Sapphires Are Forever

[JewellRavenlock]

“Young lady, you are truly remarkable,” Ishmerai marveled at the blue-haired woman sitting across from him at the kitchen island.

Sapphire laughed heartily, but she couldn’t hide the hint of a blush that had come over her face at the compliment. “I don’t think I’m anything special. I mean.. it’s not like I wasn’t already planning on continuing my schooling in some way, I just hadn’t been sure which way. So when I got back to there from here, I realized what direction I wanted to go in. I still love fighting and cooking and music, but combining my knowledge of modern technology from my dad’s life and the more.. ethereal abilities from mom seemed like just the right thing.” She jingled the twin silver bracelets on her wrists, “Thus my bracelets were born. I couldn’t get back here without them. All the aberrations seemed to be fixed. But I just.. I couldn’t stay away. I had to figure out how to come back, even if it was just for a visit.”

The warmth of the gesture did not escape the knight. “I am sure Jewell will be beyond thrilled to see you, although her heart may stop a bit as mine did for a moment when I found you knocking on the door.” Actually, the knight was mildly concerned that his lady’s heart might actually stop period.

Her youthful laughter rang through the room again. The walls soaked up the sound after having missed it for so long. There had not been much laughter in the Little Elfhame house for many months. “I wish you could have seen your face, Merai!” So easily had Sapphire adopted her mother’s nickname for the knight. “It was priceless. I did not think knights could be taken by surprise.”

“It does happen on occasion. I promise there shall be no repeat performances.”

“Mmmhmm.” The grin written in trouble told him that the teen planned on devoting some time to trying to surprise him again during her visit. “So when did you say you expected Jewell back?”

Ishmerai checked the clock before returning his gaze to the young lady whose eyes burned with curiosity. “It really could be any time now. I hope she will not be much later for your sake.”

“Uhuh.” Sapphire affected unconcern as she took a sip of her coffee, asking casually, “And where did you say she was again?”

“I did not say,” the knight smiled.

“Oh come on, Ishmerai!” She set her coffee mug down a bit too harshly at that, requiring her to grab a napkin and mop up the small mess she had made. “You’ve got to tell me where she is. Is she out with Teetee Issy on patrol or something?”

“No.” The knight seemed to be enjoying himself.

“Working on one of her business ventures?” He shook his head. “All right,” she knew she was on the right path now via process of elimination, as was her intent, “who’s she sleeping with?”

“Sapphire..”

That was enough answer for her, “Is it my dad? Is she with the Harris of this time? Did he kick that big-breasted lady to the curb?” Her triumphant laughter was a bit premature.

“No!”

“Oh,” a little crestfallen, she sunk back on her stool and thought it over. “She’s not with that guy Stephen, is she? Mom told me a little about him when I went back home.”

Being badgered by a persistent young woman was not a new experience for the knight. “No no. She is not with Captain Kidd.” At least he could answer that one quite firmly and to his own relief.

“Argh!” So easily defeated, Sapphire collapsed forward onto the countertop and stared mournfully up at Ishmerai through a mess of blue bangs that cut their way diagonally across her face. “Come ooonnnn, Merai. You gotta tell me!”

He did his best to keep his composure and kill his smile, “If she would like to tell you, it is her place to do so.”

“But,” she insisted on pressing the matter as she sat up a little and pushed her hair out of her eyes, “it would just be so much easier if you told me! Because if I ask her, she’s going to get all embarrassed and weirded out about it.” She could tell by the look on his face that she just needed to push a little bit more: “And it’s not like I’m not eventually going to find out if I hang around for a few weeks, right?”

“Fine.” Just as he could never resist the mother, why bother trying with the daughter? “She is mostly likely at The Line with Kalamere Ar’Din.”

Sapphire’s posture was suddenly straight as a rod, “With Uncle Kal?” At Ishmerai’s confirming nod, the teen bit at her cheek and settled back more comfortably on her stool again, thinking over this new information, “Huh.” This was weird. She hadn’t really noticed any signs or hints of attraction between the two, but that had been almost two years ago now. She was pretty familiar with “Uncle Kal’s” reputation, and her mother was surely no saint. Ishmerai watched nervously as a positively wicked grin crept onto her lips as she remembered one thing: Jewell had been Kalamere’s squire. “Well.. he must be quite the fine swords teacher then, huh?” The eyebrow waggle was just icing on the cake.

