“If you don’t mind international travel, there’s a city in Byramin known as the birthplace of alchemy. It’s called Shu-Ain. Many alchemists still go there to train. It’s an incredibly fertile region, flush with the types of materials we need. However, the prices are correspondingly low. There’s an easy supply so…
“But!” Cern said, gesturing to Nym. “But most people don’t have a master mage capable of transporting the stock to better markets. The fortune we could save on shipping costs alone! We could go to Shu-Ain and rent a workshop. You can get materials needed to practice new potions and elixirs cheaply while I focus on bulk production of the money makers in foreign markets.”
Analia considered it for a moment. “It seems like a good place for me to continue learning alchemy, but Cern’s business plan relies entirely on you helping, Nym. I can’t agree on your behalf.”
“I was actually thinking about moving out of the country anyway,” Nym said without hesitation. “I’m not interested in running a remote shop for you, but I don’t mind dropping a few crates of merchandise off every month or so.”
“We’ll need some seed money to get started,” Cern said. “I… uh… am a little light on that right now.”
“How much would we need,” Analia asked.
“To rent a workshop? Maybe ten or fifteen crests a month. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to rent one that’s already equipped with all the tools and glassware we’ll need. I expect that’ll be twenty crests a month for a fully set up workshop. Otherwise I’m going to figure thirty crests for equipment to furnish an empty workshop.”
“So if we’re lucky, twenty crests to rent a furnished workshop,” Analia said. “If we’re not lucky, upwards of forty. It’ll save money in the long run, but it’s also a lot up front. And we haven’t even discussed material and manufacturing costs.”
“It’s a large investment, to be sure,” Cern agreed.
“I don’t have that much money,” she said. “Not even close.”
“I do,” Nym said.
“Wha- you do?”
“I’ve been staying at the sanctum. No rent, no food expenses. Plus I did a lot of freelancing for the army.”
That wasn’t even counting his pay from the Collective or what he’d scavenged from the work camps after the undead had attacked. Nym wasn’t rich by any means, not like a noble house or even a merchant family, but he was up to about seventy crests. If he hadn’t been thinking about leaving the country, he might have finally opened a bank account.
“That’s good. Money is only one hurdle though. We’ll need to get there too. International teleport platforms are a lot stricter than domestic. That could be an issue for us too.”
Nym waved his concern off. “I’ll just fly over so I can add it to my teleportable locations. I’ve got a third circle overland flight spell that’ll get me there in a few hours.”
“Of course you do,” Cern muttered. “Are you sure you’re the same kid I was paying to collect mushrooms and moss for me last year?”
“Are we doing this then?” Analia asked.
She didn’t seem concerned about living in a new city in a foreign country, or about working in close proximity with a man she’d just met. Nym trusted Cern, but he was acutely aware of how helpless a person could be living somewhere new with no support, and how much more likely it was that a young woman might be targeted.
Of course, Analia was nowhere near as weak as Nym had been when he’d first arrived in Abilanth. He couldn’t imagine her dealing with the kind of struggles he’d faced back then. Still, she’d lived a sheltered life up until recently. He wasn’t sure she really understood what kind of dangers were out there.
It wasn’t his place to tell her what she could and couldn’t do. If she was set, he’d support that decision. “I can fly out to Shu-Ain tomorrow afternoon.”
“I guess we have a deal, Mister Cern,” Analia said.
“Good to hear. Now, some lunch I think, and then I’ll see about getting a room here for tonight. Within two days, we’ll be setting up in a new home.”
Nym left them to discuss specifics, everything from various markets to tap into to which potions could be brewed in vast cauldrons to mass-produce them. He had to admit that most of the technical talk went over his head; he was far more interested in rune sequences than he was in alchemy. But the business ideas were pretty simple. Make stuff in a cheap area, transport it to an expensive area, profit.
“Nym, do me a favor when you go to Shu-Ain,” Cern said.
“Hmm?”
“Check the exchange rates for me, will you? It’s been a decade since I was there, but it was something like six dakars to one crest. I’m hoping my numbers aren’t too far off, but we won’t know what finances we have to work with until we know what the exchange rate is right now.”
