Author's Note: I'm on fall break this week, so I might manage to work in some time for writing more chapters when I'm not studying for college. Well, here's chapter five. I hope it was worth the wait!

-Voltalia

Right after Nephrite and his surrogate daughter had participated in the Queen Jubilee's meeting with the other Queens, they headed out for the Temple of Heliodor to meet up with his old friend, the purple Gem named Kermesite, who had been at the wedding.

It had been a long while since Nephrite had actually communicated with Kermesite. The two had actually parted ways shortly before Zoisite was appointed as Chancellor, mainly due to Kermesite deciding to dedicate the rest of her days to witchcraft. Not that it was anything to be concerned about, but the art of witchcraft had always been an enigmatic sort, especially to the amphibious Xenophi and the scaled anthropomorphic and tuatara-like Opisthias. (The Opisthias themselves had shamans who were actually very proficient in their field, but they practiced something along the lines of voodoo.)

Anyway, as Nephrite and his daughter were approaching the entrance to the Temple, Kermesite just so happened to approach them. The same frizzled dark purple hair, grayish-violet skin that shined a dark eggplant under certain light, and three similarly-colored gems on her forehead that could summon a trident... yep, it was definitely her in the flesh.

"Hello, dear Kermesite." Nephrite greeted his old friend.

"You too, dear Nephrite." Kermesite answered right back with a smile. "What brings you here?"

"Rose and I thought it'd be a wonderful idea to stop by after our wedding. Anything exciting happening in your life these days?"

"Not really; oh, except that this mysterious Gem who appears to be a Garnet just came here and asked to set herself up with me."

"A Garnet?" Nephrite tilted his head at this. "And here I thought they weren't willing to communicate with the rest of the world."

"Of course they aren't, but this one- oddly enough, I might say -does."

"But why? Why would she come to you of all people? You've just barely mastered the fine arts of the occult yourself, you have in no particular way interacted with anyone- other than yourself, needless to say -who has more than one gem, her kind doesn't even like ours, and she chooses to go to you?"

"Well, I suppose she might think I can help her with a crisis her people's magic cannot conquer..."

"I suppose that's likely, but I still find it odd."

"She's inside right now. Would you like me to introduce you to her?"

"I guess so."

"Alright then."

She led the two inside the Temple to meet the Gem who, by all accounts, looked very much like a Garnet; this couldn't have been more evident than in the dark reddish-pink skin, tightly-curled dark hair, somewhat straight-angle nose, plump lips, and three very beautiful oval-shaped eyes... wait, what?

"Ye Gods!" Nephrite exclaimed when he saw the apparent Garnet individual. "She's...very beautiful, but..."

"But what?" was the very first thing to come out of the foreigner's mouth.

The green Gem's eyes were locked onto the middle third eye on the visitor's face. There was something very odd about it, but maybe that was because of the violet iris it possessed or the fact that it seemed to function about as well as the other two eyes. Whatever it was, Nephrite found it to be rather unsettling.

"N-never mind." Nephrite managed to stutter out.

"Oh, right." Kermesite suddenly remembered. "M'lady Garnet- at least I'm sure you're a Garnet -if you wouldn't mind, this is my good friend Nephrite. He recently stepped down from his prestigious occupation as Chancellor of our Queendom. And next to him is his surrogate daughter and wife Rose Quartz."

"Hello." Garnet answered again, only this time with a monosyllable.