The Ebony Box
Later that evening Áine and Lodan were relaxing in the library, a warm fire burning in the small fireplace in the corner. Áine sat at the desk writing a list of items to bring with them on the trip to Akkadia. Lodan was comfortably seated in the overstuffed chair, smoking a clay pipe filled with aromatic tobacco.
“I think maybe we should take rooms at the Hart & Ale while we’re there, Lodan. I haven’t met the new DreamMistress or ShadowMistress yet, and I’d hate to impose on their hospitality before we’ve even had a chance to get to know each other.”
“Aye, I don’t know many folks there either,” he said, “I’ve kept away from the city for so long, I doubt anyone there would remember me… no telling how long has passed really… just the same, I’d rather not have a grand entrance or anything like that.” He puffed on his pipe and blew circles in the air that seemed to dance ’round the room.
“Well, we could probably skirt around that, if we put our minds to it,” Áine smiled, “there’s plenty of out-of-fashion clothes in this place, and with a little glamoury we could alter our appearances enough that we wouldn’t be easily recognized. Besides, it might be fun to see Akkadia like that.” She leaned back in her chair, thinking about it. As she did that, the chair slid a little ways backward and it’s leg became stuck in a crevice in the floor and nearly toppled her out of the chair.
“Whoa! What’s this?” she quickly recovered her balance and stood up and turned around. Looking down she noticed a patch in the floor where the boards appeared to be loose, the chair leg was stuck in there. Lodan came over, moved the chair aside, and had a look. He felt along the edges of the floor boards and lightly tugged at one, which caused a small section of the floor to lift up, revealing a hidden compartment below the floor.
“There appears to be something in there,” he said, as he reached down into the hole. He pulled out an ebony box with ornate filigree leaf designs of silver and gold inlaid in the wood. He placed the box on the desk and the two of them examined it carefully. On first appearance it seemed solid with no means of opening it. Áine traced the design with her fingertip, then suddenly pressed down on one of the leaves in the top, and the box sprung open. “How did you…?” Lodan looked at her, and she had this mischievous grin on her face. “I had a box something like this one when I was young,” she said, “it was a puzzle box, and this one seemed similar to that one, so it wasn’t difficult to find the secret to open it. Of course, if you’d never had a puzzle like this before, it might have taken a while to figure out the secret to it.”
Inside the box was a sheaf of parchments, quite yellowed with age. The writings were difficult to make out and were in an archaic language that Áine could only catch a few words of here and there. As she was examining the parchments, Lodan replaced the floor boards, and it was as if there had never been an opening in the floor at all.
“Hmmm… something about the crafting of a jewel…,” she said aloud.
“Well, read it!” Lodan said anxiously, “I want to know what it says, too!”
“I can’t make out all the words,… it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen this tongue in writing… but I’ll try,” she brought the parchments closer to the oil lamp and began to read…
“Long ago, when I was a… ummm… lad?… living in the… something Mountains… something or other… western region of… hmmm, I can’t make that part out… anyway … I heard a tale told… in the deep darkness of something, I think that’s the name of a moon phase… hard to tell… ’round the hearth fire on a cold winter’s night… something about the adults thinking I was asleep and they spoke in whispers?… no… hushed tones… about a jewelsmith who… lived deep within the mountains… whose name was… Gr… Grian… Grianánda? {sunny countenance]… the greatest of his something something craft… in all the Isles. Grianánda… the jewelsmith… loved all green things that grew… something something… hard to read this, it’s faded badly… his greatest joy was to see the sunlight through the… ummm… trees?… no… leaves of trees. It?… an idea!… came into his heart… to create a… jewel… something about capturing the light of the sun within it… so that it should… be lit within and… hmmm… sparkle with the light as green as the sun through the leaves… Grianánda labored for… something… years?… to make this jewel and… at last he succeeded… and all of the… other craftsmen?… for leagues around… something… admired and marvelled… over the jewel… It was said… that those who… looked through the stone?… no… gem… saw things that were…. withered?… or burned… healed again… or as they were in their youth… and that… the hands of anyone who… held it… could then heal… something… something… that they touched… healing from hurt… and then it goes on from there… as I grew in… years?… the tale was… as if stuck… in my head… and I had to know… something… something… tale was true… and so I snuck away one night and went in search of… any word of it or the jewelsmith … within the mountains… journeyed for several years… something… something… got lost… and then found myself in a valley of… deepest green… there’s more here but I can’t make it out until almost the end where it says… I came back to my village to find it burnt… everyone dead… the gem could not bring back the dead… something… something… and I was too late to help them… something… and I put the jewel in the box.”
