"In the end, curiosity caused him to speak before compassion." Hmmph, doesn't this happen to us all? :) "You could cause such horrible events without even really meaning much harm. Small meanness have dreadful consequences." They do indeed, Eustace, they do indeed. Aha, Eustace's point about the younger ones entering Narnia first; that makes absolute perfect sense to me. And even more, his point about Edmund betraying perhaps only his siblings? Wow, makes one think; and this boy is, I'm now starting to think, a lot smarter than he lets on. I mean, science? Magic? Religion? He gets this now. For the way Edmund explains and makes light of it all simply clears a lot of blurred lines in the tale! Hmmm, "who he had long regarded as the enemy," I think the word 'whom' would be better suited for that sentence. Ah, that part about the game of bickering, they are quite alike! Aren't they? Wow, never really thought of that before... but he is right, somehow, the impulse grows weaker over time, especially for these two cousins, the characters in the books that had probably gone through the most changes. "As though he needed to pretend to be a bit nasty to keep from being truly bad." Ha! True. Oh, but he had more than made up for it, Eustace! Edmund was... no, is, and always will be, the Just King! Why should he think that... wait, I know this will be explained. It must, it simply must, after all this lack of sleep. Ah, there it is, soon, Edmund and Eustace... both of them will see. For like you said, Edmund, it is hard to be good, which answers your other question, even the noblest of persons in this world are not exempted from evil deeds; quite the opposite in our world today, in fact, which is a sad truth. "Do you think that some people are made with a greater desire to do good from birth?" A dear friend of mine once told me that that yes, some are actually born with the desire to do good, be good, stay good. And Eustace gave the best answer to that one here; for me, he sort of got it. Maybe I sort of got it. But for some reason, I don't think God made people that way to be unfair, of course not; balance, perhaps? For others to learn and others to teach? For the world to be less boring, minds to be filled, not empty, and life to be more interesting, maybe? ...Wow, though this makes one's head swim... oh, how we learn so much from this conversation! They are a lot alike, aren't they? They feel that it is jealousy, or envy, on their part, being the way they are... or the way they think they are... Boy, they definitely needed this talk, that's for sure. Their thoughts, feelings, towards one another and all the rest, themselves, they needed a release, a conclusion. They try to mirror the events in the other's Narnian tale, try to grasp, and no excuses and coming into an understanding of the same page, that is certain there. This is all truth and nothing else. Ah, Edmund, Christian Rules and God's Rules may very well be almost the same, maybe very much the same, in fact. But not all, no. I don't really think, somehow, what God wants still differs from humankind's rule book in mind. The Bible is the same, for sure, but as for the rest... well, it may depend, for some make good ones, some make selfish ones. It's all in the faith, I always say... True, it can get scary in the sense that it's a journey to the great unknown sometimes, but it is the most important journey that we all must take, and in the end, it shall prove to be more than worth the fears, waits, and chancestaken. And I am glad that Eustace is learning this and more, much more. Haha! it is more than literal when one says God is bdyond the spheres, Ed! :) I am now reminded, as I read, how much I love these two Narnia characters... why I love all the Narnia characters! This piece is so real, so original. This is more than 'pretty good'. I love fics like this. Fics that, like you said, are great and valued not because of how it came to be, but what it has inside it; its content, plot, character, rarely do we see such works of fanfiction nowadays. It's always, "I got the idea for this here, there, after this, when I saw this', so on.

I adore this very beautiful, meaningful one shot! Thank you so much for writing! Keep it up!

*applauds* Wonderful story, dear. I enjoyed it so very much.

I don't usually enjoy reading conversations, as they mostly tend to be boring with dull wit. But yours was truly amazing. You captured both of the characters SO well, and the building relationship between them. It was so natural and I could almost imagine myself sitting between the two cousins.

The topics they talked about were also very meaningful, and given the characters of Eustace and Edmund, very enjoyable to read.

Thank you.

-Love
Artonis

Oh, it's me again! The one that reviewed talking about the picture becoming clearer? Yeah, that's me! Haha! Sorry for not leaving my name, by the way. Anyway, I posted my review right away that I forgot to say just one more thing: Funny what lack of sleep can do to a person, no? Haha! Now that that's out of my system... :)

Wow, just . . . Wow! You summed it all up in this one. Everything, as in everything! These two cousins represent the two sides of things: Seeing, and believing. Seeing is kinda limited, where as believing stays on even without the sight. You really hit the mark! This was so . . . well, deep! And I love that. They talked about God, sciennce, the world, people, school... Every single aspect of human life you could ever think of to get the conversation or even a debate flowing and going! I'd say this was so full of that wisdom, the insight, the message that "The Chronicles of Narnia" brings forth everytime we read it, especially with Aslan, and the things that these two cousins and the other friends of Narnia all went through, the picture becomes clearer. Wonderful, just wonderful. Excellent writing, great fic!

Wonderful! I don't see very many like this. C.S. Lewis did so well making Narnia a Christian allegory.

I liked this a lot. It seemed very real - not just in-character, although it IS, but also because it reminded of my own late-night talks with my sister - the way the conversation meanders and deep things are brought to the surface. Until one of the people drifts off into sleep and the conversation dies out, leaving things unsaid. I liked this a lot because it was very observant of both Narnia (the books) and our world.

Wow! What a lovely story!

Ari

I like your story quite a lot, especially the end which I can relate to really well. I often get the feeling when hanging out with my team that despite being very alike in some ways the various ways we were raised and our different schools makes it difficult for us to become really good friends.

Anyway, your story is great and I enjoyed reading it :)

Good story.

That was fantastic! Edmund and Eustace's conversation seemed like one they really could have had, and they were both very much in character. Great job!

I love it.

Wow. That was nice.

I really liked the part of the conversation where they talked about Aslan being God, or Jesus. Because technically, that's who Aslan was supposed to represent when C.S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles.

It was funny when Eustace corrected Ed on Pluto. I grinned. ;)

Lion be with you,

KC

This is so different from most of the fics here that I thought I should comment (which I never do because I'm lazy). Anyway, I loved it! It is so thoughtful and profound and truly what I think Lewis intended these books to evoke. Really. Very good. And no "Suspian", which is nice these days...

I love this piece... Nothing really helpful to add, sorry about that. But I wanted to let you know how much I liked it.

Oh, yes, I really like this. I was getting a bit pissy with Eustace for interrupting Edmund as he was trying to speak, but it all worked out, and I love how the story played out. Especially the ending, when Eustace muses that it makes sense his conversation with Edmund wouldn't be an epiphany. Very sweet!