#ARCHENLANDBOUND : private & selective mutuals only JACQUETTA MAY-RIORDAN of the chronicles of narnia series. original character that is crossover / au friendly. written by anna, 30+, she/her. est. 2009. muns who are under the age of 18 do not follow or interact!!!!
please note that this blog uses the beta editor
a study in : survivor’s guilt, questioning the meaning of life, loss of self, broken faith, overcoming fear, good is not dumb, fighting to survive, female rage, petals that wither, & being the anti-hero
Swanwhite would be the next queen and her children, when she had them, would be the next princes or princesses.
She did not know what to say.
Arlise had spoken it plainly — she would not take the crown again, nor would the children who yet lived suffer its weight upon their brows. Not after all that had befallen them. After the blood that had been spilled within the halls of Cair Paravel, after the desperate flight from Narnia, after the long road that had led them first to Archenland and at last into the shelter of Telmar. There had been too many graves since that day — some marked, some lost to the sea, and some that would never be found at all.
Jacquetta herself had lost kin of her own blood, and others besides whom she had loved no less dearly. She remembered the smoke rising over the towers, the cries in the night, the ships that fled in haste… and the ones that never reached the far shore. She remembered the news that had come upon the waves like a cruel tide, telling of those taken by the deep before they could ever find safety.
No — she could not blame her sister for turning from the throne. She could not blame any of them. Some sorrows could never sit easily beneath a crown.
And yet… she had always believed Rayne would return to it.
Rayne, who had ever been the steadiest among them. Rayne, whose strength had held fast when the rest of them faltered. In Jacquetta’s heart she had long thought that, in time, the crown of Narnia would find its way back to her, and that her children would stand as its rightful heirs, as though the world might one day be set in its proper order again.
For herself, she desired none of it. She would sooner never walk the courts of Cair Paravel again, for its stones were haunted to her now, and every memory there was edged with loss. Rank and title had long since lost their comfort. Peace, such as she had found, had been given to her far from thrones.
The house of Naerion had welcomed them without question, gathering her twin once more into their keeping. And because they loved Arlise, they had shown that same kindness to Jacquetta. In Telmar she had found as much contentment as she believed her heart would ever be granted, and she had not thought to cross the borders of Narnia again.
Still, the news struck her with quiet force.
“Swanwhite…” The name left her lips in a breath, faltering as though it carried more weight than she had expected.
“I… I had always thought…” She lowered her gaze, giving a small, uncertain shake of her head. “Forgive me. I believed you would take the crown again.”
Her voice softened, touched with weary understanding.
“I do not blame you. In truth… I have no wish to see Narnia again myself.”
She lifted her eyes once more, meeting Rayne’s gaze — not as a subject before her High Queen, but as one who had endured the same bitter year.
“Swanwhite has proven herself worthy of it. She rode to war when none of us could bear to return, and she has done what we no longer had the strength to do. May Aslan grant her a gentler reign than the one our family was made to endure.”
All sentences are taken from different books from Phillipa Gregory, specially her series about the historical fiction setting of the war of roses and the tudors era. Change names, locations, pronouns and nouns as you see fit for your own liking. Some of these have slight foul language or involve insuation of sexual situations. Please beware. This is part one.
You can smile when your heart is breaking because you're a woman.
If it means something, take it to heart. If it means nothing, it's nothing. Let it go.
I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't do anything but think about him.
At night I dream of him, all day I wait to see him, and when I do see him my heart turns over and I think I will faint with desire.
A man will always promise to do more than he can do to a woman he cannot understand.
I would know you anywhere for my true love.
Whoever I was and whoever you were, I would know you at once for my true love.
When a woman thinks her husband is a fool, her marriage is over.
The world hasn't changed that much; men still rule.
If you go on flirting with the king with those sickly little smiles, one of us Boleyns is going to scratch your eyes out
What a pair we shall be! What man can resist us?
You have to choose the best, every day, without compromise...guided by your own virtue and highest ambition.
I never thought it would end like this. I never thought he would leave me without saying goodbye.
But I don't forget and I don't forgive.
A woman has to change her nature if she is to be a wife.
To be a good wife is to be a woman with a will of iron that you yourself have forged into a bridle to curb your own abilities.
But I am above these judgments, I am a Queen.
Anyone can attract a man. The trick is to keep him.
I was born to be your rival.
Know your rights.
When they see us dance. When they see how you look at me. When they see how I smile at you.
I have learned the power of surviving.
I was a woman who was capable of passion and who had a great need and a great desire for love.
Good god what men can do to their brains when their cocks are hard.
They are a house which has to have blood, and they will shed their own if they have no other enemy.
I want to take you for pleasure, and hold you in my arms for desire.
I want you to know that it is your kiss that I want, not another heir to the throne.
