The Exiled Gem

A Vow of Maidenhood

Betty did not seem to be hearing, her eyes were half-closed, presently they were fully closed. Shaking the slightest bit, she removed Sarah's hands from her shoulder. The younger one tried to resist, but Betty almost pushed her away. And then she shook her head once, eyes still closed. Even years afterwards, Alexandra never forgot the ghostly gray that descended upon her face then. But she was sure it never lifted from her after that. Even before Kane had completed, she got up. Silently, as though in a trance, she began walking back to the corridor - and the cloudy wisp around her seemed to grow darker. The rest of them watched, not moving a single inch.

When she was near the window, she raised one shaking hand, picked up the glass vase lying on the window sill and flung it down onto the ground, where it shattered into a hundred glass pieces.

She turned back, shaking even harder, but her face showed an otherworldly fury, like it had absorbed all the grayness around. She walked over to the wall, and swiped out all the portraits hung there. They fell down, their frames breaking and dismantling. Betty was in a complete frenzy now: she pulled off the cushions, ripped them apart and threw them to the ground, grunting in satisfaction. She tossed the records down. She would have pushed them out of the way, too, but everybody steered clear of her.

Sarah looked around scared, and first ran to get her manuscript and quills to safety.

'Isn't Mother Diana here?!' Alexandra asked her.

'She's off for a trip to Diaplux Hills!' Sarah replied, in a squeak. Alexandra turned to Kane, while Betty upturned the table with the water jugs on it, her hair had come loose, it was hanging around her face ... and Betty looked utterly mad.

'Sarah, leave!' Alexandra told her.

'But-' Sarah began,

'I said, leave!' Thankfully, she didn't argue, sidestepped all the crashed furniture and ran upstairs.

'You - you think we should let her- or we should-' Alexandra said to Kane,

'Let her,' Kane shook his head. 'It is way better than crying and hitting your chest,'

Then Betty kicked a whole bookshelf down.

'Or - I'd say ... let's stop her,' Kane confessed.

They ran to her, as she was in the process of kicking aside harmless books.

'Betty!' Alexandra shouted, putting her arms around Betty's shoulders. 'Betty - listen to me! This is no use!'

'Ge-off me, Mabel!' Betty grunted. 'I said - get off me!' and she pushed Alexandra aside. A few days ago, her push had been weak and easy to counter. But this one was so true, so wild that Alexandra flew backwards and skidded to a halt two feet away from the frenzied girl. Then Betty, if Bethsy Montrail deserved that cute nickname even now, proceeded to push down several cloaks hung to the wall, stepping on them and then pushing aside a lamp, it shattered too, the fire burning in it caught the cloaks on the ground.

'Miss Betty!' Kane yelled, unfastening his own cloak and covering the fire with it - soon, those flames had died down. And thankfully, Betty stopped for a second, her hand hovering on Sarah's thousand-tablet pack of Ink.

'Thank you!' He said when she did. In reply, Betty picked up the thousand-tablet pack and threw it at him. He ducked in time as it flew across him, hitting the wall and falling down, where all the tablets broke.

'Hello!' He waved. 'If you want to do this - show this anger - show it to the person who has cheated you!'

That struck a little too close home.