The entire class was gathered in the lecture hall, which Nym had gone ahead and thrown stone warming spells onto multiple walls to heat up. Everyone was sick of the cold, everyone was tired, and everyone was annoyed at having spent the whole day freezing and walking only to get nowhere at the end.
“Alright, before I release you all to go gather your possessions and head to the teleportation platform, I thought you’d all like to know what went wrong today. First, a powerful mirror fox infiltrated the class.” Professor Lakton cut off and shot Nym a look when he opened his mouth to speak.
“A mirror fox,” she repeated, this time with emphasis, “which was hiding itself and stealing arcana away from you. It was successfully identified, detained, and dealt with without a single person being injured.”
Nym could practically hear the fox laughing in the back of his head. She made it sound like Nym had been the one in control, overpowering or outwitting the mystical animal. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The only thing stopping the fox from taking whatever it wanted was its own nature.
“If that were all, it would have been bad enough. We lost several hours of daylight and you were all left exhausted. Worse, upon arriving at the destination site, it was discovered that it had been overrun with a swarm of blood burrower scarabs. Now, I know this is not Monstrology, but can anyone tell me why we had to turn back?”
“People who come into contact with the scarabs get sick and die,” one of the students said immediately. She hesitated and then added, “Painfully and messily.”
“Correct. The infection is dormant at first, so the hosts don’t realize right away and spread it to others for the few days they remain healthy. I’m sorry this wasn’t discovered until we’d already started our day, but also glad that it was discovered prior to us actually reaching the site.”
There was a lot of grumbling from the class, but no one voiced any objections. Up at the lecturer’s podium, Professor Lakton looked on wearily. Perhaps seeing that no one was going to start an argument over it, she said, “That is all. We’ll have a one hour break to recover and gather our things, and then everyone is to report to the teleportation platform so we can return to the Academy. You are all dismissed.”
They trickled out in a steady line until none were left except for Nym. He didn’t need transportation back and he only had his one pack besides, which he’d never really opened. That book he’d been planning on reading was still buried in the bottom. What he did need was an hour uninterrupted to just rest. Teleporting so many people took all of it out of him.
“Am I interrupting?” a voice asked just as he closed his eyes.
Nym suppressed a sigh, but didn’t open his eyes back up. “Just tired. What’s up, Risa?”
He heard her sit down next to him, but then she didn’t say anything. He cracked an eye open to look at her. “What’s up?” he said again.
“Just… I wanted to say goodbye, to see if you still want to keep seeing me.”
“Of course I do,” Nym told her. “I said we’d find time together, didn’t I?”
“You did, but… you know.”
“I don’t?” Nym was confused now. Whatever she was trying to say, he was too tired to guess.
“Boys say they’ll write. They say they’ll find time. But then they don’t. Unless they want… but then as soon as they get it, they disappear again. I don’t want to think you’ll be like that too. But you’re so far ahead of me, and you’ve got so much going on, I wouldn’t blame you if you forgot about that stupid girl who had a crush on you and you only knew for a few days.”
Nym took a breath, in, and out. He took another, let it out slowly. “Risa, I don’t want to be insensitive here. I understand what you’re saying. It’s just… right now, I am exhausted. I know it’s been a long day for all of us, so how about instead of talking, you just scoot a little closer and we can both close our eyes for a few minutes.”
“That sounds good too,” she said. Nym put an arm around her and they enjoyed the warmth still coming off the walls. It was a nice moment, one that ended all too soon.
* * *
He helped charge the teleportation platform, of course. The students were all wiped out, and though she put on a strong front, Professor Lakton wasn’t doing all that much better. It took them twice as long to get it going compared to when they’d arrived a few days earlier, and Nym pretended not to see the uneasy glances some of the students shot his way.
“Alright, we’re all set. Everybody on. Let me do one final roll call. Wouldn’t do for someone to get left behind here.” The professor called out names off her roster one after another. “Perfect. And we’re off.”
The world pinched around him and they were standing in a different room, very similar to the one they’d left. The real difference was that when they opened the door, they were back at the Academy. The students shuffled out, pointedly ignoring Professor Lakton’s instructions in a coordinated mutinous effort. Nym didn’t have it in him to blame them.
The professor gave it up with an exasperated sigh and waved them off. She tossed Nym a wry glance and shook her head. “Thank you for your help on this trip,” she told him. “Really. This has been the worst Glacial Valley field trip I’ve ever done. Things would have turned out much, much worse without your intervention.”
“Yeah, it was very… exciting,” Nym said. “Do you need me to do anything else? If not, I need to go sleep for at least three days.”
“Yes, of course. Go on. You’ve done more than enough.”
“Thanks. See ya around, Professor.”
“Hmm. Well, we’ll see.”
