Under the Stone

this is the second installment of the adventures of Nima and Neok, the keepers of the Everstone. in this story, much longer than the Everstone, they lose the stone in a mysterious labyrinth beneath the tower, and have many insightful adventures recovering it. it is an allegory, and i hope you enjoy it. it begins an endless forest, overlooking a stormy sea once stood a tower. It rose atop a tall cliff and was perfectly white, glistening when the moon shone on it, and the sun’s rays made it sparkle rainbow glints of light onto the seashore. At the tower’s very top glowed a shining jewel sending rays of starlight far across the ocean, and ships sailing on the sea would use its light to guide them through storms and back to safety.Long had the tower stood upon its granite cliffs, kept safe by its guardians. The keepers of the tower were a brother and sister, and they had lived there for many long years tending the shining gemstone at its height, for it was a wondrous treasure said to have been seized by the pair from the lair of a great devourous dragon under mysterious circumstances.The old tales tell how the two; Neok, a warrior of great renown, and Nima, a sorceress of high repute, had fought together past pirates and mossogres and at last to the dragon’s lair. There they conquered the fell beast with magic, seizing the Everstone. Such was the jewel called for it shall never pass away. And no small gain was the Everstone, for it was not just a beacon for ships in the night, but a granter of wishes as well, and once the two had fetched it back to their tower they set about making wish after wish.Neok the warrior wished for all of the finest weapons known to him, which was no small number, and soon he had amassed an arsenal of sharp, guilded armament of every style and taste. Every axe, cleaver, mallet, bludgeon, pole arm, knife, sword or spear he could think of were elaborately displayed in his chambers and kept sharp and ready for use.For her part Nima the sorceress had wished for every book and scroll ever written on the magical arts, and strange potions and herbs and shimmering powders and potent magics to mix together.They wished for trees and flowers and green things all around the tower, and gardens and silvery fountains. Fine food and woven tapestries for the tower walls, and banners and horses and teacups and windows and rain and sunshine. Golden shoes and forgotten songs and every good thing they could think of they wished for, and had.And so many long years were spent, until one twilight when Nima noticed something. She was standing atop the tower, gazing far out to sea by the light of the Everstone. Such was the brightness of its light that someone standing beside it could look far down the beams of starlight that it spilled across the horizon and see happenings in distant lands and times, and so Nima was often to be found beside the Everstone, gazing far out to sea, searching for something.As twilight settled she scanned the horizon for the edge of night, for she often watched how people greeted it in far and distant places, but to her horror what she saw in the land she watched was not the cover of night softly dimming the colors back to blue and black, but instead nothing at all. She looked out over other lands and saw that many of the farther away places were being swallowed up by an empty shadow approaching ever nearer.“Neok!”, she shouted over the towers rim and down to the warrior who was battling a small crowd of trolls at the tower’s base.“Come up to the Everstone! Something strange is happening.” it continues like this into an incredible adventure that is a marvelous esoteric alegory and even better bedtime story. enjoy.