Legend of the Jumi Prologue
The Legend of the Jumi
By The Mana Priestess
The young girl folded the corners of her apron away from her lap as she seated herself in a corner of a room in the back of the house, revealing the object she carried in her hands. She curled up inside the shadowy corner and slowly pried the object open with her small hands. It was a great, heavy tome, its dulled bronze edges fastened by a metal clasp. The girl opened the clasp and carefully flipped through the tome's pages. The old, brittle sheets of paper made a faint rustling noise as she rolled them away one by one, and she handled them with care and gentleness that seemed surprising for a child so young-- for she was only eight years old.
She finally found what she had sought: a section that appeared in the middle half of the book. For a moment she paused, thrilled at the beautifully decorated margins of the page, which consisted of delicately-tainted, fragile-looking paintings. Her eyes finally sought the words inscribed on the pages, and her lips murmured them over as she begun to read the ornately-curled writings:
"Three thousand years ago, when the Faeries still walked among men, they waged war on the humans because they sought to protect the world from the human greed for power. And because human mages were extremely powerful, the Faeries called higher beings to their aid. Seven angels answered their prayers, descending from the heavens and walking among the humans and Faeries in their own forms.
"One of the angels chose to walk among the people of the Jumi. This angel revealed to the Jumi the secret of tapping into their secret healing powers, embedded in their life-gems, and taught them to heal not only their own wounds, but those of others. The Jumi thus discovered the power of their healing tears, and were revered by humans and Faeries alike as the sacred saviours of life."
"But humans, discovering that the healing powers of the Jumi stemmed from their gems, begun to hunt them down for them. Because the life-gems allowed the Jumi to live a life span of several hundred of years, the humans believed that the gems will give them longer life spans.
"The Jumi's healing tears, that they used for the benefit of all living creatures, dried up as a result. They could no longer cry, and their life-span became shorter. Ever since them very few of the Jumi had been gifted with healing powers, and they use it exclusively for the benefits of their own race, and bestowed it upon no other creature. They shut themselves up inside their City of Jewels, surrounding it with strong magical barriers, and refused to have anything with the outside world. Thus the Jumi had been sealed inside their city for a thousand years, and even today their population is small, and they face the threat of extinction."
"The angel who has helped the Jumi to uncover their healing powers has vanished after the war with the Faeries was over. It is said that the other six angels has returned to Paradise, but that this angel still lives in a spirit form in the world. The Jumi believe that one day it will return and will heal the hearts of the Jumi, so they will be taught to cry again."
"The Legend of the Jumi Angel."
The girl paused in her reading. She looked down at her own shirt, then she pried the strings open with her fingers. A faint glow inside the shadows revealed the gem embedded in the upper part of her chest. The little girl knew that her father had one just like it; but her mother did not.
And she had never seen the Jewelled City of the Jumi in her life.
.