Gemstone
Ruby placed the stone where the morning sunlight of Kugane’s markets would do most of the work for her.
She didn’t point it out as a familiar Garlean officer, attempting to pass as a civilian in his plain clothes, approached. Men liked to think they discovered something unprompted. At least, that’s what her mother had always taught her.
Her mother had been a skilled artisan, with a taste and the vision for taking materials, fashions, and ideas from other places, combining them, and making something new—Ruby herself included. Her unique jewelry was popular among the Doman and Garlean elite both. Ruby was useless with her hands, and didn’t have a creative bone in her body, but she had at least inherited her mother’s business sense, and her knack for reading people.
The officer’s eyes caught on that particular stone immediately, leaning in to get a better look. She subtly reached to adjust it, turning it so the inclusions sparkled, and his lips ever-so-slightly parted.
“One of a kind,” he mumbled.
“On this side of the world, at least,” she agreed.
This man had bought from her before, always relatively small indulgences: cufflinks, brooches, a rare cabochon. The first time, she’d made the mistake of asking if he wanted his purchase delivered anywhere, perhaps to a family back home, and he’d denied it a little too vehemently. Now he’d made a point of stopping by every time he came to port, blabbing all the Empire’s secrets in a futile attempt to impress her.
Predictably, he cleared his throat and lowered his voice. “A discount for news?”
Ruby pretended to consider it. She had always worn her indecision like armor, going all the way back to her childhood in Doma, where it was far better for her Garlean teachers to think she was dim-witted and easily distracted than overly clever and bored. She smiled with a hum. “Only if you tell me something I don’t already know~”
The officer tilted his head in the direction of the armory stall nearby. The woman there, clearly Eorzean, dressed in blue and white, looked like she was bartering over a pair of vambraces. Ruby had actually noticed her when she first approached. Kugane might have been open to everyone, foreigners included, but Ruby usually saw the same types of people day in and day out at the markets. Hingashi merchants, Garlean soldiers, the occasional Doman refugee looking for work. Eorzeans were rare, and even rarer among the crowd of customers.
“That one,” he hummed, a smile teasing at the edges of his lips as Ruby’s eyes followed his. “Is the Warrior of Light, Eolyn. Eorzea’s champion. The so-called eikon-slayer herself.”
“Kugane is a long way for someone like that.”
“My superiors suspect she’s on her way to join the Doman front. A fool’s errand,” he dismissed confidently. “She might have outsmarted the fourteenth legion, but the twelfth is something different entirely.”
Ruby wondered idly if she might succeed anyway. Ruby had been born into the Garlean occupation, and had long since given up any hope that might change, but that didn’t make her a patriot to the Empire. Especially not after her mother was caught up in Yotsuyu’s recent retaliation for the rebellion, despite doing everything she could to stay in Garlemald’s good graces.
“A five percent discount,” Ruby concluded, reaching for the stone and placing it in the officer’s palm, the thought of entertaining him any longer souring at the memory. “As agreed.”
He graciously handed over the coin with a flirtatious wink, pocketing the gemstone and disappearing into the crowd of shoppers once again.
Ruby glanced back at Eolyn, now laughing as she shook the armorer’s hand. She imagined stepping over to introduce herself as she made to leave. Asking her if she was truly coming to liberate Doma, and if so, if there was any information Ruby could offer that might help. Perhaps she’d even ask her what it was like to be an adventurer, like Ruby’s father. Or what Eorzea, where they were both supposedly from, was like.
She let the moment pass, watching as the Warrior of Light disappeared as well, and pocketed what the officer gave her. Curiosity may have worked out for Ruby on occasion, but it just as often had the opposite effect. There was no reason to tempt fate by bringing attention to herself. Rare treasures, which Eolyn supposedly was, had a way of crossing Ruby's path on their own, when the time was right.
Until then, she had a business to run. Everyone had a part to play in the war, and she told herself, as she polished another cabochon, that her part was separating the Empire from its coin.
