Hi, ya'll! Once again, apologies for making you wait. Reality is a pain in the butt to get away from, as are the LOK vampire plot-bunnies. It seems I'm falling into a pattern of updating every two months, though, so as long as I can keep that up, I'll probably be able to avoid the oddly-absent lynch mob.

Also, a blanket thank-you to everyone who has been favoriting Paths and Tales and has gotten this far in this story. You are not forgotten, I'm just lazy.

Xenocanaan: Welcome back! And thanks!

aRLegOdDesS: That's alright, he's in this chapter, which ought to make everyone happy. Thanks for reviewing again, I'm always happy to get these.

Meeerf: We do the sync thing a lot, I've noticed, Tiamat and I. Answers to questions: 1) Rei is in her early twenties, no older than twenty-two or thereabouts. I haven't quite decided yet. Xan is in his mid-twenties, about twenty-six since he's four years older. 2) 'shadow tied to Rei's heels' was referring to Rei's actual, physical shadow (or as physical as ordinary shadows get). Nothing mystical or anything. 3) "pipe-haired terror" is pure me. I laughed quite a bit when it popped up in my head. Hope your party went well!

Tiamat42: Don't worry, I understand completely about space-case-itis. I usually have a severe case of it myself. The insta-heals aren't necessarily for the Jumi, more for the other people—like Akravator's dragoons—that don't have the same physiology as a sprite or human. But Rei won't be complaining if it works on Jumi too. As for the relationship between Matilda and Irwin, I only ever felt sorry for them. Both of them trapped by lives they don't want because they can't see far enough to break the rules.

Swinging onto your less-serious note, I must agree: picking on Wisdoms should most definitely become the new "in" sport for Fa'Diel.

On to the fic!

————

Check the straps to her pack. Note the worn spots and contemplate for a few moments on making herself another. Make certain that her knives are in their hip-sheaths, her panpipes in their belt-case. Stuff Elazul's letter in her pocket and head downstairs.

"Bud! Lisa?" Rei called as she padded down the stairs and into the main room. She got answering calls from different parts of the house and yard, and called back with, "I'm heading out for that trip with 'Lazul and Pearl. You know the drill."

Bud's voice was absent-minded irritation as he yelled for her to stop distracting him during spell-crafting. Just because he hadn't blown anything up in months didn't mean he wanted to break his winning streak. Rei just rolled her eyes as she went out the door and emerged into the late summer sunshine.

It had been a little more than two weeks since that mess at Leires, far less since Daena had disappeared to (presumably) the Land of Faeries, so Rei hadn't expected a letter from the two Jumi for at least another week or so. Let alone one that asked her to meet them today in Amanda and Barrett's pub.

Rei had to give her stubborn friend credit; he had actually written something that was able to be called a letter, though most of it was still Pearl's graceful handwriting that tended to drift towards the lower corner. And he asked her for so little that she had immediately sent off a short reply agreeing to meet them.

Taking one last deep breath, the knife-fighter vaulted her front gate and ran up the road to Domina.

———

Dusty from the road between Domina and her home, Rei stood in the dim main room of Amanda & Barret's pub, feeling a surge of pure relief at the sight of two familiar figures in the far corner closest to the fireplace. Holding out her hands in welcome, she approached the equally-relieved Pearl and Elazul, both of them smiling back.

"You're okay," Rei said happily, looking both of her friends over in careful scrutiny. They were about as dusty as she was, though you could never really tell with that buff-colored cloak Elazul always wore. "I'm so glad—I wasn't expecting a letter quite so soon."

"I thought you would worry about Elazul," Pearl replied in her usual, absent-minded tone. "And we had a favor to ask you. Well, Elazul does, anyway."

"I want to visit Diana in Geo," Elazul cut in, his own relief at seeing her whole clear in blue eyes and voice. "I was wondering if you could take Pearl."

