Matte Gold Pearl
Pearl is busy.
No, in fact, that is an understatement. She has not rested in three full cycles. Her master, Golden Topaz, is being reposted to a new planet, and Pearl is being run ragged ensuring that everything is prepared for their departure. There are Gems to inform, meetings to schedule, Warp Pad times to book, equipment to organise…
The equipment is what she's carrying now, boxes upon boxes stacked precariously in her arms, as she rushes through the access corridor to the space shuttle—
— and then trips on something, and falls, the boxes tumbling around her in a heap.
She nearly screams in frustration. She just barely manages to get a hold of her self. Biting her tongue, she turns her attention to the boxes lying around her. She gathers them, checking inside each to ensure nothing was damaged. She's berating herself furiously; she should have been watching where she was going, she should have stored the boxes in her gem, it's just always such a hassle, and it makes her so dizzy—
Only after the task has been dealt with does she finally notice what tripped her up in the first place.
A small, pink figure, crouched on the ground, face filled with fear. A coral.
Pearl's restraint breaks.
"You!" she barks. "Look what you did! You tripped me, just sitting the middle of the corridor like tha. Stars help you if any of this has been damaged…"
Pearl would never dare to speak like that to any other Gem. But corals hardly even count as Gems. They're Chalk, more than anything.
Not literally Chalk, of course. That's just an old expression. Chalks were an ancient Gem model— very small, weak Gems, unfit for anything but basic maintenance duty. They'd been so inefficient, in fact, that they'd stopped being made millennia ago, and any surviving examples have long since been retired. Pearl's never even seen one.
Corals were one of the Chalks' replacements— more efficient, but only barely. They are too weak to be warriors, too simple to be scientists, too ungainly to be craftsgems. They aren't even pretty, and their dull looks mean that they are relegated to back-alleys and construction yards, doing cleaning and menial labour. Even pearls rank above corals; pearls might not be much, but they are beautiful and elegant, and corals are not even that.
So Pearl snaps at the Coral who's caused her so much trouble. It feels good, the chance to let out her frustration.
But then the Coral just flinches, the way other Pearls flinch at their masters, and it doesn't feel as satisfying as it ought to feel.
"Nevermind," Pearl mutters. She returns to stacking her boxes. "Just don't do it again."
"I won't," Coral mutters, bitterly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Pearl asks. She notices that the Coral's clutching something desperately to her chest.
"It means I won't have a chance."
The Coral reveals what she's carrying. It takes a moment for Pearl to recognise it, it's in such a state. It's an hourglass, broken beyond repair. The glass of its upper bulb is shattered, its beautiful symmetry ruined. It's useless.
Pearl hisses as the sight. "How did you do that?"
"I didn't do anything," Coral retorts. Pearl rolls her eyes and straightens. "I didn't!" Coral protests. "This Emerald pulled me aside, ordered me to go pick this up for her, and I could hardly refuse! The commission was fine when I got it from the workshop, but as soon as I stepped outside— it shattered."
Don't lie.
That's what any other Gem would have done. That's what Pearl was going to do, but something holds her back.
What purpose would this Coral have to lie to her? She isn't a court official, someone in a position of power. She is not worth pleading her case to it. Her testimony would not be worth anything.
And perhaps the Coral isn't lying. Perhaps she truly isn't to blame for the hourglass's breaking. Pearl knows from experience how delicate such time-pieces are. Especially when newly created. This planet is freezing; the inside is carefully regulated, but outside it's colder than a sapphire's personal quarters. A freshly blown hourglass, still hot from the ovens, could easily shatter from such a sudden an intense change in temperatures. Would this Coral have known that? They are not used to handling such valuables. Would anyone have ever thought to tell her?
Of course not. That doesn't mean the Coral is telling the truth. She could easily be lying to cover for her own incompetence. Everyone knows how clumsy corals were.
The Coral's shaking now, with fear and horror her face contorted. She's crying, Pearl realises, tears silently running down her face.
If everyone knows that corals are clumsy, how foolish was that Emerald, to pick one to fetch such an expensive item? Should the Coral truly be punished for something she could not help?
And punished she will be. It is inevitable. Breaking such an expensive object— well, nobody could risk such a thing happening again.
"Please help me," the Coral begs.
"H-help you?" Pearl stutters, startled.
"Please."
"I can't," Pearl half-snarls. "Even if I wanted to, you silly coral, I'm just—"
She stops mid-sentence.
It's foolish. Ridiculous. She cannot believe she's even contemplating such an idea.
But the Coral looks so pathetic. She can't just leave her here, to be harvested or shattered. Not if it wasn't her fault. Not after all the other Pearls she's known, who've met the same fate.
Pearl places her stack of boxes on the floor, filled with a sudden determination. "I think I know a way."
A terrible hope glows on the Coral's face. "R-really?'
"Yes. But it is risky. You must do everything I say."
Coral nods.
Pearl rearranges the boxes, finds the one she's looking for, and opens the lid. Inside there is a collection of sharp, wicked knives. Amazing that a Pearl was ever entrusted with them, even just for transport.
The Coral's eyes widen at the sight. "What-?!"
