The Exiled Gem

Two Tales of Change

Fannel nodded.

'Vellesmere.' He repeated, 'it's a neighboring city. Quite disturbed, every week or so, terrorists, rebels ... they infiltrated into it, indiscriminately killed people, set fire to property and houses... took away young girls.' He exhaled, Alexandra already knew what his sister's fate had been in that case. She, at once was curious and repelled by the story.

'So on her... Diana's sixteenth birthday, we were on Velloi Hills - Vellesmere's named after it - it was a calm, bright day. I'd gifted her the blue-lily pendant she'd always wanted, though it meant I had to steal money from a rich Manor-' He stopped again, '-and she was teaching me to identify those hilly, valuable plants ... that's when they came again. The whole city was in disarray. Old King Ethan - he was ... utterly - useless.'

His voice shook with sudden rage, something which Alexandra had realized quite early. She had known that he was helplessly angry, from the abrupt halts he'd been taking. But why would he tell that to her? Why was he talking about it - how did it have anything to do with her? Despite all that, Alexandra sat still, listening with rapt attention. Only a few sentences- but it summed up how worse life could be, what unforeseen challenges it could pile upon people. Doveland, had never had the terrorist, the revolutionary problem. They had thought it was because of the power of King Adelard.

Too late, Alexandra realized that it was because Doveland had come out of a tribe. A tribe, where ideals had once been democratic, and slowly, with consent - progressed to autocratic. Vedessa, meanwhile, had been born of a partition. There were bound to be a hundred different opinions, a hundred different problems because of those divergent political views. And when the ruler himself was weak ... what could the hope be, for the commoners?

Commoner.

She was common now, herself. But Alexandra had never known another person's life details. They were all "subjects" to her, until then. Faces merging into each other amid a crowd. Now that she was facing them, Alexandra realized that one look at a person never told anybody of their real struggles, their real story. She hadn't spared a thought to that sort of life - the one which the masses lived. In which, just for a small thing like a pendant, they'd have to steal money. In which, they couldn't spend one day of happiness, of peace, without worrying about their lives, their empty stomachs. And all kings did was to entertain their mad relatives and make up useless alliances. Hanker for more power, search for more land. 

'He did nothing to prevent them.' Fannel continued. 'He let the barbarians tear us apart. All he cared for was his own-' he stopped again, gazing away, realizing that he had been side-tracked. 'His marital status.' He completed, 'and that's when Diana defended us against a dozen savage men. I never knew of it till then- but she was keeping a dagger- one she could have picked up from anywhere. But Diana had taught herself to use it- she- she was extraordinary. Mabel,' he said, 'the look on her face- the gritted teeth- that determination. I've seen it in you too- And then,' He exhaled once again. Alexandra leaned in closer,

'Then?' She prompted- 'then what?!'

'In the end... in the end when she knew it was no use, she offered herself as a diversion. Pushed me downhill... and she didn't die, they never found her. They - those dogs -' His hands shook, 'They took her.'

Alexandra recoiled, not knowing what to reply with. Even in her wildest of dreams, she couldn't imagine something more terrible than what had happened with her. And here was a man, whose sister had had been abducted by terrorists. Still, he wasn't deterred from spending his life in national service. Alexandra had often heard it being said, but she believed it now: these, these - the common people- and NOT Kings- or Queens, ran the nation. A good Monarch, was a bonus. A bad one, was a curse. Society could do well without them.