The Eye of the Wyrm

A brisk and cool night with no moon, only the stars up above providing any natural lighting, a hint of chill floated in the air.

In a dark corner of a grand manor, an area dominated by lilac bushes, where the artificial glow of street lamps and residential lighting doesn’t reach, a man in his late thirties feels a formless sense of agitation rise up in him, it was rare for him to feel agitated like this anymore, as years of practicing a certain technique had given him a mental strength that would deeply surprise others if they knew. With a deep breath the man closed his eyes and imagined himself on a barren mountain staring up into a cold star filled sky.

With each passing moment the imagined weight of the cold starry sky bore down tyrannically in his mind, stamping out any unnecessary, agitated thoughts and reminding himself just how incredibly insignificant his own life and struggles were.

At some point in time, some ancient person had learned that they could use this vast celestial scenery to temper their own mental state, allowing them unprecedented focus during stressful times with just a little bit of practice. Not for the first time the man sent a silent thank you to whoever had come up with such an amazing technique.

Adam, the man in the dark lilac filled corner mentally walked through the technique in his mind, he pictured himself standing on the peak of a barren mountain and allowed the image of the starry sky to press down on his own mind, forcing him into a state of placid calm that was reflected in his eyes.

This technique was unheard of and one of the two things Adam always swore to himself that even if he were given the choice of revealing the technique or dying, he would choose death.

A lucky chance handed him this technique and, not taking his other secret into account, made him the person who he was today.

After the placid calm washed over him, Adam began to move. Out of the dark corner he made his way through this grouping of trees and approached a dark section of wall on the side of the house.

Three feet above his head sat an innocuous window three feet wide and two feet tall. Through information purchased at a sky high price from disgruntled ex-cleaning staff, Adam knew this window was for a cleaning closet and as such it wasn’t connected to any security devices.

Why wasn’t it connected?

It was actually a very simple answer. The room itself had no proper ventilation, it was a chemical closet, and as such there was a build up of smells and chemical fumes in the room. Forcing the staff to leave the small window cracked at all times and to disconnect it from the security system.

A very simple oversight in the grand scheme of things, but it was exactly this oversight that made this the perfect entry point for Adam. After he made his way in through the window, he left the small cleaning closet and made his way down a hall in absolute silence.

The owner of the manor was a well known lover of art and had dedicated an entire wing of his home to art that he found particularly special. Adam turned a corner and a devious smile grew on his face when he saw the room before him. The walls were lined with artwork, each piece worth more than its weight in gold, to the right people.

The center of the room held a collection of statues. Adam ignored them, he would never be able to get them out of this house without causing a ruckus, but the paintings were a different matter entirely.

Walking up the painting nearest him he flipped his hand and a small surgical knife appeared, seemingly from nowhere.

In fact it truly did come from nowhere. This was Adam's second and deepest secret and also the one that allowed him to be incredibly successful in his line of work.

Sometimes, a situation wouldn't go as planned and spiraled out of control. When that happened, most people just had to cope with the cards they were dealt, but not Adam.

He still remembered the first time it happened, he was just a child who stole a candy bar and got caught. In his fright he wished he could hide the candy bar so no one could find it.

With a silent poof, the candy bar disappeared from his hand.

The store clerk searched Adam but wasn't able to find the stolen candy bar and so was forced to let him off. From that incident Adam learned that he had a small space hidden somewhere in his left hand and he could place and remove items from it at will.

What an amazing ability; the space wasn't very large, only about a couple cubic feet, but still!

From then on Adam had a habit of hiding things in this small space. Which led him to where he was today.

A thief...‘allegedly’.

They called him the magician, because no one was ever able to prove his crimes. Circumstantial evidence always surrounding Adam.

Priceless things would go missing and Adam could be found near the scene. Alas, no one was ever able to pin the crime on him due to a lack of evidence.

As all these memories passed through his mind Adam's hand trembled. Taking a deep breath he forced himself to go through the steps of his calming technique. By the time Adam exhaled he was already back to a placid calm.

With quick, practiced steps Adam cut the painting from the frame and rolled it up, with the flick of his hand he placed the rolled up painting into the small space in his hand and moved on to the next painting hanging on the wall.

In less time than it takes to boil a pot of water Jerrek had already seized eight paintings and was about to begin work on the ninth when he suddenly heard a sound.

Like a string being plucked except he had never heard this sound from a stringed instrument before. It seemed to reverberate inside his head in a strange way. The sound immediately put Adam on edge, a cold sweat on his forehead, his previous placid calm shattered, he hadn’t expected anyone to be near him.

