PREVIOUSLY ON SAGA OF THE JEWELS: Seventeen year old RYN’s hometown is attacked by General VORR of the Empire and everyone he has ever known is killed. Just before Ryn’s father dies, he gives Ryn a ruby which causes him to project fire. Ryn is captured by the Empire and meets another captive, Princess NUTHEA, who has the ability to project lightning. Nuthea explains to him that the Empire have learned of the existence of twelve Primeval Jewels which grant the ability to manipulate different elements, and are searching for them. The Imperial vessel where they are being held is in turn attacked by a pirate airship, and the pirates capture Ryn and Nuthea. The lead pirate, Captain SAGAR, agrees to escort Nuthea back to her homeland, and to spare Ryn’s life, in exchange for the promise of gold, gemstones and beautiful women upon her safe delivery. They land in the port city of Ast and recruit an engineer called ELRANN. Ast is then attacked by the Empire, who are using the Fire Ruby to invade the continent and search for more of the Jewels. Ryn, Nuthea, Sagar and Elrann flee the city together, but are then attacked by a bounty hunter, VISH. They manage to subdue the bounty hunter but Nuthea is gravely wounded in the process. Ryn beats Sagar to the hunter’s mount and rushes Nuthea to the nearest town where he finds a healer, CID, a mysterious old man who saves the princess’s life with his arts and asks to join the traveling party, saying that he believes it is the purpose of ‘the One’, the God that he and Nuthea each worship. On leaving the town the party is pursued by an enormous monster driven by a troop of Imperial soldiers. The party manage to escape with the help of Vish, who fights on their side in exchange for Cid supplying his poppy-seed habit. Cid reveals that he was once a member of another adventuring party who set out to find the twelve Primeval Jewels, but failed. The party press on to the capital city of Sirra, where they ambush some Imperial soldiers and steal their uniforms in order to sneak onto a sleeper train bound for Nuthea’s homeland. They make it aboard successfully, but then Ryn gives them away when he comes face to face with General Vorr on the train and is unable to prevent himself from attacking him. The party are thus forced to escape from the train by leaping into a river it is passing. But there encounter with Vorr has revealed two things: that the Fire Ruby-touched Imperials are invulnerable to Nuthea’s lightning attacks, and that Nuthea was the person who once accidentally gave Vorr the location of the Fire Ruby, thus leading to the destruction of Ryn’s hometown and the death of his parents. After a brief rest stop, the party press on towards Manolia in order for Nuthea to warn her people of the Morekemian Empire’s new knowledge of the Jewels. However, when Nuthea speaks with her mother, the Queen, and reveals that she knows of the whereabouts of other Jewels, the Queen is assassinated and Vorr appears from behind her throne with a battalion of soldiers—he has been waiting to entrap the companions and was holding the Queen hostage A vicious battle ensues, in which Ryn touches Vorr with the lightning crystal, stripping him of resistance to fire, and kills him, and with the help of the Fire Ruby the companions and Manolians overpower the soldiers. The companions then recoup, and decide that they will need to set out together to find the rest of the Jewels, to stop the Emperor of Morekemia from finding them first and taking over the world…
What a cliffhanger! I found the series gripping and enjoyed reading each chapter. Vish's character was probably my favourite - I'm hoping some of the nuances of the others might be explored in the next season - hoping some of their internal battles might come to the surface like they do for Vish and Ryn. Great work Luke.
What a cliffhanger! I found the series gripping and enjoyed reading each chapter. Vish's character was probably my favourite - I'm hoping some of the nuances of the others might be explored in the next season - hoping some of their internal battles might come to the surface like they do for Vish and Ryn. Great work Luke.