Symphonic Odyssey
: Vol. Two: Beneath the Hawthorn Tree: Verse Seventy-Nine

The second day of training hadn’t gone much better than the first. Despite his best efforts and some trickery on his part, Cypher had been unable to land more than a single blow upon Glenda. That said, his ability to properly use his Zight Stanza was improving at a steady rate.

It was still difficult to get the muscle groups he was attacking with to reach 100% efficiency. At most he could only get it to around 70% and that was if he pushed all his focus into that action. However, doing so weakened the focus he had on his movements and Glenda was more than able to see those attacks coming.

Two entire weeks had to pass before Cypher was able to reach that 70% mark while still maintaining focus on his movements. In that time his workload had only increased. Alvin had stated that while it was important to get a grasp on controlling his power, it was equally important to maintain his studies.

To that end, Alvin had his assignments and a summary of each of his lessons sent to his room. It was a hassle for all those involved, but Cypher was more than willing to endure the intense training and study day and night.

Each day he would rise at dawn and head to the training field. After hours of difficult and life-threatening combat, he would return to his quarters and begin work on his lessons. He was also reading the Architect’s Draft each night, as well as employing the use of the Zight Vortex, which only served to exhaust him further. As he lay down to sleep each night, he was drained physically and mentally.

It was a lot all at once for a kid, but Cypher was diligent. He refused to let himself slack off and worked himself to the bone to make up for his shortcomings. He had made several mistakes in his time here at the Academy already and he was adamant about not repeating those.

He was far behind the other students in many aspects. His core knowledge was woefully lacking. Most students already had a basic understanding of things like the Zight Stanza, how spells worked, the history of Conductors, knowledge about the centers of power and how to improve them, and much more.

At this time last year, he was only a servant with some admirable sword skills and a terribly naive and childish view of the world. But now, he was learning things at a breakneck speed. He was growing and making up for the mistakes of ignorance. Looking back he could see all the mistakes he had made.

With Gelath and the bandits, he had stayed his hand when he should have been out for blood. Those men wouldn’t have hesitated to take his life and in turn, he shouldn’t have held back even a little.

With his journey to Gelrin Cliff, he had been all too eager to defer to Eiden’s idiotic notions that they could rush in and handle a Zightbeast pack without taking the proper precautions and it had nearly cost them their lives.

And now, with how he had seriously injured Alex with his wayward spell, he had been overconfident in his abilities when he had no proper understanding of how they worked or what they could do.

He still had a lot of doubts, but despite that, he was doubling down on every aspect of his training and instruction. He was doing more than simply following the course outline that Alvin had given him. He was looking into other things that he was ignorant of. A lot of things had escaped him in his youth.

The basic workings of the world had gone unnoticed while he had been busy reading fantasy stories that only fueled his imagination. It was true that they held some hard truths, but they were designed to entertain not inform. Common aspects of life were completely ignored by those tales and Cypher refused to replace himself left wanting when another dire situation arose.

Even as a Conductor, Cypher was still only a commoner. The law of the land was dictated by Nobles and above them the Royals. Dellorim was a kingdom, and as such, it was ruled by a single authoritative family. That power was spread out over the vast distance that the kingdom of Dellorim controlled and was split among twelve noble families.

Four of those families, as Cypher came to discover, were considered the elite of elites and known as the four High Noble families. Galex Galvan found himself among this caste and it was fortunate that Cypher grew up in such an affluent household. His life had not been one of ease, but in the low noble families, a servant would never have been allowed to train with an heir.

Those families were so greatly preoccupied with raising their own status that they were riddled with countless young masters and mistresses all vying for power. In those households, he would have been more likely to end up with a knife in his back than learning to wield a sword.

It was a cruel and ruthless race to the top of the power structure in the Kingdom of Dellorim, and this was just one of many lessons he learned about the world he lived in. He counted himself grateful that he had this chance to rise above his station and did his best to pick up on the various things he was missing.

Thus, as he poured over his massive workload and relegated the various lessons and tasks to different days he groaned in frustration. He was spreading himself too thin but at least his Conductor studies were where the brunt of his attention was focused.

With that training regimen set in place, he was able to focus on improving both his body and mind at the same time. He worried about his Orrium, but Alvin had stated that since he had so much Zight to begin with, that particular training could be put on hold. In fact, it would only assist in the process.

Training so heavily would put him under great strain. His mind especially would be pushed to its limits and that would help to increase his mental energy. With higher reserves of mental energy, he would be able to eventually compress the waters inside his Orrium and advance to the solid stage.

