* Author's note *
Hello readers! Thanks for coming this far with me, I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing this work!
I've noticed that a fair number of my readers joined in the middle without reading the earlier chapters, so I thought I'd let this chapter serve as a catch-up. Perhaps some are unclear what the difference between Emerald and Peridot are; this chapter should help everyone understand the underpinnings of the system.
To this end, I'll be using the side story primarily as a means of recapping the story so far, meaning a lot of information will be repeated.
There are no intimacy scenes in this chapter.
(side story)
Me, "Hey Rin! Keep Grey company for a bit. There's something I've been meaning to do for a while. I want to take care of it in our downtime."
Rin glances over at me with mild curiosity, "Sure thing, Hana," before turning back to my wolf. They continue talking about the hot water cart as I walk off.
My home should still be open, so I head back downstairs and find it is, in fact, not sealed. Home! My soft carpet hides the hard gemstone below it. I walk over to the shelves, then take out a small book, a pen, and some ink from the shelves. It's always a bit of trouble to fill the pen, but it's an incredible writing implement. One of the many things I can just buy, because of him. It was too luxurious to afford in the past.
My mind lingers on the obvious; as a powerful telepath, I could just
steal
stuff, and make the merchant forget they ever had it. I like to think that I'm a moral person, that I'd never do something like that. But my mind wanders back to Lake Omega. Even so far away, they'd find out, and it would end poorly for me. I sigh.. praise be to Arken, God of knowledge, overseer of Omega.
Anyway, back to this book I'm holding. I've been meaning to write down a list of Grey's powers. There's a lot of gems, and sometimes we discover new ones, so I should write them down now before I forget!
I put pen to paper. The most important detail is Sentral, a gemstone golem that Grey made. Grey fuses most of the gems he gets to Sentral, but pulls them off when he needs to use them for something else. The more gems Sentral has, the more powerful it is, but each gem has a certain power.
Hmm, before Sentral, I should write what the individual gems can do.
Purple Amethyst. Probably the most important. It makes enchanted rings, when mixed with another gem! 'Normal' magical enchantments aren't specific to a person, but they also get applied to metal.. Grey's are done with gems, and only work for the person they're made for. An enchanted ring of only Amethyst gives the wearer Zone, an extra-sensory field around oneself where you can 'see' anything. You can't read with it, but you can see rocks, buildings.. you can even see uncomfortably far down someone's throat. You can't
understand
everything, there's too much information, but when something moves in the Zone, it stands out. When Amethyst is put on a golem, it gains Zone based on how much Amethyst it has. Sentral's Zone is huge, almost a mile! Sentral is much better at monitoring Zone than we are.
I giggle as I remember one of the few moments Vai'yun lost her composure, though I only saw it in Grey's memory. She really liked Zone the first time she experienced it.
Next is clear Diamond. When used as an enchantment, it increases 'spell power'. It makes spells more powerful, and without an increase in mana used. I think it makes my telepathy stronger too, but it's hard to say. In a golem, it makes very, very bright light; enough to blind someone.
Red Ruby! That's telekinesis, both as an enchantment, and as a golem part. Grey noted that the more Ruby that goes into Sentral, the stronger its telekinesis gets. Buuuut, the mana cost is based on how forceful the telekinesis is, so the strongest application of force costs more mana as we get more Ruby. The weird part is that there doesn't seem to be any limitations to its power, besides how much Ruby we have. Compared to the telekinesis spell, which Rin says can barely lift anything at all! A heavy tome would be too much, for example.
Black Jet. There's a lot with this one. In any 'gem cluster', which seems to mean 'any gems that Grey had worked with his skill', it will convert sunlight into mana, and pass it along. Grey believes that if a gem has no mana in it, it's bad for the gem somehow, but he's never tried. Also, you can turn off the mana collection, and it instead will sense light, like an eye! I looked at Grey's thoughts earlier, and it seems that Jet can also see invisible light, like x-ray or radio. It's all a bit confusing to me, but I'll take his word for it. Lastly, enchanting with Jet makes you tougher, sturdier. With my Jet ring, it's harder to get hurt in general.
Blue Sapphire. It does not enchant, but.. how did he put it.. 'Defines a golem by being included in a gem cluster.' And the more Sapphire there is, the smarter the golem is, like Sentral! However, Grey believes there are other factors as well. Either way, once a certain amount of Sapphire is in a golem, it becomes capable of telepathy.
