[ LETICIA SALLES & 124 & CISFEMALE & SHE/HER ] aslan’s mane, is that AÇUCENA of NARNIA? i overheard people talking about them; they say that they’re a DRYAD and that they’re an HAWKER AND DELIVERY AND SPY. did you know that they’re ATTENTIVE but when their RELUCTANT side rears its head things can get ugly? people who have run into them say that they remind them of BRIGHT WHITE BLOSSOMS GROWING OVER DARK BUDS & ALWAYS OVERSTRETCHING FOR WARMTH, but i wonder if we’ll see if there’s more to them than previously thought?
name : açucena.
meaning : white flower, purity. another name for the flower amaryllis.
nickname (s) : açu, çuçu, tica ( from jabuticaba, the fruit her tree grows ).
species : dryad ( jabuticaba tree ).
age : 124 ( appears to be in her early to mid 20s on her humanoid form ).
occupation : hawker & delivery to home hearth. açucena sells both her own fruits and flowers but also goods from home hearth, including vesta’s famous drinks. think of her as a sort of postmates from narnia — if you can’t leave work or is just too lazy to go to town, you may get some of vesta’s best just by calling açucena. she is also one of the many spies of king edmund, focusing on intel from outside the palace’s doors.
THEN
açucena’s tree was only nine years old when the age of winter fell over narnia — she had not yet flowered nor given fruit, and felt horrible for being trapped in winter.
as a young nymph who knew not much, and certainly not evil and deceit, she was enticed by the white witch’s ‘generosity’ to her ‘friends’. and so, she became one of her spies, telling on any suspicious whispers she heard. that caused quite a few arrests, and, soon enough, açucena realized that the guilt that came with those easily trampled over any little gain she did get from the witch ( which was barely nothing but a light warmer breeze, not enough for her tree to even be rid of its snowy soil ).
for over fifty years, then, she was trapped on this role, fearful of what would happen if she said no or stopped giving intelligence to jadis altogether; so she fed her small mindless things, hoping any info would not be enough to hurt anyone else. she was not entirely successful in this, and it is likely that there are a few non - humans who would remember her or fell victim from her intelligence.
once the pevensies came to narnia, she tried to whisper word of them to loyalists, but also remained by her tree, fearful the witch would lash out and cut it out ( thus, killing her ). thankfully, that did not happen, and despite the shame, she attended the coronation, but remained too self - aware to become an attendant on the palace, not wishing to stumble upon those she has wronged.
NOW
instead, she was taken under the wing of vesta. for around five years, she worked with the goddess on home hearth, helping around on the kitchen, serving patrons and tidying up rooms as best as she knew how to. though she no longer works in the tavern, she still stops by daily to pick up food and drink she takes around town to sell for vesta, along with some fruits she picks herself, both from her tree and from a few friends’ who allow her to.
around seven years ago or so, when king edmund first began collecting his spies, she was picked as one of them. she had known of him from the witch all those years ago, but now he was grown, and, much as herself, invested to be nothing of what he had been, in a moment of weakness. they bonded in ways she did not fully understand — ignorant of the human ways around love and relationships — and though that has somewhat faded, as he is a man of duty, she remains in his service, being his ears around town.
it is very likely to find her either around town, usually with a bag or with a bowl of snacks and delicacies by her hip, or by vesta’s home hearth.
PERSONALITY
due to the repercussions of her involvement with the white witch, açucena tries to be more aware and cautious of people’s intentions, though it is fair to say she has not harden as much as she should — still, trying means a lot for her, and, after so many years trapped in the winter age, she refuses to be rooted ( hehe ) and likes to get to know new people and new things ( and there are so many new things when you’re not entirely familiar to the way of humans [ and other not nymphs ] ).. the summer festival can be a bit overwhelming, but she is as ever solicitous and nosy curious, and, with the influx of foreigners, will be on the look out for anything that may be worthy to be told to her sovereign to make sure narnia is safe.
