“What?!” said everyone else (including Vish).

“It’s true. We stole the Light Diamond from a Citadel in Erm. I was already trained as a healer, so since the Crystal grants manipulation of the element of life, I was chosen to be its bearer.”

“Do you still have it?” said Ryn.

“In this case...no.”

“Why not?”

“Er, I put it back.”

“WHAT?!” said everyone.”

“Why would you do that?” said Sagar.

“That will require some further explanation--”

“What happened to the other adventurers in your party?” butted in Ryn. He had begun to wonder about certain things.

Cid closed his eyes. “That I am not ready to tell you about yet.”

They died, then, Ryn surmised. And he couldn’t bring them back from death. Because he can’t do that. Because no one can do that.

Cid opened his eyes. “But what I am saying to you is true.”

“How did you find out about the Jewels in the first place?” Nuthea jumped in. Clearly everyone had their own question they wanted to ask. “In Manolia the knowledge of the Jewels is a closely-guarded secret…”

“That’s the least interesting part of the story,” said Cid. He glanced at Sagar for a moment. Why did he do that? thought Ryn. “It really doesn’t matter. What matters is why we went after them. Once we found out about their existence, we decided it would be terrible if the Jewels ever fell into the wrong hands. So we set out to find them ourselves, to keep them safe, should anyone with malicious intentions or ambitions ever learn of them. And as I say, we succeeded in finding some of them.”

“How many did you find, then?” asked Elrann.

“Four,” said Cid.

“Which ones?” asked Nuthea.

Ryn answered for him. He had begun to work things out. “The Light Diamond, the Lightning Crystal, the Wind Shell, and the Fire Ruby.”

Cid nodded. “Correct.”

“You knew my father,” Ryn realised. And he probably knew Sagar’s too.

“Yes.”

“He was part of the adventuring party. Along with others.”

“What happened to you? Why did you abandon searching for the Jewels?”

Cid swallowed. His next words came out with some difficulty, and he kept pausing as he said them, like he was holding back tears. “When we went after the fifth jewel, two...two of our number were killed. That was when we realised the folly of what we were doing. It turned out we had only got to the Jewels that were relatively easy to find--the ones that were nearby, and not so well guarded. The others were going to be much harder. So we decided to return or hide the ones we had found. They really were safer in their original hiding places all along, anyway.”

Ryn had never heard of any of this. He knew that his father had had a life before he had met his mother and settled in Cleasor, that he had been a traveler himself and worked in a variety of professions, but he had never heard about any of this. Perhaps with good reason, he saw, but he still couldn’t help from feeling betrayed. Mother. Father. Hometown.

“But now,” Cid went on, “now that a malicious power has learned of the existence of the Jewels, and one with enough strength perhaps to take them for himself, now those who guard and keep them must be warned.”

“What are you saying, Grandfather?” asked Nuthea.

“What I’m saying is that I must help you to get to Manolia as soon as possible in order to warn your people of what the Emperor has learned as soon as possible. I owe at least that much to the memory of your grandmother.”

“What?” said Nuthea, forgetting her usual polite terms of address. “You knew grandmother Effi?”

“No,” said Cid. “I knew your other grandmother.”

“Lissa?”

“That’s right.”

“How?”

“She was a part of our adventuring party too. Quite a firecracker. She was the one to find the Lightning Crystal, deep in an underground dungeon.”

“But my mother taught me that the Lightning Crystal has been in our family for generations!”

“Nope. Well, I suppose three generations is still ‘generations’. Lissa found it. Maybe it used to belong to the Manolians before, but if it did, they lost it, and Lissa found it again.”

Nuthea’s face looked like she had just eaten something that disagreed with her. She seemed horrified at the idea that her parents might have taught her anything that was factually incorrect, unintentionally or not.

“Grandmother Lissa… She always was very peculiar… And she always did seem to want to encourage me to break the rules and go out on adventures… In fact, it’s probably her fault that I… Never mind. I can barely believe it,” she finished, running out of steam. What had she been about to say?

“I don’t believe it,” said Sagar. “This is getting completely ridiculous. The old timer is clearly making all of this up.”

“If he’s making it up,” said Nuthea, “how did he know the name of my maternal grandmother? I’ve never said it or told it to you any of this time.”

“I...er…” for once Sagar ran out of steam for a moment too. “I suppose you might be right there. But this is ridiculous. Next you’ll be telling me that my father was part of your little ‘adventuring party’ too.”

Here we go...

Cid looked at him, and smiled.

“You have got to be poodooing me.”

“Captain Figaro was an invaluable member of our party. He was the one to find the--”

“--Wind Shell,” said Ryn. He had seen where that was going easily enough.

“But my…” said Sagar. “I always thought my father was a famous plundering skypirate…”

“He was, for most of his career. But when he ran into our party who were also going after the Wind Shell, and beat us to it, we managed to convince him to come with us to try to find the other Jewels.”

“My father would never have done that.”

“Well, he did.”

“If you’re not lying, that is.”

“I have no reason to lie.”

