“Fox, do you have a minute?” Nym said to the ring on his finger.

[What now? Don’t tell me you’re giving up already? I’m not going to help you clean this up. It’s your job.]

“No. I found the source and took care of it. The scarabs should die off on their own now even if I don’t do a thing to hurry it up.”

[Congratulations. I would prefer if you cleaned up the Garden at least to preserve it, but I suppose that technically meets the letter of our pact.]

“Yeah, about that. You knew, didn’t you? This whole time, you knew where the scarabs were coming from?”

Nym could practically hear the fox grinning that vulpine smirk of his. [I know many things, but if I knew that, why wouldn’t I just take care of it myself?]

“Oh I don’t know, maybe because you couldn’t.”

The fox snorted in his head. [Don’t be ridiculous. What could you possibly accomplish that I couldn’t do myself?]

Nym had spent some time thinking about this conversation before he had it. The only thing he absolutely needed to confirm was that the fox considered the pact to be fulfilled, which he did. That meant Nym was off the hook for manually cleaning up the rest of the scarabs, though he thought he would clean up a few spots. There was no time pressure to it now though, meaning he could get back to his attempts at forging a conduit strong enough to bore through the fourth layer.

The other side of the conversation was something he’d debated having. It could come off as antagonistic, but he didn’t think the fox would take it that way. He was angling to get a favor out of the beast, something he didn’t strictly need help with, but which would be a lot easier on him if he could talk the fox into playing along.

“The way I figure it, there is no way you couldn’t know about that ascendant research lab. And if you knew about it, then you had to know that’s where the scarabs were coming from. But since you didn’t fix the problem yourself, you must not be able to get in. Then someone like me comes along, and that must be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you, right?”

[Mmm, I can neither confirm nor deny your speculations.]

“I figured. Anyway, I got in no problem and learned lots of interesting stuff, plus I took care of the corrupted arcana experiment for you. So we’re all set there, but…”

[But?] The fox sounded interested now. Perfect.

“Like I said, lots of interesting stuff. There’s got to be something in there you’d like to know more about,” Nym said. “And as it so happens, I need a favor. Maybe you’d be interested in another trade?”

The fox’s laughter rolled through Nym’s head. “Interesting,” his physical voice said from behind Nym. “You’ve certainly grown bold since our first meeting. Well, you put on a good show of it. I can still smell your fear though.”

Nym forced himself not to flinch away from the voice. He turned in the air to face the fox, rolled his eyes, and said, “Couldn’t just appear in front of me?”

“It’s more fun this way.”

“Fun for you maybe.”

“That’s the only fun that matters.”

Nym rolled his eyes and said, “Are you interested or not?”

“It depends on the favor, and the payment,” the fox said.

“I have these friends, they’re snow wolves, and there’s a problem with their magic that I could fix, but if I do, it puts a target on my back.”

Nym laid out what he’d discovered at Research Lab Six, what he was trying to do, and what the problem was. “So that’s the real issue. How do I do this without having an ascendant hunting me down afterwards? Do you think you could help?”

The fox shook his head. “If it were me doing it, I could hide you. You’d have to spend the rest of your life stuck by my side hiding in my shadow. It’s already too late anyway. Any ascendant who looks will see you were in the lab, regardless of whether you trigger this. The first time one of them has any reason to look, they’re going to see that you were there. The best you can hope for now is that none of them exist in the lab anywhere near this point in time.”

“Ugh. I hate how you phrase that,” Nym said. “Ascendant time stuff is such a pain to talk about.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“This language doesn’t have the concepts needed to talk about a being that exists outside of time like they do. Like you will.”

“Yeah. Anyway, so… nothing you can do then?”

“Not to protect you from other ascendants, not unless you want to spend every minute of every day sitting next to me. Even if you were willing, I am not. I do not love your company that much.”

Nym laughed, and shook his head. “No, thanks. Any ideas on how to reverse the biological decay to the snow wolves’ magic that don’t involve the lab?”

“I appreciate your concern for my little cousins, but this is an issue they’ll need to work out on their own,” the fox said. He tilted his head, and a small statuette appeared between the two of them. It floated over to Nym, and the fox said, “Take this with you.”

Nym examined it carefully, but made no move to touch it. It was about nine inches tall, and maybe four inches around at the base. The statuette depicted the fox himself, all red fur with dark highlights and glimmering eyes over a vulpine grin. A fine layer of arcana shifted around it, flicking out occasionally like a tail.

“What is it?” he asked, suspicious.

“It is linked to me, and I will hear everything that is said to it, but only if you say my name first. If you find yourself in trouble, hunted by an ascendant, use this to ask for my help.”

