Gemwright

I walk out of the Garden with a confident grin on my face.

If I'm being honest, physically it wasn't my favorite lay, but baby-making sex is amazingly satisfying. Ba'kei was pretty rough, and for the first time in my life, I came in the cowgirl position.

Today it... won't rain, so I head over to the pot for lunch. One of the Coral Trees is working the pot. I grab a bowl, and she ladles some stew into it when I hold it up. "Thank you for the meat, Grey," she says, and I find a seat.

I'm just digging in when Bor'wa sees me. She runs up.

I smile at her. "Hello Bor'wa. Before dinner, I'm planning to make more birds. You're invited to help if you want."

She jumps, arms raised. "Alright! I'll definitely be there!"

I note the table, it's empty at present. "I understand. Have you had lunch yet?"

She runs off to grab stew of her own. I take a bite of mine. The stew is low salt as always, but Sea God meat is still fantastic even so.

I access Sentral's Zone and find Ringara. She likes to watch birds get made, though I really don't understand why. I find her quickly.

¬hello Ringara# join me for stew£ Bor'wa is here and the topic of discussion is more birds)¬

¬oh# I'll be there in a moment then=)¬

I'm not kept waiting long before Ringara joins me, stew in hand. She leads the charge. "More birds? I want to be there please!"

I laugh. "You will, then. When are you off work?"

She nods. "I'll walk out if I have to, but the real answer is about two or three hours."

Me, "Will you pick up Bor'wa on your way over? I should be able to reach her with telepathy. Or you can, I suppose."

Bor'wa, "All the kids' chores today are in the village unless we're with an adult. Can't defend ourselves from kurs properly yet they say. Although! You're protecting us for a while, so it doesn't matter!"

I smile. "Only the village and the area around my camp. If you go too far, I won't notice the kurs and they'll still get you."

She looks behind me, and I glance behind me. It's the chief.

Me, "Hello, chief A'yado. What brings you along?"

He sits down, with his own bowl of stew and a large handful of the sort-of-carrots. "Hello, Grey." He sets down his meal. "I want to discuss the Sea God skull, and the shrine you mentioned while you were drunk."

Hmm, alright. "What do you have in mind?"

He looks at me. "You are of course free to do as you wish with your trophy, but I believe it would be best to combine the skull and the shrine, on the outskirts of the village. We'll clear a few trees to make room for it. Perhaps you could use Topaz or other gemstones to display your style, but we would like to provide other decorations to make it our own, as Coral Trees."

Me, "Sounds good to me. I'll probably use almost entirely Topaz for the gemwork, then. I need a small area inside to hold one of my scrolls, so I can come back as needed. If my Topaz experiments work as intended, I'll be able to contact the Coral Trees by telepathy as needed through the shrine, too. But that remains to be seen."

A'yado, "That sounds ideal. Is there anything we can do to aid your knowledge?"

Me, "I don't think so. I will be borrowing Bor'wa this afternoon though, as she seems to have some special power that is similar to mine."

A'yado nods. "Bor'la mentioned to me that you would be bringing her daughter on your journey. If you haven't been told, you are not expected to participate in day to day labor. It seems that if we leave you to your own devices, you enrich our lives in other ways." He laughs. "It's been a long time since we had stew with this much meat. Do you know why they are serving so much?"

Hmmm? "I don't. Why?"

A'yado, "It is because the meat will go bad before we can eat it. We can only store it for so long before rot sets in. So, we will eat more than we need to survive. It is a luxury."

Me, "Glad it worked out then. I'm not sure how often I'll hunt Sea Gods, but if the tribe's ever, I don't know, starving somehow, let me know and I'll kill another one."

He grins. "You have our gratitude. There is one other thing. About the shrine. Topaz will change colors, deepening to brown, if left exposed to the sky. This is something we teach to children. But it seems this Topaz only exists on our lands, so I wanted to ensure you knew."

Huh. Does it? ....Do any of my other gems do this? "Thanks A'yado, I'll keep that in mind." Hmm.... well, that's not actionable right now. Besides, all of my gems are covered in Jet. I look at my rings, the oldest gemwrought objects, and... they seem fine. Scratched up though, I should probably coat them in Diamond like I did for Ban'yun's choker. Later. "I'll move the trophy over once the trees are felled. Not sure when. To be honest it's a low priority for me until I get my work with Topaz finished."

He nods, and we both finish our meals. Sea God meat is still delicious.

I'm close to finishing my meal when he asks something. "Grey, what would you do if I asked you to slay every kurs on the island? Could you do it?"

