Eight Intertwined

95 - Ali

Tressa had just finished shining the skystones to perfection when Cyrus came into view. He carried himself with an air of pride Tressa had come to expect from him, but he seemed even more excited than usual today. This beaming smile only seemed to grow greater when he looked back and noticed the gemstones in Tressa's hands. "Skystones, hm? Where did you find them?" he questioned.

Tressa smiled as she held one out for him to take. "They were in the mines," she replied. "One of the miners found them and thought they were junk, so I bought them and dug a little deeper. As it turned out, my suspicions of them being something more valuable were correct."

"I see..." Cyrus murmured as he examined the skystone carefully. "I heard that skystones, for all their beautiful glowing, are especially susceptible to grime on the outer layer. Did you realize that was what was happening when you found them?"

Tressa hesitated before shaking her head with a shrug. "I didn't know for sure that they would be anything of value. I just had a gut instinct, and I decided to trust it," she replied. "In the end, I was right, and we wound up with these beauties."

Cyrus' eyes went wide as he handed the skystone back to Tressa. "You simply trusted your instincts and wound up with the skystones?" he questioned in shock, and Tressa nodded. "I'm impressed that your initial impression of these stones being so valuable was correct. Most people would have simply glossed over them as being ordinary rocks."

"You never get anywhere in my line of work if you wait for others to do the hard work for you. If you spend all your time waiting for a significant development, then you're going to spend all your time waiting and no time actually doing anything," Tressa grinned. "I took a chance, and it looks like it's going to work out well for us."

"These skystones will no doubt catch the eye of the wealthy people who live here in Quarrycrest... I'm certain they will come to see what they can buy from you when the time comes," Cyrus smiled. "Are you palnning on setting up shop soon?"

Tressa nodded. "Now that I'm done polishing the skystones, it's time to go get everything ready," she replied. "Everything is right where it should be, and if all goes well, we'll have everything we need to incentivize people to join us in a few hours." The stark class divide of Quarrycrest was far from being a positive thing for the poorer people involved, but as long as it was present, the least Tressa could do was take advantage of it to help out those who were struggling the most under its weight. This was a perfect first step to take, and she was looking forward to seeing where it brought her. 

"In that case, allow me to help you to get your shop set up," Cyrus insisted. "I want to do all I can to help move this process along as much as possible."

"Hast thou determined a strategy for our next steps?" H'aanit questioned as she looked over in Cyrus' direction. She took to picking up a few of the extra skystones as she spoke, carrying at least two dozen rocks without breaking a swear. 

Cyrus nodded, unable to hold back his smile. "Olberic, Primrose, and Therion are in the rest of the town right now trying to talk to those they think may side with us when we begin to push back against Morlock. There are bound to be at least a few who object to the working conditions and understand that they are being used," he answered. 

Tressa winced, though she did her best to hide it. That didn't stop H'aanit and Cyrus from noticing though, and they looked over to her with frowns on their faces. "I don't know if this is going to end up going as we had originally planned it, at least not exactly," Tressa explained carefully. "When I saw the other miners here earlier... I don't know how to describe it, but it was like they were perfectly fine with the way Morlock was treating them. They're so captivated by the idea that they might get rich that they don't even seem to notice the way they're being stomped on by Morlock.