Viewed through any type of magical sense, the cube did not exist. Scrying didn’t reveal it. Using night vision or far sight to enhance his senses made it disappear. Even groping around blindly with telekinesis did nothing. The magic simply passed through it. If he tried to form a cushion of air to lift it up, nothing happened.
To every single test Nym could come up with except looking at it with his own eyes and holding it with his own hands, the cube did not exist. He had no idea what it was, but it was somehow immune to any and all forms of magic that he knew of.
He’d have to do some more research. Whatever it was, it was definitely important. He was half tempted to dump it back in the water rather than take it home with him, but now that he finally had his hands on it, he didn’t think he could handle letting it go again. It went into his pack.
It was almost time to go home, but he had one last thing to do before he left. Nym floated up to the top of the bluffs and flew over to Ciana’s home. It looked much like he remembered it, and a quick scry spell revealed her asleep inside of it. Nym floated at the door and hesitated. He wanted to see her again, but he didn’t want to wake her up. He could always come back tomorrow during the day, but if he did, he’d have to explain to his bodyguards why he’d disappeared.
Hopefully, Ciana wanted to see him and wouldn’t be too upset about being woken up after midnight. He knocked on the door and waited for her to answer. That gave him plenty of time to second-guess himself, slightly panic, consider flying away, remind himself that he hadn’t seen her in close to a year, remember why he’d left, panic again, and there was the door opening right now and he was not ready for this!
“Who’re you?” Ciana asked, her tone grumpy.
“Uh… it’s… it’s me,” Nym said.
She peered out into the dark at him. Nym peered back at her. He pulled in a bit of arcana and created a small ball of light, barely more than a candle’s worth, in the air overhead. Ciana gasped and took a step back. “Who are you?” she repeated, this time more surprised and a bit suspicious.
“Wow. I didn’t think you’d forget me completely.”
“I know someone who looks like you, maybe a family member,” she said. “But I don’t know you.”
“Oh! I get it,” Nym said. “No, it’s me. I kind of had a growth spurt. There was some magic involved.”
“A magical growth spurt? Nym?”
“Hi,” he said, grinning.
She threw her arms around him and dragged him into a hug. “You’re alive!” she said into his hair. Then she pushed him back out to arms’ length and scowled down at him. “Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But… I mean… I couldn’t stay here. I still can’t. I’m leaving after this visit.”
“I understand,” she said. “I was being dumb. It was for the best that you didn’t listen to me. The captain of the guard would have had to lock you up for your own safety. Senman had a few friends who went on a rampage when everything came out. I’m glad you weren’t here for them to target.”
“Are you alright?” Nym asked.
“I’m good, actually. Really good. But come in, sit down. Tell me what you’ve been doing and why you look like you’re five years older than you should be.”
Nym smiled at the sight of the driftwood log he’d shared his first meals on with her. She’d done alright for herself since he left, probably because she wasn’t trying to feed a second mouth. A table with a single chair had been added to the room and she had a cupboard full of food. New clay jugs lined the wall near it, each one full of fresh water.
He sat down on his side of the log and gave the cauldron hanging over the fire an affectionate pat. Ciana dragged her chair over from the table so she could sit across from him. “Do you want me to put something on?” she said.
“No, thank you. Let’s just talk.”
“Sure. Let’s start with why you look like you’re almost as old as me.”
Nym scratched the back of his head. “I’m not really sure. I guess there’s some spell on me that makes me age faster. I’m actually kind of worried I’ll be an old man in a decade. On the bright side, it does give me an advantage at magic.”
“An aging spell? I didn’t know that was possible,” she said. “I’ve never heard anything like that. How did you even find this out?”
“That’s a bit of a story,” Nym said. “So when I left here, I flew straight into the forest…”
Nym spent an hour or two telling Ciana about his adventures, and his misadventures, slightly edited to leave out some of the more dangerous parts, right up until he’d been kidnapped by the Collective. That part he skipped over completely since his geas wouldn’t even let him paint it in broad strokes for her.
“And then a few days ago, I figured out how to use third circle magic, learned how to teleport, and decided to pop over for a visit,” he finished.
“Any reason you couldn’t do that while the sun’s still up?” she asked.
“Well, it’s more like I snuck out of the house for a visit,” he admitted. “I’ll be back in my bed before morning and no one will ever know I was gone.”
“You’re not telling me something,” she said. “Still hiding things, huh?”
“I wish I could say more,” he told her truthfully. “Suffice it to say that I don’t want certain people in Ebalsan to know that I am now capable of casting a teleportation spell. I won’t be able to visit again for a while until I’m done with everything there and have more freedom to do what I want.”