He wondered if it was a security guard who was making his rounds, but he had spent more than just a few hours and dollars to learn the route that the guards walked. He silently cursed in his mind at whichever asshole it was that had decided to deviate from their schedule.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Adam's face went from frustrated anxiety to placid calm and he walked through his technique one more time. Adam wondered at his own mental state, it had been many years since he had had to use the calming technique repeatedly but tonight he had already been forced to use it three times.

Adam felt agitated in a way he couldn’t explain. Over the years he had grown an acute sense for when something was about to go south. When this sense of agitation arose within him Adam stopped what he was doing decisively and turned to leave, wealth meant nothing if he couldn’t enjoy it and he had no desire to be caught trespassing in the middle of the night when a collection of paintings go missing, the trouble wasn’t worth it.

As Adam quietly slipped out of the room and headed towards the small closet to make his escape he saw a light at the end of the hallway in the direction he needed to go. With a placidly calm mind Adam quickly turned around and began a silent sprint back into the art gallery.

When he arrived he quickly headed to the far side of the art gallery where a small room was located, in all of Adams research he never found out the purpose of the room but he knew that if the person bearing the light in the hallway decided to search the art gallery then he would without a doubt be found.

Adam had no choice but to approach the small room. As his hand made contact with the rooms doorknob he heard that same strange sound, like a string being plucked. The sound pulled at his mind like a magnet and severed his train of thought. He stood there blankly with his hand on the door.

Why was he trying to get into this room? He spent a moment trying to remember, but he couldn’t, his mind was dominated by the sound of a plucked string and as soon as remembered that there was someone behind him and he had to escape the sound would appear again and shatter his forming thoughts.

In a trance, that he wasn’t even aware of, his hand found the door handle and pushed open the door. What greeted him were a pair of blazing green eyes, filled with a cold detachment that caused his heart to shutter.

A moment later he came back to himself, realizing the green detached eyes were part of a mural that was on the opposite wall. It depicted a giant serpent like being in the process of devouring what appeared to be a planet.

At the end of the room, under the mural, was a wooden table with a single item on it. The entire room was dedicated to this item and the mural on the wall. The item appeared to be a giant green gem of some kind that looked like an eye.

While gazing at the gem he heard that strange sound again and knew instinctively that the sound came from the gem, despite the fact that he had never encountered anything like this before.

The sound was beautiful, all encompassing. It filled him with a warmth that he wasn't sure he had ever known before. It made him feel like he had just slipped into a hot bath and all his troubles and stress had melted away with the heat. After an unknown amount of time passed in which Adam just stared dumbly at the gem, he found himself slowly walking towards it.

Suddenly, and without a sound, a sharp pain shot through his back. In shock, he whipped around to see a man staring at him with a ferocious look while holding a knife covered in blood. Who the hell was this man? Adam had no clue.

He couldn't believe that he had been so distracted with the gem that he had allowed someone to get so close to him, in a moment of realization everything came crashing home. He was trying to hide from the person in the hallway, but here he stood with the door to this small room wide open and had made no attempt to hide, he couldn’t justify his own actions.

Fear shot through Adam and his instincts kicked in, keeping him from freezing in panic. The person spit out unrecognizable words at Adam and with madness in his eyes he ran towards Adam with a knife dripping blood held overhead and slashed at Adam

Moving backwards to get some space between his assailant and himself, Adam bumped into the table as he used his hands to catch the arms of the assailant and keep himself from being stabbed again. They struggled for a while in a stalemate before Adam was able to shove the man away from him. Adrenaline and fear pumped through Adam’s veins and dulled the intense throb he felt on his upper back. He knew he was in trouble.

In this incredibly dangerous moment his combat training should have kicked in, but instead his left hand reached behind him and he grabbed at the gem.

Without another thought he swung his arm forward as he threw himself at the assailant. One swift hit across the head was all it took and the man crumpled to the ground, but Adam didn't stop there, he couldn't, falling to his knees a bloody haze took control of his mind. He continued to swing the gem into the attacker’s already crushed skull.

After several more swings his arm was heavy, his breathing labored. He forced himself to stand and step away from the mutilated corpse. Stumbling backwards, Adam leaned against the mural and slowly slid down the wall, a trail of blood marked his path downwards.

He began to feel cold, his breathing extremely labored, the world was beginning to narrow. These things should have alarmed him; instead, all that was left of his attention was focused on the gem in his left hand and the beautiful sound echoing inside his mind as stillness took him.