The Exiled Gem

The Shelter for Abandoned Kids and Orphans

You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are, and change the ending.
-C.S. Lewis

A month had passed since Alexandra had been rescued from the forest. She had rung the brass bell at the door of the shelter and had been greeted by a stout and motherly looking woman. Alexandra had spoken to her putting in every bit of pain she possessed, into her voice.

'Please, I am alone and an orphan. I have no one in the world. I'm terribly hungry, I haven't had anything to eat for days. A kind man pointed me here, he tells you are good people and this is a shelter for Abandoned children ... would you please keep me?' She had always been good with words, the old woman's heart must have melted, for Alexandra really did look in bad shape. Her dress was dirty and soiled, her face was streaked with grime and upon her head was a fresh, open wound, surrounding which was dry, caked up blood.

'Yes, yes, dear. Just two days ago I lost my Mabel to some mysterious affliction. Come in, why are standing out?' The lady had replied, her forehead wrinkling with emotions as she held the door open, wide.

Alexandra had took the cue from her, entering. 'Heavens, my name is Mabel too! It's all I remember.' She had lied, taking off her Royal ring and slipping it into a pocket.

'You are God's gift to us, dear! Go upstairs. You will find Betty, she is the one with braids. Have a bath, I'll get you something to eat.' And the old lady had shook her head once, leaving through a low side-door, perhaps to a store-room.

Alexandra had been stunned. In the two hours before arriving at the Shelter, she had come across two people - and both of them were ones she had never met before. Yet, the way they had helped her made Alexandra feel oddly guilty. She knew she was in Vedessa. That was the only way she could have left Doveland so soon. And just a border beyond, did something fundamentally change in the people? This was a country that was not Doveland's ally. In fact, it was Ethoris' sworn enemy - which somehow made them almost inimical. She had always looked at Vedessa with a biased preconception that it was pathetic and shoddy. Misgoverned - with a headstrong heir. She had considered the Dovish to be her "own" and the rest to be "foreign". When the "own" had turned their backs to her, it was the "foreign" who had taken her in. And melted her heart with their kindness.

Alexandra had felt her pride crumbled to dust, standing in the Shelter home. The thing that Liam had called "Princess Pride" - it had disintegrated. And so had her bigotry - her discrimination. The people here, were many times better. The atmosphere here was much less intimidating. People looked genuinely happy, they had hearts of gold. Alexandra didn't know any such "shelter homes" that existed in Doveland. The answer was simple - she was in a new place. And she could build her new world. Most of all, she could change herself. Alexandra could start looking at hearts now, for outside the four walls of the Dovish Palace, their births no longer mattered.

* * *

A bath had felt good. Betty had given her some clothes to wear. They had been a bit loose - and a little longer than they naturally ought to be - but soft and cozy. The whole place had been cozy. Laid-back and merry, with jovial people who had no complaints with life.

'What is this kingdom called?' She had asked Betty, out of curiosity. Though she knew their borders touched, nobody taught geography to Princesses - out of a general stereotype that princesses who learnt the globe's state, became male-like and conquest-hungry.

'Idgard, Mabel. We are Idgardians. This is the capital of Vedessa. Where are you from?' Betty had answered, dreamily and in a low, rounded lilt that Alexandra had come to recognize as the way the Idgardians talked. Betty's and the stout lady's (whom everybody called Mother Diana) accent was thicker than Liam's had been. Perhaps because he was a traveler, and didn't stay confined to Idgard? Alexandra didn't know - for all she knew, Betty's simple question had made her go pale.