"What are the chains that bind Silisia?" He asked the ancient woman. There was no reason for him to be the chosen one. Syryn didn't think he was special enough to be the saviour of anyone, let alone an entire kingdom.

"Silisia sleeps upon a danger that threatens Amhasag's denizens. You, Syryn, are the only one that can free Silisia of its burden." She was already running low on energy. He could see that this conversation was coming to an end very soon.

"Because I inherited the sage's pearl," he bitterly said.

"Because you are the new Sage," she corrected him. "Don't you want to know what the sage's pearl looks like?"

Syryn looked up at her. "Yes, can you show it to me?"

The old woman raised her arm again and pointed to Syryn's forehead. Her bony wrinkled finger had a talon-like nail that gently tapped on his skin.

Syryn immediately felt something crawl over the flesh of his forehead.

"Don't touch it," she warned it when his hand flew to his forehead.

There was something moving under his skin. He was weirded out by the squelching sounds that he could hear internally. And like a nightmare, something popped out of his forehead and landed on the oracle's palm.

It was a large eyeball.

Syryn's mouth fell open. The worst part about the eyeball was the thin thread of flesh that went up into his forehead like an umbilical cord.

"What the hell is that?!" He yelled while cringing at the eyeball. Syryn's voice was embarrassingly pitchy but he didn't care. There were worse things in life than sounding like a little girl. The eyeball still clinging to his head was one.

"This is the sage's pearl."

"You're serious," the horrified mage said. It was too disgusting for Syryn to look at. It was one thing to see disgusting things happen to other people, and another for it to happen to him.

The eyeball was staring straight at Syryn. The mage swallowed his saliva and stared back at its big black iris.

"The Sage preserved this eye right before his passing. All of the Sage's memories and a portion of his conscious self is in the eye."

"Why me?" Syryn asked. He couldn't look away from the eye.

"Because you are like the sage. Very few are born with the third eye that sees into the spiritual world."

Syryn nodded. He did have a third eye. Another forgotten fact about himself.

"If the pearl has now taken up room here," he pointed to his forehead. "Where is my own eye?"

The oracle raised her hand up so the eyeball could retract back inside Syryn. The cord connecting them was a string of flesh. It was pale and veined with small red blood vessels.

"Cannibalised by the sage's pearl," she answered. "It ate your third underdeveloped eye."

Syryn grimaced. Was that why he had suffered so much? A part of him was getting eaten up so it had to hurt right?

"That's terrible. However you think about it, it feels like there's a parasite in me."

"You lose nothing, Syryn. If you want to reject the sage then that is up to you."

The mage wanted to think it through first. He wanted power but he also had to make sure that the sage was not a malicious being out to take over his body. For the time being, he believed that he could trust it since it was the pearl's powers that got him out of two dicey situations.

"I am tired, Syryn. If you have any more questions, come tomorrow."

Syryn obeyed her dismissal and left the abyssal temple in a heavier mood than he had arrived.

___

Syryn was escorted back to his room by the guard who had brought him to the temple. On the way, they were seen by several mers.

Thus he wasn't surprised when he received a summons by the king of Silisia. Finally, Syryn thought, he would be seeing the person who was responsible for his kidnapping.

The mage was whisked away to the throne room, an impressive chamber made more impressive by the gorgeous throne at its centre. The throne was a glass sculpture fashioned after a mer warrior's large figure. The king's seat was at the tail end of the sculpture. The rest of the sculpture rose up and touched the high ceiling.

The King himself was a powerful looking merman with purple scales. Syryn could see where Shali got her colouring from.

"Your majesty," Syryn bowed his head. This wasn't his king and he felt no need to accord him respect.

"What did the oracle tell you?" The king asked him without preamble.

Syryn smiled a shallow smile. "That I would break the chains of Silisia."

The King studied Syryn's face. It made him feel like he was being cut open by the mer king's eyes.

"Is that all?" The king asked him.

"She also told me that I have inherited the Sage's pearl. I have no idea what it entails but it seems to me that I have an enormous responsibility towards this kingdom."

Syryn believed that the oracle hadn't lied about not telling the king of the full prophecy. He also knew that the king and everyone else was aware of his having the Sage's pearl.

"Do you resent me?" The mer king asked him.

The mage began to think fast. To say that he resented the king was trouble but to say that he didn't was a blatant lie. Neither was acceptable.

"Silisia needed its King to bring the liberator from the surface world. You did what was right as King. I cannot resent that, your majesty. But I would like your promise that I will be sent home when I have successfully carried out my duty."

The King appeared to be satisfied with his answer on the surface. Syryn did not trust that. If the oracle thought it wise to keep the prophecy from the ears of the king then he would be a fool to think that this king was gracious about sharing power.

"You have my word," the king solemnly told him. "You may leave."