“Sapphire,” the knight groaned with a roll of his eyes.

She was laughing too hard at her own comment to heed the exasperated look Ishmerai was leveling at her. And they both failed to notice Jewell’s arrival until she was standing in the entrance of the kitchen, eyes wide as she stared at Sapphire like she was some kind of ghost. It wasn’t quite the reunion the teen had planned, but as her laughter tapered off she managed a bright smile for her not-mother, “Hi!”

Neither of them expected Jewell to faint dead away.

[JewellRavenlock]

Later, the two blue-haired women sat comfortably on the couch together, Sapphire’s arm stretched out behind her petite not-mother, holding a pack of ice to the back of her head. Much to Jewell’s chagrin when she had come to, neither Sapphire nor Ishmerai had been quick enough to catch her and save her from smacking her head against the tile floor. Afterwards, it had taken her several minutes, including a trip to the bathroom to control the hysterical feeling rising up in throat, to convince herself that Sapphire was actually there.

Once things had settled down, Ishmerai had found something to keep him occupied, allowing mother and daughter to enjoy some privacy.

“I saw the shop.. it’s yours, right?”

“Mhmm,” Jewell nodded carefully so as not to upset the pounding in her head. At seeing the way Jewell winced, Sapphire’s feather-light touch to her temples drew it away clumsily. Unfortunately, she was no great healer beyond bumps and bruises. “The bar next door is mine too.”

“And the hotel above it?”

“Mine. It should be open by the end of summer.”

Sapphire laughed a little, adjusting her arm as it went numb. Sensing the gesture, Jewell relieved the girl of the ice pack. “Busy busy, huh?”

Jewell tentatively touched the ice carefully to the back of her skull, wincing once before she found the right spot. “Something like that. I’m also challenging to be Overlord.”

“Crazy.” The teen shook her head. “The overall neighborhood looks a lot different too. Do I sense your gentle touch in that as well?”

“You do.” The Empress could not hide her proud smile, but it was tainted by… something. Sapphire could tell everything was not quite right with Jewell, but no one had told her about the children. She was perceptive though. She had already noticed Jewell’s weight loss, the glamour around her arms, the lackluster look to her eyes. “Maybe I’ll show you around a bit tomorrow. We’ve been doing some pretty cool stuff here. We can grab lunch at Faerie Fusion too. The food is great and the place looks awesome after some remodelling last fall.”

“Will Uncle Kal be joining us?” she asked slyly.

Jewell could play the innocent well enough too. “Why would Kalamere be joining us?” she asked with just the right touch of confusion.

“Why would Kalamere be joining us?” Sapphire mocked her playfully, lending a higher pitch to her voice.

She shook her head at the teen’s laughter, “It’s really not like that, Sapphire.”

“Uhuh..”

“I mean it. Kal and I are just friends.”

“Friends who sleep together,” she pointed out unabashed or embarrassed by the subject matter. It was not like talking to her mother. Sapphire definitely did not want to know the sordid details of what Harris and Jewell did when she was not around. Talking to this Jewell.. it was more like speaking to a friend or older sister.

Jewell shrugged, “It’s one of the ways we enjoy spending time together.”

Sapphire watched her a moment, trying to detect what lay behind guarded grey eyes. “If you say so.”

To break up the sudden awkwardness that had sprang up between them, Jewell gave the teen’s arm a friendly shove. “I can’t believe your mother let you come back here.”

Sapphire shoved back, “It’s not like she or dad could stop me.”

Jewell shoved her a little again, smiling this time. “Thank you.”

[JewellRavenlock]

Sapphire and Ishmerai were seated at the kitchen island again, hands wrapped around mugs of coffee. The scent of cinnamon filled the air as they waited for the bread Sapphire was baking; she had only been in the house for less than a day, and her horror over the state of the pantry had been comical.