Nym gathered up the arcana he needed from the Astral Sea, slowly, and wove his teleport spell together. Never in his life had he hated the archmage’s wards more than he did that second, but he was familiar enough with them that it wasn’t a real problem, just an annoyance. The spell went off and he found himself in the foyer of the sanctum.
He trudged to his room, sore beyond belief, and collapsed face-first onto his bed. He was asleep without even kicking off his boots.
* * *
Some indeterminate length of time later, Nym finally got upright and dragged himself into a bath. When he was done, he shaved, got dressed in clean clothes, and went looking for Archmage Veran. He found his mentor working in one of his labs, though it wasn’t immediately clear what the old man was doing.
“Is this a bad time?” Nym asked from the door.
“Ah, my friend. No, come on in. I’m just whipping up a batch of freezing brain twisters for the staff’s upcoming end-of-semester party.”
Nym needed a second to process that. “You’re making a batch of what now?”
“An alchemically infused dessert that makes you feel like you’ve been dunked in a vat of ice water for about five seconds.”
“Why… why would anyone want that?”
“Well, I confess they’re more used as punishments for the professors who lose at various party games and events. Though I do need to renew the nonflammability wards in the main hall before the party starts. Last year, Emdala set the curtains on fire with an ill-advised flame spell trying to warm herself back up.”
“Wow, how old are you guys? This sounds wild.”
“You’re never too old to have fun, young man,” the archmage said severely, though there was a twinkle in his eyes. “But I suspect you’ve come to me with some work, haven’t you?”
“Sorry,” Nym told him. “I ran into something pretty serious that I’d like to- oh, your flask is overflowing.”
“What?” Archmage Veran spun around so fast the sleeve of his robe swatted a rather delicate looking measuring device off the table. Nym caught it with a burst of telekinesis and put it back, but the archmage didn’t notice. “God’s tick infested taint! That’s the fourth time that heater has malfunctioned on me!”
Nym mouthed the words to the curse, then shook his head. That was a good one, one he planned to remember. Surely there’d be an appropriate use for it sooner or later. His train of thought was interrupted by Archmage Veran’s wild gesticulations and he took a cautionary step back. Arcana surged across the table and four different spells phased into existence whole in the archmage’s aura.
That was impressive, not just because there were four of them, but because they’d somehow appeared without needing to be built first. Either they’d been spun out so fast that it simply appeared they’d formed from nothing, or they’d somehow been pre-built before they were deployed, but Nym didn’t know any way in which that would be possible.
Then he noticed the rings on one of Archmage Veran’s hand was glowing and he understood. The spells had been built normally, though probably with great speed and skill, and stored until needed. For all his casual attitude, his mentor was in fact an archmage, and he’d taken appropriate precautions just in case something went wrong.
“Last time I borrow equipment from the school’s alchemy lab,” Archmage Veran muttered.
“I would think you’d have your own.”
“Oh I did. Most of it was melted to slag when I was dealing with that tear in the Veil a few months ago. It just wasn’t strong enough to handle the reactions I needed to forge something capable of holding the arcana I needed. I keep meaning to replace it, but there’s been so much catching up to do that I haven’t had the time. And so I thought I’d just nip over to the lab and borrow a few pieces for the afternoon, but this God cursed heater has been doing its level best to thwart me all day.”
“I… I’m sorry. I can leave you alone to focus on this. How about we talk over lunch in an hour or so?”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Archmage Veran told him. “This batch is ruined now anyway. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”
“There’s a few things. The first is this aging curse. I was wondering how your research into that is coming along?”
“Not well, I’m sad to say. I haven’t given up, but you should understand that this was a curse wrought by an ascendant. Not just any ascendant either. You. I confess I’m a bit murky on the societal hierarchy of ascendant civilization, such as it is, but from what I understand you were near the top.
“That’s not to say that a spell crafted with a stronger layer of arcana can’t be broken by someone weaker. It is, as they say, always easier to destroy than it is to create. I’m confident I could break the curse right now, if it came to it. What I am not confident of is how alive you will be when I’m done.”
“That does sound like a drawback,” Nym allowed. “Realistically, do you think you’ll be able to break it in a way that doesn’t leave me dead?”
“I don’t think it’s impossible. I’ll continue working on it, but I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon. I might have more for you in a week, or a month. You never know. This kind of research can go years completely stalled out, only to make it past a bottleneck and have the whole thing laid out within a week.”
“But you don’t expect that?” Nym pressed.
“Sadly, no. I did make a deal though, so I will continue the search for answers. Why the sudden impatience though?”
