Sebastian was shocked awake by a spike of pain far greater than the one that had knocked him out, the lines were in his eyes. It felt like someone was slowly dipping his eyes into a vat of hellfire, and he screamed hoarsely as it worked its way in. His vision shifted and warped, bordered by a strange combination of red and silver, and he dimly realized through the pain that he could see silver streamers flowing in a swirling vortex that sank into his eyes. He screamed again as the vortex hit the cluster of nerves attached to his eyes and he blacked out again.

When he came to the next time, he tensed, waiting for the pain to strike him like a hammer blow. Nothing. He tentatively opened his eyes, hoping that he had somehow dreamed that agonizing experience, or at the very least, that it hadn’t struck him blind. He sighed when he saw the sky clearly, although the color seemed a bit off. A little too vibrant of a blue. He slowly started to climb to his feet, trying his best to inspect every inch of exposed skin for changes other than the strange lines. He started to pull down his shorts, before remembering his audience. I’ll check those areas later.

After determining to the best of his abilities that nothing had changed into anything particularly monster like, he turned to face the others. He was fairly sure that his mind was still intact as well, at least, he still felt like he was Sebastian and not a lunatic, although that part with the eyes… he shuddered at the memory. That would probably haunt him for some time. He looked around, suddenly realizing that he had survived something that was supposed to be impossible to survive. He marveled at the brilliant, vibrant colors of the sky and trees, the smell of the air filled his nose, carrying its subtle scent of the nearby ocean, and he roared his triumph at the sky, then laughed and laughed.

He belatedly realized that he had a group of people watching him for signs of madness, and that his recent celebrations of being alive probably looked a great deal like a lunatic. He reached up to wipe away the tears the laughter had brought, and his hand caught on scabby, caked on lines of blood coming from his eyes. Double checking, he was relieved to see that the recent tears had been normal, and the blood was probably from that… nightmare. Oh hell, I must have looked like the poster child for mental stability, yelling and laughing at the sky while looking like I was crying tears of blood. He thought sarcastically, then found the dried blood crusted to his chin. Scratch that, covered in blood. It’s a wonder nobody shot me yet.

He sat down and started to work at getting the dried blood off of his face, and when he thought he was probably relatively presentable, he scooped up his robe and tugged it on before beckoning the others over. They slowly approached him, and he took the opportunity to tug on his shoes while he waited for them to get close enough to have a conversation without having to scream themselves hoarse.

He stood up as they got closer, and called out, “I made it! I’m-” he cut off mid shout at the strange vibration that accompanied his shout, making his voice sound subtly inhuman. He started to talk to himself at a more normal volume, seeing if it would happen anytime he spoke, “That was strange, no, it’s still happening. Can I stop it somehow? Now it stopped. Weird, why did it just stop as soon as I thought about it stopping?”

The others had stopped at his shout, and he belatedly realized that he was doing a wonderful impression of a madman again. “Sorry! Don’t know what that was, but it stopped!” he called to them cheerfully. They started to approach slowly again, the guards and Owdel seemed rather on edge, while Sarah looked worried. When he made eye contact with his mother his heart ached at the tears on her face, but she smiled fiercely and broke out into a run in his direction. It took every bit of his willpower to not run and meet her halfway, but with everyone so on edge, he knew that if he suddenly ran at them they would probably shoot him. The last thing he wanted after surviving that ordeal was to get riddled with arrows right after it.

When she got to him she wrapped him in a fierce hug, which he returned with gusto. She was crying into his shoulder, and he found himself blinking away tears himself. “I thought I had lost you for a minute there.” She sobbed.

Sebastian’s tears fell, “You won’t ever lose me if I have a say in it.” He meant it too, it didn’t matter that she drove him insane at times, she was the only family he had left, and he would do everything in his power to make sure both of them survived. They had lost too much already. Then she let go of him, and reached up to grab his chin, turning his face in different directions and inspecting it.

She snorted, “At least you managed to keep your face mostly clear, but with eyes like that you are going to be beating the girls off with a stick.”

And just like that she’s back. He started to complain, but it seemed that their little moment had confirmed that he had made it to the others, and as he was opening his mouth he was suddenly staggering back as Sarah hit him with a hug that seemed more like a flying tackle to him. She couldn’t seem to say anything, she just sobbed gently for a bit, eventually managing to get out a quiet, “I’m so happy you didn’t die.”

