Scott had always known there was something strange about Gem.

She insisted she was human. She looked human. But yet she couldn't handle the dark, she feared monsters, she was always in denial about the inevitable problems that would arise with creating an empire. It was like she wasn't adjusted to being human, like she was used to some state where nothing bad ever happened.

But those were just the things anyone could notice.

His ability to see magical auras through his yellow eye was disorienting at times, considering how unexpected some of his discoveries were. Take Gem, for example. She had an unmistakable glow, but it was... muted, somehow - like she was trying to hide it.

If she had the power of light, why was she so afraid of the dark?

Well, Scott was good at being nosy.

So here he was, at the gates of Dawn, prancing in to snoop around for Gem's secrets.

Was this unethical? Yes. Was he doing it anyway? Also yes. Who knew, maybe he could help Gem. He suspected she knew about her power, because she was so suspicious anyway, but maybe he could help her learn to embrace it. Color was just light, wasn't it?

Scott quickly found that it was hard to sneak around in Dawn, with all the brightly-lit streets. So he just decided to act like he was supposed to be there. It wasn't like he wasn't, exactly - Chromia and Dawn were allies - but his intentions were probably not what Gem meant when she said My Empire is your Empire.

He found Gem's door unlocked and slipped inside. The Bee Princess didn't seem to be home, which made things a lot easier for Scott.

Her chests had nothing. He even found her diary and skimmed through a couple pages. Most of it was about the situation of her Empire. Maybe Gem really had nothing to hide.

For a final check, he closed his right eye and let his left take over.

Ah... there it was.

Under the bed was an unmistakable glow of magic. Scott reached under and pulled out a bundle of blankets. He opened it and was nearly blinded, not only by magic in his left eye but by ordinary light in his right.

It was a crown of some sort, bright gold with thin bars sticking out like sun rays. At the base of each bar was a ruby, glinting in their own light.

Scott immediately knew what this was. Back in his adventuring days, he would have killed to get his hands on this. A feeling of reverence overcame him.

He'd known Gem was magical. But a literal sun goddess?

Why would she want to hide this?

"Scott?" a small voice asked.

Scott froze and turned to see the princess herself.

Gem's eyes darted to his face, then the crown in his hands. "Please put that down."

"You're a celestial being," Scott said.

Gem pulled the crown out of his hands. "No! I don't know where this came from, I'm a human!"

"Why are you pretending to be a human?" Scott demanded. "Gem-"

Gem quickly wrapped the crown up again. "I'm not!"

She sounded terrified. Her aura flickered, first brighter, than dimmer. She was fighting too hard.

Scott decided to take a different approach. "Gem, I'm not going to treat you differently because you're a goddess."

Gem unceremoniously shoved the crown under the bed. "I'm not a goddess. Not in the way Joel is, anyway. I'm just a celestial being, and I don't want to be that anymore."

"Why not?"

Gem folded her arms and glared at him, even though she wasn't very good at glaring. "Because being immortal sucks! I want to live like humans do, I want to farm and smell flowers and eat honey."

Scott tilted his head. "But you can't be mortal without the bad, too, you know."

Gem scowled. "You think I didn't know that? I'm still getting used to it, Scott. Please leave me alone."

Scott stood up. "Okay. I understand your reasoning, but I do not agree with it. Sorry for snooping. Are we still allies?"

Gem sighed. "Yes, we're still allies."

Scott clapped. "Yay! But just remember, Gem - a lot of the rulers aren't human. You wouldn't really stand out."

Gem hesitated, then nodded.

The next time Scott saw her, her aura was brighter than he'd ever seen it.