Cid surveyed the gathered companions from his seat at Ryn's right hand.
They sat round Sagar's gambling table, an oblong covered in green felt with black and red grids and markings to indicate where cards and chips were placed for various games, and a roulette wheel built into the centre—the only flat surface on the ship around which the companions could hold counsel. Cid supposed that skypirates didn't tend to sit together for formal mealtimes to chat about the day's social events or the weather forecast for tomorrow.
Quel had the floor. "I discovered many things in my wanderings around Mid during the last eleven years, and given I…" He paused for a moment, jaw tight. "Given I can no longer put this knowledge to use in the service of my people, I gift it to you in service of their memory. Here is what I know: The existence of the Jewels has been a well-guarded secret, but not as well-guarded as you might think. For a start, each nation that is currently in possession of its own Jewel tends to know that at least that one exists, such as the Morekemians with their Metal Meteorite, and many among them are suspicious that other Jewels exist, and some have even confirmed it. What is more, 'Oneism', as you call it," here the bard glanced at Cid and Nuthea, "is more widespread than many people realise, though it takes different forms and has different names in different lands. And those who have The Book, the core text of Oneism, have access to what is said about the Jewels there, if they care to look for it and do not consider it to be merely myth and legend.
"This means that there is actually quite a lot about the Jewels out there to be discovered, and on my travels, by keeping an ear to the ground, listening out for scraps of hearsay and swapping melodies, trading Umbarian compositions for old folksongs and fragments of long passed-down poems, I have been able to find out quite a lot about them.
"The Fire Ruby, Lightning Crystal, Earth Emerald and a part of the Wind Shell you possess already. And you already know the locations of the Spirit Carnelian, the Metal Meteorite, and the Life Chrysolite between you, more or less."
Quel took a deep breath. "What I can tell you in addition to all that is that the Shadow Onyx is buried in a deep pit somewhere in the Southern Wastes, the Light Diamond is concealed in a palace made of glass atop the highest mountain in Ahalayah, and the Moon Pearl is guarded by a nomadic tribe that rove the plains of Frikia."
Cid's head rocked back in surprise. This was the most words that he had ever heard the normally taciturn bard say all at once. And he had all of his information exactly correct. What other secrets did this man have hiding under that cloak and hood?
"Alright…" said Ryn. "So there's some more Jewels that we didn't the whereabouts of before. "The Shadow Onyx, the Light Diamond and the Moon Pearl. Which one do we go for next, now?"
At once an argument broke out about which Jewel to go for, everyone raising their voices and stating their own case. Cid felt the temptation to take charge, but he resisted. They would never learn that way. Guide, don't lead. Encourage, don't control. Or this will never work. They have to choose to do this of their own free will.
To his surprise it was Quel who raised his hands and called silence on this occasion. "Shut up and listen!" The companions calmed, momentarily, for him. "We would do well to base our decision on what Jewels we know the Morekemians possess. As far as we know, they currently have the Metal Meteorite, and we must now assume that they have the Water Sapphire as well. And it seems from what we have witnessed recently that they may have also found a way of utilising the power of the Lightning Crystal even though they only had it for a brief time. We must therefore also assume that they continue to have access to the element of fire in the same way, much as it pains me to say it. As a consequence, it would seem to me that the most sensible next course of action would be to pursue Jewel that will most protect us against and give us power over the available elemental alignments of the Empire."
Cid stuck out his bottom lip and nodded. He had to admit he was impressed by the bard's wisdom.
"Well what would that be, then?" asked Ryn. "We have fire, lightning, wind, life, earth and water at our disposal, though we don't have the Jewels to go with all of them. As far as we know, the Empire have metal, water, and perhaps maybe access to fire and lightning too. What would it make sense to go for next based on all of that? What do you know about the vulnerabilities of the different elemental alignments?"
Quel's eyes glimmered. "Listen carefully, because I am only going to say this once. Here is what I have learned about the different elemental alignments on my travels: There are twelve Jewels, as you know, and therefore twelve elements which correspond with them. They can be considered as six pairs or two groups of six, depending on what properties one is considering. Taken as six pairs, one of the elements in each pair is significantly vulnerable to the other: earth to fire, water to lightning, wind to metal, shadow to light, void to life, and moon to spirit."
Cid's jaw dropped. He and his old friends had ever acquired anything like this amount of information.
"However," Quel continued, "the stronger element in each pair is also vulnerable to one element from another pair, usually the opposite element in the previous pair in the order I listed them—though not always—which is also powerful over the other element in the previous pair. So, fire and earth are weak to water, lightning and water to wind, and metal and wind to earth. That seems to hold to true for the first group of six elements, at least. Taken as two groups of six, though, each group also represents a category within which the elements are intimately related to one another. First, there are the physical or natural elements: Fire, earth, water, wind, lightning and metal. These all interact dynamically—they are all either vulnerable or resistant to one another in some way. Second, there are the 'metaphysical' or 'supernatural' elements: Light, shadow, life, void, spirit and moon. They are much more difficult to understand and don't interact with the other elements in predictable ways. Instead, they seem either to affect all the other elements in a universally similar way, as in the case of light and shadow affinities, or they are ineffective on them, or have another kind of manipulative effect on them altogether: Life animates and rejuvenates organic matter, of course. Void nullifies and destroys it. Spirit creates new forms and arrangements of matter that did not exist before. And moon mirrors and mimics the effects of other elements. That is what I know."
