Ascendants didn’t bother with things like light, Nym supposed. He was in a lavishly decorated bedroom, which included an entire wall of shelves filled with books, an oversized writing desk, the most comfortable looking chairs he’d ever seen, and a bed big enough to get lost in. There were no windows, but there were orbs hanging from the ceiling in delicate gold wire meshes, so thin as to be nearly invisible.
A door opened in one of the walls, or rather it appeared where there hadn’t been one a moment before. Light poured in from outside the room, harsh and sterile white that threw stark shadows across the books and the bed. A human figure appeared in the door, one whose features Nym could only see because of his perfect vision spell.
“Quite an interesting phenomenon, isn’t it?” Ferro asked. “Well, come on then. Get out here and let’s get started.”
“Started with what?” Nym asked. He approached the door and found himself staring out into empty white space. That seemed to be a theme with ascendants, he was finding. He suspected it was because they weren’t meeting in a physical space and they didn’t feel it was worth the effort to impose a background that held no meaning into the mental landscape around him.
Nym joined the ascendant out in the empty void beyond the bedroom and the door closed behind him. The bedroom disappeared completely, leaving him stranded with Ferro. “Don’t worry,” the ascendant said when he saw Nym’s face. “Your room still exists. You’ve just stepped through the door into the membrane.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Nym confessed. “I don’t even know what we’re doing.”
“We’re teaching you how to become an ascendant, of course. I thought Exarch Niramyn discussed this with you already.”
“Oh, he did. He was just vague on the details. When you say membrane…” Nym trailed off.
“Yes, the membrane between realities. This one is specifically between the seventh and eighth layer, but they’re largely all the same. With no reality to shape their appearances, they can be anything we want them to be, or nothing at all. The only real difference is some of them are empty black space, others are empty white space.”
“Why’s that?” Nym asked.
“I don’t think anyone really knows for sure. If they do, they’re not sharing that knowledge with the rest of us. Thousands and thousands of experiments and tests have been done in the in-between spaces and to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever found a difference.”
“Interesting, but I suppose not what we’re supposed to be talking about.”
“Not at all,” Ferro said. “But it does lead into the actual topic for this lesson. What do you suppose the primary difference between a mortal and an ascendant is?”
“The ability to cast spells using arcana from beyond the fifth layer,” Nym said immediately.
“No, not at all. That’s more of a byproduct. The real difference is that ascendants are connected to their reality echoes on other layers. We are one being.”
“What is a reality echo? Wait, are you saying that people exist inside the outer layers of reality?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Ferro said. “What did you think the other layers were?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never considered the nature of those layers. They’re just where I get arcana to do magic with. Take the essence of a layer that’s separate from reality, bring it to reality, magic happens.”
Ferro regarded him with a most disdainful sniff. “You have exhibited a profound lack of understanding of the fundamentals of magic. Your knowledge is full of how it works without any of the why it works.”
“In my defense, I’m not even two years old. I haven’t had a lot of time to learn or formal education, and most of my magical education was driven by the need to find tools to solve problems.”
“That is a fair excuse,” Ferro admitted. “But! It ends now. We have practically unlimited time here, and we shall begin with the basics. Your foundation will be solid by the time I am through with you.”
That didn’t sound so bad to Nym, actually. He did like learning about magic, and it had always been more lack of time, resources, and instruction that held him back than any lack of desire or motivation. He just wasn’t sure what ‘practically unlimited time’ meant.
“How does time work here in membrane space?” he asked.
“It doesn’t work. At all. We’re not supposed to be here. It’s my magic that’s holding us in this space and simulating an illusion of linear time for you. For practical purposes, we could stay here for years and you would find seconds passed in the core reality.”
“Oh. Is that… I mean, I’m not technically an ascendant right now. Is that going to hurt me?”
“No,” Ferro said. “Not at all. But let’s get back on topic here: an ascendant is different than a mortal because we form connections with our echoes in other layers of reality. So, how do we do that?”
“I have no idea,” Nym said honestly.
“That will be your first assignment then, figuring that out. It is the stepping stone towards true immortality. For your hint: you’ll need fifth layer arcana to do it, what the mortals call the Infinite Heavens.”
“What do ascendants call it?” Nym asked.
“The Echoing Vastness. There’s nothing divine about it. It’s just really, really big. It’s a property of reality there. Everything is stretched out far more than is practical.”
Nym considered how he would forge a conduit that just needed to stretch on and on forever. It was no wonder mortals never got past that. There must be some trick to make it work though, something like the tides of the third layer and those strange holes in its reality that connected to each other and allowed mages to reach the far end without their conduits physically traversing the distance.
