Silver & Gold!

RYAN, Jasmine, Mac, William and Amanda all had an interesting night out. First, William took them to a museum of ancient magus. The building was –as expected—an old upside-down temple, however, unlike most other structures in the city, its construction wasn't accommodated for its current orientation, so the massive statues and murals that lined the walls were upside-down. William and Jasmine were both extremely interested by the museum tour.

"High V'hax is the only known surviving city of the ancient Atlantean magus empire," their tour guide had said, "though dozens of ruins with similar architecture and design aesthetics as this city have been uncovered all across the world, and some have even been attributed to other civilizations. One can only imagine what sort of cataclysm befell our ancestors to shatter their homeland and scatter its remnants so far and wide."

"Isn't that just fascinating?" William asked once they had finished the tour, "I always wanted to learn more about Atlantis, every magus alive can literally trace their roots back there."

"Yeah," Ryan huffed, "we owe a lot to those dead folks."

"Now can we go and do something actually fun, please?" Mac pleaded

From there, they went to a posh restaurant and had a feast fit for kings–on Vlad's dime— then, they went to what they discovered was a movie hall, then, they went to a club and somehow managed to lose track of each other along the way.

Ryan met up with Mac by the lobby of their hotel.

"Hey," she said, "What happened?"

"Not a clue." Ryan said, "One minute; everyone's here. The next; poof."

"Where's the obsidian card?"

"It's right he—" Ryan patted his pockets, "Uh-oh."

"Vlad is not going to be happy that you lost it."

"No he is not." Ryan said, "Which is why I'm going to say it was stolen."

"Isn't that lying?"

"I like to think of it more as a plausible narrative." Ryan said, "How do we know it wasn't stolen? That might be why it's not here,"

Mac laughed, "You are so irresponsible."

"You don't know the half of it."

As they went up the elevator, Ryan snapped his fingers, "Now I remember, I gave the card to Amanda. She was talking about a deal or something, I really wasn't listening after the word 'investment'."

"So it's not stolen."

"I'm still going to tell Vlad it was though, just to see his face." Ryan said chuckling.

"You are so bad," Mac grinned, "Careful; I might just start falling for you."

"At your own risk," Ryan cautioned

They got to their room, and found it in a mess with furniture and stuff knocked over, clear evidence of a struggle. Ryan and Mac were instantly on alert. Ryan drew his wand, while Mac grabbed a lamp from the table.

There was a sound coming from Stephanie's bedroom, they crept closer to it and Ryan held up his hand, fingers out, Mac got what he meant and prepared to charge. He started counting down; 5…

4…

3…

2…

1!

Ryan and Mac burst into the room, and were horrified to see Stephanie, half naked, intertwined with Vlad, and pinned to the ceiling… somehow. The two of them were, for lack of a better word, hooking up.

Ryan and Mac both screamed and shut the door. They then turned around, with their backs to the door as if barricading it, in shock.

"Was that…?" Mac asked

"Yeah," Ryan replied

"With…?"

"Yeah,"

"And they were…?"

"Yeah,"

"On the…?" Mac pointed upwards incredulously,

"Yeah,"

"That is so…!" Mac said, shuddering

"I know, right!" Ryan said in agreement

They stayed there and waited in a mixture of shock, horror and amazement. After Vlad left and the others came back, Ryan and Mac decided to keep the events they had witnessed to themselves, much to Stephanie's gratitude.

… )]≥( …

The next morning, Jasmine woke up on the lavish bed of the second bedroom groggily, she didn't remember going to bed last night… then again she didn't remember coming back to the hotel last night. She shared the room with Mac and Amanda, the former of which had to share the bed with Jasmine as there were only two beds.

She walked into the last room, which the boys were in and found Ryan sprawled out on one bed, asleep. When Jasmine went to wake Ryan up, he was wearing only his shirt and boxers from the night before. His pants, shoes and jacket were strewn across the floor.

