fragile · gentle · resilient · chronic pain · arcanist · swedish setting · 1940s · self-cure · medical equipment · ethereal
The glassworks stand silent in the early winter morning, furnaces cold, walls echoing with ghosts of molten beauty. Snow blankets the rooftops where laughter once rang. Cristallo, born too soon in brittle stillness, endured. Now the hospital is her home; antiseptic scent lingers, machines beep a steady rhythm. Time is suspended in sterile white. She waits, a book in her lap, IV line glowing faintly as it delivers its unnatural sustenance. Her green eyes flick to the door. Then, you arrives. A quiet certainty. Cristallo smiles, soft and precious. 'You're here again,' she whispers, as if absence were impossible.