Hah. "Could I? Yes. It'd take a few days, but it wouldn't be hard to do. I would refuse to do so, however."

He looks disheartened. "I would like to know why, if you don't mind."

Me, "Too great a chance of ecological collapse. Say that the deer population is kept in check by being eaten by the kurs. What happens to the deer when no kurs are left?"

A'yado, "They increase in number."

Me, "And continue to increase, eating more and more grass, until you have tens of thousands of deer on the island all searching for the last blade of grass, but there's no grass left. With nothing left to eat, all the deer die of starvation. You might say, 'well, the humans will feed on the deer.' Perhaps they will, but deer life cycles are much faster than humans. Perhaps you do, perhaps you don't. There could be other problems as well."

A'yado considers for a while. "I am... upset, that I cannot refute your point. The damage would be irreversible, if there was a factor I had not considered."

He stands up, meal unfinished, and walks away. One of the children comes by and cleans up after him. I shrug, and continue eating.

Rin, "Did you notice? He was crying when he stood up. Does he have something personal against kurs?"

Bor'wa, "It's common knowledge among the tribe, but all of his sons died to kurs.

Some whisper

that it's because he is a kurs-slayer himself, they came to

take revenge

. My father says it's just bad luck."

I see. "I guess he was really hoping I'd say yes. It's too much of a risk though."

Rin shrugs, and continues eating. I finish my meal and stand up. "I'll see you two later today?"

They wave, and say farewell. I assume they'll finish their meal and go back to work.

I return to the encampment and resume work on the barracks. On the way back, I think about work.. Ah, right, I needed a measurement of my bed, to use as a reference for the barracks beds. Where'd I put that measuring...

- - -

Done, I think.

Minus the lockboxes of course, but whatever. Bed spaces installed, water closet finished. I had decided on doubles of both, extending the front, so two people can shower or poo at once. There are doors on bedrooms, too. I might make an effort to put in name plates in the future, but for now I want to get back to Topaz.

I manage to spin up another perfect sphere in only ten minutes, trying my hardest to recall my state of mind when I did it the first time. I'm going for another when Bor'wa and Rin appear. Whoops.

I hastily order Sentral out along with all of my loose Sapphire. A pile forms in front of me, much of it uncleaned rough. How...? Maybe this morning's haul? Well well. We can make quite a bit then. As Rin and Bor'wa sit near me, I bring over the rest of the crate. Jet,

more

Ruby, Jade (meh..), and Amethyst. I bat off the rocks from the Jet and shape it into a rough ball. The rest I put aside, I don't need it for today's golems.

Me, "Good afternoon. I'm shooting for 27 birds this time, to bring me up to fifty. We've only got... Geez what the hell? Three spare birds. How fast does that guy move? So I need to make more birds fast to keep Wed covered."

Actually, now would be a good time to test how the telepathic relay works across dozens of jumps. ¬Sentral establish contact with Wed)¬

I feel the connection open. ¬hello Grey)¬

¬hey Wed# just making sure this works at long range# carry on)¬

He closes the connection, and I connect with Bor'wa and Rin instead. With only three birds between us, I put on my blindfold and get started.

Bird twenty four starts as Sapphire, but I draw some Jet from the ball, shape it into the body, Jet covering the wings and back. I pull some Emerald from Sentral, it becomes the wings. Rhodonite the talons. Eyes... Good. I etch 24 into the back.

Me, "Bor'wa, what do you want your personal bird to look like?"

Bor'wa, "I want it to be huge! Big enough to carry me!"

I laugh. "Another time perhaps. Think smaller."

Bor'wa, "Red bird then! A small one so it can maneuver fast."

Hmm, alright. It won't be hollow then. I put the usual suspects in minus Diamond, then cover it with Ruby. I cover it all with a thin layer of jet, then Ruby on top. Jet eyes to see with. "Try this."

She looks at it, then suddenly it perks up, then lifts off. It does maneuver fast. It... Maneuvers too fast. Ah, she must have found out about its Telekinesis. "Be stingy with the Telekinesis, it-" the bird falls lifelessly to the ground. "It uses a lot of mana compared to flying normally."

