called_lioness | Talk about a moving act of kindness you experienced or witnessed.

"But what does it all mean?" asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer. — "It means," said Aslan, "that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."

-The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

She was going to kill my brother.

It was very simple. My brother was going to die, and the Lion wouldn't let that happen.

I was young enough still that I didn't know how to be more frightened than curious. I was in a fairy tale world.

They always have happy endings, after all, fairy tales.

And so I woke my sister, and we followed Aslan into the night, and up to the Table.

And we watched as they shaved him and bound him and muzzled him, and Susan held my left hand tightly while we stared, and my right clenched on my dagger.

He was so strong.

He could have gotten away. Easily. He could have crushed her there, even bound.

Instead he let her slam the knife into his heart.

I didn't look away.

I don't know what Susan did.

But I watched. Because he died for my brother.

I watched, and wondered why this fairy tale didn't have a happy ending.

And then the morning came.

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