Gem stared at the scrying slate as it showed the form of a black haired boy pushing a blonde one and sending him stumbling out into a hallway while an Oni watched. Requiring quite some time carving runes and infusing magic into a slab of grey stone, scrying slates were proportionately expensive to their quality. The one Gem watched currently was exceedingly expensive, and as a result she could see details as fine as a stray hair on the lapel of the black haired boy. She hadn’t been able to hear their voices though, but Karma had informed her that, judging by their body language, they had figured out that the way before them was riddled with traps. Karma was good with body language, in fact with her Eye of Analysis, a strain allowing its user to perceive and process the slightest changes and patterns, she was good with just about everything. Good enough that Gem knew she wouldn’t be mistaken about this much, and therefore good enough that Gem could confidently conclude the black haired boy was a little shit for shoving someone into harm’s way.

She hadn’t been allowed in the Sieve. Or rather, she had been “allowed to skip the first stage” due to her astonishing magical talent. Gem had feigned reluctance at missing out, but really she hadn’t minded. Due mainly to the fact that the free time she’d have otherwise spent competing against people far beneath her abilities could now be spent however she liked, and since Karma was in the city of Bermuda to serve as the announcer for the Sieve in some big, complicated political maneuver between the Factions and Olympus, that meant Gem got to spend it with her in the Olympian’s quarters. Her incredibly well-furnished, luxurious, enormous and full-of-food quarters.

Of course if she’d known Karma would make her spend that time watching the first stage, she might have reconsidered. As things were it had come as quite a surprise, and though her behind was very comfortable on the premium cushions it occupied, and her belly felt wonderfully full with very tasty food, her mind was bored beyond belief by the sight of inept mystics struggling with trivialities before her.

“Okay Karma,” she tried. “I get your point. There’s more to the Sieve than just magic, can we please do something else?”

Karma didn’t react for a second. She was sitting next to Gem on the sofa, her features having taken on the granite-like stillness they always did when she was relaxed. She wore a well fitting suit of leathers and buckles, designed to be moved around in easily and smoothly, and the light from the braziers illuminating the living room clung to her bronze skin. She was probably the most beautiful person Gem had ever met, her face was all angles and smoothness which led up to a pair of plump lips. Karma had once told Gem that her face was not her own, she didn’t know what that meant- but as the older woman spoke in that steady, strong voice of hers she really couldn’t imagine any face that fit it better.

“If you don’t see the value in watching, then you really don’t get my point.”

Without another word the Olympian pulled her amber eyes from Gem’s blues and looked back to the scrying slate as though the two of them had already agreed the conversation was over. Her title, or at least the most well known of her many titles, was “the Princess of Olympus”. Some believed this was in reference to her heritage, being the biological daughter of Olympus’s ruler Hercules, but Gem decided that whoever stuck her with the name first had probably done so in reference to her attitude- the way she simply glided through the world and expected every person around her, whether they fell under the rulership of Olympus or not, to comply. Of course Gem had spent much of her life around such authoritative beings, after all Immortals were quite a commanding lot.

“Your point is that I need to use any advantage I can get, I understand that. I just don’t agree with it, really who the hell is going to actually threaten me? I mean… I’m me! I’m an even bigger magical prodigy than….”

Karma looked back at her and Gem fell silent. Not much could get to the daughter of Olympus, but Gem often noticed her bristle slightly when someone compared them. After all Karma had been the most talented mystic born in the last thousand years until the exact moment Gem had come into existence.

“Well…” she continued, faltering slightly under the withering yet seemingly placid stare of her friend. “You know….”

She fell off. Karma continued to hold her gaze at Gem, even when Gem herself dropped her own eyes down in embarrassment. Finally Karma answered.

“You genuinely think you’re so talented that even the strongest few dozen out of a hundred thousand people, most of which are years older and more experienced than you, can’t pose a threat?”

Gem felt her face redden and, not for the first time, wished she had Karma’s more tanned complexion to hide her blush. As a Gean from the continent of Unix, she was stuck with pale skin and blue eyes in place of the amber-eyed coppery pigmentation found on Karma’s continent of Dewlz.

“Well… when you put it like that….”

She glanced back up to see Karma’s mouth had twisted into a half-smirk, and suddenly her feelings of embarrassment were replaced with annoyance. Karma always did this, stringing people along into what they thought was a lecture only to start grinning like a child playing a prank when they worked themselves up over disappointing her. Gem had no idea how she kept falling for it.

