"And what, pray tell, might you be?"

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean," she says politely.

"What are you? Are you a human?"

"Um, yes," she says. "Am I not supposed to be?"

"Is that how you address a queen?"

"It is when I'm confused and don't know that you're a queen," she says. "I'm sorry, your majesty, I didn't mean to be rude."

The queen snorts. "And how did you come to enter my domain?"

"That's one of the things I'm confused about," she says.

"Explain."

"Well, I was in an abandoned house and it was summer, and now I'm in a forest and it's winter," she says. "I didn't know that was a thing that could happen."

"I'm... a little chilly," she concedes. "But I'm okay. I wouldn't want to impose, with you being a queen and all. You probably have lots to do that's more important than me."

"Not at all. Come along now."

The queen wraps a corner of her fur around James and tips a bit of liquid into the snow; it turns into a chalice full of some steaming liquid, which the dwarf fetches up to Elizabeth with a bow.

"You're welcome, child. Were you lost before I found you?"

"A little," she says. "I know where I am and where I came from, but I don't really know where anything else is."

"And you have met no one but me here?"

"Well, there's him," she says, indicating the dwarf.

The queen laughs, not particularly genuinely. "And no one else?"

"A faun! What is the faun's name? How unkind of him to leave you all alone lost in the woods."

"I didn't ask," she murmurs. Technically true. "I was really surprised. They don't have fauns where I'm from, just humans. But I guess things are different in magic forests."

"Did you tell the faun that you are a human, too?"

"I think so. He asked me if I was a daughter of Eve and I didn't know what he meant. My mom's name was Samantha."

"Did you meet him near here?"

"I think so."

"How interesting. Back in your country full of humans do you have any brothers or sisters or little friends your own age, I wonder?"

"I know some kids my own age. Not a lot, because I live in a little town. I don't have any brothers or sisters."

"I would very much like to meet your friends. You could bring them all to my palace, and there would be feasting and dancing and such excitement over the Daughters of Eve and Sons of Adam."

"I'm sure they'd be very impressed by all that," she says. "I bet lots of kids would be excited to meet a real queen and go dancing in a real castle. It sounds amazing."

"I would imagine so! Will you invite them for me? I can tell you where my home is."

"Yes, please, your majesty," she says, carefully ambiguous.

"Look, that way, you can see two hills rising above the trees. My house is just between the two. You should bring your friends, as many as you can convince - it's no good coming alone, but if you bring a few other little girls and boys with you I shall make you a Princess and your friends can be dukes and duchesses. Would you like that?"

"Oh, I'd love to be a real Princess."

"Then you shall! If you will bring your friends to visit me. It can be lonely without any of my own children, you see."

"I understand," she says.

"Excellent. And you needn't tell them anything about me. It will be a lovely surprise for them."

"I don't think they'd believe me anyway, if I said I went to a magic forest and met a beautiful queen there," she says agreeably. "I'd have to say something else to get them to come."

"Clever girl. I will take you to the lamp-post and beyond it is the door to the land of Men." She snaps her fingers and the dwarf drives towards said lamp post.

"Thank you, your majesty!"

"Of course. What is your name, dear child?"

"What a lovely name. When you come back with your friends you must go straight to my palace, you know, and not talk to any seditious creatures you may encounter. There are all kinds of beasts in Narnia who might say anything to dissuade you from attending your party and try to send you on errands of their own instead."

"I'll remember," she promises.

"Good girl. You shall make a fine Princess."

"I'll do my best, your majesty!"

"I am sure." Jadis strokes Elizabeth's hair, and presently they are at the lamp-post. "Here you are. Hurry back."

"Thanks for everything!" she says, and scurries off.

Coats coats door.

"Hi," says Elizabeth. She gets off her bike. She glances around for other observers and sees none. She plops herself in front of Bella and opens her backpack.

"Snow," she says. "I have had a really weird day."

"Why do you have snow in your backpack in the middle of summer?"

"At this point I'm pretty sure the only remaining explanation is magic," she says. "Do you want the whole story?"

"Yes."

"...So you filled your backpack with snow to prove it."

