Ascendant

He felt… hollow, empty, without purpose. For so long, for sixty years, if Rizin was to be believed, Nym had been struggling to escape from under two titans before he was crushed in their struggle. Now it was finally done, and he couldn’t believe it.

He cast god killer on the corpse one last time to pluck Niramyn completely from reality. Then he reshaped the prairie to erase the damage from the fight, scrambled the timeline of the last few minutes, and left. Even without the new Nym that Niramyn had tried to create during their fight, he only had about ten minutes left before he bumped up against his own creation.

The deviation to the primary timeline there was going to be migraine-inducing for those ascendants who cared enough to follow it. No doubt they’d be very curious about the exact cause of Niramyn’s death. Nym had faith in hidden presence to keep him safe though. It had been strong enough to work against Myzalik, and the cloak pin version of it had worked against Niramyn to an extent even when the Exarch had been right in front of him.

Now that he thought about the pin, he realized Rizin would probably want to know how everything turned out, and Nym needed to return it since he was done with it. That would come later though. For now, he just wanted to exist for the first time since his own ascendance without fear driving him to push forward. Just for a few minutes, he stared out at the world and thought about the fact that he could go anywhere, do anything he wanted, and that he didn’t owe anybody anything.

He was truly, finally, free.

He was without purpose, and that was fantastic. It meant he had room to find new purposes, ones that he wanted to work towards, not that he was forced into. He didn’t know what those purposes were going to be, but finding out was going to be an adventure in and of itself.

The minutes ticked by and soon he felt the pressure of reality building up, ready to force him out to keep him from reliving time he’d already spent. He allowed himself to be pushed back into the sixth layer just long enough to take a step forward into his future and appear on Rizin’s island a hundred years in the future.

The fox was beside him immediately. He gave Nym a single, swift appraising glance, then nodded. “What now?” he asked.

“I have no idea,” Nym said with a smile. “Anything I want.”

He removed the pin, held it out to Rizin, and let the cloak he’d conjured up break apart into arcana. Rizin eyed the pin for a moment, then said, “Keep it. It’s not like I need it.”

“You sure?” Nym asked. “Trusting me with this fox magic. It’s not like we had any sort of agreement.”

“Sure we do. If I need your help, you’ll help.”

Well. That was true.

“What could you possibly need help with? Aren’t you supposed to be a big bad fox with… quite a few tails?”

“I’m sure I can find a use for you,” Rizin said.

“You do always seem to have something you want done but are too lazy to go do yourself,” Nym agreed.

Something that felt suspiciously like a tail swatted Nym in the back of the head, but there was nothing there. He side-eyed Rizin, who just smirked back at him. None of his tails had moved, not even the invisible ones that Nym could only see in other layers.

For all that Nym had achieved, he still was far from the strongest thing around. That was fine though. All of the strong things that had been interested in hurting or killing him were gone now. He wondered how the landscape of ascendant society was going to change now that Niramyn and Myzalik had both vanished.

He suspected change would be slow to come about.  It could take years, decades even, before they accepted that their Exarchs weren’t coming back. Perhaps the fighting would continue until both sides realized there was nothing left to fight for. Perhaps even that wouldn’t be enough, and they’d rally behind new banners. Nym didn’t know and he found that he didn’t really care. As long as they left him alone, they could do whatever they wanted.

“I think I’m just going to live a mortal life,” he said finally, “at least once. I only got a couple years as a regular person before I ascended.”

“I hardly think ‘regular’ is a word that described your life prior to that point.”

“Well, no, probably not. And it might not be the right word for the rest of it either, but at least that’ll be my choice.”

“You’re going back a hundred years, to when we first met?” Rizin asked.

“I am, yeah.”

“That will be the first point in time anyone looks for you,” the fox warned.

“It’s not like I’m done growing. I am still an ascendant, after all. But after all of this, I’m confident I can find a way to defend myself. I just don’t expect to need to. I am well hidden, after all.”

“You’re welcome for that.”

Nym made a show of looking around the island. “You’re welcome too,” he said.

Rizin laughed, and leaped into the air. His body started to fade away, and all that was left was his voice, saying, “Go on. Go see your friends and family again. Come back to visit occasionally. I’ll pretend to be entertained by your dull stories of acting like a human.”

Then Rizin was gone. Nym just shook his head and laughed. It wasn’t hard to read between the lines there: Rizin was going to miss him, and wanted him to come around more often. He’d have to check in on him from time to time in the decades leading up to the current year.

For now though, it was time to go home.

* * *

There were many things Ciana liked about her new life. For one, she was insanely wealthy, at least by her standards. She hadn’t been shy about spreading that money around either, though she’d been surreptitious enough that nobody suspected her of having a whole bag full of gold. She kept a modest apartment by their standards, but compared to that shack on the coast, it was absolutely lavish.

She had comfortable furniture, good food, new friends, and a lovely little garden she shared with her next-door neighbor to keep her busy. They worked hard on that one, as neither the soil nor the climate were ideal for growing. Space was at a premium in Abilanth too, so gardens were a rarity. It had been the envy of the street, and when one of the neighbor kids had tried to pilfer food from it, the whole neighborhood had come down on the little brat.

