Gemstone Garden

The Gemstone Garden is carefully maintained—though by whom remains a mystery. Some say dreambound spirits tend its trees, while others whisper of a hidden sect of rebels using the garden as a secret meeting place.

Few dare to speak openly about the garden, fearing the attention of Tsien Chiang’s agents or the jiangshi that prowl the city’s darker corners.

• The garden is filled with ornamental trees heavy with ripe fruit—pomegranates, persimmons, and fragrant mandarins—that gleam like jewels beneath a perpetually soft light.
• Numerous ponds shimmer like pools of liquid crystal, their surfaces alive with bone-white carp whose slow movements stir the water with ghostly grace.
• Flowering shrubs and delicate vines climb trellises, filling the air with the sweet, calming scents of jasmine and magnolia.
• Polished jade and quartz pathways wind between groves, bordered by low walls carved with motifs of cranes, dragons, and clouds.
• Lanterns carved from translucent stones hang from branches, glowing faintly at twilight and giving the garden a serene, otherworldly ambiance.

Despite I’Cath’s surrounding desolation, the Gemstone Garden feels untouched by the Mists and seems to exist in a bubble of natural peace and harmony. Here, sounds are clearer: the soft splash of fish, the rustling of leaves, the distant tolling of the Nightingale Bell echoing like a haunting lullaby.

Visitors report:

• A sense of calm and clarity, as if the garden’s beauty momentarily frees the mind from Tsien Chiang’s influence.
• The fruit tastes sweet and nourishing, rare sustenance in a city where food is scarce.
• However, lingering too long can induce visions of the dream city, blurring the line between reality and illusion.