Ascendant

Nym’s first army job was a lot less exciting than he expected. No one wanted him to go out and fight ghouls. He didn’t need to kill twenty of them, or bring back a certain number of plants that grew in the local area. They didn’t want him to escort anyone anywhere. The army didn’t even need him to scout anything, as they had their own division of mages who were well-trained in a specific spell list that included flight.

No, for his first job, they shoved a satchel into his hands with nine rolled up parchments sealed with a dollop of wax and a map showing the locations of outposts within ten miles of forward command. “So… I’m delivering the mail?” he asked the man at the administration desk.

“Essentially, yes. Your application claims you can fly over twenty miles a day, so this should be an easy job for you. Go to the outpost, drop off new orders, collect the daily report, and bring them back.”

“And for that… one shield five?”

“It’ll be added to your account, yes. You’ll report in here when you come back and we’ll add it to your balance. You can cash out small amounts here, but if you want big sums, you’ll have to go to the quartermaster’s office to get those.”

“That sounds fair. Thanks!”

“You’re welcome, young man. Be safe out there, and we’ll see you back in a few hours.”

Nym left the office and stepped outside, took a moment to orient himself in the right direction, and launched himself into the air. It was easy enough to find the first outpost on his list, which was officially called the fifth outpost for some reason, and which was little more than a manned supply depot with an attached barracks surrounded by a fifteen-foot-high wall that the trees had all been cut back from.

“Hey, got orders from the forward command post and instructions to pick up the daily reports,” he said as he landed in the middle of the outpost, startling two soldiers. The outpost captain was summoned and exchanged paperwork with Nym, who then flew off to the next outpost. He repeated the process four more times until he found himself at the outpost his friends were working near.

Nym took a quick break to skim the length of the wall until he got to the end and found them all hard at work. He floated down to land next to Bildar, who straightened up from where he was hunched over a pile of dirt. “Unngh,” the mage said. “I’m getting too old for this. Back’s killing me. How’s the new job?”

“Not bad,” Nym told him. “Delivering the mail. Just came from our outpost and thought I’d stop to see how it’s going here.”

“Business as usual,” Bildar told him. “Nothing glamorous, but no more ghoul attacks like yesterday. I heard they tripled patrols in the area.”

“I have been seeing a lot of soldiers around this part of the wall. I wasn’t sure if it was just because I was getting deeper into the forest though.”

“I’m not sure either,” Bildar said. He waved a hand over at Ophelia to catch her attention, and she came over.

“Everything alright?” she asked.

“Yeah, just stopped by to check in. I’m doing fine. Delivering the mail for the army right now.”

“That’s good. They paying you decent for that?”

“One shield five for the mail run. It wouldn’t be worth it if I couldn’t fly, but it should only take an hour or so to do the whole circuit,” he said.

“That’s good money then. Are you coming back to our camp tonight?”

Nym hesitated. “Can I? I don’t really have anywhere else to sleep, but I’m not really helping with the wall anymore.”

Bildar shrugged. “So what? It’s our hut. We built it and there’s a room for you there.”

“That’s… thanks.” Nym felt a warmth in his chest, and worry he hadn’t even realized was there melted away. Even though he wasn’t going to work with them directly, they were still his friends and there was still a place for him in their lives.

“I should get going,” Nym told them. “You’re busy and I’ve got to finish delivering these. I’ll see you tonight.”

“Yep,” Bildar said. “You can tell us all about your exciting mail delivery mission over dinner.”

Nym waved his goodbyes and flew back off into the air, a smile on his face.

* * *

 He returned to the freelancer’s main operating hall in a good mood. It had been an easy job, though annoying as a few of the officers hadn’t had their reports ready and he’d had to wait for them to jot something down. It had significantly delayed his return, causing him to overshoot his one hour estimate and end up taking closer to three.

He returned the satchel to the desk clerk, who pulled out the stack of reports and counted them. “Everything here. Good speed too. Did they actually have everything ready for you when you got there?”

“Most of them,” Nym said. “Two of them kept me there for almost an hour each because they hadn’t even started them yet.”

“They’re supposed to have it done by the time this job posting goes up each day. Even if you teleported from outpost to outpost, you should be able to collect them immediately. Feel free to remind the officers of that next time you do this job,” the clerk told him.

“Thanks, I will. Anything else on the board that I could do in the next hour or two?”

“Not that can be done that quickly. There’s some postings for overnight watches or long-range patrols, but nothing else that’s not fighting.”

“What’s the fighting job?” Nym asked.

The clerk shook his head. “You don’t have authorization to take those yet. I’m not supposed to give you any details on these kinds of jobs without clearance. They’re basically what they sound like though. Scouts bring back reports of surging numbers, units deploy to outposts and bases nearby and organize into strike forces to cull the undead back down. Freelancers end up doing a lot of it because the soldiers are busy pushing forward to pacify and secure new areas.”

