Deep in the heart of windswept plains is a temple with a great hoard of gold. All who enter may take a single coin from the supposed Goddess’s shrine. A woeful fate is said to befall any who take more than their fair share. What is the woeful fate? As the supposed Goddess statue is actually Eris, the answer may surprise everyone involved. -- Deathshead419
There are gods you pray to for their mercy. There are those you do not speak their name, lest you gain their attention. Sometimes, one god is both. That is the goddess of havoc and chaos - Eris.
She has a lot of altars in chaotic establishments, and very few temples.
The most noted one is a temple on the Harukh'ai plainlands, once a scene of many battles. And because it's a temple to the goddess of chaos, it's made out of monoliths carefully balanced against one another in such a way as to look like they could all fall down in a strong wind.
It's stood tall and strong for millennia.
It hosts no priests, raises no acolytes, and hosts no worshippers. Those who do come there come out of desperation to change their luck. To that end, they leave whatever offering they believe will suit Eris on the altar, then journey down to a rough-hewn cellar where a hoard of gold coins lie.
Those who go there know they should only take one. That's the one the supplicant flips into the air in order to alter their fate.
It's even in the runes that all can read, posted over the entrance to the vault. Please Take One.
Rab Tye had left the last of his food on the altar before descending to the cellar. He read the words over the entrance. He couldn't not read them nor ignore them.
He froze, staring at an enormous pile of gold coins. More than enough money to change his ill fate. One coin would go nowhere. It could keep him in meals for a while, but it would not change his fate according to his logic.
So he filled his pouches before he walked out. No lightning struck him down, so Rab thought he was safe from divine wrath. So he raced as fast as he could for the nearest town to live it up.
Eris doesn't work that way. She's not about instant retribution. She's a goddess of chaos, after all. She strikes when it's least expected. And she strikes when it's most inconvenient for her designated target.
For instance, half the coins in Rab's pouches turned to gilded lead before he could spend a single one. Half of the remaining gold became obvious wooden fakes. All intermingled with the real gold and heavy enough that Rab could not immediately tell the difference.
The instant they left his hand... then people could tell.
They weren't inclined to be kind to Rav's claim of an honest mistake. Rav was quickly beaten, jailed, and had his pouches confiscated. He had to pay his own prison ransom with hard labor, since the Watch had taken all the coins.
Yet somehow, they came back to him. While cracking rocks for the old Ormani highways, a pouch of coin appeared under the last stone he had to crack. The Watch called it a gift from the gods and let him leave with it.
Rav checked every coin, and could not find a forgery. He took them to a valuer, and they found most of them wanting. The only true gold in the entire pouch was one gold coin, which bore Eris' symbol. The golden apple pictured on the coin meant that Rav could never spend it. Nobody with any sense would take it as tender.
As for the fakes, the wood became part of the fire to melt down the lead. Which was sold for a pittance.
Rav absently put the handful of copper and one silver into the same pouch as the Eris-coin, and thought no more of it.
Until he opened the pouch to pay for a cheap meal, and found that all his spendable money was, once again, false coin.
That was just the start of his trouble.
He stubbed his toes regularly. He tripped over the least little thing. If there was any chance that he would jolt his funny bone, it would happen without fail. He collided with furniture.
And the Watch was always around when a crime happened, and believed in all faith that it was him who did it. And they always set him free rather than hang him as a villain.
Somehow, he always had just enough. Just enough to keep going for another day. Just enough hope to prevent him from ending it. Just enough food to keep him from starving. Just enough true coin to get him exactly what he needed and no more. Just enough care to keep him just healthy enough to live a little longer.
Because Eris has one trick for those who steal from her. She keeps them alive for as long as possible, so they suffer more.
[Photo by Adi Albulescu on Unsplash]
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