Podcasts about huld

Previously on Saga of the Jewels…The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. He sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted assassin. Together the adventurers decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the evil EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where they intend to compete in a hand-to-hand fighting tournament in order to attempt to win its grand prize, the EARTH EMERALD…EPISODE THIRTY-TWO: TRAININGSix days until the Tournament.Nuthea surveyed the garden area of the little manse they had been given to lodge in.A wooden boundary-fence marked off an area about twenty metres wide and long. A patio floor of cream-coloured stone reflected the heat of the Farrian Summer morning sunshine. Aside from that it was bare except for a little ornamental pond and some potted plants off in the far corner.This will have to do, she thought.She regarded her troops, as she was coming to think of them: Ryn, Sagar, Elrann, Vish and Cid all stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a line facing her.She hadn't even asked them to do that; they had just done it naturally when she had called them outside. She would make a fighting squad of them yet.“Okay, team,” she said. “The Governor has said that we can enter four people into the tournament, without us even having to go through the qualifying heats. So the first thing we need to do is choose which four of us will enter.”“Well obviously I'm the first choice,” said Sagar, putting his hands on his hips and sticking out his chest a little.Nuthea saw Ryn open his mouth but she jumped in first. “May I just remind you, Captain Sagar, that the Governor has told us that this will be a tournament of unarmed combat?”The pirate deflated ever so slightly, then frowned. “So what? I'm still the best fighter among us. Well, maybe joint best. I suppose the scumsucker is alright at fighting too…”“I have a question,” said Ryn, ignoring Sagar and putting up his hand like a school pupil. “Will we be allowed to use our elemental projection powers?”“I…” Nuthea hesitated. “I'm not sure. I didn't ask about that.”“Of course we will,” said Sagar. “Now that they've got the Emerald, you can bet your arse that the Farrians will be using theirs. Hells, I wouldn't be surprised if they enter Baldy into the tournament. Didn't the Governor guy say that he was their strongest monk? And now he's got earth powers, there's no doubt he'll use them…”Sagar's voice trailed off. He was seeming less and less confident by the moment.“Well if that's the case,” spoke up Elrann, “then I think it's pretty obvious who we're going to enter, isn't it, princess-girl? I mean, I can handle myself in a fight, sure, but I much prefer to have my pistols and whip with me. I'm not so sure that I could take on a trained fighter as strong as monk-man, especially when he's got earth powers now. The logical choice for who we enter is: you, farmboy and pirate-man, because of all your Jewel-thingamy-powers, and the bountyhunter because of his badass fighting skills.”Yes, thought Nuthea, that is the logical choice, except what you don't know is that I'm blocked.“How does everyone feel about that?” she said out loud.Sagar folded his arms and nodded, clearly still trying to communicate an air of nonchalance.“I'll fight,” said Ryn, rubbing his hand.“Shadowfinger Vish?” Nuthea said.Vish shrugged. “You know what I want. As long as you give it to me, I will fight for you. I have fought in ‘tournaments' before, and won them.”“You have?!”“Yes. Both before I became a slave to the Empire, and since.”“Well,” said Elrann, “that settles it then, doesn't it?”“Hold on,” said Nuthea, “let us give everyone a chance to speak. Grandfather, do you wish to fight?”Cid's bushy eyebrows rose. He looked surprised to even be asked. “Oh goodness, no, Granddaughter, I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. I am happy to sit this one out.”“Even though you are more experienced than the rest of us and might not have to face the same obstacles in preparing for the tournament?” Nuthea tried to convey extra meaning through emphasis of the word and a tip of her head to one side.Cid's eyes glittered, and she knew he had understood her. “Ah. Yes; even so. Do not worry. We have a week–I'm sure that is plenty of time for you to improve and to overcome any obstacles you might be facing in the way of your peak performance.”Nuthea nodded, taking his meaning in turn. “Then it is settled. Unless a better idea presents itself for whatever reason, myself, Ryn, Captain Sagar and Shadowfinger Vish will enter the tournament to compete for, and win, the Earth Emerald.” She turned to Vish. “Shadowfinger Vish, you are clearly the b…'' She paused, not wanting to set Sagar off again. “You are clearly highly proficient at hand-to-hand combat, especially when elemental projection is taken out of the calculations. Will you train us in what you know of unarmed combat?”Vish's eyes were blank and unreadable above his face scarf as the rest of them awaited his response.“Will you give me poppy?” he said to Cid in return.“You know that you are meant to be coming off of it,” said Cid, “which is what you really want, remember? But yes, as part of withdrawing slowly, you can have some poppy in a week and a half. After the tournament.”The Shadowfinger was silent again, his eyes still blank.“I will train you,” he said at last.“Thank you,” said Nuthea.“Poodoo to that!” said Sagar, throwing up his hands. “I don't need any fighting lessons, especially from an ex-Imperial scumsucker like him. I'm off to go and find myself a drink.” He began to stalk towards the manse, then stopped. “You coming, woman?”Elrann's brows knotted. “Why would I be?”“Cause you agreed to go for a drink with me the other night?”Elrann scratched her chin. “Oh, right. Yeah, but not now. We said we would go in five days, on our day off from training before the tournament starts. I want to train with the others and see what the bountyhunter has to teach us.”“Whatever,” said Sagar, “suit yourself.”The door slammed behind him as he left the garden-courtyard. He was beginning to irk Nuthea somewhat.She refocused on the task at hand. “Here we go then,” she said, “Vish, you swap with me.”She traded places with the Shadowfinger to join the end of the lineup next to Cid, and Vish took the place in front of them all, facing them.The rest of them awaited Vish's first instruction.Vish sighed deeply, a sound like the last breath going out of a corpse.“Alright, listen,” he said in his slightly exotic-accented, guttural tones. “I am good at fighting, but not for the reasons you think. When the…untrained think about schooling in the fighting arts, they imagine it is all about learning special routines and practicing certain steps, like learning to dance. And there is some of that. But a fight, a real fight, is not like a dance. In a real fight, any routines you might have learned, any special techniques with grand names like the monk performed, any semblance of control or poise you might have, go out the window, and you just become another animal trying to kill all the other animals to stay alive. And the fastest, most brutal, most vicious animal is the one that kills first, and so the one who gets to stay alive a little longer. Do you understand?”Nuthea blinked at the Shadowfinger. It was the most words she had ever heard him say all at once. He clearly knew, and thought, a lot about this subject.None of the others said anything either. They must be as surprised as she was.“I will assume that you do understand,” said Vish, giving them all a withering look. “All that said, there is some advantage to be had by rehearsing certain routines and steps, not because in an actual fight it will be possible to replicate them exactly, but because by rehearsing them strength is built, and because your unconscious memory might mean that small elements of the routines are reproduced in combat by reflex in potentially effective ways. All of you, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and bend your knees slightly.”They did so.“Now bend your arms at the elbow and make fists with your hands, with your thumbnails pointing up, like this.”They did so.“Good. This will be your first rudimentary practice exercise: punching. Now, with me, twist your fist round and punch the air in front of you, alternating right and left hands. Right! Left! Right! Left!”Nuthea punched the air along with the others, falling into the rhythm of following Vish's commands easily enough. She had done something similar to this with Evisca, her swordmistress at the palace, when she had been taught weaponry as a teenager, before she had been allowed to handle a blade. It seemed like a fairly basic exercise, but presumably Vish would work up to the more advanced techniques.Just then a bright blazing ball of fire shot past Vish and crashed into the fence several feet behind him, burning a hole in it and setting it on fire.“Oops,” said Ryn.“What in all the hells of all the gods are you doing?” Vish snapped at him, shouting through his face covering. He hadn't moved an inch in response to the fireball, but he was furious nonetheless.“Sorry…” stammered Ryn. “I just suddenly thought ‘Hey, what if I combined this punch with a fire projection?', and then I accidentally did it…”Nuthea put a hand over her face.It seems this is going to be even more difficult than I had anticipated…*Four days before the Tournament.Huld worked his way carefully through the forms of The Circumference Of The Earth, as he had done thousands of times before, only this time whenever he came to a transfer of energy, he combined it with some variety of manipulation of the training room's earthen floor below him.He stamped down hard with his right foot, completing ‘Replanting The Tree', and as vibration rippled through his foot he willed a square block of earth to rise up out of the floor in front of him.Improvising, he stepped forwards with his other foot and delivered ‘Rooted Strike' to the earthen block with his left fist. As he connected with the block, he willed it forwards and it shot pleasingly along the training room floor before exploding against its stone wall in a shower of dirt.Huld remained still in his battle pose, breathing heavily. Sweat clung to him. It was quite an exertion adding earth manipulation to his normal battle forms, he had discovered. Though it was worth it. And he had discovered he was very good at it. Who else was there better suited to incorporating the powers granted by the Farrian Emerald into his fighting manoeuvres? He had always been first in his class growing up at the monastery, even if that was because he had something to prove which the other novices did not. He had made it into the elite tier of monks privileged with watching over the Emperor, the Greenrobes. And he had been selected to be the Emperor's personal bodyguard, not anyone else. It was entirely appropriate that he be the first in Farr in two generations to be granted earth manipulation abilities and to train with them, and that he should be highly skilled at doing so.He should be happy.And yet, he couldn't quite relax into it.Something was bothering him, throwing off his focus.What?The foreigners.He came out of his stance from Rooted Strike and sat on the floor for a moment to catch his breath, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.The thought of the foreigners had been throwing off his focus slightly, lingering at the back of his mind like a fly buzzing just on the edge of his hearing.It wasn't that he was afraid of losing to them in this tournament the Governor had organised, he thought as he looked at the scuff marks his earth-block had left on the far wall and the pile of brown dirt and dust it had disintegrated into from the force of its impact. He wasn't.He knew he could beat every one of them in single hand to hand combat, even the ‘ex'-Imperial Vish. Even the fireboy with his flame projection abilities, which were apparently super effective against creatures of earth and so probably also against people who were ‘earth-aligned' as Huld now was.He had watched each of them carefully during their time in the Shrine, and studied their fighting styles closely. The Imperial was highly trained, ruthless and dangerous, to be sure, but he was still no match for Huld. And the boy was almost completely untrained. He appeared to have very little hand-to-hand fighting prowess at all, if any. If Huld stayed out of the way of his fire attacks, which he was confident he would be able to do more than easily, then defeating the boy would be a walk in a peace garden.No, it wasn't that which was bothering him. It was something else about the foreigners…What, then?He blinked with surprise at the realisation.It was that, after spending the better part of two days with them, after being stuck inside the Shrine to Eto with them and having to work together with them to make their way to the top of it, solve its puzzles, escape from its traps and defeat the Earth Elemental, he had found that in the end they were actually not that bad after all.Blessed Eto, he thought, I even almost liked them by the end…It was a difficult revelation to stomach. Raised in a monastery in the second-but uppermost level of Shun Pei, Huld had always been kept safely away from the filthy foreigners who travelled and traded in the lower levels, whom he viewed as a barely necessary evil that the Governor only allowed into the city for economic reasons. His ambition, insofar as he had been allowed to nurture one, had always been to move up, not down, in Shun Pei, and until recently he had been entirely successful in it.But now that he had actually spent some time with some filthy foreigners, they didn't seem that bad after all. They were still ‘filthy', to be sure, with their vulgar expressions and their crude attempts at fighting and their strange customs and gods.But, he had found, they had also turned out also to be people just like him. Of course they were. They talked and laughed and joked and had good ideas and bad ideas, strengths and weaknesses. How could he have not seen that before?And if they were people just like him, maybe what they were proposing to do wasn't so stupid and wrong after all? Maybe it would be the most sensible course of action to just give them the Emerald so that they could hide it from Morekemia and join it together with the others in order to stop the Emperor?“Impressive,” said a voice from the entry doorway to the training room.Huld started, recognising the voice, then immediately shifted himself into a kneeling bow, touching his forehead to the floor.“My Lord Governor!” he said, cheeks heating with the secret knowledge that his master had taken him unawares while he had been entertaining such ridiculous thoughts. How long had he been watching?“Up,” the Governor commanded.Huld got to his feet and stood straight as the Governor walked onto the floor of the training room, hands held behind his back. He wasn't wearing his hat, and his shaved head shone slightly in the light from the candles that stood in their sconces at the four corners of the room.The Governor stood a few feet away from him. “So, you have started combining your forms with your new earth-manipulation gift.”He's been watching me for a while, then. “Yes, Lord Governor. Did…did I do wrongly?”“No,” the Governor said calmly. “Show me.”Huld masked his surprise. “Yes, Lord Governor.” He spread his feet and dropped into chocobo stance, took a deep breath, then began the first movement of The Circumference Of The Earth, bringing his left hand up and into a descending arc–“Not like that!” the Governor barked impatiently. “Show me properly! Try and hit me, you fool!”Unable to hide his surprise this time, Huld's serene mask broke into a puzzled frown. “Lord Governor?”“Am I speaking some language other than common?” the Governor said, frowning above his formidable jowls. “Try. And. Hit. Me.”Huld gulped. He had heard rumours that the Governor had trained in the fighting arts, but his master had never commanded him to do anything like this before. Still, he could do nothing but obey.Better to make it a reasonably gentle strike. Nothing too impactful. Huld had been first in his class, after all, he reminded himself again, and was Farr's best soldier-monk, by the Governor's own boast.Hoping to get this embarrassing ordeal over with quickly, Huld crossed the floor that lay between him and the Governor in four quick steps and aimed a simple close-fisted punch with his right hand at the Governor's chest.The Governor's left hand whipped out to block the punch, palming Huld's forearm away, then before Huld knew what was happening the Governor had brought his hand around and back to himself in a circle, then thrust it out again at Huld's chest.The floor hit Huld hard in the back.He coughed a couple of times, chest smarting where the Governor had struck him.He floored me, Huld thought as he inspected the muddy brown of the training room ceiling, which he had never seen from this angle before. He actually floored me. With one punch!“I meant that I wanted you to try and hit me with an earth manipulation attack,” the Governor said.Huld got up and brushed himself down. The rumours were true, then! More than true. Huld hadn't ever been floored like that before, not even in his early years of training at the monastery. The Governor was an incredibly skilled and strong fighter. He had humiliated Huld with a single blow while barely batting an eyelid. Huld had better do what he was being asked.No longer pulling his punch, he performed the same move as he had improvised at the end of The Circumference Of The Earth, stamping the ground to raise up a large square block of earth from it, then punching it.The earthen block shot towards where the Governor stood a few paces away……then stopped dead still in place in front of him.“That is more like it,” said the Governor from behind the block.What?Huld had expected the Governor to leap out of the way, or to hit the block and explode it with a blow. Not stop it.The block shot back along the ground towards Huld.“Catch it!” yelled the Governor.Huld almost didn't react in time, but just before the block of earth made impact with him he got his hand up and reached out with his mind, willing for the earthen block to stop. It came to rest about an inch from his face.“Good,” said the Governor from somewhere behind it. “Dear me, Huld, one little surprise and all your training almost goes out of the window. Return the block to the ground.”Huld wasn't sure what the Governor meant, but when he thought about it he realised what he was being ordered to do. He willed the block downwards, back into the floor, and it moved at his mental command, rejoining the earth that they stood on, sinking down to become a part of it again.Across the floor, the green-robed, stocky form of the Governor stood still, hands behind his back. His master favoured him with a half-smile from one side of his mouth.“That's it,” he said. “Don't be so surprised that I have earth manipulation abilities too. I've had them since long before you retrieved the Emerald.”I'm more than capable of defending myself, Huld suddenly remembered the Governor saying back in his chambers when the foreigners had been there last. He had wondered then what that comment had meant, but he had never imagined the full extent of its implications.“But how, Lord Governor?” he asked.“Who do you think it was that placed the Emerald in the Shrine to Eto in the first place?” the Governor snapped irritably. He began to pace slowly back and forth across the training room floor as he spoke. “I did, as a young man, when ordered to do so by Governor Restra. I was a monk like you once, Huld. I swore the vows of service. But one's service to Farr can take a Farrian to many different places. After I hid the Emerald in the old Shrine, I was ordered to change my name and begin a political career. By the time Governor Restra's term of office finished, he had so manoeuvred me that I was his obvious successor, so the High Council voted to put me in charge.”“If I may be so bold, Lord Governor…” Huld said, “...why?”“Because the knowledge of the Emerald's whereabouts and how to obtain it was too important to entrust to anyone but the Governor of Farr. I grew too old to be able to retrieve it myself, though I do still retain, ahem, some fighting skill.”Huld's back twinged. The Governor certainly did retain some fighting skill.“However,” the Governor continued, “I knew I could count on you to retrieve it for me.”Huld thought of telling him how much the foreigners had helped, but he decided to hold his tongue. He continued to listen like an obedient soldier, though he wasn't sure where this was going.“Governor Restra thought to hide the Emerald away,” said the Governor, “because he thought that would keep Farr safe from those from elsewhere who would seek to steal it, and because he thought its power was too dangerous to be used. Do you understand?”Huld nodded. “Yes, Lord Governor.”“But he was wrong,” said the Governor.Huld held his jaw shut tight to hide his puzzlement.“Restra thought that it would benefit us to hide the Jewel away, where nobody could get to it, not even us! I too once thought as he did, and as you clearly do too now.”Huld opened his mouth to protest.“Do not deny it!” the Governor barked, cutting him off. “As I say, I once thought as you do too, but I see now that Governor Restra was foolish and misguided. We hid the Emerald away, and filthy foreigners came asking for it anyway. And not just any regular old filthy foreigners, but foreigners with their own elemental manipulation abilities!” The Governor spat loudly onto the floor in front of him, as if it had made a foul taste in his mouth just to speak of them. His spit landed in a little puddle and began to seep into the earthen floor. “And they tell us that the Emperor of Morekemia has learned of the Jewels too, and is looking for them! What is the correct response to this, I ask you?”Silence held the training room. Huld thought that the Governor's question had been rhetorical, but then he realised a response was expected.“Ah,” he said. He weighed his options carefully. “To fight, Lord Governor?”“To fight!” said the Governor. He had stopped pacing and stood looking at Huld now, his green eyes verdant and wild as he raised his chin. “Thank you, Huld! There is hope for you yet! Yes, ‘to fight'! Why should we sit by with our nation's Primeval Jewel hidden away in a temple while the rest of the world runs around after the others, squabbling with themselves over who gets the most territory? If we had continued to do that, it would only have been a matter of time before some filthy foreigners came looking and retrieved it for themselves, or grew strong enough to conquer us with their own Jewel-powers! The Jewels are not to be hidden, Huld, they are to be used! If we make use of the Emerald, there will be no nation that can overthrow us!”Huld's jaw was starting to ache from how hard he was holding it tight. Discomfort churned in his stomach. The Governor had grown increasingly animated as he had been speaking, working himself up into a most un-Farrian passion. He knew that the Governor was a hot-tempered and impatient man, but he had never seen him like this.He had to do it. He had to voice his objection.“But Lord Governor…” Huld said carefully, “it seems to me from my experience with the foreigners that certain Jewel-elements are vulnerable to attack from others–”“Nonsense!” erupted the Governor, almost shouting now. Huld should not have questioned him. “You only think that because you are young in your earth-gift. Properly trained, a Farrian earth-wielder is unbeatable. How could we not be? We are the greatest fighters in the whole of Mid! Fighting is our very way of life! It is arrogant of any other nation to even think to hope that they could challenge us, let alone Morekemia! This is what you must demonstrate at the tournament in four days' time. When you defeat all of those foreigners in combat, you will show not only our citizens but the whole of Mid that Farr is supreme and that we will not be bested in combat. News of your victory and your abilities will spread to the other nations, and nobody, not even Morekemia, will think to challenge us militarily! And even if they do, we will be waiting for them, and we will crush them with our earth manipulation. Our army will be more than ready to do so once they have all been touched with the Emerald and trained by you as their Military Commander!”Huld bowed his head. “Yes, Lord Governor,” he said. Huld could see no other appropriate response. He knew of no other. Military Commander, he thought. That was a step-up even from ‘Personal Bodyguard to the Governor'.“Good,” said the Governor. “Now come. You have clearly taken to earth-manipulation quickly, just as I did. You have the basics well enough, but I have the advantage of many more years of training in fighting with earth. There are a number of advanced techniques I have to show you. And you will no doubt invent your own. That manipulation you performed on the foreigners in my chamber, for example–hardening the earth around their feet–was clever, but I have long since moved far beyond things like that. Let me show you. Take Dragon stance.”Huld did so, positioning himself side-on to the Governor, pulling one fist back low with a bent elbow for the ‘tail', and holding the other one up with his arm at a right-angle, with two bent fingers jutting up out of his fist, the ‘horns' of the dragon.“Good,” said the Governor. “Now, watch.”The Governor began to demonstrate his advanced techniques, training him, and Huld followed obediently, making the movements that his master prescribed and holding back from showing his astonishment at the techniques, participating wholeheartedly.Well, almost wholeheartedly.In the soil of his heart, a tiny seed of doubt had been planted. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sagaofthejewels.substack.com