"Sush." Pearl grabs a blade. "My Master and I are leaving the solar system. I can take you with me, but there's no way you would go unnoticed as you are. I am going to destroy your physical form, and smuggle you out that way."
"How do I know you won't just turn me in?"
Pearl shrugs. "Why would I?"
Pearl would have nothing to gain from such a feat. Coral must realise that. The punishment for a pearl daring to barely arms— let alone using actually using a weapon against another Gem, even a coral— would be steep. If betrayal is her intent, it would be better just to abandon the Coral here.
Resolve hardens on the Coral's face. She wipes away her tears. "Okay."
"You must not regenerate," Pearl says. "You must hold off, as long as you can. The journey will take half-a-cycle, at least, and if you come back too early we're both dead."
"I understand."
Pearl looks at her, and hopes the Coral does. Hopes that she isn't making the biggest, most foolish mistake of her life.
She holds the knife, and plunges it through the Coral's neck. The strike is quick, efficient, the same one Golden Topaz always uses on her when it is time for an outfit change. The pain is minimal. With a small woosh, the Coral's physical form dissolves; Pearl catches the gemstone left behind before it even touches the ground. She does not bother catching the already-broken hourglass. It smashes, sand and shattered glass spreading everywhere.
Pearl works quickly, barely daring to think about what she is doing. She puts away the knife first, the most incriminating evidence. Then she stores the Coral's gem in a box of paperwork, the kind that Golden Topaz refuses to throw away 'just in case', but that she hasn't actually looked at in centuries. She closes the lid on the box, hoping that the Coral truly won't reform. She puts that box in the middle of the stack, where it's least likely to be noticed. She checks herself all over once to make sure she is no incriminating glass or sand clinging to her form, then picks up her burden, and sets off.
She's already wasted far too much time.
She arrives at the shuttle only minutes before Golden Topaz. When her masters sees that not everything has been packed away yet, Pearl is told off for sloth.
Told off, but nothing worst.
The trip in the planetary-shuttle seems to take eons. She's terrified that every single jerk and bump of turbulence signals Coral's return.
But the flight is uneventful.
They disembark a solar system away, on a less-crowded planet, one whose Galaxy Warp has light enough traffic that Pearl had been able to schedule a slot within the next ten cycles. It takes three separate Warp trips to get to their destination. Pearl clings to her boxes with an iron like grip the whole way, afraid that she'll lose them in the stream.
She doesn't.
Pearl barely notices the planet she and her master have been stationed at, left only with a brief impression of a purple sky with two moons. She stands dutifully by Golden Topaz's side as they're lead through a complex series of corridors. When they finally arrive at her master's new office, she dutifully waits for instructions before beginning to put the items away. She makes sure to leave the paperwork box for last, terrified about what will happen if Golden Topaz is still there when she can't delay any longer.
But thankfully, Golden Topaz gets called away to a meeting.
When she leaves, Pearl feels something taught inside her release.
But this isn't over yet. The Coral still needs to regenerate before her master returns.
She digs through the paperwork, finding the coral stone, gripping it tight in her fist. She holds it to her mouth and whispers, "Come back, come back."
It's ridiculous. She knows from experience that inside a gemstone you can sense nothing of the outside world. It was better than standing there, doing nothing.
Finally, a warm pink glow fills the room. Moments later, a nervous Coral forms, staring around anxiously.
"You made it," Pearl says, not even disguising her frank amazement.
The Coral clearly made use of her time stuck in her gemstone. She's changed her outward appearance, at least as much as a Coral can; new hair, new outfit, slightly shifted facial features. A symbolic shedding of her past identity. It won't do much if someone actually tries to track her down.
Which is still a distinct possibility, but not one Pearl thinks likely. Corals shouldn't be able to move between planets without authorisation, and no one would ever suspect someone of bothering to smuggle one. It would be incredibly difficult to work out exactly where this one went. And while the Emerald will no doubt be infuriated about the destroyed hourglass, she almost certainly won't put in the effort just to find and punish a single coral.
"Thank you," says Coral.
"Never mind," says Pearl. She nods at the door. "Now go."
Coral does. The pair holds each other's eyes for one last moment. Then Coral vanishes, door swinging behind her, off to find some menial bit of labor, where she can be lost among the throng of other corals working on this planet. A moment later, Pearl sets her mind towards organizing the paperwork, obedient as ever. It's as if nothing even happened.
If they're lucky, they'll never see each other again.
oOoOoOoOo
Author's Note: For a while, I've had the idea of there being Gems ranked even lower than Pearls, who work as sort of the base 'drones' of Gem society, doing all the ugly tasks that nobody wants to do, but have to get done. I played around for a while with different possible stones... I liked chalk for being soft and 'dirty', but coral because it's also soft and also technically not a gem, being an organic creature, which I thought was a nice parallel to real-world pearls. (I also liked the idea of limestones; again, soft, and partially made through the compression of organic byproducts). LadyRavenEye suggested have all three of them, only Chalk being a derogatory term for Corals and Limestones. Only Corals made it into this piece, but Limestone might make it into another.