There was a town that had known unending wealth and prosperity and produced many celebrities and heroes for longer than any one person could remember. 

And that town had a sister city.  Where all the great teachers and schools could be found.

Here, there was a fervent scholar who worked at the libraries of renown, collecting and reading the stories of the world. When she decided to see the things the stories told of for herself, the institution where she held tenure immediately tried to replace her.  

But in her brief time, she had accomplished so much that no single person could be found to work in her stead.  So the institution promoted her to Head Librarian, Chief Curator, and Master of Myths and Realities, providing she promised to return to work after her travels. 

She promised, then left. 

The scholar-turned-adventurer arrived at the neighboring town of prosperity within a few days. When she arrived, the townspeople were celebrating, as they were known to do, and welcomed her enthusiastically into their fete.  

She made her rounds and met locals and gathered their stories. 

She wandered the town for hours, never finding the story she sought.

Finally, she found a cheerful group of friends discussing a malignant stone, the color of a firefly’s light said to have fallen from the sky.  She interrupted the men and asked them where she might find the stone they discussed.  They stopped laughing and became deathly serious. They told her the stone was cursed and that it drove men mad. 

She told them she had heard the story before and was not concerned. They told her the stone was far away, across an ocean and even further still, at the Edge of the World.

She took them at their word and traveled far, crossed the ocean, and traveled further still. Eventually, the scholar came to a place that could be described as the 'Edge of the World' and sure enough, there was the stone.

A jagged outcropping, of yellow-green crystal, growing from the crater of a relatively recent celestial impact. There were smaller growths where pieces of the stone had been thrown aside when it fell from the sky and broke apart. 

 Making camp nearby, she sketched everything her eyes touched.  Remembering the faces of the men who lead her here, She sketched them too. She recalled the layout of the prosperous town and committed it to the page as well. She continued drawing and writing until she filled many slices of parchment with the details of her journey.

It was when she packed up and meant to return home that the curious thing occurred. In one instant, behind her were vast plains, forests, deserts, and the ocean she must cross to get back home, but in the next instant, she heard the morning stirrings of a settlement. Turning around to confirm with her eyes what her other senses suspected, she saw the town–the one that had given birth to many heroes. She reached out and grabbed a passerby

"What's the matter? You okay miss?"

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine. But where am I."

"Best place in the world."

She knew it was the town that had known great wealth and prosperity. She had left many days earlier and had a many days trip to return to. She had been moved, without force or resistance from one place to another. She thought of the stones. Was it true, had they made her mad? Could she trust her own observations? In a disoriented stupor, she stumbled back to where she interrupted the drinking friends. Their discarded spirit containers were enough to assure her of her sanity. It was true. Saving her the unnecessary peril of the journey, the stone had sent her back.

Horns sounded from the town center. Horns of alarm. Townspeople began to emerge from their respective homes, hurrying to the town square as they would during emergencies.  

Suspecting her presence was the disturbance they were responding to, she did not join them. Maybe a guard had witnessed her appear from nowhere, or fade into existence on the wind. If spotted, she might be forced to explain that it was the cursed rock that brought her there. Not home but back to the people who would fear its strange power most. Reaching the outskirts of town. She knew immediately that they had been right all along. The stone had not sent her back to the prosperous town, no, in fact, it brought the town to her.

No longer was her home a sister city separated by a few days. The town that had produced many heroes was now at the Edge of the Earth, and she was the catalyst.

Without revealing her knowledge or identity to the town's folk, she set off on the long journey home.

When she finally returned to work, she told the institution all that occurred. At first, they thought her crazy, but the disappearance of their neighboring town could not be disputed or refuted.

Her account of the catastrophic event was entered into the official record and accepted as reality and no longer myth. The only bit of information she kept to herself was that before leaving the transported town she had collected a piece of the green-yellow crystal and hid it in her pocket. She didn't know why she took it.