[WP] Centuries ago, a sentient crown of ancient and terrible power was cast into the sea so that it could never tempt or corrupt another soul. Now, a submarine has happened across it.
It was nearly invisible in the sand, just a band of metal that had gotten picked up by accident when they were taking samples from the ocean floor. Now, it lay on his desk, filthy, covered in algae and filth. It was just a band of metal, and not very thick, but somehow it hadn't been destroyed by the salt water or the barnacles.
"What's that?" Dr. Cortone asked.
"Just something we picked up along with the samples," Ben answered. Something shined on its surface, and before the other researcher could see it, Benjamin shoved the metal band into his desk drawer. "I thought I'd give it to Sara. She likes beach combing, so she might like it."
"Nice," Dr. Cortone said, walking away.
It was a bad idea to lie to his colleagues. He should've come clean and shared what he saw. The metal band wasn't plain old metal. He'd spotted something of a shining, burning, red. A ruby eye.
Until they reached the shore, he forgot about the crown. At least, he tried to forget about it. It nagged at the back of his mind. If he cleaned it, he could find out what it actually was. But the submarine offered little space and no privacy. He couldn't take the chance of one of the other researchers walking in on him. They might take his treasure away from him.
Ben shook his head. It was just a piece of metal from the bottom of the sea, not a treasure. He stuffed the metal band into a cardboard box before leaving the submersible, and kept it in there until he was finally home.
"What's that?" Sara asked.
He could trust Sara. She was a simple girl, always eager to please him.
"I found it when we went to gather ocean floor samples," he said. "You want to clean it up for me?"
Sara gingerly opened the box and her eyes went wide. "If I can, I will."
Ben sat at the kitchen table as she stood at the sink and started to remove the barnacles with a knife. It wasn't easy work, and when she was done, she downed a glass of water before going back to scrub the years of algae.
She slowed down as she uncovered the true surface of the metal band.
"Ben?" she asked, her voice a few octaves higher than usual.
It was a crown of iron and jewels. The ruby he'd seen earlier was set in the center, the size of a robin's egg, surrounded by emeralds and sapphires of a smaller size. Ben knew they were real.
"It's a crown," he whispered. "My crown."
Sara stepped away from him as he approached. "Ben, you can't wear this thing! You'll get tetanus!"
He sought to grab the crown from her, but failed, slipping on the wet kitchen floor and hitting his head on the marble counter and developing a hematoma.
The crown would've laughed if it had a mouth. The bookish man had been useful, but the crown never believed in the principle of not killing the messenger. The girl was a much better vessel. Younger and more pliable.
Sara stared down at her unconscious boyfriend, his outstretched fingers still reaching for the piece of metal in her hand. She dropped the crown into the sink, where it rested along with the dirty dishes until the ambulance came. Sara chucked it into the dishwasher before leaving with the paramedics.
The crown stewed in the dishwasher. It had waited millennia to be found again, and now it had been thrown into a strange dark box like it was regular garbage. It was no matter. The young woman would return, and she would feel the pull of the crown's power just as the young man had.
