The cursed gem

Strange beauty

(Hello welcome after like a year of thinking that this book was officially thrown into the trash but here we are)

Alchemist was walking slowly. She was soaking wet, which weakened her dough. It did not help that she was dragging a ridiculously heavy gem with her. She took a deep breath. She could see less and less as the sky turned darker and darker. After some time, she saw a light. Many lights.
~'Finally.'
She thought to herself as she realized that the lights belonged to the Cookie Kingdom. As she came closer to the edge of the forest, she looked around. There was no cookie in sight. She gathered all the strength she had left and ran as fast as she possibly could, clinging onto the hope of nobody seeing her. She ran until she finally reached the door of her house. She opened it slowly. Her brother was sleeping on the couch, with his glass on the living room table. Usually this view would upset her. This time, however, she was relieved to see his unconscious. She wasn't in the mood for his mockery. She was still a bit upset tho. She locked the door before dragging her bag with an unnecessarily heavy crystal upstairs. She went to her room and carefully closed the door. She put all of her collected resources on her table, before moving them away to place the gem. She threw her bag on her bed. The stone wasn't too big. Surely didn't look like it weighted even a half of what she had to carry. It was glowing pure red.
~'Most likely a glow of magic.'
She thought as she observed it closely.
~'Now, I am no sorcerer. I should probably do what I always do whenever I find an object possessing magic. Give it to sir Espresso Cookie, of course.'
But she knew she couldn't do that. If Espresso Cookie was aware of the existence of the crystal he'd ask her where she found it. She couldn't just simply lie about it since the location could turn out to be useful in further experiments with the gems' abilities. But it's not like she was able to possibly study it's magic. She wasn't a magic cookie. She didn't have any magic in her dough. At best, she could study it's behavior and find a match in a book about magic object. But it was a stone for witch's sake! How could one possibly study it's behavior if there's no behavior!? It's a mindless, senseless, oblivious rock with no self-awarness!
-Ugh! Why did I even bring you with me!? What was the point of all this struggle if I cannot study you or let someone else do it!' she yelled out frustrated. She tried pushing it off of her research table, but she stopped right before her hand touched the gem. She couldn't do it. She couldn't bring herself to harm it. But she couldn't harm it! It was just a stone! And yet, there was something precious about it. Just some crystal, similar to a simple ruby, yet shining so beautifully. She sighed in defeat. She gently put her fingers on it. She felt a burning pain but she didn't care. It's beauty was strange to her. She was never really into gems or magic but this one seemed special. It was hers. Hers and only hers.