Chapter 7 - Murky Montage

Mr. Eliprast settled himself on an overturned empty fruit crate in the Murky Prospector's cramped galley, as its chairs were too tall for him. His many-jointed fingers drummed a rhythm on his knee. The air was thick with the scent of frying oil, and the green gemin was now resting on a padded stand in the center of the table. Cowel sat opposite of him with his eyes fixated on the stone. Alanea leaned against the bulkhead, arms crossed as usual, uneasy about the inspection. Edven, who was typically more concerned with the ship's mechanics, paced around the room.

"So." Alanea's tone remained flat. "You say this isn't just a gemin. It's... a person, is that right?"

Kuthe's nod was a single downward motion of the head. His eyes reflected the glowing stone. "It is a keygemin, trapped in the gemin, as all keygemin are. Its mind is not composed of just instincts, but is a complete and complex consciousness, as is any of our own. Perhaps more so." He gestured a hand outward toward the stone. "It communicated through resonant frequencies with the minds of Cowel and I because it knows nothing else. Just as it communicates with the large blue stone it rests with."

He pointed toward the smuggling hold with two long fingers outstretched. "Communication in this way requires significant energy. Cowel here is sensitive to this energy and can perceive it more clearly than most. He would make a good keygemite." Kuthe nodded approvingly to himself.

Cowel shifted in his chair, remembering the strange feeling of fear and confusion the gemstone released. It was a distinct and undeniable presence. "It felt scared and confused." He murmured as if talking to himself aloud. "Like it was lost and didn't know what was happening."

"Precisely!" Kuthe affirmed. "It is a being of pure radiant energy. It is accustomed to the physical constraints of this form." He placed his small hands around the stone to frame it. "When intelligent life like you or I, beings with spirit, touch the stone, you create a path through which that energy can relieve itself. That is how all keygemin are created. We are conduits for them." He raised his hands and splayed them open as if to rain down wisdom.

"It is a prism." He continued. "It refracts the true nature of sourcelight into its component parts. I, like Cowel, can communicate with it, but our difference is that I have centuries of learned experience passed down from a hundred generations of my kin." Kuthe's arm fanned across the room in the direction of the books in view of the galley. "It has chosen to identify itself as Prism, or rather, as best as I can describe in your language."

Edven scoffed, though the sound lacked its usual conviction. Kuthe turned his eyes to meet Edven, and it was the first time they had formally communicated. "You mock, but you felt its presence too. You pretend not to because it makes you feel strange. It affects all whose spirit nears. To deny this fact is to deny your own spirit. Though some are more attuned to it than others."

Edven mumbled something unintelligible, but didn't argue further. The truth was that the green gemin had indeed felt different from any other he had encountered. He couldn't dismiss it as a figment of his imagination.

Alanea cut straight to the chase. "So, 'Prism' here is why we are being hunted?"

Kuthe's expression grew more serious. "Indeed, young captain. A Radephian military commander, Contello, seeks to conduct research on it. They envision it as a tool that can provide information that will win their war against Argentis. They would care nothing for its sentience and know only that you have a stone. Not what that stone is."

The short lizard man pulled a metal tin from his coat pocket and tapped it against the table, rotating it to each of its four sides as he did so. "An Umbral Cult inquisitor is looking to corrupt our new friend to alter its pure source-given energy. They will amplify its black aspect and use it to seek their means. Revenge, political power, or whatever else. I think they do know what this stone is."

He continued tapping the case on the table. "Then there are the pirate clans, including my own. They seek only its immense value. The gema it would bring is enough to retire an entire clan into lavish opulence."

He paused, allowing the weight of his words to settle with Alanea. "You see now, captain. This being is caught in a struggle far beyond comprehension. The surrender Prism to any of these factions would condemn it to a fate worse than... becoming inert." His eyes opened widely, and he blinked one layer of his eyelids. "It is no animal like other Keygemin, for it would be slavery." He stopped tapping the metal case. "Also, it would probably be used to kill millions of people. Something I'm sure we would all like to avoid."

Kuthe paused again. "Your fates, and mine, are intertwined with Prism's." He opened the steel cigar case. "Do you mind, captain?"

Alanea waved with the back of her hand. "Not at all."

Kuthe pushed the point of a red gemstone into the end of a cigar in his mouth, smoldering its tip until it produced smoke, and shut the cigar case. "You've unfortunately stumbled upon something truly extraordinary, and in doing so will live new lives. Your survival, and the survival of many others, may well depend on your ability to protect it."

