Nym expected some complaining at the very least. Cern was a fantastic complainer. But it didn’t happen, not this time. He supposed the alchemist probably knew a lot about ocean tears and the kinds of people who were involved, because all he really did was direct Nym on what to do in order to keep the project he’d been working on stable, then got started whipping up the medicine.

Analia came into the workshop about half an hour later, by herself now, and walked into the room. Before she could say anything, Cern said, “About five more minutes.”

They worked in silence, and when the flask was full, he measured it out into small, thimble-sized portions in thin little vials. “Bring them here for the removal. If the pellet bursts inside them while they’re vomiting it up, I might be able to save them. I’ll start working on that next. Far better for them to throw it up cleanly though.”

“I’ll tell Kana. She’ll get the kids over here. We’re working on figuring out where they live so we can get them back to their families. One of them- at least one of them- won’t have a home to go back to. His parents-” her voice broke, and she took a second to steady herself, “His parents sold him to the cartel for another hit.”

Cern’s face darkened, but he didn’t say anything. He just kept on working. Analia watched for a minute, then said, “I need to go. There’s still the villa to raid. Hopefully the rest of the kids are there. Those ones shouldn’t be loaded up yet, but we’ll see. Nym, are you coming?”

“Yes?” Nym glanced uncertainly over at Cern. “Can I… is this stable if I stop?”

“Hmm? Oh, no. One second.” Cern crossed the workshop and fiddled with the set up for a few seconds, then infused one of the beakers with arcana. “There. As soon as all the bubbles disappear in that, you’re good. Should only take a minute.”

Nym held steady until he got clearance to stop channeling arcana into the mixture. “Thanks,” he said. “And, uh, thanks for making these things for me, especially since there’s more important stuff going on now.”

“Well they’re for an archmage. I figured it would be best not to ruin fifty crests worth of his reagents, you know?”

“Fifty?” Nym’s eyes widened. “I didn’t realize these were so expensive.”

“Oh yes. Really just an absolutely frivolous waste of Academy resources to have them at a faculty party.”

“Huh… well, glad I didn’t get an education there, I suppose.”

Cern snorted. “You didn’t get an education anywhere. Not a real one.”

“Hey…”

“He’s right,” Analia said with a smile. “You learn random things from random books with no system, no organization, no building a foundation of knowledge. It’s remarkable you’ve been as successful as you have.”

“Well there’s no need to be rude about it!”

“Don’t pout,” Cern said. “It’s a lot less cute when you have a mustache growing in.”

“I can’t believe my friends, who I give so much of myself to, would attack me like this!” Nym said.

“Yes, you’re such a martyr,” Analia said. “Come on, we’ve got more kids to save.”

The levity evaporated with that statement, and they left shortly thereafter. Nym was under no illusions that they’d reform society in an afternoon, but they would save a few more children, and maybe if they did it right, they might break a cartel and prevent them from hurting anyone else. But there would probably be a new one moving in to take their place next week.

He supposed it was a good thing that breaking the cartel wasn’t the goal then. Though he did wonder what Analia’s long-term plans were. She was turning herself into a target with this, and he didn’t think she was strong enough to survive it. Or ruthless enough, though he was starting to change his mind on that.

They flew north out of Shu-Ain and followed the coast east. While they were in the air, Nym put up a bubble of air around them to cut off the wind and asked, “What are you going to do after we get the kids back?”

“Detox and find their families,” she said.

“I mean, what are you going to do when these guys hunt you down and try to kill you for interfering with their operation? Cern isn’t going to be that much help, and you haven’t hit third circle yet.”

“I have… friends… down here, who are invested in stopping stuff like this from happening.”

“That makes it sound like you’re part of some vigilante group.”

Analia didn’t say anything.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Are you part of some vigilante group?” Nym asked.

Her cheeks flushed red and she mumbled, “We’re not vigilantes.”

“You’ve barely been here a few weeks! How are you part of an underground resistance movement fighting drug cartels?”

She mumbled something else, but even with the wind cut off, Nym couldn’t hear her. “What was that?”

“My neighbor is part of it,” she said again, louder this time.

“The neighbor whose kids got stolen?”

“Yes.”

“I wonder why she was targeted,” Nym deadpanned. “This is an insanely dangerous thing to get mixed up in. You were supposed to be here to learn alchemy while Cern rebuilds his business.”

“And I am doing that! I’m just doing this too.”

“Analia.”

“You’re not my father, Nym. I’m not discussing this with you anymore. Besides, that’s the place there, I think.”

A set of four houses, one of them large enough that it wouldn’t have been out of place at the upper end of a merchant’s row, were nestled into the trees right off the coast. “Why don’t they just have their ships sail right from here?” he wondered aloud.

“They do, sometimes. But for the ports that are far away, it wouldn’t be worth it to transport the drug by itself, so they attach themselves to merchant ships carrying legitimate cargo. Also I think they don’t want to advertise the location of this place. Not a lot of people even in their own organization know where it is.”