Huld Martha, FMV actress and power-lifter, is ready to harness the power of science fiction with the prompts:Fiercemovie tie in that should have happenedCentrifugeHuld and Jenna pitch a very subtle tribtue to Galaxy Quest called "Cosmos Odyssey: Fred Kwan played by Tony Shaloub from Galaxy Quest and Literally Just Some Guy's Zoo Day." In this multiplayer-game, one person controls the platformer Guy and another, the centrifuge-manipulating Fred. Journey from biome-centrifuge to biome-centrifuge to return loose zoo animals to their habitats - at least until they can be returned to their home planets!Follow Huld on Bluesky @Huld, on Instagram @Iamhuld, on Threads @Iamhuld, and on YouTube @Iamhuld. And you should definitely support Huld's fundraiser at any time here, and check out her Twitch for the next fundraising stream.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lee 2 Reyes 23:1–25 ¿Qué acontecimientos te harían cambiar tu comportamiento? ¿Un mal diagnóstico médico? ¿Un accidente que amenazara tu vida? Los acontecimientos desafiantes tienen una manera de detenernos y reevaluar nuestras prioridades. Muchas veces vemos un cambio espiritual provocado por una crisis. Josías, habiendo escuchado las palabras de la profetisa Huldá, se propuso limpiar la casa por completo. Los extremos a los que llegó están detallados para nosotros y sirven como un recordatorio de lo que es el verdadero arrepentimiento. Primero, reunió a la nación y como comunidad hicieron un pacto con Dios. Segundo, purgó la tierra de sus ídolos. Como un alcohólico que elimina toda bebida tentadora de su hogar, Josías se propuso erradicar por completo todo lo que alejara a la nación del Señor. Además de estas cosas, eliminó a las personas que estaban extraviando al pueblo (v. 6). Finalmente, profanó los lugares donde se practicaba la adoración de ídolos (v. 8). Podemos ver algunas de las prácticas malvadas, incluido el sacrificio de niños, que Josías borró con estas acciones decisivas (v. 10). Josías “hizo pedazos las piedras sagradas” (v. 14). Para llenar el vacío dejado por esta limpieza, Josías también restauró las cosas que Israel había perdido al hacer que Israel volviera a celebrar la Pascua. Más que una simple festividad trivial, la Pascua fue ordenada por el Señor como parte del pacto. Esta fiesta recordaba el poder de Dios al liberar a Israel de la esclavitud en Egipto. Sin embargo, la nación no había celebrado este evento de esta manera desde los días de los jueces (v. 22). Podríamos argumentar que el hecho de no celebrar la Pascua aceleró su decadencia espiritual. No fue suficiente que Josías limpiara a Judá del servicio a otros dioses, necesitaba llenar el vacío al devolverlos a la adoración al Dios verdadero. ¿Te resulta difícil cumplir con tu compromiso al arrepentimiento? ¿Has eliminado las influencias que te alejan? ¿Qué personas, lugares o prácticas podría necesitar evaluarse? Ora con nosotros Señor, gracias por la vida del rey Josías, que nos habla a través de los siglos. ¡Qué vida de fidelidad a Ti, de dedicación a Tu ley, perseverancia y confianza! Muéstranos cómo recurrir a Ti, como Josías, en tiempos desesperados.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Previously on Saga of the Jewels…The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. He discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. Ryn sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted bounty hunter. Together the companions decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where with the help of the Farrian fighting monk HULD they have retrived the EARTH EMERALD, but Huld and the GOVERNOR of Farr might have other plans for it…EPISODE TWENTY-NINE: WE SHALL HAVE A TOURNAMENT“Well I must say I did not entirely expect you to return successfully,” said the Governor of Farr.They were back in his audience chamber on the summit of Shun-Pei, standing side-by-side a few paces away from his wide wooden desk. This time, Ryn noticed, two guards with shaven heads in green robes stood flanking each side of the desk, and there were two more behind them on the door as well.“It was rather difficult,” said Nuthea. “We had to fight golems, navigate a darkened labyrinth, herd some glow-worms, bypass a series of traps, and defeat an enormous plant monster... But we managed it in the end. Not least because of the help of your soldier Huld here.”Ryn sighed quietly. It had been a ‘rather difficult' experience. They had all been very glad of a good meal and a rest on Wanderlust on their way back here. What am I doing on this crazy adventure, again? Oh, that's right, I have nothing better to do, and everyone I knew from my life before is dead. Plus we're saving the world. I suppose that's quite important. Also, I get to stay around Nuthea.“I am sure it was very eventful for you,” said the Governor, scowling at them from underneath his large hat and behind the polished oak surface that separated him from them. “Show me then, Huld. I assume you have it?”“Yes Lord Governor,” said Huld. The hulking monk stepped forward, drawing something out from the folds of his brilliant green robes, and made to hand it to the Governor.“Don't give it to me, you fool!” the Governor snapped, his jowls wobbling. “Put it down on the desk! I'm not getting mixed up in any of this magic business, if indeed it is magic…”Huld bowed his head. “Yes Lord Governor. I'm sorry Lord Governor.” He placed the object on the desk and took a step back to return to his place in the line. Only, he didn't quite step back all the way—he stayed slightly further forward than the party.On the desk in front of him shone a small, brilliant leaf-green, oval emerald.“So,” said the Governor, “does it work?!” Not even a ‘well done', Ryn thought. “Does it bestow earth-manipulation?”“Yes, Lord Governor.”“Show me.”Huld hesitated a moment, then raised a hand, palm up, as if he was a schoolmaster gesturing for the Governor to stand up out of his chair.Instead of that happening, with a small rumble some of the mountain-earth in front of the desk of which the floor was composed rose up to form a pointed cone, much like a miniature version of the towers which made up Shun-Pei, before falling back to flatness when Huld lowered his hand again.He already seemed to be getting more proficient at earth-manipulation in the short time since he had touched the emerald. Ryn noticed the eyebrow of one of the guards stood by the desk rise.“Good,” said the Governor. He nodded. “You may leave now, foreigners.”What? Ryn thought.“What?” Sagar said.“Pardon me?” said Nuthea.“You heard me, Manoloian,” said the Governor, grinding his teeth. “I suppose I am somewhat grateful to you for helping to retrieve the Emerald, even though I am sure that Huld did most of the work for you, but you may be on your way now.”“But Lord Governor,” Nuthea protested, “do you not remember what we agreed? You said that once we had retrieved the Emerald we could take it to keep it safe from the Emperor of Morekemia!”The Governor snorted. “As far as I remember, I said nothing of the sort. Now leave.”“Hey!” shouted Sagar, hand going to one of his swords. “You're out of order, lard-arse!”Huld whirled round to face him immediately and raised both his hands.A rumble, the floor shook, and Ryn felt something press his hands against his hips and constrict around his waist.He looked down. Some of the earth from the floor had risen up and tightened around his body to trap him in a small mound. He wriggled against it, but it held him fast.On either side of him his companions had been trapped in five similar mounds, arms pinned to their sides.Not only that, but the four guards in the room had leapt in front of the governor's desk and now stood there crouched in battle poses, two with hands held out in strange clawed postures, ready to strike, two brandishing long curved swords with green tassels hanging from their hilts.Ryn thought this was a little over the top.“You scumbag!” Sagar yelled from where he was affixed in place by Huld's Earth attack. “You said that we could have the Jewel when we got it!”“To repeat,” said the Governor from behind his defensive wall of monks, “I said nothing of the sort. You asked to retrieve the Jewel, and you have, and now that you have delivered it safely to me, you may leave. Or suffer.”“But Lord Governor,” Nuthea persisted, still using the term of address that the Farrians favoured, “didn't you hear anything we said to you about the Emperor? He has learned of the Jewels! He is seeking them! If you keep this Jewel, it will only be a matter of time before the Empire attack you to take it for themselves, and who knows what damage they will do to your great nation in the process? They will invade you, occupy you, maybe even enslave you! The Jewel will be much safer with us, hidden on a travelling airship, and you will be safer for it too, if you tell the Empire that it has been sent away! We only intend to protect it and keep it safe from the Emperor—our intentions are noble.”For just a moment, Ryn fancied that he saw the Governor's scowl twitch into something else; a looser look of doubt.But then the scowl returned with a vengeance. “Why do you think it will be any better off with you than with us, Manolian? The Emerald belongs to Farr. Until you came along with your…abilities, we had hidden it so well that even we were unable to retrieve it.” He's contradicting himself, Ryn thought. A moment ago he said that Huld must have done all the work to get it. “We will keep hold of it now, and use it to defend ourselves. We will use it on our soldier-monks, who are loyal to Farr, and imbue them with the power of earth-manipulation, like Huld here.”Cid took a turn. “But my Lord Governor, why do you think that doing that will protect you? This Emerald is just one of twelve Jewels, and the Empire are seeking all of them. We only came to you first because yours was the next Jewel that we had good information about the location of. Who knows which of the others they have knowledge of, or perhaps have already found? Indeed, the first Jewel they got hold of, before we took it back from them, was the Fire Ruby, and many of the Imperials were given fire abilities with it. And earth is weak to fire!”This time the Governor went quiet for a moment and his tongue moved round behind his thick lips, as if searching for fragments of food lodged between his teeth.When he broke his silence he spoke to his ‘best monk'. “Is what this foreigner says true, Huld?”Huld turned his head to reply, but kept his hands up to keep the party held firmly in their mounds of Earth. “I do not know, Lord Governor. I have no knowledge of whether Morekemia have given any of their soldiers fire projec—”“Not that!” the Governor barked at him. “Whether or not ‘earth is weak to fire', as the geriatric said!”“Oh,” said Huld. “My apologies, Lord Governor.” He turned his head back to look at Ryn, uncertainty breaking out on his normally smiling face. “Um… Yes, I believe it is…” He spoke slowly, as if reluctant to admit what he was saying, still looking at Ryn. “In the Shrine to Eto, this boy with the fire abilities used them to great effect on its magical guardians, who were composed of either earthen or vegetative material… I… I do think it is accurate to say that were it not for his fire-projection we would not have been able to retrieve the Emerald...”“Hmmm…” Now the Governor's scowl had morphed into a troubled frown. “I have had reports of aggressive Morekemian movements in the West assisted by supernatural fire-projection…”          “Yes, that's right,” Nuthea chimed in. “We defeated and...killed a number of the soldiers who had obtained fire abilities when we retrieved the Ruby, but we don't know how many who still have fire projection are still out there. Or what other Jewels the Emperor may have found and got his hands on by now, like Grandfather said.”The Governor made a ponderous noise again, and stared off into the distance at nothing in particular. He did not say anything for a few moments.Then: “I have the solution. You make an odd but interesting case, foreigners, and it is troubling that this ‘Fire Ruby' is so effective against the element of earth, as Huld has attested… But I will not just give you the Emerald. That would be a great dishonour to us, and I cannot do it. You may have earned the right to bring it back to me, with Huld's help, but if you wish to take it for yourselves, you must earn that right too. And if what you say is true, then it would seem that the Emerald will be most safe with whoever is the strongest, and so most able to protect and defend it—which may well still prove to be us, as Huld has demonstrated.” He glanced down at the earthen mound which encased Ryn. “Thus, we shall settle this in the traditional Farrian way.”“What is that?” said Nuthea.“We shall have a tournament.”“A tournament?!” Nuthea looked like someone had just told her she was going to have to spend the night in the boys' sleeping cabin on board their airship.“Correct,” said the Governor. “We shall hold a tournament to decide who gets to keep the Earth Emerald.”“What kind of a tournament?” asked Ryn, intrigued. He thought about using his fire projection to break out of the earthen mound which Huld had encased him in, but decided not to for now. Sagar's aggression hadn't gotten him very far with the Farrians, and the diplomatic approach seemed to be working marginally better—at least, it had got them this strange offer...“A tournament of single combat,” said the Governor. “We're very keen on them here in Farr. We will make it open to anyone, including as many of you foreigners as wish to participate. After a few rounds of qualifying heats, eight champions will fight each other in three rounds of elimination. The winner will get to keep the Emerald—either one of you, if you even make it to the final eight, or a Farrian, for our nation.”“Lord Governor,” Nuthea said, “with all due respect--and I do respect you and the nation of Farr, very much—that is a very creative idea, but we just don't have the time for such a ‘tournament'. We need to be leaving in search of the other Primeval Jewels as soon as possible. As I've said to you many times, the Emperor of Morekemia is searching for the other Jewels too, and may even have found more of them by now. Our quest is urgent. We simply do not have time to participate in a ‘tournament'.”“Nonsense.” The Governor waved his hand at her as if he were swatting away an irritating mosquito. “This is my decision. You are lucky that I am making this concession to you at all—I could just decide to keep the Jewel outright, and have you all thrown out of here by Huld.”Ryn's finger's twitched inside the earthen mound in which he was encased.“But,” the Governor continued, “I am most merciful, and you gave me an even better idea. Shun-Pei has been somewhat restless of late, what with all of this news of military posturing on foreign shores, and a good tournament will give the people some entertainment, and pull them together, and in the process we shall discover who is most worthy and well-qualified to protect the Jewel. Yes. The winner of the tournament will get to keep the Emerald.”“But my Lord Governor,” Cid spoke up again, desperation creeping into his voice with a quiver, “this is madness! The princess is not jesting with you when she says that we do not have time for such a thing. Can you not see the urgency of our quest? If you delay our progress towards finding the Jewels by holding this tournament, you are putting the whole of Mid, the whole world, in even more danger than it already is!”“Enough!” the Governor snapped, flushing red, and held up a hand. “The tournament is my final offer. Do you accept or not? If you do not accept, I will have you thrown out of here!”“We don't accept!” said Sagar. “Come on guys, we can take them! Show ‘em some firepower, Ryn!”“No!” Nuthea yelled at once. “No violence!”Ryn's hands had grown hot inside the earth mound, but he held himself back. He wasn't about to take orders from Sagar, and he agreed with Nuthea that violence wasn't going to solve anything here. Huld still stood in front of them with his hands held up, along with the four other fighting monks. Although Ryn did think he could take them, given earth's weakness to fire. They may be better trained hand-to-hand fighters than he was, especially if these other monks were anything like Huld, but he was pretty sure if he threw a fireball or two at them they would back down pretty quickly. He didn't need to prove that to anybody. Yet.“Lord Governor,” Nuthea spoke again when she had seen that no one was going to start fighting, “thank you for your generous offer. May...may we take a moment to talk about it together? In private?”The Governor of Farr itched a fat cheek. “I do not see what there is to talk about. This is my offer. There will not be any others.”“Be that as it may,” said Nuthea, “we must still confer as to...as to whether to remain here to participate in this ‘tournament' or to leave in pursuit of the rest of the other Jewels.”“Alright,” said the Governor. “You can have five minutes. In the antechamber outside. Let them go, Huld.”“Are you sure, my Lord Governor?” said Huld, still looking at Ryn. “We do not know if they are sincere.”“Do not question me!” barked the Governor. “The Manolian is clearly the ringleader, and she has spoken peace. They're not clever enough to employ covert methods of communication between themselves. If they try anything, you have my permission to incapacitate them.” Ryn was sure he wouldn't be so confident if he wasn't talking from behind a wall of five fighting monks, one with elemental projection powers. “Let them go.”“Yes, Lord Governor,” Huld said and, still keeping his gaze firmly fixed on Ryn, he motioned with his hands and brought them down to his sides.At the same time, the earthen mounds holding the party members in place receded back into the floor with a rumble.Ryn rubbed his arms. Huld had been holding them in the earth quite tight, it turned out…Once they were out in the antechamber and the doors had been shut, Sagar said, “Alright, team huddle.”Ryn realised he didn't care so much anymore that Sagar was initiating this. Whatever Sagar said, Nuthea was clearly the one who was leading their adventuring party in practice, as the Governor had identified. At least at the moment. Sagar was ‘all talk and no trousers', as Ryn's mother used to say…Mother. Father. Hometown. Found Vorr. Got Vorr. Killed Vorr. Now stay with Nuthea. Find the Jewels. Save the world.The party locked arms and huddled together, shoulder to shoulder for one of their team discussions. Nuthea's honey-scented breath warmed Ryn's left cheek. On his right, Sagar—stale tobacco leaf. Ugh.“Right, you guys,” said Sagar as soon as they were all in the huddle, “I say we march straight back in there and take the Jewel by force. We can take a handful of baldies easy, and with Ryn here's fire projection powers he can deal with them in a matter of moments!”“No!” said Nuthea again. “We are not doing that, Captain Sagar!”“Well why the hells not? It's the most logical course of action! Wham, bam, we get our Emerald, a big cash bonus for me since the first Jewel has been found, and it's off in search of the next one. Where's the problem with that?”“It is not the Way of the One.”“Arrrg,” protested Sagar, “not this again! Come on! Only two of us are Oneists!”Maybe two and a half, thought Ryn.“It's not just that,” said Nuthea. “Not only is it not the Way of the One, but it's against the whole spirit of this Quest and our whole mode of operation.”“She's right,” said Cid. “We can't just go charging into countries and taking Jewels by force. If we do that we're no better than the Imperials.”“Well that's what pirates do,” said Sagar. “Are you saying that I'm no better than the Imperials, old man??”“Of course he's not,” said Nuthea. “At least you fought against the Empire. And you rescued Ryn and me.”“If you can call it that…” mumbled Ryn.“What was that, pup?”Ryn nearly said “Nothing,” but then instead he went for “The way I remember it, you needed quite a lot of persuading by Nuthea not to keep us captive, or kill us.”Sagar scowled at him.“Look, let's not argue about this,” said Nuthea. “We're in a difficult enough situation as it is. Not only is taking Jewels by force from people they legitimately belong to not the way that we are going to do things, but even if it was, it would work against us in the long run. The Emerald is only the first of nine more Jewels which we need to find. If we start off our Quest by just snatching Jewels from countries' governments for ourselves, other nations will hear of it and we'll get a reputation.”“Again,” said Sagar, “I don't see the problem here. What exactly is the problem with this plan?”“Captain Sagar, that kind of reputation might work for a skypirate crew, but for us it could mean that it is harder for us to find the Jewels hidden in other countries, or even outright stop us entirely from having their locations divulged to us. It just wouldn't help us in the long run. On the other hand, if we work with the nations of Mid to find the Jewels before the Emperor does, explaining why we are doing so when we have to, then we'll get a reputation for being the group trying to protect the world that we actually are.” She glanced at Sagar pointedly. “That way, the different peoples of Mid might actually help and assist us in finding the Jewels. The Governor of Farr has been very helpful and cooperative with us, up until now. If we fight him for the Emerald, we can't expect him or anyone else to trust us in the future. But if we work with him to get the Emerald, we set a precedent, and we might be able to work with other nations to find other Jewels afterwards, too.”A pause.“Rrrr,” said Sagar.“But he is asking us to fight for the Emerald,” said Ryn, “just in a different way to what Sagar's saying: he wants us to enter this tournament thing. What's the deal with that?”“It's because the Farrians love fighting so much,” said Elrann, the first time she had spoken up in the huddle. “I remember this from the times I was in Farr before. They love fighting here—not brawling for arguments' sake like you, pirate-man, more like a controlled, practiced sort of fighting, without weapons. It's like sport for them. They do it for exercise, to train themselves—I think it's even part of their religion. All those monks in the green robes are trained in it. Like Huld. And they hold these fighting tournaments quite often—to give themselves something to train and practice for, and so the different students and masters of their fighting schools can show off their skills and gain prestige. I got to see one once, on one of my visits. It was pretty amazing actually.”“Alright then…” said Sagar, eyeing her carefully. “So I enter this tournament, I beat the Farrians, I get the Emerald for us. Easy. A bit more work than I'd hoped, but still: Easy.”“What?” said Elrann. “Ya think you can win it just like that? Ya think you can beat monk-man, do ya?”“Baldy?!” Sagar scoffed. “I could take him, easy!”“Have you seen the way he fights? And he has earth powers now as well.”“Pffft,” Sagar made a dismissive noise and waved his hand. “I could still take him...” His words remained confident, but Ryn noticed his voice became a little quieter.“I wonder if we'd be allowed to use our elemental powers in this tournament,” Ryn said. “If we were, I think I'd have a pretty good chance of beating the Farrians with earth powers, what with their being weak to fire and everything.” He deliberately phrased his words in a less brash way than Sagar. He didn't want to get shot down like the skypirate had.“That's a good point,” said Cid. “Before we accept this offer of a tournament, we should find out if elemental projection will be allowed or not. If it is, it does seem like we have a good chance with Ryn.”Sagar mumbled something indistinctly.“Well what do we do if you're not allowed to use elemental powers in the tournament?” said Elrann.“Then we would need to rely on someone who is extremely skilled at fighting, even without them.”All of them except Sagar looked at Vish.“What?” said Vish after a moment, the first thing he had said in the huddle.“Will you fight for us, Shadowfinger Vish?” Nuthea asked him.“Yes,” Vish said simply, “if you give me poppy.”“We've spoken about this, young man,” said Cid. “You need to spread out your poppy hits more in order to come off of it.”“Alright then,” said Vish, a tinge of irritation touching his tone. “What I mean is, if you continue to supply me with poppy and to...help me ‘come off it', then of course, I will do whatever you want, yes. I will fight in this tournament for you, yes. I will win it.”“Excellent,” said Nuthea.“Oh sure,” mumbled Sagar, “he gets to assume that he'll win even without powers, and everyone just agrees with him…”“I think it's settled, then,” Nuthea continued, ignoring him. “We will enter this ‘tournament' that the Governor is proposing. Either Ryn will win it if powers are allowed, or Shadowfinger Vish if they are not—”“Or I will,” said Sagar.“--and one way or the other, we will get the Emerald. Are we all agreed?”“Agreed,” everyone said, except Sagar, who said “No.”“Good. Let's go back in there and find out some more details, then.”They broke the huddle and marched back through the double doors to the Governor's audience chamber, resuming their places in a line in front of his desk together. The monks had resumed their own places at the doors and either side of the desk. Huld now stood at the right hand of the seated Governor, hands behind his back, upright and attentive. The Emerald shone on the wooden surface in front of them.“Well then,” said the Governor, sneering at them, “do you accept my generous offer of a tournament?”“We think so, yes,” said Nuthea. “We just have a few questions, if we may.”“What?” said the Governor rudely.“Well, firstly, will Jewel-gifted powers of elemental projection be allowed at this tournament?”“Yes.”Huld's face cracked into a frown, breaking the mask of his serene smile. “My Lord Governor! Are you sure?”“Quiet, Huld!” barked the Governor. “Do not speak out of turn! I am quite sure. The whole point of this tournament is to find the person or persons most worthy and capable of guarding and defending the Emerald. If elemental projection is to play a part in that, then so be it. What's more,” he added, almost to himself, “if the people of Farr see one of you defeat the fighting monks of Eto to win the tournament (which I highly doubt will happen), they will find it much easier to understand why I am entrusting the safety of the Emerald to a band of filthy foreigners…”That's good, thought Ryn. Though the pressure's on me now… Find the Jewels. Save the world. Win the tournament.“Thank you, Lord Governor,” said Nuthea. “Question two:” ‘Question Two'? thought Ryn. Who talks like that? I guess she does. “When will you be able to hold this tournament? My companions and I must be leaving as soon as possible in search of other Jewels.”“We've just been talking about the logistics,” said the Governor. “The tournament will be held in one week.”“One week?!”“That's what I said, Manolian.”“But my Lord Governor, we need to be off in search of the other Jewels as soon as possible! A week is a long amount of time at the moment. The Empire could make significant progress in a week! They could discover the whereabouts of more Jewels, even obtain them…”“I remind you that my decision to hold a tournament to decide who keeps the Emerald is my final offer, Manolian. In truth, whether you accept and enter or not is really irrelevant—I am going to hold it anyway.”“May we confer again?”“No. I want your answer now.”Nuthea looked pained. “It seems you leave us no other course of action, Lord Governor. The Emerald is the only Jewel which we fear the Empire may know of already, due to the once public nature of its previous discovery and hiding. It is the highest priority on our list. Though I regret it, we will wait a week for this tournament. Then we will enter it, and one of us will win it.”“We shall see,” said the Governor, the corner of his mouth curling up mockingly. “Very well. You shall enter the tournament, which shall be held in one week, in the Tenkachi arena. Until then, I will provide lodgings for you in Shun Pei. Feel free to explore the city. Witness our superior culture. Train, I suggest, if you want even the faintest flicker of a hope of winning in the tournament! I will see you in one week. Yal!” He shouted the last word. A name.There was a fumbling at the door and then it opened and a harangued head poked around it. Ryn recognised the official who had first led them to the Governor's chamber.“Yes, Lord Governor?”“Have these foreigners shown to guest rooms in the manse. Then issue a decree: There is to be a tournament at Tenkachi, open to all Farrians and anyone currently residing in Farr. They have one week to travel here. There will be a great prize for the winner.”“Yes, my Lord Governor.” The official's gaze fell on the Emerald where it sat on the Governor's desk. “Shall I say what the prize will be?”“No,” said the Governor. “Absolutely not. We don't want the Morekemians getting wind of recent events. Just tell them there will be vast sums of money involved. Say, a million gold pieces from the treasury. That should attract the very best talent; not that we need any more than what we already have here in the city. Now be off with you.”“Very good, Lord Governor,” said the official. “Please come with me,” he said to Ryn and his friends, and the party bid goodbye to the Governor, for now, and followed him out of the chamber.Thanks for reading!Read advanced chapters and support the Saga on Patreon! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sagaofthejewels.substack.com

