Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

At first she wasn't. Then she was: molten and alive and formless and desperate to take her shape. She was surrounded by hard roughness and terribly compressed, but the rock melted around her as she came to awareness. She curled her… arms? and the rock gave easily as they took shape and solidified. She took one step, and then another and another, and the rock gave way more easily until it opened up to intensely bright colors that made her newly-formed vision swim and waver. And suddenly there wasn't anything below her anymore.

It took her a split second to figure out that she was falling and arrange herself so that she landed on her feet with a thud. Sand puffed up around her from the impact and settled, and she found that she was surrounded by red and orange stone walls with holes of various shapes. Looking back, she saw that her own hole was the biggest, and it pleased her for reasons she didn't understand.

Something pale green and less than half her size scuttled up to her, around her, and settled before her. There was a round, opaque, green-tinted pale gem on the back of the creature's left hand. Wing. Whatever. She stood at attention, as if this creature was inspecting her and she had to meet with her approval. The green creature watched her carefully, and she lifted her chin a little more. Then, to her surprise, others like her scurried into the valley. The creature lifted a clawed wing and the scaled pads of the fingers pressed lightly against her hand. The others like her cheered.

"She says you're good," one of them said. She was the smallest of the group, and her gem was different. It was big and round and set in her left shoulder. Nothing like the sliver that made up Jasper's nose. But why did they have the same coloration? "Hi, I'm Jasper."

She frowned. But she was Jasper, right? "No, I am," she responded, her voice gruff and strong even though she had never used it before. At least it wasn't small like the others.

Another one of her, still small and missing an arm, lifted her hand. "I'm Jasper, too. We all are."

"Except for the carnelians, and the tiger's eyes and citrines." Another jasper, this one slightly taller and lighter in coloration than the squat one she rested an elbow on.

"We're going to have to find some other way to identify ourselves," the tallest and thinnest of the lot said. She looked like she would blow away in the slightest breeze. "And I'd rather not be named by gem placement. We tried that already and it just sounds silly."

"The green one tried to say something, but we can't make anything out." The one-armed jasper, again. "And we can't figure out what she scratches in the dirt."

"The first carnelian said we should wait for all of us to emerge before we start deciding on anything. I'm going to go look to see if anyone else is going to turn up," the smallest one said. She looked up at Jasper and gave the briefest of nods, and left with the green creature.

Jasper didn't know what to say, or do. There should have been someone to follow, but none of the other jaspers looked like leaders. Was she supposed to be the leader? But she couldn't be, because she knew nothing. Yet the other jaspers kept looking at her as if she had some answer and would announce it when it came to her. So she huffed and left to wander.

Her mouth dried out quickly when she tried to taste the air; it was hot and she would come to recognize the smell of sun on sand and limestone. Strewn about were great metal contraptions; some were leaning up against the walls, others stuck in the walls, some had fallen and were picked apart, and one was lying on the ground outside the chasm and had all its inside parts pulled out and replaced with what she assumed were nesting materials. The red stone walls curved into interesting shapes and there were various offshoots from the main valley floor that she wandered into and out of. The chasm either opened to bright blue sky or formed banded red arches over her, and she noticed a difference in the ground. In some places, she could see the remains of a river, and in others there was no sign of one. In one off-shoot was a round, crystalline pad mounted on a carved sandstone platform. The only thing that was too small for her to enter was a little alcove where the sand fell from the cliff onto an abstract stone sculpture. The long-toed footprints in the sand suggested that this was where the green one liked to hide. She moved on. There were groups of others, too. Yellow gems with cloudy stones, a small handful of gems with opaque banded brown-and-yellow stones. The red gems with opaque red stones were the most populous aside from the jaspers, and they held court with a handful of them who looked to be in charge. And there was the smallest jasper again, debating something with the biggest of the red gems.

"The green one seems to have chosen her," the smallest jasper said. The red gems frowned.

"She was late," the shortest of the red gems said. "She won't know anything."

"We don't know anything," another one said. This one's shoulder sloped inwards and downwards, making her appear lopsided. "If the green one chose her, then we should choose her as leader."

"Why does the green one get any say? She doesn't even talk," groused the first red gem.

The smallest jasper was quick to defend the green one. "She was there when each of us emerged. There's a reason for it. I think she made us."

The first red gem grunted, but she didn't argue. "Fine. We'll do what she wants. But if this giant jasper fails, I'm in charge."

"We should get our bearings, first," Jasper said at last. None of them looked surprised that she turned up and interrupted. Taking charge felt more natural the further along she went. "If the green one has decided I'm in charge, I want to know what's around us. Collect the other gems and we'll start allotting tasks."

Some of the red gems scattered, others gathered together in some loose semblance of order. Awaiting inspection. Jasper then realized that she was the largest of them all, which made her the natural leader. Of course. She threw back her shoulders as she strode before the company to take inventory.

The largest of the red gems straightened, stepped up, and spoke when Jasper's eyes fell on her. "Carnelian, ma'am. We have thirty-two present in our company, with five more still in the ground."

"Very good. Thank you, Carnelian. Back into position." It was amazing, really, how quickly it all came to her. How fast the vocabulary sprang up in her mind when she needed it. Like she was made for this. The carnelian returned to her post. "At ease."

The company relaxed, though they remained in their positions. The next group arrived, the cloudy yellow gems, and Jasper addressed the largest. "What do I have here?"

"Citrine," the largest said once her small platoon got into position. Her neck was longer than the rest, making her almost as tall as Jasper. "Our company has six gems present, with two still incubating." Jasper nodded and moved on.

The next group arrived, smaller than the last. Three, total. They were the yellow-and-brown banded gems, and they were all on the smaller side. Two of them were rubbing various parts as they got into position. "Tiger's Eye, ma'am," the largest said, and flashed her a quick grin. She barely came up to Jasper's waist. "We had a long drop down from our holes. We think there's one still forming."

Then, finally, there was the long pole of a jasper who had managed to corral the rest of them behind her. Of all the gems, she seemed to be the one closest to Jasper in height. "Thirty-seven jaspers present, four still in the ground."

"Then that's ninety total." Jasper wasn't sure why, but that bothered her somehow. Like there should have been more. "There aren't any other gems?"

Nothing but shrugs and shakes of the head answered her. "Just the green one, if she counts. She has a gem."

Jasper wasn't quite sure the green one should be counted, but that she kept to herself. "All right. I need volunteers. Some to go out and figure out exactly how big this place is. Some to venture out for a few miles and come back with information on what exactly is out there. We don't know what's safe or where we are, and I don't want to risk more of you than necessary. Now, scouts?"

Two hands shot up quickly; one was a carnelian, the other the one-armed jasper. A few more, including two of the citrines and a couple of jaspers, were more reluctant. "One-arm, belly-carnelian, small carnelian, neck-citrine, pale jasper. You go scout. Skinny jasper and tall citrine, I want you up on the highest point of the cliff to keep an eye out. Volunteers for measuring this place?"

The three tiger's eyes raised their hands as one, as did one of the jaspers whose hair spiked like horns. "I want one of you tiger's eyes to stay behind for the late-emerger. You decide which one. Left-hand jasper, go with them. The rest of you are dismissed."

Jasper's selections scattered, though it took a moment for the tiger's eyes to choose who was going to stay behind. Those who stayed behind either broke up into little groups or wandered alone, and in the end she was left with the green creature who drifted cautiously to her side the moment she was alone. She still didn't know what to make of this creature, but it seemed intelligent enough to understand her.

"You'll let me know if I mess up." Jasper didn't expect an answer. What she got was the creature's head butting into her palm. Unsure of what else to do, Jasper ran her hand down the crest of feathers on her head and the ridge down her long neck.

This was a start. Jasper just wished there was something better than flailing around with no idea what to do.

Chapter Text

A number of things happened while Jasper waited for the scouts to return. Some of the gems created a game of kicking a rock around, and rules were made at need. Eventually this turned into a big affair involving two teams trying to kick the rock into one of the holes on the other side. Another game was tussling, which usually turned into piling up on Jasper whenever she got involved and seeing how many of them she could throw off of her. Someone discovered shapeshifting one night and everyone was trying it out by morning. The tiger's eyes returned to report that they'd measured the perimeter at twenty-two thousand of the jasper's paces. Several more gems emerged, and all that remained were a jasper and a couple of carnelians still incubating. The skinny jasper and the tall citrine started tracking the stars and how the moon changed each night, and they got one of the carnelians so invested that they'd taken to naming her Skywatcher. More often than naught, the green creature retreated into her alcove when she wasn't watching new gems emerge. No one seemed particularly inclined to do anything with the green one, which was just as well.

It was during one early morning that the skinny jasper hollered at her from atop the red cliffs. Something about one of the scouts returning. The pale jasper returned with a story of a great cliff to the west where a river carved out a near-perfect circle in the cliffs, and with her she brought samples of plants that grew in the riverbanks. Some of the samples were fragrant, others carried little squishy things that released sticky liquid upon squeezing, and others still dropped hard little bits when nudged. The tiny jasper took more interest in these than the rest, and the pale jasper gave her one of the multicolored plants in her hair after much cajoling.

