(A/n; Hi all! The girls at Tamora Pierce Challenge center (or just Tammy Challenge have a new journal/blog - the link is on my page. Check it out if you want a place to post fanfic, fanart, challenges, or just a general place ot hang out. Thankyou!!)
Walking thousands of miles was not exactly comfortable, but it was comforting. The gentle rhythm lulled her into a state of slight unconsciousness, that is, she was awake, but never really knew where exactly she was towards the east, her back to the setting sun, she went over the past few days, everything. Her hair was wind swept, her sandalled feet blistered, her drab travelling robe and cloak threadbare. And she, in herself, was crumbling inside.
Walking through the gates to the palace, she was met in the grand throne room by the King. His face looked stormy and Thayet at his side had a regretful and pitying impression on her beautiful face. Alanna and Raoul, at their sides, were fuming. The Chief Magistrate looked incredibly bored. All of her family were appearing afraid and anxious, but her close family were the most.
"Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan, Baroness of New Hope," the magistrate began "you are to be exiled from Corus, Mindelan and the fief New Hope and any major towns and fiefs, for treason against the Crown. If you continue to commit treason, you will be exiled from this country. All your lands are to be repossessed to the Crown, and …" She didn't hear the rest. It just kept echoing inside her head: you are to be exiled, you are to be exiled, you are to be exiled,
You—are—exiled.
But why am I exiled? She thought to herself, shock clouding her mind.
And so now, here she was, walking, with no idea of where she was going.
"Not all those that wonder are lost," she muttered to herself, her voice like a stranger's – she had not heard herself talk for many, many miles. And that was how she felt – she measured her journey in miles, not months.
With only a thin travelling cloak to warm her, scarred and windblown, she was a stranger. A stranger in her own country.
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