The Exiled Gem

Concern for Diana

'But you can tell me,' Alexandra replied, 'You don't always have to be made of steel- hide your scars- to be a man. Real men have emotions- and they are not afraid to show it.'

'I will talk utter rubbish,'

'And I will hear it,' Alexandra confirmed, 'Come on, brother- pour it all out. It's okay to have perfectly unrelated things strung together and gnawing on you. And it's okay to want to have them unstrung. I would love to listen.'

* * *

More than a year later - in August, as Alexandra stood on the window sill of their Losianish house's Hall, Jade perched upon her right arm and an official Espionage Council letter in her left hand, she turned to look back, for one last time - at their long trial in this Country.

The first week had been the worst. Definitely. Things had improved after that - Diana always knew which terrorists were behind a particular thing.

For example, when the always crowded Club Diadem in North Losiane had been attacked on a normal, busy Friday and its seven hundred residents held hostage - Diana had immediately known who was behind it.

In fact, after that too, a lot had happened. Alexandra must have had shouted "Arnold's Tenth Detention" for a gazillion times already. Because well, that was a spy's life. Get information. Confirm. Retreat.

She actually now had first hand experience of hiding in a dustbin - that had been one particularly murderous pursuit - Alexandra was not proud of her dustbin trick, but between death and ten minutes of stink - she'd gladly choose those ten minutes of stink.

Then once, just so her face wouldn't be visible - she'd dropped onto her knees and pushed her face into a muddy puddle of water ... that had been a trick which had got her a nice face mask for the next twelve hours.

Muddy puddle of water - living in Losiane for two years, had taught Alexandra how their monsoons were even worse than their summers. Once the rain started - in March or July or maybe even in December- whenever it wished to, it didn't stop before three whole days. 72 hours.

Alexandra had liked the petrichor and cooling rain of Idgard. Heck, even Doveland was better - Losiane, though, would NEVER be her favorite holiday destination.

Tropical Forests.

Huge, large, colossal tropical forests surrounded the country. Like Natural Barriers. The small extent of Scorpion Forest in Drum corner? That was a tiny example of what Tropical Forests would be like.

Another reason to be afraid of Losiane.

Only Diana seemed at ease. She got up at eight, maybe even later - after all of them had left, and did goodness knew what the whole day - practiced her blade, strolled around and mused to herself.

But she didn't help them a lot. Not as much as she could have. She didn't meddle into their work - even when the meddling was welcome. Diana was moody and almost always emotionless. And they on the other hand were a bit hesitant in asking her.

'Diana is not normal,' Kane had told her one night, his blue eyes looking disturbed and unfocused as he polished his dagger,

'Why?' Alexandra had asked, she had just been passing him, hearing the not normal part, she had stopped, kneeling down by him, 'She did something?'

'No.' Kane had said, 'But I've seen her- she... she has sort of forgotten how normal people live. She had become... out of society.'

'It'll be fine.' Alexandra had replied, 'She'll take time... she will learn it- it's been almost twenty years. We can't expect her to be back to normal all of a sudden.'