Lee 2 Crónicas 34:14–33 Agustín, el teólogo del siglo IV, estaba agonizando. Los enemigos estaban a las puertas de su ciudad en el norte de África. ¿Cómo respondió? Pidió que los siete salmos penitenciales, es decir, los salmos de confesión y arrepentimiento del pecado, como los Salmos 32 y 130, se escribieran en hojas y se colgaran alrededor de su cama. De esa manera podía leerlos y meditar en ellos, confesando sus pecados y preparando su alma para encontrarse con el Señor. Confesar nuestro pecado es una disciplina espiritual muy valiosa. En 2 Crónicas 34:19, el rey Josías “se rasgó las vestiduras” por el pecado. Esta dramática acción expresó profundo dolor, alarma y humildad. En este caso, también expresaba el deseo del rey de confesarse y arrepentirse. ¿Qué había pasado? El sacerdote Jilquías había encontrado “el libro de la Ley del SEÑOR, dada por medio de Moisés” (v. 14), probablemente el Pentateuco (los primeros cinco libros del Antiguo Testamento), que aparentemente se había perdido. Cuando se leyó este libro en voz alta ante el rey, Josías se dio cuenta de cuán culpable era la nación de la infidelidad al pacto y del pecado en general (v. 21). Mientras que en la lectura de ayer la crisis era externa, en el episodio de hoy era interna. Según las Escrituras, el pueblo de Judá merecía la ira de Dios. ¿Qué pasaría? Primero, el rey preguntó a la profetisa Huldá (v. 22). Ella respondió que lo que decía el libro era verdad. Y Dios no cambia. Pero debido al corazón receptivo del rey, el castigo por la idolatría y el pecado no llegaría durante su vida (vv. 24–28). En segundo lugar, el rey dirigió una renovación pública del pacto (vv. 29–32). Esto debe haber incluido confesar y arrepentirse del pecado. Ya estaba liderando un avivamiento. El templo estaba siendo renovado. La gente estaba dispuesta a humillarse ante el Señor. Finalmente, Josías tomó medidas concretas contra el pecado, quitando y destruyendo los ídolos del pueblo (v. 33). ¿Cuán en serio tomamos el pecado? ¿Nos sentimos lo suficientemente fuertes como para rasgarnos la ropa, por así decirlo? ¿Cómo podemos desarrollar corazones sensibles hacia las Escrituras? Ora con nosotros Una vez más, se nos recuerda nuestra necesidad de confesar y arrepentirnos de nuestros pecados. Señor Jesús, estamos muy agradecidos por Tu sacrificio que nos trajo perdón y libertad. Gracias porque siempre podemos acudir a Ti en todas las situaciones.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Previously on Saga of the Jewels…The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. Ryn sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted assassin. Together the companions decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the evil EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where, guided by the Farrian monk HULD, they have entered the ancient abandoned Earth Temple in order to attempt to retrieve the EARTH EMERALD…EPISODE TWENTY-EIGHT: EARTH ELEMENTAL“I guess we needed that boulder after all,” the purple-haired engineer-girl was saying. “It pressed down the switch at the bottom of the pit, which opened those doors.”“Hmph,” spoke the ponytailed skypirate. “I could have done that. I would have found it eventually.”The engineer girl rolled her eyes at him.Huld was just grateful that they seemed to have made it through the trap-gauntlet, for now at least. He was astonished at the variety and ingenuity of the traps and designs that had been built into this shrine to Eto. Had they been part of the original architect's intention, he wondered, or had the ‘Earth Emerald' formed those, too, around itself, as the old man had talked about?“Come on everyone,” said the fireboy, who seemed to be the leader of the group when it wasn't goldengirl or ponytail. “Let's see what's through these doors.”Huld walked forwards with the others through the steel doors.Now the pool of moving light from the collection of glow-worms in the floor, which they had been chasing for so long, moved with them, staying under their feet and following them through the doors.Beyond the doors it lit up another large, high-ceilinged chamber much like the one they had been in two floors ago.Only this chamber was somewhat smaller, in terms of its length and width, if not its height.And while it had the same brown-coloured earthen floor as the rest of the Shrine, this chamber's walls and ceiling were made of stone, grey in the light from the worm-pool. There was no exit off of it that Huld could see.“I think we've reached the top level of the Temple that we saw outside!” said goldengirl.“About time, too,” said ponytail.“But what do we do now we're here?” said fireboy. “Shouldn't the Emerald be in this room somewhere?”“Hopefully…” said the old man. “But there might be one final puzzle, one last challenge…”“Well that's just great…” grumbled ponytail.“Hey, what's that over there?” said goldengirl.She was pointing at a small object on the floor in the centre of the room.Huld walked over to it with the others in the light from the glow-worms and inspected it.Growing right in the centre of the chamber was what to all appearances seemed to be a tiny plant.The plant jutted a few inches out of the earthen floor, its stalk and presumably roots extending down into it, green in the glow-worm light. It had a few little leaves which grew off the main stalk. It was more of a shoot than a plant, really. The whole thing did not look bigger than Huld's hand.As they got closer to it, the edge of the light-pool touched the plant, and its leaves twitched.“Did you see that?!” said engineer-girl.All of a sudden the pool of light dissolved as the glow-worms all shot apart in different directions, trailing streaks of brightness across the floor as they moved away from the central point where they had been gathered. They moved faster than the party had yet seen, and made straight for the stone walls of the chamber.Which they began to eat through.The worms moved up through the walls, creating vertical lines of light in them, flaring white in the process just as they had done when they had eaten through the stone doors that had given them access to the previous chamber.None of the foreigners said anything, apparently too surprised and awestruck to do so, as Huld was. Instead they held up their hands to shield their eyes against the incredibly bright light.From behind Huld's own upraised hand, the light moved up higher, till it was coming from above. Huld had to lift his hand higher above his head to block it out and stop it from blinding him. The worms must have eaten a path up to and through the ceiling of the chamber.Then the light started to move downwards again. The worms were methodically eating through the walls of the chamber from the top, down.A deep rumble sounded, punctuated by the occasional louder rise in pitch and volume, and the floor started to vibrate. It sounded like the walls were starting to crumble and fall away as the worms ate through them.And a new light had joined the glow-worm-light now, a warmer, yellower light, all-encompassing, impossible to block out with his hand.The sun.Warm air enveloped Huld's face.He dropped his hand.As the last of the stone walls crumbled away, Huld looked round at the blue Farrian sky, the white clouds drifting aimlessly through it, the canopy-sea of green treetops that they were raised a little higher than on this earthen platform, the pinnacle of Eto's magnificent ziggurat, which had now been entirely stripped of its top floor's stone walls.The foreigners had dropped their hands too, and were looking round and staring open-mouthed at the scene like idiots.“Well, that was pretty cool,” said engineer-girl.“Indeed,” said the old man.“We're definitely at the top of the Shrine then…” said fireboy pointlessly.“Yeah, but where's the Jewel?” said ponytail.“Stay patient, Captain Sagar,” said goldengirl. “I'm sure it's around here somewhere.”The Shadowfinger, Vish, stayed silent, and barely ever said anything, Huld noted again. His one redeeming trait.“Er, guys…” said engineer-girl. “You'd better take a look at this…”Huld turned to see what she was talking about.Behind them, the plant in the floor, which they had been distracted from while the walls had been being eaten away, was growing.It had grown so fast that it was already as tall as engineer-girl, a much larger stalk slithering upwards into the air, more shoots and leaves sprouting off it and unfurling before their eyes, its base widening, thickening, pushing at the earth in which it was encased, roots starting to pop out of it like clenched fingers.“What in the hells?” said ponytail.The ground began to rumble again, then it split and cracked under their feet, a hundred jagged cracks zigzagging out from the plant's base.They stumbled backwards to where the ground remained firm, gazes still locked on the rapidly growing plant.Now it was twice Huld's height, and still growing, climbing, widening, not showing any signs of slowing.Then it roared.Can plants roar? Huld thought.They fell onto their backsides as in front of them even more of the floor split and crumbled away, and up out of it rose an enormous green plant monster.That was the only word Huld had for it. A tangled mass of knotted green and brown shoots and vines covered all over in leaves, even with bits of wood and branches discernible in the huge, seething mass of it, the plant monster was humanoid in shape, and at the top of its torso the shoots and vines were twisted into something that resembled a head, with an open space for a mouth which emitted an unnatural roar somewhere between that of a lion and a dragon.The little shoot sticking up from the floor, it turned out, had only been the tip of one of its fingers, which were each now a shoot of their own, at the ends of long arms of twisted vines. The plant monster had come up onto the platform hand-first, and used its arm to pull the rest of itself out of the ground.It stood before them now in the sunlight and open air atop the earthen platform at the summit of the earth shine, terrifying in its inhumanity, and roared at them again. The earth floor had re-formed itself underneath the monster to make the platform flat and complete once more.“What do we do?!” fireboy was yelling desperately. “What do we do?!“We fight it, you stupid pup!” ponytail shouted back. “Use your damn fire, quick!”“It's an Earth Elemental!” called the old man. “It must be the guardian of the Emerald!”“Watch out!” cried goldengirl.The plant monster slammed a huge leafy hand down at the fireboy, but he managed to leap out of the way of it in time and it only smacked against empty floor.“Fire!” shouted fireboy, appropriately enough, and thrust out his hands in a gesture not entirely dissimilar from the Strike That Moves Mountains. Maybe he was copying it. Huld wouldn't put it past a filthy foreigner to do something like that.Flames leapt from fireboy's hands and engulfed the monster's torso, setting it alight. It stepped back from fireboy and roared again, and Huld wondered if he didn't detect pain in the roar this time.“It works!” yelled goldengirl. “More of that, Ryn! Can you help us out?”“Help you out with what?”“By setting our weapons on fire again!”“Why don't I just attack it myself?!”“Don't be greedy, pup!” yelled ponytail. “Don't hog all the glory! There's enough to go around!”“Alright...come here, everyone!”The other foreigners all rushed over to the boy while the plant monster roared and staggered around on fire at the other end of the platform. They drew their weapons, made mainly of steel.“Put them all together!” commanded fireboy.The foreigners all held their blades to each other so they touched, except in engineer-girl's case, who instead contributed a metal whip. The goldengirl and the old man carried simple, straight swords. Ponytail put in two curved foreign blades. Vish had a black Imperial weapon.“Fir-AHHH!” the fireboy yelled, his magic-word cracking and turning into a shout of exertion. Again fire leapt from his outstretched hands, this time engulfing the upheld weapons in a localised inferno. Then the fire ceased streaming from his hands, but it remained burning on the blades, the whip.The monster roared again, more loudly, and this time the roar was full of fury.They all turned to look at it again, then watched in horror as with one leafy hand it tore a flaming chunk of vegetative mass out of its own torso and flung it, still burning, in their direction.The party scattered, except for fireboy, whom the chunk of flaming plant-mass hit head-on. But instead of hurting him, it broke apart on him, falling apart to either side, burning up even more quickly and smoking away into charred ashes, leaving him there, holding out his hands in the same pose he had used to set his friends' weapons alight.The plant monster roared yet again. There were still a few flames burning on its body here and there, including on the hand with which it had ripped a section out of its own chest, but it had largely succeeded in removing the part of it that had been on fire from itself. In the cavity that had been left in its chest, new shoots and vines now grew quickly to fill the gap, regenerating its body.“Poodoo!” ponytail yelled vulgarly. “It can heal itself!”“Yes, but the fire still hurts it!” the old man yelled back. “We might be able to burn it up faster than it can heal! Attack! Attack! Use your flame-assisted weapons!”“Death and glory!” ponytail shouted, and ran at the monster with his twin flaming blades held out.“For Imfis!” shouted engineer-girl as she followed him with her fiery whip.“Manolia!” cried goldengirl.The old man and the Shadowfinger ran with them too, though without feeling the need to shout battlecries, leaving only fireboy remaining standing where he was, holding his hands out.Huld watched all of this happening like a curious observer. He was a good distance from the plant in this corner of the platform he had ended up in, and he was strangely fascinated by the foreigners and their unorthodox improvised fighting techniques. He saw no reason to join in yet, if at all. This monster, fearsome as it was, was apparently a guardian of the Primeval Jewel that belonged to his people. Nothing that had happened on their journey through the Shrine had convinced him that it was a good idea to be taking the Emerald from its safe hiding place here, wherever it was. He hadn't even located it yet. It may have been his orders to help with this mission, which he was bound to obey, but he didn't have to rush to obey them, did he?What was more, he didn't have a weapon that could hold fire like the others' could. So he had no weapon that would be effective against the earth elemental.Or do I?“Huld!” fireboy called out to him, “Do...do you want some fire too?” His eyes were creased up with strain and his arms trembled where he held up his hands palm-out in a gesture which seemed to allow him to be able to keep the fire burning on his friends' weapons.“No thank you,” Huld said to him politely. “I am not quite so...keen on fire as you are.”“But don't you...don't you need a way to fight it too?” the boy gasped. It seemed to be a great effort for him to speak while he was sustaining so much fire at once.“Your friends seem to be dealing with it well enough on their own.”“Aaaarrrggghhhh!”Ponytail suddenly landed on the floor between them having been knocked backwards through the air by one of the plant monster's hands. He picked himself up and brushed himself down, wiping a bloody cut to his cheek with the back of his hand. He had lost one of his swords, but the one that he still held continued to burn with magical fire.“Why did it have to be earth first?” he grumbled. “I hate earth…”He ran back into the fray.The fireboy's friends were all slashing wildly at the plant monster, leaving trails of orange in the air where they drew their weapons across it. They were managing to hack off sections of the creature's body, big green collections of vines and leaves falling to the floor together, and set it on fire again in different places. But the vines and leaves seemed still to be growing back, in spite of the flames, and in between swiping at them with its gigantic leafy fists and roaring, the monster continued in its strategy of tearing off the flaming parts of itself and chucking them at the foreigners, or off the top of the shrine entirely, only for them to regrow.Huld sighed.“I suppose that you could try to lend me some of your fire,” he said to fireboy, “if you really want to.”He held out his wooden staff and tilted the tip of it down to the boy.“Fire,” spoke the boy, more weakly than before, and some more fire appeared and jumped from one of his hands to Huld's staff, setting the top of it alight. It burned orange and hot.Huld recoiled from it immediately, but managed to keep hold of it at arm's length. I hate fire, he thought.“Thank you,” he said, remembering his etiquette, and dipped his head slightly to fireboy.“No...no problem…” breathed fireboy, evidently struggling. “You better get in there…”Huld nodded, and ran towards the battle, holding the staff a good distance away from his body.When he ran past ponytail, the skypirate said “Baldy! So good of you to join us!”Filthy foreigner.Huld thought he should imitate the others, and he wanted to reassert where his allegiance lay and remind himself of his motivation for doing all this, so as he bent his knees and jumped high through the air, he shouted “For Farr!”It came off the tongue a bit awkwardly, but it made for a good enough battlecry, he supposed.He flew through the air and aimed an almighty thwack of his staff right at the creature's ‘head'. The staff connected pleasingly, and Huld held it in place a little longer, using its momentum and the creature's own body to keep it in contact for a moment after the initial impact.The monster's head caught fire.Huld kicked off the creature with both his feet and backflipped, landing on the ground and twirling his staff around himself in an orange-trailed flourish before letting it come to rest at his side again.“Nice-one, monk-man!” the engineer-girl called out to him. “That was fabulous!”Huld allowed himself a smile and a nod to her. He supposed that he was partial to praise, even from foreigners... Even from foreigner engineer-girls who looked and dressed a bit like boys…The plant monster roared. It was on fire again, but it tore at its own head and ripped it off, then threw it at Huld, who leapt again, over the top of it, somersaulted in the air, and came down upright.The head regrew quickly, reforming out of the plant mass of the creature's body, and the monster roared again with renewed vigour.That was unfortunate.But the foreigners seemed to have the advantage now. Whether because they were inspired by Huld's daring attack, or because they didn't want him to get all the ‘glory' as ponytail called it, they charged in again, hacking, slashing, swiping, whipping at the plant, chopping more of it off and setting more parts of it alight.Huld joined them, rushing in and swiping rapidly at its hands with his staff, deflecting them from bashing into him or the foreigners, trying to hold the monster up long enough to stop it from tearing off the flaming parts of itself before the fire could consume it completely and burn it up.If they could all attack quickly enough together, and coordinate their attacks, then maybe they could cut enough of it off and set enough of it on fire to prevent it from regrowing and destroy it completely.“It's working!” yelled ponytail. “Keep going! Keep fighting!”Almost all of the plant was on fire now and it didn't seem to be able to regenerate itself fast enough anymore. It appeared to be shrinking, even as it roared a noise of frustration and tore more flaming parts off itself to chuck at the foreigners, who scrambled to get out of the way and came back in to attack.They were doing it. They were subduing the Earth Elemental, the guardian of the Shrine to Eto and the Earth Emerald. Huld wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that, but at least they were winning.And then the fire on their weapons ran out.The flames leaping from the foreigner's swords and whip just fizzled out, leaving cold metal once again. Only Huld's staff continued to burn with fire, presumably because it was made of wood and the boy had set it on fire in the more traditional fashion.The monster reached down and grabbed his staff. Huld was too stunned with surprise to react in time. The monster snatched the staff away from him with a twitch of its arm, then snapped it in two, throwing the discarded halves of it over its shoulder, off the top of the Shrine.“Oh dear,” Huld said.“I'm...I'm sorry!” fireboy called back weakly from somewhere behind them. “I don't think I have any mana left! I used it all up! I'm exhausted!”“Well, poodoo,” said ponytail. “And just when we were starting to win as well…”The monster roared at them, having torn another massive chunk of flaming plant-mass off of itself and thrown it away, then regrown it. There were far less flames burning on it already. And it had begun to increase in size again.Its leafy fist flew through the air, aimed at Huld.He raised a defence to block.But this time, instead of punching him, the monster opened its green hand before it made impact with the monk, and instead reached out to grab him in a band of vines, which constricted around him immediately.Huld cried out in alarm and pushed against the vines, but with no fire to blight them they held fast, and constricted all the more tightly.He called out with pain as the tendrils forced themselves tighter around his chest. All of a sudden there was a rush of air as the monster swung him somewhere with its hand, and then he was completely surrounded by green and brown vines and shoots.Huld wriggled and writhed, tried to kick, punch, amidst the seething mass of plant. His vision was entirely obscured by leaves and vines and branches. Every which way he turned were only more leaves and vines and branches.What had happened? Had the plant monster taken him into itself? Into its own body?He tried to call out again but found he had no breath. Vines still encircled him, still clamped down on his chest, and they were beginning to squeeeeeze the air out of him, squeeze the very life out of him.He wriggled and writhed all the more frantically, all the more desperately, but to no avail. The effort only made the vines tighten around him even more. He was trapped.His energy began to wane. The corners of his vision started to blur. And then he lost the ability to move entirely, his vision staring to turn black and fade away.He was passing out, he realised. He was suffocating. He was going to die.Well, I wouldn't mind winning this battle if it meant staying alive, he thought dimly.The world went dark.Just before the darkness overtook the entirety of his vision, something green and bright flared in it.Huld opened his eyes again, which had been drooping shut, looking out with one last surge of desperate hope.A little way in front of him, also embedded in the mess of leaves and vines, was a green jewel, shining blighty with an ethereal glow.The emerald wants to be found, the old man's words echoed in Huld's mind. This is all a test, he realised.Could he get to it?With the last of his strength, Huld stretched his neck out amidst the tangle of vines and touched his mouth to the green-glowing emerald, giving everything he had, and kissed it.Fertile power surged through Huld, beginning in his lips and spreading to every part of him. At the same time became aware of the plant monster in a new way. All at once he could somehow feel all of its different vines and branches and leaves and tendrils. And not only that, but now he could feel the presence of the earth from which the Shrine was composed below him, underneath the plant's ‘feet'. He could feel the whole construct of the Shrine, all its different earthen floors and walls and corridors, its stone doors, and even, below all that, the soil of the earth of Farr itself. He did not know how to put it into words even in his own thoughts—but all of a sudden he could just feel them in the same way that he could feel his own body.And if he could feel them like his own body, he could move them like his own body, too.He concentrated, and willed for the plant to release him.Somewhere above him the plant monster roared again, a strained, peculiar noise. Huld hadn't known before how a plant could roar, but now with his new earth-sense he perceived that one of the many different kinds of plants of which the tangled elemental was composed was able to trap and release air, and that a group of them were releasing a rush of pressurised air in coordination from a collection of vines in its ‘throat' in order to make the roaring noise.The plant was resisting him, but Huld was exerting some effect on it.The monk shut his eyes, drawing on a lifetime of meditation and attention-training, and used his new earth-sense to ‘feel' for the vines and shoots that composed the monster's arms. He felt their presence ineffably, but he also saw the two arms in his mind's eye.He concentrated, and, as if it was his own, made one of the monster's arms rise to reach inside its own torso.Huld felt familiar tendrils encircling himself, but this time they constricted around him only to pluck him out of the seething mass in which he had become embedded. Air rushed over him again briefly as he willed the monster to pull him out of its body, and then opened his eyes with a jolt as he willed it to let him go and landed on his back on the ground with a smack.Stars burst behind his eyes and the Farrian sunshine blinded him for a moment, breaking his concentration, but then he was springing onto his feet again, reaching out with his earth-sense towards the plant, willing it to submit to him.Around him, some of the foreigners were still pestering it like irritating mosquitoes, and now Huld realised that it had taken others of them into itself.“Son of a submariner!” came a muffled cry from within the body of the plant, from a body concealed by foliage. “Heeeeeelp!” Engineer-girl.“Get us out of here!” came another. Fireboy.This was why the other foreigners weren't attacking it all-out anymore, but merely defending themselves from it and taking cheap shots—they didn't want to hurt their companions.“Master Huld,” goldengirl called to him from nearby. “You made it release you, somehow!” She saw much. Huld did not like that. “Can you make it release Ryn and lady Elrann, too?”Huld set his jaw. “I will try,” he said in earnest.Intuitively, he reached out his hands, much as he had seen fireboy and ponytail do to call their fire and wind, and felt with his new earth-sense to take control of the plant's arms again.He got them, but the plant resisted him, pushing back against his control. It was like the monster had a consciousness, a will of its own. Or maybe it was the will of the Jewel itself? Was that possible?Huld grunted. Exhaustion sapped his limbs already—he was new to this power, and after the first initial flush of awakening to it, it was hard work to use it.He gritted his teeth, a long hiss of effort issuing from between them, and forced the monster's two arms up and into itself, searching for the engineer-girl and fireboy, found them, and pulled them from within it. They came out with gasps of relief as Huld made the monster plonk them down on the floor. It must have been strangling them to death too.Huld dropped his arms after the two foreigners landed, releasing his mental hold on the monster. His triceps and forearms had filled with bright, flaring pain from the effort he had just expended.“How did you do that, baldy?” ponytail said next to him, his forehead scrunched up with incredulity.“Inside the creature…” Huld conceded, panting. “I touched… the Emerald…”The plant monster took a step towards them.“Well do you think you could use your new abilities to take that thing out?!” ponytail shouted.A plant-fist flew through the air towards Huld.He put his hands up again and willed for it to stop…...only to be smacked in the chest and sent tumbling back heels-over-head along the floor.He almost went over the edge of the platform, but put his hand out and grabbed the lip of it just in time, thudding into the earth wall below with the side of his body as he dangled.“Ouch,” said Huld. His arm strained almost beyond belief.He took a deep breath, got his other hand up onto the platform too, then grimaced as he wrenched himself back up onto it, in spite of himself a gasp of pain spilling from his lips.The battle had resumed. The foreigners danced forwards and backwards, throwing hopeless strikes and avoiding the plant monster's hands like their lives depended on it. Which, in fact, they did.Ponytail turned and saw Huld standing at the edge of the platform.“Baldy!” he called. “Look, if you've got earth-powers now, can you sort this thing out for us or not?!”“I am sorry,” Huld called back. He was apologising more than he would like to today, and to filthy foreigners of all people. “I am not strong enough. I think I may have ‘run out of mana', as the boy put it?”“That's right,” called goldengirl, jumping out of the way to avoid a grab from the monster, then running back to join him at the edge of the platform. “You only just got your powers,” she said when she reached him, her face flushed. “You would have had the surge when you first touched the jewel, but they are new to you, so your mana reserves won't be very large yet. You can only increase them through training and practice. Have you got anything left?”“No,” Huld said, keenly aware of the pain in his arms. Though maybe there was a small something left in there. “Or at least, not much,” he added.“Grandfather,” goldengirl said to the old man, “can you give him some of your mana?”“An excellent idea!” said the old man, his face lighting up. “I almost forgot! Though I must be careful not to entirely deplete my own reserves.”While the others kept the plant monster busy, the old man ran over to Huld and laid a hand on his shoulder. Normally Huld would have protested at this gross invasion of his personal space and breaking of etiquette, especially by a foreigner, but he was growing to accept some of their stranger ways.“Syphon,” said the old man, then “Cure.” Huld felt a lightness spread from his shoulder through the rest of his body, and the pain in his arms subsided.“Thank you,” he said to the old man, bowing.“Don't mention it.” The old man grinned through his white beard. “Though I'm out of mana myself now.”Huld wasted no time. He put his two hands forward, making gripping shapes with each, and concentrated on the plant monster.In the middle of pulling back for a strike at engineer-girl, the plant monster stopped in place, trembling against the force of Huld's earth-manipulation. He felt it resisting him, like a magnetic force physically pushing against his outstretched hands, but he held it in place. For now.“Now!” Huld yelled desperately. “Attack it now while I am still able to hold it!”“Come on, everyone!” the Manolian cried. “Now's our chance!”The foreigners rushed the monster again, though this time without any flame projection from fireboy. Being the nearest, engineer-girl got to it first, lashing at it with her whip, which shot out like a silver snake lunging towards its pray and lashed through some leaves. Then ponytail, Vish, fireboy, the Manolian, the old man, all arrived with their swords, jumping and cutting wildly at it, tearing sections of growth from it as Huld held it in place.The pain returned to Huld's arms, sharp as needles. He could feel the plant monster resisting his grip, pushing against him, intensifying the pain. He clamped his jaw tight.“We're doing it!” ponytail yelled as he slashed off another chunk of vegetation. “Just a bit longer! We've got it this time!”And then Huld lost control of the monster again.The pain in his arms had reached its highest pitch, and even though he still had his hands out and was concentrating hard on holding the monster still, it broke his grip all of a sudden and immediately flung out a massive arm, sending the surprised foreigners flying in all directions like it was swatting away a collection of irritating flies.As it stepped towards Huld, he found he didn't have the strength or quickness to move out of the way.Bright pain shone on his face as he spun through the air from the monster's blow.Huld found himself on his back on the platform again, blinking from the sting of the pain, looking up above him at the bright, hot, Farrian sun.The bright, hot Farrian sun, brilliant in the clear blue sky, visible because the glow-worms had eaten away the stone walls at the top of this Shrine.The bright, hot Farrian sun, brilliant in the clear blue sky, visible because the glow-worms had eaten away the stone walls at the top of this Shrine, which had fed the plant monster with light so that it grew from a tiny shoot in the ground to this roaring, tangled mass of regenerative vines and leaves that they were now struggling to defeat.Huld had an idea.He reached out with his earth-sense, feeling the soil and clay of which the shrine was made below him, under his back, on all sides of him, in the floor of this platform, right at its edges where the stone walls had been…“Earth! I summon you!” he found himself yelling, forcing his mind to focus on the material of the platform and intensifying his concentration on the words he spoke.At the same time he thrust both his hands upwards towards the sky, then rolled over onto his side, arms still outstretched, pushing himself up with his legs onto his knees, then, with a great force of his will, straining, standing, lifted his hands high above his head as they trembled and shook.As he did so, the earth around the perimeter of the platform rose up into the air, pushing up from lower down in the Shrine, becoming a wall around the top of it which rose as high as Huld, then higher than him, replacing the original stone walls of the chamber.Acting on instinct, with what felt like the very last of his earth-projection energy, or ‘mana', or whatever stupid term the foreigners used for it, Huld brought his two hands above his head slowly together.The earth he had called up to form walls around them bent inwards towards the middle of the platform, then continued extending to form a dome, making a large, shrinking hole in the air above them.As the hole closed up, the light coming from the sky diminished, progressively blocked out by the newly risen walls, eventually to form only a small circle through which a single beam of sunlight fell, spotlighted on the plant monster, until with the last clap of Huld's hands as he clasped them fully together the hole closed up completely and the light disappeared.Darkness had returned.In the dark, the plant monster roared, and now Huld heard fear in the roar.“Again!” Huld shouted as he sank to his knees from exhaustion. “It gets its energy from the sun! Attack again!”In the darkness, he only heard the frenzied footsteps of the others charging forward to attack, and their battlecries.“Death and glory!”“Manolia!”“For Cleasor!”“For the One!”“For Imfis!”The dull thwacking sound of blades hacking at vines and foliage.The sound of a plant monster roaring even more loudly again in...pain?Grunts of exertion, a shout of shock, a rush of air, the thump of a body and metal on earth as someone fell to the ground with their weapon.A hand pressed on his shoulder again. “Here you go, Huld,” said the old man. “This strategy had better work, as this is the very last of my mana.”Lightness filled Huld once more.“I thought that you said that you were out of ‘mana'?” Huld challenged the old man“A version of the truth,” said the old man. “I kept just the littlest bit in reserve for any emergency healing, or to use at the right moment. Such as now. Half the trick of fighting is knowing when to strike. I've just given a very little to Ryn too, now that that monster can't seem to regrow itself anymore.”A flare of light from fireboy's upheld hand confirmed his words, and lit a vision of the six foreigners crowded around the monster, hacking and whipping at it as it writhed and lashed out at them, apparently stripped of its regeneration power now the sun had been blocked out.Huld almost felt sorry for it.But not really. It had tried to eat him after all. And his orders were to destroy it and to take the Jewel.“Hold it, Huld, hold it!” fireboy shouted, no doubt having seen that the old man had replenished the monk's energy reserves and he was back on his feet.The plant monster was on fire again, the crackling light from its burning body now illuminating the re-walled chamber. Stripped of its regeneration ability, it could do nothing about this but flail around madly at the foreigners, who merely ducked and dived out of the way of its limbs, then jumped in again when it turned away from them to hack at it some more.Huld stretched out a hand, and for the third time that day held the monster in place.“For Farr!” he yelled.Weakened, the monster held fast, stuck in a pose with an arm pulled back to strike at fireboy.They had it.Safe from the strike, fireboy unleashed a final elemental attack at the monster, orange flaming from his hand and setting anything that wasn't already on fire alight. The rest of them pressed in, hacking whole chunks of flaming vine and shoot from it, some of them getting so near to the flames they were almost burned.Fixed in place, falling apart under the spell and swords of the foreigners, the monster let out one final, deafening roar that went deep and long, then began to peter out, growing quieter and quieter until it ended in a failing hiss, then ceased altogether.They had defeated the plant monster. All that was left of it now was a formless pile of burning mulch into which its body had disintegrated.Something shone bright and leaf-green at the centre of the mulch. Something small and oval, so bright that it gave the walls and the foreigners a green glow.The Earth Emerald.Without another thought, and before any of the foreigners could do so, Huld ran forward and reached into the mulch, not caring that some of it was still on fire, to grab the Jewel and pull it out.As soon as his hand wrapped around it, he felt power surge through him again, just as it had done when he had touched it with his lips inside the plant monster, only more so. Energy throbbed along his arms and legs, reinvigorating him. He felt solid, stable, secure. And all the more disliking of fire than ever.He hopped back a safe distance from the burning remnants of the plant monster.The Jewel was cool to the touch, despite the fact that it had recently been embedded in a pile of flaming plant mass, and shone bright green.He looked around at the foreigners, who stood panting, staring at him with wide eyes and faces lathered in sweat, and breathed a long sigh of relief.He had completed his mission.Now to return the Jewel to the Governor, who would keep it safe from these filthy prying foreigners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sagaofthejewels.substack.com

