Ryn stood panting half way up the balcony steps and surveyed the aftermath of the battle in an exhausted trance.

It was almost entirely black-armoured bodies that lay about the floor, though there were a handful of golden-armoured Manolians too, whom Cid had not been able to save since he had used up the last of his mana reserves for the time being healing Ryn’s leg. But most of the Manolian guards had survived. Ryn was surprised to see that, in fact, not all of them were blonde, but some had brown, dark, even red hair underneath their golden helmets.

Elrann, Vish and Sagar were up here with them too. Smoke coiled up from the barrells of Elrann’s pistols, and Imperial blood dripped from Sagar and Vish’s swords. All of them were panting. Even Vish.

Everyone seemed to be looking at Ryn

“Well…” said Sagar, then paused for a moment. “...well done, pup. I hate to say it, but you got us out of a sticky situation there. If you hadn’t got the Ruby off that Imperial officer and got it to the ladies, then boosted up here to distract these soldiers until they arrived… Well… thank you.”

A ‘thank you’ from Sagar. Anything was possible… Ryn was too battle-fatigued to appreciate it properly though.

“Yes, thank you...young man,” said one of the Manolians, who had long brown hair. She sounded almost as reluctant to say it as Sagar had been, if not more so. “If it hadn’t been for your intervention, we might have lost our princess, as well as our Queen.”

Princess?

“Nuthea!” Ryn said, realising she wasn’t up here with them.

She was still down on the ground floor of the throne room, next to the throne, kneeling next to her mother, her face buried in her mother’s neck.

When they got down there, they all stood in a circle around her.

Nobody said anything for a while. Nuthea stayed where she was.

Ryn knelt down next to her and tried a whisper. “Um, Nuthea… I’m… I’m really sorry you lost your mother. But… are you going to get up?”

No response.

Kathuna[/another guard if Kathuna is dead] came and knelt with them too, and spoke equally quietly.

“Princess… Our grief is great, and there must be time for morning. But now that the Queen has passed, the throne will pass to you. You must be strong for the Queendom.”

At that Nuthea raised her face. It was tear-soaked, and her blue eyes were bloodshot.

“You are right,” she said softly, seeming to steel herself all of a sudden. “I must compose myself. It is what she would have wanted.”

She wiped her face with both hands Then, without warning she stood up and addressed the ring of adventurers and her guardswomen.

“The Manolian throne now passes to me,” she said to them. “And already it is fixed in my mind what I am to do with it. Never in our long history has an adversary infiltrated this palace and assassinated a Queen. We must make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. And that’s why I am leaving tomorrow on a quest to find the rest of the Primeval Jewels before the Emperor of Morekemia does.”

“What?!” said all of the other Manolians at once.

“Do not forget yourselves in the presence of your new Queen-to-be,” said Nuthea sternly. “The whole reason this came to pass is because the Morekemians were after our Lightning Crystal. As long as it remains here Manolia is not safe. And you heard the Imperial General. They know of other Jewels already. The Emperor will clearly stop at nothing to get his hands on them. But we have the advantage now. We have two Jewels, and two more who are jewel-touched. The Emperor must be stopped, not only for the sake of Manolia, but for the sake of the whole of Mid itself. We must find the remaining jewels before he does. That is why I am leaving with the Lightning Crystal, to do just that.”

As he listened to her, Ryn was surprised to discover that he was inclined to agree. What Nuthea was saying felt...right. And once he knew that, he also knew right away that he must join her. What else was he going to do with his life now? His hometown was still destroyed. There was nothing left for him to go back to in Efstan. And he had finally achieved the goal that brought him here. Mother. Father. Hometown. Found Vorr. Got Vorr. Forgave Vorr. Killed Vorr. Stay with Nuthea. Win Nuthea from Sagar. Find the Jewels. Save the world.

“But princess,” one of the Manolians was saying. “If you leave us, who will govern the Queendom?”

“Kathuna will serve as regent while I am away,” Nuthea said without hesitating. “She has been a strong and loyal friend to me for a very long time. I trust her judgment implicitly.”

“But princess,” said Kathuna, “I want to come with you.”

“Yes,” said another of the guards. “We all want to come with you.”

“We will muster a mighty Manolian army, and make war on Morekemia!”