Rei lifted an eyebrow. She remembered Diana, having met the Diamond Jumi when she and Esmeralda had been looking for the cores of the cheerful girl's lost sisters. She tried to hide the sorrow that still chewed on her heart at the thought of the girl she'd failed to protect, but judging by the way Elazul and Pearl looked at her, she didn't do too well. "You want me to take Pearl to Geo?" Elazul nodded, and she shrugged back, smiling down at the slightly-smaller Jumi girl. "All right."

Gratitude shared space with relief in Elazul's eyes. "Thank you. I feel safe, knowing you're watching over her."

Pearl's about the only Jumi I've ever managed to protect, yourself included, Rei thought to herself, feeling another pang. That's putting a lot of faith in me, 'Lazul.

But the green-haired young man had already turned to his Guardian, giving her shoulder a quick, reassuring squeeze. "There's a place I have to visit, first, so you go on ahead. Pearl, be careful."

"You worry too much, Elazul," Pearl replied affectionately, wrapping her fingers around the hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze back. "I'll be with Rei, so I'll be fine. Go on, we'll meet you in Geo."

Nodding, Elazul brushed past Rei with another of those relieved smiles of his and disappeared out the door into the sunlight. Pearl looked up at Rei, who was gazing after the Knight with a troubled expression. "He's a lot quieter than usual," the knife-fighter observed softly. "None of his usual threats and dire warnings."

"He meant what he said," Pearl told her, some of her dreaminess slipping away. "No matter how often I get in trouble, you've always kept me safe. Elazul thinks it's his fault that he failed to protect Esmeralda, not yours. And he doesn't blame you for what happened in the caverns."

Rei's shoulders rose and fell in a long sigh before she reached out to ruffle Pearl's long brown hair. "I'm glad he doesn't," she said mournfully as they emerged together out into the sunshine, "but Esmeralda's death was mostly my fault." Her hands stretched out, grasping at empty air. "If I'd just grabbed her the second I figured out it was a damned note, then she wouldn't have just…just bolted on me. I could have kept her safe if she'd just stayed by my side."

Pearl captured one of those hands reaching so hard for 'what if' and held it, feeling the ridges of scars both old and new beneath her touch. "And there's the real truth of it," the Jumi girl said softly. "If Esmeralda hadn't run off, things might have turned out differently. Would you blame her for going somewhere that meant 'safety' to her?"

The knife-fighter regarded her friend in hurt shock. "No! She thought that the teachers at the Academy could protect her! And that's what I don't get, Pearl, is why couldn't anyone in that whole damned school keep one Jumi safe! Nunuzac's supposed to be this powerful conjurer, right? How in the name of the Goddess could he have let Sandra take her?"

Pearl could feel the anguish and fury in the other female as Rei made several abortive gestures towards her knives with her free hand, but the one in her grasp only trembled from the force of the chained emotions. She gave it a gentle squeeze. "I don't know, Rei. But you can't take all of the blame for yourself, not when so many made the mistake. Not when it was Sandra who made the choice in the first place."

For a moment Pearl thought that she'd pushed too far, lanced the heart-wound poisoning her friend too deeply, as Rei stopped in her tracks with her head bowed low. For a moment, Pearl was afraid that Rei would cry and turn to stone.

But then the knife-fighter raised dry eyes to give her a weak, wobbly smile. "Good point. We all screwed up. I'm still going to blame myself."

Pearl gave Rei a sympathetic smile and tugged her into walking again. It would take them until evening to reach Lumina and the beds they would find there. Half a week to get to Geo. But for now, she had her friend safe, and was safe in return. "Rei, if you didn't feel guilty you wouldn't be called a 'good guy'. Now come on, you promised me that if we were ever in Lumina together you'd take me to meet that lamp-maker friend of yours."

Rei resisted the tug, an honest smile lighting a faint spark of pride in her eyes. "Don't bother pulling on me then," was what she said as the hand Pearl held curled to hold in return. "Just close your eyes and hang on. I finally got the hang of that transportation spell."

