Gemwright Ch 09

[Day 17 | Day 5 of traveling to Port Juhatara]

The day starts off a bit different. Hanamaya is staring at me as I wake up, but her expression is askew. Her lips already press against mine. ¬I'm sorry# I really want a kiss# please£¬ her tongue rolls across my lips.

I open my mouth to accept her. ¬come here)¬

Her tongue slowly pours in. No urgency, just intimacy. Her tongue wraps around mine the way we both love so much. Her head is still laying on my arm, so I reposition my free one to pull her body against mine, then slowly rub her back. She puts her hand on my cheek and stares into my eyes. She seems to want a wordless kiss, so I keep silent.

I feel it build up inside her. Her body begins to arch, and her eyes take on a loose expression. I grip her tighter. I feel, more than I hear, her moan. She tenses... and relaxes. I feel her return, and loosen my grip. Her tongue falls out of my mouth and into a pile on the bed between us.

Me, "Good morning, Hanamaya." I kiss her lips. I enjoy the feel of her tongue returning to her mouth, brushing along mine.

¬good morning Grey# thank you for that¬

I prop myself up, take her hand in mine, and use it to push her onto her back. Hanamaya's naked chest, supple and defenseless, arouses me. I go in for another kiss. ¬I can give you more)¬

I feel her be tempted, and consider giving in. Instead, she disconnects. "Thank you, but you have other plans today, don't you?" She narrows her eyes and smiles. "You want to suck on Rin's rose some more, and play with her big rear end." Ah, I do, but... "You want her to scream like she's dying, and feel her quiver in orgasm under your tongue." Hmmm, yes, I really, really do-

She takes advantage of my distraction to push me off her. She stands up and looks back at me with a bright smile.

Hana, "We'll arrive at town today pretty late, according to Wed. Take me and Rin out to a fancy dinner tomorrow, okay?" She puts her clothes on, and leaves the front door before I can agree. That girl, what force of nature. I take a shower, and get dressed myself, and leave.

I check in with Sentral. The birds are in place, and the scroll is still with the lead bird. Good. I flag down Fre. "What's the status this morning? Are we good to Gate, or are people getting ready?"

Fre, "Everyone will be ready soon. A few people are still waking up."

Guess I have a few minutes. I get the carts in order for the usual path through. I double check the other side again... Good, nobody in sight in either direction.

I hear a shout behind me. Wed is standing over somebody in their sleeping bag, holding a water stone. Guess that's the punishment for oversleeping when you're working for Wed. As someone who likes to sleep in, I pity them for their harsh working conditions, haha.

Soon, everyone is up. Sentral opens up the scroll on both ends, and activates it with a touch.

The journey through is routine. Still nobody on the other side. The sun seems a bit brighter, but it might be my imagination. I summon the sunglasses, and when they arrive, I put them on.

Rin gives me a strange look. "What is that?"

Me, "Sunglasses! Dims the incoming light. And it surely makes me look much more attractive. Right?"

Rin, "They just look weird. I think I see what you're going for, but they're bulky and rocky and ugly. Take them off."

Aww. Okay. She is right though, this is half-assed. Let's slim it down, remove the roughness. It's a fun project for the morning. Rin watches me work and makes a few suggestions for the shape. Eventually she asks to hold it. I hand it over, and she puts it on her face. It mostly fits her, since I used my own head to size it. "How do you like it?"

Rin, "Everything's a little darker... I don't have to squint because of the sun either. This is kind of nice."

Me, "You can use them until we get to town. I want them for my arrogant persona."

Rin, "Your arrogant persona?"

Me, "Ah, you've never seen it? It's a bit embarrassing. I once acted arrogantly for a jeweler I was working alongside, and I was absolutely insufferable, insulting him and his work every chance I got. His reactions were too funny though. Wed saw through my act, though. He suggested I behave this way in town, so that people will accept that I'm a strange golemist, and try to avoid me instead of investigating me."

Rin, "Yeah, I can imagine you doing that..."

Me, "So rude! Anyway, is there anything you wanted to do in Port?"

Rin, "Yes! I want to try fish, all of the fish! I almost never got to try them growing up, and they're so good! Also, I want new clothes. For myself, but also

for you

. We're going to go shopping and you will have better clothes which befit your station. Some of your pants have holes, that's not okay. You can do better than that. I will see to it. Tomorrow morning at first bell, okay?"

I look down at my clothes. They're serviceable, for sure, but almost all of them are what the dead merchants had packed up. I accept this. "Yes, I'd like that. Let's go shopping tomorrow."

