Terra Jewels

Dia's hair still retained some dampness when she sat down at the dining table. Schwarz and the others glanced at her once, and then returned their attention to Farah's ongoing recount of the things that had happened during their visit to Farah County.

However, given that they had already caught up a few days ago when everyone appeared together in the ritual spell Theatro Amimi, Farah's recount mostly focused on what happened after Ruler Istrel's investiture. The plot twist of Lumine actually being a penta-folder made everyone's eyes go round, with the terrific, blow-by-blow account of what happened during the short confrontation enough to make Lily break out a small packet of peanuts for everyone to chew on.

"Dayum." Claud placed a shell into the ever-growing pile of discarded peanut shells. "Walking and bowing once, and someone stops his plan to wage a war. How many people can actually do that?"

"Not many, for sure." Schwarz reached out for a peanut. "How did Istrel phrase his turnaround?"

"Oh, he said this." Farah cleared her throat. "'In view of the ongoing crisis related to the great Dark, all territories are to refrain from making aggressive moves against each other. From today onwards, until as such time I deem fit, there will be a moratorium on military actions between all territories great and small'. In other words, war will not be a thing for now."

"It's a pretty good way of backtracking on his words without actually saying it that way," Lily noted. "Still, the Emperor called his bluff, right?"

"I think Emperor Grandis just used it as an excuse to punish Istrel," said Farah. "But I'm not sure what's going on either. Istrel probably didn't murder his father, or else the Emperor would have just executed him on the spot. And if he was an accessory to Umbra's death, Istrel wouldn't have become a ruler at all."

"In that case, what's going on?" Schwarz asked.

"Moons if I knew." Farah sighed. "Anyway, Nero, mind if I ask you something?"

Nero glanced up from his pyramid of peanuts. "Go ahead."

"Those Moon Emissaries. What do you know of them?" Farah leaned forward. "What's their relationship to the great Dark?"

Nero closed his eyes for a moment. "Do you know what happens if you hear information that you aren't qualified to hear? Agony. In severe cases, disability. In extreme cases, your head blows up. No one-folder can hear information about them."

"A divine restriction." Risti nodded, her words slow and measured. "But there are ways to overcome them, no?"

"Yes. I could speak in hypotheticals. However, do you truly want to know? These are things that the common people should not know. It is possible that everyone present will lose the ability to sleep soundly at night from now on." Holy Son Nero looked down. "I would not wish such a fate on even my worst enemy. We, the servants of the Coloured Gods, are the final guardians of peace. Not the common people. Not my friends."

He looked up. "It is not yet time for me to say those things. However, you can rest easy knowing that the churches of the Coloured Gods are doing everything they can. According to Clarissa, the churches have already found most of their own Bearers of Destiny."

"What does that—" Claud began to speak, before cutting his own words off.

"Anything. Everything." The Holy Son lowered his head. "I'm sorry, but I cannot tell you everything. Not now."

"I hate this," Schwarz muttered. "At the very least, however, will all this affect Licencia? Are we talking about a great war between the Dark and the Moons? A mad melee between these two and the Coloured Gods?"

Nero took a deep breath and nodded.

"In that case, this whole thing about the isolation of the Istrel Sovereignty…is it as we guessed?" Schwarz pressed on. "Are the Moons intending to use this place as a basecamp, to gather their forces against the Dark?"

"Possible, yes," Nero replied. "Clarissa tells me that the White Church is scrambling their top combatants. The Moons have three Bearers of Destiny, as do the Dark. Unfortunately, the parish of the White Church is the only one with a Bearer of Destiny now. We're outnumbered."

Claud shook at those words, and Dia glanced at him. Evidently, he didn't quite like the ominous forecast Nero had for everyone here.

"What happens if the White Church is defeated?" Claud asked.

"I don't know, but there's precedent. That said, this entire sovereignty wouldn't be murdered outright. Rather, I believe that the Moon Emissaries present will do some sort of working to consecrate every death that occurs to the three Moons." Nero smiled wanly. "No need for a massacre. Just make use of natural deaths to power their ritual spell."

