Open your eyes.

"We are all connected."

Everything fits, after a fashion. As Kai's words echoed in his thoughts, West considered his long time friend and partner. A Mastigos, fascinated by Destiny. An Acanthus, Master of Mind. A complementary team, devastatingly effective.

Yet, just as some people connect, because of similarities, so others do through disparities. One Master, to whom the Arcane was a way of life, warping the world around him, and preferring the intangible to the tangible. One Master, to whom the Arcane was surreal and less than the mundane, moving and living firmly in the physical. Yet they loved one another.

West studied the people and traffic, watching the eddies of Destiny, the connections made... connections severed. The man who dropped his cigarette -- would he miss the first taxi now? Only to take the second, which would run the light the first passed through easily, and be struck by a crossing vehicle? The mother, who stopped to buy her child a hot dog -- would she get home five minutes later now? Missing the burglar who would have killed them both?

Constantly in motion. Constantly changing. Butterfly wings. Yet... we are all connected.

Mana suffused him, as he opened his consciousness, and contemplated the seemingly random. It was warm, and purposeful. It reminded him of Ankh.

West remembered the bag from Dagwood's he was holding, and held his arm up to hail a taxi.

Despite his haircut, and better wardrobe, she hadn't managed to change that.