Ascendant

The twins took the lead on the conversation, as they were the youngest and had most recently obtained their licenses. That was still six years ago, but Bildar had been a licensed mage for two decades and Ophelia for almost as long. Both of them readily admitted that they barely remembered their own exams and had no idea if they could even pass a current day one.

“So there’s the written exam,” Monick said. “And it’s not all magic stuff. There’s a lot of stuff about knowing the law, what kind of spells are allowed, what are restricted, what you need special permits for, the punishments for breaking the law, and so on. For example, pretty much nobody wants necromancers around. There are very few good reasons for it and it’s ripe for abuse.”

“And it’s icky,” Nomick added.

“That too. But also, did you know that the whole region around Vharn outright bans fire magic. Sure, it’s plenty useful, but they grow a lot of food and if a wild-fire got out of control, it could starve the entire kingdom. So, even if you have a license, you’re not allowed to use fire magic anywhere within a hundred miles of Vharn.”

“What about after the harvest?” Nym said.

Monick shrugged. “For the purposes of the licensing exam, no fire in Vharn. If you ever visit the place, maybe find out about the local customs.”

“So that’s one part of the written exam. Then there’s a lot of questions about the proper and safe ways to conduct spells, lab safety, research ethics,” Nomick started counting off topics on his fingers. “Really, the whole thing focuses on the responsible use of magic. It’s just asking you to show that you know how to use magic without endangering other people.”

Monick picked up the explanation. “Then there’s the practicals. Demonstrate that you can control whatever your elemental affinity is, that you have mastery and precision. They’ll have you perform a few dozen spells in various disciplines to show that you know what you’re doing and can be trusted to work independently in fields that require those kinds of magic. Every category you can pass will get you an endorsement on your license.”

“We have endorsements for earth magic, obviously. Monick and I also have a spatial endorsement showing we’ve proven we have a mastery of the basics of spatial magic. I, additionally, have an endorsement for alchemy that Monick doesn’t have.”

“Only because you took the test first! By the time you were done, the proctor was so sick of you that she went extra hard on me.”

Bildar told Nym, “I have an alchemy endorsement on my license. Unlike the basic license, those have to be renewed if you want to keep them. I’m actually due to renew mine next year.”

Nym took a few minutes to process that while the group finished up their meal. Finally, he said, “I can’t pass the written. I could do the practical for at least two elemental types, maybe three. Depending on what spells they asked me to do, I might be able to pass the practical. I don’t think I could get any endorsements.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Ophelia told him. “Most mages are just starting their training at your age. But unfortunately, none of us have the time or spare funds right now to take on an apprentice. The busy season is just starting up for us and we’re going to be scrambling all year to find replacement jobs for the big one that got canceled.”

The short version of it then was that there was no money at the table for Nym. Once he stopped to consider it, he was fine with that. He still had a sizable amount left over from his raid on Valgo’s treasury, even after he’d given more than half of it away to the orphans he’d been living with. More than that, Thrakis wasn’t a long-term home for him. He was just waiting for Analia to show up, which if things went as scheduled would be in the next few days. It was for the best that he not be tied down with the group of earth mages long-term.

“Can I tag along anyway just to watch? Maybe I’ll learn something from observation.”

“It’s mighty boring to watch after the novelty wears off,” Bildar said, “But sure, if you want. As long as you can stay out of the way when we start moving stuff and don’t get me too distracted with questions.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Nym said seriously. “In the meantime, maybe I can do some studying to pass the written licensing exam and find some spellbooks that cover the kind of magic I need to be able to showcase to get licensed.”

“You’ll have a good start if you can,” Nomick said. “The Academy is expensive, and the more of it you can teach yourself before you go there to get shined up, the easier it’ll be.”

“Aren’t there any mages who don’t graduate from the Academy?” Nym asked. He already knew he wasn’t ever going to attend.

“Sure, but they’re mostly the kids of rich merchants or nobles who are getting a better private education. You don’t strike me as a noble’s son, so you’re probably better off going to the Academy.”

“Even if it is so cold that certain sensitive parts of your anatomy could fall off,” Bildar muttered.

“At least your nickname wasn’t ‘Jewel Thief’ at school,” Ophelia added.

The twins burst into laughter, only to fall silent when Ophelia turned her glare on them. “And if you ever call me that, I will rip your spleens out through your assholes,” she warned them. “Both of you, no matter who says it, just to be sure I’ve punished the correct person.”

Their side of the table devolved into good-natured bickering while Bildar told Nym, “We’ve got a job on the other side of the city in an hour. You can come along, but you can’t do any magic under my license. I’d like to say I’ll answer all your questions, but the fact of the matter is that it’s busy work and I can’t promise I’ll have time. Just observing isn’t going to help much, but I won’t stop you if that’s how you want to spend your time.”

