Jon had power, more of it than most people could even dream of, but its applications were limited again by its confinement in his body. Better that than it being free for anyone to use, he thought, shuddering.
"Too right. That much power would be deadly in anyone's hands, wouldn't it?" a girl's voice spoke behind him, and he barely restrained himself from attacking; instead, the energies extending beyond his body were turned to sight, another pair of eyes formed in the air behind him. "Jon Merlin. If I'd told anyone just how apt that name would become, they'd have laughed at me."
A short girl with a messy shock of white hair and wolfish yellow eyes stood behind Jon, no more than fifteen, surely. As the stone-eyes materialized more completely, he saw that one of her eyes had a thin, almost imperceptible sheen; it was physically dead, but he saw a foreign spark of magic within it. The stone's energies were churning within him now, awakened by the eyes and begging to be used. So use them he did, to speak in a booming voice which would be far more impressive than his own after so many years. "Who are you?"
"Couldn't you just reach into my mind and find out?" she asked, a grin spreading across her flushed face. A brief rush of magic rushed through the stitched patterns in her white and gold robes, somehow austere despite the color scheme. Jon's real eyes narrowed as he pulled another strand of pure power from within him, shoving it past the stone-eyes and to the girl's head. She held up a hand, and a tattoo on her palm similar in design to her robe patterns flashed and disappeared, pulling his wave of force to her outstretched hand and ripping the power away from him. He barely noticed the power flow from her hand to the robe sleeve, setting the stitching alight with a pale fire, and as a roar of rage poured forth from his fragile throat, a tidal wave of pure destructive energy barreled toward her.
The last thing his stone-eyes saw before they were pulled into the maelstrom was the way she lifted her burning sleeve and disappeared with a minute flick of her hand, spreading the fire to cover her entire body in an instant and melt it into the air. His maelstrom found nothing, but it would not be denied, so with an unspoken wish he conjured a row of wooden chairs which exploded in turn, every single shattered piece simultaneously bursting harmlessly into a multicolored flame. Who the hell are you?! he screamed with his stone-voice, a cry which would be heard in wind and dreams across the country, and thought he heard laughter in return.