“For Queen Nuthea!” said another, and raised her spear.

“Queen Nuthea!” they all said together, and raised their spears in unison.

“No!” Nuthea said, and they lowered their spears again, expressions like children who had been chided. “First, I have not been coronated yet. And second, this quest does not call for an army or a great show of strength. I will need to operate covertly, seeking out the Jewels one by one and warning their owners of the Emperor’s intent, without being detected by him.”

“Then who will you take with you?” said Kathuna.

“I would take those who helped me to return here, and defeated the Imperials who infiltrated the palace.”

She turned to Sagar, Elrann, Cid and Vish, who were all standing next to each other in the circle. She did not look at Ryn.

Sagar was the first to respond, and held up both his hands in front of him. “Woah, now. Just wait a second here. I believe I was promised gold, jewels and beautiful women in return for bringing you safely back here, isn’t that right, princess?”

“Yes, I suppose I did promise you those things,” said Nuthea, to a chorus of gasps from her assembled countrywomen. She made a gesture for them to calm down. “Let’s see then…” she said pensively, and Ryn detected just the fainted note of mockery in her voice. “Well, gold we have aplenty in Manolia, and we shall be taking lots of it as we shall need lots of it on our journey, to look after our airship and stay stocked with supplies. Jewels we have two: the fire Ruby, and the Lighting Crystal. And as for beautiful women--well, I am not unattractive in appearance, am I?” Understatement of the century, Ryn thought. Though he didn’t like that Nuthea was pointing this out to Sagar. “And Elrann is beautiful too, in her own peculiar way.”

“Thanks, princess-girl,” said Erlann. “I think.”

“So really you will have everything you were promised as a reward if you come with us on this quest.” Ryn noticed how she said ‘us’. Who did she mean when she said ‘us’? Did she mean him and her, or the others, or both?

“Now hang on,” said Sagar, getting worked up, pointing a finger. “This is not what I signed up for. This is not what I thought you meant when you promised me gold, jewels and beautiful women, and you know it.”

“Well,” said Nuthea thoughtfully again, “I suppose you could stay here if you wanted. As I said, there is a lot of gold in Manolia, and there are some jewels of the non-Primeval variety here as well. I would even give you some to send you on your way with, skycaptain. But with regards to the beautiful women…” She became more serious for a moment. “Well, yes, I am afraid to say I may have misled you there somewhat. My apologies.”

Now Nuthea was apologising for something. This truly was a day of impossible happenings.

“I mean,” Nuthea went on, back to her slightly more playful tone, “there are plenty of very beautiful women in this country too, but they won’t allow themselves to just be ‘given’ to a man. I suppose you could commit yourself to the service of someone who would have you, and see if you could win their affections over time, but there is no guarantee there, I’m afraid.”

Sagar looked from Nuthea to the Manolian guardswomen that stood assembled with them. One of them winked at him, made a little meowing noise, and playfully waved a hand at him like a cat pawing at a toy.

“Rrrrr,” said Sagar as he turned back to Nuthea. He had turned purple.

What’s more, said Nuthea, I would really rather prefer it if you came with us, seeing as in order to get around on ourquest we will be needing your airship.”

“My ship?!” exclaimed Sagar. “What about my ship? How do you know where my ship is?”

“Well, you heard Vorr, didn’t you? He managed to sneak a single ship into Manolia to get his audience with my mother. He stole your airship, didn’t he? I assume that it is therefore somewhere around here.”

“My ship… said Sagar quietly, looking off into the distance.”

“Furthermore, if you come with us, although I can only promise you at present the company of two beautiful women, I will pay you for the use of your ship, in addition to the substantial fee that you are due for safely delivering me back to my homeland.”

Sagar continued to stare at nothing for a while. Eventually, slowly, his eyes came back to the princess. “In that case, I can’t believe I’m saying this but… Alright…. Rrrr. I must be crazy. I want a lot of gold for this.”

“You will have it,” said Nuthea. “An excellent choice, skycaptain.” Her eyes moved one person along the circle.

“Elrann, will you come with us too?”

The purple-haired engineer shrugged. “Sure, I’ll come. I’ve got nothing else better to do, what with Imfis being invaded and all. Er, I wouldn’t mind taking a cut of that gold, though. For serving as the ship’s engineer, like.”