She keeps the stern look for only a moment, and then beams at me. "I'm glad to hear that. You represent Sentral after all, probably the mightiest being on this world. You should have clothes to put royalty to shame, but I understand we will remain in hiding for now."

I laugh. "I built that hunk of rocks! It doesn't care what I wear!"

Rin gives me a

look

. Then she goes over to Sentral's box, folds her hands, and touches it. It looks like of silly, since she's still walking, but whatever. Suddenly she straightens up, and turns to me looking

incredibly

smug. Jogging up to me, she intones, "Sentral would like a word~ with you!"

I raise my eyebrow, and then connect to Sentral. ¬please wear better clothes)¬

¬are you saying this because Ringara asked you to£¬

¬yes)¬

I smile. If it's just Rin playing around, I'll allow it. I disconnect. "I guess I have no choice. The great and powerful Sentral has decreed it. Tomorrow, I promise."

She smiles. "I'm glad. You do so much, I would love it if others could also see how great you are."

I reach my arm around her side and pull her in for a half hug. I lean against her, and she leans back.

Rin, "You know, my legs are feeling just fine today. I've been thinking a little. How nice it was, what you did to me. It felt like I was on fire, like my veins had been encased in ice, like there was a wild energy loose inside me. And..." She looks away, blushing like crazy. "Something happened, and I think.. you'll be really happy." Oh? I'm really curious what this is.

Me, "I look forward to devouring you. I'm going to enjoy turning you into a sloppy mess tonight as well."

Rin smiles at me, and shyly says, "I can't wait."

After this morning, I feel my self-control slipping. I pat her on the side, then remove my hand from her.

Me, "I've got an idea for something to try tonight as well. But for now, I see Hanamaya on approach." I turn around, and Hana is cheerfully walking up.

Hana, "Hi guys! Hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Rin, "Not at all. How are you, Hanamaya?"

Hana beams. "I'm great." To my surprise, she hugs Rin. To Rin's surprise, too, it seems, but she recovers and hugs back. They separate, then Hana turns to me. "There's a request to speed up the march today, and for you to send birds ahead in a few hours with Gate. If we can get there early enough, we should be able to get into Port before the guards close the gates for the night! Wed also wanted to know if you'd be entering town tonight with us, but I told him you'd be busy with Rin!"

Me, "Thanks Hana. And that is the plan, yes. I'll ask Sentral to pick up the pace."

Rin looks mortified. "Everyone will know... that I'm having sex..."

Huh? Hana connects to me. ¬I think I misjudged her# this is a blunder on my part#

do not

tell her that you shared your memories of fucking her with me# I'll talk to her about this tomorrow or another time and try to get her comfortable)¬

Me, "Ah, I didn't realize you were shy about this. I'm sorry you were put in an embarrassing situation. Change of plans. We'll all go into town tonight. It's truly not a problem. Alternatively, if Hana keeps tempting me, she and I will

stay behind

, and you can get to know Wed and his crew a little better during your night out on the town."

Hana emphasized my point by hugging my stomach and laughing. "I'd love to have sex again tonight, my love!"

Rin has a complicated expression. "No... I'm being silly. They all know you bought my contract. It's not a secret. It's just embarrassing that they'll know, 'Right now, Rin is having sex.' I'm just being immature."

Me, "Just take it one step at a time. I'm confident you'll come to see sex as we do; a joyous, intimate expression of love."

Rin's blush returns full force. "You and your flowery language. How can you say that with a straight face?"

Hana answers for me, "Because it's the truth! Now, stop dallying and get Sentral going faster, or you'll have to bang Rin while everybody's still in camp."

Rin's expression comically changes. She breaks into a sprint to Sentral and makes the same praying motion. I reach out to Sentral and have him adjust the speed to something a little slower than the breakneck march she'd requested.

Hana lowers her voice, "I think you already know this, but Rin is

really loud

during sex. I asked Wed to help me test how soundproof your carts are, and the answer is 'not very'. Please don't have sex with Rin if anyone else is in camp, or they'll definitely hear her embarrassing noises that you love so much, and she'll feel betrayed. I see in your mind that you wouldn't, but please know that I'd be disappointed with you if you humiliate her like that."

Me, "I wouldn't, you're right. I appreciate you telling me that, I actually hadn't even considered sound. I'll look into a solution for that, but for now, I'll be sure to only bed her when the camp is empty. Ah, about that-"

Hana shakes her head "We're pretty quiet during sex, so don't worry. But I'm not shy. I'd be willing to have sex with you while the entire camp watched, if you wanted it. But I know you enjoy quiet intimate settings where you can focus completely on making love to me, so that's what we'll do."

