The Gem Lords

The Realms - Part 8

     "They never did discover a cure for rakhood, however," said Thomas. "Or, at least, not the cure they were looking for. The answer they did eventually find was something different. Something entirely unexpected but which satisfied them just as well. At first, anyway."

     He turned his head to find Lirenna's eyes, just a few inches away from his own, fixed on him with an intensity he found rather arousing. She was giving him her full attention, he saw. At that moment, he was the only thing in the universe to her. He found himself blushing with self consciousness. She saw it and smiled with amusement.

     Thomas forced himself to return to the story. "The Gem Lords built a new laboratory for themselves inside a Box of Holding," he said. "In the Ruby Keep, the place best sited for the project. It was the size of a large mansion on the inside, but outside three people could form a chain around it, holding hands. The different natural laws inside it had some strange effects. They found that normal magic spells were unreliable and tended to misfire, so they created new spells for use in the box laboratory. Spells that wouldn't work outside it.

     "They took to spending almost all their time in the laboratory, working round the clock, and because time means almost nothing to the undead the years passed without their noticing. Decades passed, centuries. Cities, whole empires, rose and fell in the world outside and the Gem Lords didn't notice because they'd long since severed all contact with the rest of humanity. In time their bodies changed, adapted to the new natural laws governing the inside of the box. They lost the ability to cast normal magic spells, and because they went outside so infrequently the process was complete before they noticed. They could go outside, of course, but only as powerless creatures. Helpless and impotent.

     "As if to compensate, though, they spells they could cast inside the box grew so powerful that they could do just about anything they wanted. They discovered how to transfer their souls into the bodies of living people, and so become flesh and blood again. At first they used anyone foolish enough to pass by, travellers, adventurers, but their bodies tended to be scarred and ugly. They wanted perfection, so they took to growing bodies in tanks. Perfect bodies in perfect condition. It was supposed to be a temporary solution while they continued to search for a way to restore their souls, free themselves from bondage to their soul gems, but temporary solutions sometimes have a way of becoming permanent and so it was in this case. The Gem Lords carried on using tank grown bodies ever after, unless they've found another solution I haven’t remembered yet.

     "The box laboratory became their home. They expanded its interior dimensions when they needed more space. Added more rooms, added gardens to walk around in. Just small gardens at first, but as time went by they expanded them more and more until they were miles across. They introduced trees and animals. Created forests, lakes. An entire world for themselves.

     "They created doorways between the box world and their mansions in the various parts of the real world, and gradually the boundary between the box world and the real world became a little blurred, so that the mansions of the Gem Lords, the Ruby Keep, the Diamond Mountain, the others, became sort of in between places where the two worlds overlapped. The Gem Lords had some powers there, but not as much as they enjoyed in the box world. They divided their artificial world into sections, one for each of them, where they would rule and the others would visit now and then. They called them the Realms. The realm of Lord Ruby, the realm of Lord Sapphire." Thomas broke off, staring out into space. "The Realms..."

     "Yes!" said Lapis Lazuli, staring at him excitedly. "Yes! What more do you remember?"

     "They ruled their realms like gods," said Thomas, an expression of dawning wonder on his face. "They experimented with different environments. Deserts, swamps, even mountain ranges. In the end, the Realms must have been almost as big as a whole country..."