I managed to keep Elazul and Pearl from my mind for about a week, but one morning, Bud and Lisa insisted on bringing them up at the breakfast table.
"Why didn't Elazul and Pearl come back with you?" Lisa asked me, her eyes wide.
I looked up at her from slicing open a honey onion. "They need to be on their own, I guess," I replied. "Elazul's got a mission, and Pearl..." Could I tell them about Blackpearl? "Pearl's his partner. They can't do what they've set out to do hiding out here forever."
Bud spread butter and honey on his toast. "But they're Jumi," he said critically. "Some of the very last ones. What if they get killed?"
My heart caught in my throat; I didn't want to think about anything like that. Though I might never see them again, they were truly great friends of mine. Pearl had proved so bright and bubbly when she finally opened up to me, and Elazul was a lot nicer a person than he pretended to be. I guess he had to put up the cold surface in public, but the unfeeling Elazul was not the true Elazul.
I sat down in front of my toast, buttered a slice, then picked up a jar. It was strangely light. I opened it up and looked inside, then up at the elven twins. "All right," I said to them. "Who went through all the diceberry jam? They're not in season right now; this was supposed to last us the whole month!"
Neither of them spoke up.
"This jar was three-quarters full yesterday," I persisted. Still, no one said anything.
I stood up. "All right, then," I said. "I'll just trade for some at market today. But one of you has to come with me, I need help."
I packed up all my summer produce in a cart, hooked up Truffle, the Chocobo, and hopped up onto his back. Bud, chosen to go with me, rode in front of me. When we got to Domina, I set up my stall and began to mark prices. I had tons of mush-in-a-boxes and pine o'clocks, so I made those the deal for the day. I also strung minute honey onions from the ceiling and advertised larger ones upon request.
Around noon, when we'd sold about half of the wares, I took some of the money we'd made and ambled over to another booth. "Have you got diceberry jam?" I asked.
The petit old woman behind the counter smiled. "I certainly have," she said, "but I'm afraid it's not exactly cheap."
"How much?" I asked.
"150 Lucre per jar," she said. "I know it's terribly expensive, but since diceberries aren't in season..."
"It's all right," I told her, pulling out three 100 Lucre coins. "I'll take two jars."
As I turned around, I thought I caught a glimpse of a sandy-green cape... my heart leaped, and I took a few steps away. I smiled to myself, crazy, as I saw the two braids in the back of the head of the girl who was following him. Elazul and Pearl! I had to go see them. Rushing back to the booth, I gave the jars to Bud. "Here, take these," I said. "Don't you dare eat them! I've got business to attend to."
Bud looked alarmed. "How long will you be gone?" he asked.
"I don't know," I told him. "Just be good, will you?"
With that, I ran back to the pub. There was Elazul, in his usual corner, accompanied by Pearl. He smiled upon seeing me.
"I want to visit Diana in Geo," he said, "so, I was hoping perhaps you could take Pearl."
"Sure!" I said, enthusiastically.
"Thank you," Elazul told me, relief on his face. "I feel safe knowing you're watching over her. "There is a place I must visit," he explained. "You go on ahead. Pearl, be careful."
"Okay," Pearl said. "You too, Elazul."
Elazul nodded, and was off.
"Elazul thinks it's his fault that he failed to protect Esmeralda." Pearl explained.
I frowned. "It wasn't his fault, it was mine," I mumbled. "I was supposed to be her knight."
"You couldn't help it," Pearl said. "She left your side at the worst possible time."
That was true. I felt a bit better after that. We walked back to market, and explained to Bud that I was taking Pearl to Geo. Then we began to walk back to my home to pack some food. Just in front of the town's exit, however, we saw a piece of paper float down in front of us. I gasped and Pearl suppressed a scream.
I picked up the paper, carefully, fearing the worst. "Venus' heart will be mine. Catch me if you can, Jumi-lover."
"What's it say?" Pearl asked, anxiously.
"She's not after you," I told her. "She's after... Venus?" I remembered back to my reading about gems and the Jumi. Venus wasn't the name of a person, it was the name of a stone. That stone was... a diamond! "Diana!" I cried. "Pearl, we've got to get to Geo right now. We can't risk going back to my house, in those few hours it could be too late!"
Pearl quivered. "What about food?" she asked.
"I have money," I said. "We'll buy some there."
Even though the main roads were often busy with carts, we went this way anyway. We were on foot, after all, so traffic wasn't so bad. At one point, though, we managed to hitch a ride with someone. He only went as far as Polpota, but the harbor town was near enough to Geo. We reached there about six in the afternoon.