"Yeah, I'm getting to that part. First I went and sat under a tree for a while to get a time comparison - and while I was there, this really tall scary-looking woman pulled up on a sled to ask me who I was and what I was doing there, and if I was human or not. With the heavy implication that she wasn't. And when I said yes, she smiled the creepiest smile of all time and invited me to come sit with her on her sled and have a hot drink. Which I didn't want to do, but I didn't like my chances if I tried to run away, so I went with it. And she asked me a bunch more questions - and the first time I tried to lie to her after the drink she gave me, when she asked if I'd seen anyone else there, instead of 'no' I ended up saying 'a faun'."

"No kidding. I got through the rest of the conversation without giving away anything else I didn't mean to, but it was hard. I don't even know if I still have the spell on - I could try lying to you or something, but I don't know the parameters, it could only prevent lying to her or only if I really mean to deceive somebody or only work in Narnia or something like that. Anyway, the next part's even creepier - she asked me if I had any human friends my age, and when I said I knew some other kids, she said I should make up some reason to get them all to follow me into the wardrobe and lead them all to her castle without telling them anything about her first, and when we got there she'd throw a big party and make me a princess and all my friends dukes and duchesses."

"Um."

"I know, right? So obviously that's the last thing in the world I'm going to do - but combining that with something Tumnus said, about the White Witch ruling until the thrones at Cair Paravel are filled - I think human children are a threat to her somehow. And I would really like to be a threat to her. I would like that a lot."

"It doesn't sound particularly safe to be a threat to her," Bella points out.

"Of course not. But - I feel responsible for Tumnus. He was going on about all the horrible things that would happen to him if the Queen found out he'd had me and let me go, and I got the sense he was the type to catastrophize but I'm not sure he was exaggerating that much. Whatever's going to happen to him has probably already happened by now, but I still want to go back and see if I can do something about the eternal winter and the creepy witch queen. And out of all the human children I know, you're the only one that I really think could handle going with me."

"I guess we probably want to - pack some things and leave notes for Charlie and Chris, though."

"Yeah. When I was just going in for a test, I told Chris where I was going and left a note outside the wardrobe, but this is going to take a little more planning."

"Yeah. But maybe we want to hurry, since time seems to go faster in there and it would be sad if they had to have a very much longer time of only winter. They'll start starving in there."

She nods. "If they've already had hundreds of years, I think they must've found some way to feed themselves, but it's not necessarily a very good one. Let's figure out everything we want to bring, figure out what we're saying to our respective grown-ups and how, and then pack up and go."

"I guess as long as they know we're going to that one house they can come find more complete explanations that we leave there. But how will we get there? I don't have a bike and if I did I couldn't really ride it."

"I bet I can get a ride out of Chris, actually."

"Are you going to tell her? Would she believe you if you went and showed her the snow before it melts?"

"I'm pretty sure she would. But it might decrease our chances of getting a ride if I tried to sell her on 'please take me and Bella to the abandoned house so we can rescue the magical land of Narnia from an evil witch queen', snow or no snow, instead of 'please take me and Bella to the abandoned house so I can indulge my morbid imagination with her for a couple hours'."

"Charlie wouldn't believe us. He'd think you got a - a snow-cone machine or something." Pause. "If you got a snow-cone machine or something this isn't funny at all."

"Real actual snow from a real actual magic forest, I swear."

"I would think people would notice if the back of their wardrobe led to a magic forest. Are you sure it always works?"

"The two times I've walked through it, it was a magic door, and the one time I just stuck my arm in it wasn't one. Maybe it only works if you climb in and most people don't climb into their wardrobes to check if there's a magic door in the back."

"That could do it I guess."

"Okay. So if all we're doing about the grown-ups is getting a ride from Chris, the remaining question is... what do we pack? It might be a bad idea to bring anything that's too big to hide away in a backpack, in case Chris asks questions, but if we think of something really useful I'd risk it."

"Notebooks for me. Food - enough to last a while if we're careful, especially since if we meet people who are hungry because of the winter we might want to share or trade with them. Maybe - flashlights? We can take coats from the wardrobe which is good because I don't have anything warmer than a raincoat."