Ciana snorted and said, “I can’t imagine you giving up any amount of freedom. You’re a very independent person.”
He tried to respond, but his geas blocked him. Apparently even talking about anyone from the Collective was enough to set it off. Annoyed, he changed the subject. “Tell me about Senman’s friends and what happened.”
“You know how he had those three flunkies he was always strutting around with? Well, when they learned that he was dead, they tried to come out here and cause problems for me, only, I wasn’t home. So they trashed the place, and then when I reported it, the guards went to go question them. They tried to beat up the guards.”
She started laughing while she talked, and soon Nym was laughing with her. “How did that go for them?”
“One of them ended up getting stabbed and the other two decided to go in quietly. Last I knew, all three of them sat in the jail house for a few months before they were let go. I haven’t seen any of them around since Spring started. I think they went up the road to be someone else’s problem.”
“Good riddance,” Nym said. He looked around again and said, “I guess it’s been a good summer for you.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Ciana agreed. “I had no idea how much Senman was doing to sabotage me until he wasn’t around to do it anymore. I’m not scrounging for food now. I’ve got enough to trade in town. I barely even have to go out on the water now to pull up crabs. I mean, I still do, because they’re tasty, but it’s still dangerous, you know?”
“I’m sure it’s not as bad now that I’m not in the boat with you,” Nym said.
“Well that’s true. Your shark is still in the cove though. I see it all the time. It leaves me alone now that you’re not here.”
“I saw,” he told her. “I teleported in on the beach. It showed up almost instantly.”
“It must have missed you,” she told him.
“I didn’t miss it,” he groused.
“But did you miss me?” she teased.
“I did.”
“Awww, well I missed you too. I’m glad that you’re safe, even if you did go off and become an adult while I wasn’t looking.”
“It was bound to happen eventually,” he said. “I couldn’t have stayed here forever. Even with everything I’ve done and everywhere I’ve been, I’ve barely started to figure out what’s going on with me. And honestly, I’m running out of ideas. It’s hard to trust people, and I don’t know where to look for answers.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Ciana asked.
Nym smiled and shook his head. “Just the fact that you would if you could helps. I’m glad things are going better for you now.”
He dug around in his pack for a second and pulled out his money pouch. “Could you spend crests around here without people finding it suspicious?” he asked.
“I don’t need your money, Nym.”
“I know you don’t. But I have more than I need, and I’d like to make sure my big sister is taken care of.”
He pulled out every shim and wedge he could find and piled them on the log next to him. Then he added a handful of shields to the pile. “Maybe… only spend the shields one at a time? Maybe space it out a few weeks? I would appreciate if no one knew I came to visit you.”
“Maybe just take it all with you,” Ciana told him.
“Nah, I’m going to leave it here. I guess if you don’t want it, just throw it to the sharks.”
“Damn it, Nym!”
She lunged for him, but he just floated backwards into the air out of her reach. When she scrambled after him, he went higher and flattened himself out against the ceiling. “Oh, that reminds me. I learned some elemental earth magic too. Do you need anything built? Cellar? Secondary buildings? New, bigger main building?”
“Oh for… really? Actually… I could kind of use a cellar. Some of the meat doesn’t store well and it’d be nice to have a cool place for it. But that’s too much. You don’t need to do this!”
“I know, but I want to. Going to do it anyway. Do you want stairs or just a ladder? Maybe a ladder inside and stairs outside? You’d need to do the cellar doors yourself unless you think you can use stone doors.”
“Outside is good. I will get the doors taken care of,” she told him.
“Want to watch?” he asked, grinning.
“Don’t be a show off.”
They went outside and Ciana picked out a spot for the entrance. Then Nym started excavating under the shack. In no time at all, he’d cleared most of the dirt out, reinforced the foundation by transmuting the square room to stone, and added a set of pillars spaced in the middle to further hold everything up. With Ciana’s direction, stone storage shelves were added to the foundation so that they ringed the entire cellar. It wasn’t Earth Shaper quality work, but it’d do the job.
They walked back up the stairs together, and Nym was startled to see the light of predawn on the water. “Oh damn,” he said. “I need to get back before someone notices I’m gone. I’ll try to come visit you again soon, hopefully in a month or two.”
He rushed over to give her a hug, then started the laborious process of opening a conduit to the third layer. It still took far too long to be useful in combat, but he didn’t know any third circle combat spells yet, and there was plenty of time to refine it.
The conduit connected, and chaotic Astral Sea arcana poured into his soul well. Before he had a chance to shape it, the whole world pulsed around him and everything went white.
