「 Vybek'ya, 11th of Zataghum, 1257 AL 」

< What was that? >

Kian woke up in a silky bed, his dark brown hair tussled at the side. He could have sworn he saw a display of date floating by at the corner of his eye when his eyes were closed earlier. He rubbed his slightly irritated right eye with the back of his hand. The morning light from between the wooden blinds was soft and nostalgic, but his vision was still blurry when he opened them...

< Wait. My eyes—my eyes!!! I can see?!! I can see!!! >

His eyelids fluttered as the pupil of his right eye dilated to the discovery. If there was a mirror, Kian would have noticed the pupil of his right eye was brownish-yellow with a youthful shine, almost gemstone-like, whereas his left one maintained its natural dark brown color, albeit a bit dull.

He could have screamed in disbelief and joy, like every other person would, but Kian was not like every other person, so he did not. He simply curved his lips slightly and swallowed his human astonishment down his parched throat. He continued assaying; opening and closing his eyes a few times, and then covering them with his palms for another few times, each time he let out a tiny, uncontrolled, snorting smile.

< I see, only my right eye, my left eye remains blind. >

He looked around his bedchamber and saw it was familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. The daisy-scented sheets, it was pasty brown.

< Not a color I recall being fond of. >

The smooth wood of the bed frame, it was the color of deep mahogany.

< Grandfather must have spent a fortune. >

The walls were white-ish, and the cottony carpet was a dull maroon. Kian looked over to the birch-wood cabinet by his bedside, where his sister, Annie kept the books she would read to him occasionally—ever since he went blind.

< 'A Summary of the Founding of the Empire', huh? And 'The Art of Rhetorics'...and, hurmm, 'The Lady's First Dance'. Annie did say the academy taught them noble's etiquette. >

He continued reading through the book titles, most of which his sister had read to him, some she had not. He read them slowly, his gaze titillating as if trying to remember which syllable was which and how they sounded like.

Then, he turned to look what else was curious in his bedchamber. The bedchamber door was always a few feet away, but now Kian could comprehend the actual space between them. It was as gratifying as it was fulfilling.

He had already propped himself up at this moment, but then realised the dull throbbing pain at his right shoulder as well as the left side of his stomach. His right hand instinctively tried to move, but his arm somewhat froze to the pain, his brows slightly contorted.

He took a glance down using his renewed sight as he pulled the silken sheet away using his left hand. His lanky body was wrapped in white linen, and at where the pain were, dark blotches stained the bandages.

< Where did these come from? What in the Goddess name happened? Was I ran over by a horse? >

He tried remembering. Blurry memories. Shambled memories.

< What happened to me? >

He focused harder, but this time there was something—again, he could have sworn he saw a display of date floating by the corner of his right eye when he closed his eyes, if only he could concentrate more onto the area...

「 rise, mechanicus 」

An ethereal voice reverberated, or rather, mountain-heavy thoughts crashed directly unto his plane of consciousness. Kian almost broke under its weight, he could feel his soul flickering frantically like a lit candle caught in the night winds.

< Wha-who are you— >

He instantly crumpled on the bed, as the weight of the voice suddenly became many times more ponderous; his mind edged closer to the brink of collapsing. He could not help asking 'who', it was more of a mental reflex.

But just then, a gushing stream of infinitesimal amount of information poured into his waking mind, like swarms of fireflies surging and crashing into him, the immense ethereal pressure was released, like a dam opened. And it showed in his eyes, no, his right eye, a twinkle of relief, his gaze gradually lacing up with a sharp glint.

< I heard you. I remember the Contract. My apology, I was just disoriented a bit, my memories were jumbled up... >

「 ... 」

< What actually happened to me? I remembered hearing Mrs. Lena shouting from the living room below, and Joachim's footsteps running up the stairs...then, nothing. I couldn't remember anything past that. >

Kian was still looking around his bedchamber, appreciating the visual pleasure of seeing once more while holding up the mental conversation with the 'voice'. This time, he was able to notice not only the date display floating by the corner of his vision, but also the etheric waves superimposed on the space surrounding him. And it surprised him that he understood what he was seeing!

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[Ethereal Vision] Ability: [ perception, etheric waves, ether particles, manifestation. etheric signature: output, true. true sight: output, false. ]

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< So, this what [Ethereal Vision] is... > This Mechanicus' Eye is really something, he thought as he raised his left hand to touch under his right eye.

The ethereal voice of Cerebrata, sounded once more and gathered a small glowing orb with many attached shiny threads, stretched out to the deep recesses of their linked mental space—if it was a thing—and dropped it unto Kian's consciousness plane. His soul rippled as series of moving images and sensations flooded all over the floor of his mind...

「 accessing stasis log. log entry: alon mel, alon hege, asta zata beka scurii. commencing memory replay 」

_____

「 Vyneg'ya, 9th of Zataghum, 1257 AL 」

The display date changed, it was two days ago. Kian saw himself, no, he saw the recorded memory being replayed, reliving him of his memory through the Eye, like watching a stage performance through the eyes of the performer.

A person, a man in black attire was standing before his seated-self. His face was a bit blurry, but he had a moustache and wore his hood over his head. He had a terrible snarl. Three other men each wearing ragged peasant garments were also there, trashing and rummaging through the things in the sculpting room.

