A little bit from part 2 of "Out There" when Jeina hears the weary, panicked cry for help from Yune's ena crystal.
The weary whisper of a plaintive voice touched her mind. It was so faint that she had to focus to understand it.
She knew exactly what called to her and undoubtedly him, for help. She picked up his dirty clothing and removed a small cloth bag from the right pocket of his pants.
An ena crystal - a tiny, double-terminated, water-clear gem no bigger than two centimeters long - tumbled into her palm.
It was smaller than average. A vibration of panic pulsed from it. Its light briefly flared, as though screaming, and in reaction, a small sound of dissonance escaped Yune. He had heard it, and was trying to wake up.
“Easy,” she coo’d, reassuring it that she wasn’t a threat to either of them.
Its light settled down, and so did he.
This plain, little, insignificant-looking crystal could easily buy him a new ship with upgraded components, and leave him with a surplus to comfortably live on for the rest of his life. It may be worth a small fortune, but to him, no price tag could ever cover its value.
These rare crystals were just as sentient as any being she’d met, though with a few differences.
The blue light of its weakened source barely created a pinpoint in its center. Exhaustion, pain, and worry colored that source in a pale aura. It had given him all the strength it had, and anything it gained after its initial aid. It had put itself through stress to keep him going. That’s how he managed to fight a lighrey for so long.
It was wounded, tired, and afraid for him. Being separated from him put a toll on the source within.
She had known ena crystals to react negatively when they couldn’t assist their owners, as was their purpose. Irritation, anxiety, sadness, and frustration were common reactions. Crying wasn’t normally one of them. A crystal that cried had faced severe trauma in the past not only to its form, but to its source. This little one bore a scar along one side, and hairline fractures spidering out from a breakpoint - proof that it had shattered violently away from a parent cluster or twin.
It had bonded strongly to Yune, and he to it, as though they were all each other had left in the galaxy. Based on others she'd encountered mirroring his experience, that very well may be the case.
A bond this strong harbored an astronomical amount of love.
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