You can know that I love you, quite for yourself, when I come to your bed, and not as the York’s broodmare.
You think to bed me for love and not for children? Isn’t that sin?
I shall make sure that it feels richly sinful.
Some women attract desire. Others do not.
Every woman has to have something which singles her out, which catches the eyes, which makes her the center of attention.
If it has to be done at all, it must be done with grace.
She was speaking out for the women of the country, for the good wives who should not be put aside just because their husbands had taken a fancy to another.
Because all books are forbidden when a country turns to terror.
You can smile when your heart is breaking because you are a woman, and a courtier.
War does not answer war, war does not finish war. The only ending is peace.
To save my son, I would plot with the devil himself.
Yes, but either way, shamed or not, I shall be Queen of England, and this is the last time you will sit in my presence.
I am not a yard of ribbon. I am not a leg of ham. I am not for sale to anyone.
We have to be more royal than royalty itself or nobody will believe us.
I betrayed as a daughter will betray her mother and yet, never stop loving her.
I am an object of beauty. He has never loved me as a woman.
When a man wants a mystery, it is generally better to leave him mystified. Nobody loves a clever woman.
I wanted the heat and the sweat and the passion of a man that I could love and trust.
And I wanted to give myself to him: not for advantage, but for desire.
I am a fool to own it, but I am in a fever for his touch.
It is luck to love someone who is free to love you in return.
Just decide that you are not going to be a fearful woman and when you come to something that makes you apprehensive, you face it and walk towards it
This was my destiny: to put my son on the throne of England.
This is a woman whose belly is filled with pride.
She has been eating nothing but her own ambition for nearly thirty years.
Plainly, she is quite besotted by him,... a girl, a young girl, and she is falling in love for the first time in her life.
And – I think you know, don’t you? – that I love you, Anne.
And you are the sort of mistress a man doesn't bother to marry. Sons or no sons.
You don't need to struggle, your baby is coming.
You give birth, you don't force birth or besiege it. It's not a battle, it's an act of love. You give birth to your child and you can do it gently.
But young hearts mend easily.
Either you have me or not at all. Either you love me or not at all. Either I am all yours or I am nobody’s. I will have no half-measures with you.
Men die in battle; women die in childbirth.
shall put a curse on their house that they will have no first born son to inherit.
Have you ever wondered, Anne, in your untiring dance of seduction, whether you might not be dancing to Henry's tune instead of your own?
I am a Queen. It is natural that men are going to gather round me, hoping for a smile.
My honour and my pride are in my heart, and not in what the world says.
He is fragile, like a prince of ice, of glass.
But I warn you that a woman who seeks great power and wealth has to pay a great price.
Every woman is a mad ugly bad old witch somewhere in her heart.
My own mother told my lady governess that if the baby and I were in danger then they should save the baby.
She has a smile that grows slowly and then shines, like an angel’s smile.
Jane would be the next queen and her children, when she had them, would be the next princes or princesses.
I am mad for you.
You're not cursed daughter, you are the finest and rarest of all my children, the most beautiful, the most beloved.
One’s lover is one’s partner in observing and understanding the world.
Marriage is a place where joint narratives are composed. If the lover is a liar then all your joint observations are unreliable.
If it was not in your interests to betray me then you would have been loyal.
I am marrying the finest man I have ever known.
You can have my glove, my favour.
Nobody gets to be Queen of England by being loveable. You will have to play your cards right.
Thomas More once told me: lion or king, never show fear or you are a dead man.
When I marry you, everything I have becomes yours.
Status: closed except for @archenlandbound
Location: High School Cafeteria
Date: December 2012
Percy's first day back to school since he got out of the hospital was rough. He hadn't really done anything all day and yet he was exhausted by lunchtime. He felt like he should have expected it though. He felt so tired all the time.
Forgoing any actual food, he instead sank down at a corner table and buried his face in his arms. Maybe he'd be able to sleep through the lunch period. Maybe he'd be lucky and he just wouldn't wake up. Of course, luck really had not been on his side. Still, he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.
He could hear the other kids moving around; whispering...about him probably. Turned out, being the class drug addict made you way more of a pariah than being the dead mom kid ever could. That was the rumor that had spread around school; that he's been out because he had an overdose of hard drugs. He supposed it wasn't necessarily a rumor. He had suffered an overdose, just not on fentanyl or whatever other party drug his classmates thought he was on.
He didn't mind being a pariah though. It wasn't like he wanted to talk to anyone anyway. What would he even say? Yeah, my life is in shambles and I wish I was dead, but don't worry, I'll still take this algebra test. The whole thing was ridiculous. The worst part was, he didn't even get to go home after school. No, he had to go see the shrink; to talk about how school went and if he was still managing his withdrawals.