Thus, for those two weeks, he had been pushing himself harder than ever in an attempt to cover as much ground as possible. He had been lacking in his training of all three centers of power in his body, he had a lot of catching up to do. He noticed that ever since he had arrived at the academy, he had only attended a few classes in all that time. He was nearing his third month after all and that was not a good thing.

It didn’t even feel like he was attending an academy in his mind. Instead, it had been one thing after another, and it always came back to his personal power. He was lacking in proper instruction when it came to being a Conductor, but his abilities were well beyond what a first-year should have. It was an interesting conundrum, and he could only smile as he remembered how Molly had always insisted that he could go far if given the chance. He was eager to see just how far he could go without restraints.

During his training, Alvin had also kept him up to speed on Alex’s recovery. He was healing quite well and was even conscious now. He was in physical therapy to help restore his mobility after having a significant portion of his muscles destroyed by Cypher’s spell. His organs had fully recovered as well except for his heart which still suffered from occasional studders.

This news pleased Cypher and he pushed himself harder in an attempt to control himself better. He would never again allow such an incident to occur. His concerns on the matter that he kept within his Athenaeum had reintegrated with the rest of his consciousness, but he simply removed them again and placed them back on the shelf.

The time would come when he would be able to stop that process and deal with those issues, but it was not now, and he couldn’t foresee a time when it would be acceptable to allow those emotions and thoughts back into the fold. Like this, time continued to pass for him and before he knew it, another week had gone by marking his third month at the academy.

Of course, there was no celebration to be had for such a mundane event. He did, however, praise himself for how easily his lessons were coming to him. In every class he had signed up for, he was getting passing grades and his knowledge increased alongside the expansion of his Athenaeum.

The two seemed to be linked and after questioning Alvin about it, the man had only confirmed his suspicions. Learning more could only help in the assembly of a stronger and more expansive mental space, which would speed up the process even more when coupled with the Architect’s Draft.

Everything was falling into place as he put every ounce of effort into his lessons as he could. Even his battles with Glenda were starting to go well. At this point, he was beginning to understand how her attack patterns worked. He was starting to understand his opponent, and with that understanding came possibilities to get the better of her.

He could consistently land two strikes against her, a fact that was starting to annoy her. However, while she was indeed trying to kill him, she was limiting herself to a level just above his own in order to not completely overwhelm him in an instant. That said, she didn’t limit the rank of her body, she was well aware of the fact that Cypher was full of surprises and refused to risk serious injury to herself.

Cypher was fine with this as it meant he could get the experience he desperately needed. Alvin had not abandoned his own training with Cypher either. Twice a week he and Cypher would focus exclusively on his Magickal prowess, and at their current stage, Cypher could almost fully control himself when it came to casting spells.

He could determine how much Zight would be used each time he cast a spell with increasing accuracy and his success made him feel better about the incident with Alex, although he still had not forgiven himself for those injuries. He wondered to himself if Alex would do what he could not, and forgive him.

In any event, the inevitable happened one day towards the end of the fourth week. It had started as all the previous days had, however, on this day, Cypher finally managed to land that third and final blow on Glenda. It was a rapid strike just like the first one he had landed on her and she could do nothing but stand with her mouth open in astonishment.

She wasn’t the type to coddle her students and her abrasive personality would never have allowed her to let him hit her on purpose. Cypher had shouted triumphantly as he turned to face her, a drop of her own blood dripping from the tip of his sword.

“So, you’ve finally managed to do it, nicely done boy! Be proud of yourself because I will never allow that to happen again. I hope you’re ready for this next bit because it’s even more difficult than the first part,” Glenda had said, a tone of agitation in her voice as she praised her student.

Cypher could only smile widely at his accomplishment, sweat dripped from his brow and his arms were tired and sluggish from hours of constant life-risking combat, but he had done it at long last. He turned to Alvin who sat in his usual spot beneath the tree sipping his tea and grading other students’ assignments. The tree had returned to normal during that first day, but a thin line of bark was still missing from where Glenda had severed it in half.

Alvin clapped as he stood up and moved towards the two. Cypher began to head in his direction, but before he could even take two steps, his vision flickered and went black. When it returned he was lying face down in the dirt and he struggled to stand up.

“What the…?”

He quickly discovered that he had no strength in his limbs and his whole body felt like it was shutting down.

A jolt of fear washed over him as he wondered if he was dying, but Alvin and Glenda had already rushed to his side. Alvin began to heal him with a quick chant and Glenda picked him up and helped him over to the seat beneath the tree.

As he slumped into the chair though, his vision flickered once again and darkness took him. ‘What the hell is happening to me?’ Was all he could think before he passed out.