The eye of the beholder.

John walked nonchalantly in the hallway, he had changed his shoes to his fighting gear ones to get a better reaction time and tried to look like a normal student going to class while scanning his environment to locate the person seeing him.

"There's no one in sight, why does it say I am watched? This makes no sense. Someone invisible perhaps? No, this would make me paranoid just thinking about it. What the fuck is that...." he thought while walking.

There was something stuck on a wall in clear view of everyone passing by, but it seemed not to have been noticed by staff nor students. A small wooden circle with a bright red eye carved on it, either crying or bleeding (the red tear drops could be seen as each.). The item was looking strange, he could see it but it looked like it was not totally there. Could it be invisible to people who don't have magic or did his high lvl with Observe reveal it to him?

Looking at it closely he saw what it was.

Eye of the beholder : glyph, active
This magical charm allows its creator to see through it and observe the place it is set in. The charm is active while set in place but is only showing what it sees when the user pays attention to it.
Creator:????
Durability 200/200

John turned the corner, getting out of view from it. After checking he was clean via his indicator he decided that leaving this here would be too dangerous, who knew what it could do beyond watching.

He had to take a risk, he equipped his full battle gear with the new with mask on, making him difficult to identify if he might be seen.

Using a glass door to watch the hallway for any witness he jumped out from the corner, rolling down and casting two Darkness infused Magic Projectiles only looking at it for an instant to aim.

It didn't do much dmg, the target being a magical item, but the blinding effect did proc twice. In the few seconds he had John found himself near the glyph and pried it from the wall with the tip of his saber.

As soon as it fell to the ground it got inactive and John put it in his inventory to cut any link with the outside world. The description said it could be used by its creator, but even without being able to use it he could scrap it to get magic materials.

As soon as the glyph had been out of sight he switched back to his uniform and walked to his shop class. What followed might have taken him by surprise most of the time, but knowing something wasn't right made him more alert.

He slid down under the grabbing arm, moved behind the attacker, dodged the reflexive counter attack and managed to push his attacker on the wall for an instant.... Knowing that he had no way of dealing with what he was facing he jumped back the whole width of the hallway to get out of arms reach.

"You got better, Newman! You must have trained. But are you insane? Unleashing attack spells in the Academy. You know she is here and I told you there might be another evil mage in the school..." berated a really pissed off Moira.

"It was an emergency, who uses glyphs with the Eye of the beholder symbol on it? There was one on the wall in the hallway, I had to blind it to remove it." he asked.

"Wait, the Eye of... How do you even know this symbol? I thought you didn't have access to any magic books... This is worse than expected, the Cabal is there... You might have to leave school for a while, it is too dangerous." she said.

"And mark myself as the suspiciously absent student? No, I can't afford to miss a week of classes. I thought you were supposed to protect me from things like that. Having to flee for my life is not what I signed for." he reminded her.

"What did you do with the glyph? It might be dangerous." she asked, not reacting to his last statements.

"It's inactive and in my inventory. I intended to scrap it for magical materials." he replied.

"You should give it to me. We might be able to identify who set it." she said holding her hand out.

"In my recollection of our agreement you were supposed to compensate me for the artefacts you would want out of circulation. I doubt a spying glyph is qualified as evil and frankly magic components don't grow on trees. I saw the rates for stuff like that." he told her.

"Why do you always want to get so much stuff? What do you want this time?" she asked.

"My family didn't inherit a thousand year old fortune and I don't live in a Manor filled with unique artifacts. My parents were middle class and it is only because my dad is a talented engineer in a company with very good benefits that I can attend this school. It's not so much that I want a lot from you, it's that I don't want to give away the little I have for free. This item is useless to me, but its components might allow me to craft a nice item, or enhance my gear. So don't lecture me on being greedy, a better gear might save my life one day and the best way to protect me is to help me don't need your protection sooner. " he said to her, losing his temper.

"I... I didn't see it from that angle. I never had to purchase anything like that myself and even if I personally don't haveor need a lot of money, the Order has a lot of ressources." she explained. She looked lost in her thoughts and somewhat ashamed. (as far as he could read her face, as sexy as she was the redhead let little emotion show, except for a blissful face when exacting the righteous fury of the Lady on vile creatures.)

"I know, we have a bin with small items we recovered from rogue mages that were not powerful enough to use or evil enough to warrant destruction. This glyph is evidence of a dangerous enemy and I need it for the hunt. I will trade it for something from the bin. " she told him.

"From what I understand, this Cabal deals with cutting edge magical research, exotic materials and such. I would probably get something rare from this, I expect someone as rare or multiple items in exchange. Give me your word for that." he asked of her. She seemed hesitant but her honor wouldn't allow her to steal from him.

"I will provide you with an item of equal rarity or multiple ones of equal shared value, I swear it on the Lady and my honor. Did you make progress on the other thing?" she asked him.

"I'm pretty certain I will be able to make an exact permanent copy of the original key come next week, start thinking of what you will offer me for it." he told her.

"But I already gave you the gold!" she retorted.

"Which was the material required to make it, it didn't pay for the use of my unique skills, nor my discretion. And if you remember we talked of magic crystals and books too and I had to make do with my own ressources. As compensation I'd really like something associated with elemental essences, I have an use for it. Nothing evil, earth, water, wind, fire maybe something exotic. From where I see it this thing is invaluable to your order. I must look for my own interest, while helping yours. " he told her.

"I... I'll see what I can do. I realize that you are not part of us, I should get used to it. I lived too long with everything being offered to me. I might have something linked to the water element, will it do?" she told him.

"Water would be perfect, but I would have to see it first to be sure if it is enough. I will contact you about it. Did you get any problem with your toy? I will recharge it now, we wouldn't want it to fall dead during the weekend." he asked her. She looked very embarrassed but lifted her skirt in the front after looking around.

"It is working without issue now that it isn't overheating anymore. Thanks again for it." she said while he put his hand on her armored crotch.

He simply stole the vibrating egg from her and used his lightning mastery to spend mana, converting it into energy to recharge the battery. Once done he put it back in place.

"Here, done. It should hold till we get you out of this. You can keep it afterwards, for when you're on duty..." he said making her even more embarrassed. " Now if you please, I have a class to attend."

He walked away, not even looking at her. He wanted to get her sense of superiority out of her mind and make her consider his as a competent mage rather than a foolish kid.

It was now time to go to a class he once dreaded, but was now impatient to attend.