Oldtown’s black stone remembers the first kings

I have heard Oldtown’s black stone was raised before the first kings learned to call themselves kings. I believe it. The Hightower’s oldest blocks look less built than left behind, with salt worked into their seams... as if the sea laid them there and has been waiting to take them back.

Some say the maze beneath the city belonged to men who knew the deep roads under the realm. I doubt the grander tales, but not the maze. A mason’s mark cut beneath the Quill and Tankard is worn smooth, though nobody can name the hand that made it.

You may call that old lord nonsense, but ruins keep better records than courts. I took my banner out of [ENVY] and rode alone again three days ago; the road gave me no answers, naturally... stones are poor conversationalists, but they rarely flatter.