The resonate chime of the warp pad faded and its wall of light dropped so PB could see where Jey had brought them. She hung on the other pearl's arm, clinging as if her existence depended on it. And it very well might.
"Where are we?" she breathed, "Are we allowed to be here?"
Jey put a finger thoughtfully to her pursed lips and then patted PB's hand. "Us? Right this moment? ...No. So just follow my lead." She ushered PB off of the warp pad and down a corridor with a confidence that PB could scarcely believe.
The floor was entirely deep blue crystal and the walls on either side of them were lined with thick marble columns and engraved with murals depicting sprawling orchestras and dancing gems. PB gaped up at the towering artworks and nearly stumbled. Music floated down the hall from all directions, all of it gloomy and in a minor key.
"Blue Diamond's music workshops are here," Jey explained. "All of the music you hear in Blue Diamond's court began right within these walls. Instruments are stored this way."
"So… we're stealing one?" PB did not like the idea of that at all and when Jey flashed her a sly smile that confirmed her fears she very nearly collapsed. The thought of Jasper knowing what she was doing made her gut churn. "Isn't there a, um, legitimate way to get one?"
"What, like commission one?" Jey scoffed. "For a quartz soldier? Oh, the very notion would wound my Jade. No, this is the best way."
PB opened her mouth to say something only for Jey to shush her and yank her around a corner into an offshoot corridor and then another until she found the door she was looking for. "Just be quiet and follow my lead," Jey told her sternly and opened the door. They slipped inside what was essentially a closet filled with cubbies that were filled with all manner of strange instruments in pristine condition.
Jey went immediately to a heavy cabinet and threw it open to reveal several of the large contrabasses she had shown PB back at the arena. PB swallowed hard. The instruments were massive, so much moreso in person, and had a shining finish. They stood just a bit taller than PB and with her arms outstretched she wouldn't be able to close her arms around it. PB felt suddenly intimidated.
"Oh stardust," she fretted, "How will we carry it? Will I even be able to play it?"
"Of course you will," Jey insisted. "You can do whatever is required of you." From a hook in the cabinet she took a long flat device strung with something organic and called it a bow. "Put this away first and then we can move the contrabass."
PB faltered. "Put it away where?"
"In your gem, where else?" Jey drawled but when she saw PB's dumbstruck expression she reeled back. "You can store things in your gem," she told PB and then asked incredulously, "You don't make that Jasper carry all her things, do you?"
"I- No one told me!"
"Oy..." Jey groaned. "Oookay. Okay. Focus your light in your gem until you can feel it open up. Like this." She closed her eyes and hummed. Her gem glowed until it seemed to lose its shape. Jey touched her gem and her fingers sank into the light before retracting them and pulling a compact, circular screen from inside her gem and held it up with a haughty look. "Got it?"
With mouth agape and feeling quite embarrassed, PB nodded. It was such a simple thing that she felt stupid for not knowing on her own. She swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes shut. All of her focus went to the gem in the middle of her face.
Jey waited for a moment before huffing and speaking up again. "You're not doing anything. Imagine it opening."
PB shrank back, doubly embarrassed now, but she took another breath and did as Jey said. Her gem tingled almost painfully for a moment. PB grasped at the feeling and pushed through until her gem opened with a ray of golden light. The sensation surprised her so much that she jerked back with a gasp. Her gem snapped shut immediately and the golden glow dissipated.
In the dim that remained, Jey's lips pursed tight in frustration. "You had it, do it again," she pressed. "We're wasting time."
PB nodded and scrunched her face to open her gem again and this time she managed to hold it open with a severe amount of concentration as she stowed the bow inside. Just as the last of the bow disappeared into light and PB was wondering how she'd manage to get it out again, a whoosh of air came from the door.
Both pearls snapped their heads around to see who had caught them. Jey's face was shockingly calm when PB herself felt frozen with fear. She couldn't even dim the light of her gem and it forced the brightly blue dioptase that had opened the door to squint into the room.
"Um, what… are you doing in here?" the dioptase asked, her small voice pitched with alarm at seeing two pearls raiding the instrument storage.
Jey puffed herself up before the dioptase could say or do anything else and put a hand on her hip with an air of command. "Ugh, finally!" she exclaimed and grabbed the contrabass by the neck, her fingers tender on the wood. "Someone shows up to help! Well? Get in here."
