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TCOTR - Book 3 - Chap 11

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11 - What Are You?

Edmund cannot bear to look at Arrayah; the moments when she looks up from the remains of Hosea's face Edmund can her eyes. It is horrible, her eyes don't seem to be able to focus, but that is where the clarity of her situation comes from. The pain that comes from knowing that she is broken is a grievous injury on him, but the fact that it is due directly to his action provides a near fatal emotional wound that he cannot bear to aggravate further. So now he sits with his back to her, staring out at the emptiness. It makes it easier for him this way, though it shames him as well.

The distinctions and distractions that help us mark the passage of time are no longer distinct to Edmund. There is a clanging sound that attracts Edmund's attention to the end of his cage where the door is located.

"No…no, no, no!" Edmund hugs his knees and begins to sob. Even if his mind is able to try and deny who his new roommate is. It is not strong enough to deny whose those eyes belong to, those eyes that now stare at him.
'I thought the last time I looked into Hosea's eyes would haunt me forever but no I was wrong, this time is worse, far worse.'

"Waste not, want not."
Edmund startles and looks up. Carnival has his face pressed against the bars. "You don't look so well Edmund, and to think it has only been a few hours…well if your hungry, eat up."
Carnival looks in the direction of Hosea's remains then back to Edmund. Edmund looks back and forth a few times between Carnival and Hosea and eventually vomits.
"Oh that was rather unpleasant…you'll regret doing that in a few days once the heat and sun have had a chance to get at it."

"What are you?"
Carnival tilts his head to the side, "Don't you mean who am I?"
Edmund shakes his head. "No, whatever you are, you are not a person. A person wouldn't be able to do things like this, wouldn't be able to do the things you do. The way you act, the way you move, what are you?"
Carnival sighs, "So I still have all of my old tells do I?"
Edmund blinks.
"Normally I don't talk about myself a lot.  Not only am I not that interesting, but I would hate to appear conceded to anyone. I think this time though, this time it will be helpfully to the situation if I tell you a little bit more about myself."

Carnival sits on the ground and sighs, "Long ago I was a simple snake in another land…"
"You're a snake?"
Carnival clenches his jaw in irritation, "Yes, now stop interrupting! You're just as uncultured and rude now as your parents were back then."
"You know my parents?"
"Many, many years ago…"
"You've been to London?"
"Not those parents you biological set back! I mean your original parents, Adam and Eve!"
"How is that possible….?"
Carnival face palms, "I don't know. Maybe if you let the nice snake finish his story you will find out."
Edmund falls quiet.
"Thank you…so as I was saying. I was a simple snake minding my own business and doing snake like things. At least I always have hypothesized that I was; at the time I had all the self awareness of mud so it is hard to say. Anyhow I was doing my little snake thing when the Enemy made a move."
"The Enemy?"
"The enemy of life and all that it creates, the adversary of The Emperor Across The Sea…"
"Tash?"
"What? No; don't bring the children into this and will you please stop interrupting me!"
Edmund withers at Carnival's irritated glance. "Thank you. So anyhow, the Enemy had plans for me. Or maybe I was in the wrong place at the right time. No matter. He took control of me; overrode my soul with his own; he used me. He used me to trick Adam and Eve, to help start them on the path to their downfall.
But that's the boring part. The interesting part comes after, after the Enemy departed. For the first time…I was self aware.

Confused, and not fully understanding of what had happened to me I will admit that I had a few issues coming to terms with myself.  You see there was a side effect that the Enemy was not aware of, or maybe it was his true intention all along. I've never had the chance to ask him personally but a shade of him stayed within me.
I discovered sin in all of its various yet glorious forms, and discovered something more…invoking sin in others vitalized me. It not only gave me a great sense of happiness but gave me a sense of fulfillment, of purpose. What some would call a true sense of being. There were other gifts; speech and proper self awareness but there was something more important…I was given time. As far as I can tell I do not have a natural expiry date like the rest of you, I will live for ever as long as I take certain precautions."
Carnival stretches.
"I am sure you have heard all about the debate between evolution and creationism but what if they are both right? I know that the very notion that both theories actually being hand in hand as opposed to separate sounds ridiculous but on the other hand just gaze at this magnificence." Carnival indicates to himself.

"Given time I became more human, learned all the languages that your primitive minds have created and yet I still couldn't blend in due to certain superficial reasons." Carnival reaches up and pulls at his face just below the eye.
At first nothing happens but after a few more tugs the skin tears. Edmund cringes away expecting there to be blood and while there is a little it is no where near the amount there should be.