“I can see what you’re thinking,” Ferro said. “You can’t figure out how a conduit would bridge the distance because you’re still thinking like a mortal. You have accepted that you can’t make changes to the nature of reality itself, only to your conduit to take advantage of that reality. That is your mistake. Once you’ve connected yourself to your reality echoes, you won’t be limited like that.”
“I think I get it,” Nym said. “There’s a whole set of tools I don’t even know exist, let alone the names of them or how to use them. So to start, I need to find the Nym that exists inside the first layer, in that version of existence. And once I do that, I… don’t know. I connect with him somehow. One step at a time. First, figure out how to even look around another layer. No, first figure out how to send something other than a conduit through the membrane.”
“Good thoughts,” Ferro said. He pointed over Nym’s shoulder to where the doorway had reappeared. “You’re going to find a lot of books in that room. Start with the ones bound in blue on the bottom shelves.”
“Isn’t that room back in reality?” Nym asked. “Time would flow there. Wouldn’t it be better to study the books here?”
“No, no. That room is just a partitioned portion of the membrane. It’s still far enough removed from the core reality that it is an act of effort to maintain the illusion of linear time there for you. The Exarch himself empowered the arcana batteries that are keeping that sanctuary from collapsing and ejecting you into the world.”
Nym peered back through the door. Everything looked just as he remembered it. “I don’t suppose you know how to turn the lights on?”
“Just place your hand on that panel there by the door,” Ferro said.
Nym found it, pushed his hand against it, and blinked against the warm yellow-gold light that filled the room. “That’s convenient.”
Ferro shrugged. “You should eventually learn how to do it all with just your mind, but it may take you a bit to figure out how to connect to the room. I’m told it was keyed to you to be able to control it. You may notice that you will not get tired, or thirsty, or feel any of the other biological needs a mortal does here. That is a function of the time dilation inherent to this type of space.”
“That’s convenient,” Nym said. “So… just go grab some books and start reading.”
“All the supplies you might need should be available to you. You will have one hundred subjective hours of studying before I check up on you. At that point, we’ll review any questions you have and discuss what you’ve learned. Any questions?”
“A lot, but let’s see what I can figure out on my own first.”
“Excellent. Off you go then.”
Nym stepped fully into the room, the door closed behind him and disappeared, and he was alone. It was an abrupt change in the mood, but one he welcomed. He really did need some time to steady himself, after all of the new information that had been stuffed in his head.
He was concerned that Niramyn was correct, that he would break long before he became an ascendant in truth. There was nothing to do but read, and Nym couldn’t imagine stuffing his brain with a hundred hours’ worth of knowledge, only to immediately go into a lecture, and then probably sent back to repeat it.
If that was how ascendants trained their children, it was no wonder he’d been the way he was in his old life. Niramyn was cold and ruthless, and viewed everything through a filter of how he could benefit from it, what he could get away with. Those few memories he had left over from Niramyn’s childhood were unpleasant in a way he was only starting to fully understand.
It was entirely possible Niramyn’s parents had broken his mind, and then put it back together again in a way that suited them. Whatever they’d been trying to build, their techniques and resources were far more advanced than Analia’s father had ever dreamed of having access to. In a way, they must have succeeded. If Nym understood ascendant society correctly, Niramyn had been near the very top.
He wasn’t going to let them turn him into something like that, but at the same time, he did want to become stronger, and he didn’t want to be destroyed just because Niramyn couldn’t find a use for him. Nym was playing along, but it was a dangerous game, a fine line between getting what he wanted and being molded into what they wanted him to be.
He suspected the isolation would be the biggest problem. He would have to find a way to stay sane through what would likely be years and years of intense study with only occasional interactions with someone that he could rightfully consider an enemy. He suspected the answers would be found somewhere in the depths of third circle spells, or perhaps pinnacle spells, in the sections about modifying the human body.
That would come later. For now, he needed to ‘fix his foundation’ as Ferro had said, to fill in the many, many gaps in his knowledge of magic and the nature of reality. That at least was a chore he welcomed, especially when he considered the quality of an education he could receive at the hands of an ascendant. No doubt there were a thousand secrets casually hidden in that wall of books that no human had ever been privy to.
Nym would learn them all, one at a time. He wasn’t going to break. By the time he was done, he planned on being a true ascendant, one strong enough that Niramyn couldn’t just casually toss him aside like a piece of garbage. That was what his past self was trying to mold him into anyway, so that was what he’d become. But he’d do it on his terms, and he’d keep his mind and soul intact.
His face set, Nym reached for the first book.
