Ascendant

Nym spent the rest of his money on a second night at the Trough and Saddle. In the morning, he walked over to Cern’s shop to wait for the team he was supposed to go reagent hunting with to show up. The alchemist just shoved him in a corner and said he didn’t have time to deal with Nym.

Nym might have been offended by the brush-off, except right at that moment, something in the backroom let out a large boom that rattled the glasswork on display. Cern ran back off with a cry of dismay and smoke started filling the shop.

“Cern, do you need help?”

“It’s fine! Everything is fine! Oh damn it, no, don’t do- crap, where did I put, ah-ha! Just… need… oh no!”

There was a second boom, even louder. Nym lunged towards a rack that had tipped over and caught it before it hit the floor, then formed six air cushions to catch additional things. He set them down gently and dismissed the magic, hoping no one saw it. It was probably fine. He’d only be fined if he got caught, and even then, he could probably get Cern to pay it since he’d just saved him probably a lot of money.

The smoke was coming out thicker now, and the alchemist retreated out of his back room with a soot-covered face and singed eyebrows. Flames licked at the bottom of his beard, which he was furiously patting to try to put them out. Nym looked around to make sure the smoke hadn’t drawn anybody’s attention, then pulled some water out of the skin he’d filled for his reagent hunting trip and splashed it on Cern.

“Eh? Oh, erm, thanks.” The alchemist stepped over to a mirror on the wall and studied his reflection. With a heavy sigh, he said, “Six months without an explosion. It was coming in so nicely too.”

“What happened?” Nym asked.

“Complicated, but the short version is a bad thermal regulator wasn’t holding the enchantment anymore and I didn’t realize soon enough. I thought I could compensate and save the batch.” He gestured to his burnt beard. “Obviously I was mistaken.”

“What in God’s name happened in here?” a new voice said from the front door.

A tall man stood there, hands on his hips. He was exceedingly handsome, with short blond hair and a muscular, athletic build. A sword was strapped across his back, long enough that the end came down to his knees and the tip of the hilt stuck up over the top of his head. He had a pack slung over one shoulder.

“Oh, hello Therm. There was an incident. I, uh… I had today’s list, but it’s… gone.”

Therm raised an eyebrow and shot a pointed look at the back-room door, which still had smoke coming out from it. “Is everyone safe?”

“Of course we’re safe! What kind of alchemist do you think I am?”

Therm gestured towards the door. Cern looked it, then back to Therm. He scowled. “Nobody’s perfect! Anyway, I’ll have a new list for you in a few minutes. In the meantime, meet Nym. He’s going to go with your group today.”

“What? Did you take on an apprentice? He’s a bit young, don’t you think?

“No, no. Nym is a mage. He’s going to help you gather materials.”

Therm looked doubtful. He looked Nym over and said in that patronizing tone adults sometimes used on him that he found infuriating, “I guess you’ll be with me then. I’ll show you what we’re looking for and keep you safe.”

Nym understood that he was a kid. He knew adults always thought they knew better, but he was getting really tired of being looked down on and underestimated just because he wasn’t as old as them. “Cern, are you sure this is necessary? I could just go by myself and we won’t tell Babkin.”

The alchemist shuddered and shook his head. “Not a chance am I crossing Babkin after I gave my word. It’s Therm’s group or nothing. If you don’t go with them, I won’t buy anything you bring back.”

If anything, Therm looked more confused. “What is going on here?” he asked. “What’s that old battleaxe got to do with this kid?”

“Nym needed a place to stay, so I sent him to that inn Babkin started when he ‘retired’ and then the next thing I know, I’ve got them both banging on my door before the sun was even up and he’s chewing me out for letting Nym go into the woods on his own to harvest. So this was the compromise. I promise you, he’s not going to slow you down. If anything, you’re slowing him down.”

“That so?” Therm was looking at Nym with new respect. He thought about it for a second, and nodded. “Okay, if Babkin thinks you’re good to harvest as long as it’s with a group, that’s good enough for me.”

“Excellent. Give me just a minute to find a pen that hasn’t been disintegrated and I’ll get you a new list. I’m going to have to change up what I need a bit. How do you feel about doing a second run this week? I won’t know how much stock I just lost until I get a chance to start cleaning up.”

“I’ll run it by the group. I think Aliat is leaving town tomorrow, but as far as I know, it should be fine for everyone else.”

“Fantastic! I’ll have a second list for you when you get back tonight.”

Soon enough, Therm had a list in his hand and Nym was leaving with him. “Alright, so normally we just spread out and hit the spots where we know stuff is at. How familiar are you with these plants?” he asked.

