^^ Silvia's Eye ^^
"What? That's totally how it works!-" We continued arguing about whether or not that was how marriage proposals were supposed to work, and any other topic imaginable as we walked towards 'Greta's Garden'.
--- Greta's POV, 129-5E (12)---
I sat down slowly, looking around. There was only one other student in the room, and one grown woman, sitting on the desk and watching us all with unfocused, luminous blue eyes.
I noticed a tattoo of some kind, around her eye, and squinted. My sight sharpened at my command, and I gasped. She had so many runes of focus and Sight around her eyes that I was honestly surprised she hadn't gone blind from trauma, or insane from Visions.
Then I saw her irises, as she looked directly at me. They, too, were filled with Runes, of the highest order. I'd seen them before, but never together. One, Alone, applied daily, gave me the Precognition that had allowed me to dodge danger before it happened.
She had close to 300, chained together in nine rings. At the moment, three rings were lit up, causing the illumination.
The main rune in the center was an old rune, long-since replaced with a more effective version, that simply gave one the ability to see current events within your limited range from a different perspective, called 'Fly on the Wall'. The range varied according to where the Rune was placed, and the Focus of the person who laid it. It was a Neutral Rune, and therefore the Focus of the Caster was very important in its potency.
The woman who'd invented in in the Second Era had meant it to spy on her cheating wife. Terrible waste of a Personal Rune, but it had its... uses. She smiled suddenly, and I flinched. "Don't be frightened, little one. My name is Dr. Silvia Renton. My friends call me Oculus, or sometimes Siren." She turned and sat in the chair behind her desk.
"I'm Greta, Greta Falkirk." I smiled.
The boy of the three of us nodded. "I'm Willam, Willam Finch."
She smiled. "Well then. Let's get to it. The moment you met my eyes, I knew everything about you. Both of you. That is my burden. I've tried sunglasses, but they don't help." She said the last comment to me offhandedly.
I blinked. "I have Wards-" I began falsely, smirking internally. I knew I'd recognized those rune rings. A soul reader. Humph.
"Yes, yes you do, but you'd've noticed by now that three rings on my eyes were lit up when I looked at you the first time. A glance is all I need at that level... though your Wards were... impressive. Yours, Mr. Finch, were not. How are you a Master of Runes?" She asked bluntly.
He stuttered. "I-I invented a Rune when I was Six. A Rune to micro-manage atomic structures, used in modern Alchemy. They gave me my Masters the moment I enrolled. My schooling is still... lacking."
She smiled. "Ahh... honesty. I'd hoped you would give me some. As someone who knows everyone's secrets, I so rarely hear true honesty. And you, Greta? How are you a Master?"
"Hard work... is what I would like to say. But it was more like a Game, one I was determined to win. So I did. Simple." I smiled.
She nodded. "I'm surprised you can be that honest. You're quite skilled at deception, and you have no moral compass, yet you answered me correctly. Odd."
"I fed you false memories. I rarely Lie, but I trick very often. I'm a Master because I deserve to be, no other reason." I smirked.
She cocked her head, and hummed. "You don't seem to be lying, which impresses me. Either you're lying to me, which is, in itself, impressive, or you're telling the truth, which is equally impressive. Good. Uncertainty. I like it. This shall be very interesting!" She slapped her desk playfully in a small beat, and jumped up. "Now! Let's get started. You'll need a very powerful rune to protect your sanity, no doubt, both of you, I'd rather you not turn into mush."
She handed each of us a small book.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Why, a dream journal. You will scry, and when you see something, you'll write it down. It's fully personal, of course, but better to have a record if you need help studying your visions... and the first 300 pages hold the runes you will need to inscribe. Either on your eyes or a object like Glasses. Much easier to control, Glasses. Wish I'd have done that one. I was a bit Eager, and wrote them on my eyes. Ha! The essence of Stupidity and Arrogance." She chuckled.
I smiled. "Or perhaps Genius? You are, after all, called Oculus for a reason, aren't you?"
She hummed. "Flattery? How out of character for you."
"Not at all. You don't know my character, for one, and for two, you're very beautiful. My guardian thinks I need more beautiful women around me. I think her motives are purely selfish, but it's true I need female... advice." I hummed.
She nodded. "Your sisters and mother being killed must've been very shocking."
"I'm sorry. Only one sister. You should simply forget the impression I gave you. Most of it was completely false. The memories were fabricated for the situation in which anyone ever read my mind." I bowed my head in apology.
She hummed. "It's not often that I meet someone I can't read. Grand Master Faust was the last, I believe. You know of him?"
"He's my teacher, in a way. Yes." I nodded.
She smiled widely. "He's a very kind man... but now we're being rude. Mister Finch. Come on, join into the conversation, this isn't a Class. This is a case-study. The effects of Scrying on young Witches and Lich. You should participate."
He blinked slowly. "Oh... I thought it was a class?"
"In a way. I will teach you to scry, yes. Then I will study you as you continue your mental journey. Simple." She nodded.
I chuckled. "That's why her title is 'Dr.' not 'master'."
"Ding ding!" She laughed, and sat down next to me, waving Willam over.
He sat in the next row, watching us warily. "I don't bite, Willam." I chuckled,
He smirked. "I don't believe you. And I prefer a little distance."