"And to do that," said Risti, "they presumably require something from Ruler Istrel. Something that symbolises the core of the territory, its spirit. A Terra Jewel."

"How do you—"

"How do you—"

Farah and Nero exchanged glances, and then shook their head.

"Yeah, there's indeed something like that," said Farah. "I, Countess Farah, do indeed hold something that symbolises my territory. It's quite symbolic, though, but I was told to never lose it. It's always on my body, as a result."

"Yes," said Nero. "And if something happens to the holder, the Terra Jewel will return to the Emperor's hands. Right now, however, there's this huge isolation thing going on. If they were to kill Ruler Istrel, what will happen to the Terra Jewel? Once the Moon Emissaries obtain it, they'll be able to direct their working towards the entire sovereignty."

"Can we stop them?" Claud asked, his voice quiet.

Schwarz glanced at him, and then got up from his chair.

"Stop them?" Nero laughed. "I'm not sure about the specifics, but there are seven Moon Emissaries and three Bearers of Destiny against us. The latter are going to be very well protected by the Moon Emissaries too, or else their working would fail."

"Fail?" Claud latched onto this word with a vehemence that frightened Dia. The others also fixated their eyes on him, varying hints of worry and concern all over their face.

Nero took a step back, and then nodded. "I believe that only Bearers of Destiny can act as the core for fate-changing actions, but I'm not sure about that."

Dia noted the evasive, hypothetical-laden means in which he gave his answer, which could only mean that he was telling the truth. A convoluted method of thinking, to be sure, but it was great that Nero had clarified beforehand about how he would reveal classified information.

"If they're killed or driven away…"

"The Moon Emissaries will probably get rid of the offender and then retreat to preserve their forces," Nero replied. "That happened in the opening moves of the Third Godsfall, after all. The God of Humility's Bearer of Destiny died in the opening stages of the war, forcing Humility himself to withdraw from the important resource areas. Due to that, his part in the war was minimal, and Humility eventually died from a besiegement of his Divine Kingdom, outnumbered and whittled away."

"That's…"

"That's something that could potentially happen to any of the Coloured Gods, if their Bearers of Destiny were to fall," Nero completed Claud's sentence. "It is my personal opinion that Bearers of Destiny are heralds of a new age. Those that survive will define the new world that follows."

"Not mana-users?" Risti asked.

"They're close. But not on the level of those favoured by the five grand skies. One could say that mana-users try to emulate the way fate seems to curl around the Bearers themselves, but I'll leave you guys to figure that out yourself."

Schwarz returned at this moment, a tray of cups in his left hand. Distributing them, he said, "Apple juice for everyone. All the better to digest Nero's little revelations with, right?"

"Can't beat apple juice, yeah." Dia picked up a cup and took a swig. "Did you add some of Claud's fizz to it? It's nice and bubbly."

"Yeah," Schwarz replied. "How's it?"

The bartender, however, had his eyes on Claud. Although Dia had been gone for a few weeks, she knew that Claud was violently overprotective of his stash of fizzy drinks, something that everyone else knew too, but…

Claud didn't seem to care about that little fact whatsoever. In fact, his demeanour had changed drastically, compared to that of an hour ago. Clearly, he had been badly affected by Nero's words. Considering his personality, however, Dia knew that he probably had a hard time trying to digest—

"It's great," said Claud, and everyone jumped. "Sorry."

His eyes flickered to Lily. "I must have worried everyone with how oddly I was behaving earlier. For that, I apologise. It's a bit hard for me to accept this, so…"

"I understand," said Schwarz.

"Don't let my odd behaviour affect you, Nero." Claud looked the Holy Son in the eye. "Make no mistake. You have my sincerest gratitude for revealing these to us, since I can make countermeasures. It's just that…I'm a coward at the best of times."

"Well, as long as you don't hold a grudge against me…" Nero chuckled nervously.

Claud held up a cup. "Cheers?"

"Cheers!"