“That’s okay. I’m sure I’ll learn plenty,” Nym said. It wouldn’t be as good as having it explained to him, but Nym could pick up plenty of tricks just spending some time watching them cast spells, especially since by the very nature of their work, they would be casting the same spells repeatedly for a few hours.

“Erm, I should have asked this before, but your parents are fine with this?” Bildar said.

“Oh… that. I don’t have parents.”

The table went silent, Nym looked around, noted various degrees of pity on their faces, and shook his head. “It’s fine. I never had any, as far as I can remember. Sometimes I get some help from nice people, usually I do stuff on my own. I’m not dead yet, so I think I do alright.”

“That’s incredibly depressing,” the twins said in unison.

“A little bit, yes,” Ophelia agreed.

“Never would have guessed though. You must be doing something right.”

The others turned to look at Bildar. “What?” he said. “He is! Look at him!”

“My brother is an idiot, Ermy. Please ignore him,” Ophelia said.

“It’s… fine?”

“Right, well, anyway, I guess let’s finish this up so we can get on site and do our jobs today.”

* * *

Nym passed the afternoon off in a corner of the construction site, watching the earth mage crew cast the same seven or eight spells repeatedly. The twins used a few earth shaping spells to excavate it, separate it into composite types, and finally to relocate it to Bildar. His spells were the most complicated as he had to tailor them specifically for each type of dirt he used as well as measuring out certain ratios.

Nym felt he learned the least from Bildar. He observed a lot of spell constructs, but they were all highly specialized depending on what materials he was working with, and Nym lacked the knowledge to figure that out. The twins had perhaps the most labor-intensive job, but also the one that Nym thought he could copy the most easily.

Ophelia was surprisingly the one who was willing to entertain questions while she worked, provided they stayed on topic. It actually got to the point where it became more of a live demonstration as she explained the rune sequences she was building and the logic behind how they were structured. Nym came away with a far more nuanced understanding of runes than he’d had before, albeit in a very narrow slice of the field. Still, the lecture gave him some ideas for practical applications on the few other runes he already knew.

While they worked, a crowd developed to watch. The citizens that made up the crowd changed regularly as people got bored and left, while new people drifted in. The only constants were a few of the constables keeping things relatively orderly and holding the crowd back from wandering into the construction site, and a few extremely angry looking men. Nym recognized one of them as the contractor from the other day who’d tried to talk down his guildmates.

“The competition is back to glare at you again,” he said to Bildar softly.

“Yeah, I saw them come in an hour or so ago. It’s fine. They got fined even more heavily than we did for ‘disturbing the peace’ the other night, and the ones that attacked us are still in jail. They won’t try anything again.”

True to Bildar’s predictions, the group left without anything happening. The four earth mages went to the Quarterhouse, but Nym had something else to take care of. Part of the plan with Analia if they got separated involved meeting in Thrakus at a particular inn in a very expensive district of the city. It was, not surprisingly, on the opposite side as the stock yards. Nym had scouted it out when he’d first arrived and located his target, a massive palatial place called Silk Box. He’d held off on scrying it until he’d felt better, but giving it a once over needed to become part of his daily routine.

Nym found himself a nice alleyway nearby where he thought he was unlikely to be noticed and cast a scrying spell. He swept over the building as quickly as he could, but it was four stories tall and rented out whole suites as opposed to individual rooms. It took him a little time, and there was no sign of Analia.

That was slightly disappointing, but if he took her message literally, it would still be a few days until she arrived. If she was delayed for any reason, it could be another week or two of waiting. That honestly wouldn’t be terrible, as Thrakus was considerably warmer than Abilanth and he was much more comfortable now that he was flush with cash.

He also liked the earth mages and was looking forward to learning more from them. While they were having dinner, Nym finished up his chore and headed out of the city. Exactly how far he needed to go was a bit hazy as, unlike Zoskan or Abilanth, there was no wall, but eventually he figured he was far enough away that nobody would complain and even if something went wrong, he couldn’t hurt anyone.

Then he started practicing some of the spells he’d seen. Ripping up chunks of dirt was easy enough, though his came out looking like a giant hand had sunk its fingers into the dirt and tore out whatever it could reach. Transmuting the dirt to anything was completely off the table as he had no idea what he was looking at. Even though he replicated the sorting spell the twins were using, he couldn’t tell much of a difference between the three piles the dirt pulled itself into. It all just looked like dirt to him.

He could still compact them into blocks though and stack them up, which allowed him to practice the basic runes Ophelia had taught him. That took nearly two hours before he managed to get it right, and even then it was only enough to anchor two blocks together. If he did three, the whole thing fell apart and he couldn’t quite figure out why.

Satisfied with his progress for the day, Nym returned to the Lucky Barrel to get a good night’s sleep and continue in the morning. Therefore, he was quite surprised to walk into the common room and find Ophelia sitting there.