———

Rei nodded to Kristie as the two young women walked into the Palace of Arts in Geo. They had spent the afternoon in Lumina yesterday, Rei introducing the shy Jumi girl to the spunky Siren who was once more hard at work in her lamp shop. Pearl had oohed and ahhed over the softly-glowing creations that filled the shelves, each with its own quirky personality, and had enjoyed talking to their equally-quirky creator, Monique.

Rei had taken the opportunity to apologize for not dropping by as often as they'd agreed upon last year; Monique had only laughed and told her that it wasn't truly needed any longer. People were coming from as far away as Fieg these days to buy her lamps—so many that she was considering the hiring of an apprentice to help her keep up with demand.

The knife-fighter had also told her spunky friend about Gilbert's poor luck in getting turned into a statue at the hands of Kathinja. Monique had looked upset at the news, but had breathed a sigh of relief when Rei assured her that, although he was currently stone, Gilbert wasn't in any true danger, nor was the spell permanent. Rei just wasn't sure where to find a strong enough counterspell against it. She was looking, though, in the less-frequent moments of her spare time.

Spare time. Hah. Like Rei even had that anymore between business trips and keeping up with her apprentices. Darn it, she was supposed to be running them ragged, not the other way 'round!

But that was yesterday. Today Rei had the pleasure of watching Pearl's mouth drop open at the sight of the bronze statues that stood around the broad entrance hall. The knife-fighter grinned. "Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction. Check it out; that one's a statue of the Mana Tree." She pointed to one statue on Kristie's right, near a hulking gladiator with his weapon raised.

"Amazing!"

"I thought so, too," Rei agreed as she led the way towards the basement steps. "It's one of my favorites here in the Palace. One of these days when we're not here on business I'm going to have to bring you back here for the grand tour. Sotherbee knows every inch of this place and does great as a tour guide."

"Thank you, Miss Wei," chirped the aforementioned little fellow from his usual post by the entrance to the rest of the building. Rei waved to him as the two young women disappeared into the dusty, dim cave of the basement.

What they found there shocked them. Rei had been expecting to find the cool, elegant Diana waiting for them up on her pedestal. She found instead a glittering crystalline statue of the Jumi Guardian, carved face expressionless in what little light there was to be had. The knife-fighter was so taken aback that she halted in mid-step to stare upwards.

Pearl bumped into her from behind and murmured an apology before she noticed Rei's frozen astonishment. She stood on tiptoe to peer around her friend, mouth forming a silent 'oh' in understanding. "Diana…crystallized?" came her soft murmur as she inched by for a closer look. The Jumi girl ran light fingertips up one stone arm and rested for a moment on the gleaming, sparkling piece of cold fire that was Diana's core, safe and sound in its place. "What should we do, Rei?"

Her name snapped the knife-fighter out of her daze and let her plant both feet solidly on the floor. "Well, I know we don't need to panic yet," was the shaky reply. For a moment she'd thought that they'd been too late before she'd remembered that Jumi whose cores were stolen didn't turn to stone; they simply vanished. "Diana's alright, if not quite the way I left her. And there hasn't been rumor of a note so the jewel hunter can't be here."

Pearl nodded, accepting the words that had been meant to reassure their speaker as much as Pearl herself. "So we're all right," she agreed. "After all, you're with me." The spontaneous hug that won her from her friend made her smile; such gestures were still rare, especially after the loss of Esmeralda. Returning the hug, Pearl said, "Alright! Let's go ask those two up there what happened."

It was a willing knife-fighter that followed the Jumi girl up the steps and back into the bright world of the surface, and who took up a place near Pearl when the Jumi went over to talk to Kristie. Green eyes flickered around constantly, because for all of her reassurances Rei knew that Sandra had to be nearby. And she was determined that the jewel hunter would not succeed again.

"Excuse me," Pearl said as her friend went into high alert somewhere just behind her. "Do you know why Diana turned to stone?"

Kristie blinked, a gesture that was echoed by the two large eye-jewels pinned up in her elaborate hairstyle. "Diana?" she echoed blankly. A heartbeat later her face cleared. "Oh, you mean that diamond Venus statue. I don't know either."

