Story Explanation:

Some people have asked me to explain this story, because it's not fully spelled out what's happening, or why, so I'm adding this addendum.

Cair Paravel was created by Jadis, and used as the intermediary in a spell that she cast on the Calormene prince. Eventually she left the castle (I like to think that it's because Tash finally came through for the Tisroc, but really, who knows why), breaking the spell.

Because the castle had been used as a conduit for so much magic, it had been transformed into a latent personality. That personality slept until Edmund came along and woke it up with his curiosity about its history. It liked Edmund; perhaps he reminded it of the prince from so long ago, but at any rate, it reached out to him, communicating with him in a way that it couldn't with the othes, because Edmund (at least my Edmund) was/is the sensitive one. When he left it tried to draw him back. He resisted, and the more he resisted, the more it put pressure on him, until he was in a similar situation to the poor Calormene prince.

Edmund resists because he has witch issues (not surprising, when you consider what Jadis tried to do to him). The castle was created by the witch, and that is enough to make him fear it. It takes a long time for Edmund to begin to separate the two, to realize that the castle's personality is not that of the witch.

Edmund returns to Cair Paravel not because he's made the distinction and no longer fears the castle, but because Lucy wants him there. Once he's there and exposed to the castle's personality he realizes that the castle is distinct from the witch, and so he no longer fears it.

The fic was an attempt to force Edmund to deal with his witch issues, and it wasn't entirely successful (mostly because my Edmund isn't completely ready to deal with those issues), but I certainly had fun with it.

Also, the quote, "Everyone got kind of crazy with me mentioning I was in love with a woman."

In this context Edmund goes slightly crazy when the castle tries to lure him in. So the crazy person is Edmund, and the woman is the castle (in a manner of speaking; she certainly has a feminine personality), and Edmund isn't exactly in love with her, but he's definitely under her influence.

I use two similar phrases at the beginning and end of the story, about not being exactly women, in reference to the witch and the castle. I used them like that to underlay the idea that Edmund can't really separate the two, so when you first read the quote, it could be ambiguous, the woman could be the witch, and Edmund certainly thinks that it is. Except, at the end, it's only the castle. The story begins with Edmund's fear of the witch, and ends with his acceptance of the castle, and the end of his fear of the witch. She is finally gone from his mind (although that isn't really the end of Edmund's issues; after all, he's now got a talking castle to deal with).