Ugh, boys are such pigs, she sneers in her mind

Jasmine pinched on his cheek, effectively waking him up.

"Wha-?" he looked up groggily.

"Yo, idiot," Jasmine said, "Get dressed, we're supposed to meet with Vlad in twenty minutes.

"Huh?"

"Remember? You told me last night that you'd be training with Vlad and I for some reason?" Jasmine reminded him

"Oh… yea," Ryan says as he stretches

After rummaging thought his bag he found some sweatpants and trainers, Ryan grabbed Draxonn, then went to the elevator, where he found Jasmine doing stretches as she waited. Once inside, he saw that Jasmine was dressed in a grey tank-top with black yoga pants and sneakers and her white hair was tied back in a ponytail. Ryan noticed a tattoo of a bullseye target across her bare right shoulder blade, he hadn't figure her for the type to get a tattoo so casually, oddly enough, he was a little disappointed it wasn't a little sexier.

When they got to the right floor, they disembarked and walked down the corridor to a garden courtyard, which was a wide square suspended on to the side of the building, with lush green lawn, marble columns and railings and a marble fountain with statues at the four corners sprouting crystal clear water. In the middle of the courtyard was a gazebo, where Vlad was waiting.

"Good to see you both made it," he said, greeting them with a welcoming smile, "especially you, Jasmine,"

"Why is it so early?" Ryan whined as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes

"Just smell that morning air," Vlad said as he took a deep breath, "it just wakes you right up."

Ryan looked out, there was not much difference between the days and nights here, since there wasn't a sun or moon, just and ever-present grey void, though the many crystal pylons around city glowed in a faintly warmer hue.

Vlad was also dressed like he was going to do morning exercises.

"Ryan, I'll start with you, first I'll need to see what kind of weapons I'm dealing with."

"Right," Ryan said as he took Draxonn from his pocket and drew it, he then held it up, "Now what?"

Vlad looked at the sword with his silver eyes, "Ryan, your sword, it's night iron, right?"

Ryan nodded

"This is most interesting." Vlad said

"What is?" Ryan asked

"I've never seen so much night iron before, so it would be easy to not notice."

"Notice what?" Jasmine asked

"This sword… it's alive."

"Come again?" Ryan asked, surprised

"The way the magik in this sword moves," Vlad said, "its magik is separate from your own, but still connected. It's like a living thing."

"I'd heard there were legends that night iron was some kind of living metal, but I thought it was impossible." Jasmine said

"It is impossible." Vlad said, "At least… by our understanding. There is a lot we still don't understand about chaos matter. Most of it was all used up during the early days of ARGUS."

"I heard it was used by Tomar Reins to create byrds and mystic gears." Ryan said

"If Tomar used night iron to make mystic gears, then maybe he created Draxonn?" Jasmine pondered

"No, I'm quite familiar with Tomar's works, this blade is not one of his creations." Vlad answered, examining the blade, "although, looking at this, it could be the other way round; maybe Tomar created mystic gears by imitating this,"

"So, it's like a precursor to mystic gears? So what's wrong with it?" Ryan asked, bringing the conversation back towards its original topic, "Why can't I 'activate Draxonn's power'?"

"I have no idea," Vlad said

"You said you knew about mystic gears?"

"I do, but this isn't that," Vlad said,

"Well what's your best guess?" Ryan asked

"I don't know. Maybe the sword is still dormant?" Vlad guessed, "Mystic gears are awakened by their wielders in different ways. Each gear has its own unique personality, maybe yours is just a heavy sleeper?"

"So how do I wake up a sleeping sword?" Ryan asked, thinking it would make a great bad joke.

"I don't know." Vlad said, "It's your sword."

"I believe blood was often used as a strong conduit between wielder and gear." Jasmine added

"Of course I have to bleed on it," Ryan sighed, "why does a lot of this magik crap require bleeding on things? That's just unsanitary."