"I once heard that Jumi who close their hearts off turn to stone," offered Sotherbee in a helpful tone. "Perhaps that is what happened?"

Rei blinked as Pearl propped her hands on her hips, startled by the sudden appearance of a much-sterner personality than she was used to. "That's not right," Pearl told the confused butler in a firm voice that was totally uncharacteristic for her. "It's a ceremony of choosing partners. One Jumi first gathers keys of the heart. Then the Jumi awakens a stone Guardian in order to become her Knight."

"She," declared Kristie in her slow drawl, "is acting weird."

Sotherbee perked up, figuring it out. "It's one of them, madam," he squeaked. "A Jumi."

All of Kristie's languor vanished as the female basilisk sat up with sharp interest. "What? She is?"

Rei grinned as the new, firmer attitude vanished under the scrutiny, leaving a red-faced Pearl to clap her hands over her mouth in dismay. There was the Pearl she knew and loved. Blushing furiously, Pearl quickly stammered a denial and turned to the golden-haired sprite. "You're looking for keys of the heart, right, Rei? Okay, let's go!"

And she chivvied them out the front doors as Rei's warm laughter pooled in the corners of the entry hall.

"Smooth, Pearl, very smooth," grinned the sprite woman once they'd reached the main street of Geo. "I doubt they suspect a thing."

Pearl blushed a deeper shade of crimson, batting at her friend as they walked towards the marketplace in search of some shade to escape from the late summer sun. The two fell into silence for a few minutes until Rei spotted the sign for the instruments shop that she'd been meaning to visit since the day she'd talked to Kathinja's students. With a quick word the knife-fighter guided them both into the cool, dim exterior—and her eyes fell on a gleaming golden key sitting out in plain sight on one of the display drums.

"Pearl, is that…?"

Pearl's eyes lit in recognition. "A key…!" she breathed, a shiver of light rippling from her core. "And my core is shining! That must be a key of the heart…"

Rei needed no other encouragement to scoop the pretty bauble up to get a closer look. It was one of those old-fashioned keys, obviously meant for a large, uncomplicated lock; it nearly glowed in Rei's hands as the small gem set in the filigree top winked up at her.

No one noticed the quiet voice that murmured, "This is the key of pain. Just a part of Diana's heart."

Instead, Pearl had focused a bemused look at the key resting in her friend's hands. "But I don't think this is the only one…" she said softly to herself. "How strange…Why do I think so?" Her core flickered twice and she nodded as if listening to something beyond Rei's own hearing. "Two more to go."

Rei looked up at that. "You're sure?"

Pearl nodded. "Yes. I'm not sure how or where we should look next, though."

"I wonder…" Rei was thoughtful as she closed her eyes to pin down the idea niggling at her. "I wonder if they're called to places where power lies?"

"Power?"

Rei gestured at the instruments lining the walls. "These are all enchanted pieces. Every single one of them was made with the power of one elemental or another. What if the other keys can be found where other such sources of Mana have gathered?"

Pearl thought about that for a moment before she made a noise of agreement. "It's a sound theory to work with, which is more than what we had a minute ago. Where do you suggest we go?"

Rei strode purposefully out of the shop. "Follow me."

———

Mephianse looked up from his papers when a familiar blond head poked around the doorway of his office. It had been a while since he'd seen her; not since that tragic incident below the Palace of Arts involving the jewel thief and one of the students, if he remembered correctly. She seemed a little careworn and less infernally cheerful than she had been, but she appeared to have found herself another companion to travel with.

Or so he guessed when a light brown head peered shyly around the blond, aquamarine eyes lighting. "A key to her heart!" said the stranger, darting into the room and up to the far corner of his desk to where a golden key sparkled and shone.

"Pearl, you should really ask permission before you go barging into someone's office," Rei scolded half-heartedly, looking to Mephianse for a nod or something.

He willingly gave it, looking to the one addressed as 'Pearl'. "Can you see it?" he inquired, mildly curious. The key had appeared on his desk a few days ago and had persisted in acting as a paperweight no matter how many times he'd shifted it to a drawer or letterbox.

