Cypher woke up sore and swollen in some places after his training with Elaine the previous day. It was truly a ruthless routine that had lasted all morning and well into the night. But overall, he couldn’t complain. He had learned a few new tricks, and he was pleased with the end result despite his pained body.
That said, he still didn’t get much sleep, just as she had promised. He had even explained that he needed to visit Alvin the next day, but she still never let up. That’s why, today, as he dragged himself towards Alvin’s office in the Academy, he felt so exhausted.
His original plan was to sleep in a bit, then wake up a couple of hours before noon. However, Elaine wasn’t having it. She had instructed him to show up an hour after dawn for some “light” training. That had been complete bullshit.
It felt as if he had trained twice as long as the previous day, but in actuality, Elaine had just forced him to perform twice as hard. After that, she had healed his wounds but refused to resupply his physical energy.
That had bothered him, and at first, he thought of using his Zight to do that. However, he was heading over to Alvin’s to put on that strange belt. If it was anything like last time, he would need every ounce of Zight he could get.
The belt had sapped his entire supply last time, and he was not eager for that to happen again, even if his life wasn’t in danger. With that in mind, he decided against it and only bowed to Elaine before heading to Alvin’s. Of course, he still had to use a little bit to give him the strength to move, and his Ark had refilled his Orrium after that.
Just before noon, Cypher arrived at Alvin’s office and reached to knock on the door. However, it flew open, and an excited Alvin greeted him. “Welcome! Welcome! Thanks so much for coming. I really do appreciate it!” he said.
His eyes shone with a lust for knowledge as he eagerly awaited the chance to gain more information about the belt. Cypher walked in and nodded, too tired to return an enthusiastic greeting. “I see Elaine has been putting you through the wringer. Sorry, you had to come after one of her training sessions. I didn’t expect her to start you so soon.” noted Alvin.
“Oh, so you knew she’d train me then? Nice, thanks for the warning. Oh, and by the way, why the hell didn’t you tell me she was such a mean bitch? OR that she was my Godmother?! That would have been helpful information going into it! I expected her to be somewhat formal after our encounter in Sanctum!” shouted Cypher. He was still annoyed that Alvin had let him walk into that trap.
“Sorry… I just knew that if I did tell you about how she was you would have been more upset with her… honesty. As for the Godmother thing… well that was something for her to spill the beans on not me. It was already hard enough for me to let you in on our relationship. I didn’t think she’d be so forthcoming about her own connection to you.
“For that, I apologize. The promises we made to your parents were what feels like a lifetime ago. Couple that with the secrets we’re bound to maintain and things can get a little complicated. I will say though that it’s pretty funny you woke her up so early in the morning. I didn’t expect you to go so early, Cypher. I always at least wait until she’s had her coffee before I try to call on her.” replied Alvin.
“What? Is everyone just keeping an eye on me now? How did you know that?” Cypher asked. His frustration was quickly getting the better of him since he was so tired. He just wanted to go home and sleep.
“Eh, because Elaine contacted me and told me,” began Alvin. “She also mentioned that you’re not allowed to heal yourself or restore your energy after you leave. Something about it being part of your training… Of course, I told her that you might need to restore your Orrium and why. After that, she said you could, but only if you made it back to the training spot before the sun went down.”
Cypher sighed. It looked like it would be another long evening of nonstop training, and Cypher didn’t know if he could power through it. Still, he had already agreed to her conditions, and turning back now would only make him disappointed in himself. As much as he adored Alvin, he was getting tired of all these secrets coming out of nowhere, and he wondered how many more waited for him.
“So, we should probably get started! It doesn’t look like we’ll have as much time as I had hoped,” said Alvin. He quickly locked the door behind Cypher and pulled him further into his office. They walked through a side door and into a large room. Inside were lots of various artifacts and scrolls. Books also sat everywhere there was open space, and some had even toppled over into small piles.
“Sorry about the mess,” said Alvin as he retrieved the belt from within a large safe. “I’ve been meaning to clean up in here, but sadly, I have been too absorbed with this thing,” he finished, and the belt made a heavy metallic noise as he moved it around.
He handed it to Cypher, and he admired it for a moment. It was still just as beautiful as when he had first laid eyes on it, and the feeling that it was calling out to him came back in an instant. Cypher shuddered at that feeling, but he ignored it.
“Don’t worry too much. I have prepared a stockpile of gems filled with Zight in case you need them! You won’t die here Cypher, that much I promise you!” Alvin was standing next to a chest of various gems, patting the side affectionately. Cypher trusted him, but still, it wasn’t easy to just proceed.