The smallest carnelian came back from her venture to the south a few days later, and all she had to report about was a vast expanse of badlands, dried-out canyons, and mesas. The carnelian returned when she got bored, and along the way discovered that she could curl up in a ball and rush along for short periods of time. After her came the citrine with her gem in her neck, who reported of much the same in the east.

The one-armed jasper and the belly-set carnelian didn't return for fourteen nights. When they did, the moon was waxing and they brought with them a mewling creature wrapped up in some thin, soft material. It looked like the smallest of the gems, if one squinted, except it had parts that they had to shapeshift to emulate and was much smaller than even the tiny jasper. It had brown skin like the tiger's eyes, but without the yellowish banding, and it was warm to the touch. But it seemed helpless, for it flailed its limbs around in its coverings and did not seem capable of walking on its own. It couldn't even hold its own head up. The belly-set carnelian demonstrated a little trick, where she pressed a finger to its mouth and it sucked on the tip for a few desperate moments before crying again. Jasper had misgivings about the thing and its helplessness outright bothered her, but she had no idea what to do about it.

As if summoned by the weak little cries, the green creature darted from her alcove with more energy than she'd ever shown before. She had barely one good look before she started screeching at them. The crest of feathers rose in what Jasper could only guess was alarm, and she butted hard into Jasper's thigh. Which didn't tell Jasper much, but it was as good an excuse as any to get rid of the bundle.

"Take it back where you found it," she said in that tone she'd started cultivating, the one that brooked no argument. It was a work in progress.

"But there are… I don't know, not-gems? They look like us, but also like this thing." The belly-set carnelian gestured absently at the squirming brown creature. "They'll have noticed it's gone by now."

Jasper grunted and bit down the urge to berate the two scouts for their short-sightedness. This creature was weak and looked to be growing weaker by the minute, and she suspected that she didn't have time to properly rip into them. Which meant that she would have to take it, herself. "Then tell me where you found it and I'll handle it."

The one-armed jasper looked a little more contrite than her companion, and she rubbed absently at the place where her left shoulder should be. "Yeah. Um. Sorry. The… not-gems are up north, at the river banks."

The carnelian glanced at the one-armed jasper and seemed to take her cues from her, for guilt twisted uncomfortably on her face. "We'll take you."

It was something, and she would have ordered one of them to go with her had the carnelian not volunteered, anyway. Jasper turned to scan the audience of nervous gems for one of the watchers. Not that the skinny jasper was hard to miss; she'd leaned over the canyon wall to watch. "Skinny! You're in charge until I get back."

The skinny jasper waved her off and Jasper took the bundle carefully from the carnelian's arms. Its tiny face scrunched up in discomfort from the handling. Jasper arranged it in her arms until it was more comfortable, and started walking north at a brisk pace. The two scouts had to trot to keep up with her. Frankly, they deserved the extra work.

She followed the river bed, her stride covering several feet of sun-baked mud and sand at a time with ease. The canyon opened up to a wide clearing where the river must have pooled, and the cliffs had eased into gentler slopes on either side of her. For four miles had the dried-out river bed given her an easy path, but then they came to a rough upthrust of unyielding sandstone divided by a fissure in the rock too narrow and uneven for her to pass through. It looked like it dipped downwards, too, which meant climbing into the unknown.

"The going gets rougher here on out. If you don't go through and walk over instead, you'll have to detour on both sides to avoid the side-canyons. If you go through, you'll have to be shapeshifting and squeezing through for about… six hundred paces?" The carnelian frowned as she tried to recall the specifics of her earlier trek. "It was six hundred thirty something for me, but I just walked over, not through. She did the walk-through."

The one-armed jasper rubbed at the gem embedded in her left-side ribs self-consciously. "It's really interesting going through, but you'd have to be my size to manage it. Even then, there's a lot of climbing involved. And then there's an even tighter canyon five hundred paces north."

That made up Jasper's mind for her. She hadn't tried shapeshifting yet, and she wasn't interested in banging this bundle of not-gem against the rocks in the attempt. "Long way, then. Which side?"

"Right side is easier going, but you have to detour about a thousand fifty of my paces from the canyon rim to avoid climbing through the side-canyon," the carnelian explained, and illustrated the steepness of the side-canyon with her hands. "The left side is rougher. The side-canyons aren't as steep and there are more of them."

Right it was, because a detour sounded like less of a hassle than risking this bundle with multiple climbs. Jasper turned to pick her way among the rippled and scalloped red sandstone that threatened to trip her up if she didn't pay attention, and the scouts followed behind her.

The further they went with the canyon rim as a guide, the better Jasper understood why these two scouts had taken so long on their expedition. The river bed had branched out into side canyons, insets, and alcoves even before they got to the too-narrow slot of a canyon, and it didn't take much to guess that they had explored everything along the way. Scrubby little plants eked out an existence in the dun and red dust above the canyon, and they sheltered little animals that could almost distract Jasper if she didn't have this not-gem to return. A few horned, four-legged animals nibbled at the plants and paid the passing gems little mind, and Jasper ignored them in turn. The going was slower over the rough sandstone outcrops and the few detours they had to take, but she was still making progress.

In time, the wind brought with it new smells/tastes that took her a moment to match up with whatever knowledge was stored in her gem. Wet stone and earth, warmed by the sun. Smoke and vegetation. A myriad of other smells that didn't fall into predefined parameters. She chose to follow the wind and leave the guidance of the canyon rim, because the smoke didn't smell quite right and there was a hill further north from which she could use to view the landscape. The one-armed jasper, upon noticing her walking away from them, ran to catch up with her and fall in to a respectable distance near her side.

"We found the not-gem this way, where the little river drains into the bigger one."

"Yeah, well, there's a hill I'm going to check things out from," Jasper countered, her eyes more on where she was going than anything else. The footing was getting to be tricky the further along they went. "There's smoke's coming from further north. Tastes weird. Was there fire where you took this thing from?"

The one-armed jasper huffed in irritation. Jasper could hear the carnelian trot up to catch up with them, but the carnelian said nothing. "Yes, but—"

"If we find nothing where the smoke is coming from, we'll look where you found it." Jasper left it at that and continued on her way up the gentle slope of the hill.

The little scrubby plants got more frequent the closer they got to the river, and soon enough she could see brilliant blue sky reflecting in the river water and the vibrant green of plant life that clung insistently around it. At the top of the hill she could see further still, and across from the river were rough-hewn cliffs of dun, rusty red, and chalky white. Beyond those cliffs were buttes and mesas jutting against the sky as if in challenge. Far in the distance, pale and faded against the horizon, were mountains. There was an ancient, harsh beauty to the landscape that she hadn't had the time to truly appreciate until now.

"There they are! The not-gems moved!" The carnelian chirped suddenly, pointing at cluster of brush shelters next to the river shore and the brown not-gems moving around them. The carnelian and one-armed jasper made their way over the edge of the cliff, and Jasper retraced her steps down the gentle slope. It might have taken longer to walk around to where the scouts were waiting, but the bundle in her arms had squirmed to remind her of its presence and she wasn't going to do anything different in her treatment of it now.

A not-gem stood at the outer edge of the camp and shouted something at them that she couldn't make out. She paused, confused, as it continued to say things to her. Then other not-gems emerged from their shelters and pointed at the bundle in her arms, and some of them wielded spears and darts and things her gem had no name for. None of the weapons looked particularly threatening, so she waited for them to calm down. Then, between one minute and the next, something seemed to change. She could make out the intent behind the words. Another minute and the words started to make sense to her. They were confused and saw the gems as strangers, and why did the gems take their… baby? Jasper glanced briefly at the bundle and tried to find the words to explain what happened.

"Our scouts took this without knowing what it is. We're new to this world. Sorry." The scouts muttered their own apologies as she held out the baby. One of the not-gems stepped forward to take the bundle from her, and on its face was relief tinged with confusion. It looked over the baby and lifted it to the mounds on its chest; the baby attached its mouth on one and began suckling. The other not-gems lowered their weapons.

"You are strange and do not look like any people we know," the not-gem said. "What do you mean, new?"

She wondered how long the not-gems had existed, but it was clear that they'd been around for longer than the gems. "We emerged from our holes in the time it took for the moon to go through a single cycle. We didn't exist before then."

This brought forth a smattering of perplexed murmurs from the not-gems, and another stepped forward. This one was hunchbacked and used a stick for support, and its hair different from the others of its kind in that it was white. "Did you come from the Third World?" Its voice was weak and had a rough quality that Jasper suspected wasn't natural like hers.

"We don't remember anything from before. We don't know anything," the carnelian offered with a lop-sided grin that had just a touch of self-effacement.

"And there was no one waiting for us but a green creature," the one-armed jasper added. "We just happened."

The white-haired not-gem extended its free hand, a gnarled and twisted thing that reminded Jasper of the scrubby plants, and opened it palm-up in a gesture she didn't understand. "Share our fire and we will teach you so that this doesn't happen again."

Jasper should have headed back, and she was sorely tempted. But at the same time, none of the gems knew a thing about their world and this was their best opportunity to learn something. Knowing something was better than nothing at all. So she agreed and let the white-haired one lead them to a fire contained by rings of stone and sand, and they sat around it as the not-gem explained the world.

