Flash Fiction # 24 - The Heirloom Seal of the Realm
- Jacob RD Johnson
- Nov 21, 2025
- 2 min read
Picture Prompt:
300-word Flash Fiction
Post # 24
Week Ending: 11/21/2025
Genre: Adventure
Title: The Heirloom Seal of the Realm
I've dedicated my life in quest for an artifact. The Heirloom Seal of the Realm; an imperial seal—made of jade—for Emperor Qin Shi Huang. It disappeared in the tenth century. One of the most valuable lost artifacts ever.
Painstaking determination has led me to the final clue on a fragile—yellowing—sheet of paper:
The seal is hidden with a fallen love
Not in a place you would ever dream of
Protected by sticky rice you wouldn't eat
In the longest tomb, the greatest feat
I found the poem inside the wall of an old English church. I don't understand the sticky rice, but the tomb seems easy. So, I start in cemeteries closest to the church, searching for relevance with their longest tombs. No luck.
Next, I research people associated with the church around the time the seal disappeared. It's tedium, but my obsession knows no bounds. Some people were remarkable, but nothing helpful.
Then, my perseverance pays off. I find a family that defected from China and were given sanctuary. Looking deeper, their ancestry includes the name Jiang.
My heart jumps into my throat. The Story of Lady Meng Jiang, whose husband was forced—by Emperor Qin—to help construct the Great Wall of China—the “great feat” referenced in the poem.
Meng tried to find her husband—but he’d died. Legend says she cried so powerfully it crumbled a section of the wall and revealed his skeleton. Emperor Qin took her as his wife, but she chose death rather than a life with the man that perpetrated her husband’s demise.
Further investigation reveals sticky rice was used in mortar to build the wall. The young Chinese woman who wrote the poem stole the seal and buried it inside the Great Wall to avenge her ancestors before defecting to England.
I’m another step closer!
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