Symphonic Odyssey
: Vol. Two: Beneath the Hawthorn Tree: Verse One-Hundred and Eight

With his decision made, all that was left was to finish the exploration of his new home. Within the tutorial book, it had mentioned that the spiral staircase leads up into the master bedroom or down into the basement where the treasury was located. Cypher knew that his parents must have called that upper room their own and was eager to see it for himself.

He climbed the stairs slowly and held his breath as he reached a wooden doorway. On it was two initials cast in solid gold, “FS” and were intertwined in a flowing design. He pushed the door open slowly and looked inside.

The bed was still unmade and a pillow rested on the floor. Cypher smiled because he had a suspicion that his father had been responsible for that since Serenade seemed like quite the tidy person as far as he could tell.

He continued looking around and saw that a small closet stood half-open to his right, and to his left was another that was closed completely. Cypher opted for the closed door and upon opening it saw several dresses of cerulean blue hanging from the rack along with several pairs of boots, a few boxes of jewelry, and lastly, a small filing cabinet.

He took note of this and closed the door once more, before heading over to the other. Pushing it open, his eyes widened as he beheld a glittering saber with an emerald-colored blade. The hilt was black and had silvery steel wrapped around the handle. The crossguard was square and also made of the same silvery steel.

The sheath, which was leaned against the blade was a dark blue, and etched into the side in small flowing print was a name, ‘Resendael.’ He was in awe of its sheer beauty and realized that this weapon was also now technically his.

He reached out for his father’s saber and took it carefully from its resting place. It was light, deadly sharp and, he soon realized, radiated an aura so powerful he could barely maintain his grip. It was so powerful he couldn’t even guess what rank its power might be in and his hand grew numb as the weapon resisted his attempt to wield such strength at his level.

It slammed to the ground and Cypher yelped as it suddenly quadrupled in weight. As the seconds ticked by it only seemed to grow heavier and heavier and Cypher began to panic as his hand was caught between the hilt and the floor. The pain of such pressure quickly jolted up his arm and he let out another sharp cry.

The powerful aura of the weapon grew extremely intense and froze Cypher in place. Terror overtook him next, as the saber illuminated itself in a bright light that soon spread up Cypher’s arm and encompassed his entire body. The light flared up several times and he could do nothing but watch, his breathing had even stopped due to that overwhelming pressure and he started to blackout.

However, slowly that aura diminished in strength until it matched Cypher’s own power and he collapsed to the ground as the pressure vanished and he panted heavily in order to catch his breath.

Curiously, he tilted his head in confusion as the last of the force numbing his hand vanished, and the saber returned to a reasonable weight. He stood back up and swung it a few times to replace that it was like any other weapon he had used in the past, but its aura matched his own perfectly. He was about to question this when another glint of light caught his eye.

He quickly sheathed the saber and tucked it under his arm as he moved forward toward this new curiosity of his father’s. As he looked on, he saw his father’s Ark resting upon the pedestal the sword had been leaning against.

It was definitely an Ark, but it looked a lot different from the one Cypher had. Indeed, it was almost a completely different item from the looks of it, but there was no mistaking that design. It was much more extravagant than Cypher’s own Ark and had smooth grooves on the sides that indicated that it could be locked into place inside something.

What that was he had no idea, but as he flipped it over to the back, he noticed a small indentation that looked like it could fit some kind of gem or crystal. Cypher ran his fingers around that indentation and his mind began racing at the possibilities of what this Ark was for.

This was strange and he wondered if Arks were made differently back when his father had first received his, or if it was some kind of experiment his father had been conducting. He returned the Ark to its place on top of the pedestal where he found it and replaced the saber as well. These things might belong to him now, but he wasn’t quite ready to take up the equipment his father had once used.

He would need time to process all of this, and before any of that, he had a task to attend to. Cypher glanced at the saber once more and closed the door, before heading back down the staircase and into the basement. Once inside, he reached a vault door and input the combination he had found within the guide into the complex locking mechanism.

It shuddered and the massive door swung open. Inside a brilliant golden light entered his view and a small mountain of stacked coins sat waiting for him. Not only did he replace a stack of coins, but there were also many assorted gems and rare ingots scattered about the place.

It was an impressive sight and Cypher had never seen so much wealth, but he wasn’t particularly interested in the money and only completed the task he came to accomplish. Cypher grabbed a couple of bags and stuffed as many coins into them as he could.

It was easily a few hundred and he placed the bag into his tattered pack and left the vault, the door swinging shut behind him. After returning to the living room he smiled at his new companion who to Cypher’s surprise had almost finished eating the bone.

He issued a command to his new puppy and told it to stay here. He had pulled a chunk of salted meat from within the tattered remains of his pack and threw it to the pup while he spoke and it sent its understanding through their mental link along with its own curiosity as it began to devour the chunk happily.

Cypher then turned, headed through the doors, and started climbing up the ladder leading above ground. Once back on the surface, the pedestal the statue rested upon descended back into the ground and hid the entrance. A small blue gem fell from the open mouth of the Ceraunus and landed in Cypher’s palm.

He noticed that a small slot had opened at the base of the statue near one of the paws and he nodded, realizing that this must act as some kind of key. He then headed towards the Market district where Alvin had suggested they meet back up. Cypher walked slowly and thought about the kindness Alvin had shown him over these last few months.

Before, he had been hard-pressed in thinking of a way to repay Alvin for everything he had done. It was always on the top of his list and he regretted that he was unable to do anything about that. But now that he was basically as wealthy as a lesser noble family, he had money to burn and Alvin would be the first recipient of that newfound wealth.

Cypher arrived in the middle of the Market District near the Adventurer’s Guild. Glenda was already waiting there, as well as Mells, and Victoria. Alvin and the others, however, took until just before sunset, and upon regrouping they all shared their exploration stories, with Cypher going last.

As he finished explaining how he had found the inheritance, the others all looked at him with approving expressions on their faces. In their minds, it was only right that the heir to such an inheritance would be the one to replace it.

“Well, I’m glad this trip wasn’t for nothing after all. We’ll make our return journey to the Academy tomorrow morning,” began Alvin, “tonight, we’ll set ourselves up in a nice inn and enjoy ourselves. Err, I do hope that you all brought your own funds though because I fear I don’t have enough on me to cover us all.”