Cowel looked from Kuthe to Prism, then around the rest of the room.

Alanea sighed with a long, drawn-out sound that resigned her to accepting this. "Alright... Kuthe. You have convinced me that we are too deep to turn back now. How exactly do we protect this stone from... every major political power?" She threw up her hands with her elbows still on the table.

Kuthe's smile returned with a shrewd glint. "Why, I have no idea. I assume we will figure that out one step at a time." He blew smoke from between his grinning teeth.

Alanea, very literally, applied her open palm to the front of her face.

The kobald finished blowing his smoke. "First, we ensure our vessel is capable of outrunning and outmaneuvering our pursuers. Your blue gemin is of exceptional quality. I have contracts in the Kobald Pirate Territories." Kuthe sign tapped the navigational charts that marked no such location. "They have merchants who deal in such rare finds, but cannot pay in gema. So we sell it, discreetly, for items we can trade back for gema later. We are laundering, you see."

The captain's palm rested over her mouth. "Yes, I realize."

The idea of selling the blue gemin was an afterthought of the crew until that point. Edven brightened at the mention of upgrades to the ship. "Enhanced engines? A reinforced hull?! Advanced navigation!" He began to rattle off a pie-in-the-sky list and peppered the captain with questions, which she ignored, face in hand.

Kuthe tried to relieve Alanea of her burdensome engineer. "Kobald red engine technology is unparalleled for speed and maneuverability. We will make the Murky Prospector as nimble as any kobald gunrunner. Able to slip through blockades and evade pursuit." He motioned his hands across the wall as if to transform its wood into something else.

"That is not all, we will also acquire some moderately powerful gemin. Trustworthy, and that have high value. I will show you how to set them... so that you Respect The GEMIN MORE!" He pointed at them all accusingly.

Cowel's eyes widened at the thought of having keygemin aboard. He knew people who possessed a few and were attuned to them. Most often on ships for keeping food cold. "Companion gemin. How would they be helpful to us here?"

Kuthe leaned forward toward the unworldly man. "They are not just tools, young Cowel. They are an extension of you. They guide 'you' and teach 'you'. They are your training." He looked and pointed at the other two with the cigar in his hand. "Your training too. You live in a gemin-centric world now. Learn about them. I'd throw a book at you if it wouldn't split, and no, you cannot read them. Don't touch my books."

The ship coasted across the open sky guided by Kuthe. The Kobald Pirate Territories were a collection of skylands that jutted out from an area of Argentian control, ending in the skyland of Missy, which was not its kobald name. On this skyland were many small villages of kobald names, the largest of which was Shosoth. This was difficult to travel to and required skirting the visibility of Argentis' least populated skylands. Normally, a scavenger ship like theirs would be harassed, but its small size made it look like many of the kobald manned ships in the skies around the clan territory. Even if they were boarded, Kuthe would be there to cover for them.

Shosoth wasn't a massive settlement, but it was influential when it came to trade between the kobald and dreamers. Most trade was conducted in the air between the decks of ships. Clan merchants' ships were painted a blinding golden-yellow, though their sails were usually plain. The booms crossing the lengths of each sail were adorned with baubles and brightly colored strips of cloth. These merchants had the things they needed.

The crew roamed from merchant to merchant, gathering information about who the more affluent traders were. Some of the kobald dealers were aggressive and threatened to board them when asking too many questions. Most were non-confrontational and were happy to direct them to the appropriate peddlers. This was done parking side on with another ship and spanning gangplanks between them. One such meeting was quickly aborted when a sneaky group tried to enter their ship from below.

After a day or so, they found just the right shady kobald merchant. A yellow and red-trimmed ship with black sails, larger than many others. The captain docked at the ship, spanning a plank between them, and received permission from the host's crew for herself and Kuthe to move aboard.

"I be Goz. I too be hearin' you got somethin' to sell by me." He was a wispy little guy, short even for a kobald. As he passed by, his crew members gave him space and didn't make eye contact. Alanea wondered what that might be about.

"We do, we've had some trouble finding... an equitable value." She held outstretched the blue gemstone. Being the size of a kobald's head, it was a rare find even among seasoned life-long professionals, a once-in-a-career opportunity.

"Oh. Tis' be nice." Goz looked it over with the magnifying eyepiece he wore strapped around his head. "It clear too, you don't be seein' gemin tis' big clear." He continued peering into the stone. "Where you find?"

Alanea wasn't so quick to sell out her secret spot, or Prism's landing place for that matter. "Trade secret, that will cost you extra."