“Which begs the question of how that group you put pressure on knew.”

“They handle the kids. That includes taking them out here and bringing them back sometimes.”

“And because we knew he was lying, he couldn’t try to send you into a trap or give you the wrong location.”

“Exactly,” Analia said. “What is this thing under our feet, by the way?”

“Camouflage screen,” Nym told her. “Good for making sure ghouls and wights don’t notice you when you’re flying overhead. It also works on drug cartels.”

“I like it. Is this a second circle spell?”

“Yes. I can probably get you the book for it if you want.”

Analia nodded. “Please. This seems very useful.”

“How are you coming along at breaking through to third circle spells, by the way?”

“It’s been slow progress. We can talk about it later though, after we save those children.”

Nym waved a hand down at the villa. “I’m already scrying it. So far I’m seeing a lot of adults, and a lot of alchemy gear, and a lot of herbs, flowers, and other stuff. I don’t see any kids yet, but I’m not done looking.”

“I need to learn some scrying spells too. This is much easier with you helping.”

“I’m glad I was here to help,” Nym said. “It’s good timing. I’m actually going out on a job of my own that’ll take a few weeks.”

“Oh, what’s this one about?” she asked.

Nym explained to her about the fox and the scarabs while he scried the buildings. He told her how Archmage Veran was having trouble finding a solution of his own, and that the job could be the way to break the aging curse.

“So you’d just age normally like the rest of us,” she said when he finished. “That’d be nice. You’d only be a few years older than me.”

“I agree. I wasn’t looking forward to dying of old age in the next decade or two. The sooner I stop it, the better off I’ll be. Plus I met someone around my age and it would be nice to have the time to explore that without looking like I’m dating someone young enough to be my kid.”

“You… met someone?” Analia asked, a strange expression on her face. “When did that happen?”

“On the last job. She goes to the Academy. I don’t know her that well yet, but we’re going to spend some more time together.”

“Oh. How nice.” Analia’s voice was faint.

“Hey, are you okay? Want me to take over the flight spell so you can rest?”

“I’m fine,” she snapped. “Sorry. I’m glad you found someone you’re interested in. We really should focus on what we’re doing here though.”

“I am,” Nym promised. “I’ve already done those two buildings to the right completely and I’m working on that one with the walled garden now. I haven’t seen anything yet. Do you think the kids might already be in transport?”

“That’s possible,” Analia said with a frown. “It’s going to make them harder to find.”

“I’ll send out an air golem with perfect vision cast on it,” Nym offered.

“You’re already holding a flight spell, this camouflage spell, and scrying the villa. Are you sure you have the brain space left to direct a golem on top of everything else?”

“Sure,” Nym said. “Once you get to third circle, you can start making improvements to your body. One of those is enhancing your brain’s ability to do parallel processing. I’ve only got two partitions right now, but Archmage Veran told me I can get up to three on the third circle, and add a fourth process at archmage level.”

“I… did not know that. I wonder if… you know… if that was one of the kinds of things my father tried to do to me.”

“Maybe,” Nym said. “I know a lot more about the subject now. I guess if we ever got a look at those books again, I could tell you more. From what I remember, some of the stuff was really experimental, and it diverged a lot from what’s considered standard body magic for third circle.”

“I kind of doubt I’ll ever have access to those books again. I’m sure now that Dad’s gone home, he’s relocated everything to some new hiding spot, not because it’d get him in trouble, but just so nothing happens to them.”

Nym sent an air golem out following the foot trail leading away from the villa while he completed his scry on the final building. “I don’t think it needs to define who you are,” he said. “From what I can tell, I was psychotic before I lost all my memories. Everyone and everything was transactional and opportunistic. I’m glad I’m not that person anymore. I don’t want him to be the benchmark for who I am today.”

“I’m glad you’re not like that either, even if you are oblivious sometimes,” she said.

“I am?” Nym asked.

“Definitely. You’re still a good person though.”

“Oh. Well, um, thanks. Sorry I missed stuff. What stuff did I miss?”

“It’s not important now,” Analia said. “Did you find anything yet?”

“Nothing in the villa. The air golem is scouting out the trail. I don’t see anyone on- wait, no, there it is. Four adults, twelve kids in between them. They’re maybe a mile that way. I’m not seeing any weapons, so I’m guessing all four are mages. We’ll probably be able to handle them without too much trouble.”

“Good. Let’s go get them back and take them home,” Analia said. “And then I think I want to visit this villa again before you go and burn it to the ground.”

Nym nodded slowly. “I can help with that, if you’re sure. It wouldn’t hurt to make sure everyone in there is a willing member though. They could be exploiting adults as well.”

“Fine, yes. We’ll check that too. But either way, destroying their labs will slow down their operation by a lot.”

“I can agree to that,” Nym said. “You ready?”

“Let’s go.”