Sebastian looked at his mother who had her hand covering her mouth and a smile in her eyes. He rolled his eyes, and said, “You wouldn’t happen to have a stick I can borrow, would you?” That pushed her over the edge and she started laughing.

Owdel and the guards finally made it to them, and Sarah let go of Sebastian. “Well boy, congratulations, you are alive. Feel up to trying a bit of magic? See if it will let it through now that you look like a child scribbled all over you?” Sebastian shrugged and stepped away from the others. He chanted his light spell briefly, not caring if it lasted long. He held out his hand, and watched as light flowed down the lines on his arm and into his palm, only to gather in the reddish circle, then rebound and scatter in iridescent waves of shimmering color across the pattern. He winced briefly when it hit his eyes and flooded his vision with a spray of color that vanished as quickly as it came.

“That is a definite no. Pretty sure if I tried much more than that, the colors would drive me nuts.” Sebastian looked around. They were still uncomfortably close to the forest, “Can we do this somewhere else? I would rather not get eaten by bears after surviving that hell.” He noticed that Sarah was staring at his face. “What? Did I miss some of the blood?”

She shook her head, “No, it’s just, it’s, when that wave of color went through your eyes… it was beautiful.”

Sebastian snorted, “And blinding. Don’t get used to it. For me it was like looking at chaos itself.”

They made their way back to town after Sebastian got his things from Owdel and Sarah, and claimed his bow back from George. As they walked he noticed George had positioned himself close to his mother and was talking animatedly with her. He shook his head, it was weird seeing her enjoy a man’s company after so many years, but it was her choice, and he wouldn’t stand in their way. He would only set George on fire if he hurt her.

He turned his focus to his bow, curiosity driving him to experiment, and when he fed a gentle stream of mana through the pattern into the bow, he felt it flow through the lines in his eyes with a strange tingle, and all of a sudden, he could see the pattern in the bow. He could instinctively feel the changes he would need to make to the pattern in order to add the effect he had thought of the other day when he had been toying with kinetic blades. He gave a shout of joy that surprised the rest of the group, and they all jumped back from him when he flooded the lines on his skin with mana, making the changes to the bow.

The pattern of lines on the bow flared to life, shining brightly as they shifted and flowed to into a new pattern, before dimming. Sebastian gasped for breath when it was over, feeling suddenly weak and tired. Changing the enchantment on the bow had used up most of the mana he had left. He couldn’t stop smiling though, and the others just shook their heads and turned to continue walking back to town. Except Sarah, she seemed to be less than pleased at his outburst and showy display of magic so soon after thinking he had died when he collapsed, then that he had survived but turned into a madman when he stood up and laughed at the sky. She rewarded his outburst with an elbow to the ribs.

She noticed his exhaustion though, and relented, stepping closer to him and letting him lean on her the rest of the way to town, “I’m still not happy with you for scaring me like that.” She said quietly, “But thank you for not leaving me, and for the necklace.” She touched the gently glowing stone briefly, “I forgot to say it last night.”

When they got back to town Sebastian did his best to ignore all of the people staring at him, Their group broke apart, the guards going towards the barracks to return to their normal duties, while his mother bid them farewell and went back to her home. Sebastian wanted to go to the tower and sleep off his exhaustion, but Owdel had other plans, “Got a meeting to go to boy, and the mayor, captain, and I are all going to need to know what you can contribute, particularly now that you have turned yourself into,” he gestured towards Sebastian, “whatever that is. Girl, go back to the tower for now and work on your studies, the better you are at using your magic, the better our chances of living through this mess.”

Sebastian was confused, “But I thought we are all evacuating?” He couldn’t see how being better at magic would matter while travelling with a bunch of heavily armed guards, realistically any magic at all being used in support of a contingent of guardsmen was pretty formidable.

Owdel shook his head, “Not here boy,” He glanced around then continued in a quiet voice, “suffice it to say that there are those amongst us that feel simply abandoning the town without making them bleed for it is unacceptable. Now let’s go see what we can add to the good captain’s plans, shall we?” He tromped off towards the town hall, waving for Sebastian to follow him.