"Eyyyah! Tis' joke, tis' joke... dreama." The underweight kobald laughed cacklingly as his eye was pressed against the stone. "I buy tis' stone. Pay good price, but we carry not tis' much gema."

"We didn't want to hold that much gema with us anyway." Alanea stated as a matter of truth.

"It be make you targets always." He snarfed his own saliva. "My appr-... my aprz-... it value be at three poin-... thirty six hundred... ennnn thousand..." The experienced kobald gemer tried his best to convey its value.

Kuthe confirmed the value. ⧚Koset virssz rss *click* tititi?⧛

⧚Virssz rss *click* tititi, viggaozzt.⧛ Goz appeared to clarify with a nod.

Kuthe turned toward Alanea and translated for her. "The stone is worth three million six hundred thousand gema."

"Shit, really?" The captain turned her mouth away from the merchant. "That much, huh? We could retire on that."

Their kobald companion pulled out a cigar and lit it with the red gemin he kept in his coat pocket. "Now is not the time to think about that... captain. We trade for things we can sell for gema later. You can retire after we are safe."

Alanea gave a short list of items for the trader to obtain in exchange.

First and most important was four trustworthy, trained, and powerful gemin. One stone for each member of the crew. Each was as valuable as a moderately sized house in the city, or a ship about as lovely as the Murky Prospector itself. This was the bulk of Kuthe's payment.

Secondly, there was a substantial amount of dry supplies that would last them one or two grads. Here, the food was kobald-made, consisting almost entirely of dried meat, fruit, and grain. The dried fruit was especially welcome. They didn't know what most of it was or how it was obtained, but it was of high quality and often already spiced. Drinking water was now being supplied by a fresh blue gemin barrel, and hot water by a red gemin barrel. Alanea took advantage of this object immediately and had a bath installed in her cabin.

Third and finally were substantial upgrades that would transform the entire ship. It was stripped down and rebuilt. Its old sputtering engine, prone to fits of coughing, was replaced by carefully calibrated high-power dual red gemin engines. These new engines would make the aero fast and agile.

Deck-facing doors, including the cabin, were replaced with fully locking hatches. Its hull, which was once filled with patchwork, was now entirely refitted with a lightweight resin composite. Resistant to atmospheric conditions, it was non-conductive, flame-resistant, baby smooth, and reshaped to better direct the air around it. Alanea briefly considered having orange gemin added to the ratlines, but determined their glow a hindrance to the ship's stealth.

Its helm, which was formerly a rudder control stick and wheel, was entirely replaced with controls that operated rudder, ailerons, and both sets of nacelle suppression shutters. The ship would have four steel-plated nacelles instead of three chipped wooden encasements. Half of its sails were removed, side sails were added, and the sails that remained were replaced with the lightest and strongest of Coopracian silk. This ship would now have no trouble punching through a windwall.

Edven found himself marveling at the speed and craftsmanship of the kobald engineers. He spent half a day poring over the schematics and learning the intricacies of the new dual engine system. Many of the kobald engineers didn't share a common language with Edven, but did communicate in the universal language of mechanics.

Kuthe, with his vast knowledge of gemin and their properties, guided them in selecting the moderately powerful gemin that would make their personal companions. The stones were obtained from across Una. Some were stolen, others were from slain enemies, a few were from people who mistreated them, but most were traded away for their value.

Cowel chose a vibrant and luminous green gemin, small enough to fit comfortably in his closed palm.

"This one." Kuthe explained, "It will resonate with your innate sensitivity. It will amplify your connection to Prism, and with it the natural forces of Una." Kuthe smiled toothily. "I'm sure you know by now that Prism's true color isn't green. It is able to show itself in any way it chooses. It has chosen green. The color of gemin that dreamers most trust."

Cowel resigned to accepting how little he knew.

"Captain Alanea." Kuthe presented to her a deep blue gemstone, cool to the touch. "This gemin will help you flow and to adapt like the liquid it controls. The currents of your fate demand a different approach. It will teach you the wisdom of water... how to bend without breaking."

Alanea looked down toward her hand, which contained the small stone cut into a beveled, lightly truncated dodecahedron. In her head flashed visions of her father, who had left her mother and their home after an argument over his gambling. She shook the memory as quickly as it had appeared.

"For you, Edven." Kuthe presented an earthly orange gemin, cut into a chamfered cube and beveled slightly on all of its edges to catch the light. "This gemin will keep you grounded in reality. It will challenge your perceptions, and with it your understanding of the world."