Ascendant

The Earth Shapers showed up about an hour after Nym and Analia got there. The two waited outside of the city a ways, with Analia guarding Nym while he scried up and down Sunset Lane watching for them. They waited, both of them sitting on the floating trunk, until the earth mages pulled up next to them.

“Coming along then?” Bildar asked, eyeing the trunk.

“For now, if you’ll have us. We’re not sure if we’ll go all the way to Ebalsan though.”

“That’s fine. We’re not sure we’ll go that far either. I think we can fit this trunk in the wagon. Might be a bit tight. We’ll have to unpack some stuff first.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Nym said. The trunk floated over to the end of the wagon, which had a canvas roof stretched over its contents, and he peered inside. Objects started floating out, and the trunk slid all the way to the back, then the rest of the wagon repacked itself.

“Well he’s handy,” Ophelia said. “Why can’t you do that, brother dearest?”

“Because I’m an earth mage, not an air mage. Though maybe I’m in the wrong line of work. But we’ll see how he does when we’re bogged down in the mud!” Bildar flexed an arm as he spoke. “That’s when you’ll see earth magic shine!”

“Who are you even talking to? Do you think any of us are impressed?” Ophelia asked.

“Aw shut it. You’re just jealous I scored higher than you on the Helingar-Bistal Test.”

“Oh please, like a twelve is anything to write home about. That’s barely above average.”

“But it’s better than a nine, isn’t it?” Bildar said.

It took Nym a bit to realize they were speaking about the soul well measuring test. “You took that, didn’t you? I feel like we talked about it,” he asked Analia.

“I did, yes. It caused a bit of a scene and they made me redo it three times.”

“Oh really? Why’s that?” Ophelia asked.

Analia grimaced. “Twenty-six.”

“God have mercy,” Bildar swore quietly. “I’ve never heard of anyone getting above a fifteen.”

“There are a couple of famous archmages in the history books who managed low twenties,” Ophelia said thoughtfully. “Can’t remember any of their names right now. Maybe one or two beat that, but you’re going to go down in the history books when you grow up, girl.”

“And what about you, Ermy? What’d you get? A five?” Nomick asked.

“I’ve never taken the test,” he said. “And… speaking of, we decided that if we’re going to be traveling with you guys, you need to know the whole truth. It would not be right if you woke up one day and our problems caught up to us. You should know what you’re getting involved in.”

Analia stepped up next to him. “My full name is Analia Feldstal. I ran away from home about a week ago and took a teleport out of Abilanth. I have no doubt my older brother has quite a few people looking for me. They could catch up to me at any time and try to abduct me to return me home. My father is currently assisting the army in repelling the undead invasion, which is the reason I’m hesitant about going all the way to Ebalsan.”

Before anyone else could cut in, Nym added, “My name isn’t Ermy. It’s Nym. I murdered a man who was trying to kill me and fled from home before I could be arrested for it. In Abilanth, a crime lord planted evidence to use against me and blackmailed me into trying to burgle the Feldstal estate. That’s how I met Analia. I tried to help her escape, and in the process, we were both captured by the crime lord. I… I killed a lot of people escaping that, and burned down a building, and robbed the crime lord’s vault to get enough money to survive while I fled.”

“You robbed the vault?” Analia asked, surprised. “When did that happen?”

“After I took you to the healers. It was kind of by accident. He grabbed me with some sort of spell and dragged me into his hideout so he could kill me. I saw all the traps when I was scrying to find my way out of his hideout. When I went back to the healer to pay your bill, he told me your family had already picked you up and passed along your message.”

“Wait, if you’re rich now, why were you staying at the Lucky Barrel?”

“I’m not rich. I gave most of the money away before I left. I kept a few crests for traveling expenses and in case I needed an emergency teleport somewhere.”

“Okay, hold up a second. Give us a minute to discuss this,” Bildar said.

He pulled the other earth mages into a huddle, complete with an aura of arcana around Nomick. He watched the construct and committed the shape of it to memory. No sounds came from the group, though they were clearly talking to each other. A spell like that could be very useful. Absently, he wove arcana together to see if he’d gotten it right. Everything around him became muted, but he didn’t think that was the intended effect.

If they didn’t end up kicked out, he’d ask Nomick about it later. He probably messed something up, or it just didn’t work quite as well with arcana that had no intent fused into it. It didn’t matter. The whole project was just a distraction while he waited to see if his new friends still wanted the real Nym around.

He felt Analia squeeze his hand and he looked down, surprised. “It’s okay. I wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t want the potential danger we bring. We’ll travel on our own if we have to.”

“Easy for you to say. I’m going to be the one carrying that trunk.”

“I am a noble. I cannot be expected to haul my own luggage around,” she said pompously. “In fact, I should have a carriage to make this trip more bearable.”

“You must have more money stashed away than I thought if that’s your plan,” he said dryly.

“Well no. I’m just saying that I should have a carriage, as befits my station.”

“Your station as a runaway?”

“Give me my hand back. I’m never going to comfort you again.”

She swatted him playfully, and Nym let out a rueful laugh. No matter how the next few minutes went, he wasn’t alone. They fell silent and waited for the group to finish, which didn’t take that long.

“I understand why you would keep your history secret from strangers you just met, and I appreciate how hard it must have been to tell us the truth. And Analia, you must have a lot of faith in Ermy, er, Nym, to trust us on his word alone. That having been said…”

He paused and looked at the other earth mages behind him. Then, with a deep breath, he continued, “We’ve decided that you’ll be assigned meal clean up duty, as no one here is very good at elemental water magic.”