I nodded slowly. "Understood. So, Doc. What's first?" I asked, turning to the doctor.
She hummed. "I've already given you your task for the next week or so. Write those runes in concentric circles, just like mine, with a glyph underlaying it, so as to allow for you to change the levels of depth you wish to scry."
"Depth? Into what?" I asked.
"Time. Time is a very fickle thing... we have never received a vision that couldn't be changed, despite what anyone would tell you. Never. Why? Because that's impossible. Now, it's possible to see the most likely option, and there are cases that when you tell someone their future, you cement it, because they will try to change it, which puts them on the path..." She laced her fingers under her chin slowly.
"So what you're saying is that Scrying is an Inexact Science." I said simply.
She smiled. "Correct. But! It can be exact when used to look at the present and past, as those events are already set in history... let's try to look back, I think, tomorrow. First, you must go, and draw those runes, or brand them, whichever you choose." She waved us off.
I nodded and took the small journal, and walked out, reading the rune list slowly.
"Hmm... there are new Sight runes... maybe I'll add a tenth Ring? Let's see... aha! 'The number of rings has no significance, and can be changed at a later date, more added,' Good."
I sat down in front of my mirror, and hummed. "Mirage? How focused is your mind for Neutral Runes?"
"Not as focused as yours, unfortunately." She answered, massaging my shoulders.
"Alright..." I started designing the rings, just like Silvia's, and then made them smaller, and smaller. The size of a rune never mattered, for body runes, so I made them into a leveled Brand, same as hers, just... more efficient. And the center rune, the least of them all, was the rune that gave me hawk sight, so that when I deactivated it down to the first ring, (seeing as you can't turn it off, that's the downside,) my eye didn't give me visions I couldn't control.
Then I touched the journal, and enchanted it like my memoir. It would document all visions and dreams I had, as soon as the second ring of my eye activated, and the Ink be only visible when it was in my hands or I'd given verbal permission to someone to read it.
Then I saw the Rune that went under the Brand, a Rune for Mental Protection, to keep the visions from driving me batty. I smiled and drew that under the rings, nodding. "Very useful... alright..." I memorized it, and then passed my fingers over my left eye, branding it instantly.
I grunted as all nine rings activated, and I was tossed into the seas of time, wholesale. I pulled myself back before I saw anything, and sighed when I sat on my chair again, my vision a bit too-sharp from the Hawkeyes rune, but that's all.
I stood up, a little wobbly. "Okay... I need a nap."
---
I opened my eyes to see a field, filled with red chaff. I hummed, and turned, noticing there was light behind me. Fire became obvious, suddenly, as the reason for the heats and light, but I couldn't see it.
Then I looked down, and chuckled at the sight of a little platform and a pole, all alight. Someone was trying to burn me alive. Obviously it wasn't working, because I'm immune to any fire less powerful than a Dragon and a Phoenix's fires.
I strained my arms, but they were tied with rune-forged iron. I instead focused on the flames, goading them higher. I fed them energy, and soon the iron started to melt. A little bit higher and I was sweating, but the iron snapped. I sucked all the energy out of the fire in an instant, and directed it in all directions, at the Chaff.
I noticed a few strands of wheat, and protected those, but annihilated the rest. The ground was marshy with blood and melted bodies, reinforcing the idea that the Chaff was a metaphor, and so I tried to write a Rune. It sputtered out, the Wards on the iron stopping me from doing anything but basic elemental control.
Several bales of chaff threw themselves at me, and I burned them, dodging the goo that poured out. I kept walking, and met a Snake, that reared its hood, spitting venom. I dodged, and threw fire at it, but it washed over its scales, making them shiny.
I dodged when it struck and wrapped my chains around its throat, mounting it and jerking the iron. The snakes neck snapped, and I noticed a small key in its teeth. I tapped it to the chains, and they fell off.
I sat in the throne the snake had vacated, and grinned. "Kneel." I said softly, my voice carrying over the crowd of wheat with a few strands of chaff left. Two dogs stood to either side of the throne, and they rolled over, submitting.
Another snake, this one oily, and sickly green, slithered around, hissing in my ear hypnotically, but I grabbed it and snapped its neck, tossing it to the dogs, who dragged it off and returned, sitting at attention.
The crowd of wheat formed legs, and knelt.
I chuckled. "Now was that so hard? We could've avoided so much nastiness if you'd have done this first, instead of burning me alive... ah well... now-"
---
I snapped awake, and looked around. "... dammit. I was enjoying that dream."
"That was a vision, little one, of a long ways off. Your eyes lit up to the 4th ring to see it." Mirage said.
I sighed and nodded. "I see. Well... It was a good vision, then."
She nodded. "I'm sure. You were grinning rather sadistically." She smirked.
"I don't grin sadistically!" I protested.
She raised an eyebrow.
"Often. I don't grin sadistically often." I corrected myself grudgingly.
She laughed. "Better. Now come on, let's get some food into you, Scrying is very draining work."
"Aye aye, Capitano!" I giggled.
She giggled as well. "I'm more of the first mate, but fine. Get dressed, captains orders."
I grumbled. "Admiral says a little more sleep..."
She laughed. "You didn't just pull naval rank on me!? Okay. How about..."
"No. Just help me get dressed, woman, the argument lost its virility when you hesitated." I smirked.