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It wasn’t that Gem couldn’t stand violence, in many ways she had more of a stomach for it than fWhip. It wasn’t that she thought she was better than everyone else, Gem was more of a realist in that manner anyway. There was no way to be better than someone else. Only more powerful. It wasn’t that Gem needed peace, she just thought it would be better if everyone was safe. That way they could focus on improving their nations and working on themselves.
Gem never explained this to her fellow emperors, and so when she proposed her idea, they seemed surprised.
“Gem, your plan involves threats and violence, how is this peaceful?” Scott asked, reading the paper on which she had written out her proposals.
“Violence is never the end desire,” Gem tried not to roll her eyes. “It’s a means to an end, as it always is. This way, we’ll end it for good.”
Gem and her allies, fWhip, Sausage, Pearl, Scott and Katherine were sitting in Sausage’s tavern, as Gem announced her newest project. Fixing the conflicts between the empires by manipulating magic itself. It was inspired, really, but no one seemed convinced yet.
“Even if what you were offering gave the other empires a choice in whether or not they participated in your plans for… magic evolution,” Katherine frowned. “Magic is sacred. It’s to be treated as a gift from the universe, not treated as a toy.”
“It wouldn’t be a toy.” Gem slammed her hand on the table harder than she’d meant to. She sighed, and stood, walking around the room. “It would be peace, we could fix the problems we made without centuries of harm done, without entering or furthering a cycle of violence and suffering.”
“You know how I feel about magic, Gem,” fWhip’s voice is low, almost sad. “It-”
“I’m not like mom!” Gem doesn’t mean to raise her voice, but she does, and fWhip flinches. Gem’s head feels hot, and for just a second she sees her empire set ablaze. It’s a hazy image in her mind, and she shakes it away. “I’m not losing it, I’m not going to kill anyone, I know what I’m doing. I’m stronger. Magic doesn’t corrupt people, power does, and it doesn’t need to. We could do better.”
“Gem, you know I like magic,” Sausage started, a bit hesitant. It wasn’t often that fWhip or Gem would bring up his aunt. “But I think this needs time. Besides, it’s not our job to solve every conflict, some things need to play out.”
“Not when people get hurt, our citizens get hurt. We may be harder to kill, but we aren’t immortal either.” Gem reminds them, before turning a desperate eye to her best friend. “Please, Pearl?”
“The nature of magic is intentionally elusive,” Pearl says carefully. “I love an adventure, I love the idea of peace, but this is not how we go about it. Your time may be better spent drafting a treaties, if you want peace. Your time may be better spent studying, if you want to enhance your magic.”
“I know what I’m doing, Pearl,” Gem breathes.
“I know you do,” Pearl sighs. “And that’s why I can’t approve of this. If your magic manipulation tactics got into the Gilded Hylenthia, it could irreparably change the way our nation is run.”
“Would that be a bad thing?” Gem pushed.
“Yes!” Pearl stood to face Gem. “You know how much tradition means to us.”
“Change has its place too,” Gem pleaded, the vision of Pearl’s empire collapsing into dust sitting heavy in her head. She ignores it.
Pearl shook her head. “Not like this, it doesn’t.”
Gem studies. She goes home, and she studies. They were all wrong, they all had to be wrong, if she could get this right, she could make everything better, no one ever had to be hurt again, if only she could experiment, if only there was raw magical power that she could try and twist to her will.
There was, in all the empires, an innate magic substance to everything. Gem looked out of her tower window at her empire below, if only she could study a little longer, understand the magic a little better, then maybe she could try something out. Gem felt her eyelids growing heavy, her blinks turning into moments with her eyes closed, and soon she woke up in a dream.
Gem’s empire was burning, people were running, screaming, and there was a ringing in her ears. She knew this was a dream, but she’d never had one like this before, where it truly felt as if her body was there, feeling the heat from the fire that consumed the place she knew as home a figure wearing a Crystal Cliffs cloak stood at the center of the fire, lines of destruction reaching out from their body. Their head lifted and Gem caught a glance of their face.
It was hers.
Gem woke up with a start, the memory of the dream lingering like a thick fog in her head. Looking outside, she saw that the sun had just started to rise, her citizens would be arriving out of their homes with the early morning to begin the day. If she left now, the magic that surrounded dreams and sleep would still be manipulatable.
Gem slipped a cloak on to combat the early morning’s chill, and stepped outside.
She made her way to the center of town, and felt her body convulse when another vision of destruction obstructed her mind. She felt her mouth move in a curse, but couldn't hear the words being spoken as she saw the end of every empire, fire and ash being the end of everyone she’d ever known and would never get to. When the vision ended, Gem saw a small child’s face directly in front of her. Their breath smelled of magic.
“You okay?” They asked, smiling widely. They had a missing tooth, but Gem could see the next one growing in. “I think you tripped.”
“Y-Yeah.” Gem stammered. “I think- I think you’re right. Just a trip.”
If Gem went through with this, experimented with the essence of magic, what would be lost?
“Where are you headed?” Gem asked the kid.
“School! We’re learning about spelling and natural elements of magic today,” The kid continued to beam. “I did my project on sunflowers! Did you know a sunflower can have one whole thousand of sunflower seeds? Or even two whole thousands?”
“No, I didn’t know that,” Gem lied. Pearl had told her when they were young, about how there was more than enough food to go around when nature could have abundance on its own. Gem, Pearl and the other emperors had spent a long time disestablishing the strict food trading laws around their emperors, designed to let the others starve during hard times. “Thank you for telling me.”
“My best friend is doing his assignment on amethyst.” The kid continued. “His assignment is really good. He's the best in the class at magic, but not so good at spelling.”
Gem got to her feet, albeit slowly and with rough motions. “Why don’t you get on to class? I don’t want to keep you.”
“I should help you get to the apothecary,” The kid frowned.
“I’ll be okay,” Gem reassured. “I have to go talk to a friend.”
Pearl had already been on her way to Gem’s empire when she ran into her friend on the road.
“Pearl,” Gem breathed, and ran to her friend, wrapping her arms around Pearl’s body. “I didn’t mean to- I didn’t-”
“It’s okay, Gem,” Pearl smiled, wrapping her own arms around Gem in a tight squeeze. “I know you didn’t do it, I would have felt it if you had.”
“But I never should have-”
“Shhh, ‘should have’ means fuckall. I’m glad you’re safe.” Pearl hummed. “Don’t scare me like that next time, though, okay?”
“I won’t,” Gem sniffled into Pearl’s chest. “I’m so sorry.”
“Let’s get your mind off things,” Pearl pulled away from the hug, her hands on Gem’s shoulders. “Yeah? Let’s go caving or something.”
“Okay,” Gem looked at the ground. “Yeah, let’s do that.”
Pearl grabbed Gem’s hand and started to lead her back to the Gilded Hylenthia, speaking softly. “You did everything you thought was right, Gem. Don’t fault yourself for that.”