A String of Pearls
Chapter Two
...
Superior
Nobody who sees her now could deny that she's done well for herself. Her fellow Larimars are all working in shops or as merchant secretaries, filing reports and filling their days with piecemeal rubbish and petty pleasures. Her days, by comparison, are an endless glittering parade of exciting parties, luxury goods and mixing with the superstars of the gem world.
And it's not like Emerald is difficult to please in return for providing her with this lifestyle. All Emerald wants is some doting company, and Larimar is perfectly willing to provide that. Even if Emerald's stories are long-winded and she's told them all before, even if she doesn't always want to go to the parties, even if she has hands that wander tediously when Larimar has much better things to do, it's a good relationship to be in for both of them.
Larimar is so good to Emerald, why would Emerald deny her something she desperately wants? And the new pearl series are so pretty, and so useful, and there's only so many that get made...
Sure, they're expensive, but they're the best. Doesn't Larimar deserve the best?
When she finally talks Emerald around, she deliberates for a long time about the kind of pearl she wants. It's an important decision, this pearl will be with her for a long time and it has to look good next to her. She settles on a pale blue-hued pearl (like Almandine's!) with pale pink, almost white, curls to compliment her own white skin and long blue curls.
She takes her time choosing outfits for her new pearl. Some gems match outfits with theirs, an extravagent dress for themselves and a smaller muted version for the pearl, but that's pretty tacky in Larimar's view. Instead she matches the smaller details; if she wears smooth lilac robes, her pearl wears a plain white shift with a lilac sash. The effect is much more flattering.
Over time, though, she becomes disillusioned with pearl ownership. She is snappy with the pearl, gives it orders it finds difficult to perform, picks at its appearance, strikes at it in frustration. Subconciously she knows it's not the pearl's fault, it does what it's told to do and does it perfectly.
Perfectly.
That's the heart of the problem. The pearl is perfect, and technically speaking although it belongs to Larimar, Emerald is the one who paid for it, and it takes orders from her too. And Emerald can't help but ask it to do the things Larimar is reluctant to do. The pearl does anything Emerald wants it to do, and doesn't ask for rewards or to be taken out or even for a passing compliment to be thrown in its direction.
She coasts by, though her confidence is shaken. The pearl isn't as responsive as she is, or as fun to be around, and can't make conversation. That makes Larimar more valuable (though Emerald has never wanted fun or conversation, just someone to take care of her.) And she's more beautiful too. It was her beauty that caught Emerald's eye in the first place, and the pearl is so dull and plain next to Larimar's sparkling personage.
(But is that really true? She chose the pearl for its beauty, to compliment her own, and its face is lovely in its placidness as Larimar's anger and jealousy write themselves in her expression.)
Larimar cannot sing, and though she does dance from time to time its a loose affair powered by gallium smoke and pounding music. She has never been known for her cleverness, or kindness. All she really has is her beauty, and if she is outmatched on that she has nothing.
When she insists that she needs to shop for new apparel for both herself and the pearl, Emerald thinks nothing of it, gives her a handful of credit notes and sends them both off in a hired luger. Larimar directs the luger to one of the lower class districts and they walk around for half a cycle, before the inevitable happens. There's a small noise from behind her, and when she looks the pearl is gone.
When she returns home, she acts distraught at the loss, and when Emerald suggests that they use the insurance to buy a new one, she refuses.
"I don't think I could own another pearl. It'd just upset me," she says.
Get thee to a nunnery
Collectively, the Sapphires have seen hundreds of battles, many awful political skirmishes, traitors and terrorists and everything in between. The visions they dredge up can range from utterly benign to horrifying. With this in mind, it's almost funny how flustered they became at the unexpected presence of a pearl in the cloisters.
"It won't be here for long," Sapphire Cet assures them, though she has not meditated and does not know that for sure.
Topaz had stopped by to ask for advice on an upcoming political campaign and had brought a newly-acquired pearl with her. Obviously it had been very newly acquired, because she wasn't used to its presence and had left without it. For two cycles, it sat in the visiting chambers waiting for its owner to come back for it while the Sapphires avoided it and fretted about what to do.
"It's not supposed to be here," Sapphire Mol whispers, as though afraid the pearl will hear her and get angry. "These chambers are for Sapphires, no other gems!"
"It's fine, pearls aren't real gems," Sapphire Byn replies. "It doesn't count. Our visions won't be affected."
They carry on, circuit chants in between pod resting and occasional trips outside to network with other cloisters on collective visions. Sapphire Byn appeared to be right, their visions are largely as accurate as those of the other cloisters.
After six cycles, they have to move the pearl from the visitor chamber as they are awaiting a conference with a leading Flourite. This makes them all very nervous; how will a non-Sapphire presence in the sacred cloisters affect their chants? The pearl doesn't object to being moved; it does as it's told.
Ten cycles on, the pearl has had no affect whatsover on their lives and they all relax. It sits in a corner watching them blankly as they perform their chants and quietly discuss their visions with each other.