“Oh shut up”, she snapped at her friend. “You told me yourself I’m still above most of the people who even get into the Gilasev Institute, and most of them are older than me anyway.”

Karma let out a light laugh now, and Gem couldn’t help but join in. She was getting so worked up over so little. Karma brushed a strand of her pitch-black hair from in front of her right eye before answering.

“That’s two “probably”s you’re relying on holding up there. You’re probably right, but if you’re wrong and let yourself get surprised by that fact, you’ll pay for it. You have the unique advantage of being able to actually see what your competition can do, you should use it.”

Gem sighed, then leaned back and returned her gaze to the slate. Karma was right. Of course she was, Karma was always right. She was the second most magically talented mystic born in the last thousand years. Between that, her looks and her brain, Gem couldn’t help but feel like her own talent, taking the number one slot as it did, was rather a petty thing to gloat about.

She frowned, then looked back to Karma. One thing still bothered her…

“Why did they give me that advantage though? Surely they don’t think me being younger means I need a helping hand, considering… well, you know. Even if they did, why wouldn’t they give all younger competitors that help?”

Karma smiled as though she were explaining the most obvious thing in the world to a particularly dull child.

“Because, my dear Gem, they assumed you were too much of an arrogant little shit to exploit the fact that you weren’t explicitly told not to use said advantage.”

Gem crossed her arms and stared back at the slate.

“I hate you.”

“About time someone did.”

And so they continued to watch. Gem really didn’t know why they continued to watch, after all the boy had absolutely no chance against the traps. Taking it slowly, moving in one toe ahead of the others, sure. Not like that, not when he went flying into the corridor and probably tripped every single trigger at once, the delays between them going off would be miniscule- a few milliseconds if she had to guess. He hadn’t a prayer of dodging.

And yet he did.

A spear, a gout of flames, even the floor itself crumbling apart and dropping down into a seemingly bottomless pit. He evaded them all. Gem couldn’t help but stare, transfixed. He was maybe a year older than her at most, she hadn’t met him in person and so she couldn’t gauge his power- but she’d met precious few people even in the same ballpark as her talent. Yet the speed with which he moved was incredible, he was even faster than her. Granted not by much, and with the age difference Gem was undoubtedly far more talented than him regardless. And on top of that all she still had her anti-magic, she was still the first creature in history to use both that and regular magic simultaneously. As well as-

She glanced over at Karma, who was looking rather amused with her. Gem forced her face to stop showing whatever it was, but it was too late.

“You know,” Karma began. “You always pull the same face when you see someone who’s close to your talent.”

Gem couldn’t think of much to say as an argument to that, so she simply corrected the only thing she could.

“He’s not close to me.”

Karma shrugged, her smile remaining.

“True, but he’s not as far off as you’d like. Even if you were the same age as him I doubt you’d even have as much as twice his Potency.”

Gem scrunched her face up in what she hoped was a pout. She’d been practicing pouting, Karma had shown her first-hand how effective it could be at getting what one wanted. Of course that was when it was used by Karma, who had all her charm and beauty and… assets. She remembered for just a moment the face the Olympian had pulled when that Unity brat had grabbed hold of those “assets”, and before she could stop herself she’d burst out laughing. It was a long few seconds before she looked back up at Karma, who appeared thoroughly perplexed.

“Have you gone insane at the knowledge that you aren’t quite as impressive as you thought, or are you thinking of a joke I’m not privy to?”

Gem just shook her head, licking her lips and clenching her jaw to keep herself from relapsing into another bout of giggling. Once she’d regained her composure, she answered.

“Okay, fine. He’s not that much less powerful than me, but so what? Even if he were twice as strong in raw Potency, he wouldn’t be able to match my anti-magic.”

The face Karma pulled told her everything she needed to know. Karma liked nothing more than making Gem acknowledge that there was more to magic than mystical Potency. Raw power was important, she would say, but there were some things it couldn’t do. Karma’s Eye of Analysis was one example. Of course life really wasn’t fair, Gem possessed more Potency than any other mystic of her age- but she also possessed the unique ability to use anti-magic. Gem used to take a lot of pride in that, however Karma using it as a reminder that her Potency didn’t make her as special as she liked to think put somewhat of a damper on things.

“Shut up.”

“Alright, let’s try this.” Karma sighed. “How did he dodge those traps?”

Gem narrowed her eyes, unsure whether it was a trick question or not.

“He’s… fast.”

Karma arched an eyebrow.

“Could you have dodged them? Without looking at them?”