Edmund begins to hyperventilate. Where there should be blood and flesh instead were scales; black, smooth scales.
"Ah…I see you have an understanding of the dilemmas I faced socially. It was hard…" Carnival mockingly sniffles and sobs.
The sobs fade immediately and are replaced by a terribly sinister grin, "But then I heard about this cloth. Some say it brought a carpenter's son back from the dead, others say that the man that was destined to conquer the world was kept immortal while he wore it. There are dozens and dozens of other accounts, so I was curious to track it down. Moving about the world was trying work but in the end proved fruitful when I finally caught up the garment in Hungry. It was in the possession of a wonderful aristocrat named Elizabeth, she wanted to look young forever and with this…" Carnival flaps his cloak, "She could. She was a smart one too, dangerously smart. She figured out that blood was needed to keep her young, she wasn't sure how or why it worked just that it did. Something about God answering her prayers or some such. She killed a lot of virgin girls in her desire.
They didn't just have to be girls, or virgins just as long as there was blood. Happenstance just gave her that belief.

I relieved her of the garment and to make sure that there would be no further pursuers I also relieved her of most of her grounded mind." Carnival sighs reminiscently.
"But no matter how interesting the events of your world may seem to small minded creatures such as yourself. Things there tend to be repetitive if you look at them in the long term view. So I found my way into Narnia which I have to admit is a very interesting place even at the slowest of times.

There I was found by Tash, the adopted son of the Enemy. Tash saw great potential in me and much like his adoptive father decided to use me. The essences of his greatness; war, famine, pestilence, and death. A shard of each hosted within me, giving me incredible abilities and all I had to in exchange was to spread his doctrine of fear, loathing and death.
Let me tell you I was good at my job, so good in fact that Aslan himself came to pay me a visit. He took pity on me, and believed that I wasn't bad, that I only was getting half the experience when I did anything.
So he gave me the gift of empathy…but you see that is when if you asked him, if he is ever willing to speak about it, everything went awry.

Tash quickly relieved me of his gifts once it became apparent that I was moving beyond his control. He also instituted  a new rule for himself. He now splits his gifts up over four 'worthy' individuals. Easier to deal with a stray or overly zealous one that way I guess.  Doesn't matter though the damage has already done, I, as I appear before you have already been born.

The Enemy taught me sin, Aslan inadvertently taught me how to see the sins in others, and Tash taught me how to draw upon the essences of what I see in others to gain strength over them."

"Aslan wouldn't, couldn't…"
"Oh Edmund everyone can make mistakes once or twice in their life. Well everyone except the Emperor Across The Sea of course."

"So why…why…"
"Why have the fair? Makes life simpler, when people are happy they are much less guarded, when they are having fun with a group of others their sensibilities tend to leave them and instead they follow the crowd. Makes life much simpler, and more fulfilling.
Only a few are strong enough to avoid becoming enthralled by the group mentality. Those are the ones you have to watch out for."

Edmund would pale if he had any colour left in his skin. "That's why you killed Ryan?"

Carnival looks perplexed. "No, no, no, no, no. I killed the Raven for a myriad of other reasons. But those aren't important at the moment. The question that needs answering is…do you have straight teeth? I really hope so, straight teeth are important for your future."

Edmund pulls at his hair in frustration and confusion. Carnival laughs, "There is no need to get so worked up over things, yet. I can't help it if I am causing you to suffer, it is in my nature, it is in my name."

"Carnival means circus or fair…" Edmund mutters.

Carnival nods sagely. "It does unless it is a vanity name given to me by me that is suppose to be a cute play on words. Carnal evil - Carnival, get it? All I did was drop an extra L. You have to admit, its cute."

Edmund, with no where else to turn to escape the horrors surrounding him on all sides decides the best course of action is just to curl up in a ball and hope the rest of the world fades away.
Carnival cannot think of any better way to congratulate himself then to simply hum his merry tune and leave King Edmund to stew.
The Chronicles of Narnia:
Chronicles of the Raven

Lewis' characters owned by his estate.
Original characters owned by me.

~~~

Book Three: Chapter Eleven: What Are You?
~~~

New to Ryan's story? Start here!
Book 1 Chapter 1: [link]

The second story starts here:
[link]

The third story starts here:
[link]

~~~

To go to the biography of Ryan: [link]

To go to the biography of (my) Peter:
[link]
© 2010 - 2024 MacklinWrites
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andrea-af91's avatar
Poor fella! I ache for Edmund :( I cant wait to know more.