Ascendant

It turned out there were a lot of ways to scavenge in a city, once Nym knew what he was doing. He was never full, never comfortable, but he wasn’t under Valgo’s thumb. He could keep trying to find a way into the Academy. In the interest of not being arrested, Nym refrained from using his magic as much as possible. He didn’t have a license, and wasn’t likely to get one any time soon.

That was not to say that everything he did was strictly legal. Some of the other children were adept pickpockets. It was entirely possible that he was now living with whoever had robbed him on his first day, but if so, nobody had admitted to recognizing him and he hadn’t asked. He completely understood why they did it.

Nym was not a pickpocket. He lacked the manual dexterity and the nerves. But he wasn’t above rummaging through trash for some food that was only slightly moldy. That part could be cut away easily enough. He wasn’t above spying on people, and he wasn’t above picking up something left unattended and scampering off with it.

Probably his biggest legal sin was hopping the wall with some regularity to explore the middle ring. Once, just once, he’d gone to the inner ring. Almost immediately he’d been accosted by guards wanting to know who he was and how he’d gotten in. He’d been unceremoniously escorted not only out of the inner ring, but through the middle ring and into the outer. The guards had not been gentle and the entire time, his heart had been beating so hard he thought it would burst out of his chest.

If the guard holding his arm had let go for even a second, Nym would have flown off into the sky, consequences be damned. The man’s hand was an unwavering vice though, and it didn’t let go until Nym was being roughly thrown through the gates and he was warned not to let them catch a filthy gutter dweller in the middle or inner ring again.

As the weeks rolled by, Nym learned how to survive. He wasn’t thriving by any definition, but he found food. The street kids looked out for each other, at least a little bit. They had a stash of blankets, old and ratty and thin, but better than nothing, that were distributed as the weather got cold. There weren’t enough for everybody, so kids huddled up with their friends to share heat.

Things were getting worse as it got colder, but so far, everyone was hanging on. Nym’s problem was that he was only just getting by. There was no money to be had, and no access to training, tutors, or resources. Not for the first time, he regretted leaving Zoskan. The more weather-worn and torn up his clothing got, the more the guards noticed him, and Nym started to feel that familiar panic again. Something about guards paying attention to him scared him.

He was starting to fear going into buildings too, but that was less of an issue since nobody wanted a homeless kid in their store anyway. Everyone knew just from looking at him that he didn’t have a single bent bronze wedge, and thus was not a potential customer. He could at best be a nuisance, at worse be a thief, so he was blocked from even entering stores by guards or shopkeepers in the middle ring, and booted out immediately in the outer ring.

Things were slowly getting worse for him as the weather turned bad, but he was hanging on. Then the first snowfall hit Abilanth, and everything went wrong.

* * *

Nym stood in the center of an alley near the south edge of the wall, surrounded on both sides by four grown men. He shrank back towards the wall as they advanced, forming a half circle. “Well, well,” the one with the club said. “Looks like it’s our lucky day, huh boys?”

“Sure does,” one of them agreed. “We needed someone just like you, and you look like you need a warm place to sleep. Everybody wins.”

Somehow, Nym doubted that. “I’ve already got a warm bed,” he lied. “Sorry, but you’ll have to find someone else to help with whatever you need.”

“I doubt it,” the man with the club said. He pointed it at Nym’s shoes, then his knees, then his torso. “Shoes are coming off the soles. Holes worn out in the knees. Coat is split at the seams. The clothes aren’t heavy enough for winter. You’re one of the kid bums that holes up in that old warehouse.”

“Even if I was, that’s good enough for me. Leave me alone.”

“See, I think you’re one of those whoresons that got turned out onto the street. Got too big and started costing dear ol’ mom some of the clients. So she cut you loose. Well, good news, you get to join the family business. You’ll get a warm bed and two meals a day, and you’ll be a call boy. They’ll rent you by the hour.”

The man leered at him and smacked the club into his hand. “Now, you don’t need all your teeth to be a call boy. And bruises heal, eventually. So don’t think I’m afraid to rough up the merchandise. You can come easy or hard. Your choice, call boy.”

The sun was behind the mountains now. The men cast long shadows in the twilight hours, and as they moved, those shadows twisted like demons. A gust of wind howled down the alley, sending up snow flurries that briefly blinded Nym. In that moment of vulnerability, one of the men lunged forward and grabbed Nym.

“Get away from me!” he screamed, opening his conduit up and filling his soul well.