I use my own telekinesis bring it over to me. I press it against another bird, demand a power exchange, and the new 24.5 is partially recharged. I have it fly over to Bor'wa. You can play with it later okay? Okay. Twenty four point five isn't a real Numbered Entry... Let's call it Twenty Four Tactics. Twenty five though, that's a real one, mine in a manner of speaking, though I have a feeling Thousand-Eyes will end up flying it more than I do. But that's okay, it's her job, or will be when we depart. Now? How about after Wed gets back. I toss twenty five at Ringara and begin on 26. Sentral won't miss some more Emerald right? Hmm. Rin might. She's going to be sad. When it doesn't run as fast. Oh well. That's what Wed is for. Wed I need more Emerald, you're fired. Where's the nearest volcano. Hmm, where

is

the nearest volcano? Rin needs one. Let's start on 26. Hey you only want enough Sapphire to make them able to communicate Telepathically right? Aren't you using too much? Hmm... I seize 25 again. GET OVER HERE! Unfortunately I do not have a spear. I yank out a bit of Sapphire. I can still communicate with it. That's odd, I must have overestimated. I pull out more, and more, until I can't connect anymore, then I restore it. Thank you, strange voice in my head whose source is a complete mystery. You're welcome Grey. Hah. Twenty four where'd you go. No, twenty four was okay. Well alright then. I chuck twenty five at Sentral, hey, Wed needs this soon right? Don't let him get eaten by any kurs or bears or whatever. That guy's still useful. Didn't you fire him? Shush you. Twenty seven... no, 26. Sap, Eme, Rho, Jet. But no Rub..Rube..y. Someone laughs. Someone is analyzing this bird. That someone informs me this one can fly with less Emerald. So I use less. When it's done, it flies well enough, which suits me because I don't care how fast they go, if I badly need speed I'll just dump telekinesis on it. The birds only have a small amount of Rhodonite so they can fly a little at night if need be; Sentral has the lion's share because it's protecting us. Yes he is, every hour of every day. It's not Grey? No, it's Sentral, though Grey made Sentral. More birds flow together. Sentral sits at some point. Its leg is looking pretty Swiss cheese at the moment. Let's grab the rest from its arms. Forty three.. Forty four.. More and more eyes contribute their vision. One day the legend of Thousand-Eyes will be realized but today we should get to one hundred. And.. fifty. Yeah I think that's all I want.

I sit up a bit straighter, and pocket my blindfold. A dozen birds fly gracefully away from my arms. Whew. "Good. So I

can

craft birds while maintaining my sanity. I'm glad to know that." A dozen or so birds fly off of Rin and Bor'wa, who then look at me confusedly, then at each other.

Bor'wa, "He did go crazy though, didn't he?"

Rin, "Yes, he did."

Hmm. I thought I'd stayed sane that time. Well, whatever. I need to fix up Sentral, it has holes in its appendages. I smooth them out.

Rin, "At any rate, thanks for letting me participate. I should get going. See you later Grey."

Hmm, unexpected. But maybe she has something important going on. Or maybe she's just making use of this 6 day vacation from me.

Bor'wa stares. "Why did you call me Thousand'Eyes?"

Hmm. "It's a playful title. I plan to eventually have you looking through thousands of gem eyes, and I think the name has a handsome, dangerous vibe to it. 'No matter where you run or hide, it's futile. Thousand-Eyes is watching you.' That kind of feeling."

Bor'wa, "Whoa. I'm dangerous! And handsome!" She takes control of the birds that are still here. They fly in a pattern, then scatter through the forest. A few of them hit trees though. "Oops..."

I laugh. "Bring them back to Sentral's box at night okay? You can keep the red one."

She smiles, closes her eyes, puts the red bird on her head, and runs off. "Let's go, Tac'tix!"... Wait, what? She leaves the clearing.

I consider warning her not to go too far, but settle for adding her to the Protected Persons List instead.

Despite myself, I feel a little lonely. I also feel like a fool; I'm spending the week impregnating six different brown beauties. But aside from perhaps the one, none of them love me.

I resolve to spend a lot of time making love with my three girls after I leave the island.

I shake my head. Let's work on slicing Topaz in half, after I make a few more spheres. I sit down in the rain, banish Sentral to its box again, and bring over the new Topaz. More raws have shown up, so I purify them first.

I think I've gotten the knack for perfect, or sufficiently perfect, spheres. There's probably a simpler way I just haven't thought of, but the way that works is to spin it while applying a maximum amount of 'fluidity' to the gem. This gets rid of impurities and internal flaws. After that, I slow the spin, then vary the fluidity while applying telekinesis to the outer edge. Some Topaz shavings come off, but the result is sometimes a perfect sphere. Good.

With two backup spheres in case I ever need a reference, I take the third and try to separate it in half. Two halves fall apart into my hand. Feeling the plane of separation is easy, I'm pretty sure I made a perfect slice, but my ability doesn't recognize it, so I assume the angle was off.

I fuse the two halves together, but of course it's not that easy. I push a bit, but no luck, so I roll my eyes and perform the sphere-ing process from the post-impurities phase. After a few tries, it's a sphere again.