He heard someone sit down across from him and peeked to see who it was. What in the world? He fully lifted his head and made eye contact with...Jacquetta? What was she doing here? She didn't even like him—at least he was pretty sure that she didn't like him. It was hard to tell with her.
"Um....hi?" He said, absent-mindedly rubbing at his wrist. The bruises from Alysa holding him down were finally starting to heal. "Can—do you need something, Jacqui?" Did Jacquetta want to talk to him? She never wanted to talk to him. What could she possibly want?
Jacquetta had heard about Percy’s incident long before the school did. Pippa had told her—of course she had—and unlike the rest of the student body, Jacquetta knew the truth. The actual truth, not the half-rotten rumor that had already begun to fester in the hallways.
She wasn’t pleased about it. Not in the slightest.
Still… there was an irritating, unwelcome tug of sympathy she couldn’t quite shake. She wanted to have a soft spot for Percy. Truly, she did. But he made it so damn difficult. The boy had a remarkable talent for being a bonehead, and every time she thought he’d reached the limit of his self-destructive streak, he somehow found a way to surpass it.
She was halfway across the cafeteria, weaving toward her usual table, when she caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye—the familiar fall of dark hair, hunched shoulders, no tray in sight. Alone. Of course he was.
Before she could talk herself out of it, her feet changed course on their own. Jacquetta scowled faintly at herself but didn’t stop. She decided—perhaps generously—that she’d take it as a sign. Maybe her instincts knew something her pride hadn’t yet conceded. Either way, she wasn’t about to back out now.
She pulled out the chair across from him and dropped into it with far more confidence than she actually felt, folding one leg over the other as if this had been her plan all along.
She let him talk. Let him ramble, fidget, do that thing he did when he was clearly bracing for rejection. Jacquetta watched him carefully the whole time, her gaze sharp but not unkind. When he finally trailed off, she inhaled slowly, choosing her words with deliberate care—polite, measured, but no less pointed for it.
“Percy.” She lifted a brow, her eyes flicking pointedly down to his wrist before returning to his face. “I cannot believe you let that woman do this to you.”
The emphasis was intentional. Alysa was a grown woman. Percy was still a teenager. Jacquetta wasn’t about to blur that line for his comfort.
“You know,” she continued, her tone firm rather than cruel, “if you’d walked away the first time she cornered you at that party, you would’ve saved yourself a hell of a lot of trouble.” A brief pause, then a huff of breath through her nose. “And maybe you’d finally stop pining after my sister from a distance like it’s some tragic hobby.”
Her expression shifted then—still sharp, but more serious. She actually looked at him, really looked at him, taking in the exhaustion etched into his face, the way he carried himself like everything already hurt too much.
“The sooner you and Arlise stop pretending you aren’t completely, painfully in love with each other,” Jacquetta said quietly, “the better off everyone around you will be.”
Genie gave her a small smile. "I think she'd like that. She doesn't even want to bake any this year." She looked down at the floor. "I'm not supposed to say but Mama and Father have been fighting again...over having another baby." She blinked back the tears and shook her head. "But we should get started if we want to make any before I have to leave." She put on her best smile, the one she used at school when the teacher asked how she was.
Jacquetta saw the tears her friend was trying to keep from falling. Without thinking, she threw her arms over her friends shoulders and hugged her close. After all, it was what she did was Arlise, and what her own mother did for her when she cried. "I'm sorry, Genie. We didn't mean to upset you." She took small steps towards the kitchen, steering Genie alongside with her. "I don't think I ever want to have children growing up. The thought of being pregnant does scare me so. I wouldn't not blame your mother for not wanting another one."
Genie allowed herself to be manhandled by the twins. She always liked spending time with the Riordan girls. Besides being the closest girls in age to her in the village, Genie also often felt like this is what her home would be like...if Madeleine hadn't died...if Niall and Claude had lived. Sometimes, especially on days like today, her house felt more like a tomb than a home. She couldn't blame Mama for being sad that three of her babies died. She just wished that Mama would remember that Genie was the baby who stayed. Who put up with Father.
She shook herself, as if to shake off the bad thoughts. That didn't matter right now. For one blessed afternoon, she would get to be a normal kid, playing with her friends. "Mama says I can only stay until dark." She said, looking at Jacquetta
"I understand." Jacquetta frowned slightly. The twins had already gotten a stern talking to about what not to expect, and one of those things was expecting to get to play all night long. No after dark all hallows eve treats for the girls with their friends - at least not at their own home. "My mama said as much to us." Jacquetta exchanged a knowing glance with her twin that said far more than others could ever understand. "But just you being here - it's swell fun! Thank you so much for coming to play with us, and bake soul cakes with us! No one ever comes over. It's like a birthday treat! Except... it's not our birthday of course."
