Ia and the Book

Ia wandered among hills and valleys on his own one evening, and he came upon a settlement of miners who wrested livings by delving into the earth and harvesting its bounties. The village was wealthy far in excess of its size and population, so effectively did it extract gemstones and precious metals, and Ia spoke with the leader of the community and asked how it could be that so small a settlement could be so prosperous.

'The secrets are within this manual which I uncovered,' answered the village's overseer, and he showed Ia a broad and flat tome. Its pages lay between covers of slate, and a twin girdles of gold and steel crossed the book's cover and bound it together. Ia recognized the book, and its presence was of great interest to him.

'How did you come to own this marvelous tome?' asked Ia, and the overseer answered, 'I received a vision in which a man formed of nothing more than bones and dirt and stone awoke after a long sleep, and the man beckoned me to follow him. I did, and he led me to a great realm deep below the earth where graves stood, one for every person who died, is dying, and will yet die. Deeper yet I tread and I stood before doors of black metal unlike any that I had ever seen, set a cavern that loomed larger than the sky, and there a dead man gave this book to me and then said to me, "Take and keep this." When I awoke the book lay upon my chest, and I have kept it ever since. But I was not told never to open it, and so I did, and the secrets of the earth were revealed to me, and my community now prospers.'

'Your book is stolen,' Ia said, 'but its proper owner must never find or have it.' So Ia placed an enchantment upon the book which wreathed it in shadows and prevented it from being found by those who would call upon greater powers to search for it. 'Keep this book but do not speak of it, and let none learn of it except through my will.' The overseer witnessed and cowered before Ia's strength, and he agreed to Ia's terms, and the book passed from memory as intended.