Delia's research had turned up nothing, but it didn't surprise her much. It wasn't every day that someone got a magical rock embedded in their flesh, after all. After a day or so to get herself used to the fact that she did have a magical stone in her chest, she started to experiment. In all of the stories she'd ever read, magical stones did something, so she just had to figure out what this one did.

She thought that, since the crystal always had its own faint glow, that it might have something to do with light, and she was right, in a sense. If she concentrated, she could get it to light up, although it had the relatively disturbing side-effect of making the surrounding flesh glow red, as if she had a flashlight shining through from the inside. She learned not to look at it after that. What she had figured out, though, after quite a few failed and misfired attempts, was that the crystal somehow granted her some power over the four elements--albeit only one at a time.

Still... It was something, and it seemed wonderful.