STATUS: closed except for @thegracioustm and @archenlandbound
LOCATION: Dancing Lawn, Narnia
DATE: October 31, 0997
Eugenie fidgeted as Mama adjusted the clip on her wool cloak. They were stood outside the gate of the little cemetery, after finishing visiting the babies. Mama liked to leave flowers for their little souls, specially grown in her greenhouse. The infernal eternal winter would not deter Mama's need for fresh flowers. She could see the Riordan house from where they stood. "Please, Mama?" She asked again. Mrs. Riordan had invited her over to bake soul cakes, and Mama seemed hesitant to let her go. Mama never wanted to let her go to the Riordan house.
Mama sighed. "Genie, I don't know."
"She said Mr. Riordan is away. It'll just be us girls. Please, please, please?" Genie begged, bouncing on the spot.
Mama sighed again. "I suppose you can."
"YES!" Genie started to turn towards the road, but Mama grabbed her arm.
"Hang on! I will be back to get you by dark. And if Mr. Riordan comes home-"
"I'll come home." Genie said dutifully. Mama did not like Mr. Riordan one bit.
"Alright. You may go." Mama straightened up.
"Thank you!" Genie raced down the road and up onto the Riordan's front porch where she knocked on the door.
For the first time in years, Jacquetta's father was away during the season. Mama was always in much more of a festive mood, and generally happier, when her father was away from home - especially for extended periods of time. Rarely were the girls allowed to have company over - and even more rarely did their friends ever step foot inside their home. But almost always, the girls were welcomed in the homes of others.
"Mama, please -" Jacquetta had tugged and begged her mother to invite Genie over. "Just this once. Just ask her. Even if she's not allowed - but what if she is!?"
For days, Jacquetta and her twin had not let it go. Just the possibility of having a friend over was thrilling. "Father is home. He's not due back for days. Please? For soul cakes?" She bashed her most innocent doe eyes up at her mother, her chin wobbling at the thought of her mother giving her a flat out no. Finally. Her mother had given in.
When she heard the knock at the door, Jacquetta and Arlise ran together at full speed towards the door and flung it open so hard it was shocking that it stayed on its hinges. "Genie! You came!" Filled with giddiness, Jacquetta and Arlise each grabbed a wrist from Genie and pulled her into their home.
one thing rayne had expected to take years yet to happen is for susan to appear in aslan's country - not a mere months. but she wasn't about to be upset when her beloved sister-in-law walked into saltwater court palace and announced her arrival to their eternal heaven. of course, it was heartbreaking that susan had died in her world at such a young age, but it felt good to have their family whole again, and it had felt amazing to hold susan in her arms and have the deep conversations they had been known for in their past.
therefore, susan's arrival had made their first annual celebration of yuletide in aslan's country that much more special. rayne's first days had been spent spending time with loved ones and new friends alike, before rayne had finally ventured out of saltwater court palace to partake in the many festivities - the first of which being the frost fair. rayne hauled up her children and off they went to have fun with their cousins.
during her lifetime, rayne had always enjoyed the frost fair, but had never played like the kids always would. but this year, it must have been something in the air, for all at once, rayne, susan, arlise, and jacquetta had the same thought - snowball fight! rayne's first throws had not landed their intended targets, but once she got back into the habit, she found it much easier for her aim to be successful. the playful jests from her sister-in-laws seemed a massive help in the matter as well, and rayne's next throw landed in target smack in the middle of the face - jacquetta.
susan was the last person they were waiting for to complete their family in aslan's country - and everyone expected to wait for quite some time before her arrival came. just now long, no one was sure, because it had been explained to jacquetta after she herself first arrived in aslan's country that time worked differently in the strange land called earth than it did in narnia. so imagine the surprise jacquetta had felt when she looked up on the first day of the yuletide festival in saltwater court palace and her eyes fell upon susan - someone jacquetta considered to be her extended family.
jacquetta had kept herself in the background of susan's life so far in aslan's country, letting her closer family members relish in her company first and foremost. but just a few days later, jacquetta agreed to accompany the family on a trip to the frost fair. while she had never had children herself, it was always a fun activity she had enjoyed doing with her nieces and nephews in narnia, and she was happy to see the fair back in action in aslan's country now that narnia had been destroyed.
perhaps her giddiness had become infectious for the others - because just as she bent down to sneakily form a snowball to whip at her twin sister, the others had done the same and suddenly snowballs were flying left and right, over her head. until one hit her smack dab in the face - thanks to rayne - and it thrilled her. her laughter rang out across the fair, and she happily whipped the snowball in her hand at susan. oh, how she had missed her philosophical friend. her heart soared seeing how happy susan was, and how happy she seemed to be with her family again. "i made that one just for you, su!" jacquetta giggled as she jumped to the side. "with special love, for your first year back with us!"
