I JUST LOVE YOUR WRITING OKAY. "there was once an usurpator-king, and with his iron stained hands, he’d slain a witch, mercilessly. there was once a statue-queen, and she’d lain in all the land’s arms, so heavy her jewellery that she could scarcely bear it. there was once a beast-king, with teeth as sharp as knives, his back a map of all the battles he’d won. there was once a fae-queen, her laughter a shriek of mockery, dancing barefoot with all the things that rob infants from their cradles."
ahhhhh i love this one! fghdfjghgdjg i worked on that particular part of Dearest Uncle, a Letter To All the Dead Things for literal hours because I wanted to get it right. When I wrote this piece, I was particularly interested in how history can warp our perception of things by describing the same things with differently coloured language and deliberately leaving things out. Rewritten from Old Narnia’s point of view, this paragraph would be something like this:
“There was once a magnificent king, and with his child hands, he’d slain a witch, heaving. There was once a gentle queen, and she’d smile and dance with each of us, jewellery adorned and gleaming like the sun. There was once a just king, with a tongue as silver as his crown, his back a map of all that he’d survived. There was once a valiant queen, and she was more Narnian than she was human, laughing and dancing barefoot with the dryads and all her love.“