“Let me tell you about what happened on that job you sent me on. You see, there was a mirror fox, but not just any mirror fox. This was a mystic grade animal. Scariest thing I’ve ever met in my life, and I’m including all that stuff in the mausoleum…”
The entire class was gathered in the lecture hall, which Nym had gone ahead and thrown stone warming spells onto multiple walls to heat up. Everyone was sick of the cold, everyone was tired, and everyone was annoyed at having spent the whole day freezing and walking only to get nowhere at the end.
“Alright, before I release you all to go gather your possessions and head to the teleportation platform, I thought you’d all like to know what went wrong today. First, a powerful mirror fox infiltrated the class.” Professor Lakton cut off and shot Nym a look when he opened his mouth to speak.
“A mirror fox,” she repeated, this time with emphasis, “which was hiding itself and stealing arcana away from you. It was successfully identified, detained, and dealt with without a single person being injured.”
Nym could practically hear the fox laughing in the back of his head. She made it sound like Nym had been the one in control, overpowering or outwitting the mystical animal. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The only thing stopping the fox from taking whatever it wanted was its own nature.
“If that were all, it would have been bad enough. We lost several hours of daylight and you were all left exhausted. Worse, upon arriving at the destination site, it was discovered that it had been overrun with a swarm of blood burrower scarabs. Now, I know this is not Monstrology, but can anyone tell me why we had to turn back?”
“People who come into contact with the scarabs get sick and die,” one of the students said immediately. She hesitated and then added, “Painfully and messily.”
“Correct. The infection is dormant at first, so the hosts don’t realize right away and spread it to others for the few days they remain healthy. I’m sorry this wasn’t discovered until we’d already started our day, but also glad that it was discovered prior to us actually reaching the site.”
There was a lot of grumbling from the class, but no one voiced any objections. Up at the lecturer’s podium, Professor Lakton looked on wearily. Perhaps seeing that no one was going to start an argument over it, she said, “That is all. We’ll have a one hour break to recover and gather our things, and then everyone is to report to the teleportation platform so we can return to the Academy. You are all dismissed.”
They trickled out in a steady line until none were left except for Nym. He didn’t need transportation back and he only had his one pack besides, which he’d never really opened. That book he’d been planning on reading was still buried in the bottom. What he did need was an hour uninterrupted to just rest. Teleporting so many people took all of it out of him.
“Am I interrupting?” a voice asked just as he closed his eyes.
Nym suppressed a sigh, but didn’t open his eyes back up. “Just tired. What’s up, Risa?”
He heard her sit down next to him, but then she didn’t say anything. He cracked an eye open to look at her. “What’s up?” he said again.
“Just… I wanted to say goodbye, to see if you still want to keep seeing me.”
“Of course I do,” Nym told her. “I said we’d find time together, didn’t I?”
“You did, but… you know.”
“I don’t?” Nym was confused now. Whatever she was trying to say, he was too tired to guess.
“Boys say they’ll write. They say they’ll find time. But then they don’t. Unless they want… but then as soon as they get it, they disappear again. I don’t want to think you’ll be like that too. But you’re so far ahead of me, and you’ve got so much going on, I wouldn’t blame you if you forgot about that stupid girl who had a crush on you and you only knew for a few days.”
Nym took a breath, in, and out. He took another, let it out slowly. “Risa, I don’t want to be insensitive here. I understand what you’re saying. It’s just… right now, I am exhausted. I know it’s been a long day for all of us, so how about instead of talking, you just scoot a little closer and we can both close our eyes for a few minutes.”
“That sounds good too,” she said. Nym put an arm around her and they enjoyed the warmth still coming off the walls. It was a nice moment, one that ended all too soon.
* * *
He helped charge the teleportation platform, of course. The students were all wiped out, and though she put on a strong front, Professor Lakton wasn’t doing all that much better. It took them twice as long to get it going compared to when they’d arrived a few days earlier, and Nym pretended not to see the uneasy glances some of the students shot his way.
“Alright, we’re all set. Everybody on. Let me do one final roll call. Wouldn’t do for someone to get left behind here.” The professor called out names off her roster one after another. “Perfect. And we’re off.”
The world pinched around him and they were standing in a different room, very similar to the one they’d left. The real difference was that when they opened the door, they were back at the Academy. The students shuffled out, pointedly ignoring Professor Lakton’s instructions in a coordinated mutinous effort. Nym didn’t have it in him to blame them.
The professor gave it up with an exasperated sigh and waved them off. She tossed Nym a wry glance and shook her head. “Thank you for your help on this trip,” she told him. “Really. This has been the worst Glacial Valley field trip I’ve ever done. Things would have turned out much, much worse without your intervention.”
“Yeah, it was very… exciting,” Nym said. “Do you need me to do anything else? If not, I need to go sleep for at least three days.”
“Yes, of course. Go on. You’ve done more than enough.”
“Thanks. See ya around, Professor.”
“Hmm. Well, we’ll see.”
