Gemwright Ch. 22

[Day 26 | Day 7 at Topaz Island]

I wake up.

Wide awake, not a shred of sleepiness, ohhh, ready to take on the day!

But, I suppose I'll have to wait a few minutes for that. I'm laying the wrong way on my bed, face down like I used to sleep a long time ago, and both of my arms held by a wife.

I check if they're asleep. They seem to be. I suppose that leaves me trapped. Gives me some time to think...

In a few days I'm going to be "married" to Ban'yun. I.. may have agreed to it a little hastily, with my mind clouded by her incredible body. Not that I'm going to back out, though. Still, I'm not actually sure what being a mated pair means to Ban'yun, but I'll try to make it work out.

The question is, should I propose to these two? I have strong feelings of love, and the idea of spending the rest of my life with them is a happy one. But, am I being too hasty? ..Well, the answer to THAT is an easy and emphatic yes. Confessing my love within days of meeting both of them, haha, I'm absolutely a fool, though I don't regret it in the slightest.

Marriage, though, is a commitment to spending the rest of my life with them. Will they still be in love with me a month out? Six? Sixty??

... Will I still be in love with them? Wow, that's a sobering thought.

My chest squeezes, almost seeming to shout "Of course I will!", but a cold part of my mind whispers, "Time erodes all passions..." I hope it's wrong.

I'll talk to them later. I come back to my present situation, and enjoy the soft skin pressed to both of my sides for a while.

¬warm thoughts)¬

I turn my head to the thought; it's from Hana. ¬how long have you been up£)¬

¬just now# what are you thinking about is early£)¬

¬how much I love the two of you)¬ she smiles and sends happy feelings at me. ¬also# wondering if it's unfair that I'm marrying Ban'yun before you two)¬

Hana keeps her voice low. "Yes. It's unfair. You are a bad boyfriend." And gives me a quick kiss. "Want to talk about it when Rin wakes up?"

Me, "Yeah."

"What about Rin?" asks a voice on my other side. I turn to face her. I go to answer, but she kisses me instead. ¬answer with telepathy instead)¬, she teases me.

Hana, "Hey, no fair!" Her faux anger is ruined by her giggle afterwards.

Hana lets go of my arm while I answer ¬I'd like to discuss our future)¬

Rin backs up a bit. "Okay. Should I fetch Ban'yun?"

Me, "Not for this part. I want to talk to the two of you first."

She looks curiously at me, then nods. She also lets go of my arm, and stands up.

Hana's already left my cart, and Rin also departs. Oh, right. I connect to the bird out near the lake, and ask Sentral to transport my stuff back to the table in my home, then I step into the shower.

My girls join me at my home. Rin leads off, "So, what's the big important topic today? Is this about which nations we'll visit? Or have you perhaps decided to cancel world travel and stay here forever?"

Me, "Yes, their buxom bodies have convinced me never to leave." I close my eyes and nod slowly. "Hah, no. I'd like to discuss a more serious matter. I'll be paired with Ban'yun in a few days in a relationship similar to marriage. I have known the two of you longer, and thought.. Perhaps I am being unfair to you. I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter. Should we get married?"

After a few seconds of silence, Hana speaks up. "I've given it some thought. It doesn't really matter to me if we are married. I'll say yes if you ever ask. But, you have to ask me in a romantic place, and give me a choker like Ban'yun's that looks like this." She hands me a small piece of paper. There's a ring drawn on it, looping similar to Banyun's necklace, with what appears to be Diamond and Emerald. Still. She'll say yes if I ever ask? A part of me wants to ask right now.

Me, "Thank you Hanamaya. Ringara, what about you?"

Rin, "I've also thought about it. I'd like to wait longer. I love you dearly, and sometimes it feels like I'm burning up with passion. But isn't it true that the candle that burns hottest, burns out the soonest? If possible, I'd like us to wait longer. But even though I say that... if you were to seriously ask to marry me... I would agree on the spot."

Me, "You two... Thank you for sharing. Is there any objection to me being paired with Ban'yun?"

Hana, "None."

Rin, "Hmm? That's an odd question, no? You're at least as powerful as the Jensin king, or the Al'Ruheiban sultan, both of whom have many wives. I know you love us, but I'm expecting you to have many more women eventually. That's how powerful men are, and I'm okay with it. Just as long as you still love us, okay?"