Pearl nodded, key already clasped to her chest. "Um…" she ventured, "can we have this?"

Mephianse waved a heavy-nailed hand in dismissal. "Go ahead, take it. It means nothing to me." And if it meant getting something like that out of his office before one of the more reckless students found it, then all the better. Especially if it was related at all to the Jumi. He did not need Nunuzac dropping any further into depression.

Pearl in the meantime thanked him and paused, head tilted as an uneasy expression flickered through her dreamy eyes. "I feel…like I'm being watched. But just one more to go…I guess."

Mephianse did not bother to watch them leave. He had more important things to do than keep an eye on two young women, no matter how much trouble liked following at the heels of one of them.

———

The last key was not actually in the city itself, but on the terrace just outside the main gates. Rei remembered a scorching afternoon and a blaze of light and mentally chided herself for being surprised. Turning someone to stone must leave quite the stain of magic, so it made sense that the third key of the heart would be lying where Kathinja had stood all those months ago.

Pearl scooped it up with a sigh of relief, holding it up to the light. And for the third time she heard a voice that was from no place she could discern that told her, "This is the key of pride. It's just a part of Diana's heart."

Pearl turned to the knife-fighter shading her eyes against the sunlight. "Did you hear something?"

Eyebrows raised, Rei shook her head no. "Nothing but the winds. Why?"

The Jumi girl fidgeted. "Maybe it's my imagination," she said at last. "It looks like this is the last one. Let's go see Diana."

But when the two pattered down into the Palace of Art's basement, they found Diana gone, her pedestal empty. Rei's heart was skipping madly and in a very unpleasant fashion as she and Pearl sprinted back up the stairs to talk to Kristie and Sotherbee.

"The Venus statue," Rei ground out between clenched teeth. "Where is it?"

Elegant eyebrows lifted as Kristie gave her a measuring, artfully casual look and shrugged. "We moved the Venus statue to the arena below. There's a new shipment of pieces coming in tomorrow and we needed the room."

Rei didn't even respond to the hint of challenge in the basilisk woman's eyes; it was Pearl who bobbed a thank-you as she chased after Rei as the knife-fighter disappeared back into the gloom. It was only when they found the crystalline shape of Diana in the darkened arena underneath the basement that Rei drew her first steady breath in minutes.

Pearl was looking around her with her nose wrinkled in displeasure. "What a lousy place…" she muttered to herself, seeing only cold, rough stones and the few torches that had been left to burn on the walls.

A warm, welcome voice echoed out from the stairwell, making both women start in surprise. "Did you find the keys to her heart?" inquired Elazul, coming forward into the light. Rei couldn't help but wonder at the perfection of his timing as one hand drifted down to wrap itself around the hilt of a knife in echo of her suspicions. It was too pat, too perfect…oh, who was she kidding? There was a piece of her soul with Elazul's name written on it that grinned like a cat that had made off with a whole can of cream when those blue eyes of his met hers. Sandra was good, but she would never be able to fool those instincts.

Meanwhile Pearl had gone to hug him, smiling just as happily as that weird link was at the sight of him. "Elazul! Were you looking for them, too?"

The Jumi Knight nodded, hugging her back for a moment before offering an approaching Rei a crooked half-smile. "Hi."

"Hello, yourself," she replied steadily. The half-smile faded a little at her lack of exuberance and the Knight straightened out of long-ingrained habit. "How did you get here so soon?"

The quirk of his mouth bloomed into a full smile. "The same way you did, I imagine. You didn't think I was watching you so closely during those teleportations just because you looked good casting them, did you?"

Rei's mouth twitched. Score: Elazul. "All right, smart ass. Tell us what's going on here if you're so smart."

Elazul's gaze pulled itself to the glittering statue as all merriment fled. "Before Diana could meet us," he said softly, "she turned herself into stone to avoid being killed by the jewel hunter. Try a key."