Through the Eye, Kian could see their peculiar etheric signature—distorted, ugly and loud—which he then understood that these men had had taken people's lives before, and probably, by a lot.

< They're looking for something? This black-robed man is probably the leader, with that kind of obvious get-up. >

Kian felt his mind from the memory was abnormally dizzy and scrambled, and he felt blood was trickling down his nose and mouth. He could feel his body was dying at the moment—his etheric signature was weakening. The black-robed man removed his wrinkled hand from Kian's forehead and exclaimed,

"Magic be damned! This boy's blind! His memories are all in darkness. It's impossible to search through him like this, not without a better spell! If only we're told how the Artifact looked like, then a simple Apporter spell would be sufficient!"

< Magic? Spell? Isn't practising magic illegal? At least here in the Empire, the Church declared it as heretic. >

At Kian's body shallowing breaths, he felt the rock pendant hanging at his neck began vibrating, buzzing faster and faster, then suddenly a bronze-golden light flashed the entire room, and poured itself into where his blind right eye was.

He felt a familiar sensation washed over his entire being; it felt unearthly and unlimiting, like his very soul was being blessed and purified, stretched and pulled and pressed and compressed. He could feel his being cleansed and strengthened and empowered. It was the sensation of ascending divinity! Kian blinked his eyes open, but it was not him who willed his body to do so.

The four men were shocked and yelling and talking to one another at that moment, but Kian could not be bothered as he was entranced with everything his body was experiencing. Shapes and unknown symbols formed and disappeared at the peripherals of his right vision. Spirituality gathered, weaved and condensed through his flesh and soul. A divine presence anchored itself unto his consciousness plane. His body felt...godly!

Then, a familiar ethereal voice, monotonously sounded using Kian's mouth,

"Etheric link, established. Status, stable. Minimal noise. Synchronization, 83 percent. Optimal. Host priority control, Cerebrata ex Machina. Commencing etheric signature resonation."

"...it's the boy!!! Stop him!!!

Everything was a blur after that—Kian was simply too drawn to witnessing the Eye's [Etherize] Ability being activated for the first time. Information was being poured unto Kian's mind violently in a matter of seconds, both his selves from the past and the current him experiencing the recorded memories.

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[Etherize] Ability: [ impermanent etheric functions, etherical targets, vector. etheric function, 1, channelling, 1: output, true. variable: ethericity, weight, function computation speed. prospective access, [Basic Etheric Programming] Skill. etheric function: 1. range: 2, feet. computation duration: 50 ~ 450, seconds. etheric cost: 3,000 ether units, second. etherized duration: 2 ~ 5, seconds. ]

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Multiple etherization functions were being continuously computed and displayed over his right eye vision, as objects within two feet from Kian were etherized; causing them to move, fly, writhe, swirl and fling preposterously around the bedchamber in angry barraging flurries of common household items against the intruders. With Cerebrata taking over his body at that moment, the computation for each etherization functions was many times faster, compared to the stated ability information that surged ealier.

Kian saw himself rolling and leaping around the room, reaching for and etherizing any ammunition within his reach, while adeptly evading and defending against punches and dagger-slashes, as well as the robed mage's conjured lightning bolts and fireballs and whatnots.

However, despite continuously etherizing his own limbs to pull off such acrobatic feats, he still got himself injured; the left side of his stomach was ripped open by a blind dagger-strike and his right shoulder was pierced by a stray arcane bolt. Kian saw his body was bloodied, but there was nothing mortal about him at that moment!

The last round of simultaneous etherization functions were processed and appeared at Kian's right eye's peripherals and almost instantly, a candlestick flung itself and speared the throat of one of the men while the other had his eyes pierced with marble shards from broken sculptures.

The black-robed mage, on the other hand, was knocked over by the books from the cabinet as the ropes used to bind Kian's wrists and ankles earlier, wound itself around his neck and began strangling him to death. Kian's body spun around behind a smashed marble sculpture as he landed on his two feet expertly, bidding time for his next round of assault.

"Re-calibrating. Calibration completed." Words passed through Kian's blood-tinted lips between breaths.

The last remaining man was a trained killer, but he only managed to hear those words before he saw the terrifying golden eye flashed towards his side, below his right elbow. Fear devoured his eyes.

"Scenario completed."

< Checkmate. >

The man froze. And then he himself slowly pushed the dagger he held in his right hand into his own neck, hesitantly but successfully; thick red blood spurted out of his pierced throat and from his mouth, tears and terror reflected in the poor man's eyes. He could not even croak.

The poltergeist chaos died down. Kian's sculpting room was a mess. Four bloody bodies were sprawled with some of their limbs twisted at unnatural angles, lying lifeless among the destroyed furniture and the broken sculptures and shredded woods, and the torn books and fabrics. Kian saw himself collapsing to his sides...

「 ending memory replay. storing stasis log. storing complete. 」

_____

Kian fell back to his bed dizzily.

< So, it was a break-in burglary attempt, was it not? But, in the middle of Knightsburg? More so, in the middle of the day? The Goddess must jest! >

< Where were the Imperial Knightguards? And the heretic— >