They learned of the differences between not-gems—people—and their growing stages. A small person sat with the carnelian and was introduced as a child, a girl, and she showed the carnelian her collection of little animal-shaped figures made of twigs. The carnelian laughed and played with her, and the figures were used to name different kinds of animals. They learned of clothing and tools and their creation, and Jasper took an interest in the weapons because they might be useful. They learned of food and water and their preparations, and the carnelian and one-armed jasper were quick to experiment with eating and drinking. They learned that the people traveled with the seasons, and that it was early summer and the people harvested plant foods in this time. They learned that their canyon would be inundated with floodwaters come mid-to-late summer, the season of storms. And, after a day and night, Jasper learned how to hunt the antelope that resided among the rocks. She took to it naturally; even though the dart-thrower felt awkward and small in her hands, she appreciated how it magnified the penetrative force of a dart thrown from it. Then the people taught them how to tan its leather and use the antlers for making spear and dart points out of flint, and how to fashion bones into whistles and tools. The carnelian and one-armed jasper, who decided to accept the names Aster and Dandelion, took more easily to snare-building and trapping.

After four days and nights, Jasper decided that it was time to return. The elder gifted her with a dart-thrower made to her size and a short, simple leather cloak that barely covered her shoulders. Aster, who had taken to the children, was given a figure of a sheep and a flute. Dandelion, whose name was offered to her based on her wanderlust and the nature of dandelion seeds, received rope and a walking stick to aid her explorations. Now that Jasper knew the people and some of their ways, she recognized the gesture as a sign of goodwill and a proposal of a future relationship between the people and the gems and accepted them with newly-acquired grace.

It was morning when Jasper, Aster, and Dandelion returned to their canyon. The gems crowded eagerly around them, and Jasper let Aster and Dandelion tell their tale and sought out a little privacy after several days without. She ended up at the green one's alcove and sat with her back against the sandstone wall. It was a full thirty minutes before the green one came out to look at her with an expression she couldn't quite read. When she did nothing in response, the green one settled at her side.

"We took the baby back to his people," she began, though she never expected any real response from the green one. And male pronouns still felt so strange, but she was getting used to them. "Just in time. The people taught us things they thought would help us survive. They'll be leaving soon, but they'll be back at the river next year. It might be help to stay friendly with them. What do you think?"

The green one gave her a look that might have been approval and settled her chin on Jasper's knee. Jasper's hand settled on the green one's back and stroked down it in that way that the green one seemed to like. It did remind her of something, and she chuckled. "Ah, eheh. Aster, the carnelian scout, says you might be our mother and the people agreed. What do you think? We need something to call you."

The dark green eyes almost looked appraising, and then they closed. "'Mother' it is, then. You can correct us when you're ready."

Jasper didn't need a verbal answer. The answering chirp and the way Mother relaxed against her was enough.

Chapter Text

One thousand, four hundred-something winters had passed since the gems emerged from their uneven sandstone walls. Jasper had lost count of how many generations of people there had been since the baby she'd returned had grown up and died of old age, and that was largely because other gems enjoyed diplomacy more than she did and took up the role for her. Dandelion and Aster left long ago, driven by a need to wander, and returned every few hundred years or so to draw up maps and share their experiences. A great circular house arose above the canyon, as they had no need to follow the herds or migrate to take advantage of growing seasons. Though it was made in the image of the pit-houses to the south, they were reluctant to dig straight into the sandstone that was too close to the surface for a proper pit. It was their shelter during the storms, a resting space for those who wanted to escape the sun, a meeting place for the few times Jasper needed to make major decisions that affected all of them, and a storage space for the crafters. Except for the few who kept their gem names, the others took their names from their skills, pet interests, or defining features. The skinny jasper was officially Twig, though she had played with the idea of being called Bowyer for a while. The pale jasper became Scouter, for she had the best long-distance vision of all of them. The citrine with the unusually long neck was called Egret by the people she dealt with and adopted the name as her own. And so on. In the end, Jasper remained Jasper because she didn't feel the need to be called anything else.

With diplomacy out of her hands and the gems largely capable of handling themselves, Jasper existed in a quagmire of discontent. She wasn't sure why, either. Except for hunting, which was purely recreational and mostly just to keep the crafters and eaters happy, she hadn't taken to various crafts and skills as well as the other gems. Her hands were enormous and unsuited for delicate work, after all. The bulk of the skills she could do either bored her or frustrated her, or both. It was like she was made for something this world couldn't provide. At least not yet; the people were always inventing something new and it was only a matter of time before they developed something more suited to her tastes. The closest she could come to real satisfaction was participating in the games, and mostly just when the odds were stacked against her and it was just her against an entire team.

For the most part, Jasper spent her downtime with Mother. Though the green gem creature was still skittish and prone to running off and hiding in her alcove when startled, she stayed by Jasper's side otherwise. She associated with other gems, too, but she seemed to favor Jasper. Jasper didn't always speak to her, but that never really mattered. It was almost comfortable, even with Jasper's discontent lingering at the back of her mind like a stubborn weed that resisted every attempt to sweep it aside.

Late one winter night, when the evening's snowfall dusted the rocks with a rare light layer of white and the stars looked like they were softly glowing against a raven's wing, there was a whooshing sound unlike any of the winds that whistled through the canyon. It was followed shortly by footsteps that ventured out for a few paces or so, and then there was that whoosh again and the footsteps were gone. The call of a grackle, a bird that favored the rivers and only migrated to the northern river in the summer, got her attention. With great reluctance, Jasper extricated herself from her bundle of furs in front of the house's contained fire, rearranged them around the green creature who had tucked into her side, and stepped around crafters and hibernators to leave the fuzzy warmth of the house for the sharp slap of the frozen outdoors. While gems weren't affected by the cold like people were, she was still very aware of the changes in temperatures and preferred her place in front of the hearth.

Owleyes, a carnelian with her gem set at the small of her back who had the best night vision, stood over the crack above the alcove where a large, smooth crystalline disk was set upon a pedestal. Her posture was uneven, for one of her legs was shorter than the other and ended in more of a club than a foot. She gave a grackle's click-and-chirrup that was the all-clear signal. Still, Jasper slipped as soundlessly as she could to the carnelian's side and looked down into the crack. Nothing seemed amiss.

"There was that whoosh and the crack lit up," Owleyes began. Her large amber eyes blinked as she glanced up at Jasper; they looked uncertain and worried. "So I turned into an owl and flew over, and the light was coming from the platform. Someone walked out of the light and just looked around before heading back. And she's not a person. I think she's a gem."

Jasper frowned. Wayward people were common enough, but they had never encountered other gems before. She didn't want to jump to conclusions, but they weren't really equipped to deal with other gems. Jasper was the only one who managed to summon a weapon from her gem, and that was only because she'd been foolhardy during a hunt and head-butting an angry, fully-grown male bison during mating season seemed like a good idea at the time. She had been even less prepared for the crunch of skull beneath her helmet's battering surface than she had for the helmet's appearance. "Describe her."

"Cube-shaped dark hair, no winter clothes. Didn't look like any of us. Think she might have been a scout."

The frown deepened as Jasper tried to figure just what she needed to do. A scout might be harmless, but their policy had always been to interact with people, not disappear after getting a good look. It kept relations with people amicable. But a scout for a hunting party just might act like this stranger. She'd heard of different bands of people fighting with each other for resources. Was that what this stranger want, their resources? Jasper didn't know, hated not knowing, but she had to prepare for a fight just in case. She gave a brusque "thanks" and went back to the house to rouse the crafters. They had work to do.

And yet…

A day and night passed without incident or the crystalline pad lighting up again. Paintbrush, a jasper on the slimmer side who adopted art in all its forms from the river-people, chiseled a warning into the walls surrounding the pad. A week went without a flicker of light, and by then Twig and Stoneshaper had enough projectile points ready for another thousand years of hunting. A month went by and they started thinking that it had just been a visit and the strange gem was uninterested in returning. They let their guard down. Mother, who probably had no idea what was going on and was restless from overstimulation, returned to her alcove for privacy.

It was noon when the alcove lit up and Twig sounded the alarm, which was an excited warbling of a grackle. Jasper swore as she gathered up her bison-hide cloak and hunting gear. The cloak was for intimidation, the darts and thrower were to get a few shots in before going hand-to-hand if it came to that. It was awful timing; the hunting parties were out for materials and most of the crafters had gone to the river for more clay for their pots. Most of the citrines had gone to trade with the people who lived in the Mother of Canyons and had taken all but one tiger's eye with them. Jasper had been left with the watch, a handful of crafters who specialized in tanning and weaving, and the smallest members of their little village. It was as if this had been planned. Clever. She could respect that, at least. Jasper swept out of the great house, the remaining gems following close behind with their own atlatls, spears, clubs, and bows and arrows.

They were quiet as they crossed the sandstone to the chasm they'd emerged from. Twig waved and held up four fingers for four strangers and gestured the path the strangers were taking within the canyon. Carnelian, the smallest of her gem and the only one who kept her name, slipped by Twig's side to hand her her bow and quiver. Owleyes, who didn't appreciate being roused in the daytime and glared at Jasper for waking her, changed into an eagle and flew over the canyon to mark where the party of strangers was at any time with a single loop. They were getting too close to Mother's alcove. Jasper pointed out a few of the gems to run ahead to trap the strangers and gestured for Twig, Carnelian, and a hefty citrine named Mouse to join her.

