Another Heart: The Eye of Possibility

The sound of a quill on paper filled the otherwise silent room. The fact that no hand dictated its movement was unimportant to its job of writing. The quill had to write, therefore it did.

The sound of scratching on paper made the figure peering out of a telescope pause, he raised his head and glared over at the quill.

"Would you keep it down over there, I almost have it." He grumbled.

The quill paused before continuing at a much slower and delicate pace.

"Thank you. Now... where was I?" He murmured under his breath, turning back to the telescope.

The telescope would have been a simple one, a small construct of brass and glass… If it were not for the twelve lenses in front of the tube, acting as magnifiers and filters. The old man leant forward and slightly adjusted the angle of the brass tube, dials turning beneath his fingers.

"Now... where did you come from? Stars don't just appear and disappear." He muttered, stroking his beard as he leaned back in his pink chair with extra cushions. A cup hopped along the wooden table towards him, splashing steaming tea on the surface, a sugar bowl and a spoon following quickly behind it.

The spoon flipped into the bowl and began to shovel white cubes into the cup, one after the other, stopping at five.

"What are you grumbling about now, Merlin, you old know it all? Ugh... There's no day or night here, what time is it?" A voice from above his head asked.

Merlin raised one eye to the wooden birdhouse fixed to the wall surrounded by silent clocks, all set to different times and purposes, many more than mere timekeeping.

"In regards to where? To the broken plains? Morning. The Kingdom? Afternoon." Merlin said with a wave to the many clocks.

A brown head with large luminous eyes popped out of the round door of the bird house.

"In regards to here! I'm not in the broken plains, I'm not in the Kingdom, I'm here!" The bird spluttered as he exited his house and sat on his perch, feathers ruffled into an angry mess.

Merlin chuckled, the owl's annoyance chasing away his earlier thoughts.

"Archimedes, this place has politely excused itself from time's embrace. I could no more tell you what time it is here than tell you how to move a thumb." Merlin pointed out.

The Owl sniffed.

"If birds were meant to move thumbs, we'd have hands." Archimedes said and flapped his way down to the ledge of the window Merlin's telescope peered out of.

Sticking his face in front of the lenses made his yellow eyes fill the entire glass from Merlin's view point. Archimedes shuffled over to peer over the edge of the window.

"I hate it here, there's nothing. No rivers, no bushes, no wind and most of all, no fish." The Owl grumbled, looking out at the bleak dust strewn landscape all in shades of grey, cast in eternal night.

Merlin nodded, stopping when then entire telescope jumped with him. Looking down, the wizard sighed when he spotted his beard caught in the telescope's focusing dial, which he had been absentmindedly adjusting.

Archimedes ignored Merlin and hobbled around to look through the other end of the telescope.

"So... What's got your feathers in a snit today? I could hear you fuming from my house." Archimedes asked, his eye to the scope.

Merlin sighed, stroking his beard which was finally free.

"It's the reason we came here. Seriously Archimedes, you never listen." Merlin said reproachfully.

Archimedes waved him off.

"Uh-uh-uh-uh! I tried, and then you kept talking for another three hours and I fell asleep. Something about a star?" The owl said without a hint of shame.

"Yes, that's right. I'll try to keep it simple for you this time, old friend. I noticed there have been some odd... movements in the stars as of late. Like the stars were moving back and forth." Merlin began and Archimedes looked at him with a bored expression.

"Stars move. They do that, from what you told me. Is your mind finally leaving you?" Archimedes hooted with a laugh and Merlin shot him a dirty look.

"Not this star. The heavens keep moving around, trying to fix themselves around a single spot, a single star. So we came here for a better look." Merlin leaned forward and began to fiddle with the telescope again.

"What-what-what? A single star is making the entire sky act funny?" Archimedes asked incredulously as he puffed up his feathers before continuing.

"Never mind that, you could have looked at this star from anywhere, why did we have to come here?" The Owl asked, sinking his head into his body.

Merlin spoke slowly as he carefully moved one of the lenses.

"Because Archimedes, this tower is at the centre of the star ocean. Time, space, darkness, light and even magic can be seen with the tools here. But even with their help, I can't actually get a proper look at this blasted star. It's the shadow of a ghost living on the dark side of the moon, but... using the right combination of lenses should allow me to. Archimedes pass me the green lens from that shelf over there would you?" Merlin said, returning his eye to the telescope.

Archimedes turned and stared at the wall that held hundreds of pigeon holes filled with different piles of thin pieces of glass.

Every colour Archimedes had even seen seemed to glow out of each hole, reds, blues, yellows and everything in between, some which were green but glowed purple, others that were pink and sparkled like glitter, and in some holes there was a void of any colour at all.

