The Forgotten Gemstone by Kit Daven

True nature is impossible to forget.

Ule is Xiinisi, a race of trans-dimensional world builders. Shunned by her peers and spurned by a love interest, she retreats into Elish, a model 24-60-60 planet she built during her youth to provide escape and entertainment while being incarcerated. Dismayed by the ill turn in Elish’s evolution since her youth, Ule attempts to return home and is blocked by a mysterious force. In search of another way back to her realm, she discovers an unusual phenomenon never before expressed in worldbuilding: Demons walk the Root Dimension.

After an encounter with Istok, a cactus demon determined to spread his brand of fear, Ule is bound by his magic. Transformed into a gemstone, she succumbs to a dream state. Upon awaking, she is thrust back into Elish where merchants and farmers struggle to recover from a one hundred year war, and even worse, Ule cannot remember who or what she is.

Join Ule as she searches for clues to her true nature and identity in a world she originally designed to make her forget.

"There is a true shimmer of shapeshifting in the essence of the narrative: just as Ule can change her form at will (and has it changed for her), so Daven keeps the story morphing so subtly that it is only in retrospect that you can see that there was a plan and purpose all along." —Jen Frankel, author of Undead Redhead