“Is your pay truly so generous?”
Karfic shrugged. “Enough to purchase my own place if you ever decide to build luxury housing. Until then, I’m looking forward to spending my credits on whatever hidden treasures your Main Island attracts.”
I hadn’t considered building luxury housing, beyond the villa’s workers, who lived in apartment units onsite. I didn’t want to create a clear divide in housing quality based on social standing. By providing the same housing units for all citizens, I put everyone on an equal footing regardless of their day job.
“I will make sure to invite you personally when the time comes.” I shot him a smile. “Perhaps I can have you test-run some of the businesses before I open them to the Base Island.”
“Really?” he exclaimed. “You’ll do that?”
“I’m assuming my Favored, Xylo, has your contact info.” I glanced at my scholar. “It will be an easy task when the time comes.”
Xylo nodded. “You are correct. I can page him whenever you like.”
“Now that that’s settled,” Mafari interjected, “let us not waste any more of your time and help you with the reason for your visit.”
I grabbed my necklace and dangled it in front of me, allowing the sun to reflect off its jewel-like sphere.
Both Mafari and Karfic sucked in a breath, their gazes focused on my precious gem.
“Do you know what that is?” Mafari exclaimed.
“No. That’s why we’re here,” I explained. “I was told it’s invaluable and will bring me good fortune. Recently, I noticed the sphere reacting to the solar globes in the backyard of my villa. They both radiate similar light, and when I touched the solar lamp, the galaxy-like swirl within my necklace’s gem seemed to move faster, and its core’s light pulsed brighter than I had ever seen before.”
“Who gave you that?” Mafari asked, his voice harsh as he flicked his hardened gaze to mine. “You shouldn’t be walking around with that necklace displayed openly. Whoever gave it to you—”
“Is what, Mafari?” Xylo challenged. “My nestqueen, your Lady Selena, doesn’t need to respond when addressed with that tone of voice.” Xylo placed himself in front of me, still leaving enough room to see the old Trr’kiki male. “She is the owner of Destima. Therefore, anything found on Destima is her property. If she wanted to take every gem from your precious mine and bathe in them, she could, and there would be nothing you could do about it. So watch your tone and learn to hold your tongue before you make false accusations about someone innocent.”
Karfic gripped Mafari’s shoulder and pushed the master geologist behind him.
“I apologize for my boss’ accusation,” Karfic stuttered. “It’s just there are only two of those gems in circulation in the galaxy. The rest have been used to power Prince Zirene’s builder bots, which are only used under heavy restrictions.”
“And the ones not used?”
“They are stored in a secret location that even I don’t know about,” Mafari replied. “Either Agent Kaede or one of his sisters come here almost daily to pick up some gems we’ve mined, leaving the rest for us to sort through. They have limited access to those extracted.”
“And the solar lamps?”
“Follow me,” Mafari directed, turning around before anyone had a chance to reply. “I have something to show you.”
I shot a glance at Xylo as we followed him, confused by the Master Geologist’s sudden whiplash of emotions.
Karfic fell into step beside me. “Again, I’m sorry about him. You have to understand, we aren’t allowed to study the gems. As soon as we discover a new one, we have to give it away without time to do any research.”
“But why?”
“We don’t know.” Karfic shrugged. “But for you to walk around wearing one without much thought, right in front of us, is frustrating.”
“I didn’t mean to mock either of you,” I muttered. “Prince Zirene didn’t explain the origins of my necklace; he only said it was some exotic trinket for me to wear.”
“It’s more than a mere novelty, I assure you, Lady Selena,” Karfic chuckled. “The energy within those gems is used to power machines capable of building large-scale objects out of thin air.”
We passed some workers wearing similarly styled outfits as the two who had greeted us as we followed the tram tracks and descended into the cave system. Karfic glanced around, making sure we were relatively alone.
Mafari’s spiked tail swayed with each step, the black edges trailing from the tip of his tail to the black tassels on his forehead. I realized how wrong I’d been to compare him to the Trr’kiki, who had tried to abduct me. Instead of an ugly brown-orange coloring, his body was emerald with brown stripes.
“We’re trying to figure out why the minuscule orbs and their unique magnetic dust are so powerful.” Karfic shot a glance at my necklace when he thought I wouldn’t notice. “When the original spheres disintegrate into smaller fragments, they tend to magnetically stick together to create a larger, gel-like body. They retain the ability to store energy when exposed to sunlight, but the original forms can store the light for far longer periods. This is why they are used as solar-powered lights around your Main Island, rather than powering heavy-duty machinery. The lights were installed at your villa first as a test-run before the tech is made available to the public.”
“That’s how they are related?” Xylo asked, keeping a hold on my waist. “And if the gems are such a secret, how did some old shopkeeper learn about them?”
“Because someone betrayed us,” Mafari said. “Only a few know about your gem. Most would think it was some
