Excerpt: Crystal Cracked

“Choose that which calls to you young one,” spoke the centaur. Into the basket I placed my hand unsure of how I was to choose something that would alter everything. It seemed as if the bowl was a basket of small kittens all mewling for my attention. Each kami-stone I touched whispered a future to me. A kaleidoscope of worlds furled out before me coalescing as three stones found their way into my seeking hand. Raising my hand from the murk of choice I held out my life to my teacher. She took the stones from my hand as the merchild scurried away to await the others.
“The way slips open. Will you follow this path,” quired the centaur.
“I will.”
“Than it is so.”
As those words echoed through the gathering my master stepped forward and slammed the blade home into my body. It felt like nothing at first, until the white plasma frisson ran through me. I felt her pushing the kami-stones into my bleeding body. I felt as they pulsed and then shot into me to find a home. I did not feel the floor as I fell to it writhing in my own spilled blood. The last thing I saw was my master's dawn colored eyes falling away from me as the shadows crept in--memory became reality.