“Ugh, so he has good senses as well. What does it matter?”

There was a hint of irritation in Karma’s tone as she replied.

“It matters because the way he’s dodging can be the deciding factor in which strategy you need to employ in order to stop that from happening. You said he was using enhanced senses, right? How would you overcome that and ensure your attacks landed.”

The golden haired boy had stood back up now, apparently speaking to his teammates, if they could even be called that after using him as cannon fodder. Gem thought for a second.

“I’d make noise, or kick up a big dust cloud- or both. Overload his senses.”

“And if he had a way to stop that, if he could separate stimuli to prevent sensory overload?”

Gem smirked.

“If he could do that, I doubt he’d have had enough potency left over to split between making his body fast enough to dodge those traps, durable enough to damage the ground like it did and perceptive enough to hear the traps before they could fire.”

Karma nodded lightly, seeming impressed for a second.

“Not bad. Well, completely and utterly wrong, of course, but not bad at least. You made use of your knowledge of how much Potency he had by fishing for hints from me, then used that to extrapolate how his abilities worked by establishing how much raw power they had and working out how much he’d have left to add extra features, such as protection from sensory overload. As it turns out, he’d have had nothing left over.”

Gem nodded, pretending she actually had considered all the things Karma thought she had. Then paused, thinking back to that nagging little phrase completely and utterly wrong before scowling.

“Alright then genius, where did I make my big mistake?”

“When you came up with something he could have used to dodge, then blindly accepted that as the explanation without giving it any thought. He has strong senses but they’re vulnerable to overload? That’s odd, considering he started moving to avoid the fire while chips of stone were still landing around him and making noise from that spear taking a chunk out of the wall.”

“What else was it then? Fucking x-ray vision like you? Radar? How the hell can I tell?”

Karma made a half grunting half sighing noise she often did when Gem was irritating her.

“X-ray vision that let him see what? Do you think he just happens to have the engineering knowledge required to glance at a mechanism and figure out exactly what it does in an instant? And how would radar help with avoiding fire or gravity?”

“Ughhhh I give up. What did he do?”

“Did you get a look at his eyes?”

Gem wasn’t as smart as Karma, but she could put two and two together as to what she was getting at.

“You’re saying he has a strain?”

“Yes, and before you ask- no, it’s not the Eye of Analysis. That kid’s rocking the Eye of Chronos.”

Gem immediately felt her mouth go dry.

“He can’t be. That only shows up once every… how long?”

“Millennia. Unless you count the idiotic rumours of the false Eclipse possessing it, which I don't since if he could see the future he'd have known to duck. Not that it matters, statistically neither of us should have been born until humanity’s population was too high to fit across the surface of every planet we’ve ever observed.”

She couldn’t argue that. The impossible had been happening with alarming regularity over the last few decades. The Faction War had ended fifteen years ago, and apparently everyone had thought the world would return to normal after its largest empire stopped warring with itself. And then a year later Gem had been born, baffling scholars of magic across every continent with both her talent and anti-magic. Then there had been an ancient Deity pulled out of a cocoon who had apparently reverted to the form of a teenager. Then a dozen other anomalies, all back to back. What was a single legendary strain appearing after all that? Nothing more than another impossible link in an increasingly long and impossible chain.

But then, Gem wasn’t sure that her own existence was quite as much of a statistical outlier as the Eye of Chronos being held by two separate people at the same time.

“Okay. So what can he do with it then?”

Karma gave Gem the look she always did when she’d unknowingly said something stupid.

“I have no idea, the only records of what the Eye of Chronos is capable of were written by semi-literate morons who’d gotten their asses kicked by Chrona Kasta during the Faction war. If you believe the stories, it’s objectively the most powerful strain in the entire history of the world. Besides that there’s no way of telling. Other than to ask an Immortal who’s fought against or alongside it, if any are even still alive.”

She paused.

“I doubt that kid’s particularly hot shit with it though. There are a dozen ways he could’ve gotten through there with the more advanced powers that’ve been recorded, yet he just moved as though he had a second’s warning about what everything that was about to hit him was and where it’d come from.”

Gem took a moment to run Karma’s words over again in her head before tentatively answering.

“Isn’t Chrona Kasta’s Faction in a close alliance with Olympus?”

An irritated scowl befel Karma.

“Firstly, it’s called the Jaxif Faction. Secondly, yes. Thirdly, why would that mean I’d know any more about her mystical eyes of bullshit than anyone else?”

Gem smiled.

