Cypher met back up with Alvin and gave his former mentor the new Ark, but Alvin had already procured a new one, and so Cypher put it back inside his dimensional pocket and shrugged. Alvin was ready to go and the two of them quickly headed for the Slingate.
The sun was beginning to set, but Alvin and Cypher were already planning to camp out for the night at the site of the ruin. Alvin was eager to get this exploration underway and his assistants wouldn’t arrive until morning.
Cypher stepped out of the Slingate after Alvin and the two marched up a hill, “The ruin is just over this mound. We’ll set up camp just inside the first unearthed chamber.” Cypher followed him and asked, “So, how did you find this place anyway? It’s in the middle of nowhere, and are we even still in Dellorim?”
Alvin laughed and nodded, “We are still in the country, yes, but in the southwest, a few hundred miles from the border of Exenor. Do you remember the story I told you about my sister?”
Cypher nodded and Alvin continued, “Well, the relic contained this scroll,” Alvin held up the scroll he had shown Cypher before and quickly tucked it away before continuing, “and on it were the directions to this location.”
“It took me ten years to translate these runes, but about fifteen years ago I finally had the chance to come here and see it for myself. We’ll be the first to explore this ruin in quite possibly thousands of years and it’ll be worth the wait,” said Alvin excitedly, as they moved.
Cypher nodded, and as they crested the hill it took him a moment to find the location. It was a dirty mound of grass and crumbled stone. Cypher couldn’t see anything of interest here and found himself wondering if they were even in the right place.
“As far as I can tell, this entire area is protected by a powerful spell of disillusionment! If you didn’t know that something was here you wouldn’t be able to find it no matter how hard you looked.” Alvin said, excitement ringing clear in his voice.
“It took me several days to even find the entrance and I had the directions! The opening to the first chamber is especially difficult to spot since it seems to be the source of the spell. I’m honestly amazed at how thoroughly whoever built this place was able to hide it.”
Alvin was obviously excited to be here at long last and Cypher found that he was happy to help him after turning him down so many times. ‘Maybe this won’t be such a bad job after all,’ thought Cypher as they moved closer to the small entrance.
They had to crouch down and slip inside one at a time, as that opening was only about 3 meters wide. Cypher’s boots clacked against the damp stone as he fell down the short drop, and Alvin had already lit a torch and was lighting a few sconces around the room.
“I never cared much for archaeology, but when my sister died I decided to make it my life’s work to honor her memory. Although, I lack the same measure of skill she had. That’s part of why I became a history professor at the Academy when I could have easily been a botany professor.
“Anyways, when I came here last I had to do a fair bit of cleaning and clearing out rubble. I found it tedious and annoying, but my sister loved that whole process. At some point in the past, this area must have suffered an earthquake or something because a lot of this chamber was collapsed. It was somewhat easy to work through, and I was eager to press on and see what I could find.
“Just up that corridor,” Alvin pointed towards an area he hadn’t lit up yet, “is a massive stone door. The only problem though, and why I’ve needed your help for all this time, is because that door is sealed up tight and won’t budge an inch. I’ve tried everything I can think of to open it up. Explosions don’t work and are very risky in an area like this, and every element I could muster up still got me no results.”
“But why do you need me specifically?” Asked Cypher.
Alvin raised a finger and smiled at him, “Because I found this as well!” Alvin held up a stone with several rows of runes on it. Cypher couldn’t make out what they said, but he recognized a few of them. They were the ones written on the seal in the Sanctum.
“It took me a few more years, but I finally managed to translate some of them and they mention the Null element! When I met you five years ago in that courtyard I couldn’t believe that a Null user was standing in front of me. Your elemental affinity is the key I’ve been searching for this entire time, and together we’re going to open that door and find out once and for all what’s on the other side!”
Cypher felt a bit strange after hearing this, and the atmosphere suddenly shifted from excitement to something more depressing. Part of him felt like he had been used all this time, buttered up to be exploited at a later date. His first instinct was to shout at Alvin and accuse him, but Cypher paused and thought about it for an instant longer.
