The Gem Lords

Suddenly Mortal - Part 4

     "You're much more patient and understanding than I would be under these circumstances," said Timothy as they climbed back up to deck two. "I think I'd be getting pretty angry by now and wanting to know who was making all these accusations."

     "Getting angry would solve nothing," said Daleen, however, looking at him with her lovely light grey eyes. "It would just make an already tense situation even worse without solving anything. The best way to handle such situations is simply to submit to the examination to prove them false. Then I can get back to my duties. Seeing to the spiritual welfare of the crew."

     The cleric of Caroli nodded. "But even knowing that anger is useless, most people would grow angry nevertheless. They wouldn't be able to help themselves..." Something was bothering him, though, and it took him a moment or two to put his finger on what it was. Her eyes. Her grey eyes. He put a hand on her arm to stop her, and as she looked up at him, wondering what was bothering him, he looked deep into her eyes, noting the colour. Definitely grey. As grey as brushed steel, shot through with a delicate tracery of dark filaments and with darker circles inside and out. The sort of eyes he loved to stare at for minutes at a time, marveling at the wealth of detail, more revealing itself every time he looked.

     "You had blue eyes before," he said. "Bright blue eyes, but now they're grey."

     "Before when?" asked Daleen with a smile of puzzlement.

     "When I came to your cabin yesterday. Your eyes were blue, but now they're grey. How do you do that?"

     "You didn't come to my cabin yesterday. You've never been to my..."

     Suddenly she wobbled on her feet and Timothy grabbed her arms to steady her. "Whoa! Are you okay? Steady now!"

     The cleric of Ramthara cried out in shock and surprise, but then gave what Timothy would have sworn was a guilty start, as if she was afraid she might have betrayed some terrible secret.

     "Daleen?" asked Timothy in real concern. "Daleen, what is it?"

     The other cleric was recovering now, though, although it seemed to require a tremendous effort to regain her outward composure. But that was ridiculous, Timothy chided himself. What's wrong with me lately?

     "Daleen, are you all right?"

     "I'm fine," replied the cleric of Ramthara, and she smiled up at him with eyes that were once again a bright, clear blue. "Is that better?" she asked. "Just a little vanity of mine. Sometimes I like my eyes grey, sometimes blue. It may be an abuse of Ramthara's power, but only a little one and I don't think She'd mind."

     Timothy nodded, cursing himself for a fool. Yes, of course! Daleen wasn't the first worshipper to use the power of her deity to improve her appearance, a habit that was acceptable to most deities because people were more likely to follow good looking leaders. It was simple human nature to judge a book by its cover, a wine by its bottle, forgetting that it was the quality of the soul that mattered. Not the body it was living in. The truth hadn't occurred to Timothy because his body was already fairly good looking (or so he'd been told and who was he to argue?) and he'd never been tempted to alter it.

     "You just took me by surprise," he said, smiling at his own foolishness. "To see your eyes change colour like that. Are you sure you're okay? You seemed a little... wobbly just then."

     "Just a little spacesick," said Lapis Lazuli, and she hurriedly changed the subject. "Sorry, I should have told you about my eyes. I should have told you yesterday when you came to my cabin."