Gemwright Ch 34

* 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.

I stand up to use the 'water closet', as he calls it. I glance at myself in the mirror on the way. I'm short, about 5'3. Flat chested. Short brown hair. I've always thought of myself as plain, but my green, slanted eyes, and my long tongue, attracted Grey to me in the village of Farnn almost a month ago.

I push out my tongue, holding it in my fingers about a foot out. Grey

really

likes this part of me, that silly man. I've never been with a man before him, so when I felt his desire, I.. couldn't help myself, and I did something stupid. In desperation to feel

more

of that heat, I deepened telepathy all the way. Without meaning to, he forced his lust into my mind, changing me. It could have gone much worse in a hundred ways. But now I'm a kissing fiend, just like he is. When we smooch, it feels so

, so good

. I had my first orgasm in his arms, my tongue wrapped around his; we hadn't even had sex!

Not particularly out of gratitude, but instead love, I offer my skills as a telepath. As a mentalist, I'm subject to a bunch of rules from Lake Omega - that I don't really talk about with Grey too often - but I still help out with the caravan as much as possible as we travel around. I make sure we've got the local money, help Grey find more women, make sure the new fuzzy-tailed Feokorn women are comfortable and looked-after (one of them has a baby! But Myrna is a charity case, Grey has no interest in her), and I make sure the Crew is behaving.

I can't help but giggle as I think about Wed, leader of the Crew. A reformed criminal, he witnessed me wring the mind of my would-be kidnapper, and has been

unfailingly

polite to me ever since then. He thinks I give him nightmares, too! I don't, that would be very against 'the rules', but I also make no effort to correct his suspicion. He's not stupid enough to try anything, and he's actually a decent person at heart, but I've got enough on my plate without having to wrangle them. The Crew, numbering twelve people, helps Grey a lot, buying gems for Grey to magick, and selling his completed works for stupendous sums. A single one of his gemworks, that he worked five minutes on, sold for ten times as much money as my mother made in her entire lifetime. Granted, we were poor, but seeing that much gold... it was depressing, and took me some time to work through my feelings. These days I'm feeling much better.

Speaking of feeling better, maybe today I can take the next step with Ringara, and kiss her. She's a nice girl, even if too serious sometimes. She's 5'8, barely shorter than Grey. She has

really

long black hair, it's so pretty! She works hard to keep it silky smooth and untangled. Her chest is larger than mine. Grey calls them C-cup. I'm only a little jealous! Sometimes I watch the way Rin melts when she makes love with Grey. I want to feel the pleasure she does. Her body is the opposite of mine, and climaxes easily. I could do things to her huge clit that Grey can't, and I plan to eventually; so today I'll take a look for a chance to step towards that goal!

When she joined us, Ringara had been a slave, captured illegally in her border town of Al'Ruheibi, and sold across the border in the Jensin Kingdom. When I met her, I decided that Grey would like her; but I knew he wouldn't want to lay with a woman who was forced into the position. So, instead, I bought her out, freed her, and then offered a better life traveling with him. I'd honestly only expected her to be his toy, so I was pleasantly surprised when Grey made her fall in love with him. She's also a shamanka, able to form bonds with elemental spirits! She has five of them so far, gaining new magic from them. Surprisingly, she's also gained the ability to convert mana directly into objects, like gems! But only tiny amounts.

Rin was shy at first, but now she's more outgoing, and learns the new languages for all the places we go to teach us! She's also been trying to learn alchemy. I kind of admire that studious side of her.

Another splendid addition is Vai'yun, Grey's wife, from Topaz Island. She's actually newer than Rin and I, but her condition for traveling with us was to become a mated pair. Essentially, marriage. I know Rin wants to wait a few months at the least before marrying Grey, and as for me, I know Grey loves me, so it doesn't really matter. Vai'yun used to be named Ban'yun, but in the tradition of the Topaz Islanders, they changed their family name. Grey's name is actually Vai'grey now, but they've both said we can call him Grey if we want.

Vai'yun herself is a rather eye-popping woman. At 6'0, she's actually taller than her husband, and her skin is a healthy brown. Her muscles are crazy strong, like all of the Islanders, but somehow she isn't bulky; the muscles are tight. When she hugs me, her stomach feels as hard as a rock! Her breasts are absurdly large though. Grey thinks of them as DDD-cup, and I still remember the surge of desire that went through his mind when he first laid eyes on her.

