Nuthea stood opposite a very tall, dark-haired, beautiful, much older woman in her bedroom in Orma.

She knew this woman must be a projection of the Light Diamond, but all the same it was still very, very difficult not to argue back with her mother.

"Nutheanna," her mother said, "there will be no arguing about this. This is the way that it has been in the Motherland for centuries. You shall marry Vivenna Aluna next Fifthday, and that is the end of it."

"But I don't want to marry a woman, mother!" Nuthea just could not help herself from responding. "I've told you that I'm not romantically inclined towards women; I'm inclined towards men!"

This was pretty much exactly how this conversation had gone in real life, as far as she could remember.

"Silence!" her mother said, a Queen commanding her subject. "I will not hear such things spoken in this palace! What if someone were to hear you?"

"I don't care! The tradition of our country is ridiculous, mother. Why does it have to be that way?" She hadn't dared to say that much when they had had this argument for real.

Her mother's proud cheeks bloomed red. "I cannot believe I am hearing these words. You know why it has to be this way. This is the way it has always been from the very founding of Manolia: Women are stronger than men, who were created to serve us. And two women ruling a country is better than one. That is the way that the One designed it. That is why you will marry Vivenna tomorrow."

"But not all Oneists believe that, do they? It's just our branch of Oneism that teaches that women are superior to men and that women must marry women, isn't it?" Nuthea hadn't actually discovered this until she had left Manolia and met Cid, so she hadn't been able to refer to it the first time she had this argument. "But what if men were equal to women? And what if women were allowed to marry men if they want to, like they do in the other nations of Mid?"

Her mother sighed exasperatedly. "Where have you gotten these ridiculous ideas from, Nutheanna? I knew I shouldn't have given you your own key to the library… You've been spending far too much time in there." She set her jaw. "Look. Nutheanna. It comes down to this. I am your mother, and I am Queen of this nation. Therefore, you will do as I command. And my command is that you marry Vivenna tomorrow to uphold the tradition of our land."

Despite herself Nuthea felt the same wilful resistance to her mother now that she had felt before, like lightning sparking in her veins. She decided to try out another line of defence on her memory-mother she hadn't ever dared to use on the real one.

"'Two women ruling is better than one', is it, mother? Then why didn't you remarry after my overmother died?"

Her memory-mother deflated a bit at that.

"You know why I did not marry again," her mother said, and now she could not meet Nuthea's gaze. "I loved your overmother Jaluna more than you can know, and it broke my heart when she died. She was irreplacable."

"And yet two rulers are better than one, are they not, mother? So why did you not remarry, that two Queens might continue to sit the thrones of Manolia, for the good of the nation?"

Her mother's eyes bulged bright and a sizzle of electricity ran down an arm. "Do not forget your place, princess! I am your mother, but I am also your Queen! You will do as I command! I fulfilled my obligations to the Motherland by marrying once when I came of age so that I might ascend to the throne alongside Jaluna. But there is nothing in our laws that says that if one Queen dies the other must remarry. Plenty of Manolian Queens have outlived their partners, towards the ends of their lives. In my case it will just be fir a bit longer. But you. You have not yet even married a first time. So that is what you shall do."

Nuthea stamped her foot. If this was just a memory, she might as well go all-out, and she could barely stop herself in any case. "But what if our laws are wrong, mother? What if a man alongside me on the throne would be just as good as a woman? What if I would do just as good a job governing by myself? What if I don't yet want to marry anyone?"

"Enough of this nonsense!" Her mother threw up her hands. "You cannot just overturn the sacred traditions of your country at your whim! Marry and take the throne, Nutheanna, and maybe then you can set about changing the ancient customs! Or you can just be like all the other Queens who were attracted to men. You can have coitus with them in secret, on the side. You will need to find a surrogate to lie with in order to produce an heir in any case, and if you like them enough you can carry on with them in secret. The One knows you will have enough male servants to choose from."