“Wow.” At the moment though, baking was far from thought as Ishmerai filled the teen in on some of what had happened since she had left. “I wonder..” she paused, rubbing at her temple with the palm of her hand, “I wonder if it’s the same in my time. I wonder if they’re really gone.”

“It is possible,” Ishmerai confirmed. “It could explain, in part, why your mother has failed to save them the times she tried.”

Her grip tightened on the mug of coffee. “That’s just not fair! How could they do that to them? To her? Why?”

The knight shook his head, “Questions we have asked ourselves many times, Sapphire. There is not always an accounting for the evil in this world.”

“It’s just not fair,” the teen mumbled this time, slouching in her chair.

“What’s not fair?” Jewell asked, standing in the doorway of the kitchen and covering a yawn. She looked between them a moment before it dawned on her. “Oh,” her tone was suddenly empty.

Sapphire didn’t say anything. Instead, she crossed the room and wrapped Jewell up in a tight hug just as the tears started to fall freely down the Faerie’s face.

[JewellRavenlock]

“Sapphire.” Jewell called.

“Sapphire..” she tried again.

“Sapphire!”

With a final punch to the wall, the girl turned around, her chest heaving, her face red, her knuckles raw.

“Can you maybe not break your hand?”

Eyes still on Jewell, Sapphire punched the wall one more time just because. The elder Faerie rolled her eyes. She was sure that this particularly obnoxious aspect of the teen’s personality was from Harris.

Her anger apparently spent, the girl moved away from the wall, hands still balled up in fists at her side. “I just don’t understand how you can be so calm!”

Jewell shrugged, “I’ve had two weeks to come to terms with it.”

“I’m going over there!” She started to pace the living room. “I’m going over there and punching them in their stupid, self-righteous faces.”

“I would prefer that you not do that.”

The blue-haired teen scowled at Jewell a moment before throwing her hands up in the air and collapsing onto the couch with a huff. “But they deserve it!”

Jewell nodded slowly, “I don’t disagree, but it wouldn’t accomplish anything.”

Sapphire huffed again, “Well, it’d make me feel better.”

“I guess that is something,” Jewell conceded.

She shook her head, marvelling, “How do you do it? I mean, really. How do you remain so calm about it? It makes me feel so.. angry!”

“I just..” Jewell sighed and shrugged. “It doesn’t seem worth it anymore. I have bigger problems to worry about.” What she wouldn’t admit was how satisfying it was to see Sapphire so upset on her behalf. It felt like a little taste of vindication. If Sapphire felt this way after hearing only a brief version of her encounter with Brian and Jenai, surely Amanda would have felt the same. “She would hate him for this,” she had told Jenai that night, confident in the fact that despite possibly being a terrible mother, her children had loved her more than anyone ever.

“But they betrayed you!” Sapphire fists pounded uselessly on the tops of her thighs. “They stabbed you in the back when you needed them the most. They turned you out. They,” in her frustration, she grasped for better words to describe what she felt her aunt and uncle had done, “they betrayed you.”

“At least I know who I can trust now, yeah?”

[JewellRavenlock]

“Wake up wake up wake up!” Sapphire jumped on the edge of Jewell’s bed, bouncing on her knees.

“Whaaa-- why?” Jewell couldn’t even remember the last time she had been woken up so rudely by an exuberant youngster. She pulled the blanket up over her head. “Go away.”

“Nope!” Sapphire tore the blanket away, grinning widely. “No can do. We’ve got someplace to be.” The drowsy Faerie grumbled something far from complimentary under her breath, causing the teen to laugh, “Maybe later. For now, get up. You have exactly fifty-three minutes to pack and then we’re leaving!” With that, the blue-haired terror bounded off the bed and headed for the door.

Jewell rubbed at her eyes, staring groggily after Sapphire as she sat up. “Leaving?”

Much to Sapphire’s delight and Jewell’s consternation, an hour and five minutes later had them standing in a unfamiliar travel agency, waiting to be portaled to some posh beach resort. “Could have just asked Kal to get us there,” The Empress grumbled. She was not used to waiting in lines!

“Your boyfriend isn’t invited,” the teen teased the curmudgeonly Jewell.

