Ascendant

Nym wanted to blame it on the fact that he was still recovering, but the simple truth was that he was used to lifting his own weight in flight, and Leaf was probably four times that. The man was over six feet tall to begin with and if not as heavily muscled as Therm, he was no stick.

At least it was Leaf he was ferrying and not Babkin. Nym doubted his ability to even lift the innkeeper. Carrying him for any appreciable distance was definitely out of the question. As it was, Nym had his doubts that he was actually speeding up the journey.

They had to take frequent walking breaks, and Leaf was so adept at slipping through the brush that he was almost as fast on foot as Nym was flying by himself. The problem was that Nym was slowing him down on the walking segments and not flying fast enough or far enough to make up for that.

Leaf took pity on him and they stopped for an early break. He broke out some trail rations for them to snack on, which were honestly about as bad as the hot meal Leaf had served him. He was a man of many talents, but cooking was not one of them.

While they were eating, Leaf started casually naming off the various types of plants around them, listing some facts about each of them, including which ones had medicinal value. When they started walking again, he explained how he was moving through the underbrush so quickly, a combination of predicting thin spots to push through from experience and knowledge of local geography. Some plants were more pliable and could be pushed past easier, and Leaf was an expert at picking them out of the foliage.

Nym tried to imitate him while they walked. If anything, he thought it should be easier for him. He was so much smaller than Leaf and he could fly. It seemed like that should provide him with many more gaps to slip through. At the very least, he should be able to keep up with the man, if not outpace him.

It didn’t work out that way, of course. And Leaf laughed at him when he got annoyed that he was failing to keep up. “You have a week or two of woodcraft,” he said. “You are competing against close to forty years of experience, over twenty of them in this very forest. It is not reasonable to expect to outpace me.”

“But… the flying, and I’m smaller, and…”

“Yes, yes. All very reasonable. Completely incorrect, but reasonable. But come on, if you’ve got enough energy to argue about it, let’s fly some more.”

And so it went in cycles. They flew for maybe half an hour, and at a speed Nym chafed at but couldn’t increase. Then they walked for an hour while he recovered his strength. When it got late, Leaf stopped them at a meadow and told Nym to rest while he gathered firewood.

They built up a roaring bonfire in preparation for frost wraiths, but none showed up. Nym was surprised, but Leaf just shrugged and said, “We are not so deep into the forest that they are a concern yet. Tomorrow night, for sure.”

Then he handed Nym one of his spare cloaks, which was easily long enough to be both blanket and pillow, and bid Nym good night while he sat with his back to the fire and stared out into the darkness. A long knife was stabbed into the ground next to him, along with several arrows. The bow to go with them rested in Leaf’s lap.

The next day was more of the same, but Nym was pleased to see a measure of his full strength returning. They flew longer and farther with each trip, and it was shortly after noon that they began to see fog filling the forest below them. It didn’t reach over the tree tops, but it was thick and spread out in every direction.

“I do not like this,” Leaf said, frowning down at the forest. “Frost wraiths don’t come out in the day. There should be no mist here. It is unnatural, clearly their work. We still have a few miles to go to reach the seal, too. It would be bad to land in there.”

Nym told him, “I’m good for a little bit still. We can do a few miles in one go.”

“But can you fly us back without having to rest?”

Nym peered down into the mist and shuddered, remembering the feel of the cold claws on him, holding him down. “It might be best to take a break before we fly over it.”

“I’m not sure we should go any further,” Leaf told him. “If the mist is this thick here, how bad will it be at the source? Will we even be able to approach it?”

“I can condense it into water and clear some of it up,” Nym offered. “It comes back pretty fast, but it should be enough to at least get a look at the ground.”

“Are you sure?” Leaf asked. “It could be the death of us both if your magic fails in the middle of this mist. The smart move would be to turn back now and go straight to Zoskan. This alone is enough evidence to call in the mages guild to investigate further.”

Nym shrugged. “Up to you. As long as I get paid, I’m good either way.”

Leaf scratched his chin and stared down at the forest. “No, let’s go back. I did promise Babkin I’d keep you safe. Plus, you’ve got an Academy to conquer and the sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll be the strongest mage in the world, right?”

“You will grow strong, stronger than anyone else, or you will break one day when it turns out you are too weak.”

“Nym? Nym!”

Nym snapped back to the present. “Huh?”

“Come on, let’s go back,” Leaf said.

“Right…”

Nym didn’t say anything as they flew back. That single memory, the only thing he had of his past, played itself on a loop in his brain, over and over again. When they stopped for the night, Leaf made another bonfire for them, but seeming to sense Nym’s mood, he didn’t try to talk to him.

This time, instead of falling asleep, Nym laid awake deep into the night and wondered who he was, and if going to the Academy would help him figure that out.

* * *

They reached Zoskan the next day. Leaf handed over two crests, per their agreement. The coins were gold, twice as fat as a silver shield, and stamped with some sort of glyph or sign. “What does it mean?” Nym asked as he held them up to the light.