"Yeah. And food that keeps, as much as we can, and doesn't need cooking or anything. Flashlights... yes, but the kind you shake or wind, if we can get them, not the kind that needs batteries. Batteries run out and I don't think Narnia has electricity."

"Granola bars, um, nuts, raisins, candy maybe, candy keeps... I have a flashlight you squeeze to charge."

"That works. Okay. Wanna scour your house for non-perishable snacks and then meet me at mine?"

"Yeah, will do."

"Okay. See you in a bit. If you find something you think might be useful, bring it if you can; we can always leave it at my place if we don't have room."

Bella nods and goes into her house.

Bella's there an hour later, her own backpack full up.

"Hi," she says when she opens the door. "I've got all the nonperishable food in the house and the one wind-up flashlight I found that worked. What have you got?"

"Notebooks and pens and my flashlight and a first-aid kit. Granola bars, chocolate chips and Skittles and crackers and a jar of peanut butter and a knife, and I made us sandwiches - they should keep until the next time we want to eat, in our backpacks in winter, even if they wouldn't last days. Box of matches. Water bottle, I could only find one though."

"Nice. I've been focused on the food; I can't go rooting around for useful objects so easily while Chris is working. I should clean us out of matches if I can find any, though. And I bet I can come up with some water bottles. There's probably room to throw a roll of duct tape in here on principle, even after all that..." She hefts her backpack, which is looking pretty full but still has room at the top - it's twice the size of the one she originally filled with snow.

"Ooh, duct tape's a good idea."

"I thought so! It's very - generally applicable. C'mon in. Any more room in yours?"

"A little but not enough that I took the can opener and tuna."

"Um - no."

"Not especially," she says, turning away from her desk.

"Great," says Elizabeth. "Wanna drive me and Bella to an old abandoned house outside of town so we can look for dead bodies that aren't there?"

"How can I refuse?" she snorts. "Certainly an improvement on looking for dead bodies that are there. Will you also be wanting a ride back at some point?"

"Yeah, come get us whenever you start worrying that we're out too late."

Bella heaves her backpack into the car with her, trying to look excited about a much less interesting adventure than "save Narnia from witch".

Chris doesn't appear to suspect anything.

How convenient.

"With any luck," Elizabeth agrees as she disembarks from the car.

Bella peers at the gap between the wardrobe and the wall.

It's a few inches wide, slightly cobwebbed, but still plenty clear enough to see light on the other side all the way up and down.

"Okay... let's see the place."

Bella wraps up warm, puts her backpack back on, and follows Elizabeth in.

"Yep," says Elizabeth. And more quietly: "Okay. I think the first thing we should probably do is see if we can find Tumnus's place, on the off chance that we're in time to warn him. By the way, I forgot to tell you earlier, but he mentioned that some of the trees might spy for the queen, so keep your voice down while discussing anything seditious."

"Okay," says Bella. "Lead the way."

The former occupant of these premises, the Faun Tumnus, is under arrest and awaiting trial on a charge of High Treason against her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the Lone Islands. Appeals and inquiries will be denied.

By the hand of her Majesty's most loyal servant – Eternal Winter

"Thoroughly seconded," says Elizabeth. "So much for Tumnus. I feel like it would be a bad idea to go in and look around, what do you think? The - the stagedness of all this," she waves at the torn-off door with its note and its snowflake, "makes me think of the kind of people who set nasty traps."

"Yeah. And it looks maybe recent, if this Eternal Winter person is nearby and forgot his wallet or something I don't want to be here."

"Same. Okay, let's go."

"I think so," she says, watching the robin curiously.

"Are we sure it's a nice robin?" wonders Bella, although she follows too as the robin flutters tree to tree.

"Applying fairy tale logic to the situation, yes - because robins are spring birds, and have generally positive connotations. Applying normal logic to the situation, I have no idea but I still want to find out where the robin is leading us."

That's fine by Elizabeth. It's not like they have any better ideas about where to go, Tumnus's house having proved unsafe.

Elizabeth looks around.

