"Amazing," Ariel said, quite glad that the less pleasant aspect of their stay had moved on from the conversation, "I wish I could have seen it. Well, under better circumstances, maybe."

When Ariel was asked about Juseich and her elusive jewel, she had trouble remembering what Meesei was talking about. "What?...Oh! The jewel! Yes, um...let's see, " Ariel looked up and tapped her chin, trying to recall anything to do with it, "I haven't heard anything from Juseich since we obtained the deed, but I do hear about political rumours every now and then. Apparently, Juseich's jewel has not only caught a lot more liars recently, but I've heard that she has also become much more prominent in court for her uncanny investigative abilities. Some people are saying that she's paid a ghost to spy for her, but I think she might be using the jewel to - well, such magic has never been so reliable for centuries at least - but I suspect she's adapted it for scrying. As for the lie detection, I think some illusion magic has helped her to tune it to some aspects of people's thoughts, but only for lying, as far as I know." Ariel took a deep breath and shrugged, "I'm not sure whether it's a good thing or a bad thing at this stage, but she is a wise enough leader. I only hope that the stone's secrets don't fall into the wrong hands." Ariel's brow lowered, "Actually, there was one more detail. Allegedly, Juseich is also using all of her spare time constantly weaving magic with it, always muttering about trying to find the Psijic Order itself. Perhaps it would have been easier [i]before[/i] their island disappeared."

Janius and Sabine sat with rather blank expressions. Neither of them really had the context of what Ariel was saying, and even some of the terminology was lost on Sabine. Janius leaned an arm on one knee and hazarded a question, "Pardon, who's Juseich, and what is this jewel you speak of?"

Fendros was amusing Rhazii by playing with his hands in an effort to distract himself from hateful brooding. He wasn't really paying attention.

Ariel turned to Janius, "Juseich was one of the officials that interviewed me when I obtained the deed to my shop. She showed us an artifact from the Psijic order that had been with her family for centuries. She was using it as a fake lie detector, but let us have a look at it afterwards. It turned out to be more than it seemed."