Justin Lane's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Justin Lane held his newest wand over the dying man's chest and watched it crack. The crystal split down the middle with a dry snap. The healing light guttered out. The man's fever raged on, and his wife screamed. Justin swept the shards off the table and told her to wait. He needed a stronger stone. He knew the truth now, and it sickened him. Every wand he forged failed the same way. His healing crystals were plain quartz, dug from the hills behind his workshop. Ordinary quartz could carry a small charge. It could mend a cut or break a fever, sometimes. But the legendary wand he dreamed of, the one that could cure any wound brought to his door, needed an anchor stone far stronger than quartz. Push real power through weak quartz, and it shattered. He had proven that three times this week. Justin scrubbed his gray hair and stared at the broken pieces. His blue eyes stung. A man might die tonight because his stones were too weak. The knock came soft, then quick. He opened the door to Chrissy Johnson, his long distance lover, still dusty from the road. She had crossed a long way to reach him. Her pink glasses had slipped down her nose. She was breathing hard, and she grinned anyway. "You look terrible," she said. "Which means I timed this perfectly." She reached for the fanny pack at her waist and dug inside. Justin started to explain about the shattered wand, the dying man, all of it. Chrissy held up one finger to stop him. "I read your last letter," she said. "You need a stone that won't break. So I brought you mine." She lifted the crystal from her necklace. A green moldavite stone, irregular and glassy, glowed in her palm. It caught the lamplight and held it, richer than any quartz he owned. "Moldavite," Justin said. His voice caught. "Chrissy, that's yours. You've worn it for years." "And now it's going to save someone." She pressed it into his hand and closed his fingers around it. "Stop staring. You have a man to heal." Justin carried the moldavite to his forge. He set it where the quartz had always failed. When the healing light poured through, the green stone drank it and held. Nothing cracked. The wand hummed, whole and steady. He ran to the sick man and pressed the new wand to his chest. Light sank into skin. The fever broke. The man's eyes opened, and his wife wept into her hands. Justin turned to thank Chrissy and found her frowning at the empty chain around her neck. "There's a problem," she said quietly. "That stone was a piece of something bigger. My grandmother pulled it from a ruined keep, a crystal castle sunk in moss. She always said the stone was pining for the rest of itself. Now that you've woken it up, Justin, it's going to want to go home."