Part 2 What the Shadow Merchant Saw at Night
At night, the world became quiet.
No voices.
No competition.
No one asking who was ahead.
The Shadow Merchant preferred these hours.
During the day, the stones sold well.
Money changed hands.
People smiled and left satisfied.
But at night, something always felt… empty.
One evening, he opened a box of stones.
In daylight, they were dazzling.
But under the moon,
their glow looked tired.
He knew the truth.
The light would not last.
In his hands was a broken stone.
It no longer shone.
It served no purpose.
Still, he couldn’t throw it away.
It wasn’t a mistake.
It was a choice he had made.
In the distance, an animal was watching.
It didn’t judge him.
It didn’t turn away.
It was simply there.
The Shadow Merchant noticed something strange.
The animal was there during the day,
and it was there at night.
It never needed to shine.
It never needed to prove anything.
It just existed.
For the first time, a thought crossed his mind.
What if what people truly needed
wasn’t something that shined faster—
but something that allowed them to wait?
What if value didn’t come from speed,
but from having a place to slow down?
The night did not answer him.
But it stayed quiet long enough
for the question to remain.