“I’ll find out and let you know,” Nym promised. “I’ve got to get going now. I’ll stop by tomorrow before I set out and you can give me any additional details or requests.”
* * *
Nym sat across the table from Archmage Veran. “It is profoundly unfair that you have the ability to do this,” the old man said, again. He said it every time they did this exercise.
“I am aware.”
He wondered what other advantages he’d had the first time he’d learned this. He’d know soon enough, he supposed. Thanks in large part to watching the archmage forge a fifth layer conduit, Nym had successfully navigated his own path across the Astral Sea and reached the threshold of the fourth layer.
As he’d been warned, boring through it was completely different than splitting the chunks of solid arcana in the second layer. Archmage Veran demonstrated the technique of back-filling the conduit with third layer arcana, causing the conduit to practically vibrate from the pressure. He was deliberately agitating it, and as it struck the membrane to the fourth layer and pierced through, it started to twist like a corkscrew.
Nym could follow it, but he was still having trouble keeping his conduit flexible enough to get that motion at the end. Worse, he could tell that he wasn’t getting the kind of pressure the archmage easily achieved. That was the result of an imperfect intent filter. He needed the arcana to be fast and wild, and he needed a conduit strong enough to hold that and channel it to where it was needed.
“I’m confident I have the mechanics of the forging down,” Nym said. “I know what I need to do. It’s just a matter of refining the intent filter and hardening my will to withstand the force.”
“Very well,” Archmage Veran said. “We still have some time. Would you like me to supervise your practice?”
“Actually, I wanted to pick up a few new spells,” Nym said. “Some variations of teleportation, long range scrying, and communication.”
“Oh? Thinking of spreading your social circle?”
“I’m considering it, yes. Even if I don’t, they seem useful to know.”
“I see. I’m going to guess that the long range scrying spells you’re interested in will allow you to find someone from hundreds of miles away or more, and you’d like to be able to have a two-way conversation with them?
“Correct,” Nym said.
“Very well. There are a few books in the library that can help you. Why don’t you teleport us there and we’ll discuss it further?”
Nym hesitated. He wasn’t great at precision teleportation, even when it was just him. Bringing someone else along made the spell more than twice as hard to cast. Doing it through the sanctum’s anti-teleportation wards would be impossible. Obviously Archmage Veran thought differently, or he wouldn’t have asked Nym to do it.
“I’m missing something,” Nym said, more to himself than to his mentor.
“Are you?” Archmage Veran leaned forward and regarded Nym over steepled fingers.
“You know I am. Are you going to tell me what?”
“What would be the fun of that?”
Nym gave him an annoyed glare. “I’m really not in the mood for a game tonight.”
The smile died on Archmage Veran’s lips. He studied Nym for just a moment, and sighed. “Of course. I forgot myself. Please forgive an old man’s jokes.”
Arcana enveloped both of them, deliberately slowed so Nym could watch it build. The basic construct was as he’d been using himself, but when it extended from Archmage Veran to Nym, there was an additional component to it, one that synced caster and target, coupling them together. Nym didn’t do that. He just widened the effective area of his teleport to include everyone.
Archmage Veran’s spell caused the teleport effect to envelope both of them, but none of the space in between. It was perfectly efficient, a skin-tight field of arcana, one that didn’t waste a single shred of effort. Getting through the wards was more a matter of finesse and skill than a specific modification to the spell, but the archmage navigated through them like they weren’t even there.
They spent the evening together in the library, going over the variations to the spell’s structure to move multiple people more efficiently, to teleport others without teleporting himself as well, to teleport objects instead of people, and what kind of limitations Nym would have to work under as long as he was still limited to third layer arcana.
It was a highly productive evening, even though they barely touched on scrying or long range communication. By the time they were finished, Nym was quite satisfied and in a good mood. He went to bed smiling.
* * *
The next morning, Nym teleported to Geldrin and gathered the Earth Shapers together. They’d wrapped up their final projects in anticipation of the move and were, more or less, ready for him when he arrived. He teleported them and their luggage to Karu, then stuck around long enough for them to find a new place to stay.