Cid was speechless. He and his old adventuring crew had worked out a little of this, but nothing like as much. How had the bard managed to accumulate so much lore about the Jewels? Did he know what Cid knew too—that in order to achieve their goal, each of the companions would have to…?
Surely not. That had been revealed to Cid alone, in a prophetic dream from The One. In any case, if Quel did know, he had stopped short of saying as much.
The rest of the companions were stunned too, judging from the time they took to process this information. Perhaps Quel was the one best placed to lead them?
Cid regarded the normally tight-lipped Umbarian, whose stern expression bore the hardness of the recently bereaved, with fresh admiration. But no—the bard knew much, that had been made plain, and possessed much wisdom, but he did not know everything, and he was not leader material. He was not the one to lead this quest, nor would he want to. He was here to assist, to aid, like Cid, and had already begun to do so. But at least now Cid had an ally and accomplice in his role of guiding the party. Provided Quel's motives continued to align with his own...
"Alright…" said Ryn at length, and Cid was relieved when he did—here was the freely appointed budding leader. "That was quite a lot to take in... We might need you to remind us of some of that at some point, so we can at least write it at down or something. But I think I got all of it. So, based on all of those elemental strengths and weaknesses, Quel, what Jewel would you say we should go after next?"
"I'm thinking," said Quel, "that you should be going after the Shadow Onyx and the Light Diamond next."
Cid had not been expecting him to say that.
"Huh?" said Ryn. "Two Jewels? Why those ones?"
The others made confused noises too.
"It's quite simple:" said Quel. "Of the first class of elements, you and the Empire both already have them all, or access to all of them, between you, as we have already said. Given the Jewels currently possessed by both sides, the most useful elements to you are: lightning, for attacking metal and water; earth, for attacking and defending against lightning; wind, for attacking water; and water, for attacking fire. The good thing is that you have all of those elements at your disposal already, even if you do not possess all of the Jewels that enable them." His expression tightened, eyes narrowing. "The trouble is that the Empire also have fire, metal, lightning and water, which can counter all of your own elements in turn."
"Hey," said Ryn, "at least we've got a healer with life-alignment, too. That's got to count for something, right?"
Quel looked at Cid with cold blue eyes. "Quite," he said.
He knows.
"But that won't be enough on its own," Quel went on. "It's no use Master Cid healing you only for the Empire to strike you down again and again. And sooner or later he would just run out of mana anyway. No. What I think you need to tip the balance in your favour is to begin acquiring some of the second set of Jewels—the ones which bestow the metaphysical alignments. With any luck the Empire will not have discovered these Jewels yet, since knowledge of them is more esoteric, and two that we know the locations of are a dyadic pair: the Light Diamond and the Shadow Onyx. If you can obtain those they will give you the edge in combat, since the elements of light and darkness are supposed to be reasonably effective against any other elemental alignment, though darkness is itself weak to light, of course."
"But why two at a time?" asked Sagar. "Not that I'm adverse to the concept, or anything." He looked lasciviously for a moment at Nuthea and Elrann, then something seemed to occur to him and he and looked away. Cid's lip curled in disgust. Thankfully neither of the young ladies seemed to notice, or care.
"That is simple, too:" said Quel. "Time is of the essence, is it not? Hopefully the Empire have not learned of these Jewels, but they may have. I found out about the Shadow Onyx by piecing together stories from sailors and fisherman in Umbar and Rakali and around the Frozen Waste of a legend of a deep black pit there that swallows light. And likewise, from tales of an impossibly bright glass temple sometimes chanced upon by travellers in the Ahalayian mountains in the south-west of Farr, I drew the conclusion that the Light Jewel mentioned in the Oneist texts must be hidden there."
"'Legends'?" said Sagar. "'Conclusion'? Why should we trust ourselves to your theories when you don't even know for certain that the Jewels are hidden in these places?"
"No," Cid intervened for once for the sake of efficiency. "He is right. Those places are where those Jewels are hidden."
"What? How do you know, Old Timer?"
"That is a story for another time. Remember that this is not the first adventuring party I have belonged to that have tried to seek out all of the Jewels."
"Alright, fine," said Ryn, taking charge again. "I'm on board with this. It makes sense to me."
"To me also," said Nuthea.
"The only question that I think remains is who goes after the Light Diamond, and who after for the Shadow Onyx."
Immediately the party began bickering again, now about who would get to go with whom and for which Jewel.
Cid sighed. This was going to be a whole laborious discussion, too.
So much for efficiency.