The Legend of the Jade Eye

The Legend of the Jade Eye

There is a story among the Ath'an Miere, of a young deckgirl who finds herself lost on her new ship, far from her mother and her sisters. The tossing waves and roiling skies over the Sea of Storms did nothing to allay the girl's despair. The deckgirl cried, and she cried, until one day the other members of the crew could not take her tears anymore and they went to the Sailmistress.

The Sailmistress summoned the deckgirl to her cabin and said, "Why do you cry child? You ride the waves as our people have always done. You feel the spray on your skin and the wind in your hair. It is for this that we are born."

The deckgirl replied "I am so sorry, but I miss my mother, and I miss my sisters."

The Sailmistress nodded sagely. The new crewmembers often behaved this way. She gathered herself and led the weeping girl from the cabin and out onto the deck, to stand beneath the rare clear night-sky, alive with stars, like diamonds spread upon a cloth of black velvet. One star, however, glowed green in the night, bright and distinct.

The Sailmistress gently lifted the chin of the deckgirl up toward the sky. "Do you see that star, child?"

The girl peered up and fixed the green star with her gaze. "Yes."

"That is the Jade Eye, the Eye of the Creator, the Beacon over the Sea of Storms. Alone among all the stars of the heavens, the Jade Eye dances across the heavens. It does not leave and return with the seasons, as do the other stars. The Jade Eye passes over every night, watching." The Sailmistress smiled. "Whenever you are frightened in the Sea of Storms, remember the Jade Eye protects you. Right this moment, your mother, and your sisters, should they travel this rough sea, can look up and see the Eye as well as you can. In that, they are not so far away. Should you ever feel lonely, just look up, and know that your loved ones are protected by the same star as you."

The deckgirl nodded, but asked a question. "Why is different from the other stars."

To that the Sailmistress replied, "It is the Jade Eye, child. The Creator hung it in the sky so that he may watch over the Ath'an Miere, and he made it shine in the night so that we may find our way safely, to chart our way across this trackless sea."

The deckgirl accepted that, but continued. "Will it always guide us through the storms, Sailmistress?"

The Sailmistress affected a smile, but a wary smile. "It said among our people that the Jade Eye will race in the heavens until the Coramoor is to come again."

"The Coramoor," whispered the Deckgirl, a trifle breathlessly. "But the Jendai Prophecy says that he is to come again when the seas boil and Stormbringer stirs to wreak havoc across the nine corners of the world! It is said that when Stormbringer arises, the seven winds will abandon us and the ships of the dead shall rule the seas! When Stormbringer rides the night, our nets will bring us nothing but misery!"

"That may be true, child," consoled the Sailmistress, "But for now, Stormbringer is securely fettered, bound in the Fiery Mount far from the shores of our people, and deep within the Blighted Lands. We will be prepared, child, and we will watch for the portents as we have always done."