“Look,” said Ryn, whatever happened in the past, this is getting pretty weird.” His doubt about ‘destiny’ was starting to erode. “Four of us now who have been thrown together are all ‘Jewel-touched’, or whatever you call it, Nuthea.”

“Yes,” said Cid, “the Jewels have a way of doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Bringing together those who have been touched by them. It is the purpose of the One at work, seeking to find a group of people who will serve him by gathering the Jewels together to protect the world from evil. It’s no coincidence either that I knew three of your parents, or ancestors at least.”

“Rrrr.” Sagar looked about to explode. “Enough of this already!” he yelled, going red in the face, little flecks of spittle flying from his mouth. “I’ve had enough of all this Oneist garbage! It’s not purpose, or destiny, or whatever that we’ve all come together! The Empire are going after the Jewels. That’s how the pup and the princess ended up in the same place--because they came from places that have Jewels, so the Empire captured them. Then I attacked the ship they were on because being Jewel-touched I’m the only pirate crazy enough to go after an Imperial warship. Then we got grounded and the princess got hurt and… and… we made for the nearest healer, who was obviously well known for being a healer because he’s Jewel-touched too…”

Even Sagar did not sound so convinced any more.

Ryn, Nuthea and Cid all looked at Elrann and Vish, who were standing next to each other.

“Don’t look at me,” said Elrann, a hand on her hip. “I don’t have any crazy jewel powers. Least not that I’m aware of.”

“Nor me,” said Vish, scowling at them from behind his face covering. “If I had powers of elemental projection I would have used them to kill you all and hand you over to the Empire for poppy seed by now.”

“But you will gain elemental powers,” said Cid. “You both will. I am sure of it. If the One’s purpose is done, both of you will become Jewel-touched, even Jewel-bearers, before the journey of this group is done.”

Jewel-bearers… thought Ryn. Like my Dad must have been. Wait a second... “Hang on,” he said, “how did the Empire know that we had the Fire Ruby?” That was something he had wondered many times, but he had not thought to voice the question until now.

“That I cannot tell you,” said Cid. “Ornos did not reveal his secret ownership of the Fire Ruby to anyone else, as far as I know. The only people who knew about him having it were the members of our party. But when we parted ways, we didn’t even tell each other where we were going or where we planned on settling or hiding our Jewels. Even that was deemed too dangerous, in case someone got captured and tortured for the information.”

The Empire were going to torture me, Ryn realised.

“Never mind that now,” said Sagar. He had become interested in something else. “Old timer, are you telling me you think we’re all going to end up with Jewel-powers?”

“If this party is successful in its quest, yes. Look: Four of us have them already. We’ve been brought together by the One’s Purpose. It’s as though He is writing a story, and we are characters inside it. We may have free choice, but He is guiding us in towards the outcome He desires.”

Sagar went quiet again, and tapped his mouth in thought. Even he now seemed to be contemplating the possibility that they had all been brought together by something more than dumb, blind luck.

It seemed a little more convincing to Ryn too, now that they had discovered another of their group was Jewel-touched. But why would this ‘One’ add Elrann and Vish to their traveling group as well? Unless they really were going to find more Jewels and develop elemental projection powers of their own like Cid predicted…

And it was still bugging him: How had the Emperor learned of the location of the Fire Ruby in his hometown if none of Cid’s original adventuring party had told him about it. Or maybe they--

Nuthea interrupted his train of thought. “Look, fellows.” Fellows? Who talks like that? “I agree with Grandfather here that the One must have brought as all together for a Purpose, but whatever that Purpose turns out to be, we still need to get to Manolia as soon as possible to warn my people of the Emperor’s knowledge and plans. If I don’t warn them in time, more of the Jewels could fall into the Emperor’s hands, which would be catastrophic for the whole of Mid, let alone Manolia. That was what we were doing before this revelation that Grandfather is Jewel-touched too. And now that thanks to him Ryn is awake and back to good health, we need to be on our way again. Are you all still coming with us to Sirra, Grandfather?”

“Of course I’m coming with you, Granddaughter,” said Cid. “It is the Will of the One.”

“What about the rest of you?”

“I’m coming with you too,” said Vish. “So long as the old man eventually gives me some more poppy seed and can keep supplying me with it.”

“In time, in time”, said Cid. “I told you, you need to wait a little longer or the hit won’t be as strong.”

“I’m happy to keep tagging along with ya,” said Elrann. “I’ve got nothing better to do, since Imfis has been invaded by the Empire. And if I’m going to develop elemental projection powers by staying with you guys, I think I’ll stick around.” It wasn’t clear to Ryn whether or not that last sentence was a joke.

“Captain Sagar?” said Nuthea.

“You know I’m coming. I’m escorting you. Rewards. Gold. Precious gems. Beautiful women. We’ve been over this.”

They all looked at Ryn.

“What?” said Ryn. Mother. Father. Hometown. Find Vorr. Kill Vorr. Stay with Nuthea? “General Vorr was heading towards Sirra. If there’s a chance that I’m going to find him there, then I’m still coming with you.

“And nearly dying isn’t going to stop me.”