“Not my boyfriend,” she shot back, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder. For a time, she returned to the pleasant thoughts of her last vacation, which just happened to be with the tall, half-elf. The line inched forward, bringing them closer to the portal point. “Who is paying for all this by the way?”

Sapphire laughed, “You.”

“Unbelievable.”

Several hours and half a dozen frosty drinks at a beach bar later, Jewell didn’t seem to be complaining anymore.

[JewellRavenlock]

“Sapphire?”

“Yeah?” The teen didn’t even crack an eye open to look at her. The book she had been attempting to read--some awful romance novel they had picked up in the resort store--had been cast aside some time ago in favor of soaking up the afternoon sun and snatching bits of sleep.

Jewell had been too busy thinking. “How were you born?”

“What?” Now she cracked an eye open to look at Jewell, turning her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

She nibbled on the inside of her cheek. “I was just wondering.. like how did your mom manage to carry you full term? I’ve always had complications, and then ever since the iron poisoning, they basically told me it’d be near impossible for me to carry a baby to term. My body just can’t do it.”

“Oh, that’s easy.” Sapphire shifted her head again, closing her eyes against the sun once more. “Dad had PathFinder the whole time.”

[JewellRavenlock]

The sun was just going down; the faltering rays just enough to warm their mostly bare skin as they lay on the beach blanket. The small, rippling waves lapped at the sand not too far from their feet, calling to them.

But they ignored that call for now, choosing the company of each other instead.

“So are you really just friends?” Sapphire asked, lying on her side with her head pillowed on her folded arm.

Jewell rolled from her side onto her back, her blue hair fanning out a bit in the sand. “It’s kind of complicated.”

“Complicated how? Either you’re just friends or you’re not. You’re something more.”

Ahh to see the world so simply! “Then I guess we are just friends.”

“Hmph.” Sapphire didn’t seem satisfied with this answer for some reason. “How long have you two been sleeping together?”

Jewell groaned dramatically at this line of questioning, “Ugh! I don’t know. A year?”

“What?” the teen sat up quickly with the exclamation. “How can you sleep with the same person for a year and just be friends?”

She covered her face, shaking her head slowly. “I don’t know.” Her hands slid down so she could peer up at the girl whose body blocked the sinking sun. “We just are.”

“Uhuh.” Sapphire was clearly not convinced. She threw herself back onto the beach blanket, staring silently at Jewell for some time. “Is that how he wants things to be?”

“Yes.”

She pressed her lips together, smooshing them side to side before asking, “Is that how you want things to be?”

“Yes? No. I don’t know. It’s fine. It works. Why change it?” Jewell turned onto her side, asking the question of the teen honestly.

“I don’t know. Don’t you want something more from him then just wam-bam-thank-you-ma’am?”

Jewell laughed. “It’s not quite that concise and honestly? I don’t think I do. I think I’m okay with it because…” her brow scrunched together as she tried to put it into words. “It’s like, for the first time? All someone wants is me. He doesn’t want promises of a future together. He doesn’t need the sordid details of the past. He’s not looking for a little wife that will have a nice house for him to come home to with dinner all set up. He’s not asking for kids or a family. No ‘until death do us part’. Just me. Just my time and attention whenever it's convenient for however long we’re both enjoying it.” She looked earnestly at Sapphire, “How can I not be okay with that?”

“Hmm.” Sapphire rolled onto her back, thinking that over for a few minutes. “So what are you going to do when he decides he enjoys someone else’s company more than yours?”

“Hmmm..” Jewell drew the sound out, considering. “Probably kill her.”

They both laughed.

[JewellRavenlock]

Jewell returned home the morning after her failed attempt to become Overlord to Sapphire’s knowing smirk and obnoxious commentary: “Well I guess you didn’t take the loss that hard.”

Ishmerai couldn’t help but grin. It was true; Jewell certainly didn’t seem overly upset about the loss.

She rolled her eyes, kicking her blood stained shoes off and grabbing a seat at the island. “You know, it was bad enough coming home in the morning to his comments,” she nodded to the knight who suddenly found his coffee very interesting, “now this? Mutiny in my own household!”

Sapphire was not properly chastised. “I hope you at least get breakfast out of this little arrangement you’ve got going on.”

