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"Hell is other people

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"Hell is other people."
 - Jean-Paul Sartre




Narnia, 2557.

Olivia cleared her throat.

"We– we can reunite later. Let's get to safer grounds." Olivia commanded, pulling away from Jill and Eustace, leading the way as Tirian still looked from the pair to the Queen in confusion.

He offered his hand hesitantly. "Uh, hello, I'm Tirian, and I think I'm sorry for Olivia–" He said, looking at the girl over his shoulder. "But I don't know because, well, I don't know what just happened.

Jill laughed, and Eustace rolled his eyes. "This is Jill, and I'm Eustace. We–"

"Hurry up, you chatty marys!" Olivia called. "I'm not going to wait!"

Eustace shrugged, and they trailed after her, the girl looking at the horizon determinedly.

"South, to the rocks so we don't leave steps. Then we follow to the river and get rid of our scent so Shift's army cannot track us down." Olivia murmured. "Keep going, find shelter."

And she went on, not waiting to see if they would follow or if any of them had any kind of information to add to her escape logic. Eustace weirded that behaviour. From what he could remember in The Dawn Treader, Olivia was a person who made plans with people, not on her own. She was the type of leader who moved with her people by her side, not with her in front.

Jill looked at him with concern, but he urged her on silently, letting the uncomfortable air stay. They adjusted the bags over their shoulders and kept going.

How exactly did you talk to your cousin's wife, who you thought was dead but is actually very alive but in a magical world entirely different? Yeah, 'don't think you got an answer to that.

He watched his cousin suffer for months– he still was suffering. Eustace watched as Edmund grew into a bubble of self-pity, depression, sadness, grief. He had never watched something so horrible.

And Olivia? Olivia was here, in Narnia, playing Queen, and she seemed pretty okay. He shouldn't have been bothered by it, but wasn't Olivia supposed to feel... something? She looked pretty numb.

They walked for an entire hour, thoughts of Edmund and Olivia invading his mind as he tried to rationalise something about this (God, he sounded like Susan). But there was nothing rational about this situation.

Tirian climbed a tree, checking the surroundings. "Coast is clear," He called, jumping down the tree with ease like he used to climb tall trees with few branches daily. Eustace tried to keep his chin from falling. "We're out of danger, but we need to keep moving if we want to find refuge by sundown."

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