“A tournament?!” exclaimed Nuthea.

“Correct,” said the Governor of Farr. “A tournament. We shall hold a tournament to decide who gets to keep the Earth Emerald.”

“What kind of tournament?” asked Ryn, puzzled. He thought about using his fire projection to break out of the earthen mound which Huld had encased him in, like the others, but decided not to for now. Sagar’s aggression hadn’t got them very far, and the diplomatic approach seemed to be working marginally better--at least it had got them to this strange offer...

“A tournament of single combat,” said the Governor. “We’re very keen on them here in Farr. We will make it open to everyone, including as many of you foreigners as wish to participate. After a few rounds of qualifying heats, eight champions will fight each other in three rounds of elimination. The winner will get to keep the Emerald--either one of you, if you even make it to the final eight, or a Farrian, for our nation.”

“Lord Governor,” Nuthea said, “with all due respect--and I do respect you and the nation of Farr, very much--that is a very creative idea, but we just don’t have the time for such a ‘tournament’. We need to be leaving in search of the other Jewels as soon as possible. As I’ve said to you many times, the Emperor of Morekemia is searching for the other Jewels too, and may even have found more of them by now. Our quest is urgent. We simply do not have time to participate in a ‘tournament’.”

“Nonsense.” The Governor waved his hand at her as if he were swatting away an irritating mosquito. “That is my offer. You are lucky that I am making this concession to you at all--I could just decide to keep the Jewel outright, and have you all thrown out of here by Huld.”

Ryn’s finger’s twitched inside the earthen mound in which he was encased.

“But,” the Governor continued, “I am most merciful, and you gave me an even better idea. Shun-Pei has been somewhat restless of late, with all of this news of military posturing on foreign shores, and a good tournament will give the people some entertainment, and pull them together, and in the process we shall discover who is most worthy and well-qualified to protect the Jewel. The winner of the tournament will get to keep the Emerald.”

“But my Lord Governor,” Cid spoke up again, desperation creeping into his voice with a quiver, “this is madness! The princess is not jesting with you when she says that we do not have time for such a thing. Can you not see the urgency of our quest? If you delay our progress towards finding the Jewels by holding this tournament, you are putting the whole of Mid, the whole world, in even more danger than it already is!”

“Enough!” the Governor snapped, flushing red, and he held up a hand. “The tournament is my final offer. Do you accept or not? If you do not accept, I will have you thrown out of here!”

“We don’t accept!” said Sagar. “Come on guys, we can take them! Show ‘em some firepower, Ryn!”

“No!” Nuthea yelled at once. “No violence!”

Ryn’s hands had grown hot inside the earth mound, but he held back. He wasn’t about to take orders from Sagar, and he agreed with Nuthea that violence wasn’t going to solve anything here. Huld still stood in front of them with his hands held up, along with the four other fighting monks. Although Ryn did think he could take them, given earth’s weakness to fire. They may be better trained hand-to-hand fighters than he was, especially if the other monks were anything like Huld, but he was pretty sure if he threw a fireball or two at them they would back down pretty quickly. But he didn’t need to prove that to anybody. Yet.

“Lord Governor,” Nuthea spoke again when she had seen that no one was going to start fighting, “thank you for your generous offer. May...may we take a moment to talk about it together? In private?”

The Governor of Farr itched his fat cheek. “I don’t see what there is to talk about. This is my only offer. There will not be any others.”

“Be that as it may,” said Nuthea, “we must still confer as to...as to whether to remain here to participate in this ‘tournament’ or to leave in pursuit of the rest of the other Jewels.”

“Alright,” said the Governor. “You can have five minutes. In the antechamber outside. Let them go, Huld.”

“Are you sure, my Lord Governor?” said Huld, still looking at Ryn. “We do not know if they are sincere.”

“Do not question me!” barked the Governor. “The Manolian is clearly the ringleader, and she has spoken peace. If they try anything, you have my permission to incapacitate them.” Ryn was sure he wouldn’t be so confident if he wasn’t talking from behind a wall of five fighting monks, one with elemental projection powers. “Let them go.”

