Stars and Diamonds

Chapter 70: I Could Do About Anything

The pink morning light filtered into the room, bathing everything in a warm glow and stretching out across the floors, casting sparkles in its wake as it explored the very new and polished marble. It touched on everything it could, delicate glass sculptures and large, metallic pots covered in decorative embellishments of gem figures and stones. The slowly moving light had been ignored as it hit the back the newest matriarch's chair, blocking it out and deepening the shadows she had been surrounded in since she had awoken early that solar cycle and taken up residence there.

Orange sat hunched over in her chair, the cold stone having long since warmed from her sitting in it all morning. A half eaten canister of tablets sat precariously abandoned at the corner of the desk, hard case pads laid scattered around it. Some open and still flickering with life, reading off various bits of information while being ignored in favor of the lit display in front of her, multiple diamond-shaped screens stacked in disorganized chaos that only she could understand as she flipped back and forth between them. It was only mid-morning and Orange felt like she was behind her own self-imposed schedule.

The first week she had moved over from White's palace to her own she had been so determined to take on all the work the others sent her way, believing it wouldn't be too much more difficult than what she already handled on the daily. As she hoped, the others had been so pleased with her, impressed even, that they had decided to dive head first into getting her acquainted with the feel of a real work load.

Now, she was regretting her decisions to accept her duty as a Diamond so early into her move up. She could have taken an entire millennia to herself and the others would have been fine with that, probably would have been happy even, considering her age. Instead, It had been four weeks since she had left her palace and she already wanted to tell them she couldn't handle all this. Her last call had been from Yellow and it had been very brief and all business. Blue was busy dealing with captured rebels and their sentencing, while White was doing only she knows what. She hadn't even heard from Pearl as some in-between communication from her. Orange was starting to miss her rather carefree life in White's palace.

Not even her own inner circle had been spared from her undertaking. She had little time to share with the others, having to deny seeing the Topazes and decline the Carnelians offers to spend a little downtime together while she exercised, which she had to all together nix from her schedule at this point. Iris was the only one that had granted time to speak with face to face, and it was all work. Her only company had been Pearl, who seemed to be the only one that slightly benefited from her new arrangement. But, even then, she seemed to be tired of the constant pattern of her work schedule, the same four walls, no matter how beautifully decorated and spacious her office may be, was quickly growing to be a tiring sight for both of them. Though, she must admit, Pearl was being a better champ about it than she was. Pearl had tried to lighten the mood as best she could with small talk, as awkward as it was, and little gestures of bringing her things, which Orange could appreciate.

Speaking of Pearl, Orange paused, her hand falling from the screen in front of her to the armrest of her chair as she glanced to her right. Pearl stood dutifully beside her, at this point mindful of the space she left her as she became aware she didn't like to be crowded while she worked. Pearl's attention had wandered to the windows, though her body still faced towards her desk, awaiting a command from her or until she realized it was time to get her another canister of tablets. In the four weeks she had Pearl, Orange had become a little more aware of her and a little more used to her presence. She might even go so far as to say she had grown to like it.

And while their working life may have grown enough that they had gotten used to the way one another behaved, she noticed she didn't know much about the gem herself. She was a stranger that had been thrust into her life, regardless of how either of them felt about it. A stranger she had very little understand of given the long four weeks they had been together, and that bothered her. She felt there should have been more effort on her part, and that alone was enough to bring shame to her. Pearl was just as much a victim in this arrangement as she had been, the difference being Pearl got the short end of the stick and she hadn't done much to try and ease that burden for her. It bothered her more when she realize recently, in her own frustrations, she had been treating her like, well, like a pearl. It was something she knew she had to make the time to correct, though time was hard to find these days.