Ascendants didn’t bother with things like light, Nym supposed. He was in a lavishly decorated bedroom, which included an entire wall of shelves filled with books, an oversized writing desk, the most comfortable looking chairs he’d ever seen, and a bed big enough to get lost in. There were no windows, but there were orbs hanging from the ceiling in delicate gold wire meshes, so thin as to be nearly invisible.
A door opened in one of the walls, or rather it appeared where there hadn’t been one a moment before. Light poured in from outside the room, harsh and sterile white that threw stark shadows across the books and the bed. A human figure appeared in the door, one whose features Nym could only see because of his perfect vision spell.
“Quite an interesting phenomenon, isn’t it?” Ferro asked. “Well, come on then. Get out here and let’s get started.”
“Started with what?” Nym asked. He approached the door and found himself staring out into empty white space. That seemed to be a theme with ascendants, he was finding. He suspected it was because they weren’t meeting in a physical space and they didn’t feel it was worth the effort to impose a background that held no meaning into the mental landscape around him.
Nym joined the ascendant out in the empty void beyond the bedroom and the door closed behind him. The bedroom disappeared completely, leaving him stranded with Ferro. “Don’t worry,” the ascendant said when he saw Nym’s face. “Your room still exists. You’ve just stepped through the door into the membrane.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Nym confessed. “I don’t even know what we’re doing.”
“We’re teaching you how to become an ascendant, of course. I thought Exarch Niramyn discussed this with you already.”
“Oh, he did. He was just vague on the details. When you say membrane…” Nym trailed off.
“Yes, the membrane between realities. This one is specifically between the seventh and eighth layer, but they’re largely all the same. With no reality to shape their appearances, they can be anything we want them to be, or nothing at all. The only real difference is some of them are empty black space, others are empty white space.”
“Why’s that?” Nym asked.
“I don’t think anyone really knows for sure. If they do, they’re not sharing that knowledge with the rest of us. Thousands and thousands of experiments and tests have been done in the in-between spaces and to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever found a difference.”
“Interesting, but I suppose not what we’re supposed to be talking about.”
“Not at all,” Ferro said. “But it does lead into the actual topic for this lesson. What do you suppose the primary difference between a mortal and an ascendant is?”
“The ability to cast spells using arcana from beyond the fifth layer,” Nym said immediately.
“No, not at all. That’s more of a byproduct. The real difference is that ascendants are connected to their reality echoes on other layers. We are one being.”
“What is a reality echo? Wait, are you saying that people exist inside the outer layers of reality?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Ferro said. “What did you think the other layers were?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never considered the nature of those layers. They’re just where I get arcana to do magic with. Take the essence of a layer that’s separate from reality, bring it to reality, magic happens.”
Ferro regarded him with a most disdainful sniff. “You have exhibited a profound lack of understanding of the fundamentals of magic. Your knowledge is full of how it works without any of the why it works.”
“In my defense, I’m not even two years old. I haven’t had a lot of time to learn or formal education, and most of my magical education was driven by the need to find tools to solve problems.”
“That is a fair excuse,” Ferro admitted. “But! It ends now. We have practically unlimited time here, and we shall begin with the basics. Your foundation will be solid by the time I am through with you.”
That didn’t sound so bad to Nym, actually. He did like learning about magic, and it had always been more lack of time, resources, and instruction that held him back than any lack of desire or motivation. He just wasn’t sure what ‘practically unlimited time’ meant.
“How does time work here in membrane space?” he asked.
“It doesn’t work. At all. We’re not supposed to be here. It’s my magic that’s holding us in this space and simulating an illusion of linear time for you. For practical purposes, we could stay here for years and you would find seconds passed in the core reality.”
“Oh. Is that… I mean, I’m not technically an ascendant right now. Is that going to hurt me?”
“No,” Ferro said. “Not at all. But let’s get back on topic here: an ascendant is different than a mortal because we form connections with our echoes in other layers of reality. So, how do we do that?”
“I have no idea,” Nym said honestly.
“That will be your first assignment then, figuring that out. It is the stepping stone towards true immortality. For your hint: you’ll need fifth layer arcana to do it, what the mortals call the Infinite Heavens.”
“What do ascendants call it?” Nym asked.
“The Echoing Vastness. There’s nothing divine about it. It’s just really, really big. It’s a property of reality there. Everything is stretched out far more than is practical.”
Nym considered how he would forge a conduit that just needed to stretch on and on forever. It was no wonder mortals never got past that. There must be some trick to make it work though, something like the tides of the third layer and those strange holes in its reality that connected to each other and allowed mages to reach the far end without their conduits physically traversing the distance.