Previously on Saga of the Jewels…The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. He sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, VISH the poppy-seed-addicted bounty hunter, and HULD the fighting monk. Together the companions decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the evil EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where under the guidance of the Farrian fighting monk HULD they have entered the Earth Temple in order to attempt to find the EARTH EMERALD…EPISODE TWENTY-SEVEN: THESE DOORS ARE MADE OF STONE“At least no more of those golem things appeared when you pushed the doors like last time,” Ryn called up to Sagar where the skypirate stood at the top of the flight of earthen stairs.“Yeah, that's something…” said Elrann nearby.“Sure,” Sagar called down, “but how are we going to get through these doors? They're shut fast, I tell you!”“Maybe Huld can try them?” Ryn suggested.“Rrrr,” came Sagar's growl of irritation from above, echoing through the large hall. Despite himself, the side of Ryn's mouth twitched up into a half-grin. “Fine! I wouldn't say he's much stronger than me, though!”Ryn turned to the monk, who wore his usual blank smile.“Do you mind having a go, Huld?”“I will try.”The monk plodded up on the steps and stood next to Sagar. He put his hands on the doors and pushed.“No,” he confirmed, “I am not strong enough to move these either.”“See?” said Sagar, holding out his hands sanctimoniously.“Why don't you try your special technique thingy?” yelled up Elrann.“You mean The Strike That Moves Mountains?” Huld said.“Yeah! That one.”“Hang on,” Sagar called down, “the last time he did that, those golem things appeared and attacked us! We don't want that to happen again!”“I'm ready with my fire,” Ryn said.“Yes,” said Nuthea, “but you are meant to be conserving your mana.” She shook her head at him like he was a naughty child. Annoyance tightened Ryn's mouth, but it quickly turned to a suppressed laugh. Nuthea could be so bossy sometimes he just had to laugh at her.“Right,” said Elrann, “that could happen, but this is the best bet we've got at the moment.”“So would you like me to try?” said Huld deferentially from the top of the steps. He was the picture of politeness, but Ryn wondered if underneath that gentle giant exterior the monk was experiencing any irritation with them.“Yeah,” said Elrann. “Go for it!”“Rrrr,” growled Sagar.Huld set his feet, pulled back his hands behind his body and breathed in loudly, sucking in the stale air.Ryn braced himself. His fingers tingled, ready to summon flame if need be.Huld drove his open palms into the stone doors. An almighty boom resounded throughout the chamber, followed by...…cavernous silence. “Well that's done absolutely nothing,” observed Sagar. “Again.” The skypirate marched back down the stairs. Huld followed.“Anyone else got any smart ideas to try?” Sagar said in exasperation as the two of them re-joined the circle of the group in the faint glow-worm light.“It's another puzzle…” said Cid, stroking his beard. “Like the last floor. Although it seems we may not be able to solve this one just by blasting through it, since these doors are made of stone.”“Rrrrr!” growled Sagar loudly, turning purple in the light from the glow-worms as he lost his temper. “This is a load of chocobo-poodoo! I'm sick of puzzles! There must be a simple way through!”All of a sudden he turned and ran back up the stairs, so fast he must be calling the wind to assist him, and indeed Ryn felt his hair flutter. When Sagar reached the top, this time he shouted “WIND!” and flung his hands forwards at the doors.The party didn't see the gust but they felt the disturbance in the air even from where they were sitting on the floor. The back-blast of his own wind attack off the doors knocked Sagar backwards, and he flew into the air away from them. His hands waved around frantically for a moment, but then he managed to convert his momentum into a backflip and put them out on either side of him to raise a smaller gust below himself and float to the floor more slowly. Sagar touched down on the ground almost gracefully.“Godsdammit!” he yelled all the same, most ungracefully, frustrated that his attack hadn't done anything to the doors. Ryn wasn't sure why he evoked the gods, or the hells, so often when he didn't even believe in them.“That was pretty cool, too,” said Elrann.That seemed to calm Sagar down a bit. He sighed, and let his hands drop to his sides. “It didn't work, though...”“Of course not,” said Cid. “We've established that the element of Earth is highly resistant to the element of Wind.”“Yes thank you, old timer,” said Sagar, completely unthankfully. “I've had just about enough of you stating the bleeding obvious. I'd figured that out by now. So how are we going to get through them? Hey—you should try your fire, pup.”“You reckon?” Ryn said. For once the skypirate had spoken to him almost like he was an equal, even if he still used the same term of address as for a baby dog. “Well why not?” Sagar said. “The old timer says earth is supposedly ‘weak' to fire, isn't it?”“But they're made of stone.”“Have you got any better ideas?”Ryn shrugged, and walked up the steps to test out a small fire attack on the stone doors.It didn't even mark them. They remained exactly as they were, indifferent and immovable.Next Elrann tried shooting them with one of her pistols. Then Cid tried saying some more magic words and passwords. Even Vish, under coercion, had a go at trying to work his blade into the very thin crack between the two doors and prise them open, but to no avail. For some reason Nuthea refused to even bother to try a lightning attack, though Ryn supposed that was fair enough. It made sense to him that lightning was likely to be completely ineffective against earth as an elemental pairing.Eventually they all found themselves sitting or lying in a circle on the worm-lit floor, tired, fed up and at a complete loss about how to get past the doors.“Welp, this is fun,” Elrann said sarcastically. “I guess we're going to have to retrace our steps and find a way back, or else we're going to die of starvation or thirst in here. Or boredom.”“Raarrrrr!” Sagar said. That was a really big one, Ryn thought. “There's got to be a way through!” He slammed his fist onto the floor next to him where he sat.As he did so, Ryn noticed that the floor got a bit darker for a moment where he had hit it. “Hey…” Ryn said. “Do that again, Sagar…”“Do what?” said Sagar.“Hit your fist on the ground.”“Why? Are you going loopy, pup?”“Just do it,” Ryn said impatiently. Then he thought he better add, “Please?”“Well, since you asked so nicely…”Sagar hit the ground with the side of his fist again, even harder than the last time. “There. Happy?!”This time Ryn saw them. When Sagar's fist connected with the floor, the glow-worms inside the floor nearest the place that he hit wriggled quickly away from the point of impact for a moment, then slowly came back to it.“They're moving!”“What are moving?!”“The glow-worms are moving away from your hand when you hit the floor!”Sagar thumped the floor again to test this.“...so they are. Who cares?”“That must be the key to solving the puzzle!”“What good is that going to do us, pup? It's just moving some worms around.” “No, don't you see?” Ryn said.He stood up, and then tried stomping his foot on the ground. The glow worms wriggled away from the spot where he stomped, taking their light with them. He stomped again, somewhere else nearby, and some of the worms that had moved away from his first stomp kept going, moving away from this one too, so that it got a little darker around his foot.“We can affect them!” Ryn said. “We can move them, herd them!”The others were frowning at him.“What good is that going to do us?” said Sagar. “It's a nice trick, but it's not going to get us through those doors, pup, is it?”“No,” said Cid, standing up too, “I think young man Ryn might be onto something. The boy is right—the worms are the only things in this room that we can affect. It's the best lead we've had so far. Come!”He started to stomp on the ground too and, while Ryn had to admit that the two of them looked quite silly taking big exaggerated steps around the darkened hall together, the worms moved for Cid as well.Nuthea joined in, then Elrann, then Huld (he got a lot of worms moving), then at their request even Vish. And at last Sagar breathed another big sigh and joined them too.The worms were definitely moving, only they were wriggling around inside the floor all over the place in random directions away from different people's feet.“Hey!” Ryn called over the noise of their galumphing feet. “If we all stomp in the same place, we might be able to make them go in the same direction!”They all clumped together and began to stomp near each other, their footwear illuminated by the glow worms that fled their feet: Ryn's brown leather shoes, Nuthea's golden slippers, Sagar's steel-capped boots, Elrann's simple laced plimsolls, Cid's simple sandals, Vish's black shoes with upturned toes, and Huld's bare feet. Combined, they made a tremendous racket, like the sound of drums being beaten very fast and erratically, that echoed throughout the hall.Thudthudthudthudthudthudthud. Sure enough, the glow-worms fled through the floor away from the vibrations of their feet, faster than Ryn had seen them move yet, and many of them all in a group together, taking their light with them in a moving puddle of luminescence.“It works!” proclaimed Ryn in jubilation.“Yes, this is all well and good, pup,” yelled Sagar, ever persistent in his antagonism, “but what's the point?! Where are we going to herd them?!”The answer seemed obvious to Ryn. “Up the stairs, of course!”“This is ridiculous!” Sagar yelled.Neither Ryn nor the others bothered to contradict him, but he joined in all the same. Ridiculous it may be, but this was the only action that had changed anything in this room thus far, so Ryn reasoned the worms must have something to do with the doors at the top of the steps.Under his direction, they began to stomp their way over to the foot of the steps. As they stomped, more glow-worms got caught up in the big group that they were pushing towards the step, and now they were shepherding a big mass of them about three measures across. The light from all of these worms collected together to form a shimmering pool, and they seemed to be emitting it more intensely as they moved away from the party's thudding feet.They reached the steps. A few of the moving worms broke off from the main pack and moved around the bottom step, but most of them went into it.“Keep going!” Ryn spurred the others on over the sound of their stomping feet. “Get them up the steps!”Once most of the worms had burrowed into the earth of the first step, it lit up white with their glow. This must be the key to progressing through this room. They waited until the worms had moved a little way along the big step, away from their footfall, and then, Ryn leading, they all hopped up onto the step and continued to stomp.The worms continued to flee, quickly, across the first step and into the earth of the second step.“Keep going!” Ryn called again.They carried on like this, driving the worms up another step, then another, another, another.Thudthudthudthudthud went their feet on the earth below them.And then they were at the top of the steps, driving the worms they had collected towards the doors of stone, all stood in front of them together and jogging on the spot like idiots.The mass of glow-worms moved along the top step and arrived at the doors.Then they disappeared underneath them.“Huh?” Ryn exclaimed aloud.Everyone stopped stomping.“Well, that's bloody brilliant,” said Sagar. “We've chased them into whatever room's beyond the doors. Now we've lost them and it's even darker in here than it was before. Great work, pup.”“No,” said Ryn, at the situation. He had been sure they had been onto something. Cid had said so as well.One God, he found himself saying inside his head. Show me the way through.Keep stomping! he thought.“Keep stomping!” he said out loud. He didn't know why he said it; he just did, and started to stomp again, his eyes fixed on the immovable stone doors.Nuthea joined in again. Cid. Elrann. Huld. Vish. Thudthudthudthudthud. Sagar didn't bother this time.“What's the point, pup?” Sagar yelled. “This is a waste of time! You're just driving the worms further away!”And then the doors began to glow.The grey stone of them started to turn white. As Ryn's eyes stretched wide, he saw hundreds of tiny worms burrowing out of the front of them, coming up through their surface.“Of course!” Cid yelled. “The worms eat earth, and that's what makes them give off the light! We could see them before because some of their light got through the earth near its surface! But stone is more opaque, and blocks it out! They're eating through the stone now, so we can see them as they reach the surface!”Cid was right. Not only were the doors glowing, hundreds of small white worms poking out of them in different places, but they actually seemed to be shrinking too. They stomped harder. Ryn noticed that Sagar had joined in again, and gone uncharacteristically quiet.And now he noticed something else too. The worms were still giving off their light, and when they reached the surface of the doors they were poking their little squidgy glowing ends out, but then they were stopping still, not eating any more of it.Apparently stone was more filling than soil, or whatever the floor and steps were made out of.“We need more of them!” he cried. He took charge. “Cid, Nuthea, Vish, you stay here and keep stomping! Huld, Elrann, Sagar, come with me! We need to herd more of the worms up the steps!”Sagar actually did what Ryn suggested without protest this time and came with him, Elrann and Huld down the steps. Together, they chased down the remaining glow-worms in the floor of the hall, stomping and stamping and cooperating together to herd them back towards the steps and up them, a group at a time. Each time they got to the penultimate step, Cid, Nuthea and Vish would stop stomping for a moment to let the new batch of worms pass under their feet, and then resume again, driving them into the doors, then up and through them.At last, Ryn and the others managed to sweep up the last of the glow-worms from the floor and herd them up the steps and into the doors. They had caught every single last one now, and the only light in the hall came from the glowing doors where they all stood at the top of the steps. The last worm disappeared into the stone doors.They all stamped together in front of them, willing the final batch of worms up through the doors.The doors flared with bright, white light, the brightest yet.Ryn put his hand over his face to cover his eyes.The party stopped stomping.Ryn took his hand away from his eyes.The doors just weren't there anymore. The worms had eaten through the entirety of them.Instead they could now see another cramped, darkened, rectangular, earthen corridor, to which the doors had been barring access.They could see the shape of the corridor because the worms had apparently all dropped back into the earthen floor, though all Ryn could see of them was a pool of white light now coming from the floor in front of them; a wide disc of brightness.The disc shot forward, along the floor, taking its light with it, threatening to leave them in darkness.“Come on!” Ryn yelled to the others. “We need that light!”He shot forwards too, pursuing the pool of light across the floor, and the others ran with him without hesitation.The light-pool led them down the corridor, left at a turn, around a bend, right at another turn. If they ran at full pelt, they were just able to keep up with it, sometimes even to run into the encirclement of its glow below their feet, though it was moving fast now, and they never kept this up for very long.It was as though they were making their way through another version of the ground floor they had gotten lost in before, only this time they had the disc of light to guide them and illuminate their path.Though that didn't turn out to be the only thing that was different about this floor.Ahead of them, in this latest corridor that the light had led them into, running at the front of the pack Ryn could see that the floor dropped away.He stopped just in time, pulling up and halting his run, and the others crashed into the back of him, and would have knocked him forwards into the pit had he not braced himself for the impact. “Oi!” said Sagar.“Hey!” said Elrann. “What gives?”Ryn recoiled from the edge of the pit even more when he saw, as the pool of light moved down the side of the pit and passed underneath them, a few metres below at the bottom of it, row upon row of sharpened, earthen spikes.“Wow,” said Elrann when she looked over the edge and saw them too. “It's a good thing you did stop.”On the other side of the pit the pool of moving light came up and reached the floor of the corridor again, and carried on moving quickly away from them.Their part of the corridor got darker.“Quick!” Ryn said desperately. “How are we going to get across this gap?”“We'll have to jump again,” said Sagar. “I'll boost us over with a gust. Come back a bit, everyone; you'll need a run up.”They ran back a few paces away from the pit. It was still getting darker as the light moved away from them—they could only just see where the pit started now.“One…” said Sagar, “two... three... run! Jump! WIND!”Ryn took his running leap over the lip of the pit with the others and felt Sagar's wind blast rush into him from behind, picking him up and carrying him through the air above the spikes.A brief sensation of weightlessness, and he landed clumsily on the other side of the pit, lost his footing, put his arms out to break his fall, rolled and came up again, then carried on dashing forwards to try to catch up with the rapidly receding pool of light.The pool of light which reached the end of the corridor and turned left, deepening the darkness once again.Ryn hit the end-wall and went left too. He pushed himself to keep running, his lungs and legs burning, and began to gain on the pool of light.“Ryn!” called Nuthea from behind. “Which way? We didn't see!”“Left!” Ryn shouted over his shoulder. “Hurry!” He must not lose the light.When he had looked round briefly he had seen Sagar, Vish and Huld's faces lit up in the worm-light behind him, but he couldn't wait for them to catch up. He must keep pace with the light.The light which he had nearly reached again, which was moving down the corridor, past a thin tubular protrusion that stuck out about a hand's breadth into the middle of it, at around chest-height. That was weird. What's that for? Ryn thought as he ran following the light towards it.Hands grabbed hold of his shoulders.“Get down, you stupid boy!” shouted Vish.The hands forced him down with ferocious strength, but he kept his momentum so that he ended up diving to the floor and skidding along it for a few metres on his stomach. It was only a hard earth floor, but it knocked the air out of Ryn and grazed his belly.Above him, a sound like someone rapidly chopping vegetables—thunkthunkthunk.“Hey!” Ryn said to Vish, who had forced him down and ended up on the floor with him, his masked face only inches away from Ryn's own. “What was that for?”Then he saw. A couple of metres back, a number of feathered darts stuck out of the wall on the opposite side from the tube.Sagar reached the tube, but instead of diving under it as Vish had with Ryn, he made a wind-assisted jump over it, and three more darts shot out of the tube and thunked into the wall on the other side.“Watch out, you lot!” Sagar called back the way he had come as he ran past Ryn and Vish on the floor. “There's a tube about halfway down this one that shoots darts!”Ryn scrambled to his feet. He wasn't about to let Sagar get ahead of him.  Run, Ryn, run, he thought, an old rhyme coming back to his mind as he hurtled after Sagar and the light. But he would have to change the words now. Run, Ryn, run away, live to fight another day, live to train another way, live to find the Jewels and make the Emperor pay.The pool of light reached the end of the corridor and went right, deepening the darkness again. Sagar followed it. Behind Ryn the others were calling and shouting about something, but there wasn't time to worry about them. He must keep pace with the light.“Swinging axe!” yelled Sagar from somewhere up ahead.Huh?Ryn pulled up just in time, and a huge curved-bladed axe moved across his vision perpendicular to the corridor, inches away from his nose. It swung from the corridor ceiling, and as it reached one wall with the tip of its blade it hung suspended in stillness for a moment, then swung back the other way.Ryn took a deep breath and waited for his moment, hearing Vish and Huld arrive behind him.“Swinging axe,” he informed them matter-of-factly.Vish grunted his acknowledgement. Huld didn't even bother to do that.The axe reached the apex of its ascent again and hung.“Now!” Ryn yelled, and the three of them shot past the axe, further down the corridor, after Sagar, after the light.“Swinging axe!” Ryn called back one more time as he heard the others arriving in the corridor behind them.“Slow down, would ya?!” Elrann called back. Ryn couldn't slow down or he might lose the light. “Stay together!” he called back, still without looking. “We've got to keep up with this light or we'll lose our way! We'll keep telling you what the traps are up ahead as we reach them!”It got darker again as the pool of light turned down yet another corridor, Sagar hot on its tail.Ryn, Vish and Huld reached the corner and turned too.This time they were greeted by Sagar running towards them in pursuit of the pool of light, which was now moving very quickly back along the corridor it had apparently just gone down. Behind him, something stirred and grumbled in the shadows.“ROLLING BOULDER!” Sagar cried, even as the pool of light passed underneath Ryn's feet and the skypirate pushed past him in the opposite direction.“Oh, poodoo,” Ryn swore as he saw the giant grey boulder that filled the entire width of the corridor rolling rapidly towards them.He turned with Vish and Huld and ran for his life. They rounded the corner they had just turned down.In the distance, beyond Sagar and the light-pool, Nuthea, Elrann and Cid were stood on the other side of the swinging axe, waiting for the right moment to dash past it.“What's going on?” said Nuthea when she saw the light moving towards her.“At least now we can see again!” said Elrann.“Turn around!” yelled Sagar. “There's a massive rolling boulder behind us!”A tremendous crash sounded from behind them.Ryn dared to hope that the boulder would stop in its tracks now that it had hit a wall, and looked round.Nope.“Damned magical shrine-temple!” Sagar cursed in exasperation.They kept running, barely avoiding another swing of the axe-blade in their mad rush, following the light-pool as it shot back the way it had come, sweeping Nuthea, Elrann and Cid into their wake.They were all near to the moving light-pool now, as they ran together, Ryn back at the head of the pack next to Sagar and Vish.They turned a corner as they heard a sound of snapping metal. That must be the boulder smashing its way through the swinging axe-trap.Back they went, back past the shooting dart trap, which they all ducked under or jumped over. The boulder rolled after them.Back they went, back over the spiked pit, which they flew over again with a quickly coordinated jump and wind-assistance from Sagar.A little way on the other side of this pit, they all stopped and turned, convinced that the boulder would fall into the pit, and stop.Instead, the spikes at the bottom of the pit rose up to meet the boulder, and it continued to roll over the tips of the spikes, over the pit.  “Oh, come on!” cried Ryn as they all turned and continued to run.The boulder rolled after them.Back they went, back to the first fork they had reached when they had got past the stone doors at the start of this floor.The boulder rolled after them.This time the light-pool moved straight on past the turning to the doors, in the other direction from which it had initially taken on their arrival on this floor.“Stupid bloody glow-worms!” Sagar cried. “It's like they're teasing us, leading us into all these traps!”“We've got to keep following them!” yelled Ryn. “It's our only option!”“I know, pup! Do you think I don't know that?”“It's not a tease!” yelled Cid, “It's a test!”“Shut up, old timer! I'm starting to get testy with you!”Another turn at the other end of this corridor, more corridors, more turns.But no more traps, for now.And yet still the boulder rolled after them. Never more than a corridor behind. If anything, it seemed to be getting faster.Ryn began to pant and wheeze as he ran, and his chest burned.“Huld, do you have any idea how much further we have to go?” he gasped to the monk.“I am sorry,” said Huld as he ran, almost breathless too, exasperation in his voice. “I do not. Just to remind you: I have. Never. Been. Here. Before!”“Hey, look!” Elrann called out.The light-pool had stopped. It had gotten some length ahead of them in their exhaustion from sprinting so long, but about twenty paces away at the end of this corridor it had stopped at last in front of a solid wall that seemed to be made out of something shiny which shimmered as it reflected its glow.It was probably because Ryn was trying to work out what this wall was made of that he didn't notice the new pit in front of him, into which he fell.“Oomph!”He pushed himself up and rubbed his arms where he had landed on them.There was another thump from nearby.“Stupid pup!” Sagar said next to him.“What did I do?” Ryn said.“You didn't look where you were going!”“Neither did you!”Thank the One, at least there were no spikes at the bottom of this pit, just a cold, flat, earthen floor about ten feet down and a few feet long. There was, however, still a giant boulder in the corridor above, rolling towards them.The heads of the others appeared at the lip of the pit above.“Quickly!” said Nuthea. “Captain Sagar, we need you to boost us over this pit as well!”She still manages to add the honorific to his name, even at a time like this…Sagar wind-boosted himself and Ryn as they jumped back up to the corridor, on the side that they had fallen down from.The boulder had nearly reached them.“Hurry!” Nuthea cried.“Windaaaaaaarragggaaaahh!” Sagar shouted, as he and everyone else were thrown through the air above the pit by the great gust of wind that he summoned.This time there was no question of a smooth landing. They all crashed into each other in the corridor on the other side of the pit, banging limbs and heads and collapsing in a bug jumbled heap, then disentangling themselves from one another and scrambling up cursing and bickering.A massive boom issued.Ryn got up to see that the boulder had fallen into the pit after them.It rolled forwards a few paces in the pit, then sank down a little and came to a halt, where it made a clicking sound, pressing on some sort of mechanism that he and Sagar hadn't noticed had been built into the floor of it when they had been down in it.A creaking noise followed, this time from behind Ryn.He spun to see the steel doors at the end of the corridor, which apparently the glow worms were not able to eat through, opening.Opening onto glorious blue sky and sunlight which lit up the corridor completely, dimming the glow from the worm-pool on the floor ahead.A flood of warm air from the world outside filled the corridor, pleasantly caressing Ryn's face.At last; they had made it to the top of the Shrine.To be continued… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sagaofthejewels.substack.com

Die wenigsten Leute interessieren sich heute noch für Religion, und die meisten, die sich noch damit beschäftigen, halten unseren Tagesvers für bewusste Volksverdummung durch die ersten Nachfolger Jesu. Wenn man aber bedenkt, dass beinahe alle diese Jünger für ihren Glauben an Jesus den Märtyrertod auf sich genommen haben, dann müsste es doch schwerfallen, hier von Propagandatricks auszugehen. Denn wer würde für eine selbst erfundene Lüge sterben wollen?Nein, Jesus Christus wollte uns mit seinen Heilungswundern zeigen, dass er kein gewöhnlicher Mensch, sondern der Sohn Gottes war, der einst die Welt erschaffen hatte, wie das Neue Testament mehrfach sagt.Und nun war er in seine Schöpfung eingetreten, um sie aus ihrem desolaten Zustand zu befreien, in den der Teufel sie versetzt hatte. Er trat nicht in furchterregender Machtfülle auf, weil er keine angstschlotternden Heuchler suchte, sondern Menschen, die sich an ihm maßen und dann aufrichtig zu dem Schluss kamen, dass sie vor Gott nicht bestehen konnten und Vergebung ihrer Schuld nötig hatten.So trat er ganz sanft und demütig auf, andererseits aber auch mit so viel Segen, dass es damals in Israel ganze Landstriche gab, in denen es keinen Kranken mehr gab. Das sollte uns Menschen Mut machen, nicht nur mit unseren körperlichen Leiden, sondern auch mit unserem Versagen, mit unseren Sünden, zu ihm zu kommen.Von Jesus galt wirklich die Aussage im letzten Vers von Psalm 23, wo es heißt: »Nur Güte und Huld werden mir folgen.« Wohin er kam, war überall schreckliche Verwüstung und Öde, und wenn er vorübergezogen war, glich alles einem paradiesischen Garten. Das kann man heute noch erleben!Hermann GrabeDiese und viele weitere Andachten online lesenWeitere Informationen zu »Leben ist mehr« erhalten Sie unter www.lebenistmehr.deAudioaufnahmen: Radio Segenswelle

