A profound sense of liberation surged through Anna the moment she stepped out of the room, as though an invisible burden had been instantly shed. Though a fleeting whisper of regret, doubt, and guilt attempted to follow, she met them with an unyielding will. With a silent, fierce determination, she pushed these lingering emotions aside, her gaze already fixed on the tasks required for her swift departure.
At that exact time, the regret, doubt, and guilt that Anna had cast off settled heavily onto Beth. Simultaneously, the liberation Anna had sought became entirely her own. This moment, stark and definitive, marked a profound fracture in their bond, a permanent separation of their emotional currents.
A month went by. Anna, now entirely prepared, was at last ready to depart from the McKellen Marquessate. In stark contrast, Beth spent that entire month confined to her room, utterly consumed by a storm of negative emotions.
Before she left to set out on her journey, Anna once again tried to get through to Beth, but she couldn't. After all, the strong bond they had as sisters had become so fragile that it could pass through the eye of a needle.
Anna stopped at Beth's door, speaking softly without entering. She tried to reach her heart by sweet-talking her, urging her to join her cause. There was no reply. Undeterred, Anna shifted her tactics, employing manipulative words. She suggested Beth shouldn't think of it as reaching for Luke, but rather as exploring the vast world. She spoke of how the entire family had worried about her, as she hadn't stepped out of her room for the full month, and even invoked Annabeth's feelings. But still, it didn't work. Finally, she tried to tap into the last strong emotion she'd felt from their bond—the regret, sorrow, and guilt—to appeal to Beth and their shared love. Yet, there was no response.
After going on for about two hours without any reply, Anna lost all form of composure she had. She began yelling and shouting, her voice raw with frustration and pain. She accused Beth of never truly loving Luke, of never caring about their feelings, of trying to honor and take pride in some wish, even though it clearly hurt her.
After her outburst, Anna simply turned and left. But before she disappeared, she paused, her voice cutting and final: "I cursed the day we were once one, and bless the day we separated. Let us remain strangers forever, for you are no longer the sister we once were."
With that, their already fragile bond became as thin as a thread.
As Anna stepped out of the castle with her luggage in hand, she was met at the castle gate by her siblings. Raising her defenses, she began, "Are you here to stop me? Do you also stand by her ideals and decisions? If so, then forget we were ever family, and let me pass as if nothing had ever happened. Else this place will turn into a bloodbath real quick."
Lyra, stepping up, spoke, "We have no such intentions, little Anna. For we are here not to stand in your way but join in your cause. Master might have told us not to come find him, but he never kept to his words."
Dropping her guard, Anna questioned, "Then what about the Marquessate? Mother has been in the Isolation chamber for over five decades trying to evolve, father has being travelling throughout the continent."
Jonathan spoke next, "You don't have to worry, my dear Anna. Lyra and I would give up everything to join you on your quest. But Lyra, as the acting head, and I, serving as her shadow, can not leave. But don't think you're alone, Selene, Rowan, and Ashen are all geared up to head out."
Selene then jumped in, "Anna, don't think you're the only one hurting, for we all loved him with everything we had and more."
Anna, falling to her knees, began to sob softly, "I thought... you'd all... abandoned him. I thought... I was the only one... after her." With that, they all embraced one another in their shared pain and love.
The sun had barely risen, casting long shadows over the Marquessate gates as Anna and her siblings—Selene, Rowan, and Ashen—stepped out together. No more words were exchanged. None were needed. Their path had been chosen, not out of duty, but out of love and conviction. As the gates slowly creaked shut behind them, they felt the cold wind of the new dawn—a dawn of pain, of power, and of the long journey ahead.
Meanwhile, Beth was hurled into a space of her own making, suspended in a state of peaceful oblivion. The very moment Anna had broken her heart and stepped out, vines of wood and leaf had erupted from Beth's deep unconsciousness, rising to encase her and her entire room in a protective cocoon. She was left in a state of suspended animation, lost in the sweet dreams she wished never to wake from, just as Anna had said. She had no knowledge of what day, time, month, or year it was. From the past month, to Anna's second confrontation, and to the departure of her siblings from the McKellen Marquessate, she knew nothing of what had transpired.
In a cruel twist of fate, the bond between them, once a conduit for every thought and emotion, had grown too weak to transmit the truth. Had it been whole, Anna would have felt the deep sorrow and the instinctual magic of the dryad cocooning Beth away. But she felt only absence. She interpreted Beth's silence not as a magical coma, but as a deliberate and profound betrayal. With a chilling finality, Anna shelved the last remnants of their sisterhood, believing Beth had willingly chosen to abandon everything they once stood for.