Pearl looked to Rei, who lifted an eyebrow in reply and pulled out the one and only key that she had picked up, to touch it against the point of fire that was Diana's frozen core. The tiny star of light winking on the key's emerald accent blazed into a nova that forced Rei's eyes shut against it. A rippling arpeggio rang a song of freedom against the knife-fighter's Mana senses as the key vanished from her hand.

Blinking away the spots, Rei found Diana gazing at her in utter serenity. "You found my soul," she murmured, voice approving. Looking around her, the Diamond Jumi spotted the other two and nodded greeting. "Thank you all for coming."

Cores flashed in greeting. Within a heartbeat or two Rei, Elazul and Pearl had all gathered in front of Diana, the Lazuli Knight speaking first. "What did you want to tell us, Diana? The truth about the jewel hunter?"

The elegant coif dipped in reply. "Yes. But first I must explain the jewel hunter's motive, revenge against the Jumi."

"Revenge?" breathed Pearl, eyes going wide.

Diana nodded again, then turned her head to stare unblinking at Rei. "You too will listen, right?"

The knife-fighter shrugged, resettling her blades on her hips. "I don't know why you think I wouldn't after I've come this far."

That won a tiny smile from the woman before them. "Very well. In ages past, the Jumi were once called the race of friendship. This was because they tried to preserve themselves by giving tears to the wounded. Tears composed of life itself..."

Pearl shivered a little at that as a fragment of memory settled into place. "Tears of healing…Teardrop crystals."

But when the age of massive Jumi hunting was over," Diana continued as though she hadn't heard, "...they changed to preserve themselves. So that they could no longer cry, nor give life to others. And so the Jumi cut themselves off from other races and lived hidden in a city of their own."

"The Bejeweled City?" asked Elazul.

Diana sighed at the name. "Yes."

"And then she kidnapped Florina," rang Sandra's voice from the dark-clad rafters near the ceiling, "the only Jumi who could still heal with tears, and started a war with Deathbringer!"

"The jewel hunter!" squeaked Pearl before Elazul yanked her behind him, his sword hissing from its sheath.

"Sandra!" snarled the Knight in fury, echoed by the sprite growling audibly beside him. Diana only stared up into the shadows with her hands clapped over her mouth in growing panic.

"Quite a woman. Started a total war with Deathbringer using Florina as a sacrifice. That's right. As long as we had Florina's tears, the Jumi were invincible. So what will become of Florina?" Sandra's voice was mocking even as Rei searched the impenetrable darkness of the ceiling for some hint of orange or green.

Diana, in the meantime, had pulled her hands away from her mouth in surprise. "That must mean that Florina is still alive," she breathed. "That's wonderful. Bring her here immediately. There children will need her tears."

Stunned at the sheer callousness of those words, Rei broke off her visual hunt to stare at the Diamond Jumi. Surely she hadn't just heard Diana offer up an innocent to an unnecessary death? I mean, there isn't any war! the sprite thought to herself in shock. Why would they need such a precious thing for scrapes and bruises that aren't caused by anything worse than a potion blowing up in their face? Bud does just fine without them!

Elazul and Pearl were staring at their leader with similar pole-axed expressions, which didn't make Rei feel any better.

A moment more of silence passed before Sandra's voice came again. "Why…?" asked the hunter in a voice almost too soft to hear. "Why must the gentle Florina have the life squeezed out of her, only to die?"

"Such is the Jumi's way of survival," Diana called up imperiously. "Florina does not object."

Sandra snarled, "Shut up!" as she dropped down from her hiding place by use of her grappling hook and reached for Diana's core. "I'll do the same to you!"

"Wait!" Pearl cried, leaping forward around her Knight to grab Sandra's arm. "We mustn't kill her," she told startled green eyes. "We still have to get our tears back."

Elazul stared at his Guardian wrapped around the arm of the person who had murdered so many of his people and wondered when she had gotten so headstrong. "Pearl…"

Pearl hurriedly added, feeling muscles tense under her grasp, "No one is saved through hatred. We must love each other like we did ages ago."