“I assumed you’d have figured it out by looking at her with your mystical eyes of bullshit.”

Karma looked annoyed for all of three seconds before breaking out into a laugh.

“So,” Gem started. “You don’t think blondie can do anything other than glimpse a moment into the future?”

“Yeah. Well, probably. He could be hiding his power for the sake of taking his teammates by surprise if he needs to fight them.”

Gem scowled.

“I hate thinking about stuff like this.”

Karma’s hand tapped her shoulder playfully as she half-laughed out her response.

“Everyone hates thinking about this stuff, but you get used to it. Or you refuse to do it and get killed by someone you’re objectively more powerful than. Your choice.”

It wasn’t much of a choice, and so Gem reluctantly turned her attention back onto the screen. Before she could continue dissecting the blonde’s every move in search for clues as to how his strain worked and what its weakness was, Karma had waved her hand and changed the scrying slate’s focus.

“What the hell!?”

The brunette grinned at Gem’s annoyance.

“Becoming fixated on one threat is no good if you spend so much time assessing it you don’t notice another one sneaking up on you, let’s take a peek at what else you need to contend with.”

And so they did. And, as Gem expected, each and every competitor was shockingly dull. Nine out of ten of them made use of either a rudimentary elemental ability or simple strength enhancement, and few had any more than two abilities to choose from. There were practically no strains, and the overall level of the contestant’s Potency was, considering they averaged two or three years older than Gem herself, completely unremarkable. Her eyes felt as though they had begun to glaze over when the slate switched from a purple haired Vampire being eaten by large dog-like creatures to a dark-skinned girl with yellow eyes.

Gem didn’t know why, but she got a strange feeling prickling down her neck as she watched her- and she soon got an answer to her unasked question as the girl produced a blast powerful enough to split open a boulder thrice her height. She watched the girl for a little while longer, trying to pick apart details about her abilities- however as Karma adamantly refused to help her glean information from anyone after the blonde, Gem came up with little. The focus continued gliding through unremarkable after unremarkable, despite Karma assuring her it was pinpointing the more impressive of the one million contestants Gem was struck by how shockingly mediocre they all were. And then, just as she began to think maybe there had only been two anomalous diamonds in the rough, she saw another.

This time a blonde girl, younger than most of the other contestants they’d skipped past- yet immediately more impressive. Gem watched as she deftly evaded what should have been a guaranteed hit, a circular patch of coloured light forming behind her before she stepped back through it and out of another one which had appeared some fifty feet away at the same time as the first. Gem didn’t need help to figure out what that ability was.

“She can use Itamis!?”.

Itamis was one of the nine spheres of magic which all abilities were made from. Most of the ones she’d seen used among the competitors had been Cutaris, Utalis or Patais- which gave influence over energy, matter and living tissue respectively. Those were the three easiest forms of magic to use, and also among the most versatile.

By combining knowledge of Cutaris and Patais, a mystic could physically enhance their own body’s strength by channeling energy through their muscles and bones. By combining Utalis with Cutaris, they could change the shape of inanimate objects to send spikes shooting out of floors and ceilings in any direction they chose. There were so many ways any two spheres could be combined into different abilities that attempting to list any but the most common examples was pointless, and yet there were six more spheres beyond that. Of those six, Itamis was the second most advanced, rare and difficult to utilise. And since it gave influence over space, allowing users to instantly close a distance between two places by connecting them with portals, it was incredibly sought after. Yet only a tiny number of mystics could use it on a high enough level to produce functioning portals, Gem had never heard of anyone under twenty managing to do so. Was this girl really as young as she looked?

She was brought back to reality by a nudge from Karma’s elbow, Gem looked back to her as she spoke.

“Do you see now?”. Karma’s voice was level and serious, a tone she rarely employed even with Gem. Her eyes were fixed completely on Gem’s as she addressed her.

“You’re dealing with people gathered from around the world, and practically all of them are older than you. It’s fine to acknowledge that you’re hot shit, but there’s a difference between assessing yourself correctly and being conceited enough to assume you’re above people who’ve had thousands of hours’ more practice than you to hone their abilities. Not to mention years more time for their Potency to naturally increase with age. You’re the challenger here, sweetheart.”

Her mouth suddenly dry, Gem didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t until Karma cut through her tension with a gentle smile that she felt like speaking.

“I… I’d like to look at the rest of the competitors.”