Nym wasn’t counting how many soldiers there were, but it sure seemed like an awful lot to him. Other than that one outbreak that had chased him and his friends away from the wall they were working on, he hadn’t seen very many undead at all. He’d been looking while he was flying around, and even though the canopy hid most of the forest from casual inspection, he hadn’t seen any ghouls during his mail run either.

It was tempting to fly closer to the center of the forest and see just how bad it was at the vanguard. He was imagining thousands upon thousands of undead crawling all over each other. It almost seemed like that had to be the case. Considering how extensive the army’s presence was in the forest, there would have to be that many undead.

Or maybe he was underestimating the effectiveness of the stronger ones. He hadn’t seen a wight or geist yet, and nobody had mentioned frost wraiths. He knew for a fact those had infested the forest, unless the army had somehow managed to kill them all. He wasn’t even sure how to hurt them though. They didn’t seem to like fire, but the logistics of holding one down to burn it up sounded complicated, let alone doing it while fifty more swarmed him.

“How do I get authorized for fighting jobs?” he asked.

“Keep doing the jobs you’re doing. We’re keeping track of your successes. As long as you prove reliable and consistent, you’ll start getting access to more important and time-sensitive work. Of course that work pays much better. For now, I’ve got a supply scouting job you can tag onto, but it’s at least a six-hour run. You’d be doing circles around a supply wagon train with a few other scouts and making sure it isn’t attacked by undead. It pays five shields.”

It was tempting, but Nym already had dinner plans. He shook his head. “I have other stuff to take care of tonight. I don’t have that much time right now. Maybe tomorrow?”

The clerk shrugged. “Sure. There’s always work escorting supply wagons or collecting reports from outposts. Sometimes if we’re really strapped for available army mages, we’ll put up jobs for mage work too. That doesn’t happen too often though. There’s a high demand for mage work, but it has to be really important to assign it to freelancers instead of waiting for the army to take care of it.”

The clerk fidgeted for a second, then leaned forward. “Between you and me, I think you should keep on top of courier jobs. They pay just so-so, but you’re so fast that you could make good money with very little risk just flying pieces of paper around. But that’s just my advice. You feel free to ask about any jobs that interest you.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind. I’m going to fly back to Ebalsan now though to take care of that other thing. Is there anything on the board that would take me that way?”

“Not that I recall. Let me double check for you though.”

The clerk hummed to himself as he flipped through a pile of parchment. “Nope, sorry. There’s nothing going that way right now.”

“That’s fine. I was just kind of hoping. Thanks for checking for me,” Nym said.

He got back in the air and started flying south east as fast as he could. Once, it would have taken him at least three hours to make the trip and he would have needed to take frequent breaks every few minutes. Those days were behind him now, and he landed outside Ebalsan’s west gate in less than fifteen minutes.

He would need to check on the map posted at forward command, but he thought he was within a two-day flight of Palmara. For some reason, it seemed like going back was on his mind more and more often lately. He kept finding himself thinking about it at random times, remembering Blood Fin Cove and the shark swimming its waters that followed him around whenever he was out on the water. Something in the water had called to him, but he hadn’t been able to reach it half a year ago.

It would be different now. He had spells to look at it, spells to manipulate it, and if it came down to it, he could probably survive the dive into the water to fetch it by hand. He didn’t much care for that idea, but if he needed to make a few golems to help him fend off predators while he descended, he could do it.

Then again, he wasn’t sure if an ice golem would actually sink. It might just float around on the surface of the water and be useless. Generating lightning in the water also seemed like a bad idea, and he doubted he could ignite arcana into fire. The more he thought about it, the less confident he was that he could keep himself safe with pure hydrokinesis.

He passed through the gates without more than a cursory glance and made his way to the Silver Gilder absentmindedly, still thinking about the particular combination of magic that would get him down to the bottom of that cove. That spell he’d learned from Monick to hide his scent might help, but he wasn’t sure if he’d need to modify it to work underwater first, or even if it was possible to do that.

Once he’d reached the inn, he went up to the bar and asked after Analia’s whereabouts. A server from the kitchen was sent up to knock on her door, and she came down a few minutes later. “Good timing,” she said, “Come with me!”

“Hi,” he said. “What are we doing?”

She dragged him along by his arm, ignoring his protests as they went up the stairs. “You’re going to like this,” she told him, fishing a key out of her pocket.

“Like what?” he asked, bewildered.

“You’ll see,” was all she’d say as she pushed the door open.

Nym peered into her room, and his eyes went wide. “How?” he asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. “How did you do this?”