Nym gathered up the arcana he needed from the Astral Sea, slowly, and wove his teleport spell together. Never in his life had he hated the archmage’s wards more than he did that second, but he was familiar enough with them that it wasn’t a real problem, just an annoyance. The spell went off and he found himself in the foyer of the sanctum.
He trudged to his room, sore beyond belief, and collapsed face-first onto his bed. He was asleep without even kicking off his boots.
* * *
Some indeterminate length of time later, Nym finally got upright and dragged himself into a bath. When he was done, he shaved, got dressed in clean clothes, and went looking for Archmage Veran. He found his mentor working in one of his labs, though it wasn’t immediately clear what the old man was doing.
“Is this a bad time?” Nym asked from the door.
“Ah, my friend. No, come on in. I’m just whipping up a batch of freezing brain twisters for the staff’s upcoming end-of-semester party.”
Nym needed a second to process that. “You’re making a batch of what now?”
“An alchemically infused dessert that makes you feel like you’ve been dunked in a vat of ice water for about five seconds.”
“Why… why would anyone want that?”
“Well, I confess they’re more used as punishments for the professors who lose at various party games and events. Though I do need to renew the nonflammability wards in the main hall before the party starts. Last year, Emdala set the curtains on fire with an ill-advised flame spell trying to warm herself back up.”
“Wow, how old are you guys? This sounds wild.”
“You’re never too old to have fun, young man,” the archmage said severely, though there was a twinkle in his eyes. “But I suspect you’ve come to me with some work, haven’t you?”
“Sorry,” Nym told him. “I ran into something pretty serious that I’d like to- oh, your flask is overflowing.”
“What?” Archmage Veran spun around so fast the sleeve of his robe swatted a rather delicate looking measuring device off the table. Nym caught it with a burst of telekinesis and put it back, but the archmage didn’t notice. “God’s tick infested taint! That’s the fourth time that heater has malfunctioned on me!”
Nym mouthed the words to the curse, then shook his head. That was a good one, one he planned to remember. Surely there’d be an appropriate use for it sooner or later. His train of thought was interrupted by Archmage Veran’s wild gesticulations and he took a cautionary step back. Arcana surged across the table and four different spells phased into existence whole in the archmage’s aura.
That was impressive, not just because there were four of them, but because they’d somehow appeared without needing to be built first. Either they’d been spun out so fast that it simply appeared they’d formed from nothing, or they’d somehow been pre-built before they were deployed, but Nym didn’t know any way in which that would be possible.
Then he noticed the rings on one of Archmage Veran’s hand was glowing and he understood. The spells had been built normally, though probably with great speed and skill, and stored until needed. For all his casual attitude, his mentor was in fact an archmage, and he’d taken appropriate precautions just in case something went wrong.
“Last time I borrow equipment from the school’s alchemy lab,” Archmage Veran muttered.
“I would think you’d have your own.”
“Oh I did. Most of it was melted to slag when I was dealing with that tear in the Veil a few months ago. It just wasn’t strong enough to handle the reactions I needed to forge something capable of holding the arcana I needed. I keep meaning to replace it, but there’s been so much catching up to do that I haven’t had the time. And so I thought I’d just nip over to the lab and borrow a few pieces for the afternoon, but this God cursed heater has been doing its level best to thwart me all day.”
“I… I’m sorry. I can leave you alone to focus on this. How about we talk over lunch in an hour or so?”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Archmage Veran told him. “This batch is ruined now anyway. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”
“There’s a few things. The first is this aging curse. I was wondering how your research into that is coming along?”
“Not well, I’m sad to say. I haven’t given up, but you should understand that this was a curse wrought by an ascendant. Not just any ascendant either. You. I confess I’m a bit murky on the societal hierarchy of ascendant civilization, such as it is, but from what I understand you were near the top.
“That’s not to say that a spell crafted with a stronger layer of arcana can’t be broken by someone weaker. It is, as they say, always easier to destroy than it is to create. I’m confident I could break the curse right now, if it came to it. What I am not confident of is how alive you will be when I’m done.”
“That does sound like a drawback,” Nym allowed. “Realistically, do you think you’ll be able to break it in a way that doesn’t leave me dead?”
“I don’t think it’s impossible. I’ll continue working on it, but I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon. I might have more for you in a week, or a month. You never know. This kind of research can go years completely stalled out, only to make it past a bottleneck and have the whole thing laid out within a week.”
“But you don’t expect that?” Nym pressed.
“Sadly, no. I did make a deal though, so I will continue the search for answers. Why the sudden impatience though?”
“Let me tell you about what happened on that job you sent me on. You see, there was a mirror fox, but not just any mirror fox. This was a mystic grade animal. Scariest thing I’ve ever met in my life, and I’m including all that stuff in the mausoleum…”
