Drip, Drip, Drip. . .
Familiar sounds echoed around Cypher as his senses began to return. His body was stiff and every muscle was filled with pain as he lay still on the ground. With his eyes closed, his mind began to pull itself from the hazy void that had encompassed it for the last…
Well, Cypher wasn’t quite sure how long he had been lying there. Every part of his body was in pain, but nothing hurt more than his Orrium. He instinctively reached for the spot around his navel. He could feel a large amount of raw power surging around inside it.
It was a new sensation, one he wasn’t quite used to. It felt as though a heavy iron orb was whirling around inside his guts, pulsing, and radiating energy. In a way it was comforting, but it was also terrifying in its own way. Despite the presence of such power, the organ still hurt from being overused, and also from advancing to the plasma stage.
Drip, Drip, Drip. . .
But why was he in such pain? What had happened to bring him to this point? How did he reach the plasma stage and gain this much power? Why did his body feel like it was on fire? Why was his mind so foggy?
Drip, Drip, Drip. . .
The sound of dripping water echoed around him again and his mind focused on that to the exclusion of all else. It was annoying and quite loud. Also, why was it echoing? There’s no way that the warehouse would be able to cause such an echo. The warehouse…
A whirl of images, emotions, and memories flooded back to Cypher then. As soon as it was over, his eyes shot open and he quickly sat up. “Melodi! Alex!!” he screamed as his body rose from the cold stone of the floor.
No response came and he called out to them again. Once more, only the echo of his own voice and the sound of dripping water could be heard. They weren’t here. But, where was here, and where were they? Nothing made sense as he tried to piece the chain of events together. For a moment, Cypher worried that he had been captured by the Order of Eternal Night and now resided inside one of their dungeons somewhere in the world.
That hypothesis soon fell apart, however, as he still had all of his equipment and weapons. Even his Zight remained intact and unbound by wards or other mechanisms to keep him compliant. If he had been captured, they would have at least disabled that much. Cypher reached around his waist. The Ark Cradle was still there, but the armor must have been deactivated while he was unconscious.
His dimensional pocket rings were still in place, and nothing had been taken from them. No, he hadn’t been captured but something else had happened instead. This was not the warehouse, and Cypher quickly got to his feet to look around and find out exactly where ‘here’ was.
The area he found himself in was pitch black and smelled moist and damp. A cave? Cypher’s thoughts continued to swirl aimlessly inside his head as he felt his way along the cave wall. His fingers scraped against it, the jagged edges threatening to tear into his skin with every step. However, along with his powerful new Orrium, he had a rank-two body now and it would take more than that to damage him.
Cypher walked for a few minutes in silence. There was nobody to talk to right now, and his thoughts needed to be worked through anyway. He took his time feeling his way through the cave. He even expanded his mental energy in order to explore a little bit better.
Only more cave walls greeted his investigations. However, in the distance, a small point of light glowed brightly. “That’s either the way out of here, or it’s a trap,” Cypher said aloud to himself. A sudden cackle to the left startled him, and he jumped back and pulled forth his weapon in response.
The blade gave off a faint glow as he held it aloft, and at its tip, Cypher could just barely make out the image of an old man. “Who goes there?” asked Cypher as he held his weapon ready. The old man wiped his nose on the sleeve of his shabby robes and stood up from the ground where he had been crouching.
With a snap of his fingers, the old man smiled as an orb of light appeared and illuminated the room even better than the glow of Cypher’s saber. Cypher could see that his cloak, boots, and clothes were torn and faded as if he had been there for a long time. The wrinkles on his face looked withered and his long grey beard shone lightly in the glow of the orb.
“Who are you?” asked Cypher. Cypher held out his arm firmly, and the tip of his blade remained pointed at the old man. Even if he looked like he was old, one could never be truly sure in this world of Conductors. Dropping his guard now would be foolish and so, Cypher remained vigilant.
“Who I am isn’t what’s important right now,” began the old man. “The question you should be asking is, what you are doing here.” The old man took a timid step towards Cypher, but Cypher only backed away a step in response.
The man didn’t read like a Conductor. He carried no traces of a Conductor’s Zight, and certainly, no mental waves bombarded Cypher’s mind either when he used his own to examine the old man before him. Still, the man’s hands were calloused and worn. Cypher could easily deduce that the old man had wielded a weapon in the past quite a lot from just that observation.
The sudden advancement was bothersome to Cypher, and he shouted, “Woah! Wait! Don’t come any closer or I’ll-” the old man cackled again.
“Or you’ll what?” replied the old man. “Kill an old man trying to help you? Please, you don’t have it in you to do that. Stay your blade Cypher, I am not your enemy.” Cypher’s eyes widened when he heard his own name. It wasn’t like he wore a nametag so how did this guy know who he was? Cypher’s mind ran wild with possibilities.
“My name is Syntinnial Zynnen. For now, that’s all you need to know about me. But it is a pleasure to meet you at long last, Cypher Ceraunus, I’m glad you made it out in time! You will have many questions. Yes, that much I know, and I will do my best to answer properly. However, there are some questions you might have that I cannot answer just yet, so do keep that in mind.”
Cypher was even more confused now. He lowered his blade a bit and asked, “How do you know me?” He studied the old man carefully for a few moments, taking in as much about him as he could. Syntinnial paused and scratched his beard slowly.
“I… I will tell you. That I promise, but I can’t do that just yet.” he replied.
“Okay…” said Cypher. This was definitely strange, and the fact that the man wouldn’t divulge how he knew Cypher made him even more cautious. He decided to put that question on hold and try others. Cypher watched Syntinnial closely and when he made no attempt to move closer, his palms held outward, Cypher eased up a bit more.
“You said you would answer some of my questions right? Well, then you better get to answering. Where am I, and how did I get here?” Cypher thought it best to start with something simple.
Syntinnial smiled and pressed his hands on his hips. “You are currently in a cave near Dungor in the southern region of Farnor. As for how you got here, that I don’t know…” Syntinnial looked away as he finished speaking, but quickly turned back and offered a humble smile.
Cypher raised an eyebrow in suspicion. The man was clearly lying about that last part, but Cypher decided to see how much information he could get out of him. A fight wasn’t exactly ideal right now. His body was still sore, and he worried about the condition of his Orrium. He needed time to adjust to his new level of power before engaging in another serious battle.
“Okay then, next question!” said Cypher.