Ryan took Draxonn and held the blade against his other hand, he cut a line in his palm, then smearing the blood along the blade.

At first, nothing happened, then the blood seemed to evaporate rapidly, absorbed by the blade and the strange characters along the back of the blade began to light up. Ryan could feel it; the sword was alive.

"Whoa," Ryan gasped, he could feel the power of the sword in his hands, "Now what?"

"I don't know, figure it out yourself. That sword is tuned to you in ways even I can't see," Vlad said

"I think I have an idea," Ryan said, "but I'm going to need some space,"

"We have this whole courtyard to ourselves," Vlad said as Ryan walked off with his sword

"He's going to wreck this place." Jasmine scowled

"Let him, it's insured" Vlad said, "Your training is the one I'm most interested in."

"My training?"

"Don't tell me you don't know the secret behind your eyes?"

Jasmine knew that he knew, but she still didn't want to admit it.

"I… I don't know."

"I know you're lying," Vlad said,

"I've never been good at the whole magik part of being a magus," Jasmine revealed, "hell, I can barely cast by myself." 

"What's your discipline?" Vlad asked

Jasmine scoffed bitterly, "Inconclusive, which is really annoying since I've taken the test five times already. Just another reason why I shouldn't eve have a gift"

"But you do have a gift," Vlad said, "It's why you're here."

Jasmine couldn't argue, "I've been seeing things, weird things… like really weird things. I've tried to control it, but… it's too much, it hurts."

"That's because you don't understand what's happening to you."

"But what is happening to me?" Jasmine asked, "What kind of gift is this? I have never heard of anything like this before."

"It's called the Aurum Oculus, also known as the golden god eyes," Vlad revealed, "it's an immensely rare and powerful gift."

"The golden god eyes?" Jasmine asked with raised eyebrow, "I've never heard of that before."

Vlad chuckled, "I suppose you wouldn't. The Aurum Oculus is a legend known among the nobles, an old fairytale from time immemorial. It was said that before the rise of Atlantis, early magi were gifted the power of magik by old gods in order to fight off a primordial evil that threatened to consume the Naexis."

"That sounds like a fun fairytale," Jasmine retorted

"You'd be surprised, some versions say that these early magi actually gained this power by consuming the flesh of a dead old god," Vlad added, to which Jasmine recoiled. He chuckled at that, "but anyway, regardless of how they actually got these powers, the legends say that the ancient magi were so overwhelmed by magik that their bodies started to change. Now every story differs in what these changes were, but they all concur that the eyes of the early magi turned to pure gold, and could see through the Naexis in a way no one else could,"

"Seriously?" Jasmine sounded skeptical

"Yeah, it sounds like a tall tale, I know," Vlad said, "but we did discover that these golden-eyed magi did exist, and they were the first founders of Atlantis."

"I didn't know that,"

"My family traces its lineage all the way back to the royal houses of Old Atlantis. They believe the same blood of these founders flows through us, and have sought after that power for centuries through various eugenics programs, resulting in our signature silver eyes, the Argentum Oculus," he said as his silver eyes shined brightly for a brief second.

Jasmine is silent for a second, letting what he just told her sink in, then Vlad chuckles

"The fact that the coveted golden eyes appeared outside their control is almost funny to me; like fate itself had turned their centuries of effort and sacrifice into nothing more than a big joke."

"I'm guessing you don't get along with the rest of your family?"

"We're estranged at the moment, yes," Vlad said, "while my older brother took his place as the head of the family, I rebelled. I wanted to marry a half-blood, someone below my family's standards,"

"A certain Stephanie Fairchylde?"

He grinned and nodded, "but of course that didn't work out, as they had warned –and won't stop reminding me— so me and the family have been on the outs for a while." He then looked at her, "If they ever knew you existed, they would do anything to get your eyes… anything."

