The Exiled Gem

Poisonous Pearls

Even though she had the key, Alexandra never unlocked Master George's room.

Which she preferred calling it, even though it was the "Head's Office". Anyhow, she got no sleep in the nights. Sometimes she passed out in the supervisory. Or in the grove. Or by the lake. Anywhere, but not in the Master's room.

No.

That felt utterly wrong. It was fine if the next Head wanted to use it. But Alexandra was not going to step in with the motive of occupying it. Nobody could live in a temple. And for Alexandra, that room was something very close to a temple.

On the other hand, Doveland-Ethoris alliance points had made everything crystal clear to her. Everything meant everything apart from Ethoris' personal hatred of Vedessa. Or maybe - Aunt Sabel's personal hatred of Liam: which made no sense whatsoever to Alexandra.

The situation of Ethoris was somewhat this: the heir had been murdered thirteen years ago - by a certain person who was at the sticky center of all this mess - the reigning king had died six years ago, and now: the Queen was the supreme power.

Alexandra knew there were no prizes for guessing what a place, whose supreme power was Aunt Sabel, would be like. Royal aunts were always evil, no matter what.

In any case, these alliance points had to be discussed. Preferably with the ministers and King of Idgard. Though, when and how that was going to happen, nobody had any idea.

Right now, sixteen days into the Dovish-Idgard war, their data was quite satisfactory - at least as satisfactory as war data could be. Ten thousand seven hundred thirty seven dead. Fifty thousand something - injured. Still, it was satisfactory - open war of sixteen days could leave more than thirty thousand dead, in very extreme cases, that was, which was not all the case here.

Alexandra suspected and believed that the low numbers was mainly because of Doveland's half-hearted battle strategy. Idgard, for its part - was rather unaffected by the war. Yes, gloomy. Still, unaffected. Vedessa was fighting slowly, for all its aggression, it was goading Doveland on. Perhaps Liam knew that this was not the only war they would have to fight. Perhaps that was why Vedessan tactics were to ensure the least fatalities possible. And even on the war, men and women had different views.

Women - mostly the common, less prosperous ones - had their own qualms. A group of them went ahead with the debate on why they couldn't join the armies. Why they couldn't take part in the battles. Why they weren't allowed to be part of the events that would affect their lives as much as the men's. This group was rather small, it raised a justified point, but given the situation, when the others were worried about more pressing matters like if their family members were going to return or not - it was ignored.

Then came the larger group of common women. Who were worried about filling the stomachs of their children, parents and family - as a whole. This group was ignored too, because there was no such food shortage going on - moreover, if Alexandra went out on the streets, she could find perfectly eatable stuff lining the drains - something which was MUCH more common in the less prosperous areas of the city than the posh, sophisticated lanes of the rich. Though, she never got the science behind this occurrence and there was nobody to explain.

A few men were going on about what they would do in the army. Such discussions started off as normal exchange of ideas. But they ended up as long hours of boasting under the soft, winter sun rays.

And then came the majority of common men - who held long debates on what the idea behind this foolish Dovish attack was. More often than not, quite a few women joined into these discussions as well. They had pretty intense arguments and their points reached close to the truth. But none touched it.