"...That is a beaver," murmurs Elizabeth. But she nods to the beaver, indicating receipt of the message.

Elizabeth likewise follows.

"As far as I can tell, yes we are," murmurs Elizabeth.

"...I think I believe you," says Elizabeth. (She wouldn't have believed a physical token anyway, but sees no need to get into that.)

"It's hard to explain. I just - I get a sense of people, and the sense I get of this beaver is that he's okay."

"Sounds good," says Elizabeth. "Lead the way."

"Very cozy," says Elizabeth.

Elizabeth follows behind Bella, prepared to catch her in case of accident.

It's interesting, that's for sure. As is Mrs. Beaver and her sewing machine. Elizabeth looks curiously at what she was working on.

"I see," murmurs Elizabeth. "It's a good thing there is one, then - is there just one, or are there more? How are the visits arranged?"

"I think they do Christmas differently here," says Elizabeth. "At home people give each other presents, things we buy or make, but it sounds like the Last Present came from somewhere."

"Yes," says Elizabeth. "They call him Father Christmas in another country nearish ours, but in ours we call him Santa Claus, and nobody's ever really seen him that I know of. It seems like Narnia has a lot of things that we only knew as stories before we came here."

"So... what are we supposed to do, exactly? To bring Father Christmas back and end the winter and all that?"

Elizabeth doesn't react so visibly, but she observes that the name seems to be doing the same thing to Bella that it is to her, although she suspects the details might be different.

"Does that mean all we have to do is wait for Aslan to fix it? I have a feeling it doesn't," says Elizabeth.

"Seems... appropriate, somehow," muses Elizabeth. "Who's this assassin you keep talking about?"

Mr. Beaver looks nervously out the winter again, then lowers his voice and says, "He calls himself Eternal Winter."

"Terribly. Some people are more afraid of him than they are of her," shudders Mrs. Beaver.

"I can see how they might be."

"Well, I think we're going to have to make do with two, unless more people start showing up from who knows where," says Elizabeth.

"Sounds like a plan," says Elizabeth. "Is there anything else to do before we leave?"

Elizabeth nods along to this explanation. It seems wise as far as she can tell.

This seems reasonable. Elizabeth curls up and goes to sleep.

Elizabeth decides to take his word for it. Out she comes.

Bella follows, and so does Mrs. Beaver.

"I am," he agrees. "And now for your presents. There is a new and better sewing machine for you, Mrs. Beaver. I will leave it in your house as I pass."

"If you please, sir," says Mrs. Beaver, curtseying, "it's been locked up."

"Locks and bolts make no difference to me," says Father Christmas. "And as for you, Mr. Beaver, when you get home you will find your dam finished and mended and all the leaks stopped and a new sluice-gate fitted."

Mr. Beaver is quite speechless with delight, mouth open very wide.

"Son of Eve," says Father Christmas, addressing Elizabeth.

Slightly confused, she says, "Yes?"

"These are your presents," he says, handing her a sword and a shield. "The time to use them may be very near at hand. Bear them well, and let them guide you when you have need of guidance."

She accepts her presents with a thoughtful look. The shield is bright silver, bearing the device of a red lion; the sword has a golden hilt with the pommel shaped like a lion's head.

He turns to the other human present. "Bella, Eve's Daughter."

"Yes?"

Bella nods, pocketing the vial and taking hold of the staff at once. "Thank you. Thank you very much."

"And now," he says, "a little something for all of you—" and he produces a silver tray bearing four teacups and a large steaming teapot, with milk and cream and lumps of sugar all set out next to it. He sets it down in the snow, climbs back into his sledge, and cries "Merry Christmas!" as his reindeer pull him smoothly away.

"That was definitely something," says Elizabeth. She finds that she can wear the sword and shield comfortably on her back if she adjusts the sword-belt just so, and for ease of sitting down to tea, she does just that.

Bella is now testing out the features of her scepter. It does indeed light up - a bit too dramatically; she darkens it again at once. She cups her hand around the crystal at its top and whispers into it, clear in Elizabeth's ear: "Can you hear me, testing one two three, why'd he call you a Son, do you know?"