CONNECTIONS
those her time as a spy to the white witch caused harm to
acquaitances, friends, crushes etc
customers both to her door to door business but also regulars to home hearth
someone whose secrets she has discovered ( and has or not told on to king edmund )
𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 : the town square during daytime on the day of the great feast
𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 : @kingmund
the preparations for the spring feast had been at full strength for days, and on the day of the feast it could be no different. while most of the usual passerbys of the town would not attend the feast in the palace, they would never allow themselves to be dreary and bored again, no — the streets of sperover were already all ready, with ribbons and blossoms of all colors all over, with the square serving as a center for the amusement. with the sun still up in the sky, the spot designed for a big fire later in the evening had not still been lit, but it was a place of gathering nevertheless, bringing fauns and nymphs to its surroundings to “rehearse” the singing and dancing for the evening.
few were able to escape from being drawn by the merriment — if not enchanted by the melodies, then literally dragged to the dance floor, as was the case with açucena. her bags were laid safely by a musician’s feet as she danced once, then twice, and then thrice with a chattering dryad with whom she could not help but to smile at as he sang along to the tune with the most grating voice she had ever heard. his yelp is even louder as she accidentally steps on his feet, momentarily distracted by the sight of a familiar frame that stepped down the road to the square.
offering a grimace and a quick apology, she squirms away from the dryad’s hold, refusing to be held and dragged by someone else. no, she was the one who would pull someone in now. “edmund!” mayhaps elsewhere she ought to refer to him for his high title, your grace, your highness, but titles have now for years felt so very awkward on her tongue when it comes to him. “you need to stop running away just before i call you to dance.” her cheeks are flushed, and the smile is great on her face as she plants her bare feet soles on the warm ground; there is very little reverence as she places her arms around his, pulling him close. touching, for nymphs, came with ease — easier for her, with him.
“i know you’d like so, but you can’t run away forever.”
𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄, 𝐈𝐓 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐃 like astoria hadn’t heard the other’s words or felt their presence, but her senses hadn’t failed her. it was just that forcing her head to move to look in the other’s direction was difficult, almost as though the lapping waves at the shore had demanded her presence with a magic stronger than even her own. astoria’s eyes found the other’s after a long pause, and oh, how strange the moment must have seemed: a sudden hush befell the space between the two, and even the sound of the ocean grew quiet as astoria’s gaze took the other in. but just as the mood around them shifted, just as the scenery quieted, it all came back in a roar of sound when astoria’s gaze moved back to the ocean.
it took her a few long seconds to finally respond, but when she did it felt wrong; like something in her was telling her not to talk, like that deep magic which lingered inside of her was pulling her down, down, down. “ no, ” she responded quietly, lacking in the pleasantries she would have usually thanked the other with for asking in any other situation, “ i’m not hungry. ” but such small movements made it easy to do other things, too, like feel the true extent of the cold around them. an involuntary shiver shook astoria’s shoulders and she exhaled a shallow breath, wrapping her arms around her. “ perhaps i am cold, though. ” aslan only knows how sick she would get if she stayed out here any longer, but this place… sitting here was the most tranquil she had felt in a long time. or was that numbness? she wasn’t sure she could tell the difference.
forcing a deep breath, astoria tucked a loose tendril of hair behind her ear. just like that, she was less still, less animated, and finally more human than statue. had a human ever been so still before? it was as though she had broken free of some sort of invisible cage. “ the water, ” astoria spoke almost dreamily, gesturing towards the sea with a small nod of her head. “ is it always so mesmerizing? ” was this some form of narnian—perhaps naiad or mermaid?—magic, she should have asked, because that was what she meant… or was she truly so miserable that she did not have the energy to move and was afraid to admit to it?
for a moment, açucena wonders if this girl was actually a human, or one of the mermaids from the king of the seas’ court — she had heard his wife was in attendance, so she may as well have brought some of her own — for no human would be so enchanted by the sea, but despite the alluring beauty the girl possessed, her mere tendance to chilliness suggested otherwise. raising her eyebrows, the dryad directs her gaze to the small barrell she carried as a sling bag instead of the girl; vesta’s signature drink was best consumed within home hearth, but açucena had received the enchanted barrel that assured its warmth for the course of the day. looking from the barrel to the girl, she measures the cons of offering the princess a drink — surely there would be no harm in a little drink, right? she looked old enough, in human years.
