Saban 4, 998 NE

I don't know where the words go that I tap on the grid of this strange flat tablet, which is surely the least of its wonders.  I purchased it off a passing peddler two nights gone, a man what was staying here at the Stag and Lion before continuing on to the Mountains of Mist.  It has all the letters on its little grid, and when I saw it I felt I must have it, being as I'm right proud of knowing my letters, and my da and my mother as well.  It seems a fool thing to have done now, but there it is.  Cost me near all a month's pay, tho' from the peddler's look he might have been pawning a piece of trash for cheap, and lucky to be doing it, too.  I reckon he picks up a fair bit of useless trash, ranging as he does from Saldaea down alongside the Arinelle, and then as far as Ebou Dar, he says.  I'd surely like to see all those roads someday, the Light burn me if I wouldn't.

Look at me, going off like that, setting down my thoughts like they might be worth something to anyone beyond myself.  Min always says I have a big head, and I guess this proves it.  It's just so easy to let myself go with this thing.  If it weren't impossible, I'd wager it's a thing of the Power.  But that's impossible, as I say.

Still, it is a wonder of a little toy, probably made by someone clever up Maradon way.  It's all smooth lines and rounded corners, dun-colored yet somehow shiny for all that it should be dull.  Above the grid of letters lies a square just a little set off from the rest in color, but as I tap my letters they appear as words and sentences and whole blocks of writing up there, black and steady, plain as day. Maybe each little letter-block pushes a carved-out letter against that square when I touch it, somehow, and leaves its mark in ink.  I can't say how, but it is very clever.  It probably has something to do with printing; I hear that they print a great many books in Maradon.  I wonder how I refill it with ink when it runs dry.  Mayhap I should show it to Min--she knows a great deal of life even outside the stable.

Light, would my Da be proud if he saw me tapping away this way!  But I don't think I'll show him yet, nor mother.  Maybe after I've talked with Min.  I like to figure a thing out before I go acting like I know all about it.  Beside that, Da won't be happy what I've done with my pay, proud or not.