It was Quinn Thorne's first time attending anything like this, and he couldn't hide the curiosity spreading across his face as he took in the scene. "I never imagined blind gemstone speculation would draw this kind of crowd."
The open-air plaza was alive with noise and motion, dozens of stalls arranged in rough rows beneath canvas awnings, each one displaying slabs of raw gemstone ore on padded tables. Merchants, collectors, and speculators milled between the booths, their voices overlapping in a low roar of negotiation and excitement.
"Seventy or eighty percent of the people here are gem and jewelry merchants," Vivian Sinclair explained as they walked. "They have capital but not enough supply. Blind gemstone speculation lets them invest a fraction of what finished stones would cost, wit