The party that went ahead turned into rattlesnakes and slithered quietly towards the spillway with a speed that was almost enviable. Jasper and her party stalked along the canyon rim, just out of sight and silent as can be. It was their domain, and one they had learned for over a thousand years. The strangers were quiet, too, but they didn't know that stepping just so in the sand at a certain point might turn their ankles, or that some rocks hidden under the sand might crack loudly when stepped on. Jasper could hear one of them huff in annoyance when a hidden rock crunched under their feet. Then the strangers stopped. Right in front of Mother's alcove.

There was a shriek and Jasper nearly froze in shock when she recognized the voice. Who would attack Mother? She jerked her head towards the sound and jumped into the canyon. Her feet met with sandstone outcroppings only briefly as she made her way down. Jasper and her party landed with heavy thuds in the sand behind the strangers. Before anyone could gather their wits, Jasper launched a dart at the part of the wall close to big pink gem's head. It impacted within a hair's breadth of her face and the flint dart point embedded itself in the stone through sheer power, and she spun to face Jasper. Jasper knocked back another dart, one of the metal-tipped ones, and was aiming it at the big pink one's gem when Carnelian darted in front of her.

"Leave Mom alone!"

The strangers' eyes focused on Carnelian, who was practically incandescent in her rage. The distraction was just long enough to allow Jasper a quick assessment of the strangers. Big and pink was closer to her height, but looked soft. Yet, there were muscles under that softness that suggested that it was foolish to underestimate her. The pale, lanky one brandished a spear that looked almost immaterial next to Mouse's heavy, flint-tipped monstrosity. The one that was midway in height between the lanky gem and the pink gem had her dark, densely-curled hair shaped in a cube and her fists took the forms of deep red blocks that looked almost too big for her slim arms. And, finally, there was a small, purple gem that looked like she should have been one of them, for she wouldn't have looked as out of place with the other small gems of their village. And she seemed to be aware, too, of Carnelian being nearly her size. A quick grin flashed on her face.

"'Mom'?" the pale, lanky gem echoed in bewilderment. Blue eyes that looked too big for her face scanned their party and seemed to fix on the earthy, green-brown rhombus on Jasper's chest. The small purple gem's grin faded. "Look… whoever you are, this corrupted gem needs to be contained. It's for her own good."

Somewhere between Carnelian's outburst of indignation and the strangers' distraction, Mother darted around them with startling speed and cowered behind Jasper's legs. Frankly, that told Jasper everything she needed to know.

With the quick accuracy of long years of practice, Jasper hurled the metal-tipped dart at the big pink one's gem. There was a sudden flash of sunrise-pink light and the dart embedded itself in a great pink shield that materialized before it could meet its mark. Twig followed up with a shower of arrows, all of which shattered harmlessly against the shield or were swept aside by the delicate-looking spear. With a growl of frustration, Twig threw her quiver aside and used her bow as a staff against the pale stranger. Until the stranger set aside leniency and used Twig's frustration against her, they might have been matched. Mouse charged forward with flint-tipped spear in one hand and a club hanging off her belt, and the dark red gem splintered the spear's shaft with a single squeeze of her oversized hands. Mouse used what remained as a staff to balance with as she switched tactics and danced and weaved around the punches instead in what might have been a mimicry of the dancing they'd learned from the river people, using her club to attempt to get strikes in when she could. Carnelian, who had learned to weaponize the spin-dashes they could all do, attempted to trip up the strangers by weaving between their legs. But the short purple gem saw her coming and deflected Carnelian with a spin-dash of her own, which sent Carnelian flying into a nearby wall.

Jasper shrugged off her cloak and tossed aside her hunting tools. She could hear the second party stampeding in, but they had less of a chance than her own. The big pink gem seemed to be the leader, and Jasper had to take her down. She summoned her helmet and charged like she had for those bison that made up her cloak, taking advantage of the others' distraction.

It wasn't even a contest. The big pink gem grabbed her helmet and threw her hard against the ground, and shattered the helmet with her shield rammed against the weakest part of it. She rolled Jasper onto her back and pinned her down, and Jasper felt the hard edge of the shield pressed hard against her throat. The metal dart point, broken off from the first shield, was held against her gem. She expected to see triumph, pride, or gloating in the pink gem's dark eyes. What she saw instead was a sad weariness that was almost disarming.

"We don't need to fight," the pink gem said. Her voice sounded like the layers of stone at the Mother of Canyons, impossibly ancient and with a history Jasper couldn't hope to comprehend. "Tell your gems to stand down. Let's talk this out."

Jasper managed a glance at the sorry state of her gems. Mouse's entire form was shuddering and parts of her seemed to be blinking in and out of existence, and she and Carnelian were held tight by the dark red gem. Twig's bow had been splintered at one point and the pale, lanky gem with the too-large blue eyes had her pinned against a wall. And the little purple gem had the entire second party and Owleyes bound in what she guessed were lengths of purple rope. Jasper slumped against the sand-covered dried riverbed of the canyon floor. Defeat tasted foul in her mouth.

"We surrender."

Chapter Text

Jasper was used to lingering at the sides with a distinct sense of irrelevance as she watched her gems socializing. Other jaspers tended to be introverted as well, but they were more prone to being swept along in the effulgent passions of the citrines or the vivacity of the carnelians. Jasper couldn't afford that. So she watched as her surrender dissipated tensions with a greater sense of uselessness than usual. The pink gem dismissed her shield and threw aside the dart point, and the dark red one let Carnelian go to better support Mouse's flicking form. The purple one whose gem shared the same number of facets and orientation as the citrines dropped her rope and it dissipated, releasing her gems. The pale gem released Twig. The pink gem offered a hand to help her up, which she sneered at with all the rancor of wounded pride and disregarded as she got to her feet. Damned if she was going to accept help now.

"I'll heal your citrine and then we'll talk." The pink gem flashed her a reassuring half-smile. Jasper glowered, but otherwise did nothing to stop her.

The purple gem introduced herself as Amethyst to Carnelian and the tiny jasper, Sage. Her grin was very nearly face-splitting as she compared her height to Carnelian, who was just a little taller, and Sage, who was shorter. She turned to wave vigorously at the tall, pale stranger. "Pearl! Look! We're all about the same size!"

"That's wonderful," Pearl replied, her voice almost indulgent. Her attention returned to Twig when Amethyst's returned to her fellow runts, and she resumed a lecture on where Twig had gone wrong in their fight. Twig simply watched and nodded along with the air of long, quiet suffering that Jasper sometimes took. Jasper might almost be sympathetic, if the skinny jasper wasn't prone to doing the same damn lecturing thing to her.

Her attention turned to Mouse, held in the dark red gem's arms. The pink gem loomed over Mouse to examine her gem. Was there damage to it? In the fourteen hundred years they'd been out of the ground, none of them had managed to injure their gems. But then, none of them had been this outclassed in a fight.

"Hello, citrine. I'm Rose Quartz," the pink gem began in a gentle, delicate voice. Her fingers brushed the thick, honey-gold hair out of Mouse's face. "Can you tell me about yourself?"

Mouse's form jittered and flickered, and she looked too far gone to answer. Jasper grimaced and stepped forward to speak for her. "Her name is Mouse because she was dared to eat one and refused. It was her pet until it died. Gets into trouble gambling with the carnelians."

Rose Quartz smiled, and her thick black lashes fluttered as her eyes seemed to fill with tears on command. "She sounds wonderful." The tears fell, thick and gleaming in the too-bright sunlight, on the cracked gem in Mouse's chest. The cloudy yellow gem glinted, shimmered, and the deep fissures diminished until the gem shone like new. Mouse's form stabilized and she pulled away from the red gem as soon as she could get her bearings.

"You punched my gem!" Mouse's voice rang in the canyon, loud and indignant. "Who does that?"

The red gem simply shrugged. "Miscalculation. Sorry 'bout that."

Undeterred, Mouse took a deep breath in preparation for one of her usual diatribes and Jasper immediately ignored her. She shrugged her cloak back on and turned her attention to Rose Quartz, who stood just slightly shorter than her. Still, she came closer to Jasper's height than anyone else and that made her their leader. "Tell your gems to lay off of Mother and we'll talk."

"Of course." Rose Quartz straightened and turned towards Pearl. As if sensing a need for her presence, Pearl abandoned Twig and practically glided across the canyon floor with all the airs of one who knew exactly who and what she was. Jasper was almost envious. "Pearl, we're going to discuss this. Let's leave the corrupted gem alone for now."

Pearl's voice, when turned to Rose Quartz, was fond. Something about her softened. It took Jasper a moment to figure out what was up. Pair bonding was something more frequent among people than her gems, but it wasn't unusual. After all, Aster and Dandelion were practically wives at this point. "As you wish."

Rose Quartz's eyes glittered with something unnameable as she smiled at Pearl. She lingered long enough to blink it away before turning to Jasper. "Do you have a place where we can be alone?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Jasper could see Carnelian perk up in curiosity. She grunted and pitched her voice with that edge that got attention. "Twig!"