“Not a clue. I was never much for civilization. Why do you think I live in the woods?”

“Maybe it’s just better to live in the woods,” Nym muttered, eyeing the gate guards as they approached the wall.

“I think so, but most people don’t agree. Why do you want to go to the Academy if you don’t like living in town?”

“I want to learn more magic.” Nym left it unsaid that he needed to get farther away from Palmara. A few days out in the wilderness had done a lot to ease his anxiety, but seeing the guards was bringing it all back to the front of his mind.

Leaf noticed and put a hand on Nym’s shoulder. “You alright there?”

“Yeah. Just fine. Everything is fine.”

“If you say so.” It was obvious Leaf didn’t believe him, but he didn’t push Nym to open up about it.

The guards let him in without a problem, just like they always had. The more he interacted with them, the easier it became to convince himself that the Palmara guards hadn’t communicated with anyone in Zoskan. He was still leery about going inside though. That idea that everyone was just watching and waiting for a chance to grab him when he couldn’t escape was firmly lodged in his brain.

If he couldn’t get over it though, he might as well turn around and go live in the forest. There was no functioning in society if he was completely unwilling to ever set foot inside a store or an inn. He couldn’t sleep in a bed under a roof if he was so afraid that someone was going to grab him the second he walked inside.

Nym followed Leaf to the Trough and Saddle, which surprised the older man at first, until Nym told him he was hungry. Then Leaf just laughed and clapped a hand on his shoulder. Nym nearly shot into the sky, but managed to stop the reaction halfway between filling his soul well and actually casting the spell.

“You sure you’re alright?” Leaf said again.

“Still fine.”

“Okay. If you want to talk about it, I’ll listen. Sometimes, when you’ve been by yourself for a long time, it’s an adjustment to be around a lot of people again. There’s nothing wrong with easing back into it.”

That wasn’t it at all, but Nym just thanked Leaf for the advice and changed the subject. Soon enough, they stood outside the Trough and Saddle. Trepidation filled Nym, and his limbs felt heavy. No matter how many times he told himself everything was fine, that nothing bad would happen if he walked through the door, his feet were rooted to the ground.

“I’ll go on ahead,” Leaf told him. “You take your time. When you’re ready, come on in.”

Then Nym was alone, standing in the street in front of the inn. He forced himself to move closer, if only to avoid getting ran over by a horse-drawn cart coming down the street, and sat down outside the inn with his back pressed against the wall.

Mentally he chided himself. It was fine. He was being ridiculous. He’d been inside the Trough and Saddle more than almost any other place he could remember. He’d already talked to Babkin. There was nobody waiting on the other side of the door to grab him and haul him off to jail. Nobody was going to try to take away his freedom.

Almost, he believed it.

Disgusted with himself for his cowardice, Nym walked away.

* * *

He managed to get a spare pack from Cern by knocking on the window of the alchemist’s store and talking to him in the doorway. Then he flew back out to the woods and finally harvested the skywort blooms hidden behind the top of the waterfall he’d found on his first day of searching. Cern gave him three silver shields for the lot.

Walking into the guildhall and buying that teleport was the hardest thing Nym ever did. The entire time, he was on the verge of a breakdown, but the mage at the desk assumed he was nervous about the magic and spent the entire time assuring him that the process was completely safe. Nym stepped onto the platform and waited, doing his best to keep his breathing under control. With a flash of light, he disappeared from Zoskan.

* * *

In the Trough and Saddle’s common room, Ciana sat at a table and picked at the meal half-heartedly. It was delicious, far and away better than anything she’d ever prepared herself, but she was too nervous to enjoy it.

The innkeeper, Babkin, had spoken to her a few days ago after the mages at the guildhall had directed her to the Trough and Saddle. It was the last known place Nym had stayed, and she’d arrived while Babkin was away on business. As soon as he’d come back, he’d told her that Nym was safe and should be back from a job soon.

So she’d waited, and waited. The door opened, and she looked up in anticipation, but it wasn’t Nym. Instead, a tall man with a shaved head and a sharp goatee wearing forester leathers strode in. He went straight for the hall that led to Babkin’s office without stopping to order anything or talk to anyone.

Ten minutes later, the stranger walked back out and disappeared just as abruptly as he’d shown up. A few seconds later, Babkin’s shadow fell over her. “Have you seen Nym?” he asked her.

She shook her head, and he added, “He came to town with my associate. He should still be nearby if you’d like to go look for him. Do not worry about paying for this meal.”

“Thank you,” she said, scrambling to her feet. She was out the door in a flash, but Nym was nowhere to be seen. Undaunted, Ciana scoured the nearby streets looking for him. Hours passed with no trace of him. Then she checked at the guildhall to see if he’d been there and learned that he’d paid for a teleportation to Abilanth, a city that sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn’t place where she’d heard it.

What she did learn was that it was over a thousand miles away, and that there was very little hope of her reaching it on foot, given that by the time she reached the mountains splitting the country in two, it would be mid-winter and they’d be completely impassible.

Once again, he’d left her behind. This time she hadn’t even seen him go.