Elazul gaped at me. Obviously, he'd never expected to hear from her again, but that wasn't the whole of it. He knew something about this group of people, and hearing that Sandra was among them and giving out warnings to people who happened to pick up their medicine must have been a very shocking discovery.

"I think she's on our side," I said quietly.

Elazul simply tightened his pursed lips more. "When will we really have peace?" he asked, quietly, looking at the sky.

"What?" I asked, catching his words but absentmindedly asking him anyway.

He looked at me. "I've never known a time of peace in my life," he said. "I was born during the age of Jumi-hunting, I lived through the war with Deathbringer, and I was knighted at about the same time we became aware of Sandra's existence. That time in the desert that Blackpearl told us about… it was the last time anyone saw either of them. Pearl became my guardian, and Alexandra became the jewel hunter full-time. These past couple of months have been the most peaceful I've known."

I remained silent, not sure what to say. I didn't know what it was like to live like that… it seemed that most of what I had known was my peaceful world under my tree. I felt the proverbial brick hit me in the head with the fact that I didn't know pain and suffering nearly as much as he did.

Elazul immediately sensed my discomfort. "I'm sorry," he apologized.

"Don't worry about it," I mumbled.

The air suddenly full of awkward silence, we hurried up the remaining tiers to the throne room of the Clarius--Florina.

"Quiet when we enter," Elazul whispered. "They might not quite be finished with Lisa."

I felt my stomach grow uncomfortable; I trusted the Jumi, but I was so worried about Lisa, what had happened to her, and who was responsible.

We swung the doors open, and Elazul pointed to a bench near the door, where we both sat down.

The room was deadly quiet. I saw that Florina had moved from her cushioned throne and was standing beside Diana, the Jumi's leader. Pearl, my dear friend and the Jumi guardian, was leaning over Lisa, murmuring in her soft voice and obviously performing some kind of ritual that only the ancient Jumi would know.

Pearl's voice made me feel a bit better. It had been awhile since I'd heard it, and it brought back memories… not all of them were good memories (Pearl had been killed by Sandra when I'd thought she'd be safe, and it was only the fact that all the Jumi were alive again that had saved my mental sanity. After all, they had asked me to choose.), but Pearl and I had had some real adventures together, all right. I'd never forget the ordeal in the Tower of Leires…

Her voice stopped, and I snapped out of my reminiscing. I looked up, and saw her smiling face. "Lisa will be fine," she said, her voice as soft as I remembered it. She looked tired.

"Pearl…" I began. "You don't know how grateful I--"

"After all you have done for us, Leora," she told me, "It's nothing. Really." She sat down beside me. "Though that was a particularly complicated version of the Jumi's curse performed on her. It took all three of us this long to crack it."

"Did you sleep?" I asked, alarmed. If anyone should have had to stay awake, it should have been me.

"In shifts," Pearl said. "We're fine." She paused, then said, "But it's been so long, Leora! How have you been doing?"

I forced a smile. "Well, up until two days ago, great."

Her expression grew serious. "Yes, I heard from Bud."

"Would you believe he's still asleep in the room we gave him?" Elazul asked. "He was so restless last night that he stayed up, pacing, and telling anyone who would listen about what happened to his sister?"

"He seemed pretty upbeat during the brief time I saw him," Pearl said, "but I could tell he really was worried about Lisa."

I nodded. "So much has happened the past few days… we all need to talk." I looked around. "Somewhere else, if you please," I added, a bit uncomfortable. I cast a glance at Florina and Diana, who were deep in hushed conversation at the other end of the room.

We all stood up, and Pearl spoke. "Now is not the best of times…" Elazul nodded, agreeing with her silently. "It's been a long night;" she continued, "we're all tired and stressed, and we could both do with refreshing ourselves." She met my eyes and smiled.

"I certainly could use it," I admitted. "I need to unwind. Yesterday was nothing but stress, piled upon stress."

"Then," Pearl said, "please let me lead you to a place you can stay. They didn't want to move you last night, but you may stay in the same housing unit where we've got Bud. You can freshen up there."

"Then," Elazul said. "Why don't we meet on the terrace in front of there in an hour?"

"Sounds good," I told him.

"Indeed," Pearl agreed.