Grey recently started purifying his gems, to make them perfect according to his gemsense, and Sapphire turned out to give emotion to Sentral. That was terrifying. He experiences time at a
much
faster pace than humans do, and when his emotions crashed into a black negativity because of that. I realized that if he lashed out, I wouldn't be able to protect us. Nobody was hurt though. Grey is careful to 'pollute' Sapphire a little before making golems with it.
Green Emerald is easy. Strength! Just like traditionally enchanted strength items, they also help you build muscle while exercising. Grey got frustrated when he heard that, saying 'it shouldn't work that way, it's making exercise easier,' but he still wears it. His chest and arms are getting broader and firmer, so I'm glad I suggested it.. Ah. Anyway.
Lime-green Peridot is simple, too. Agility and reaction times. It's unclear if reaction times apply to golems. As for me, my Peridot ring doesn't change my perception of time, but my sense of balance is incredible when I wear it. It seems strange to me that my thoughts don't speed up along with my reaction times, but Grey doesn't seem to think that is a contradiction.
Pink Rhodonite grants mana capacity. The mana in a ring fades if you take it off though, so you can't really use it as mana storage; you have to keep it on and refill it with your normal regeneration. Grey puts some on most of his golems, so they can move around at night.
Orange Topaz! A lot of good memories from Topaz Island, as Grey refers to it, as it's the only place where Topaz seems to be. The natives were wonderful. And riding along Grey's mind when he laid with them... I wipe my mouth with my sleeve, and collect myself.
Topaz
, when crafted into a near-perfect sphere and sliced in half, can open a portal between its two halves. The smallest the portal can be is about half an inch in diameter. Grey tells me that, if both hemispheres are parts of different golems, both become the same golem while the portal is open.
We don't know what Topaz enchants for. When Rin tried to ask, Grey behaved strangely, forgetting that she'd asked. We talked about it away from Grey, and decided that maybe Drothur doesn't want him to use it yet, so we haven't brought it up again.
Yellow Spinel, a curious one. 'Bio-integration' is the enchantment. We aren't really sure what that means yet. The golem effect was surprising too! It mimics the exterior of living things, but not too well. A thicker layer of Spinel provides a more convincing 'skin'. Grey applied some to a few of the birds, and from a distance, you can't tell them apart.
... I wonder if we can make a golem look like a tree?
Last is green Nephrite Jade. Enchants for Water magic affinity, which might help Grey with his surprisingly awful traditional magic use. If he ever sold rings, I know for a fact that mages and militaries would pay enormous sums for this. Affinity is determined at birth, and there is no way at all to increase it aside from this. In a gem cluster, Nephrite increases how durable it is, sort of like a Jet enchantment would for humans. Grey says that the effect depends on the 'proportion' of Nephrite. A pound of Nephrite would make a small golem much tougher; but in something big like Jericho, his satellite, it wouldn't have that much impact. Some amount of Nephrite would make it indestructible, but he isn't sure what that is just yet.
Let's see.. That's it for individual gems. I should get Grey to confirm this. I connect to Sentral, and request Zone... Oh. Rin is getting some quality time with Grey this morning, too. I'll leave them be for now.
Telepathy with, and through golems has its ups and downs. Sentral stays connected to all of Grey's creations and usually rejects us, though he's been a little more permissive recently. Usually it's Grey reaching out to us. Normal telepathy has an outer range of about 1000 feet before it starts becoming unstable.. though that's pretty rare for anyone to bother, since you generally need to actually see the person to initiate telepathy. Golems can connect to other golems at a range of about 5000 feet, but the downside of connecting to someone through one is that you're locked into the shallowest form of telepathy; words and images only. It's still useful though, since I can carry the tiny gemstone creature Grey made for me, Agent Honeydew, and connect to it anywhere, and shortly after I'll be talking to Grey, so we can chat.
That sort of telepathy is fine and all, but I prefer deeper telepathy, the sharing of emotions, even sensations. I laugh; maybe I should try to have sex without telepathy once, to see what it's like. I can't imagine I'll enjoy it all that much. My lower half doesn't experience much in the way of sexual pleasure. When Grey pushes himself into me, the reason I gasp isn't because my girly parts feel good, but because Grey's rod is experiencing pleasure, and I'm sharing in his euphoria through telepathy.