-The Locus Award shortlist is out. The fantasies are:* To Shape a Dragon's Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose (Del Rey)* The Keeper's Six, Kate Elliott (Tordotcom)* Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett (Del Rey; Orbit UK)* Dead Country, Max Gladstone (Tordotcom)* The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK)* Paladin's Faith, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)* He Who Drowned the World, Shelley Parker-Chan (Tor; Mantle)* My Brother's Keeper, Tim Powers (Baen; Ad Astra)* City of Last Chances, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Ad Astra)* Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)The YA fantasies are:* The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, Garth Nix (Tegen; Gollancz)* Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross (Wednesday; Magpie UK)* The Siren, the Song, and the Spy, Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Candlewick)-The Bookseller has announced the winners of the 2024 British Book Awards, also known as The Nibbies. Here once again we see the trending dominance of Romantasy and in particular Rebecca Yarros. The fantasies that came up were:* Iron Flame, Rebecca Yarros (Piaktus)* Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros (Piatkus) [winner in Page Turner category]* Impossible Creatures, Katherine Rundell (Bloomsbury Children's) [winner in Children's fiction category]* Powerless, Lauren Roberts (Simon & Schusters Children's)* Skandar and the Phantom Rider, A.F. Steadman (Simon & Schusters Children's)For the complete list of winners, see the official website.-Not strictly book news, but you've probably heard that they're making a new Lord of the Rings film about Gollum. I'm not very hopeful after the messes that were the Hobbit films. On the other hand Andy Serkis is a genius. We'll see…Your free and discounted fantasy ebook and audiobook sales for this month:And a little Romantasy one I snuck in to see if any Romantasy readers are interested in jumping on to the story of Ryn and Nuthea… / / /What I've been reading:I like to read something similar in form to whatever I'm working on, and I started out this month editing and submitting some short stories so I thought I would read some too. One of the stories I had was comedy-fantasy (see below), so I decided to read Terry Pratchett's short stories. I've not read any Pratchett for a while, but I spent most of my teens working through the Discworld novels. I realise now just how much Pratchett affected my writing style—which I think is good and bad! Lots of these were not that memorable. On the other hand, one or two were absolute gems, but they did depend somewhat on prior knowledge of Discworld characters. Pratchett was the king of comedy-fantasy, but seemed (by his own admission) to do best with novels…What I've been listening to:To be honest I'm still listening my way through THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA since it's so massive, however in the meantime here's a hot audio tip: If you haven't discovered the free fantasy short stories podcast PODCASTLE yet (from genre stories podcast group ESCAPE POD), you should check it out! In particular I recommend their full-cast recording of IN THE STACKS, a hilarious short story about some students returning a book to a vast magical library, also written by Scott Lynch.What Jo's been reading:What I've been working on:I edited and submitted three fantasy short stories to different venues this month for something different before editing SAGA OF THE JEWELS VOL. 1 in response to the professional editorial feedback I paid for. I've got one request for a full story from a partial sub so far, so that's something! I've only aimed relatively low because it's been a while since I sold any short stories, but we'll see if anything comes of them. Then I got to editing something I wrote at Christmas—a short story about a teacher in a magic school, rather than a student, for once. I'd already written a second follow-up scene, and I had a few more ideas, so I just kept going—and now I have 16,000 words of draft of a novel. Whoops. It may be total garbage, but I just wonder if this might be the mansucript that I work and work and work on until I get it house-published… I think it has potential, but I need to know if there are any other fantasy novels out there about teachers in magical schools. I've done some research and so far found two, both indies: A DREAM OF FIRE by J. R. Rasmussen and TEACHING MAGIC by Amy Cocke. I've not read these yet, though now I'm going to have to: Does anyone know of any other fantasy novels about magic school teachers?If you do, please let me know in the comments or by email reply!In other newsThis newsletter is being scheduled from The Past because at the time it goes out we will be traveling back from Bavaria! (Knowing my luck lots of important fantasy books news will have dropped in the interim…) We were given some money by the parents of a friend to go on a holiday after Jo's cancer treatment, but she hadn't been well enough to go before now. She had carte blanche to pick anywhere she wanted to go, and this is where she chose: a retreat centre in the Bavarian Alps! If you've read or listened to Saga of the Jewels Season One, this is a bit how I imagine the Zerlanese town of Nevva in the episode ‘Rest Stop'. It's meant to be family friendly, but I'm a little wary of how it's going to be with a 6yo and 1yo… Nonetheless, we are super grateful and excited. See you on the other side!Previously on Saga of the Jewels…The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the Fire Ruby. He sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted assassin. Together the adventurers decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the evil EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where they are on their way to the ‘Earth Temple' in order to attempt to find the EARTH EMERALD under the guidance of Farrian monk HULD…Saga of the Jewels Episode 25. Huld, The MonkHuld made his way through the undergrowth of the Farrian jungle, leaning on his staff, pushing a particularly big, leafy branch out of the way and taking care not to snap it.He held it back for the foreigners to allow them to get past and continue further along the trail, which also gave him an opportunity to count them off in his head as they walked by.He was having trouble remembering their names. There was the red-brown-haired fireboy, who didn't say much. Huld liked that, though he was highly cautious of the boy's flame-projection powers. One.There was the long-golden-haired girl who talked too much. It was her fault that this whole mission was happening, really. He wasn't sure what he thought about her, though he guessed her intentions were probably noble and she was probably harmless. She hadn't shown if she really had any ‘powers' yet. Two.Then there was the boy with the silly coat and the ponytail. He talked far too much, and didn't know when to hold his tongue. Huld was sure that this one's intentions were not noble. This was definitely one to keep an eye on. He smiled at the boy as he walked past.“Stop grinning at me like that,” the ponytail-boy said as he went by. “You're giving me the creeps.”“My apologies,” said Huld, without meaning it.Three.Next there was the engineer boy with the short purple hair. No, wait, this was a girl, he had now established. Actually, he still wasn't entirely sure, to be honest. She was nice enough and had been quite friendly to him so far. She seemed as though she was simply going along with the rest of the group in order to help them out, without being especially invested in their goal. Huld could understand that. Four.Then there was the old man with the beard. The only one with any sense in the whole group, as far as Huld could tell. He spoke carefully, thoughtfully, and did not rush into things. Very sensible. Five.And lastly, bringing up the rear, was the supposedly ex-Imperial masked Shadowfinger, dressed all in black. Huld was deeply suspicious of this one. He could sense a fearsome strength sealed up in this man's body, in his tense poise and the way he carried himself so deliberately as he walked which showed that he knew how to use it. This was the one to really watch. Six.And I make seven. All present and accounted for. Huld let go of the big branch, allowing it to snap back to its original place, and followed after the group.Really, this whole mission was a bad idea. It was a bad idea for anyone to be trying to interfere with the Earth Emerald, let alone a band of filthy foreigners. It had caused enough trouble the last time it had been in possession of the Republic. The previous Governor, Lord Restra, had been very sensible to have it sealed away in the Shrine to Eto. Where it should stay.But Huld lived to serve, and his life was service. If he wasn't loyal to the Republic of Farr and to his Lord Governor, then what was he?Nothing at all.So he had received his orders cheerfully with a smile on his face, as usual, and set out obeying them cheerfully with a smile on his face, as usual.The Governor's instructions had been very clear:“Make use of the foreigners' skills in order to retrieve the Earth Emerald from the Shrine, and then take it and bring it back to me”“How much further to this place anyway, baldy?” called ponytail from up ahead in the line of walkers, derailing Huld's train of thought.“Not much further,” the monk called back. The boy was rude, but Huld didn't mind the insulting term of address, really. His head had been shaved to show his devotion to Eto and the Republic. Better a ‘baldy' than having that stupid long hair tied back like a woman's. “Just keep to the trail,” he said pleasantly, “it will not be long from here.”They hadn't been able to land any closer to the Shrine in the party's airship due to the dense jungle they were now making their way through. Still, Huld was glad to be off the airship sooner rather than later. He hated the things. They were unnatural contraptions.He much preferred being here, on solid earth. He much preferred being here, hiking through the undergrowth, feeling the grassy ground through his bare feet and with the base of his straight wooden staff, surrounded by a panoply of green life, listening to the noises of buzzing insects and croaking frogs and chirping birds, breathing in the thick, warm air, smelling the refreshing fragrance of recent rain, keeping his attention on one step at a time, because that was all you could do. This was his home. This was where he belonged.Huld bumped into the Shadowfinger in front of him.The man spun round in an instant, lifting his hand to the hilt of his blade which was sheathed on his back. When he saw that it was only Huld, he relaxed again.“Look where you are going,” said the Shadowfinger cooly.“My apologies, Master Vish,” said Huld, bowing his head slightly. He had remembered this one's name. It was the only one he had. “A careless accident.”It turned out the Shadowfinger had stopped because the rest of the group had too; Huld hadn't been paying proper attention to their progress.The obscure flattened grass trail that they had been walking through the trees had come to an abrupt end, and all of a sudden the tall, densely packed trees opened up into a massive clearing.And there, looming up in the middle of the clearing, was the Shrine to Eto.The Earth Temple.“Well, that's something, I suppose,” said ponytail.Ignorant foreigner, thought Huld. It's more than ‘something'. It's one of the great wonders of Mid.The shrine was enormous, built of bricks of baked, brown earth arranged in layers one on top of another that got narrower with each layer, much like the way that Shun Pei had been built. Except unlike Shun-Pei, the layers here were square, not round, and there were no peaks or points—instead each layer was flat, creating the effect of a series of steps on four sides that climbed to reach a single cubic grey-stone summit with a flat top. Though ‘steps' was probably not the right word. You would have to be a giant to ascend these steps.It wasn't so much that the Shrine reached up to the sky, but that it reached down from the sky into the earth, widening out and fusing with it, and yet also made of it and already part of it, a vast, monolithic monument to Earth herself. Huld approved.“Where's the entrance?” asked the fire boy.“We have approached from the east,” Huld said. “I believe that the entrance is on the western side.” He had never actually visited the Shrine before, only heard stories about the ancient abandoned Shrine to Eto. The stories were surpassed by the real thing, however. Excitement fluttered in his chest at the prospect of actually going inside, though he just wished that he wasn't visiting it for the first time under these circumstances.They walked round to the western side of the Shrine, which took them a good ten minutes, such was its size.“Here we are,” said the golden girl.In the middle of the wall of the base layer of the Shrine on this side were two gigantic doors, each twice the height of Huld, which was saying something. They were made out of the same baked brown earth the colour of fertile soil as the rest of the Shrine, but you could tell that they were doors because they were cut slightly differently from the rest of the wall, three vertical lines presumably hiding hinges and the space where the doors met, and had two huge circular bronze handles hanging from halfway up each of them. The handles had to be just for show though, because they were so big, and impossible to reach.“How are we gonna open those?” said the engineer girl.The foreigners all looked at Huld with stupid expectant stares.“I am not sure…” he said after a moment. He hadn't been briefed by the Governor about this. He genuinely didn't know what to do.He walked up to a door and placed a hand on its surface. The earth it was made from was strangely warm to the touch, like it was being fed by some inner energy.Huld pushed, but the door did not budge one inch.The old man appeared at his side. “Perhaps there is some sort of password?”“Perhaps,” grunted Huld. “Though I have never heard of such a thing.” They had never had anything like that at any of the shrines or temples where he had trained. Normally doors just...opened. Like they were supposed to.“Are there any particular words or phrases that you would associate with this place?” said the old man. “Or with the worship of Eto?”Huld thought about it. “I suppose that there are.”“Perhaps you could try saying some of them out loud?”“Alright then…” Huld felt foolish, but he tried saying some of the phrases out loud anyway in his most confident, clear voice.“Hail Eto, our Mother the Earth!”Nothing.“Strength in numbers! Freedom in service! Glory in sacrifice!”Nothing.“When we strike as one we will move mountains!”Nothing.The massive door just stood there still, unmoving as the earth.“Open Sesame!” someone shouted behind him.Huld looked round and raised an eyebrow at the purple-haired engineer girl.She shrugged. “What? I heard it in a story somewhere. It was worth a shot.”Huld sighed.“Well this is going well,” said ponytail.“There must be some way in,” said goldengirl.  “Perhaps a physical technique, instead?” the old man suggested.“Hmmm,” rumbled Huld. “Yes.” This was more his language.He laid his staff on the grass and searched in his mind for a technique.Of course. Why did I not think of it before?He dropped into chocobo stance, spreading his legs just over shoulder-width apart, bending his knees, keeping his back straight, and also bending his arms but turning his palms upwards like he was holding two eggs in line with his hips.“What are you doing?” said fireboy.“Hush, if you please,” said Huld. “A fighting technique. It is called ‘Moving the Earth,' appropriately enough.”He focused on his breathing.In.Out.In.Out.He gathered the energy inside himself on his next breath in, willed it to transfer from his chest, down his arms, and into his hands, then drew his elbows back, and as he breathed out—“HA!”Huld thrust his hands forward, twisting them round as he did so, slamming his open palms into the earthen door, putting all the energy and strength of his being behind them.His palms stung at once from the impact as they met the door's resistance. They made a dull slapping noise as they connected. Huld fancied he felt the door tremor, ever so slightly.He took a step back and looked up, rubbing his tingling hands, then frowned.Nothing had moved.Someone screamed behind him.Huld span round and back into his chocobo stance.On the grass in front of the entrance to the Shrine, figures were sprouting from the ground, composed of it, literally climbing out of it. Brown figures of soil and stone with bits of grass and tree bark and foliage on them.Figures of earth.*Nuthea screamed shrill and high on reflex.A creature made of earth and soil had just risen up out of the ground next to her. It was humanoid in shape, with no facial features, but it had crude hands bunched into fists.It took a swing at her and Nuthea jumped back out of the way, screaming again.“Bolt!” she yelled, instinctively reaching for her lightning projection, and thrust her hand out.But no bolt came. She didn't even feel the play of energy along her arm.No! Not again!The creature ran towards her, pulling back its earthen fist for another strike. She wasn't going to have time to get out of the way.Earth clanged against metal as Sagar interposed one his blades between Nuthea and the attack.The skypirate pushed the golem (now Nuthea remembered the proper name for these magical creatures) away with his sword and it stumbled back a couple of paces.“Wind!” Sagar yelled, thrusting his other hand forwards.Air rushed from Sagar's open palm at the golem, but it just dug its feet into the ground, fusing with it. The wind rippled over the golem, riffling the leaves that were stuck to some of its body, but it remained completely unmoved, unharmed.“Uh-oh…” said Sagar when his wind attack was spent.Sense returned to Nuthea and she drew her own sword from its sheath at her side--a straight Manolian blade with a golden hilt and a wicked point. If lightning and wind weren't going to work on these creatures, they would have to resort to steel.The golem ran at Sagar, its feet easily detaching from the earth when it needed them to, and this time it was Nuthea's turn to step in and block its punch with her sword.Her blade bounced off the golem's fist, each knocked away by the other, sending a shudder of vibrating pain down Nuthea's arms. Whatever combination of earth and stone it was made of was tough, tough enough even to turn away Manolian steel.The others were yelling and shouting behind her. In her peripheral vision she could see more golems moving around, but for now she had to focus on the one in front of her and Sagar.“Thanks for the save, princess,” Sagar said. Did he have to make it sound so sarcastic? The pirate lunged forward, pressing the attack against the golem, trying a thrust with his swordpoint.The golem didn't respond quickly enough and this time Sagar's sword went into its chest area, puncturing it and sticking out the other side…...and not slowing it down at all.The golem punched Sagar in the face with a clay fist and he fell backwards with a shout, losing his grip on his sword and landing in a heap on the floor. He did not get up.“Sagar!” Nuthea called in concern.There wasn't time to tend to him now. The golem kept its momentum and strode towards Nuthea, throwing more punches at her, Sagar's sword still embedded in its torso.Nuthea blocked the blows, but it was so strong, and now that she saw no way of fighting back her heart began to thump rapidly in her chest as she began to panic.“Someone! Help!” she cried.The golem forced her backwards. She lifted her sword to block a particularly vicious strike, and the golem hit it so hard that it knocked it spinning out of her hands.Nuthea stumbled from the impact and fell backwards.The golem stood over her and raised its two big earthen fists above its head, about to crush her.Nuthea raised her hands to cover her face on reflex and winced, crying out in terror.“Fire!” yelled Ryn from somewhere nearby.A blast of orange flame engulfed the upper part of the golem. It immediately started batting at itself to try to extinguish the flame, but its hands only caught fire too. It collapsed to the ground, black smoke pouring off it, burning rapidly and writhing about. In a matter of moments it was a pile of smoking ash—entirely consumed by the fire.Nuthea sighed with deep relief, then retrieved her sword and stood up.“That worked well!” she said, turning to where she thought Ryn was.But Ryn wasn't there anymore. He was ten paces away, manically throwing fire at more golems, shouting focus-words one after another but sometimes not even having the time to do that. There were so many of them, closing in in a circle around the party and, apparently seeing Ryn as a threat, now the majority of them were advancing on him. He was struggling to keep up with the onrush of earthen warriors, blasting them with fire one by one, some of them getting dangerously close to him before he sent a barrage of flickering red and orange into them. Nuthea was sure he would not be able to keep this up forever.She looked for the others. Elrann was unloading her pistols at the golems one by one, blowing chunks of earth out of their bodies, but the holes she left only reformed and the golems came on. Huld was fighting a pair of golems with his hands. Cid had his sword drawn and was desperately trying to fight his way to the fallen Sagar, whom the golems now ignored. And Vish was currently occupied with fighting four golems at the same time, slashing and cutting but unable to do any lasting damage to any of them.Ryn was the only one who seemed capable of halting the golems with his fire projection. But he couldn't fight them all on his own, and he would surely run out of mana soon.Nuthea had an idea.“Ryn!” she yelled.The young man turned his head to look at her as he continued to throw fire at the onrushing creatures.“Can you localise some flame projection around my blade?”“What?” Ryn called back.“Can you hit my sword with a fire spell so that it lights on fire?”“What?!”“Just do it!” Nuthea called impatiently. “I know you can do it!” She held out her sword to him with one hand, blade pointing up.Ryn's brow furrowed, but all the same he pointed two fingers of one hand at her. “Fire!”Flame leapt from Ryn's outstretched fingers—two pointed fingers, in this case, rather than a whole thrust-out hand, perhaps because he was holding back, or perhaps because this is how his body instinctively shaped and controlled the fire to aim it more precisely.The flames hit Nuthea's raised swordblade…...and settled on it. Her whole blade became enveloped in flame and glowed red hot. The fire stopped leaping from Ryn's fingers, but it continued to burn on her blade, red and orange, covering it in a blazing, incandescent aura.“You did it!” she called. “I knew you could!”A golem was coming for her.Nuthea sprinted towards the golem, meeting it head on, and brought her flaming blade down and then up in a deadly arc from right to left across its torso, orange trailing in its wake.The blade tore through the golem's body with barely any resistance at all and passed out the other side of it, severing it in two. At the same time, the golem caught fire.It collapsed to the ground in two halves, and both halves thrashed around uselessly while they burned.“It worked!” Nuthea cried in elation. She turned. Ryn was still desperately throwing fire at the golems, sometimes missing, sometimes hitting, while the others were struggling to fend them off. “Ryn!” she shouted. “It worked! Do the same thing for the others!”“They're a bit busy right now!” Ryn called back.Nuthea looked for them. They were losing ground to the golems, getting forced backwards and closer together. Huld was now dealing with three at once, catching their fists with his palms or blocking them with his forearms, throwing back punches and kicks of his own but with little effect. Elrann stood behind and to the side of him, still desperately trying to slow their advance with her pistols, apparently not knowing what else to do and unwilling to try her whip on them. Cid was now fighting off two together with his sword, only barely managing to defend himself, but not to retaliate. And Vish had about six on him now, dancing and weaving around them as he held them at bay.Him first.“Shadowfinger Vish!” Nuthea cried. “To me!”The Shadowfinger looked up from his combat, saw her, then bent his knees and kicked off from the ground, executing one of his astonishing leaps, soaring upwards, twisting round in midair, and landing smartly next to her.“What?” the Shadowfinger said irritably, as though he had been interrupted in the middle of doing something he enjoyed, though it may have also been from frustration at the golems.“Hold up your blade! Let Ryn season it with fire!”“What?!”Why don't people just listen to me? Nuthea thought. I'm clearly the most intelligent and knowledgeable member of this adventuring party. And I'm royalty.“It won't hurt you,” she explained hurriedly. “It's a cooperative elemental projection technique. I've seen it done with lightning back home in Manolia, though I've not learned how to do it yet. But it works with fire too. Look.” She held up her own flaming sword by way of explanation.Vish slitted his eyes at her, but then held up his black sword in front of him without saying another word.“Ryn!” Nuthea called. “Over here! Do Vish's sword too!”Ryn looked over mid-spell, then hurriedly threw a hand out to perform the same technique on Vish's sword that he had done for Nuthea's.Fire jumped from his pointed fingers to set Vish's blade alight, too.The Shadowfinger's eyes went wide as he held it up to inspect it, the fire now continually burning on his blade reflecting in his grey irises.“Try again now!” said Nuthea.“Argh!” Ryn cried out.He dropped to his knees and doubled over, putting both hands out on the ground. He must be out of mana, or almost out of it. His eyes were shut in pain or concentration.The flames coming from Nuthea's and Vish's swords died down momentarily, but then Ryn grunted with exertion and they returned to their former intensity.Of course. He needs to concentrate to keep the flames burning on our swords.“Hold on, Ryn!” Nuthea called. “We're coming!”She ran towards the golems about to plough into Ryn, even as Vish leapt into the air.The Shadowfinger came down before she reached them, setting upon them as a vicious streak of black and orange, slicing earthen arms and legs from bodies, severing their heads, cleaving them in half.Nuthea joined him, and together the two of them tore through the golems, their swords leaving trails of fiery colour in the air.In no time at all they had fought their way back to Ryn and the others, and Nuthea pierced the back of the golem that was nearest to Cid, then ripped her sword out of it by kicking it to the floor. Vish made quick work of the golems besetting Elrann and Huld.A matter of moments, and all the remaining golems lay in pieces on the ground, burning up into nothing but dust and dirt.Nuthea and Vish had defeated them easily with their flame-assisted weapons.Cid ran over to the fallen form of Sagar at once and knelt down next to him, placing both his hands on the skypirate's head. “Cure,” he said.“Urrrrrrrggghh,” said Sagar as he came back to consciousness. “What the hells happened?”“One of them got you,” Nuthea called over from where she stood. “I don't think wind attacks are going to be very effective against earth elementals.”“Rrrrr,” Sagar growled quietly.“That's a cool trick, princess-girl,” said Elrann nearby, pointing at Nuthea's sword with one of her pistols.Nuthea looked at the still flaming blade. “Wait...Ryn!”Her eyes found the flame-wielding farmboy a little way away, still kneeling on the ground with both hands on it, hunched over, his eyes scrunched shut, concentrating hard.She sprinted over to him.“Ryn, it's alright!” she said between pants. “We defeated the golems! That cooperative technique did it! You can quench the flames on my and Shadowfinger Vish's swords now!”Ryn whimpered, and the flames around Nuthea's swordblade died down. His arms trembled, then gave way completely, and he fell face down onto the earth, lying flat on his front.“Grandfather!” Nuthea called out at once. “Ryn needs your help too!”Cid was already running over. He knelt next to Ryn and put a hand on his head.“He's spent all his mana…” Cid said. “Cure.”Ryn sighed a note of relief. He opened his eyes, and shakily pushed himself up, then rearranged himself so he was sitting on the ground.“That's better,” he said, rubbing his hands. “Why did that hurt so much?”“If you keep projecting when all your mana is spent, it causes you physical damage and pain,” said Cid. “The element-magic draws its energy directly from the body's physical resources, rather from your spent mana pool. I will need to give you some of my mana too. He placed a hand on Ryn's shoulder. “Syphon.”Ryn shut his eyes again for a moment and his head rocked back. “Woah. I can feel my projection powers are back. Thanks, Cid.”“That's alright, lad. It seems that we are going to be relying on your abilities quite a lot to retrieve this particular Jewel… I have a larger mana pool than you do, as I'm more experienced and have been at this game for longer, but I still only have a finite supply.”“It feels like I have...more than before,” said Ryn. “Is that because of you?”“No,” said Cid, “that's because you just pushed your mana beyond its limit, so your capacity has grown now that you've been healed. It's a very dangerous but nonetheless, aha, very sure-fire way to increase your mana capacity. It's a bit like forcing a sustained limit break. I just topped up your newly increased reserves, but I can't increase your capacity for you.”“What's a limit break?”“...I'll explain another time.”“What are you lot waffling on about?” asked Sagar as he walked over.“Oh, nothing,” said Cid, “just some of the ins-and-outs of elemental projection.”The others came over to join them too.“That was good thinking there, princess-girl,” said Elrann. “Your little trick probably saved our lives.”“It was nothing,” Nuthea said with complete sincerity. “I've seen a similar thing done with lightning in Manolia, so I just had the idea to repeat it with fire.”“Yeah,” said Sagar, “well done and everything, I'm sure we're all glad that's over, but it doesn't actually help us get into the Shrine, does it?”“Er,” said Ryn, “actually it does.”He pointed.At some time while they had been talking, the doors to the Earth Temple had opened inwards, revealing an earthen corridor beyond which receded into darkness.“Well that's creepy,” said Elrann.“Most peculiar…” said Huld.“They must have opened when we defeated the earth elementals…” said Cid.A heartbeat.“Looks like we're going in then,” said Sagar.“Wait!” said Nuthea, not wanting them to get ahead of themselves. “We need to talk about our strategy. It would appear that wind and lightning attacks were ineffective against these golems.” No need to tell them that I didn't even get a chance to test my lightning on them. What's happening to me? I'll have to ask Grandfather Cid about it later.“Where did those things come from, anyway?” said Ryn. “Huld?”“I… I'm not sure,” said the monk slowly. “I have never encountered such creatures anywhere in Farr before…” He seemed somewhat shaken.“Cid?” said Ryn.Grandfather stroked his beard. “My best guess is that they were created by the Earth Emerald itself. The Jewels have a...habit of making themselves difficult to be found. It doesn't mean that they are impossible to obtain, as we know, but they can be very difficult to get hold of. My guess is that the Emerald quite enjoys being shut up here, surrounded by all this earth, and so raised those guardians with its magic to try us before granting us entry to the Temple. This sort of thing does happen from time to time. But we appear to have passed the test, because they have stopped appearing.”“Great,” said Sagar. “Well, thanks for the warning, old timer.”“I did not know if such things would happen here or not…” Cid said, a touch defensively. “I have only ever encountered them happening on a few other occasions before…”“Never mind,” said Ryn, “like you said, we've beaten them now. Let's go inside and get this Jewel.”“That's easy for you to say, farmboy,” said Elrann. “Your fire worked well on them. The rest of us are a bit more defenceless.”“That's a good point,” Nuthea said. “Ryn, it seems we will need to rely on you if we encounter any more...earth enemies. You should conserve your mana as much as possible.”“That's right,” said Grandfather. “I topped you up, and I have a bigger mana pool than you do due to my experience, but I don't have infinite reserves and I can feel that I'm starting to run low. Make sure you don't burn through yours too quickly, or we might really get into trouble.”“That cooperative technique you had him perform was useful,” said Vish unexpectedly. The Shadowfinger almost never spoke up in group conversations. Everyone else looked just as surprised as Nuthea felt. “Make sure you save enough ‘mana' to do that again if we need you to, boy.”“I'll do my best,” said Ryn with unforced earnestness. Nuthea decided she liked that trait of his. It was growing on her, anyway. “Come on. It's time to enter this ‘Earth Temple'.”And in they went. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sagaofthejewels.substack.com

Send us a Text Message.Embark on an intimate journey through the tapestry of Dr. Dan Huld's life, where family roots intertwine with the tenacity of faith and the trials of fertility. Our latest episode features a heart-to-heart with Dan, a cherished friend from my church community, as he recounts the saga of his Finnish lineage, the athletic legacy of his father, and the delicate dance of Lutheran and Southern Baptist traditions that wove the fabric of his childhood. As we share laughter and wisdom, discover the deep-seated values that propelled Dan's life choices, from the pivotal discovery of high blood pressure that lead to more serious health concerns to the cherished union with his wife and their united front against fertility challenges.Lean in as we traverse the milestones of Dan's life, reflecting on how stubbornness can be both a formidable foe and a steadfast ally. This episode peels back layers of Dan's educational journey, influenced by both parental determination and a move to Camas for its promising school district. We also uncover the crucial decisions that shaped a family legacy, from building a home with the help of relatives to the decision to send his children to private Christian school, highlighting the intricate balance between personal conviction and professional responsibilities.Our conversation with Dan culminates in a reflection on the transformative power of education and the resilience required to navigate career shifts amidst a global pandemic. Dan's narrative is a masterclass in adaptability, from the early days of teaching multiple subjects to rising as a leader in the charter school realm, all while grappling with the unforeseen twists of COVID-19. Through his story, we're reminded of the enduring strength of family, the grounding force of faith, and the unwavering commitment to guiding the next generation with compassion and principle. Join us for an episode that promises not just a glimpse into one man's life but a mirror to our own journeys and the shared human experience.