"If so, then why don't you cry?" demanded Sandra, pulling her arm free and shoving Pearl away. "You'll become the sacrifice instead of Florina!" And she flung one of her deadly calling cards at the gentle Guardian. Pearl barely twisted out of the direct path, taking instead a glancing blow across her core as Sandra reached over and ripped Diana's from her chest. She gave Rei one cocky grin as she vanished up the grappling hook, taking her rope and another life with her.

"Diana!" rose from three different throats as those left standing burst into motion. Rei caught Diana before the Jumi woman could hit the ground, Elazul doing the same with Pearl even as Sandra's voice mocked them one more time.

"Impossible! You couldn't even protect your own Guardian!"

As Elazul helped Pearl to her feet, Diana looked with clouding eyes up into hurting emerald ones. "One light is hidden by another…" she murmured, reaching up to rest a cool hand against Rei's cheek. "Only Blackpearl can stop her…Find her!"

Rei could only nod helplessly as the woman in her arms incandesced and was gone, leaving a hole in the knife-fighter's heart shaped remarkably like the one that Rubens' death had made. She couldn't even meet Elazul's gaze as they rose, the fading traces of Diana's presence tingling across her fingertips.

The Knight swore under his breath, snatching the brooch off of his hood and smashing it on the ground in a small venting of temper. He didn't pay a hint of attention when it reformed in its place as though he'd never broken it. Pearl knelt at his feet, staring numbly up at her friend who was flexing her fingers as though to get rid of a 'pins and needles' feeling.

Another soft oath drew both women's attention as Elazul knelt down and picked up something that gleamed softly in the torchlight. It was a ring, set with a stone that glowed a bright grass green even in what little light there was. "Look, Pearl," the Knight murmured, crouching beside his Guardian and showing her the gem. "See what Diana left…"

Running the tip of one finger across the faint scratch on her core, Pearl blinked as the shift in light changed the stone from green to purple. "It's a different color…"

"We need to think," Elazul said, mostly to himself but also to Pearl. "About ourselves, Jumi, and the jewel hunter."

"Yes…"

Elazul stood, turning away from Rei to speak in a voice harsh with the tears his body had never been able to make. "You should consider this too, Rei. If you're going to cut us loose, do it now."

Rei thought that she made an admirable effort not to rip up a paving stone to whack him over the head with. Instead, she took a long, deep breath through her nose and watched as Elazul's shoulders hunched in anticipation of a well-deserved shout. "I told Sandra, and I told Blackpearl, and I told Bud and everyone else who tells me to dump the Jumi by the wayside," she replied in as calm a voice as she could manage, "the same thing that I'm going to tell you. And Goddess help you if you ever forget it, Elazul, because if you ever say that to me again I will pound you from here to Fieg and back again. If I was going to abandon my friends, I never would have helped in the first place. Moron."

Elazul felt his face grow warm from the unexpected insult, delivered as a stinging rebuke that he knew he deserved. He would have thought a little less of her if she'd taken him up on that offer—but some part of him desperately wished she would.

After all, that would mean she was safe, and not running headlong down a path that would only get her killed.

A path she was on only because he hadn't been able to refuse a hand offered in friendship at a time when he'd desperately wanted help. Foolish, stupid Jumi!

If he could have cried, he would have, then, and he felt grief closing his throat when he admitted out loud, "I…I shouldn't have brought you into this." And his traitorous feet carried him out of the darkened arena.

But not before he heard Rei reply quietly, "Funny, Elazul. I thought I was the one who brought myself into this, all those months ago."

Rei sighed, turning to gaze at Pearl, who for once gazed back without a hint of her usual shyness. "Goodbye," was all the Jumi girl said as she went after her heartbroken knight.

Her friend's voice followed her, spoken into the quiet of the empty arena to rub against stone and the soft hisses of torches alight. "I've seen the others down in Underworld. They haven't given up hope. So why should we?"

Pearl wished she had the answer.

———

So, another piece of the Jumi Arc falls into place. Only a dozen or so major quest pieces left, and a few minor ones, and this story will be finished at last. Can you believe it?