As Jango begins describing the trials the group went through to try and find the Eye, Sur'Kil nods with interest. Nothing seems to surprise the disguised dragon, not even the mention of the door Jango couldn't see (presumably because he just experienced the same thing). When the elf mentions that one of the relics was missing and that the circular depression on the slab was empty, he sighs heavily... as though this was something he was hoping to avoid, but is not surprised is true.
"It sounds as though whomever it was that got into the chamber first was only able to grab one of the artifacts and the Dragon's Eye before they were driven away. Most likely a guardian of the chamber was there to protect the Eye, and when it was grabbed the guardian might have shortened the thieve's time in the chamber."
When Jango presents the remaining two relics, Sur'Kil reaches for them and inspects them, smiling happily at what he sees.
"Very nice pieces. Look to be quite powerful, more powerful than I was expecting. The two shards embedded within the items have dragonmark patterns within them, see?" He shows you the dark blue swirls within the crystals that might very well be dragonmarks.
"I had said in my correspondance I'd pay you one thousand gold for each of them... but if these are as powerful as I believe, I'll raise it to 1500 each. That will be 500 gold for each of you."
With that pleasant business out of the way... Jango and the rest begin speaking on the other major happening... the manifestation of four dragonmarks on previously unmarked people. When this is brought up,
this is what finally shocks the dragon into silence.
Jango said:
"I'm not the most knowledgeable about the marks, but she has a true mark and I had an aberant mark, which make no sense. Khalia too has a mark. And Donovan was unlikely too to manifest one."
Ari said:
"Rogan now exhibits the Orien mark."
Donovan said:
"Two true marks and two aberrants, all in the same day?"
Sur'Kil immediately asks to see each of these four new marks that have appeared and one by one each of them are shown. The dragon takes a long time to think about things as the conversation continues on about what happened, and finally he speaks.
"I do seem to recall in times past another incident of spontaneous dragonmark manifestation... however I'll need to do a bit more research on it to fully understand what had occured. As far as why two marks are True and two aren't... I would theorize that two of you must have some True blood within you somewhere up your ascendant line. This is obviously true in Jina's case... as Jango is proof of that. One does not ordinarily manifest an aberrant mark unless there are one or more types of True blood within the line that have gotten corrupted at some point.
The Silversun family must have a Philaran or Thurani family tie somewhere, which gave Jango his aberrant mark, and... due to what must be a large exposure to some sort of draconic magic... purified Jina's blood to produce the True mark of Shadow. I would imagine that had Jango still have had his mark, it might very well have changed to a True one. But his connection and disassociation with the Khyber fiend stripped that out of him, and it was my own magic that replaced it. But this exposure to dragon magic I would think would have done something additional to you, Jango... assuming you were also exposed. Maybe that is still to come or perhaps you weren't?"
He glances over at Rogan, Khalia, and Donovan.
"This same thing applies to the three of you. Rogan, you have royal blood within you... assuming of course ir'Tharvar is your real family name... and somewhere in your distant past a family member must have had a dalliance with an Orien. Khalia and Horatio... both of you must not have had any House family blood within your lines, which is why the draconic magic you were exposed to could only produce an aberrant mark.
The big question though... is when and where this exposure might have occured, and how many of you were there?"
Sur'Kil then glances at Ari... but says nothing.