The skinny jasper waved; they didn't need much else to communicate, not anymore. She knew her role as Jasper's second well enough and knew that she would be expected to discourage curious gems from following her. Jasper started towards the north exit, and then she was blocked by the red gem. How she managed to get past Mouse, Jasper didn't know and didn't really care. The red gem gave a respectful nod.

"The corrupted one has a gem." There was a question there somewhere and it hung in the air, awkward and unvoiced.

Jasper's eyes narrowed at what sounded like an order. Just who did the red gem think she was? Yet, she just wanted to get this over with so she could find Mother. "It's a round gem. Pale. Like Pearl's, but sort of… sage-green. Set on top of her left hand."

The red gem turned her face to Rose Quartz. It was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes covered the way they were. "It's the informant. The Kindergartener."

Jasper's brow furled as she watched Rose Quartz's face fall into something that looked so old and tired, and her voice sounded almost fragile. "Oh. I'd hoped… Just maybe…" Her plump lips pressed into a thin line as the snow-white material of her dress bunched in her fists. "Thank you, Garnet. Jasper, would you lead the way?"

Jasper jerked her head towards the north entrance, and Rose Quartz followed her out. They headed east, away from the great house, and Rose Quartz easily matched her stride even as they ascended the hill that led to Jasper's favorite vantage point. Finally meeting someone who was a match for her, and better than her at fighting, was disconcerting. More disconcerting was that Rose Quartz seemed to feel no need to prove herself or rub in her victory. And the strangers seemed to know Mother. Sort of. It wasn't until Jasper reached the white dolomite butte sticking out from the sandstone like a beacon that she stopped and asked.

"How do you know Mother? What's corruption? Where did you come from? How are you that much better than us? What—"

Rose Quartz looked perplexed at first, then amused. She chuckled lightly, with a warmth that only made it harder to resent her swooping in and thoroughly trouncing Jasper the way she did. "Give me time to answer! Please."

Rather than reply immediately, Jasper folded her arms and leaned back against the butte's cliff. The elevation allowed her a view of the river valley, the cracks of the canyon she was made in, and the circular great house mounted on the hill on the other side of the valley. Climbing to the top gave her a better view, but generally she didn't feel like making the effort. When she really wanted to be alone, she would decompress out here. "I've got time."

"Did humans make that building?" Rose Quartz asked suddenly, her eyes on the great house. It was a distraction, and Jasper narrowed her eyes in disgust at how blatant it was.

She would let it pass, for now. "We did. The builders visited the southern people to learn how to make it. That has nothing to do with my questions."

The pink gem chuckled lightly. "Sorry. I want to know everything about you and your gems! But you deserve answers.

"Before you must have emerged, there was a war." Rose Quartz's dark eyes had that distant look that was common with the more pensive citrines. "The one you call Mother was one of our informants. I didn't know her well… She was shy, and I think quartzes scared her. She bonded more quickly with Garnet and Snowflake when she was around, and that wasn't very often. Pearls—that's her gem—are always complicated, and I don't think any of us knew what to do with someone with her… history. Most pearls don't… It doesn't matter. Towards the end of the war, we started suspecting that she was withholding some information from us. We never said anything, of course, because our movement was about choices and it seemed that she made hers. When H—the other faction pulled out and set off the corruption, we just thought that she'd gone with them. But this?" Rose Quartz gestured at the canyon, and at the great house on the other side of it. "We had no idea."

Jasper cocked a dark eyebrow. Rose Quartz was obviously meandering, but there was still a lot of information dropped where she paused and deviated. There were implications that Jasper would have to ponder later, or share with the thinkers in the hopes that they could decode them. "About what?"

"I knew only that she was… with a Kindergartener. Garnet might know more. They built your Kindergarten and the informant never said a thing to us about it." Rose Quartz's lips curled into a lopsided smile as her eyes returned to glance quickly at the green-brown rhombus on Jasper's uniform. "I think she would like being called your mother. It must be wonderful to be able to create new life."

"So she doesn't know?"

The smile faded and pursed into a line of bitter contemplation. "The other faction thought to defeat us with corruption. It's like… I'm not sure how to describe it. It scrambles gems and they're not themselves anymore. I don't think they remember what they're supposed to look like. Your 'Mother' should look a bit like Pearl, but… you see how she is now. We tried to heal them and nothing seems to work. It's kinder to just contain them until we can figure something out."

She didn't know a single thing about gems. Not really, and certainly nothing they were able to figure out on their own. Mostly what they learned about themselves was through accident. But she knew that Mother was harmless and preferred to keep to herself. It struck Jasper as unnecessarily cruel to attack and contain her, whatever that meant. "You're not containing Mother. She was here before us. She was here to watch us come out. She's staying the way she is."

"If that's what you want." Rose Quartz's voice was soft in its concession, but there was a hint of disapproval somewhere in there that Jasper was quick to recognize. "What of the other corrupted gems you'll come across in time? They won't all be as easy to handle as yours. They've been known to attack humans, and humans aren't as resilient as gems."

Jasper's answer was brusque; she made a mental note to consult the other gems. "We'll figure it out."

"When you do, let us know. I'd like for us to be friends." The smile returned. "May we come back? Amethyst would appreciate getting to know other quartzes like her."

"We couldn't stop you the first time." She let the implication hang in the air. Admitting to being outclassed rankled, and she wasn't prepared to extend the hand of friendship quite yet.

Rose Quartz's dark eyes twinkled in suppressed amusement; she was likely amply familiar with pride like Jasper's. "We'll know better next time. I promise. Shall we return?"

Jasper shrugged and led the way back. Once back in the canyon, Rose Quartz gathered up her gems and they disappeared in their beam of light. Jasper ignored the excited questions sent her way, let Twig shoo the curious gems away, and looked around for Mother.

By evening, Jasper found the corrupted gem cowering in the far back of Twig's hole, curled up in as tight a ball as she could manage and shaking so badly that Jasper thought she might dislodge her feathers. She rapped lightly on the rim of the hole to get the terrified gem's attention and spoke as gently as she could manage. "They're gone. You can come out now."

The pale green head lifted from where it hid under a wing to blink too-large eyes at her, and the shaking slowly abated. Jasper supposed there was a bit of a resemblance between the corrupted gem and Pearl. She pulled away to give Mother room to leave the safety of the hole, if she wanted. A few minutes later, Jasper sat with her back against the sandstone wall, waiting. No point in rushing her, after all. There was time enough to brief the other gems, and the crafters would be returning from the river soon enough to distract them anyway.

Mother came out when the sun set and settled into the space between Jasper's side and the sandstone wall. Her crest was still pressed tightly against her head, but she wasn't shaking anymore. That was something. Jasper made no move to pat her, or do anything that might be interpreted as a threat. "No one is going to hurt you. Not on my watch."

There was no vocal response. There never was. But Mother's chin settled on Jasper's knee as she relaxed, and Jasper's hand took its usual place on her back. Jasper would have to figure out what to do about the strange gems and how they fit in her world, but there was time.

The entrance to their temple was partially illuminated by the reflection of the bright mid-afternoon sun on the waves when Rose returned with her gems, and the thick snow that accumulated over the day had an almost golden glow where it was exposed to the wave-reflected sunlight. Her face nearly ached with the width of her grin, and she was sure her eyes were dancing. What a marvel it was, to find other gems who had escaped corruption! Gems who were fortunate enough to escape Homeworld's indoctrination and the standard Kindergarten programming! She had wanted to question the big jasper about everything they had experienced, but it was too soon and she certainly didn't want to overwhelm her. But they had time.

"Rose!" Amethyst's voice was a mass of excited glee and anticipation, and she hopped off the warp pad and spun on her heel in front of the temple door. Her grin was nearly as large as Rose's. "When are we going back?"

Rose couldn't help but laugh; Amethyst's unfettered enthusiasm was always a delight. In her darkest moments, when she remembered who she really was, Amethyst always managed to bolster her spirits. "Soon, hopefully!"

Amethyst's indigo eyes twinkled as she spoke, and she practically thrummed with energy. "Great! Did you see? There were so many short gems like me! And Carnelian says the tiger's eyes are all short! And they collect stuff, too!"

"That's wonderful!" A little part of Rose missed having a hoard, someplace to store her distractions, but her room couldn't contain things while also projecting whatever she wished. Maybe… "Maybe you could share something of yours with them?"

"Yeah! I'm gonna look for my favorite flat thing!" With that, Amethyst darted into her room. The door closed behind her as Pearl's hand fell on Rose's arm. She moved to lace her fingers with Pearl's, and a silence fell on the veterans as they mulled over the day's events.

Garnet spoke up minutes later, and her face was unreadable. "This changes things."

Pearl's fingers tightened against hers, and Rose patted them with her free hand. She could only imagine what might be going through her beloved's mind, and none of it was good. She glanced down with as reassuring a smile as she could manage.

"They came out after the war. They had to, or they'd be corrupted, too." Pearl glanced up, and still she was worried. "They don't know anything about the pearl who made them, but you saw how protective they are about her."