“Yes, Lord Governor,” Huld said and, still keeping his gaze firmly fixed on Ryn, he motioned with his hands and brought them down to his sides.

At the same time, the earthen mounds holding the party members in place receded back into the floor with a rumble.

Ryn rubbed his arms. Huld had been holding them in the earth quite tight, it turned out…

Once they were out in the antechamber and the doors had been shut, Sagar said, “Alright, team huddle.”

Ryn realised he didn’t care so much any more that Sagar was initiating this. Whatever Sagar said, Nuthea was clearly the one who was leading their adventuring party in practice, as the Governor had identified. At least at the moment. Sagar was ‘all talk and no trousers’, as Ryn’s mother used to say…

Mother. Father. Hometown. Found Vorr. Got Vorr. Killed Vorr. Now stay with Nuthea. Find the Jewels. Save the world.

The party locked arms and huddled together, shoulder to shoulder, for one of their team discussions. Nuthea’s honey-scented breath warmed Ryn’s left cheek. On his right, Sagar--stale tobacco leaf.

“Right you guys,” said Sagar as soon as they were all in the huddle, “I say we march straight back in there and take the Jewel by force. We can take a handful of baldies easy, and with Ryn here’s fire projection powers he can deal with them in a matter of moments!”

“No!” said Nuthea again. “We are not doing that, Captain Sagar.”

“Well why the hells not? It’s the most logical course of action! Wham, bam, we get our Emerald, a big cash bonus for me since the first Jewel has been found, and it’s off in search of the next one. Where’s the problem with that?”

“It is not the Way of the One.”

“Arrrg,” protested Sagar, “not that again! Come on! Only two of us are Oneists!”

Maybe two and a half, thought Ryn. Am I becoming a Oneist?

“It’s not just that,” said Nuthea. “Not only is it not the Way of the One, but it’s against the whole spirit of this Quest and our whole mode of operation.”

“She’s right, said Cid. “We can’t just go charging into countries and taking Jewels by force. If we do that we’re no better than the Imperials.”

“Well that’s what pirates do,” said Sagar. “Are you saying that I’m no better than the Imperials, old man??”

“Of course he’s not,” said Nuthea. “At least you fought against the Empire. And you rescued Ryn and me.”

“If you can call it that…” mumbled Ryn.

“What was that, pup?”

Ryn nearly said “Nothing,” but then instead he went for “I said ‘If you can call it that’. The way I remember it, you needed quite a lot of persuading by Nuthea not to keep us captive, or kill us.”

Sagar scowled at him.

“Look, let’s not argue about this,” said Nuthea. “We’re in a difficult enough situation as it is. Not only is taking Jewels by force from people they legitimately belong to not the way that we are going to do things, but even if it was, it would work against us in the long run. The Emerald is only the first of nine more Jewels which we need to find. If we start off our Quest by just snatching Jewels from countries’ governments for ourselves, other nations will hear of it and we’ll get a reputation.”

“Again,” said Sagar, “I don’t see the problem here. What exactly is the problem with this plan?”

“Captain Sagar, that kind of reputation might work for a pirate crew, but for us it could mean that it is harder for us to find the Jewels hidden in other countries, or even outright stop us entirely from having their locations divulged to us. It just wouldn’t help us in the long run. On the other hand, if we work with the nations of Mid to find the Jewels before the Emperor does, explaining why we are doing so when we have to, then we’ll get a reputation for being the group trying to protect the world that we actually are.” She glanced at Sagar pointedly. “That way, the different peoples of Mid might actually help and assist us in finding the Jewels. The Governor of Farr has been very helpful and cooperative with us, up until now. If we fight him for the Emerald, we can’t expect him or anyone else to trust us in the future. But if we work with him to get the Emerald, we set a precedent, and we might be able to work with other nations to find other Jewels afterwards, too.”

A pause.

“Grrrr,” said Sagar.