“I promise, as soon as I get the hang of long-range communication spells, I’ll let you know. Until then, just try not to leave suddenly, okay? I don’t want to lose track of you guys,” he said.
Ophelia pulled him into a hug and laughed. “You’re not getting rid of us that easy!”
“Have a good trip,” Monick said. “We’ll be here when you get back.”
“Bring us a souvenir, okay?” Nomick added.
“I’ll see what I can find,” Nym told them. “Alright, I’m off!”
Bildar grabbed his shoulder and said, “Hold on a second, Nym. Come on, walk with me for a bit.”
The two walked back onto the street and started heading in a random direction. “Look,” Bildar said, “I don’t want to tell you how to live your life, and God knows you’re strong enough to take care of yourself now. But I don’t know this alchemist, and Analia is only strong for her age. How much do you know about Byramin?”
“Not a lot,” Nym said. “Why, is there something I should know about it?”
“Slavery is legal in Byramin, and the slave traders there, they call them flesh carvers for reasons that I think should be obvious, like to target people who aren’t native. There’s a lot less of a chance that anyone will raise a fuss if they pressgang a foreigner into a slave crew.”
“Are you saying we shouldn’t go?” Nym asked.
Bildar just shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know. That alchemist isn’t wrong about Shu-Ain being the birthplace of alchemy. It’s probably one of the best places in the world to learn. I just want you to be aware of the risks.”
“I understand. Thanks for looking out for me. I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“Alright, go on then. Come back and see us soon so we know you’re still alive.”
“Will do,” Nym said.
Then he flew straight up into the air, wove together arcana pulled from the Astral Sea, and shot off at supersonic speeds. He followed the coast south and east until he reached his destination: a port city on the southern tip of the continent. Then he flew off over the open ocean, hundreds of miles until he spotted an island in the archipelago that made up Byramin.
From there it was a simple matter to find Shu-Ain, it being one of the largest cities in the island chain. Nym slowed down and landed on the outskirts of the city. It was time to explore someplace new.
“If you don’t mind international travel, there’s a city in Byramin known as the birthplace of alchemy. It’s called Shu-Ain. Many alchemists still go there to train. It’s an incredibly fertile region, flush with the types of materials we need. However, the prices are correspondingly low. There’s an easy supply so…
“But!” Cern said, gesturing to Nym. “But most people don’t have a master mage capable of transporting the stock to better markets. The fortune we could save on shipping costs alone! We could go to Shu-Ain and rent a workshop. You can get materials needed to practice new potions and elixirs cheaply while I focus on bulk production of the money makers in foreign markets.”
Analia considered it for a moment. “It seems like a good place for me to continue learning alchemy, but Cern’s business plan relies entirely on you helping, Nym. I can’t agree on your behalf.”
“I was actually thinking about moving out of the country anyway,” Nym said without hesitation. “I’m not interested in running a remote shop for you, but I don’t mind dropping a few crates of merchandise off every month or so.”
“We’ll need some seed money to get started,” Cern said. “I… uh… am a little light on that right now.”
“How much would we need,” Analia asked.
“To rent a workshop? Maybe ten or fifteen crests a month. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to rent one that’s already equipped with all the tools and glassware we’ll need. I expect that’ll be twenty crests a month for a fully set up workshop. Otherwise I’m going to figure thirty crests for equipment to furnish an empty workshop.”
“So if we’re lucky, twenty crests to rent a furnished workshop,” Analia said. “If we’re not lucky, upwards of forty. It’ll save money in the long run, but it’s also a lot up front. And we haven’t even discussed material and manufacturing costs.”
“It’s a large investment, to be sure,” Cern agreed.
“I don’t have that much money,” she said. “Not even close.”
“I do,” Nym said.
“Wha- you do?”
“I’ve been staying at the sanctum. No rent, no food expenses. Plus I did a lot of freelancing for the army.”
That wasn’t even counting his pay from the Collective or what he’d scavenged from the work camps after the undead had attacked. Nym wasn’t rich by any means, not like a noble house or even a merchant family, but he was up to about seventy crests. If he hadn’t been thinking about leaving the country, he might have finally opened a bank account.
