Symphonic Odyssey
: Vol. Two: Beneath the Hawthorn Tree: Verse Ninety-One

Cypher was left in awe at the idea of the Guardians and the Divines, as well as the prospect of these powerful Relics they left behind. It made sense that the Order had started an entire war just to claim one of them, but he wondered what that had to do with him and his family. Why would they be after him? What connection did he have to events that happened thousands of years ago?

He doubted that Alvin could answer these questions, but if there were answers to be found, they might be waiting for him with his inheritance. Still, he asked Alvin about his ponderings anyway, “So what would the Order be after my family for? What purpose does capturing or killing me and my parents serve?”

Alvin poured himself another cup of tea and added a few sugar cubes to it before mixing them in, “That I don’t know. Perhaps this Order saw the power your parents possessed and sought to eliminate any obstacles that could stand in their way. Only they know the truth of the matter and obviously, they aren’t here to tell us anything. That said, there are equally powerful people in this world, and even some who are stronger I imagine, so that might just be speculation on my part.

“The machinations of the Order are vastly unknown outside of their penultimate goal, and as I said, they’re as taboo as the darker aspects of Retvial Magick,” Alvin said, grimacing as he mentioned those dark arts. “I’m also just a teacher here at the Academy, I’m not privy to such high-level knowledge. Although the Royals might have more insight into these matters, and to gain access to that, you’ll have to work your way up to the top of the chain if you want to know more than I’ve told you.”

Cypher nodded and made a mental note of that. It would be quite a long time before he was able to even think about getting information that way, but he was resolved to get to the bottom of this mystery. For now, his only lead was his inheritance and he needed to get to it as soon as he could.

“Alvin, I have another question for you if that’s alright,” he asked.

“Go ahead then,” Alvin replied with a dismissive wave of his hand, and Cypher shifted his position on the couch and tucked his leg underneath him.

“My mother mentioned that I have an inheritance waiting for me in Seven City. I was wondering if you could take me there soon. I believe that if there are answers to my questions, they might be there.

“I’m still not back in actual classes yet, so now would be a perfect time to go and check things out. If I was, I doubt that I’d have the time to make a visit until the end of the year. But now, I figure since I don’t have to attend those classes, we could possibly make a trip there before our training ends.”

Alvin thought for a moment, and a smile crept across his face, “So you want to take advantage of this situation eh? Well, I can’t say I blame you. If I was in your shoes I’d probably do the same thing. I don’t see why not, we can continue your training along the way while we’re at it,” Alvin briefly thought back to his conversation with Sequinnen and chuckled in his mind at how accurately he had predicted Cypher’s reaction.

“We’ll set out tomorrow morning then. There’s no sense in delaying it as far as I can see. You’re right to be worried about the Order. If they’re coming after you it might be better to know why ahead of time. At least that way, if they capture you, you can try to prevent them from achieving their goals.”

Cypher smiled after Alvin agreed, but he was shocked at how suddenly he wanted to leave. Cypher had expected some resistance to the idea, but even if there hadn’t been he imagined that it would have been at least a few days before they left. Still, Alvin was right, there was no sense in putting it off.

“Make sure you pack enough supplies for a few days worth of traveling. We won’t be using the Slingates and so you should be ready to camp outside during our journey. I’ll also have Glenda bring you a weapon to use.”

“Not only will you need one for training, but these mountains can be dangerous. Speaking of which, I saw your pack and it’s in terrible shape, I’ll have a better one sent here tomorrow morning. It’ll be more spacious than your current one so expect that sometime after sunrise,” Alvin said as he stood up to leave, drinking the rest of his tea in a single gulp.

Cypher nodded and saw Alvin out, making sure to lock the door after he closed it. Cypher was excited to get a good look at the things his parents had left for him. In his mind, it could be anything. They were renowned Conductors after all, who knows what kinds of treasures they had collected during their journey to the higher ranks.

The next morning he had woken up before dawn and completed his morning routine. During his time with the Architect’s Draft he had incorporated it into that workout, but this morning he chose not to expend the mental energy despite the boost his mother’s message had given him. If he was going into the wilderness of the mountains, he might need it.

He didn’t think that anything too powerful would be waiting, the Academy was in these mountains after all and anything above the third rank might pose a threat to the young students. It was likely that between the headmaster and the elders they had exterminated most of the bigger threats in the fourth rank.

On top of that, he would have Glenda and Alvin with him. The two of them could handle just about anything that came their way. That said, they might decide to have him fight instead as a form of training and he wanted to be at his peak if that were the case.

Alvin was true to his word and Velruud had arrived at his door shortly after the sun had risen to deliver his new pack. It was much nicer than his old one and was made of smooth black leather. The stitching on it was very well done and it even had a few pockets on the side for smaller items.

He wasn’t surprised that it was such a nice pack, its cost was of course covered by his contract. The real surprise came when he opened it up and looked inside. Unlike his old pack, this one had an abnormal amount of space, so much so that Cypher had to examine the outside relative to the inside. He pushed his arm inside and kept pushing it deeper trying to hit the bottom.

The pack was no larger than his old one, and that was barely larger enough to hold his leather armor. But with this one, Cypher found that he could fit his entire arm inside this new pack and still not even reach the bottom. Curiosity took hold of him, and he set the pack on its side on the floor. He then slid his legs into the opening and scooted himself inside.

He managed to slip his entire body into the pack and only his head remained outside. At that point, his feet finally touched the bottom, “What the hell? This is amazing!” he said as he tried to pull himself out, however, he found that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t budge an inch. Panic quickly set in and he tried to struggle his way out but to no avail. At that moment though, Alvin walked in the door. Upon seeing Cypher stuck in his own pack, he began laughing and walked closer to his foolish disciple.

“Well that isn’t something one sees every day,” he said with a laugh. He picked up the pack effortlessly and looked Cypher in his eyes. “It’s a good thing you didn’t try to fit your head inside too, you’ll replace that it’s quite impossible to breathe inside. I would have thought that you’d know better than to crawl inside a dimensional pocket, but I often forget that you are still foreign to such things,” he said, still laughing.

“Just get me out of here will you!” Cypher groaned, his face growing red with embarrassment, and Alvin only laughed harder as he set the pack back down on the floor.