Green could mean any of the holes that went up the right side for a mile, or ones that seemed to blink erratically near the middle.

"Hurry along now, I'll see if I can summon you something to eat when you get back." Merlin said without looking at Archimedes, not seeing the owls stunned look.

"G-green? Perhaps you like to be more specific, hm? Do you mean the one that flashes green every so often or the one that glows red but gives of a green shadow? Maybe it's the one that glows green in the dark, but when light shines on it, it turns pink? I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough, but there's a good chance I might be dead by then." Archimedes flapped his wings in a flurry.

Merlin paused and looked up.

"Archimedes, what on earth are you talking about? Right there, near the bottom." Merlin pointed and true to his word, on the very bottom row was a solid green glass circle.

"Oh, right." The Owl muttered and flew over to it, landing just before the square hole.

He gave a shudder as he picked it up in his beak. Flapping gently, he placed it on the table near the skulking tea set.

"Shoo! Go away you dusty bowls!" Archimedes waved at them and the sugar bowl paused before the spoon in its rim suddenly sprang forward, pelting the owl with a sugar cube.

Archimedes neck doubled in height as he stretched his wings out wide, there was a deep hoot, almost a honk which sent the tea party scuttling away to Merlin's bag, sitting in the middle of the room.

"You really need to stop bullying them, they're just doing their job." Merlin said, shooting a reproachful look at Archimedes.

The owl looked unrepentant.

"As am I." Archimedes said and with one claw, pushed the glass towards Merlin who picked it up delicately.

"Ah thank you. I'm hoping a lens of Fay magic might be able to help me see a little sideways. I'm getting a little desperate after two weeks." Merlin explained.

Archimedes scowled.

"Bah, the Fay are tricksters and con artists, the only thing they see is war, trouble and whatever amuses them." The owl grumbled.

Merlin gave a little chortle at that.

"Perhaps, but there are good ones, many in fact. Some of them are down-right dangerous and powerful, even more so than I." Merlin admitted, pulling out a red lens and fitting the green one into the empty slot in front of the telescope.

Peering through, the wizard focused on the rouge star and waited. Then he sat back suddenly and threw his hands up.

"Pointless! This is an exercise in futility, that star wants to stay lost? I say let it!" Merlin half shouted, with a wave of his hand a pipe shot out the bag flew to his open hand where it ignited on its own accord after he put it in his mouth.

White smoke puffed out in rings that floated upwards to the towers ceiling that could not be seen from its ground floor. And so Merlin sat there arms crossed, glaring at the telescope, puffing away.

Archimedes rolled his eyes and flew over to the telescope.

"So, all you've been doing is putting the lenses into those slots trying to make them show you the star for the last two weeks? Mad, absolutely mad..." Archimedes muttered.

Merlin's thunderous expression turned on him.

"If it's mad, then why don't you do it? Surely, an owl as smart and distinguished as yourself can solve this little conundrum." Merlin said peevishly, gesturing to the telescope.

Archimedes puffed himself up to full potential.

"I dare say I can! Now let's see..." Archimedes said as he pulled out every lens from the telescope. All of the lenses Merlin had been using turned out to be solid, gentle colours.

Then, without saying a word Archimedes flew off to the shelves, the air was unnaturally buoyant for his wings. Despite the lack of any currents, Archimedes had little trouble moving about.

Another oddity about this tower.

Reaching the shelves, the owl paused on the wooden ladder, turning his neck fully around, eyeing the pigeon holes.

When he landed, Merlin looked calmer, but only watched with raised eyebrows at the lenses Archimedes had brought back.

"Uh-uh-uh, not a word. I will solve this easy enough." The familiar said and Merlin tipped his hat a little, smiling at the lenses on the table.

He slid them in for Archimedes when he returned with more, one at time and leaned back. Looking interested

"Well, this is your choice, I think you should look first." Merlin suggested.

Archimedes nodded seriously.

The owl leaned in and put one eye to the telescope.

The sight was odd.

At first there was nothing. Then like a slow dawn, a light appeared, it began to fill in details of the universe, slowly.

"So why did you pick these lenses Archimedes?" Merlin's voice called from behind him and the owl went from foot to foot in anticipation.

"They glowed the brightest and with different colours, best to get them out the way first I would think." The owl said and then paused as the light washed over stars and space, except for a single round black hole, in the centre of the view.

Staring harder, Archimedes saw... something. In the dark circle there was a single point of light, it blinked erratically causing the darkness around it to pulse. Then something slid into place in front of the telescope, a thirteenth lens, held by Merlin.

The dark circle seem to bulge then imploded, the darkness fading away to reveal a green and blue marble, the owl had seen countless pictures and copies of it.

Earth.

