The Gem Lords

Answers - Part 3

     They think I'm going to become Tak, Thomas realised. They think I'm going to stay here for the rest of my life, become Sapphire the Gem Lord. I must make them realise that I'm only staying as long as it takes to finish whatever it was that Tak started. I'll help them, whatever it takes, but then I'm going home.

     "Where's Lord Emerald?" he asked. "And what about the others? Lan, Enna Mael and Alustra? Evidently some of you think this occasion is more important than others."

     "We don't know where Talpha-Ja is," replied Barl. "After your sixth predecessor turned out to be unsuitable, he despaired that we would ever succeed and disappeared to the furthest reaches of his realm. We haven't been able to find him. Even Jade has no idea where he is, and so we haven't been able to tell him about you. As for the others, Lord Opal and Ladies Pearl and Diamond, we haven't told them about you and it's very important they don't find out."

     "They are opposed to what we're doing here," added Lady Jet, or Sheena as Tak had always thought of her. "They don't want our efforts to save the world to succeed. They want to die."

     "Want to die?" cried Lirenna in horror. "They would throw the gift of life back in the faces of the Gods?"

     "To them, life is no longer a gift but a curse," said Barl. "Three thousand years is a long time, even for us, and we can't end our lives when we grow weary of them. In our madness we made our soul gems indestructible." He looked down at his own gem, still glowing on his wrist, and the other gem raks did the same. An involuntary movement they performed before becoming aware of it.

     "But when the realms collapse everything in them will be destroyed, no matter how indestructible it is," added Barl. "They see that as their escape. The only way they can end the eternal misery that their lives have become."

     "But Tak died, didn't he?" pointed out the demi shae.

     "Not exactly," replied the Gem Lord. "His soul was destroyed in a quasi magic explosion, but the essence of him remained. His memories and, hopefully, his skills. His genius. That is what we placed inside your body, where it merged with your own soul." He said this to Thomas.

     "Without asking me what I thought about it!" protested the wizard angrily. "I was terrified when the memories started coming! I thought I was going mad!"

     "We're sorry, but we had no choice," said Jade, hanging her head in shame.

     "You could have asked me! I might have volunteered!"

     "And you might not have," pointed out Lord Ruby. "We didn't dare take that chance."

     "Why are we talking out here?" asked Topaz, alarmed by the turn the conversation was taking. "Let's go inside. The day's growing late, you'll want to rest and refresh yourselves. We can talk more tomorrow."

     "Excellent idea," agreed Barl, and he guided the others towards the small building standing at the edge of the landing platform. The building that contained the steps down to the palace below. "We have a feast prepared, to show how pleased and relieved we are to finally have you here."

     His words reminded Thomas that he hadn't eaten since breakfast and that his stomach was rumbling loudly. Barl gestured for him to lead the way, and the gem raks fell in behind, the wizard using Tak's memories to lead him down the wide, cavernous staircase and through the maze of passages and corridors waiting below.

☆☆☆

     The dining chamber was astounding. It was the size of a ballroom, and one whole wall and part of the floor was one giant window giving them a panoramic view out across the city. None of the other towers rose high enough to obstruct their view, so they were able to see landscape features shrinking with greater and greater distance until they were grey with haze, and at the very limit of vision was a thin ribbon of blue. The world ocean, at least a thousand miles away. If the air were perfectly clear, Thomas thought as he and Lirenna stared in wonder, we'd be able to see neighbouring continents, and if there was a direction in which the view wasn't obscured by land masses you'd be able to see all the way to the edge of this artificial world. Fifty thousand miles away!