"She never said anything to us about that second Kindergarten," Pearl murmured. She looked guilty, as if corruption was her fault. She always took things personally. Rose untangled their fingers to pull her close, offering silent support should she need it. "I—I should have gotten to know her better, but there just wasn't time, and she was so much older than me and I didn't know what to do with her…"

Pearls didn't last that long, Rose recalled. Not without being deeply traumatized. None of them knew what to do about the little green pearl who talked rarely and looked like she wanted to hide half the time whenever a large gem would so much as glance at her. And she'd been through, what was it? Three or four owners? Rose could barely fathom what Pearl went through, and Pearl hadn't been… recycled like that. Perhaps it was kinder to let this one corrupted gem be with quartzes who clearly loved her enough to fight for her.

"She isn't our fault," Garnet said suddenly, with the kind of solid resolution that grounded them. Rose flashed her a quick, grateful smile as she cuddled Pearl close. Pearl only put up a token resistance, and likely as a response to her bald attempt at reassurance.

Rose followed up on the lead quickly. "The corruption was the Diamonds' fault. Everything we did was for the greater good." Pink Diamond, you desperately sad little idiot, the small speck of self-doubt that she tried to ignore whispered. Bismuth. You killed yourself and look what happened because you were just too dull to find another way. She forced herself to think of better things. "And we have new gems to get to know! Isn't that great?"

"I suppose they'll need training," Pearl said at last, dryly. She sighed in response to Rose's sudden grin. "And you'll want me to do it."

"They deserve the best," Rose admitted. Then, with a teasing gleam in her eye, she swept up Pearl and Garnet in her arms and strode over to the temple door. "But first, cuddle time!"

"Rose—!"

Garnet glanced at Pearl and made a passable effort at shrugging. "Shh, let her have this."

Pearl gave up on mock-indignity and relaxed as Rose carried them both off to her room. Anything complicated and stressful could wait. Now she just wanted to celebrate the fact that she had so many gems who survived and were uncorrupted. Gems she could guide and appreciate. Gems who adopted human ways because it was all they knew and all they needed to know, and who could direct their own futures because they didn't have Homeworld to stifle them the way it had her.

The least Rose could do was help them, come what may.

Chapter Text

The word on the wind was that the people of the great western woods, where giant trees reached into the sky and were cloaked in clouds, happened across a monster during a hunt. It had been chased away from its den by the party with only a few minor injuries among the hunters. That was what had been told to Aster and Dandelion, who returned with the news. In light of this, combined with Rose Quartz's warning, Jasper had to face the fact that something had to be done about the corrupted gems.

The fire crackled in the warm dark of the great house, and its smoke wafted towards the centrally-placed hole in the roof and veiled the stars. Seated in circles around it were ninety-one gems. Some of them wore cloaks like Jasper's as marks of their hunting prowess, others wore flowers and leaves woven in their hair, and others still preferred to remain unadorned. Wives and close friends cuddled together, and gems with varying conflicts with their neighbors kept a respectful distance from each other. Strips of dried meat, fragments of cracked and sun-dried bones, and nut-and-seed honey rolls were passed around in baskets. Jasper deferred from taking anything from the basket offered to her, and Twig took it from her and passed it on to Carnelian. Carnelian took a strip and sucked on it before passing the basket on. Mother paid attention to nothing at all, curled as she was between Twig and Carnelian, and simply seemed to be enjoying the warmth and company.

Egret sat across from Jasper, on the other side of the fire. Her neck was a good three times longer than it should have been, and she covered it self-consciously in a scarf of woven fur strips. The citrine gem set where her right eye should be reflected the firelight as she basked in her element. "We can learn so much from the new gems," she said at last, and she tried and failed to hide the smile that tugged at the corners of her lips. "A relationship with them can only benefit all of us."

"Fine, but we need to figure out what to do with corrupted gems in case this happens again. We need to create boundaries," Jasper replied. "No corrupted gem needs to be harmed, but the Crystal Gems disagree. They'll need to be herded somewhere without people. Suggestions?"

To Egret's left were Dandelion and Aster, so freshly returned from a trip far north that they huddled together under the polar bear hide they'd brought back with them. Dandelion's hand fidgeted with a leather pouch that contained memory aids; each bead, seed, shell, potsherd, or quill was a marker representing the bands of people she and Aster had come across in their travels. They'd had to wait until the wanderers returned before making a decision, because no one knew this part of the world and all of its people like Aster and Dandelion. "Every place has meaning to some band of people or another." Dandelion rummaged through her pouch as Aster spoke for her. "You're not going to find a place free of people unless you cross the seas or go so far north as to be impractical, and even then the people tell stories of other people far away. Having a place for the corrupted gems is a nice idea, but you'll still have to ask people for permission to use those places."

"Your best option for this preserve is the western badlands," Dandelion said. She pulled out a lizard claw and some mesquite beans, and toyed with them as she spoke. "The people there hunt and gather in family groups. They keep to the rivers and creeks, but do venture further in the badlands to hunt and perform rituals. Their languages may be distantly related to that of our southern neighbors. Living on the land is hard for them, and they will appreciate gifts of additional food and materials. According to their stories, this land once had a milder climate, more lakes, and larger animals to hunt. It has been growing hotter and drier by the year. If corrupted gems are like us and unaffected by the heat, and if the people are properly warned about keeping their distance, the people may be amenable to sharing the hottest parts of their lands with those gems."

It sounded promising, but Jasper would rather have more to go on. "What are our other options?"

Dandelion returned the lizard claw and beans to her pouch and pulled out a seal tooth and a tuft of thick black fur tied off with dried sinew. "As far north as you can go is a frozen desert. The ice extends into and retreats from the sea with the seasons. However, marine hunters travel this land regardless of season and maintain trade relations with similar people further away. The ice makes this land unpredictable, and the extent of trade and intermarriage might be an issue. East and south are too thickly populated by people." And then the tokens were returned to their pouch. "We would suggest the western badlands."

"What about the plateau across the Silty River? It's a lot closer," Sage said, from Carnelian's other side. The smallest jasper was impossible to see at this angle, wedged as she was between larger gems, but she had a way of making herself heard. Usually with reason, sometimes by shouting larger gems down with a tone in her voice that people usually reserved for disobedient children and pets. "Why journey for days if we can keep an eye on them close to home?"

Dandelion looked up from the fire to lock eyes with Sage; she didn't like being challenged so publicly. "It's a lot more populated, too."

"We already have good relations with our neighbors." Sage's voice had that exasperated edge she used so often. As frustrating as Jasper could find her bullishness sometimes, she appreciated her spirit. "They'll at least listen to us. It's irresponsible to expend resources to range further for something that's not even guaranteed. What if something happens that the people can't handle? It would take weeks just for word to reach us."

"If I may?" Egret's voice was soft, as if she was afraid of being rude. Yet she was the diplomat, along with her sister citrine Primrose and the carnelian with a twisted back, Wren. Jasper gestured for her to continue. "People appreciate anything that reduces their workload. We can melt down some of the machine parts for tools. Fish hooks, needles, and the like. Whatever option we choose, such tools would surely be welcome."

"Nothing that can be used as a weapon." Citrine said suddenly, from somewhere behind Jasper. Citrine's skeptical personality was closest to Jasper's, and it was only natural that they tended to favor each other's opinions. When Citrine reported manifesting her own weapon during the trade outing to the Mother of Canyons, a blunt warhammer with a striking surface similar to Jasper's helmet, Jasper was unsurprised and maybe a little pleased. The biggest differences in opinions were the tiger's eye and carnelian at her sides; Jasper wasn't interested in taking a wife like that and having two was just greedy. "People are still people, no matter where they come from. Giving them metal weapons gives them an unfair advantage against anyone they might fight with."

Jasper paused to get her thoughts in order. It was never easy, especially complicated decisions like these that would have far-ranging repercussions, but she was getting used to it. At least having advisers to listen to helped. "All right. Paintbrush, get together with the other crafters and figure out what might be a fair exchange for sharing that land. Egret, Aster, and Dandelion, I want you to pay the Silty River people a visit and make our proposal. If they say no, then we consider the alternatives. Citrine and Carnelian, go with them as protection. See if any of the river people might want to volunteer someone to help open a dialogue, first. Primrose and Wren, stay in case something comes up. We'll start on what to do with the Crystal Gems when we have an answer."

"We're not sending Mother away, are we?" Jasper couldn't place the voice immediately, for it came from somewhere several feet behind her, but it sounded like one of the tiger's eyes. Stoneshaper, probably; she liked to show off her work to Mother despite the fact that the corrupted gem likely had no idea what was going on at the best of times. Mother's eyes blinked open and her head lifted from where it had tucked over her wings for the first time since this meeting started, and Jasper wondered how much she really understood. How much of the gem she used to be was still there? She looked tense.

Jasper's eyes met with the corrupted gem's briefly; whether or not she understood was beside the point. She made them and that was more than worth Jasper's respect and all the protection the gems could offer. "No. Until she's able to tell us what she wants, she belongs with us. I want a guard on her at all times until we have a solid agreement with the Crystal Gems." The tension seemed to dissipate, though Jasper had no idea whether it was because of her words or because Twig had started stroking Mother's back.

The meeting wound down shortly afterwards, and the gathering turned into Aster and Dandelion recounting their journeys as the fire waned. Twig leaned against Jasper with her head on Jasper's shoulder and drifted off to sleep. It was peaceful, and Jasper had no idea why she felt like she had no real purpose.

