A/N: I'll say it again, I only update if I get reviews. I don't like wasting my time for nothing, that's all.

evildictionaryninja: I was beginning to lose hope there! There's an explanation about Steel Jasper here and, no, it isn't a cover-up for my mistake. Lol...

Calasier Avamela Prologue

Verimir - Chapter 1: The Beryl and Emerald

Copper Agate proved her word when, a few days later, the group was rallying together, gathering weapons from beneath a loose floorboard and pulling on cowls. Gold Diamond (Verimir had got used to his new nickname) was placed in a group with Copper Agate, Silver Jade, Tin Turquoise, Mercury Pearl, Titanium Sapphire, Cobalt Opal and Iron Garnet. They were sent to a town near what Gold Diamond knew to be a mine. They travelled mostly on foot through frost-hardened grass, enjoying the crunching sound beneath their feet.

Copper Agate filled in Gold Diamond on most of the details about them, including idle anecdotes. The most confusing detail he heard so far is that, outside of their 'territory' and when unfamiliar people were around, all of the members had to call themselves Steel Jasper, after their first leader. This respectful gesture was meant to stop people tracking them down by their name but Gold Diamond couldn't get his head around it. Then, he thought back and remembered Titanium Sapphire calling Titanium Onyx that when he first came. He supposed newcomers came under the heading of 'unfamiliar'. Still, it was a confusion when someone called 'Steel Jasper', since no one knew exactly who they were referring to.

They entered the dense forest just as the snow started to set in and a strange sound reached Gold Diamond's ears. A ringing of hammers, the grunts of straining and the unmistakable crack of whips. He wanted to pause to listen. He had never heard anything like this before yet the other seven were walking past as though this was perfectly normal.

Certainly, he had taken the road that they were now leaving. That trailed off to the left and he had often ridden carriages along those roads. He never asked why they veered suddenly to the left when there was a much quicker path straight on with no visible obstruction. His parents only gave evasive answers or feeble excuses of orc camps around the area. He tugged the first sleeve in front of him that belonged to Mercury Pearl. She turned and glared at him,

"Tell me," Gold Diamond said, undaunted, "what is that sound?" To his surprise, she glanced around, as though expecting to see an intruder, "The sound of metal. Is there a mine?" She pulled a face,

"You have travelled down here in your youth, have you not? You know what lies beyond those trees." She pointed straight ahead of them. As they walked, the noises were becoming disturbingly louder, with more noises adding to them that Gold Diamond's advanced hearing picked up: the sound of harsh voices, the clink of chains and the stretch of tense ropes,

"No, I do not." Gold Diamond shook his head, ignoring her scornful look, "We have always taken the roads."

"Well then," Mercury Pearl shrugged, "you'll see soon enough."

"Can you not tell me now?"

"We don't tell newcomers," Titanium Sapphire interrupted from the head of the group, "what is there. It gives a bigger impact that way."

Gold Diamond frowned. Suddenly, Silver Jade shouted, "Caravan!"

They all ducked behind trees with a practised, routine ease. Gold Diamond had to duck behind a bush just in time before a caravan trundled into view. It was pulled by three sturdy-looking horses and the canvas was a blood red. With a jolt, he recognised it. It was one of the Akhohr's transportation caravans, used to transport soldiers over long distances, Why do they come here though?

He did not have time to ponder though. The caravan had stopped on the road just where they had left it. Gold Diamond quickly crawled across the grass behind a thick oak to prevent the soldiers trampling on him. The last thing he needed was the Akhohr to find him and discover the Steel Jasper Gang (as he called it in his head). He got behind it in time before the grey-robed soldiers came close to his hiding place, Assistant-Captains. They trod the footsteps his group had trodden before and realised with another jolt that they had left icy footprints where they had gone.

However well-thought of the Akhohr was, however, they did not see the obvious tracks of a recent troupe before them. They trekked on, even failing to notice the cracked branch Iron Garnet had pulled off because it was in her way. Gold Diamond shook his head: where the Akhohr excelled in brute strength, they failed in detection. Which was why he supposed they were so susceptable to surprise ambushes.

