Published Sept 2007 in Strange Horizons
Elemental magic comes at a price, to both the elementalist and their loved ones. In this story, the brother of a stonekin (earth elementalist) must choose between his sister and his people.
In the darkness of the mine shaft, Storn stroked the cold stone wall. “Not long, sister,” he whispered, knowing that she couldn’t hear him. His hand brushed over a thin line scribed in the rock, and his breath caught like his snagged fingertips—but it was an old letter, old words. The wall here was covered with the scars of long-past conversations. His own words, chiselled in slanted, uneven strokes, relaying requests for so many tonnes of ore, strata reports, instability estimates; the sleek smoothness of his sister’s replies, flowing in thread-fine rivulets of iron, copper, silver.
Note: In Ashes is also set in this milieu. I suggest reading In Stone before In Ashes, even though In Ashes is technically a prequel.
“This is the kind of fantasy I love the most: strange worlds and the strange events taking place within them, and utterly unflinching.”
– from The Fix review of In Stone