Seeing as how I had Vera with me, I thought it was the perfect chance to see if Jewel would cooperate a little with Vera. Jewel had some grand ideas for her cave-hole remodeling, and being the keeper of Husband's magic had gone to her head a bit more than anything I had anticipated. Not that it bothered me, but I'm no stranger to working for lazy bosses. I used to work retail in my previous life.
"Jewel, before we start, would you be willing to show me your shiny stones? Not the shiniest ones, but just shinier than the topaz?"
"Husband want use other stone magic?"
"Not really. Not me, anyway. I'd just like to make an assessment. You… might even benefit from this."
"What mean benefit?"
"It means doing a small trade now so you get the best big trade later."
"Jewel listen more."
"Keep it a secret from Prima, okay?"
"What secret hide?"
I put my arm around Vera.
"She might be able to help us."
Jewel stared at me for a long moment.
"Stu–Vera help?"
I nodded.
"Hmm. Husband touch shiny stones?"
"Not at all. Again, this is about Vera." I pointed to her.
We all sat down and a pouch was removed from a small hidey-hole near one end of her straw bed. She opened the pouch and tipped it over, emptying the many shiny stones out from it that she had.
"Vera, remember what I taught you about circulating mana? I want you to put your hand over the stones here and push the mana inside of your body out onto them. You'll feel like wanting to touch them or pick them up, but don't. Instead, move your hand carefully over each one until you find the one that you feel the strongest about wanting to pick up."
Vera nodded at my instructions and reached out with her hand and began to focus her mana over the stones. There were at least twenty different stones here of assorted quality, and I could tell from a glance alone that at least six of them were good enough to be minor focus orbs… well, stones. They weren't smooth spheres like my quartz is. Her hands were moving over each of those aforementioned gems, but she wasn't choosing one, instead her eyes kept looking somewhere over by the hole Jewel had removed the pouch from.
Vera stood up and pointed.
"There."
I looked up at Vera first, and then over to Jewel.
"This wasn't all of them, was it?"
Jewel wore a sharp look with an obvious frown.
"How know? Jewel not let Husband see."
"It's not for me, Jewel. You are in charge of my magic, and I only plan to use the topaz when you are around. This is for Vera, that's all. I'll move to the other side of the cave-hole if you don't trust me."
"Go. Move." She pointed. "Not make Great Protector mad."
"Do you think I want that either?"
I backed away a bit to take the pressure off of Jewel.
"Yellow." Vera said, as Jewel painstakingly slowly withdrew a shiny yellow gemstone which she then held between her fingers.
"What is something like that doing here?" I asked, shocked to see such a high quality gem. It was easily on par with my own quartz focus orb.
"Found back goblin-home many moon past. Is… was… favorite shiny yellow stone. What Husband know? Magic stone? Great Protector look stone same Husband."
"Yes. But first, Jewel, be honest with me for a moment. I don't need to see it, but… do you have the round white one that is clear when you look at it?"
"Have stone. Took from things."
"That's fine. I'm sure it's the safest if it's in your possession. I can't say for sure which is better quality without touching my mana to your yellow stone, but I can tell you that both are extremely high quality focus orbs. What I could do with either one of those… Well, if I meant to do bad things, it would be very bad. Very, very bad."
"How bad?"
"I could make most of this whole cave collapse before your knife crossed my neck completely."
I pointed up and mimicked the whole ceiling coming down with both of my hands. Jewel, who was about to let Vera hold it, snatched the shiny yellow stone back away from Vera in response.
"White stone better than yellow stone?"
"The white one is useless to anyone other than me. Until I die or am killed, that white stone will only ever react to my mana. No one else can use it for magic spells, unlike your yellow stone. Now, can you let Vera hold the yellow one for just a short while? It's very important."
"What Vera do with stone?" Jewel, cautious of us both, wanted to know beforehand what to expect. "Say first!"
"She's going to make a bright light." I answered calmly.
"Only light?"
"Vera, that's all you are going to do, okay? Just for three breaths, push all of the mana you can into that yellow stone and keep the thought of the brightest sun in your mind when you do."
Vera nodded and put her hand out flat, palm up.
"Three breaths, no more."
Vera nodded again.
"Jewel, please. Nothing bad will happen, and I'm way over here."
"Vera… do stone magic?"
"Yes. That's why I want you to keep it a secret from Prima for now."
Jewel's frown turned into a sly grin now. She placed the shiny yellow stone onto Vera's palm, and a moment later, for a span of time lasting exactly three breaths, we were all blinded as if staring at the sun, even with our eyes closed.
"No can see!" Jewel cried out.
"Neither can I. I haven't moved. Just blink your eyes a few times and wait a moment. Your vision will come back in a little bit."
"Husband trick!"
"If I tricked you, I would have covered my own eyes. I'm blind too! Just wait a moment, Jewel, you will be able to see in a few moments."
I could feel Jewel's impatience, but as promised, a few moments later, all of our visions returned to normal. Jewel snatched the yellow gemstone from Vera's palm as soon as she could see well enough to, and put it back where she got it.
"Vera, you aren't ready for that one yet. Pick one of the others for now. I saw you hovering over the blue and the red ones the longest. Which one felt stronger?"
"Both."
"Tell me what is going on, Husband."
"Vera can use magic. The light you saw was her mana potential. It might be higher than my own."
"What mean potential?"
"It means if she had that yellow stone and half a day to use it, she could turn your cave-hole into the size of the one you all have me stay in. But she needs lots more training before she can, so right now, it might be difficult for her. I use force magic, but Vera's better at formula magic. I don't know yet what her full capability is as a magician."
"But she stup–" Jewel hung on the rest of that word.
"Every goblin has something they are good at, Jewel. Prima seems to be very good at hunting, Berry is good with poisons, Ivory can make nice things with bones, Truffle knows the most about mushrooms… it's just that no one in the goblin tribe could know Vera was good with magic formulas."