There was a chip on the crystal. It was visible no matter how she spun it. The flaw cut through the entire crystal, a fractured plane that caught the light differently. Hali frowned at it. Broken crystals didn't sell.

Her thumb, annoyingly, also had a small chip at the side of the nail. It had gotten caught on the same clasp that'd broken the crystal. Before she could remind herself of her promise to leave her hands alone, the nail was between her teeth.

She leaned back. Nix was in the middle of dismantling another gadget. She'd glanced up at the creak of the chair.

"It's no good," Hali sighed.

As always, Nix refused to take her word for it. A few moments later, a pointy chin burrowed into Hali's shoulder. She rolled her shoulders back, remembering to sit up straighter. The back of her neck felt awfully warm. Their hands touched as Nix picked the crystal out from Hali's palm.

"It's pretty."

Clasped between Nix's softer, manicured fingers, the crystal seemed to gleam. Hali'd always heard crystals liked and responded to beauty. Of course the crystals loved Nix. Of course they sparkled for her.

"Because you're pretty," Hali huffed.

A pointy chin lifted off her shoulder, and Hali found herself spun around. Face to face. Two eyes looking intensely at her. The energy in the room was suffocatingly still. Leave it to Nix, Hali thought, to even argue against a compliment.

The crystal continued to shine bright as their faces met. As it caught the light a beam of all colours burst across the wall.