After quickly having breakfast at home, with the box in hand, Cyril set off to find Myra.
At this time of the day before the lessons, she was probably in the training hall. He would occasionally meet her there, and they would train together.
With their frequent spars, he can feel himself becoming stronger by leaps and bounds.
Luckily, she was here today. Myra was wearing the academy's training outfit, standing near the weapons rack. It looked like she just came here.
"Hi, Cyril! Do you want to spar today?" Upon noticing Cyril, she immediately proposed to duel
She also enjoyed their fights, maybe even more so than Cyril himself. After every duel, she always looked so optimistic and carefree.
"Not today. Can you meet me in the park right now?" With not much emotion in his voice, he invited her to join him.
"Ah? Sure..." Thinking she misheard at first, Myra only reacted a few seconds later with a slightly nervous voice.
"Don't tell me she is going to misunderstand that?" Rhamn sighed in disappointment.
Thinking she will understand once they arrive, he went together with her to the park.
Cedric and Anna were already in place; they sat on the bench in the middle of the park, where there was a sizeable fountain.
They waved at the approaching Cyril and Myra.
"Myra, hello! Thank you for your help." Having been expecting someone else, Cedric greeted her with some surprise in his voice.
His words, on the other hand, also surprised and confused Myra, who didn't expect to see anyone here.
"You didn't explain anything to her?" Cedric wryly asked Cyril.
"You are the one who needs help." He didn't want to bother with that.
Myra already understood there was something important and carried herself more seriously now.
They found a place with no prying eyes in the park, and Cedric slowly explained everything to Myra, complete with Anna's rendition of the events.
By the end of it, Myra looked at the box Cyril gave her with a scrutinizing look.
"I know something that might help." As expected, she was capable.
She put the box on the ground and cast an unknown spell that lasted for a few seconds.
Just before it disappeared, there was the sound of glass breaking, followed by a flash coming from the box. Something definitely happened.
No one was in a hurry to check the contents without Myra giving the sign it was okay.
She thought for a few seconds and said with a solemn voice, "There was indeed a trap on it. If anyone opened it, the box would've erupted in a small explosion, likely to get rid of anything inside. There is also something else, but I might be wrong."
Myra continued after a slight pause, "This spell is very similar to the one used by spies of the Empire. If it is indeed the same one, then the spell had another function—tracking. Whoever used the spell should be able to feel the object's position by using the special compass prepared beforehand."
No one expects tracking to be part of the spell. After processing this information people had different reactions
Cedric was no longer smiling; he pinched his chin and stood there in contemplation.
Anna became visibly pale and started nervously walking back and forth
Cyril didn't really care; he kept the same stoic expression as always.
"So what? Let that woman come; we are not afraid." Rhamn also didn't see any reasons to panic.
"At most they would only guess the box was taken to the Ailanthus academy, and that's it. Are they going to infiltrate the academy and inspect every single student? Staff members and some of the professors also live here; there are way too many suspects for them to go through. They can't find us, nor will they waste this much energy over it," Cyril confidently voiced his opinion.
His words did help make Anna calm down. After thinking about it some more, she stopped walking around and bobbed her head up and down like a chicken in agreement.
Cedric also seemed to agree, "That makes sense! Phew, I almost thought we were going to be hunted by a dangerous group."
Myra only shrugged her shoulders in response. "You can open the box now; it's safe."
Her words caused everyone to come closer to the box in curiosity; they temporarily forgot about any danger.
Seeing no one else volunteer to open it, Cyril went for it himself.
He slowly lifted the black cover of the box and looked inside.
The first thing to catch his attention was a wide steel bracelet with an intricate design. It depicted a simplistic faceless figure in a forest. It looked beautiful and unusual.
This must be Anna's bracelet. He didn't admire it for long and passed on the thing to its rightful owner.
Anna happily took it and hugged it close saying thank you over and over.
"It really must be important to her, huh?" It seems Rhamn couldn't fully understand why she was acting like that.
With that done Cyril turned to look what else was in the box. Time for the main event.
The rest of the container was filled with various papers and documents. He took one out to inspect it.
It was a handwritten note covered with unknown scribbles , he couldn't understand anything. This gave him a bad feeling.
He quickly checked the others and sure enough, they were all written in the same style. It was probably a code of some sort, "or someone's crazy ravings."
This discovery disappointed him quite a bit; he already expected to find all sorts of secrets from this.
Cyril didn't lose his spirits just yet and started cleaning the box from all the documents in hopes of finding something. All of the encrypted messages were given to Myra
Eventually, at the very bottom of the box, he discovered a small circular object enclosed in paper. "Finally something!"