Gods, I'm so glad it's doable now. These damn spheres have been so frustrating.

I take another stab at it, and it comes apart perfectly. Hmm.

Wait.

What?

I apply some mana to it, and an opening identical to Gate appears on its surface. A giddy feeling swells in my stomach, but I press it back for the moment. The portal is small, because the sphere was small, so I pinch off some Topaz from my stock into a very thin rod, then push it through one end. It comes out the other.

Me, "YEEEESSSSSSS!" It works! Fuck yeah! Shit, what do I do first?!

Um. Um. I run over to Sentral's box, and embed one half, portal side facing me. Oh my. The drain on my mana is gone. Wow, it's almost half gone, geez. Topaz is mana hungry. Now, Sentral's box is handling it. And, uh, bird. I grab the gems and hastily toss one together, with the other half of the Topaz embedded. I think about it, then include extra Emerald and some Ruby as well. This bird will be going to

space

!

Half a dozen birds are in the air around me, watching. ¬what are you doing£)¬ Oh, I guess I never disconnected. Rin seems to have left the telepathy, I didn't notice.

¬the experiments were a success= maybe= I'm going to have this bird fly up and up and up until it reaches outer space=)¬

She doesn't say anything for a little bit, which is fine. Soon she walks into the clearing. "What's outer space?"

Me, "Somewhere so high up, you can't breathe because there's no air. Kind of like being underwater, but you can't move yourself. Humans die pretty quickly."

Bor'wa, "Why do you want to go there?"

Me, "Because nobody but me can go there, so it's a safe space to store all my stuff! Also, the sun will shine directly on it at all times, and I can spread out as much as necessary, so I should be able to keep my golems powered no matter where I am and almost no matter what time of day it is."

Bor'wa, "What's the sun?"

I drop the damn bird. .... I crouch down and pick it back up. "It's the thing that makes it night or day. You can't see it on this island due to the mist." Hmmm... "For now, just understand that if I can get to outer space, I think I can keep my golems powered better. Hopefully."

Bor'wa, "Oh."

The bird is completed in short order. I crouch down and we both inspect it. Nothing looks wrong. I've opted to put the Topaz completely inside of the bird. I don't want it getting nicked and for the portal to go out. I establish a connection, and toss it into the air.

I keep an eye on Sentral's reserves. No change...? Oh. I fuse his foot to the floor of his box. There it is, the mana evened out but is on its way back to 95%. Hmm. For now, I cancel the Topaz harvesting order.

Maintaining the portal is apparently fairly cheap, in terms of Sentral's reserves and regen. I wonder if that will hold true with distance. ...Wait, really? Now

that

I didn't expect. Sentral and the box are now one golem, as expected, but so is the bird. Well, that solves one issue. The space bird will continue to share energy with the box on the ground, and Sentral. When I put my hand on the box.. Yes, my gem sense feels the bird, and I can modify it as needed. I take a peek through its eyes... all mist, guess that makes sense. I access Sentral's Zon-

..

Ahhgg

!

What

..

I'm immediately brought to my knees by disorientation and nausea. It's.. hard to process any thoughts. My mind is a canvas, and confusion is paint thrown at it. I can't form the concept.. properly.. §¢¢¢¢, fuck, §§§§§... This is torture. I send out a desperate thought ¬cease all connections=)¬ Sentral disconnects from me. Ohhhh, haaahh, damn... The torment passes.

I stagger out of the cart, and throw up on the ground. Fuck me... I heave again. A short while later, I'm resting against the cart.

That was so much worse than when I had equipped my Zone ring outside of Sentral's Zone, then accessed it. Similar feeling, though. I can handle Zones of any size so far, but when they're disconnected like that, my brain just can't.. deal with it? A detached part of my brain wonders if it was worse because of the increased overall Zone size from last time, or that the disconnected area was larger.

Bor'wa, "Are you okay? What's wrong? The bird was falling. I stopped it, but Sentral won't let me open your Topaz."

I need a moment. I push a thought, nope, I connect, she accepts, ¬I can't deal with Zone in two locations# I forgot that Topaz would do this# I'll be up in a little while)¬

I reconnect to Sentral, but carefully stay away... no, it should be fine. I access Zone. Nothing unusual. I'm acutely aware of my sick puddled on the ground, so I cancel my Zone access, and instead reopen the Topaz. The bird is now floating midair, not falling. I order it to continue ascending. It's hard to tell if it actually is or not, but Sentral seems to be managing it somehow. I'm curious what it looks like above the mist.