Viewed through any type of magical sense, the cube did not exist. Scrying didn’t reveal it. Using night vision or far sight to enhance his senses made it disappear. Even groping around blindly with telekinesis did nothing. The magic simply passed through it. If he tried to form a cushion of air to lift it up, nothing happened.
To every single test Nym could come up with except looking at it with his own eyes and holding it with his own hands, the cube did not exist. He had no idea what it was, but it was somehow immune to any and all forms of magic that he knew of.
He’d have to do some more research. Whatever it was, it was definitely important. He was half tempted to dump it back in the water rather than take it home with him, but now that he finally had his hands on it, he didn’t think he could handle letting it go again. It went into his pack.
It was almost time to go home, but he had one last thing to do before he left. Nym floated up to the top of the bluffs and flew over to Ciana’s home. It looked much like he remembered it, and a quick scry spell revealed her asleep inside of it. Nym floated at the door and hesitated. He wanted to see her again, but he didn’t want to wake her up. He could always come back tomorrow during the day, but if he did, he’d have to explain to his bodyguards why he’d disappeared.
Hopefully, Ciana wanted to see him and wouldn’t be too upset about being woken up after midnight. He knocked on the door and waited for her to answer. That gave him plenty of time to second-guess himself, slightly panic, consider flying away, remind himself that he hadn’t seen her in close to a year, remember why he’d left, panic again, and there was the door opening right now and he was not ready for this!
“Who’re you?” Ciana asked, her tone grumpy.
“Uh… it’s… it’s me,” Nym said.
She peered out into the dark at him. Nym peered back at her. He pulled in a bit of arcana and created a small ball of light, barely more than a candle’s worth, in the air overhead. Ciana gasped and took a step back. “Who are you?” she repeated, this time more surprised and a bit suspicious.
“Wow. I didn’t think you’d forget me completely.”
“I know someone who looks like you, maybe a family member,” she said. “But I don’t know you.”
“Oh! I get it,” Nym said. “No, it’s me. I kind of had a growth spurt. There was some magic involved.”
“A magical growth spurt? Nym?”
“Hi,” he said, grinning.
She threw her arms around him and dragged him into a hug. “You’re alive!” she said into his hair. Then she pushed him back out to arms’ length and scowled down at him. “Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But… I mean… I couldn’t stay here. I still can’t. I’m leaving after this visit.”
“I understand,” she said. “I was being dumb. It was for the best that you didn’t listen to me. The captain of the guard would have had to lock you up for your own safety. Senman had a few friends who went on a rampage when everything came out. I’m glad you weren’t here for them to target.”
“Are you alright?” Nym asked.
“I’m good, actually. Really good. But come in, sit down. Tell me what you’ve been doing and why you look like you’re five years older than you should be.”
Nym smiled at the sight of the driftwood log he’d shared his first meals on with her. She’d done alright for herself since he left, probably because she wasn’t trying to feed a second mouth. A table with a single chair had been added to the room and she had a cupboard full of food. New clay jugs lined the wall near it, each one full of fresh water.
He sat down on his side of the log and gave the cauldron hanging over the fire an affectionate pat. Ciana dragged her chair over from the table so she could sit across from him. “Do you want me to put something on?” she said.
“No, thank you. Let’s just talk.”
“Sure. Let’s start with why you look like you’re almost as old as me.”
Nym scratched the back of his head. “I’m not really sure. I guess there’s some spell on me that makes me age faster. I’m actually kind of worried I’ll be an old man in a decade. On the bright side, it does give me an advantage at magic.”
“An aging spell? I didn’t know that was possible,” she said. “I’ve never heard anything like that. How did you even find this out?”
“That’s a bit of a story,” Nym said. “So when I left here, I flew straight into the forest…”
Nym spent an hour or two telling Ciana about his adventures, and his misadventures, slightly edited to leave out some of the more dangerous parts, right up until he’d been kidnapped by the Collective. That part he skipped over completely since his geas wouldn’t even let him paint it in broad strokes for her.
“And then a few days ago, I figured out how to use third circle magic, learned how to teleport, and decided to pop over for a visit,” he finished.
“Any reason you couldn’t do that while the sun’s still up?” she asked.
“Well, it’s more like I snuck out of the house for a visit,” he admitted. “I’ll be back in my bed before morning and no one will ever know I was gone.”
“You’re not telling me something,” she said. “Still hiding things, huh?”
“I wish I could say more,” he told her truthfully. “Suffice it to say that I don’t want certain people in Ebalsan to know that I am now capable of casting a teleportation spell. I won’t be able to visit again for a while until I’m done with everything there and have more freedom to do what I want.”
