Crystal Sisters Last Stand

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

Crystals floated around her and her skin sparkled in the light. I could see diamond tears covering her cheeks; she knew as well as I did that we wouldn’t survive this. The refractions hadn’t been in our favour this time.

“Sister…” I reached with my flesh hand to gently wipe her tears away. The faint tinkling chorus of shards hitting the floor only underscored her wavering breath. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I should have-”

“No.” My mouth tightened. “You did everything you could.”

“And people will die, Jade!” She shuddered and pressed her hands against the cave wall. Trying once again to weave the refractions, to quell the oncoming storm.

I didn’t point out that we were going to die first. The crystalline shunt would take a while to reach through the miles of stone buffering the rest of the clan. Of course her concern was for the others and not herself. That, more than her power, was why she had been chosen for this task; the elders knew she wouldn’t run and leave everyone else to suffer.

Instead I set the lamp down and placed my hands on hers, our fingers twining together. Adding my own meagre vibrations to the soaring chorus she was pouring into the uncaring stone.

“Breathe, Di. This isn’t over yet. If we can’t stop it, we can at least weaken it.”

“Yeah. Yeah… you’re right.” She sucked in a slow, deep breath, her power reverberating in time with her racing heart. “Alright. Let me try something different. A… a slantwise refraction. Bounce the shunt away.”

“Like we’re playing coal shoot?” The image made me smile despite myself. “Alright. You always were the best at finding angles.”

“And you were second best!” She always insisted on adding that. “So…”

“Right. We’ve got this. Just need to nudge the main shunt enough to one side…”

The main shunt. Because the reverb was going to kill us no matter how good our angle or timing. I could feel tears in my eyes, crystal nubs welling up determinedly no matter how often I impatiently blinked them away.

Focus, Jade. Focus. It’s too late for us regardless. No running, no shielding can save us now. This is about everyone else.

“Here?”

“Or here…”

“This… no, too far from the rest.”

“Hmmm…”

We sketch out the grain and flaws of the stone, mapping each lump and hole and crack until the entire cave is singing a desperate duet.

Finally, with the shunt almost upon us, we make our choice. Pick the best - what we hope is the best - line to reinforce. Pour everything we have into one last refraction.

Please, please…

The pain is unimaginable. I feel my stone hand shatter, the shards cutting deep into my flesh, but with how my blood seems to be boiling I barely notice. My mind flees from the sensations, partly to escape and mostly because I have to hold on I want to know I-

“It worked.”

A last gasp, a broken grin, and I let the refractions take me.

[This prompt this time was the first paragraph.]

[ETA - oh wow oh wow, this was listed in the Top in Fiction for 13/01/25!!! Check out the rest of the stories in the issue here!]