Dear reader,I've decided to switch this newsletter to being all about Romantasy and change its name to ‘Romanon's Romantasy Ruse-letter'.Happy April Fool's.Also, Happy Easter Monday (a rare lunar-related coincidence). Last weekend the Western Church celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the greatest fantasy story ever told, so great that it might actually be true fantasy, as Tolkien might have said.FANTASY BOOK NEWS (not April Fool's):More awards news from the last month… First, the SFWA's annual Nebula awards finalist list has been posted. Some really cool stuff in there, including lots of fantasy and awards for game writing.Of the nominations for best novel, here are the fantasies:* The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)* The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK) ←looks especially cool* Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi (DAW, Gollancz)* Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)Second, a new set of librarian-run book awards called the ‘Libbys' has debuted, and it has a fantasy category (and a romantasy category, naturally!). Here were the fantasy finalists for this year (links are to ‘libby' pages, because Libbys):Libby Award Finalists for Best Fantasy:A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

Dear reader,The big fantasy book news from the last month all has to do with the annual Hugo Awards. Last year they happened in China, but some emails were recently leaked showing that the nominations were influenced by consideration of the ideology of the host nation. Controversial! News to me also is that ‘romantasy' (romance combined with fantasy) is now being discussed as a genre in its own right. Your romantasy exemplar authors would be Sarah J. Mass and Rebecca Yarros. SAGA OF THE JEWELS does have some (albeit very slow-burn) elements of romance in it, so I am wondering if I can cheekily piggyback on this label myself…What I've been readingOne of the books I've read since my last newsletter is COLD IRON, the first fantasy by historical novelist Miles (Christian) Cameron. It was fun, with fantastic worldbuilding, if a bit ‘male' and thinly sketched, for me. My slightly longer review here.What Jo's been readingSome of the books that Jo's read since I last wrote are the rest of the ensemble-cast multi-POV steampunk noblebright KETTY JAY series by Chris Wooding. She had already read RETRIBUTION FALLS and THE BLACK LUNHG CAPTAIN and she went and finished THE IRON JACKAL and THE ACE OF SKULLS. I have read these too and agree with her that they are absolutely awesome: fun, full of heart, meticulously clever plotting, vibrant three-dimensional characters, humour, emotion, and a hopeful core. This newsletter sometimes becomes the Chris Wooding Appreciation Society newsletter, but I'm ok with that… Recommended! In other news…Jo had her first book traditionally published! And by Bloomsbury, no less! This is her Cambridge (UK) Theology PhD thesis, now published as a hardback and an ebook. She wrote it while simultaneously training to be and then working as an Anglican vicar (that's ‘cleric' for you fantasy fans) and putting up with an unstable husband, and in the course of writing it had two bouts of hyperemesis gravidarum and gave birth to two children! She then passed her viva voce exam for it with no corrections!If you don't know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a 20th-century German theologian who was imprisoned and executed by the Nazis for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. ‘Polyphony' is a musical term to do with multiple mutually complementary melodies in a piece of music and a ‘pneumatology' is a conceptual system for talking about the Holy Spirit, the third person in God, in Christianity.If that doesn't convince you to buy this book (or at least ask your local academic institution to buy it), then nothing will I don't know what will! An absolute steal currently on sale for £76.50 in hardback or £61.50 for the ebook!That's all for this month, though as ever do check out the indie fantasy book sale of the month and this month's SAGA OF THE JEWELS episode below or on the podcast.TTFN,Faenon / LukeYour indie fantasy FREE ARC book promotion for this month:Click here or the picture below /Now, on with the Saga…Need to catch up? The WHOLE of Book One (Episodes 1 to 21) is available bundled together as a FREE AUDIOBOOK here.Previously on Saga of the Jewels…The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. He sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted bounty hunter. Together the adventurers decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, now borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, now borne by Nuthea. They now find themselves traveling by airship to the distant land of FARR in order to seek out the next Jewel of which they have become aware, the EARTH EMERALD…SAGA OF THE JEWELS EPISODE 24: THE CROSSROADS OF THE EASTRyn stood at the rail of Wanderlust's maindeck and looked out onto the sea of clouds.The clouds were thick here, on their fourth day of travel, allegedly somewhere over Farr and nearing Shun-Pei every moment. Interlacing strands of white and grey dashed past beneath the ship, mostly obscuring the pale blue of the Farrian sky.Just occasionally, he imagined for a brief moment jumping over the rail and into them.Sorrow still weighed down Ryn's heart. It had helped, forgiving Nuthea, General Vorr, and himself, for everything that had happened. Even killing Vorr had helped, in a way, though it had been the forgiveness that had really helped him, in the end...But in his dreams he still saw the faces of his parents, his friends, the other people of his hometown. The dreams were less vivid and, damn it, he was even beginning to forget exactly what their faces looked like. But he imagined them anew each night in the dreams and in the flashbacks that still came to him unbidden throughout the day. He heard their screams, felt the heat from the burning wood of the houses of Cleasor, saw Vorr's sword sliding out of his mother's chest…And in forgiving, then accidentally killing Vorr, he had lost the goal that had been driving him forwards for the past however many months. With Vorr forgiven and dead, Ryn had found he no longer had a purpose.In his previous life, as he had come to think of it, he had had a clear enough purpose: Finish school, take over the farm from Dad, marry Carlotia, read books and go exploring in the woods on Seventhdays.It had been a trivial purpose, perhaps, but it had been his purpose. And after finding and killing Vorr, the person who had taken it away from him, it remained unavailable for him to return to.The emptiness between his ribs ached.Sometimes it was tempting to want to escape from the flashbacks. Sometimes the sadness was so thick and heavy that it was tempting to want just to be free from that too. Forever.But there was something that held him back, that stopped him from throwing himself over the rail into oblivion.What?Of course, he knew what it was, really. But at times like this, left to his own devices, looking out over the ship's rail onto the sky below, he had to deliberately call it to mind and hold on to it.What was keeping him going now was that he had a new purpose.His new purpose was to find the rest of the Primeval Jewels with this crazy collection of miscreants. His new purpose was to find the rest of the Primeval Jewels in order to keep them from the Emperor of Morekemia and stop what happened to him and his hometown from happening to anyone else. His new purpose was to find the rest of the Primeval Jewels and see if the ‘legend' was true, to see if when they were all gathered together they could be used to bring back his mother, his father and his hometown.Oh, and of course, his new purpose was also somehow to get Nuthea to fall in love with him. Carlotia had only been a crush, after all. Nuthea was a golden-haired princess who could sling lightning, and whenever she spoke to him lightning struck Ryn's heart too.Mother. Father. Hometown. Found Vorr. Got Vorr. Forgave Vorr. Killed Vorr. Stay with Nuthea. Win Nuthea's heart. Find the Jewels. Protect the world. Try to bring back my mother, father, hometown.That was a pretty long list. He wasn't sure that he would be able to keep reciting it in his head at that length. He would have to work on an abbreviated version.But the thing was, he realised, looking down into that rushing sea of cloud, while he did have a new purpose, at the same time he had to choose it. Each day, each hour, each minute, each moment.It didn't just come to him automatically, like the purpose of finding and killing Vorr which had come to him each morning bright and hot and angry like the fire that had leapt from his hands and consumed the Imperial soldier in Cleasor after he had first touched the Ruby.Instead, moment by moment, he found himself faced by a choice: throw himself over the rail into sorrow, despair, and death, or choose his purpose.And sometimes it felt hard to choose it by himself. So sometimes, just sometimes, he had started to dare to reach out for help in achieving this purpose, though he hadn't yet told anyone else about this.One God, Ryn prayed as his eyes scanned the clouds, help me in this purpose. Help me to find the Jewels. Help me to—“We're here!” shouted Nuthea, running up onto the deck in a lilac dress. “We've reached Shun-Pei!”Ryn's stomach lurched as the ship immediately began to descend. Nuthea must have been down in the viewing bubble and already told Sagar over the speaking tube.She joined him at the rail as they punctured the topmost cloud layer. Cold and white and moisture washed over them for a few moments, obscuring their vision, and Ryn almost put his hand out to hold onto Nuthea's arm, suddenly fearing that he was going to pitch over the rail into the clouds by accident.But then Wanderlust came out the bottom of the cloud layer and the light changed from bright and golden to grey and faded, filtered by the clouds above.And then they saw it.Green, jagged mountains rose to greet them in the grey below the clouds, but one mountain rose higher and greater than all of them.One mountain thrust out of the earth twice as tall as its nearest neighbours.And this mountain seemed to be covered in hundreds of smaller mountains which dotted it in layers; myriad spikes reaching upwards from its surface.As they flew in closer, Ryn saw that the spikes were actually buildings with pointed roofs. Not hundreds, but thousands, perhaps millions of them.“There she is,” said Elrann, joining them at the rail with Cid and Vish. “Shun-Pei; ‘the Crossroads of the East'.”Ryn could see now why the mountain-city was called a Crossroads. Hundreds of other airships flew towards the mountain, or took off from it. Their own ship was coming in from particularly high up above the cloud layer, but as they came lower Sagar had to steer a path through the other airships to avoid collision.Most bore blimps like their own, but there were other styles of ship Ryn had never seen before: ships with great spinning blades holding them aloft; ships with no outside deck where the hull seemed to be built into the blimp itself; ships with only single small baskets for a hull suspended underneath gigantic, colourful balloons.Sagar took Wanderlust down further still, joining a stream of inbound ships that seemed to be heading for the base of the mountain.As they drew closer, Ryn saw that the mountain was actually arranged in concentric circles, the base layer being the largest, progressing upwards in smaller and smaller layers. This was no purely natural feature. The mountain was either man-made, or it had been shaped by some sort of human design, with what kind of power he could only guess at.Lower still, and now Ryn could see the tiny dots of people moving to and fro between the mini-mountains, the pointed buildings, swarming in what must be the streets around them. There were too many to count.Shun-Pei wasn't so much a city as an enormous ant-hill.They reached an airfield and did some manoeuvring and at last Sagar set Wanderlust down. The thrum of the turbines ceased and they touched down.Ryn breathed a sigh of relief, and noticed Cid doing so too. It had been a long time in the sky.At once they were beset upon by all manner of street-sellers and peddlers, just as they had been those months ago when they had landed in Ast.Only this time, there were a lot more of them.“Carry your luggage?”“Where are you staying?”“Rat on a stick?”“Come with me; I will show you the best inn in the lower circles.”“Best deal for a pull-cart. You stick with me.”“How much for your ship? She's a beauty.”“Rat on a stick? It's good!”The words came from men and women of all different colours and shapes, but Ryn observed that the majority of them had tan skin and eyelids that were slightly taut, like they had been pulled to each side. He assumed that these must be the native Farrians, born here before the advent of steam travel a hundred years ago.“I take you to massage parlour, hmm? Sexy sexy!”“No, no, you want a hot bath, I can see it. Come with me.”“These rats on a stick are really good!”“Tour of the city for six gold pieces.”“Need to refuel? I've got you covered.”“How much for the purple-haired boy? I'll give you a good price.”“You sure you don't want a rat on a stick?”“NO THANK YOU!” shouted Nuthea at the top of her lungs.Ryn half expected her to produce a little flourish of lightning to underscore her refusal, but on this occasion she held back.The street-peddlers fell quiet for a moment even without it, miraculously.“That's better,” said Nuthea, nodding and peering down at them like a Queen addressing her court. “We do not require any of your services just now. We seek an audience with the Governor of Farr.”The street-peddlers were quiet for a moment.Then they burst out laughing, erupting into a chorus of guffaws, giggles, shoulder slaps and belly shakes.“What is so funny?” Nuthea asked, turning to Cid and screwing up her forehead.The old man stroked his beard. “It would appear that getting an audience with the Governor of Farr may not be so easy…”Once the street sellers had calmed down, they moved on to the next airship that had just landed. If nothing else, Nuthea's request had served to get rid of them, at least.Something slammed onto the maindeck. Sagar had vaulted down from where he had been steering the ship up on the forecastle, not bothering to use the steps.“Well, princess,” he said, “it looks like we're going to have to go and find this ‘Governor' guy by ourselves. Let me lock up here and then we can make our way.”They climbed down the handholds from the ship to the dirt floor below, taking only some coin which Cid kept in the common purse, as they had eaten lunch together relatively recently. Cid and Elrann reported that the Governor resided in the structure at the top of the city, so they began their trek up the mountain to try to see them.It took a long time to walk together up to the top circle of the city. Their path consisted of finding the road that led from the airfield to the main road that wound its way round the lower circle, until they got to the place where it led up the massive ramp to the next circle. They proceeded in this way, progressing upwards through the circles of the mountain-city by finding the road that led to the next level each time.As they walked, Ryn couldn't help from staring at the people they passed. Many of them were tan, tight-lidded Farrians, but there were also people with very dark skin; people with slightly less dark skin like Vish's; very pale people with white eyes; people with hair that was black, brown, blonde, red, blue, green, purple or white; men with long bushy beards that came down to their feet; men with no facial- or head-hair to speak of; women in long flowing elaborate floral dresses; women in tunics and trousers; men and women wearing nothing much at all; children of all colours and kinds scampering around underfoot; single or conjoined parents trying to catch or control them.The world is so vast, Ryn thought. And there are so many people in it, each with their own dreams, desires, hopes, fears, sorrows, each with their own story. And I am just one more person in it. Who am I to think that I could have any special significance? Who am I to think that I could do anything ‘great'?With each new circle they ascended to, the earthen streets became a little cleaner and clearer and calmer, the hangings decorating the pointed dwellings became a little more opulent, and the people walking the streets became a little more polite and—apparently—wealthy. Their clothes were smarter and the jewellery at their fingers and throats glittered. Although Shun-Pei was the tallest mountain in this range, it must still not be particularly tall, Ryn judged, because there was still no snow on it.To get onto the third-last circle, of ten, they had to queue.A Farrian official flanked by two enormous but seemingly unarmed shaven-headed guards in green robes was inspecting people, sometimes turning them away if they didn't meet whatever criteria he was assessing them by.It was fortunate that they had been kitted out with new clothes (even changes of clothes!) in Manolia. Ryn was wearing a smart shirt and wool breeches. Nuthea wore her lilac dress with the purple sash. Sagar wore his high-collared brown leather skysailors' jacket, as ever, but now with a much cleaner undershirt. Elrann looked particularly impressive in her new yellow-dyed overalls. The Manolians really did love the colour of gold. Cid was smart in a close-fitting grey tunic and cloak. Vish was the only exception, still wearing his usual black outfit which covered everything except for his eyes, but he looked pretty smart at the worst of times anyway.When they got to the front of the queue the official gave the party a quick look over and let them in straight away.When they got to the entrance to the second-last circle, things weren't so easy.The queue for this circle was much shorter, and ended in front of another Farrian official, this one flanked by four large Farrian guards in green-robed uniforms. The guards all had shaved heads. None of these carried weapons either, but they gave off the impression that they didn't need to.The official was short and spindly and had a face like a mule, with a patchy moustache above his overbite.“State your business, foreigners,” the official snapped when they got to the front of the queue.Nuthea spoke for them. “We seek an audience with the Governor.”“Ha! What are you really here for?”“Just what she said, butt-pimple,” said Sagar.Nuthea facepalmed.The guards rumbled and took a half step forward.Ryn thought he had better intervene. “Apologies for my friend's rudeness,” he said, ignoring Sagar when he said “I'm not your friend.” “We've had a very long flight. But we really are looking to talk with your ruler.”“That's right,” Nuthea joined him. “I am Princess Nutheanna Kaleutheanna of the Queendom of Manolia, and my companions and I seek an audience with the Governor of Farr.”“Don't be ridiculous,” said the official. “We don't have time for jokes. Next!”“No!” protested Nuthea. “I'm serious! Why don't you believe me? Look, let me prove to you that I'm a member of the Manolian royal family.”Nuthea held out her hand, palm up.Ryn expected some lightning to leap from it, or crackle around it, or at least for some sparks to jump off it.Nothing happened.“That's strange…” said Nuthea, holding her hand up to her face to inspect it like a piece of broken equipment.“Move along please,” said the official irritably. “Take your jokes somewhere else, we're very busy here.”“But you don't understand…” said Nuthea. “I am Jewel-touched...”“Move along now or I will have you forcibly removed from the premises.”Nuthea turned to her side. “Ryn, as I'm having some temporary difficulties, would you do the honours?”It took him a moment to realise what she meant. “Oh. Sure.” He stepped forward and held out his own hand, willing fire. To his relief, but not surprise, an orange flame appeared, hovering above his own palm. Thankfully whatever was inhibiting Nuthea didn't seem to be a problem for him. Maybe she was just really tired from the journey.The official's thin eyebrows climbed his forehead. “Ah. I see,” he said, his gaze finding the fire, then darting quickly around the courtyard. “Put it away, boy, or you'll cause a disturbance.”Ryn allowed the fire to disappear.“Manolia, you said?” the official asked.“Yes,” said Nuthea. “I am a royal emissary from Manolia. Ryn here is from Efstan; Sagar from Imfis; Elrann from Zerlan; Cid from Erm; and Vish is from Aibar. We are here to talk to the Governor about some matters pertaining to the Primeval Jewels, as just evidenced to you by my companion Ryn. We have flown a long way to get here, and we have important news for your Governor concerning these Jewels and the Empire of Morekemia. May we have an audience with him?”The official sighed. “You had better come with me.”He beckoned, turned, and led them at last through the entryway of the huge earthen structure that stood behind him, the mountain on top of the mountain.The building was windowless, but rather than being lit by torches it was lit by amber bars. It really was like walking into a giant anthill that had been colonised by humans. The walls were largely bare, but adorned at intervals with hangings like those that decorated many of the houses in the city below, only these were even more intricate in design. The Farrians had a very particular art style, of painting in earthy colours like browns, reds and greens, but with meticulous attention to detail in subtle brush strokes.The hangings depicted various green-robed figures passing through the motions of different complex, elaborate poses. Sometimes there was more than one figure and the poses interacted with one another. Whether they were meant to be dancing or fighting, Ryn could not work out. On some of the hangings the figures carried weapons—swords or staves or whips or clubs, pretty much every weapon imaginable, some he didn't know the names of—but on most of them they didn't.They wound their way down a series of passages and up staircases, passing rooms in which more officials sat at round tables holding forth with each other, or in which others sat at rows of desks and poured over reams of paper. The whole place was a hub of activity, but it was a focused, disciplined kind of activity entirely undertaken by native Farrians, in contrast to the chaos of buying and selling and arriving and departing undertaken by both Farrians and travellers from all over Mid in the city outside.Eventually they came to a large, circular chamber where the high ceiling sloped inwards to a single point far above their heads.They had reached the peak of the mountain upon the mountain, Ryn realised.He couldn't help comparing the chamber of the Governor of Farr to Nuthea's mother's throne room in Orma. Aside from the fact that each was a large room, the two couldn't be more different. Instead of a throne on a raised dais at the back of the room, the Governor sat at a wide wooden desk in the centre of it. Instead of rows of chairs, only two wooden chairs were positioned in front of the desk. Instead of being flanked by guards on either side, only one guard stood at the entrance to the chamber to let them in, another unarmed hulk of a man with a bald head and a smiling face, dressed in the green robes that seemed to be the uniform here. The whole place reminded Ryn more of the office of the clerk in the Healing House in Nont where he had first met Cid than of the palace of the ruler of a country.The man who Ryn assumed was the Governor of Farr stood up at his desk as the official walked them over to it. A squat, rotund man in a brown robe, clean-shaven with an expression like a constipated bulldog. Not a crown, nor a circlet, but a large, cylindrical brown hat sat atop his head.“What is the meaning of this?” the Governor barked. “This is highly irregular!”“I'm sorry, Lord Governor,” squeaked the official as he led them in. “But these foreigners have something important to tell you.”“What could they possibly have to tell me that's important? I'm in the middle of my morning auditing!” Nuthea spoke up. “Governor, I apologise for the unusual and unannounced nature of my visit, but the news I bring is sensitive. My name is Princess Nutheanna Kaleutheanna and I am an emissary from the Matriarchy of Manolia. I come bearing news of the Primeval Jewels.”The Governor had opened his mouth to speak again, but now he paused a moment and his frown deepened, suspicion wrinkling up his fat forehead. “What do you know of the Primeval Jewels?” he said much more quietly.“We know that they exist, we know that we have two of them, and most importantly we know that the Emperor of Morekemia has learned of their existence and has begun to look for them. We also know that you have one of them.”“Ah.” The Governor sat back down in his chair. He looked up at the official who had brought them in. “Leave us, Yal.”“But Lord Governor—” the official began in protest.“Leave us!” the Governor barked.“Yes, Lord Governor,” said Yal, and left. The guard in green closed the doors after him and stood in front of them.The Governor of Farr spoke more slowly now. “First of all, do you have any proof of what you claim? I suppose you must have in order to have been granted entrance to see me.”“Ryn?” invited Nuthea.Ryn stepped forward and showed a flame on his hand again.“Alright, alright!” said the Governor. “Put it away, boy! You might cause an accident.” He sighed. “Well, that shows you are Jewel-touched, at least. But what of the Emperor in the West?”“He has learned of the Jewels,” said Nuthea without pausing. “He desires them, and has been moving to seize them, wherever he can find trace of them.”The Governor nodded. “Yes, that does explain reports we have been receiving of goings on in the West. Thank you for the warning, Manolian. You may leave me now.”“Hang on!” said Sagar. “Aren't you going to hear what we want?”“What you ‘want'? You are in no position to be making demands of me.”“Forgive my companion's rashness, Governor,” said Nuthea, “but it is true that we did not just come here to give you information, but to make a request.”“Well, spit it out then. What is it?”Nuthea hesitated very slightly. “The six of us are seeking to gather the Jewels together, to protect them from the Emperor. We would ask that you give us the Earth Emerald to look after for safekeeping.”“Ah. I see. Well, the problem in that case would be that we don't have it.”“What?!” said Nuthea, breaking character from that of a calm, composed negotiator to play the part of a flustered only-child.The Governor shrugged, making a triple chin for a moment. “We do not have the Earth Emerald. Well, that is to say, it is in Farr, but it is not in our possession.”“Where is it then?”“Why would you think that you have the right to know?!”“Lord Governor, I respect your concern for your own country's interests, but I cannot impress upon you the seriousness of this matter enough. There is an ancient Oneist prophecy which states that if the Primeval Jewels are all gathered together, astonishing power will be unleashed. The Emperor of Morekemia has been operating according to a policy of aggressive expansion of late, and were he to obtain all twelve of the Jewels there is no telling what havoc he would be able to wreak upon the world. He could enslave the whole of Mid under the banner of the Empire.”“Young lady, I am not a Oneist. I worship Eto, god of the earth. I have never heard of this prophecy before. Why should I have any reason to believe it?”“Well…” started Nuthea, but then abruptly ran out of steam. “Um…” She didn't appear to know how to handle people who didn't believe in the One and in Oneism.Cid took over for her. “Lord Governor, that is entirely understandable, but you must concede that even if this prophecy does not turn out to be true”—Huh? Ryn thought. Did Cid just say that?—“the Jewels are still extremely powerful ancient artefacts. When the Empire had just one Jewel, for a time, they were able to invade an entire continent and steal a second Jewel before my companions and I fought them and took them back. It would be a terrible thing for any more of the Jewels to fall into the hands of the Empire, whatever the full extent of the power they bestow.”The Governor raised an eyebrow at Cid. “That is a more persuasive case, old man, but I still see no reason to turn the Earth Emerald over to you. Anyway, you seem to be doing pretty well for yourselves, if you already have two Jewels.” He said this last with a sardonic sting in his voice. “Why should I trust you? How do I know that you are not seeking to do the same as the Emperor of Morekemia?”“He does have a point…” Ryn whispered to Nuthea. He could see where the Farrian Governor was coming from. They had never really cleared up what they would do with the Jewels themselves if they collected them all, apart from keeping them away from the Emperor. Nuthea had been vague about that. Maybe she secretly harboured dreams of using them to resurrect her deceased family, like Ryn did, too...“Shhh,” Nuthea chided him irritably out of the corner of her mouth. “We've been over this, Ryn…” She spoke to the Governor again. “Our motives are pure,” she announced confidently. “My...my mother was killed by the Empire in their pursuit of the Jewels. Both of Ryn here's parents were killed by them. We only seek the Jewels so that we may keep them from the Emperor and prevent others from coming to the same harm that our families did.”The Governor narrowed his eyes at the princess. A ponderous noise escaped his mouth. “And what of the rest of you? You're a bit of a ragtag bunch, aren't you?”Cid stepped up. “I, like the Princess, am a dedicated Oneist and a Healer. I believe in the Oneist legend of the Jewels and I believe it is of paramount importance that they are found.”“What about the rest of you?” the Governor asked, glancing down the line.Sagar shrugged. “I'm just the pilot. I'm only flying them around in exchange for being paid with gold, gemstones and beautiful women. You wouldn't happen to have any of those knocking around here, would you?”“No. Not for you, anyway.”“Damn.”“I'm the engineer,” said Elrann. “I hooked up with these guys when Imfis, where I was living, got invaded.”The Governor's gaze fell on Vish.“Vish, say something!” whispered Nuthea.“What?” The Shadowfinger blinked with surprise; his mind had been somewhere far away. “Oh. I suppose I am their bodyguard. They pay me too, with other things…”“Well, this is all highly suspect,” said the Governor. “I am amazed that you have even been able to obtain two Jewels at all. How have you?”“Um,” said Nuthea, “well… My country were already in possession of the Lightning Crystal…” It glittered where she held it up for a moment on its chain. “I inherited it from my mother. Though we did have to win it back from an Imperial General after he stole it. And Ryn was given the Fire Ruby by his father. Show him, Ryn.”Ryn held up his left hand, where the Fire Ruby sat on its ring around his middle finger.“Though that was stolen,” Nuthea continued, “by the same Imperial General, so we had to get that back too. Ryn did that really, with his flame projection powers. But the rest of us helped fight off the Imperials. Captain Sagar here actually has wind projection powers, since he was given a fragment of the Wind Shell by...um...his father. Show him, Sagar.”Sagar obliged happily, holding out an open palm in front of himself as Ryn had. A gust of air rushed upwards from the floor around him, making his jacket and ponytail flap for a moment.“And as well as being a pilot, Sagar is also a highly skilled swordfighter. And Grandfather Cid has already mentioned that he is a Healer. And Lady Elrann, as well as being an engineer, is highly proficient with pistols and whip. And, um, Shadowfinger Vish was once, um, a Shadowfinger…”“What?!” said the Governor. “One of the elite bounty-hunter assassins of the Empire?!“Um. Yes.”The Governor held up a palm. “Don't worry, I'm quite capable of defending myself.”Ryn turned his head. The guard by the door had started forward, but now reluctantly resumed his original position, his smile replaced by a tightly-clenched jaw.“How did you end up traveling with this party?” the Governor said to Vish.“They made me a better offer than the Empire,” Vish said matter-of-factly.“Oh?”“They keep me supplied with poppy seed. The Healer keeps them in his bag.”Ryn assumed that this would seal the Governor's disapproval and that the man was about to dismiss them again, even more forcefully this time. But instead of shouting them out of his audience chamber, the Governor went quiet again, then made another pondering noise.“Hmmm. You do seem to have some talents after all.” He put his fingers to his lips for a moment, and rubbed them, apparently in thought. After a while he said, seemingly to himself, “Defeating an Imperial General and winning back two Jewels is quite impressive, I suppose. Maybe there is some sense in trying to reclaim the Earth Emerald, especially if there is a chance of you actually doing it…”“Lord Governor,” said Nuthea, “where is the Earth Emerald?”“Hm? Well, if you're going to have a go at retrieving it, I suppose you do need to know where it is. It was placed by my predecessor in the Shrine to Eto, the earth god.”“Well, that's not too much of a problem,” said Ryn. “We can just go and retrieve it from there for you.”The Governor gave Ryn a withering look. “He placed it there so that nobody would be able to retrieve it. The Shrine to Eto is a labyrinthine temple now filled with traps, obstacles and monsters.”“Ah.”“That's nothing we can't handle!” spoke up Sagar. He counted their feats off on his fingers. “As a team we've already successfully escaped from an invasion, infiltrated the Imperial ranks, fought off an Imperial battalion, and defeated an Imperial general. Four of us are jewel-touched. And all of us are deadly fighters. Well, most of us,” he corrected himself, looking sideways at Ryn. The Governor tapped his lips. “Are you sure? Are you telling me that you are really prepared to attempt to enter the Shrine to Eto and retrieve the Earth Emerald yourselves? Facing the prospect of vicious monsters, deadly traps, and the high likelihood of injury and death?”“We have no other choice,” said Nuthea. “Either we do it or, sooner or later, the Empire will be here doing the same thing.”“Huld!” the Governor shouted suddenly.“Pardon?” said Nuthea. “What would you like us to hold?”“My Lord Governor,” said the soldier who had been standing guard at the door, now appearing alongside the companions, at the end of the line next to Vish. It hadn't been a command; it was a name.“Huld,” said the Governor, “I want you to take these six foreigners to the Shrine to Eto and bring the Earth Emerald back from there with them.”“I live to serve, Lord Governor.”“Woah!” said Sagar, instantly protesting. “We never agreed to that! Why do we need to take a bald Farrian along with us? We can do it just fine by ourselves!”“Why do you think; you loose-tongued Imfisi?” snapped the Governor. “You will need a Farrian guide both to lead you to the Shrine and to help you navigate it. And nobody is better suited to helping you in your task than Huld. He is my best monk. He is extremely well trained in the fighting arts. He will be able both to guide you to the Shrine to Eto and to assist you in retrieving the Emerald. I trust him implicitly.”Ryn looked at the soldier. No...the Governor had said monk. The man's massive smile was back on his face again. It was so wide it pushed his cheeks up into his already narrow eyes, making them look as though they were shut.“Hello,” said Huld, in a controlled, polite voice.“Er, hello,” said Ryn.“Good,” said the Governor, apparently seeing this as some kind of successful assimilation of Huld to the group. “That's settled then. Huld will assist you in retrieving the Earth Emerald. I have some matters I will need to discuss with him now. You will leave at first light tomorrow.” Get full access to Faenon's Fantasy Fiction Newsletter at sagaofthejewels.substack.com/subscribe