“There’s nothing else written here. No name on the parchments… nothing,” Áine said. Under the parchments, inset in the bottom of the ebony box lay a small bag made of green silk.
“Let’s see what’s in the bag,” Lodan said, reaching for it.
“Do you think we should touch it?” asked Áine.
“Hmm… you’re right. What if we just pour it out onto the paper to look at it and not touch it? That way we can use the paper to put it back in the bag afterwards?” Lodan grinned at her.
Áine chuckled, then said, “You’re right, I can’t see any harm in that.” So Lodan opened the green silk bag and carefully poured the contents onto the parchment. The green jewel slid out of the bag, across the paper, along the desk and right into Áine’s hand, as if self-propelled. She almost dropped it with surprise, but managed to hang onto it. The stone was set in a silver and gold filigree leaf design, as if caged in leaves, and hung on a silver and gold necklace chain of intertwining leaves.
“Heh, too late, I’ve touched it now,” she said just as a bright green light shot out of the jewel and lit up the entire room for a moment. So blinding was the light that neither of them could see much of anything but green for a short while afterwards. Slowly the light faded and retreated back into the jewel so that it glowed faintly in the firelight.
“I’ve done it now, haven’t I?” Lodan whispered, a worried look on his face.
“Áine, are you alright?” Lodan whispered, for he could see tears welling up in her eyes, and he thought she must be hurt.
“Aye… I am alright, Lodan…” she sighed deeply, then turned and looked into the flames of the fireplace, her eyes flashing a deep blue-green color. “I am well acquainted with grief, not the least of which is my own,… yet at this moment, I weep not for myself, but for the World of Men… and for every wound that they have suffered… and for the nightmares that have marred their Dreaming…” she wiped her eyes. “In that moment of the green light of the sun coming through the leaves, the sound of mourning was foremost in the great Song, and I could hear it plainly just then… and I saw my place in that Song clearly, as well.”
Lodan was deeply touched, for he understood just what she meant. Áine, you bring strength to their spirits, and you turn their sorrow into wisdom, he said to her in mindspeak. She turned to him, a soft smile coming to her face through shining tears.
“Perhaps I make a small difference, eh?” she whispered, wiping her eyes again. He came over to her and knelt by her chair, then reached up and softly touched her face with his fingertips.
“You make more of a difference than you think, muirnín [beloved], though you hide behind a facade of stone sometimes… yet I can see why… I have hurt you deeply, as others have. It has been a long series of hurts for you,” he kissed her cheek and ran his fingers through her long hair, and then he whispered into her ear, “Is mór an méala é duine a ghrá. [It is very sad to love someone.]”
“Aye, sad and happy too…” she paused, “Níl níos fearr le fáil [There is nothing better to be had],” she whispered back to him, the firelight flickering on their faces. “We’d best get to our bed, my love, it is nearly daybreak,” she said, “and we have plenty to do tomorrow.”
He smiled, and helped her up from the chair. Áine placed the leaf necklace with it’s glowing green gem back into the green silk bag, and put it and the parchments back into the ebony box and closed it. The lid locked with a click. “I must bring this with us to show Dagoba, perhaps she knows more about it,” Áine said, “I’ll go and visit her after we’re settled in our rooms at the Hart & Ale.” Lodan nodded, and followed her out of the library and into the bedroom.
