The light from a phone's flashlight swept across the freshly cleaved surface, illuminating its interior with brutal clarity. In the center of the dark brown cross-section, a vivid streak of red emerged from the stone like a vein of liquid fire.
Several sharp-eyed spectators in the crowd spotted it immediately. "It's red! There's red in there!"
That single shout was enough to pull back everyone who had already started drifting away. Bodies pressed in close again, necks craning, phones rising.
Stella Vane's expression shifted into genuine astonishment as she studied the cross-section. "Based on the color showing through the cleaved surface, that looks like... crimson jade?"
She had every reason to be shocked. Pulling crimson jade out of a geode with such poor external indicators bordered
