Stone’s Assurance

Dust motes danced in the shafts of light illuminating the traders’ ledgers, their columns charting not seed worth but placement within rising stone stacks. Generations had pressed into the sandstone faces, leaving subtle impressions—a layered history barely visible to the touch. The cool grit beneath a boot suggested an intricate order, a silent geometry built against erosion and scarcity. Though valuations climbed, no calculation factored in what would happen when wind finally claimed these fragile arrangements; instead, risk was simply postponed, passed along like the seeds themselves.