Jewell found herself reconsidering Kal’s suggestion that Sapphire would be a good sparring partner and that she probably could use a beating because, “bein' part Harris, I'm sure she's mouthy.” She was mouthy all right! Although if Jewell really thought about it, the onus probably wasn’t 100% on Harris for that particular trait. “Still think I’m getting a raw deal, huh kiddo?”

Sapphire just shrugged. She had more serious thoughts on the topic of Jewell’s love life, but she wasn’t inclined to share them at this time. Instead, she opted for another eye-roller: “Look, if something feels raw, you should probably go talk to Auntie Eva about that.”

Both adults groaned. Sapphire laughed.

[JewellRavenlock]

ewell hummed as she and Sapphire stood in the kitchen, packing up plates into boxes. The sooner she was out of the large house in Little Elfhame the better, and Jewell was glad to have a friend to work with, especially with the lingering effects of the concussion Anubis had given her. With an oomph, she set one full box down on the floor for Ishmerai to move later.

She pushed a bunch of purple hair off her bruised face, the summer heat making the room a bit oppressive. “Can you get me one of those Badsiders?”

“Sure.” Sapphire turned away from the box she was putting together and grabbed one of the two remaining bottles from the six pack they had been working on all day. With a touch of magic, she made it nice and chilly before tossing it to Jewell.

The Empress caught it with ease, smiling at how cold it was. “Thanks Manda.”

Sapphire froze, another plate to be packed already in her hand, and stared at her.

Jewell panicked. “Sapphire. Thank you, Sapphire.”

The teen slammed the plate down on the kitchen island, breaking it in two, and stormed out of the room. Jewell just watched her go, jumping a minute later when the front door slammed shut.

[Sapphire Ravenlock]

She nipped at the guy’s neck before she sat upright, fingers playing with his belt buckle then moving to the hem of her shirt. It had been five hours and at least ten drinks since Sapphire had left Jewell’s house in Little Elfhame, and her anger was finally ebbing. “Just do me one favor, yeah?” She asked before pulling the shirt up over her head and tossing it off to the side. “Get my name right when I make you shout it.”

“It’s Sapphire.”

[Sapphire Ravenlock]

When Sapphire didn’t come home by the next evening, Jewell sent Ishmerai out looking for her.

The knight had two guesses of where he might find her. The first one didn’t pan out, but he got lucky with the second. “Mother of Nature, she is worse than both of them,” he muttered as he gazed over the crowd at her.

“Come on folks! Fight the daughter of ten time Diamond Harris D’Artainian.” Sapphire shouted over the raucous din of the club, turning about slowly in the ring. Her blue hair was pulled back and arms up and open, inviting someone to join her. “Yeah, that’s right loser,” she taunted the man stumbling out of the ring, hand held up against his bleeding eye, “I need a real opponent.”

“No one?” She completed another turn before stopping. “Oh shit ,” she sighed.

“Come on,” Ishmerai stood at the entrance to the sunken fighting pit, nodding over his shoulder towards the door.

Sapphire sighed before moving towards him, following him out of the ring and the club.

[JewellRavenlock]

“You can just say it,” Jewell reassured her.

Sapphire’s hands curled over the back of the chair, digging into the wood. “I can’t believe you called me by her name.”

“I know.”

“Is that how you think of me? Just some replacement for her?”

“Of course not.” She could say it until her face matched the girl’s hair, but it didn’t mean anything if Sapphire didn’t believe her.

“All my life, I’ve been living in that girl’s shadow. That dead girl’s shadow.” That one was aimed to hurt. “Do you have any idea what that’s like?” She didn’t let Jewell answer. “I mean, it’s bad enough being the daughter of Harris and Jewell. Try growing up in that shadow! In public? I’m never me. I’m never just Sapphire. I’m always Harris’s little girl. The little Empress. So you’d think at home it’d be better. At least there I can be me. But no, it doesn’t work that way either because there? I have to make up for the one you lost. The girl you can’t ever forget. I have to make up for the fact that she died and I lived. And I have to live up to these golden memories you have of her, like she was some saint. Some perfect child that, no matter what I do, I can’t even come close to touching.”

