"First, we'll begin with the activation of Author's Sight," Ratchina said, walking around me, her hands resting behind her back.
"No. First we give Lemon her voice back." I replied, standing next to Lemon.
Ratchina exhaled. "Alright, alright. If you could use freeform, you would have been able to return her voice yourself."
She looked at Lemon and then she said the word 'speak', at that Lemon's voice was restored. It felt like magic, but that wasn't possible, magic did not exist. I bent down before Lemon, inspecting her face with my hand.
"Are you okay?" I asked. "Anything else damaged?"
"I'm fine Ezra," she replied, holding my hand.
We stared at each other for a while and Ratchina just watched quietly. Then she smiled tauntingly.
"Are you two a couple?" She asked, her tone kind of childlike, like a ninth grade wannabe bully.
Though, her manner of asking did the work she was hoping it would. Lemon become quite flustered when she heard that, letting go of my hand and I stood up, clearing my throat. Then I captured Ratchina's attention with my valiant stare. She stopped smiling after noticing my stare.
"Alright, the Author's vision," she said rubbing her hands. "Do you know all about it, or do I have to give you a crash course?"
"Obviously a crash course," I replied, looking at Lemon.
Lemon smiled, opening a bag of Doritos she had pulled out of a drawer nearby.
"This is going to be interesting," she said, putting a Doritos chip in her mouth.
I smiled, shaking my head, then my eyes fell on Ratchina's serious stare at me, which made my smile disappear. Then she walked closer to me and said;
"Activate your system, Guardian."
"Of course," I replied, stepping backwards a little.
I spoke the words and it appeared, taking a large amount of space. Lemon was still pissed that she could not see what we were looking at.
"Like I said before," Ratchina said, inspecting the system inch by inch. "Only Guardians and Knights can see another Guardian or Knight's system. Could you please minimise this?"
Minimise? Dad didn't tell me the stat screen could be minimised. My face formed confusion when she said that and at once she exhaled, rubbing her nose bridge.
"Look up and say the word, small," she said.
So I did as told. The screen reduced like a folder on a PC. Then she said I should separate all the options on the stat screen so that they had their own screen showing their content. I reckoned that if to minimise the screen I had to say small, then to separate these options, I had to say a certain word.
"Divide," I said confidently.
Nothing happened.
"Mince," i said again. But nothing happened. Ratchina facepalmed and Lemon couldn't stop laughing.
"Shut up," I said to her. "You can't even see what's happening."
"Actually, I can," Lemon replied. "It's very dull and extremely faded, you'd barely notice it if you're not keen, but yeah, my eyes tell me there's something in front of you. Looks like a large workstation."
What, one moment she could not see it, but the next she could?
"You can see it?" I asked to make sure I heard her right.
She nodded. Now this was strange, it was either she was a Knight or a Guardian for this to happen. But she was neither. I looked at Ratchina for a possible explanation…her face was full of fright and a tad bit of excitement as she stared at Lemon.
"Uh, Ratchina?" I asked, snapping my fingers in front of her face. "Are you okay?"
She left the trance with a bit of a shock, looking at me with raised eyebrows. It was as though her consciousness had wandered to a different plain of existence.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she replied. "Harotio…that's the word you say to separate the options."
Immediately I said the word, the large stat screen divided into five distinct screens. One had my training data on it, two had the list of all my locked and unlocked abilities on it, and another had my profile on it. The fifth screen was a tad different, it had the title, 'user settings' written on it and there was an icon of a brain gyrating in the middle of the screen.
"That's very good Guardian," Ratchina said. "Now tap on the spinning brain, you'd see some options. Scroll down and tap on the only one that is unlocked…the Author's Sight."
I did as she said, tapping on the brain. At that the spinning stopped and a few listed options appeared on the screen. There were eight options in total, some of them completely unreal and all related to the Author. This was exactly how it looked;
🧠
∆ Author's Smell 🔐
∆ Author's Intelligence 🔐
∆Author's Hearing 🔐
∆ Author's Knowledge 🔐
∆ Author's Foresight 🔓
∆ Author's Sight 🔓
∆ Author's Richies 🔐
∆ Author's Amiability 🔐
"Author's Sight is not the only thing unlocked here," I said to her. "Foresight is also unlocked."
"What?" She asked confused, walking closer to take a look. "That can't be right. Hmm, must be a malfunction somewhere…I don't even have most of these, just the hearing, the sight and the knowledge."
"How do I unlock the rest?"
"In due time, you will learn," she replied. "But for now, tap on the Author's Sight."
The moment I tapped on it, my cornea and iris glowed blue and in a short instant couldn't see anything.
"I can't see anything," I said, stretching my hands out.
"Is he okay?" Lemon asked, standing up.
"Give it a minute," Ratchina replied.
Suddenly the cornea cleared up but the iris was still glowing. My pupils were dilated and I could see…everything. The lines, the mathematical lines of the universe itself appeared before my eyes. I saw the spectrum of light waves everywhere, the strings of gravity, the infrared body heat of the two individuals before me. I could see it all, and more importantly, I could see the mark of the knight. The tattooed dragon on Ratchina's arm. There was also something odd about the body heat of Lemon. Her heat signature had a silver firey tips, it was strange. Perhaps it was because she was a Zoarite.
"Give it a day and you'll get use to the new eyes," Ratchina said. "To return to your normal way of sight, I usually blink twice, so you could try that if you want to see the face of your beautiful girlfriend here."
"I'm not…"
"She's not my girlfriend," I said, completing Lemon's statement. I did as she said, and it worked.
"Yeah," she laughed. "Keep lying to yourselves. Anyway, my work here is partially done. It's too late to give you another lesson, I need to hit the hay. I'll be back soon enough, so be on your toes."
At that she vanished. Teleportation, a very handy ability. I exhaled, looking at Lemon, she smiled tapping on the bed. I smiled walking over to sit next to her. At that very moment, Ratchina reappeared, startling the shit out of us.
"I almost forgot," she said, grabbing her butler clothes from the bed. "The Arena quest is in two days, you and your father better not be late. And tell Ezekiel he owes me fifty power stones for doing his job for him."
She was refering to the lesson she gave me. After she was done talking, she vanished again. Lemon and I looked at each other, she smiled, I smiled.
"I want to know everything," she said, pulling out another bag of Doritos and staring into my eyes with unwavering focus.
"Alright," I said, taking a Doritos chip from the bag. "How do you want it, descriptive or narrative?"
"Narrative," she replied. "In a descriptive way."
I exhaled, getting off the bed.
"Alright," I said. Then I raised my arms up and continued. "My name is Ezra Caster, and I am a Guardian."