Hana nods, like this is common sense. "We're glad to be the first among your wives, but I'm expecting you to have 50 women that you keep around you to sleep with or impregnate. Especially these island girls."

Oh. That's...

A caravan, with dozens of support personnel, and fifty women, all beautiful, all who love me, and I can choose any of them to share my bed at night, each of them ready to spread their legs and bear my child...

I shake my head. Hana giggles. "That's more or less what I expect the caravan to look like in the future. If you want it, I want you to have it. I know you'll still love us, so don't hesitate to woo more females in."

I laugh. "There's no way I'd be able to do that. I don't think I have that much love in my body, and certainly not enough attention span to make fifty wives feel loved.

Rin, "Was that all you wanted to talk about?"

I take a moment to reorganize my thoughts. I'll have to reconsider a few things, since it seems my girls are truly okay with polygamy, even large-scale polygamy. It's an exciting prospect, but I'll consider it in my free time. "For now, yes. I want to eventually have a conversation with the three of us, Ban'yun, and Wed about where we go next.

Rin, "Let's do that after you're paired and we're in Port. I'll ask Wed to do some research on good routes in the meantime. He comes back sometime today, right? And Hana and Ban'yun are going to the Hardbark village this morning. I think that's the next time all five of us will be in the same place."

Me, "Seems reasonable. Let's make that a plan then?" They nod. "Thanks for hearing me out."

Hana gets up and comes around the table to hug me. "We'll always listen to you." She lets go and jumps back. "Now, I've got to pack for my journey to Hardbark! Oh! Rin, how many of them do you think will ask to put a baby in me? I'm betting at least four."

Rin laughs and walks out the door with Hana. "Hopefully not! They really like our white skin. But we're getting tanner, aren't we?"

I didn't really notice yesterday, but they are a little tanner, especially Rin. I look at my own arm, and observe the same effect. Huh, what do you know? I wonder if that'll go away once I start wearing a shirt again. Maybe I should just always go shirtless? Hahaha.

I disconnect from my girls. What's the plan for today? I think it's just the satellite, right? How's that going anyway? I connect to Sentral, and then the bi-.. Wait... right, they're one golem while the Topaz is open. I look through its eyes and... it's pretty high up, though I mostly just see the ocean. I can't make out any details at all.

The bird is still flapping its wings trying to go higher. It seems to be a minor drain on Sentral, but the regeneration is keeping up with it.

I think I've got a solution to geosync, but I need to get this guy up into orbit before I make the pretty non-aerodynamic changes. I walk over to Sentral for now, open the door- hm? It's hard to open... I pull harder, exerting myself the slightest amount, and the door does open, but air rushes in, and there's a bright light from the Topaz. Odd. I flick Diamond over to it, and cover it up. I consider that the sun is quite damaging to humans without the atmosphere to protect us, so I rotate it, portal side facing the Jet wall.

Whew. I sit on the steps leading in, allowing the now-redundant telepathy to drop. My visuals flicker, then I'm looking through space bird's eyes again.

Alright, let's strap on the rocket pack. I command all but one of the 50 normal birds back to the box so they can donate their mana if need be. They'll stand in the ground surrounding the box, wings spread, with one tip touching a wheel or the carriage.

I command Sentral to push space bird upwards with Telekinesis. We rocket up, and immediately begin spinning uncontrollably. 'Cancel the lift, keep the bird steady instead.' This will probably be easier if I control it directly. I don't think I've done so since I tore apart that jeweler's store... hah, I hope I've learned and grown up from that mistake.

Me, "Assuming direct control." I say something meaningless, then impose my will on Sentral.

I grab the bird with telekinesis, and accelerate it upwards, away from the... Earth? What is this planet called? I should ask Hana later. The bird tries to tumble again, but I simply fold its wings, tilt it up, and its roughly conical shape is much easier to control.

The planet 'slowly' falls away, which is about what I expect since we're so far away from it, I'd have to move thousands of feet to be able to tell.

Blue sky fades away to starry black. Heh, I'm in space. Arguably. I think 'outer space' starts higher than this. But when I can see the void beyond the blue during the day? That's outer space for me.

Now... I think I heard satellites orbit at a hundred thousand feet? But that doesn't matter to me, because I have no way of knowing how high I am. All I've got to go on are vague recollections of movies about spaceships in orbit, nothing useful. This will all be me, or rather Sentral, working it out a little at a time. For now I'll just go higher.