“I don’t know your name,” Nym pointed out.

“You’re so clever, I’m sure you’d be able to figure it out if you tried. I am something of a legend, after all.”

“Or you could just tell me.”

The fox snickered. “Where would be the fun in that? Besides, you still distrust me so much that you haven’t even touched it yet.”

“The more I get to know you, the less I trust you,” Nym said, still examining the statuette.

“Good. You’re smarter than you look.”

“Thanks. I’m so glad you approve.”

The statuette appeared to do what the fox claimed, mostly. There were some components to it that deflected attention away from it, but which could be overcome with any number of spells or even just raw willpower. There was also a lock and key mechanism to it, which prevented it from being used at all if he didn’t have a matching piece to slot in.

“Is this bound to the ring?” Nym asked.

“Indeed it is. If you lose this after you activate it, I don’t want whatever random person finds it nattering away in my ear.”

It was more serious than that, Nym was sure. If someone got their hands on this, it would be a direct link back to the fox. His location could be tracked at the very least, and possibly long-range attacks brought against his mind. “Are you sure you want to trust me with this? You would be… vulnerable… if this fell into the wrong hands.”

The fox snorted. “I do not fear any human magic. I am more concerned about being annoyed than threatened.”

“I’m sure. That’s why you’ve gone out of your way to help me here, right? Big softie.”

“I will bite you, little half-scendant.”

“Rizin?” Nym asked as he studied the activation component of the magic. “I’m not sure if I’m reading this right. That’s the audible phrase for using the statuette?”

“And behold, you didn’t even have to look it up. I knew you’d figure it out. It was right in front of you, after all.”

Nym made no move to pick up the statuette. He was confident it was what the fox said it was, but accepting it came with some implications that he wasn’t sure he liked. If he took this with him, he was taking a direct link to Rizin, which could work both ways. It was hard to imagine anyone obfuscating arcana well enough to hide the magic from him, but if there was anything that could do it, it was a mystical fox.

More than that, accepting it meant accepting some obligations in return. Their relationship had been entirely transactional, flavored with just a tinge of extortion at the beginning. The back and forth had been very clear up until now. This represented a step into a more ambiguous territory, one Nym was hesitant to venture into.

The fox chuckled. “I’m not trying to marry you here. And this isn’t for casual conversation. If your life is genuinely in danger, I’ll try to help. Don’t count on me saving you. I’m stronger than a lot of ascendants, and trickier than the few that can outmuscle me.”

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the gesture, but why are you doing this?” Nym asked.

“Do you want the selfish answer? Would it make you feel better to know my base motivations?”

“I just want the truth.”

Rizin considered for a second, and then said, “Because you’re interesting. I’ve never seen a broken ascendant before. And because you’re very, very different than most ascendants. You’re here, dealing with a power that could squash you like a bug, and you’re not even doing it for anything you want. You’re trying to bargain for a favor for a whole species that you’re not a part of. It’s fascinating, and I wish to see how everything plays out.”

“Like watching a show, huh?”

“Something like that. Say instead that I am invested in the story.”

Nym grabbed the statuette and stowed it away in his pack. “Thank you,” he said.

“You’re quite welcome. What will you do next?”

“Start with the Garden of Winter, maybe hit a few other spots that I can do quick clean ups on and get most of the scarabs. That will limit the damage while time takes care of the rest.”

“And then?”

“Visit some friends I haven’t seen in a while. Then back to work on myself.”

“It sounds like you have it all planned out,” the fox said.

“Nah, I just make it up as I go along.”

The fox barked out a laugh. “Don’t we all.”

Nym said his goodbyes, then teleported away. As he’d said, he was going to start with the Garden of Winter. It would be a tedious job, but this one place at least he wanted to clean up. Hopefully without the scarabs infecting everything, the Garden would come back to life.

While he set one portion of his mind to work killing scarabs, the other half engaged in long-range scrying. He was looking for something specific, something he hadn’t seen when he was at the research lab, but he knew was out there somewhere. Perhaps it was farther south, back in Delvros territory.

His scans didn’t turn anything up for hours, and eventually even Nym had to give up just from the sheer amount of arcana he’d burned. It was unusual these days, especially after he’d stopped losing so much of it to that aging curse, but after a full day of work, he had to throw in the towel. Wherever Cold Paw and his pack were, Nym still couldn’t find them.

Part of him wondered if the worst had happened. The pack’s numbers had been devastated from dealing with the ice worm hive, but last he saw them, they were still limping along. He wasn’t going to give up searching, but the longer he looked without finding them, the more concerned he got.