"Where is Diana?" Pearl inquired.
"The Palace of Arts," I replied. "I'll take you there, come on."
We reached the palace; I was relieved to see it wasn't closed. I entered, smiled to Kristie and Sotherbee a bit, then went down to the warehouse with Pearl.
"She was right..." I began. My voice trailed off when I saw what had happened.
"Diana...crystallized?" Pearl asked, in confusion. Indeed, the beautiful, petit Jumi woman had turned completely into a Diamond statue. I would have thought it exquisite if I hadn't known that it was a real woman. I hoped Kristie wouldn't sell her. "What should we do?" Pearl wondered.
"I have no idea," I confessed. I knew nothing of the reason Diana had become a statue.
"Don't say that," Pearl said, her core shining. "All right! Let's ask those two up there what happened."
We tromped up the stairs, Pearl a few steps ahead of me. "Do you know why Diana turned into stone?" she asked Kristie.
Kristie looked confused for a moment, then her eyes lit up. "Oh, that diamond Venus statue?" she asked. "I don't know either."
"I once heard," Sotherbee piped up, "that Jumi who cwose off their hearts turn to stone."
Pearl's face brightened. "That's not right," she said. Sotherbee looked confused, so she continued. "It's a ceremony of choosing partners. One Jumi first gathers keys of the heart. Then the Jumi awakens a stone guardian to become her knight.
Kristie leaned in towards her steward. "She is acting weird..." she whispered in uncertainty.
"It's one of them, madam," Sotherbee told her. "A Jumi."
"What?" Kristie asked, studying Pearl. "She is..?"
Pearl gulped. "Uhh... huh? Me?" she pointed to herself, then turned to me. "You're looking for keys of the heart, right? Okay, let's go!" blushing, she pulled me by the wrist out of the palace.
"Why would Diana do such a thing?" I asked Pearl. Silently, I wondered. Diana had said she wanted the jewel hunter to take her core...perhaps the keys were meant for the jewel hunter. But that didn't make sense... the keys were meant for a Jumi!
Pearl shrugged. "Maybe to protect herself," she answered. I didn't tell her my theory. Pearl then suggested we search the city for the keys.
"What if someone's picked them up?" I asked. "Others may be looking for the keys, like--" I caught a glance of Pearl's expression "--Elazul, maybe," I finished. She relaxed. I, though, had other thoughts. The jewel hunter, for one. For another, anyone in town could have picked up a key, wondering what it was.
Pearl didn't seem to be having any of these ideas at all. Her core shining, she continued through the city, clutching my wrist. Leading me into the instrument shop, her eyes lit up. A golden key lay surprisingly inconspicuously atop a leather drum. "A key!" Pearl breathed. "My core is shining! That must be a key of the heart..."
iThis is the key of pain. Just a part of Diana's heart./i
I looked around. Had I heard something?
"But I don't think this is the only one..." Pearl said. "How strange. Why do I think so?" She shut her eyes, and her core flashed twice. "Looks like there are two more."
After much searching, we finally located a second key outside the city's gate. It lay on one of the stairs, as if it had been haphazardly discarded. I pointed it out to Pearl.
"It's a key," she confirmed.
iThis is the key of pride. Just a part of Diana's heart./i
"Did you hear something?" Pearl asked me. I was about to nod, but she cut me off. "Maybe it's just my imagination." Her core gave a reassuring sparkle. "Just one more... Where should we look?"
"Hmm..." I said, resting my head in my hands. "Where else is there to look? Maybe... oh! The principal of the academy had one of Esmeralda's sisters... maybe he'll have a key!" I realized happily that today was Dryad day; we'd be able to search his office without any trouble. We walked to the academy together, and, after making doubly sure that Mephianse was in the classroom, tiptoed into his office.
The key was sitting out in the open on his desk.
"A key to her heart!" Pearl exclaimed. "You were right, Leora!"
iThis is the key of hate. It's just a part of Diana's heart./i
"I feel...like I'm being watched." Pearl said.
I tensed up. What if Sandra was nearby? "Are you sure?" I asked her. Pearl shrugged. "Stay close to me, anyway," I told her.
Pearl nodded. "Looks like that's it. Let's go see Diana."
When we got back to the palace, Kristie was kind enough to tell us, "We moved the Venus statue to the arena below."
I remembered the place; it was where Sandra had taken Esmeralda. I shuddered. Now was not the time to be thinking about that particular failure on my part. I needed to concentrate on protecting Pearl and Diana.