“Sapphire, I…”

“No!” she cut her off quickly, letting silence reign between them for a time. She pulled out the chair and finally sat down. “You remember when we were at the beach? You said you were okay with the way things are with your relationship with Kal because he just likes you for you.”

“Yes.”

“Well.. when is anyone going to love me for me?” she jabbed at her chest with her pointer finger. “Not because they have to or because I remind them of someone else they’ve loved and lost, but because I am me and they love me.”

“Sapphire, I love you for you! Not because you remind me of her but…” she could feel the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, “because every time I see you, every moment that I spend with you? I think about how amazing and awesome and smart and funny you are. And you know what I really wish? I wish she could have grown up to be like you.”

[JewellRavenlock]

“And this is where your room is going to be.. I think.” She had to flip the floorplans around again because they were a little confusing.

“It’s not just a guest room?” Sapphire looked around at the wide open space overflowing with light from the floor to ceiling windows.

“Of course not. The guest room is over there,” Jewell gestured vaguely to a nearby brick archway and the space behind it.

“So.. you set aside a room just for me?”

Jewell looked up from the floorplans and stared at Sapphire, suddenly overwhelmed by the reminder that she didn’t get to keep her. Sapphire was not her girl, and she should not be carving out a permanent space for the teen in her life.

Then the girl closed the distance between them, throwing her arms around the woman who would never be her mother but was quickly becoming her best friend. “It’s perfect! Oh my gosh!” She squeezed the breath out of Jewell before releasing her and gesturing wildly this way and that, “I want a bed to go there, and an area for me to play my music there, and maybe a desk there, and we better put in some wards and protections and stuff so I can tinker with my technomagic stuff at a workbench here...”

[JewellRavenlock]

“I thought for sure you were going to puke when you won that second to last duel and realized you’d have to fight Mel again right then and there.”

Jewell smirked, “Yeah. That was a bad moment. I went into that fight being totally okay with getting second place just so I wouldn’t have to fight her again!”

“I know,” Sapphire snickered. “That’s what made it so great!” She shifted a little at Jewell’s side, both their heads resting on the very edge of her bed, their purple and blue hair spilling over the side of the mattress, dangling perilously close to the floor, “I just wish you could have seen Ishmerai’s face. He acted all calm and cool when he congratulated you afterwards, but I swear he was a wreck the whole time! Mumbling under his breath and cheering you on.”

“Hah! Men,” she shook her head, accidentally bumping it against Sapphire’s, which caused the new baroness to burst out in loud, drunk at four in the morning laughter.

“Looooooud,” Sapphire complained and tried to push her further away unsuccessfully.

The Faerie just laughed harder, turning to face Sapphire and trying to squirm her arms around her. “Stop rebuking my love!”

“Ugh stop stop!” the teen squealed, trying to turn her face away from Jewell’s. “Your breath stinks like beer!”

[JewellRavenlock]

“So the work on the Dockside ‘mansion’,” Jewell made air quotes with her fingers, “should be done by next week.” She had to consult the list in front of her to make sure she got that right. “They’ve been working around the clock. So we’ll move in there and then the work here shouldn’t take too much time. And Ishmerai will just sleep on the couch.” She grinned at her knight from across the kitchen island.
Sapphire and Merai shared a look between them before the blue haired teen turned to face Jewell. “That won’t really be necessary…” she started.

“What? Ishmerai, didn’t convince you to sleep on the couch, did he?” she laughed.

“Noooo,” Sapphire stated carefully. “It’s just… I’m going back home.”

“Oh.” Silence reigned in the kitchen for a time. “Of course.” Jewell’s smile fell before she could catch it, fingers suddenly fidgety in her lap. “Of course you’re going back home. How silly of me. I’m sorry. I just got so wrapped up in the plans for the hotel, the mill, the gym, and now the barony.. not to mention all the stuff with the ladies. How silly of me,” she repeated lamely.

Sapphire reached out, placing her hand over Jewell’s to stop the anxious fretting. “I’ll be coming back. Okay? This isn’t forever. This is just for now.”

“Right. Just for now.” Jewell repeated with a happy smile, unable to banish the sinking feeling in her stomach.