Alvin wasn’t that kind of man, he didn’t exploit people for his own personal gain and even something like this, his sister’s last great mystery, wouldn’t cause him to do such a thing. Would it?
“Alvin, I really need you to be honest with me right now. Did you decide to sponsor and train me so thoroughly just so I could open this door for you?”
Alvin looked stunned and a bit hurt. His face went through several emotions before he swallowed, and it took a long while for him to answer. When he did his voice was low, even, and understanding, “Cypher, I sponsored you because I saw great potential in you. Null elemental affinity is horribly rare to be sure, but it is also incredibly potent and powerful as it encompasses all the other elements in its structure, and yet, exhibits none of their properties.
“I will admit that the thought of bringing you here one day has always floated around in my thoughts, but I promise you this is not why I took you under my wing,” Alvin hesitated for a moment and sighed. His face took on a look of sadness. It was almost like a man walking to the gallows and Cypher began to worry.
“I suppose I can’t really… shouldn’t, I shouldn’t keep this from you much longer and I honestly don’t know why I have for so long in the first place.”
“Keep what from me?” Cypher asked, his anger getting the better of him and his tone more harsh than normal.
Alvin sighed and continued, “This isn’t easy to say. Now that I’m in the moment I’m regretting holding back all this time. I want you to understand that it wasn’t my choice to keep this from you but I am complicit in hiding it from you…”
Alvin took a deep breath and turned to face Cypher, his face the image of sincerity. “This might be hard to believe, but I’m your Godfather.”
Cypher’s face drooped for a moment as his train of thought stopped dead in its tracks and tried to process that information.
“What?” Cypher stammered, and Alvin could only turn his gaze to the floor.
“I was friends with your father in our academy days. Close friends actually… So much so that when you were born he named me your Godfather. However, after your parents vanished and were presumed dead, you were nowhere to be found and so I assumed that you had suffered the same fate.
“I knew instantly that you were Fenix’s son the moment you appeared at the academy testing hall and shattered that Gaelin stone, but I couldn’t tell you anything just then. There are reasons for that, reasons I cannot tell you now because of my vows of secrecy.”
Cypher was still stunned into silence and struggled to accept this new truth. In all these years Alvin hadn’t bothered to even mention such a thing. Why?
“I understand if you’re upset with me, that’s reasonable. I understand if you want to leave and never return, that too is reasonable. But I ask you to please understand that with the spies of the Order floating around I couldn’t simply reveal that you were the son of Fenix. You didn’t even know that at the time, and telling you that on top of everything else that was going on in your life wouldn’t have made things easier.”
Cypher didn’t feel angry at Alvin, only hurt, perhaps even a little betrayed.
“Alvin… You’ve had five years to tell me this and yet you still refused to? What is the reason for that? What could have possibly kept you from telling me something so important?”
Alvin looked down in shame again before answering, “I wanted to every single day. I need you to know that, at least. I… I know we aren’t as close as a family should be, but I do want to be there for you now, as your Godfather, that is… if you’ll still have me.”
“My oaths prevent me from telling you certain things but I can freely say this, the Headmaster of the Academy can tell you everything. Speak to him if you really want to know more, he will tell you anything you wish to know. His role in all this goes deeper than I can share with you now. However, right now, at this moment I am asking you to forgive me for lying to you all this time. It wasn’t fair, and you honestly deserved to know the truth from the very beginning.”
Cypher looked down at the ground and crossed his arms, he wasn’t sure what to say and quite honestly he needed to think about all of this and sort his feelings out.
“Give me some time, Alvin. I need to think about this okay? I don’t want to be mad at you, but how am I supposed to feel right now? What am I supposed to make of this?” Alvin nodded and collapsed to his backside in defeat, while Cypher promptly set up his tent and vanished inside.