"My, my, my... would you look at that. To think...all I had to do was stop thinking and look. I'm glad one of us was following their heart, eh Archimedes?" Merlin said wondrously.

Archimedes looked up to see him staring through another tube, seeing the same thing as Archimedes.

"What did you do? What lens is that?" Archimedes asked affronted that Merlin had succeeded before Archimedes even got started.

Merlin stared through the telescope a little longer and when he spoke his voice sounded distant.

"The twelve lenses that you chose. They are shards of very magical things. A Thundama jewel, the ice of the river Lethe, the tears of Tethys, the fire of Meteor, a slither of blessed Terra rock, the crystalized wind of Garuda, a fragment of the Lost Illusory crystal, the gift of Serendipity, I do like that one, the bent space-time from the well of a black hole, the blessing of Selene, the hardened nectar of the immortal Dahlia flowers, and the shell of a heart." Merlin explained and Archimedes wiped his wings on Merlin's chair.

"Of course they are. What about that one? The one you added? Looks... like a metal disk?" Archimedes asked and Merlin looked at it.

Stroking his beard the wizard hummed.

"The melted metal of a Keyblade." Merlin whispered.

Archimedes' neck ruffled.

"Keyblade? Oh, I h-hate those things, always causing trouble." Archimedes hooted angrily.

Merlin sighed.

"Indeed." He murmured and then looked around.

"It's time to go Archimedes, I found what we came here to look for." Merlin said and picked up a wooden cane from the side of the pink chair. With a few taps he raised the cane like a conductor and began to wave it.

Archimedes watched as the entire floor and its objects began to line up, shuffling to Merlin's taps. They all moved along towards Merlin's bag, which snapped opened as a table approached first.

Then the table shrank small enough to become a doll house table and quick vanished inside. The rest of Merlin's personal effects followed suit, including Archimedes' house.

Archimedes turned and stared at the empty space where the star was hiding.

Archimedes had a bad feeling about it and knowing Merlin, they would both be heading straight for it.

The owl sunk his head into his body and scowled.

If he didn't like the old fool so much he would have quit and left by now. Not... that anyone else would be acceptable. Archimedes was a bird of class and intelligence, finding someone to move in with so quickly would be bothersome. Best to stick with Merlin for now, he was promised food after all.

Merlin snapped his bag shut, and then held a hand out for Archimedes to land on.

"Well old friend, shall we go?" Merlin asked in an annoyingly good mood.

Archimedes shuffled slightly before sighing.

"Anywhere is better than here..."

Then Merlin spun and was gone.

Thus, both living inhabitants vanished from the Tower of the Eye and it's tiny, dust blown world.

A few seconds after they departed, the lenses softly floated out the telescope and back to their shelves, organizing themselves into neat rows and columns, every lens in its right and proper place.

Then odd scuff marks made by Merlin and Archimedes cleaned themselves up along with the single tea spot left on the table.

The few remaining papers formed neat piles and dust was whisked out the window.

Then all was right and silent again, for a time.

Just outside the window a star streaked past, its colour was black and soft red. It flew past the tower, almost hitting it. The star continued to the empty spot seen from the telescope, where it vanished into the tiny pin prick of light, to the Earth.

"Right... Anima... Love and grief. What did I expect? The flight was bumpy and the detestation is kind of weird." A voice said, footsteps loud on the plane glass platform. A being made of red and yellow energy walked out of the darkness and on to the platform. The shape and details kept shifting rapidly, making it hard to look at him.

The figure looked down and saw there was a girl painted on the stained glass platform, one with dark hair, pale skin, and glasses, who appeared to be sleeping. She didn't look like much, but then, not many of them did to begin with.

The Keyblade in her hand was promising though.

"But... can't be that far off by the looks of it." The flickering yellow figure mused.

The figure looked up and saw stairs appear, leading to another platform

"Bingo."

SECRET $I£%"E$£ REPORT 15

What irony. In my haste to escape my prison, I did not see that the path was leading me to another one.

I had the chance, It was within my reach and now...now I am buried here, trapped beneath this mockery of a light.

But regardless, the voice has finally went away, its endless calling was robbing me of my last will. This place might have a way out and the answer.

I must keep looking. For the darkness here soothes me, I cannot take it for my own, for this darkness, as it's light, are protected.

Beyond my meager abilities to overpower. That is fine, brute strength was never my forte.

Waiting, watching, and above all else, learning, that will be my key out of here.

But I have the strangest feeling, as if I am meeting a friend of a friend of a friend...

The chain of memories burns strong within me, and it rattles uneasily here.

I am no longer afraid, but at the same time...I am cautious.

Beneath this light I will linger, waiting for the day.

The day my prison breaks open.