Nym hadn’t been idle while he spoke with the mystical fox. One air golem had shadowed the class as they moved, and the other had scouted ahead. He knew exactly where everyone was and, now that they were outside the draining radius of the fox’s magic, they were progressing much more quickly.
Professor Lakton wasn’t at her normal position near the front. Instead, she was somewhere in the middle, close enough to the back of the line to respond immediately, and was repeatedly reminding everyone to stay close together. Some of the students at least seemed to be listening.
“One problem solved, but maybe another one up ahead,” he said without preamble.
It was painfully obvious that the nearby students were trying to listen without appearing to be, but at this point Nym didn’t much care if they knew. This didn’t sound like something he’d be clearing out before they could reach it anyway, so he didn’t see the point in being circumspect about it.
“I’ve got some scrying spells working to give me more information, but I was told the Garden of Winter has been corrupted somehow, or maybe infected with something. I’m not sure yet. It may not be safe to bring the class there.”
“Corrupted… by what though,” the professor muttered. “This field trip has had far too much excitement. Normally chaperones have an easy few days; nothing much around here tends to bother a full class of mages, at least nothing difficult to handle.”
“If you say so,” Nym said absently. They were still a bit too far from their destination for his golems to report back. “If I go ahead, will you be okay back here on your own?”
“What happened to that monster you found?” Professor Lakton asked, glancing over her shoulder and looking down the trail. “I didn’t even see it. Even after you pointed it out, it was hard to notice it until you got it away from everyone else.”
“We… we made a deal to keep him from hurting anyone. I’m going to look into the corruption and he won’t eat anymore spells. But, he’s strong. If he’s not willing to go into the Garden of Winter personally, it’s probably a bad idea to let the class in.”
“If that’s the case, it’s a bad idea for you to go in too,” she said in the same tone Nym had heard her use on some of the more disruptive students.
“If there’s anyone here who can do it, it’s me.” He lowered his voice and turned away from the students. “That thing… he was like a mirror fox, but so much stronger. I don’t think I can take him in a straight fight. I don’t think the archmage himself could do it. This was what he wanted, and I’m inclined to do it.”
“That’s ridiculous. There’s no such thing as a mirror fox with that kind of power.”
“How many mirror foxes have you met, Professor? A few, I’d guess?” At her nod, Nym continued, “Did you ever have any problems detecting them, especially after someone else pointed it out?”
“I…” Professor Lakton trailed off. “I’ll keep an eye on everyone here. You go ahead and get a look, then come straight back. We’ll decide what to do from there. It’s going to be rough on everyone to walk back without ever getting a chance to have a real rest.”
“I’ll start teleporting people if necessary,” Nym said.
“The whole class? That would be quite a feat.”
“If necessary,” Nym repeated.
Nym shot straight back up and flew as fast as he could without switching to overland flight. For a journey of only ten or so miles, that would be complete overkill, and it wasn’t worth the mental strain of an overland flight spell when it would only take a few minutes to get there by normal means.
He hadn’t gotten a good look at the Garden of Winter last night. It was tucked away in its own little basin, split off from the rest of the valley and accessible only by flying or by a single trail that led into a cave system he hadn’t spent much time looking at. Perhaps if he’d approached from the ground, he might have noticed something strange, or even if he’d flown over in person.
That was always the drawback of scrying and sensory link spells. They didn’t let him see the arcana like he would in person. Someday he’d find a spell that did, but for now he had to work around the handicap. That meant getting a closer look than he was necessarily comfortable with, which wasn’t to say the golem wasn’t going in first, just that he thought it was a longshot the fox would be satisfied with what he learned through just that.
Nym approached the Garden and looked down at it. At first glance, it looked much the same in the afternoon sun as it had at night. Stone arches were scattered across the Garden, giving the impression of a trail where there was none. Flowering vines climbed up and down pillars of stone and filled natural trellises, and thorn-studded rose bushes caught in eternal bloom colored the scenery. Ponds were joined together by thin rippling streams of water that passed over stones.
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All of that had been painted over with a coating of frost that muted the colors and made the entire Garden glimmer in the light. The water itself had a thin coating of ice, so fragile it might break if the smallest mouse tried to cross. Even from a distance, Nym could see the water running beneath the ice. It was as if some powerful mage had set off a flash freeze in a brilliant summer garden.
There were creatures there too, but not the ones he would have found in the warmer southern climates. Little flickers of multi-colored light flitted from one frozen flower to another, pixies taking the place of bees. Small insects with carapaces made of ice instead of flesh crawled through the leaves and roots of the bushes.