“That’s good. Money is only one hurdle though. We’ll need to get there too. International teleport platforms are a lot stricter than domestic. That could be an issue for us too.”
Nym waved his concern off. “I’ll just fly over so I can add it to my teleportable locations. I’ve got a third circle overland flight spell that’ll get me there in a few hours.”
“Of course you do,” Cern muttered. “Are you sure you’re the same kid I was paying to collect mushrooms and moss for me last year?”
“Are we doing this then?” Analia asked.
She didn’t seem concerned about living in a new city in a foreign country, or about working in close proximity with a man she’d just met. Nym trusted Cern, but he was acutely aware of how helpless a person could be living somewhere new with no support, and how much more likely it was that a young woman might be targeted.
Of course, Analia was nowhere near as weak as Nym had been when he’d first arrived in Abilanth. He couldn’t imagine her dealing with the kind of struggles he’d faced back then. Still, she’d lived a sheltered life up until recently. He wasn’t sure she really understood what kind of dangers were out there.
It wasn’t his place to tell her what she could and couldn’t do. If she was set, he’d support that decision. “I can fly out to Shu-Ain tomorrow afternoon.”
“I guess we have a deal, Mister Cern,” Analia said.
“Good to hear. Now, some lunch I think, and then I’ll see about getting a room here for tonight. Within two days, we’ll be setting up in a new home.”
Nym left them to discuss specifics, everything from various markets to tap into to which potions could be brewed in vast cauldrons to mass-produce them. He had to admit that most of the technical talk went over his head; he was far more interested in rune sequences than he was in alchemy. But the business ideas were pretty simple. Make stuff in a cheap area, transport it to an expensive area, profit.
“Nym, do me a favor when you go to Shu-Ain,” Cern said.
“Hmm?”
“Check the exchange rates for me, will you? It’s been a decade since I was there, but it was something like six dakars to one crest. I’m hoping my numbers aren’t too far off, but we won’t know what finances we have to work with until we know what the exchange rate is right now.”
“I’ll find out and let you know,” Nym promised. “I’ve got to get going now. I’ll stop by tomorrow before I set out and you can give me any additional details or requests.”
* * *
Nym sat across the table from Archmage Veran. “It is profoundly unfair that you have the ability to do this,” the old man said, again. He said it every time they did this exercise.
“I am aware.”
He wondered what other advantages he’d had the first time he’d learned this. He’d know soon enough, he supposed. Thanks in large part to watching the archmage forge a fifth layer conduit, Nym had successfully navigated his own path across the Astral Sea and reached the threshold of the fourth layer.
As he’d been warned, boring through it was completely different than splitting the chunks of solid arcana in the second layer. Archmage Veran demonstrated the technique of back-filling the conduit with third layer arcana, causing the conduit to practically vibrate from the pressure. He was deliberately agitating it, and as it struck the membrane to the fourth layer and pierced through, it started to twist like a corkscrew.
Nym could follow it, but he was still having trouble keeping his conduit flexible enough to get that motion at the end. Worse, he could tell that he wasn’t getting the kind of pressure the archmage easily achieved. That was the result of an imperfect intent filter. He needed the arcana to be fast and wild, and he needed a conduit strong enough to hold that and channel it to where it was needed.
“I’m confident I have the mechanics of the forging down,” Nym said. “I know what I need to do. It’s just a matter of refining the intent filter and hardening my will to withstand the force.”
“Very well,” Archmage Veran said. “We still have some time. Would you like me to supervise your practice?”
“Actually, I wanted to pick up a few new spells,” Nym said. “Some variations of teleportation, long range scrying, and communication.”
“Oh? Thinking of spreading your social circle?”
“I’m considering it, yes. Even if I don’t, they seem useful to know.”
“I see. I’m going to guess that the long range scrying spells you’re interested in will allow you to find someone from hundreds of miles away or more, and you’d like to be able to have a two-way conversation with them?
“Correct,” Nym said.