Ciana snorted and said, “I can’t imagine you giving up any amount of freedom. You’re a very independent person.”
He tried to respond, but his geas blocked him. Apparently even talking about anyone from the Collective was enough to set it off. Annoyed, he changed the subject. “Tell me about Senman’s friends and what happened.”
“You know how he had those three flunkies he was always strutting around with? Well, when they learned that he was dead, they tried to come out here and cause problems for me, only, I wasn’t home. So they trashed the place, and then when I reported it, the guards went to go question them. They tried to beat up the guards.”
She started laughing while she talked, and soon Nym was laughing with her. “How did that go for them?”
“One of them ended up getting stabbed and the other two decided to go in quietly. Last I knew, all three of them sat in the jail house for a few months before they were let go. I haven’t seen any of them around since Spring started. I think they went up the road to be someone else’s problem.”
“Good riddance,” Nym said. He looked around again and said, “I guess it’s been a good summer for you.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Ciana agreed. “I had no idea how much Senman was doing to sabotage me until he wasn’t around to do it anymore. I’m not scrounging for food now. I’ve got enough to trade in town. I barely even have to go out on the water now to pull up crabs. I mean, I still do, because they’re tasty, but it’s still dangerous, you know?”
“I’m sure it’s not as bad now that I’m not in the boat with you,” Nym said.
“Well that’s true. Your shark is still in the cove though. I see it all the time. It leaves me alone now that you’re not here.”
“I saw,” he told her. “I teleported in on the beach. It showed up almost instantly.”
“It must have missed you,” she told him.
“I didn’t miss it,” he groused.
“But did you miss me?” she teased.
“I did.”
“Awww, well I missed you too. I’m glad that you’re safe, even if you did go off and become an adult while I wasn’t looking.”
“It was bound to happen eventually,” he said. “I couldn’t have stayed here forever. Even with everything I’ve done and everywhere I’ve been, I’ve barely started to figure out what’s going on with me. And honestly, I’m running out of ideas. It’s hard to trust people, and I don’t know where to look for answers.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Ciana asked.
Nym smiled and shook his head. “Just the fact that you would if you could helps. I’m glad things are going better for you now.”
He dug around in his pack for a second and pulled out his money pouch. “Could you spend crests around here without people finding it suspicious?” he asked.
“I don’t need your money, Nym.”
“I know you don’t. But I have more than I need, and I’d like to make sure my big sister is taken care of.”
He pulled out every shim and wedge he could find and piled them on the log next to him. Then he added a handful of shields to the pile. “Maybe… only spend the shields one at a time? Maybe space it out a few weeks? I would appreciate if no one knew I came to visit you.”
“Maybe just take it all with you,” Ciana told him.
“Nah, I’m going to leave it here. I guess if you don’t want it, just throw it to the sharks.”
“Damn it, Nym!”
She lunged for him, but he just floated backwards into the air out of her reach. When she scrambled after him, he went higher and flattened himself out against the ceiling. “Oh, that reminds me. I learned some elemental earth magic too. Do you need anything built? Cellar? Secondary buildings? New, bigger main building?”
“Oh for… really? Actually… I could kind of use a cellar. Some of the meat doesn’t store well and it’d be nice to have a cool place for it. But that’s too much. You don’t need to do this!”
“I know, but I want to. Going to do it anyway. Do you want stairs or just a ladder? Maybe a ladder inside and stairs outside? You’d need to do the cellar doors yourself unless you think you can use stone doors.”
“Outside is good. I will get the doors taken care of,” she told him.
“Want to watch?” he asked, grinning.
“Don’t be a show off.”
They went outside and Ciana picked out a spot for the entrance. Then Nym started excavating under the shack. In no time at all, he’d cleared most of the dirt out, reinforced the foundation by transmuting the square room to stone, and added a set of pillars spaced in the middle to further hold everything up. With Ciana’s direction, stone storage shelves were added to the foundation so that they ringed the entire cellar. It wasn’t Earth Shaper quality work, but it’d do the job.
They walked back up the stairs together, and Nym was startled to see the light of predawn on the water. “Oh damn,” he said. “I need to get back before someone notices I’m gone. I’ll try to come visit you again soon, hopefully in a month or two.”
He rushed over to give her a hug, then started the laborious process of opening a conduit to the third layer. It still took far too long to be useful in combat, but he didn’t know any third circle combat spells yet, and there was plenty of time to refine it.
The conduit connected, and chaotic Astral Sea arcana poured into his soul well. Before he had a chance to shape it, the whole world pulsed around him and everything went white.
