Ascendant

The Ivory Haven was a gambling den. With its name, Nym shouldn’t have been surprised. They didn’t want to let him in at first, both because of his age and because he had no money. Nobody got into a gambling den with empty pockets, and nobody got to remain when the money ran out. When he told the bouncer he was here to speak to Valgo, they changed their stance and he was escorted to a room down a dark hallway leading away from the main gambling floor.

He was left in an empty room. There was a table with a lantern on it, unlit, and two chairs. All were made of rough, unfinished wood, the kind that he’d expect to walk away with a splinter or two just from sitting on it. They closed the door, leaving him in the dark. Nym wasn’t sure if they were expecting him to light the lantern, but if so, he had no tools for it.

Maybe he was just supposed to sit in the dark until Valgo showed up. Nym wouldn’t be doing that either. He channeled arcana through his soul well to form the quasi-dark vision spell and the room came back into view, or at least it did for a few feet around him in every direction. He paced the outside of the room, noting as he did that the bouncer was still standing outside in front of the door, guarding it.

He also found a hidden exit behind a false wall, which was laughably easy to spot since he could see down the hallway it connected to. Nym leaned against the wall next to it and waited. Sure enough, Valgo came into sight, creeping along silently and pausing to put his ear to the wall for a moment before he activated the mechanical switches that caused the wall to swing open. They were completely silent on well-oiled hinges, but even without his magic enhancing his sight, Nym would have sensed the change in the air.

Valgo moved with confidence, despite the room being pitch black. Nym suspected he had a true dark vision spell to help him navigate, but didn’t see the glow of arcana around him other mages had exhibited. Perhaps it was possible to hide that as well.

Valgo had obviously seen him standing next to the door, but hadn’t said anything as he crossed the room silently and struck a spark to the lantern. A small flame flared up, and he adjusted it to throw enough light to illuminate the table.

“You aren’t surprised to see me,” Valgo observed.

“Felt the change in the air when you opened the door.”

“Hmm… excellent, but maybe only in an enclosed space. It did not seem to work for you last night.”

Nym shrugged. The man obviously had a flair for the theatrical, and Nym wasn’t going to get sucked into the drama. He did not trust Valgo, and he wanted to give away as little information as possible. Valgo knew he could fly, and if Nym had his way, that was all he’d ever discover about him. Every secret he gave up was a bargaining chip he lost.

Valgo studied him in the light of the flickering flames, not that he needed them. If he wanted to pretend he did though, Nym would play along. “So,” he said, “You have decided to accept my offer.”

“No, I’ve decided to hear the details of your offer. It would seem to me that it’s necessary to know what the offer is before I accept it.”

Valgo laughed softly. “Wise beyond your years. That is good. Though I think you did not grow up on the streets. You are only half as suspicious as you would be, otherwise.”

The truth was that Nym’s stomach had begun to twist itself in knots when he entered the Ivory Haven, and it had only gotten worse when the bouncer had led him to the meeting room. He did not trust any of them, and the only thing that kept him from fleeing was knowing how desperate his situation was and that nobody in a gambling den was likely to try to imprison him.

Though once he thought about it, he was technically a criminal here now too. But the guards didn’t know who he was, so it didn’t count. They wanted someone for the bookstore break in, but not Nym specifically. Why that made a difference, he couldn’t tell. Emotions weren’t rational, and he was just thankful the fear wasn’t as paralyzing as it had been back in Zoskan. Somehow the thought of being imprisoned and tried for Senman’s murder was worse than the fear that Valgo would try to kill him right now.

That fear also existed and, in Nym’s opinion, was entirely rational. But he countered it by telling himself that Valgo wanted something from him and hadn’t even told him what it was, so he would at least have the chance to hear the man out and could pretend to accept the offer before fleeing if need be.

“Very well, let me enlighten you to the opportunities that exist in your future, my young friend,” Valgo said, sweeping his hands out wide. Nym was starting to find the theatrics annoying.

“You’ve got a measure of natural abilities. You’ve reached into the second layer, what they call the Edge of the Horizon up at the Academy. And I am guessing you did it on your own, considering the condition you’re in. You don’t have anyone backing you up. No one is bank rolling your application. You need a place to live, a place to study, someone to tutor you and give you the resources you need to grow. I can do all of that for you.”

“That all sounds great. What do you want in return?” Nym asked.

“I want you to do what you were already prepared to do, but against more valuable targets and more successfully. I will personally teach you the stealth and illusion magics I use, and I’ll feed you information on soft targets.”

“You want me to be a thief, and to take all the risks of being caught and then give you the profits. Why would I do that? Why not just steal things for myself and keep all the profits if I’m taking all the risks?”

Valgo grinned and said, “And who are you going to fence the goods to? Do you know what pawn shops know not to ask questions? Do you have the capital to bribe guards and servants to give you information? Do you have friends high up in the city bureaucracy to get you out of trouble?”

