The Tale of Khan and Belior

Summary

On the night of the first new moon of summer, one year while humans and dwarves yet dwelled in Serenna's Garden in the Valley of Tir Drochain, a bright ball of fire lit the sky, trailed by a long, jagged ribbon of green. Roaring with the voice of a god, it fell upon the summit of the Deepwinter Mountain, where it glowed like an emerald beacon and struck the watchers below with hushed awe.
Khan, the swiftest runner of the valley-dwellers, and Belior, the halest climber, set off in eager search of this celestial blessing and omen. With laughter, they urged each other onward, as they had done since they were boyhood friends.
Belior reached the summit first. Breathless, he knelt at the rim of a great crater dug by the impact of the green stone now pulsing within. He thanked the gods for their gift and named it Caelstone, meaning stone of Heaven. There he swore to build a great temple to the gods and to make of the Caelstone its altar. Just then reaching the summit, Khan heard Belior's promise. He believed that Belior's name would be glorified above his, and envy gripped his heart. He accused Belior of vanity and laid claim to the glowing, green stone.
Some say that the friends then fell under the evil gaze of Lolth, others that a poison air brought to ground by the stone filled the crater, still others that it was foul, simple greed that fell over them both, but a wild anger breathed into the men's nostrils. They fell upon each other in hateful combat, each landing injurious blows upon the other. In the melee, Khan laid hold of a piece of the glowing stone and struck Belior in the temple, killing him.
At that moment, others from the village arrived at the summit to witness the murder of Belior by Khan. Among them was Belior's father, Rio, who laid a curse upon Khan and his entire family. Khan's father, Mellik, who was there also, plead for forgiveness and mercy for his son, but there in the glow of the Caelstone, Rio would not hear him. With the rising anger of the growing crowd behind him, Rio cast Mellik and his kin out of Serenna's Garden and into the biting wilderness of the world, threatening them with death should they ever return.
To harden his promise, he bade Hakam the dwarf, greatest smith of the valley-dwellers, to make of the Caelstone mighty weapons that would be heirlooms of his family, to be etched with vows of vengeance and carried by his descendants for as long as mountains stood. So Hakam took pieces from the green stone and lit his forge.
He crafted first a sword blade as sharp as a razor and named it Sorrow, for the sorrow of a parent who has lost his child. Upon it, he etched in the Gods' Tongue the oath, "Be there no more tears in innocents' eyes."
Hakam crafted then an axe that could cleave an oak to its heartwood in a single blow. He called it Anger and upon it he etched the oath, "Let no fire's light die while darkness hides the guilty."
With the piece of the Caelstone that Khan had used to strike Belior dead, blood and grime still upon it, Hakam made next a great hammer whose blows sounded as thunder, and he named it Justice. On its face, he carved the oath, "I will smash the world to see my vengeance done."
There was then but a single piece left of the green Caelstone, which Hakam intended to make into a spear tip. But as he laid his hand upon it, a great raven flew into his shop and perched upon his wrist. He knew it at once to be the goddess Lira, for the raven was her holy animal, and the spear her holy symbol. She asked him what he was doing and he told her of Rio's charge and showed her the mighty weapons he had forged. But when he told her of the spear he planned to make, Lira opened his eyes and he saw his work there as folly.
Hakam took the last piece of green stone and, instead of a spear, he beat the metal to a perfect, flat disc, for such was his skill. So smooth was this craftwork that it held a reflection as a looking glass. Lira then laid a blessing on the mirror so that it would show its beholder not their own reflection, but that of the object of their anger, but only in those moments when the two were most alike in spirit. Hakam called the mirror Mercy, and etched at its edge the words, "Flow like blood into the heart of him who is like you."
Hakam delivered the four pieces—Sorrow, Anger, Justice, and Mercy—to Rio, who marveled at the weapons and planned the retribution he would make with them. But when he saw the mirror he scoffed at it and at Hakam for his sentimentality. He gave the weapons to his three surviving children and charged them with avenging their brother's death should Mellik or his descendants ever return. He cast the mirror Mercy into a basket and forgot it.
One day, many years later, Rio was searching through this basket and came upon the mirror. Now an old man, he looked into its face and saw there another. It was Mellik, himself now advanced in years, his face twisted in sorrow. Rio could see that Mellik was cradling in his arms the body of his son Kahn. Some accident had befallen Kahn out in the wild world and his father, now alone, held his son's still shoulders and rocked in grief.
Shame and regret filled Rio and he wept as he had on the day Belior died. He cried out a curse on the years he had spent hating Mellik and took up a white shawl as if he were mourning his own son. He fled the valley with a promise to find Mellik and bring him home. No one in Tir Drochain ever saw him again.
Generations passed. The Great Exodus saw the valley-dwellers leave Serenna's Garden and go out into Anorion to make their own fortunes. Rio's children took each of Hakam's great weapons and gave them as heirlooms to their children down the years. Each was lost in turn to duels and in vendettas, and the ages have forgotten them. The mirror Mercy, however, was found centuries later, its inscription still bright, its surface clear, and now lies among the treasures of the Silver Cities. A shepherd came upon it in a cave high in the Leviathan Mountains, where he prised it from the grasp of two dessicated skeletons lying in repose together.