The tension drained out of Nym and he left out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “You said it that way on purpose,” he accused Bildar. The bearded mage grinned and didn’t deny it.

“We want to hear some more details, but from your own admission, you acted in self-defense. I know how hard that is to come to terms with, and I can see that it weighs on you. We’ll talk more as we go, and both of you are officially welcome to join us.”

“Yeah, yeah,” one of the twins said. “Enough of the speech. Let’s get going. The sooner we’re gone, the sooner I never have to see anyone from that contractors guild again.”

“Oh, right, I forgot. Speaking of them, a bunch of them tried to ambush us again,” Nym said.

“Tried?”

“They weren’t very good at it.”

“Alright, alright. We can hear this story while we travel. Let’s get on the road people,” Bildar said, ushering them forward. The oxen started plodding along again, slowly until they got up to speed, and six mages walked away from Thrakus with the rising sun at their backs.

* * *

When they stopped for the night, Ophelia and Bildar approached Nym. “You said you’ve never done the Helingar-Bistal Test?”

“Nope. It never came up. I couldn’t get the money together to go to the Academy.”

“Not surprising. It’s expensive. Our parents practically beggared themselves sending both of us. I think it was a good investment though. We’ve sent them a lot of crests back over the years. Anyway, turns out Ophelia knows how to do it and I know enough to assist. So unless your rating is insanely high like Analia’s, the two of us should be enough.”

“Will it take long?” Nym asked.

“Just a few minutes.”

Nym noticed Analia watching from over by the wagon, but she didn’t say anything. “Okay, what do I need to do?”

“I’ll cast the spell. All you have to do is fill your soul well up as full as you can. Then you close the conduit and push against the spell. Bildar and I will push back and take the measurements. Then we compare it against your age and we’re done.”

“Oh, I don’t actually know how old I am.”

“Eh, not the end of the world. You’ll have a range then, something like nine or ten, instead of knowing the exact number.”

Nym started filling his soul well while Ophelia cast the spell. Auras sprang up around both, similar shades of soft green, almost identical.  Once the spell was complete, some kind of magical orb formed around Nym and Ophelia said, “Now push it all out. Don’t draw anymore in, just everything you’ve got in one go.”

Releasing arcana without shaping it was a lot like exhaling underwater. It made him instantly want to draw in more to replace what he’d spent. The arcana rushed out of him all at once, and the orb around him blew out in three different spots. Ophelia yelped and practically fell over Bildar. “Ow!” she yelled. “What the hell was that?”

“Sorry,” Nym said, trying not to panic. “I didn’t mean it. Maybe I let it out too fast?”

Once everyone was back on their feet, Ophelia went over the spell again. “No, it worked, just… not really. I was starting to get the reading when you broke through the test bubble. Congratulations, you’re stronger than the both of us put together, and not even half our age.”

“That’s kind of insane,” Monick said.

“Very insane,” Nomick added. “Do you want us to help?”

“Just one,” Ophelia said. “It’s easier to do the calculations with less people.”

Nym refilled his soul well while she cast the spell again. This time, auras popped around all three of them and a new orb appeared around Nym. “Ready?” he said.

“Ready! Give it all you’ve got.”

Arcana poured out of him again and pressed against the orb. It strained for a second before deforming and splitting down the side. All three earth mages flinched and recoiled from him at the same time, but nobody fell this time.

“God’s hairy balls, woman! Are you sure you’re casting this spell right?” Monick demanded, clutching at his head.

“Of course I am!”

“Then why does he keep breaking the orb! There is no way Nym has got a bigger soul well than three adult mages.”

“I don’t know! Nomick, get over here and help!”

With some trepidation, they repeated the test a third time. Nym was almost afraid to let his arcana out, but at Analia’s gentle nod, he mustered up his nerve and exhaled. Arcana pushed up against the orb, but finally, it held. There was some wobbling and stretching, but in the end, the arcana was contained. Ophelia let the spell dissipate and sighed.

“Wow. Okay, give me a few minutes to work this out. You two are both tens, right? And Nym, best guess on your age?”

“I don’t know, somewhere between ten and thirteen?”

“I’ll do the calculations for either end.”

Ophelia spent the next half an hour sitting on the wagon scribbling numbers on a piece of paper while the rest set up the camp. Nym caught them giving him odd looks when they thought he wasn’t looking, and he very much regretted agreeing to doing the test. It hadn’t mattered to him before what the number was, but it was making things weird.

“I give up! I am obviously doing this wrong. These results make no sense. Bildar, we’re going to measure you so I can run the calculations again and figure out where I’m going wrong,” Ophelia announced.

“It’s fine, we don’t have to figure this out,” Nym said.

“The hell we don’t!”

So they ran their test, and Ophelia went back to work. And finally, an hour later, she put the pen down with a sigh and started massaging her forehead. After a few minutes of that, she returned to the group and cleared her throat.

“I have triple-checked this. I ran the calculations again using Bildar’s numbers so I know what the right answer is and that I did this right. Nym, as far as I can determine, if we assume you are thirteen years old so as to get the lowest result possible, your score on the Helingar-Bistal Test is a whopping seventy-four.”

There was a round of stunned silence from the group, and then Bildar slapped him on the back. “Congratulations kid. Looks like you’re a demi-god.”