Pāhonoa te oro

*The afternoon sun slanted through the shop window, casting long, distorted shadows across the displays of cut gems. The morning's tense, silent work had given way to a slightly less strained atmosphere, though the undercurrent of grief and betrayal was still a palpable presence in the air. Jane and Liana had sorted the entire shipment of amethyst, creating neat, labeled trays of varying quality. The mechanical work had been a strange kind of therapy, a shared focus that required no difficult co