And settled over all of it, invisible to his golems or his scrying spells, was a cobweb of arcana, threaded through every living thing in the Garden until the whole thing was a roiling fog bank of arcana, thrumming with power from something hidden deeper within. It pulsed through the arcana like something alive, something all-consuming.
Nym understood the fox’s description of that arcana, calling it a corruption, a fever. That was exactly what it was, an invader, something that lacked the clear, sharp purity of winter and didn’t belong. It was a blurry, muddled thing, a coating of filth over something clean.
What he didn’t know was what it did.
He had probably the better part of two hours to investigate before the class arrived, but he didn’t want to leave them alone for that long. Even if the fox kept his word, there were other dangers that might fall on the exhausted students before they found their way to the Garden.
“Do you see what I see?” Nym said to the ring. He’d never been on the sending side of a sensory link before. If there was anyone who could construct one that would show arcana the way he saw it, it was that fox who was beyond human magics.
[I do, little half-scendant. Your eyes… they do fascinate so. I think I might like them for myself.]
“I’m not inclined to give them to you,” Nym said dryly.
[You’d be surprised what I could offer to tempt you. You have an impressive number of curses sealing away parts of your mind, keeping secrets from yourself. Would you like them removed? I could do that.]
“The only one I care about is the aging curse. If you can do that one, we can discuss a trade that doesn’t involve my eyeballs.”
[Of course I can. Don’t insult me.]
Nym blinked. He hadn’t expected that. “You…can? Huh. I’ll need to think about it. For now, let’s talk about what’s going on here.”
[Oh really. That’s something important to you then. That might be more interesting than what’s happening in the Garden of Winter. But very well, a discussion for another day. The way your kind can see arcana has always fascinated me. I’ll admit that my own attempts to replicate it are a pale thing by comparison. It’s more of a scent-based detection than sight, and not nearly as precise.]
“What does it mean though?” Nym asked. “If you ignore the strands of arcana smeared over top of everything, which no one else could even see, it all looks normal to me. I mean, as normal as a place like this would ever look.”
Seen through the scrying anchor or by one of his air golems, the Garden of Winter was undeniably beautiful. He had no basis of comparison, but he didn’t think anyone else would find anything wrong with the sight of the place. What would happen when they walked into that miasma of red arcana was another matter.
Truth be told, Nym was hesitant to fly over it. It hung over the ground, stretching up maybe thirty or forty feet at the most, but it moved around like a living thing. If it sensed him and lunged up to attack, his only defense would be his speed and sending out strands of his own raw arcana to block it. He was justifiably hesitant about touching the miasma with raw arcana, even if he severed it from his soul well first.
[Something has infected this place with its musk,] the fox said. [It probably still lingers nearby, wallowing in its own stink as it slowly poisons the land around it. I would like to know what that thing is. Find it for me, and I will consider our bargain concluded.]
“It’s a risk, going in there. I don’t know what will happen to me if the miasma infects me too.”
[Why do you think I avoided going in myself?] the fox asked.
“I’m just saying that’s a bit outside what we agreed on. I was supposed to wear the ring and take a look for you. I did that.”
[Hardly! You’re barely at the edge. Go look at the cause of this, and then we will be settled.]
“You get why I’m not keen to go in there, right? You didn’t want to go in there either, and you’re… strong.”
[With a strong nose. It stinks. It’s not dangerous. Well, not to me. I don’t want to smell the place. I’m not afraid of getting ensnared in it. Even your students probably wouldn’t be affected long-term from a short visit, and they’re just about as weak as humans can get.]
Nym had to consider the possibility that the fox was lying to him. He wanted something and Nym doubted he’d care much if someone else got hurt, as long as he got what he wanted. Of course, being the someone else who got hurt wasn’t something Nym was fine with. That was why he sent new air golems flying over the Garden and watched the miasma’s reaction carefully.
As long as they stayed over a certain height, the miasma ignored them. It was only when they dipped lower that it started to rise up, sending thin tendrils into the air that lashed around, trying to make contact. Nym manually controlled the golem, keeping it moving around the tendrils. He wasn’t sure what would happen if they made contact, and he didn’t think he wanted to know.
It was a good thing the one that had scouted the Garden for him last night had flown high and relied on perfect vision to look at the place for him. He’d unintentionally dodged a potential disaster through sheer happenstance. Unfortunately, he had a sinking feeling he wasn’t going to be so lucky today. The best he could do was circle the outer edge of the Garden and hope to spot something.
Maybe that would be enough. A nice, easy, risk-free job would be a welcome change of pace. Somehow, Nym doubted it would work out that way.