"Crystal clear," she murmurs back with equal clarity, although her voice is too quiet to carry across the few feet between them. "I'm - not sure. I have the feeling that I know but not the actual knowledge."

"Huh." Bella props her scepter in her lap, pats her pocket to make sure the cordial is safe there, and sets about sugaring a cup of tea for herself. "Well, I approve very much of Father Christmas, I wonder why he doesn't come around like that on Earth?"

"Maybe Earth just can't support that much magic."

"Maybe. It is definitely magical here. I hope the presents will still work when we go back."

"I hope so too. Even though mine won't really be that useful."

"I'm going to guess my part in it will involve fighting," says Elizabeth. "And I'm sure the sword and shield will be useful for that. I just don't think they'd do me much good at home."

"Well, you could fence, but practical use I guess not. I'd soon run out of cordial if I tried to do much with it at home, too. I love my scepter though, I can probably run with this if I want to."

"See? Now that's practical for every occasion."

"Mm-hm! And the phone thing, although at home there's - you know - phones."

"And flashlights."

"Here we have flashlights. We brought them. I guess the scepter's more convenient, but maybe it's good for other things too." Tea yum yum.

"Yeah," says Elizabeth. "I wonder what to do with the tray and things?"

"We can tuck them into the hideaway and maybe they will be useful to some other beaver someday," says Mrs. Beaver, and she sets about briskly doing that, and then they move on, Bella able to go quite a bit faster with scepter in hand.

Along goes Elizabeth, then, once she's re-settled her sword and shield so she can wear her backpack comfortably.

Bella can't think of anything substantive to add, but nods and flanks Elizabeth up to face the lion.

"...James?" says Bella.

"I'll - explain later," she says. "It might be kind of a long story, and I think we have more important things to talk about right now."

"...Okay. Aslan, what are we supposed to do?"

James thinks of saying 'nice castle', but decides it's probably too flippant for the occasion.

"Are - there enough of us?"

"Two have ruled before, and two may rule again, though there is room for four," says Aslan.

James nods—

—but before she can come up with a suitable comment for the occasion, there is an abrupt cut-off scream from the far side of the pavilion. Dryads and naiads scatter in every direction, some of them also screaming.

Bella runs towards the commotion, too, though not so swiftly as she's not really armed - backpack dropped next to James's, staff clutched tight in one hand and the other hand pressed over her pocket of cordial.

Aslan is with them, but when the braver of the other creatures start forward to the great wolf that has treed a naiad (naiads are the ones who are not supposed to be treed), he calls, "Back! Let the Prince win his spurs."

The Prince so named has very little time to analyze the situation before she's right behind the enormous wolf, slashing at its back with her sword. It turns on her in a blink, howling with rage; she lunges forward and stabs it in the heart with all her eleven-year-old strength.

"You're welcome," she says shakily, attempting with moderate success to dislodge sword from wolf.

"Yeah?"

"You were going to explain?"

"...Yeah. I think - somehow, Aslan and Father Christmas knew something about me that wasn't true yet," she says. "But it is now. It's hard to explain properly, though, because... well. If I said 'James Moriarty', would you know who I meant?"

"He's the bad guy in a couple of Sherlock Holmes books, isn't he?"

"Mm-hmm. He's this mysterious criminal mastermind math professor. I've always liked him, because of the math thing and because he's supposed to be incredibly smart and, I don't know, good at things? But I didn't want to be him or anything. But - I don't know, when Father Christmas called me 'son of Eve' that made sense, even though I couldn't figure out why or what it meant that it did. And then Aslan called me James... and I think what it means is that I was going to decide that I really do want to be James Moriarty. A better, smarter version with different priorities. I think that in a sense it's just as true to say that I'm a boy and my name is James, as to say that I'm a girl and my name is Elizabeth. Or - I'm not sure if one is really more true than the other between girl and boy, I haven't really figured that part out yet at all, but I think James is more true than Elizabeth. It feels more mine."

Bella digests this. "I don't think I get how this adds up to wanting to be him. I'll call you James if you want but I'm not getting where Moriarty comes in or why."