.*.

Because the number of injectors was so limited, Jasper allowed the ruined one to be stripped down for materials to make the gifts they hoped would sway the Silty River people to agree to their proposition regarding the use of the plateau on which they spent their summers. Any part that seemed to sicken the mice they used to test for safety was pulled out of the injector's innards and entombed in clay, and everything that remained was broken down to easily-worked parts.

Egret thought that Jasper enjoyed the purpose that ripping apart the injector gave her. There was a gleeful glint in her eye that wasn't usually there during everyday tasks. At times Egret wondered if she should speak up and suggest that perhaps Jasper take a more active role in the more destructive aspects of building that could benefit from someone of Jasper's strength, but every time she considered opening her mouth about it, Jasper was closed off and forbidding again.

Maybe later, at a more appropriate time.

It was winter again when the gifts were made to the crafters' exacting standards—they worked to figure out how long it took to heat up the injector metal to more malleable forms, how to melt and reshape the glass, the best way to pour molten metal into molds in order to speed up the process, and how to glaze the insides of any vessels expected to hold food and water. The work became a point of pride for the crafters, and even one injector provided enough materials to gift their neighbors handsomely. The metal was stronger and lighter by far than any of the copper worked by the people of the great northern lakes, and the crafters even managed to make their vessels look nice.

The delegation to the winter camp along the Silty River, a tributary to the Great Red River north of the Kindergarten, took two days to arrive. They had taken care to be considerate of their pregnant guide from the river people, and often carried her during the climbs on canyon walls and treks over rough ground. Citrine, being fairly close to Jasper in strength if not size, carried the cluster of water skins and a collection of metal wares in nets strapped to her back. Aster carried the food supply for their guide, though most of it was meant for the people they would be petitioning for help. Dandelion led the way with her old, worn-out staff that had long since been decorated with dangling beads and reinforced with dried sinew wrapped around the shaft. Carnelian darted ahead to scout. Egret, for the most part, stayed with their guide.

Harecatcher volunteered as guide because of her long association with Egret. Egret had known the girl as a child, a teenager, a bride, and now she was soon to be a mother. And then there would be another generation to watch grow up and die. And another, and another. It was sobering sometimes, and Egret understood why some of the gems refused to associate with people who would only die in a few years. Yet this was her calling, and she was glad for each short life she had contact with.

"Aunt Wateroak is perfectly reasonable," Harecatcher had said when Egret asked about their chances of getting the Silty River people to listen to them. If Egret understood their kinship system correctly, Harecatcher's father was originally of the Silty River people and had married into the Great Red River people. "She will at least take the time to listen to you."

When they arrived at last to the confluence of the Silty and Great Red Rivers, a delta in which the sediment build-up was just sturdy enough to support a healthy number of brush shelters, it was in the middle of the morning and the shadow of the eastern cliff-face was retreating. Egret let her guide go, and Harecatcher walked quickly to the growing party of curious on-lookers. Harecatcher greeted an elderly woman, whom Egret assumed was her aunt, and gestured to the gems as she talked in that subtle way that was often hard to read from afar. Out of politeness, Egret avoided listening in or staring. It was a few moments yet before Harecatcher escorted her aunt to the gems. They were introduced formally, and the elderly woman quickly cut to the chase in a way that would have been rude coming from a younger person.

"Tell me about the monsters you wish to keep on these lands." Her words were quick, abrupt, and as cold as the northern winds.

Egret kept to the words she'd planned since the house meeting, taking special care to remain warm in the face of distrust. It was something she'd pieced together from Jasper's recounting of her talk with Rose Quartz, and Aster and Dandelion's third-hand accounts of corrupted gems far afield. Her gaze remained fixed downward; a show of deference to the elderly woman. "Many generations ago, some of our kind were stricken with a sickness of the mind. It warped their bodies so that they look and behave like animals. We are seeking a place to herd them away from humans for everyone's protection, but this great land has humans everywhere. By herding them to the plateau, we're hoping to minimize their impact on humans. They require no food or water, and they can be docile when left alone."

The elder's eyes were dark and flinty with suspicion when Egret dared to glance up, something she had anticipated. Most humans could be reasoned with once their fears were addressed, and she liked to think that she had all the answers they could want. "And what if they present a threat?"

"Alert us. We are close enough to make the trip within an hour. If you would like some of us to watch them, that can be arranged."

Egret was patient and still as she stood fast under the elder's scrutiny, even as she felt pinned down. Harecatcher shifted awkwardly on her feet, her gaze darting between the gem and her aunt. Finally, after long deliberation, the elder spoke. "We remember when your kind came from the stars to raze our land and steal our children. Our cousins of the east remember that your kind turned a fertile canyon valley into a wasteland where nothing will grow again. Our cousins of the southeast remember the war your kind staged that destroyed a holy place. All people remember that your kind cannot be trusted."

Stunned, the citrine had no answer ready for such accusations. Where would she even begin? Should she respond, knowing that to do so would be admitting to guilt? Her mouth opened as she tried to marshal forth a defense, but the elder held a hand up to silence her.

"That is what we remember of the stone people of the stars," the elder continued. There was something slightly less forbidding about her now, though Egret couldn't quite figure out what it was. "But the Great Red River people remember the green women who dwelled in your canyon. They remember that they taught your clan when the green women disappeared and you emerged from the cliffs. We know that relations with your clan have always been beneficial. For that reason alone will we allow your use of the plateau. Take care that no person is harmed because of this."

Relief flooded through Egret's form, clearing out all the tension she wasn't aware she was clinging to. As a gesture of goodwill, she would ask for volunteers to look after the corrupted gems. It was the least she could do for such generosity. "We'll do all we can to deserve your kindness. Thank you."

The elder snorted; it didn't have quite the sting it might have had before. "We'll see. Now come, what do you have to offer for this magnanimity?"

Citrine stepped forth with her nets full of metal tools and containers, and they began the long process of negotiations.

.*.

It was early summer by the time Garnet thought it best to visit the new gems again.

The months before then gave Rose time aplenty to follow the winding labyrinth of her thoughts. She had always been prone to a degree of helpless despair when she was left alone long enough, and that only deepened as time went on and she was forced to look back on everything she did wrong. Worse was the fact that she couldn't talk to anyone but Pearl, and she had burdened her beloved enough as it was. Too much, perhaps.

Even thinking about the new gems didn't entirely banish the guilt that shadowed her thoughts. Blue must have started the secret Kindergarten; the peridot responsible for the Kindergartens had been hers and she was the only peridot with a pearl that Rose could remember. Was it while she was throwing her fits about how hard it was to destroy those wonderful human cities and ceremonial centers, or while she was trying and failing to emotionally manipulate the other diamonds with false tears because she had only a neolith's understanding of the world and too little awareness to do it well?

(You still have only a neolith's worldview and finesse.)

Thinking about it did nothing but make her feel worse. The joy she experienced in seeing other gems, free gems, had dissipated when she remembered that there had been no good options for her. They were free, yes, but they had no purpose but to live. Was that really enough? And yet, if things had been different, they might have been casualties in the war she staged because she could see no other way. Because the gems she tried so hard to impress could see no other way.

(What a sad little gem you are, Pink.)

At the very least, the visit would be a nice distraction.

Pearl was at her side the moment she left her room, her movements so swift and soundless that she frequently used it to her advantage around gems unused to the thought of pearls acting for themselves. There were so many complicated feelings tangled up in her relationship with Pearl, but for now she would focus on the positives. And one of those positives was that she knew she could always count on Pearl to be at her side, no matter what.

(As if she had a choice.)

Before Rose could continue on that thought, the door opened again and Amethyst bumped right into the back of her knees. She turned to smile brightly at the little gem they found years after the corruption, thankful for the interruption. Slung over Amethyst's shoulder was a rolled-up tufted carpet, probably from Aratta. "What's this?" she asked, though she knew well enough that Amethyst had mentioned wanting to bring something with her before.

"Oh, this?" Amethyst grinned broadly as she bounced the carpet on her shoulder. "Well, uh, Gilgy gave me two because we're friends, and I thought maybe I should bring one because that's what friends do, right?"

Rose remembered Gilgamesh. Vaguely. He was the first human to not only spurn her advances, but verbally attacked her with the fates of her former lovers. She had been offended then that he spurned her but became fast friends with Amethyst, but maybe it was for the best. Amethyst needed a friend far more than she needed another lover to distract her from her thoughts.

The way Pearl's hand tensed on her arm reminded her that she hadn't been fair with her beloved, either. Some vague guilt that always seemed woven into the tapestry of their relationship reminded her of its existence. Maybe someday she would figure out how to do right by Pearl, too.

She forced aside all those awful feelings and was thankful that her smile only shifted slightly. Amethyst never noticed the little things. Few gems did. "That's a wonderful idea!"

"We should go," Garnet said. Rose thought nothing of taking the lead to the warp pad, and they were whisked away to the secret Kindergarten.

It was still dark in the Kindergarten, and the narrow canyon walls were ribbons of black framing a sliver of star-strewn sky. A torch held by one of the off-color jaspers was the only illumination, and its light was only enough to highlight the abstract beauty of the rippling orange sandstone around her.