“Consider it done,” said Nuthea.

“Hey--” started Sagar.

“Don’t worry, skycaptain, that is in addition to what you will be paid for navigation and the use of your ship.”

“Oh,” said Sagar. “Well I guess that’s alright, then...”

Nuthea beamed at Elrann. “Good to have you aboard, Engineer.” Her eyes moved one along again. “Grandfather?”

“Of course I will come with you,” said Cid straight away. “There is nothing that I want more. Except at present possibly a hot meal and a warm bath. But this has been my intention from the start, as you know, Granddaughter. It is the Will of the One.”

“It is the Will of the One,” agreed Nuthea. “Shadowfinger Vish?”

“I will come with you, so long as you keep me supplied with poppy.”

“I can do that,” said Cid. “And slowly we will work at weening you off it and getting you clean.

Vish just grunted. He didn’t seem all that keen on the idea of being ‘weened off’ the poppy, but he had said he would come with them all the same.”

“Good,” then it’s settled, said Nuthea. Huh? Isn’t she going to ask me? “Guards, have chambers made up for my companions. I want them in the finest guest rooms, the ones in the east tower. Rest well, my friends. I will see you at dinner in the feasting hall. I have business to attend to.” Her voice trembled a little as she said that last sentence, but Ryn wasn’t sure anyone else noticed. “You will be provided with food, and drink, and new clothing. We leave at first light tomorrow.”

She nodded, and the circle broke, her guards taking this as a sign to get to work, to move about and start talking, to begin clearing the bodies from the hall.

Nuthea had turned back to her mother and was looking down at her, one hand over her mouth. She was managing to hold back the tears, for now.

Ryn couldn’t hold out any more.

“Nuthea…” he said gently.

She turned to him at last, and her eyebrows rose above her pale blue eyes, as if she was expecting

“I’m…” said Ryn. He broke under her gaze and had to look at the floor. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for behaving like such a...like such a bastard and being so horrible to you for the last part of our journey. I was mixed up and confused and full of rage and hate.” He looked up at her still-expectant face. “But I’ve dealt with that now--I’ve gotten rid of it. I’m sorry for holding onto it for so long.”

Nuthea held his gaze, held him agony as he waited for her response.

“It’s alright, Ryn,” she said finally. “It was unpleasant, but I forgive you. The Way of the One is to forgive.” She moved close to him all of a sudden, and gave him a delicate kiss on the cheek. “You can spend the rest of the quest making it up to me. Thank you for saving us from the Imperials, and from Vorr,” she said quietly into his ear.

She walked past him, away into the crowd of guardswomen rushing to and fro, and began to issue them with commands--the first, to have the body of her mother removed from the throne room.

Ryn stood watching her go. The small place on his cheek felt on fire with sensation, and he had to put a hand to it to make sure that it was not, in fact, actually on fire.

“Well, pup, you did it,” said a voice from someone stepping up next to him. “You finally killed the General. I suppose I’m actually a little bit impressed. But only a little bit.”

Ryn turned and looked down at Vorr’s body with Sagar. The General’s corpse lay flat on its back, its flesh red and brown and charred. Its eyes were closed. It was beginning to stink.

“You know,” said Ryn. “In the end, I didn’t even want to kill him any more. But strangely, letting go of my hatred for him, and for myself, was what gave me the strength to beat him.”

“You what?” said Sagar, uncomprehending.

“Well done, Ryn,” said Cid, stepping up to join them too. “You’ve taken your first steps on the Way of the One.”

Ryn didn’t reply, but he thought I suppose I have. And that may not be a bad thing.

“Er, guys…” said Elrann, looking up at them on the dais from where she stood on the floor next to Vish. “What do we do now?”

“I am going to go and take some poppy,” said Vish, turning away.

“Wait!” said Cid to him. “Can’t you hold out a little longer?”

“No,” said Vish.

Ryn spoke up now. “Let us come with you. What we do now is find our ‘guest rooms’ and get some good rest before dinner is served. You heard Nuthea--we’re leaving on our quest at first light tomorrow and we want to make sure that we’re all well fed, watered, washed and rested.”

“Pup, that’s the most sensible thing you’ve said all day.”

And off they all walked together, to find a Manolian to show them to their chambers.