Jasmine wasn't sure she liked the way he said that,

"How do I get rid of it?" Jasmine asked

"They're a gift, they're a part of you, you can't get rid of them… not without going blind." Vlad said, "They're still immature, but with any luck I can help you fully activate them, mastering them is up to you."

"What will I have to do?" Jasmine pleaded,

"First, let us meditate." Vlad said. They both sat cross-legged across from each other with the rushing waters of the fountain echoing in the background.

"Focus only on my voice," Vlad instructed, "infuse your magik into your eyes."

"I tried before, I couldn't control it." Jasmine complained

"I need to know how much of an issue this is going to be before we can resolve it. Now infuse your magik and open your eyes."

Jasmine gulped, dreading the recoil, but did as she was told and focused her magik through her eyes. She felt her eyeballs grow warm in their socket. When she opened them, the same thing as before happened; she saw too much, everything was fighting for dominance in her vision. As expected, the pain at the back of her eyes flared up, she started seeing spots and she forced eyes shut and massaged her temples to ease the pain.

"Good job, Jasmine," Vlad said, "watching you told me all I needed."

"Glad to hear it." she winced, "So what's my problem?"

"You're forcing too much magik into your eyes, and doing a poor job of it."

"But I excel at controlling my magik." Jasmine protested, 

"Naturally, your entire magik web has been optimized for the most efficient magik transfer network with as little wastage as inhumanly possible." Vlad observed, "added to your peak physical condition from years of training and experience, you easily have the among greatest maximum potential of any magus I've ever met."

Jasmine tried desperately to hide her blush, it was very rare that she received a complement on the work she put into training herself to be an elite ranger.

"Unfortunately, that effort you put is also the reason your eyes are reacting that way they are." Vlad explained, "You excel at augmenting your senses through focusing your magik through them, you probably even do it instinctively with very little effort, but that is pushing your senses past their natural limits, and causing your Aurum Oculus to overload. It's honestly a miracle they haven't burst into flames already."

"Can… can that actually happen?" Jasmine said alarmed

"According to my house records, it happened to my great-great-grandfather's second daughter who was trying to force evolve her Argentum Oculus." Vlad said with a curious expression that made Jasmine unsure whether he was joking or not. "She lived, but lost her eyes and burned through her magik web."

Jasmine gulped, she definitely didn't want to end up like his relative, "So how do I fix it?"

"Simple; don't force it. Those eyes are a not like your other senses, you don't need to force them; they can already see what you want them to see, they have for nineteen years."

"Yeah, but they've never done this for nineteen years," Jasmine huffed, "Something happened six months ago, that's when this all started."

"It doesn't matter; your eyes would've activated at some point or other," Vlad said,

"But why me? I come from a family of nobodies, I'm not even a pure-blood, let alone a noble from some notable house. My mother was as mundane as they come, and there's literally no record that my dad even exists, so why do I have this rare gift?" Jasmine demanded

Vlad chuckled, "I swear, it's like déjà vu,"

"What?" Jasmine demanded, not pleased with being made a joke of

"A couple of years ago, I came across another wielder of the Aurum Oculus. Like you, she was gifted, both with her physique and magik control, and like you, she doubted her worth of holding such divine eyes."

Jasmine stared at him, eyes wide. It couldn't be.

"If I'm not mistaken, she was your sister, Rose Sumner."

"You knew Rose?" Jasmine asked

"Yes, she came to me in secret to help understand her eyes, though hers had never fully activate. Every doubt you just told me is an echo of what I heard from her."

"But my sister was brilliant, and clever, and cool and I'm—"

"Just like her." Vlad said, "She had just as many flaws as you do –more in fact— and faced the same challenges you face. When our time together was over she never did manage to activate her eyes, but she talked about you a lot. She believed you could activate them, and that you would be the one to fulfil some promise."

Jasmine wasn't sure what promise he was mentioning, but she did feel a tinge of familiarity in the back of her subconscious. Something she wasn't consciously aware of.