While I do, I think about the orbit. If I follow the equator, I'll have several hours a day of downtime while the satellite is in the planet's shadow. Buuuut, if I have it rotate around the planet, passing above the north and south pole, basically staying above the area where the light meets darkness, the sun will always shine on it. I think that.. Hmm, this isn't my area of expertise, but I'll need to re-adjust slowly as the planet circles its star (oh gods, I've been calling it the "sun" to Bor'wa and maybe others, but what do natives of this planet call their star? I need to have a conversation with Hana as soon as possible...), because the planet's axis does not change as it orbits a star, so the path around the planet will have to be modified once every few months to stay out of the shadow. Not that energy has ever truly held me back before, but the consumption has been a little bit worrisome in the past, and optimizing things is fun in any case.

I will of course leave Jet covering my carts, just in case something happens to my satellite. Maybe space monsters are the norm here, and they just don't come down to the surface because they don't like oxygen, or they're deathly allergic to the common cold.

... I haven't gotten sick yet. I wonder if they even have the cold here?

Shaking my head, I refocus on the sight from the space bird. I'm higher up now, but it's hard to determine how high. Let's keep going. I summon a paper and start writing down how I want to phrase my instruction for this and future satellites.

'Maintain an orbit around this planet with the satellite. Do so by observing the planet. If it is closer than it was, then lift the satellite higher. If it is farther than it was, you need to lower the satellite.'

'Maintain a speed around the planet, but variance in speed is permissible. Attempt to circle the planet about once a day. Maintain a path around the planet so that you pass over the north and south poles, the axes around which the planet revolves. Follow somewhat close to the line on the planet where night and day mix; where the ground or water changes from light to dark. If the satellite is ever in the shadow of the planet, this is a failure state; inform me if this happens.'

Then one specific to Sentral, not the satellite: 'When your humanoid form and/or your box goes below 70% mana, open a connection to the satellite and absorb mana until you are at 98% mana or higher, or the satellite has run out of mana. Then disable this rule until you reach 95% mana, or one hour has passed, whichever is first.'

I re-read it after I write it down... Yeah, this looks good. I laminate it with a thin layer of Topaz and affix it to the inside of Sentral's box.

The bird is probably high enough now. I start hauling it sideways, accelerating it, faster, faster, faster... I honestly don't have any frame of reference at all for how fast this thing should be going, but that's probably okay.

I need to give it eyes now. I take some Diamond, and Jet, then walk over to the Topaz connecting the box to the bird. It's still fused to the wall, so I manipulate the two gems through the wall, and then through the Topaz portal. On the space bird, I guide it out into six long, thin stalks; up, down, left, right, back, and forward. At the end of all six of them, I make a sphere of Jet to serve as eyes.

I melt the bird portions of it, withdrawing the Amethyst and Emerald, but keeping the Sapphire, Ruby, Rhodonite out there. I ball them up individually and move them near the stalk that will face away from the sun. The Topaz is kept in a Diamond sphere at the center of the satellite.

I summon the old 'chain link' Jet as well. I pull out the Diamond links, and ball up the Jet, and send it through as well. If I consider the side that will perpetually face the sun "front", I flow Jet in a thin fan around the left, up, right, and down stalks, forming something like a circle. I deliberately tilt the satellite, and instruct the on-board Sapphire, not Sentral, to keep "this" Jet 'eye' facing the sun, the big ball of heat and light in the void, and do so using six Jet stalks to 'see', and Ruby telekinesis to make adjustments.

It takes a minute for it to work out how exactly to do that, and I'm starting to consider giving it more Sapphire when it figures it out. The front stalk points exactly at the sun, and returns there when I deliberately bat it in the wrong direction with telekinesis. Good!

Okay, I think the Satellite is going fast enough now. I take the paper, and repeat the instructions for Sentral.

'Do you understand?' I finish.

'Yes,' comes the reply.

Well, alright. I watch it go for a while, but I think for now it's gathering data. I'll check in throughout the day to make sure it's not like... falling out of the sky or something.

I walk back to my cart. This is just a proof of concept, for now. The circle of Jet isn't all that big, so I'm not expecting a massive amount of energy gain. Once this proves it's not going to fucking crash to the ground, or zoom off into deep space, I'll add more Jet and Rhodonite.