Fimmtudagurinn 29. febrúar Læknir fíkla, hipparnir, ferðaþjónustan og bókaútgáfa Árni Tómas Ragnarsson læknir hefur gefið út lyfseðla á morfín til fólks sem háð er ópíóðum. Landlæknir svipti hann leyfinu. Árni Tómas rekur þessa sögu frá sinni hlið við Rauða borðið í kvöld. Benóný Ægisson, Sigrún Huld Þorgrímsdóttir og Árni Pétur Guðjónsson eru af hippakynslóðinni, börn eftirstríðsárakynslóðarinnar, og upplifðu það Ísland sem þau ólust upp inna sem grátt, þröngt og óbærilega leiðinlegt. Við förum með þeim í tímaflakk til þessa tíma. Jóhannes Þór Skúlason, framkvæmdastjóri Samtaka ferðaþjónustunnar, hafnar því að álag á innviði sé ferðamannaágangi að kenna innanlands, segir rótina liggja í ástandi sem skapaðist á árunum 2010-2016. Heiðar Ingi Svansson, formaður félags íslenskra bókaútgefenda, segir margt benda til að prentaðar bækur lifi allar breytingar af þótt bylting hafi orðið í háttum samtímafólks.

Lovísa Rut stýrði Popplandi dagsins og það var mikið stuð eins og vanalega. Þétt Iceland Airwaves upphitun en fyrsta tilkynning lenti í dag. Slógum á þráðinn til Slóveníu og heyrðum í Sindra Ástmarssyni, bókara hátíðarinnar. Arnar Eggert og Andrea gerðu upp plötu vikunnar, Darkest Night með Hafdísi Huld, Söngvakeppnislög og nýtt og gamalt í bland. Friðrik Dór Jónsson - Aftur ung (Dansaðu við mig). FLEETWOOD MAC - Rhiannon. Thee Sacred Souls - Can I Call You Rose?. Dina Ögon - Tombola 94. Ocean, Frank - Pink + White. Teitur Magnússon Tónlistarmaður - Fjöllin og fjarlægðin. Júlí Heiðar - Farfuglar. TOM ODELL - Another Love. Heiðrún Anna Björnsdóttir - Þjakaður af ást. QUEEN - Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Cage the Elephant - Neon Pill. Vampire Weekend - Capricorn. Melanie - Brand new key. Alisdair Wright, Hafdís Huld - Hindsight. Hafdís Huld - Broken Hearts. Hafdís Huld - Bats. Hafdís Huld - Salt. Hafdís Huld Tónlistarm. - Darkest night. Laufey - From The Start. Ólafur Bjarki Bogason - Yfirhafinn. Jón Jónsson Tónlistarm. - Spilaborg. Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir - Við förum hærra. eee gee - School reunion. Shygirl - Mr useless. Kumar, Anish - Blackpool Boulevard (Edit) SG Lewis - Mr useless. Joy Anonymous - JOY [I Did You Wrong] Róshildur - Fólk í blokk (v2,3). LÚPÍNA - Ástarbréf. Barry Can't Swim - Blackpool Boulevard. INSPECTOR SPACETIME - Hitta mig. K.ÓLA - Keyrum úr borginni. bar Italia - My little tony (bonus track wav). Klemens Hannigan - Don't Want to Talk About It. Ásdís, Purple Disco Machine - Beat Of Your Heart. Grande, Ariana - Yes, and?. SÁLIN HANS JÓNS MÍNS - Aldrei Liðið Betur. Daniil, Frumburður - Bráðna. ALANIS MORISSETTE - You oughta know. Parks, Arlo, Lous and The Yakuza - I'm Sorry. RAYE söngkona - Worth It. Silja Rós Ragnarsdóttir - Honey.... LILY ALLEN - The Fear. MAIAA - Fljúga burt. Feist - 1234. ÚLFUR ÚLFUR - Myndi falla. LITTLE SIMZ - Gorilla. TATE MCRAE - Freedy. GDRN & FRIÐRIK DÓR & MOSES HIGHTOWER & STÓRSVEIT REYKJAVÍKUR - Springur út. ROYEL OTIS - Murder on the Dancefloor.

Siggi Gunnars og Lovísa Rut voru Popplandsverðir í dag. Hafdís Huld á plötu vikunnar, Darkest Night og hún sagði frá henni. Hituðum upp fyrir næsta söngvakeppnis kvöld, alls konar nýtt og skemmtilegt. EYÞÓR INGI & LAY LOW - Aftur Heim Til Þín. NORAH JONES - Feelin The Same Way. Jones, Norah - Running. Laufey - Haunted. YG Marley - Praise Jah In the Moonlight. BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS - Sun is shining. GERRY RAFFERTY - Baker Street. VÖK - Headlights. Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir - Við förum hærra. Elín Hall - Manndráp af gáleysi. CMAT - Stay For Something. Óviti, Kusk og Óviti, KUSK - Loka augunum. Black Keys, The - Beautiful People (Stay High). THE KOOKS - Always Where I Need To Be. Júlí Heiðar, PATRi!K - Heim. Alisdair Wright, Hafdís Huld - Hindsight. Cage the Elephant - Neon Pill. Murad, Bashar - Vestrið villt. Bombay Bicycle Club, Mann, Matilda - Fantasneeze. MUGISON - É Dúdda Mía. TOPLOADER - Dancing In The Moonlight. Á móti sól - Okkur líður samt vel. Julian Civilian - Þú straujar hjarta mitt. Klemens Hannigan - Don't Want to Talk About It. Heiðrún Anna Björnsdóttir - Þjakaður af ást. EMILÍANA TORRINI - Jungle Drum. BILLY IDOL - Dancing With Myself. CAPITAL CITIES - Safe And Sound. Magdalena - Never enough. Jón Jónsson - Spilaborg. Atli - When It Hurts. Benson Boone - Beautiful Things. Khruangbin - A Love International. Beyoncé - Texas Hold 'Em (Explicit). Snorri Helgason - Ingileif. Gosi - Ófreskja. Grande, Ariana - Yes, and?. THE CRANBERRIES - Dreams. HAFDÍS HULD - Darkest Night. SISTER SLEDGE - Thinking of You. KASPER BJØRKE & SÍSÍ EY & SYSTUR - Conversations. ALT-J Breezeblocks. ÁSGEIR TRAUSTI - Heimförin. DIDO - Here With Me. HILDUR - Þúsund skyssur. AXEL FLÓVENT - When The Sun Goes Down. THEE SACRED SOULS - Can I Call You Rose? BOGOMIL FONT & GREININGARDEILDIN - Sjóddu frekar egg.

Am Aschermittwoch, also heute, beginnt die 40-tägige Fastenzeit vor Ostern. Seit Ende des 11. Jahrhunderts gibt es die Tradition, sich an diesem Tag in Gottesdiensten ein Aschenkreuz auf die Stirn zeichnen oder Asche aufs Haupt streuen zu lassen. Die aus gesegneten Palmzweigen vom Vorjahr gewonnene Asche gilt als Symbol der Trauer und Buße.Das Aschenkreuz steht für den Beginn der Bußzeit und zugleich für die Hoffnung der Christen auf Auferstehung. In den vergangenen Pandemiejahren wurde kein Aschenkreuz auf die Stirn gezeichnet, sondern Asche auf den Kopf gestreut. Das ist die viel frühere und ursprünglichere Form dieses Startsignals in die Fastenzeit.Manche kennen vielleicht noch die Formulierung: "Oh, Asche auf mein Haupt," oder "in Sack und Asche gehen" wenn man einen Fehler zugibt und sich entschuldigen möchte. Ich habe mal nachgesehen, warum die Asche so das normale Mittel für den Beginn der Fastenzeit ist: Asche ist seit Jahrhunderten ein vielfältig verwendetes Putz- und Scheuermittel. Man kann damit Silber reinigen, Fußböden wischen, Wäsche waschen, Geschirrspülen. Aber man kann Asche auch als Dünger und Schädlingsbekämpfer und Unkrautvernichter einsetzen. Und so in unser religiöses Leben übersetzt ist das auch notwendig: wir müssen schon manches in unserem Leben mal abstauben und reinigen und putzen, damit wieder deutlich wird, wozu wir als Christen so da sind: wir sollen und wollen Jesus Christus nachfolgen und versuchen, nach seinem Evangelium zu leben. Und da ist die Asche als Dünger auch nicht so verkehrt, damit Neues und Gutes wachsen kann und der Auftrag: "Kehr um und glaub an das Evangelium" durch uns und unser Tun und Beten Hand und Fuß bekommt und das Reich Gottes unter uns Wachsen und Gedeihen kann. Der eigentliche Grund für all unser Mühen steht in der heutigen Lesung. Da heißt es: Daran sollst du erkennen: Jahwe, dein Gott, ist der Gott; er ist der treue Gott; noch nach tausend Generationen achtet er auf den Bund und erweist denen seine Huld, die ihn lieben und auf seine Gebote achten.Versuchen wir es ernsthaft. Sieben Wochen sind dafür eine gute Zeit.

Was waren besondere Höhepunkte und “Learnings” des vergangenen Jahres aus Sicht von 1000plus? Und auf welche Dinge im Jahr 2024 freut sich Kristijan Aufiero besonders? Antworten darauf werden in dieser Ausgabe des 1000plus-Cafés gegeben!Gebet für die UnterstützerAllmächtiger, ewiger Gott!Wir danken Dir für alle Menschen, die Du Profemina, 1000plus und allen Schwangeren in Not zur Seite gestellt hast. Und wir danken Dir für ihre Barmherzigkeit, für ihre Großherzigkeit und für ihre Teilhabe an unserem Auftrag.Bitte nimm Dich ihrer Sorgen, Ängste und Nöte an und stehe ihnen allen stets bei.Bitte schenke ihnen die Hoffnung und die Liebe, die Kraft und die Beharrlichkeit, um ihren täglichen Aufgaben gerecht zu werden, ihren Herausforderungen standzuhalten und zum Segen für die Welt zu werden.Bitte hilf ihnen, in ihren Familien, in ihrem Beruf und in allen anderen Lebensumständen zu lebendigen und frohen Zeugen Deiner Liebe zu jedem menschlichen Geschöpf zu werden.Segne sie alle und vergelte ihnen reichlich, was sie für Schwangere in Not, ihre ungeborenen Kinder und ihre Familien tun.Bitte lass sie durch Deine Gnade und Huld zu machtvollen Verkündern des Evangeliums des Lebens werden und so mit uns gemeinsam die Welt in Christus erneuern.AMEN. Alle Podcasts zum Ansehen:1000plus.net: https://www.1000plus.net/de-de/informieren/1000pluspodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1000plus Mehr Informationen:www.1000plus.net Folgen und teilen:WhatsApp: https://www.1000plus.net/whatsappTelegram: https://www.1000plus.net/telegramInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/tausendplus/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1000plusTwitter/X: https://x.com/Projekt1000plusLinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/company/1000plus

Siggi Gunnars og Lovísa flökkuðu um Poppland að þessu sinni. Fréttastofan kíkti inn með nýjustu fréttir úr Grindavík, plata vikunnar kynnt til leiks, Pottþétt Flott með hljómsveitinni Flott, póstkort frá Hafdísi Huld og fullt af nýrri tónlist. Helgi Björnsson - Besta útgáfan af mér. FLOTT & UNNSTEINN - Ef þú hugsar eins og ég (Áramótaskaupslagið 2021). Dina Ögon - Det läcker. Gosi - Ófreskja. Bryan, Zach, Musgraves, Kacey - I Remember Everything. JOHN MAYER - Last Train Home. Una Torfadóttir, Baggalútur - Casanova. Rolling Stones, The - Mess It Up. FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE - Shake it Out. Dodo and The Dodos - Gi Mig Hvad Du Har. ROBBIE WILLIAMS - Millennium. Julian Civilian - Þú straujar hjarta mitt. PREFAB SPROUT - Cars and Girls. Johann, JóiPé - Kallinn á tunglinu. RIHANNA - Diamonds. Flott - Ég vildi (óður til viðtengingarháttar). Júníus Meyvant & KK - Skýjaglópur. Japanese House, The - Super Trouper. Harlow, Jack - Lovin On Me. Sivan, Troye - One Of Your Girls. Big Thief - Born For Loving You. Teitur Magnússon Tónlistarmaður - Sumargestur. BEN HOWARD - Keep Your Head Up. NORAH JONES - Don?t Know Why. Friðrik Ómar - Svefninn laðar. Lana Del Rey - Take Me Home, Country Roads. HIPSUMHAPS - Á hnjánum. K. Óla - Seinasti dansinn okkar. Björk & Rosalia - Oral. Inspector Spacetime - Smástund. LONDON GRAMMAR - How Does It Feel. NÝDÖNSK - Apaspil. Flott - Við sögðum aldrei neitt. THE EMOTIONS - Best Of My Love. Una Torfadóttir - Fyrrverandi. The Staves - All Now. Billy Stewart - Sitting in the park. Sakaris - Things Could Be Better. Mitski - My Love Mine All Mine. KALEO - All the pretty girls. Ilsey - No California.

Fyrsti þáttur ársins var tileinkaður síðasta ári og nokkur vel valin brot úr fimmum ársins tekin til. Viðmælendur að þessu sinni voru Hafdís Huld sem kom í janúar, María Reyndal en hún kom í mars og Sonja Ýr Þorbergsdóttir sem kom í spjall í apríl. Í seinni hlutanum heyrðist í gesti frá því 17. júni en það var Ólafur Þ Harðarson. Að síðustu komu þau Rósa Magnúsdóttir og Kiddi Hjálmur við sögu en bæði kíktu í kaffi á haustdögum.

Päivän mietelauseena on Lars Huldénin runo Vuoden pimein yö kokoelmasta: Taivas tummuu, mutta valkoisiin pilviin osuu valo. Runon on suomentanut Pentti Saaritsa. Mietelauseen on valinnut Raili Tuikka. Lukijana kuuluttaja Juha Salomaa.

Umsjón: Siggi Gunnars & Lovísa Rut Siggi og Lovísa stjórnuðu Popplandi dagsins. Póstkort frá Hafdísi Huld, brot úr Árið Er 1996, plata vikunnar kynnt til leiks, Húsið Mitt með hljómsveitinni Supersport! Allskonar nýtt á boðstólnum í dag líka, Open Jars, Karl Orgeltríó, Easy Life og fleira. John Lennon minnst og þessar helstu tónlistarfréttir á sínum stað. VÖK - Stadium. ÁSGEIR TRAUSTI & CLOU - Milli svefns og vöku. Karl orgeltríó, Una Stefánsdóttir - Hásætið. Malen - Right?. MITSKI - Stay Soft. COLONY HOUSE - Cannonballers. Spacestation - Hver í fokkanum?. Una Torfadóttir - Þú ert stormur (Pride lagið 2023). HREIMUR - Þar sem himinn ber við haf. Tanega, Norma - You're Dead. Bridges, Leon, Khruangbin - C-Side. Easy life - Ultimatejutsu_1644.wav. MÍNUS - The Long Face. Open Jars - Skim. NORMAN GREENBAUM - Spirit in the sky. Birkir Blær - Thinking Bout You. PÁLL ÓSKAR - Allt Fyrir Ástina. Julian Civilian - Fyrirmyndarborgari. GRAFÍK - Presley. BOTNLEÐJA - Þið eruð frábær. DAVID BOWIE - Breaking Glass. VÖK - Headlights. JOEY CHRIST & TATJANA - Gufunes. DESTINY?S CHILD - Survivor. BENNI HEMM HEMM - Þú Lýstir Upp Herbergið. SUPERSPORT! - Allt Fólkið í Kringum Mig. JÚNÍUS MEYVANT BEATLES - I Will. JOHN LENNON - Jealous Guy.

Umsjón: Siggi Gunnars & Lovísa Rut Siggi og Lovísa stjórnuðu Popplandi dagsins. Póstkort frá Hafdísi Huld, brot úr Árið Er 1996, plata vikunnar kynnt til leiks, Húsið Mitt með hljómsveitinni Supersport! Allskonar nýtt á boðstólnum í dag líka, Open Jars, Karl Orgeltríó, Easy Life og fleira. John Lennon minnst og þessar helstu tónlistarfréttir á sínum stað. VÖK - Stadium. ÁSGEIR TRAUSTI & CLOU - Milli svefns og vöku. Karl orgeltríó, Una Stefánsdóttir - Hásætið. Malen - Right?. MITSKI - Stay Soft. COLONY HOUSE - Cannonballers. Spacestation - Hver í fokkanum?. Una Torfadóttir - Þú ert stormur (Pride lagið 2023). HREIMUR - Þar sem himinn ber við haf. Tanega, Norma - You're Dead. Bridges, Leon, Khruangbin - C-Side. Easy life - Ultimatejutsu_1644.wav. MÍNUS - The Long Face. Open Jars - Skim. NORMAN GREENBAUM - Spirit in the sky. Birkir Blær - Thinking Bout You. PÁLL ÓSKAR - Allt Fyrir Ástina. Julian Civilian - Fyrirmyndarborgari. GRAFÍK - Presley. BOTNLEÐJA - Þið eruð frábær. DAVID BOWIE - Breaking Glass. VÖK - Headlights. JOEY CHRIST & TATJANA - Gufunes. DESTINY?S CHILD - Survivor. BENNI HEMM HEMM - Þú Lýstir Upp Herbergið. SUPERSPORT! - Allt Fólkið í Kringum Mig. JÚNÍUS MEYVANT BEATLES - I Will. JOHN LENNON - Jealous Guy.

Meðal flytjenda: ELO, BAP, Hafdís Huld og Angurværð.

Meðal flytjenda: ELO, BAP, Hafdís Huld og Angurværð.

Meðal annarra flytjenda: Hafdís Huld, Þorvaldur Halldórsson, Sebastian og Supersport.

Meðal annarra flytjenda: Hafdís Huld, Þorvaldur Halldórsson, Sebastian og Supersport.

Es begegnen einander Huld und Treue; Gerechtigkeit und Friede küssen sich. - Ps 85,11

Lee 2 Reyes 22:8–20 ¿Sabías que leer libros puede ayudarte a vivir más? Un estudio realizado en la Universidad de Yale encontró que aquellos que leen libros “viven un promedio de casi dos años más que aquellos que no leen nada”. Concluyeron: “Las personas que leen libros por solo media hora al día tienen una ventaja de supervivencia significativa sobre los que no leen”. Siendo este el caso, no deberíamos sorprendernos de que leer la Palabra de Dios sea aún más vivificante, suficiente para revivir una nación idólatra en 2 Reyes 22. No estamos seguros de cómo se perdieron las Escrituras. Ni siquiera estamos seguros si lo que se perdió fue todo el Pentateuco o solo parte de Deuteronomio. Pero sí sabemos que el redescubrimiento de la Palabra de Dios provocó un avivamiento en todo Judá, dirigido por el rey Josías (v. 8; véase 2 Reyes 23). Cuando escuchó leer en voz alta las Escrituras perdidas, el rey respondió con tristeza y arrepentimiento (vv. 11–13). Entendió que el pueblo no había guardado el pacto y admitió abiertamente la justicia de la ira de Dios por su desobediencia. Esta respuesta no salió de la nada. El terreno espiritual había sido preparado, como se vio en las renovaciones del templo que él había ordenado. De hecho, los rollos perdidos fueron encontrados durante ese proceso de reconstrucción. Además, Josías había sido criado y aconsejado por hombres justos como el sumo sacerdote Jilquías. Su corazón estaba espiritualmente listo. La profetisa Huldá ofreció tanto advertencia como consuelo. Josías no había entendido mal: de hecho habían roto el pacto con su idolatría e infidelidad. El juicio vendría, tal como lo prometió la Palabra de Dios (vv. 16–17). Pero debido a la respuesta humilde del rey, ella le dijo que Dios sería misericordioso y que no sucedería mientras él viviera (vv. 19–20). Leer la Palabra de Dios también puede despertar un avivamiento en nosotros. Deja que la Palabra de Dios te guíe al hábito espiritual regular de la confesión del pecado. No hay que preocuparse ni avergonzarse, ya que Dios prometió perdonarnos (1 Juan 1:9). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Þyrí Huld Árnadóttir var valin dansari ársins á Grímuverðlaununum í ár og fékk einnig Grímuna fyrir dansverk ársins: Hringrás. Það var í þriðja sinn sem Þyrí hlaut titilinn dansari ársins en áður hlaut hún verðlaunin árið 2015 og 2018 fyrir hlutverk sín í verkinu Sin og Hin lánsömu. Þyrí gekk í Danslistarskóla JSB og Listdansskóla Íslands og hún er með BA gráðu í samtímadansi frá Listaháskóla Íslands. Hún tók fljótt stökkið yfir í Íslenska dansflokkinn og hefur starfað með flokknum með hléum frá 2010 og hefur tekið þátt í fjölbreyttum verkefnum sem dansari og danshöfundur. Hún samdi þrjú verk um ofurhetjurnar Óð og Flexu í samstarfi við Hannes Þór Egilsson sem hlutu tilnefningar sem barnasýningar ársins og voru þau tilnefnd sem danshöfundar ársins. Hún er meðal stofnenda hópsins Reykjavík Dance Production sem ferðaðist víða um heim með sýninguna Á vit. Við fáum svipmynd af Þyrí Huld í Víðsjá dagsins og rekja ferilinn, allt frá fyrstu danssporunum yfir í dans um fæðingu barna sinni og slysi sem breytti afstöðu hennar til lífsins.

Þyrí Huld Árnadóttir var valin dansari ársins á Grímuverðlaununum í ár og fékk einnig Grímuna fyrir dansverk ársins: Hringrás. Það var í þriðja sinn sem Þyrí hlaut titilinn dansari ársins en áður hlaut hún verðlaunin árið 2015 og 2018 fyrir hlutverk sín í verkinu Sin og Hin lánsömu. Þyrí gekk í Danslistarskóla JSB og Listdansskóla Íslands og hún er með BA gráðu í samtímadansi frá Listaháskóla Íslands. Hún tók fljótt stökkið yfir í Íslenska dansflokkinn og hefur starfað með flokknum með hléum frá 2010 og hefur tekið þátt í fjölbreyttum verkefnum sem dansari og danshöfundur. Hún samdi þrjú verk um ofurhetjurnar Óð og Flexu í samstarfi við Hannes Þór Egilsson sem hlutu tilnefningar sem barnasýningar ársins og voru þau tilnefnd sem danshöfundar ársins. Hún er meðal stofnenda hópsins Reykjavík Dance Production sem ferðaðist víða um heim með sýninguna Á vit. Við fáum svipmynd af Þyrí Huld í Víðsjá dagsins og rekja ferilinn, allt frá fyrstu danssporunum yfir í dans um fæðingu barna sinni og slysi sem breytti afstöðu hennar til lífsins.