"You're stronger than you think Jasmine, stronger than Rose was." Vlad said, "And I'm not just speculating, that was something she told me herself; that her little sister would one day surpass her."

"But…" Jasmine started to protest.

"Jasmine, I failed your sister, when I heard what happened to her… I knew I deserved some blame for not training her better, but I can make up for it by helping you, please, let me help you."

Rose also had the same eyes as she did, and believed Jasmine could do what even she couldn't? Jasmine couldn't let her sister down. Jasmine took a deep breath, then closed her eyes, "Okay, what do I do?"

Vlad smiled, "Good, now don't infuse your magik through your eyes, let your magik flow naturally; your eyes will take as much magik as they need. You need to let your vision expand organically, open yourself up to the Naexis around you."

Jasmine followed his instructions as best as could, closing her eyes and letting her magik flow freely. She steadied her breathing as a strange sensation came over her, when she opened her eyes, they were solid gold, with glowing circuits forming concentric patterns on the surface of the organs that radiated power.

Vlad smiled, "What do you see?"

"Everything," Jasmine said in awe, "I can see everything, it… ohmigod, it's beautiful!"

"Congrats, you've just activated the all-seeing god eyes. Now let me show you how to use them."

… )]≥( …

Jasmine had spent the better part of her life training, be it strength, speed, precision, or magik control; she knew how to push herself to make herself better. But learning to control the newfound power of her eyes was a unique experience. She had to stop limiting her visual input; something that proved much harder to do than she had anticipated.

What she saw was incredible, she could see deep into the layers of Naexis; from the deepest levels of reality where the foundation of all existence lay to magik current that flowed through the whole island. She saw it all, even things her mortal mind couldn't comprehend.

She could see into the Veil as easily as seeing through stained glass, each layer more distorted than the last, but all still visible.

"Good work Jasmine." Vlad said, holding out his hands. "Now, there is something I want to show you."

"Okay," Jasmine said, taking his hands

As their hands connected, Jasmine felt a tingling building from her hand, making its way up her arms, it then spread all over body causing her to shudder.

"Your eyes aren't the only thing special about you, your entire body has an incredible sensitivity to magik." Vlad explained, "It allowed me to resonate our magik frequencies."

She looked at him, as the magik webs inside Vlad's body became visible to her, overlapping with the image of man before her. She saw the color of his magik, a luminous silver that circulated around his body like blood, originating from a what looked like a fiery star in his gut. His source; his very soul.

Around him she could see strings of different colored light emanating from his source and surrounding. She looked around and saw similar strings everywhere coming from everything; the fountains, the water, the grass, the statues, even the clouds.

"It's so beautiful," she stated as she played with the strings that wove around her fingers

"These are what I call strings of fate." Vlad said, gazing out at the strings "I like to think of them as the underlying mechanism for the network that connects all of existence together, just as how our magik web connects the different aspects of our being together. It's because of these strings that magik is even possible and the ability to see and process the information in these strings, is what I like to call string reading."

"This is incredible." Jasmine said in awe.

A long blue string coming from Vlad's chest catches Jasmines' attention as it drifts towards her, she looks at him for permission, "Go ahead," he grins,

She touches the string with her finger, and instantly she has a vision; she sees a young Vlad walking along a beach with someone, Stephanie. The two of them look so happy and in love. She watches them for hours as they play in the sand and the tide comes in, then her vision stops and she's back by the fountain, only a few seconds have gone by.

"What was that?" she asked panting

"These strings contain information of all sorts; emotions, knowledge, and memories. You just tapped into one of my memories." he said with a wistful smile, 

Jasmine smiled, then she saw a glowing crimson string that was forming around her not connected to anything, Vlad sees her eyes and is about to warn her, "Jasmine don't!"

