Hi everyone, thanks for the reviews etc, here I am updating after only 1 week! I've noticed some other writers doing this and I think I may have done it in my earlier stories, but do I need to write a disclaimer for each chapter? Sorry, could someone just clear this up for me…? Anyway, please review again, but most of all, enjoy!

The room was dimly lit, but even as Esha began to slowly walk in it seemed to grow brighter with a green tinge that cast unearthly and sinister shadows all around her.

The walls were a hideous light beige with a darker beige pattern on top in a random crisscrossing and swirling pattern that was so confusing it was almost hypnotic. Esha stared at it for a long moment before blinking rapidly and looking at the rest of the room with a slight shake of her head.

Expensive sofa's lined the room in all kinds of style's; ancient Narnian and Archenlandian, Calormene and many style's she did not recognise from her history books. Above each sofa was a painting, all done with varying degrees of skill. Some of the figures were rather distorted as though painted by someone who was squinting through frosted glass, but others were so accurate they looked as though they could simply be someone who had frozen momentarily in astonishment at Esha's sudden entrance.

"You are Esha Veritas, are you not?" Esha jumped in fright and backed away from where the voice had come from, her eyes scanning the entire room when she saw no-one.

"Who are you?" She finally called out bravely, her voice far stronger than she felt.

"I am the Countess of the Lone Islands." Finally Esha realised that the voice speaking to her was not a human, or rather it was, but it was a painting of a woman to Esha's left. She slowly walked to her left and stood in front of the painting. Before she knew of the magic of Narnia Esha would never have believed this possible, but it seemed that anything and everything went in Narnia.

"Please tell me, am I dreaming or is this reality?" She checked, her gaze flicking to the paintings that were lined up either side of the painting of the Count and Countess of the Lone Islands.

"This is reality. But if I were you, Esha Veritas, I'd escape to dream land very quickly..." She said in her soft, lilting voice.

"Why?" Esha asked in confusion.

"Because I have seen into your future." The woman sneered at her as though it were the most obvious answer in the world.

"Is it not a good future? Am I not happy?" Esha asked worriedly, her face crumpling a little at the thought.

"What makes you think you'll ever be happy?" The woman whispered. Her face moved and she was suddenly looking out of the picture and at Esha, exposing the whole of her face. Her partner too looked out of the painting, wrapping a pair of painted arms lovingly around the woman.

"You'll always be alone." He said in a louder, crueller voice. "What man could ever want you?" He asked incredulously, enticing laughter from all of the paintings around her.

"Ed- Edmund wants me." Esha whispered, the words almost failing in her mouth.

"Edmund?" The woman spoke again this time from the safety of her position in the man's embrace. "But he's just a boy...a fickle, silly little boy. By the time he's a man he'll have forgotten all about you..."

"That's not true." Esha whispered so quietly her voice was barely audible. Normally she would have stood up for herself, perhaps even fought back if she was in the right mood, but these 'people' seemed to have cast a spell of fear over her and their words made her feel more insecure than she had in a long time.

"Isn't it?" The woman asked viciously, a cruel smile forming on her perfect lips. "How could he ever love you? You? Even your family didn't love you. They abandoned you the second they could get away; the only people who will love you, no matter what, and they left you all alone in this world. And this is how you'll stay forever."

"You think Edmund wants you? He is a King of Old, I'm a King, and I would never, ever want you." The man interjected, one corner of his mouth lifting up in amusement.

Esha's chest was tight at their words. They were right; her parents were the only people in the world who were supposed to love her unconditionally, and yet they were gone forever.

How could she have been stupid enough to think Edmund could actually like her!

She was nothing; a nobody.

But even now in her mind she could hear his voice saying her name. He'd said her name so many times and in so many different ways. He must feel at least a little something for her…

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"Where's Esha?" Edmund suddenly asked with a little note of panic in his voice as Coriakin finished his dramatic speech about the trials they had yet to experience.

The magician turned to look at him with grave eyes that clearly told Edmund he knew exactly where she was, but that he was not going to say it out loud.

Edmund paused one second longer to stare into his eyes before darting forward and rushing back down the dark corridor. His feet pounded over the magical map and were momentarily engulfed in what made him think of dry water. The coolness disappeared as quickly as it had reappeared when he had crossed the map and was instead moving out of the door.

