Chapter 32: Tale of the Stonecutter

The stonecutter's name was Shaan and he was in the service of the king of Alnoc. Every day, he would toil under the harsh sun or the torrents of rain. He would lift his mallet and hit his chisel to take out a portion of the mountain for use by the master sculptors of Alnoc. The work was hard and tedious, but the stonecutter devoted all of his time extracting the best stones for the king.

One day, the rain poured in torrents and the wind blew hard on the mountain face that the lead stonecutter halted their work and they all looked for shelter. Shaan strayed from the others and came across a narrow cave on the mountain side that served to shelter him from the rain. As the rain poured outside, Shaan saw an image of a beautiful woman appear on the wall of the cave. Then, as abruptly as it appeared, the image vanished before the stonecutter’s eyes.

The stonecutter wondered who the woman was and he was haunted by her beautiful image. She visited him constantly in his dreams, always smiling b