Here, There, And Everywhen

He bolts up in the little rowboat, causing it to wobble precariously, forcing him to grab the oars for balance, crushing the small moth that had landed, suddenly, upon the oar a few moments before. It is night, and the star field overhead is positively diminishing him, making him less than a speck upon the sea. He feels something on his hand and turns it over sadly, sees the moth dust, and apologizes in a voice that doesn't carry past his wrist.

He was dreaming of the crown, or the amethyst, rather. The most perfect amethyst ever cut, flawless and richly colored, evenly translucent, a mathematical marvel, really. Everyone knew the story, how a greedy king had forced his royal wizard to find a way to duplicate it. And a copy was made, but not a replica, no, a precise duplication of the stone itself, as if two had always existed. It was, in fact, the same amethyst, existing in two places at the same time. By comparison, the two crowns fashioned to hold the gems (crafted from raw metals by human hands) were as different as night and day, but their dissimilarities were of no consequence.

When the second crown was placed on the head of an unwilling servant, the poor soul was banished from its body, and the king's came to occupy it fully. In this way he could rule from two cities at once, could see across thousands of miles, and hold his domain like none before him.

It was unnatural. And the world (along with whatever spirits maintained it) recognized the abomination of the amethyst crowns. How else, the story went, could fate be so coordinated as to drop a falling star upon both royal cities within moments of each other? Neither city now stood, but in the centuries that followed the treasure seekers of the world had sifted its cratered ruins for any chance at reclaiming the legendary crowns.

In the rowboat, the man in tattered clothing leans back again, spying the moon, and raises his arm above his head. Pinched between thumb and forefinger the amethyst gleams like a damsel's eye, and beside a fire in another world the man in velvet robes takes another sip of wine.