For all of that, there were some things she missed. The smell of the sea was one of them, as were her old chores, the crab traps and snares that she’d checked regularly. Privacy was also a lot harder to come by in the city than it was out in her old home. She even missed that one stupid shark that was always following her around whenever she took Nym out with her to check the traps.

She was walking along, a bag of supplies for the garden held in one hand, when a man appeared in front of her. She bumped into him, sending both of them staggering, and quickly grabbed hold of his arm to keep him upright. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I don’t know how I didn’t see you there.”

“Well, I guess I’ll forgive you this time,” the man said, turning to grin at her. “But I’m going to get you back.”

“Nym,” she breathed out. “You… you’re so tall.”

“Don’t worry, you’re still my big sister,” he told her. “Even if you aren’t taller than me anymore.”

“You jerk!” she said, throwing her arms around him and pulling him into a hug. “Just abandoning me here for so long. I didn’t know if you were ever coming back.”

“Well, you know, I had some things to take care of. Actually, I do still have a few odds and ends to wrap up, but one thing at a time and all that. You’re the one I wanted to see first, now that all that other business is taken care of.”

“So you’re… you’re safe now? It’s over? We can go back home?”

Nym shrugged. “If you want to. Or anywhere else in the world. Nothing is really off-limits. I’ve got some friends I want to introduce you to later.”

A door in a nearby house opened and an older man stuck his head out. “Everything alright, Miss Ciana?” he asked.

“Just fine, Mr. Cleef,” she said. “This is my brother, Nym.”

“Oh yeah? Nice to meet you, son,” the man said, coming fully out of his house and grabbing Nym’s hand to give it a vigorous shake. “Your sister’s had nothing but good things to say about you.”

“Well, mostly good things,” she said. “I may have mentioned some of the mischief you got up to when you were younger.”

“What in the world makes you think I stopped getting into mischief?” Nym asked.

Ciana let out an exaggerated sigh and shook her head. “It’s good to see you again.”

“You too. Now, how about we go grab something to eat? We can catch up and figure out what we’ll do next.”

“Oh, sure. There’s a nice restaurant not too far from here. Mr. Cleef, could you maybe give this to Semara for me?” Ciana asked, holding out the bag.

“Garden stuff?” he asked, eyeing up the bag. At her nod, he laughed and took the bag. “You gotta stop spoiling my wife like this. That little project of yours is all she talked about all winter. She just couldn’t wait for the snow to melt to start it up again.”

“I know,” Ciana said. “I can’t wait either.”

The man took the bag, bid them both a good day, and disappeared back into his house. Nym and Ciana went to eat at a cute little place where the staff all knew her by name. The food was delicious, and the company better. When they were done, Nym whisked her away to her old ocean-side home to visit. That was only the first stop of the afternoon.

* * *

Nym took Ciana to meet the rest of his friends, and was pleased to see the generally positive reaction he got on his return. Kazie gave him a few tight-lipped glances when she thought he wasn’t looking, but refrained from bringing down the general mood.

While the others were mingling and chatting, Nym went over to sit down next to her. “Still don’t like me?” he asked.

“It’s not about that. I’m sure you’re a fine person,” she said.

“But I shouldn’t have come back,” he finished for her.

“No, you shouldn’t have.”

“If it sets your mind at ease, there won’t be any trouble following after me. It’s all been taken care of.”

“You sound so sure of yourself,” Kazie said. “I guess only time will tell.”

Nym laughed. He couldn’t help himself. “I guess so. Maybe you’ll think better of me in a few years.”

“As long as you don’t hurt them, I think you’re just fine.”

“I think the two of us will get along alright. I don’t want to hurt them either.”

“Hmm. We’ll see.” The two lapsed into silence for a few moments. “Your sister seems nice.”

“She is. She’s just… she’s a good person. The best, really.”

The two of them watched Ciana sit down next to Analia, who glanced at her once, then went back to staring at her shoes. “How is Analia doing?” he asked.

“Ophelia says she’s getting better, but it’ll be a long process. It could be years. I don’t know what she was like before, the poor girl.”

“Happy,” Nym said. “Care-free. A bit bossy. She knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it. Terrible taste in desserts though. Nobody’s perfect.”

Kazie barked out a short laugh. “If that’s the worst you can say about her…”

Nym smiled and leaned back in the chair. All around him, his family chatted, snacked, and played. Life was good, and a few lingering shadows weren’t going to demolish the happiness he saw in front of him.

“Nym!” Bildar called out. “More custards, my man! We’ve run dry!”

“By God, this shall not stand!” Nym bellowed. Arcana surged through his soul well and he materialized a new plate of desserts.

“Unbelievable,” Nomick said, sliding into the chair next to Kazie and slipping an arm around her. “The power of the gods, and this is what you use it for. I’m sure you could find something more important than this.”

“You’re such a hypocrite,” Nym said.

“What? Why?”

“I watched you eat the last custard not two minutes ago. And I saw you sneak another one just now.”

“It would be wrong of me not to eat them,” Nomick protested.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, man. Besides, you’re wrong.”

“I am?” Both Nomick and Kazie looked at Nym curiously.

He gestured at the table where the rest of the Earth Shapers were engaged in a three-way battle to claim the most custards off the new plate. “Nothing is more important than this, not to me.”