He took it out and carefully removed the paper; it was a pitch-black rock with a rough shape. Now that it was out, he could feel a bit of mana coming off of it.
When Myra noticed the rock, she gave away a gasp; she quickly came over and took a closer look without taking the rock off Cyril's hands.
After observing it for a few seconds, her expression became even more gloomy; she straightened her back and said with confidence, "Now, I think the chances of them infiltrating the academy are pretty high."
With the rest focusing their questioning eyes on her, she continued, "This is called a Black Tulip. I still don't know where it comes from, but this rock contains a tremendous amount of energy within it. If we consider who we took this thing from, I would imagine they were going to use it as a bomb. And I can say to you with confidence: they want it back."
Cyril's hand holding the rock shook a bit as he slowly turned to look back at it. I am holding a bomb...?"What the hell!"
He certainly didn't expect to discover something like that while searching for a bracelet with sentimental value.
After those words, everyone froze and kept looking at this bomb in Cyril's hands.
On account of not knowing what to do with it and being startled, Cyril kept his hand still and didn't dare to move.
"This is a bit too interesting for my heart!" Rhamn was also scared for a moment.
Eventually, Myra continued speaking. "Don't worry, It can't explode on it's own. It needs another reagent for that. For now, it's just a very useful tool..." Her voice turned from solemn to contemplating very fast.
Since it's supposed to be safe, Cyril decided to defeat his fears and slowly covered the rock again with the discarded earlier paper.
After giving himself some mental support by doing that, he turned towards Myra. "You are saying Lapis will try their best to recover it?"
To his question, Myra raised her hands in an exasperated motion. "They will definitely infiltrate Ailanthus at least."
Anna at this moment couldn't find the courage to speak, so Cedric had to participate in this conversation on her behalf. "You said the spell on the box looked similar to the one spies used. What if that woman is not from Lapis, but from the Empire instead?" This was an important question. Offending the Empire would be significantly worse.
Thankfully, Myra immediately shook her head in confidence at that. "The spells only look similar, but they're different. My guess is that someone from their group learned the original and modified it to the best of their abilities. We must only deal with Lapis for now." Something was weird about how she ended that sentence. "For now?"
Feeling their confusion, Myra explained herself, "The Black Tulip is incredibly valuable. Every mage who knows of its existence will try to get their hands on it." They stumbled upon something they shouldn't have.
There was another thing Cedric couldn't understand: "Why would such a valuable thing be placed in someone's drawer so simply?" It was a solid question. One would think an expensive item like this would be locked away at the most secure location, not enclosed in paper at the bottom of a cupboard.
At this reminder, Myra's confident face once again turned contemplative. "That's true; it is weird. Perhaps they too didn't know what this was?" She soon convinced herself of something: "That would make sense; only a few know of Black Tulip's existence."
Before the mood turned more hopeful, she continued, "Don't ask me how, but I am certain they will find out about it sooner or later. I guess that means we have some time to prepare" She crossed her arms and nodded in assurance.
No one had any more questions for now. Everyone processed this information for a while.
The park at this time was fully illuminated by sunlight. All sorts of insects and Morpho flew around. At least this butterfly was still behaving free of worry.
After what seemed like forever, Cedric was the first to open his mouth. "In short, they will infiltrate, but later. Ok, and uhh... what do we do about that?" He looked with hope in his eyes at Myra, who was giving off a certain reliable feeling.
Anna, meanwhile, sat on the ground and hugged her knees. She didn't look that panicked; her face was almost numb.
Myra pointed her finger at the stone. "Just leave the rock to Cyril and me, then pretend this never happened." Her solution was simple; Anna really liked it at least.
To us? Cyril wasn't sure how he could help her deal with the thing.
Cedric looked like he was struggling with something internally. "I am not sure how I feel leaving the people who helped me with such danger."
To his good-natured words, Myra replied without holding back. "You will only be a deadweight. It will be easier to do it without your help."
To her not-so-good-natured words, Cedric, as expected, didn't show any signs of being offended.
"Got it, and thank you two again; I am in your debt." They didn't spend much longer here. Cedric took the relieved Anna, and together they left the park, leaving the other two to deal with the bomb.
Myra waited until those two were out of earshot before turning to Cyril, still holding the dreaded rock. "Take it to your dorm for now. After lessons I'll quickly make sure of something, then I'll come find you and we will deal with the thing."
"Can't you do that by yourself?" No matter how safe it is, Cyril didn't feel comfortable with a bomb in his house.