“i do not know,” açucena simply replies, taking a goblet from a bag, and removing the cork from the barrel so she may pour the golden drink on the cup; she makes sure not to pour too much, as the blonde already looked detached as it was, and açucena would not want to make it much worse by adding a lot of alcohol to the stupor. “narnia does have the most beautiful sea view in the known world besides the silver sea, or so i’ve been told.” it would be almost not narnian to say otherwise, even if açucena had not crossed narnian borders — but truly, she did not much like the seaside, not as much as the great river ( how happy she had been to see it thaw! ), whose surroundings her tree remained. “but i have never seen a human so hypnotized as yourself for it, not without the influence of a mermaid. have you heard any songs before sitting down?” mermaids could be tricky, but they also enjoyed being seen, and since she could see no one else, this may not be the case.
regardless, the nymph crouches down, allowing her bags to gently touch the sand as she puts herself in similar eye level to the princess’, before finally offering her the goblet. “i have no clothing to shelter you from the chill, but this may help. have a sip!”
𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 : the beach
𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐃 : two days after the feast
𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 : open to all [ capping at 2 ]
𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 carrying a secret as dark as her own weighed heavily upon astoria’s soul. even upon her arrival to narnia, the princess could feel a darkened mood creeping in merely in anticipation of the game she would have to play; all she could think of were the smiling faces she would have to make, the emotionless void she would have to try to maintain, and the laughter and dancing she would miss out on for fear of simply having too much fun. being in narnia was bittersweet: the country itself promised glee, but it was a glee that was forbidden for her. what would happen if her secret was found out due to an emotion fueled mistake?
the princess sucks in a deep breath as the waves crash gently to the shore in front of her. she’s not sure how long she’s been sitting on the sand for but she hasn’t grown tired of the fresh, salty air just yet; she doesn’t think she ever will. the waves cast a sense of calm numbness over her cloud of gloom, and the distant sound of gulls and the soft whispering of the sea is perhaps the only thing keeping actual rainclouds away. but as the sun begins to lower in the sky the air has grown strangely cold, and astoria might notice it if not for the feeling of dissociation that overcomes her now. with her slender fingers perched on her knees and her toes dug into the sand, her hair gently tickles her neck in the wind. in that moment, astoria doesn’t feel completely and utterly alone… but being so is what she fears, and that fear seems to be eating her alive.
açucena liked to believe of herself as wiser, as someone who had been proved as cleverer and wary enough not to be fooled, but reality often begs to differ — it is all too clear, so much so she refuses to believe she has been scammed by a sailor who had conveniently ran out of coin. while vesta would never, in no way, note down her loss and make her pay it back, açucena feels the need to chase him enough so she can have evidence she had not been so foolish, nor that such maliciousness had crawled into narnia again.
despite her attempts to locate him by sight and by an unfamiliar whisper against her dark locks, she fails to find the man by all corners of the town, and once she steps on the cold sand, it seems there is no human soul who would endure the falling of the night upon the ground when there was much warmer places to spend the night at, away from the sea air and the mischievous naiads and mermaids seeking for an easy target to play with ( and it was all too easy for playtime to become rougher with them, açucena knew it first hand, and did not think humans would be able to endure it ). yet, as she makes her way across the expansion of the sand, she does find a human: not a man, but a woman with hair so fair she is certain she would have remembered them if they had met before.
a weird sight the stranger makes, and that is enough to draw açucena in, brows gently furrowed as she approaches them with quiet steps. “are you not cold?” she can not bite her tongue fast enough, and the wondering comes out earlier than she would like. she perhaps lack in tact to notice the sadness that surrounds the princess, but her intentions are good enough ( and her curiosity so great ) that she continues to muse on. “would you like something to eat? seems like you could use it if you don’t want to...get sick?” a bit of an odd concept, but humans were more likely to fall to bed when confronted by the harshness of the elements than trees, so she had heard.