Me, "That is... yeah, that's how I enjoy loving you. Anyway, if there's ever anything you want to try, please bring it up."

Rin's walking back towards us. Hana says, "There is one or two, but I'll tell you some other time." She turns to Rin. "Rin, what

is

that thing on your face?"

Rin pauses, then smiles. "Sunglasses! Try them!" Rin takes them off, blinks a few times and squints, then hands them to Hana.

Hana puts them on and gapes. "It's so shady! And my face is relaxing! Take that, sun! Hah!" She shakes her fist at the big ball of gas burning billions of miles away. It doesn't react.

Hana looks at me, pauses, then shakes her head. "Make me one! Make me one! I love it!"

I laugh. "Alright, I'll make one for all three of us. I'll need some rocks, a bit of Diamond, and a teensy bit of Jet." I requisition the needed materials from Sentral, and have the respective girl hold the materials. I turn around and put a bit of Jet in one hand, Diamond in the other. I close my hands. Turning around, I offer them to Han-, nope, I offer them to Rin. "Tap one hand. If it's Jet, you get yours first. If it's Diamond, Hana gets hers first."

Hana scowls. "How rude! I saw that, mister! I wasn't gonna cheat!"

Rin laughs despite herself, and taps a hand. I open it; Diamond. "Hana gets hers first, then." I take the smaller rock, and hew it down with telekinesis to roughly Hana's size. I gut the center and one edge, making it vaguely "U" shaped. I try to put it on her head, but it's too small. I grind out a bit more until it barely fits.

It takes dozens of more cuts to get it fitting properly over her nose and ears. At last I've got it fitting her. Then I make more cuts to make it light, and smooth, and have somewhere for lenses to go. I leave the incomplete frames on Hana's head, then take the gems from her hands and start mixing them. When I'm happy with their darkness, I flow them into the sunglasses. It seems to go well.

Hana, "Wow, it's so nice! And, if I'm not crazy, I think I can see things a little more sharply!"

...huh?

I turn to Rin and connect. "Please lend me your vision again for a few seconds." She looks confused, but accepts. I cover my eyes, and also request a blindfold from Sentral.

I see through Rin's eyes. Her sight is just as good as mine. Perhaps better.

I disconnect. "Thank you, Rin. Hana, do the same. Lend me your vision." The blindfold arrives, and I tie it over my eyes. I connect with Hana, and... Her eyesight is fairly poor. I take off her sunglasses; it's even worse now.

I put the sunglasses back on Hana's face, and she speaks. "You're kidding...

you can do that

?!"

I guess she looked in my mind. "I'm not sure. But I want to try!"

I touch her lenses, extract all of the Jet, and try to reshape them. It's... harder than expected. I shift their shape this way and that, paying attention to her sight to see if it brings things into focus, or just blurs them further. When something blurs, I try to do the opposite motion, but my control doesn't quite work that way, and it sometimes just gets worse. But after messing around with them for five minutes, I've got her no-longer-sun-glasses to a state where her vision is roughly comparable to ours. Hana had done... something... to force herself to not cry, since the tears blurred her vision even more. But after I finished, she released whatever noose she had held, and it all gushed forth. She collapses to a sitting position. "It's so much clearer. I can see things so much more clearly now. It's crisp, no blurring for anything too far or too close. This is wonderful..."

Rin, for her part, is confused, so I explain. "Hana's eyesight isn't as sharp as ours. I can't really explain why, but some people are like that. I changed her sunglasses to alter the angle at which light enters her eyes, so that she can see without blurred vision like we do. Sorry, I'm sure that's confusing, but I can't really explain it better than that."

I start on Rin's while Hana stares at the world with fresh eyes. "Your sunglasses will be just like mine. No alteration. Our vision is good enough. I could make small corrections, but it would be hard to notice, and I lack the skill."

This goes much the same as the first. Hana stands up and silently leaves at some point, looking around.

Finishing up Rin's sunglasses, I give them to her. She gently puts them on. Her arms go to her side, and she stands there for a few moments. "I wonder if I should be jealous I didn't just have my world-view changed

again

."

I consider telling her about my plan to make a glider some day, so she can jump from a cliff safely. Hmmm... Not yet. That's probably the best I'll be able to do. I'll let her enjoy running fast and bird dives for a while until she gets bored of it, and broach the idea of a glider then.