He hesitated as he held the plate inches from his waist. In truth, he was anxious about how much Zight it would take from him. Last time, it had been a large amount, but he was under a lot of stress at that time. He couldn’t accurately gauge how much it would pull from him.
Still, he pressed on and slapped the plate against his waist. This was no time to back out. The drain was almost instant as the iridescent belt appeared around his waist and secured the plate to his body. It made a loud click as it finished, and Cypher saw his Orrium draining rapidly.
The drain continued until Cypher’s Orrium was just below a quarter full. He had only around 22% of his Zight remaining, and he lamented the fact that it had taken even more than last time. He dropped to one knee as the drain finished, and he let out heavy breaths.
He had already been exhausted, but with this drain, he was even worse off now. It was surprising that it was able to drain so much Zight from him given his massive reserves. But that only served to worry him even more. What would have happened to someone without as much Zight as he possessed?
Alvin handed him one of the gems and Cypher took it happily. He focused on the glittering stone in his hand and pulled all the energy from it into his Orrium.
However, that too was quickly expended and his Zight dropped down to 21% and the belt began to glow a bit brighter. Cypher’s eyes widened and he unconsciously threw the gem across the room, where it hit the wall and shattered. Cypher hadn’t thrown it very hard or anything, the integrity of the gem had just been compromised after having its energy sapped. This was fairly normal when it came to using them for Zight containers.
Alvin looked at Cypher questioningly, “What’s the matter? What happened?”
Cypher slowly stood back up, wobbling a bit as he did so, “It didn’t help. The moment I finished absorbing the Zight inside, it instantly dropped back down. I even lost some Zight in the process. Sorry about the gem though, that sudden drain caught me off guard.” he replied.
Alvin nodded and wrote some notes into a notebook. At that moment the belt chimed just as it had before. Both of them stared right at it. It wasn’t a very loud chime, only loud enough for people in a few-meter radius could hear, but in this room, it was more than audible.
Cypher looked down at it and sighed. What the hell did it mean? Alvin looked puzzled as well, and he reached out towards the “X” shaped part sticking out of the middle and spun it with a flick of his finger. It made a clicking sound as it spun in a full rotation, but the chime soon resounded in the room again.
“I’m certain this is the activation mechanism, but clearly just spinning it does nothing. Then, of course, the question becomes: What happens when it activates? I’m curious about this sword and shield as well. What do they symbolize? At first one would think attack and defense, but is that really the case? Do you feel any different?” asked Alvin.
Cypher thought for a moment and shook his head. He didn’t feel any different, but he was getting annoyed at the chiming. A few minutes passed as Alvin examined the belt and spun the mechanism in various ways. First all the way around twice, then in the opposite direction.
Next, he tried pointing it towards the sword and then the shield, but nothing happened. Alvin then moved the top of the ‘X’ towards the sword and had Cypher attack him. That didn’t seem to yield any results either. The same thing happened when Alvin turned it to face the shield and attacked Cypher.
It was after that test that the chiming stopped and the belt fell silent. At the same time, the iridescent belt stopped glowing and retracted itself back into the plate. The whole thing fell to the floor with a loud metallic thud and both Cypher and Alvin sighed and looked down at it confused.
At the same time, Cypher felt a portion of his Zight returning. As he inspected it, he saw that his reserves had returned to around 78% and he grew even more curious about the belt. An idea appeared in his mind and he reached down and grabbed the plate.
“So, it seems like if you don’t choose to activate it after a certain amount of time, it shuts off and you can remove it. Argh! I just wish I knew how to activate it! Normally Magickal items do something but this hunk of ancient metal just sits there chiming! Argh!” Alvin said, frustration clear in his voice. Cypher, however, boldly placed the plate back onto his waist.
He shuddered as his Zight vanished and the belt reappeared around him. This time his Zight dropped from 78% down to 8%. It was still a massive drain, but Cypher withstood it and nodded. ‘So, like this, I can put the belt on twice. If I had a normal Orrium using it once would almost kill me for sure. But what does it do?’ Cypher thought.
Alvin on the other hand looked at him like he was a madman. “What are you doing? Are you trying to die?! Be careful!” he exclaimed. Cypher though only looked at him with a faint smile.
“Don’t worry, I had a feeling this would be safe after it returned some of my Zight. That said, I wouldn’t be able to do it a third time or it would certainly kill me,” replied Cypher. Alvin’s eyes went wide and he jotted that down in his book too.