"I know, I'm not explaining it well. It would be easier if I'd thought of it myself, I think, because then I would've gone through all the things that make it make sense already. This way it's like somebody handed me the answer to a math problem and I can tell it's right but I can't prove it yet because I haven't figured out the steps." She sighs. "And the books are all back on Earth, and I haven't memorized the Moriarty parts because I didn't know this was going to happen, so I might not have enough information to write the proof until we get back. I'll think about it, I guess, whenever we have time."

"Okay," Bella says. "I'm not sure I understand the part about also being a boy either."

"That part's even harder to explain, because I don't think I have all the pieces yet. It's just - when they call me 'Son of Eve', or when Aslan said 'prince' and 'his' about me, I think that if I weren't just-as-much-a-boy it would've sounded incorrect. But it doesn't. I think I could just... go around being called 'sir' and 'he' and stuff, and it would be the same amount of right as 'miss' and 'she'. I even think I want to do some of both. But it's harder to figure out because, you know, at least with the James thing I've read the books and thought about the character and have opinions about him and stuff. The boy/girl thing isn't really something I've thought about before at all."

"Huh. I mean, I guess I wouldn't like it if somebody called me a son of anything."

"Yeah. I think maybe most people wouldn't like it, or it would sound weird to them, like it - didn't fit, didn't belong. With me, I'm not used to it yet, but it doesn't sound weird that way."

"King James," says Bella. "Like the Bible edition."

...She giggles. "Perfect."

"And Queen Isabella. I think real Queen Isabellas may have existed but I don't remember enough history to know where."

"There might have been one in Spain, I think I vaguely remember hearing about one in Spain."

"All right. I know a little Spanish just from living in Arizona."

"I know very little Spanish! But I guess that fits. Okay, you be Queen Isabella and I'll be King James."

"It's a deal."

James giggles again.

"We have to get to the palace, first, though, and I bet the witch is going to try to stop us. Aslan seems like he can probably take her - well, as far as I know, but you met her and I haven't, what do you think?"

"I think... he could. But she might have something up her sleeve. She's the something-up-her-sleeve type."

"Yeah. Fairy tale logic says we're not all done having adventures until we've needed all our presents."

"Yeah. I'm still not sure about the fairy tale logic thing, but it seems to hold up most of the time from what we've seen so far."

"This is a pretty fairy tale place. I like it, especially now it's spring."

"Spring is a plus," she says. "Especially under the circumstances. If it was just an ordinary winter I'd miss it more, because I like building snow forts."

"Yeah, the winter was a sad winter, not a snow forts winter. Presumably it will be back again in an appropriate amount of time and then it will be a nicer winter."

"With Christmas," says James. "I definitely support the Narnia version of Christmas."

"I do too. I wonder if the presents are this cool every year."

"I sure hope so!"

"The beavers didn't get magic things and we didn't see what anyone else got, but the beavers seemed really happy anyhow."

"Father Christmas is interesting. You seem like the kind of person who likes having things explained, and he explained your presents way more than he did anybody else's."

"And he knew about the son of Eve thing, too. I wonder how that works. He seems much too friendly to be mind-reading without permission."

"He couldn't possibly have gotten the son of Eve thing by reading my mind, anyway. It has to be something else. Maybe it's the same as whatever he uses to tell what presents to give people in the first place."

"Yeah. Maybe like your sense-of-people but really souped up."

"Seems plausible. Maybe I'll ask him next year."

"Yeah. I wonder where he goes when it isn't Christmas."

"You can ask him next year, maybe!"

"I will have a great big list of questions for Father Christmas next year, you can bet." Pause. "I wonder if the time stopping magic on the wardrobe is good enough to let us stay here for a good long time without worrying our grownups."

"I wonder that too. I mean - if Chris gets worried she'll come to pick us up, and she'll probably find where we climbed into the wardrobe, it's pretty obvious with the chair wedging it open and all. And then I guess if it works for her it'll work for her, and if it doesn't... I dunno."

"We should ask Aslan about that tomorrow," Bella yawns.

"Mmhm. G'night."

Bella snuggles into the pillows, and goes to sleep.

James does likewise.