This is important. It is more important than my life and more important than yours. You and I are footnotes, no one will miss us if we are not included in this story. We exist outside the egg, we always have.” She gives him a smile that doesn’t reach her mismatched eyes and lifts her teacup.
“That egg is filled with gold,” Zachary says, looking at it again. What he had taken for a crack was a stray hair caught on the lens of his glasses.
“What did you say?” Allegra asks, teacup pausing mid-lift, but then the lights go out.
The sword was the greatest the smith had ever made after years of making the most exquisite swords in all the land. He had not spent an inordinate amount of time on its crafting, he had not used the finest of materials, but still this sword was a weapon of a caliber that exceeded his expectations.
It was not made for a particular customer and the smith found himself at a loss as he tried to decide what to do with it. He could keep it for himself but he was better at crafting swords than at using them. He was reluctant to sell it, though he knew it would fetch a good price.
The sword smith did what he always did when he felt indecisive, he paid a visit to the local seer.
There were many seers in neighboring lands who were blind and saw in ways that others could not though they could not use their eyes.
The local seer was merely nearsighted.
The local seer was often found at the tavern, at a secluded table in the back of the room, and he would tell the futures of objects or people if he was bought a drink.
(He was better at seeing the futures of objects than the futures of people.)
The sword smith and the seer had been great friends for years. Sometimes he would ask the seer to read swords.
He went to the tavern and brought the new sword. He bought the seer a drink.
“To Seeking,” the seer said, lifting his cup.
“To Finding,” the sword smith replied, lifting his drink in return.
They talked of current events and politics and the weather before the smith showed him the sword.
The seer looked at the sword for a long time. He asked the smith for another drink and the smith obliged.
The seer finished his second drink and then handed the sword back.
“This sword will kill the king,” the seer told the smith.
“What does that mean?” the smith asked.
The seer shrugged.
“It will kill the king,” he repeated. He said no more about it.
The smith put the sword away and they discussed other matters for the rest of the night.
The next day the sword smith tried to decide what to do with the sword, knowing that the seer was rarely wrong.
Being responsible for the weapon that killed the king did not sit well with the sword smith, though he had previously made many swords that had killed many people.
He thought he should destroy it but he could not bring himself to destroy so fine a sword.
After much thought and consideration he crafted two additional swords, identical and indistinguishable from the first. Even the sword smith himself could not tell them apart.
As he worked he received many offers from customers who wished to purchase them but he refused.
Instead the sword smith gave one sword to each of his three children, not knowing who would receive the one that would kill the king, and he gave it no more thought because none of his children would do such a thing, and if any of the swords fell into other hands the matter was left to fate and time and Fate and Time can kill as many kings as they please, and will eventually kill them all.
The sword smith told no one what the seer had said, lived all his days and kept his secret until his days were gone.
The youngest son took his sword and went adventuring. He was not a terribly good adventurer and he found himself distracted visiting unfamiliar villages and meeting new people and eating interesting food. His sword rarely left its scabbard. In one village he met a man he fancied greatly and this man had a fondness for rings. So the youngest son took his disused sword to a smith and had it melted down, and then hired a jeweler to craft rings from the metal. He gave the man one ring each year for