A pang of fear shot through PB. Jey had to be mad or malfunctioning to speak to another gem in such a way. The dioptase looked equally as stunned until Jey snapped at her again. "My Jade has been waiting long enough for us to fetch this instrument," she said sharply and for a moment even PB believed her. "Help us stow it, or are you going to tell her you stood in our way yourself?"
Somehow that worked. The dioptase jumped to attention at the mention of a Jade and tripped over herself to help Jey lift the contrabass. "Of course, certainly," she blubbered. Jey rolled her eyes at PB behind the dioptase's back and motioned for her to bend so her gem was at a more reasonable height.
PB bowed deep at the waist. She had only a moment to wonder how something as large as the great contrabass would fit past the border of her gem before the whole instrument disappeared before her eyes. She straightened up and resisted the urge to feel her gem with her hands as if a cursory investigation could explain how the storage worked.
Beside her, Jey smoothed her hair and addressed the nervous dioptase with a tight smile. "Very good, I shan't make mention of how you held us up," she said and marched briskly to the door with a wave to PB. The dioptase nodded dumbly and thanked them meekly as they left her to her own business. Jey didn't say another word and PB followed suit until several hallways stood between them and where they had left the dioptase.
"...Jey?" she began and waited for the other pearl to give a look to go on. "How'd you know that would work? I thought for sure that we were in trouble."
Jey snorted. "Oh, PB, you're still so rough," she laughed. "Pearls are made to serve our gems. No one's going to see you as your own gem, you're an extension of the gem you were made for. And if your gem presides over others, you carry some of that authority with you."
"That doesn't seem correct…"
"Well, it is. And it only works if you act with conviction," Jey shrugged. "No gem is going to question your doings if it seems like something your gem might have you do. That's what you're for, after all."
It seemed foolish and risky to put her gem on the anvil like that but PB recalled how a few unconcerned words from Jasper were enough to silence an agate's complaints about her. Maybe Jey's strategy of deception had some merit after all. Even so, PB could think of no practical use for such bold lies.
Jey stopped so suddenly that PB, still weighing Jey's advice, stumbled into her and received a stern rebuke in return.
"Pay attention," Jey hissed and opened the door to a small practice room.
"Wait, aren't we going back?" PB asked when Jey grabbed her arm and ushered her into the room.
"You have to learn to play first, remember?" Jey insisted and sealed the door behind them.
The cheers of the thronging gems echoed all around Jasper as she slammed the citrine into the stone. A few more seconds and the other gem yielded just like the four challengers before her had. Jasper, breath heaving but still grinning and full of fight, postured and roared for the crowd as her opponent crawled out of the pit.
The spectators gathered around the edges of the pit were far more diverse than when Jasper had joined the fighting. No longer just a gathering of soldiers, half a dozen aristocratic gems hung at the railing with their mouths hidden behind fans and their bright eyes fixed on the action. Jasper quickly recovered from the surprise of seeing gems so far her betters at the rails and flashed the luminous gems a wicked quartz grin. That sent the whole group of them reeling with astonished gasps and laughter, unable to look at Jasper any longer. She chuckled to herself and continued her slow turn around the pit.
That is, until she locked eyes with an unfamiliar agate wearing a great, flared pauldron and Yellow Diamond's insignia. The agate's lip curled in what could have been a smile and beckoned to Jasper. Her chest tightened but she didn't dare ignore the command. With a final bow to the crowd, Jasper excused herself and climbed out of the pit toward the agate.
The agate clasped her hand as she reached the top and pulled her out effortlessly amidst the gems on either side pressing close to thump Jasper on the back and congratulate her on her victories. Two more gems took her place in the pit but many of the spectators began to disperse once it was clear Jasper was leaving. It was in the shuffle of gems leaving the pit's railing that PB appeared again with a flushed face and disheveled hair – presumably from being jostled to the back of such a large crowd. Her eyes were wide with characteristic nervousness as she fell into step behind Jasper and the agate and patted her hair back into place. Jasper didn't have a chance to pay her more mind than that.
"That was very impressive," the agate was saying as she led Jasper away from the pit. She carried herself with an effortless air of command that any gem would have recognized even without her polished armor and insignia. Jasper found herself straightening her own back to match the agate's posture. "Your little sparring matches are starting to draw a lot of attention," the agate went on, and Jasper could not have prepared herself for what she said next.
"How would you like to fight in a more… formal… setting?"