What? Her mother had never said that before. Though Nuthea had been suspicious that something like it might often have been practiced. It took her a moment to regather herself. "But I don't want to do that, mother. I want to marry for love."

Her mother put a hand over her mouth. "Oh, by the One, it's happened already, hasn't it?"

"What's happened?"

"You've fallen in love with a man, haven't you?"

"No, mother…" Nuthea found herself saying. "Um, not yet, anyway. Maybe… At least, I hadn't by then. I mean…now." She had tied herself in a knot. "That is to say…" she added, half to herself, "I did quite like the stableboy, Hanson, who looked after my cochobo while I was growing up. But that was just a girlish attraction. Nothing ever happened between us, though the One knows wanted it to…"

Her mother exhaled. "Good. That is a mercy at least. If you haven't, then why do you persist in rebelling?"

Nuthea made a frustrated noise. "I've told you, mother! Because I don't love Vivenna, and I don't like women in that way! I want either to marry a man for love one day instead, or not to marry anyone at all!"

The exasperation in her mother's face was replaced by a cold calm all of a sudden, more controlled but no less furious.

"Nutheanna;" her mother said, "I am not going to argue about this any longer. Tomorrow, on fifthday, you will do your duty to your family and your country and marry Vivenna Aluna so that the two of you may ascend to the throne together when the time comes. There will be no further questioning of this—nor should there ever have been any in the first place."

Before Nuthea could say anything further her mother turned and quit the bedroom.

"Well it's a stupid, ignorant, prejudiced tradition!" Nuthea shouted at her closed bedroom door.

She put a hand to her mouth, aware that she was mimicking her mother's own habit but unable to stop herself. She was shaking. For a moment she had completely forgotten that she was really in an elemental temple and that she had only been speaking to a memory of her mother.

She burst into tears. She missed her mother so much, and still felt responsible for her death, despite having tried so many times to receive forgiveness from the One for it.

Where were the others when she needed them? Where was Ryn? How could she find her way out of these illusions?

"Curse you!" she shouted all of a sudden to her empty, illusory bedroom. "Curse you, cruel Diamond! Why do you torment me with these memories? Take them away!"

As if in reply, the white walls of the palace blurred and transfigured all of a sudden, and she found herself standing in a dark, close tunnel.

In front of her, beckoning, stood the armoured form of Kathuna. Her best friend growing up, from before she had set out on this accursed Jewel Quest.

"Come on, princess!"

Nuthea knew the memory immediately. This was the moment soon after when she had run away from her homeland to escape from the arranged marriage and her mother, through the secret border-wall tunnel that led into neighbouring Zerlan, assisted by Kathuna. She had no wish to re-live it.

"No, Diamond," Nuthea said to the air, hoping but not knowing for certain that the Light Jewel could hear her. "I will not play your games anymore! I know that these are just illusions! How could they not be? Show me where my friends have gone!"

Footsteps behind her. Nuthea turned to see a young woman wrapped in a grey cloak running towards her. With a gasp she realised that the woman was her, only younger, just as the image of herself ran through her without batting an eyelid, passing out the other side to run after Kathuna.

The Jewel had changed its tactics. Rather than placing her within the memory it was now showing her the one as an outside observer.

"What purpose does this serve?" she asked the air again. "I know what happened here! I have no wish to see it again!"

The scene changed again, and now she was standing in a busy tavern lit by a log fire. It felt completely real except, Nuthea realised, she couldn't smell the fire or feel its warmth. So the Diamond cannot replicate more than sights and sounds…

She saw herself again seated at a table near the middle of the room, wearing the same cloak, now with the hood pulled down so her golden hair was on display. Her memory-self eyed the pint of ale in front of her as if it was the first time she had ever seen one. It was.

Her heart missed a beat as she realised what this memory was.

It's just an illusion. It's just an illusion.

A man walked up to the table where her memory-self was sitting. "Why, hello there," he said in a resonant, well-enunciated voice. He was tall, extremely well-built and had flame-red hair. He wore a shirt open at the collar which exposed some of his curly chest hair, and smart brown breeches. "Mind if I join you?"

