that sign of respect. I'm still not sure I've done anything to deserve it.

“How long are you staying sir?” Gail asked the stranger.

“Til I call myself home or until Sasha figures out I shouldn't be here at all.” Arthur replied.

“How do you mean sir?” Caspian asked him firmly, but gently.

“Sasha said I wouldn't remember this trip once it was over. So what's the point of coming?”

“That is easily enough answered.” Rhince mentioned, as though in passing.

“DO tell.” Arthur prodded.

Surprisingly enough it was Gail and not Rhince to answer that question.“You could be here to show us that other worlds and other places aren't as far from us, in distance or spirit, as Lucy's world. Assuming that we will keep our memories.”

“I have to admit that makes a lot of sense.” Arthur conceded. “I don't think I've made a very good impression on any of you. And I could hope to change that before I leave.”

“Actually Sir,” Rhince ventured. “You've made a very good first impression on me. The only thing is, I don't know how much of this is courtly manners versus where you are actually from.” Arthur and Caspian both stared at him. He continued his thought a moment later. “If when you said you made a poor impression, you referred to being a representative of your people, I couldn't say. But that really would not matter. As an individual, you did great.”

“Your perception and grace continue to amaze me Rhince.” Caspian lauded.

“I really don't want to do this.” Arthur stated firmly. “But something tells me you, Caspian were here for a very specific reason, something I cannot be a part of. Goodbye and good luck.”