What I'd like is for each of my carts to have a Topaz to Sentral's box, and have every Topaz link open all of the time. If I can get more Jet, then that should be possible. I suppose I should make a cart tablet, with one for each cart including Sentral's box. Hmm, crabs as well? I'm not sure I care enough about the crabs.

There is a knock on my brain. I accept. ¬hey Grey# this is Rin# Bor'la wants to know if you want to play with the children at the lake£ I brought up the idea of modifying the bipeds so the children could walk underwater)¬ she sends me a mental image of the biped, with a kid inside it, and a long tube leading up. It is submerged in water, but the tube is above water, allowing breathing.

¬that does sound good# I'm worried that one at a time will be too slow# maybe if I take five at once£ there's safety to consider as well due to the water pressure# Diamond is incredible stuff but I want to minimize risk to anyone's life)¬

¬it's not like you'll be taking them through that portal# just put Sentral on standby to pull anyone out of the water if any gem work is damaged# we've still got that healing potion)¬

I wonder if I should buy more of those? Keep one in every cart...

¬alright# I still need to think up a good way to take them down# bring them over in half an hour or so)¬

I'll have to watch over them for kurs, the ones waiting for their turn, but I doubt that'll be an issue.

Hmm... With Topaz, how does that affect the radius of Zone? Is the village still protected from kurs? I connect to it. ¬Sentral does your Zone cover the entire Coral Tree village£)¬ I accompany it with the thought of the village I'm talking about.

¬no)¬

Shit. I sit down, take a few deep breaths, and say ¬disconnect from me in 5 seconds)¬

¬yes)¬ comes the reply.

I activate the space bird Topaz, then access Sentral's Zone. Ahgg, misery...

I quickly check how far the Zone reaches, and the radius seems to be a little more than half. It barely reaches the village. I'm kicked out of my mental link, and the nausea passes.

Taking a few deep breaths, I send a Topaz'd bird to the center of the village, and activate its portal. I repeat the process from before, enduring an unruly stomach again, and confirm the village is still safe. It's covered. And, Sentral regains access to the motion it wants. Good. I instruct it to refuse commands from Bor'wa. This one is to keep the village safe.

I grab the basket from Hana's house, and order a bunch of gems. Mostly Topaz, a lot of Diamond, Sapphire, some Emerald, and Rhodonite. I call on a Topaz'd bird as well. This one will serve to connect to the energy and recharge as needed.

That's everything? Think so. I jog out to the lake.

How do I want to build this? Water pressure is a funny thing. I tried a sea floor walk in my past life, and the pressure was brutal on me despite having an over the shoulder padded apparatus. So I want this to be 100% contained except for the air tube. This means they won't be able to touch the lake bed, unfortunately.

Or maybe I can do two golems? One for lake shore fun less than 10 feet, and one for going deeper? The shallow one would require fitting to everyone I feel like, so maybe not.

A small rectangular bus, with crab legs and air tubes going up. This might be fun...!

I arrive at the lake, and start shaping as fast as I can. The kids will be here soon. Dimensions are 5ft wide, 7ft tall, 7ft long. Inner layer is entirely Diamond. The outer layer is Topaz striped with Diamond. Two air holes come up 30 feet, also double layered. Door in the back that I will seal shut.

I create a thin stalk of Jet on the side, then connect with Sentral. ¬for the next 4 hours if this construct is damaged or if I lose consciousness then pull the construct and every human in the lake to shore and open the door after)¬

¬yes¬ comes the reply.

I move the construct into the water with telekinesis, and step into the water. I break the Jet stalk with Telekinesis.

The construct and myself are lifted above the water, moved to the shore, and set down. Not as gently as I'd like, but this is a success.

I add some crab legs to the base, and then step into the construct. I connect... there's no Sapphire. I face-palm, add the Sapphire, Emerald, and Rhodonite to the bottom, and connect to the golem.

Now, there's basically no air movement. I instruct Sentral to continuously force air down the tube 30 ft above me, leaving the second air tube alone for air to go back out.

Sealing the golem's door, I set out into the water. It doesn't move. Obviously.. I call the bird to stand on top of the air intake, and fuse it's talon on, before opening the Topaz portal. The recharge is immediate. I close the portal.

I set off again, and the four legs on the bottom start moving. It's not exactly spacious, but I can iterate on it later.

The strips of Diamond are see through, but regrettably exhausts my supply. Topaz covers the rest, tinting it distinctly orange, and nearly opaque. Oh well.