Nym shook his head. “I know a few of them. I am a mage, I guess, so I was kind of cheating by flying around to collect things. But then Babkin said it was too dangerous for me to go alone, and here we are.”

“You can fly?” Therm brightened. “Oh, this is going to be a very profitable day for everyone. We’ll show you all the best places to find stuff, and you can get all the stuff that’s not worth the effort to climb up and get normally. Come, let’s go meet the rest of the group and we’ll get started.”

* * *

There were five of them, including Therm. Aliat and Rosunde were women in their early twenties, the same age as Therm. Both were dressed in a similar practical manner, though without the giant sword that Therm sported. The other two were men, one in his thirties and the last one at least fifty. Their names were Kalrow and Dumont.

Each had a specialty when it came to collecting, and traveled together for safety while dividing the forest up. Aliat was an expert diver and was able to harvest along the river and underwater, for example, while Kalrow focused heavily on digging things up. Nym was paired with Dumont though, as the old man had the best eyes and was the group’s spotter.

The group chatted easily with each other. There were gasps from some and laughter from others as Therm described the state of Cern’s shop when he’d arrived, and the whole group clamored for a demonstration when they found out Nym could fly. They waited until they were past the walls, and then he flew a few laps around them to the applause of Rosunde and Kalrow.

“I always wanted to be a mage,” Rosunde told him. “I’m terrible at it though. I can barely forge a conduit to the first layer, and the mage who examined me said my soul well is the smallest he’s ever seen. I can’t extend my basic telekinesis spell more than a foot past my hand.”

She winked and brandished a knife out of nowhere though. “Not to say that I don’t have some handy tricks.”

“Me too,” Nym told her, and she floated up into the air.

Rosunde squeaked in surprise, then flapped her arms around a bit, which completely failed to move her since Nym just altered the air cushions around her movements. “Okay, that’s pretty amazing. How high can I go?”

Nym shrugged. “High enough to reach the tops of the trees if we need to.”

He’d realized yesterday that he’d only been supporting himself with the magically controlled air, but that was just him being narrow-minded. Brogan had wrapped him in air to save him at the end. It was obviously possible. He just hadn’t thought to try. It turned out it was very easy to move another person with air, and they were considerably more durable than skywort bloom.

“Save some for the forest,” Therm said. “Don’t want you running out of magic half-way through the day.”

Rosunde protested, but Nym brought her back to the ground. “Oh, fine,” she said, sticking her tongue out at the back of Therm’s head. “We’ll go flying later, okay?”

“Sure! Flying is lots of fun.”

They reached the woods and split up, though they never got more than a few hundred feet away from each other. Therm and Kalrow anchored the group, with one or the other always keeping an eye out for trouble.

Dumont pointed out various plants for Nym to get, and occasionally asked to be lifted up to harvest the more delicate specimens himself. They quickly filled a pack and dropped it off with Therm to grab a fresh one.

“It feels like we’re cheating,” the old man told Nym. “Easiest I’ve ever filled a bag. Cern’s not going to have enough to pay us when we get back.”

The boy grinned at him. “I hope so. I wanted to get a coat for flying. It gets kind of cold when you’re moving really fast. Maybe some shoes too if I have extra money.”

The old man’s expression flickered for a second, but he hid it before Nym could ask what was wrong. “Yeah, that sounds good. I think I know a good shop that can make something in your size too. Remind me about it when we get back and I’ll point it out to you.”

“Thanks! I’ll remember.”

It was a thoroughly uneventful afternoon. The worst Nym saw was a tree snake that seemed just as surprised to see him as he was to run into it. He was gone before it could do anything. By the time late afternoon came around, they had nine full packs. Nym held the tenth one, and it was already half-full. He finished scraping a fuzzy blue moss out of a crevice about sixty feet off the ground and deposited it into the pack, then flew back to the group when he heard Therm calling his name.

“Alright team, this has been a fantastic run. I’m going to put this haul at two shields six for each of us, and that’s a six-way split instead of our usual five. Nym, you are welcome to come back any time. Don’t forget, Cern wants a double order so I’m going to be back out here in two days for another run.”

The group let out a general cheer when Therm announced his estimated pay out for their haul. They started back, two bags to a person. “What about me?” Nym asked. “Shouldn’t I carry one?”

“Don’t even worry about it. You’ve done more than enough today.”

“It’s not a problem, really? I need the practice anyway.” Six bags floated up into the air around the group.

“Okay guys, it’s official. I vote Nym replaces Therm as the new leader. He’s too useful to let him go anywhere else,” Rosunde announced.

“Hey now!”

The whole group trouped back home amidst laughter, a trail of bags drifting through the air behind them. Nym smiled and joked and laughed with them. It was another good day for him. He could get used to that.