Snow wasn’t exactly like water, but it was close enough. Nym grabbed hold of the flakes and sharpened them into shards of ice. Then spun around in the air, cutting the man who grabbed him. Little slices appeared on his hand, causing him to flinch back, and then across his face and into his eyes. The man bellowed in pain and stumbled backwards, grabbing at his eyes.

Before Nym could flee, the club struck him across the back of his head. He tumbled to the street and his vision blackened. He knew he needed to do something, to use his magic, to run, to scream for help. All he could do was hang on while the world spun around him.

Something hit his ribs hard enough to flip him over onto his back. He saw leering faces overhead, tried to focus on them, but it was too hard. He was seeing at least triple, all of them dancing around each other, weaving in and out of his sight.

Then they disappeared. There was some yelling and some loud thumps, and a new face appeared. Hands helped him upright and held him steady. “It’s okay, take your time. Just focus on my voice. You’re alright now. Deep breaths. Steady now. Good, good.”

Nym pulled himself back together slowly. He was still in an enormous amount of pain, but it was just pain, not nausea and dizziness. He could focus, maybe not as good as normal, but better than he could a few minutes ago. The first thing he saw was all four men slumped against the wall in front of him. They were alive, but injured. There was a lot of blood in the alley, some of it probably Nym’s.

“Nym, focus please,” the voice said. Nym realized someone had been speaking to him for a little while now. He tried to mentally play back the conversation, but it was just noise.

“How’d… how’d you know my name?” he slurred out.

“Of course I know your name. I’ve been keeping track of you for a month now. Did you think I’d risk someone so valuable to a couple of rented thugs looking to fill empty rooms in a brothel? As for you, you idiots, go grab kids somewhere else. If you knew he was staying in my shelter, you knew better than to touch him.”

Nym finally got a look at his rescuer. Even shrouded in twilight shadows, it was unmistakably Valgo. He trembled in sudden fear and wondered if it would have been better to get abducted by the body snatchers after all. Nym did not want to owe Valgo a favor.

Valgo pushed something into his hand, and Nym looked down at in confusion. It looked like some sort of ticket, but he couldn’t read it in the dark. “Little present for you. There are three books at a pawn shop called the Stop n’ Hoc. They were pawned for four shims, with the option for the holder of the receipt to reclaim them for five shims in the next week.”

“I don’t have five shims,” Nym mumbled.

“I’m sure a smart boy like you can find a way. Run along now. I need to have a chat with these men about the consequences of interfering in my business operations.”

Valgo put a hand on Nym’s back and guided him toward the end of alley. Nym stumbled forward and kicked up some snow as he staggered back out onto the street. Behind him, he could hear all four men blubbering and stammering as they made excuses. Then there was the heavy thud of metal chopping down onto meat.

Nym kept his eyes locked forward and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He didn’t slow down until he could no longer hear Valgo handing out his punishment.

* * *

The next day, Nym found the Stock n’ Hoc. Valgo hadn’t been playing with him. The books really were there, confirmed by the pawn broker and shown to him. They were his, as long as he came back with the receipt in his hand and five copper shims.

Nym clutched the receipt in his hand like his life depended on it. He knew Valgo was taunting him, trying to push him into compromising his morals. Nym wanted those books. He wanted them badly. But did he want them enough to steal money? He didn’t need the books to survive. It wasn’t like stealing food.

He returned to the old warehouse, what the almost two dozen homeless kids living there called the sanctuary. He bumped into Ermy, one of the older boys who was an accomplished pickpocket. There was nobody there Nym respected more. Ermy brought in the lion’s share of the food that went to feeding the younger kids. Without his work, half of the children living in the sanctuary would be dead.

“Ermy, listen,” Nym said. “You always have a bit of money you scrounged up. Do you have five shims?”

“Why?” Ermy asked suspiciously.

“I need it. Look, I’ll… uh… sell you my coat? That’s good for five shims, right?”

Ermy eyed it up, suspicion replaced by naked desire. “You sure? It’s only going to get colder. You’re going to regret this in a month.”

“I need the money,” Nym repeated. He shrugged off the coat and held it out. “Deal?”

Ermy snatched the coat out of his hands and immediately put it on. He pulled a handful of shims out of his pocket and handed them over. “Don’t know what you’re thinking, but good luck.”

“It was worth it,” Nym told him. “But hey, when you get too big for it, maybe pass it on to Dai. She needs it the most, okay?”

“Sure,” Ermy agreed easily.

Nym practically ran back out into the streets and he didn’t slow down until he got to the Stop n’ Hoc. When he left, he clutched three slim tomes to his chest. He returned to the sanctuary and settled down in a corner. The other kids watched curiously, but Nym ignored them and began to read.