Don't! Nuthea wanted to say, but the word stuck in her throat. This was just an illusion, but the illusion was so vividly real that it was like it was all happening again before her eyes.

She watched, helpless, as her memory-self looked at off-duty General Vorr, then gestured to the empty chair and said "If you wish."

"No!" Nuthea yelled, desperation finally breaking through fear.

She needn't have bothered. Neither her memory-self nor Vorr showed any sign of having heard, and when she moved to grab the chair first her hand passed right through it.

"So I cannot even interact with the memories now?" Nuthea asked the air. "Why are you torturing me with these recollections?"

Vorr sat down in front of her memory-self.

"Now, you're far too beautiful to be from around here. May I ask, from where do you hail, young lady?"

Her memory-self actually blushed. Stupid girl. So easily taken in. She looked left and right conspiratorially. Nuthea remembered that she had felt nervous, and flattered by the attention.

"Well," said her memory-self, "do not tell anyone else this, but actually I travelled here from the Matriarchy of Manolia."

"Manolia," Vorr repeated, eyes going wide just a moment. "You don't say."

Vorr continued to ingratiate himself with her memory, slowly drawing more and more details out of her that she had never originally intended to divulge. Queasiness churned in the Nuthea's stomach. How could she have given away so much so quickly? And with such disastrous consequences for Ryn, for Ryn's parents and town, for her mother, for her homeland, for the world…

"Take this away, Diamond! It was bad enough living through this the first time; I do not want to see it again!"

But the scene remained, Vorr continuing to ply her memory-self with compliments and careful questions.

Just then the memory-Nuthea stood up and said "Excuse me one moment." She had nearly drained her ale-glass at Vorr's encouragement, and needed to use the facilities. Not that the privy of this Sirran wine-sink really merited the term.

Her memory-self left to find the privy, and the real Nuthea was about to try to find a way out of this illusion herself when the memory-Vorr took out a little glass phial from his pocket, glanced around, quickly unstoppered it and tipped its clear liquid contents into the remnants of the memory-Nuthea's drink, then returned the phial to his pocket. A wide smile spread across his face.

The wicked man had drugged her! She had suspected something like this might have happened to loosen her tongue. But…did the Diamond know that this had really happened? Or was it simply showing her something based on her own suspicions? The illusion was so vivid…the diamond couldn't have pulled all these details from her mind. Could it?

She looked at Vorr, still grinning to himself in self-satisfaction. "You really were a truly horrible man," she said to him, half-afraid that the Diamond might change the rules again and allow him to hear her, but saying it all the same. When Vorr did not respond she continued, "I have done my best to forgive you and surrender my hatred of you to the One, but it has been difficult. I do think that it was a good thing that Ryn killed you when he did."

She turned away from him. She absolutely did not want to see what happened next.

"Enough of this," she said aloud. "If you will not remove this illusion, Diamond, I shall simply have to find my own way out of it."

She walked up to what she assumed was the tavern's kitchen door and reached for the handle.

To her surprise her fingers closed around it. She could feel it. But it felt cold—colder than a wooden doorknob in a busy fire-lit Imfisi tavern should…

She turned and pushed it forwards, then gasped. All at once the door and the doorknob were made of glass and she was standing at the start of a long glass corridor they had opened onto.

"Did I pass your test, Diamond?"

No reply came, but this time no further illusion appeared either.

Nuthea dared to look down. Below her, through the glass floor, she could see the shimmering snow of the upper slopes of Mount Tesereset. She looked behind. A large glass atrium framed by entry doors from which glass steps led down. She had not come very far. She looked up. A lattice of criss-crossing glass chambers and stairways, set within the three towers of the palace. But she could not see all the way through them. Almost directly above her, but far off, a bright white light burned, its rays emanating through the palace and making it glitter with rainbow colours. Was that the Diamond at the top of the palace, or simply the Sun visible beyond it?

"Nuthea!" rang out Ryn's voice.

