No matter how hard he looked there was nowhere to place the key. The chest sat on the table, and it felt like it was mocking him. What good was a key if there was nowhere to put it? He furrowed his brows and crossed his arms in thought, ‘What the hell Serenade, you couldn’t be bothered to leave some kind of instructions with this thing? If what’s inside is so important why didn’t you leave some kind of hint on how to open it?’
He examined the chest once more, looking desperately for any sign of a hidden keyhole or another mechanism for opening the small chest, but to his disdain he found nothing. How had he, in all these years never noticed that there hadn’t been a keyhole? He had spent hours back in the mansion just looking at the chest and wondering about its contents.
Now that he was so close to discovering those secrets he found that he still couldn’t open the damn thing, which frustrated him greatly. He hunched over and let out a sigh as he tossed the key toward the chest. He buried his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes. However, after a moment he stopped and peeked through his fingers.
It had taken a moment, but he quickly realized that the key had never landed. It was somewhat heavy and should have made at least some noise as it clattered against the chest or table, yet he noticed that no sound had come.
As he looked on he noticed that the key was hovering above the chest and spinning. It was slow at first but quickly grew faster. It also began to let out a shrill noise that was steadily growing in volume as it spun faster.
He stared wide-eyed as he watched the key begin to glow and the chest beneath it also began to react. The two items were now pulsing in time with one another, the faint white light growing brighter as the seconds passed. Then a voice filled his mind as the light suddenly stopped pulsing and the key stopped spinning.
“Who… Are… You..?” Those faint words echoed in his mind and they carried with them a faint, almost dreamlike familiarity. He looked around for a second, he knew full well that he was alone and that the voice had come from the chest, but he still couldn’t believe that it had spoken to him.
“Cypher.” His reply was short and carried with it a tone of apprehension, however, the chest remained still and only asked again,
“Who… Are… You..?“
He thought about it for a second and tried another answer, “I am Cypher, son of Fenix and Serenade!”
This time he had spoken loudly and with more firmness in his voice. The chest shuddered then and the key slammed downwards into the top of the chest. The voice once again filled his mind, the walls of his Athenaeum shuddering with each word, “Take… Care… To… Guard… This… Treasure… Heir… To… The… Ceraunus… Legacy…” Each word the chest spoke inside his mind carried with it a heavy pressure and felt less like a simple statement, and more like a warning that was not to be ignored.
As the chest finished speaking, the light vanished and the chest moved no more. Cypher carefully reached out his hand and touched the chest with the tip of his finger. It was cold to the touch but other than that it seemed that it was done doing whatever it was designed to do.
He placed a careful hand onto the key and wiggled it a bit, before turning it to the left with a loud, ‘Click’. As soon as the key had been turned, the top of the chest began to flatten itself and spread outwards, blooming into a strange wooden flower.
The silver key melded with the lid of the chest as it bloomed and worked its way around the edges in wavy patterns. Once this strange event was done, only a hole the size of Cypher’s hand remained in the middle of the wooden flower. He tipped the chest towards himself and tried to peer inside but only darkness seemed to wait for him.
Carefully he reached his hand inside and clenched his eyes shut, worried that the opening might slam shut and sever his hand. His fears, however, were unfounded and his fingers only closed around a small orb. He pulled it out and stared at it carefully.
It glittered in the light beaming in from his sliding glass door and he continued staring at it with a confused look on his face, “What the hell is this? Don’t tell me I’ve waited all this time for some strange orb!”
The orb shuddered as soon as he said that and it began to glow a bright cerulean blue. Before he could react he found himself being pulled into his Athenaeum at a blinding speed. As soon as he was inside, he felt a sharp bolt of pain as the small closet that had formed during his training began to expand rapidly.
A mental quake had broken out and ravaged his mind, and he doubled over clutching his head as the shaking continued. However, as quickly as it had appeared, the pain and mental quakes receded, and when he opened his ethereal eyes, he saw that a doorway had formed in its place. Thick strands of cerulean beads now hung in the entryway and swayed back and forth slowly.
He stepped forward and peeked his head inside and was shocked to see the results of that change. A large room twice the size of the first one now occupied this new space. It was decorated with rugs and trappings one would normally find in a home. It even had furniture, and everything inside seemed to be bathed in the same blue hue of the beads.
What shocked him most of all though, was the strange woman sitting at a desk along the far wall of this new space. Fear shot through him at that moment. Who was she? How could someone have entered his personal mental space so easily and without warning? He hadn’t felt the same pressure the Elders forced upon his mind when they had entered it during his examination and he could only stand ready against this intruder.
Casting spells inside the mind worked very differently than in the outside world. In his mind, the laws of reality were his to control, and using that authority he gathered up a massive amount of lightning in his right hand, the strain of doing so was almost nonexistent. He held it out towards the woman at the desk.
He was cautious about simply firing it off carelessly, he might be master of this reality but if he wasn’t careful he could damage the inside of his Athenaeum and potentially shatter his mental space. He narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, the lightning crackling in his hand as he drew closer to the invader of his mind.
“Who the fuck are you? More importantly, what are you doing in here? How have you done this? Speak!” Cypher was angry that someone had dared to enter his most private of havens against his will. The woman was writing with a blue quill and paused as he spoke.
“I would have imagined that Tyrina and Galex would have raised you better than that. Don’t use such crass language with me Cypher, it’s disrespectful and I won’t stand for it!” The woman scooted her chair back and stood up slowly as she turned to face him. Her light blue hair hung to her waist and swayed as she moved. Her eyes were a deep cerulean matching the light that pervaded the room and in her face, Cypher could see some of his own features reflected there.
“I’ll only ask once more, who are you?” Cypher felt a pit forming in his throat as his subconscious made the connection before his waking mind could. The room seemed to vibrate as it resonated with his thoughts and a feeling of calm spread throughout his entire mind.
“I’m impressed that you have such a fine Athenaeum at your young age, but you are the son of my beloved Fenix after all. I really shouldn’t be surprised. Come now, lower that spell, there’s no need for that here,” she said as she took a step towards him, the hem of her ornate blue dress dragging across the floor.
“Who..?” Cypher asked again, his voice cracking with an emotion he didn’t expect as slight tears began forming at the corners of his eyes.
“You really are just like your father, dense as stone. Who else would I be you silly boy? I’m your mother of course!”