“Very well. There are a few books in the library that can help you. Why don’t you teleport us there and we’ll discuss it further?”
Nym hesitated. He wasn’t great at precision teleportation, even when it was just him. Bringing someone else along made the spell more than twice as hard to cast. Doing it through the sanctum’s anti-teleportation wards would be impossible. Obviously Archmage Veran thought differently, or he wouldn’t have asked Nym to do it.
“I’m missing something,” Nym said, more to himself than to his mentor.
“Are you?” Archmage Veran leaned forward and regarded Nym over steepled fingers.
“You know I am. Are you going to tell me what?”
“What would be the fun of that?”
Nym gave him an annoyed glare. “I’m really not in the mood for a game tonight.”
The smile died on Archmage Veran’s lips. He studied Nym for just a moment, and sighed. “Of course. I forgot myself. Please forgive an old man’s jokes.”
Arcana enveloped both of them, deliberately slowed so Nym could watch it build. The basic construct was as he’d been using himself, but when it extended from Archmage Veran to Nym, there was an additional component to it, one that synced caster and target, coupling them together. Nym didn’t do that. He just widened the effective area of his teleport to include everyone.
Archmage Veran’s spell caused the teleport effect to envelope both of them, but none of the space in between. It was perfectly efficient, a skin-tight field of arcana, one that didn’t waste a single shred of effort. Getting through the wards was more a matter of finesse and skill than a specific modification to the spell, but the archmage navigated through them like they weren’t even there.
They spent the evening together in the library, going over the variations to the spell’s structure to move multiple people more efficiently, to teleport others without teleporting himself as well, to teleport objects instead of people, and what kind of limitations Nym would have to work under as long as he was still limited to third layer arcana.
It was a highly productive evening, even though they barely touched on scrying or long range communication. By the time they were finished, Nym was quite satisfied and in a good mood. He went to bed smiling.
* * *
The next morning, Nym teleported to Geldrin and gathered the Earth Shapers together. They’d wrapped up their final projects in anticipation of the move and were, more or less, ready for him when he arrived. He teleported them and their luggage to Karu, then stuck around long enough for them to find a new place to stay.
“I promise, as soon as I get the hang of long-range communication spells, I’ll let you know. Until then, just try not to leave suddenly, okay? I don’t want to lose track of you guys,” he said.
Ophelia pulled him into a hug and laughed. “You’re not getting rid of us that easy!”
“Have a good trip,” Monick said. “We’ll be here when you get back.”
“Bring us a souvenir, okay?” Nomick added.
“I’ll see what I can find,” Nym told them. “Alright, I’m off!”
Bildar grabbed his shoulder and said, “Hold on a second, Nym. Come on, walk with me for a bit.”
The two walked back onto the street and started heading in a random direction. “Look,” Bildar said, “I don’t want to tell you how to live your life, and God knows you’re strong enough to take care of yourself now. But I don’t know this alchemist, and Analia is only strong for her age. How much do you know about Byramin?”
“Not a lot,” Nym said. “Why, is there something I should know about it?”
“Slavery is legal in Byramin, and the slave traders there, they call them flesh carvers for reasons that I think should be obvious, like to target people who aren’t native. There’s a lot less of a chance that anyone will raise a fuss if they pressgang a foreigner into a slave crew.”
“Are you saying we shouldn’t go?” Nym asked.
Bildar just shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know. That alchemist isn’t wrong about Shu-Ain being the birthplace of alchemy. It’s probably one of the best places in the world to learn. I just want you to be aware of the risks.”
“I understand. Thanks for looking out for me. I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“Alright, go on then. Come back and see us soon so we know you’re still alive.”
“Will do,” Nym said.
Then he flew straight up into the air, wove together arcana pulled from the Astral Sea, and shot off at supersonic speeds. He followed the coast south and east until he reached his destination: a port city on the southern tip of the continent. Then he flew off over the open ocean, hundreds of miles until he spotted an island in the archipelago that made up Byramin.
From there it was a simple matter to find Shu-Ain, it being one of the largest cities in the island chain. Nym slowed down and landed on the outskirts of the city. It was time to explore someplace new.