He had appeared at the end of the corridor in front of her.

"Come on!" he called, beckoning.

Nuthea ran forwards. "Where did you come from? I didn't see—"

"Princess!" said Sagar as she reached the end of the corridor, appearing from the other side of the T-junction to where Ryn had come in from.

"Sagar," began Nuthea, "how did you—wait a moment; you're an illusion as well, aren't you?"

"What are you talking about, princess?" said Sagar. "I realised I couldn't leave you, so I flew back to the mountain and jumped down to the top of this palace. I've found the Diamond! Let me show you where it is so that one of us can take it!"

Nuthea was not going to be fooled so easily. Instead of responding, she turned to Ryn—or at least, the image of Ryn that stood before her.

"And you?" she said. "I came in here with you. Are you the real Ryn or are you an illusion too?"

Ryn recoiled as if the question stung. "I'm real, of course! How could you think otherwise?"

"Prove it," Nuthea said and reached to grab his hand.

Her hand went straight through his. She didn't feel a thing.

The image of Ryn didn't even acknowledge her attempt, just kept staring at her. "Come on Nuthea, I've found the way through the temple—it's up this staircase."

"So it's a choice," Nuthea said, more to herself than the illusions. "Between Master Ryn and Captain Sagar. Why must I choose between these two men? Boys, really. Granted, it is true that I am somewhat attracted to Captain Sagar and his daring, confident manner—"

"You are?" said the illusion of Sagar. Nuthea's stomach fluttered. It was difficult saying it aloud, even to an illusion.

"Yes. But I've also grown very fond of you, Ryn," she said, turning to the other boy, "and I know that you like me too. We've been through a lot together, and I must admit that an affection for you has grown in my heart too."

"It has?" said the illusion of Ryn, hope shining in his eyes.

"But how am I to choose between the two of you?" said Nuthea. "Must I choose?" She searched skyward. "Does who I choose affect whether I make it through the temple successfully, is that it?"

No response. Though the Diamond could manifest sounds, apparently it did not deign to speak to her with its own voice, if it had one.

Nuthea sat down and put her head in her hands. She could always go back, of course. But that did not seem like an option.

"Choose me, princess," said Sagar. "It ain't much of a choice, really, is it? How can you resist my rugged good looks and devilish charm? Plus, I'm far more experienced than the pup, if you take my meaning..."

"Don't listen to him, Nuthea," said Ryn. "I'm the one who really cares about you. I would go to hell and back for you. Even though I can be grumpy and stubborn and make mistakes, I'm the one who'll still be waiting here for you when all your other suitors have given up."

The Diamond wasn't just demanding that she make a simple choice about who to follow in this moment. It was demanding that she make up her mind for herself about which of these boys' romantic solicitations she would reciprocate, if either. light was exposing the thoughts of her heart, and demanding that she make a choice between the two boys who each competed for her affections, about whose affection she would reciprocate, if either.

She looked inside herself and made her decision.

She stood and looked into the eyes of…

"Captain Sagar," she said. "While there is no doubt that you are a handsome and persuasive rogue, I fear my attraction to you is but a girlish infatuation and that the you would make terrible husband material."

"You what?" said illusion-Sagar.

Nuthea turned.

"Ryn, I never considered the possibility of being romantically involved with you…"

"Yes?" said illusion-Sagar.

"…and I still don't, really. But. I like how you keep going, no matter what. Not just with me—in fact, not even mainly with me—but in life: You always believe in the best about others. You never give up in what you're trying to achieve. I like the person you're becoming. So even if I do not want to court you, for the purposes of this bizarre illusion-test, I will go with you."

"Yes!" said illusion-Ryn, and punched the air as Nuthea had once seen him do when he beat Cid at a game of Check in Wanderlust's games room. "That's good enough for me! Woohoo! Come on, Nuthea!"

He ran up a staircase behind him, and Nuthea followed.

She only glanced back over her shoulder once, but by then the illusion Sagar had disappeared.