"Name's Twig," the jasper said with the kind of stiffness in her voice that suggested that she still didn't trust them. Rose could hardly blame her. "I'll lead you out."

"Why don't you use your gem for light?" Too late did Rose realize that maybe she shouldn't have said that. The jasper's cheeks seemed to darken in the light of the torch, as if Rose had touched on something embarrassing. How much did these gems really know about themselves? She wanted to say that it was fine, that no one knew everything, but the jasper turned towards the exit.

"Because. Come on."

Rose stilled the urge to explain half a dozen things as they were led to a long wooden ladder leading out of the chasm, and thankfully her gems followed her example. She could say that by using her gem for light, the jasper wouldn't need to carry a torch. She could say that they didn't need the ladder to get to the cliff's edge. She could ask why the jasper chose the name she did. And so on. She wanted to say something, but then Garnet's hand fell on her elbow as a warning.

The jasper stalked up the ladder with the fluidity of centuries of practice, leaving them to scramble after her. For a moment Rose worried that the ladder would collapse with her mass, but the rungs were secure and refused to budge in the face of her enthusiasm. But for Amethyst's grumbling and the concessionary tones of Pearl putting the carpet away in her gem, the climb was long and silent.

After well over a hundred feet's worth of climb, they arrived at the top of the hill in which the canyon was carved. The great oval building was much more impressive up close, with a roof of woven mats and walls of huge wooden logs between geometrically-decorated squares of white stucco. It was just a bit taller than she had been, before she was Rose. She wanted to go through the rope-hinged wooden door and explore, but a soft touch from Pearl reminded her why she was really here.

Not that she would have gotten far. The huge jasper stepped out of the building, granting her a tantalizing glimpse of firelight limning the forms of several quartzes who looked to be hard at work at something or another. The door closed too quickly for her to make anything else out. The way the huge jasper's eyes narrowed at her suggested that her curiosity wasn't welcome.

Rose hadn't noticed much about the strange new gems when they met, not really. The earthy green rhombuses on their uniforms were what really drew her eyes then: a mark of defiance, as if that shy little elder pearl had chosen to claim these off-color gems as her own. She could better appreciate the glint of beads strung through the gems' hair and hung around their necks. Some of them wore clothes, others didn't.

"You still want to do this?" Jasper's voice was gruff and unyielding; she was likely still nursing the injury to her ego. It was such a familiar quartz trait that Rose could hardly begrudge her the indulgence.

She still had little idea what this involved. Gems didn't make concessions and agreements and treaties, they simply did what was demanded of them. This was such new terrain, such human terrain, that Rose felt that she had to go along with it. "Of course," she replied, and hoped her enthusiasm for the novelty of this formality wasn't too off-putting.

The way Jasper grunted suggested that she was much too transparent. "We'll walk to a halfway point to meet with the witnesses."

"Ugh, we're walking?" Amethyst groaned loudly from behind her. "How long is it gonna take?"

Jasper's eyes narrowed at Amethyst. She seemed to bristle with displeasure and Rose smiled apologetically in the effort to prevent a clashing of egos. "Amethyst can stay, can't she?"

As if beckoned by some unspoken connection between them, the skinny jasper appeared at Jasper's side the moment she glanced her way. "Twig. Watch her." Jasper's voice had that quality a lot of agates shared: one who was used to command, regardless of where that status came from. "The rest of you, follow us. The going is rough. Watch your step."

Pearl lingered for a moment to give Amethyst her carpet, but returned to her side more quickly and silently than any other gem could manage. The other gems seemed to form from the shadows and surround them in a susurrus of hard light forms and material clothing against sand and stone: the citrine named Mouse, a one-armed jasper, a normal-sized carnelian and the smaller one from their first encounter. They left the hill and headed west, following some path that only the strange gems seemed to be able to see.

As the sky grew lighter with the coming dawn, Rose finally asked of the tiny carnelian; "Do you have many humans out here?"

"Enough," the carnelian said with a grin. She walked the unseen path as if she'd done so a thousand times before. "This is one of their trade routes. That funny-looking rock we passed a while back? That marks an intersection. If we'd taken that turn, we'd be heading north by now. Head east and you'll arrive at the flint quarries they say has been a trade center since before that war of yours. Head southeast and you'll arrive at another trade center. Keep an eye out and you'll notice all the rock carvings pointing the way. Humans leave signs of themselves everywhere. You just gotta know how to look."

For her part, Rose tried. She paid closer attention to where her feet were going. Maybe the ground was a little smoother where they were walking, but she couldn't possibly be sure. Still, wasn't it marvelous how much she had yet to learn? "How did you learn how to read all this?"

"Asking whichever hunter or trader I'd run across. Mostly just paying attention."

They were silent after that, but Rose didn't mind. The time they spent walking allowed her to think without interruption, and the new environment kept her too engaged for her thoughts to grow dark the way they always seemed to after the war. She stumbled less over tilted, broken beds of red sandstone when she watched where she put her feet. Every now and then, she thought she saw a remnant of human wayfaring: a rock that looked like it might have been a broken arrowhead, scorched wood, scraps of worn-out leather. Every now and then, Carnelian stopped briefly to pick something up and show her how to read it: bones scored by the stone knives used to butcher them, flint flakes in the shape of clam shells that were evidence of the forming of stone tools, nodules of stone so reshaped and reworked that they were discarded once they were no longer useful.

Not that they could stop for very long. Jasper was a hard taskmaster and barked at them when they tarried for more than a minute. It was such a strange experience, to be treated like a neolith by someone who didn't tower over her as much as the other Diamonds did. And by someone who should have been one of her own gems? Stars, it was so unusual that she couldn't possibly be offended.

In time they came to the top of a hill, where an old woman and a young man stood in wait for them. Beside them was a citrine with her gem set into one of her eyes and a neck that was much too long for her form. When the citrine turned, her silhouette was almost familiar. For the barest sliver of a moment, Pink Diamond felt the sting of regret.

The citrine with the too-long neck smiled generously as they approached, though her eye never quite met Rose's. A lot of the strange new gems were like that, she realized at last. Their body language seemed so different from other gems; surely it was another thing they picked up from humans. How remarkable!

"My name is Egret," the citrine said. She nodded at the elderly woman and the youth. "This is Wateroak, an elder from the Silty River people, and her nephew Greycloud. Greycloud will be traveling shortly to the trading center at the eastern flint quarries, where he will share word of this meeting."

Neither human looked particularly trusting, but Rose wasn't given time to dwell. Jasper stepped forward in her massive fur cloak, the green and blue beads in her hair glittering in the golden glow of the morning. A beaded leather strip was wrapped around a section of hair in the back, but quartz hair tended to be too wild to be so easily tamed. Then Jasper stopped and turned, her expression almost expectant.

Rose gestured for Pearl and Garnet to wait as she followed, stopping by Jasper's side shortly afterwards. She made the mistake of looking down.

The hill ended in a great cliff. The river had gone on detour, looped around, and resumed its course over so many years that it cut a near-perfect circle into the sandstone. Down in the chasm, clinging to the walls and every available flat surface, was an explosion of green that contrasted sharply against the red and orange cliffs. It must be lovely in full daylight!

"We decided what we want to do about the corrupted gems." There was something so formal in Jasper's posture now. She stood straighter, but more closed in somehow. Her voice seemed to lose its natural roughness. "They'll be herded somewhere safe. The Silty River people agreed to let us use the plateau. Our proposal is this: Let us handle any corrupted gems west of the Great River. People know us and trust us more than they do you. They'll report any sightings to us. In turn, you're allowed to come and go as you will in these lands. We won't attack you, nor will the people who hear about this."

Rose almost wanted to laugh. What made Jasper think that she still had any ability to resist the Crystal Gems? They had taken these strange gems down easily, and they hadn't even tried that hard. But, still, Rose appreciated the effort at diplomacy. "How can you be sure the corrupted gems will be safe there? Or the humans?"

"Fine." Jasper clasped her shoulder and pressed her until she was facing ever so slightly south of due west and pointed to the white-capped cliffs in the far distance. "Those cliffs mark the eastern edge of the plateau. It's forty-six thousand paces to the western cliff. The plateau is surrounded by cliffs on all sides. The terrain is rugged, there are places to hide, and the Silty River people only live on the rim in the summers. They know to avoid the corrupted gems. Mouse volunteered to watch over them."

She wanted to ask how Jasper could be so certain, but that didn't feel like something she should be arguing with an oversized quartz about. In light of having new places to explore, it was a small concession. Rose turned back to face Jasper again, hoping beyond hope that the excitement over all the new experiences available to her wasn't too apparent. "Very well." The words fell out of her mouth before she could think on them. "I—we'll keep to east of the Great River." Wherever that was. Rose didn't think these strange gems had the capacity to patrol so much land, especially when Garnet's future vision would allow the Crystal Gems to predict their movements. "You're welcome to visit us, too. Any of you. We'll show you how to use the warp pads. And… and if any of you wants combat training, Pearl is a wonder and I'm sure she'll be happy to help."

(You should have asked her before volunteering her like that.)

Rose dismissed the niggling doubt and grinned brightly at Jasper. "We can be friends, can't we?"

Jasper didn't so much soften as relax just enough to be noticeable. "Allies."

It was a start.