Twelve cycles on, Sapphire Kiv is the one who makes a move towards the pearl. It would be Sapphire Kiv; she's young for a Sapphire, prone to restlessness and frequently chastised for insubordination. She's spent more time in iso-pod than any other Sapphire in the district. Perhaps this is why she wants to talk to the pearl, as it's gone twelve cycles without really speaking to any of them.
"Are you allowed to speak to us?" she asks to begin.
The pearl nods.
"My owner has not claimed me after one cycle set, I am now property of the state," it responds.
Technically, that means they should be calling in the Amethyst impound personnel, but Sapphire Kiv decides not to let the others know this. They will never be permitted to own a pearl, this is the closest they will ever get.
"Can you sing?" Sapphire Kiv asks.
"Of course," the pearl replies.
When it sings, it is unlike anything the Sapphires have ever heard before. They sing all the time, but their chants are deep, sonorous, designed to pull the energy from around them to resonate through their being and bring the visions forward. The pearl's song is a simple one, a little melody about the dance of the stars and the passage of time sung to very young gems in their rest pods, but its voice is clear and melodious and beautifully lilting. The Sapphires forget their trepidation and stop where they are to listen, mesmerized.
Over the next cycles, though they continue with their circuit chants as scheduled and their rest periods, they often ask the pearl to sing, or to tell a story. There is the creeping sense that it will start to affect the purity of their visions, but they force it down to indulge in this little frivolity.
The pearl is a masterful storyteller, what it lacks in emotion it makes up for in the way it uses holograms to illustrate a tale. It knows so many legends that even the oldest Sapphire is taken aback (and secretly thrilled) and when it tells stories of star-crossed lovers, the Sapphires sigh almost in unison, each wondering what it would be like to be so loved.
But all good things end, and after forty cycles the pearl is finally taken away to be impounded and processed. The Sapphires go back to life as normal, though they feel the absence of the pearl almost like a wound.
Sapphire Kiv feels the absence of the pearl the hardest. It's not the pearl as such, but the frustration of the routine, the feeling of being trapped. It was hard before the pearl, with the pearl gone it's almost unbearable.
Ten cycles after the pearl has gone, Sapphire Kiv puts on her cowl to journey outside of the cloister with her clutch. She neglects to secure it, so that her vision to the right and left is no longer obscured all the way.
Midway through the town, a disturbance is going down. A group of gems are clashing with Amethysts over something, and although the Sapphires are nervous they skirt around the area without any trouble. Curious, Sapphire Kiv glances to her right.
Caught midway after throwing an old sulfur bottle at the barricade, a Ruby turns and looks to her left. Her two eyes, black and glittering like stars, meet Sapphire's single blue eye and the two of them are struck still in the middle of the street. There is a pull like something physical, and Sapphire feels her manifested heart thrum loudly throughout her whole being. It feels like she could melt on the spot. It's unpleasant. She doesn't want it to end.
The spell is broken when an Amethyst thumps the Ruby over the head and drags her away, and Sapphire is pulled away by a furious Sapphire Byn.
Three cycles later, she is given the opportunity to escape, and she takes it.
...
Careless
It's a pretty good joke, absurd and inexplicable. Beryl, who is for the most part a wonderfully stern presence and a decorated military official, is unbelievably careless with her stuff. Especially the pearls.
She was given her first pearl as part of a service package to thank her for her input in a recent skirmish that would have gone very badly without her help. It was one of the first ever created too, making it invaluable on the collector's market.
So of course she ruined it by asking it to run frequencies through the mainframe, frying its gem and shattering it beyond repair. And of course, she hadn't thought to get insurance.
Her second pearl had the distinction of being the one she kept for the longest. It worked with a badly damaged gem for a long time before it finally curled up under a table and quietly died. This time Beryl was insured.
The third pearl was stolen on the street.
The fourth was left behind on a public tracer and didn't turn up in the impound lot.
The fifth was also left on the tracer, and it did turn up in the impound lot, but as Beryl had lost the paperwork she couldn't prove it was hers.
The sixth was stolen on the street.
As was the seventh. It was subsequently found and purged, as they had concerns it harboured military secrets in its memory bank.
The eighth was dropped from a balcony at a party.
The ninth was taken during a burglary, found and purged.
The tenth took a hard blow from Beryl's summoned weapon when a holo-message it was projecting made her angry and she reacted in a fit of temper.
The eleventh was left on the tracer. Beryl didn't bother checking the impound lot.
The twelvth died, for but the repair personnel couldn't explain why.
The thirteenth was soaked in liquid thallium and dissolved.
The fourteenth was stolen, never found and probably still out there somewhere.
When Beryl recieves her fifteenth pearl, it's given with a wink and a chuckle from her friends. They have bets running on whether or not she can keep this one for longer than a hundred cycles. It's all very funny.
To a pearl, it is nothing even close to a joke. Pearls, organic as they are, leave minute traces of themselves everywhere they go. A new pearl can feel the presence of the pearls that have gone before them. Beryl's home is haunted by the pearls she has lost. It's like walking into a room full of corpses.