He'd been stumbling through the earth, dirt-covered and reckless, when the crystal had chosen him. Because he was there? Because he'd walked his path to it from far away? Because it liked the look of him, indigo eyes in a moon-pale face, thought him unique just because he looked odd, thought him adventurous just because he ran and he stumbled? How could a crystal really know you? What was it looking for?
What was he looking for?
He never worked that out, and he chose a book of mythical creatures and a rod made of everything.
*
He'd been a slip of breeze, flimsy and scattering and easy to get a rise out of, until the crystal had chosen him. He walked taller thereafter, under a succession of hats, growing wiser. Deeper. He found words to touch friends and strangers. He'd never had friends before.
Never seen a stranger become a friend, and a friend become a king, and known pride.
And he watched and he read, seeing love and truth in the strangest places, learning from scrolls and from books, from wind and from sea, until he had learned enough to choose the blade and mask.
*
She'd lived with her hands in the fire, dodging sparks and melting iron, and when the crystal chose her she leapt at the chance to leave. She crossed continents merrily, and found her true home on a new world. She scrambled up rigging and looked down at the lands far below.
And down below the crystal spire, she ran rickety bridges between islets that floated above the stars, unfathomably far from her hearthforge. At the precipice behind a portal, the sparks ran out, leaving only the empty void.
She donned forged crystal plate, she chose the godspear, and she leapt.
*
He'd lived through stillness and tumult, high tide and low, and when the current led him to the crystal it chose him. He went dutifully onward for the Light, and each step took him further from her. He felt love had drifted forever out of his reach.
When he saw time itself awaken from slumber, he realised that there were things greater than love, and there was a love greater than he knew.
The world floated in the hands of the gods, and he loved the world, and he loved the gods, so he chose the staff and gave praise.