I wasn't too surprised when she immediately agreed to be mated to Grey. They're a people who struggle to survive on an island they share with the 'kurs', a large cat that preys on everything on the island - including humans. They place a high value on producing not just

many

children, but strong ones. Impressive males (and sometimes females!) will be invited to stud for other couples, who will raise the child as their own. After demonstrating his abilities, Grey himself impregnated five island women in such an arrangement. Two of Grey's favorites I hope will one day join us, Bor'la and Lan'bi; but for now, both of them are mated to other men. Vai'yun has laid with Grey a few times now, but under the contraceptive effects of Euko tea. She convinced Grey to have children, so in a few days she'll mate with Grey again, and nine months later, a baby will come! Heehee.. Rin and I are excited for them.

She's not only a looker, either. Her personality is warm, and kind. She's about my age, and so innocent and curious! Almost all of the Islanders are like that. Grey and I talked about the journey's end, and how it will probably be to live out our days with those beautiful people. Like Bor'la though, Vai'yun's personality changes when she's feeling lustful. I helped encourage her to impose herself on Grey during lovemaking. Unlike the way Grey drives the action with me and Rin, he enjoys being the one who gets pushed down when he's with Vai'yun. I don't think she actually needed much encouragement, though.

Which brings me to Faid, a 'feokorn'. Not human, but something close to it. She has fluffy ears, small claws, fur on most of her body, and a huge,

super

fluffy tail! Her previous occupation saw her taking money for sex, and if that was all the relationship she had to Grey, I would have objected to her coming along. But she surprised me. When she came into a windfall of money, she spent a large amount of it to buyout the contract of another feokorn, who had recently given birth, and send them home. The child would have been disadvantaged to grow up away from the Kengen trees, so she sought out Grey to buy out the woman's contract, with Faid herself paying half.

For better or for worse, a feokorn cannot have a human's child, so I'm a little dubious that love will blossom between Grey and Faid. But time will tell.

She asked for her own personal cart, like all of Grey's females got, but hers will include a massage table. I will definitely ask for a massage or three, as it includes being wrapped up in that soft, fuzzy tail; the specialty of any feokorn masseuse. Grey isn't sure if she'll stick around if we pass through her hometown, but even if we can't, I'm sure he will find a way to tempt two or three pretty feokorn females to come along in Faid's stead.

I wash my hands and return to my desk. My home is so

big

. An entire cart like a merchant has, but bigger, and all to myself! With a hot shower, and a toilet! Topaz portals make life so convenient. There's even plenty of space to put clothes and personal belongings. I feel spoiled some days.

Right, where was I?

Sentral. A

sentient

golem, I think that's beyond doubt now. Grey uses it to stockpile most of his gems, fusing them onto Sentral as we acquire them. Although a few gems get put in a pile instead, like Topaz, since there's no benefit. Drothur, Grey's patron deity who instilled Grey's power, vouched that no gemstone golems would ever betray him, so we're not in danger from Sentral. But the thing is so powerful it's

unbelievable

. Grey has most of the folks in the caravan added to the Protected Persons list, as he calls it. Sentral continuously monitors us, and prevents us from being harmed. It saved me once from a kurs. Its jaws were around my shoulder and almost my belly before I even knew it was there, trying its hardest to kill me, and

it couldn't

. Wed speculated once that modern armies don't have a solution to its telekinesis; the telekinesis spell that mages cast can't apply anywhere near as much force as Sentral can. Grey could win simply by having Sentral snap the neck of any soldier that stepped into its Zone. Once it's well known by the world at large, will they research a method of dealing with it? Well, anyway, we're safe for the time being, thanks to Sentral. But what does he want? So far, he seems to just enjoy watching people live their lives in his Zone.

What else.. Grey has a lot of birds, and as of yesterday, crabs as well. All golems, of course. Bor'wa, the cute (and infuriatingly taller-than-me at age eleven!) daughter of Bor'la, seems to have a gift for connecting to Grey's golems. She has some of Grey's golem birds flying around, looking for more gem veins buried throughout the world. The crabs will be tossed overboard once we're further out to sea to do the same thing, but underwater. Nephrite seems to be an underwater-only gem, so it only makes sense to explore there as well.