Pearl led me to the little cave-house, and I shut myself in its little bathroom. The bathtub was nothing more than a fountain, continuously pouring lukewarm water into its base in an endless cycle, but I found it strangely euphoric. I undid my hair and bathed quickly, scrubbing myself with the rough cloth that I found there. I then massaged soap throughout my hair and rinsed it, then stepped out, dried off, wrapped the provided robe around myself, and re-combed my hair. Once it was fairly dry, I put it back up and dressed myself again.

I had not taken the full hour we had agreed on, so I explored the rest of the little house. Bud was asleep in one tiny bedroom (with two twin beds) and there was one other room that was unoccupied. I found that someone had brought all my things into that room, so I took the opportunity to change into some clean clothing, then dug through my packed bag until I found the diary I nearly always kept. I then exited the house, and found the terrace that had been the appointed meeting place.

Snow was now gently falling, but it was not as cold as it had been, and the flakes lying upon the bejeweled road was a truly beautiful sight. I sat down on one of three ceramic benches around a small table of the same material, and a particularly large emerald glinted at me.

I opened my little diary, and with a pen I had pocketed, began to write. I described in detail yesterday's journey on the road, and how worried I'd been about Lisa, and though I was scared for her, how nice it was to see Elazul and Pearl again.

I had just began to describe my current surroundings when Elazul showed up.

"You're early," I commented.

"Not as early as you," he said, taking a seat. "Listen, Leora… when Pearl gets here, I think I should tell her about Sandra."

"But--" I began to protest.

"Blackpearl isn't going to be as hostile towards Sandra as you think," Elazul told me. "Now, looking back on it, she recognizes that Sandra was only trying to help, in her own way. And if I tell her, you won't be breaking your word, right?"

"I suppose not…" I said, letting my eyes trail off to the sky. Was all of the fighting going to start up again? Would there ever be peace for these people? They had no chance of survival if, every time a threat to them was defeated, a new one emerged…

"You look worried," Elazul said, concerned. "More than you did before."

"What's going to happen to the Jumi?" I sighed. "Are you all going to die out?"

"I hope not," Elazul murmured. "We haven't even had much of a chance to preserve our lineage yet."

I figured he meant the Jumi having babies, but since we were here to talk about more serious things, I suppressed my sudden urge to start teasing him about Pearl.

"I won't let you die off," I told him.

"It worked last time," Elazul murmured. "Most of the Jumi who never met you face-to-face before I met you nearly worship you. They sometimes refer to you as the savior."

"Savior?" I laughed. "Me? I'm just nosy."

"Yeah," Elazul said, cracking a smile, "you are pretty nosy."

We both laughed a little bit.

"Hello," called a voice. We looked up, and saw Pearl approaching. She sat down on the remaining bench and smiled softly. "If you're ready, then, Leora, I hope you'll relate your story to me?"

"I know I mentioned Rubens earlier," Elazul said, "but don't worry about that--he was the first person to pop into my head, but I always forget about how Blackpearl might know these things, too."

I nodded. "Obviously, all of this means something," I said, "but I'd appreciate it if no one interrupted me until I am finished." They nodded. I was glad; I was having enough trouble keeping my head together as it was.

I cleared my throat and launched into my tale about Lisa falling ill and my going to Domina to buy her medicine. I described the harpies, and "Alessa," and Ianthe in detail, and how they'd tried to read my cards, but I'd walked away. I didn't mention, however, what had been in the cards. I then elaborated on how they'd given me hallucinogen for medicine--but I didn't mention who had told me exactly what it was. I then told them how I'd packed up the cart to leave for the Jumi city, and how Ianthe had put the Jumi's curse on Lisa, and I'd rushed here.

"And that's it," I said. "That's basically what happened."

"Basically," Pearl said, kindly but seriously, "but Leora, I know there's a hole in your story--for what reason would you need to come here so urgently before Lisa was cursed?"

I wet my lips, nervously. I didn't really know what was going on or why Sandra was with them, but she'd told me not to tell Blackpearl… and Blackpearl and Pearl were now one and the same--Elazul's sweet guardian with the handy power to transform into a frightening-looking woman with one mean hammer… but Elazul said that Blackpearl would not be hostile towards Alexandra…

"I'll explain," Elazul said. "That way, you won't be breaking your word."

I nodded, dumbly. "Sure," I muttered.

"Their Piper," Elazul said slowly, "seems to be a spy for our side, even though this little war has yet to break out."

"Yes," Pearl said, motioning for him to continue.

"Leora is sure--and I trust her--that it's Alexandra."