She turns her head to look directly at me. "What's that grin? What are you planning?"

Me, "Hahaha, nope. It's a secret, so don't worry about it!"

Rin breathes a few times. "No, that's fine, actually I don't want to know. I need a break. I'm living a life of incalculable luxury, and I still need a break. This overstimulation of my mind is going to be the death of me. Hahaha... Admit it, you're trying to kill me. You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"

Me, "I can't kill you until you finish teaching me Al Ruheiban. Want to start on today's lesson?"

Rin reconnects with me. "Yes, why not? Who wants to live forever."

- - -

I feel like I'm making some progress on the language. It's helped that, whenever I misunderstand any word or grammatical nuance, she can immediately notice it and correct me. There's no chance to learn something wrong by accident, or, at least, very little. I can sort of hold a conversation in the new language, but mostly it's on a 'I can sort of make myself understood, but that's it.'

Today is the day I'm supposed to exercise, so I ask Rin about her thoughts. "Just do it on the roof of your cart." Huh, I guess that makes sense. I don't really want to do it after sex, so might as well do it now. I grab the weights for me and Rin, and connect with Hana. ¬want to exercise£ we are thinking about doing it now since tonight will be not great for me¬

¬okay= I'll be right over=)¬

I hand one weight over to Rin, then jump up and grab the roof, hauling myself over and putting down the weight. "Can you toss that one up here?" I ask, and reach down my arm. She nods, and tosses the ~20lb weight up to me. I casually catch it and bring it up. Hopping back down, I grab the rest of them. Rin helps me bring those up top as well. When Hana shows up, I lead us through the stretches and exercises. I do go a bit easy on the squats and similar though. I went overboard with Sentral yesterday, so it wouldn't do to injure myself by overdoing it now.

We finish up, and I put the weights away. I'd

love

to have exercise mats like I used to, but the extra CON from my ring minimizes any discomfort from the Diamond-hard floor I'm working out on.

Now's probably a good time to send out the birds. They'll need flight time, and they'll also need to keep ahead of the caravan as we move. I connect with Sentral. ¬I'd like you to recharge 10 birds then send them south-west like you did last night# instead of burying the birds# keep them hovering at around the max telepathy distance so that the connections don't waver but they're as far out as they can be# if you see buildings then inform me and pull back the outermost bird)¬

¬yes)¬

I see some birds fly out of the now-open door in Sentral, and nod, trusting Sentral to deal with that work.

I look at Hana. "Rin already told me her goals, fish and getting me some new clothes. Is there anything you're excited about at Port Juhatara?"

She smiles at me. "Not really! But I'll find something! It's a big town, with merchant ships from all over the world right? There's gotta be something amazing there! Oh! And also, I'm going to snoop around and try to find out about that curse at the sea! Wouldn't it be awesome if you could dispel the curse somehow? You'd be a hero! There's the matter of finding a shaman teacher, but Wed

promised

me he'd look into it so I'll trust him. And also! I want to learn how to bake bread. I'll get an oven so I can bake it. You remember Koh? He says he will miss bread when he goes back to Kengen! I don't want to miss bread, so we will need an oven. And a lot of flour. I think that's everything!" She puts her hands in the air and smiles. Hahaha, so full of energy.

Me, "An oven... okay, yeah, let's do that. I wonder if I should make a sixth cart for general warehouse, so we can carry a ton of flour? Is flour perishable? We've just been storing stuff in our personal carts, so this might free up some space? Hmm. I should also consider a cart for Wed and his wife. Hrmm."

Rin, "I'd suggest making him one when we're ready to leave... Or, if like last time, it seems like we'll soon have to leave in a hurry. Given the.. absurd quantities of money I've seen floating around, I think everyone can easily afford lodging in an inn if they wish."

Me, "I'm assuming they'll find accommodations in town, and come out to the caravan when they need to interact with me. I'll... Need to give him a security golem, huh? So that he can get in contact with me as needed. Should I just make it a knife? Oh, maybe a die? I'll ask him later."

Rin, "So what are your plans for Port?"

Me, "Gems, food, support Wed in whatever he's doing, and see the sights. I'm not a big fish fan myself, but I want to see if they've got any fun imported, well, anything. The major goal is to see if I can find any

new

types of gems. If I can find something new, then perhaps I can expand my capabilities, either in strength, or day-to-day quality of life. To that end, I plan to visit every jeweler I can find. Uh, I'll also need a money changer, unless I can use Jensin gold here in Al Ruheibei."