When their footsteps had faded, he made to stand but he was immediately shoved back down by Mercury Pearl, "What do you think you're doing?" She snapped, "They'll be back in a minute." She spat bitterly, "Trust our luck to come her just when the drivers are changing."

Drivers? Was it perhaps a grand stadium of racing horses beyond there? That would explain the whipping but the striking of metal on metal was still a mystery. Did they fight on horseback? Was a sort of jousting tournament? But no, if it was, his foster parents would be very comfortable with telling him. They were what they called 'cultured folk'. Gold Diamond called it trying to get noticed at any event that many important elves. And surely a jousting or race would attract their attention and not their aversion.

He sat with his back to the oak, pondering this mystery. He thought back to the maps he had seen in his foster father's study. This was the Heartforest: he could tell by the knot in the oak he was sitting against shaped like a heart. This was also a natural place for portals to the human world to appear, though they appeared very irregularly and no one knew why they appeared. It was rumoured to be the place the human Steel Jasper had appeared according to Copper Agate. On the map, there was nothing but a narrow valley before the next village,

So what would drivers do there? And without their caravan? How can they drive without their caravans? It was baffling. It allowed his mind wonder from his freezing backside and often contemplating going on alone to see what was going on. He hated not knowing something other people did. Mercury Pearl's hand remained firm on his shoulder, as though she thought he would wonder off if she let him go.

Presently, more soldiers came back the way the others came but they were not the same ones. After they passed his hiding place, they left with a snorting of horses and clattering of wheels. Mercury Pearl slowly released him and jerked her head towards the path (for he now realised it was a path under the frost). So the party moved on.

The trees thinned and the sounds grew louder. He could hear clear voices now and they chilled him to the core. They were cries of pain; elven cries of pain. Shouts of, "Faster!" and, "Get up!" echoed within him. His curiousity became too much control. He strode foreward while the others stayed back at the edge of the trees. The valley lay ahead just as the map stated but what the map did not record was a makeshift wooden staircase starting where he approached the edge. A convenience for people to go up or down with ease.

The valley was much shallower than he had expected, only about a hundred feet deep, with many dark doorways in the dry face. He had been told a rumour than a reservoire was there to support homeless elves. They could not have been more wrong. Even from his high viewpoint, he could see the seering red stripes on the burned skin of the chained elves below. Hundred upon hundreds of sparsely-dressed, ragged-clothed, dull-spirited slaves dragged their feet across the stone. The clink of chains mingled with grunts of strain and pain as the whips cracked. Whips held by the very assistant captains he had seen going to the site.

So, this was what Mercury Pearl meant. They were slave drivers. Gold Diamond stood on the precipace, horrified by what he beheld below. His breathing grew ragged and rapid and he felt the blood drain from his face; he had never seen anything so horrible in all his life. He had heard of humans employing slave labour but they were not as wise as elves; they could be excused. But, for elves to do it. And Akhohr as well,

"Awful, isn't it?" Copper Agate had come to his side, "That's been there ever since Steel Jasper came. We have been fighting an unknown war against that place for centuries. We do little things like put rats in the guard's food supply and throw stones at them. They don't know about them but we can't do anything too serious or else we'll hurt the slaves."

"Who are they?" Gold Diamond asked in a low voice, "Who are they that warrent such punishment?"

"Criminals. Not all serious ones. They are sentenced to serve here for a century or a millenium. I hear the maximum is two thousand years. They dig for mithril and other things like that. Those who receive the two thousand years will die at the end of it." She pointed at the far end of the valley. There was a ominous-looking set of gallows with shining mithril rope to make the noose, How dare they defile such a pure and wonderous metal to such a use!