To her surprise, Karma didn’t look at all smug as she switched the slate’s focus once more. Simply satisfied, as if she’d done what she set out to. That was irritating. Karma was only three years older than Gem, but sometimes the woman reminded her a lot like an Immortal- always plotting and scheming, pinning her cards firmly against her chest and letting everybody else think it was their own idea to give her a better hand.

Of course in a few years she probably would be an Immortal. Once a person reached a certain threshold of mystical Potency, their body simply stopped aging completely- a million years could pass and they wouldn’t be a day closer to dying of old age. Their minds could change, though. Over the years, decades and centuries, their minds always changed. Gem knew from first hand experience the kind of person it took to survive for hundreds of years while they had enough power to paint a bullseye on their back.

She wondered how many of the participants she watched now were the right sort. Most weren’t, that was for sure. Betrayed by their teammates and left behind, tricked by some sneakily hidden trap and knocked out of the contest, even simply getting stuck for long enough that they gave up- she knew most of them would drop out one way or another. Only a handful, a few dozen, would even get to the second stage. As Karma flickered from one to the next, Gem could see why.

And then they came upon another diamond in the rough. This one was a boy, a little older than the blonde girl and the Eye of Chronos user. He had tanned skin and white hair, his body was adorned with extremely expensive looking clothing and jewelry- almost like the ones Karma wore when she needed to attend public events and keep up appearances as Olympus’s princess. However Gem’s attention didn’t linger on the boy’s attire for long, his face was far more interesting. It looked more pretty than handsome, all delicate features and defined bones- with a nose that looked as though it had been built deliberately by a very talented artist. And his smile… it reminded Gem of Karma’s, in a way. That mischievous edge to the corners of his lips, that glint in his eye which seemed to promise both trouble and fun in spades. She caught herself licking her lips absent mindedly as she stared, then felt Karma’s eyes on her and turned to see the older woman grinning from ear to ear.

“What are you staring at?”

Gem tried to inject a tone of genuine confusion into her voice, however she also tried very hard to keep her face from resembling a beetroot- failing spectacularly on both accounts. Karma, for her part, seemed to find this rather amusing.

“Oh come on Gem”. Karma tried, her words hurriedly spoken after finally getting her laughter under control. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, you’re at that age- perfectly normal for you to have a crush.”

“It’s not a crush, shut up.”

“It looked a little bit like a crush.”

“It’s not! It’s just… an appreciation, like someone might have for a nice piece of art.”

Karma’s smile strained as she tried to keep from bursting out into more laughter.

“So he’s like a piece of art?”

Gem felt her face heating up by the second.

“You know what I meant. In fact why do I need to explain myself to you? You practically have people lined up outside your room every night to….”

She tapered off, not quite knowing how to put what Karma did with said people into words. The Olympian rolled her eyes.

“Fuck. Hump. Bang. Roll around in the hay, bump uglies, take a trip to pound town-”

“You can stop now.”

“-Feed the kitty, do the two person pushup, knock boots... “

She scrunched her face up for a moment, apparently in deep thought. Finally she continued.

“Yeah, that’s about all I can think of.”

She spared a glance back to Gem, apparently deeming from her face that she had made her point. Finally she continued in a more serious tone.

“Alright look Gem, you might not have a crush on him but you’re getting to that age- it’s gonna happen sooner or later. Everyone has that one special someone they get a little bit obsessed with. All hot and funny and captivating, they make you trip over your own tongue to try and impress them- it’s perfectly natural.”

Gem didn’t meet Karma’s eye, simply keeping her own gaze affixed firmly on the carpet and hoping to God the topic changed soon. Thankfully her friend, because that was what Karma was, seemed satisfied that she had sufficiently covered it.

“Besides, that one’s not really my type. I don’t like guys with girl faces. I prefer girls with girl faces, and guys with guy faces.”

“Can we please get back to analysing people for me to beat up?”

Karma looked puzzled for a second, then seemed to remember what Gem was talking about.

“Oh, yeah sure.”

And so they did. For three more hours they sat there, watching the Sieve on the slate, assessing the contestants and what openings they might have, occasionally bickering or laughing about a particularly unusual looking one. There were a handful more nuggets of gold in the stream of shit that was the other applicants, and Gem was soon growing used to seeing people nearly as exceptional as herself. When the time came for the two of them to leave, for Karma to prepare her fancy formal clothes and get in-character as “Olympus’s Princess”, a name she outright despised for the infantilising garbage it was, Gem felt the darndest thing.

She felt herself grow nervous at the prospect of competing with those diamonds in the rough.