“Do you?” Nym asked.

“Of course I do. How do you think I got to be so successful?”

“I don’t know how successful you are,” Nym pointed out.

“I’m successful enough that I knew you were casing bookstores yesterday, which one you would hit, and what you were after. I watched you do it from the roof of that cute little bakery across the street. You were impressive, but rough, unrefined. Clearly an amateur. Let me make you a professional and we’ll both get rich. Everyone gets what they want.”

“I’m sure your victims don’t feel that way.”

Valgo snorted and waved a hand dismissively. “Rich tits who only know they should be outraged because someone dared to rob them. Believe me, they feel no lack of comfort at being relieved of some spare coin and jewelry.”

That was probably true. Nym knew he wouldn’t feel much guilt over mugging someone like Amos. That rich little prick had it coming, and he’d probably just get another purse full of crests and keep moving forward like nothing had ever happened and whine about it over his dinner that night.

That did not mean every rich kid was the same. Nym considered that teenager who offered to pick up the difference at the tailor’s shop. He would feel horrible robbing someone like that. He’d done a lot of things over the last month that Ciana wouldn’t approve of, even in the last day, but he hadn’t sunk that low, not yet.

“It’s an interesting offer,” Nym said. “I’d like some time to think about it.”

Valgo knocked on the door Nym had been let in through. It opened to reveal the bouncer. “Take our young friend here back outside,” he instructed. “If he comes back tonight, alone, show him back to this room. Otherwise he should be turned away at the door.”

“Got it,” the man said. “Come on then.”

Nym was escorted back out to the streets and the door slammed closed behind him. He walked away, thinking furiously. On the one hand, he had no interest in becoming a thief. On the other, he was very, very hungry. He’d spotted a fountain in the middle ring and managed to scoop up a few mouthfuls of water, which did a little bit to assuage his thirst, but the weird looks other people at the park gave him convinced him to move along in a hurry.

One way or another, he was going to end up stealing to survive. He’d tried finding honest work and it just wasn’t out there. What little money he had saved when he got here was gone, spent on warmer clothes and then the remainder stolen. The question in his mind was whether being independent was better than putting himself under someone like Valgo.

The thief was obviously experienced, well-connected, probably rich, and most importantly, had access to magic. Nym saw it in the meeting, just for a moment, when the lantern had been lit. His eyes had shifted from the white outlines that saw through objects to normal vision, and he’d seen the aura of arcana around Valgo’s face. It was like an oily black sheen surrounding his eyes, but only for a second before it disappeared.

Valgo definitely had some sort of vision-enhancing spell he used, which meant he was the real deal. He probably couldn’t teach Nym a tenth of what he’d learn if he could go to the Academy, but that wasn’t in the cards. The offer he had in front of him was learn to steal, make Valgo richer, and in return have food and shelter and access to magic.

Nym wasn’t stupid. He knew he wasn’t getting the better end of the deal. Valgo would screw him over the second he thought it was worth more than keeping him around. Worse, if Nym went down this road, he was likely sabotaging his potential future at the Academy. That was the whole reason he was here. He might come back from being a thief who stole food to survive. He wouldn’t come back from being a thief who knocked off nobles’ estates.

He walked the streets and alleys of the outer ring while he wrestled with his conscience. Short term, the answer was obvious: take the deal. Long term, the answer was also obvious: stay far, far away from the deal. He needed to think long term, so he should reject Valgo’s offer. The problem was that he wasn’t sure he could survive in the short term if he did that.

As it got darker, he saw other kids creeping around. Some were a bit older than him, most were younger. All of them were ragged looking, with shaggy, unkempt hair and dirty, torn, and scuffed clothes. None of them had shoes. Nym winced at that. His feet were cold even with the layer of leather protecting him from the stone streets.

“Hey,” he said to one of the kids. “Where is everyone going?”

“It’s bread day,” the kid told him, looking at him like he was stupid. “What’s a fancy kid like you need with it?”

“He’s not fancy,” an older boy told him. “Looks like he got lucky and stole some warm clothes. They don’t fit him at all. A real noble would have it all tailored. You homeless?”

Nym nodded. “Thought I could find work here. Thought wrong. Nobody will hire me. Someone stole my money, not that I had a lot. Been sleeping outside since I got here.”

The boy shook his head and sighed. “Come on, new kid. I’ll show you where to get some food.”

Nym followed the children to a church built up against the outer wall where a pair of priests were giving out some old, stale bread. It was not good, not at all, but it filled his stomach for the first time in days.

The kids showed him an old, abandoned warehouse they slept in. It was in such bad shape that he worried it would collapse on them, but at least it had open access to the sky in case he needed to flee. Nym settled into a corner and tried to get some sleep.

He did not go back to the Ivory Haven that night. He slept just fine.