The Ring Left Behind — Behind the night gate, Keziah rolled a plain iron ring between her fingers. Read the full story →
Behind the night gate, Keziah rolled a plain iron ring between her fingers. It was only a broken piece from an old chain, but she kept it smooth with thumb-rubs, planning to trade it for a bit of blue glass at the market. The prison smelled of damp stones, cold oil, and yesterday’s barley bread.
She heard Peter praying softly behind the bars, not loud enough to wake the guards. Keziah had one small loaf hidden in her sleeve. She slid it through the gap and whispered, “For morning.” No one saw. Even Peter’s shadow barely moved in the lantern light.
Then the corridor brightened without fire. The locks clicked like pebbles in a jar, and an angel stepped where the darkness had been. Peter rose, blinking, while Keziah’s iron ring slipped from her hand and rolled to the floor.
By dawn, the guards stared at open gates and fallen chains. Keziah found her ring beside an empty shackle, bright with a stripe of gold light. She did not trade it after all. If you follow the scattered chains, can you find the little ring that remembered the night gate?
