The cover of the third issue of Amethyst Princess of Gemworld features plenty of fashion and fighting. Granch is fighting a horrible lizard dude who is wearing some disturbing orange pants. Amy is wearing a fetching Pac-Man t-shirt while being menaced by a serpent. None of these events actually take place in this comic, but that’s ok.
As the issue opens Dark Opal casts a sinister spell. I’m doubting that he knows any kind of spell other than sinister, but this one is particularly yucky. He’s weaving a mystical web and his body and face grow more and more spider-like as the spell progresses.
Prince Carnelian visits his arachnid father, bringing a citrine to him. He asks why Dark Opal needs such a weak gem, and Opal replies that he stole the stone from the witch-mother years ago and he’s going to use it to trap both Citrina and Amethyst.
Amethyst and Taffy are running across the border between worlds. Amy’s enjoying herself but she can see that Taffy is clearly not happy about enduring all of these magical adventures.
When Amy returns home her parents are talking to the police. The police leave and Amy’s mom and dad want to know where she was for two days. Amy says that she can’t tell her parents the truth, because they’d send her to a shrink. Amy’s mom is a child psychologist and she takes this comment as an insult.
Having a child psychologist for a mother would really suck. It is probably worse than having a doctor for a parent so you can never fake being sick and stay home from school. Amy’s mom tries to manipulate the conversation a little but Amy isn’t having any of it.
She comes out with the dreaded “You don’t care about me, you’re not my real parents!” comment.
Dark Opal continues to plot. I had to scan the panel above, because I love the little inset rectangle showing Opal’s shifty eyes. Is this a Steranko reference? Something about the repeated eyes looks very familiar to me.
Sardonyx has been busy researching, and he pops up with plenty of exposition for Dark Opal. He explains how Citrina hid Amethyst on Earth right after her parents were killed, and the time difference between Earth and the Gemworld ensures that Amy is a 13 year old trapped in a woman’s body. Dark Opal asks how it was possible that Citrina could hide Amethyst without him noticing and Sardonyx says that she took advantage of Dark Opal’s own baby-snatching to sneak away to Earth. Dark Opal’s children were all born misshapen monsters, so he sent an agent to Earth to grab a pretty human baby – Carnelian. Citrina followed the path set by Opal’s agent and was undetected. Dark Opal is not happy that Sardonyx brought up his kids, saying “Never again make mention of the ill-begotten wretches you call my children–for they are no flesh of mine!”
Back at Castle Amethyst, we learn that we’ve already met one of Dark Opal’s children, Amethyst’s trusty protector Granch! He decides that he’s going to set out on a mission to find and liberate his brothers and sisters from the dark dimension where they were banished. Granch says that he and his siblings may have the power to defeat Dark Opal. Citrina gives Granch her blessing and two amethyst stones that will help guide his way through the dark dimension.
Mr and Mrs Winston are discussing Amy’s comment about them not being her real parents. Mrs Winston thinks that all children develop fantasies that they are adopted, so it is purely a coincidence that Amy stumbled on the truth without really knowing anything. Mr Winston is sure that Amy knows she was adopted.
Back at the school library Amy is researching gemstones. Amy’s friend Rita sits down and asks her to look up the stone in her new pendant, a dark opal. EEK!
Granch battles a wind demon, and when he reaches the Opal family mausoleum he has to fight a giant crocodile. After he kills it he faces an unpleasant task. He comments to the corpse, “I enter willingly the very jaws that I fled just moments past…for my father’s wit is such that he made your mouth the portal to my siblings’ prison!” That Dark Opal! What a sense of humor!
Fauna, a servant at Castle Amethyst, and Citrina sit down for a chat. Citrina is feeling weary. Fauna has CRAZY EYES! Seriously, look at her facial expression. Citrina better watch her back!
Citrina gets a sudden distress call from Granch. Fauna warns that there may be some wicked subterfuge going on, but Citrina isn’t feeling any threating mystical vibrations. She sends her spirit form out to aid Granch. Dark Opal is filled with glee, because his trap worked. He used Citrina’s own stone to send the distress call in order to interfere with her usually keen magical perception.
Isn’t Ernie Colon’s art awesome? I love the way the warped spirit-form of Citrina frames this page. She’s caught in Dark Opal’s web!
On Earth, Amy is sulking because she’s grounded. She has to wait to go back to the Gemworld until her magic is replenished. Citrina told her to wait until her pendant felt warm to the touch, and Amy feels it shifting. Her magic is back. She thinks about returning to the Gemworld but hears her father calling. He visits her room and suggests that they talk a little more about what’s bothering her over leftover birthday cake. He asks how she knew she was adopted, but Amy says that she doesn’t know if she should tell him. He says that he understands that she must have a lot of conflicting emotions and more of a need to “find yourself” than other teenagers.
He goes downstairs and Amy decides that she has to go back to the Gemworld:
Isn’t it cute the way the lizard-creature in the Gemworld is welcoming her back again?