"Edmund!" Caspian called out, following him quickly. He stopped in the doorway as he watched him dashing franticly from dark room to dark room, calling Esha's name and not even noticing the wonders each room held.

He'd been into over five rooms, and he was dashing back out of the seventh when he realised that Esha was in there; standing stock still he'd momentarily mistaken her for an ornament in the dim, odd room.

Paintings of couples lined the walls, all with their happy gazes directed out of the painting and onto Esha who stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by the paintings and lavish, comfortable-looking couches.

"Esha?" Edmund called gently after a moment's pause. He tilted his head slightly and took a tentative step toward her, fearful of the faraway look in her eyes.

"She is being tested." Edmund jumped at the sudden voice and turned to find the old man with Lucy, Eustace and Caspian half-hidden behind him.

"Tempted by her darkest dreams." Edmund whispered, swallowing loudly and trying to be brave as the fear he'd been feeling settled into his heart. "What on earth could be Esha's darkest dream? Dare he hope that it involved him?

"No." Coriakin replied, watching Esha carefully. "She is an exceptional woman; it's not her dreams she's tempted by, but her fears..."

There was a stunned silence around the room.

"Esha?" It was Caspian this time who called out to her in a louder and far stronger voice than Edmund had done.

The young woman still didn't reply, and despite knowing that she saw nothing of the room, Edmund followed her sad gaze to a particularly old painting of a couple who differed from all the others. The subjects of the painting were not looking out, but rather looking at each other; only the profile of their faces had been caught, but even then the love on their faces was evident.

"How do I help her?" Edmund asked, having to swallow yet again. He could feel something, some kind of energy pushing against the whole of the front of his body, holding him back.

"My dear boy, how can you help her with something you don't understand?" Coriakin asked him sadly with a slight shake of his head.

Edmund stared at Esha a moment longer before suddenly screaming her name, making everyone else jump at the volume and the urgency in his voice.

Esha suddenly rocked back on her heels as though she'd been hit by a strong blast of wind and blinked her eyes rapidly. After a moment she noticed them all standing there and flung herself into the arms of the only too-obliging Edmund, wrapping her arms firmly around his neck and staying there, feeling her heartbeat gradually calm.

"What happened?" He asked her quietly with bated breath when at least half a minute had passed.

She shook her head violently from where it was burrowed in the crook of his neck and he fell silent again, completely forgetting that everyone was standing behind him.

Finally her hold on him loosened and he held her away from him slightly so that he could look assessingly into her eyes without the distraction of her close proximity and enticing smell. "What is it?" He asked gently, seeing how her eyes were guarded. She was shielding her emotions – even from him!

"I – I had some kind of…hallucination." She stuttered, her voice a little faint.

"Yes. Coriakin's just told us that we're all going to be tested by our deepest dreams, but that you were being tested by your deepest fear…" Lucy said, stepping forward worriedly. Whilst they all cared about Esha, they also desperately wanted to know what she'd experienced so that they could each prepare themselves mentally and be ready for when they were tested.

For a long moment Esha was silent. And then she gave a slow nod as she began to understand. "My…deepest…fears…" She said hesitantly, unable to string the three words together properly.

Edmund nodded earnestly at her and she closed her eyes as she suddenly understood. She nodded with more enthusiasm this time and gave a sudden smile.

"What did you see?" Caspian asked, unable to hide his curiosity any longer.

She immediately flushed and looked at the floor as she realised that she could not tell them. It was too private; too personal.

She could feel all of their tense eyes upon her and she shied away from the sudden pressure, able to look only Edmund in the eyes.

"We should not ask her." He suddenly said to the others, his gaze never wavering from Esha's. "It's not our place to know her deepest fears; that's why they're her deepest."

Esha felt overwhelming gratitude and love envelop her for Edmund and what he had just done.

After a long moment Drinian began to silently lead the way out of the room, his gaze clearly telling Caspian that it was time they all returned outside to the rest of the crew. As everyone began to file out of the room Edmund turned to follow, but Esha grabbed hold of his arms and held him securely too her as she stared into his eyes for a long moment.

He noticed with relief that the barriers in them had disappeared again and he smiled as she beamed radiantly at him. She pressed her lips to his in what was, in his opinion, far too fleeting a kiss to satisfy either of them. In retaliation, he kissed her for far longer; overjoyed to have her in his arms after a terrifying morning of thinking he may never even see her again.