Cypher looked down at the belt around his waist and spun the ‘X’ a few times. He watched as the light shone across the smooth metal and a thought occurred to him once again. He looked down into the ‘X’ and noticed some strange grooves on both sides. He had seen this pattern somewhere before but at the moment the thought escaped him and he was unable to remember.
Alvin performed some more tests, but it was more of the same. By the time they were finished, the sun was beginning to set. Cypher had refilled his Zight a few times during the testing and found that he could indeed equip it twice if his Orrium was full.
They had tested using it a third time, but that effort had, as expected, almost killed Cypher. If not for the fact that the iridescent belt wouldn’t close completely, he would have died. Since it didn’t close around him all the way, Alvin was able to rip it off and save his life with the gems he had prepared. Still, it had been a close call, and neither wanted to test that again.
Cypher asked about the results of the metallurgic test Alvin’s friend had done on the plate. Alvin’s friend had then drawn in close and replied in hushed tones that the metal was unknown.
This left both Alvin and his friend puzzled. However, the gems embedded into it were actually condensed Zight of each element, and not proper gemstones as they first assumed. They were rare and hardly seen minerals calls Zightcores, and it was from these Zightcores that Arks were made. However, these Zightcores were the purest that both of them had ever seen.
All in all, Alvin hadn’t learned much at all. The Zightcores were interesting but still didn’t shed much light on the subject. They talked a bit more about the subject but with nothing more than speculation to go on it was a wasted effort. At this point, Cypher was all but ready to leave. However, there was one more thing they needed to discuss and it was extremely important as well.
“Alvin… do you know anything about the Minus?” Cypher asked.
Alvin froze in the middle of returning the chest of gems to a cabinet and turned to face Cypher slowly.
“O-of course I do… Why do you ask?” he said cautiously.
“You might want to sit down for this…” With that Cypher quickly explained everything that had happened leading up to the exploration of Finn’s Deep and the subsequent return of the Minus. As expected of someone who knew of their potential, Alvin was thrown into a panicked fit of worry and concern.
He had all but demanded that Cypher share the memory of that event, and after Cypher had shown him everything, Alvin could only fall back into his chair in despair, a look of dread written all across his features.
“It can’t be… Why? After all this time?” Alvin ran a hand through his hair and began to bite at his lip for a moment. It wasn’t long after that before he got up and began to pace around his office muttering to himself.
It was more than evident in his reaction that this was something that Cypher should have addressed sooner rather than later but he could hardly be blamed for wanting to put it off. The return of the Minus was a serious issue. It was something that had earth-shattering consequences if left unchecked and beyond that, the trauma of the whole experience was something that Cypher wasn’t quite willing to return to if he could avoid it.
Alvin calmed down a bit after a few moments and began to rifle through several books on a shelf in the far corner of the room.
“Look, I can understand why you didn’t come to me about this sooner. If not for having seen it myself in your memories I simply wouldn’t believe you. That said, if you knew the danger of these beings why the hell didn’t you say something? This is not good my boy, not good at all! There is much that needs to be done and given that so much time has passed who knows what that monster has been up to this whole time…”
“Alvin… look I know I messed up but I’m sorry okay? It wasn’t as though I wanted to keep it a secret or anything… It’s just…”
Alvin stopped what he was doing and walked up to place a hand on Cypher’s shoulder. “Forgive me, I’m not mad at you. Especially given what you and the Kazen boy were forced to go through. Something like that… absorbing another’s soul against your will multiple times… I understand that it isn’t easy.
“An event like that must have been truly traumatizing. It’s a miracle that you two even survived the encounter. I’m just scared is all. Anyone who knows anything about the Minus would be. But don’t you worry, I’ll do what I can to spread this information to the right people. For now, you need only focus on your training with Elaine. If the Minus have returned, even if it’s only just one for now, we’ll need as many powerful Conductors as we can possibly get our hands on.
“I have no doubt in my mind given what you’ve told me about the Minus and now your premonition that the Order is somehow behind this. I didn’t think they’d resort to using common bandits and wild Conductors for such a thing though. Have they gone completely insane? The Minus wouldn’t hesitate to destroy them as well so why would they bring them back onto the board? What is their end goal?”
Alvin paced the room a bit more as he fell into thought and Cypher could only stand by and watch as his former mentor struggled with this new truth. It wasn’t long after that before Alvin was hurriedly shoving books into a bag and ushering Cypher out the door. Cypher waved to Alvin and left, but he was quite sure that Alvin didn’t even notice. He was already rushing in the direction of the headmaster’s office and Cypher was happy he wasn’t going to have to deal with that conversation.