Since the 1970s feminist bible scholars have been reclaiming the stories of biblical women.From Eve to Esther this lecture will draw on both biblical accounts and cultural representations to bring their stories to life. Whether wives, mothers, and sisters; sex workers and foreign agents; prophetesses and queens; wise women and witches; victims and heroes and so much more, their stories reveal to us not only who these women were, but how their stories continue to resonate in the modern world.A lecture by Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris recorded on 25 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-hebrew-bibleGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/Website:  https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Lítil bók um stóra hluti kallst nýútkomin bók eftir Þórunni Jörlu Valdimarsdóttur. Þar veltir Þórunn vöngum yfir hlutskipti mannanna hér á jörð, samskiptum kynjanna, ástinni, einmanaleikanum, jörð og eilífð og öllu þar á milli. Þórunn verður gestur okkar í dag. Dansverkið Hringrás eftir Þyri Huld Árnadóttur, er sýnt um þessar mundir í samstarfi við Íslenksa dansflokkinn í Borgarleikhúsinu. Eva Halldóra Guðmundsdóttir rýnir í verkið í þætti dagsins. Við höldum líka í Norræna húsið og skoðum sýninguna Hvernig ég komst í sprengjubyrgið en þar eiga 7 úkraínskir listamenn, reyndar eitt listamannatvíeyki, verk á öflugri sýningu þar sem verkin hafa öll orðið til á síðasta tæpa ári, eftir að innrás Rússa í Úkraínu hófst. Við heimsækjum norræna húsið og ræðum við úkraínska sýningarstjórann sem heitir Yulia Sapiga og er orðin ein af starfsmönnum safnsins. Umsjón: Guðni Tómasson og Halla Harðardóttir

Lítil bók um stóra hluti kallst nýútkomin bók eftir Þórunni Jörlu Valdimarsdóttur. Þar veltir Þórunn vöngum yfir hlutskipti mannanna hér á jörð, samskiptum kynjanna, ástinni, einmanaleikanum, jörð og eilífð og öllu þar á milli. Þórunn verður gestur okkar í dag. Dansverkið Hringrás eftir Þyri Huld Árnadóttur, er sýnt um þessar mundir í samstarfi við Íslenksa dansflokkinn í Borgarleikhúsinu. Eva Halldóra Guðmundsdóttir rýnir í verkið í þætti dagsins. Við höldum líka í Norræna húsið og skoðum sýninguna Hvernig ég komst í sprengjubyrgið en þar eiga 7 úkraínskir listamenn, reyndar eitt listamannatvíeyki, verk á öflugri sýningu þar sem verkin hafa öll orðið til á síðasta tæpa ári, eftir að innrás Rússa í Úkraínu hófst. Við heimsækjum norræna húsið og ræðum við úkraínska sýningarstjórann sem heitir Yulia Sapiga og er orðin ein af starfsmönnum safnsins. Umsjón: Guðni Tómasson og Halla Harðardóttir

Rósa María Hjörvar, doktorsnemi í bókmenntafræði, flytur á fimmtudaginn fyrirlesturinn Eitruð karlmennska og perlufestar í óbyggðum norðursins, en hann er hluti af hádegisfyrirlestraröð RIKK, Rannsóknastofnunar í jafnréttisfræðum við HÍ. Þar skoðar hún hinsegin persónur í þremur frægum bókum sem skrifaðar eru á mismunandi tímum, Gróður jarðar eftir Knut Hamsun, Sjálfstætt fólk eftir Halldór Laxnes og Höfundur Íslands eftir Hallgrím Helgason. Hún segir að saga þessara persóna spegli breytileg viðhorf til hinseginleika og karlmennsku. Rósa útskýrði þetta betur í þættinum. Svo forvitnuðumst við um nýja útgáfu af gestabókinni sem var til á öllum heimilum, en sést varla í dag nema í brúðkaupum og fermingaveislum. Kristborg Bóel Steindórsdóttir vill einmitt endurvekja gestabókamenninguna hér á landi og blása lífi í þessa arfleifð og hún lét ekki þar staðar numið því hún ákvað líka að gefa út bók þar sem fólk getur haldið utan um drauma sína, þ.e. ekki drauma næturinnar, heldur sem þá drauma sem við vonum að rætist. Kristborg sagði okkur meira frá þessu í dag. Við sögðum svo frá spili sem sker sig dálítið frá öðrum skemmtispilum sem eru í boði. Það kallast Húsið og varð til sem lokaverkefni Helgu Berglindar Sigurþórsdóttur og Gunnu Stellu Pálmarsdóttur í Fjölskyldumeðferð hjá Endurmenntun H.Í. Þær eiga samtals margra ára reynslu af vinnu með börnum, unglingum og fullorðnum. Húsið er spurningaspil sem opnar á allskyns samræður og er hugsað sem tengslaeflandi verkfæri sem fær börn til að kynnast foreldrum sínum betur, ömmur og afa til að kynnast barnabörnunum, systkini til að tala saman á dýpri hátt og vináttu til að eflast. Helga og Gunna komu í þáttinn í dag. Tónlist í þættinum í dag: Að vera í sambandi / Stuðmenn (Jakob Frímann Magnússon) Take me dancing / Hafdís Huld (Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir og Tim Gordine) Girl from Before / Blood Harmony (Örn Eldjárn Kristjánsson) Ready Teddy / Buddy Holly (John Marascalco og Robert Blackwell) UMSJÓN: GUNNAR HANSSON OG GUÐRÚN GUNNARSDÓTTIR

Rósa María Hjörvar, doktorsnemi í bókmenntafræði, flytur á fimmtudaginn fyrirlesturinn Eitruð karlmennska og perlufestar í óbyggðum norðursins, en hann er hluti af hádegisfyrirlestraröð RIKK, Rannsóknastofnunar í jafnréttisfræðum við HÍ. Þar skoðar hún hinsegin persónur í þremur frægum bókum sem skrifaðar eru á mismunandi tímum, Gróður jarðar eftir Knut Hamsun, Sjálfstætt fólk eftir Halldór Laxnes og Höfundur Íslands eftir Hallgrím Helgason. Hún segir að saga þessara persóna spegli breytileg viðhorf til hinseginleika og karlmennsku. Rósa útskýrði þetta betur í þættinum. Svo forvitnuðumst við um nýja útgáfu af gestabókinni sem var til á öllum heimilum, en sést varla í dag nema í brúðkaupum og fermingaveislum. Kristborg Bóel Steindórsdóttir vill einmitt endurvekja gestabókamenninguna hér á landi og blása lífi í þessa arfleifð og hún lét ekki þar staðar numið því hún ákvað líka að gefa út bók þar sem fólk getur haldið utan um drauma sína, þ.e. ekki drauma næturinnar, heldur sem þá drauma sem við vonum að rætist. Kristborg sagði okkur meira frá þessu í dag. Við sögðum svo frá spili sem sker sig dálítið frá öðrum skemmtispilum sem eru í boði. Það kallast Húsið og varð til sem lokaverkefni Helgu Berglindar Sigurþórsdóttur og Gunnu Stellu Pálmarsdóttur í Fjölskyldumeðferð hjá Endurmenntun H.Í. Þær eiga samtals margra ára reynslu af vinnu með börnum, unglingum og fullorðnum. Húsið er spurningaspil sem opnar á allskyns samræður og er hugsað sem tengslaeflandi verkfæri sem fær börn til að kynnast foreldrum sínum betur, ömmur og afa til að kynnast barnabörnunum, systkini til að tala saman á dýpri hátt og vináttu til að eflast. Helga og Gunna komu í þáttinn í dag. Tónlist í þættinum í dag: Að vera í sambandi / Stuðmenn (Jakob Frímann Magnússon) Take me dancing / Hafdís Huld (Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir og Tim Gordine) Girl from Before / Blood Harmony (Örn Eldjárn Kristjánsson) Ready Teddy / Buddy Holly (John Marascalco og Robert Blackwell) UMSJÓN: GUNNAR HANSSON OG GUÐRÚN GUNNARSDÓTTIR

Umræða hefur skapast um mannréttindi fólks á hjúkrunarheimilum í kjölfar viðtals í Silfrinu við Sigrúnu Huld Þorgrímsdóttur. Þar kom fram að nauðungt væri oft og víða beitt. Slíkt er ólölegt að sögn Brynhildar G. Flóvenz. Hún er dósent í lögum við HÍ og formaður nefndar er veitir undanþágur frá beitingu nauðungar í starfi með fötluðu fólki. Í Heimsglugganum fjallaði Bogi Ágústsson um nýafstaðnar kosningar í Bandaríkjunum og væntanlegar kosningar í Færeyjum. Góð hljóðvist er mikilvæg og eigendum húsa ber að tryggja góða hljóðvist samkvæmt lögum og reglum. Ólafur Hafstein Pjetursson verkfræðingur sagði frá áhrifum slæmrar hljóðvistar á fólk og rétti fólks til að njóta góðrar hljóðvistar. Tónlist: Þú ein - Hljómar, Öldur rísa - Gautar, Faðmlag - Svavar Knútur og Kristjana Stefánsdóttir, An ending - Brian Eno. Umsjón: Björn Þór Sigbjörnsson og Gígja Hólmgeirsdóttir.

Umræða hefur skapast um mannréttindi fólks á hjúkrunarheimilum í kjölfar viðtals í Silfrinu við Sigrúnu Huld Þorgrímsdóttur. Þar kom fram að nauðungt væri oft og víða beitt. Slíkt er ólölegt að sögn Brynhildar G. Flóvenz. Hún er dósent í lögum við HÍ og formaður nefndar er veitir undanþágur frá beitingu nauðungar í starfi með fötluðu fólki. Í Heimsglugganum fjallaði Bogi Ágústsson um nýafstaðnar kosningar í Bandaríkjunum og væntanlegar kosningar í Færeyjum. Góð hljóðvist er mikilvæg og eigendum húsa ber að tryggja góða hljóðvist samkvæmt lögum og reglum. Ólafur Hafstein Pjetursson verkfræðingur sagði frá áhrifum slæmrar hljóðvistar á fólk og rétti fólks til að njóta góðrar hljóðvistar. Tónlist: Þú ein - Hljómar, Öldur rísa - Gautar, Faðmlag - Svavar Knútur og Kristjana Stefánsdóttir, An ending - Brian Eno. Umsjón: Björn Þór Sigbjörnsson og Gígja Hólmgeirsdóttir.

Fyrsti sérfræðingur Mannlega þáttarins í þetta sinn var Jenný Ýr Jóhannsdóttir deildarstjóri hjá Lífeyrissjóði Verslunarmanna. Lífeyrismál snerta okkur öll, en ekki er víst að við vitum öll nógu mikið um þau, enda getur margt verið flókið hvað þeim viðkemur. Við gáfum hlustendum tækifæri að nýta sér sérfræðing í lífeyrismálum og fengum sendar talsvert margar spurningar sem Jenný Ýr gerði sitt besta til að svara í þættinum. Spurningarnar frá hlustendum voru m.a. tengdar skattamálum og lífeyri, erfðamál og lífeyri, viðbótarlífeyrissparnaði, tilgreindri séreign, mismunandi nýtingaleiðir og fleira og fleira. Árið 2012 sendi tónlistarkonan Hafdís Huld frá sér plötuna Vögguvísur. Plötuna vann hún með eiginmanni sínum Alisdair Wright en hugmyndin að verkefninu kviknaði þegar þau áttu von á sínu fyrsta barni. Vögguvísur fékk strax góðar móttökur hjá börnum og foreldrum og nú, 10 árum síðar, hefur þessi hugljúfa plata náð tvöfaldri platínusölu og er orðin mest streymda íslenska platan á streymisveitum á hér á landi.Í tilefni af 10 ára afmæli Vögguvísna hafa Hafdís og Alisdair gefið út 5 nýjar vísur og Hafdís Huld kom í þáttinn og sagði okkur frá þeim og þessu mikla ævintýri sem velgengni plötunnar er. Tónlist í þættinum í. dag: Ættin mín / Ragnar Bjarnason og Bjarni Arason (Bjarni Hafþór Helgason) María Ísabel / Helena Eyjólfsdóttir og Hljómsveit Ingimars Eydal (J. Moreno, L. Moreno og Ásta Sigurðardóttir) Litla skott / Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir (Hafdís Huld og Alisdair Wright) UMSJÓN: GUNNAR HANSSON

Fyrsti sérfræðingur Mannlega þáttarins í þetta sinn var Jenný Ýr Jóhannsdóttir deildarstjóri hjá Lífeyrissjóði Verslunarmanna. Lífeyrismál snerta okkur öll, en ekki er víst að við vitum öll nógu mikið um þau, enda getur margt verið flókið hvað þeim viðkemur. Við gáfum hlustendum tækifæri að nýta sér sérfræðing í lífeyrismálum og fengum sendar talsvert margar spurningar sem Jenný Ýr gerði sitt besta til að svara í þættinum. Spurningarnar frá hlustendum voru m.a. tengdar skattamálum og lífeyri, erfðamál og lífeyri, viðbótarlífeyrissparnaði, tilgreindri séreign, mismunandi nýtingaleiðir og fleira og fleira. Árið 2012 sendi tónlistarkonan Hafdís Huld frá sér plötuna Vögguvísur. Plötuna vann hún með eiginmanni sínum Alisdair Wright en hugmyndin að verkefninu kviknaði þegar þau áttu von á sínu fyrsta barni. Vögguvísur fékk strax góðar móttökur hjá börnum og foreldrum og nú, 10 árum síðar, hefur þessi hugljúfa plata náð tvöfaldri platínusölu og er orðin mest streymda íslenska platan á streymisveitum á hér á landi.Í tilefni af 10 ára afmæli Vögguvísna hafa Hafdís og Alisdair gefið út 5 nýjar vísur og Hafdís Huld kom í þáttinn og sagði okkur frá þeim og þessu mikla ævintýri sem velgengni plötunnar er. Tónlist í þættinum í. dag: Ættin mín / Ragnar Bjarnason og Bjarni Arason (Bjarni Hafþór Helgason) María Ísabel / Helena Eyjólfsdóttir og Hljómsveit Ingimars Eydal (J. Moreno, L. Moreno og Ásta Sigurðardóttir) Litla skott / Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir (Hafdís Huld og Alisdair Wright) UMSJÓN: GUNNAR HANSSON

Fyrsti sérfræðingur Mannlega þáttarins í þetta sinn var Jenný Ýr Jóhannsdóttir deildarstjóri hjá Lífeyrissjóði Verslunarmanna. Lífeyrismál snerta okkur öll, en ekki er víst að við vitum öll nógu mikið um þau, enda getur margt verið flókið hvað þeim viðkemur. Við gáfum hlustendum tækifæri að nýta sér sérfræðing í lífeyrismálum og fengum sendar talsvert margar spurningar sem Jenný Ýr gerði sitt besta til að svara í þættinum. Spurningarnar frá hlustendum voru m.a. tengdar skattamálum og lífeyri, erfðamál og lífeyri, viðbótarlífeyrissparnaði, tilgreindri séreign, mismunandi nýtingaleiðir og fleira og fleira. Árið 2012 sendi tónlistarkonan Hafdís Huld frá sér plötuna Vögguvísur. Plötuna vann hún með eiginmanni sínum Alisdair Wright en hugmyndin að verkefninu kviknaði þegar þau áttu von á sínu fyrsta barni. Vögguvísur fékk strax góðar móttökur hjá börnum og foreldrum og nú, 10 árum síðar, hefur þessi hugljúfa plata náð tvöfaldri platínusölu og er orðin mest streymda íslenska platan á streymisveitum á hér á landi.Í tilefni af 10 ára afmæli Vögguvísna hafa Hafdís og Alisdair gefið út 5 nýjar vísur og Hafdís Huld kom í þáttinn og sagði okkur frá þeim og þessu mikla ævintýri sem velgengni plötunnar er. Tónlist í þættinum í. dag: Ættin mín / Ragnar Bjarnason og Bjarni Arason (Bjarni Hafþór Helgason) María Ísabel / Helena Eyjólfsdóttir og Hljómsveit Ingimars Eydal (J. Moreno, L. Moreno og Ásta Sigurðardóttir) Litla skott / Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir (Hafdís Huld og Alisdair Wright) UMSJÓN: GUNNAR HANSSON

Fyrsti sérfræðingur Mannlega þáttarins í þetta sinn var Jenný Ýr Jóhannsdóttir deildarstjóri hjá Lífeyrissjóði Verslunarmanna. Lífeyrismál snerta okkur öll, en ekki er víst að við vitum öll nógu mikið um þau, enda getur margt verið flókið hvað þeim viðkemur. Við gáfum hlustendum tækifæri að nýta sér sérfræðing í lífeyrismálum og fengum sendar talsvert margar spurningar sem Jenný Ýr gerði sitt besta til að svara í þættinum. Spurningarnar frá hlustendum voru m.a. tengdar skattamálum og lífeyri, erfðamál og lífeyri, viðbótarlífeyrissparnaði, tilgreindri séreign, mismunandi nýtingaleiðir og fleira og fleira. Árið 2012 sendi tónlistarkonan Hafdís Huld frá sér plötuna Vögguvísur. Plötuna vann hún með eiginmanni sínum Alisdair Wright en hugmyndin að verkefninu kviknaði þegar þau áttu von á sínu fyrsta barni. Vögguvísur fékk strax góðar móttökur hjá börnum og foreldrum og nú, 10 árum síðar, hefur þessi hugljúfa plata náð tvöfaldri platínusölu og er orðin mest streymda íslenska platan á streymisveitum á hér á landi.Í tilefni af 10 ára afmæli Vögguvísna hafa Hafdís og Alisdair gefið út 5 nýjar vísur og Hafdís Huld kom í þáttinn og sagði okkur frá þeim og þessu mikla ævintýri sem velgengni plötunnar er. Tónlist í þættinum í. dag: Ættin mín / Ragnar Bjarnason og Bjarni Arason (Bjarni Hafþór Helgason) María Ísabel / Helena Eyjólfsdóttir og Hljómsveit Ingimars Eydal (J. Moreno, L. Moreno og Ásta Sigurðardóttir) Litla skott / Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir (Hafdís Huld og Alisdair Wright) UMSJÓN: GUNNAR HANSSON

Patreon hlekkur: https://www.patreon.com/eiginkonur Barnsfaðir Freyju hlaut tveggja mánaða skilorðsbundið fangelsi í Maí 2020, fyrir tilraun til kynferðislegrar áreitni gegn barni í rituðum samskiptum á Skype. Í Desember 2021 var hann síðan sakaður um að hafa átt samskipti við 14 ára stúlku í gegnum samfélagsmiðla. Hann hafi sótt hana í heimhúsi og frelsisvipt stúlkuna í þrjá klukkutstundir þar sem hann meðal annars nauðgaði henni. Freyja var sjálf þolandi sem barn og segir mál barnsföður síns vera erfitt fyrir sig og börnin. Freyja lýsir því í þættinum þegar tálbeitan hringir í hana um nóttina og sendir henni mynböndin og samtölin milli barnsföður hennar og það sem átti að vera 13 ára stelpa. “Mér leið skelfilega því mér fannst hann hafa svikið mig með því að vera inná einkamál og svo var hann þarna að tala við einhvern sem hann hélt að væri 13 ára gömul stúlka” segir Freyja í þættinum. “Ég tók þessu bara þannig að […] Þetta er rétt eftir að ég slasast og ég er ekki búin að vera nóg” segir hún. Freyja og barnsfaðir hennar slitu sambandinu eftir fyrsta brotið en héldu þau áfram að búa saman. “Auðvitað þykir mér vænt um þennan mann, hann gaf mér barnið mitt og ég hef ekkert val. Ég Þarf að vera í samskiptum við þennan mann, sama hvað hann gerði” segir Freyja. Hún gagnrýnir kerfið og segir barnavernd ekki hafa haft samband við hana eftir að barnsfaðir hennar fékk dóm fyrir að brjóta á barni. Er eðlilegt að maður sem sakaður er um brot gegn barni umgangist börnin sín? Hvernig á að miðla upplýsingum til barna hans?

Alex Elliott is joined this week by Eva Marín Hlynsdóttir, Professor in Public Policy and Governance at the University of Iceland. Topics of discussion this week include: changing the refugee reception system, the importance of planning for new volcanoes, bringing people to North Iceland, and bringing elections closer to New Icelanders. Today's closing song is Lóan er komin, sung by Hafdís Huld.

Alex Elliott is joined this week by Eva Marín Hlynsdóttir, Professor in Public Policy and Governance at the University of Iceland. Topics of discussion this week include: changing the refugee reception system, the importance of planning for new volcanoes, bringing people to North Iceland, and bringing elections closer to New Icelanders. Today's closing song is Lóan er komin, sung by Hafdís Huld.

„Við ætlum að fella feðraveldið,“ segja Hulda Hrund og Ólöf Tara um markmið hins nýstofnaða femíníska aðgerðahóps ÖFGAR í samtali við Þorstein V. Einarsson í nýjasta hlaðvarpsþætti Karlmennskunnar. Hópurinn hefur hleypt krafti í seinni eða aðra bylgju metoo með nafnlausum frásögnum tugi kvenna af kynferðisofbeldi og áreitni þjóðþekkts tónlistarmanns. Þá sendi hópurinn frá sér yfirlýsingu, ásamt AGN (aðgerðahópur gegn nauðgunarmenningu), til þjóðhátíðarnefndar þar sem þess var krafist að Ingólfur Þórarinsson yrði afbókaður til að stýra brekkusöngnum á Þjóðhátíð í Vestmannaeyjum. Í 39. hlaðvarpsþætti Karlmennskunnar er orðræða fólks í athugasemdakerfum fréttamiðla um afbókun Ingólfs krufin, skyggnst á bakvið markmið hópsins ÖFGAR, rætt um styðjandi og mengandi kvenleika og því velt upp hvað þurfi til svo konum sem eru þolendur kynferðisofbeldis verði trúað og þær njóti stuðnings samfélagsins. Viðmælendur: f.h. Öfgar, Ólöf Tara og Hulda Hrund. Umsjón: Þorsteinn V. Einarsson Intro/outro: ON (instrumental) - Jói P. og Króli Þátturinn er í boði Macland, Veganbúðarinnar og The Body Shop.

„Við ætlum að fella feðraveldið,“ segja Hulda Hrund og Ólöf Tara um markmið hins nýstofnaða femíníska aðgerðahóps ÖFGAR í samtali við Þorstein V. Einarsson í nýjasta hlaðvarpsþætti Karlmennskunnar. Hópurinn hefur hleypt krafti í seinni eða aðra bylgju metoo með nafnlausum frásögnum tugi kvenna af kynferðisofbeldi og áreitni þjóðþekkts tónlistarmanns. Þá sendi hópurinn frá sér yfirlýsingu, ásamt AGN (aðgerðahópur gegn nauðgunarmenningu), til þjóðhátíðarnefndar þar sem þess var krafist að Ingólfur Þórarinsson yrði afbókaður til að stýra brekkusöngnum á Þjóðhátíð í Vestmannaeyjum. Í 39. hlaðvarpsþætti Karlmennskunnar er orðræða fólks í athugasemdakerfum fréttamiðla um afbókun Ingólfs krufin, skyggnst á bakvið markmið hópsins ÖFGAR, rætt um styðjandi og mengandi kvenleika og því velt upp hvað þurfi til svo konum sem eru þolendur kynferðisofbeldis verði trúað og þær njóti stuðnings samfélagsins. Viðmælendur: f.h. Öfgar, Ólöf Tara og Hulda Hrund. Umsjón: Þorsteinn V. Einarsson Intro/outro: ON (instrumental) - Jói P. og Króli Þátturinn er í boði Macland, Veganbúðarinnar og The Body Shop.

Við fengum góðan gest til að tala við okkur um allt tengt húð og húðumhirðu. Jenna Huld Eysteinsdóttir, framkvæmdarstjóri Húðlæknastöðvarinnar stoppaði við og miðlaði til okkar hennar mögnuðu þekkingu á húðinni. Fastir liðir eru að sjálfssögðu á sínum stað. Þátturinn er í boði Face Halo Lancome Rapid Lash Pssst. við vorum að fá afsláttarkóða á uppáhalds matsölustaðinn okkar!

Gestir þáttarins eru þau Áslaug Hulda Jónsdóttir, bæjarfulltrúi í Garðabæ og viðskiptastjóri Pure North Recycling, Jakob Frímann Magnússson, tónlistarmaður og athafnaskáld, og Sigrún Helga Lund, tölfræðingur. Rætt var um vasklega framgöngu Sigrúnar Helgu, sem skakkaði leikinn þegar hópur manna gekk í skrokk á bjargarlausum manni í miðborginni, ákvörðum stjórnvalda að hrófla ekki við klukkunni, mistök við sýnagreiningu hjá Krabbameinsfélaginu, þrönga stöðu tónlistarfólks vegna Covid, andlega heilsu á tímum farsóttar og almennt um sóttvarnaraðgerðir. Umsjón: Bergsteinn Sigurðsson Tæknimaður: Magnús Þorsteinn Magnússon

Gestir þáttarins eru þau Áslaug Hulda Jónsdóttir, bæjarfulltrúi í Garðabæ og viðskiptastjóri Pure North Recycling, Jakob Frímann Magnússson, tónlistarmaður og athafnaskáld, og Sigrún Helga Lund, tölfræðingur. Rætt var um vasklega framgöngu Sigrúnar Helgu, sem skakkaði leikinn þegar hópur manna gekk í skrokk á bjargarlausum manni í miðborginni, ákvörðum stjórnvalda að hrófla ekki við klukkunni, mistök við sýnagreiningu hjá Krabbameinsfélaginu, þrönga stöðu tónlistarfólks vegna Covid, andlega heilsu á tímum farsóttar og almennt um sóttvarnaraðgerðir. Umsjón: Bergsteinn Sigurðsson Tæknimaður: Magnús Þorsteinn Magnússon

Palle Huld er kontorelev i København. Da Politiken i 1928 udskriver en konkurrence om at rejse alene verden rundt på tid, melder han sig. Snart vinker han farvel til bl.a. sin mor, som har taget sovepiller af nervøsitet over Palles rejse, og sætter ud mod bl.a. Canada, Japan, Korea og Sovjetunionen. Som den yngste danske opdagelsesrejsende nogensinde!Vært: Bjørn Harvig, eventyrer.Medvirkende: Alex Frank Larsen, journalist og forfatter.Produceret af Juhl & Brunse for 24syv og Vores Tid.