In his anger, he picked up a stone at his feet, took careful aim and threw it as hard as he could at a driver whose arm was a blur with the amount of whipping he did. Copper Agate gasped and pulled him down into the long grass. He peeked over the edge and watched the little stone's progress. He smiled; the aim was true. The stone struck him right on the head, his arm stopped and he keeled over unconscious,

"Good aim!" Copper Agate smiled, "It's the best thing to do, throw stones at them. So long as we aren't seen, they always blame bits that fell off with natural erosion. Come on." They crawled away from the terrible place, the mithril noose still burned into Gold Diamond's mind, "It's horrible. Why does the King let this go on?"

"This place," Gold Diamond swallowed, "it's isn't on any map."

"The high-ups are the only ones who know about it." Copper Agate sighed, "And they keep very quiet about. It's Valivial's secret shame."

"I'll stop it." Gold Diamond growled, to no one in particular, "I'll clear this place out and make it into a lake that the homeless can drink from and fish can swim in."

Copper Agate stared, surprised but approving, "That sounds lovely. Deities know that we could do with more places for people like us."

Gold Diamond followed the party away from the terrible place with a wrench in his heart. He had meant what he said.

They came to the town at last. Afternoon was wearing on and many windows emitted warm golden glows. The party did not enter the place but skirted around the edges, searching for a weak house. An unlocked back door, an open window or an empty house. Titanium Sapphire pointed out opportune places and they all split into teams of two or three. Gold Diamond was paired with Tin Turquoise, who immediately got to work climbing the drainpipe of the largest and emptiest-looking house. She climbed effortlessly up the smooth metal as though it had been a climbing wall from the training halls of the Akhohr and broke a window with her gloved fist.

Gold Diamond hesistated for a moment and then, punched a hole in the downstairs window. He regretted it at once for many shards stuck into his hand and bled painfully. Tin Turquoise gasped as soon as she got downstairs and hastened to bandage the wound with a hung-up scarf on the wall, "Never punch a window with a bare hand. Have a metal glove on like me. There," She admired her handiwork of bloody linen, "that should do it. Now, search the place up and down. I'll take the downstairs, you take the upstairs. I can warn you if they come back that way."

Despite the sting in his hand, he ran up the stairs and into the first room on the right. It looked like a female's bedroom with sewing frames, half-made dresses and dozens upon dozens of finished feminine garments. Gold Diamond always associated sewing with females, though he knew that was not always the case. The bedroom put up little resistance to him stealing silver needles, finely made handkerchiefs and the throw on the bed. He picked up some of the fur-lined garments that looked like they'd fit Iron Garnet, Mercury Pearl and the other females. He could at least make a peace offering to those who still distrusted him. He stuffed them all into the bags he'd been given.

He left some there, though. He was not too greedy. He had been taught by the Titanium to not take everything he saw but to 'leave some for next time'. He was just taking a pair of turquoise earrings for Tin Turquoise when a call from below made him shoot up, "Fly, Steel Jasper! Steel Jasper!" He made a dash out and, very foolishly, ran downstairs again straight into the clutches of a brown-haired female wearing fur-lined white robes and a matching squirrel-fur hat. He pushed her away and made a dash back upstairs again, cursing his foolishness.

He had not got two steps up, however, when he was grabbed from behind and he fell on top of her, "Unhand me!" He cried, frightened. She seemed harmless but her parents would be here, no doubt. What they were doing to Tin Turquoise, he dreaded to think. He managed to get free of her a second time and ran back into the room. He threw open the window and, though pain shot through the leg he landed on, he bolted through the garden and out of the village, spoils in hand.

Behind him, he heard a male voice, "Where is she? That little thief!"

"Papa! Papa!" The girl he had ran into called, "There was another! He got away!"

"Oh, Gailia, did he hurt you?"

"No, he ran...!"

"There you are!" Tin Turquoise, scratched but triumphant, stood behind him, clutching more full bags than he. He could have cried and kissed her but, instead, he ran away from the place with her, gripping her hand.

A/N: Short but was it sweet? I did most of this tonight as a last minute thing. I hope it doesn't show.