“I can see what you’re thinking,” Ferro said. “You can’t figure out how a conduit would bridge the distance because you’re still thinking like a mortal. You have accepted that you can’t make changes to the nature of reality itself, only to your conduit to take advantage of that reality. That is your mistake. Once you’ve connected yourself to your reality echoes, you won’t be limited like that.”
“I think I get it,” Nym said. “There’s a whole set of tools I don’t even know exist, let alone the names of them or how to use them. So to start, I need to find the Nym that exists inside the first layer, in that version of existence. And once I do that, I… don’t know. I connect with him somehow. One step at a time. First, figure out how to even look around another layer. No, first figure out how to send something other than a conduit through the membrane.”
“Good thoughts,” Ferro said. He pointed over Nym’s shoulder to where the doorway had reappeared. “You’re going to find a lot of books in that room. Start with the ones bound in blue on the bottom shelves.”
“Isn’t that room back in reality?” Nym asked. “Time would flow there. Wouldn’t it be better to study the books here?”
“No, no. That room is just a partitioned portion of the membrane. It’s still far enough removed from the core reality that it is an act of effort to maintain the illusion of linear time there for you. The Exarch himself empowered the arcana batteries that are keeping that sanctuary from collapsing and ejecting you into the world.”
Nym peered back through the door. Everything looked just as he remembered it. “I don’t suppose you know how to turn the lights on?”
“Just place your hand on that panel there by the door,” Ferro said.
Nym found it, pushed his hand against it, and blinked against the warm yellow-gold light that filled the room. “That’s convenient.”
Ferro shrugged. “You should eventually learn how to do it all with just your mind, but it may take you a bit to figure out how to connect to the room. I’m told it was keyed to you to be able to control it. You may notice that you will not get tired, or thirsty, or feel any of the other biological needs a mortal does here. That is a function of the time dilation inherent to this type of space.”
“That’s convenient,” Nym said. “So… just go grab some books and start reading.”
“All the supplies you might need should be available to you. You will have one hundred subjective hours of studying before I check up on you. At that point, we’ll review any questions you have and discuss what you’ve learned. Any questions?”
“A lot, but let’s see what I can figure out on my own first.”
“Excellent. Off you go then.”
Nym stepped fully into the room, the door closed behind him and disappeared, and he was alone. It was an abrupt change in the mood, but one he welcomed. He really did need some time to steady himself, after all of the new information that had been stuffed in his head.
He was concerned that Niramyn was correct, that he would break long before he became an ascendant in truth. There was nothing to do but read, and Nym couldn’t imagine stuffing his brain with a hundred hours’ worth of knowledge, only to immediately go into a lecture, and then probably sent back to repeat it.
If that was how ascendants trained their children, it was no wonder he’d been the way he was in his old life. Niramyn was cold and ruthless, and viewed everything through a filter of how he could benefit from it, what he could get away with. Those few memories he had left over from Niramyn’s childhood were unpleasant in a way he was only starting to fully understand.
It was entirely possible Niramyn’s parents had broken his mind, and then put it back together again in a way that suited them. Whatever they’d been trying to build, their techniques and resources were far more advanced than Analia’s father had ever dreamed of having access to. In a way, they must have succeeded. If Nym understood ascendant society correctly, Niramyn had been near the very top.
He wasn’t going to let them turn him into something like that, but at the same time, he did want to become stronger, and he didn’t want to be destroyed just because Niramyn couldn’t find a use for him. Nym was playing along, but it was a dangerous game, a fine line between getting what he wanted and being molded into what they wanted him to be.
He suspected the isolation would be the biggest problem. He would have to find a way to stay sane through what would likely be years and years of intense study with only occasional interactions with someone that he could rightfully consider an enemy. He suspected the answers would be found somewhere in the depths of third circle spells, or perhaps pinnacle spells, in the sections about modifying the human body.
That would come later. For now, he needed to ‘fix his foundation’ as Ferro had said, to fill in the many, many gaps in his knowledge of magic and the nature of reality. That at least was a chore he welcomed, especially when he considered the quality of an education he could receive at the hands of an ascendant. No doubt there were a thousand secrets casually hidden in that wall of books that no human had ever been privy to.
Nym would learn them all, one at a time. He wasn’t going to break. By the time he was done, he planned on being a true ascendant, one strong enough that Niramyn couldn’t just casually toss him aside like a piece of garbage. That was what his past self was trying to mold him into anyway, so that was what he’d become. But he’d do it on his terms, and he’d keep his mind and soul intact.
His face set, Nym reached for the first book.
