Khalia said:
"Could not this 'Dragon's Eye' be used by a dragon as easily as anyone else? I would trust few of my own kind with an artifact that would offer control over humans; I would seek to destroy such a thing before someone yielded to the temptation to use it."
"That I cannot answer fully, because the item has existed only in legend and myth. No one fully knows what it was capable of, nor indeed how usable it was in form and function. But you needn't fear it, Miss ir'Indari... because if by some chance it would be used by one of us against our own kind, you young races would never hear of it. There is a reason why 99% of us do not walk the lands of Khorvaire... and no reason for any of us to come here even if one were to gain control of the artifact." He smiles at the young woman.
"Let us worry about protecting ourselves... we've been doing it for a lot longer than you have. But I thank you for your concern."
"Sir?" Cerrill Maise interrupts and turns to the Valenar.
"I believe he is coming around." The elf smiles and walks over to Jango, kneeling at the boy's head. He rolls the young man onto his left side, then places his hand on Jango's back right below his right shoulder. Jina, Khalia, and Ari all recognize it to be the location of his aberrant dragonmark. The group listens as Sur'Kil begins talking in low incantations... and their thoughts are drawn back to the battle below.
***
As more and more members of the Daggerspell Guardians and Silver Flame templars entered the large chamber, their eyes were drawn to three seperate things. One was the large influx of demons and creatures rising out of the various parts of the large seal in the floor... one was the silver dragon currently doing battle with them as they rose... and one was a poor elf boy having his skin being virtually ripped from his body by unseen hands.
The battles that commenced inside that chamber did not allow for much time for those engaged to observe the agonies the boy named Jango went through... but those that did not directly enter the melee were able to see fairly well what happened. Jango's skin in various places turned black and oozy... like he was covered in tar... and the tar tried pulling itself from from the boy's body. Tendrills of blackness would stretch out from him, and try to grasp any of the fiends that were climbing up from beneath the floor. Like a grey ooze attempting to envelop another victim, this "skin" of Jango's was looking for another host.
The cries of anguish from the elf were painful to hear. In the points where the blackened, oozy skin had pulled itself free, the skin underneath was red and bleeding... like your leg looks like when you fall down and scrape it badly. The boy was being flayed alive, and there wasn't anything that anyone could think of to do. Anyone, that is... except the silver dragon himself.
With the emerging threat able to be occupied by all the warriors that had rushed into the room... the dragon was able to turn his attention to the boy and his escaping fiend. He dropped with a hard landing right next to the boy, and began working the magic that is inherent in the draconic race. Magical energy sprang out from Sur'Kil and engulfed the second skin, making it scream out in... something? No one would really be able to tell. But it was the first time that anyone besides Jango had heard the voice of it. Thus, a tug of war began between it and the dragon, the skin grasping and attaching itself to an emerging dolgaunt and pulling itself free... the magical energies paralyzing it and slowly destroying it. Inch by excrutiating inch, more and more of Jango's skin was being ripped away, either latching onto the dolgaunt or sizzling into nothingness. And the boy's eyes searched and became locked on the dragon's, the pain and agony the elf was feeling connecting the two of them as the one tried to save the other.
The part of the ordeal that Jina Silversun will never forget and which will haunt her for the rest of her days... was when the skin below Jango's right shoulder... the skin that was adorned by his dragonmark... began pulling away... taking the mark with it. The moan that eminated from the bottom of Jango's gut as this mark... this thing that had caused him so much mental anguish throughout his life but was as much a part of him as anything he's ever known... grew in pitch and volume. The combination of fear, pain, and the realization that your very soul was being taken from you... made Jina turn away in tears. Her brother could sense that his identity was being stripped from him... and the noises he made as a result would echo in her mind forever.
It's been said that it's impossible to lose a dragonmark. If you change your shape, your new form still shows the mark. If you lose the limb that the mark was on, the mark reappears elsewhere on the body. Thus, Jina watched with fascination and horror as the black skin that pulled free began glowing with the soft blue pattern of his mark. And from underneath, there was nothing but a mass of bleeding red muscle... no intricate design to be seen.
The war between daelkyr and dragon continued unabated in the midst of the war between humanity and the fiends of Khyber. And the energies that both the daelkyr and the dragon put in to try and bring this war to a close... enveloped the elf boy between them. And when the very last shot of Sur'Kil's arcane power shocked the creature completely free of Jango and sent it sprawling back into the hole beneath the seal... the boy collapsed at once. Bleeding... skinless... dying.
***
And yet... somehow he survived.
Whether the strength of his own soul, or the extra strength that the silver dragon gave him... he hung on long enough to be healed as best as the clerics could once the battle had ended. Eventually, the creatures were all killed or sent back into the pit... and once Sur'Kil was free following the destruction of the daelkyr's essence... he began reworking the magics his ancestors created and used millenia ago to reseal this opening.
And as those that survived the war made their way back to the surface... Sur'Kil, the Exorcist Cerril Maise, Khalia ir'Indari, and Jina Silversun took the boy back to the dragonmarked chamber and began the process of healing him, body, mind, and soul.
***
"Jango? Jango, can you hear me?" Sur'Kil speaks softly, while the others in the room watch on. "I have need of you Jango... I need your help. Can you hear me?" The sound of mumbling from the prone figure is heard once again, and the Valenar happily leans over closer to his ear.
"You wanted answers, my boy... answers about who you are... what this all means. I have those answers for you, Jango. The Prophecy has told me the answers. It told me that you were coming... and that you would help me."
The mumbling of Jango grows a bit louder and more coherent, as though he is speaking Common while still half-asleep. No one can really make out what he is saying, but Sur'Kil understands and speaks to him still.
"The marks are all a part of The Prophecy. Whether Aberrant or True. And in the Prophecy I learned that the boy who would lose one would regain another in my service. As my prophet. To assist me in learning even more about the Prophecy and all that it entails. So rise, young man. I have need of you to join these fine folks on an adventure."
Jango finally comes around fully, and Sur'Kil gently raises him up to sitting. Through the actions of all the healers, his skin has regrown and he looks no worse for wear... no different than he did before.
Except... his back. Right beneath his right shoulder. The place where his aberrant mark had been... no longer holds the mark. The mark is gone. It's been... replaced? Khalia immediately recognizes the design that is now on his back as a picture of the constellation Io. But what this means, she does not know.
Jango turns and looks at the Valenar... looks at the dragon who saved his soul. And for those in the room who knew of him previous... his twin sister Jina especially... his face shows something that he never had in the past. Contentment.
"I will help you, Sur'Kil. For I am your prophet and give myself to you. And I will help you as you have helped me." the elf says, his smile wide and happy.