"What a lousy place..." Pearl murmured, when we arrived.
"Did you find the keys to her heart?" came a male voice. Pearl and I turned around.
"Elazul!" Pearl exclaimed. We both breathed a sigh of relief. "Were you looking for them too?"
"Before Diana could meet us," he explained, "she turned herself to stone to avoid being killed by the jewel hunter. Try a key..."
Pearl removed all the keys from her pocket and held them in front of Diana. They shimmered and disappeared. The diamond statue glowed... and the gem-like shimmer seemed to simply wear off. When this was finished, Diana stood before us, restored.
"You found my soul," she stated. "Thank you all for coming." All three Jumi's cores blinked in unison.
"What did you want to say?" Elazul asked her. "The truth about the jewel hunter?"
Diana nodded. "Yes. But first I must explain the jewel hunter's motive, revenge against the Jumi."
"Revenge..?" Pearl asked, meekly.
"You, too, will listen, right?" she asked me.
"I will," I told her, nodding.
"In ages past," Diana began, "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..."
"Tears of healing," murmured Pearl. "Teardrop crystals..."
"But when the age of massive Jumi hunting was over," continued the noble Jumi, "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 in a hidden city of their own."
"The Bejeweled City?" Elazul asked, rhetorically.
"Yes," Diana replied, smiling mildly.
"And then," came a new voice, "she kidnapped Florina, the only Jumi who could heal with tears, and started a war with Deathbringer!" All four of us froze. We all knew that voice.
"The jewel hunter!" Pearl cried.
"Sandra!" growled Elazul.
"Quite a woman," Sandra continued. "Started a total war with Deathbringer, using Florina as a sacrifice. That's right. As long as we have Florina's tears, the Jumi are invincible. So, what will become of Florina?"
"That must mean that Florina is still alive," Diana said serenely. "That's wonderful. Bring her here immediately," she commanded. "These children will need her tears."
Elazul fingered his cracked core. I wondered why Diana was telling Sandra what to do. Did she have that power?
"Why..?" Sandra growled. "Why must the gentle Florina have her life squeezed out of her, only to die?"
"Such is the Jumi's way of survival," Diana told her. "Florina does not object."
"Shut up!" Sandra screamed. Finally, she revealed herself and swung down from the ceiling, landing in front of Diana. "I'll do the same to you!"
"Wait!" Pearl cried. Sandra glared at her sharply. "We mustn't kill her. We still have to get our tears back." Pearl's voice shook, and I admired her bravery.
"Pearl..." Elazul whispered.
"No one is saved through hatred," the quivering girl continued. "We must love each other like we did ages ago."
"If so," Sandra spat, "why don't you cry!? You'd become the sacrifice instead of Florina!" In that instant, Sandra shot a small, sharp blade at Pearl, who fell to the ground and snatched Diana's core.
"Diana!" cried Elazul and Pearl.
Sandra pulled out her grappling hook and climbed up into the darkness. "Impossible," she concluded, still speaking to Pearl. "You couldn't even protect your own guardian!"
"Diana!" Pearl cried.
Diana gulped, and uttered her dying words. "One light... is hidden by another... Only Blackpearl can stop her... Find her!"
Elazul ran up to Diana, but it was too late. She disappeared in a flash of dazzling light. Elazul ripped the blue decoration from his helmet and threw it to the floor, where it shattered. "Dammit!" he cursed.
Pearl said nothing, but staggered to her feet. Sandra had not harmed her core; she would be all right.
Noticing something, Elazul knelt down by the spot where Diana had stood. "Look, Pearl!" he whispered. "See what Diana left!"
Elazul pointed to a green gemstone on the floor. Pearl knelt down next to him and gazed at it. Suddenly, the stone changed from green to purple.
"It's a different color..." Pearl said, enchanted.
"We need to think...about ourselves, Jumi, and the jewel hunter," Elazul told her.
"Yes," Pearl agreed.
Elazul stood up, looked at me, then turned his back. "You should consider, too... If you are going to cut us loose, do it now. I..." he paused, and his voice cracked. "I shouldn't have brought you into this." With that, he left the room.
Pearl stood up, fingering the stone that had been left behind. "Goodbye," she told me, softly.
I hugged her briefly, and told her to be careful. Pearl smiled serenely, then ran off to join Elazul.
All the pieces of the puzzle were now falling into place. A unique stone that Diana had left behind... green by day, purple by night... Stones without sparkle... revenge... the jewel hunter...
Sandra, and Alex the jeweler too; it had to be him...
Alexandrite.