[Fic] "To Every Thing There Is a Season" -- Chronicles of Narnia

[edenfalling]

My Narnia Big Bang story is up!!! (Now in more than one place! AO3 version and ff.net version)

To Every Thing There Is a Season: Ilgamuth Tarkaan was fourteen when he first rode to war. He was likewise fourteen when he pledged his life and his name to Prince Rabadash, a decision that would shape the rest of his life. Prequel to "Out of Season." Contains character death, violence, and moral dilemmas. (21,300 words)

Also! Go look at the awesome art by i_autumnheart and tell her how amazing it is!

Also also, thank you to metonomia for beta-reading. :-)

Comments

[rthstewart]

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh!!!! It's going to be a day or so before I can read, but I cannot wait.

[edenfalling]

Yay!

[branchandroot]

*whistles* This /really/ fleshes out Ilgamuth's dilemmas in "Out of Season". They're all caught in this bind of politics and war-as-politics and war-as-destiny, and Rabadash is so clearly a little crazy already. But not just crazy. You can see there's also intelligence there, and something that might have been a sense of humor if he hadn't been born knowing that it wasn't paranoia, they really were out to get him.

[edenfalling]

Thank you!

Writing Rabadash is an interesting balancing exercise, because I have to make clear that he's dangerous and morally unsound in various ways, but I ALSO have to make it seem believable that people would like, respect, and follow him -- and tangentially, I guess, that Susan could find him attractive enough to go to Tashbaan in the first place. He's an interesting mix of intelligence, self-centered impulsiveness, random cruelty, a hit-or-miss sense of responsibility toward his people (and a hit-or-miss definition of who counts as 'his people'), and an occasionally fraught relationship to his own status as the crown prince. (Which he has not always been! I didn't say it outright, but the implicit timeline of the story makes him two or three years old before his father began fighting for the throne, and that civil war didn't end until he was thirteen. So he definitely grew up knowing people were out to get him.)

You can see why I needed to write this story before I can move forward and write the story of what happens to Shezan, Ilgamuth, and Rabadash after the events of HHB. That story will be about how the Battle of Anvard and its fallout changes their understanding of themselves, the way they relate to each other, and the political balance of Calormen, none of which has half the impact if you don't know where they're coming from. (...Now I just need to find some way of setting myself a deadline so I can actually buckle down and get that story finished. *sigh*)

[branchandroot]

*nodnod* I can definitely see how we'll need this to understand the next part, and how that's going to shake out.

*laughs* I suppose you could tell everyone you're going to post the next part for solstice or something.

[autumnia]

I love your Calormene stories, Liz! You breathe life into the country with all your astounding worldbuilding, from the geography to the culture and the gods they worship. And your OCs are so real, it's like they have been there all along, right beside the canon characters.

I'm always amazed how some authors can write the maxims and poetry that the Calormenes are known for—it never looks to be an easy task and yet you have Ilgamuth spout them off so easily.

The Tolkheera at Azaroth's temple was a bit creepy, only in that she had sensed something about Rabadash's party and knew they were up to no good. Maybe Azeroth really did send her a warning, and in doing so warned them even though she herself couldn't stop a group of armed men. I also think Rabadash's comment about needing no god's fortune does not bode well for all his future endeavours.

And so soon, we lose Zarman and Kinboor, just when we were beginning to know them.

I found Zubidah Tarkheena's coup to be spectacular, because she IS a woman in Calormene and she managed to do so much even in the limited role she must have had due to her gender. And oh yes, she is very ruthless as well.

I was hoping to get a glimpse of Shezan here, though you had been subtly mentioning her before she finally showed up. :-) And it's nice to see she is able to tease her milk-brother and get away with it, unlike Rabadash's companions.

Oh Ilgamuth, after all this, it seems to harbor some regrets about his decision to follow Rabadash but knows he can't change his mind now. His loyalty to his prince and his oath remain strong but it is nice to see that his poetic self still remains even though he knows his life and his future are on a different path than he once probably longed for.

[edenfalling]

Thank you!

I assure you, the poetry was not easy to write. But it needed to be there, both for general flavor and because it's a part of Ilgamuth's character, so I gritted my teeth and slogged through it.

I created the unnamed Tolkheera initially just because temples aren't abandoned spaces and somebody logically had to greet Rabadash's group and tell them where to go, but I figured as long as she was there, I might as well use her for foreshadowing. And yeah, Rabadash's attitude toward the gods is a continuing problem -- as seen both in "Out of Season" and, obviously, HHB. (Just because a god is a foreign god and an enemy of your country doesn't mean you shouldn't treat him with respect and caution. Otherwise, donkey time. *wry*)

I am thinking of bringing back Zubidah Tarkheena and her family in the planned sequel to "Out of Season," partly because she's awesome, and partly because I think I made an offhand comment in "Out of Season" about Rachegra and Drinachlala still arguing with Tashbaan about tax rates over a decade later. It seems like a useful political problem to throw at Ilgamuth, Shezan, and Rabadash to solve without a war.

Shezan can get away with some behavior toward Rabadash that nobody else can, partly because they grew up together, and partly because they are NOT blood related and her family's position depends on his, so she is one of the few people he trusts absolutely not to stab him in the back, either literally or metaphorically. (And also because she doesn't presume too frequently or heavily on that privilege.)

Yeah, Ilgamuth is very conflicted about Rabadash and his life choices during this story, and continues being conflicted all the way through "Out of Season" as well. One of the plot threads in my eventual planned sequel is facing that conflict head-on and trying to resolve some of it after the changes caused by the Battle of Anvard and its fallout.