Some hold that the fates of all men are carved into stone. What happens when a miner breaks into a cave and discovers tablets seeming to record all events of the miner’s life up until that point and then details what is to come thereafter? -- Deathshead419
Some legends say that the Great Silver Dragon curled up and became the moon. Some say that she became the very world upon which all other life depends. Some legends say that all the destinies of all the lives are written upon the Great Silver Dragon's scales, and woe betide any who find so much as one...
Some legends will say anything.
But most legends have a mote of truth inside them, as the unfortunate Sapper Jaymes found out to his peril. He had been minding his own business, mining his claim and following a seam of interesting rock. At least until that very rock split open and he found a small chamber containing a stone like no other. It was covered with writing.
Well. What he recognised as writing. It had all the shapes and patterns of writing. As he ventured closer, the shapes moved and twisted. Became something he could understand.
Pictures. Pictures of his life. He recognised his family and the farm he grew up on. The time he broke his arm because Cousin Daryn dared him to goad the bull. The one fishing trip that had caught a true bounty. His decision to go mining, and the building of his mine. The best finds. Including this one.
As to what happened next... it showed him hauling the stone towards the surface, bringing it out into the daylight. Showing it off to the wandering merchant who came by to sell him supplies. It showed crowds coming to see it. It showed him getting rich from their money. It showed his mine becoming a destination.
That was a lot of people who suddenly wanted to know him. He'd come out this far to avoid too many people. Jaymes backed away from the thing. Readied his pick to smash it.
The pictures changed. It showed him smashing the stone, the mine collapsing around him. It showed bones under the ground.
Well, if he didn't want to drag it up and he'd die if he smashed it, then he could just bury it again. He had plenty of spoil from his excavations.
The images changed again. Showing him chipping some of the stones surrounding the chamber. Selling them to the traveling merchant. It showed him doing well. It showed him talking to a Wizard, who did the taking the stone away. It showed Jaymes living the life as suited him best.
"Awright," he said to the stone. "You have yourself a deal."
He chipped the stones from the chamber walls, sold them off in exchange for supplies. The merchant came back in a hurry. A day sooner than the week it took her to make her stops. This time with an excited Wizard in tow.
"Good sir, you must show me your foretelling stele."
"It ain't steel," Jaymes figured the Wizard was foreign and didn't know the right way to say some words. "it's a stone."
"Of course. Of course. Please show me?"
Wizards never needed lanterns, but Jaymes told them not to make any flames on account of the gasses that could sometimes cause troubles. He led them down to see it, and busied himself with the walls while the Wizard stared at the changing writing.
He met Ereshkygal with his pick in his hand and a knife in his back. That was only the start of a chain of murder and thievery attached to the Rock of Dissension.
[Photo by Smithsonian on Unsplash]
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