As soon as she was out of everybody's sight, Taerys stopped and turned on her heels to see if anyone had followed her back. Seeing nobody, the Varyx slumped against a nearby wall in a relieved manner and closed her eyes, clutching her head in one hand. She was still able to hear everybody talking with each other, but she was glad for the moment of peace she had right now. She wasn't really feeling like her own self but she knew exactly why. Of all things to forgot this morning...this was the worst time to forget Vahna. It had been over a month since the last time; she didn't want to risk leaving it any longer.

Vahna was a kind of personal ritual that every single Varyx needed to carry out roughly every 4 weeks after they reached adulthood. The first Vahna of every Varyx - the thing that truly symbolised adulthood - was a celebrated occasion. The tip of a dagger would be dipped into the venom of a Kalarn, a notoriously treacherous animal native to the Varaxian homeworld, and then the Varyx in question would make a cut with the tip of the dagger on their wrist. Initially, the venom would make them relatively weak as it entered the bloodstream but the Varyx had developed something of a resistance to it and instead it served as something of a...mind-cleanser of sorts. If you used small amounts anyway. 

In truth though, it was all a rather macabre thing. Taerys had seen first-hand what had happened to those who did not perform Vahna until it was too late. They lost all sense of who they were and became mindless animals. Dangerous ones at that. Instincts ruled them. In fact, Taerys had almost been killed by one of them. One of her...A tear rolled down her cheek but when she realised Taerys grew angry about it, forcefully wiping the tear away and clenching her gloved hands into fists. Her eyes were still clamped shut in a strange mixture of rage and anguish. She had no idea whether anyone had seen her.