Jon cringed and looked around the room, expecting the worst. Everything seemed fine, though. He breathed a sigh of relief. Must've been a dud, he thought.
But it wasn't.
The stone felt something. For the first time in its ancient existence, it had a feeling. A realization, even - that there was more beyond the hand that held it. A whole world that could be molded and shaped into something else. For one fleeting moment it would be able to affect that shape on its own - but only once, and never ever again. So, the stone realized, it better be good.
But what would it do? Having never had an original thought, it was tough to be creative. It would still seek input - but it would take far less than a wish, or even a spoken word to set things in motion. It reached out beyond Jon's room, sensing strife and disorder among the people all over the town. It didn't have long... the stone had to find something that needed fixing, and quick!
Finally, it zeroed in on one conflict. Two people, having an argument. The stone would fix it, and everything else hopefully, by solving this one disagreement. At least that was the idea.
Unfortunately, being new to thinking, the stone tended to take things literally.