But it is too late, she grabs it and gasps as she is pulled into another vision. She sees herself, kneeling on the ground crying, in her arms is Ryan, pale and lifeless, blood covering a gaping wound in his abdomen, around the two of them, a vicious war rages. All of a sudden, the Jasmine from the vision turns to face her, and as their eyes meet, she felt overwhelming pain, loss, and unbridled rage burning behind those familiar golden eyes,

"You could have stopped this!" she accused.

She comes out of her trance and breathes heavily, shocked

"What did you see?" Vlad asks, cautiously

"Wh-what was that?" Jasmine asked, her voice quivering, "That was not any memory I've ever had; it was like a nightmare. I… I felt it… so much pain and strife, so much hatred for myself."

"Some of these strings connect beyond time." Vlad said "The string you held was still forming, and would hold all sorts of possibilities."

Jasmine stared at him dumbstruck, "You mean I… I just saw my future?"

"That's a possible future that could happen." Vlad then held up his hand to her face. "Being able to see all sometimes mean seeing what can, or what may never even happen."

"So which one was that?" Jasmine asked panicked, she couldn't shake the fear she felt in the vision, it was real… too real.

"I wish I could answer." Vlad said, "Now focus on my hand."

"Why?" Jasmine asked looking at his outstretched palm

There was a brief pause, "So you don't see my eyes until I'm ready."

Too late, Jasmine looks into Vlad's eyes to see them glowing, "Forget." He said as his eyes flashed silver light into hers, that briefly flashed silver as well before returning to their natural gold.

Jasmine blinked, then she looks at him, "So, what else can these strings do?" excited from just having seen Vlad's memory.

Vlad breathed a sigh of relief then continues, "Well, with an understanding of the innate workings of the Naexis through string reading, I learnt that it is also possible to manipulate those innate workings. This is a technique I'm still developing,"

He held out his hand and a potted plant nearby started to tremble and slide across the bench. It looked like a completely random act, however, using her new magik vision, she could see threads of magik extending from his fingers to the plant. Jasmine saw how Vlad's whole magik web flared and flickered at the action performed, 

"I call this technique string weaving," Vlad grunted, "this is basically the most I can do with it at the moment, but I believe that if perfected it could open up a whole new kind of magik."

"I saw you while you were demonstrating it, your whole magik web was under immense strain."

"Yes, it takes a considerable amount of power to actively manipulate the strings with any form of conscious intent," Vlad admitted, "and it can only be done by someone who has a firm grasp on the concept, as well as precise magik control."

"Can-can I give it a try?" Jasmine asked, the prospect of creating a new spectrum of magik intrigued her,

"I don't think that's a good idea," Vlad said pensively, "string weaving is extremely dangerous, if you're not careful it could burn out your magik web."

"It's risky," Jasmine argued, "but I've already seen how you channeled your magik to use it earlier,"

"And you also saw how taxing it was on me," Vlad countered

"I have more magik reserves than you do," Jasmine noted, "and you already complemented me on my precise magik control; those were the two things you said were needed to even attempt it. Plus, I have that Aurum Oculus, which should make it easier for me than you."

"They may call these the all-seeing eyes of gods, but like the story, they are fallible." Vlad said,

Jasmine nodded, "I know, but if you're here with me, the risk should be minimized, right?"

Vlad wanted to object more, but he saw the determination in her eyes, she wanted to learn this new form of magik and would probably try it with or without his help. It would be much safer if he supervised.

"Jasmine you have to understand that this is untested waters," Vlad said, "that being said; I too am curious to find out what the Aurum Oculus can do in this regard,"

"You mean you'll teach me?"

"I don't see anything wrong with showing you how to do it," Vlad said, "and, if im being honest, it would allow you greater control over your eyes."

"Let's get started then," Jasmine said, giddy with excitement.

"Very well." Vlad said, "I guess I could give you some introductory lessons, just don't go overdoing it."

For the rest of the day, Jasmine and Vlad trained in the use of their eyes for this new form of magik.