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"Have you forgotten the Deep Magic?" asked the Witch.


"Let us say I have forgotten it," answered Aslan gravely. "Tell us of this Deep Magic."


"Tell you?" said the Witch, her voice growing suddenly shriller. "Tell you what is written on that very Table of Stone which stands beside us? Tell you what is written in letters deep as a spear is long on the fire-stones on the Secret Hill? Tell you what is engraved on the scepter of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea? You at least know the Magic which the Emperor put into Narnia at the very beginning. You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to kill.... And so that human creature is mine. His life is forfeit to me. His blood is my property... unless I have blood as the Law says all Narnia will be overturned and perish in fire and water."


"It is very true," said Aslan, "I do not deny it."

This quotation appears near the end of Chapter 13. The passage demonstrates that the gods of Narnia do not forgive sins, and every traitor's life is forfeit the Witch. In Narnia, there is no question of whether people believe or do not believe in this rule. They do not question the existence of a higher being or a belief in a rule that requires a life to be forfeit. Lewis illustrates the rigidity and immutability of the laws of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. The Emperor resembles the God described in the Old Testament. Lewis suggests that it is through Aslan's, or Jesus's, death that God becomes merciful.

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